November 30, 1924

Sunday A.M.

My Dear Ina,

I expected you to write me a pretty severe letter and I almost dreaded to read it, for I felt guilty of having been quite mean in writing. However, I was not aware that it had been so long. I was at West Palm Beach only a day when I returned and that probably accounts for the fact that I did not fill my promise in writing from there. I was rushed when I returned to Jax and I am sure that I did not write a letter of any nature until I reached Washington. But just the same it was mean of me to have waited so long and I deserved a good calling for it. Instead, you wrote a most wonderful letter and you don’t know how much I appreciated it nor how much it is helping.

November 30, 1924

November 30, 1924

You were quite right in saying that I could not be sure of myself in so short a time. I am not sure, and that is where your letter helps me. You seem to understand me and my dilemma. I know that everything will come out for the best, and I always feel that things happen for the best. The Supreme Being has a way of doing things that we cannot always understand. The fact that I met you and learned to care so much in so short a time, and that our ideas seemed so perfect in harmony, was no doubt more than a coincidence or happening. You haven’t heard me say anything about religion but in a large manner I believe in predestination. The Bible certainly teaches it in the case of Judas. I cannot believe that everything is predestined, but I do believe that through our conscience we are influenced by a Divine Plan. I believe we are held accountable for violating what our conscience dictates to us.

You have been an inspiration to me and you don’t know how much I really do care for you. I really feel that I love you best, but I believe that the other loves me more. Of course you and I have been together very little and I doubt if you can tell whether or not that you love me. My hope is that I can be with you more and then we will be more sure of ourselves. I had planned on seeing you Christmas, but it has developed that my work here will keep me going until after that time. I have worked every evening since I’ve been here and holidays too, except Thanksgiving when I had dinner with Dr. and Mrs. Roark. Mr. Bishopp writes that it would be fine to attend the meeting of the American Association of Economic Entomologists which will be held here during the Christmas holidays. I know that I can’t possibly finish the sectioning and staining before that time, so I’ll plan to attend the meeting. I came up without an overcoat as I expected to get through shortly, but am writing Mr. Laake to ship it to me. I had really planned on seeing you, Dear, and am disappointed. I hope you will believe me. Maybe I can run down for a few days during the early part of the year, that is if you feel that you would like to see me. If you don’t care to see me I would appreciate your telling me.

The sections of skin removed from patients in Florida have been brought here and I am working under Dr. White and am doing my own sectioning. They are first put through a number of solutions and then embedded in paraffin blocks. From these blocks I use a machine to cut the sections, which are mounted on slides in the order that they occur in the skin specimen. They are then subjected to 15 various treatments and stains, so that the complete structure can be studied microscopically. It is a tedious task and when they are completed I’ll probably have 20,000 sections for study. I wanted to give you an idea of what I was doing.

The appropriation bill has not passed as yet and we will not know until about April, but a request was made by Dr. K.S. with endorsements of the State and City Health boards. The Senator promised support, so no doubt but that we will get enough to do some good work in Florida another year. I believe the station will be permanent when it is established for there are a number of problems to be worked out by our Bureau on the line we are following.

I certainly enjoyed the work down there and I like the climate year round.

I am enclosing a newspaper account which we ran about the time I left Florida. It isn’t complete by any means and couldn’t be at this stage of the study. We also reported at the Southern Med. Meeting at New Orleans last week. I’ll send a copy of it when it is published.

You do understand me, Dear, and I hope you will be patient with me. I’ll try and not disappoint you again, for it hurts to know that I did not keep my word about writing from W. Palm Beach.

You are wonderful and your letters are an inspiration.

Sincerely,
Walter

Clipping in separate envelope.

Government Experts Finish Study of Creeping Eruption (clipping)

Government Experts Finish Study of Creeping Eruption (clipping)

December 14, 1924

Wash. D.C.
Dec. 14, 1924.

Dear Ina,

For sometime I have been expecting and hoping that I might have a letter from you, but perhaps I don’t deserve one. If I have been a disappointment to you I am very sorry and I hope you will forgive me. I intended to be fair with you and I hope you will think of that way. If I could only see you I believe we would have a better understanding. Of course I can’t possibly get through here until after Christmas but I hope I can see you when I return to Texas.

Won’t you kindly write?

Sincerely,
Walter.

December 14, 1924

December 14, 1924

December 24, 1924

Washington D.C.
Dec. 24, 1924.

Dear Ina,

I was quite surprised to get the lovely box of stationery and it was mighty sweet of you to think of me so kindly. I hope that you are enjoying your Christmas and you don’t know how very much I would like to be with you.

I am glad that you like the new home and I wish I were there for your first Christmas in it. I haven’t had dinner as yet but I had to tell you how pleased I was to be remembered by you.

December 24, 1924

December 24, 1924

Am invited to dinner tomorrow but that wouldn’t be like eating with you.

With very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and hoping the New Year will be the best you have ever had, I am,

Always,
Walter.

P.S. Will write in a day or two.

December 30, 1924

Washington D.C.
Dec. 30, 1924.

Dear Ina,

This is some stationery and I am using it to write to a mighty sweet little girl. I am not so sure that she wants me to write to her but when she sent such nice stationery I am going to write anyway.

Today I have been attending the scientific meetings and have found them very interesting. Mr. Bishopp came this morning. I had expected Mr. Parman too, for he is on two papers but I guess Mr. Bishopp will present them.

December 30, 1924

December 30, 1924

I met Prof. Harris of Miss. A&M this noon and have spent most of today with him. He seemed just as interested in me as when I left college and has been quite an inspiration to me. He has been talking to me regarding a PhD degree. He thinks that now is the time for me to work for it. I have been thinking of this for some little time and if possible I want to arrange so that I can get credit for my work with the Bureau.

I am getting along very well with the sectioning and staining and have the causative parasite in sections, but have not made an attempt to have it identified until Mr. Bishopp came up. The problem is out of our domain but if possible I want to arrange to continue the work.

I hope you will let me hear from you often as I enjoy your letters more than you know. I hope the New Year will be the happiest you have ever had.

Always
Walter.

January 6, 1925

Washington D.C.
Jan 6, 1925.

Dear Ina,

Your letter gave me a thrill, for the double envelope looked as though it might have been an announcement or invitation to a wedding. It was quite a relief to see handwriting inside, though you made me wish that I had been there during the holidays.

The scientific meetings have closed and most of the men have gone, but there are a few visitors even yet. Mr. Bishopp will probably be here for several days yet. I brought so much skin from the patients in Florida that it has given me a real job here. We estimated the time it would require to complete the work and with night work as I have had during the past six weeks, I’ll be here until March 1st. I doubted if they would allow me to stay here that long but Mr. Bishopp has agreed to it. This will put me in Dallas about the time Dr. and Mrs. Roark come down and no doubt some of the Dallas folks will go to Uvalde with them. I am in hopes that I can go pretty soon after arriving at Dallas for I want to see you.

January 6, 1925

January 6, 1925

We will not get a special appropriation for the Florida work next year as our Chief would not accept it until he was sure that the project belonged to this Bureau. The fact is that it does not belong to us but the Director of Research for the whole Department agreed that I could continue even though it does not belong to us, but we cannot get an appropriation specially for it. This means that I’ll have to work single-handed again. Though I am in hopes that I can get Dr. White to come down during the clinic.

I wouldn’t take anything for the experience with Dr. White. It is better than a special course in a University on the same thing. He is an MD and PhD but goes to a University for special work quite often, yet. He is about 55 years old. I couldn’t possibly have a better man to work with on this problem.

The parasite causing the creeping eruption is about 1/50 of an inch long and 1/1200 of an inch wide, and there is only one to a lesion. This may give you an idea of what the problem is. The color is the same as human tissue. It has to be stained and then studied microscopically under oil immersion magnification. No wonder Dr. K.S. hadn’t been able to locate it during 14 years of practice. I really believed that I had the thing isolated last summer when I wrote you about it, but the people here didn’t think I could be right. This time we have it in sections in human skin so there is no question about it. If you can find time I’d be mighty glad to hear from you.

Always
Walter.

January 30, 1925

Washington, D.C.
Jan 30, 1925

Dear Ina,

I really would love to hear from you more often but you would not believe it from the lapse of time since I received your letter. Since I arrived here the middle of November I have been on the job almost constantly, evenings and Sundays included. I have seriously neglected my correspondence, so please don’t feel that I did it intentionally. I have thought of you a great many times and I wish that I could see you. I am sorry that you have been disappointed in me, but I hope you will understand when I see you.

January 30, 1925

January 30, 1925

I have had hopes of returning and it takes so much more time than I had anticipated. If I can get away by March 1st I will be doing well. Mr. Bishopp suggested that he would like to have me in Dallas at that time, and I am anxious to get back. Then I’ll be anxious to come to Uvalde.

We are well pleased with the progress of the Florida work and feel that we have a real contribution to make at the American Med Assn next June. It has been a long tedious job to run down the cause, but we have it and find the same thing whenever we find one. I am now sectioning a piece of tissue taken from the back of a little Jew boy*. The piece was divided into twelve pieces, and each of these will average about a thousand sections. That will be twelve thousand sections from one piece of tissue, which was about the size of a half dollar when removed. They are mounted on slides of about 18 to each, but each slide goes through about 20 solutions. I am glad that I took most of the sections about the size of a finger nail.

I will be anxious to hear from you,

Always,
Walter.

* Please see the new note on political correctness on the “About” page.

March 8, 1925

Washington D.C.
March 8, 1925.

Dear Ina,

I haven’t had an answer to my letter and I wonder if I will get one or if there is some doubt in your mind as to where to send it. May be I don’t deserve an answer, but I’d like one just the same.

I expect to leave here about Wednesday for Jacksonville and I’ll be there for at least a week. Am looking forward to a good fishing trip while there. Dr. Kirby-Smith says they are biting good. Mr. Bishopp is getting anxious for me to return to Dallas and I am equally as anxious to get there. I certainly had some job here but it was worth the effort. With the exception of a very few evenings I have been on the job constantly since the middle of November. I did stop long enough to eat Christmas dinner with one of the men and his family. I have made between fifty and sixty thousand sections from the skin tissue taken at Jax this summer, and am able to demonstrate the thing in five instances. This was mighty good news to Dr. K.S. as he has been searching for the thing during the past fifteen years. There are no less than fifty reports in medical literature, dating back to ’92, and none have found the thing that causes the majority of the cases. During the past week have worked with a photographer in getting photos made, and I imagine it will take us until Wednesday to get prints and slides made. I hope to have Dr. White with me at Jax next summer, and possibly also Dr. Ransom. They will probably be there during the clinic.

March 8, 1925

March 8, 1925

I am in hopes of being at Uvalde during the spring, and there is no one in the world whom I want to see more than I do you. I trust you will grant me permission. I have something to tell you, and when I have told you I hope you won’t think I am so mean and heartless.

With every good wish, I am,

As ever,
Walter.

P.S. This is swell stationery for me to be using, and I only use it when I write to you.

March 17, 1925

Hotel Stationery from “The Everett – European Plan”

Jacksonville, Fla. March 17 1925

Dear Ina,

Was pleased to get your letter this morning as I had considerable doubt as to whether or not you would answer. I am looking forward to my return to Dallas and for the time to come for us to go to Uvalde. I want to see you and lots more than you think I do. I don’t imagine I will ever square myself with you, for you have an awful opinion of me at present. However, I am not really so mean as it has seemed.

March 17, 1925

March 17, 1925

The winter has gone so quickly that I don’t realize it. I was so busy that I almost forgot about everything. I arrived here the 13th and Sat. Dr. K.S. and I went about 100 miles south on a fishing trip. Fished all day Sunday and had a real good time. Have had some work to do here and within a few days I expect to go to Dallas. Will be busy preparing a report for the American Med. meeting which is held at Atlantic City during the latter part of May. Dr. K.S. will be there with Dr. White, but I’ll not go to this one. Will get credit for my work just the same, and probably more credit than I am entitled to claim. Will tell you all about it when I see you. If you are not working then, I hope I can see you a great deal.

You mean more to me than you think, and I am anxious to see you.

Sincerely,
Walter.

Box 208
Dallas

March 24, 1925

Dallas, Texas,
March 24, 1925

Dear Ina,

I am mighty glad to get back and everything looks good to me. Had a wonderful time at Jax and the work was very interesting but short. I hated to leave there so soon, as a week passed before I realized it. I have plenty to keep me busy and out of mischief while here and I am expected to help the other fellows some. As this includes a trip to Uvalde, I will welcome it with open arms. I have wanted to see you for some time, and before many weeks I hope to come down.

March 24, 1925

March 24, 1925

I had used a sheet of this stationery to write a little 6 yr. old girl at Jax, daughter of my landlady there. She admired the stationery and had kept it as a treasure. Had a letter from my French boy not long ago, and he has made a wonderful improvement in school.

I went out to see the cottage this afternoon and everything is fine. It has not been rented, as I am particular as to whom I get to live there. The Japanese (Yon-o-mus) (I can’t spell it) shrubs were winter killed but all are coming out again. One of the Arba vitas (I can’t spell this either) will have to be replaced. I was surprised to find that the fixtures and even the water hose were not stolen, as I rather expected that I would have to replace them. The floors are pretty dusty as it seems to have been inspected during my absence. The neighbors have probably looked it over.

Had to stop writing when “Bobbie” brought his youngster over. He is a friend of mine and the boy is about a year old. A real pretty baby. A little time makes a great many changes. I am waiting for another boy friend to come by. He has been married and divorced since we three ran together. He made a mistake and they became divorced.

This is Wednesday night as Alvis and I visited until 1:30 this morning and I have just gotten back to finish this letter. He is the best boy friend I have ever had, and I always look forward to seeing him.

Have gotten started on my work here and I am anxious to get further developments for the Amer. Med. report in May. If I get it worked up like I want to, there will be little left to interest another Bureau. However, we will have to invite one to join us next summer, but most of the joy will be taken out of the problem before then.

Just before I left Wash. I had Sheetz to mail you some Martha Washington candy. I thought I had better tell you, or you might think that the other fellow sent them. The one who went squirrel hunting with you.

I am anxious to see you and I’ll be glad when the time comes to come down there. I hope I can see you more than I did last year. It sounds good to me that you are going to take a vacation.

With very best wishes,

Always
Walter