Evelyn to Fred [Calgary]
Thursday, Feb 16 /17
My Dear One,-
... I wonder if you'll have room to carry my letters! That's rather a silly thing to say, isn't it? I'm going to write to you often, maybe there'll be a page a day for you on your journey - but I do not know how long it will be. You will not need one on the days when you are in Ontario, you had better save them for the ocean.
To-day I was sitting in here, trying to study, and I got so sleepy I put my head down on the desk. Being drowsy, the sound of Miss Macdonald's machine going steadily made me think of the throb of the engines on the boat. We had a lovely trip, didn't we, dear, all except part of the boat and Hyde Park and the dirty eggs in Leamington and the cold in Glasgow & Edinburgh and the rain on the Lochs' trip. ...
I am so glad dear that I have work to do, and I must not fail in my exams. You'd be, well, not ashamed, maybe, but surprised, wouldn't you. I wish they wouldn't make the law books so thick. They are so overwhelming; to start in to study an eight hundred page book makes one weak in the knees. It is like heaping an invalid's plate with food. It makes him feel more than satisfied before he begins.
I do not fully realize that you are going away so soon. The time has been like a cross in the future, towards which every day brought us a few paces nearer, but I could always think that it was ahead - and that there was no use looking at it. I wonder if the time will ever come when we shall not think of it because it is behindus, and we shall not see it unless when we stop to take a survey of the past ...
They were lovely pictures of England in the Geographic to-day, weren't they? How I long for the time "after the war" when we can see them again together. You'll be there in the spring, won't you dearest. I wish we had a camera again. I'm tempted to get a small one for you. Then we could have the pictures we liked best enlarged. Now this will be all for to-day.
Your wife.
Fred to Evelyn The Windsor Hotel, Montreal,
Thurs. evening, 22nd Mar. 1917
My dearest,
I did write one letter today but as I'm afraid I'll not get any chance to write tomorrow I'll send another tonight. I have just mailed under separate cover several of your letters to me. They are more likely to be safely kept by you than if I had them with me. After I get to Eng. I can store them in my trunk, but I have so much stuff now, I'm afraid even of the additional weight of letters.
I told you didn't I about Captain Wray(1) going with us as Medical Officer & that he knows Art. I have been with him a good deal today. He is a very nice man, was born in Waterloo county, taught near Edmonton, went to Alberta College and then to Toronto Med. graduating in '09. He knows Noble very well and was a laboratory desk mate of Heber Moshier. He says Heber is and always was lazy. ...
Tell Percy Carson I met his friend Mr. Stewart, civil engineer from Edmonton. (now Lieut. Stewart) here in the hotel this p.m. He is in the Engineers & has been in barracks at St John's but such an epidemic of typhoid has broken out that everybody had been given 3 week's leave of absence and he came in to Montreal today ...
... I went around a good deal - was in St James (Meth.) church & St James & Notre Dame Cathedrals. They are wonderful, but I was so wishing you could be with me. Seeing things alone isn't half the pleasure it would be if you were along.
I have a fairly nice room at the Windsor but not such a good one as we had last year. My room has no bath but Capt Wray's has and he let me have a bath in his tonight. I appreciated it very much. I got both lunch and dinner (the latter with Capt Wray) at Child's restaurant up the street near the corner of St Catherine St.
An amusing incident occurred this evening. Capt Wray, Lt. Stewart & Lt. (I forget his name) and I were standing near the desk, talking, when in came an officer whose red banded hat proclaimed to be a staff man. He walked right up to us and broke in upon the conversation with a question and stern look at me. "What do you belong to?" "The 191st sir," I replied. "What are you doing here"? "I'm on my way overseas sir" "Where are you from?" "Calgary, sir." "But this is Montreal." "Well, I'm preceding the draft sir" "Is that the way you do things in the west?" Then turning to Capt Wray, he lit into him, called him down for not saying sir to a superior officer etc., etc. He also spoke to the other officers all of whom were rather red in the face by this time. He really wasn't nasty for he smiled very pleasantly, but he impressed us all as a pompous man fussily trying to show off. After he left us I found out he is Brigadier General Wilson, officer commanding this district. Technically of course he was right, but it was amusing.
Have you bought any C.P.R. stock yet? I see that recent German withdrawal on the Western Front has sent it up several points. It is now about 158. It is good buying at any price under 160 or 170 for that matter, but I think perhaps it will go down again to 165. If it does I'd get 5 shares at least. ...
How I wish you were here tonight dearest. But then we'd stay up late and I want to be in bed by nine, because I must get up at 3. I'm going now in a few minutes. I always think of you and pray for you especially at bed time, my own brave little wife, and I kiss you with my heart.
Goodnight my own love.
Fred.
Thursday, Feb 16 /17
My Dear One,-
... I wonder if you'll have room to carry my letters! That's rather a silly thing to say, isn't it? I'm going to write to you often, maybe there'll be a page a day for you on your journey - but I do not know how long it will be. You will not need one on the days when you are in Ontario, you had better save them for the ocean.
To-day I was sitting in here, trying to study, and I got so sleepy I put my head down on the desk. Being drowsy, the sound of Miss Macdonald's machine going steadily made me think of the throb of the engines on the boat. We had a lovely trip, didn't we, dear, all except part of the boat and Hyde Park and the dirty eggs in Leamington and the cold in Glasgow & Edinburgh and the rain on the Lochs' trip. ...
I am so glad dear that I have work to do, and I must not fail in my exams. You'd be, well, not ashamed, maybe, but surprised, wouldn't you. I wish they wouldn't make the law books so thick. They are so overwhelming; to start in to study an eight hundred page book makes one weak in the knees. It is like heaping an invalid's plate with food. It makes him feel more than satisfied before he begins.
I do not fully realize that you are going away so soon. The time has been like a cross in the future, towards which every day brought us a few paces nearer, but I could always think that it was ahead - and that there was no use looking at it. I wonder if the time will ever come when we shall not think of it because it is behindus, and we shall not see it unless when we stop to take a survey of the past ...
They were lovely pictures of England in the Geographic to-day, weren't they? How I long for the time "after the war" when we can see them again together. You'll be there in the spring, won't you dearest. I wish we had a camera again. I'm tempted to get a small one for you. Then we could have the pictures we liked best enlarged. Now this will be all for to-day.
Your wife.
Fred to Evelyn The Windsor Hotel, Montreal,
Thurs. evening, 22nd Mar. 1917
My dearest,
I did write one letter today but as I'm afraid I'll not get any chance to write tomorrow I'll send another tonight. I have just mailed under separate cover several of your letters to me. They are more likely to be safely kept by you than if I had them with me. After I get to Eng. I can store them in my trunk, but I have so much stuff now, I'm afraid even of the additional weight of letters.
I told you didn't I about Captain Wray(1) going with us as Medical Officer & that he knows Art. I have been with him a good deal today. He is a very nice man, was born in Waterloo county, taught near Edmonton, went to Alberta College and then to Toronto Med. graduating in '09. He knows Noble very well and was a laboratory desk mate of Heber Moshier. He says Heber is and always was lazy. ...
Tell Percy Carson I met his friend Mr. Stewart, civil engineer from Edmonton. (now Lieut. Stewart) here in the hotel this p.m. He is in the Engineers & has been in barracks at St John's but such an epidemic of typhoid has broken out that everybody had been given 3 week's leave of absence and he came in to Montreal today ...
... I went around a good deal - was in St James (Meth.) church & St James & Notre Dame Cathedrals. They are wonderful, but I was so wishing you could be with me. Seeing things alone isn't half the pleasure it would be if you were along.
I have a fairly nice room at the Windsor but not such a good one as we had last year. My room has no bath but Capt Wray's has and he let me have a bath in his tonight. I appreciated it very much. I got both lunch and dinner (the latter with Capt Wray) at Child's restaurant up the street near the corner of St Catherine St.
An amusing incident occurred this evening. Capt Wray, Lt. Stewart & Lt. (I forget his name) and I were standing near the desk, talking, when in came an officer whose red banded hat proclaimed to be a staff man. He walked right up to us and broke in upon the conversation with a question and stern look at me. "What do you belong to?" "The 191st sir," I replied. "What are you doing here"? "I'm on my way overseas sir" "Where are you from?" "Calgary, sir." "But this is Montreal." "Well, I'm preceding the draft sir" "Is that the way you do things in the west?" Then turning to Capt Wray, he lit into him, called him down for not saying sir to a superior officer etc., etc. He also spoke to the other officers all of whom were rather red in the face by this time. He really wasn't nasty for he smiled very pleasantly, but he impressed us all as a pompous man fussily trying to show off. After he left us I found out he is Brigadier General Wilson, officer commanding this district. Technically of course he was right, but it was amusing.
Have you bought any C.P.R. stock yet? I see that recent German withdrawal on the Western Front has sent it up several points. It is now about 158. It is good buying at any price under 160 or 170 for that matter, but I think perhaps it will go down again to 165. If it does I'd get 5 shares at least. ...
How I wish you were here tonight dearest. But then we'd stay up late and I want to be in bed by nine, because I must get up at 3. I'm going now in a few minutes. I always think of you and pray for you especially at bed time, my own brave little wife, and I kiss you with my heart.
Goodnight my own love.
Fred.
RSS Feed