“I received the visit of Dr. Taylor and I hope to obtain much
benefit by his prescription; but my sickness proceeds more by the
mental than physical weakness, because my mind is much worried by
the terrible future prospect of starvation as soon as my bad health
prevents me to do the daily work, having saved nothing in the past
when the fortune provided me with very profitable works.
Probably you know that when the superintendent Meigs was promoted
as Quartermaster General the Senator Foot, President pro tempore of
the Senate, put my name in the roll of the employee and was
continuing to work, and the decorations of the basement corridor of
the Senate was made in that time at the roll pay.
Now, sickly and old, with 26 years’ service as an artist in the
Capitol, I ask the comfort to be replaced in the roll as a reward
for my work and gain again the tranquility of the mind.”