Miss Gladys Bower
Seattle, Wash

My Dear Daughter Gladys:

I just returned from my hunting trip yesterday and I was awful glad to receive two letters from you I was glad to hear that you received a letter from Frank. I have not received any in answer to the one I wrote him in answer to the one I sent you. No you need not send his letters to me unless there should be something in them you did not understand and perhaps I could explain it to you his life and environment are so different from yours that I expect it will be hard for you to understand each other at first at least through correspondence. He has been on a farm all his life consequently he can write of nothing else and you not knowing any of the people there it makes it harder for you both to write interesting letters to each other but I can assure you he would do anything in his power for you for he has always wanted me to bring you and go back to him and once you seen him I am sure you would like him although the ways and customs of the people are much different there than in Washington even the vegetation is different. I hope we shall be able to visit him next Fall then you would understand each other and not seem like strangers. I am very glad you are going to school but sorrow your chum Mary is not there with you (not wishing to retard her education in the least) for companionship to you. Yes I am very much interested in the subjects you are studdying. Chemistry, geology and civil engineering were my hobby but I never had the opportunity to study them. I never read but very little medieval history. I have Dana's geology and I am very much interested in it. I read very little fiction but I never pass up a magazine. My favorites are 1s^t Preview of Reviews, the Worlds Working Everybody's and others of that type about all the news of the world I get is through the magazines and I always buy them when I can get them it is very interesting and perhaps a hobby of mine to seek for facts on any subject hence I should of liked to study science for I like to see anything done scientifically and exact. Pardon me for referring to myself but I wish to state when I was in Seattle I was considered to be one of the best mechanics there at my trade and the cause was I think I always tried to do my work scientifically and would study out at nights where I could improve on it. There was no roof so complicated but I could cut every rafter on the ground before the foundation of the building was laid, no stairs so complicated but I could get out every piece of them in the shop hence I think by trying to be exact seeking facts and science in my work is the reason I excelled so many of my craftsmen perhaps this is not interesting to you but I wish you to know or rather to aquatint you of some of my past life and of the channels of my thoughts. I am glad to know you can read and write French. I wish you could speak it also I wanted your Mother to learn you and Edwin to speak French she said she would when you were older I wanted her to learn me so she said something to me in French and told me to repeat it well I did it so bad she had to laugh at me and she would not try it any more. I thought I would learn some French at least when she would try to learn you and Edwin but I never heard her say a work of French to either of you. Does Chris still play his tricks on pat I think him very impudent to play the same trick on Pat every night and Pat a very forgetful dog if he cannot remember the trick that was played on him the night before and get wise. I had a dog that was tricky like Chris. I called him Trixy. If another dog had anything to eat on a bone you could bet Trixy would have it in a jiffy. He died from getting porcupine quills in him. He was the best dog I ever owned. All of your letters are very interesting to me. Just tell me of anything at all that happens and I should be pleased to know what books you read and of the subjects treated by them for I should know more the channels of thought you are interested in and also I should be interested in the high school doings I am sure I could compare them with my school days and note the progression there of. I write a great deal about myself to you because I wish you to understand me or rather get aquatinted and know more about me. I have not received an answer from Lucy as yet to my last letter to her and I wrote Raymond also and I have not received an answer from him yet. I hope he will not be disappointed in his job. I have not got my return from the dust I sent out to Frisco yet. I am going to the creeks day after tomorrow but expect to be back to Ruby in a week for a day or so again before I go for the winter. I will mail you another letter the same time I do this one in it I will tell you about my hunt and try and give you the information you ask about the animals and vegetable live of Alaska. It would be too bulky for one envelope hence the two letters. With love to you all I remain as ever your loving father

BJ Bower
Ruby, Alaska

P.S. you must excuse bad writing, spelling, and composition for I am not very good at composing my thoughts and feelings and desires ----- but I hope you can understand them. BJB