Bertie County NcArchives History - Letters .....Urquhart, Richard - Kate Fenner Oct-Dec1913 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Mollie Urquhart murquhar@bellsouth.net January 9, 2010, 4:26 pm Letters between Richard Alexander Urquhart (1889-1947) and Kate Nelson Fenner (1890-1956) [October 2, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – Seems like somebody is all [the] time telling something on me and it don’t do ‘em a bit of good and causes me a lot of pain and trouble. I’ve got the blues so bad I’m nearly dead and as my friend Keats says, I’m “half in love with easeful death.” I know I could write an “Il Penseroso” tonight that would make the bones of blind Milton blush and say, “Well, I should have worried.” But what’s the use old man, the cards are just against you in the best game you ever played and there’s nothing to do but take it like a sport. But I wish you would give me show enough to let me tell you the truth about all these things you hear and then not call me a liar. I guess Mrs. Rhea was my esteemed friend of the prattling lips and maybe I might tell some things too if I didn’t hate all that kind of stuff. Well, I ought to be thankful enough for you to write to me at all, if it did take you a long, long time, because God knows I’m not good enough for you to even think about. Old Sallie came over this afternoon on one of her nervous tirades and of course had a lot to tell Mamma about what I had been doing in Lewiston. I happened to hear her and went in and informed her that it shook my faith in Christianity to think that a just and all wise God could put such she devils on earth as a few of these old hags around this community. Mamma got mad with me and then I had to take about nineteen drinks with old Sallie to get her right. If all this mess didn’t make me so mad I could have a lot of fun out of it but I hear so many things I can’t see the joke. Tommie Cobb and I are debating whether ‘tis better to leave Lewiston and have to go to work or get some dynamite and blow Lewiston away from us and remain in peace. I know you are enjoying this letter and I’ll try to do better on the next page. I got a letter yesterday from the man I sent the deer skins to and he said I could get them in about six weeks from the time I sent them. That means about the middle of the month. I hope they will come soon for I want to deserve that Richmond picture and know it will take a lot of good praying. I went deer hunting yesterday and they ran a big one over me and I didn’t touch her so according to the rules the boys severed about twelve inches of the caudal appendage of my shirt with a knife. I think somebody must have stolen the shot out of my shells. I guess I would have missed the fawn but the Good Lord knew I needed prayers. The boys are going on a camp hunt next week but I am so unselfish I am going to stay home and work and let Burges go. I know it will kill me getting up at five o’clock in the morning but I have already bought an alarm clock. I was surprised at the way Emily did about your coming over here Saturday week. She had been sick with chills and that may have been the reason or maybe, like her going to Windsor with Freeman, she thinks everybody does that nowadays. I wanted Gregory to come down and get a squint at Zeke. Mattie’s old beau, Snow, came once and departed never to return. I really am getting afraid for your soul, you haven’t written me a thing you have done for the Church since you left here. Have they got all the money they want or did your ardor wane when Miss Nelson left? I liked Miss Nelson but can’t say I liked the advice she gave you Friday night. Everybody else is against me, I am almost afraid Little Sister has deserted me too. Tell her to let me know when she writes that letter and I’ll see that the trade is made. Rat said tell you Hey. Please write to me soon as you can. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [October 8, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – I am not using this paper to get even because you wrote on tablet paper but because I too have exhausted my supply of the sporty kind. I like for you to write to me on that paper cause that was such a good letter (except too short). I am sorry if you took my last letter to convey the idea that I didn’t want you to cuss me out when you thought I needed it or to mean that you shouldn’t tell me just what you heard if you chose for I don’t blame you at all but that day I had had about forty fusses about things that I knew I wasn’t guilty of and was just feeling blue. I didn’t mean at all that I didn’t like it because you wrote me what you heard about me at the Circus because you are the one person in the world that I would listen to now since everybody has had so much to say and I can easily see your position and realize that you (and only you) have any right to say anything to me. About your calling me a liar I didn’t exactly mean that but you did write me in your second letter after you left that you believed a lot of the things you had heard while here and I had told you they were not true. However, you are going to believe me because I haven’t ever told you anything but the truth and never am. And since I am so truthful I’ll make a confession. I promised to taper off and haven’t done it. I have been going to see the girl every Sunday night and generally once during the week and if I am up town during the day and she comes down the street I usually walk home with her. The main reason for my going to see her is because I get so lonesome here without anywhere to go and she is going to Greenville to live soon and I didn’t want to stop off and make her mad when her going away would end the whole thing pleasantly. I’d give anything in the world if I had never gone to see the girl but now since I have and everybody has started talking about it I hate to stop and make her feel bad. I wouldn’t mind their talking because it’s natural for folks to gossip, but they say such awful things and then deny it all as soon as I ask them about it. Kate you must know that I care more for you than I do for the girl or for every other woman in the world and if it didn’t seem so to you when you were here it was just my bad luck that made it look that way and not because I intended it. Just give me one more chance even if you don’t think I deserve it. You talk about drinking the water at the Mizell’s, the next time you come you are coming here because you have already promised that you and Little Sister and Gregory would be Mog’s guests for the Christmas Dance. And then if you want to spend a few days with Evie I’ll bring you a flask full of water every time I come and I’ll guarantee I’ll come so often you’ll not get thirsty if you do get bored to death. Please keep on drinking a plenty of water and stay fat till Thanksgiving for I want a fat picture. Carolina is making a mighty poor showing against the little teams she is playing but I hope they will improve. Some of Mog’s New York friends want her to come up there in November and if she does she will come from there and meet us in Richmond, otherwise she will go to Halifax Tuesday and I’ll join you all Wednesday and all the judges and the prisoner will go up together. And talk about model prisoners. I’ll bet there never has been such a good one. I am afraid my old friends won’t recognize me. All the boys are off this week on a hunting trip and I am here taking charge of Burges’ business. I didn’t know I had such a hard working brother before. I have been up since five this morning working like a nigger and, funny part of it, I honestly believe it agrees with me. It surely agrees with my appetite and Mog has changed the cook’s orders for tomorrow. I was glad to get the clipping and see how rich I am going to be when I get to be a Cattle King. I am going to raise cattle and this time really and truly believe myself when I say I am. So Evie is in Selma with Mattie. I haven’t seen any of the family since you were here except to talk with Lala a little at a dance the other night, and I understood her to say that Evie was at school in Raleigh. I don’t guess Lala knew where she was. I don’t thank Col. Bingham a bit for trying to get you up there to meet his Army Officer but do think his way of informing you of his marriage was much better than an old friend of mine who sent me an invitation yesterday calling for a present. Did you ever find the poem the Col. wrote about you? I would give anything to see it. What was it, a love lyric or sonnet or just a “pome”? If you have really got it please let me read it. You promised to let me read some paper you wrote on some historical research work you had done but never have sent it to me. I’m glad you are not going to let the DARs send you to New Orleans, you can do them so much more good at home and you want to save your money to bet on Carolina. How much have you got up on the World Championship Series? Hope you are not betting on my side ‘cause my luck is off just now. Lou took all the kids over to see Pattie yesterday and it is certainly lonesome without them. Rat and I used to have some long conversations about my girl. Kate please write to me as soon as you can. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [October 11, 1913] [Halifax] My dear Alex: – I’ll vow that this paper is simply scandalous and I had no idea of writing to you again till I got some better, but like it was the last time, this is the best I can afford. I asked Papa to bring me some today and this is a sample of it. Whether he was broke or whether this is his taste is more than I can say, but I prefer your thinking he was broke. Judging him at a distance by his selection of this, I don’t think you would enjoy even the one squint at him that you wanted Fletcher to get at Zeke. It’s raining like cats and dogs or I would go down town and spend some of my pitiful dimes and buy better. That reminds me of your asking me how much I had saved to bet on Carolina. I had to laugh when I read it for I calculate each day on each article I buy and see what I can do without, thereby saving a dollar toward my Richmond trip. I am scared to death about our team but I am for N.C. just the same and ‘spect to keep my colors flying. I hope Miss Margaret will take her New York trip but I don’t want it to conflict with us. I wrote you our plans for her coming up Tuesday night so that we could go up on a train Wednesday that puts us in Richmond about two o’clock, if we decide we want to go there, but I left you out as we had already discussed our plans down there and I knew that you knew you were more than welcome to come with her. ‘Course I’m not going to visit you up here again ‘cause I said I wont and can’t afford to tell my first story. We could give you a plenty to eat and your house is full of company (which it usually is), we’ll see that the hotel folks treat you white. We can go on # 80 Wednesday and get there about eight or eight-thirty and meet you here and wait to have the pictures made another time. That would just suit my pocketbook for I don’t think I could have them made on Thanksgiving Day. I looked for my love lyric but can’t find it. The last time I remember anything about it was when I sent it to my would-be (but not liked-to-have-been) mother-in-law in the western part of the state and I don’t think she returned it. I am enclosing a copy of his Pants-Fisherman which he sent me the other day as an inducement to go up there. You can return it when you write again. You should be here tonight to hear your “pink of perfection” (Little Sister) fuss. She had a letter from one of her suitors yesterday from Greensboro saying he was on his way to see her and would get here Sunday, and one from her Sunday best saying he would be here Saturday. She swears she is going to telegraph the Greensboro guy not to come but she doesn’t know where he is. I want to be under the sofa when she lies to both of them. I’ll bet she will be equal to the occasion – what do you think of it? Yes. Evie is in Selma and going to school in Raleigh at the same time. She goes up twice a week to “take voice” – home studying. We had a card from Evie today begging us to go to the fair but I don’t think we can. I would love to be there tomorrow to see Annie Russell. I am simply wild to see Billie Burke but I never do know that she is going to Richmond or Norfolk till she has come and gone. I know you are a picture hard at work and I would give a whole lot to see you at it. I know Miss Margaret has a time feeding you. Make her cook you a pot of Brunswick stew for being so smart. And listen, don’t you say anything to Miss Margaret about my saying we were going to be her guests Xmas for if I said it, I was only joking. In the first place, it’s polite to wait till you are invited by the hostess before you narrate the fact that you are going to accept if you are invited, and then I know that there are lots of others that she prefers having, so just don’t say anything to her. I appreciate your wanting us just the same. I don’t think we’ll go, anyway, this Xmas. We can go every summer and that will be often enough. Another thing, Mrs. Nowell will be there Xmas and of course she doesn’t want a crowd around and then that young lady from Windsor just keeps me disgusted and mad all the time; so, taking all things into consideration, I reckon home is the best place for us. The girls are coming up here Xmas (I suppose). You never can tell what they are going to do. Aunt Susie had a letter from Henry today (from Jef. Med. in Philadelphia) and he said that the whole city had gone mad over the games. Hope you lost every cent you bet on them – if it must conflict with our trip. I’m getting mean now, so I’m going to stop before I say something real worse. I stayed with a friend of mine last night and we fought one mosquito till two o’clock. That sounds foolish but we would lie down and when he would start to singing we would jump up and light the lamp and by that time he would be gone and we would lie back down. Finally at two we murdered him and not until then did we close our eyes. I reckon you can guess how I feel. Little Sister says to give you her love and to tell you she loves you just as good as ever. I haven’t finished my paper yet because I will have to go to the library in Chapel Hill for some of my references. I don’t want some Virginia writer to come down here and tear me to pieces until I know for a fact what I am writing about – will let you read it, though. I am booked for a paper on “Gov. White and His Grand-Daughter” to be read at our next DAR meeting, but they are not closely enough associated to be written up in the same paper and I am cussing the crowd for forcing me to either make a mess of one paper by writing it too long or writing it in two papers. Everything we know about Virginia Dare is tradition while Gov. White’s history is true, and how to condense it as it should be is a job I don’t want to put before critics. Little Sister says she would be ashamed to write any man as long a letter as this and if she is calling a halt, it is time for me to stop. Goodnight. Pleasant dreams. With every good wish, I remain, Most sincerely yours, Kate Friday night. [October 13, 1913] [Written on stationery from: Edward L. Travis Attorney at Law Halifax, N. C.] My dear Alex: – I know you never wrote to me or to anybody else on such sporty paper as this and while you really got yours first, still, I don’t feel at all bad about it for mine is so far superior to yours. I am with Mrs. Travis tonight and this is all she has. Honestly, though, I’m going to do better next time or not write at all. Well, I’m not surprised at all that you won on the World’s Series and that my wishing for you to lose had no effect on your luck. Carolina won from South Carolina Saturday but she hasn’t played Virginia yet. I know I would have a fit if she should win in Richmond Thanksgiving but I am afraid to even think of such luck. I reckon I had better hope against her. What do you think of it? I wish I could have been to Miss Margaret’s Bacon Fry for I know you all had a dandy time. You all have the best time down there all the time. We are supposed to have lots of good times here but we really don’t enjoy what we do. They are all in the society stunt here and Mrs. Smith doesn’t speak to Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Jones is just a little better than Mrs. Brown till the whole affair is stiff from beginning to end. We really have one very pleasant club here where everybody has a good, easy time, but, with that exception, there’s not much to our fun. There are not enough young people to have a real picnic and enjoy it so we have to depend on Club life for entertainment. You are so good to want us to go down there Xmas and to say that I had made a winning with your red-headed members, but don’t you say a single word to Miss Margaret about having us for, of course, she would invite most anybody you asked her to whether she really wanted them or not. I know how sisters do for I have a brother and would ask any of his friends to see me if he especially wanted them, provided there was no reason why I shouldn’t have them. I’m so glad you told me what Dr. Whitehead said about the little Miss Fenner for it would be terrible for me to think that a single soul thought I wasn’t beautiful – wouldn’t I be glad if I had never seen a mirror! Well, Gov. White is Lock Craig’s first cousin and will run for Governor next time; but in case you want to hear something of him before voting time, so that you will be justified in voting for him, I will send you my paper when I finish with it. I know it’s going to be a wonder for I haven’t even written one word of it and I will have to read it Thursday. This has been such a lonely week I have just been on the go. I went to Weldon every day and every night this week. Mr. Travis or Mrs. Gregory would carry us in their car in the day and Fletcher or Louis Froelich at night. I am just tickled to death for we held an election here Saturday to vote for good roads in Halifax Township and it was carried with only four opposing. At the same time Mr. Daniel carried his bill in the Legislature providing for the roads to be kept up by the Caledonia convicts. Enfield is going to vote for them next and then we can just fly. By the way, when are we going to get our car? I haven’t learned how to run one yet. Well, Little Sister’s Greensboro beau came last Saturday and I am glad she didn’t telegraph him for he was just loaded with fruits and new books. The other one came yesterday and I suppose one of them is “dead to her” – it would take a Philadelphia lawyer to find out which one, though. I thought Friday that I would be in Chapel Hill tonight but it rained today and I couldn’t go. Mr. Travis had to go back to Raleigh and was going to take us in his car if it hadn’t rained. I wasn’t at all crazy about going anyway. I fully intended writing to you Friday but I felt so bad I just couldn’t think. I started to write and wrote a page but I decided you wouldn’t write to me if you felt so bad, so I threw what I wrote into the waste basket. I feel perfectly dreadful tonight but I will be better tomorrow. I know so I’m not going to dose up. Must stop and dress up a little. Write to me real soon and tell me all the news. With every good wish, I remain, Most sincerely yours Kate Sunday night. [November 3, 1913] [Halifax] My dear Alex: – I never was very enthusiastic about writing to anybody when I didn’t know when they would get the letter, but you said you were going to send for the mail so I’m going to try to have you a letter there when you send the first time. I was sorry about your last letter but I did my best. Usually, I get up at eight in the morning and run down and mail your letters when I wait till bed time to write to you – (think how much you should appreciate them) – but that morning Mama failed to wake me till ‘twas too late for me to dress. I gave the letter to the boy to carry down, but he didn’t get there in time for your mail, as I found out before you sent the post mark. You are mighty particular about proving the things that don’t amount to anything. I certainly was distressed about your having a chill for I know too well how they serve me. I am adding another petition to my prayers that you’ll not have another chill to break up your hunt. You certainly chose ideal weather for your trip and the moon is lovely. We went to Weldon in Fletcher’s car last night and I thought of you all coming back – and going too – when I saw the moon. I tried to make a wish but we didn’t have any silver money so I’m afraid it won’t come true. I hope you will kill your twelve deer and three bears and more besides. They have killed several deer here and we have been fortunate enough to get some twice. And, what do you think – the clock man has been out hunting and has killed a whole heap of birds and because I didn’t let him come around the last time he was here he sent them to Aunt Susie (where he knew I would hear of them) and didn’t send me one. Some kinder mean – don’t you think so? Mama and Little Sister always have lots of fun over me when he is here, but they have exceeded the limit this time and actually think they tease me. You were mighty good to say that my paper was well written, but I am bound to say that I doubt your veracity on that point. I didn’t even have time to write what I thought I would. (Like a dunce) I forgot to take notes when I was reading it first, and when I did get ready to write what I had scribbled down the night before, I suddenly became aware of the fact that I didn’t have the memory that I thought I had and some of my main thoughts had taken flight. I remembered them, or some of them, on the way to the meeting, however, and I read a whole lot off that paper that wasn’t on it. I want you to either burn it or send it to me just as soon as you get home. I thank you so much for your kind offer to help us build the John Paul Jones’ Home and you needn’t be at all surprised if we take you up on the proposition for we need all the help we can get. All the men here are laughing at us for paying so much for it, but we have met and elected our trustees and will make our first payment December the first. Will Fenner thinks Congress will appropriate a sum to reclaim it but we are working hard just the same. I too am sorry that I didn’t mention the Ladies’ apartment before but you all can just take your spare time while down there and add to the house and we will go next time. Honestly, that has always appealed to me as being an ideal trip – camping out – and I intend getting up a party next fall and trying it. I am sorry about your hand and do hope it’s well now. I burned my little finger on my right hand and it hurts like the mischief to write tonight. I think we had better open a hospital for broken up hands. I wrote a note to Miss Margaret last week and asked her to let us know her plans for Richmond, but she hasn’t had time to answer yet. I am distressed over our prospects but maybe luck with be with Carolina once Georgia beat her Saturday but, as I said, Virginia hasn’t played with her this year. I haven’t heard from Billie since I sent his candy but I owed him a letter before and I suppose he still thinks I must write to him (which I shall) before he writes again. Em wrote Little Sister that he didn’t write to Anna May anymore. I’m glad of it, between you and me, and what he ever wrote to her for is more than I can see. I know you are tired of this scribble so I’m going to stop. The pen is terrible and my finger is terribler. Write to me real soon and let me know that the snakes and bears haven’t eaten you up. You’d better say dry too if you don’t want to die with pneumonia. With every good wish, I remain Most sincerely yours, Kate [November 9, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – I have enjoyed this week more than any since you were here last and I attribute at least half of the pleasure to your letter. I was half afraid you wouldn’t write as I was going to be away and was dreading a whole week without a letter from you but I sent a boy out and got my reward. It was certainly good of you to write and your letter added more genuine pleasure to my stay than all the shooting I had. We surely had a pretty week for hunting and had lots of sport. I didn’t kill the dozen deer and three bears but I did manage to miss one big buck. However, I beat the crowd on turkeys. I didn’t have another chill, I don’t know whether it was because I was having so much fun or the quinine that I threw over my left shoulder and didn’t look back. I certainly wish we could get a crowd and go camping (a crowd minus Mrs. Nowell), and if it didn’t seem that all our camping plans come to naught I would be ready to start making plans right now. I stayed up at the depot till late this afternoon trying to hear from the Carolina – Washington-Lee game but we are in such an out-of-the-way place we never can hear anything till it’s stale. Now if we had sixteen trains a day like Halifax we could see the scores in an Evening Paper. Today’s Pilot said Carolina had some new men in the line-up who had been out on account of the five months rule. I hope they are good ones. I am afraid Carolina’s chances Thanksgiving are about like the proverbial snowball’s, but any way we’ll see it and be very conservative about betting. Mog has finally decided on the New York trip and will meet us in Richmond. She leaves on the 12th and will see the Yale-Princeton Foot Ball Game. I wish we were going to New York with her. I think I could sit a week in a theatre without moving. Lewis and Sallie came over the other afternoon and when they went away I opened the gate for them and coming to the house I saw the new moon and made a wish too. Mine came true all right, for it was for your letter. I hate to see these beautiful moonlight nights come, for I know you are out automobiling every night and I don’t like to hear about that ‘cause you might take cold. Tom Cobb and I are going up to Jackson tomorrow to see Ed Cobb. That is, we are going to start on a Lewiston automobile – some predict that we will get as far as Kelford. All of the young crowd have been blue lately about Whit Spivey. He has been sick for two or three months and the doctors here have been treating him for Malaria but he went to Norfolk the other day and Payne pronounced it Tuberculosis. He looks mighty badly and I am afraid he will die soon if he stays here. He is living in a tent but I don’t think that will help much in this climate. I know I’d die in a week if anybody even looked like they thought I had it. I got an invitation to Boots Green’s marriage to Miss Baker. I have been wondering if you are to take part in it or has your friendship kinder died out. I also got an invite to Miss Blade’s marriage to Robinson. Last year Don Gilliam and George Thomas and I had her private car and chauffeur in Richmond but I guess we’ll have to hire a taxicab this time. I am going to mail this letter in Kelford tomorrow, not that I think you are in a hurry to get it but I am in such a hurry to get an answer. Please write real soon. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [November 19, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – I am writing to you at 5 A.M. just before going hunting so you must excuse what you can’t read. I don’t know what to say about the Richmond trip except that if you don’t go I’ll not have no good time even if Carolina should slip up and win. I hope Little Sister will stick to me and make you go anyway. As you say, I don’t understand your reasons for not going but I know you well enough to know you have a reason and a very sensible one. However if there is anything I can do that will persuade you to go I’ll gladly do it. I wish Mog had waited on the New York trip. If you don’t want to go up alone I will come by Halifax and Mog can find the way all right. So far as that’s concerned Mog can stop in Suffolk as she doesn’t care a thing about the game and was only going because I insisted. We could find a chaperone among the Halifax crowd. Mog’s address is: 283 Laurel Avenue Bridgeport, Connecticut c/o Mrs. Vance Shearer Write to me as soon as you find out for certain about going. Must stop as I am about to freeze. With all my thoughts I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [late November, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – I trust that you and Little Sister have arrived safely in Halifax and gotten your nerves straightened out after the excitement of the game. I have been through many things but never had any thing play on my nerves as that game did. And the worst of it is I can’t get over it, last night, all night long, it was Carolina’s ball on Virginia’s two yard line. I think if I had to watch another one real soon I’d die. I sent a Richmond paper as I thought the write-up was good and didn’t know whether you would see it or not. I left Richmond Friday morning at nine and got home that night. Everything was very quiet Thursday night, especially after all the Carolina trains left. I think there was three times as many Carolina folks in Richmond as Virginians. I know that I have never enjoyed any trip in my life as much as this one. Of course it was good to see my old college mates again and then to have you with me was enough to make it a real heaven on earth. And to get the picture and be with you, if for so short a time, were worth a trip to Europe. Mog writes that she will be with you Tuesday night. I am going to wire her to bring you and Little Sister home with her if Kate “does go wild.” I am not going to write more tonight as I have so many things to do but will write a long letter next time. Please write to me jut as soon as you can. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [late November, 1913] [Halifax] My dear Alex: – I have felt something like I imagine one would feel when they get ready to “say something” all tonight for I waited till now to write to you and just at dark Nell and Dr. Powell rode up to take supper; so now I’m writing at midnight. I’m kinder glad though after all, for I suppose you are at home at this hour – and not out calling. I haven’t enjoyed our Sunday night chats at all lately for I don’t want to be talking to you (if it is on paper) while you are talking to someone else. I was some kinder glad to get the paper today with the Woodville post-mark for I was very unsettled in my mind as to where you were. Course I knew you were all right where ever you were ‘cause you had promised to be, but still I believe I prefer your being at home after the game. Alex I just wish I knew how to tell you what a perfectly grand trip we had and how we appreciate everything you did for our pleasure, but when I try to tell you words fail me, so I’m just going to say again, “Thank you.” Honestly, it was the trip of my life and it was all due to your goodness, for you were good – weren’t you? And you shall have the much-talked-of pictures too. All of them if you want them for they are going to be perfect frights, I’m afraid. The proofs came today and two of them are awful. I didn’t expect them to be pretty, of course, but I know that I’m not as ugly as that man made me. One of them is good enough to tell who it is and that’s all I can say for it. I felt too miserable Thanksgiving to even think of having a picture made and really hoped that you would forget it and I would have some made in Norfolk before Xmas if I go, but you remembered and I had to keep my word. I wasn’t well when I went up but knew if I didn’t do too much stirring around that I would get along all right; but guess the loss of the night’s sleep and excitement were too much for me – for my looks at least. I’ll send this proof up in the morning and if you’ll continue to be good I’ll go to a real, sho-nuff artist and have a pretty one made a soon as I can. Don’t laugh at the idea of anybody making a pretty picture of me, please. Well, I’m simply crazy over football, Alex, and I never expect to miss another game till I’m dead with old age. That was the first game I ever saw played between the two Universities and I just know that our team is going to win next time. I do wish I could get our boys some blankets like the Virginia boys had for I think it’s a shame for them to have to wrap up in just anything while the Virginia boys have their sporty orange and blue blankets. Isn’t there some way we could get them? If just one hundred and fifty of the Alumni would give a dollar each we could just about get them. I would work for them if I could get anybody to help me for (I say again) I’ve gone crazy about the game. Richmond for me next Thanksgiving! But we’re not going as we did this time. We’re going to get us a nice crowd or party and go up and not worry a single boy by having to look after us. We will get somebody to carry us out to the game but we decided this time that it was a shame to make you, or any boy, take his time up in looking after and being with girls when they could be with their old friends. It was a pleasure to sit in the balcony and watch the boys meet again. Little Sister said she enjoyed watching you meet your friends as much as she did anything else. We got home all right Thursday night and I was asleep at ten-thirty. (I don’t believe I ever would have slept in that fine room you had for us up there.) Papa met us in Weldon all right so we got home safe and sound. Someone met Miss Margaret in Petersburg. I sent for the day coach conductor to come back to see me and I smiled and frowned at him too, trying to make him stop the train here, but he said it wasn’t in his power to do so. I had a letter from Miss Margaret this morning and she is coming by to see us Tuesday afternoon. I am crazy about her (and it’s not because she is a red-headed Urquhart, either) but I do sincerely wish she didn’t have that name. She asked me to call her by her name but I know I’ll think lots more of her if I don’t hear her name to constantly remind me of some one else that I don’t think quite so much of, so I’m going to call her Mog if it’s just the same thing to her. I am a dunce. Ain’t I? Our little club meets Wednesday and I think I shall have a little “to do” Wednesday night for her. You can come up if you want to but I shan’t invite you. She is going from here to Mrs. Whitehead’s to the family reunion dinner next Sunday. I hope you’ll eat enough turkey. Tell Rat I say I think he ought to have invited me down to help him eat his. We had four people from the Choir in the Episcopal Church in Scotland Neck to help sing and they certainly did sound good. They came up in the car with the preacher and the Episcopalians tried to make them stay over, but they couldn’t. It’s near ‘bout day and I’m going to stop for this time. Am going to send the picture just as soon as it comes. And let me tell you something. I was some kinder hacked when I walked out there before you in that picture regalia. The man gave me the waist and the drapery to put on as I wanted it and told me to come on in the room when I was ready and I naturally thought the front room was the room. I didn’t take time to take off the waist I had on (as you observed) and just let it drop and put the other on. I could have half killed you when you laughed at me too. I reckon that’s the reason the picture looks so comical. Write to me real soon. With every good wish, I remain, Most sincerely yours Kate Sunday night [November 30, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – Your best letter in all the world came Monday. It was right funny that while you were writing to me Sunday night and accusing me of being out calling I was sitting right here writing to you. I wanted to write to you Saturday night and mail it in Kelford Sunday but was so sleepy I couldn’t so I had to wait until Sunday night and then I hadn’t gotten over the excitement of the game well enough to write a sho nuff letter. That game nearly ran me crazy. Carolina put up the gamest fight I ever saw her and if luck had broken our way I think we might have won. Every alumnus I saw was tickled to death with the show we made and all of them think Carolina has at last gotten on the right road. Virginia draws from all the big prep schools in Virginia and Carolina too so we have just got to make our team out of the Freshmen and Soph class and that’s what the present coaching system is trying to do. I am just bound to win some Virginia money next year. I think you and I have found out just exactly what Carolina needs – you say blankets and I say an experienced quarterback. If you’ll send that brother of yours up there and make a quarter of out him I guarantee the team shall have some blankets if I have to buy them. Why certainly we are going to see the game next year. I wouldn’t sell my privilege of going to Richmond next Thanksgiving for one thousand bucks tonight. We will have to make our arrangements next time so as to get in Richmond Wednesday afternoon and go to the theatre. Everybody said “Peg O’My Heart” was fine. We will have a big time planning our trip for next year and everything has got to work according to the plans. I am sorry you didn’t like the proofs. He must be a bum photographer for I thought you were beautiful that morning. I’ll bet the pictures will be beautiful and even if they are not good pictures I had rather have mine than any thing in the world – and then when you go to Norfolk you have promised to have another made. I guess Mog is with you tonight and that she will enjoy seeing you again. I hope while she is there you all will arrange another trip somewhere and let me go along, only let’s stay a while longer next time for I didn’t see you hardly any this time. Whenever you decide to go anywhere and will let me go I will promise to be some kinder good. I hope Mog will make you come over to Whitehead’s Sunday. Pattie has told me lots of times that she wanted to have you over and I can’t even enjoy turkey unless you are there. Kate please come. They say the roads are fine from Halifax there. I went hunting today to try to kill a turkey for Buck Jones (the one who sent Mog the candy) and killed two but they were small and I don’t think I’ll send them. Mrs. Nowell has bought her a gun and asked me to take her hunting but I think the temptation to shoot her instead of the birds would be too great. I’ll stop now. Please come over to Whitehead’s and write to me right away. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [December 11, 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – I wanted to write to you last night but was sick. I guess it was cause I ate so much over at Pattie’s. Barbecue always kills me but it was so good I even had to give up turkey for it and consequently have been sho nuff sick. I thought Pattie gave us good things to eat but Mog said “’Twont nothing” to what she had at Kate’s so you must have had a feast for fare. Honestly Mog has talked more about her stay with you than she has about her trip to New York and I believe she really enjoyed it more. The first thing Mog told me was that you had sent me some candy and I was some kinder mad when I found that I had passed right by it in the trunk in Kelford. However it was a good scheme not to let Rat get a chance at it but I hated to have to wait so long to get it. It was the best candy I ever tasted and would have been that anyway even if it hadn’t been half so good, cause you made it. I allowed the family one piece around and Charles Jr. a half piece and I took the rest. They called me greedy and selfish and everything else but I couldn’t help it. Kate, Please make me some more sometime. I know I was the happiest human being on earth when Mog told me you and Little Sister were coming over New Year’s. According to your instructions I hadn’t said a word about your coming to Mog but if she hadn’t arranged some plans with you about coming I wouldn’t never had nothing to do with her no more. I am going to do some praying that nothing will happen to keep you from coming and you pray too. I am afraid they are not going to have the masquerade on account of Whit’s illness but we’ll have a little dance and anything else you say if you will just come. As you say it looks rather peculiar to go in mourning for Whit this soon but the community has so few young folks his being sick has kinder thrown a damper over the whole bunch. But there’s so much to do in Woodville besides dance. Come prepared to stay at least a month. Have you ever decided about going to Norfolk before Xmas? I don’t guess there’s breathing room in any of the shops. If you do go be sure to find that real artist and have my Norfolk picture taken. The proof was mighty pretty but not one millionth as pretty as you were that morning. I am getting mighty impatient waiting for my Richmond picture. I am crazy about your blanket scheme for Carolina especially the trip to New York part of it. I’ll swear I’ll be good. We will plan our trip to the mountains for next Summer while you are here. I had rather go to the Sea Shore but any place you say suits me and I know it’s easier to be good in the mountains. For God’s sake don’t let anything happen to keep you from coming New Year’s. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex [December 1913] [Woodville] My dear Kate – I have wanted to write to you all this week but have had eight separate and distinct cases of pneumonia and am not well yet. I know what made me sick, it was your talking about you might not come over here. I believe I did tell a story about coming to Halifax from Whitehead’s but that was due to unavoidable circumstances and now the only way for you to get even is to tell a little story too and come over an stay a month. Then each of us will have told a story and then we will start all over in the pursuit of Truth. Sho nuff Kate for God’s sake don’t talk about not coming, for you have already promised Mog and it would be worse to break a promise than to tell a little story. Tell Little Sister I say bring you. I was some kinder tickled when I got her letter and heard about the clock man’s marriage. But it was a shame that he didn’t wait till after Xmas for he always gave you such useful presents. I’ll tell you what I want you to make for me, make me a great long Xmas letter. Kate please don’t wait any time to write for I have got to leave on Friday for the Club House and will have to send a man out every night till your letter comes. Please write to me so I’ll get it on Thursday and tell me you are coming New Year’s. If you don’t I’ll not have no good time at all on the hunt. We are counting on having about thirty down at the camp and among them Mr. Bowers, the Treasurer of your County. I am going to endeavor to run away with some of Halifax County’s money. Dave Robertson is going down as John’s guest. Billie came yesterday, some sport with his English clothes. He says he is going to stay over a few days if you and Little Sister come. Father Buffet is here today and tonight he baptized Evie and Lalla Mizell. Very impressive ceremony, both of them arrayed in white according to Mrs. Nowell’s instructions. I think it was some kinder mean of you to make some candy and not send me a bit. It wouldn’t have been so bad if you hadn’t given me a taste of your candy after Thanksgiving. Now I can’t think about it without nearly going crazy for some more. What ever became of my Richmond picture? I have been looking for it every day. Kate if he hasn’t sent them please write to him cause I want mine right now. I have had a nice job all this afternoon packing up Xmas presents for the Family to send off. That ain’t any worse than washing your hair on Sunday though, is it? I won’t write more tonight cause I will see you Thursday week, won’t I? Kate, please, if you want to do a real good Christian deed, come. Please, Please, Please, write me a Xmas letter. With all my thoughts – I remain – Most sincerely yours – Alex File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie/history/letters/urquhart228gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 44.9 Kb