WILLIAM  M.  FOORD 
ATTORNEY 
311  WASHINGTON  BUILDING 
STAMFORD,  CONN. 
September  4,  1914, 
Mr,  Walter  Deane, 
Philbrook  Farm, 
Shelburne ,  H  .  H  • 
Dear  Mr,  Deane 
I  received  your  letter  of  the  3rd  and  appreciate  very- 
much  your  kindly  thoughts  of  us.  I  am  sorry  to  learn  that  Mrs, 
Deane  has  not  been  feeling  very  well  but  sincerely  trust  that  the 
healthful  life  in  Dew  Hampshire  will  soon  bring  her  around  in 
good  health.  Please  give  her  my  love. 
As  to  the  young  man  at  our  house  he  is  a  very  flour¬ 
ishing  specimen  and  up-to-date  we  have  found  absolutely  nothing 
wrong  with  him  except  that  he  has  a  most  inordinate  appetite  and 
knows  how  to  make  his  demands  known.  He  weighed  seven  and  a 
quarter  pounds  on  arrival  and  has  gained  about  one-half  pound 
since,  Madeleine  is  very  well  indeed  and  in  fact  I  never  saw 
her  looking  as  well  as  she  does  now.  Our  friends  all  want  to 
know  who  the  babjf  looks  like  but  I  cannot  see  the  slightest  re¬ 
semblance  to  anybody.  His  mother  says  that  his  gormandizing 
proclivities  are  a  natural  inheritence  from  his  father  and  as 
that  is  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  I  am  willing  to  admit  it.  Of 
course  -we  are  naturally  the  proud  and  fond  parents  and^  as  every^ 
crow  thinks  her  own  young  one  is  the  blackest,  we  think  this  baby 
is  the  best  in  the  country.  He  is  very  strong  and  healthy  and 
thus  far  has  not  had  the  slightest  thing  the  matter  with  him  or 
shed  a  single  tear,  although  he  has  done  consideral le  crying, 
which  the  nurse  tells  us  he  does  merely  for  exercise.  We  would 
be  just  as  well  satisfied  is  he  took  his  exercise  some  ouher  way. 
However  he  is  not  a  bad  boy  and  I  don’t  believe  he  makes  any  more 
noise  than  a  healthy  baby  should. 
As  for  myself,  things  are  proceeding  along  about  as 
usual.  I  have  not  set  the  world  on  fire  and  I  don’t  think  there 
are  any  immediate  prospects  of  such  a  conflagration.  The  practice 
of  law  has  its  ups  and  downs  like  everything  else  but  I  have 
succeeded  in  landing  a  few  good  clients  within  the  last  year  or  so. 
Prexy  Stryker  of  Hamilton  College  had  a  favorite  expression  to 
the  effect  that  ”It  takes  a  lean  dog  for  a  long  race  and  this 
is  especially  true  in  the  practice  of  the  law.  It  takes  a^long 
time  to  build  up  a  paying  practice  and  a  young  lawyer  has  to  ba 
careful  and  not  accept  too  many  of  the  cases  presented  to  him  on 
contingent  fees.  A  lawyer  has  it  in  his  power  to  cause  a  good 
deal  of  trouble  if  he  is  willing  to  lend  his  services  to  any  old 
cause  that  is  presented  and  one  who  is  just  starting  out,  in  the 
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