Russell’s exhibitions in Calgary and Winnepeg brought his work to the attention of prominent English visitors. The result was an exhibition of twenty-five paintings and watercolors at the Doré Galleries on New Bond Street, London, in April 1914. In general the show was well received, and the trip yielded a number of the artist’s unforgettable letters home. This letter to Sid Willis is one of them, recounting the impressions and experiences of another American innocent abroad. Sid Willis was the owner of the Mint Saloon in Great Falls, Montana. The people mentioned in the letter were other friends: Jim Perkins was a linotype operator on a Great Falls newspaper, Guy Weadick was the founder of the famed Calgary Stampede, and Bill Cheely was vice-president of the Montana Newspaper Association. Russell’s “paper talk,” or illustrated letters, gave free rein to his verbal and visual talent. Although putting words on paper came hard to him, he possessed a natural gift as a storyteller, along with the ability to summarize the key elements of a story or description in a well-chosen illustration. Surviving rough drafts of a few Russell letters—as well as preliminary sketches for the illustrations—indicate that he planned some of them in advance.