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Title
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Letter: J. Earle Alexander to Audry Davis
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Accession Number
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2024.16.3.9
comprised of 2024.16.3.9a and 2024.16.3.9b
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Accession Date
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30 January 2025
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Accession Creator
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David Lovegrove
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Depositor
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Kala Kennemore
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Date
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22 December 1892
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Storage Location
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Box 21, Folder 1
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Text
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Evinsville, S.C.
Dec. 22 '92.
"Mei puella dulcissima;" ["my sweetest girl"]
I will be afforded much pleasure in adjourning all other thoughts, to enjoy a likeable, "cuni in terra puella dulcissima" ["I am the sweetest girl on earth," likely intended to say "you are"] for awhile tonight, in which I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your interesting and much appreciated letter, also to profess a profound sense of gratitude, to him who, so kindly, provided this _lovely_ means of communication, from which I frequently derive pleasure.
How do you find your little, mean, hateful self about now?
(Be sure, to apply evil for good). (and reverse)
And think me a flatterer when I say, you furnish a very fascinating field upon which my thoughts constantly stray, but ever and anon. find abundant nourishment, and acquire an obstinate will, to return when withdrawn.
I have just returned from a visit to relatives and friends in Laurens County, and will congratulate my self, upon a very pleasant stay. I attended a "sociable" one evening this week.
Prof. [Towner Heast?] surely must have been constructed somewhere, within the Arctic Circle, on the isle of Spitzbergen or Nova Zembla, where sweet little girls are unknown, and holidays unobserved, but a neverending task of fathoming the depths of my [ethicism?] is but a "salad" for him
Prof. A.M.
who has both a prefix & suffix applied to his name.
I would have been happy, (had it been my lot) to have shown him "how to kill snipes."
I am going to Woodruff tomorrow, wish it was another "fair."
[Inserted here in Audry's handwriting: "Which Tom?" or "Which Town?"]
By the way, how is "Tom" getting along? Write me about him or anything, soon. for I am as lonely to-night as I can be.
My near companions tonight are all [renters?]; – but some of them sometimes give the nom deplume "pets" for they are at those times very interesting. I suspect I'd better give you a _few_ of their names. Jane Eyre, Shirley, Vilette, Longfellow's, Tennyson's, Whittier's and Tupper's poems. Ben Hur, Lucile, Ivanhoe, etc, etc. I suspect you have had experience with such friends.
I have several invitations to entertainments during Christ-mas holidays and anticipate a jolly time. At one of the entertainments, to which I have an _invite_ we are to have music from almost every kind of instrument followed by vocal solo's, duet's, and quartette's, then all around a reception table will be extected to respond in appropriate tribute to the toasts proposed. the remainder of the time I suspect will be consumed in "tripping the fantastic toe."
Your stolen property (in the form of a ring) I still hold in my possession. I will make you this promise, that I'll indemnify it at the earliest opportunity.
Wishing you a merry Xmas, I remain as ever,
Sincerely Yours,
J. Earle A.
