Grandview, Mo.
July 17, 1911
Dear Bessie:
I brought the boy home with me and he is having a bully time, as Theodore would say. I have been playing boy with him ever since we arrived. We put up a kite and had a real good time. It seems funny to have a kid around. Papa was so tickled I thought he'd go up when he saw Robert. I suppose we'll spoil him completely. If Ruth hadn't promised he could come, I think she'd have gone back and kept him at home. Ruth game me his photo too and it's nearly as fine as the other one. None could be really as fine. I have some of those tin soldier pictures yet and if you could care for a cat chaser I'll send you one.
Nellie and Ethel went with me to Aunt Emma's, and Myra said she never was more glad to see anyone because she'd have an excellent excuse to say home from church. It is really "scanluss" the way people like to stay away from church, I guess that is the reason we are having a drought.
I told Ruth to tell Houch if he called up that I had taken Nellie to the Empress. You'd have thought we'd been there if you could have seen the stylish and refined bunch we came home with. It nearly made me tipsy to breathe in the car. I never did know that Independence could boast of so many beer-drinking ladies. We caught the farm aunt crowd. If anything on earth is disgusting, it is the odor of stale beer and limburger cheese or any other booze combination. People who go to amusement parks on Sunday try to tell me that the nicest people go, but they don't look good to me even if they are the nicest. I am not what you'd call rankly religious (you really would not think I had any religion if you'd hear me address a cranky mule or an obstreperous calf) but I don't like Sunday baseball or other form of rowdyism on that day.
I can't write you a nicely worded letter somehow. The wheels won't turn good. But if you'll consider that you owe me a letter now I'll try to do better. Mary Colgan has decided to stay a week. So I guess she's not angry at Mary and me for running away when she came. I shall look for you to come out in that auto soon, and when the [illegible] come again I hope you will go with me to a game.
Sincerely, Harry