Place: Saltcoats, Assiniboia
From: Alf, T.A.P [Thomas A. Patrick]
To: Miss Marion Grittith, Byron, Ontario, Canada
Delivery: registered Canadian Post, via London, postmarks
Details: 18 pp + envelope
Notes: Alf writes to his fiance about a "cheeky" visiting doctor in Saltcoats who attempted to upstage Alf as he was checking on patients. This annoyed Alf greatly and he writes "I saw the fellow was trying to bluff me and to impress me with his wonderful self so I said - 'Well since you're here and a married man and have means, and a horse and rig, you'd better conclude to stay right here in this great country. There are much better openings here than in crowded Ontario. It will hardly pay you to stay six months in a place as a married man can not flit about very well. Bring your wife and your horse and your means up here and settle down. It will pay you even to leave your paying practice in Ontario." He continues that he is "getting an ad eumdem gradum from the University of Manitoba in June." Then, he writes that he has patients too poor to pay him work on his homestead, ploughing the land to help Alf with his settlement duties. He states "this little discourse enabled my friend to see that I have taken deep root in Saltcoats."
Alf, then, informs Marion that he is "laying a good solid foundation for future success here and if we are only married I would have no fear of any rival M.D. but as it is I feel incomplete." He informs her of his plans on paying off some debts, getting his diploma of the C. P. S. of Ontario, renting a house, and paying her fare down to Saltcoats so that they could be wed. Part of these plans, Alf informs her, is to register following the Medical Act that will come in force in October with his Manitoba degree and his Western University degree. Though he also has to finish his Ontario qualifications.