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Friday, October 16, 2015

Letter from Agnes Carpenter at Miss. Military Institute to Elodie Rose, 1884

Great news!  Agnes Carpenter was not left at that dreadful school in Albany, New York.  She found happiness and a boatload of fun making trouble at the Mississippi Military Institute. Not sure where that was.  I'll do a bit of research and find out. The letter is transcribed below the photos.
Agnes Carpenter dressed for Mardis Gras






Elodie Rose 




November 26th

Miss. Military Institute

My dear Elodie,

Well, I think it is about time that some of the girls are writing to me.  If they wait on me to communicate with them first they will never hear from me, I am afraid, as my time is as fully employed as it was at St. Agnes.  I enjoy myself more here than I ever did at my first boarding school, which is owing to the fact that I am getting worse and worse every day of my life. 

There are 6 girls besides myself who are just as bad and pranky as girls are liable to be cultivated in this degenerate age. We form a club of which I am Captain and everyone in the house seems to be mortally afraid of night crimes.  We have (?) ghosts, sleep walkers and (?) The latter would get me into a world of trouble if discovered for we nightly demolish six packages of cigarettes.  Mark my word if you tell Mama on me you will get the worst of it.

Night before last we went and had a midnight serenade with a lot of boys at our back fence.  And among us who is a member of the club was the sweet but shy Beulah Gordon who has such a saintly air connected with herself.  Together with the cigarettes was a large bottle of champagne, which made me quite lively.

I ought to be ashamed to act so as I rank above the other girls in regard to my situation as a scholar.   Am head of school for this month, was the first pupil to whom was… (last part missing)

For more on Elodie and Agnes, go here.

1 comment:

  1. Hello! I came across your blog while doing research on a mid 19th C button found in Mississippi. It may be from a Mississippi Military Institute uniform (inconclusive so far).

    The Institute was in Pass Christian. There is little information on the internet about the school.

    I love reading these old letters. I am a Civil War reenactor (13th Virginia Infantry) and spent the 4 years of the 150th commemorations writing a series of 25 letters from the field. It wasn't easy to make them read like period letters.

    Its a shame that people don't write like that anymore.

    Thanks for lifting my day.

    Matt LeVault
    Find the 13th VA Infantry, Company I on Facebook and at 13thva.com

    ReplyDelete

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