The Newtown bee., 1907-10-18
HOME NEWS. A LETTER
TO VIEWPOINTS DEAR CHILDREN.

Richmond, Va, October 3, 1907.
 We left our Connecticut home in
 Newtown, last Monday, for a trip to our border South land and are now at
 Richmond, Va. Among other things
 that were left behind for the time be-
 ing were the children of our home
 town who in point of school age num-
 Der some five hundred distributed ac- cording to attainments, in the High
 school, one select school and the vari-
 ous primary schools of our different
 school districts. It is for them this
 letter will be written, in hopes that
 they will be interested for the few
 minutes it will take for the reading. I told you at the start, we are in Rich mond, Va. l cannot tell you in de- tail all the ins and outs of our outward trip. It oftimes seems to me when I see automobiles flying through our town, and the ladies holding onto their hats, veis and cushions as for dear life, that the aim and end of it all can
 be summed up in three words, and those three words are Ito get some- where" Twenty-Five miles an hour is as fast as 1 want to travel and my choice would be to do all travelng by daylight. But that is next to impos- sible, not so much from want of time as for want of money. But, in travel ing, as in everything else we do, we should do the best we can with the time and material we have at our dis posal. No need to tell how we reached New York for there is not school boy or girl in Newtown but what knows that if we buy ticket at the station, jump aboard the train we will, de- barring any accident or delay, be land ed in the great metropolis inside of three hours time. A long letter might be written you about New York City, yes, many of them, but that is not our purpose this time. We were to go to Richmond, Va., by the Old Do minion line of steamers, that leave New York, Pier 26, North River, every day except Sunday at 3 p. m. We were there on time. The gang plank hauled in and all things made ready we moved out of the harbor and in few minutes were well under way. By water we are 325 miles from Nor folk, Va., at which place we are due in 19 hours. We are to sail in south easterly course not being out of sight of land so long as we are sailing along the New Jersey coast, which we fol- low its whole length of 131 miles. Then we will pass the Delaware Light Ship at the entrance of the Del aware bay; then the coast receding quite bit, we will in the early morn ing be out on the broad ocean out of sight of land. In calm weather, there is nothing particularly exciting even to a landsman to be sailing on smooth waters, though it may become exceed ingly interesting. We had that after noon, three hours of daylight, an hour of twilight and then we could, if we would sit on the upper deck and watch the starry heavens above and the sparkling waters beneath, until sleep, tired Natures sweet restorer, bid us seek our berth, not forgetting the thought "God is on the water just the same as on. the land." It was a ,pleas- ure to look over the personnel of the passengers, of whom the steamers book recorded over 300 with but com paratively few children, very chatty intelligent crowd with no seasickness to break in upon the enjoyment. There are always surprises in store..for those