*I hope that school affairs will start off all O.K. when the term begins this month. Is Amy to be back in school again, or has she succeeded in finding a school? Expect that Mr. Hunter will write me as soon as he returns from his vacation out west. He was going to try and get a supply of grasshopper fungus for me to use down here. Prof Taylor wrote me that he had obtained a pass for him for that purpose. Tell Seba to write me a letter if she has the time, and to write the news. I will try to answer it if she does. I will write to one or both of the girls next time. Would write to them oftener but it requires time to write letters, and I am not supplied with an over abundance of it. Don't know whether you can read all of this cross-writing, so I must quit.

Good bye. Kiss for each and all. Yours, L. Bruner

Sept. 7th 1897
Dear Marcia:–
I have just received your letter that was written on August 1st. It seems that one of my letters must have been a little slow in reaching you for you complain of not receiving any for 2 weeks. I certainly wrote one 8 days after the one you did receive. In fact I have written 12 since I reached Argentina addressed to you, Psyche or Helen. This is the 13th. Besides these I wrote 3 to Hunter, 1 to Taylor and 1 to Prof. Bessey. In addition to these I have written 1 to Amy, 1 to Father and 1 to Ella — all of which you are apt to hear about. You see I keep track of all the letters I write. Long before this you will have received letters notifying you of the fact that I have regained my usual health and that I am fatter and saver ​than ever. I will now add that I have grown a beard ala Prof. Fling, and that my hair is falling out quite rapidly. Whether this latter is due to my sickness soon after coming to the country, or whether it is the natural consequence of old age I cannot say. Still it remains as a stubborn fact. Hope it will not "come in curly."

About mails. Don't worry if you do not receive letters regularly every week. I will try to write them at least that often but I cannot always regulate the time they will require in reaching you. About 5 steamers leave Buenos Aires each week that are liable to take mail. Most of these go to Europe and there the mail for the U.S. is transferred to steamers sailing for New York, Philadelphia, Boston or Baltimore as the case may be. About twice each month steamers sail for New York direct. If a letter happens to catch one of these it reaches there in about 26 to 30 days. In Buenos Aires McCrosky's can keep track of the steamers and by directing their letters via some particular vessel can reach there a full week or may be even 10 days earlier than a letter that "runs its own chances." I might write a letter today to you and it would reach Buenos Aires tomorrow morning. Should a steamer be sailing for Liverpool in the afternoon it would go by that steamer. Perhaps another steamer would be leaving on the following morning for N.Y. direct by which McCrosky's would send mail. The result would be that the mail sent a day later would reach home a

full week ahead of the letter mailed a day earlier and going via Liverpool, Lisbon, Brehmen, or Lyons. If I were in Buenos Aires I would keep track of the sailings of steamers so as to get mail through as quickly as possible. Here and all over the Republic I cannot do this. Try and be patient as possible and the letters will reach you in due time. You hope that I will write a few more letters before next April. I hope that I may be able to do so. I should write about two dozen in that time as it is still a little less than 6 months before my time will be up here. If, however, the locusts all disappear within the next few months, as they seem to be doing now, I may arrange to return a month or two earlier. Wouldn't that be glorious?

I still contemplate making the Paraquay trip and intend to start on Monday next, pass or no pass. The members of the Commission are not all as active as Canfield was so the pass has not yet been asked for although a full month has elapsed since I urged them to do so. Even when on my trips over the country I do not entirely neglect my writing home as you will discover if you note the headings of some of my letters.

I am glad to know that Psyche was so much better when you wrote, and that you are also feeling better yourself. Just try to keep so yourself and try to keep the little ones well. But of course you need no urging on this this line. Do as you think best with reference to the operation; but don't let any doctor simply work you for the money they might be able to collect. Hope that Seba will get a principalship but would like to see her located nearer home. Still, with the cars running themselves as they do she could make the trip from home except during the stormiest of weather when she could arrange to stay with some of the families near the schoolhouse. Sorry that the girl that you brought home with you from West Point does not want to stay. She should think of me as being a little ways from home too, and among strangers.

Spring is rather slow in developing down here. We had another frost last night but it is a little warmer again today. It is now quarter past 2 P.M. and I can work quite comfortably at the desk without any fire — not even a lamp burning in the house.

Glad to hear that Mrs. Gehring has been able to dispose of her property, that is if she got anything for it. What is Eugene Moore doing, and how is he coming on with his affairs? As I said in my last, write me some news. I like to hear from home but I would also like to know about a few additional people and things. How are the University affairs progressing. Mr. Hunter has not written to me for quite a while now.*

Board Steamer "Olympo" en Route for Paraguay
Sept. 14th 1897
Dear Psyche:
Just a week ago today I wrote a letter (to Mamma) from Carcaraña in which I said that I expected soon to go up to Paraguay. Well, I am now on the way at last. Have been on the boat since yesterday a little past 1 o'clock. It is now half past 2. Wish that all of you were along with me on this trip for it is really delightful. River boating is quite different from ocean sailing — no high waves, rolling about and sea sickness. The scenery too, along the Paraguay river is quite enchanting compared with the very flat and monotonous pampas country to the west, south and north of Buenos Aires that I had previously travelled over by railroad trains. Here the right bank at least is quite high and bluffy like that of the Missouri in Iowa and Nebraska. The country back is also gently rolling and is covered with woods dotted here and there with square green fields of wheat. The farm houses are white, one-storied flat buildings that contrast well with the varied greens of the land

scape. The river is a mighty stream divided into numerous channels dotted with numerous flat and wooded islands. In places the combined channels of the river with the inclosed [sic] islands form a width of 20 to 25 miles. It is now spring. The peach trees are in bloom, the willows have put on their coat of new leaves and catkins, and the whole country begins to show the fresh green colors of a northern middle-May time. The birds from the north have appeared and the dreary winter scenes of the papas have changed to something more like the home–land scenery. If these things continue to occur from time to time, and each change is as marked as the present, I may come to feel a little more contented in Argentina during the few remaining months that I am obliged to spend in the country.

Of course each day now brings with it new life — bird, insect and plant. With these my duties become more and more numerous. I am obliged to spend more and more time each day in work and study. True, the work is attractive and I do not mind it much although occasionally at night time I am a little tired. New countries

are great treats for a naturalist, but at the same time they add new labors!

I expect to be at least three weeks on the trip, and during this time I will not hear from home. A steamer is expected on the 17th direct from New York. Possibly it will bring letters from home that would be a little less than a month old when they arrived. They will be more than two weeks older than this when I shall receive them.

When my present trip is over I may go up to Bolivia, or I may not, just as circumstances seem to demand. If I go there will be another month of no news from home. If not, I will take two or three trips of a week to each of the south and west to see some of the country in those directions.

At present there seem to be only three locusts in all of Argentina — only about one-tenth as many of them as there were last year at this time. They are also quite sickly and worn in appearance, and have not yet laid eggs so far as we can learn. If they do not begin to do so soon it will be too late for them to do any harm to

the wheat. Then too, the birds, small mammals, lizards, toads and other enemies will have so reduced their numbers that only a "corporal's guard" will be remaining. To-day some of the locusts were flying across the river and thousands had fallen in and were drifting with the current oceanward to feed the fishes.

When I return from this trip I expect to begin spreading disease among the swarms in various parts of the Republic. I will have three distinct diseases for trial. One from here, another from home, and the third from South Africa.

When I started this letter I had thought that I would make it descriptive, but I have changed my plan, and will write a description of the trip from Asuncion, Paraguay on Sunday.

I am quite well and feel much like work now. Besides obtaining all the locust news possible while in Paraguay and the adjoining portions of Argentina on the opposite side of the river I want to make a good collection of insects for myself and the Univ. of Nebr.

Hope that this letter will find all of you quite well.

Yours &c.
Lawrence Bruner

Asuncion, Paraguay
Sept. 19 1897
My Dear Psyche:–
Who would have thought a year ago, or even 6 months ago, that I would be here today writing a letter home? But things are so very peculiar in this world that we cannot tell for certain anything about the future. Time passes, and with the time goes our lives. Some people seem to have a pleasant time, while to others comes nothing but misery and trouble. To me has, for the most part, come pleasure. Maybe, afterall [sic], it is the person and not chance that makes our lives happy or miserable. If we are willing to take things as they come and try to be happy anyway, we are happy; but if we are always dissatisfied with ourselves, other people, and the whole world we will always be miserable.

Paraguay is a much finer country to my notion than Argentina. It is not so level and barran [sic] to look upon. The native people (mostly women, girls and boys) are much better looking than the native Argentinians, and I believe less savage and more trustworthy. At any rate I would be more willing to trust them in

many ways than I would the Argentinians.

About 8 years ago, more or less, nearly all of the men of this country were killed in war with Brazil (at least so the story goes), and the women and boys and girls have had to run the affairs of the country ever since. That such may be a fact seems quite plausible, since no or but few middle aged men are to be seen on the streets and in the country about Asuncion. There are a few quite old men and then some young men and boys. All the work seems to be done by women and boys. The cart and other drivers are all boys, as are also most of the other workmen that I have seen. The old and middle aged women are generally sad in their looks; but whether or not there is any connection between this sad appearance and the downfall of the country, I cannot say.

There are some peculiarities about the people here that are interesting, and worth writing about. About half of the middle aged and nearly all of the old women go about with cigar stubs in their mouths. Sometimes these are lighted and are smoked, but usually they are only held in the lips without being lit. The custom seems to

be very peculiar one to a person not accustomed to seeing "smoking" women. Then too, all the native women walk the streets barefooted and bareheaded. In stature they are all very straight and wirey [sic]. This is due mostly to their carrying things on their heads and to the fact they do all kinds of heavy and hard work.

I might write much more about the people and country, but I only come into it yesterday and have had little time in which to learn about these things. On Tuesday I expect to go into the interior about 75 to 100 miles to Villa Rica to be gone 3 or 4 days. On my return I will take a boat down the river to Corrientes and Resistencia where about 3 or 4 days will be spent. From there I will go to Reconquista and back to by train.

There are many interesting things to be seen in this country, and I will get some of them to bring home with me. I have already bought a few pieces of the famous "Paraguayan lace" and may get one or two pieces more before I leave the country for good. While I am not a general admirer of laces, embroidery, etc., I do

think that some of the work in the lace line is exquisite. I examined a $75 handkerchief yesterday that I believe would just suit Mamma. Maybe I will get it for her. Things in general are quite cheap here, but one would not think so unless he knew all about it. In Argentina a U.S. dollar will buy about $3.00, and in this country an Argentine dollar is worth $2.35. So when I paid $1.00 for having my hair cut and whiskers trimmed I really only gave about 15 cents of our money. A $75. handkerchief would therefore cost only about $10 U.S. money. I bought a few little doilies (don't know whether I spelled the word right or not, but inclose [sic] one so that you will know what I mean) because I knew that they will suit Mamma as well as anything else. I also got a collar and a couple of medium quality handkerchiefs. For myself I expect to get a few Indian trinkets — maybe 10 or 12 Paraguayan dollar's worth.

Will write again before I arrive at Carcaraña — perhaps from Corrientes, or on the boat going down. Will write to Helen next time.

A kiss to each. Hope all are well at home.
Your Papa
Lawrence Bruner