Harrisburg March 16th '64 Wedn
Dear Callie,

I received your letter on Monday. It seemed to have been mailed on Sunday. We were pleased to find that the Penna girls stood so fair at school. We have nothing new here, except that the President has ordered a new draft for the 200,000, which I know will fill the North with sadness, for in the[ir?] County they had great trouble to enlist enough to avoid the last draft, & only got through a week ago and I think however that our town, has furnished nearly enough to keep us clear of the next draft. Willie is doing very well in his business: the familiar plenty to do & in succeeding quite equal I think, to their expectations. He talks of bringing in the pony, to ride around the town on business-About ten days ago I had a letter from Hampy & he had been visiting the small pox hospital, which was a very senseless thing. Since that time I have not heard from him. Rock Smith left this place last week for Memphis & took Hampy a lot of clothing. I believe it was about the date of last letter to you that we had a fire in the Alley, behind the Parke house. It burnt from the intersection of the Alleys, both ways. It came westwardly to Uncle Hamilton's stable, burning the upper part off all the small buildings. The two Marthas bore the fright right well, as I stayed in bed & said I wanted to go to sleep again, until they came again into my room and said the Parke house was on fire. Then I got up: and went into Uncle Hamilton's yard. It was a stubborn fire, no wind, but the firemen could not keep down the fire. Martha Kerr stood with Martha, on the balcony & took on a sore throat and fever, but we thought she was very poorly. The father came over & took her home on Saturday. It seems while she was here she was getting better from one or two, what she called common soldiers. She has not much prudence and I think will give her parents trouble. I saw 3 boys last night. It is cold today. We had a snow storm yesterday for an hour.

Yours Truly
Herman Alricks