Wed. PM.
My dear Sweetheart,
Your second letter came today. Am glad that the accident was not serious.
May 11, 1932
Day after tomorrow and the exhibits will be over. I know that both of us will be glad. We feel pretty good over the appearances of the exhibits, but it gets tiresome. Dr. Dyer’s paper was very good. It was a resume of the typhus literature. Dr. Shelmire’s discussion was OK.
I am enclosing a letter from Revah. They will not be ready during the week.
With love to both of you
Walter.
Tuesday PM.
My dear Sweetheart,
I wired you that Mrs. Laake passed away at 4 AM today and that the funeral would take place tomorrow at 10 AM. The message came from the Cushings. I wired a floral spray from here – through the florist here. I am writing Mr. Laake asking him to return to Charleston with us. I imagine that Bishopp will write him about it too.
May 10, 1932 (Letter)
Mr. Hall is out with Dr. Hinman this evening. They went down below N.O. on a collecting trip.
The exhibits look fine and everything seems to be going OK. Dr. Shelmire came yesterday and I am to see him tonight. Tomorrow Dyer has a paper on typhus and both Kemp and Shelmire are to discuss it. Saw Dyer today, also Dr. Morsund (Dean of Baylor), Waters (artist of Baylor), Kemp, Dr. Hanson of Fla. State Board, Dr. Bassett, Health Officer of Savannah, and a lot of others whom I know. Mr. Hall seems to be enjoying it all.
The exhibits come down Friday noon. I told Mr. Laake we would come by Dallas if he cared to come but I think he would come to N.O.
I am enclosing a note rec’d from Revah.
I love you, Honey, & you too Buddy.
Your
Walter
Jan 15, 1932
Friday Night.
My dear Sweetheart,
Yesterday and today I have been visiting. I visited with Dr. White yesterday morning and last night he and I ate at the Allies. Spent yesterday PM and this AM & PM with Bish and the people we called on. We called on Dr. Marlatt and I had a chance to tell him of our work at Chas. He had been reading my reports. His questions showed it. Says he is going to drive south this spring and promised to stop at Chas a while. He asked about the gardens.
January 15, 1932
Did not get a promise of a truck sprayer but they are trying to locate one for me. Bish and I called on the Plant Quarantine Administration regarding it. Think I’ll see Rohiver tomorrow morning. I think he can be of more help to me than anyone else. Bish visits but does not say yes or no. He is afraid to tell anyone anything for sure, except that we can’t do anything. I am mighty glad that I am not located up here. There seems to be no chance of getting Gilbert in up here and so far I have had no encouragement for another appointment for Frank. I am afraid that we cannot keep him after March 4th. I am trying to get the truck sprayer and this should be a strong argument for Frank’s reappointment.
I hope that everything is going well with you and Buddy. If it is as warm there as it is here, you do not need to have a furnace fire. I’ll have to be here Monday and possibly longer. You can bet that I’ll come home as soon as I feel that I have accomplished all that I can here.
Everyone asks of you and Buddy. Saw Dr. Roark this AM. Will try to call while I am here & see Mrs. Roark.
I love you Honey.
Your
Walter
Tuesday 6PM.
My dear Sweetheart,
I have just returned from the meeting where I made the typhus talk. It went off just fine. I didn’t feel stage fright, very much. Dyer thought it was fine and his discussion was very good. He was cordial and his feeling was apparently OK. He left at 5PM just after our talk. He invited me to visit them in Washington. Your old man used a little soothing cordial for the U.S. Public Health Service and it worked wonderfully well. Stoll told me that he admired the way I stood up there on my hind legs and talked every word of it. He sent regards to you from the family. Also, Otto, Dr. Cort, Brown and a lot I don’t recall just now.
December 29, 1931
Mr. Hall’s paper went off just fine. Hall came this A.M. We are going to hear Bishopp’s annual address tonight. Cort came down after he had thought that he wouldn’t come, so his dinner was postponed until next winter meeting at Atlantic City.
With love,
Your
Walter.
Stationery from the Jung Hotel – “Absolutely Fireproof *; New Orleans’ Most Modern Hotel.”
Monday Night
My dear Sweetheart,
We got here about 10:15 last night and by 10:30 we were in the auditorium. We put up tables and exhibit board so that we could hold the space until about 2 AM. It was a good thing that we did. We got an excellent location and today we were able to hold it despite the fact that there were a number of kicks. We got the approval of the Chairman last night and we were able to hold the space.
December 28, 1931
We had to help Bish with the other Bureau exhibits and this with our own required all day. So far only Mr. [illegible] is here from the other [illegible] our division. Bish thinks that Parman is not coming. We expect Mr. Hull tomorrow A.M.
Tomorrow is a busy day. Hall’s paper in the AM & my typhus paper in the afternoon.
Have been meeting a lot of folks. Both of us are enjoying the meeting.
With love
Walter.
* The fire damage on the edge of the letter appears to have been a later accident, not something that happened in the “absolutely fireproof” hotel. The next couple of letters have the same type of damage.
We arrived at Jax at 7 AM & enjoyed breakfast. The drive was fine. No mishaps or anything.
Love
Walter
December 26, 1931
Walter is on his way to a scientific conference in New Orleans, where he’ll present his work on endemic typhus.
Friday Night
Nov. 6, 1931.
Dearest Sweetheart:
Yours and Gilbert’s Sunday night waffles sounded good. Before many more Sunday nights Walter White and I will join you in such a feast. Tell Gilbert he’s getting gay a-partying until 4 A.M. He doesn’t have Walter White to awaken him early with tin cans and Easter eggs like he did on Elmwood.
November 6, 1931
The preliminary program of the Southern Med. Assn. is interesting. I see anumber of familiar names – Drs. Rees, Ricks, Massey etc. I should like very much to arrive early enough Friday to at least see the exhibit and I’d love to hear your paper. Perhaps you would rather your wife would not be present when you made a public speech. Some people feel self conscious if a member of the immediate family is present. Walter White might want to appear on the platform with you so I could remain at the hotel with him until you were through. Since there are only two through trains leaving here and one of them at midnight it looks like we will have to leave on the one at noon. It arrives in N.O. at 7:30 A.M. the following morning. That would be early for you to have to meet us, especially on the day that you would have to appear on the program. You would probably prefer spending the time before ten o’clock in final preparations. I really have not investigated the time of arrival in N.O. of the midnight train as I preferred not getting Walter White wide awake that time of night among sleeping passengers. However, if you think best, I can do it. Yes, the train trip from N.O. to Charleston will be delightful if you are with us. Honey, do you mind mailing me my new green winter coat so I may have it to wear on the train? You will find it in the tray of your big trunk in Walter White’s closet. It will be better to mail it to me here because if you carried it in your bag to N.O. it might be rather wrinkled for immediate wear. Also, I might need it before I arrive there. I don’t like to trouble you with it, but I believe it will be necessary. Thank you.
This afternoon Walter White and I made two calls, returning in time to join the crowd on neighbor John M. Garner’s lawn which had gathered to get a peek at Will Rogers. He arrived in Uvalde this afternoon by airplane and was the guest of the Garners. We walked up that way, really not expecting to see him as he was not planning to make a public appearance here. Just then the high school pep squad arrived, fresh from a victorious football game. They gave fifteen rahs for Rogers and out stepped Will himself. He and Mr. Garner joined the crowd in front and he talked for a few minutes in his humorous conversational way. Walter White saw nothing extraordinary about him. In fact he scarcely looked Will’s way. He was more interested in the lineup of cars.
Honey, I have not been able to get any more information concerning endemic typhus at Carrizo Springs. Tonight Mrs. Sutherland was here and I asked if she knew the name of a physician at that place. She said a Dr. Prickett had a small hospital there. If you are interested you can write him if you like. I thought of doing it myself but decided it would be better for you to do it.
We love you lots & lots. We are going to have a most pleasant trip home with you.
Always, your
Ina.
Monday Night.
Nov. 3, 1931.
Dearest Sweetheart:
Your letter of Thursday night came this A.M.
I know you are a busy man. Dr. Bishopp should feel very proud of the Charleston lab – especially my husband. It is lovely that he is to give the address to the Ent. Soc. of America.
November 3, 1931
You said you thought Walter White and I should arrive in New Orleans on the 20th. I’d love to see your exhibit if it is still up at the meeting when we arrive. Since we will arrive at 7:30 A.M. you may prefer that we make it the 21st so that we can leave immediately for Charleston. Either way will be alright with us. The main thing is to see you soon.
I’m so glad that Gilbert is manifesting so much interest in his night school work and is progressing so rapidly. I know it is a relief to you to feel that you can soon turn that sort of thing over to him. You have a lab force to be proud of.
Our son may be a musician. I don’t know for sure yet. He has learned to open the piano, climb upon the bench and my! how he does play. Tonight he played from memory for a while, then he stopped suddenly. There was no sheet music in sight, but he pointed to the front of the piano and said “onna book.” After I placed the music before him he bent over the keys and played, looking very intently at the music all the while. It was amusing to us, but he took it very seriously.
But our son will not be a barber. That is, unless he does it for revenge. His hair had gotten so long that Mama tried every week or so to trim it a little. The moment Walter White saw the scissors or heard the hair being cut he was up in arms. She improved his looks some but just a little at a time. We were explaining our difficulties to Bertie, so she volunteered to carry him to a beauty shop to have it cut. He thinks anything she says or does is quite right and we thought he would not be reminded of former ordeals if she carried him. Also, he might be less frightened if a lady cut his hair. She carried him this P.M. at 2:30. She said it nearly broke her heart when he would plead in a tearful voice “Down, Bertie down.” She took him on her lap and she, as well as everyone else, tried to divert his mind. He was pretty badly frightened I’m sure, but he must not have been as much so as usual because she said he had quiet moments during the ordeal. I did not go, but I might as well have gone because I felt almost as if he were undergoing an operation without my being there. It looks as if you or I or both of us will have to take lessons in barberism and care for his hair until he is old enough to decide whether or not he wishes to join the “Sons of David” or whatever creed it is that forbids cutting hair.
The article regarding tax on airplane gas indicates that South Carolina is a little heavy on her taxes. If the airplane gas tax is abolished I’m afraid highway #17 will suffer.
We love you lots & lots, Honey.
Good-night, and I hope you sleep good.
Always, your
Ina.
Dec. 25 – 10:30 P.M.
My dear Sweetheart,
I am enclosing some Xmas cards. I had breakfast with Mrs. Laake. Took temperatures of pigs until 1 PM, then had dinner with the Shelmires. This afternoon we made some blood transfers to new pigs. Tonight I checked temperatures on the whole lot. Our mite bitten pigs are not running high temperatures but they do run fever. The fever is consistent so far. We are very anxious for results on the transfer pigs. In the latter we would like to see swellings & be able to get tissue for demonstration of the Rickettsia.
December 25, 1930
This evening was a dull one for me. Also last night. This evening I went by the movie on Grand Ave. I can’t tell you much about the show. I was thinking typhus and guinea pigs.
Last night the phone rang a number of times but I was determined that I was not going anywhere to see a Xmas tree and kiddies. Since the phone started to ringing before 8 PM I knew that you were not phoning. Today I found that it was Mrs. Bedford Shelmire. She wanted me to be sure and come out for dinner today. Mrs. Geary and Mrs. Shelmire had mentioned the trees, and I was determined that I would not see their trees last night.
I am getting all of the male guinea pigs I can find. Mr. Somier is going to help the cause by bringing one from his house tomorrow. We want to make the injections as soon as possible, and just as soon as we get swellings and can autopsy, I’ll get on my way to Uvalde. I am getting mighty anxious to see you and W W & the folks.
With all my love, Sweetheart, I am
Your
Walter.
P.S. Bish wants to read our paper on rat mites & typhus at Cleveland. If we get sufficient evidence on transmissions we may wire him to announce it for us. We would like to have an exhibit & paper for the Southern Clinic at Dallas on March 31 to April 2. We will see how it comes along.
W.E.D.
Dec. 24th – 8PM.
My dear Sweetheart,
I am mighty sorry that I cannot be in Uvalde tonight. I can imagine that W.W. will get quite a thrill out of his first Xmas. I don’t know whether I made it clear just why I couldn’t come or not.
December 24, 1930
The pigs which fed the infected mites have been showing low degrees of temperatures and no swellings. We are transferring the infections to new pigs for swellings and localization of Rickettsia so that they can be demonstrated. Of three pigs receiving blood last night, two are already running higher temperatures than any of the others. I am anxiously awaiting these developments. I feel that we have the dope, but we want to nail it for all time. I haven’t phoned Shelmire of these developments. He will be over tomorrow A.M. for more transfers and I’ll spring it then. He has been pretty blue. We have nine animals on which infected mites fed and six which received injections of infected mites. This does not count the tests made with an animal which proved to be an uninfected pig.
We cannot get as many pigs as we need at present. We have been promised a bunch on the day after Xmas. These will be about right for our more recent infections. It will take a few days for them to develop symptoms. It looks like it may be near the 1st before I can get there. I want to come as soon as possible. I think we should leave before it is time for Mother and Daddy Lewis to move. Have you said anything to them about Claudelle returning with us? Have you talked to Claudelle about it? She would be a lot of company for you. I could give her some stenographic work to do, and her living expenses would not cost her anything. I think it would be nice for all of us (Claudelle, you and I) if she returned with us. If she goes it will be necessary for us to ship some of the things but that would not amount to very much.
I certainly do love you Honey, and I am mighty sorry that I cannot be there for tonight and tomorrow. With all my love, and looking forward to seeing you, I am,
Your
Walter.