May 22nd, 1920
My dear Mr. Rosenwald:
The tents we have been using for our boys out at Waukegan have finally succumbed to an honorable old age and we face the necessity of either purchasing new tents or portable houses. We decided on the latter because there is such an excellent opportunity to buy blankets, mattresses, stools etc. from the Great Lakes Naval Station which is only five miles away. We had also hoped to buy barracks there but that seems impracticable. Our old equipment which has been sent back and forth from Michigan for a long time is thoroughly worn out and we can set up fifty boys quite well with five hundred and twenty dollars worth of Great Lakes material.
I am venturing to write you in regard to the portable houses, called hospital wings, for sale by Sears Roebuck & Co. I am enclosing the estimate which we got from there yesterday. We [page 2] would be very grateful for anything you might do for us.
We realize it is an impossible moment to increase one's plant but the old tents and equipment barely got us [through] the war period. "The Rosenwald Cottage" is always filled with mothers and children, the remainder are full of girls, little and big, and we hope to put the boys far enough into the woods so that they, superior beings as they are, will feel quite detached from the girls camp and at last have a place of their own.
I think we will not venture to place the order until we hear from you. This sounds like a business letter but it is full of hopes and fears as well -- the latter lest I may be imposing upon your long kindness to Hull-House.
Hoping that you are quite recovered and with affectionate greetings to Mrs. Rosenwald and your daughter, I am
Faithfully yours,
Jane Addams [signed]
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