Nadine's Diary, "He Seemed So Sweet"

Wednesday Nov. 28.  Got up in time for breakfast.  Clara didn't.  She or Fred neither one were there.  Will came home with me.  He came in.  I sat on his lap.  He seemed so sweet. Lucy came to the door to get some kindling wood.  Nannie as usual came over pretty soon to go to class, Will put his arm around me before her.  He blew out the lamp and \\\ me.  Walked as far as him room with us.  Went to class.  Stayed for type writing.  Clara and I came home.  Got a letter from (__?) Ely.  Wrote in my diary.  Went to dinner.  The boys came home with us.  Will stayed till 1 oclock and had to go to Latin but did not go.  Missed two classes for me and I missed two.  "Ge" that's awful.  I did not go to supper.  Clara brought it to me.  Will came in after supper.  Fred was here.  They only intended staying a little while but stayed till nearly \\\ oclock.  We had the study room.  Clara and Fred took the \\\.  Will was so sweet I didn't want him to go.  Found another button.  The boys both declared up and down that it didn't belong to them and to prove it said we might examine.  

Nadine's Diary, "What We Girls Were Up To"

Tuesday, Nov. 27.  Got up in time for breakfast.  Clara didn't.  Will wasn't there either so Fred and I had to represent the club.  I mean the F.L.C.C.  Fred walked up to the room with me.  Ask me what we girls were up to last night.  Told him nothing of course.  He believed me.  Yes why shouldn't he the way we treated him the night before.  Had good hot cakes.  I ate 3.  Went to class.  Had a good lesson for once.  Mr. Frantzen told me I could type write at 7:35 on machine 18.  Clara and I came home.  She was not feeling well.  Both got a letter from our Mammas.  She took a good cry over hers but I felt all right.  Miss Lenord called after Chapel.  Stayed till Clara came at 10 and went to Elocution at 11 with us.  Ge how she does dislike Nannie Whitlaw.  Guess jealousy over Moss is the cause of it.  Miss Gitlin and the older Miss Delay tried to flirt with Will but I didn't see him flirt with them for I kept my eye on him instead of paying attention.  Clara and Miss Leonard left before the bell rang so I had to go to the dining Hall alone.  Will and I were the first ones at our table.  Stinson told me to call after dinner and he would give me my receipt.  The boys came home with us.  Will and I didn't take a walk as usual but came to our room.  Fred and Clara took the \\\ as usual.  Nannie came and knocked at the door and Will wouldn't let me open it for her so she looked through mail slide and saw me sitting on his lap but I don't care.  She said she wanted her books but they were not here so pretty soon there was another knock at the door.  I opened it and it was Lucy Thomas.  I told her about what I thought of Nannie for her books weren't here.  Will waited till it was time for the second bell before he went to class.  "Ge" he was so sweet.  I didn't want him to go.  I was alone there.  Was a knock at the door.  And who was it but that horrid old Lyon.  Clara came in a few minutes and went back to Lucie's room.  He begin talking nonsense and I made him stop.  He went so far as to tell me I was the prettiest girl that ever came to Valpo.  He begin saying something about Will and I just told him he could not say any thing about him to me any way.  Miss Leonard called.  She and Clara took the bedroom.  They went away and still Lyon stayed.  Nannie came in.  We all got our Shorthand lesson out.  He went out and brought some kindling and some candy*.  Ge how good the candy was.  He started the fire and it was time for me to go to class and I told him I would not dare to leave the hall with him for Hodges would see me, so he went home.  I left the stove door closed, and no one was in the room till about supper time and every things was about to take fire.  Came home from class alone.  Went to supper.  The boys came home with us.  I told Will about Lyon being here and about Moss walking home with me the night before.  He got so angry he wouldn't let me be near him and was going to go home but I coaxed him not to go.  Little fool I was for doing it but I couldn't help it.  I went out.  Clara came after me.  Fred talked to Hodges and got him in a better humor when we came in he was in the \\\.  I went in.  Took a cry and after a long while we made up.  Clara made him go home about 10.  He didn't intend staying only till 7:35, but did. I promised I never would go with another boy. 

Candy advertisement from the 1890s

Nadine's Diary. "Ge such girls"

Monday, Nov. 26, 94.  Dressed and went to breakfast, a little late.  Will came home with me.  Got a group picture and took them home with him.  I went to Shorthand class about half dressed.  Came home.  Pounded Clara around.  Went to type writing.  Lion started to walk home with me and I knew I would meet Will and I didn't know what in the duce* to do for he would be angry if he would see me with him and as luck would have it we met Clara and she ask me to go back to the store with her.  That was only an excuse to get me away from him for we walked back down around East Hall and up home.  Went to Elocution.  To dinner.  Oh my such fun.  The boys came home with us.  Will and I took a walk as usual.  He flirted with some girl but then I told him to just for fun.  We acted simply terrible on the street.  But I didn't care.  Came back.  He came in and stayed till one when he had to go to Latin.  He was so sweet I didn't want him to go.  We saw Lion coming up the street and supposed he was coming to see me so I hid in the bed room and he came in.  Stayed a little while.  Ask for me.  Clara told him I was visiting and would not be home till recital time so he left a picture for me and a note.  "Ge" how I do dislike him.  I wish he would let me alone.  Went to classes.  Moss came home from Shorthand class with me.  Ask me to go to the Opera Tuesday night but declined.  He walked down to the dining hall with me.  The boys came home with us.  Stayed till Clara told them we were going away.  Fred got mad at Clara and went home.  We went down town to meet Mr. Gosset, Clara's old fellow.  Ge how we did bluff* Fred and Will.  We told them we were going to spend the evening with one of the girls down town.  Came home.  I went to bed and left Clara to chat with Gosset.  Will was so sweet it was a shame for me to let him suspicion that we were going to meet some boys.  "Ge" such girls.  

*Duce:  Nadine's spelling of "deuce".  According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

late 15c., "the 2 in dice or cards," also "a roll of 2 in dice" (1510s), from M.Fr. deus (Mod.Fr. deux (nom. duo) "two".  Became a mild oath by 1710, about 50 years after it was first attested in the sence of "bad luck, the devil, etc.," perhaps because two was the lowest score, and probably by similarity to L. deus and related words meaning "god."  Low German had der daus! in the same sence 16c., which perhaps influenced the English form.

*Bluff:  from the same source.

1839, American English, poker term, perhaps from Du. bluffen "to brag, boast," or verbluffen "to baffle, mislead."  An identical word meant "blindfold, hoodwink" in 1670s but the sense evolution and connection are unclear; OED call it "one of the numerous cant terms... which arose between the Restoration and the reign of Queen Anne."  Extended or figurative sense by 1854.  

Nadine's Diary, "Mean Old Thing"

This chart appears very similar to the short-hand
code Nadine used in her diary.

*On this day in her diary, Nadine puts her short-hand skills to use, inserting the symbols for things that she may not want others to read.  Given that my own short-hand translation skills are severely limited, I will use the marks \\\ to indicate where she has inserted the symbols.  It is fairly simple to take a guess at the words she has left out.

Nov. 24.  Went to breakfast.  Cleaned the rooms.  Every thing looked lovely.  We were washing.  Fred came down tore every thing out of places.  Got Clara cross.  And (__?).  Ge what a mean boy.  I washed some things and hung them by the stove to dry.  Fred came out and looked at them.  Mean old thing.  Mr. Edwards his room mate brought his microscope down.  We looked at some dog blood and one of Fred's, Clara's Mr. Edward's and my own hair.  Fred cut his finger to get some fresh blood to look at.  Enjoyed it very much.  Went to dinner.  The boys walked home with us.  Will came in.  Stayed nearly all afternoon.  I got home sick and took a cry.  Will got angry and went home.  Clara was down town with her father.  Got back about the time Will left.  When he started I told him he need not come back any more.  Clara said Why Nadine but I didn't care.  He was so mean.  Fred came in.  I fixed my black dress.  Nannie came in and I told her a big lie about Fred and Clara, for I didn't want her to know they were in the bedroom.  Ge how sorry I was for what I had said to Will.  Went to supper.  Will was not there and Kettle said he was not coming.  You don't know how I felt.  I certainly could have fallen through the floor for I wanted to see him.  But after while he came in and how glad.  But he would not speak to me and after while I ask him something but he answered me very cool.  So I let him be.  And Clara & Fred got up from the table and tried to have us there alone but I got up and went with them.  And coming up.  Hodges with his brother passed us and Fred called out to Will and he stopped when we caught up with him.  Clara and Fred ran off from me and I was compelled to be alone with him.  We did not come in our room but took a walk.  He wished to have me explain etc. etc.  Did not want to come in but finally did.  At last we made up.  Clara & Fred were in the \\\ and we made a \\\ on the floor.  Ge how sweet he was after we made up.  Fred went home about \\\ Will did not go till nearly \\\.  Ge isn't that awful?  But never the less tis true.  Dressed and went to breakfast.  Will and I took a walk out in the country out beyond (note: she spelled this beon--it took me a minute to figure out what she meant) the greenhouse.  How I did enjoy it although it was quite cool.  He put his \\\ around me and \\\ me several times but no one was around.  The frost looked so pretty on the fence and walks came back about \\\.  He did not come in.  Clara was \\\ and I got warm and she and I went to bed.  Slept till dinner time when Nannie came in and woke us.  I went but Clara didn't.  Fred came in.  Clara had her nightgown on but she had a quilt around her.  Will & Fred both walked up home with me.  Will didn't come in but Fred did.  Miss Leonard and Miss Vantriese  called on Clara.  We were both dressing.  Nannie came in.  We were in the bed room.  Will & Fred came in.  We had lots of fun all to ourselves.  We wanted to come out so bad we didn't know what to do.  We had a notion to climb out of the window.  Ge how we did wish for them to go.  After so long a time they went.  Nannie went home and once more the F.L.C.C. found themselves alone smoking qubebs.*  Will and Fred were lolling on the bed and set the comforter on fire and Ge how sick I was.  Will the darling boy got me a glass of fresh water and I came out of the study room and I felt better in a little while.  They stayed till suppertime and Will went to his room to change his hat.  Ge who swell he looked with a silk hat on.  Went to supper.  Had lots of fun.  Clara brought two pieces of cake up with her.  The boys came home with us.  We all went.  Lion called.  Ask to speak to me.  Wanted me to go to the Opera Tuesday night but I declined.  I came in.  Will was so angry he walked the floor and wouldn't let me near him but he got all right in a few minutes after I explained.  Oh how jealous he is of me.  Down town.  Got an oyster stew.  Oh how good and the fun we had.  Came home.  Will and I tried to have a cake walk.  Coming home we got to the room first.  Lighted up.  Will took off my wraps for I was so tired I couldn't.  We took the \\\.  Clara and Fred made a \\\ on the \\\ in the study room.  They didn't go home till after the \\\ bell rang.  Ge that's awful.  If my Mamma knew how I was acting she would take me home in a minute.  Will was so sweet I could have \\\ him all the time for the first time he ask me \\\ but I was determined.   How glad I am that I didn't for he afterwards told me he would not care to \\\ with me anymore if I had \\\.  I was \\\ think of it.

*qubebs:  also "Cubeb."  The spicy fruit of the cubeb vine, when dried & crushed, is used medicinally or in perfumery and sometimes smoked in cigarettes.  More on cubebs, including advertisements of the day.

1890s Men's silk top hat.
Will's hat could have resembled photo.

Nadine's Diary, "Boys Were Here"

Friday Nov. 23.  Went to breakfast.  In school.  Boys came home from dinner with us.  Will and I took a walk as usual after dinner.  Came home.  Boys were here.  Stayed all night.  I did not go to bed.

Henry Baker Brown 

*The president of the Northern Indiana Normal School in 1894 was Henry Baker Brown, who held that position from 1873 until 1917.  During his tenure, the name changed to Valparaiso College and then to Valparaiso University.  From the article linked above:

Believing that God ordained the virtues of thrift and sobriety, Brown cultivated an ethos of hard work and discipline on campus.  Classes began at 6:45 a.m., formal dress was required of all students, no matter how poor, and students could be instantly dismissed for gambling, visiting a saloon, or even unexcused absences.

Clearly there was a way around the dismissal for unexcused absences, as Nadine and her friends skipped more than a few.  I wonder what he would have made of her escapades, had he known!

Nadine's Diary, "Is Man an Angel?"

Thursday Nov. 22.  Went to breakfast.  In school.  Boys walked home with us from dinner.  Will and I went for a walk.  Fred came in.  Loffler & Simmons got called down by Fred because they would not go away from the window when Clara told them to.  Nannie & I went down town in the afternon.  I got some black lace and a pair of stockings*.  Came home.  Went to class.  Boys came home with us from supper.  All four of us went to hear Matilda Fletcher* lecture in the College chapel on is Man an angel.  Will gave us some chewing gum.  Had lots of fun.  Intended going down town for an oyster stew but it was raining so did not go.  They boys stayed till 5 oclock.  Ge that's awful but  never the less its true.  Did not go to bed at all.

A stocking advertisement from the 1890s

 *About Matilda Fletcher:  (1842-1909).  Suffragist, poet, and lecturer.  The fifth of fourteen children from abolitionist parents, who had fled what they called “the peculiar institution” of the South, Matilda was born in Winnebago County, Illinois, and raised on a farm in Durand. Like her seven brothers who served in the Civil War, Matilda imagined herself in the public sphere. After the death of her one and only child, Matilda joined the lecture circuit, a series of talks so powerful a man named a silver mine after her, another man claimed she had a forked tongue, and upon the death of her first husband, newspapers speculated who might be the lucky man to call Matilda his own. She spoke to support herself and her first husband until his death. He died of tuberculosis, a disease he contracted during his service to the Union. During her forty year career, she spoke on woman’s suffrage, temperance, and education and published several books, including An Address: Farmers’ Wives and Daughters (1873), Practical Ethics: For Schools and Families (1875), and The Trial and Imprisonment: of Geo W. Felts (1907). Given the nature of oration and the time period during which she spoke, much of her work has been lost. However, some of her poems and lectures have survived in historic newspapers, often as excerpts only. Eleven years after the death of her first husband, she remarried and became the stepmother to three children, all under the age of ten. She continued to speak on the issues that mattered to her until the day she died. (from Laura Madeline Wiseman, descendant of Matilda Fletcher)

Nadine's Diary, "Boys Came in a While"

Wednesday, Nov. 21.  Up at 5:50.  Went to breakfast and classes.  Clara recited in Elocution.  I recited Tuesday.  Boys came home from dinner with us.  Will missed his one oclock class and stayed with me.  Went to type writing at 4.  Took Clara's Diary instead of my book of type writing paper.  Boys came in a while in the evening.

*Not directly related to this entry, but a wonderful video by the Oklahoma Historic Society including rare footage from the 1890s: