File:Lelia A. Scott to Alice Mary Longfellow, 5 January 1887 (9436bab5-e971-481e-99e2-b42c0e2933d4).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1007.001/002.003-001#022

[printed letterhead: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.]
Hampton, Va., January 5, 1887,
Miss Alice Longfellow,
Dear Friend,-
Again the pleasant time has come for me to express my gratitude and thanks to you for the kind interest you have taken in me. I am always delighted with the thought of having an opportunity to write to you, because I feel that I owe you a great deal of appreciation for what you have done for me.
My last years [sic] term in the day school was equally as pleasant as the first. The time pass away very rapidly and the Commencement exercises were here before we hardly had time to think of them. When the Commencement exercises were over, of course as you can imagine, we all looked forward [p. 2] with great anxiety to the day when promotion should be read. The time at last came when I was promoted to a higher class and I most certainly was one of the happiest souls here.
I stayed here during the vacation and obtained a position as waitress in the school. I liked my work very much and I tried very hard to please my employer ever keeping in mind the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would that they should do to you,” I press on until my work was finished which offered me many a leisure hour which I spent in reading most of the Among the the [sic] many nice books which I read the one most interesting to me was, The Pilgrim’s Progress.
I was very glad when the [p. 3] time came for the opening of the school, particularly as I was very eager to pursue my studies. I am in the first section of the Middle Class and my studies are quite hard as most of them are new, yet I am trying to do my best, for I am truly desirous of being to the Senior Class at the end of the term that I may be able to go out and be enlisted on the roll of workers in the great field of labor, which is so much needed among my people. I shall endeavor to improve every opportunity and by so doing, I hope to be able to do much good work when I go from here.
Again thanking you for your kindness, I am
Very respectfully,
Lelia A. Scott.
[p. 3] Dear Miss Longfellow,
Lelia Scott is doing well this term, and will without doubt be promoted at the end of the year. Walter Battice will send his letter in a few days. He is one of our very best, and still continues to do well. Lelia had copied her letters dating it as the letters were to be sent. When your Christmas remembrance came I told her she might write another note, which I enclose with this. We usually send the letters in January, which accounts for the dating of this.
Thanking you for your continued interest, I am
Very sincerely,
M. J. Sherman.

• Keywords: long archives; document; alice m. longfellow papers (long 16173); education; organizations; hampton institute; correspondence; Manuscripts (1007.001); (LONG-Subcollection); Correspondence (1007.001/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Scholarship Student Correspondence (1007.001/002.003); (LONG-SubseriesName); Letters to Alice Longfellow (1007.001/002.003-001); (LONG-FileUnitName)