Letters home to his parents; paper on religion; and two photographs : Beckwith with friends and Branner Hall

B.P. Beckwith

school. The judges were the Rev. W.B. Thorp of the Palo Alto Unitarian Church, W.H. Kelly, postmaster of Palo Alto, and Professor Thomas Pete Cross of the English department, University of Chicago

Palo Alto, California

April 19, 1923

Dear Mother,

I have been out playing tennis this afternoon & just came in and took a hot and cold shower. I certainly feel fine now. My colleague Stanley Wight & I went up to Berkeley last night & defeated one of their freshman teams. We also one the other [?] which

was held here at Stanford. As this was my first debate in public I suffered from a dry mouth & weak knees but with four years of practice ahead of me I hope to overcome these defects. I wrote a story on it for the "Dipper" but as someone else had also written one mine was not used. I am enclosing it as an example of my journalistic work & to tell you something of the debate.

We have a big track meet with California next Saturday & I hope to go up & see it & also visit a play or musical farce afterwards.

Larry's brother has just come in to go to supper with "Web" & I so I will ring off.

Your loving son,

Burnham.

P.S. Tell father I have recieved his $80 check.

Stanford University

April 22, 1923

Dear Father,

I just came up to the cafeteria to eat lunch but there was such a long line that I borrowed a pencil & came upstairs to write a letter while the line diminished.

I had an interesting discussion with my "Economics" professor this morning as to whether the employee's of Mr Carnegie would not be just as well of if he reinvested all his profits in their enterprises as they would if they were to receive the profits & do the same with them. And to convince him that if the employees wasted no profits on luxuries the people would be better of than if they received the profits & wasted 10% more of them than he did. I hope to have some more arguments with him.

This particular professor succeeds, by means of his sarcasm & wit & use of American slang in making

an elementary course very interesting.

I went up to Berkeley last Saturday & saw our track team trounced by U.C. That evening I went to the beste opera house in town I saw Mr Walker Whiteside in "the [Hinan?]."

I also shopped around & bought myself another pair of two-color sport oxfords for the summer. As they only cost 5.00 & tennis shoes cost 3.50 I do not think I was very extravagant.

I have been seaching industriously for a second hand remington portable at a bargain price but cannot find one for less than $50.00 (the cost $60 new) I can get a corona as cheap as $20 but I want one with a standard keyboard.

Your loving son

Burnham