Bertie County NcArchives History - Letters .....Urquhart, Richard - Kate Fenner Nov12- Jan 13 1912 ************************************************ 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, 11:27 am Letters between Richard Alexander Urquhart (1889-1947) and Kate Nelson Fenner (1890-1956) [November 4, 1912] [Halifax] My dear Alex – I have waited till this afternoon to answer your good letter and now I am as cross as X, so if this turns out a fussy letter you will just have to forget it and I’ll try to do better next time. My shoes are simply killing me, and as they are the only high ones I have I am compelled to keep them on. I think Mama either gave away or burned the ones I had last winter and if I can stand these long enough to go to Weldon tomorrow I am certainly going to bid these farewell and get some big enough. Don’t you know I have fattened and fattened till I’m a perfect sight. If you aren’t perfectly sober Thanksgiving night you’ll not know me. Honestly, I weigh more than I ever weighed and I’m tickled to death. I’ve outgrown all of my clothes and my feet (as you would imagine from the beginning of my letter) are actually larger. I’m not very elated over this fact, however, for they were boats in the beginning. I got my regular number shoe in Weldon last week and that is why I’m mad and sour on the world this afternoon. I’m trying to wear shoes that are a size too small. I reckon I’ll get a six next time and be sure that they are large enough. Hope you had a good and successful hunting trip. What did you kill? We are going in the woods tomorrow to hunt hickory nuts and we are going to carry rifles. If we kill more game than we need I am going to express, or send by freight to you, the surplus. Did you get a card from Halifax from a boy last week or the week before? One of the boys here told me he had sent you one and if he did please write me what was on it. The boy may have been joking but he wouldn’t mind doing any thing in that line. I had a long letter from Evie this week and she and Buffet tell different tales about writing. She says she hasn’t heard from him in a week and that she hasn’t answered his last letter. I think the way he acts is scandalous and I hope somebody from down there will write Evie about his last escapade. I’ll not be that somebody, however, for I utterly detest a tale-bearer. The idea of his going to the home town of the girl he expects to marry in two months and getting drunk is awful and proves that he has absolutely no self respect and none for Evie and that he is a simple, weak piece of humanity. If I were Evie I wouldn’t marry him if he were the last man on earth and the Angel Gabriel got on his knees and asked it of me as a special favor. You ought to have a better influence over him and not let him get drunk, for Mr. Wood said you wouldn’t touch a drop. He’s a friend of yours, isn’t he? Or he was while you were on that memorable Tarboro trip, for while your brother and some one else were talking about you scandalously, he was boosting you to me. Evie wants me to go up there from Norfolk but the Old Man reports that the treasury is almost empty. I hope, however, that he didn’t give in his final report. Evie says I can sleep with her and that it won’t cost much but I can’t see my way clear, yet. I sent old Zeke some Kitchin literature but I can’t go down canvassing just now. I am scared to death about our teams for Thanksgiving, though A&M [now NC State] whipped Wake F. yesterday. I was glad to see Virginia go down before Vanderbilt since poor Carolina had to lose again. Maybe though, since Carolina has an A&M manager we’ll win this year. How was it that Carolina got McLendon, an A&M man, for a manager? I hope you’ll take enough time on the eve of the election to read this, even though you might be doing some thing else to a better advantage. Write real soon. My best regards to John. Most sincerely yours, Kate Sunday [November ?, 1912 [Lewiston] My dear Kate – Now I wouldn’t have smoked if you hadn’t waited so long to write. My time was out Thursday night at 12 M and I didn’t smoke a thing until after the mail was opened Saturday. When I didn’t get a letter then I just knew you had forgotten I was living and sought solace in a nice white fragrant and refreshing Piedmont [cigarette]. Of course I could find no consolation for your forgetting me but the smoke did much to keep alive the fond hope that some day the sun would shine and you would write. Finally after months, Tuesday brought your letter and Woodrow Wilson wasn’t half so proud of the day as I. It looks like our candidate for the Senate got walloped pretty badly. Well I guess a letter from you and a Democratic President was enough good luck for one day. I believe I did get a card from one of your Halifax sports the other day but just what he said I’ve forgotten I think he asked me to have a mint julep with him at Harry Tabbs on Thanksgiving night. Being a total abstainer I haven’t taken time to write my acceptance as yet. Tell him I’ll take Apollinaris [bottled water]. Speaking of Thanksgiving night, that’s the time I’m to be perfectly, absolutely happy for the first time since the House Party was over. Somebody told me the other day that I had been looking forlorn ever since lightening stuck me and asked was lightening the cause of it. I told him no but something very closely associated in point of time with being struck by lightening was the cause of my being forlorn and downcast. Kate I do want to see you worse than anything in the world and can hardly wait for Thanksgiving. I won’t care so much if Carolina is defeated if I can see you. And another thing you needn’t try to put up and “fine frock” excuse about the picture – you might not stay fat always and you know you must have one made while it lasts. You got my idea exactly when you asked if I wanted to fix up an art gallery with pictures of you. Were I an invalid and confined to my room I would wish to brighten its four walls with pictures of you. I’ve just got to have a dozen “fat” pictures. The fat ones have got to go a long ways to be as beautiful as the (I guess I won’t say “lean”) ones you sent me before. Now please don’t try to find any excuses for I tell you “I’ve just gotta have ‘em.” I’ve been to the Express Office daily looking for the surplus game from your nutting and hunting trip but it seems that your trip like mine didn’t decrease the fowl or animal kingdom very much. However what we’ll do for ‘em Xmas will be enough. I got a letter from Lunsford Long yesterday asking me to go with him up to his grandfather’s place in Virginia on a hunting trip but I don’t guess I can go. Was it really your shoes hurting you or your desire to take a trip that sent you to Weldon? Mine are hurting me so I’ve got to go to Norfolk tomorrow or Saturday. Now that you have ceased your pedagogical labors I don’t see why you couldn’t write to me oftener and make them about six times as long. Try it once, please. Must stop now. Most sincerely yours – Alex [November 14, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – On my return from the city I found your letter and although it was a letter of condemnation for my weakness still as usual I was most happy to get it. I think when a person has been doing good and then falls back into the old rut he deserves praise for what he has done rather than censure for his fall. Your proposition to write to me whenever I say (which means on every train) is by far the most enticing proposition that I have ever had or ever expect to have if I live a thousand years, for I get more genuine pleasure out of our talks through the mail than all my other life put together. And the oftener your letters come the greater the pleasure would be. However I can’t stop smoking any more and I’ll explain. When I stopped and had gone about three days I wanted a cigarette worse than I had ever wanted anything in all my life and in my desperation I picked up the Holy Book and swore that if I ever lived through the month of October I would never stop smoking again no matter what happened. Now you see that in order to take your proposition I would have to break a solemn pledge and I know you wouldn’t have me do that. Now if you have got anybody up there that you desire to be killed and will put the same proposition to me provided I do the murder then I’ll gladly put the guy out of business or I’ll do any thing else that you wish except quit smoking. If I hadn’t sworn never to stop again your greatest of offers surely would make me try to stop again but I think another month like last would kill me. You can form no idea what it is for me to stop and I can truthfully say that I don’t see where they do me the slightest harm. I will promise not to smoke any more cigarettes but to use a pipe and not to smoke that in your presence if you will let the proposition hold good. Kate just think of the pleasure you can give me by writing oftener and if you can imagine half of it I know you will. And the “fat picture” doesn’t come in under the proposition anyway for as I have told you before I have just got to have one. I went to Norfolk and got some shoes and also tried to get some boots of that particular brand that would take me to see you, the ones like John was to get. Had a nice quiet time. Saw a fine matinee Saturday afternoon, wished for you a thousand times – I have promised a Goldsboro crowd to go there and go up to Richmond with them but if I can get out of it I will join you at Kelford on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and go from Norfolk to Richmond that night. I had been thinking that the 26th was Thanksgiving until tonight when I picked up a calendar and found that it was the 28th. So that means two days more added to the interminable time before I shall see you. I guess Little Sister thinks I am waiting a long time to send “The Net” but all my sisters have started it and each wants to finish it but don’t seem to get time. I will send it in a few days. I was sorry to hear such bad news about my friend Long for he’s one of the best fellows in the world. May be that was just an off day with him. Please don’t wait any longer to answer my letter than I did yours. I got yours last night when I got home so that only gives you one day. With all my thoughts, I am, Most sincerely yours, Alex [November 20, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – I am “jest nacherally” so happy I don’t know what to do. It’s now ten o’clock and in sixty hours I will see you. Of course each hour will seem like a year but I will try to wait that long. I have written to my friends that I was just bound to go by Norfolk and unless I get a letter of protest from them I will join you in Kelford. In case they make me keep my promise I will be in Kelford that evening and see you for a few moments any how. Dave [?] the ex-football star [?] from A&M and now is signed with the N.Y. Giants is over here hunting with John and me, and he is going down Wednesday morning too. He is such a fine looking guy that I don’t even want you to look at him. We will arrange our plans on the way down. Please pray for one of the Carolina teams to win Thursday so we can wear our colors. I am going to take your advice (as I always do) and not put my money on Carolina. I think it would be more interesting to see it go across the [?]. You didn’t tell me about that forty-two game that makes you make all your letters so short . Do you have anything up on the game or what makes it so interesting? I do hope you have decided not to give me that piece of mind you promised for I am being just as good as anybody’s boy could be. Remember that the first thing you are to do upon arriving in Norfolk is to have that picture taken. There is absolutely no argument about it for you have promised. I sent Little Sister the book the day I mailed your letter but found it in the Post Office Friday so it didn’t leave until then. Hope she got it. I won’t write more as I will see you Wednesday if it is hailing brick bats. For the Lord’s sake be on that train or I’ll surely jump under it. Only fifty nine hours and thirty minutes now. As ever – Most sincerely yours – Alex [December 2, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – I would have written last night as I said I was going to do but I couldn’t have mailed it out tomorrow and would surely have torn it up before I had time to write another. Any how I am writing as soon as possible in order to get that fourteenth letter for although as a rule I am not superstitious still when a person wants a thing real bad and the omens are against it he naturally feels a little nervous. Now as soon as you get this letter sit down and write to me for I’ll not sleep well till I get the fourteenth. I hope you and Little Sister reached Halifax safely in time for the oyster roast and were not too tired to attend. Although I enjoyed the trip immensely still I am dissatisfied about two things – In the first place I feel that I did so little to add to your pleasure while in Norfolk and there I saw so little of you. I had a lot of things I wanted to talk to you about but Friday I felt so much like a dead man that I couldn’t even think. I have some apologies to make that I won’t attempt to write. I have been on many a trip but never has one done me up like this one to Richmond and I honestly think that at last I have learned a lesson. I wish you had decided to stay in Norfolk for then I would have had time to have a long talk with you. I hope the oyster roast and your other efforts in behalf of the Church are proving a great success and know they are if you are lending your assistance. It must be a pleasure to know you are doing something that helps people and especially a pleasure to you whose thoughts and ideas and ideals are all so good. I’ve seen few people whose ideas of life and how to live were so good and high as yours and if there were more girls with your ideas this would be a better world. There is one thing that I wish you had not told me about and that is the way that bunch treated you about the school, for each time I think of it the worse it seems. To think that a crowd of civilized people could have tried to treat you like that is more than I can comprehend. I think it passed off very quietly though for it is a wonder to me there wasn’t some fighting done. I saw old Zeke yesterday and told him a lot of things for you. (You must be careful not to get mixed up on the messages when you see him.) And told him that if he and Bet didn’t want me to stop speaking to them they had better have you and Little Sister stay a month Xmas. We have been planning the masquerade all day today. We are going to get the costumes from Norfolk so you must come soon and get your pick. Did you ever get your suit from MillerRhoads and did it fit to suit you? If you don’t like it you must go down and see Mrs. Carrington again and I’ll join you. If you would do that I would almost hope for it not to fit. To me it looked like it couldn’t fit better but of course I don’t know like you all. My sister asked me why I didn’t bring the baby something and I told her somebody had just bought all the baby’s toys in Norfolk. I’ll bet that’s a happy kid now. But he can’t be as happy as I’ll be to get that fourteenth letter so don’t make me wait any longer than possible. With fondest thoughts – I am – Most sincerely yours – Alex [December 4, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – The fourteenth letter came and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for it. I was still feeling bad from my trip and nothing could have cured me and driven away remorse like a word from you. It was certainly nice of you to write to me when you were feeling so badly and I appreciate it more than I can say. I was so sorry to hear that you had to go out and have a chill and do hope that Mrs. Fenner proved a good doctor. I have thought about you all day and wished for your speedy recovery but it’s precious little good thoughts can do one when quinine is ringing in their ears. You looked so fresh and pretty Friday afternoon that I said thank the Lord somebody is feeling good for I thought I was surely going to die. The boy that got drunk and beaten up couldn’t have been in any worse shape than I was. But for your letter I don’t think I would have gotten over it yet. Kate please don’t get sick any more and if you do don’t tell me about it till you get well for I hate like the d____ to sit up here and hold my hands and know I can not do anything for you. There is an old adage to the effect that if you try anything and it make you sick then try it again and it will cure you. I think you will have to go to Norfolk again real soon. Really if your suit doesn’t please you or you have any Xmas shopping to do let’s go down to the City for a day or two. Mrs. Carrington would be tickled to death to have you come for “she’s done told me so.” We’ll choose a time when there’s a good show on at the Academy and take it in. I haven’t been to a theater in so long that I don’t think I’d know just “how to do” if I should find myself in one. Sho nuff now let’s go down for I almost wish I hadn’t seen you the other day because it has made me want to see you so bad. Tell Mr. Fenner that if he doesn’t send you to Norfolk to get him a Xmas present you’ll not give him a thing – That’s the argument I used to work on Mama when I wanted a Xmas trip. And while in Norfolk you can have my Xmas present made, a picture of yourself. If I could get that I’d be satisfied to forego all other Xmas joys. Please don’t tell your mother any more about Zeke’s people for I am afraid she might not understand exactly how it is and object to your coming. I’ll tell you honestly although they are not FF’s [“first families”], still they are good folks and certainly do go with the nice people of the State. I think that’s a fine scheme of yours to send your Bud [Kate’s brother] up to the Hill next year for we need some Foot Ball material worse than ever before. You and I want to be able to wear our colors in Richmond next year. Even if your brother doesn’t play Foot Ball he will never regret having gone to the Hill. He would certainly be thrown with the best people in the state and will meet men that it wouldn’t be possible to meet elsewhere. And, in parenthesis, he can learn to play a very scientific game of Poker if he so desires. I wouldn’t take anything in the world for having gone to the Hill even though I didn’t absorb too great an amount of information. The date set for the masquerade is the Friday after Christmas, so make your plans to be here then. Of course if you can’t be here at that date we’ll make it later. I am glad you are making so much money for the Church for that will make your prayers of more avail and you promised to pray for me. I’ll stop now. Write me a longer letter just as soon as you can. With fondest thoughts – Most sincerely yours – Alex [December 9, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – I was so glad to get your letter and hear that you were well again but I fear that between Church work and making Christmas presents you will work yourself to death before Xmas comes around. But although you are well you will never be entirely cured until you take the other trip to Norfolk. Of course I am sorry that the dress doesn’t fit but still nevertheless notwithstanding I would be mighty glad if you would go down to Norfolk and get another try on. I feel sure they could do better and Express Companies charge more than Railroads and the dress might get lost in transit and maybe the conductor would forget to ask you for a ticket. And you have promised Mrs. Carrington and she wants to see you and I want to see you more than anybody in the world and you ought not to stay home and work so hard anyway. Now I think all the argument is in favor of another visit to Norfolk. If you decide to go just give me long enough notice to get to Kelford and I will be there when the train comes. I saw Lala Mizell this afternoon and she said that Evie wrote yesterday that she was expecting to have you and Little Sister over during the Holidays. I also got my sister to write to Evie and tell her about the masquerade and incidentally mention the fact that John and I were counting on your trip here. Be sure to arrange to be here on the Friday after Xmas for it would be hard to change the date in case you were not here at that particular day and I refuse to honor them with my presence unless you are here. About the costumes Margaret says the girls are going to make theirs. The boys (or most of them) will get theirs from Norfolk. If you go to Norfolk you can see what they’ve got there and if you like any of them we can rent them along with ours. Don’t go and get one that you will be too pretty in for I am afraid I’ll have to put a bump on some guy’s head that night anyhow. Evie and Emily are coming home on the 20th and I am going to see them on the night of the 20th at 8 o’clock and what plans you haven’t made I am going to make then. I am going to write to Buffet tonight and invite him over and if his assistant teacher hasn’t got too strong a hold on him we may have a little excitement during the Holidays. I wonder is the “Dream Man” still hanging on. I bet no. John and Burges and Ed and Tom Cobb went off on a joy ride this afternoon and the machine broke down just out of Windsor and they have just gotten back driving a mule to a cart. Ed Cobb says his only regret about the breakdown is that I wasn’t there for the ride back but I tell them they ought to have a more religious way of spending Sunday afternoons. I saw our chauffeur (Clarence Rawls) yesterday afternoon and told him we would need his services during Christmas. He said he would insure him against sand storms and lightening. Speaking of automobiles, I hope you haven’t taken any more drives with the boy chauffeur because I really don’t want to see you buried yet. Dave Robertson the fellow that went down on the train with us is coming out tomorrow for a week’s hunting. I still have hopes of getting that deer head to have mounted for you. I have hired Frank Winston to go to the next Methodist Conference and show them that forty-two is a game of chance and bad for the soul so you won’t have an excuse for making your letters so short then. In the mean time make them as long as you can. With all my thoughts – Yours most sincerely – Alex [December 16, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – You couldn’t have made me happier than by sending me a letter and in that letter telling me what a treat you had in store for me. I already consider this Christmas the happiest in all my life and that because I am to see you and have your picture with me always. I will promise you faithfully that when I get tired of it or another takes its place I will surely return it and in a frame of gold studded with diamonds. There is only one trouble and that is that I have got to wait two whole weeks before I get it. I would urge you to mail it but it is too precious and might get lost. In the meantime lock it up and hide the key for fear some one will steal it, for any body would steal it and very justifiably I think. I am sorry you decided not to go to Norfolk for I had looked forward to it with a great deal of pleasure. I guess you made a wise decision for it is hard to shop when the Christmas crowds are bustling around the streets. I am going down in the morning if I can get away without anyone finding it out for I certainly can’t buy things for other people. I know I am going to have a terribly lonesome time sans cigarettes sans wine sans craps sans you. I expect to leave Norfolk just as soon as I can get out. I don’t see why in the world Evie hasn’t written to you about your visit here. Lala says, every time I see her, that they are expecting to have you. I am in fear and trembling lest that dear Mrs. Nowell is not going to let Evie invite you. I know Evie is crazy to have you but Mattie runs the family and it is just as she says. Please don’t accept the Weldon invitation until you do hear from Evie. I know the Weldon dance will be a more swell affair than the masquerade but we are going to have a bunch of fun. I repeat that I don’t want to be in a belligerent state of mind that night so whatever you be try not to be too pretty. You were right about my wishing for the fruit cake but just one pound wouldn’t be half enough for one thing I do love is fruit cake and especially the one you make. You talked as if you might bring along a little of that cake when you come. If you do don’t check the suit case for the baggage man may have my weakness for fruit cake. So John wrote Little Sister about hunting with Robertson. I wonder if he told her about shooting the biggest buck on Roanoke River the other day. Of course he says he [?] him etc. but I am sure he was running still. Now if old Daniel Boone the Second had just had that shot you would have had a mounted deer head as sure as you are living. I sent two big coon skins to Philadelphia to be tanned yesterday but know I won’t get them in a month as there is such a rush at present. In the meantime do the best praying you can for cigarettes look mighty good and cards look natural and to hear the dice roll puts me up in the air. But even if I do fall off for a few days Xmas, what’s New Years for but to make good resolutions? If I continue at the rate I am going there won’t be a single resolution I can make New Years unless I stop saying “doggone.” Honestly I am so good that I think I had better die for it may be my only chance for a seat up high. Don’t bother about sending the book, you can bring it when you come over. I am so busy that I don’t ever read anyway. I see that Booth Tarkington has just written a new novel and if it is published yet I am going to try to get it in Norfolk. The next time you write forget that you have written but one page till you [have] written about twenty – and don’t let the next time be long. Your letter was mailed Thursday but I didn’t get it till Friday. With fondest thoughts – I am – Most sincerely yours – Alex [December 20, 1912] [Lewiston] My dear Kate, I am so elated at your coming over for a visit and so mad with myself for going to Norfolk so soon that I am almost crazy. One minute I am whistling, so glad in the thought of your being here and the next minute I am “cussing” myself for having gone to Norfolk. And being good was the sole cause of my early visit to the City. You see, John Lewis, Burges, Tom Cobb, and Ben Renfrow went down today and I knew that it would never do for the reformed guy to be there with that bunch, so I had to go before. The way of the ex-transgressor is harder. If I had only decided to go down with the boys and take a day or two off from being good then your letter would have gotten to me in time for me to have waited till Monday and I could have been with you and not had to break my pledges after all. Of course had I gone with them I would have had strength enough to abstain and I ought to have made my plans with the knowledge but just between us I was afraid to risk it. Another piece of hard luck is that Monday is the day appointed to fix up the school house for the masquerade and I am one of the Committee but if I can get them to let me off I will see you in Kelford as you pass through if it is only for a second. Any way I will see you Thursday (for you must come Thursday instead of Friday) and that’s enough to make me happier than anybody in the world. Write me what train you and Little Sister are coming on Thursday and John and I will meet you in Kelford. Evie and Emily (and Buffet) are all coming tomorrow and I will find out what plans they have made. I had a mighty bum time in Norfolk ‘cause you won’t there. I saw the “Shepherd of the Hills” at the Granby. It was by an inferior company but I enjoyed it very much. I had about forgotten the story but it came back to … [ page missing here …] tired and weary waiting for it. I hate to hear of your working so hard making Xmas presents and helping the Church for I am afraid you will do too much and be sick. Don’t forget to bring me a taste of that fruit cake. Margaret is to entertain the Card club tomorrow night. Of course I’ll enjoy it and especially now that Whist is my only game. I am afraid that I’ve even forgotten how to read the “spotted cyards,” it’s been so long since I have put my feet beneath the velvet table. We have made arrangements for the costumes for the ball to be sent out from Norfolk. Will tell you what I’m to be after I see my outfit. I’ll bet I was praying for you to come here just at the very moment that Miss Daniel was tying to persuade you to go to Weldon or you would have gone there. I don’t think she was trying to flatter you at all when she told you you would look better without a mask, she was just stating a plain fact. You might be ‘most as pretty but never quite. Next time write me an extra long letter to make up for the short note yesterday. I hope your tip to Norfolk will be pleasant and you won’t completely demolish your bank account. With my fondest thoughts – Most sincerely yours – Alex [January 6, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – You were just as nice as you could be to write to me Thursday night after the tiresome trip from Norfolk and you will surely find a mark in your favor on the books above for making me so happy. If you an write such a good letter when you are tired and have just returned from a trip to Norfolk, no wonder your letters are the best in the world. I am glad you had such a pleasant stay in Norfolk. It’s good to have such a nice cousin as Mrs. Carrington. I am crazy about the Virginia Beach House Party, don’t miss a chance to talk it up. I think it would be fine if the boys could rent a cottage and have Mrs. Carrington to chaperone us. And by then (if there’s any possibility) I will know how to dance. We are to go over to the Phelps’ Wednesday night to begin practice. I am sorry you didn’t have the pictures made while in Norfolk for I really need a dozen more for I am going to wear this one out looking at it. Yes I’ll trade you when you have the others made provided you give me three for one and send them first. Don’t be worried about your telegram’s coming collect. The fact is I didn’t even know it. You see my Brother brought me your telegram along with another one from Norfolk and told me I owed him a quarter on one of them. I told him to “charge it” and thought no more about it. As for what the Lewiston Agent or anybody else in Christendom thought, it makes no difference for they had nothing to think. Had I noticed that it was collect I would simply have thought that you went down the street with the proverbial $3.00 and after emptying MillerRhoads and Swartz’s store found that you only had car fare left and wanted to send the telegram before you went back to Mrs. Carrington’s. About the New Years resolution – yes it is certainly a good one and if I pull though then I will be right in line to take holy orders under the Methodist banner. In fact I think I might be a candidate for Bishop. I am afraid to tell you how good I am trying to be for fear I might be snake-bitten or have the tooth-ache or go out hunting on an awfully cold day and get wet or a thousand other little accidents might happen to make me break the resolutions involuntarily. However I’ll promise that in case I do break it I’ll ‘fess up. You must pray every spare moment for it has only been five days and I have already been sorely tempted and am of faint heart. As for these people here telling you that I am fooling you (or rather trying to fool you) about these things, that’s all “Tommy” – for I have never claimed to do anything but cut the cigarettes and that I have done. Of course sometimes I go off and forget my pipe and then I smoke a cigarette or two but even that is very seldom. I want you to write me the resolutions you remade for me and if they are not too hard I’ll include them in the other two. I wish you would resolve to write to me seven times a week more than you do and sixteen more pages to each letter. I believe if you knew how much happiness your letters meant to me you would almost be willing to do it. I went down and had a long confidential talk with Evie the other night and if Buffet will only stay sober till February, I think she will marry him. Old Zeke has forbid him to come to see her any more but that’s in our favor. Evie got three letters from him yesterday. The way I figure that out is that he wrote one in the morning when he was fairly sober, another in the afternoon when he was about half and the third that night when he was “charged.” Of course I’ll not tell her though. Kate write me a long letter just as soon as you can for it seems like I haven’t seen you since about 500 B. C. If it wasn’t for my prettiest of pictures I don’t know what would become of me and I know I’d break my “resolves” in about ten minutes. With all my thoughts – Most sincerely yours – Alex [January 13, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – Your letter would have been the best of all letters if you hadn’t told me that you had gone and gotten sick again. There you go working yourself to death for the Church when you have already done enough good to have a mortgage on the highest seat they’ve got in Heaven. I think I will have to study medicine instead of Law unless you hurry up and make that church rich. It must rank about third among the wealthiest institutions in America now and I expect to hear of you erecting tenement houses and office buildings like Old Trinity in New York. That’s a fine scheme about my going over to Ireland to get Lady Anne#SYMBOL 42 \f "Symbol" \s 12#’s fortune (for I never did fancy Irish whiskey) and then I’ll take a flying machine to Scotland and try to establish kinship with that old Urquhart rummy over there that’s worth a few millions. I guess all my New York dreams have about gone up though for I have about bargained to buy a River Farm and I think I will close the deal tomorrow. If I do then I’ll have to change my breakfast hour and go down to work. I wonder just how that will feel. I will have to give up hunting too so I have had Joe Pugh over turkey hunting all the week. We killed five turkeys and lots of ducks. I would certainly have sent you some but knew you would say they were sick. The dancing school met for the second lesson tonight and I am sure I deserve a zero. Margaret is limping from having her foot stepped on so much and Lou advised me to take a few snorts and see if I couldn’t get a little music in my system. Very wholesome advice I think if it wasn’t for the resolution. I guess while I was telling you about the resolution I should have told you all of it or rather the amendments – but then I was afraid you might not congratulate me. It reads thus: For the year 1913 A.D. Total abstinence in North Carolina except egg nog when it snows – On trips, beer only and not over thirty pony beers a day – In Richmond Thanksgiving (if you go) same as in North Carolina, (if you don’t go) oh, just a few to get the College Spirit. The amendments don’t mean much for it looked like it was going to snow all this morning and then it wouldn’t and I don’t think there is any danger of getting out of North Carolina any time soon and I’ll not go to Richmond unless you go. I know you will be glad to excuse those few little harmless limitations to the resolve. I had thought up a fine resolution about the poker and crap and horse races and Base Ball Games and Cotton Futures etc., but I forgot all about it on the first, so now I have to wait till 1914. I am truly sorry. You say you are proud because you are one of the causes of the good resolutions. That’s a good sentence but the arrangement of the words is wrong. You are the one cause of them and if there’s any virtue in taking a poor devil who was fairly happy with his cigarettes and jug and divorcing him from these two most jovial companions then you should be justly proud. Of course when I feel sure that you care about the resolutions it is a little easier to deny myself but when I see the boys gather around the old bottle and light up the Piedmonts and the oft-receiving thought comes that maybe Kate is just doing this because she knows she can then I tell you it is mighty hard. I haven’t forgotten my pipe this year and won’t. I know you will enjoy being at the Hill again. I’d like to re-enter College again for the length of your stay. I am glad the house is small so there won’t be room for so many callers for I don’t want a ΣΑΕ or ΔΚΕ pin to take the place of mine. Please don’t try to work too hard fixing up the house. I’ll tell you, you do the head work and let the others carry out the instructions. Kate I wish I could tell you how much pleasure your letters bring me but it is not in my powers. I want each one more than the last and count the days before I’ll get each one. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [January 17, 1913] [The Lorraine Hotel, Norfolk, VA] My dear Kate – I’ll bet my hat that when you got my card saying that I was en route for Norfolk the first thing you said was yup there he goes chasing one of those amendments into Virginia, but not so – I’ve been in the City about nine hours and have already refused nine hundred drinks and been called a fool exactly nine hundred times. One guy argued that it would be perfectly legitimate to fall off provided I gave my seat on the wagon to a lady and proposed that we go down to the Rathskeller and try to find an occupant for it. Another said drink and the world drinks with you, swear off and you drink alone. But none of these enticements could move the hero because you’ve done said you cared and that means more to me than all the wine of the Mumms and all the diamonds of the Tiffanys and all the gold of the Guggenheims and all the joys and hopes and aspirations of everybody. Since your letter I’ve scratched out all the amendments. From your letter I infer that I must have told you about something that you didn’t know was in the category of my wrongdoing. If I did it was a mistake on my part for I had planned not to tell on myself about anything else until I had already made up [my] mind to quit. For the Lord’s sake sing the dance proposition low around Mr. Fenner for I have actually learned the step (mirabile dictu). We had a big dance at the Phelps last night for the pupils. You ought to have seen me floating through a waltz dream with Johnny. As long as I am going in one direction I can get along fairly well but just let me try to reverse and it’s good night. Margaret says as soon as dancing becomes a pleasure instead of work then I will know how to dance. I must say that so far it is as near work as I have ever approached. I haven’t done my first day’s work on the farm yet but will start up as soon as I get back home. What about the Grand Concert in which you were to render the solo? If you had told me about it in time you wouldn’t have had to invite me for I would have come any way. I am anxious to see the account in the Observer. I went to Granby tonight and saw “Satan Sanderson.” It was darn good indeed even if Jessica did happen to be a Hebrew. Eddie Foy is to be in here in “Over the River” next week. I saw it in New York last year and it was one of the best on Broadway. Can’t the Halifax folks get along without you long enough for you to come down with me to see it? After the theater tonight I went up to the Monticello Café with a fellow and got some fine eats but all the time I was wishing for one of those biscuits you are cooking during your cook’s absence. I don’t like your idea about crossing the pond. It takes me too long to get a letter from you now and if you got way over there it would take a year. Just think about the Titanic. You might be drowned. I have missed the picture, which sits on my desk, so much tonight and have caught myself looking for it more than once. Next to your letters it’s my favorite possession. It’s time all good boys like me were asleep so I won’t burden you with more. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely – Alex [January 22, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate, Every time I hear from you you are doing something good for other people’s benefit and pleasure and generally at the sacrifice of your own well being. I hope you brought the unfortunate girl with the spasms around all right. You were braver than I would have been to stay with her. It was good of you to write to me under such circumstances and your letter got the usual glad hand-shake of welcome. I’ll tell you about the experience I had some years ago with a boy afflicted in that way if you’ll promise not to tell on me. A crowd of us went down to a mill pond about two miles from here to take a swim one Sunday afternoon. While we were splashing around having a time this boy chunked a fit in water twenty feet deep. Another boy and I swam ashore and lit a rag for home. We had run about a mile when we suddenly bethought ourselves of our raiments laying on the banks of the mill pond – Luckily there were no travelers on the road and we returned to find that some of the boys had fished the boy out and revived him. After that I had an engagement to take a girl in bathing at Virginia Beach and found out that she was an epileptic and suddenly had a phone message to come into Norfolk. I got back from Norfolk Saturday and yesterday I did a whole day’s work down on the river. Took my lunch down and staid all day and I didn’t care if it did rain today. You asked if I had seen Little Sister’s picture. I should say so. John and I have already had three fights over which picture shall occupy the most important position on the desk. I think the picture is fine and a better likeness of her than mine is of you. Little Sister was not the only one that thought you were beautiful on the night of the dance for everybody that saw you has told me the same thing and as for me, if I hadn’t already known that you were the prettiest girl in the world I would have had no trouble in realizing it that night. I think you will be downright hardhearted and unkind and unchristianlike and everything else if you don’t have your picture taken in that dress and give me a dozen. And just think, as pretty as you were and had to go with a nigger and he couldn’t even dance. However they tell me I showed a little improvement tonight and if you and Little Sister will come we will have a dance Easter and try to make up for having to stay on the side lines so long. I am going to send Little Sister’s book back tomorrow. I feel real bad about keeping it so long but John and I both had to read it just a little at a time. I think it is real good as all of Wright’s books are but it would have seemed more real and come nearer home to me if the characters had had “a local habitation and a name.” I know you will hate to give Miss Nelson up if she’s really to be married and I’ll be sorry too for the way I size it up is that whenever there’s anything to be done for the good of Halifax you and Miss Nelson have it to do and when she leaves that will put the whole burden of a city on your shoulders. I guess you’ll be able to handle the job all right though. I want you to pray extra for me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, for George Thomas is coming down to spend the “week end” hunting with me and although George is of course a very temperate youth still a little wine serves to revive and tighten the fetters of friendship and he realizes that too. It’s good to see an old friend occasionally for living in this neck of the woods I almost forget that I had any friends in College. It is a mystery to me now how I ever did exist here before I knew you and had your letters to make living here seem bearable. You will soon have to send your letters to me to Woodville as the new Post Office is to be installed some time within the next week or two. And they are talking of changing the schedule on the Seaboard so may be it won’t take letters so long to travel from Lewiston to Halifax. I didn’t get your letter till Monday afternoon and if I were to write to you on Saturday afternoon you wouldn’t get it until Tuesday – Ain’t that something in this progressive, civilized state of North Carolina? I missed one or two of the papers so never did see an account of the Wednesday night concert. So write me about it. Write me the longest letter you have ever written and tell me all about yourself. With all my thoughts – Yours most sincerely – Alex [January 27, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate, I was waiting at the Post Office yesterday when the mail was getting put up hoping to get your letter but scared to death that it wasn’t coming. I think the Post Master put a thousand letters in our box before yours came but finally it came and I was amply repaid for being there. If it hadn’t have come, today could never have been the beautiful sunny day it has proved to be. “That ain’t no nice way to do” to say you can’t come to the Easter Dance. What have I been going over yonder, twice a week, working like a nigger tying to learn to dance for if it wasn’t just to dance with you? I had had a thousand chances to learn before but didn’t care to till I knew you, then you furnished the inspiration and now you say you won’t come to the first dance. I call that very unkind to say the least. I think you might have promised to come even if you couldn’t and that would have made me happy for a time. As long as you are “promised out” to four places why not promise to come here too? Then write the names of the five places on separate pieces of paper, put them in a hat, blindfold your self and draw out one and go to the town you draw. Give us a gambler’s chance anyhow and choose Lewiston’s lucky day and peep through the blindfold. I know you are wanted in all five places and everywhere else you’ve ever been but nowhere as much as Lewiston. Your pupil in the Art of Right Living wants to see you more than everybody in the world and needs a long conversation with the teacher. Can’t you come, if only for the night of the dance? If there’s anything that can be done from moving mountains to changing the course of the Roanoke River that will persuade you to come just tell me what it is and I’m at it. The weather was so bad that George Thomas wired Thursday night that he wouldn’t come but all that good praying was not in vain for during all those cloudy stay-in-the-house days I had a terrible cold and the blues too because I had to wait so long for your letter and resolutions were looking mighty hard. And I know some of the prayers are stored up on high for the time when George does come. I wish we could have seen Eddie Foy together. The crowd that went from here said it was the best thing they had seen in a long time. Weber and Fields are to be in Norfolk tomorrow night and I am about half way in the notion to go down and see them. If I hadn’t seen them in New York and had any excuse to offer my conscience for going to Norfolk, I would certainly see it again. I am glad the show in Rocky Mount Friday night was of the doubtful variation. I would have had to wait till tomorrow or later for your letter and that would have been misery for me. Lewiston is to be honored with two grand entertainments this week. On Tuesday night there is to be a play and Ice Cream supper and a few other graft games for the benefit of the Methodist Church. You see Halifax ain’t the only town on the map that’ll have a new Methodist Church. And on Wednesday night there is to be a musical entertainment conducted by your friend the Professor who played for the dance. Don’t you wish you could hear it. Evie Lee and Mary Spivey are to leave Baltimore this week but I guess Evie will have to stop by Selma for a while. When she comes I am going to have Buffet over and make a final effort toward hitching them up. I hear that he hasn’t gotten drunk since he left here, just takes a few snorts each morning and warms over the jag he got here Xmas. I am afraid I am going to make a failure for I believe Evie has gotten so she can distinguish the smell of whiskey from chewing gum. The town of Woodville is building a sidewalk from Mr. Mizell’s house to the Depot. I told you we would build one and if it isn’t pavement I think you owe us a visit to see it. For the Lord’s sake try to change your mind and come over Easter for I want to see you. I have got a million things to tell you and if I don’t hurry up and see you I am afraid I’ll have so much to tell you that you won’t listen to me. Please write to me as soon as you can. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [January 31, 1913] [Lewiston] My dear Kate – I am writing at once to tell you where to find Evie but if your letter hadn’t have been the best in the world and I didn’t just long for another just like it I certainly wouldn’t attempt to write tonight for it is two o’clock now and I am nearly dead. Evie is due to leave Baltimore tonight and is to visit Mattie in Selma and Emily in Raleigh before she comes home. I don’t know which first. You might write to her in Selma and put Forward on the letter then after Mattie has opened it and read it, as she will surely do, maybe she will be kind enough to send it to Evie in case she is in Raleigh. Or, to be certain to reach her you might write to both places. I had to arise very early this morning and go over the River to a sale near Hamilton. The River was out so we had a terrible time getting there and had to walk and walk five miles after we got there. I went over to buy some coral ear rings the deceased lady had and got there just five minutes after they had been sold. Then when we waded and swam back to the Bertie side found that our horse had broken loose and we had to hike it home. I know the walk would have killed me if I hadn’t had the hope that I would find your letter when I got home. The boys said I must be mighty hungry to walk so fast but they didn’t understand. We got here about 830 and found all the Windsor girls here, they had come to give us some pointers on the dancing question. Of course we couldn’t miss a chance to get the information so we had a big dance. I guess it will be the last before Easter as Mamma says no dancing during Lent. I don’t see what Lent was invented for anyway for I need the dancing practice very badly, and I haven’t got a thing in the world to fast on. You asked who was learning, or trying to, besides John and me. We have got a big class, Tom Cobb and Florence Spivey and Whit Spivey and Lala Mizell, and Mary Grant Spivey is coming tomorrow, and Lewis Thompson and about three or four more. Billie E. is to learn at the still. All the Windsor girls are fine dancers and I sho nuff reversed three separate and distinct times tonight dancing with Sallie Lyon. But she and Lewis are going to hook up soon so I’ll lose the only teacher I can reverse with. Be sure to get the fellow from Jefferson to teach you how to make me reverse. You say you are going to learn the new dances. What do you mean the Frat and Bear and Tommy, etc? If that’s it I’ll have to go up to New York and learn them too. Well I promised to fess up didn’t I? Tonight after we got done we made some egg nog and being so tired and sick with a cold and threatened with pneumonia I wanted to imbibe just a wee little bit. But I didn’t consume but two glasses and honestly I wanted the whole bowl full. You can forgive me for just that little can’t you? I am so glad you sent the picture and if the picture of you was better I would never return it. It is rather funny that we four should have gotten in a picture together. I guess the camera man arranged it so for sake of contrast putting me between the woman I like the least and the girl I like the most in all the world. He knew I thought so much of you that he put in the little H__ cat to balance Mattie’s side but even then I like you more than I dislike them both. Mog said my picture wasn’t good for I looked too fat but I told her she hadn’t taken into consideration that I had just consumed two thirds of a pot of Brunswick Stew. When you see Evie tell her that I was over in Buffet’s country yesterday and those people over there are just noodle bad about him. They say he is just a model youth and is teaching a Bible Class in Sunday School. I wish I had have known Evie was going to Halifax. I would have written her not to leave there till you promised to come Easter. I have […unreadable…] about your not coming and am almost sorry I am trying to learn to dance. Please don’t decide to go to Hot Springs or Greenbrier this summer for we want to have a good house party. I am not in favor of going to Morehead for Mrs. Nowell will be there. How about the Virginia Beach proposition? I think we could get a cottage there for a week if Mrs. Carrington would be good enough to chaperone us. We could get a cook and have the best eats in the world under your supervision. Then we could dance every night and fish and sail etc. and […unreadable…]. Or we might go to Nags Head and get a cottage. Think it over and decide about it and I will do everything in my power to carry out the plans. It’s not a bit too soon to be making plans for I want to be sure to have it. I wish it was all arranged now so I could sit back and be happy knowing that I was going to see you for a week this summer. What about going to Columbia, are you really thinking about it? I’d hate to have to give up farming I like it so well but if you are really going I think my brother will have some extra work on his hands this year. I wonder what Mr. Fenner would think about a boy writing too much. I’ll stop now though or I’ll have to send this by Parcels Post. Write me just as much as you can and as soon as you can. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie/history/letters/urquhart226gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 54.7 Kb