| Title: | Ernest Cochrane, Calgary to Katie Finlay, Ireland |
|---|---|
| ID | 650 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Cochrane, Ernest/13 |
| Year | 1898 |
| Sender | Cochrane, Ernest |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | provost sergeant |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Calgary, Canada |
| Destination | Co. Down, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Finlay, Kate |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | uncle-niece? |
| Source | D 3504/1/15: Copied by Courtesy of Mr. A. D. Finlay. |
| Archive | Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9103161 |
| Date | 22/02/1898 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Action By Date Document added by B.W. 20:12:1993 |
| Word Count | 1237 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | From: Ernest Cochrane The Barracks Calgary N. W. T. [North West Territories?] Canada. To: Katie [Finlay?] [Wellesdon?], [Holywood?], [County Down?], [Ireland?]. My darling Katie I have just got your letter of the 5th: and it has put me in good spirits, for I see by it that you are getting better & thats [that is?] as good as a years pay to me. For I have been hoping so much & wondering how you were. You are just a dear to promise me the photos (I am answering the enclosure first). And wont I have many a look at it. You give me credit for a warm heart. There are a lot of people think just the reverse The heart you refer to can just be as cold & stern to some as it is possible to be. It has often struck me that with reference to any qualities you can be an exceedingly foolish little body! Put me out of the way and there is no true, loveable, womanly, quality, that I would not, witha all my heart, praise you for. But when you come down to think of Reg. [Regulation?] No. [Number?] 1641 Provost Sergt. [Sergeant?] E. [Ernest?] Cochrane, you begin to imagine things that dont exist. Little woman if you only knew how very far short of your ideal, I am, I would feel easier. What people here think of me, does not concern me one little bit. I go my way & I have not met the man yet who will put me out of it. But then I don’t #PAGE 2 care for them, & I do care for you & value your thoughts of me. When you praise me, & its very often, I feel uncomfortable & know I dont deserve it. Yet I might as well say nothing, for when a girl gets a thing into her head its not one of my kind can get it out. I wrote you a letter telling you how I spent Xmas [Christmas?] & I hope you have got it by this time. May your next be spent under far happier surroundings than being ill in bed I am glad the change of quarters is to your liking & most sincerely trust it may be beneficial. The Card & letter I sent you were not up to much, so you wont lose any thing [anything?] if they dont turn up And so Bob is engaged? Well from what you say he deserves, & I trust will get a good wife. The verse is nice, but in the name of all what image of me has got into that little head of yours? If you could follow my daily life; hear me talk to prisoners; know the amount of sin and misery I am, in my duty, surrounded with, you could not pick out anything nice in the whole lot. Only one thing that I do & am perhaps just a wee bit proud of is, that I treat all the "nasty people" just the same. Let them be friends outside, whites, niggers or Indians, they all alike obey the Prison rules & obey me. I have had my own officers locked up; big ranchers of the country; the lowest of the low, both male and female, guilty of all the crimes under the canopy of heaven & I never showed by word or look that I thought one better than the other. The Indians go home to their Reserves and tell "Iron Face", thats me, hard but "hitchie good as whiteman!" Now the #PAGE 3 next time you start thinking nice of me, pause and say to yourself, "they call him "Iron Face." I think that will take the varnish from the picture. What a nice room you must have & it seems to be [a?] lovely place. I would like to be with you for just a little. Just to have a good look at you, & then I would clear out before you found out I was a very ordinary hum drum sort of person. Do know you [you know?] little woman that you are a very comical "outfit" as they say here. Your sage remarks on love & marriage made me laugh. Of knowing what it is to have people falling in love with you I give you full credit. But as to the troubles etc of the after act, you have only hear say [hearsay?] evidence But when you soar into the realms of social institutions & rail against a wife only having one husband, I had to smile considerably. If my mind does not play me false, there is a tribe in Asia, where a woman when she marries, takes all her husbands brothers as well. How the interior economy of the household is arranged, history does not record, but I imagine, as Arteius word says, "things must be a little mixed!" I know of your powers of old, of handling many admirers at a time: but I also know if you loved and married a man, there would not be a truer or more loving wife found anywhere. So you can keep your remarks on such subjects, for I wont [will not?] have any one [anyone?], not even yourself try & make me believe that you could not, if you had wished been a blessing to the man you gave your hand to. #PAGE 4 You dont know dearest how I value your letters & the happiness they give me. Its very sweet to me to think that there is a someone who cares for me & one that I can look up to & say, she's very good & she has always been tender & kind to me. Oh dear it helps a man such a lot. Its not likely dear that you & I will ever meet, save in that place where I hope I will some day qualify for. But I want you to know you have been a help to me & I want you to Know that in your sweet loveable way you have made a better man of me. I hope that I will never do anything that you would be ashamed of, for I do value your friendship I have none other & this I think makes it precious. I am glad there are nice people at where you are staying & I hope you have lots of friends. It helps one when they are ill. I am going to be extra good so you will feel justified in writing again. We are having a cold snap just now 55 [55 degrees?] below freezing & plenty of snow One night the furnace under my room went out & I was regularly stiffened up in the morning, so much so that I could not turn my head for a couple of days. My thumb is nearly all right now but the cold makes it sting. Now darling I trust & pray this may find you very much improved & that you soon will be all right again. If wishing will do you any good, then you will be your old self very soon. Remember me to your father & mother, I hope the place will do them good as well. I am not going to try & thank #PAGE 5 you for your letter, for I cant [cannot?] say enough: but dear I am grateful. And now with love to you believe me dearest Katie Ever your friend Ernest Cochrane The Pig is well, but strongly objects to the cold. |
