Perry letters

8

bad luck this year; a very strange thing for Stanford. Unless some of our injured men come round in time U.C. is going to tie our score this Thanksgiving; and if she does that, it will be as great as a victory for her; and we'll feel mighty blue ourselves.

Good-by till next Friday.

Fred

P.S. The worst way, am badly in debt to Joseph. Joseph's my room-mate. If I attempt to borrow another 5 from him he'll swear he's insolvent. And I hate to see Joseph tell stories. Again P.S.

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Stanford, Oct. 18, '96

My dear Mama:- I have just come home from a bicycle ride, and so you may imagine how tired I am. We rode about ten miles, and I had a stomach ache during the last eight of them which caused me considerable annoyance.

We visited Mrs. Stanford's stock-farm, and Menlo Park. While in the latter place, we visited

including household and outstanding bills have exhausted every cent but $1.80 of the twenty-five dollars I drew from the bank two weeks ago.

But there's no consolation. My bills are now paid and here after, it should not cost me more than $15 a month to live including books, which is no small item of expenditure.

Please send up the $6.00 that you owe me, as soon as possible. Sent it in U.S. bills. I shall need part of it right away, as I dare not spend any of this money I have now, for fear of going "broke." I'll write next Tue. or Wed.

Good bye.

Lovingly,

F.J.P.

and will no doubt be a strong rival of Stanford's collection of co-eds.

Let me here make a short digression and describe our foot-ball game yesterday, between the Freshmen and the Oakland High School Eleven.

We fully expected to be thoroughly beaten by the doughty players from Oakland and you may imagine our surprise when our team just wiped the ground with the shattered, and torn garments of the High School. They were lucky to get off alive, for our men rushed at them like a Kansas tornado.

compelled to standoff, out of the sigh of the vigilant ticket collectors and watch the game from my seclusion.

So you see that, although I have $1.80 in my pocket, for one of the boys paid me the $1.45 that he owed me, yet by the end of the week that will have vanished.

I have now paid up all my shares on the difference and enormous bills which we owed when we left the other house. Moreover I had to pay my share of the furniture which we have placed in our rooms, and have bought a book case for my numerous books.

So all told my expenses

Stanford, Oct. 25, '96

Dearest Mama:-

I have so much to say that I really do not know where to begin my tale. However I had better commence with the first day of the week, and give the record of my doings from last Monday until to day.

Monday evening I went out on a "bike" ride with the boys in the house.

A young lady living next door got up the ride and invited all the feminine cyclists in the surroundings.

As there was a great dearth of unmarried riders of that gender, the

So rather than pay out about three dollars to have them fixed I sent my tire east and requested that the manufacturers give me a new tire.

Although I was put to some inconvenience by my misfortunes yet on the swhole I had a delightful time.

I became acquainted with the wives of two of our professors, the wife of our leading doctor, and several co-eds.

Last night we had another "bike" party, this time gotten up by the people in Palo Alto.

young lady was compelled to ask all the married women of College Terrace. "But herein hangs a tale."

Not knowing what young ladies were invited I labored under the delusion that all the co-eds of the Terrace had intended to participate in the ride.

So it was that, upon Monday evening the moon came out in all his sil'vry splendor and cast his pale beams over a happy crowd of "bikers."

We hurried along the road through Mayfield and after a speedy half hour's ride we arrived at Mountain View. There were just thirteen of us, and of course a successful run would not be consistent with that unlucky numeral, and as a result we suffered several misfortunes. Naturally I was the unfortunate one.

First I punctured my tire and not to be satisfied with this calamity I broke my saddle-post, a small but annoying accident which necessitated my riding upon the frame the rest of the way home. When I arrived home I found upon examining my tire that it had been punctured in about eleven different places.