Bertie County NcArchives History - Letters .....Urquhart, Richard - Kate Fenner Feb-Apr '13 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Mollie Urquhart murquhar@bellsouth.net January 9, 2010, 11:21 am Letters between Richard Alexander Urquhart (1889-1947) and Kate Nelson Fenner (1890-1956) [February 5, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – You certainly chose the better between two good deeds when you denied yourself the pleasure of going to church and wrote to me. For if your letter hadn’t have come I would have lost more religion than you could get by going to church a whole year (you didn’t know I had so much, did you?). It was nice of you to be so anxious about my health, but your hopes were of no avail for on the morning after imbibing the nog I awoke to find my cold absolutely well and all symptoms of pneumonia evaporated. If the glasses had been larger or more frequent I think I would have discovered a veritable cure all and Fountain of Youth. We danced till eleven tonight and I got very warm and then had to come out into the cold night air and drive to Lewiston and I’ll tell you I missed the tonic effect of the egg and “wine.” We have persuaded the good Christian folks that it’s all right to dance during Lent provided our Easter offerings shall be generous and large so we are going to have one practice a week. The boys are going to take the partition out of the School House and put in a hard wood floor so we’ll have a place to dance this Summer. If you won’t come over Easter you have got to come this Summer for that’s what I am trying to learn for. We can practice together here and then when the House Party comes off we will be so graceful that folks will have to stop and take notice. John and I have been talking over the House Party but can’t make any definite plans. You and Little Sister decide where you want to go and when and who you want and then leave the rest of it to us. The main thing is to remember that we are going to have a House Party if there’s any way to have one. I don’t think Mog can be with us as she intends to spend most of the summer in New York. We won’t need any looking after anyway for John is about to become civilized from associating with me. (Don’t tell anybody I said that.) I wish we could get Wayland to join us, leaving out his grocery stores of course. As for Buffet, I feel sure he will stay perfectly straight under Evie’s good influence. It grieves me deeply to even think of hurting dear Mrs. Nowell’s feelings but there is only one consideration under which I’d go on a House [party] with her and that’s in case you were there. Since I have become so good, I sometimes figure on going to Heaven and then I think well suppose I find Mattie [Mrs. Nowell] there. I guess I’ll back off. So you are still nursing the epileptic dame. Why don’t you try the rattlesnake treatment? It will either cure her or put her out of her troubles and then you will have more time to write to me. I wish Mrs. Fenner hadn’t have told you to write short letters for I believe you are trying to take her advice and you know that I wish you would write ten times as much as you do. If you could imagine how hard it is to live in the God forsaken country without your letters real often I believe you would write more. I have been doing some old time working this week. The pony fell down with Burges the other day and sprained his knee and ankle so I have been the boss all the week. I will be so happy when he gets well for I just can’t stand to see my dear bud sick and then I feel that he can do the work so much better than I can. I hope Little Sister’s cold is better. If not, tell her to try the time-honored remedy, nothing better. You are looking just as good and pretty tonight as you did the day you went to Mr. Tyree’s place in Raleigh, and if pictures could only talk I’d be too happy to live. I have tried about eight frames for the picture and never have found one good enough. Please excuse this writing for this pen came over with Noah. I wish you could write me as much and as soon as I want you to. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [February 10, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – I can certainly sympathize with you for being sick and having to go to bed and then have all the folks mad with you and not even give you credit for being sick. I am some kinder glad that long as you had to be sick it happened just at the time the clock man was in town for I have prayed more than once for the train to run over him. However I can’t help but sympathize with him some too for I think now suppose I was in Halifax and couldn’t see Kate. I’m sure I’d need sympathy and a quart besides. I hope you haven’t had to stay in the house all day today, for it has been the only pretty day of the season. I took a little joy ride this afternoon but was thinking all the time now here I am viewing the scenery of Bertie County and maybe the clock man is over yonder in Halifax talking to Kate and I’ve come to the conclusion that thoughts have a greater effect on the moods than the weather has. But I hope my thoughts were in vain and that he was so disheartened at not seeing you the first night that he either got drunk or left town. I got a postal from Evie yesterday but I think she wrote it with her right hand and I couldn’t read it. She said she was going somewhere from Raleigh but I couldn’t tell whether it was Halifax or not. If she writes to you like that I’ll guarantee you won’t know whether to expect her or not. I am a pretty poor one to be criticizing somebody’s writing so if she does come tell her I enjoyed the postal immensely and read every word of it. I had planned to take a trip to New York about the last of this month but if you are going to Columbia this Summer I will wait till then. Please don’t think of taking a course that lasts longer than a month. You can learn all the Domestic Science in the world in that time. I hate like the mischief for you to go to New York for you seem too far away in Halifax but if you do go you will surely enjoy the Big City. I wouldn’t trade anything for having been there even the short time that I staid. The only trouble with New York is that it intoxicates one with pleasure and you come home dissatisfied with living so far away from the world. John and I went down to the Spiveys’ tonight. Mary#SYMBOL 42 \f "Symbol" \s 12# is an artist on the piano but I don’t think Peabody has done much for her voice. You asked who I was going to take to the dance. I guess if I can find one of the home girls that is willing to risk her toes I will take her if you just won’t come. But I haven’t given up hopes of your coming yet. I am praying each day for something miraculous to happen to induce you to come. Lewis is to be married sometime during the week after Easter, though it hasn’t been announced yet, and very much against my will I guess I will have to help him get her. I have been mixed up in two weddings but only have a faint remembrance of them and I expect I will have to beg your forgiveness on the morning after. But it’s no use to cross that bridge yet. I saw in the paper the other day where you read a most interesting paper to the DAR ladies. I believe you have got as many jobs as Mrs. Nowell and she is Vice President of everything in Selma that she isn’t President of – so she says. We are still figuring on plans for the House Party. I am going to stop now but please don’t write me a short letter. With all my thought – Most sincerely yours – Alex [February 17, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – Your letter came yesterday and 8 from 15 leaves seven whole days without a word from you. Each one of them was a month long. I wrote to you last Sunday and hoped your letter would come Thursday and expected it Friday and if it hadn’t have come yesterday I know I would have been in Morganton today. For God’s sake don’t wait so long to answer this one. I am afraid you are getting tired of my letters coming too often and I can’t blame you for that, as letter writing is one of the very many things in which I am sadly lacking but if you could only know the pleasure your letters brought me you might be able to stand my poor attempts. I am just tickled to death about the boy getting out the report about the wedding clothes. I hope he will continue to tell the visiting guys the same thing. I am going to buy him a drink if I ever have the pleasure of meeting him. Why don’t the clock man make Lewiston in his route? What I can’t do for him I’ll leave to the Lewiston Fall Boys and they’ll fix him. Haven’t we had some beautiful weather for wagon riders lately? I was in for a good tumble yesterday as soon as the mail came and was opened in case I didn’t get your letter. But of course when it came although it was short enough to justify a fall, I changed my mind and even went to church this morning and dropped a thanks offering in the plate. I heard the Presiding Elder in the Methodist Church, he is the best Methodist preacher I have ever heard – Oh I forgot all of them are good preachers. We are making preparations for the Easter Dance and Lewis’ wedding. We will miss Lewis not being in the House but he won’t be far away. They are to live in the old home place. Sallie is so nice and lively that she will add a lot to the neighborhood. Speaking about missing the automobile I have figured on that too lately – much to my sorrow. The last time I was in Norfolk I bought a few contracts in July corn futures at a pretty low price. My idea was to take a trip to New York if I won anything. Well, corn went up a few points and I had a nice trip already made on my profits and was congratulating myself on not swearing off on taking a few chances in 1913. Then I got to thinking about an automobile and decided to cut out the New York trip and hold my contracts till I had made enough to get a machine, and probably the trip too I figured. Then long came the Balkan war and good weather in the corn belt and a thousand other 1913 hard luck happenings and now the bottom has fallen out of July corn and I haven’t got a trip and couldn’t buy a spark plug. I hope this snow was forty feet deep in Kansas and Iowa and the prospects for a corn crop are terrible, then maybe I can see George M. Cohen in “Broadway Jones” for if I ever get that trip won again I’ll take it and forget there is such a thing as an automobile. I am anxious to know what you are going to do about the Columbia course. Of course I didn’t mean to speak disparagingly about the Noble Science when I said you could learn it all in thirty days. I meant that with a head like yours you ought to take any Summer School Course in a month. Frank Winston ain’t the only person in Bertie County that recognizes brilliant folks when he sees them. Evie came yesterday at 12 and at 3 Buffet rolled in. He had driven five miles through the ice and snow to the River, crossed and walked a mile out, and then hired a cart and driven seven miles out here. When a man will do things like that if that ain’t the article I’d like to see what Cupid has got to beat it. He stopped by the Office and somebody had left a jug there so he went down lit up like a Cathedral. He said it was pretty hard to persuade her that he had only taken one drink and that to keep from freezing but he finally brought her around. I think he was perfectly excusable to take on a few after such a trip, don’t you? He had to leave on the Kelford train tonight in order to be in for School tomorrow so he spent the whole afternoon with Evie. I went down tonight to welcome her home and we made some good plans about the wedding. She seemed so sorry that she couldn’t go to Halifax. I think her money ran out and Old Zeke wouldn’t come across with any more. She had a lot of plans about the Morehead House party but I didn’t have much to say along that line. She said she was going to write to you in a few days. Kate please don’t make me wait a week for a letter for last week was exactly like Sherman’s definition of war to me. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely – Alex [February or March, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – You must have slipped up when you started to the Post Office on skates Friday, for my letter which you were to mail didn’t come until today. If the Post Mark hadn’t have been the 20th I would really have been afraid of an accident. It did seem strange that your letter, mailed Friday, should have come at the same time as Little Sister’s, mailed this morning. I guess it was the weather as we didn’t get any mail from the South on Saturday. I was some kinder disappointed when you letter didn’t come Saturday, nearly two weeks without a letter from you and I trying to reform and needing a letter from you worse than anything on earth – I held out all through a dreary Sunday afternoon but that night John brought a fellow Page (a KA [Kappa Alpha]) over and he insisted so strongly I had to take two with him. But I am on the wagon again now and am going to say on a long time. I am honestly going to try to stay reformed a long time this trip but don’t ever write me a bad letter again about stopping writing to me – and don’t come talking about my not wanting to hear from you either for I’ll swear that outside of being with you your letters bring me more genuine happiness than anything else in my life. Please start to practicing again and if I ever unreform I’ll write you at one and tell you (but I ain’t going to unreform). I am glad you are learning the one step for I don’t think there will be any waltz or two step much longer. You will have to teach me (or try) for it doesn’t look like there will be many more dances here. Have you got the piece called “Too Much Mustard”? It’s a fine one step – so they say. I am certainly going to get some music when I go to Norfolk if I ever go. Now Mog is gone I have to go up town to hear any music at all. “The Curse of an Aching Heart” is all the rage at the Hotel … [remainder of letter missing] [March / April?, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – Your best of all letters in all the world came Friday and I am as happy as can be. I can easily account for the days between the eleventh and eighteenth when you didn’t hear from me because in each case I got your letter on a Saturday and wrote Sunday, that’s as good as an angel could do with our railroad advantages. Somehow the connection has been changed so that it takes your letters two days to reach this Garden of Allah instead of one. Heretofore if you wrote on Wednesday night I would get your letter on Thursday but now it is a day later. How things will arise to try a fellow when he is making an effort to be good. I was sincerely happy to hear you say that you really were not tired of my letters. Of course I knew that if you were you would stop writing and what I was afraid of was that you had decided to stop “kinder” by degrees and out of kindness of heart kill me slowly instead of all at once. I am not surprised that they want you to be a Missionary for you have done all the good that’s to be done in Halifax and it’s natural that you should be chosen for a larger field. I never did believe in Foreign Missions anyway. If those poor devils over there don’t know the difference between right an wrong what’s the use of making life miserable for them with a lot of hard rules of conduct? I don’t see that we have a right to steal their happiness like that – surely a just God will not punish them for committing a sin they were ignorant of. Sometimes I’d like to change places with the poor benighted Hindu and give him my chances of immortality for his. You wait till I get to be a Methodist Preacher and then we’ll go over and reform the whole outfit. All the time that you are not reforming the Preacher you can spend on the natives. Tell your Aunt that you have got some subjects in North Carolina that are harder propositions than all the inhabitants of Brazil, Chili, and Peru put together. I am glad you are getting out of the notion of going to New York but if you do go I am certainly going up. I think from the way corn is moving it will be at least Summer before I can get my trip. You thought I was joking about the contracts, well I dreamed the other night I was joking too and went to town next morning and the operator handed me a little yellow piece of paper stating that the market closed at 53 the day before. Why in the world didn’t you write me that reminder on the first of January 1913? This is my hard luck year anyway. I’ve got to be in a marriage where I’m on a pledge and the Webb Bill ain’t going to prohibit and every time I gather with the Knights of the Round Table they tax me and you won’t come to the dance. If old man Job had any tougher luck than that it ain’t written in the Holy Book. Margaret and Lewis have gone to Windsor today to make the final plans for the wedding. We have argued them out of having a dress suit affair but I think I would look fine in a silk hat. I rented a dress suit and silk hat on two occasions when I was in New York but I was careful not to look in a glass till I had taken on enough not to remember how I looked. Then, of course, I thought I looked like a star. Evie and I went down to the Spiveys’ tonight. Evie sings lots better than [she] did before. It’s a pity she couldn’t stay at Peabody for I believe she has really got a voice. She told me all about the House Party Mattie is to have at Morehead this Summer. You and Little Sister were the first two she named. You had better be thinking up some good excuses why you can’t be with the dear Mrs. N. and if you think of more than you need you can send me a few. When I go to Norfolk I am going to find out something about the cottages at Virginia Beach or Ocean View. We can’t make any definite plans about our House Party till we get a house. I am looking forward to that with more pleasure than all the other summer festivities put together for to be with you for one short week means more than all the rest. I must stop now. Don’t wait long to write for they have changed schedule on your letters now and that takes up a whole day. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely – Alex [March 2, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – Just my ’13 luck your best letter came Thursday and then I wasn’t here to get it or I would have written sooner. I had to go off Thursday to buy some cattle and it rained so hard that I had to stay all night so I didn’t get home with them until late yesterday afternoon. I was some mad when I found that I was a day late in getting your letter. We had a dance last night so I am taking my first opportunity … [… page missing here…] not been changed for I was having a hard time trying to get myself reconciled to the fate of having to wait an extra day for your letters. Something was certainly wrong, for the last two letters you wrote before Thursday’s took two days to get here and I don’t have to ask you to believe me about it for I have the envelopes with the dates stamped. It can’t be the Lewiston Post Master’s fault for he is especially obliging and friendly toward me now as he fears for his job under the new administration if there is any kick coming. Why in the world didn’t Little Sister decide that she wouldn’t mind coming to the dance sooner, then maybe she could have persuaded you to come. I have got dates to take two girls. I made one myself and Mog went to Windsor and made one for me before she knew I had one. I would gladly break a thousand dates and make half the world mad if you would just come. We are going to have some rushing time Easter. On Monday we have got to go to Windsor to some kind of wedding party then come home for the dance Monday night then back to Windsor Tuesday for a Luncheon and Rehearsal and a Reception and then the marriage Wednesday morning. When I get through all that I guess sleeping will be a lost art with me. Kate I’ve got a little proposition for your consideration. I want to trade the three days after Easter for a month in 1914. If you will let me off for those three days I’ll be good a whole month next year. I think that is a mighty fair proposition and am confident that you will agree with me if you think the matter over. Just think – that’s thirty for three or a ten to one go. Without the aid of a little C2H5OH I will be completely out of place at all those receptions and things and know I will gum the whole party. I’ll promise to remember everything that happens and if you want it I’ll give you a description of the whole affair and not copy it from the newspapers. For the Lord’s sake be kind and gentle with me this time. Evie has gone to Norfolk today to buy some finery for the dance but I don’t know who is going to take her as Buffet can’t be here and what she don’t know about dancing would fill volumes. I am not good enough to judge but that’s what the wise ones say. One of the Norfleet boys was down here the other day. He is in the Navy and his ship is stationed in New York so he had seen all the good shows and he has got me crazy to go up. If the Inauguration doesn’t ruin the corn market I think I’ll go for a week. If I do I guess I’ll choose Holy Week as we can’t dance then. If I don’t get this letter mailed in Kelford and it is late in getting to you, know that my intentions were good and please write to me real soon. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex Saturday [March 7, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – I am just going to write a short note tonight for I’ve got the Grip and feel like (I guess I better not say what). I have been sick since Monday and last night against everybody’s wishes I went up and danced and when I came out caught a new cold. Today I’ve had forty chills and died twice. That’s almost as bad as the luck you had with the DAR dames, ain’t it? I am glad you have decided to cut out the entertaining stunt for I know how much work there is in that kind of stuff. Whenever Margaret decides to pull off something of that kind (and it happens real often) she not only works herself nearly to death but the whole family too and the cook threatens to leave and the man servant gets drunk. I am certainly glad none of those wedding affairs are to be pulled off here but Mog is already planning a big reception for them when they return from their trip. I am glad you decided to take some time in considering the trade I propose for when good folks think about things they always do what is right and fair and I am sure you are going to make the wise decision. You see if I am going to be good a whole year it will really be three days for a whole year. Let’s make it four days for I am in such bad shape that I think I’d be bound to take a few after I finish this letter. John goes to Norfolk tomorrow. I was to go with him but of course can’t do it now. I am afraid he will be too “busy” to see about the cottages but I’ll see next week if I am living. I won’t try to write more but if you’ll excuse this I’ll try to make up next time. With my fondest thoughts – I am – Most sincerely – Alex Friday Night [March 12, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – When I wrote the other day I promised to do better next time and whether this is going to be an improvement on the last letter or not I surely do feel better. I am not surprised that I dated the letter a day ahead of time for Thursday was so long that it felt like it ought to be Friday Night. I am glad that you decided to write before your trip to Weldon instead of waiting, for that letter, short as it was, has cured my Grip. So you’ve got to go to Norfolk to see a Dentist. I thought you would be the last person on earth that would ever have to go to a Dentist. If you want to know anything about Norfolk’s crop of tooth doctors just ask me for I have been to them all. I think Webster has the biggest rep but he is pretty steep in his charges. The most painless, if there’s such a superlative in Dentists’ language is Dr. White on Granby and he doesn’t rob you either. I wonder if it is really the teeth or just the feeling that you’d like to take a trip that’s carrying you to Norfolk. I used to find that an excellent excuse for a leave of absence from School – I have got to go to Norfolk about the last of this week or the first of next. I may go on to New York for a week or to Macon for a day or two or back home for a long, long time, it all depends – It looks like home holds the winning hand just now. While I am in the City I’ll try to find out all about the cottages at the Beach. You must see Cousin Ida and find what the plans are so we can plan accordingly. You must regain the lost enthusiasm for dancing before the House Party. It is human nature that you should have lost it after you got your father’s consent for I think the things we desire most in life are always the forbidden. Especially have I been impressed thusly since January 1st and the thoughts of a beerless Summer are enough to run a body crazy and drive him to drink. You never have written definitely about the little trade, 365 for 3. So I take it that silence gives consent and thank you from the bottom of my heart. Of course now if I can’t tell you what the bridesmaids wear exactly it will not be a sign that I have abused my privilege but merely the fact that I am not well versed in the terms of women’s dress. Along with dancing, I am trying to add another accomplishment to my limited list, roller skating, and I don’t know which is the hardest to learn. The advantage dancing has over skating is that in dancing it’s the girl’s toes that suffer while in skating it’s my own head. Mama says I have gone crazy over dancing and now am in my second childhood about the skating business. But it’s lots of fun. We have finally gotten the long promised Post Office and are dwelling in a little city all our own. Be sure to address your next to Woodville for the Lewiston bunch is so mad with us that I am afraid to go to the Post Office there without a pocket full of artillery. Billie is to be home to take part in the wedding but he never has written whether he was taking dancing lessons or not. Anna May Freeman said he wrote her that he was but I think he would have mentioned the fact in some of his letters if he had been. I think it was mean of you to laugh at Little Sister about losing her flowers. Mama asked me to close the hot house for her the other night and I forgot all about it so next morning it was something pretty – Old John has been nearly dead with the Grip for the last four or five days and swears he caught it from me so you know he is a most desirable room mate just at present. I hope your stay in Weldon was a most pleasant one. Send me a great long letter through the new Post Office. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [March 18, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – When your letter came and I saw the Chapel Hill postmark on it I was some kinder scared. The postal you mailed on the train has never come. I said to myself now just prepare to catch it for Kate has heard all about your record. I was much relieved however when I heard that they hadn’t told you all or if they had you hadn’t told me all. Of course it’s all right to be a “bird” and to drink a little ice water in the morning but I know you have heard more than that by this time for I regret to say my college career was not without reproach, to say the least, and one thing about the folks up there, they love to tell what they know. I guess it is easier for me though to let them tell you than to tell you myself and have felt for a long time that I ought to tell you exactly who the guy was that you were honoring with your letters. I am really and truthfully proud of friend Cheshire and think he deserves more credit than Woodrow Wilson for he was one of the best “Governors” in that most noted organization of which you have heard no doubt. Billie must either be sick or away from the Hill or I know he would have been around to see you. I am glad you have only got a suitcase with you for there are so many men in Chapel Hill that I am jealous. You are needed in Halifax right away, Mrs. Fenner needs you and Little Sister and the DAR’s and the UDC’s and the church too so make no longer tarrying on the Hill than you can possibly help. I have been putting off my trip to Norfolk as long as possible hoping corn might take a move upward but it seems that it is doomed to stay down so I go tomorrow. It will be a lonesome time for me in the City Wednesday night knowing that you are in Chapel Hill having a big party and looking prettier than a Queen. I know it will be a temptation to drown my sorrows in a glass whenever I think of it. Just one week from tonight and the big dance comes off and that’s another excusable reason for me to drown my sorrows because you are not to be there. I expect to enjoy it as much as I can but I know it will not be one tenth as much as if you were here. I guess you are lucky though for of all bum dancers I am the worst. I never will forgive you for not coming though, for I had so many things I wanted to tell you. I saw Evie tonight at Church but didn’t have time to speak to her. I don’t see why she hasn’t written to you for she thinks there is no one on earth like you. When you write tell me what is the opinion on the Hill about the trial of the hazers at Hillsboro. I think it was a pretty neat interpretation of the Law. It punishes them enough to be a warning to future hazers and still doesn’t hurt them much. I won’t write more tonight as it is so late. Please write to me as soon as you can. With all my thoughts – I am – Most sincerely Alex Monday Night [April 2, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – Your letter came Saturday and but for it I would have been as dead now as old J.P. Morgan is for all the blues I ever had I had the bluest then. I am glad you liked the picture and still “gladder” that I sent it for but for it I know I would never have gotten the letter as I had failed to answer your best letter from Chapel Hill as soon as I wanted to. I’ll tell the truth – I really didn’t feel like writing because I had “left undone those things that I ought to have done and done all those things that I ought not to have done” so I hated to write and own it. I was so sorry to hear that you [were] sick and do hope the pain was soon over and you are well by now. You ought not to use yourself up so much for other people but I guess it’s natural that the best girl in the world should do such things and know you would have nursed your sick cousin if you had known you were going to take pneumonia. I am going to add to my prayers a supplication that all Kate’s friends and cousins be spared from sickness and fits so that you won’t work yourself to death nursing them. I wouldn’t take anything for your making those guys mad at the Hill but am sorry if it marred the pleasure of your visit. I am surprised that one of the gentlemen got fresh. I’d like to wring his neck if he isn’t too big and if he is I’d like to try my six shooter. You didn’t say anything about fixing up the House. I know it is furnished most artistically if not lavishly. What opinion did you form of the Base Ball Team? I want to see one of the Virginia games if we have got any chance of winning. Billie seems to think we have got a weak team but I see a certain Mr. Aycock is showing up well. I believe you are losing your enthusiasm for dancing sure enough for had I been you, I would have gone to those Dances at the Hill or died. So far as glad rags are concerned what fire destroyed the ones you had over here? They were good enough for Mrs. Madelaine Force Astor. We had some excitement in Woodville yesterday. Mr. Carlton the agent and his wife had a fight and she left him last night and went home. I haven’t done a thing today but talked about it and am so full of gossip I’m almost fit to pop. I’ll bet I have asked more questions today than Evie has. I think I will go down to Macon either Thursday or Friday. I am almost afraid to hope that I will get a letter before then but if I do I am going to try to be mighty good on this trip. Georgia is one of those Carrie Nation states like N. C. so that will help some. Kate if you are going to write any more to the person who is most unworthy of your good letters, for God’s sake don’t wait long for I need a letter from you more than anything in the world. With all my thoughts – I beg to remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [April 14, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – Your letter came Wednesday on the same train that I came on and if I had just known it the mail clerk would certainly have had to turn it over to me or fight. I wanted to answer it at once but was so tired that night that I couldn’t and Thursday night Margaret gave the bride and groom a reception and Friday night I had to go to a Dance in Roxobel. I hope the couple feel well married now and there won’t be any more crazy stunts to go through with that make a fellow feel the need of stimulants. So Miss Nelson is wearing the head light, is she? It begins to look like you have got to officiate too. If you do and drink up a whole case of Mumms I’ll forgive you and won’t fuss a bit. I’ll bet you will agree with me after thing is over that you needed it even if you didn’t partake. The reason I didn’t promise what you asked in my last letter was simply because I was ashamed to promise or even promise to try. But now I am home and the reception and dance are over I am going to be good for a long, long time. It’s getting mighty hot and a pipe is mighty hard to tote around in the Summer with your coat off. Of course I like a pipe much better [than] cigarettes but as I said before mighty unhandy in hot weather. You said you were glad to learn by my letter that I was thinking about you way down in Macon, well I think about you all the time and guess if I died and went to Heaven I would still think about nothing but you. I am glad you accepted the letter in the spirit it was written for I know it was the poorest you ever got as I was writing in a Hotel with a million folks all around me. I was tickled to death with Macon. It’s the prettiest, cleanest, busiest town I have seen in the South. I think if I had to live in a city I would choose Macon as it is small enough to know most all the people and large enough to give the good things of city life. The fellow I was stopping with has been all over the United States and worked in most of the cities from New York down and he says it’s Macon for him forever. Some of the old Colonial homes there are almost too pretty for folks to live in. Why in the world didn’t you happen to be in Roanoke Rapids when I came through coming back from Georgia? I got off at every station from Weldon down hoping that maybe you would be there. But of course the Fates denied me the pleasure and then when I got to Norfolk the races were going on and it took me about four hours to get a room on account of the crowd. I almost wished I had staid in Macon. I can’t understand why Evie hasn’t written to you in so long. I haven’t seen her since I got back as she said something to me I didn’t like the night before I went away and I haven’t put myself out to see her. However I will deliver your message when I do see her. I felt sorry for her the other night as nobody would take her to the dance and Lala went but I didn’t feel it my duty to take her as she had put herself out to say something to me that she ought to have known would make me mad. She still hears from Buffet about six times a week and I am expecting to see him pulling in here just a soon as he can borrow enough money. I am going to put on me a blue shirt tomorrow morning and go to work and forget all about Norfolk and dances and receptions and all things connected therewith and if you will just write me a good long letter I will be the best boy in the world. I was sorry to hear that your little cousin was in such a dangerous condition. Whether he recovers or not it will be sweet for you to know that you have surely done all that you could. Do write to me as soon as possible. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [April 29, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – Of all the original hard luck guys on the map I am the original it. If you had chosen any day in the year to pass Kelford except Wednesday or Thursday I could have seen you there but of course Fate guided you to select the impossible day. I have promised to go down to Hills Ferry to the big Barbecue and Rock Muddle on Wednesday and to go from there to Tarboro. I would gladly forego the pleasure of the Barbecue for just the short time I could see you but I have promised to meet a fellow there and go back with him that night. I went over to Tarboro to see him Saturday night but he had just gotten a telegram to go to Washington so I missed him. These stag barbecues don’t appeal to me much now anyway and especially the one that denies me a sight of you. However if I don’t get the chance to see you while in Norfolk I will certainly see you when you come back by. Please steal time enough after you get there to write me what a good time you are having and how long you intend staying. You didn’t say anything about stopping by with Evie when you came home. I haven’t seen Evie in a week but heard today that she was going to Selma tomorrow for a few days. But she will be back in time for you to stop by if you will just do it. In your letter you said you were dead but didn’t explain whether your death was caused by sickness or dead tiredness. I sincerely hope it was not because you were sick but just overwork for other people’s pleasure. Of course you will continue to do that till you are dead sho nuff. Or it might have been the shock from the loss of your dog that affected you. I can sympathize with you from the ground of my heart in your loss, having lost my best friend two years ago. It’s rather funny how you can become so attached to them. I have never told it but if the truth were known I guess I shed a few tears too when mine passed out. John leaves tomorrow for Raleigh to see the A&M-Carolina Ball Game. Lots of the boys from Tarboro are going up and I would like to go too but I have got too many friends in Raleigh and might have the blues again when it was all over. I have just about got back in a normal state of happiness now so won’t risk it. I am afraid Carolina is going to get licked but hope not. If all you Summer School girls will pray for your Alma Mater we may have a chance. So you think it rather mysterious that a wreck on the S.A.L. [Seaboard Atlantic Line Railroad] should affect the delivery of a letter on the A.C.L. [Atlantic Coast Line Railroad]. You see your letter is transferred to the Seaboard at Kelford and on the Saturday that your letter should have come, the midday train didn’t get here till night and consequently I didn’t get the letter till Monday. What’s the use in telling the truth if you ain’t going to get credit for it? Conscience, I guess. And speaking of telling the truth I want to remind you of a promise you made a long long time ago that has never been filled. Norfolk is the best town in the world to have your picture taken and you promised faithfully that the next time you went you would surely do it. The “new frock” excuse or any other is absolutely no good this time for I had rather you would send me a picture of you than ship me the Norfolk National Bank or the Royster Building or the Lynnhaven Rathskeller. Kate for God’s sake do and you will surely go to Heaven. Please don’t forget to write to me amid the joys of the city and know that Thursday at 1029 will be one of the few times that Kelford would look good to me and I won’t be saying Sunday School words at that exact time. I hope you will enjoy every minute of your visit and know you will. Give my kindest regards to your Cousin. With all my thoughts – Most sincerely yours – Alex File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie/history/letters/urquhart223gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 40.7 Kb