Mr. N.A. Hughes,
C/o Y.M.C.A. College,
5315 Drexel Avenue,
CHICAGO. Ill. U.S.A.
My dear Noel,
Since
I last wrote to you, your two letters of the 14th and 23rd August have
reached us. We are very delighted to hear of your doings. According to
your fist letter you had arrived in Chicago a few days before and you
were then staying with
Larry Bowen at
Lincoln Belmont Y. We were
naturally interested in your reactions to the size of Chicago, although
presumably your contact with other large cities had to some extent
prepared you for the experience.
It was very good of
Larry to meet you and to care for you as he did, and I must write and
express my appreciation of his goodness.
I knew there
would be difficulty experienced by you in locating a job, especially
before your arrival at Chicago. The Associations are all having a
difficult time between the stock crashes, failures of banks and the
general business depression. Conditions must be pretty difficult for
many of them, and in view of this I did not anticipate you would be
rushed with jobs. Letters I had received had indicated in practically
every case that there would be some trouble experienced in placing you
satisfactorily. Then again, Convention time is hardly the time to
expect attention when everybody in going "eyes out" and the local staff
men are burdened with a thousand and one details.
I am
glad that you had such a happy time with the folk with whom you were
billeted at
Cleveland. It is the general experience that
Convention
delegates get little opportunity to meet the friends who billet them,
apart from the fact that they see them late at night, and have breakfast
with them in the morning.
I thought the humidity of an
American summer would give you a taste of real heat. We in Australia do
not understand the degree of humidity which American people face in
their summer heat.
I am very delighted that you met a
number of the man, such as
Pontious,
White,
Rhodes and others. They are a
good bunch of fellows, and I am sure contacts with them will be of
service to you in the future. I hope you will let me know the complete
list, so that I might drop them a line as opportunity offers.
You
must not allow the complexity of the American Y to blind you to its
real worth. Many huge institutions have to show some degree of
commercialism if their big service departments are to be maintained
effectively.
It is good to hear that you met
Dr.
Jenkins and that they are helping you in the matter of employment. They
are the people who could probably do most for you in that direction.
I
am sorry to hear that
Vic. Jones and
Tom Laing had some difficulties
regarding the grant from National funds for Conference purposes. No
doubt they have communicated with
Trainor on the matter.
I
was interested in your account of the journey from
Toronto to
Cleveland. People would find it difficult to imagine that you could make
the trip on such a small expenditure. I am glad you were impressed with
the
Niagara Falls. They certainly cause one to feel surprised a their
extent and magnificence.
Your letter of the 23rd
cheered us, as we were beginning to wonder whether you would strike a
job that would be of real value to you. I think I tried to impress you
on a number of occasions that you would find a great difference in the
cost of living in America compared with Australia. I think you will
find, however, that once you learn the lay of the land, you will be able
to save money in quite a number of directions at present unknown to
you. There are many directions in which a knowledge of the stores will
help you to reduce your living expenses. You are certainly doing
remarkably well to keep your meals down to 80 cents a day. I suppose you
are eating at the Y Cafeteria. It cheers our hearts to know that the
Association folk stood by you so loyally and helped you reduce your
living costs.
We were very interested in your picture of
the
musical festival. It must have been a remarkable sight. It was
good of
Larry to take you to it.
I did not
imaging that you would find your typing experience to be so useful to
you. It is good to know that you have been able to capitalise it in the
way you have. I think you will discover that everything that you do
can be used as a means of earning money, and in a large centre like
Chicago you will have opportunities to do work which in Australia would
be practically impossible to find.
Naturally,
we are anxious to hear what type of job you ultimately secure. It
would be great if you had the chance to work at the desk at the
College as it would bring you into close touch with practically all
sections of the College work and with all of the students and faculty.
With what you could earn in that direction and in others, it might be
possible for you to see your way to almost complete support.
The
other suggestions concerning the
Oak Park Y and
Lincoln Belmont Y
would be of very definite value to you in your practical Association
training, and it would be well if you could perhaps extend your
experience beyond desk work, so that you could command a much better
job in succeeding years. The apartment job does not impress me as being
of much value to you apart from its money value. No doubt you will
discuss all these matters with
Clive and
Larry, and in the long run
find something that will be of definite help to you in your
professional work.
I am looking forward with
interest to the receipt of the printed matter concerning the
Conferences. Some material arrived at the National office a few days
ago, but it was of a very scattered nature, and it did not convey
anything like an adequate idea of the discussion and findings.
Thank
you for your good wishes regarding my birthday.
Joyce was awfully
tickled to get the letter from you. She will no doubt be writing to you
within the next day or so.
Now just a little news in
other directions. I had a letter from
Alec. Moodie, written from New
York, in which he mentions that he expected to see you in Chicago in
about a week's time from date of writing.
I
also had a letter from
Sid. Peck in which he enclosed your letter to
him, expressive of your thanks for the letter he had sent to you.
R.L.
Ewing of New York also wrote to me and mentioned having met you at the
Conference and of the suggestion he made that you should return to
Chicago, as he thought there would be better opportunity for you there.
There
is another mail form America arriving tomorrow, and I expect to hear
from some of the other American friends to whom I wrote concerning
yourself.
The folk at home are all well, I am happy to
say.
Mother is keeping in excellent form and so are the two kiddies.
Ruth was home again for the weekend. She is keeping well, although
exceedingly tired from the heavy work at the hospital. She is still
showing great keenness in it and I think she will make a success of it.
Keith had an accident at cricket on the 19th September. He went down to
the first practice and a fast ball glanced off his bat and hit him in
the eye. It was badly gashed just below the eyebrow, and necessitated
some stitches by
Dr. Ashton. However, the eye is practically better again
apart from some discoloration. He had a beautiful "peeper" and looked
as if he had been in a first-class fight.
Rex's job is
still holding and I think he is beginning to realise that he must hang
on to it, no matter what kind of treatment he receives.
Mr.
Harrison has changed his job recently, but it doesn't seem to be much
of a catch and I imagine he is not doing particularly well just now.
Mrs. Harrison has had to take a job in the country so as to help keep
the pot boiling.
In the Association we have had a
particularly busy time with the
Queen Carnival competition. So many
functions have been help in the interests of the three Queeens that it
has been impossible to keep touch with more than a few of them. The
crowning Ceremony takes place on October 8th, and just now we are all
busy in making the necessary preparation for the function. We are hoping
that it will prove a great success, although there is a tremendous
amount of detail to handle in connection with it. We have taken Wirth's
Olympia and we want to make it a first-class affair. You will be
interested to hear that the score board shows the following positions:
Queen of the Juniors -
Miss Davis - 4207
Queen of the Vikings -
Lil. Langham - 6852
Queen of the Youth -
Kath. Lilford - 6339
The
score board does not denote the actual position, as during the past
week a considerable number of functions have been held, the returns from
which are not complete, and consequently the votes have not been added
to the scores. I think
Lil. Langham is well ahead at the present
juncture, because of the Garden Party held at
Mr. Crosby's house on the
19th inst.
Kath. will take a leap forward after next Saturday when a
motor picnic will be held at
Mr. Crosby's home at Tremont. The Juniors
are also putting in strenuous effort and it looks as if we shall have a
very exciting time next week as the returns from all of these functions
are added to the score.
Edith is tickled to death because she is to help
Kath. in the Queen
Crowning ceremony. She is to be either the Crown Bearer or a Page to
Kath. Of course, each of the Queens will have their retinue of
attendants.
Financially, things have not improved at all, although we had a bit of
a lift from the Dormitory during Show Week. Financial returns in
practically ever department have shown a bit of a slump and we are
facing a very serious position in the general account. We are hoping that
we may get some relief in reduced interest charges, on our overdraft
and debentures, legislation for which is being enacted and we hope we
will benefit from it. This may make a considerable difference to us next
year, but will hardly affect our position this year. We are commencing
to look forward to the summer period, and now that the better weather
is coming we anticipate increased interest in our out of door clubs and
camping.
A great deal of useful work has been done at
camp Manyung and
regularly parties have gone down each week to effect improvements in the
property. Two bunk houses have been erected and over 200 trees have
been planted on the property. Other improvements have also been made.
Last week seven fellows spent the entire week at
Shoreham doing a
thousand and one odd jobs in preparation for the junior camps. A scheme
for beautifying the property has been approved, and trees have been
planted and a whole lot of other useful things done which should enhance
the camp property.
I have one or two people interested in the
amplifier, but it seems
almost impossible to effect a sale. The Vikings were interested in it,
but I do not think it would be wise for them to attempt to buy the machine, as their use of it would be limited and as the summer months are
approaching there would not be much chance to raise money by picture
shows to pay for it. There are two others who are nibbling but whether we
will be able to dispose of it I cannot at present say. I am very sorry that so much money is tied up in this machine. With the drastic reductions
in radio goods I am beginning to doubt whether we can hope to secure anything like £40 for the machine. However, I am not going to
sacrifice it, but will do my best to get the highest price possible.
We had a
Rotary Boys' Work conference at the Y building on Saturday, 19th September, and had 27 men present, representing seven Victorian Rotary Clubs. We outlined our work for the year and also made a number of important decisions affecting our work. I hope you will get into touch with the Rotary Club Headquarters at Chicago and will let me know the result of your visit.
I think it would be good for you to ask
Mr. Vernon to send me several copies of the College catalogue with the other pamphlets, giving information to students so that I might pass them on to the fellows who are thinking going to America for additional training.
By this week's mail a letter arrived from the
Delta Pi Alpha Fraternity of
Chicago College, which I am sending here-with. Presumably the writer did not know that you were then in Chicago.
This week you will be commencing your studies, and I imagine there will be much excitement occasioned by your entry to school life. I am hoping that you will get a reasonably good classification, so that you may not have to make up too much in back studies. It would be a good help to you if you could face your first year's work without too may arrears to be made up.
I have not written to the College authorities regarding yourself, because I felt that it was not right for me to use my position in any way to secure additional recognition for you. I will, however, write them shortly. By now you will have had your entrance status determined, and your plans laid out for your school work.
What has happened to your diary? Did you find the job too much of a "fag" to continue it? If you are wise you will keep a diary. It would not take you long to make your daily entries at the close of each day, while impressions are vivid, and it will keep a record which you will look back upon with a great deal of interest in after years.
Well, I must close now. We wish you every blessing, my boy, in your work. Keep in touch with Church life. Settle at one Church in your neighborhood and do your best to help out in some direction in Church life. Don't forget that your effectiveness in the future will depend very largely upon how close your keep to Christ.
With warm love,
Yours affectionately,
Dad.
