Sunday A.M.
12:05 o’clock.

My dearest Sweetheart:

Although it is five minutes past Saturday night (I did intend to write you “last nite”), I will say Hello-o.”

In the first place, I’m terribly tickled. Claudelle caught a ride and has been here for the past few hours. She is in bed now, so I think we will be in Dreamland soon. I’ll write some more later, but I had better get some sleep now.

I love you worlds, Sweetheart. Bless your heart!

Goodnight and sweet dreams.

Always, your
Ina.

October 4, 1925 (Ina)

Sunday Nite
Oct. 4, 1925.

My dearest Walter:

She has come and gone. Dr. Donaldson, (she’s a “Miss”) a friend of ours in San Antonio, was coming out in her car yesterday evening, so she asked Claudelle and Lucille to come with her. Of course they were more than glad to do it, and we were glad too. They returned this afternoon about 4:30 and we all felt so good that we had seen them. This doctor, a young lady a little older than I, lives next door to C. & L. and has been mighty nice to them since they have been there. We surely do appreciate it too. You would think from the way the girls acted when they came home that they had been away three years instead of three weeks. They are both like babies when it comes to staying away from home. However, after their visit today, and after relieving their “system” of all the things they wanted to tell us, I think they have gone back satisfied. Claudelle likes all her work and all her teachers, so I think she will get along fine. Outside of her studies, she has two hours work in the office every day every week, and all day Saturday and Sunday every other week. We were afraid at first that it was too much but she says not. She likes it all. She sends her sisterly love to you.

Your “Dr. White” letter came yesterday, and I am glad you wrote me what you did. It often helps lots fo express one’s feelings, and, too, I am especially glad that you feel free to express them to me. You know that I am as deeply interested as anyone can possibly be, and am anxious for you to tell me. I am glad that you are handling Dr. White as you are, and it is certainly nothing but right that the credit be placed where it rightfully belongs. I’m glad you are standing up for your rights because that is the surest and often the only way to get them. Each person naturally understands his own case better than anyone else does, and is more capable and naturally more interested in securing due credit. No doubt Dr. White feels that it should all be coming his way thru habit and on general principles. I sincerely hope you can prove to him that he is wrong – that someone else in the world has ideas that are worth while besides himself. Best luck in the world to you! I’m with you.

Your real estate letter came this morning on my way to Sunday school, and I was very much interested in it. I have thought about it a lot today, and, since you wanted my opinion, here it is: really and truly, Sweetheart, it seems to me to be rather a big investment in addition to that which you already have. Don’t you think so? Of course you intended selling the lot at Fulford before purchasing this, but, even at that, this would be a larger investment, especially when you consider the rather heavy expense of improving it to the extent that you mentioned. Of course, Dear, the boom that is on down there now may last forever, and then again it may not, and they often do not, you know. I know it would be mighty fine to own quite a bit of real estate and then be able to sell it when prices are soaring, but it doesn’t always happen that way. I have known of a number of cases where it didn’t and it was pretty bad. You see, you are down there where everyone is boosting – boosting just as hard as they can, and where the real estate agencies are at their busiest. They employ people who are able to talk to a person, and, no matter how conservative he is and how good his judgement is, he is finally convinced that the best thing in the world for him to do is to invest. And it is mighty quick easy money when it hits and it often does, but there is also a good chance to lose. I believe in investing some and taking a chance on some, because if we want to be “dead sure” about everything we undertake, we certainly don’t accomplish anything. But, Dear, it is so easy to plunge too deeply when you are constantly surounded by boosters. I know that you are not of the disposition to be easily influenced, but I have known others who were very conservative to have regrets, after it was too late, that they had yielded one time too many. You don’t know how glad I am that you are interested in real estate because I am too. I am sure you are going to make something out of some of it. That is about the best way I know to accumulate something. When we have some particular place to put our money when we make it, and some particular object in view, we are sure to accumulate a great deal more than if we had nothing substantial in which to invest. However, even in our family for the past few years, we have experienced the great uncertainty and anxiety of having everything tied up in property which we were unable to “cash in” for quite a while. It is a pretty miserable feeling when it lasts long. Of course, at the time, Papa was unable to work, and practically everything he has made since we have been in Texas has been on real estate. He is conservative too, but has come very near investing too much several times. Of course, Dear, you are making a good salary now, and are able to keep up the payments, but (and I am not out looking for calamity) suppose something should happen that you were not able to keep up all the payments, and, at the same time, the boom would get “off,” then the mental anxiety and anguish would come and the loss would be great. I believe I would rather stand a chance of having less than to stand the chance of losing all. I realize that you are living where everything is very much alive, and I am living where everything is considered very much dead, but, between the two extremes, I believe we will be able to strike a happy medium on opinions. Sweetheart, sometimes don’t you think it would be wise to sell some of the property that you now have at a good profit and apply that on the balance that is unpaid on the others? In that way, you would not stand a chance to make quite as much if prices continued to increase, but still you would at least be safe on what you had, and also stand a chance to make a great deal without much effort. This principle of “Safety First” may not apply to things down there now. Of course I don’t know just how things are but you asked for my opinion and I didn’t want to pretend to believe one way when I really believed the contrary. Sweetheart, please don’t misunderstand this letter by feeling that I am speaking with too much authority, and trying to manage your business. I am not, and don’t mean it that way at all. I expect you to use your judgement in the matter, but I gave my opinion as per your request. Mine may be wrong – it often is – but I have given it to you just the same.

Dear, I love you with a heart “full up” with the deepest and truest love that a person can have. We are going to get along fine together and be so happy. I am going to be frank with you and you are with me, so we are not going to have misunderstandings. I would be so very very happy if you were here right now so I could try to tell you how much I really and truly do love you.

Always, your
Ina.