Hope a letter will reach me from home for I am homesick again. Good-bye until next time. Kiss to all — Yours, 
Lawrence Bruner.

Nov. 8th 1897
Dear Marcia:
Up to the present I have had no letter from home for about three weeks now, but will try to write a little anyway so as to let you know I am still among the living and quite well — too well considering the kind of food that I fill up on almost every day. But I have said so^#much​ about food in former letters that I will have to quit complaining about it.

During the past week I was up to Cordoba and several other points along the railroad between there and here. Had a rather enjoyable trip of it for the vicinity of Cordoba had been blessed with a number of good rains so that everything was nice and green, and the hills (for there are hills round about Cordoba) were bedecked with a large variety of showy flowers. Spent parts of two days at the government astronomical and meteorological observatories which are in charge of two Americans (U.S. Americans). Also took tea with Mr. and Mrs. Thome of the astronomical observatory — they are excellent Pennsylvania Dutch people, i.e. he is. She was one of the school teachers who came down here when they were still receiving good wages. Then too she found a man. Tell Seba about it. Several American teachers that I know down here were equally lucky in that respect.

While away on the trip last week I had some very excellent strawberries that I bought at Pilar (Prov. Cordoba) and Rio Secunda. It is now strawberry time down here, while at home the snow will soon be flying if it is not already doing so. How the time does fly! Only a short time ago I landed in the country and in less than four months I will be on my way back to the "Home of the brave"— the country where floats the "Star spangled banner." How glad I will be to return. Not that I have not seen things that are interesting to look upon in this country, but I think so very much more of my home, my family and the land I have always lived in.

Here in we are still waiting patiently for rain, for grass,

*[upside down] little more work than is done by the average Argentinian during the same length of time. Will have a fine lot of excellent material for the Uni. of Nebr. also — more than I imagined that I would be able to get together during the year. my man is getting to be quite a good collector considering that he knew nothing whatever about such when I hired him.

flowers and the dust to settle. Several times within the past three weeks rain clouds have gathered but were each time blown away by pamperos. Only yesterday we thought rain was coming surely, but the wind shifted to the southwest at about noon and has been blowing a cold gale ever since.

Today or rather yesterday a man brought a live armadillo, the kind known in this country as "peludo", to me. I wish that I could bring it home alive. It would shurely [sic] be an interesting pet to have. They become very tame in a short time and live on scraps from the table as well as on insects etc. Maybe I will try to bring a pair of them along if I happen to find them just before I start for home.

My man "Friday" is scrubbing today. The rooms had become almost dirty to look well and the fleas were really quite bad so I suggested that he scrub the floors with carbolated water so as to kill them. Not that there was any need of cleaning the floors for they have been swept regularly at least twice a week and sometimes oftener for the past three months and a half. Then too it is too windy and cold outside to collect insects or gather plants if there were any of the latter to gather hereabouts. I myself have been working at my desk ever since a little past six this morning save when I went out to dinner (breakfast as they call it here). It is now nearly 3 o'clock. Have been trying to make out the names of some insects that I brought with me from Cordoba last Saturday, but have succeeded only with a few of them. How I do miss my library down here. None of the libraries in Argentina are very full in Orthoptera literature, not even the national library in Buenos Aires. I must have already as many as twenty five or thirty undescribed species in my collection made since coming into the country. At this rate there may be a full hundred by the time I am ready to sail. At any rate I will have a little something to do to pass time with when I return home. I expect to name them too so as to show these people down here that a North American is capable of doing a*

*I am glad to hear that Psyche is better and that she is going to school. But do not force her any if it is going to hurt her. Would certainly have enjoyed being at home to have taken supper with you and all the West Point students. If I had been you may rest assured that I would be there now too, for I do want to come home just as much as you would like to have me come. At present, however, I can not see how I can leave before the middle of Feb. or 1st of March. There is still so very much to do before I am through with my work here. Then too, now that I am down here I would very much hate to miss a visit to Chili​ and the country along the Rio Colorado to the southwest of Bahia Blanca. I also wish to bring home with me a good collection of Argentine insects which cannot be made short of 3 months more. Good bye — kiss to each.
Lawrence Bruner

Nov. 14th 1897
Dear Marcia:
I have finally received your letter written on Sept. 19, 26 and Oct. 3, and I feel better. They came yesterday along with one from Prof. Bessey and one from Father — all in a bunch after I had been an entire month without a single letter from home. That I had begun to feel a little uneasy can well be imagined. Of course several of the letters must have lain in the N. York office awaiting the departure of a steamer since Father's letter was written as recently as October 6 and came by the same mail.

Another full week has passed and still no rain here in Carcaraña nor anywhere in the Republic so far as I have heard. Oh but it is getting to be terrible — almost like a desert and animals are beginning to die of starvation. Thousands have already perished and unless relief soon arrives many more will quickly follow. Settlers that have been here for more than 35 years can remember nothing like the present drouth. It is awful.

During the week I have remained in because I had plenty to occupy my time and also because I did not care to start out on a long trip without having news from home first. Now that news has been received I expect to start out either tomorrow or next day to be gone a week or possibly two. Will go first to Mendoza (pronounced Mendosa). While there I may take a little vacation and go to the summit of the Andes 60 or 70 miles beyond where I can get a good view of old Aconcagua (think I have spellt​ [sic] it correctly). On returning I may go back to Buenos Aires and from there run down south to Bahia Blanca before returning to Carcaraña.

At present the locusts are mostly to the south of this point, i.e. the fliers. Of course there are young ones beginning to hatch over the regions lying to the north of here. But from these we hear very little for some reason or other. People do not seem to remember their promise to keep us posted as they should in order that the best work might be done in the way of drawing

conclusions. Of course without all sorts of information I cannot get at the bottom of affairs as I would like to. Am afraid now that I cannot make as full a report at the close of my year as I should like to simply because information of the proper kind is not obtainable here in this country. Then too, it sometimes looks as if there are those who do their best to prevent the information from reaching me. I may be wrong in thinking so, but it really does look so at times. Of course I do not worry much on that account because I know that I am trying to do my duty in working for the elimination of the locust pest from the country. If there are those living here who allow jealousy to take so strong a hold as to cause them to try to prevent such a result I cannot help it. All I can say is that it is a pity that people are so constructed.

Have been sending out a lot of the fungus — killed locusts with the hopes of spreading the disease and I sincerely hope that the disease will take hold in earnest whenever it is tried, for I have more hopes in something of this kind finally reducing the pest than all that the settlers themselves will do in the way of artificial destruction. By "artificial" destruction I mean all such methods as capturing the fliers and young and the destroying of eggs. Still I cannot complain any so far as the present year goes, for really the people have done excellent work. Already over 30,000 tons of locusts and eggs have been destroyed — enough to devastate over 300 square miles of territory. And the good work still goes on.

Since writing the above I have been away on the train to the 2d station to the west of here where they are having a great auction of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, &c. Left at 8 o'clock in the morning and returned at 5:04 P.M. While there visited the estancia of a Mr. Greenwood, a special friend of Mr. Jameses, and an excellent man. The sale or auction is something similar to a "fair" at home only that here the stock is brought together for sale, and there for exhibition. It is an excellent place to see the "goucho" in all his glory. Wish that I would have had my camera along so as to have got some interesting pictures.

During the week we have received a consignment of locust fungus from Grahamstown, South Africa that we hope to use here against the Argentine pest, and I hope with as good results as they claim to have had in Africa. Still, if what Prof. Bessey writes about the fungus that I discovered here proves true, we have a very good thing right at home and don't need any foreign affair. So far all who have tried the native fungus say that it works all right. The next thing is to get the natives to consent to use what a foreigner has apparently discovered and suggests.*

*Just now the locust eggs are hatching about here and I hope to give my African and Argentine fungus — diseases a fair trial. We have had a couple of good rains as well as wind and dust storms. The rains have brightened things up a little and made them trifle more cheerful and bearable. The grass has commenced to grow as have also the weeds. Even now there seems a little probability that we shall have another rain within a day or two.

Today I took dinner (noon meal) at a Mrs. Thomas, an American lady's house. Her boys are interested in the insect and bird study! And I am glad to see Americans (of the North) whenever and wherever they are. One does not think so much of a countryman except as when away from home and in a foreign land. Then a country man is something akin to a member of one's own family.

Yours &c. Lawrence Bruner

Nov. 21st 1897
Dear Marcia:
I was glad to receive your and Seba's letters, and also that from Mr. Doane. In fact, a perfect deluge of news in the form of letters and papers has come during the week just closed. To say that these letters are about as good as being at home would be saying what would be untrue. Still they do me a lot of good. Then too, to know that Plymouth Church has arranged for all its debt is also quite encouraging although it has made quite a draft on our resources. Tell Mr. Doane that when I made the offer to pay for the paint I meant just what I said, and that I will send the amount along when I remit next. In the meanwhile if they can get it on tick well and good, or if someone else will advance the money, better. Wish I could be at home now to assist in the rejoicings of Plymouth's people. Still, in a comparatively short time, all being well, I will be. Only 3 months more, December, January and February before I start on my homeward journey. If via Europe I may even start earlier.

I expect to be in Buenos Aires again about December 1st when I shall remit to you another sum of money to last you until I return and take up the business affairs again myself. Hope then to have them so arranged that there will be less interest to pay than there has been during the past. As you write, the money paid out as interest would clothe us very respectably. But without borrowed money we could not have had the home that we have had for so many years.

Hurrah for Seba! A full principal. Will she notice me when I return now that she is boss of so many poor school mans? I wonder. Tell her that if Miss Bryan "made the riffle" there is still hope for her. Yes there is hope. Wish that she was teaching somewhere here in Argentina so that I could go and congratulate here​ for the advancement. As it is she must rest with a mere pen and ink congratulation. Maybe I can get a position from her now as instructor in geography. Ask her for me, please.

I have made some inquiry about native made cloth and find that aside from a few woolen blankets no other kind of cloth is woven in the country so that your plan about a collection of pillows or cushions from Argentine cloth will go glimmering. May be able however to get you something that will answer for a sort of substitute in the way of decorations. Expect anyway that is a very short time you will wish that I had left most everything that I have gathered here in the countries where it was made. That is usually the way with most things I do bring home. Dishes too, are as scarce down here as is native cloth — everything is imported. The Spaniards are too good to work, they are politicians — only the halfbreeds and "gringoes" are fit to work. The consequence is as above. But I don't care to find too much fault with the people. They do the best according to their understanding and the way they look at things.

I cannot tell you very much about my movements for the next few weeks, but about the 1st of the year I have planned to visit Chile. In the meanwhile I must be governed more or less by circumstances and the "sweet will" of the Commission for which I am working. When they furnish me with certain passes for which I have asked I will visit parts of the country necessary to be seen in order to report intelligently on the locusts. Three weeks now since I asked for passes and they have not yet arrived. If they do come it may be too late to do any good Oh! "mañana", what a troublesome word it is in this country. Fully as bad as the word "if" at home.

It pleases me to see how you have made the money reach that I have sent from time to time. By next spring we will have nearly all the debts cancelled if all goes well. Just to think of it makes me feel quite rich even down here so far away from home. We can then fix up a little more about the house and yard. Can build a bath house, fence &c and have things like other people.

Why Mr. Hunter doesn't write occasionally and send me an occasional word about affairs at the Uni. I cannot comprehend. I would very much liked to have seen a copy of my report on Nebraska locusts that I finished for the State Agr. Rept. just before leaving home. There is scarcely time now unless the mails make extra good connections. Then too, not a bit of Locust Fungus has reached me from North America, and I did so much want some to introduce in certain parts of this country where I feel quite sure it would work well.*

Nov. 21st 1897
Dear Helen:
I forgot to say in my letter to Mamma that I am so glad to hear that all of you have been so well. Surely you couldn't have done anything to please me better — you and Psyche and the baby (Alice).

It seems to me that I heard about someone being in the 3b grade in school. Who was it, or did I only dream about a little girl skipping a whole half year? Write and tell me all about it. What a great big girl. The baby must be nearly in the kindergarten now, isn't she? It seems so funny to get letters talking so much about what she says and does. When I left she only said a few words and took two or three steps. Now to run and talk everything!

Since the rain there are so very many toads and frogs about and their songs so funny that I wish you could hear them. When I come home I will try to tell you how they sing only I am afraid that I am not as good as singer as they are. One kind is called the "Esquirso." [escuerzo] It is a funny looking toad that is nearly like a ball.

with a mouth running half way around [sketch of the escuerzo] and the people say it is very poisonous when it bites. It bites too, and when it does bite it never lets loose but hangs on till both the person or animal and itself die. I will try to bring a specimen of each kind along home when I come.

Today while I was at Thomases I saw some little ostriches. They are funny little things. There are two rooster birds and one hen. At first the hen laid 17 eggs in one nest and then oldest rooster set on the eggs. Now she is laying in another nest and the other rooster is sitting on it while the first one is taking care of the little ostriches.

On the prairies, which are called pampas here, ostriches go in droves. When laying time comes the boss rooster makes all the hens lay in his nest till it is full when he sits on them and the next boss rooster makes a next and the hens all lay till his nest is full, & so on till all the roosters are sitting on eggs. I have 4 nice ostrich eggs to bring home. Of course they are all blowed [sic] out and only the shells are left. I am going to try and get some more because they

are so nice. This bird is not as large as the African ostrich, and is called the Rhea here.

Oh but there are so many funny things in this country that a person never gets tired of studying about them or looking at them. If you were here you would be with me nearly all the time while I am pinning insects or stuffing grasshoppers. But I am glad you are at home with Mamma, Aunt Seba, Grace, Psyche and the baby. Here there are so many fleas, and you couldn't go to school. Then too you might get sick, and you know it is not nice to be sick with anything, but fevers are worse.

There are lots of queer flowers too. Morning-glories that grow on bushes and milkweeds that grow like watermelon vines with the pods hanging on like cucumbers. Then there are lizzards [sic] without legs and that have both ends so near alike that it is hard to tell which is the head and which the tail end. Even the four–footed animals are some of them very peculiar. Instead of being hairy they have all the upper side and head and tail covered with a kind of hard shell like a turtle. I have two

of one kind that is called "peludo" here in the country. Besides being covered with a shell they are a little hairy too. Maybe I will bring them home alive. That is if they are still alive and can stand the sea ride on the ship. There are two kinds of big lizzards [sic] here that are called "iguanas" but that are not. They are about as long as you are high. I don't have any yet, but guess that I will get one or two and skin them so as to have them stuffed later when I come back to the University. They are gray and green in color.

By the time you get this letter it will be Christmas and you will have snow and it will be cold. But down here it will be as hot as the Fourth of July at home. Only think about it. To have Christmas come in summer instead of in winter. I cannot send anything home for Xmas. I am sorry about it but it is so hard to send anything because it would have to go to Europe first or it might be on the road ever so long and then stay in New York as much longer.

Good-bye, a kiss to each.

Your Papa
Lawrence Bruner

*The N.Y. Life Ins. businesses has been finally settled then. As you say the money would have been better than the addition to the policy, but since it is as it is we cannot kick much. They have their business rules and must go according to them so as to avoid much confusion. Try to look after the business affairs a little longer even if they are a worry and a strain on your nerves. I have it to do in addition to my Uni. & other duties when at home and don't find it very wearing on me. Hope that you and the children are well and will keep so during the winter. I worry more about this feature of affairs at home than all else put together. As long as you keep well the balance can go. Try to scrape up news for a little while longer after receiving this letter — say until the first of February & then you needn't write anymore. I am well and trust you are all the same. A kiss to each & and all.

Yours, Lawrence Bruner

Nov. 28th 1897
Dear Marcia:
Your letter written on the 17th of October reached me a couple days ago, as did one from Amy that was written on the evening of the 19th instant. The news which you and Amy wrote were very welcome indeed to me way off here so far from home and most of my friends.

I was much interested in your description of your Omaha trip. Am glad to hear that you found my aunt Nellie so pleasant, for I always thought she was very nice indeed, although my uncle Tom sometimes made me feel quite out of place when in his presence either at this store or his house. I always had a brotherly affection for aunt Nellie — she was so different from the other aunts.

It is less than a month till Xmas now. How the time does fly. Only 3 months more and I hope to be on my way home. In the meanwhile I have considerable traveling to do and my report to write, hence will be more occupied than ever and time will simply fly.

In a few days I expect to go down to Buenos Aires to consult with the Commission about the work for the immediate future, as well as the final before preparing my report on my year's investigations. While in the city I will remit to you another draft — possibly the last one before I return. Will try to spare a little more this time if after figuring out my possible expenses for the next month. I find that I can do so. You may figure on $450. at least about the middle of January if the mails run about right. That would leave me about $200 for emergencies with the possibility of always drawing on the commission if I should need more. I will then have 4 months more salary still to draw, or $1,200.00 most of which I ought to be able to save since a hundred and fifty dollars will pay the ballance [sic] I am to spend for the University of Nebraska, and I have already bought nearly all the little presents that I expect to bring along home. My trip to Chile need not cost me more than $20 or $25 personally, and I only need a few new clothes. Expect to land in N. York​

with no extra clothing on hand. Will buy there if I need them. They cost too much down here and are not so satisfactory by a long way. Imagine a shirt costing $7.50 to $12 .00 and you will gain some idea of what a good garment sells for in Buenos Aires. When I say $7.50 to $12.00 I mean dollars of Argentine paper money and not of gold.

You write about being without a girl and the trials of attending to the furnace. Do not try to do everything yourself but hire a good girl, and if need be a boy or man to look after the furnace too. Don't try to be too saving and suffer in consequence. Wish I could be at home to look after some of the affairs myself. I do so miss my family and home surroundings. Can't imagine how it happens that one who is so fond of home is so very much away from home as I am. Some persons apparently care but little for there homes and home surroudnings, but are always destined to remain at home.

Thus far I have written but little about the locusts and what I have found out concerning them in this country. This is because I have as yet not found out definitely a great many points concerning which I am seeking information. Then too, it is locusts, locusts, the entire week that once a week I am glad to sit down and write a letter nearly free from the subject. Besides I am not quite ready to make any definite statements that are liable to find their way into the newspapers and in turn come back here and be misstated in Argentine papers. When I have gotten all my facts together and have prepared my report. I will make a statement in some of the United States papers that will be final — some paper that will give me an opportunity to read a proof of the article before it appears.

I am sorry to hear that Dr. DeBell has been suffering from Rheumatism. Hope that he is well before this. I simply cannot write to Ella and the others very often. I owe both father and Amy letters. Expect to write to father in a week or so also to Psyche. Will write to Amy and will try to write to Kenelm also between now and Xmas if I can possibly find the time to do so. These letters will have to be passed around. It is too hard work for one away in a foreign country to write to all his relatives and friends. Even one letter month would mean an endless task.

I have had two State Journals so far from the Journal Office direct and expect a whole batch of them before long when the mails succeed in getting through. Had another lot of papers from McCrosky's the past week — mostly old ones that you had sent or news that came in those mailed to me direct. Have been reading considerable fiction lately — at least one story a week to go to sleep by nights and while riding on trains.*