DUNAMANAGH [Dunnamanagh?]
DE 17
06 [Postmark 17 Dec 1906?]
Miss Arthe Smyth
Rosacre
Beersted
Maidstone
Kent
England
Ardcame 17, Decem 06 [17 Dec 1906?]
Dear Arthe
Your letter
came to hand while I was
in Derry for three days
waiting for the Amerian Consul
to have papers filled and
sworn to, in connection with
the lands in New Orleans
which I thought Mr Baldwin
was attending to for you.
Why Mr. Baldwin did not
look after them I cannot
for the life of me understand.
He could have sold them
any [sic] that he did not do
which was very fortunate
as it turned out.
One hundred pounds was the
offer five years ago when
you and your mother took
the papers from me and sent
them, I understood, to Mr
Baldwin. The lands are
now estimated to be worth
five hundred times more
than they were worth
five years ago, and if
you owned them free of
the costs connecting with
the recovery of them from
tax sales and public administrator's
attempt to take charge of them &c. &c., you
would be a rich woman indeed. Your aunt [Sep?]
will write you all about it. she knows it all.
I enclose you a letter from
Joshua A Pell [Peel?] & Son which
will give you an idea of
the case. The letter you
will please return to me
at once (or in a mail soon) as I may have to
send it to New Orleans.
The Public Administrator
is trying hard to be put
in possession of the lands.
The letter to Pell [Peel?] & Son is a
part of his ploy. My nephew
John and Mr Gurley, - Morgan
Gurley, - write me that
they believe the administrator
will fail and that it is
to my interest that he
should fail.
Your father
A. [Andrew?] W. Smyth
It is said that a man who has
many friends has no friend.
