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Will misses Kathleen.
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Fort Sam Houston, Texas,
May 18, 1918.
Dear, Kathleen,
I received your Sunday letter on Thursday. I was very glad to hear that both Father and Margaret were so much better. I was also glad to hear that Billy thrived in the hot weather. I suppose he will be like the little Kuldell boy. I may have told you this before, but I told his mother that he looked as though he had the mumps.
We are planning to go up to Medina Lake again to-day, coming back tomorrow night. We expect to go to the upper end of the lake this time, taking along bedding rolls and sleeping on the ground or in a truck. It is rather cloudy and threatening, so we may have rain as we did both of the other times.
I am enclosing a copy of my M/R to the Q.M. to show you what is in the house. I think you could get along with that amount of stuff until ours comes. The Q.M. has not heard anything from it yet. He said he would let me know when he gets the bill of lading. That will show about when it is shipped.
I went to hear “El Soldado de Chocolate” last night. It was given by a Mexican stock company that has just come here. It was the best opera I have ever heard for 55¢. I talked some with a Mexican just in front of me and he said that he thought there were a great many refugees in the audience on account of the number of strange faces that he saw. He said that the opera must be quite a treat for them.
I am glad to hear that Billy has agreed to give up his night meal. I hope you take advantage of it to get more sleep, but if you follow your old habits I suppose you take advantage of the time to keep poor Ruthie awake.
Can you get Ruthie to come out here this summer? You ought to get the family to close up the house for the summer and come here. I think Father would find this a very good place to finish his vacation. If he fishes he could easily go to Medina Lake, or to Corpus Christi for salt water fishing. I suppose he doesn’t want to fish, but I think it would be a good thing for him to do.
I asked one of the clerks about getting a nurse and she said she thought we would not have any trouble.
I have been wondering if my eyes were like Anna Held’s. She used to sing about her eyes that wouldn’t behave. One of the clerks has a rather low-necked dress. When she talks to me she generally holds her hand or piece of paper up as a shield. My eyes keep tugging away trying to look down and some times they do, but I had hoped they had not been observed. Yesterday when she was leaning over to look at a paper on a table they were rewarded for their efforts. Don’t you think you had better come out here? You know in your own quiet way you could quickly make me lose interest in anything of the sort.
I have been writing this in the office. Since I have written the above everybody has been coming around where they would make me afraid they would see some of it.
I miss you very much and if you will come here I will tell you how very much I love you. With love to all,
Will
May 18, 1918.
Dear, Kathleen,
I received your Sunday letter on Thursday. I was very glad to hear that both Father and Margaret were so much better. I was also glad to hear that Billy thrived in the hot weather. I suppose he will be like the little Kuldell boy. I may have told you this before, but I told his mother that he looked as though he had the mumps.
We are planning to go up to Medina Lake again to-day, coming back tomorrow night. We expect to go to the upper end of the lake this time, taking along bedding rolls and sleeping on the ground or in a truck. It is rather cloudy and threatening, so we may have rain as we did both of the other times.
I am enclosing a copy of my M/R to the Q.M. to show you what is in the house. I think you could get along with that amount of stuff until ours comes. The Q.M. has not heard anything from it yet. He said he would let me know when he gets the bill of lading. That will show about when it is shipped.
I went to hear “El Soldado de Chocolate” last night. It was given by a Mexican stock company that has just come here. It was the best opera I have ever heard for 55¢. I talked some with a Mexican just in front of me and he said that he thought there were a great many refugees in the audience on account of the number of strange faces that he saw. He said that the opera must be quite a treat for them.
I am glad to hear that Billy has agreed to give up his night meal. I hope you take advantage of it to get more sleep, but if you follow your old habits I suppose you take advantage of the time to keep poor Ruthie awake.
Can you get Ruthie to come out here this summer? You ought to get the family to close up the house for the summer and come here. I think Father would find this a very good place to finish his vacation. If he fishes he could easily go to Medina Lake, or to Corpus Christi for salt water fishing. I suppose he doesn’t want to fish, but I think it would be a good thing for him to do.
I asked one of the clerks about getting a nurse and she said she thought we would not have any trouble.
I have been wondering if my eyes were like Anna Held’s. She used to sing about her eyes that wouldn’t behave. One of the clerks has a rather low-necked dress. When she talks to me she generally holds her hand or piece of paper up as a shield. My eyes keep tugging away trying to look down and some times they do, but I had hoped they had not been observed. Yesterday when she was leaning over to look at a paper on a table they were rewarded for their efforts. Don’t you think you had better come out here? You know in your own quiet way you could quickly make me lose interest in anything of the sort.
I have been writing this in the office. Since I have written the above everybody has been coming around where they would make me afraid they would see some of it.
I miss you very much and if you will come here I will tell you how very much I love you. With love to all,
Will
audio---images---comment---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
I was very glad to hear that both Father and Margaret were so much better.
I don't think we have a letter to tell us what was wrong with WJ and Maggie.
2.
We are planning to go up to Medina Lake again to-day, coming back tomorrow night.
Wikipedia says:
Medina Lake is a reservoir on the Medina River in the Texas Hill Country of the United States. It is operated by the Bexar/Medina/Atascosa County Agricultural District. Medina Dam was completed in 1913 in a privately financed project, creating the lake to supply irrigation water for local agricultural use. Lake Medina is in northeastern Medina County and southeastern Bandera County, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of San Antonio.
Will's next letter tells about this trip.
1918-05-21 LETTER FROM WILL TO KATHLEEN
2.
I am enclosing a copy of my M/R to the Q.M. to show you what is in the house.
Q.M. must be quartermaster. Maybe M/R is Moving Report.
3.
I went to hear “El Soldado de Chocolate” last night.
El Soldado de Chocolate seems to be this, in Wikipedia:
The Chocolate Soldier (German: Der tapfere Soldat [The courageous soldier] or Der Praliné-Soldat) is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man. The German language libretto is by Rudolf Bernauer and Leopold Jacobson [de].[1][2] It premiered on 14 November 1908 at the Theater an der Wien.
English-language versions were successful on Broadway and in London, beginning in 1909. The first film adaptation was in 1915. The 1941 film of the same name enlists much of Straus's music but is otherwise unrelated, using a plot based on Ferenc Molnár's play The Guardsman.
4.
I hope you take advantage of it to get more sleep, but if you follow your old habits I suppose you take advantage of the time to keep poor Ruthie awake.
Could be sister talk, could be piano practice - although I can't imagine Kathleen being so inconsiderate as to play the piano in the middle of the night. So what was she doing?
5.
I have been wondering if my eyes were like Anna Held’s. She used to sing about her eyes that wouldn’t behave.
Wikipedia says:
Helene Anna Held (19 March 1872 – 12 August 1918) was a Polish-French stage performer on Broadway. While appearing in London, she was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. From 1896 through 1910, she was one of Broadway's most celebrated leading ladies, presented in a succession of musicals as a charming, coquettish Parisian singer and comedienne, with an hourglass figure and an off-stage reputation for exotic behavior, such as bathing in 40 gallons of milk a day to maintain her complexion. Detractors implied that her fame owed more to Ziegfeld's promotional flair than to any intrinsic talent, but her audience allure was undeniable for over a decade, with several of her shows setting house attendance records for their time. Her uninhibited style also inspired the long-running series of popular revues, the Ziegfeld Follies.
As for eyes that wouldn’t behave, I found this:
I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave
Words and Music by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards
Published 1906 by Gus Edwards Music
[Verse 1]
In the northeast corner of my face,
And the northwest corner of the self same place,
two bad brown eyes, things do and see
That never are done by the rest of me.
[Chorus]
For I just can't make my eyes behave
Two bad brown eyes I am their slave,
My lips may say run away from me
But my eyes say come and play with me,
And you won't blame poor little me,
I'm sure, 'Cuz I just can't make my eyes behave.
[Verse 2]
In the morning I ashopping go,
At each clerk I look and murmur soft and low
I'll take this please send C.O.D.
But it always comes home marked "Paid" to me.
[Repeat Chorus]
I was very glad to hear that both Father and Margaret were so much better.
I don't think we have a letter to tell us what was wrong with WJ and Maggie.
2.
We are planning to go up to Medina Lake again to-day, coming back tomorrow night.
Wikipedia says:
Medina Lake is a reservoir on the Medina River in the Texas Hill Country of the United States. It is operated by the Bexar/Medina/Atascosa County Agricultural District. Medina Dam was completed in 1913 in a privately financed project, creating the lake to supply irrigation water for local agricultural use. Lake Medina is in northeastern Medina County and southeastern Bandera County, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of San Antonio.
Will's next letter tells about this trip.
1918-05-21 LETTER FROM WILL TO KATHLEEN
2.
I am enclosing a copy of my M/R to the Q.M. to show you what is in the house.
Q.M. must be quartermaster. Maybe M/R is Moving Report.
3.
I went to hear “El Soldado de Chocolate” last night.
El Soldado de Chocolate seems to be this, in Wikipedia:
The Chocolate Soldier (German: Der tapfere Soldat [The courageous soldier] or Der Praliné-Soldat) is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man. The German language libretto is by Rudolf Bernauer and Leopold Jacobson [de].[1][2] It premiered on 14 November 1908 at the Theater an der Wien.
English-language versions were successful on Broadway and in London, beginning in 1909. The first film adaptation was in 1915. The 1941 film of the same name enlists much of Straus's music but is otherwise unrelated, using a plot based on Ferenc Molnár's play The Guardsman.
4.
I hope you take advantage of it to get more sleep, but if you follow your old habits I suppose you take advantage of the time to keep poor Ruthie awake.
Could be sister talk, could be piano practice - although I can't imagine Kathleen being so inconsiderate as to play the piano in the middle of the night. So what was she doing?
5.
I have been wondering if my eyes were like Anna Held’s. She used to sing about her eyes that wouldn’t behave.
Wikipedia says:
Helene Anna Held (19 March 1872 – 12 August 1918) was a Polish-French stage performer on Broadway. While appearing in London, she was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. From 1896 through 1910, she was one of Broadway's most celebrated leading ladies, presented in a succession of musicals as a charming, coquettish Parisian singer and comedienne, with an hourglass figure and an off-stage reputation for exotic behavior, such as bathing in 40 gallons of milk a day to maintain her complexion. Detractors implied that her fame owed more to Ziegfeld's promotional flair than to any intrinsic talent, but her audience allure was undeniable for over a decade, with several of her shows setting house attendance records for their time. Her uninhibited style also inspired the long-running series of popular revues, the Ziegfeld Follies.
As for eyes that wouldn’t behave, I found this:
I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave
Words and Music by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards
Published 1906 by Gus Edwards Music
[Verse 1]
In the northeast corner of my face,
And the northwest corner of the self same place,
two bad brown eyes, things do and see
That never are done by the rest of me.
[Chorus]
For I just can't make my eyes behave
Two bad brown eyes I am their slave,
My lips may say run away from me
But my eyes say come and play with me,
And you won't blame poor little me,
I'm sure, 'Cuz I just can't make my eyes behave.
[Verse 2]
In the morning I ashopping go,
At each clerk I look and murmur soft and low
I'll take this please send C.O.D.
But it always comes home marked "Paid" to me.
[Repeat Chorus]
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LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT PAGES IN THIS WEBSITE
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- KATHLEEN: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- THE NEXT GENERATION: DOCUMENTS ----- Maggie, Billy
- FARMERS & GRAYS: DOCUMENTS ----- WJ, Ruth
RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
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