Pocatello Clinical Laboratories
Pocatello, IdahoJean Bentley Stalker, B. S.
Laboratory Technician
Phone 1789Dear Mary Rebecca,
I have only time for a few lines - we are all in a very packed up - unpacked condition at home and my time here at the laboratory is both limited and full - however I am mailing to you today the bowie knife we found in the Yellowstone Park and I wanted you to be on the look out for it - You will remember it completely disappeared at the end of our trip (and wasn't found until I accidentally ran onto it in the very bottom of the carton we keep our camping utensils in last summer) - I wanted very much to send it sooner but as long as Mott found it it was rightfully his and I didn't have his permission until last week. He came down to say farewell to us and I told him I had found it and said I thought you would appreciate it. He said he didn't realize that you had wanted it or rather would have liked to have it until some time after the trip when he remembered the incident one day - - said he saw
itthe knife and thought it was just what he wanted and then he looked up and caught an expression in your face that he didn't quite understand then but later he remembered it and said to himself that that was probably exactly what you had in mind. So he said by all means send it to her! I hunted all over for your letter so I could tell him what you said about sending a card at Xmas but couldn't find it - I remembered tho that you said you thought of sending one but didn't. He said if you had known how much pleasure that 2ct. stamp would have brought - you wouldn't have been so stingy. He said you could have been having a lot of fun at his expense if you had only wanted to - - - You wouldn't know Kent - he has grown up very suddenly - I confess he startled me - Beth graduates from St Margarets in Boise this spring. She is quite a young lady but the change has not been so marked in her case.Philip expects to come down next week end and drive us back. He is afraid to have me try it alone and of course we will want the car over there. I went down to Boise last sunday [sic] - I mean a week ago sunday [sic] - and we found a house, he had it picked out andinsisted [sic] on my coming down to see it before he took it. It is a very nice house but the yard is very small compared to the one we have had here. There are a good many flowers already planted and a big grape arbor. I shall miss the flowers I have worked so hard to get started here but presume I can have more by planting them. We have been very happy in our little home but I have been accustomed to change all my life and probably do not feel the regret of leaving it that you would. We have turned the contract back but lost no money on it - My main concern has been the Laboratory - now that I do feel regret about. I have worked hard to build up this business and it gives me a pang to leave it. At present I have been unable to sell - as I would like - and have made arrange-ments [sic] with the technician working at the General Hospital to take it over on an equal division of the profits - He will spend 4 hours a day here and if handled wisely it will mean money for us both. He has made such arrangements with the Hospital until April 1 - then goodness only knows what I will do - probably take it to Boise.
As I said I saw Philip a week ago sunday [sic] and he likes his work very much indeed. It is a very responsible position and involves a great deal more than appears on the surface. He handles about $100,000.00 a day and has to see that it is properly invested and distributed etc. Someone in the office has to go to New York 2 times a year and Mr Defenbach said Philip could go sometime - which made me very happy because I imagine I can find a way to go too. I havn't [sic] a great deal of enthusiasm over the trip to France - someday maybe - but one takes a trip to break the monotony of the life they are living - just now I do not feel the need of any more changes - I've bumped over so many new things the past year that I feel the need of settling down to adjustment - I need to establish my equilibrium again -
Heaps of love,
Jean[According to Family Search, Jean L. Eliza Bentley married Philip Stalker in 1920 in Bingham, Idaho.]