Bertie County NcArchives History - Letters .....Urquhart, Richard  - Kate Fenner Sept -Oct'12 1912
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mollie Urquhart murquhar@bellsouth.net January 9, 2010, 11:26 am

Letters between Richard Alexander Urquhart (1889-1947)  and Kate Nelson Fenner
(1890-1956)

September 4, 1912 
  Halifax

 

My dear Alex – 
That does sound a whole heap better.  Doesn’t it?
Especially when it’s been “Alex” behind your back all the
time.

Child.  I’m all excitement tonight.  I am going to a wedding
in a few minutes (or a wedding rehearsal) and I’m to be the
bride.  I shall be one for the first time but let us pray
that it won’t be for the last.  I am surely going to take on
to everything for I shall never have the nerve to go to my
own.

Your card and letter came.  Of course I didn’t say that you
had gone to a stag barbecue.  Didn’t you say you weren’t and
didn’t we both decide that you were truthful?  We’ll let
things go at that till you prove you are not and for
gracious sake stop calling me such a “Doubting Thomas.”
Just because I keep my eyes open is no sign (not a sure one
at least) that I am such a doubter.

Your sister was mighty sweet to say that she was glad that
we were coming to her barbecue but I’m afraid that she
thinks we might at least wait till she said something about
it before we made too many plans to go.

Were you joking about telling your brother to write Fletcher
Gregory to go?  I had a nice letter from Evie and Little
Sister had one from Emily and they both very kindly insisted
upon our coming to the barbecue.  I hope we can go.

Has John gotten back from Norfolk yet?  I know he and Mr.
Spruill had a time.  I had a real cute card from Mr. Spruill
and I sent him one.  Don’t know whether he got it or not.

Evie told me you were really going to stop smoking for
Cousin Kate’s sake.  Now that is just simply fine and it
won’t be long before you write that you are going to join
the Ministry – or to speak in the language of an
Episcopalian – follow the calling of the King.

That master stroke letter was a master stroke sure enough
and I shall have to acknowledge that I am not at all
surprised at the outcome of it.  I didn’t hold out much hope
to Evie because I didn’t know the man but I did tell her
that it would make him show his hand in plain view.  I just
imagined he was getting kinder like warm and if there was
any jilting to be done it was up to her to do it.  If you
and she really think it’s the thing to do then I shall have
to agree with you and go down and join you in our duet
anytime she sets.  We had planned for it to come off here
Xmas after I had been down there but I, of course, don’t
know the latest plans.

Tell her I’ll help her out all I can but I do not want to
make the home folks mad.  I think if she were to get him
after the old man she could win him over, I don’t know.
Tell Evie I say not to play dunce and tell Buffet that I
wrote that letter for that would make her show in an ugly
light.  I know he’ll never have any use for me.

Are you going to have him to the barbecue?  I know old Evie
would be crazy then, sure enough.  She says he is sweeter
and cuter than he ever was.

I am distressed over the deer head but I shall patiently
wait for another.  The thing I’m interested in more than
anything else is the prayer rug.  Honestly a hole is coming
in my carpet by my bed, I’m praying so much lately.

I’ve told Evie to tell you I was going to write when I had
waited as long to answer your letter as you did to answer
mine.  My time is up tomorrow night but I’ll be busy all
tomorrow and shall be away till late tomorrow night, so I’m
being a little better than you men and write now.  Tell
“Little Billie” if he doesn’t send me some messages I’m not
going to Chapel Hill and make fudge for him.  Sorry you
couldn’t get me over the phone, but such is life.  Give lots
of love to the girls and be real good.
 Sincerely yours,
Kate

Tuesday Night






	[before September 8, 1912]
		[Lewiston]

My dear Cousin Kate – 
	I hope you and Little Sister reached home safely and dryly, ate enough supper
to regain your lost avoirdupois, and enjoyed the dance.  We got about a mile out
of Kelford and had one of those short-circuits you hear chauffeurs talk about
and there we sat until eight o’clock in the wettest rain that ever fell. 
Finally it got so dark that we couldn’t work on the car anymore so we had to
walk to town and get a buggy and drive over.  While we were trying to fix the
machine and just after I had told Old Dame Fortune in very eloquent language
what I thought of her for sending such luck upon us, all the lightening in the
heavens struck in about six inches of the automobile.  John and I each happened
to have our hands on some brass when it struck and each got about sixteen
hundred volts of electricity in our systems (– if buckshot, lightening and
cigarettes won’t kill a man, somebody must by praying for him –).  However the
worst part of the trip was that when I got back to Lewiston wet as a rat and
asked ten men for a drink and each one said Coca Cola was the best he could do.
 And then too it was such a disappointment to be too late to take Evie to the
show.  I know that the reason we broke down was on account of cutting her out of
the ride to Kelford.  Now I shall always believe in retribution on earth.
	I saw Evie this morning and after we had cried an hour over your departure her
first question was did you have my Frat pin?  Since she had so much curiosity I
wouldn’t tell      

[remainder of letter missing …]
		[September 8, 1912]
		[Lewiston]

My dear Kate,
	Please don’t wait three whole days before you write for although I have waited
that long to answer your nicest of letters it was not because I didn’t try to
write – I made twenty five attempts and every time some one would come for me to
do something.  Burges has been in Norfolk and we’ve had company and I have had
everything to do.  And then my sister’s (Lou)  four year old boy (Charles, Jr.)
is here and it takes all my time and money too keeping him supplied in candy and
fixing his toys.  So you see I am excusable and I hope you won’t deny me the
pleasure of a letter real soon, for your letters are the only pleasure I have to
look forward to now.
	My sister Margaret has gotten home at last but now she is sick so it looks like
there will be no barbecue.  She has been nursing my other sister, Mrs.
Whitehead, for about three weeks and now Margaret is completely broken down and
sick too.  She wants to have the barbecue anyhow but Mama declares that she just
can’t have it now and must go to Panacea Springs and rest for a while.  I have
never been so disappointed in my life for I have never looked forward to
anything with so much pleasure as your coming over.  I have been the bluest
mortal on earth for the last two days.  I feel like a child when some one has
promised to bring him something and then forgotten to get it.  I broke the sad
news to Evie this morning and she too was very much grieved.  Evie thinks lots
of you and it’s not only on account of the master stroke letter (for which she
is only thankful) but because you’re so doggone nice.
	Emily leaves Wednesday for Raleigh to enter Peace Institute (if she can enter)
and Billie leaves for the Hill tomorrow.  He and I are both counting on your
visit to the Hill next commencement and maybe by then he or I one will know how
to dance.  How many dances have you been to since you were here?  There is a
dancing master from Norfolk giving lessons in Windsor now.  As soon as he
finishes there we are going to try to get him over here.  Do you think there’s
any chance for me to learn?
	So Evie told you I was going to stop smoking for your sake.  Well I don’t know
anyone that could have made me think about stopping as much as you and I
actually wouldn’t be surprised to find myself a non-smoker sometime soon.  I
don’t smoke half as much as I did and if I could believe that you really cared I
know I could stop.  I am thinking of going down on the farm soon and going to
work.  I am still corresponding with the dynamite people about planting the
pecan trees and as soon as I get a little experience I am coming over to plant
your trees.  I can see us now spinning down 5th Avenue in a rose scented
limousine, rich on our pecan crop.  
	Kate now I don’t think it will be fair if you wait a whole long time to write
to me just because I was late in answering your letter.  If I don’t get a letter
mighty soon I am going to kick the Lewiston Post Master and you are too much of
a philanthropist to want that to happen.  So send me a letter as soon as possible.

		I remain – 
		Most sincerely – 
			Alex


		September 12, 1912
		Halifax

My dear Alex – 
	Honestly I didn’t intend waiting longer than three days anyway to write but I
did, and all excuses I might give would only be excuses and wouldn’t alter
things at all.  My brother has been ill for the past week and of course we all
have been standing on our heads and busy nursing him.  He is the only boy and of
course we idolize him.
	We wanted him to go off to school this fall but now he will have to wait till
the spring or next fall.  It is all right, though, I suppose, as is everything
else, for he is just seventeen and right at the age to take in everything mean.  
	He had a terrible spell while we were down there and was getting better when he
got up and smoked one of those “coffin tacks” and was thrown right back again.  
	He acknowledges this to himself, too.  
	Wish you were here to get him to give you a lecture.  He says he is done – for
his own sake – not Cousin Kate’s or Sister Kate’s either.  
	Boys never listen to their sisters, as you well know.
	And the number you are smoking is on the decrease.
	Well I’m delighted (you see I do care really) and if my caring will have any
effect then cigarettes will have to kiss Alex Urquhart farewell.  It will take
you some time to quit dropping off one or two a day as you say you are, judging
from the number a day you smoked while I was there, but when you get through
you’ll be through.  
	I am so sorry about the barbecue and that you are so disappointed and more than
sorry that your sister is sick.  I hope she will soon be well.  You might have
known when you invited me to go that it wouldn’t come off for I am a perfect Jonah.
	Tell your sister that the Panacea Springs Hotel closes Monday but that she can
board at the hotel in Littleton and get water from the springs.
	Panacea is just a good ride in an auto from here but I have never been but
once.  I am going next summer though if I learn to dance in the mean time for
they say the floor up there is fine.  Of course you can learn to dance and I am
crazy for you to.  I am still trying if our friend Miss Renfrow did say  …   
[page missing …]
…whole lot but for Chapel Hill.  My sister may not be there but her sister will
if there’s a hotel open and you all don’t forget I’m in the land of the living
in the mean time.
	All of our clubs start up this month and I am almost tired already thinking
about them.  I am to entertain the U.D.C.’s this month and as president of the
club get that in working order the fourth Wed., then read a paper before the
Daughters of the American Revolution the fourth Thursday just a mile and a half
in length, saying nothing of teaching school (to begin next week) and my church
duties.  I am tempted to go off in the woods way down on the farm away from
civilization, saying nothing of society.
	If I just had those pecan trees I’d have a dandy excuse to go and look after
them.  I want you to hurry and see about them too for I want my rose scented
limousine before I am a thousand years old.
	Don’t let your brother go to Norfolk too often and work you to death.  It’s a
good place to go though, and I don’t much blame him.  My nose is pointed that
way for Thanksgiving day but I am afraid to plan too far ahead.  Tell old Evie I
say her week has gone and her letter hasn’t come.  It was our bargain to write
to each other every week, if nothing but a post card.
	By the way, I got a card from the city of Bellhaven this morning.  Do I hear
anybody’s heart go pit pat?
	I didn’t know I was going to write such a lengthy epistle tonight but it seems
that I got started and couldn’t stop.  You can read it on the installment plan,
though, if you  get tired before you finish.
	The town clock is striking one and I am downstairs all by myself just as
skeered as I can be.
	Write real soon and tell me all the news.
		Sincerely yours,
		Kate
Thursday
One A.M.

	I forgot to thank you for what I suppose you meant to be a little piece of
flattery, but please tell me how nice is “doggone” nice?  If anybody is
“doggone” nice in their Sunday manners what must they be in everyday garb?     
        Kate
		[September 16, 1912]
		[Lewiston]

My dear Kate,
	I had already made up my mind to try my best to get mad because you were
waiting a century to write but when your letter finally came (the best letter I
have ever gotten in all my life) with the lovely picture I was so pleased that I
haven’t stopped smiling since and have almost attempted to sing – you know under
ordinary circumstances it takes a quart to make me sing.  The letter was so good
that I am actually ashamed to write to one who writes so well – my only
objection was that it was twenty pages too short.  And the picture.  Lord knows
you couldn’t have sent me anything that would have received so warm a welcome. 
Although no picture could in half way reproduce your face in my eyes, still it
is so ravishingly beautiful that I have done little else than gaze at it since
it came.  And aside from its qualities of beauty, to look at you often makes you
seem so much nearer.  Some old philosopher has said “consider that day lost in
which you have not made some one happy” (or words to that effect).  Well, you’ve
made me happy for many a day with the picture.
	I was real sorry to hear that your brother had been sick and know it was a
disappointment to him not to be able to enter college this Fall.  If he is only
seventeen, though, I don’t guess it will hurt him to wait a year.  I entered the
University at that tender age.   I know you saw in the papers about the horrible
accident#SYMBOL 42 \f "Symbol" \s 12# at Chapel Hill the other night.  It was
the saddest thing I’ve heard of in a long time.  Besides the sorrow it will
bring to so many, I am afraid it will do the University a good deal of harm.  I
wouldn’t be surprised if the Fall dances and all the other gaieties were called
off now.  Emily’s Smithfield beau was the other Freshman the boys had out that
night.  I know Lowry wishes he had been the victim.

	Lewiston Society was aroused from its slumber the other night by a big
reception at Margie Spivey’s in honor of some visiting girls.  I had to go but
I’ll tell you it was mighty lonesome without you.  Evie was there and rendered
several vocal solos and talked about Buffet the rest of the time.  He is in
Hamilton now teaching school and if Miss Manson, his assistant, doesn’t steal
his heart away, I think there’ll be a wedding Xmas.  I wrote to Buffet today and
asked him to come over to see me some Friday night and stay till Sunday.  If old
Zeke knew that I guess he would want to kill me.
	I am very sorry to hear that all those clubs of yours are going to start up now
for I am afraid you won’t take time to write to me with so much to do.  Is that
long paper you are to read one of your own composition?  Would certainly like to
hear you read it.  You must look very dignified and imposing and make a gesture
with every emphatic statement.  If the paper is to be original please send me a
copy.
	It is certainly smart in you to undertake the teaching business again and as
Buffet says “sacrifice your life for the advancements of young minds.”  Make all
the children call you Miss, and don’t let the boys smoke cigarettes, and don’t
get wet or cold going to and from school.
	You say you are thinking of going to Norfolk over Thanksgiving.  Well – I  had
rather see Carolina play Virginia in Richmond but guess I’ll have to go to
Norfolk if you’ll be there.
	Who was the guy sending you a post card from Bellhaven?  I haven’t heard from
there in so long I had forgotten there was such a place.  By the way that
reminds me of a certain set formula by which you promised to begin and end your
letters to me.  I know you had forgotten the promise or you would have kept it.
	You say you really care about the smoking proposition so I must stop but I
didn’t mean the universal “care” of a philanthropist for mankind as a whole but
the individual “care” for my personal self.  Of course out of the kindness of
your heart you would hate to see any fool killing himself smoking but the point
I was trying to get at was that, aside from the fact that I was a fool and one
of the human race, did you care because it was I?  If that be so then I no
longer worship at the shrine of the Goddess Nicotine.
	You wanted to know if you were “doggone” nice today (Sunday), how nice would
you be tomorrow.  Well the superlative of “doggone” is that word which you (or I
rather) would first say in case I were driving a nail with a hammer and instead
of hitting the nail would hit my finger.  That’s how nice I think you are every
day in the week and Sunday too.
	I must stop now.  Do write real soon and tell me all about yourself.
		Most sincerely yours –
		Alex

  		[September 19, 1912]
		[Halifax, NC]

My dear Alex – 
	You acted kinder decently this time about writing so I am going to do the same.
 I shall not commence a la Alice this time, however.  
	You remember that I told you I would commence mine as she did before I saw hers
(taking your word for it that you were mere friends), but when I saw all of
those pronouns in the possessive case in the beginning and in the end, I thought
I had better take a back seat if I wrote at all, be very guarded then too.  I
had already heard lots of tales about the diamond studded Frat pin and how crazy
you were about her, etc, etc. (none of which I had anything to do with) so of
course when I saw the letter, I simply bowed in humble submission to the young
lady – whoever she may be.
	Some one slandered her though, for in trying to comfort me, they said I was
‘most as good looking as she is.
	I know she would feel set up if she could see me.  
	You put up some kinder pretty chat about that poor pitiful picture and if it
wasn’t for the fact that I have a mirror and have actually looked in it once or
twice, I might believe just a little of what you said about it.  It was just by
happen that I sent it.
	Just as I was ending your letter, Little Sister ran in with it and told me to
send it to you.  The little rascal with me is Sister’s baby.  Isn’t he a cute
little fellow?  I am crazy about him.
	There was a dance here last night but I was sick and couldn’t go.
	Have been mad with everybody in town all day on that account for I am as crazy
as a haint about learning to dance.  By the way, you didn’t say anything in your
last letter about your learning to dance.  Now you know good and well that you
have just got to learn by Xmas and if you don’t take advantage of every
opportunity now you’ll not learn.
	Not that I think it will take you such a long time but that you’ll not have
very many opportunities in that time to practice.
	I had a nice letter from old Evie yesterday and she still wants us to go down
Xmas.  When she was here we planned that she should come up here and stay a week
and then we would go down there and stay a week, but now I don’t know just
exactly how we’ll manage.  
	Unless Buffet teaches right up to Xmas like we are going to do and then give
two weeks after Xmas.  
	She was out of the notion of getting married when I was there and we didn’t
think so much about having so little time to visit in.  
	I’d love to see her and have a long confidential chat with her.  She said when
she was here that they would be married in January or just before his school
started after Xmas but I don’t know what their plans are now.
	I am going to write to her tomorrow or the next day and send her some kodak
pictures of myself that she wants.
	I am waiting for Foister to send them from Chapel Hill.  If they are any good
at all I’m going to send one or two extra ones and you can have them if you want
them, with the understanding that you will destroy the grinning one I sent you.
 I think a laughing picture looks so simple.
	It will be just dandy if you do go to Norfolk Thanksgiving.  I, like you, much
prefer going to Richmond, but it is so hard to get a chaperone that Little
Sister and I decided to go to Norfolk and get a married friend of ours to meet us.
	She lives in Port Norfolk and wants us to stay with her but we haven’t made any
definite plans yet.
	I think I did see the account of the hazing and think it was perfectly
horrible.  I  am glad it didn’t happen last fall when I was there for I would
have gone nearer crazy than I am.
	I am as much opposed to hazing as anybody, but I do hope they won’t be too hard
on the boys who did the hazing.  
	Their people are in enough trouble now.
	I’ll bet they were mean though and I’ll bet that they actually smoked cigarettes.
	I notice you didn’t say much about your smoking except to the extent of
cross-questioning me as to the extent of my caring.
	Well, I’m quite sure I care beyond the philanthropic viewpoint, anyway, for if
I didn’t, I shouldn’t care very much.  If it were from that point I intended to
work I shouldn’t have spent quite all my energies on just one while there were
so many more nice boys (none of which quite so nice as the one I worked on, I’ll
admit) going to the bad with nobody, apparently, working on them.  Had I been
working for the poor human beings I should [have] given them all a lecture.  I
believe I did give one on Craps the night of Evie’s party.  I really believe if
Alice prayed a whole long time every night for you like I do that we two would
soon bring about a big reformation – or a reformation, I should say.  Big would
lead anyone to believe that you were very bad, when as a matter of fact we don’t
think so at all.  Do we?
	Miss Bettie Clarke said a whole lot of nice things about you the other day (not
even knowing that I met you too) but I am going to wait till I see you so I can
hold you hat on.  I know your head will swell.
	I know you are not going to write that this is twenty pages too short.  I
really didn’t know I had written quite so much.
	Now write real soon ‘cause I am sick and down and out.  School started Monday
and I am almost tired now.  I really am sick, sure enough, but there is no
immediate danger of a funeral.
	With every good wish.
		I am,
		Yours most sincerely,
		Kate

Wednesday night
		[September 23, 1912]
		[Lewiston]

My dear Kate – 
	Your letter brought its usual joy but I say again it was far too short.  Since
we can’t be together, I wish that all you had to do was to write to me.
	I have been afraid since I got your letter that you were really sicker than you
would admit in the letter.  I sincerely hope that by now you are entirely
restored to your usual good spirits and health.  I fear you are working too hard
with your school, do like Buffet says, “Don’t take it too seriously.”  This
getting sick business “ain’t no nice thing to do and you just gotta quit it.”
	So you say you really do “shonuff” care about the cigarette smoking – Well,
I’ll tell you, I like (or rather love) cigarettes better than any material thing
on earth but my appreciation of the knowledge that you care is so much greater
than my love for them that I know it will be easy to stop smoking them.  After
October first if anyone catches me with a cigarette in my mouth I hope he’ll
break my neck.  The duration of the pledge is to be measured only by the length
of the caring, and I hope that will be forever.
	You said you were going to write to Evie and send her some pictures of yourself
and would send one or two for me.  Now Evie leaves here tomorrow for Baltimore
to go to school so you can send the pictures to me and I’ll give hers to her.
(Maybe I might spare her one when she comes home Xmas).  Now please don’t send
them to her in Baltimore for it will take several days for me to get mine and I
want them right now.  And another thing, please don’t tell me anymore that an
inanimate object like a mirror can deceive one so smart as you.  You are not to
blame because you are beautiful and you ought not to mind owning it.  I prize
the picture you sent me more than all my possessions (even if Little Sister did
have to make you send it).  Tell her I always did think she was fine and now I
know it.  I had been looking at lovely you so much that I really hadn’t noticed
the baby in the picture till you mentioned him.  Of course he’s cute, ain’t he
your nephew?
	I haven’t head from Billie but once since he went to the Hill and then only a
short note.  I guess he is too busy with Frat Initiations and having arguments
and studying to write.
	I have promised about twenty five boys to go to Richmond Thanksgiving with them
but if I can get out of it in any way I will certainly go to Norfolk.  Even if I
have to go to Richmond I will leave as soon as the game is over and come to
Norfolk to see you – you will have to stay in Norfolk that night as you couldn’t
see the game and then get home.  I have got to go down to that city some time in
the next two weeks.  Wish you could be there then.
	It is getting so late now that I have got to stop.  Do write me as soon as
possible and as much as you can.
		I am –
		Yours most sincerely – 
		Alex
		[September 28, 1912]
		[Halifax]

My dear Alex – 
	Your good letter came Tuesday and I got it on my way to school.
	You can just bet it was a most welcome one too, especially at that time of day
when I had been pulled out of my warm bed and thrown out in the cold world with
the rabble to make a living and kinder felt that I was really nobody after all.
	No, that’s not the real reason that I was so especially glad to get that
special letter.
	It was because you told me in it of those good resolutions you had made – and
of course, were going to keep.
	But not withstanding the fact it is Leap year, I am not going to dwell on the
length and extent of my caring right here.
	You just stop smoking and I’ll promise to tell you when to start.  Leave that
to me.  You’ll be so fat when I see you again that I will hardly know you.
	I have fattened a little since I got back and (as poor as I am) I wouldn’t take
ten dollars for every ounce I have gained.
	I am real well again but I was feeling and looking like the mischief when I
wrote you last.
	You would have laughed if you could have been at our club meeting Wednesday to
have heard a girl describe how I looked the night I came from Bertie.  If I
really thought that you all had seen me looking as she said I did you would
never behold my beaming countenance again.
	As you, no doubt, have already observed I am sending the lovely pictures which
just came this afternoon.
	That inanimate thing, the mirror, just told me that I was really ‘most as
beautiful as they are and I don’t think I am at all vain in agreeing with her. 
I just simply will not take a decent picture.
	The next time I go where there is a real good photographer I am going to get
him to make a picture of me and flatter me to the skies and then I shall be done
with pictures for good and all.
	Just as soon as you possibly can I want you to please send me Evie’s address.
	I suppose she is waiting for me to write but I don’t know where she is.
	I have just been having a peck of fun.
	Mrs. Travis is getting up a play “The Union Depot” to be played real soon and
Mama and I have been around there seeing her take off on different characters
and telling me which I should be.
	I reckon it will be right good, nothing to it, of course, but it will be worth
the money and will help up to get our lights.
	A crowd of boys went out today and killed a large deer and when they got to him
they found he had been shot about a week before and was sick.  They left it in
the woods and brought head to show they had really killed one.
	Don’t you know that was a sick crowd?
	They are right successful here though for they kill one nearly every time they go.
	I hope you will have a big time in Norfolk, if you can behave yourself and have
a big time at the same time.  I have never found out exactly what that term “big
time” means with a boy.
	Be sure to teach Wayland to stop smoking those things.  At least give him one
lesson.  I’m afraid for one so new in the game to stay in the city of Norfolk
long enough to give very many lessons.
	Give him my best regards.  Tell him if I should happen down there about
Thanksgiving I would have to gaze on him for a few minutes.
	Now my last injunction to you is to behave while you are there.  Write real soon.

		Most sincerely yours,
		Kate
	
      
	
		[October 7, 1912]
		[Lewiston]

My dear Kate – 
	Yes I do too.  I want you to care more than a week and more than a year too and
I didn’t for a moment even think of meaning anything about your not caring any
longer when I made the week proposition.  It’s this way, I was merely asking you
to be kind and merciful to a poor mortal suffering the tortures of the damned – 
	For one week tonight I have been absolutely crazy and instead of getting better
I am growing worse all the time.  Since last Monday morning I have eaten six
meals every day and the consequence is I have had seven attacks of acute
indigestion and have been told by the home folks to change my boarding place. 
When I stop eating long enough to do anything at all I am generally so sleepy
that I fall off to sleep only to wake up as hungry as before – All this sleeping
and eating has added about twenty-five pounds to my weight.  You say I ought to
go to work and forget myself.  Well I am just naturally too fat and lazy to
move.  I did get up energy to go to Lewiston yesterday afternoon and three
different men called me aside and begged me to stop drinking so much.  I asked
them why did they think I was drinking too much and they said look in a glass
and see how fat and bloated you are getting.  Now I am ashamed to leave home
everybody thinks I am a rummy.  Now Kate for the Lord’s sake be compassionate. 
I hate to be run away from home and I don’t want to die with indigestion and I
don’t like to be accused of drinking any more than I do and nobody likes a fat
guy anyway.  Think the matter over and try to see it from my viewpoint.  Suppose
you had to deny yourself of two of the three meals each day – Well, I’d gladly
eat only one a day if I could only have a cigarette after that one.  Can’t you
make the stopping just a month and the caring forever?  I think that would be
the nicest, grandest, sweetest, noblest act of kindness that you could possibly
do if you tried a lifetime.  Maybe I won’t die with fatty degeneration of the
heart before the month is up.  Write me that thirty days will be long enough to
stop this time and at the end of that time I’ll get a pipe and try to cut out
cigarettes for good.  Pray over the matter and ask the good Lord to instill in
you the spirit of mercy and then I know you’ll do the right thing.
	You ask what is my opinion about dancing (since I went crazy and died) – I
don’t know that I have a right to an opinion as I can’t dance but I think
dancing is as harmless a pleasure as the young folks of this county enjoy.  In
my opinion a lady can be a lady wheresoever she happens to be and if a girl
desires to go astray she’ll find a way if she never sees a ballroom.
	I do not approve of the public dance halls of New York and other large cities
where one dances with everybody that comes along but I think that here in the
South where the girls and boys know each other dancing is a most harmless and
innocent amusement.  I am sorry you got such a lecture on the subject, for one
thing I do not like is a lecture.  What is your final decision about the dancing?
	Speaking of lectures I got the boss lecture yesterday.  The Bishop of this
Diocese made his annual visit here today and our preacher was trying to get me
to be confirmed.  He gave me some soul argument like I never heard before and I
know that there’s no hope for me now.  I believe if I hadn’t been afraid about
so many promises to do better I would have been confirmed.  I’ll tell you a man
that stops smoking and then sees somebody pulling a cigarette is bound to be
full of envy and covet his neighbor’s cigarette and say some ugly words and and
never be a Christian.  
	I was so glad to hear that you were arranging the visit here Xmas.  Keep on
making plans and don’t think you’re a Jonah for you’ve got to come or there
won’t be any Xmas.  I’ll kill you all the birds you want and if you want to
shoot some yourself I’ll take you hunting.  I have killed two deer this season
but neither had a head pretty enough to have mounted, but I hope to get yours yet.
	You never have told me anything about your school yet except that you were
teaching.  I am interested in everything you are doing and want you to tell me
all about yourself.  Have you any classes far enough advanced to make it
interesting for you?  I imagine teaching a bunch of small children would be a
pretty lonesome job.
	Every time I look at a paper I see about some Ladies’ Club meeting in Halifax
so I know you are a busy girl.  However please take time to write to me as often
as possible.  Each of your letters is just a package of joy to me and I can’t
get one often enough.
		I am –
		Most sincerely yours –
Sunday Night	Alex
		October 10, 1912
		Halifax

My dear Alex – 
	I am going to try to write some kind of a letter tonight but it’s under the
greatest difficulties that I’m doing it.
	To begin with, I have entertained the club this afternoon and am as tired and
sleepy as I can be, and then Little Sister and one of the boys are in here
planning a great trip to Rocky Mount next week and every minute they are asking
me something.
	They say they are going to get up a crowd to see “The Winning Widow” there next
week or the week after and if they get the crowd they can get a fast train that
is due here about one A.M. to stop and put them off, so they really are interested.
	This school marm isn’t too much so though, for I have no special here and am
certainly not going to chaperone another couple if I am an old school teacher.
	I just got a long letter from Evie Lee and she is tickled to death over
Baltimore and is having the time of her life.
	She has met two or three of the “finest young men you ever saw” and she says
she is just crazy about them.
	Evie reminds me of my sister before she was married.  The last boy she meets is
the one she loves best – or likes best.
	She says “dog-gone getting married” for she is going to have a good time.
	She says she is going to stay up there through February as she has paid up till
then and then she is going home and have a good time.
	Buffet is going up there to see her Thanksgiving and she pretends she is crazy
over the idea.
	I don’t think, from the way she writes, that she is acting on the square with
Buffet.  While, as you know, I am not at all in favor of the match, still I do
think she should be honest with him.  I don’t know whether she told you of the
dream she had while I was there or not about a strange man, but if she didn’t
you were the only one for she was some kinder excited over it.  Well she writes
she has met the man and has gone crazy about it.
	Your pitiful letter came Monday and I have prayed and done nothing but pray for
divine inspiration since it came.  
	None has come yet, though, so on my own back, I am going to agree to the month
proposition.
	(Especially when I know to disagree would do no good.)  
	I think you must have “gone crazy and died” when you wrote me that you had had
indigestion seven times and still had fattened twenty-five pounds in one week.
	I thought people didn’t fatten when they didn’t digest their food.
	Either your scales were wrong or your doctor made a big mistake in the
diagnosis of your care.
	However, we’ll try the “month proposition” and praise the past week for all
it’s worth.
	I know you wish you were in New York to see the games or in Boston and New
York.  The boys here are crazy over them and they do nothing but hang around the
telegraph office from two o’clock till the game is over waiting for the returns.
 Who are you betting on?  
	You were powerful good to promise to kill me some birds Xmas and if there were
no other inducement, that would be enough to carry me to Bertie.
	I would love the best in the world to hunt with a hunter but if I should kill
anything I verily believe I would die myself.
	The boys laugh when I say I’m going to get me a rifle and hunt.
	They tell me if I just want to tote something to save my money and tote a stick.
	Evie’s letter was full of our going down there Xmas and she said we would go
hunting – I write you to join us now.
	What luck did your folks have on their hunt?
	I am crazy to go to Richmond this week but of course I can’t. 
	I am so tired of being dead poor I don’t know what to do.  I’m afraid I’ll have
to commit suicide before I get rich on my pecans – or anything else.  
	I notice you weren’t in society the other night at the Rawls’ reception.
	What is the matter with you?
	Mr. Thompson wrote that you all had been to a party somewhere in Lewiston about
two weeks ago, given in honor of somebody’s house party and you wrote about
another house party.  Little Sister and I both agreed that we were jealous – not
of the individuals (we don’t suppose) but we just don’t like the idea of other
house parties taking our house party’s place.
	Now be the “superlative of dog-gone nice” and write real soon and tell me all
about what you are doing and about the smoking.

		I am, as ever,
		yours,
		Kate

Wednesday night.

		[October 18, 1912]
		[visiting Mattie Mizell Nowell]
		[Selma]


My dear Alex – 
	If there ever was a dead person and that person still breathes it is I.
	Honestly I have been going around all day half dazed swearing that I shall
never see another fair and that we are all crazy for having gone.  We had a good
time while we were going but that day after.
	I never realized what you boys meant by that expression till today but now I
can tell anybody in perfectly original language what it means.
	We were glad to see John and Leonard Wednesday.  We found them a little while
after we got there and stayed together nearly all the time.  Saw “The Winning
Widow” and the ball game, both of which were disappointments to me.  We got here
last night at ten and Mrs. Nowell says we just shall not leave till Monday.  We
may leave Sunday afternoon but we haven’t decided anything yet.  In fact neither
of us has sense enough to decide anything today.
	Emma May Freeman is here from the fall and she will leave Monday too.  
	I know you have wondered what a school teacher is doing with her school all
this time.  Well I have resigned for good and all.  
	The school got in a perfect mess soon after we began and I wanted to resign
right there but the committee and County Board of Education wouldn’t let me.
	Finally Monday afternoon I went to Mr. Travis (the Chairman) and told him I was
going to send him my written resignation that night to go into effect
immediately.  I told [him] I was determined to resign anyway and that I wanted
to go to Raleigh so he said they might continue two rooms till they could find
another.  Don’t know whether I will get my money or not and don’t care much.  I
will tell you more about it when I see you.  
	I hope you had a good time in Norfolk and that your cold is better.  Of course
I asked all about you (much to their amusement) and they told me you were sick
with a cold for which I am truly sorry.  I am glad you had it before and not
after you went to Norfolk for I believe a cold is looked upon with just a little
suspicion by you boys in Bertie.
	They told me some thing else though that I was glad to hear from some one else
besides yourself and that was that you had really stopped smoking.  Of course I
knew you had but I just loved to have someone else talk about it.
	That crowd had a good time laughing at me and I just know what they are going
to tell you that I said will be a plenty.
	We were with Mr. Sessoms at the station and not dreaming he was from Bertie and
knew you.  I said “S’pose old Alex is on that train” and when I did he gave a
whoop. 
	I felt like a dunce then, sure enough, ‘cause I didn’t want to make him think I
was a dunce too.  He says he is going to tell you a bunch of stuff.
	Well the first of November is nearly here and I’ll just bet that when it comes
you won’t even want to smoke – much anyway.

[remainder of letter missing…]


	
		[October 22, 1912]
		[Lewiston]


My dear Kate – 
	I found your letter awaiting me on my return from Norfolk Saturday night and I
assure you that, short as it was, I enjoyed it more than my whole trip, and I
had a mighty fine trip too.  I, like you, have been debating in my mind the old
question “Is the night before worth the morning after?”  These trips are pretty
good things – till the aftermath.
	Wish I could have been in Raleigh with you.  John was tickled to death at being
with you and Little Sister.  He says he saw ‘em all and Mr. Fenner’s daughters
were finest looking there.  He and Leonard both say you sent me a message but
both claim to have forgotten it.  I am afraid you didn’t tell them anything good
to tell me or they would have remembered it.
	Was sorry you were disappointed in the Foot Ball game and “The Winning Widow.”
 I thought they would both be good.  I saw “Madam X” in Norfolk and thought is
was real good.  I also saw and heard the returns from the deciding game in the
World Series which I didn’t enjoy at all.
	I had Diggs send you a small box of candy.  Hope it wasn’t too stale to eat.
Didn’t have a card with me.  I also mailed you a copy of the “Ruling Passion.” 
I think Van Dyke is fine even if he is a preacher.  There’s not much to the
stories but they are beautifully expressed and, I think, are rather true to
nature.  I can’t decide whether my ruling passion is hunting or something else
that I haven’t done for a long, long time – 
	I was certainly glad to hear that you had [gotten] out of the school teaching.
 Now I want you to spend some of that spare time in writing to me.  Hereafter
I’ll expect some extra pages to make up school time.
	We are going to have a big Democratic rally in Lewiston tomorrow.  Going to
barbecue about twenty pigs and have a big time.  Harris is to speak on national
issues and Claude Kitchin in behalf of Brother Will.  Lewiston is such a Kitchin
town that they ran the school teacher away because he was a Simmons man.  You
school teachers have got to know how to vote.  Old Zeke is a Simmons man so you
needn’t be surprised if you hear of his death.  Guess ‘twould be a good thing
for the neighborhood.  Zeke and I are together on one question, every time I see
him he tells me you are the finest girl he ever saw.
	When did you leave Selma?  I hope you slipped a good dose of strychnine to Miss
Annie Elizabeth before you left, but I guess she would fatten on it.
	I do hope and pray Mattie didn’t arrange to be here when you were Xmas.  You
know what I think of her.
	I am going to get a rifle and practice up so I’ll be in your class hunting. 
We’ll all get fat on robin pies.
	Write me a long letter.

		Most sincerely,
		Alex
	
	




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