Grandview [Jan. 13, 1914]
Dear Bess:
Here it is Monday night again before I get started on your letter. I intended getting it off in time for you to get it Tuesday but I never did get back to the house after I went out this morning. After we got the cows fed, a man came and wanted to buy one for $42.50 and have us deliver her at Grandview. We told him that if we decided to take him up, we'd be there by two o'clock. The cow was caught after a half hour's tussle all over two acres, and we decided to weigh her and see how much we were being skinned. She was attached to the rear of a wagon and dragged on the scales. She weighed 930 and would bring about $54.00 in K.C. Papa decided that $10.00 was too much of a present to make so we turned her loose. I was mad as I could be after all that trouble, and then keep her. She's a horrid beast, always has her nose where she's not wanted. She's like Uncle Harry's four work steers. He said a fellow had two yoke of cattle named for the different churches. One was called Catholic, one Methodist, one Baptist, and one Episcopalian. He had good reasons for calling them that too. He said the Episcopalian wouldn't eat at the proper time and would try to horn the rest away so they couldn't eat. The Catholic wanted all there was to eat and didn't want the rest to have any. The Methodist was always battling and wouldn't pull a pound, and the Baptist wanted to run and jump in every hole of water he saw. This cow is of the Catholic persuasion. It was 2:00 P.M. when the cow episode was finished. I started to the house and had just got myself comfortably seated when a man came after a load of hay. I had to put on fifty-two bales for him and some of them would weigh all of a hundred pounds apiece. There is no reason on earth for me to belong to the Kansas City Athletic Club for exercise. I can probably get my money's worth out of the pool and barbershop on Sundays, and the bar - I was about to forget the bar.
I have made up my mind to quit the Grandview Commercial Club because they sell booze and then, to be consistent, I join the K.C.A.C. because they do! Most people are about that consistent in their actions. I'll not try to drink up all the K.C.A.C. has on draught the first time I go anyway. I'll endeavor to go by easy stages. It sure would be a strain on the breweries if everyone drank as much as I do - at least a strain on their dividends. It makes me tired to hear a lot of holier-than-thou people yell temperance and try to make me vote dry, and then when I'm in the city with them they make fun of me for drinking buttermilk instead of rye. I was in town on the Thursday before Thanksgiving with some of Grandview's strongest drys. On the way home we stopped at a lunch stand to get a sandwich and then every one of them had to have a cold bottle and I got bawled out because I didn't take one. I never did hear a remark that suited me better than "What you do speaks so loud, I cannot hear what you say." If the drys were all really dry, there'd be about half the booze drank and sold that there is. Excuse me. I didn't intend to get on a Women's Christian Temperance Union subject but it just intruded itself.
I met a cold wave last night as I came down the road. It was a breeze right off Lake Winnipeg coming from right under the south star. I didn't appreciate it a little bit. My north window was up and the bed was cooled down to about absolute zero. I was hot when I got in the house but it didn't take me long to cool off. It was an awful task to arise this morning in that ten-degree room. I finally did but I believe some of the enamel is cracked on my teeth.
I hope to get to town this week but I don't know what day. If I get in I'll call you up. See you anyway Sunday, which will be a long time to wait. Anyway if I get a long letter pretty quick it'll help some.
Sincerely, Harry