1110 Sumerset Street
Port Richmond
Philadelphia
July 29th 83
Dear Patrick
Your letter came
safe to hand I was thinking
that mabe [maybe] you were to get a an-
other from me before you would
write & so you could if I was
a writer of any account but I am
such a poor hand at it that
it is a task for me to answer
the ones I get. But I hope to
long able to answer yours that
is if we cannot talk otherwise
then by letters. There is times when
people meet pleasure mingled
with savour. And that is often
the case when I get a letter from
you telling me of the beauty and
pleasure of my native land.
and the joys that are gone and
the friends that are no more
I move ---- or see any one that I
could talk to about the fields and
roads I used to roam in boyhood
days. All the walks scenes and sounds
still keep fresh in my memory
and the neighbourhood kind & true
with ------- pleasant & free
I often think is it fate that drove
me from home. Well as for
general news I have got none
for I must fill letter with
with something you see by the
heading of my letter that I have
changed my boarding house
I am now in the upper part
of the city working in a shipyard
I am helping a little fellow from
The J.Head Jack Straw is his name.
I am working steady this summer
for so far but do not know
how long it may last.
I am glad to hear of you being
able to hold your own these
times and prospect of doing better
I suppose Mary & Eliza will be
Going a usual to see the Isle that
Is crowned with shamrocks
I wish them pleasure on their
visit I got a letter from William
down east he expected Hugh to
pay him a visit soon Well
neither me nor the spirit had
moved yet in the direction
of making a change of life
I dont care how soon we would both
move if it was for the better
But I have not found out
yet who is going to move in
the same diriction [direction] for spirit or
no spirit I cant [cant] do it myself
I cant [cant] tell you much about
any of the neighbours here I do
not visit many of them I go
once in a while to see Thomas
McGrogan he lived down in
the lower part of the city
& keeps a Segar [Seggar; Sugar?] Store Eliza
Stinson is married again to a
man by the name of Galligher
James & his care is doing as well
as could be expected I may go
out to him in winter This month
has been verry [very] warm I think
hotest [hottest] of the summer is over
after next month is comes the pleasan-
est [most pleasant] season of the year in this
country if ever you visit America
come in September or October
American scenery in fall is rich
I am scribbling this on my
knee you will hardly be able to make
it out when the spirit moved me I
might have something better Yours TG [Thomas Gribbin?]