February 17, 1916 - Bra brecht necht on the moonlecht.

Here the continuation of the correspondence Joe kept up while Helen and her mother were visiting Philadelphia and Atlantic City.
He throws in a little humor and a little Scottish.

The address that they were staying was a friends house. The house is still standing and the records say it was built in 1915. At that time is was brand new home.

February 17,1916.

Dear Helen;
I was rather amused to read that since your visit to the mint you “now know all about how money is made”. Think of what a fortune you could make if you only went down to Wall Street and imparted that valuable information in homeopathic doses to the lambs that are shorn daily at so much per lecture. Yet I might add that Rockefeller speaking to his Sunday School once said "anybody, almost, can make money- it's keeping it that counts." I guess Ban Franklin started the germ of that idea years before oil gushed forth.   Speaking of the million and a half that was strewn about under the watchful eyes of the guards, reminds me that they might be considered 'mince pies’ especially because you said that you saw gold pieces being cut.
Tomorrow night, as you say, you will go to take a wee bit o’ a squint at Harry Lauder, and as he says, "I 'opes it's a *bra brecht necht on the moonlecht”.

From the tone of your letter, it seems as though Phila­delphia wasn't such a quiet or dead City as you had been led to expect to find it. What, with touring all day through the ancient land-marks   of such a historic place, visiting all the modern methods and places of making money, taking in the theatres in the evening, in evening dress as you say as though it were a gala occasion-and why not, meeting bachelor brothers, what else could be desired?

From the splendid time you are having, it is easy to imagine that your wanderlust must be whetted, if you also add the fact that Florence is reveling in the sunny south, and sends such good reports of her social activities there.

Speaking of traveling reminds me that I'll be in New York Saturday, and will probably see the noon trains arrive on the **Pennsy, I am enclosing a digest time-table of trains that might be of assistance, though you seem perfectly familiar with the fact that there is an express leaving at ten, and arriving at noon.

This letter will probably reach you about the time you are ready to leave for the theatre, and it wouldn't be fair to deprive you of the time you have before you to take advantage of the hospitality of your friends, and I will not, therefore, emulate the Irishman who was ordered to cut off a dog's tail, and not wishing to cause it any more pain that necessary, thought that he might accomplish this end by cutting off only a little at a time, by   making an very abrupt ending.
Sincerely,
Joe
* bra brecht necht on the moonlecht means It's a bright night in the moonlight in Scottish.
**Pennsy - this was common reference for the Pennsylvania Railroad


The next letter will be on February 18.