Jaci Dawn

Eugene, April 28, ’17

Dear Mother and Dad,

      Your letter hasn’t shown up yet this week, but I am expecting it tomorrow.

      I moved into the dorm last Tuesday. It is great here. I can get much more done now, get better stuff to eat, don’t feel so lonesome, and get along better. Since I have come here, I would never advise anyone to try to go to school and batch, unless he wanted to pinch himself on the eating, because if you eat all you want and have a fairly decent place to live you make nothing at it, if your time is worth anything at all. I don’t see how the management here can put up the meals th it does for $3.75 per week and furnish a room with steam heat, sheets and towels, lights, rugs etc. for seventy-five cents per week. I don’t see why I didn’t come here before. I have missed a lot.

     We put on our play last night. Some people said that I was the best on the stage. At least, the Roland Players, a professional company, said that they might be able to use me in a play a couple of weeks from now. That will be good, for I can make some money out of that.

     I must collect as much of my verse as I can and turn it in to the professor, as he is going to send some of the best poems to some publishing house. It is a bad time now for anything of the kind to succeed, but we might possibly be able to get it accepted. If we do, that will mean a steady little income to each one. Not much, of course, but probably a few dollars every year. I don’t think the thing will go through, at all.

     “The Masses” sent my peom back to me, with a personal note from the editor besides the regular form, saying that he was very sorry that he couldn’t use the poem, which was good enough, he said, for the magazine. That helps some. Bob Case has been sending stuff away for years and got his first personal letter a week or so ago, while I got a personal letter on my first manuscript.

    I saw in the paper that the drafting bill has passed both houses. We fellows who are lucky enough to be between the ages of 19 and 23 will begin to be weeded out now. I think we who are not engineers, mechanics, etc, are to be the first goats, because we are not as valuable to the nation as the others are. Well, they cant make me mad. If I am drafted, I’ll make a fine soldier. There is no use to flop after you are on the bank in the basket. Of course no one can tell how long the war will last. I wouldn’t be surprised if it lasted a long time, though. Russia may conclude a separate peace with Germany, and if she does, a good many of us will have the chance to bleach our  bones somewhere in Europe. Russia has just what Germany needs, men and supplies. Germany has the organization and the driving power to do anything. All she needs is food and men. The U.S. will see harder times than ever when not only the munition factories draw the labor that used to be used making shoes and food, but the army and navy take more of the workers away. If the war keeps up at this rate for five years more, the world will be starving to death, because no one will be left to work making food and clothing. The world’s energies will be used for destruction instead of production.

     I hope you folks are having good weather for spring’s work. We certainly have fine weather here when it isn’t raining. It is raining today, but the past week has been fine You ought to see this campus It is great in the spring and in the fall.

     I am sending a picture of my mug. I had to have it taken for a couple of places in the Oregana, (the Annual) and so I had a half dozen made. I don’t think the picture is well finished, but I guess it comes as near resembling me as anything could.

    This is about all I have to say this time.

Your son

Dale D.

*whew* Dale was certainly feeling long-winded when he wrote this six page note! He covered everything from the struggles of a young actor and poet to the Great War, and turned it around with a snippet about the weather. I can’t find anywhere that his poetry was ever published, and except for the same I shared in my last post, nothing was saved by the family.

His rant about the war is especially poignant because he would be drafted. Economic collapse of the kind he predicted would come right between the two wars, in 1928, but for very different reasons. WWII would see a shift from men in manufacturing jobs to women as Rosie the Riveter was hired to replace the men who marched off to war and left those jobs unfilled.

I have no photos of Dale. I suppose they must exist, perhaps in a family album in my brother’s care (as we hauled everything from the estate as far as Reno in 2011). I certainly haven’t one in my possession that I know of. I did a search for the 1917 Oregana and found it has been preserved and is available in .pdf format for anyone to access. I scrolled through to page 175 where I found a tiny photo in the right hand column: Dale Melrose.-This man, with a name like a rose, takes lots of courses in the Lit department. We’re glad there is at least one man there for Prof. Howe to appeal to for the gentlemen’s ideas on the r~form stuff.

Dale is also mentioned on page 128 as the Officer in A Comedy of Errors.

(Dale’s constant omission of the apostrophe in the contraction “dont” nearly pushes me over the edge!)

The envelope for this letter has a pale inscription in pencil written across the front of it: Dale and Case keep House. It is about much more than that and reflects the innocence of America before Doughboys were shipped off to fight in trenches and Mustard gas.

Eugene, Ore. Feb. 12, ’17

Dear Mother and Dad,

      Your two letters came today and in one was the draft ofor $100. I am very thankful, and it has not put me to any trouble at all. My only reason for telegraphing was to find out if I could make a raise, and if not I would not waste my money in registering.

     My subjects are: Educational Psychology, Technique of Poetry, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Philosophical Foundations of English Literature, Advanced German Literature, and and Dramatics. Besides these I will have a lecture course entirely in German on the German Culture and Civilization. In addition to this I am doing extra work in the English department and having a special conference hour with the head of the department. Today our first poems were due in the Technique class. The professor said that mine was very good and would be very good for publication in the college publications. He asked me to try for a prize that is offered by the Spectator, a paper published in Portland. I may try for it because $15 or $5 for a poem will come handy.

     Dont worry about the war. I think we are just as far from it as we were when it began. Even the Germans wanted to break diplomatic relations with the U.S. because of the trouble caused by the continental squabbles. If the U.S. did go in there would be no change excepting, perhaps, a new excuse for raising the price of provisions.

      The housekeeping is going fine. One week Case does the cooking and the next week, I do it. Ditto with the dishwashing only reversed. I would rather do the cooking all the time because I can do it better, and then Case is not very neat. If I ever get any one else in here, I will get some-one that I can boss. Case is too smart.

     I had no letter from Aunt Jane at all.

     I sent that telegram about 8:30 P.M. on Saturday.

     That must be disagreeable weather. The pussy willows have been out for over a week here! I guess our winter is over, except probably a late spring storm. I have told it all, I guess I will take this down and mail it now.

Your Son,

Dale.

Eugene, Ore. Dec. 24, ’16

Dear Folks,

      Well, it is Christmas Eve again. I must be getting old, because it doesn’t seem any different than the other nights. It is not so long since I used to count the days before it for weeks, either.

    My Job in the grill has gone glimmering, I guess. I have not been told of any chance anyway. The proprietor said that he would let me know when he wanted me.

    I am working for my room at the same place I was last year, but that is all. The two fellows that were talking about wood cutting are celebrating Xmas and I cannot take the job alone.

       I went to the U. the other day and enrolled in some correspondence study to keep me busy and make up some lost work. I can make 3 hours of credit before the second semester begins.

      A felloew I knew last year wants me to batch it with him for the second semester. He lives in Portland and will furnish most of the junk besides what goes with the 3 room house we arranged for. The lady here has a cookstove she said we could have and Bob is going to ship a heater from Portland when he comes back after New Year. Beds and tables, are chairs, rug etc are furnished with the house for which we pay $6.00 per month. It would be just right for two. A room to sleep in, to study in, and to cook and eat in.

     You didn’t say where John was going to school. He must be getting to be a pretty heavy kid by this time. Tell him to get weighed and send me a letter and tell me about what he is doing.

    It must have been lots of fun for Dad to have eight teeth pulled at one sitting. I dont envy him the fun at all though.

    Your letter didn’t come last week so I will leave this till tomorrow to see if it wont come.

___

Nothing came, so I will mail this anyways.

Dale Melrose 158 W. 12th Ct

Fall of 1916 could best be described as the term Dale Melrose, 21, took off from college. It wasn’t from lack of trying to find work, as evidenced by his letters. He had a strong work ethic, but the work wasn’t there. If it was there… well, I’ll let him tell his own story, in his own sarcastic voice.

Portland, Ore. Nov. 2, 1916

Dear Folks,

     Well I got back again and am feeling a lot better than I did in Canada, except for a cold in my lungs. It is raining a nice drizzle here so I hope to get over my cold soon.

    That trip to Canada was not very profitable after paying what I owed and my fare down here, my total assets amount to about $60.00. If I cannot get a good job <lasting> until after Jan 1st, I cant see how I am going to go to school.

   I will dig in from now on and try to make enough to carry me by working again. By that you can see that I have made nothing by my trip, in fact I have lost. I could have gone to school at the first of the year and by working, could have made it after a fashion. This way I lose a whole semester.

    I have signed up on a job in a rock quarry down the river. The fare from Portland is $.25 by boat. Pay is .30¢ per hour and board is $4.75 per week. I ought to make a little on that job by Xmas. I will keep this letter until I find what address I will have Saturday Night.

    I came up to the quarry yesterday and we got there about six oclock. About 1/6 of us were shipped out and we wanted supper. They wouldn’t give us any, and worse still, they put us in a bunk house that was full of “crumbs”. We left within 15 minutes and came to Camas which was only 3 miles away. Three of us got work on the streets here and the rest beat it.

   The wages are $2.50 for 8 hours. Board and room will come to about $6.00 per week. I may stay if the weather stays good, but it is time for the rains now so I suppose I cant make much.

   Dad maybe you think that the Oswego job we had was a bad one, but this quarry has it skinned so badly that there is no comparison.

    This is a great life. I’ll never make a school stake at this rate.

    Write to me here. I may be here a couple of weeks.

Your son

Dale D. Melrose

Camas, Wash.