Transcription
Sunnyside, Irvington, Westch’r Co’y N.Y.
Sunday evening, Jan’y. 20. 1856
My dear Sarah
I have been remiss in not replying to / your letter of the 2nd instant before now, especially as it encourages / me to believe that you will get our family in your new / vocation; if it depend however on the organization of / “the house”, the prospect is not so very brilliant; the scene / in Washington is very little to the credit of our boasted / republic; were “Old HIckory” still living and at the head / of the government, the chances are that he would [^ enact] xx?xx / the part of Oliver Cromwell, and send to the navy yard for / a company of marines and clear the hall at the point of the / bayonet. You will probably look to me for / accounts of family matters and I send you such as come / to my ears, as those ears are deaf however, those accounts are / few, still, such as they are they may interest you in / some degree. We had some interest in the late accidents / on our rail road; Young Henrietta Irving’s husband, Smith / van Buren, was in the train that was ran into, but spring from it in time to escape injury, and Edgar’s son Washie was / in the second car that was split from end to end and / was thrown in the ice in the river, yet escaped with a / few slight bruises. Washie, I suspect had been on a visit to / a “Dulcinea” in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie for reports have been /
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Flying about that he is not only attentive to, but actually / under engagement to some young female in that quarter: / if it be true, it is certainly a very silly affair on the part of a / lad of decent understanding and not yet twenty years of age / I look upon it as a mere boyish freak and trust that it will / prove nothing more, as to the young lady, I am entirely ignorant / of her and all her kith and kin. I may have / mentioned in late letters that Sanders and his little wife had / made up their minds to leave the South and return to this / region should an opportunity offer to settle themselves here, / and had even determined to make the move in the Spring / offer or no offer. About three or four weeks since one of the principal / clerks in the “Merchants Clerks Saving Bank Institution” of which / our good friend Moses H. Grinnell is President resigned his place, and / Moses sent a message by telegraph offering it to Sanders. Sanders / accepted at once and replied that he would be on without delay. / that except the few days necessary to arrange the affairs of the concerns / he had in charge. They hesitated as to the route they should take / for the return whether by sea or land, for they had both suffered from / sea sickness on their late voyage to Charleston; and Julia dreaded / the fatigue of a journey by land _ A kind Providence influenced their / decision in favor of the Steam Ship from Savannah and they wrote us / that they should take passage in the Florida the next Saturday. / I of course watched the weather with some considerable interest, and / was of course not a little worried to find on waking up on Sunday / morning that a violent north east gale had been blowing all night.
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As I was aware that those gales usually commence at the / south + west, I knew that the captain of the vessel would be upon / his guards The gale however did not extend beyond Virginia, and they / arrived safely on Tuesday morning after a passage, though rough, of 60 / hours. Sanders has entered upon his new duties, but so recently that / I have had no chance yet of hearing how they suit him [+] they will / probably require pretty close application at particular seasons: he and / Julia intended to have come up to the cottage yesterday afternoon, / but the [harsh?] affairs probably prevented
Of Pierre’s and Theodore’s affairs I have heard nothing for some / time and presume that matters have gone as usual with them, /
I have been in the CIty but once in the last five or six weeks; / it was one of my usual flying visits of business allowing of no / time to make calls. I was of course unable to see little Kate but I / hear of her occasionally and it gratifies me to learn that the relatives / there are kind and attentive; as you say that you had received / a long letter from her she has no doubt given you an account / of all her little New Year and Christmas presents _ You must encourage / her to write frequently; by practice she will acquire a facility in the use / of the pen; from one or two letters to her aunts here that I have seen, / I think that she will make a pleasant letter writer.
You say that I said nothing in my last relative to / my hearing; there is an improvement in it but it is only just / perceptible; with my hand behind the ear, I can understand / what is said, when spoken close to the ear, better now than I could / with the trumpet a month ago; and with that article I can / converse with tolerable ease with those whose voices are dear and /
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Their words do [endanger] their necks through haste.
I beg to be remembered to sister Sue and send my thanks / in advance for the promised invitation _ but she must not / defer it long for I have little time to spare; if next Sunday / 27 inst. finds me here, I may be fairly and truly dubbed an / “octogenarian” Thine dear Sarah affectionately
Eben’r Irving
Mrs. William Irving
28 4 ½ Street
Washington D.C.Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
