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[[preprinted]] 42 [[/preprinted]] opera star who has made such a hit in Wagnerian roles. This trip was taken just a few days after the assassination of Huey Long, so that furnished quite a topic of conversation The Capt. was rather an admirer of certain qualities in Long, and he was always anxious to discuss the man. Mrs Lafferty was not as Irish as her name. She is a Puerto Rico girl who had married a fellow in Ponce and then went to the U.S. with him. They had been married a little over 3 years, and had two children, when he lost his job. He had always been a heavy drinker but with the loss of his job he became worse and worse. After about 3 months of steady drinking - the family had been put on relief by this time - he deserted his family. He did quite a perfect skip, as the authorities could not find hide or hair of him. For some reason or other the relief authorities in Texas where they were, decided that Puerto Rico would be the best place for her and her babies so they bundled her off on the Lykes Line, paying her [[end page]] [[start page]] [[preprinted]] 43 [[/preprinted]] passage, but not giving her any money. She expected her family, who are also in poor circumstances, to meet her. I suppose that she will now be on Puerto Rico Relief. The saddest part of the whole tale is in her attempt to bring up her children as Americans. Junior, the little boy, is a solemn child of 2 - you should see him handle a fork! - and his mother is determined that English shall be his tongue, but she well knows that if he is brought up in Puerto Rico that he will soon be steeped in Spanish. Mr Valle's remark about the above story was "of course that is only her side of it". This served to lower my opinion of the man. Not that such a remark wouldn't be perfectly natural from one of his kind. His Latin conception of morality is that "the man can do no wrong. Unhappy marital relations are always the fault of the wife". He is the representative of the Lykes Line in Aquadilla, and his wife comes from [[end page]]