Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 460
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[Page 460]
C/o. D. M. S.
Cairo
Egypt
1st July 1915.
My dear Girls:
Did I but know some strong words they might have been muttered during to day, because an envelope that bore your address and inside which were some type written sheets of folscap, has eluded my vision for some thirty six hours. It is at this moment a jolly nuisance, for the fleeting minutes slip by quickly and 'tis difficult to catch some for the pleasant duty of having chat with you. Hunted high and low, but with ill success. Botheration. Botheration. You note that I have not yet learned how to make note of exclamation on this machine. Send Doffie along to instruct me.
Last evening a cable started from this end conveying congratulations to Joseph dear on the coming of another birth anniversary; hopes are with me that delivery took place early on the morning of the 1st day of July in Sydney.
The three pages following upon this one, were put together last night, when I was hoping to find the mislaid sheets. In one of them it was set out that the numbers in this hospital would rise above the 400 mark to day. The estimate was correct. The exact numbers are 440 at this 10-50 p.m. An aggregation of the wildest men in Egypt. If they had supply of liquor, to which many of them are prone, they would be unmanageable, but the alcoholic liquor is difficult to obtain, and the attempt to get it is fraught with certain risks, but the main check upon the lads consists in that the moment each enters here he is placed in a suit of pyjamas, and his uniform is locked in the store, and it would not be quite comfortable to walk one mile in a pink or blue suit of night attire, the eyes of the police would be attracted by the gay rig out, then the prison and punishment would follow many might not give much store to this point of view, but the pinkness and blueness are steadying impressions working through the eyes. The lads do not know this but there be some who do, to them amusement and satisfaction are constantly the outcome.
My crowd for Australia are not to get away tomorrow, because the Suez Canal is blocked, a telephone message apprised me of the happening this afternoon. Why is it blocked? Why? You will have been informed before we, though you are ten thousand miles away, and we but one hundred, the electric fluid skips o'er space and laughs at time in its flight, also