Dear Mr. McQuesten,

You will be surprised to have me write so soon again, but the truth is I want to ask a favor [sic].

I am leaving here, and I hope school-teaching forever. The case is this: I have told you a lot in my two letters about Hal.² it's people and children. Well I have one of the hardest school in Ontario. Certainly in the county. The people are practically in league against the teacher. Or, in insider phrase, they haven't the least idea of co-operation between the school & the home. If a kid is punished he is promptly removed from the school, or else a note is sent to the teacher demanding that the child should be exempt from punishment.

Well the first thing I did was to suspend the son of the school board on a charge of highly immoral conduct. There was a fuss right away. The secretary of the board, a personal friend, and one trustee, one of the squarest men I ever met, upheld me, but the other trustee is completely under the thumb of the chairman, Pete Barr. Well things were coming to a climax, when suddenly young Barr was hauled up for a charge of rape committed at the Skating rink one night. Well my charges were substantiated, but I was in for it. Pete called a meeting of trustees for tonight. It was like that annual meeting a year ago. I won't go into the details but I had a really lively time. I resigned, and then told them some things for the good of their souls. It was good, and oh Pete was mad. Altogether I had a good time, and one I'm not ashamed of. My two friends enjoyed it too, although they tried to smooth things over, but I had to resign to get some things off my system.

Now here I am, without a job, at least I will be at Easter. Say could you, before then, give me some pointers as to how to get into a newspapers as reporter or some such thing? I want to tackle it. Could you please just give me information as to where or how to apply? I would like to tackle it. The experience alone is valuable, even if I don't follow it up.

I am not going to teach anymore. If I can't get a job either on a paper or in the mills, I will go back to school, and try to back the term's work I missed. I hope you will answer this soon and give me the necessary information if you can without inconvenience.

How did you like "Le Voyageur" I think I'd make any great dab at poetry. I'm letting my hair grow long these days to see if it helps any. (I am 60 miles from a barber. He's at Lindsay). Hoping that you are making a much better success of the ministry in Bolingbroke³ than I am of the teaching game here. I wish to be remembered as

Your Sincere Friend,

Ted Warde

¹ Gooderham is near Haliburton.

² Likely, Haliburton.

³ Near Perth, Ontario.