waited patiently--7 years--patiently, yet often, especially since your
illness, with such painful yearning your heart would yearn towards me if
you realized it--I cannot wait any longer. Nor ought I to--that would
indeed be sacrificing the prudence that concerns itself with immortal
things to the prudence that concerns itself only with temporary ones. But,
indeed, even so far as this latter is concerned, there is no sacrifice
for any. It is by far the best step, for instance, I could take on
Beatrice's account. She is heartily in earnest in her medical studies. I
am persuaded, too, it is a splendid training for her whether or no she
ever makes a money-earning profession of it. And in England women have at
present no means of obtaining a complete medical education. They cannot
get admission to any Hospital for the clinical part of the course. So that
she is exceedingly anxious to come where it is possible for her to follow
out her aims effectually. Then, I am confident she will find America
congenial to her--that she is in her essential nature democratic--& that
she has the intelligence, the sympathies, earnestness, affectionateness,
unconventionality needed to pierce through appearances surface "crudeness"
& see & love the great reality unfolding below. So I believe has Herby.
Then an artist is as free as an author to work where he pleases & reaps as
much from fresh and widened experiences. He does not contemplate cutting
himself off from England--will exhibit here--very likely take a studio in
London for a season, a couple of years hence to work among old friends &
associations & so have double chance & opportunities. Then above all,
dearest friend, they too see America in & through you--they too would fain
be near you. Have no anxiety or misgivings for us. Let us come & be near
you--& see if we are made of the right sort of stuff for transplanting to
American soil. Only advise us where. If it be Philadelphia (which as far
as offering facilities for Beatrice would, as far as I can learn, suit us
very well). We must not come, I think, till the end of October, because of
its being so full. Perhaps indeed, dearest Friend (but dare not build on
it) we shall talk this over in England. If you are able to take the
journey, it might, and would, be sure to do you good as well as to rejoice
the hearts of English friends. But if not, if we are not able to talk over
our coming, do not feel the least anxious about us. We shall light on our
feet & do very well. Percy seems getting on fairly well, considering what
a bad time it is in his line of business. I think he will be able to marry
this autumn or following winter. I shall go and spend a month with him in
July. Perhaps, indeed, if, as many are prophecying, the iron trade does
not recover its old pre-eminence here, he may be glad by & bye that I have
gone over to America & opened a way for him. But if he does not follow me
then, if I live, I hope to spend a few months with him every three or four
years, instead of as now a few weeks once a year. Anyhow we have to live
widely apart. Thanks for the papers just received. Specially welcome the
account of some stranger's interview with you--for me too before very long
now the joy of hearing the "strong musical voice" read the "Wound Dresser"
or speak.
I have happy thoughts for my companions all day long, helping me over
every difficulty--strengthening me. Good-bye, dearest Friend. Love from us
all.
A. GILCHRIST.
LETTER XXXVII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_1 Torriano Gardens
Camden Rd., London
May 18, 1876._
Just a line of birthday greeting, my dearest Friend. May it find you
enjoying the beautiful spring-time & the grand sights of people & products
& the music at Philadelphia, notwithstanding drawbacks (but lessening
drawbacks, I earnestly hope) of health, lameness. Rejoiced, too, perhaps
with the sight of many dear old friends occasion has brought to your city.
May all that will do you good come, my dearest Friend. And not least the
sense of relief & joy in having fulfilled the great task, in the teeth of
such difficulties relaunched safely, more fully, richly equipt, the ship
to sail down the great ocean of Time, bearing precious, precious freight
of seed to be planted in countless successions of human souls, helping
forward more than even the best lovers of your poems dream, the great
future of humanity. That is what I believe as surely as I believe in my
own existence.
The "low star," the great star drooping low in the west, has been
unusually resplendent of a night here lately & by day lilacs & the
labernums wonderfully brightening dear old smoky London, constant
reminders all, if I needed any, of the Poet & the Poems, so dear to me.
If I do not hear from you to the contrary I am to take our passage by one
of the "States" Line of Steamers that come straight to Philadelphia
sailing about the 1st Sept.--& I am told one ought to secure one's cabin a
couple of months or so beforehand. But if there be indeed an increasing
hope of your coming here in the course of the summer, or if you think it
would be best for us to go to New York (only I want to go at once where we
are likely to stop, because of my furniture), let me hear as soon as may
be, dear Friend. Looking at it purely as concerns the young ones, for some
reasons it is very desirable to come this year & for others to wait till
next. With Bee, for instance, we are both losing time & wasting money by
going over another winter here when there is no complete & satisfactory
medical course to be had. Then as regards dear Percy, he writes me now
that though he is doing fairly well, he does not think he will be able to
take a house & marry till next summer--& that I am very sorry for. But
then I think that as I could not be with him nor help him forward, the
balance goes down on Beatrice's side, if I am able to accomplish it.
Good-bye, my dearest Friend. Loving, tender thoughts shall I send you on
the 30th. Solemn thoughts outleaping life, immortal aspirations of my soul
toward your soul. The children's love too, please, dearest Friend.
ANNE GILCHRIST.
LETTER XXXVIII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_Round Hill, Northampton, Mass.
Monday, Sept., '77._
DEAREST FRIEND:
I have had joyful news to-day! Percy's wife has a fine little boy--it was
born on the 10th, and Norah got through well & is doing nicely; so I feel
very happy.
Since then Per. has gone to Paris where he is to read a paper before the
"Iron and Steel Institute" on the Elimination of phosphorus from
Iron--which is also a little triumph of another kind for him--for the
Council which accepted his paper is composed of eminent English
scientists, & eminent foreign ones will hear it.--I need not tell you it
is indescribably lovely here now--no doubt Kirkwood is the same--the light
so brilliant, and yet soft--the rich autumn tints just beginning to
appear--the temperature delicious--crisp & bracing, yet genial.
The throng of people is gone--but a few of the pleasantest of the old set
remain--& a few interesting new ones have come!--among them Mrs. Dexter
from Boston, who was a Miss Ticnor, daughter of the author of the book on
Spanish literature--she and her husband full of interesting talk. Also Mr.
Martin B---- and his wife--a fine specimen of a leading Bostonian. Besides
these also a physician from Florida whom I much admire--with a beautiful
firm tenor voice--very handsome & graceful too, a true southerner, I
should say--(but of Scotch extraction).
Next week we go to Boston.
I went over the Lunatic Asylum here the other day & saw some strange, sad
sights--some figures crouched down in attitudes of such profound dejection
I shall never forget them--some very bright and talkative. It is said to
be the best managed in America. Dr. Earle, who is at the head, is a man of
splendid capacity for the post--a noble-looking old man (uncle of those
Miss Chases you met at our house).
I can't settle to anything or think of any thing since I received Percy's
letter but the baby & Norah. Love to you & to Mrs. Whitman[25] &
Hattie[26] & Jessie.[27]
Good-bye, dear Friend.
ANNE GILCHRIST.
LETTER XXXIX
BEATRICE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_New England Hospital
Codman Avenue
Boston Highlands_
DEAR WALT:
Hospital life is beginning to seem a long-accustomed life. I enjoy all the
duties involved & all the human relations. Even getting up in the night is
compensated for by yielding a sense of importance & independence. I sleep
in a large room with three windows, & three beds in a row. Breakfast at 7,
& we are supposed to have seen all our patients before breakfast, but do
not keep to that rule.
After breakfast, round to count pulses & respirations, note condition,
dress any wound, in charge, etc. At 1/2 past 8 o'clock go the rounds with
the resident physician (Dr. Berlin), all the students, & superintendent of
nurses. Then put up medicine, each for her own patients (about 8 in no.),
give electricity, etc. If one's patient has an ache or pain, the nurse
whistles for the student (my whistle is 2). She sees the patient orders
what is necessary, or if serious reports to Dr. Berlin. Then there is some
microscopic work, & copying out the history & daily record of the case &
making out the temperature charts more than fills in the day. At 8 o'clock
we all in conclave report about our patients & talk over any interesting
case. One of my patients has empyema following pleurisy. I inject into her
chest about a doz. of different preparations. Several of my patients (I
have all the very sick just now) require very careful watching.
In the evening we go round again & count pulses & respirations & note
temperatures. If a very sick patient, in the middle of the day; also take
pulse, etc. The number of visits depending on the need & the competency of
the nurse. I like introducing lint into wounds (such simple ones as an
incised abscess of the breast) with the probe, because if I take trouble
enough I can do it without hurting the patient, much to the patient's
surprise.
The other day Mr. & Mrs. Marvin called to see me with Mrs. & Miss
Callender--I enjoyed their visit much. To-day Mr. Marvin drove over to
fetch me to lunch, & I had a beautiful drive over to Dorchester; in the
afternoon a game of lawn tennis, a stroll down to the creek, & drive home
by Forest Hill Cemetery & Jamaica Pond. The air was fresh after a shower &
golden-tinted, & the drive through beautiful lanes & country. All were
friendly & it was refreshing to emerge from the little hospital world. Mr.
Marvin's cordial face greeted me when I was speaking to some patients in
hammocks, under the trees, the day he called, much to my surprise.
I was to-day feeling the need of a little change of air & scene, so that
the visit was most opportune.
Mr. Morse[28] is working away desperately at the bust of you; he feels as
if he would get on famously if he could only catch a glimpse of you. Now
might not you come to Boston on your way to Chesterfield, ride up in the
open horsecars (a very pleasant ride) to see me also and give Mr. Morse
the benefit of a sitting? How I wish we could get Mrs. Stafford in here;
the patients get most excellent care. I have great confidence in Dr.
Berlin & in the attending physician. I do not want her to come for a
month, because Dr. Berlin has just gone away for a vacation.
I fear no mere visiting once a day of a doctor will do her any good--she
needs hygienic treatment--massage (a woman works here every day on the
patients who need rubbing & massage), feeding up (I have never yet seen a
patient whom we could not make eat, appetite or not, by aid of beef-tea &
milk), perfect rest, & judicious treatment.
Dr. Berlin is a learned, charming woman of 28--she takes advanced views,
gives no medicine at all in some cases, & if any, few at a time, but
efficient. She is perfectly unaffected, very intelligent, & has been
thoroughly trained. She is a Russian.
Please give my love to Mrs. Whitman & remember me to Colonel Whitman. This
afternoon, when driving with Mr. Marvin, I thought of the pleasant drives
I have had with Colonel Whitman.
Yours affectionately,
BEATRICE C. GILCHRIST.
If it were not for records accumulating mountain high I should have time
to write to my friends.
LETTER XL
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_Sept. 3, '78.
Chesterfield, Mass._
I am half afraid Herby has got a malarious place by his description.
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
I had a lingering hope--till Herby went south again--that I should have a
letter from you, in answer to mine, saying you were coming up to see us
here. In truth, it was a great disappointment to me, his going back to
Philadelphia instead of your joining us, or him, either here or somewhere
near to New York. I wonder where that North Amboyna is that you once
mentioned to me--and what kind of a place it is. I have had a long, quiet
time here, and have enjoyed it very much--never did I breathe such sweet,
light, pure air as is always blowing freely over these rocky hills. Rocky
as they are--and their sides & ravines are strewn with huge boulders of
every conceivable size & shape--they nourish an abundant growth of woods,
and I fancy the farmers here do a great deal better with their winter
crops of lumber and bark and maple sugar than with their summer one of
grain & corn. I expect Herby has described our neighbours to
you--specially Levi Bryant, the father of my hostess--a farmer who lives
just opposite and has put such heart & soul and muscle & sinew into his
farming that he has continued to win quite a handsome competence from this
barren soil (it isn't muscle & industry only that are wanted here--but
pluck and endurance) hauling his timber up & down over the snow & through
the drifts, along roads that are pretty nearly vertical. I am never tired
of hearing his stories (nor he of telling them) of hairbreadth escapes for
him & his cattle--when the harness or the shafts have broken under the
tremendous strain--& nothing but coolness & daring have got him or them
out of it alive. Generally, as he sits talking, his little boy of eleven
who bids fair to be like him and can now manage a team or a yoke of oxen
as well as any man in the parish--and work almost as hard--sits close by
him leaning his head on his father's shoulder or breast--for the rugged
old fellow has a vein of great gentleness and affectionateness in him & I
notice the child nestles up to him always rather than to the mother--who
is all the same a very kind, amiable, good mother. Then there are
neighbours of another sort up at the "Centre"--Mr. Chadwick, &c., from New
York, with whom I have pleasant chats daily when I trudge up to fetch my
letters--now & then I get a delightful drive or go on a blackberrying
party with the folks round--I expect Giddy over to-day & we shall remain
here together for about a fortnight--then back to Round Hill--where I am
to meet the Miss Chase whom you may remember taking tea with &
liking--then on to Boston to see dear Bee--& then to New York, where we
shall meet again at last, I hope ere long. Love to Mr. & Mrs. Whitman--I
enjoy her letters. Also to Hattie & Jessie--who will hear from me by &
bye. With love to you, dear Friend.
Good-bye.
A. GILCHRIST.
LETTER XLI
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_Concord, Mass.
Oct. 25th._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
The days are slipping away so pleasantly here that weeks are gone before I
know it. The Concord folk are as friendly as they are intellectual, and
there is really no end to the kindness received. We are rowed on the
beautiful river every day that it is warm enough--a very winding river not
much broader than your favourite creek--flowing sometimes through level
meadows, sometimes round rocky promontories & steep wooded hills which,
with their wonderful autumn tints, are like a gay flower border mirrored
in the water. Never in my life have I enjoyed outdoor pleasures more--I
hardly think, so much--enhanced as they are by the companionship of very
lovable men and women. They lead an easy-going life here--seem to spend
half their time floating about on the river--or meeting in the evening to
talk & read aloud. Judge Hoar says it is a good place to live and die in,
but a very bad place to make a living in. Beatrice spent one Sunday with
us here. We walked to Hawthorne's old house in the morning, & in the
afternoon to the "Old Manse" and to Sleepy Hollow, most beautiful of last
resting places. Tuesday we go on to Boston for a week very loth to leave
Concord--at least, I am!--but Giddy begins to long for city life again.
And then to New York about the 5th Nov. Herby told you, no doubt, that I
spent an hour or two with Emerson--and that he looked very beautiful--and
talked in a friendly, pleasant manner. A long letter from my sister in
England tells me Per. looks well and happy & is so proud of his little
boy--and that Norah is really a perfect wife to him--affectionate,
devoted, and the best of housewives. How glad I am Herby is painting you.
I wonder if you like the landscape he is working on as well as you did
"Timber Creek." Miss Hillard has undertaken the charge of a young lady's
education, and is very much pleased with her task. She is in a delightful
family who make her quite one with them--live in the best part of New
York, and pay her a handsome salary. She has the afternoons and Saturday &
Sunday to herself.--Concord boasts of having been first to recognize your
genius. Mr. Alcott & Mr. Sanborn say so. Good-bye, dear Friend.
A. G.
LETTER XLII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_39 Somerset St.
Boston
Nov. 13, '78._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
I feel as if I didn't a bit deserve the glorious budget you sent me
yesterday, for I have been a laggard, dull correspondent of late, because,
leading such an unsettled kind of life, I don't seem to have got well hold
of myself. Beautiful is the title prose poem--the glimpse of the autumn
cornfield: one smells the sweet fragrance, basks in the sunshine with
you--tastes all the varied, subtle outdoor pleasures, just as you want us
to. A lady who has just been calling on me--Miss Hillard--no relation of
the odious Dr. H.--said, "Have you seen a lovely little bit about a
cornfield by Walt Whitman in a New York paper?" She did not know your
poems, but was so taken with this. By the bye, I am not quite American
enough yet to enjoy the sound of the locusts & big grasshoppers--ours are
modest little things that only make a gentle sort of whirr--not that loud
brassy sound--couldn't help wishing for more birds & less insects when I
was at Chesterfield--but I like our English name "ladybird" better than
"ladybug". Do your children always say when they see one, as ours do,
"Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home: your house is on fire, your children
are flown"? But for the rest--I believe I am growing a very good American;
indeed, certain am I there is no more lovable people to live amongst
anywhere in the world--and in this respect it has been good to give up
having a home of my own here for awhile--for I have been thrown amongst
many more intimately than I could have been otherwise. What you say of
Herby's picture delights me, dear Friend. I have been grieving he was not
with us, sharing the pleasant times we have had and enlarging his circle
of friends--but after all he could not have been doing better--he must
come on here by & bye. I wonder if you are as satisfied with his portrait
of you as with the landscape. I suppose he is gone on to New York to-day.
I have sighed for dear little Concord many times since I came
away--beautiful city as Boston is & many the interesting & kindly people I
am seeing here: but the outdoor life & the entirely simple, unpretending,
cordial, friendly ways of Concord & its inhabitants won my heart
altogether--one of them came to see me to-day & to ask us to go and spend
a couple of days with them there again before we leave & I could not say
nay, though our time is short. There are some portraits in the Art Museum
here, which interested me a good deal--of Adams, Hancock, Quincy, &c.,--&
of some of the women of that time--they would form an excellent nucleus of
a national portrait gallery, which (together with good biographies while
yet materials & recollections are fresh & abundant) would be a very
interesting & important contribution to the world's history.--Tennyson's
letter is a pleasure to me to see--considering his age & the imperfection
of his sight through life, matters are better rather than worse with him
than one could have expected. Since that was written a friend (Walter
White) tells me they--the Tennysons--have taken a house in Eaton Sq.,
London, for the winter. And last, not least, thanks for Mr. Burroughs's
beautiful letter--that young man is indeed, as he says, like a bit out of
your poems.
There are two or three fine young men boarding here, & Giddy & I enjoy
their society not a little. Love to your Brothers & Sister. I shall write
soon as I am settled down in New York to her or Hattie. Love to Mrs.
Stafford. And most of all to you.
Good-bye, dear friend.
A. GILCHRIST.
I will send T's letter in a day or two.
LETTER XLIII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_112 Madison Ave.
New York
Jan. 5, '79._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
Herby has told you of our difficulties in getting comfortable quarters
here--and also that we seem now to have succeeded--not indeed in the way I
most wished & hoped we had--in 19th St., taking rooms & boarding
ourselves--so that we could have a friend with us when & as we pleased. It
seems as if that were not practicable unless we were to furnish for
ourselves. Certainly our experiences there of using another's kitchen were
discouraging--it was so dirty and uncomfortable that we were glad to take
refuge in a regular boarding house again before one week was out. It seems
to me more difficult to get anything of a medium kind in New York than
elsewhere I have been--if it isn't the best, it is very uninviting indeed.
Herby is enjoying his work and companionship at the League very much. We
stand the cold well--how does it suit you? Is your arm free from rheumatic
pains? When you come to Mr. J. H. Johnstons, which will be very soon I
hope, we shall be quite handy, and have a pretty, sunny room--a sitting
room by day!--with a handsome piece of furniture which is metamorphosed
into a bed at night--and a large dressing closet with hot & cold water
adjoining--all very comfortable. O how wistfully do I think of one evening
in Philadelphia, last winter. I shan't begin really to like New York till
you come and we have had some chats together. I have news from England
which makes me rather anxious. The Blaenavon Co., to which Per. is
chemist, has gone into liquidation--& I don't know whether it will
continue to exist--or how soon in these dull times he may find a good
opening elsewhere. Should things go badly for him, either Giddy and I will
return to England to share [our] home with him there, or else I want him
to take into serious consideration coming out here, instead of our going
back. Of course it would be a risky thing for him to do with wife & child,
in these times, unless some definite opening presented itself, but I
cannot help thinking that, being an expert in his profession, with first
rate training & experience, and iron work & metallurgy promising here to
have such enormous developments, he would be sure to do well in the end;
and meanwhile we could rub on together somehow. However, we shall see. I
have laid the matter before him, he & his dear little wife wrote me a very
brave, cheery letter when they told me the bad news--& I shall have an
answer to mine, I suppose, by the end of the month. Kate Hillard read an
amusing paper on Swinburne at a meeting of the Woman's Club in Brooklyn--&
we had some fine music too. For the rest, I have not yet presented any
introductions here.
Have had some beautiful glimpses of the North & East River effects of the
shipping at sunset, &c.--Have subscribed to the Mercantile library,--& are
beginning to feel at home. Herby & Giddy had been to hear Mr. Frothingham
this morning, & were much interested. Bee missed us sorely at first--but
writes--when she does write, which is but seldom--pretty cheerily.
Friendly remembrance to your brother & sister. I wonder where Hattie &
Jessie are spending their holidays. Love from us all. Good-bye, dear
friend.
A. GILCHRIST.
Had a letter from Mr. Marvin--all well--he is doing the Washington letter
of a N. Eng. paper. Hopes & trusts you are really going to Washington.
LETTER XLIV
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_112 Madison Ave.
14 Jan., '79._
DEAREST FRIEND:
The pleasantest event since I last wrote has been a visit from Mr.
Eldridge. We had a long, friendly chat that did me good. Saturday evening
we went to one of Miss Booth's receptions--met Joaquin Miller there, who
is just back from Europe--of course we talked of you. Mrs. Moulton too is
hoping so you will come to New York during her stay here, which is to last
a week or two longer. John Burroughs has just sent me a post card to say
he has returned from a 3-weeks stay with his folks in Delaware Co.--that
he hopes to come here soon--wants Mrs. Burroughs to come too & board for a
month or so--wants also "Walt to come--& lecture"--but "Walt will not be
hurried." Did I tell you that we found boarding here a young man, Mr.
Arthur Holland, one of the family who were so very friendly to me & made
my stay so pleasant both in Concord & Cambridge? He often comes to our
room of an evening for an hour or two's chat, & by the bye, being
connected with the iron trade he has been able to make some enquiries for
me as to what Per's chances as a scientific metallurgist would be in this
country--& I am sorry to say he thinks they would be very poor indeed.
Prof. Lesley said the same thing; so it is clear I must not urge him to
try the experiment, seeing he has a wife & child. Herby & Giddy both well.
Love from us all. Good bye, Dear Friend.
A. GILCHRIST.
Friendly greeting to your brother & sister.
LETTER XLV
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_112 Madison Ave.,
Jan. 27, '79._
MY DEAREST FRIEND: