Clara Stealey's Diary - February 6, 1910

"Feb. 6 -

Went to church this morning. Nearly croaked with the cramps this after-noon. Tom came up about 4:00 and stayed until six."

found photographs

Clara Stealey's Diary - February 5, 1910

"February 5 -

Went to the skating rink this after noon. Didn't get to skate. They didn't have any to fit me. Tom was there. Talk about your fine skaters, he certainly is one. Went to the library to-night. Myra King and I went to the show and then I came home."

found photograph (ice skaters)

Sonja Henie in One in a Million (1936)


Eva Pawlik in Sonnige Jugend (Sunny Youth) Austria (1937)

Clara Stealey's Diary - February 4, 1910

"Feb 4. -

Went down to Lelia's to-night. The girls were going to the dance. They coaxed me to go too and of course I gave in and went. Oh Heavens what makes me do such things! Why was I ever born with such a weak will?" (awww!)

found photographs (the girls)

The Pretenders - Talk Of The Town

Rab | MySpace Video

Clara Stealey's Diary - February 3, 1910

"Feb 3.

Went to the Presbyterian supper and then to the show."

found photograph (girl in confirmation dress)

Wilfred Owen - Dulce Et Decorum Est

Wilfred Owen (English poet) was born on March 18, 1893 in Shropshire. On November 4, 1918, he was shot and killed in action as he tried to get his men across the Sambre Canal. Germany signed an armistice with the Allies on November 11, 1918 at 11:00 am, officially ending World War I.


Dulce Et Decorum Est*

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

(* DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country.)

Clara Stealey's Diary - February 2, 1910

"Wed Feb 2,

Lelia took me to the Show to night. Ma. and papa went to the lecture."

found photographs (The Grand Tour - souvenir photographs of Rome)
The photographs that are dated in this album are from c. 1907-8.

Clara Stealey's Diary - February 1, 1910

"Feb. 1. -

Got a new blue dress this evening. Went down to the library and spent the evening with some of the girls."

found photograph