It seems to be but yesterday that I saw you riding on the cars talking to the driver
on Stevens Street, & it has really been nearly three years three years, this
coming August since I left Camden. Time has flown so rapidly that it seems but a
year & yet, again, it seems ten years, since I felt the old home loc_vm.01560_large.jpg
Your photograph greets me every time I go into my brother's office I have it hung there so we can both see it, & you do not know how many people know you way out, in this western country.
One of my friends came in the other day & said, "you have still got his picture hung up," & I said "yes! it would hang there until I go away & then it will go with me". it reminds me of so many pleasant chats with the original.
New Mexico, has changed me so My Dear Mr Whitman that you would not loc_vm.01561_large.jpg recognize me. I
am only one inch short of six feet & am heavily built in proportion, weighing
150 lbs.
The first year I came out I was a cowboy, & altho' it is a very prosaic life,
still I have some very pleasant reminiscences of that time. I have been out on the
prairie with no house or food in sight when night came & had nothing to do but
to roll up in my blankets & make the best of it, then again, horse breaking is
one of the hardest times of the cowboys life. Many a tumble I have had off loc_vm.01562_large.jpg of a broncho but
you have to get up & conquer the horse before you stop in spite of all the hard
knocks you get.
For a man with money there is wealth in the cattle business, but for a cowboy—only, a small ranche with a smaller number of cattle, to look forward to—after years of hard & unceasing labor still a cowboy is always happy, contented & what is the best of all—the finest & constant friend, when you call upon him, that a man can have.
I have been to Calafornia loc_vm.01563_large.jpg I went about the first of April & was gone two weeks. the
scenery I think was the grandest that I ever saw. It was just magnificent. I thought
how Mr Whitman would like to see it. At times we would be going through some deep,
dark cañon & then we would burst forth into the full glory of sun as we
hastened over a level stretch of praire, then we would slowly slowly be going up a
steep part of the Rockies, only to come dashing down the
loc_vm.01564_large.jpg other side with all the brakes set,
hard & objects flying by you like magic. I remember one morning we reached the
top of the San Fransica Mts. just as the sun was rising & it was grand to feel
the sun & look down the valley when all was as yet in complete darkness with the
sun slowly ascending & giving its light to the earth below. One place I remember
well & that was Cañon Diablo a great rent in the Earth 300 ft deep and 100
ft wide
loc_vm.01565_large.jpg looking
down that fearful hole your imagination will conjure up ideas that you would not
think of elsewhere & you can realize the freaks of nature to their fullest extent But I have
not described the town of Albuquerque & I will not attempt to do so, as I can
never describe anything correctly, but will send you a magazine that I have sent for
which describes it fully The inhabitants are in expectations of a boom which they
say will take place in about three months, but
loc_vm.01566_large.jpg as I am not a sanguine person I do
not say so. I must close now as it is bedtime Mother & Harry say "Remember us to
Mr Whitman & tell him that we often remember him & wish we could see
him"
If you ever feel like it Mr Whitman a small letter from you would be very much appreciated & promptly answered
Sincerely Your Friend J.W. Wrothaddress J.W. Wroth Albuquerque New Mexico
Correspondent:
John W. ("Johnny") Wroth was
the younger son of Mrs. Caroline Wroth, who was the wife of a Philadelphia
importer, at whose residence (319 Stevens Street, Camden) Whitman took his meals
for a period of time beginning in July 1881. Johnny moved with his mother and
his brother James Henry ("Harry") Wroth to Albuquerque, New Mexico, soon after,
and Whitman kept in touch with them.