1897 Letter of Union Parish Clerk of Court James Monroe Smith to Eva M. Slaton Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Robert S. Hendrick, 1/2005 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Materials from the Personal Collection of Dr. Robert S. Hendrick, Jr. Transcribed and submitted by Robert S. Hendrick, Jr. ================================================================================= 1897 Letter of Union Parish Clerk of Court James Monroe Smith to Eva M. Slaton ================================================================================== Jas. M. Smith, Clerk Edward Everett, Deputy Clerk’s Office Parish of Union Farmerville, LA Sept 19, 1897 My darling little Girl, Your letter came promptly Thursday evening and I was just as anxious and happy to receive as tho’. I had not seen you or heard from you for a long while. Yes darling, I expected a letter from you that evening and it was so good and sweet of you not to disappoint your boy. I two have been very lonely since the moment I bode my sweet good girl good-bye and have had a similar experience to the one you relate. Darling when out of your presence whether above in a crowd. I am lonely and unhappy. I am truly a typical Adam with Eve absent to remain away a long while. I hope my angel girl don’t get as lonely & unhappy at times as I do. For in your health dearest you should endeavor to be always cheerful and happy & do everything you can to regain your health. When you take the blues & feel lonely & feel that you are all alone in the world just always remember that your boy idolizes you and loves you as tenderly and devotedly as ever. Romeo loved Juliet or Gabriel loved Evangeline with a love as dear as life itself. Darling I feel that the Lord is going to bless us & soon restore my little angel to health again. Then our happiness will have reached its climax in this life when the parson pronounces us man & wife, one inseparably while life lasts. Dearest, I don’t believe there is any couple living that will be happier than we for I truly believe we love each other with a love as near divinely pure as it is possible for mortals. Besides few couples will start out in life with more friends and under more auspicious surroundings generally. I am glad dearest that you felt well enough to attempt church last Sabbath and have been feeling so well since I left. I was fearful my causing you to keep late hours for two successive evenings would cause you to feel badly. I am so hopeful now as the weather is daily growing more pleasant & invigorating that you will improve rapidly & soon reach the 165 notch again. No doubt brother Hardy seeing you at church he must have suggested to the preacher that he preach on “the great sin of traveling on the Sabbath” for your benefit, knowing your great influence over your sweetheart that when visiting you he occasionally either goes or returns on the Sabbath. Darling suppose when the parson had waxed warm on his subject you had risen from your seat and said “Hold up there brother, my sweetheart is now at the depot waiting for the train, if you mean to be personal in tour remarks I beg to be excused” and you had then put on your hat & left, what do you reckon the brethren would have thought? Don’t you reckon brother Hardy would have made a motion seconded by brother Pearce that we have the sister interdicted for being “non compos mentis”? Well enough nonsense, brother Hardy knows as well as anyone except your boy that my precious little girl is one of the purest, sweetest Christian characters there is & if her boy travels on Sunday it is not in keeping with her ideas of spending the Sabbath and dearest it is not in keeping with mine though I do sometimes do so. I will try to quit traveling on the Sabbath because I don’t think we should unless unavoidable and to keep brother Hardy from making any more remarks about my girl’s neglect of her Christian duties and furthermore to avoid the recurrence of my girl stopping the preacher in the midst of his sermon on the grounds of “personal remarks”. Yes dearest, I think it so pleasant to have a member of the Smith family with you, really I think you ought always to have one, but I would prefer to have the say which one it shall be. I think I can suggest one of the family who will make both yours & his life supremely happy with your assistance knowing your eventual fondness & love for each other, and his name is not Victor, but he hopes to be victor and the sweetest & loveliest woman that graces this life with her angelic presence, victory is in the end, not distant. Well darling I reckon you would like to know what your boy has been doing today, this being the Sabbath. I went to Sunday School at 10 am which lasted until 11. The subject of our lesson was: “Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders”. It is a beautiful, tender farewell address & furnishes food for thought if we will only heed them that will benefit us here & here after. After the lessons were over, as is my custom, I made the school a talk on the lesson, after which we sang several songs & came home there being no preaching at either church today. After I read the papers & took a nice long nap, after which I went to the church at 4 & we had singing for the benefit of the little folks & now I am writing to my angel girl. Yes I am glad you had the domestic science teacher with you, for I am anxious that you know all about the affairs of the kitchen dearest for no doubt some men can live without loving but not without eating, but as for me I can’t live without either. So as my little girl has all the characteristics of an angel already developed to perfection, it would seem most important that she now develop all the characteristics of the kitchen and she will have then attained the statue of a full grown woman in household and domestic economy. I would like very much to here the pianist Nealy Stevens & should she visit Ruston in Nov. will try to be there & take you out to here her provided your great timidity has worn off by then & you can go out without showing you are teased. Well darling I have written you a long letter with lots of nonsense in it & I want not forget to say lots of truth too. I pray the Good Lord that he will bless & take care of my little darling & soon restore her to perfect health & that I may soon call her my angel wife & have her with me for all time, then I shall be the happiest of men & the least lonely. With a heart full of love & xxx. Write me as you did this week about the middle of week. Always Yours Devotedly, James P. S. When did you hear from your brother & how is yellow fever in Mobile? I am so glad you left Ocean Springs when you did darling. ###########################################################