1 letterhead July 30. 1903. Dear wife Darlings. It was delightful to get an All well again Happy greetings so promptly
yesterday morning. I started that cable message to you about noon on the 28th from an old dingy cellar below the hotel received
your reply at the Consulate the next forenoon about 10 o clock, less than a day. This is the first only word since leaving
home you will say it is only 2 1/2 months. but to me it seems as many years so many strange things places we have seen experienced.
I'm afraid you have been 03277 2 sick. The Sargents have received 100s of letters. One of the last received day before
yesterday told that Alice had been operated on for appendicitis. He cabled for news received reply in about 6 or 7 hrs that
she would soon be up fairly well again. We have just completed a long hard interesting side strip to the Ca illegible s Crimea.
About 3 weeks ago we came up here from St Petersburg but instead of stopping went south 1000 miles to Sebastopol, thence by
carriage to Galpa along the bluff shore of the Black Sea. Thence by