So Walter took the $3,000 offer.
Tag Archives: money
May 16, 1927
They’ll be going back to Dallas.
April 2, 1927
$3,000 translates to $38,586.95 today. Then as now, working for the government was not a good way to become wealthy. On the other hand, there was the undeniable appeal of working out the life history of goat lice.
March 24, 1927
Take it or leave it.
February 22, 1927
I have decided not to transcribe the next few work letters, as they’re lengthy and already typed. Instead, I’ll post the scans and simply add a few comments. Click the image to get the full-size version.
It seems little has changed in research politics.
November 19, 1925
Jax Beach, Thurs Nov-19.
My Dear Sweetheart,
Before starting on my report and with lots of work ahead of me, I am passing up the first day of the Fair and the first thing I am doing is to write to my little girl. It was mighty nice of you to write so often when I was away and I feel that I have been mean in not writing to you. Your last letter with the 2nd page missing shows that you are hurt, and I am very sorry. To write from Marco Island is about the same as writing from Regan Wells. The mail service is very poor even where the towns are better. I was up at 6 o’clock in the morning and I worked hard all day, scouting through brush, cactus, over hills, among shells etc. When night came I was as tired as the next one, and with everyone going to bed at about 8 o’clock and with no place to write, I passed it up with hopes of getting through with my work as soon as possible.
It may seem strange to you that I am so busy at times that I do not write, but you will have more patience with me when you are more familiar with what I am doing. I work hardest when I am alone on a problem and am apt to take it easy when I am working with some one else. I try to make a creditable showing when there is a chance and to this end I am apt to neglect personal duties. When you are with me, Dear, I am sure that this will be different. When I am real busy I seem to pass the time quicker and I do not long for you as much as when I have lots of time. But I wish for you real often and always wonder how you would like to be with me at just that time. There is no doubt, Dear, about my love for you. I love you with every tender affection and I would not hurt your feelings for anything in the world if I knew it. I hope you will be patient with me just now as I have several irons in the fire and it is up to me to do something with them.
Mr. Bishopp has just asked me for a list of my articles with exact references, and I know that he wants this for use in a recommendation for a salary increase. It will come in mighty handy too. At this time I believe it will go through as there is a sufficient amount to permit it. We can use the money OK.
You certainly surprised me Dear when you said you had 1000 at interest. I had no idea that you had saved any, as it would seem to be a difficult thing to do. It is difficult for me to save unless I have a place for it as soon as it comes and it sounds mighty good to know that you can save. You will have to be our Secy.-Treas. It almost took me off my feet when you said you had this for furniture. If you use it that way, Dear, we will arrange to put an equal amount at interest for you. We will not split hairs over anything, for my salary is yours as much as mine and I want you to always feel that what is yours is yours and what is mine is yours. You are going to be a wonderful little wife and I am proud of you. I know that we are going to get along OK.
I am enclosing a Fulford report which sounds good to me. They have never discounted any of their notes through banks and have made the improvements too. It is a real development and I would not be surprised if our little lot down there brings enough to build a home. I’d like to take up the balance with the 15% discount but cannot at the present time. Most of the people who have purchased there will probably do this as very few were sold to salaried people like myself. Most salaried people down there bought options for $100 or thereabouts and made or lost in 30, 60, or 90 days. I try to be a little more conservative, though I probably missed some real big money. I might have lost out. Many are losing in property in Florida, due to the fact they did not use common sense in buying. A person should see what they are buying and if they can visualize it ahead of the other fellow, they make the money.
I have not yet made up the list for you Dear but I’ll begin on it today. It would seem to be about time to set the date too. Would like to know what you have in mind. Perhaps Wednesday before Christmas would be a good time. We could then visit my folks and come to Jax. We would return to Dallas about March 1st.
Mrs. Mac has not sold her cottage yet and if she does not sell it we will be comfortable here for the time. She does not seem anxious to sell, though he wants her to sell.
Will close for this time, Sweetheart, as I must get busy. I love you with all my heart.
Yours only & always,
Walter.
October 18, 1925 (Walter)
West Palm Beach, Florida, Oct 18, 1925
Sunday PM.
My Dear Sweetheart,
It seems like a mighty long time since I have had one of those letters which always makes things look brighter. I am getting hungry for one. If possible I will drive through to the Beach tomorrow, but if it is late when I get to Augustine I’ll spend the night there.
I took Mr. & Mrs. McDonald out for a ride in her car this morning. We went to the beach here and then south to Del Ray. Returned by Boynton where they showed me an investment which they made in a lot about a year ago. It is a 50 x 125 corner costing $2000. Developments are coming to some extent & it is listed at $3500 now. I like our lot better due to the fact that it is in a higher class development. Theirs is a business corner and may be a filling station location, as near as I can figure. This would make it a mighty good investment. Would probably bring them $15000, but it may be three years or even five years from now. I believe that our lot will be worth 5000 to 6000 after Christmas. That’s when the winter tourists usually come, though this year they have been here all the time. Lots of people are camping, living in tents, garages & almost any place they can find. They make $11 per day of 8 hours as carpenters, electricians and plumbers. Bricklayers and plasterers make more. All get double pay for overtime and many work long hours. They pay more than this at Miami. Workmen on houses go to work in Chryslers, Lincolns, and other good cars while the builder is often the one to walk. The people who made good investments down here five years ago have reaped enormous profits. Lots of money to be made yet, but the competition is keener and deals are not handled so much without substantial payments. The fellow looking for short time options can’t use the “shoe string methods’ as much as during the past few years.
I am going to have dinner with Mr. & Mrs. McDonald at six o’clock and I’ll probably visit with them at the park. They have a concert there tonight. Mrs. Mc said something about going back with me tomorrow morning. She will let me know tonight. They can’t find living quarters within reasonable price and I guess she will stay at the Beach until he gets a place for her.
I love you, Dear, and I certainly would like to be with you now.
Your,
Walter.
October 15, 1925
Stationery from the Pine Tree Hotel, “Where Summer Spends the Winter,” West Palm Beach, Florida.
Wednesday Night 9/15*
My Dear Sweetheart,
I spent quite a bit of the morning at Fulford and I am more enthusiastic about our investment there than ever. For one year it is a wonderful development, but of course there are not very many homes at this time. The ones constructed are high class and every improvement made is in line with their building restrictions. The first addition, and the one in which we are interested is the one they are developing as a show place for prospects. Our little 50 ft x 150 ft lot does not look big when you see the plat of ground, but its location is about right. According to the company’s list of prices it is now worth $3150. They tell me that in another year it should & will be worth ten thousand. The Co reserved lots in every block on which they will build or which they will not sell unless the purchaser bonds to build at once. The prices seem ridiculously high when compared to city prices in Dallas, but only people with a bunch of money can afford to live there and these are the ones who are building and buying homes. Some rich man will buy and build on the corner next to our lot and will want our lot so that he can have a hundred feet on the front. He will pay us a good price for it too. I did not list it today, but am of the opinion that the best time will be after Christmas when the tourists come for the winter. I believe that we will realize enough out of it to go a long ways in getting our home. Believe me it will be mighty welcome too. The prices of everything are awfully high on the East Coast between here and Miami and I have no desire to live here. Wages, salaries etc are high too, but of course mine is the same whether I am here or any other place. The real estate people get 15% for re-sales, but we won’t mind that.
You will probably think that we should sell or list it now, due to the nice profit and I would have the same opinion if I had not gone down there. But the developments in sight are going to make it increase rapidly in the near future. I had to visualize it when it was pine woods and it took nerve to put $1250 for the lot. It would not take as much nerve to pay the $3150 at this time.
They are getting $7500 for lots in another addition north of us, which are one block from an artificial lake. There is nothing up there at this time, but they have given land for the proposed University. Water front property was sold for more. We picked the right place last fall. Here is a rough drawing.
This isn’t much of a drawing but it will give some idea. Classy buildings now on both sides of Fulford Blvd. west of Flagler Blvd. Just south of ours.
I love you,
Walter.
Wrong date – the postmark and contents show this letter was written 10/15.
Historical notes: Fulford was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931. The neighborhood in the drawing is approximately here on a modern map. Flagler Blvd. became NE 19th Ave., and Fulford Blvd. became NE 172nd St. If you don’t mind spoilers, you can read about the first Florida real estate bubble, which was in its late stages when Walter wrote this letter.
July 23, 1925 (Walter)
Thursday Night 7/23d
My Dear Sweetheart,
Dr. White and I just returned from the station. We went down with Mr. and Mrs. Garrison to see them off, after having had dinner with them. They seemed to have enjoyed the day here and she wished that they could have spent a week. They took the sight-seeing bus to St. Augustine this morning. Her folks live at Waco Texas. During the war she went to Washington on a job in the War Dept, and there she met her hubby.
Sometimes I feel that I would like a better income in order to take care of you as I should, and I wonder how this couple get along on his salary as she is not working. He gets about $1400* and I hardly know how they can get along, but they seem to make it OK. When I see them I figure that we will probably get along all right.
We are going fishing Saturday and Dr. KS will drive down the state some on Sunday, so it is possible that I will not have an opportunity to write you Sat or Sunday nights. If I can I certainly will, for I enjoy your letters so much. I look forward to them and when they come I read them several times. While it seems like a long time since I came here, it has been only two weeks tonight. I have been very fortunate to have gotten so many sweet letters from you in that time. Best of all, I have had one from Mother and Daddy Lewis with their consent, and Dear you don’t know how glad I am and how proud I am to have them feel all right about it. It means a lot and I appreciate it. They were real sweet about it, and I guess it is because they know that you and I are congenial and that we really do love one another. I’ll be mighty proud to say “this is my wife,” and I feel that folks will think “how did he do it?”
We went to the city dispensary this afternoon as it was Dr. KS’s afternoon for a skin disease clinic. It was very interesting. There were about four well defined cases of pellagra, and I am glad that I had the opportunity of seeing some. When I see the disease side of medicine and what the practitioner has to do, I feel that I like my work more. At one time I thought I would like to practice medicine but the older I get, the more I like my work in preventive work and medical entomology. Dr. White says that he feels that way about it too.
We will not go to the beach until Tuesday and then we may not get located so as to move on that day. It may be Wednesday before we move. I’ll be glad to get Dr. White started on some laboratory work as I want to get his technique on some phases. He has been criticizing the paper, but it will be published in long form. Dr. KS thinks that it was not necessary, but White is so “dog gone” particular about every sentence that he is going over it very carefully. His arrangement is good but not very different from mine, and sometimes I wonder if his editing is worth the additional work it gives both of us. He is an old bachelor and has some set ideas on doing things. He always treats a disease manuscript in the same say. Even when we go to meals he always likes to go the same way. I hope I won’t be that way to such an extent, for it would annoy you. I’ll try not, Dear, and I’ll try to have you know that I love you with all my heart. You are everything to me and I’ll be mighty happy when I can have you with me always.
With a sweet goodnight,
Your
Walter.
P.S.
I love you.
* Equal to about $18,077 today.
July 21, 1925
Tuesday Nite
July 21, 1925.
Dearest Walter:
Claudelle and I have just returned from a hike to the top of the first hill toward town to see the sun set. However, it had already “sat” by the time we arrived. We viewed the landscape o’er and pronounced it very beautiful in spite of the absence of the solar illumination. Since it is Tuesday evening we could also see the fiery cross. We ran a race down the hill, but, thanks to the tight skirts, we were sufficiently hobbled to avoid being arrested for speeding.
We are having such a fine breeze tonight. No matter how warm the days, we usually do have a cool breeze at night. I am so glad it is so pleasant in Jacksonville. It makes work a lot easier, doesn’t it? You are really fortunate to be escaping some of the days we are having here.
My fountain pen is out of order, and this one I am using is just about the “scratchiest” ever.
I will write you again tomorrow.
I love you so very very much.
Lots of love,
Ina.
Wednesday Nite
July 22, 1925.
My dearest Walter:
It is now ten o’clock and I am thinking of the pleasant reunion we were having a month ago tonight. It was our first date after the return of the prodigal from Kerrville. I shall never forget how terribly I missed you that week. If it had been two months I don’t believe I could have missed you more. I wish we could have another reunion tonight. We are before so many many months, aren’t we? And you are liable to have to be bothered with me for a long long time then. As for me, I am going to be a mighty happy girl then too.
Your letters of the 18th and 19th came today and they made me feel mighty good. They sounded almost like I was talking with you, and you know how well pleased I would be over that.
The case of Dr. Arms was very interesting. I am glad to know about it because we wouldn’t want our case to be so different from all others, would we? I feel sure that ours is going to be like theirs in the respect that he mentioned, because we are both determined never to fuss, aren’t we? We will not have to wait and make it one of our marriage resolutions because we have already made it.
Walter, I appreciate your telling me about your salary although it had never worried me in the least. You are certainly to be congratulated on the salary you are making and I want to tell you again that I am proud of you. I am sure we can be as happy as it is possible for any couple to be – much more so than very wealthy people who only have to express the slightest desire and the luxuries are theirs. They are deprived of the joy of dreaming of and planning for a cozy little home, then working toward it and finally having their dream come true. They can’t possibly get nearly as much genuine pleasure out of it as we can. The more dreams, thoughts, plans and work you have to put into anything, the more you get out of it. Oh, I can hardly wait for the time to come when I can be with you always and we can plan things together. Honey, we are going to be so happy!
I received an invitation today from a girl friend of mine who is going to be married on the fifth of August to a young man with whom she has been going during her two years in a Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. He has been specializing in some kind of Sunday School work, organization or something.
She is in her thirties and is positively the most consecrated and religious girl I ever met (it is genuine too). I always feel so mean when I’m around her. They say she hesitated a year about consenting to marry him because she felt so unworthy of him. She said he is so good. When I heard it I wondered what sort of an angel he was that Jewel Tate was not worthy of him. She was the young lady I succeeded in the Tax Collector’s office (which certainly doesn’t add anything to her worthiness, however). Nevertheless, she is truly a fine girl and I am glad she is not going to be (or shall I say, remain?) an old maid.
I will write you again tomorrow.
I love you so very very very much.
Always your
Ina.