Monrovia, Liberia

June 25, 1934

1:00

Dear Marge:

I have about a half-hour to write this to get in on the mail boat home, otherwise, it will be three or four weeks before I can get an answer out.

I am just beginning to realize the loneliness of the place from the standpoint of women. There are none - except natives.

The rains here are peculiar. It rains off an on all day but be the rains ever so hard - in an hour after it stops the tennis courts are dry and no one minds the rain.

It is not hot here, the fact is - it is cool, cool enough for a linen coat to feel darned comfortable even now at mid-day.

If you could only feel the cool breeze coming in from the sea with a faint trace of salt in the air you would get over your idea of the heat of the tropics. I know I had the same idea but it is wrong. The temperature never goes as high as at home nor does it sink as low. A variation from sixty to one hundred is a moderate climate. The humidity is the thing that is bad and that is only noticeable after a stiff walk, dressed for going out including a coat.

Beat this for a lunch - a salad of crawfish, potatoes, watercress, parsley, mint and tomatoes. It sounds like a mixture but the boys know how to prepare things.

Avocados are so plentiful and cheap that they spoil on the shelves before I have decided on that particular salad for a meal.

Sincerely,