Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo to Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre

My precious darling

I am so, so happy for you, beloved sister mine. It is too sweet—a little girl—just what I wanted you to have and what I knew you wanted. Oh, if I could see her and you and tell you a little of my love and happiness for you—I was so excited when Helen's cable came that I could hardly sit still a minute—and so surprised! Because I was waiting for April to come to begin expecting such news. She must have surprised you, didn't she? I am simply wild to hear more—to hear something besides just the mere fact that she has arrived and that you are both well, thank goodness! And I won't hear for ages—heaven knows when.
Oh darling, it is hard to be away off here right now when I long with all my soul to be near you and to see you and your precious little angel. If I could only tell you how I love you and how beautiful I think it is. I hope with all my heart that you didn't have too dreadful a time. It is always bad, but I am wishing very hard that it was, at least, no harder than last time. And what is she like—and what did she weigh and are you really going to name her Eleanor Axson (I am sure Frank wants a Jessie Woodrow) and were you safely at the hospital when it happened??? Oh, how can I wait to hear all these things! I feel as if I were dropping questions into space and would never get any answer.
Isn't it lovely that our little girls are so close together—only ten months. They will be like real sisters and will adore each other—it makes me so happy thinking about it. And Frankie will boss them around and be worshipped by them both.
I won't get any letters from home—if then—for at least a week more, and I am half wild for it. Of-course I have cablegrams from Ellen and they are an enormous comfort, but nothing can make anything but pretty fearful living so far away from her—Our trip has been wonderful tho'. It's almost like a dream—being actually in South America, and I can hardly realize it half of the time. We have just gotten here, and are amazed by the grandeur and bigness of it. It is a wonderfully beautiful city and very modern indeed—it reminds me in many ways of Paris and so is not so unusual and Spanish as the other cities we have been to. I'll tell you more about it when I've been here longer!Rio de Janeiro is the most enchantingply beautiful place I have ever seen. The harbour simply takes one's breath away—I don't see how there could be another harbour in the world to compare with it. How I wish you could see it! I can't even pretend to describe it. And Montevideo, where we were yesterday, (for two days,) is a lovely little city, with much more natural city beauty than this because it is in a sweet, luxuriant, rolling country and this is perfectly flat everywhere. Everyone is so lovely to us—so overwhelmingly cordial and friendly that we are quite breathless. In Montivideo the whole city was decorated most marvellously for us, we had a “mansion” turned over to us to live in and a mounted guard of gorgeous policemen in white and blue and long white horse hair plumes on their shining helmets to escort us. Mac and I went blushing thro' it all and managed with great D difficulty to keep from laughing at ourselves and all our magnificence—I have just been informed that I must mail my letter at once or it won't catch the boat, so I must cut it off—Mac says to give you his dearest love and warmest congratulations—you and the sweet little mite. And our love to Frank—he must be a proud father!—and to you, my darling, my lovely and wonderful sister, all the adoring love that you always have from
Nell—