Transcription
New York Sept 17th 1846
My dear Sister
I was much gratified upon going home a few / moments since to find your Kind letter of the 15th inst in / the hands of Sarah. She having just read it. It came / most opportunely for it found her lying upon a sick / bed, resulting from the [^ a] premature birth of a child [^ confinement] wh: / happened on Monday evening. We did not look for / the event for at least three months to come, and / can in no way account for it, but unlefs it may be / owing to her taking 3 of Dr. Brandreths Pills which / she did on the Thursday previous, She had used / all the pills which your good mother had given her / and wanting some gentle medicine this was proposed / to her. I have always been opposed to all quackery / in medicine, but fancied that the chief virtue / in these pills was that they could not possibly / do harm. She was quite well on Sunday and / went to Church with me, and did not / feel at all unwell until Monday morning, / when I called in our old Physician Dr Hearns / who at once said she could not avoid being / confined. He can only attribute it to those 3 / Pills. I am happy to say, however, that she is / getting on very well and hope that she will / be well enough to answer your letter in / person in the course of a week or ten days.
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I regret now more than ever that I have not / a house of my own that I might have some / of her family with her, particularly at such time, / for even with persons in robust health it is / not always well for them to be too much in / solitude. The people in the house are Kind / enough, but they can never fill the place of / a Kind mother or sister. It was my wish / all Summer to go to house Keeping this fall + / Sarah + myself went to look at a house on / Staten Island, a beautiful situation + one wh: / I much wanted Sarah to take, she did / not seem inclined to it + we consequently / put it off ‘till the coming Spring. Even / had I room in this house where I could / sleep, I should insist on your coming on / for a week or two, but the house has just / filled to over flowing + there is not a nook / left vacant. Of course I have not even / mentioned the matter to Mrs Jencks __ when / Sarah was fi confined of her first child her / treatment / of her at that time forbid us to look / for sympathy or Kindnefs in that quarter + / since then much else has transpired to make / me wish to forget that such a x? person / exists. Neither has Mrs Leland been informed / of it. I do not doubt her sympathy, but / her house calls for her attention, and again I / do not think that she is one calculated /
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To render much consolation in such a case. / You must not be alarmed for Sarah is doing / wonderfully well and doubt not that she will / be about in a few days.
Sarah will get the coat from Mrs. L’s and she / + I will exercise our taste and see if we cannot / have it remade into something to suit you, / and should you have any other commands I / hope you will send them to us + we will be / more prompt that in the affair of your hat. / ‘tho in that case neither Sarah or myself were / to blame.
Little Kitty is growing quite fat, and runs / about along, she made her first attempts about / a week ago. You must say to your mother that / Sarah intends to get her flannels at once, as / for myself I think I shall try them this winter /
Sarah tells me to say [^ to your Grandmother] that Mary [^ our girl] was at Mrs L’s / today, they were all well, and house full.
I wrote you a letter some long time ago, which / I suppose you rec’d You have? Also ?write and? the / Coat + Shawl which I sent on ny “Hamdens”. / I will write again in a few days.
Can you decipher this scrawl? I fancy not. / I write in great haste that I may send it / by to days mail, remember me affectionately to all.
Yours aff
William Irving
P.S. Sarah wants your mother to send her two or three / b-[??]-s of those Pill by first opportunity.
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[ADDRESS]
Mrs Jane Wales
No. 19 [McLean] St
Boston
[POSTAGE STAMP - red ink, circle]
NEW YORK
17
SEP
5 cts
[ILLUSTRATION - furnace? Steam engine?]
[DOODLES - dot to dot]Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
