Grandview, Mo.
February 16, 1911
Dear Bessie,
I caught the train I was after Tuesday night. I got off at Sheffield and walked about a mile and a half north to Air Line Junction. I was scared to an icicle almost, but it was all for nothing. I didn't even see a hobo. You know not so long ago a man was held up on the Kansas City Southern tracks right where I had to go. They made him exchange clothes and then knocked him on the head for luck. I would not mind the knock on the head so much but I certainly wouldn't enjoy the other. I am not going where I'll even get knocked in the head though if I know it.
I certainly did enjoy myself Tuesday night. That stew couldn't be beat. You know I have always had a kind of a desire to be a chafing dish artist, but I never even had the dish. Ethel had one you know and I got so I could make fudge on it. Farmers have no use for chafing dishes. They have to plow, put up hay, and trade horses.
A fellow traded me a horse yesterday. That is, he parted me from a hundred dollars and I have a horse. You know horse trading is the cause of the death of truth in America. When you go to buy they'll tell you anything on earth to get your money. You simply have to use your own judgment, if you have any. I haven't much but I think I got my money's work. Can't tell though until I work him a few days.
A neighbor of ours once had a sale of his furniture and stock. He had a great may horses and some that were no good. He had one that was probably an octogenarian in the horse world. He was very aged anyway. This horse he wanted to sell to a poor lame man who had tried to by it before the sale. So he took a quart of bad whiskey and soaked the poor lame one and then told him he wasn't going to put the horse up. Well that fellow begged so hard that the horse was sold to him for $170. Just about $100 more than it was worth. The owner had a "buy bidder" to run him up. So that between the booze and the bidder he was mulcted for $100. O he' the honest farmer. I have found that they sell gold bricks now. That is what rural delivery and party-line phones have done for our uplift.
I am not a pessimist though. There are some honest ones and they are always well thought of even by the crooks. They are always the last ones you get acquainted with too.
We have moved around quite a bit and always the best people are the hardest to know. I don't know why that is either.
My ink is in the same condition as yours. Mary has ordered ink for the last half-dozen times. I have been where it can be bought. But I can never remember it until I go to write. I sincerely hope you forgive this excuse for a letter. You know I am somewhat behind on sleep and the wheels that constitute my brain refuse to run smoothly and therefore I cannot write a decent letter. When a person has hired help he has to be up and thinking all the time to keep them busy as well as be busy himself all the time. If they can draw your money and do nothing, they are all willing to do it. I know because I've been there myself. You've probably heard of George Ade's man who bothered the directors so much for more money that they made him a director, and he was the best man to browbeat the clerks in the whole establishment ever after.
That's usually the case. It's all a matter of viewpoint. A man's might lucky if he has two.
I am not going to bore you any longer. I hope you answer it though.
Most sincerely,
Harry