Dear Ad,

I received your letter today and hasten to answer it. We are all well and the boys are growing like weeds. They would astonish you some I think. They spend their time riding donkeys and playing that they are miners. Charley came to me today with a load of rocks saying that he "had good luck this trip and had struck it rich," then showed me his rocks. I tell you they wear out their clothes fast. There is so much sand and sagebrush, which is covered with thorns, that unless a thing is strong in the beginning it will not last long. I shall be very glad to get those stockings you have made as I shall have to let them wear white cotton stockings this summer as there are no colored ones in town. The children cannot go out without their shoes, on account of the alkali dust. I believe I never have told you about that. It covers the ground in spots looking like a slight fall of snow, it does not interfere with the growth of grass and of some plants. This dust is something like soda in taste only saltier. It causes the children's feet and hands to crack open and bleed like hands that are badly chapped.

I declare I should like some vegetables. Now we have no place for a garden. The vegetables here are finer than they are in Illinois when they come, but we have to wait longer for them because we are up in the air so high, and we also must pay a huge price for them. We can have no green corn here and you know how fond I am of it. Wild green gooseberries are beginning to be plenty, in the woods though. They are fully as good as the garden gooseberries you have. They are smooth and do not have prickers on the berries.

The men are away on a trading trip. Last month they added something new to their list of goods. That is sewing machines. They sold thirteen to Mexicans last month, and took 9 with them this time. They are Weed machines and they buy them out right of the Company, not being agents. They make from $3 to $50 on a machine. For instance, a machine that costs $90 in the States they sell for $150 here. If they keep on selling at that rate they will soon realize some money. If it did not cost so much to live I should think they are making money fast, besides the sewing machine business. But it costs a small fortune to live here, and then not have what one would like to eat. What would you think of paying $10 & $12 per hundred for flour? It has been as high as that here this spring. Let alone .80 per lb. for lard, .50 for butter, 50 cents for eggs, 16 2/8 for sugar, $2.50 to $3.00 for one bushel potatoes and so on. As the most of the stuff that they bring home from their trading trips, they wholesale right out, there is no great necessity of our living here when it costs so much. We might live on the other side of the mountains where they could come home oftener and it would not cost so much. So they are looking out for a place. But I do not suppose they will find one to suit them before fall. If they can find a place to fix up to keep stock they can trade lots of sewing machines for cattle, sheep and mules. As for my machine, the more I use it the better I like it. I have every attachment that we can hear of. Newcomb has sold 4 here in town and there were two here when we came, so you see the Weed is quite popular here.

That other Newcomb that lives here used to know Charley and Germ in Montana. He is a very nice man, but quite old.

As to that jelly, it came all right except that in the little brown jar. That had no cover as you will remember, only some paper pasted over it so, that broke open and spilled some on that unbleached cloth. By the way that trunk of yours broke out at the comers coming here but nothing lost out. I think perhaps you maybe are going to send me something, by your asking about jelly. If you are, send it by express to this address via D.E. Newcomb, Pueblo Colorado care of Field & Hill.

Then our folks can get it when they go over there. If you direct it here they will send it by some one from Pueblo and it may get lost. It costs 10 cents per lb. from Chicago to Pueblo. We will, of course, pay all charges. Now this is all written guessing that you were going to send something, and that may be but were not hinting for you to do so.

With much love,

Alice Newcomb

Letter courtesy of Peggy Newcomb Barr
This page was produced by Bob Newcomb in Brea, CA