Anna Dickinson General Correspondence Whiting, Lilian 1881-95 & undatedTraveller Office 3-10-'81 Dear, dear Miss Dickinson:-- Your little note of yesterday came--I know you are taxed--over-taxed--and that you must not be distracted by any outside matters now. I feel a little self-reproach for what I wrote you yesterday regarding an interview for us-- &c,--and that I wrote nonsense altho' I have really felt the most intense anxiety--interest --whatever it may be--all the week. You have hardly been out of my mind one minute. 2/ About the interview--it is a sober conviction with me that it would be in all ways well for you--when you feel inclined --now or a month later--but before the Chestnut St. theater rentrée --I will not burden you with a string of reasons--but I do think you may safely trust my newspaper perceptions in this, added to all I feel for you, dear Miss Dickinson --you possibly recall when you suggested giving me an "interview" on another matter I even took the liberty to say I didn't think it would be best for you--charming as it would3/ have been for the papers, and had it been at all I should have studied your interests exclusively in it,-- against wh. journalistic interests would not weigh with me a feather's weight.--But now--if at any time an interview would be well--in your judgement--why-- you will know when will be best. And don't trouble to write me even a word unless there should be something in wh. I could serve you. I know you have not one fraction of strength to reach for what is before you and you must not spend the least particle on any one beyond absolute necessity. I interviewed manager 4/ Stetson as per enclosure-- --O, Miss Dickinson the first announcement of this when I saw it was actually true fairly took my breath away--and I stood here with my hands like ice--and about as unavailable.--But all the same I believe you will make of it a grand success--even as I hope it--as I pray for it,--I have an intensity of feeling over it that refuses any translation in words. I feel as if I wanted to come and put my arms around you for a moment, dear Miss Dickinson, and then --I could go away and be quiet. --Ever Yours--Lilian.Editorial Rooms. Boston Traveller, Traveller Buildings, State Street, Boston, 4-1-1881 Dear dear Miss Dickinson-- One doesn't know sometimes whether silence or words are best--I am just ready to go home & I draw off my gloves to sit down & tell you I want to put my arms around you--say don't--don't be hurt by any of this petty insignificant newspaper stuff--No one but yourself & those who care for you in a way that they feel thro' your nerves, too,--will remember it so long as they are reading it--nor will it have the slightest influence on your success dear,--for a success I know it will be. I can picture how poetic and picturesque are the possibilities of your French try & I2 know it will be charming. Don't think I allude to anything of any moment--I don't--that is if you do not at once know what I do mean--the doubt makes me hesitate--but I suppose you read the papers. There is this one thing--no respectable newspaper lowers its own standard by indulging in a species of prophetic criticism, and a paper that is below par has no influence or weight-- I have been crying myself sick over a little [of] business trouble this afternoon and perhaps for the feeling that--if I only had some one to go to for a bit of comfort-- made me turn now solicitously to you--and feel more solicitously for you that you should not be pained by things or people that are of no consequence--Miss Sanborn keeps writing to me "Do be married" & I am beginning to think she is right--Isn't it strange how (over)terribly alone one sometimes is even with a number of friends more or less dear. From the circumstances--there is not one person in Boston to whom I could turn tonight--with ______ ___ ______ Lovingly--always, Lilian. I have the enclosed from Mrs. Croly today in reference to a letter of hers to the Traveller that we published & covered--[?] [?] &c,--I doubt if you can read this--the truth is I have cried till I can't see-- please return Mrs. Croly's--? Editorial Rooms. Boston Traveller, Traveller Buildings, State Street, Boston, 4-8-188 Dear Miss Dickinson -- I feel like taking the first train to you to--not offer advice that were an impertinence but to tell you things perhaps you do not know--To go in medias res at once--do let me entreat you, dear Miss Dickinson not to break this engagement. Phila. is the unavoidable prelude now to Boston--I have just had a talk with Mr. Stetson & I know all about it--the ins & outs--& indeed I don't see how he could do otherwise as Goodwin holds him responsible &c-- But O, Miss Dickinson--can you not see how a failure now isfailure forever so far as the stage --I mean a failure to fill the contract--other failure you will not make. I would not, indeed, lay myself liable to a possibility of intruding only that I believe among all the people who care for you my position is different in that from circumstances I see & hear all the professional & journalistic sides & on the other hand I love you as dearly as if I hadn't another thought or care in the world-- It is not, even now, too late for you to say yes--it will all go on--and dear Miss Dickinson there are reasons behind 2 wh. I have no time to state that make it imperative you should--Do please be entreated in time to do this, --The thing will run well --the play--A few newspapers will say things not altogether creditable to them--but they will be few & of no earthly importance --It won't hinder "business", either-- And for you--the woman who in her old days of brilliancy always kept her word to the people no matter what lay between-- why it is not like you, dear Miss Dickinson, to do this.A public woman of all other woman cannot afford to be capricious--wh. it might look like to many people, whatever your reasons are But what can one say-- Surely, surely you will reconsider, Dear Miss Dickinson--I I am just up from a rather severe attack of pneumonia-- & everything has accumulated this week-- With love always-- Lilian I send you the Herald--you will [?] these-- Boston, 4-8-1881 Dear Miss Dickinson- One doesn't know where to reach you--naturellement-- I just sent a line to Elisabeth--but you may be in Phila, --Dear Miss Dickinson if any one may say anything do let me beg you--entreat you to go thru' with this. It is not too late--nor will it be up to Sat. night--for the affirmative from you to change all this and for your own sake do "fulfill the bond." Everything is opening fairly & promises fair.--I know--I cannot help knowing a good deal about it dear--the ins & outs &c,--for I see2/ and hear all the journalistic & professional side with perhaps every sense quickened by all my tenderness of love for you. I know pretty nearly how it will seem--there will be--there always is in everything-- a few things to endure-- but this will be as nothing to those that the breaking of the contract will leave to be endured--in a number of ways--do not do it dear Miss Dickinson--trust me even a little in this. I have just had a talk with Mr. Stetson --I tell you privately dear --while he is a strong support in his line he would also be as strong an enemy--However he wants to do all right & for pity's sake give him the chance-- 3/ I send you the Herald--you will see how the tide runs here-- --I am just up from a rather severe attack of congestion of lungs &c,--only been ill a few days, but feel as if I have been chopped out of the world--I come back this morning & find all this excitement-- I can partly understand-- you are not well, dear Miss Dickinson, and you need rest and tender care and a change--I know that-- But with it all Anna Dickinson cannot afford to break her word at this last moment. It isn't like her nor is it being true to herself or doing herself any justice-- With my arms around you I do beg you to reconsider--to carry it through, now.--There is so muchfor you depending on this, And you will--? And you will forgive me, too, for writing about it--you would if you knew all that lies behind the writing. --Play Claude and see Naples. Not see Naples and die--Play Claude and then take a little bity run over to Europe this summer and get the rest and strength and change you so need-- Isn't the prescription sensible? With my arms around you for all the love you will let me give you--Lilian [*confidential*] New York, 4-20-'81 Dear Miss Dickinson, I must tell you--I should not do right not to tell you--please be careful about what you say in type, for--(you will know whom) stands ready to rush a bit of other stuff in print on the slightest pretext. Your letter /Herald/ was truth condensed, if ever there was such 2/ a thing--I opened the paper when in the Academy and it utterly unfitted me for picture-seeing--but dear Miss Dickinson, you will be a little careful--? O, I wish I could take all this away from you and endure it for you rather than that you should-- Do be careful of your health, dear Miss Dickinson,--Yours--L.W.Lilian Whiting. Boston Traveller.Elizabeth N.J. 4.21.1881 My dear Miss Whiting Excuse delay in returning this letter of Mrs. Croly's. It has been overlooked & has just come to light in sorting letters [for] to be answered. Anna Dickinson Eliz. N.J. 4.28.81 My Dear Miss Whiting If you have kept any record in your mind of the letters you have written me since the first of this month you will realize why the line of the 21st was sent to you. I return it since it is yours, & with it the letter from Mrs. Croly, which is also yours & which, in sending, you requested me to let you have again. From first to last you have held to the position you took in saying "I have just had a talk with Mr.2 Stetson & I know all about it."--You have not so much as taken the trouble to inquire even in thought, whether you might or could know any more "about it" by asking me. You have told me I could not "afford to be capricious". You have accused me of the dishonorable course of breaking my word without reason & without excuse even while finding it to be "not-like" me, "nor true to" myself nor "doing" myself "any justice." 3 It never seems to have struck you that I was not capricious --nor yet guilty of dishonorable dealing; that there must be some reason good & sufficient for a course that, being understood, would be manifestly one like me, by travelling which I was true to myself & was doing myself justice. You say to me, & you say to the public even in the article to which you refer in your last with the assertion that "we need add nor take away nothing" from it, [you say] that4 I have "made a mistake" "have plainly violated "my" pledged word, leaving the enigmatical nature of "my" refusal to be guessed at--if it can,"--&, let us hope not knowing that the apologies of a professed friend are in their effects worse than the blows of an avowed foe, you find excuses for an action that needed none, on the ground of my past fame & my present feeble condition of health which would by influence, seem to have affected my brain & [my] the course for which it was 5 responsible.--And at last when I am forced to utterance in my Herald letter you send me in haste by the first mail a line to beg me to "please--please be careful about what you say in type." I have had neither the time nor the inclination to speak to those who have taken for granted from the outset that I was absolutely in the wrong. You have written me a great deal to that6 effect, & at last I send you a piece of your own property with a line that says, in substance, I find nothing from you among the mass of letters lying before me that needs answering;--To which you reply that "it is so inexplicable as to defy translation & is returned to the writer." Be sure if you had shown yourself one half as anxious to know the truth from an outraged woman as you were ready to accept 7 the lies of her enemy, or as eager to defend right as you were to apologize for fancied wrong, you would have had a letter that would have needed no interpreter to make itself plain to your heart as well as your brain. If you had seen & suffered & so known more in & of this world, I would not have taken the trouble to have put this letter upon paper. I put it there because it may help you to broader views8 & juster judgement in other cases that may come to your eyes & pen. It is a pity you went to Mr. Robinson with my last letter since it compels you in honor to carry him this. I have written a line to him saying that you will do so. Wishing for you all good in all ways I am Truly Yours Anna E Dickinson To/Lilian WhitingBlank No. 1. The Western Union Telegraph Company The Company Transmits and Delivers messages only on conditions, limited its liability which have be assented to by the sender of the following message. Errors can be guarded against only by repeating a message back to the sending station for comparison, and the Company will not hold itself liable for errors or delays in transmission or delivery of Unrepeated Messages. This Message is an Unrepeated Message and is delivered by request of the sender the conditions named above. A.R. Brewer, Sec'y Norvin Green, President Dated Boston Ms Apl 29 1881 Received at 1 pm To Miss Anna Dickinson Dear Miss Dickinson Please suspend all judgement till you receive my letter of today. Lillian Whiting 16 pd RoBoston, 4-29-'81 O, Miss Dickinson, while what you say is literally true, yet in another and deeper sense it is the very reverse of truth. There has not been one minute of all these last miserable weeks that I have not gone out to you with a love and tenderness that you little dream of. There is not one utterance of mine of speech or pen that has not come solely--wholly--out of this feeling. Do not dismiss that assertion with incredulity--till I can --possibly--explain. When I wrote to you "I have just had a talk with Mr. Stetson and know all about it"--my words perhaps implied to you much more than they meant to me. Miss Dickinson's refusal was telegraphed to the Herald--with accompaniments-- 2 You never saw anything make a greater stir--Two or three acquaintances of mine whom I met on the street exclaimed "What does it mean?" before any usual salutation. I sought Mr. Stetson. He told me he had no idea but believed you were influenced by the Phila. press and that he had talked with press. rep. & they were all fair &c, & [?] good. That was all I knew--or meant--"about it"--all I supposed then was to know, I felt--perhaps erroneously--that your whole theatrical future depended on that engagement going right. I know something about John Stetson. Because he has emerged from the strata of life that was indigenous to him--or he to it--he is now very anxious to be held a gentleman. He had facilitated3 himself to no small degree on "bringing out" Miss Dickinson. He had privately asserted that he would spend thousands of dollars but that you should have every possible opportunity for success, & I said so myself he has the money & the outlook,--she has the genius, and everything will work beautifully. Also, because of the nature and associations of Mr. Stetson's past I knew he was a dangerous enemy--An unscrupulous one--that when be became one all the latent evil and degredation in him would forge weapons you could not stoop to use, and wh. would still be terribly potent. Do you wonder, dear Miss Dickinson, that out of the intense realization of all this I rushed off in letter to you that 4 very likely would not bear criticism-- and if any expression of service seemed a lack of the respect as well as the love in wh. I hold you it was only because in my anxiety I felt so near you then that I spoke as we sometimes take the liberty--to those dearest to us when we would be more guarded to strangers. In my usual fatal impetuosity--I took it for granted that the press matter was the reason & I knew it wouldn't really matter. --But the journalistic part, Dear Miss Dickinson--you may or may not receive what I say-- but I assure you on my honor as a woman it is absolute truth. A number of Boston journalists were looking on with some not unexpressed curiosity--to see what5 I would say.--Dear Miss Dickinson if my words seemed harsh --if they seemed untrue to all the regard I have professed for you wh. is not a fraction of all I have felt-- it was because I was doing the less to avoid the greater. I admitted the facts as I then understood because only in so doing could I secure standing ground & any attention to the things I wanted to say. If a letter I wrote to the Phila. Press night before last, sees daylight tomorrow you will understand something of the atmosphere of Boston journalism. If I had said of you what in my heart I felt it would have been worse than idle. I wanted to strike a key note--that looked to all these people here--the press people-- 6 honest--fair--unprejudiced. Then what I added in the future as affairs developed, would be accorded its full weight--If I had taken the opposite I should have so utterly thrown away my chance that whatever I wanted to say of you --to possibly do for you in the future --I could not have done, I should not have had the slightest shadow of influence left. Miss Dickinson if you had been my own sister I should have done & said precisely the same. It was because I did love you, and because I felt there were to be things to meet in the future that I wrote as I did. If an error it was of judgement--not of heart. Of my note to you regarding the Herald letter, dear Miss Dickinson, it7 is the one act of my life, perhaps that stands above need of apology. Now can I see how it could even need explanation to you-- If it does--in justice to myself --to you--I shall explain it to you fully. I have no more apology to make for that than if I had held you back when you were treading--unknowingly--on the edge of a precipice. It was a little unwise to "tell Mr. Robinson"--but I couldn't help it then. But I have not the slightest objection to showing him this letter-- he knows better than almost any man in Boston how I have always felt towards you. Your condemnation is severe and as I know you think just=and because you believe it so deserved it is good in you to tell me plainly--but it does not 8 touch me--hurt me--as it would if I had had one thought or motive that deserved it. I wish everything in my life were as true as my regard for you. I wish I could mentally photograph for you this week--I was faint=sick-- yes, even physically sick over that note from you--it left a blank in the world to me that I could not see how it would ever be filled or made up--and took the spring out of everything. --Miss Dickinson I know you so little, after all, personally and you do me still less, that this sounds exaggerated --I do not pretend to account for it=I only I know it is so--I have had the same feeling that has simply increased with the years since I was a girl of 14-- Then--it was Wednesday--the9 reaction came to me with a kind of sudden illumination. It came over me like a flash and this with no agency of person or papers-- that the whole affair was a misjudgement and a monstrous wrong-- Knowing nothing, I yet seemed to know it all. I sat down & wrote a long letter to Mr. Halstead.--I told you would have meager justice from N.Y. Boston & Phila press because --Mr. Stetson was an adv. --Miss Dickinson was not--and would any right-minded newspaper impact its exchequer & its adv. patronage merely for the sake of justice! But I said to him "You, even if pecuniary interests would affect you, have none in the West. You stand as the acknowledged 10 head of journalism and you have core influence with these press people here--Will you not &c &c"----I do not refer to it by way of posing as a heroine of the history--but it is merely one of the facts. I was, someway, strangely comforted and it seemed to me there was something to do. I wrote a letter to the Phila. Press (wh. I fear they will be too "prudent" to publish) in wh. I reproved the Boston journalistic practice of regrettably suppressing any portion of the telegrams that have been favorable to Miss Dickinson & displaying the part that was not as I claimed to know the Herald was doing. And a letter I wrote to Miss Field yesterday morning in answer to hers would, I think, quite11 fully attest the truth of all this coming to me and acting upon me, two days before your letter that came today--if my word needed any attestation. I have done what I did not mean to do--wearied you with a long letter-- But--O, Miss Dickinson--dear Miss Dickinson--I feel as if I could not endure it.--Could not live though it--to have you go out of my life--Let me try to learn to be not utterly unworthy of __________ L.W. 4-30-81 Dear Miss Dickinson-- I had a talk with Mr. Clarke last night--who expresses himself warmly in your interest and who feels just as I do that he would gladly do or say anything if he knew just what. We are projecting an extended newspaper [con],--together --he to write political news & gossip & I to fill in library & social--(he is the managing Ed. of Traveller)--I do not want to seem to solicit confidence as the late circumstances would prohibit me in common delicacy--At the same time my feeling about it--about2 you--so exceeds this that I hardly remember it.-- If you can give us--or me- any instructions--suggestions --anything that may be used [as] need I assure you how gladly & sincerely it will be used in this way--I only submit this to your judgement. Mr. Sweetzer (the author of all those art biographies) said to me last evening--"As to any contact between Miss Dickinson & Mr. Stetson of course there can be but one opinion"--Everybody in Boston knows what he is, of course-- Ever---L.W.Daily Evening Traveller. Saturday, April 30, 1881. THE SALVINI ENGAGEMENT. One of the most successful theatrical engagements ever fulfilled in this country, was brought to a close at the Globe Theatre this afternoon, with Sig. Salvini's farewell perfomance of Macbeth. So well has the whole matter been carried out from commencement to close, that a few parting sentences in reference may not prove out of place here, or unwelcome to those whose good fortune it has been to witness the great actor's sublime impersonations. The contract with Salvini was signed in Florence in July last. The engagement was to cover a period of five months, three or four performances, as was deemed necessary, were to be given during each week, and the whole number of performances were to be not less than seventy-five. For his services Salvini was to receive one-third of the gross receipts His hotel and other private expenses were to be borne by himself, but his travelling expenses were to be at the cost of the management. He arrived in New York during the second week in November last, and immediately commenced his rehearsals, previous to his opening, which took place in Philadelphia on the evening of the 29th of November, as Othello. During the engagement he has played in the following cities: Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn, New Haven, Hartford, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Cincinnati; return to New York, Albany, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Montgomery, Ala., Atlanta, Nashville; return to Philadelphia, and from thence again to Boston. In several of the cities but a single performance was given. The entire number of representations made, amounts to eight-six, and they were thus parcelled among the different pieces; "Othello," thirty-six; "The Gladiator," twenty-two; "Macbeth," eight; "Morte Civile," six; "Ingomar," six; "Hamlet," five; "Sullivan," three. The largest engagements were played in New York, Philadelphia and Boston— our own city taking the lead in both engagements; and it is a noticeable fact that the second engagements in these three cities were, in a financial sense, more successful than the first. The average business has been more than double what it was when Salvini first visited this country something over seven years since. The gross receipts derived from the engagement amount in round numbers to $166,000, or an average of over $1930 a performance. Of this, Salvini would receive for his share something over $55,000. It is a conceded fact that the engagement could not have been brought to a happy termination, were it not for the energy, and the means withal, of Mr. John Stetson. He was invited by Mr. Chizzola to join in the enterprise, and without a moment's hesitation he consented. The scheme was indeed a bold one, and by many was regarded as hazardous. The result proves Mr. Stetson's foresight and his knowledge of the wants of the amusement-loving public, and especially of that class whose delight is in amusements of the highest order. By this step Mr. Stetson not only strengthened his managerial standing in the country, but he has made his name known and respected in the amusement centres of Europe. He richly merits all the success which he ahs achieved. From this afternoon his interest in the contract ceases. SalviniElizabeth N.J 5.2 81 My dear Miss Whiting If you care to take the trouble to [review] a part of my Herald letter you will see why there is no need of other reply to the journalistic inquiries in your personally friendly note of this morning. [There is no more to say.] That letter is not the expression of a day but the final outcome of five years of brutal injustice & unmerited suffering. I have no more to say. For me when a thing is finished, it is finished. But I have one word for you individually in answer2 to "the mass of matter that ________ [will] stands ready to rush into print."--& the "precipice on which I am unwittingly walking"--these being sequels to a long array of the same sort of hint & suggestion which your letters have turned [for months[ ever since you were in New York last autumn. I do not know who "_________" may be. I do not know to what sort of "matter" you have given 3 ear & belief, but I do know that I am not walking wittingly or "unwittingly on the verge of a precipice", &, that I care not the toss of a copper for what any human being may "rush into print" concerning me. Always with the best of good wishes [know] truly yours Anna Dickinson 5-4-'81 #8 Boylston Place. Dear Miss Dickinson - When I read your letter this morning I folded it and put it away with the despairing feeling of a bit of rhyme that haunted me - "Is there any other word to say? Is there any other prayer to pray?" It seemed that any attempt at reply would be an impertinence - You had told me that when a thing was finished, with you, it was finished and it seemed a finale I had not the slightest intention of asking you to let me say another word, now or ever. 2 I came home tonight to find a number of letters from the West that make me beg your indulgence - even for "one word more," My father's letter I will enclose (don't trouble to return it=its no consequence) - but - one little slip on which he said more fluttered into a vase of water waiting for flowers and can't be read but on it he said - (I should preface that I sent him your last letter & all the things I had written and begged him to look at them closely & see if I had written what I should not) - and he says "Since writing my letter I have given more careful attention to the slips you enclose and I think my dear daughter you were injudicious and that Miss Dickinson has some grounds for her words to you." And it is because of this that I3 write - if this is true what could I say to you of sorrow, of apology. I do not see how it could have been how out of a feeling that I know was right. I could have written everything wrong. To you it could not matter much, it is not in the power of any writer, any newspaper, or all put together, to inspire you, but it matters seriously to me, for indeed - indeed - I never intended such an interpretation. I wrote to Mrs. Clemmons and without giving - I need hardly say - the least reason for my request- I asked if she would tell me frankly fully just what impression she felt from what I had said. I wanted to see it objectively- see it as it appeared to others uncolored by personal feeling and Mrs. Clemmons is my one friend above all others - of the journalists. 4 she wrote me a few days ago. You ask me for my impressions of what you wrote concerning Miss Dickinson in "Le Beau Monde." I thought you wrote in perfect loyalty to your ideal f[or] her, that while you did not attempt to justify what you did not understand that you held your faith in her intrinsic self unshaken and yet with a certain sorrowful consciousness that those who held her less sacredly would interpret her differently and would with apparent cause condemn her cause as not unswervingly held to the highest standard and that the vision of this reflex judgment5 filled you with pain. Mrs. Clemmon's analysis gives more accurately that any words of my own could about the way I did feel, I did not ask her the question for comfort - only for truth- to see how it had impressed a looker-on - in whose judgment - feeling and intuition one could place any confidence, and Mrs. Clemmons is the only journalistic woman, with whom I have any personal acquaintance, on whom I do in the least rely. A letter from Mr. Halstead comes today too -- wh. I should enclose he for some other matter in it - foreign to this subject - but in it he says "I should be glad to do anything to testify my good will toward Miss 6 Dickinson, but I am not sure what you think I could do. I do not think the spirit of the press is such as you represent it" (I had told him the press here in the East was intolerable and abominable in general)" -- There is no reason in the world why Miss Dickinson should not be received in any city in the Union with fair play. There is and can be no feeling against her." All I said to Mr. Halstead was merely of the press matter - of the things entirely public - but if there is anything that he can do no now in his paper or influence he will do it. Mr. Halstead is the kindest man in the world - at heart. He scolds me on occasions whenever he feels like it & when he thinks I deserve it; but all the same7/ I should know that in any real trouble or need I could go to him for any help or sympathy. My letter to the Phila Press was written - mailed - before the receipt of your last. I only mention this as the coincidence of the last paragraph being almost - & in part the same words you used to me in that letter & the date so nearly the same you would naturally think it written from and because of - your letter, I wrote it late Thursday evening - I was magnatized and impressed into it as much as if some one had been sitting here telling me - I mailed it - Friday evening on my way tot he office - your letter reached me Friday noon 8/ As for my giving "ear or belief" to some sort - any sort - of matter - I had never given belief-thought=feeling-whatever - in any way untrue to my ideal regard for you. It would be impossible unless I should utterly change my identity. - How could any decent person do otherwise? I hear more appreciative things said of you these days, dear Miss Dickinson, than I ever heard or read before. Miss Sanborn said to me in a letter yesterday - "I mourn over Anna's trouble but what she has done so nobly will save her - She will be appreciated - "In the long runwe get a just estimate from the world" - She asks me to come up to Westhampton for a Sunday with her & I shall go - I think Miss9/ Sanborn is lovely. Dear miss Dickinson I should not have said all this - but it is a serious matter to me - If it were any other woman than you - even those who next to you I hold in highest regard, it would not make me utterly miserable but — I love you - let me say it now if I never say it again I doubt if one woman ever gave to another more entire enthusiam of devotion and tenderness and after one emerges from the school-girl age one does not hold these things lightly. If I could only be "Dear little girl" to you again it would change the world for me. Do you think - can you believe - after you said only a few weeks ago that "I love you always" - do you think after that, I would intentionally be unworthy any degree of it -? or do you think I 10/ could ever again be unmindful you had said so? — Dear , dear Miss Dickinson — goodnight. L. W.The enclosed being so inexplicable as to defy translation is returned to the writer 4-24-'81 It is probably needless to add that late matter sent Miss Dickinson was mailed before receipt of enclosedLilian Whiting Boston Traveller Hotel Vendome Boston--9-28-84 Dear Miss Dickinson Will you not come and spend a week here (at the Vendome) as my guest--you shall have all the comfort the Vendome affords --pretty rooms near mine and you shall have your own sweet will--to see people or not to see them--to go out orbe quiet--as you will, I shall go on just the same with my work--being at office from after breakfast till two o'clock and-- as Miss Field said to me this week in writing me to visit her,--"you will have as much of me as is good for you!" I will do everything in my power to make you happy --will you come? Mr. Williams of the Lecture Bureau is enthusiastic on the subject of your lecturing this year-- & thinks if he could induce you to his fame & fortune would be made. Miss Field opens here last of Oct under his auspices.-- I do hope you are better dear Miss Dickinson and I do want to put my arms around you--do come to--Lilian.The Brunswick Boston, Dec. 6 1884 Dear Miss Susie-- On the whole I think I'm rather glad I told you of her assertion regarding Miss Anna's affairs,--I have not mentioned it to a human being & of course shall not, but I fancy you areall as well to be on your guard with that woman. I recd her solely & wholly on the supposed validity of her claims to be Miss Anna's friend - why she told me, indeed, that she partly expected Miss Anna here - to be at Barnett's 1st night, & that she should know by 2 telegram later in the afternoon.! - She is evidently a woman not without a certain kind of ability.--? She puzzles me. - She sent a long telegram to me that she'd meet Stanley on the wharf. I was in N.Y. at the time, - she sent it to me at Traveller & it wasforwarded. - To begin with, for a woman to meet a man at the wharf who wasn't her father, brother or husband, was funny - I shouldn't go to such a place to meet my own father. But I think Mrs. Sheldon has some good qualities, - Do you suppose it is true that President Díaz of Mexico has 3 invited her to be his guest this winter? - I am told that her relations with Edward King were not reputable & that it was notorious in Paris. - I am interrupted by callers & will send this as it is & add more later - Lilian Love to you all - I hopeMiss Anna is better - I think of her - care for her I wish I could do something for her. I expect Miss Field here Jan. 8 - at the Brunswick for a few days - the last of Feb. she lectures near my home in Ill. and I shall then go home and she will visit at our house. - So I plan now - I may have to give it up The Brunswick Boston, Dec. 17/84 Dear Miss Susie-- This is the kind of stuff Mrs. Sheldon keeps up--only instead of putting this in the waste-basket as usual 2 I enclose to you-- don't of course, return it. Isn't it funny that she keeps this up? Lilian It is not true, is it, that Miss Anna is about to appear on the lecture platform--? 2 I went to see Booth last night--in Macbeth,-- I wasn't taken off my feet as I had hoped to be--I don't think his company are anything yet to be very proud of,-- That Mrs. Augusta [Nuster] is dreadful--stagey --hard--inartistic.3-4 Barron is now Booth's leading man. His MacDuff was endurable.-- I have seen worse ones --but it wasn't equal to its possibilities. The weather is simply dreadful. I don't often grumble about it,--for the most part I don't very much care-- 4 but 10 consecutive days of rain, snow, wind, sleet & all other horrors of meteorological possibilities, is too much. I have had a cold & cough & been ill, & waded thru' snow, because our city government5 is too parsimonious to properly clean the streets. I had kept up my spirits till last night hoping wo'd get a new Mayor--but no,-- O'Brien, the Irish, the Catholic, the Democrat, the Philistine, was 6 elected by a large majority. Boston is an Irish Catholic City,-- practically,--& are too utterly utter all but Harvard rose-water element, who are too good to condescend to vote, are now paying the penalty in9 having to live under the worst city government that a civilized community ever knew. --Don't you wish I'd stop grumbling--& stop writing--if I haven't anything pleasant to say? I've recognized all day that I was 10 undeniably cross,--& when one is thus afflicted he should [?] to a vast wilderness, & stay there, "I am cross today" should be as legitimate an excuse as "I am ill today",--in fact, its far more a reason for seclusion-- Yours--Blue-ly--Lilian The Windsor New York City April, 13/91 My Dearest Miss Anna-- To try to write anything is impossible--I should cover a ream of paper if I attempted any expression. --It must wait till I put my arms around you, Dear, & tell you--which shall be very soon. WhenI wrote from Boston I supposed you would be here-- at the Astor House--I have now just sent to find distance & time to Goshen, to see whether I can run out tomorrow & return here in time for train to Boston tomorrow night,-- where I am obliged--by my work--to return.--For --dearest Anna--there is a new & deeper object in the work than ever before-- 2 for I am going to help you. This is just between our two selves,--& if I fly back to Boston now,--it will be to return here a week or so, later & come out to see you, and to be to you something of what is--what has always been in my heart for you. I am well & strong & faith & love will find out a way. Strange to say, I was hereand in this very room-- on Feb. 25. Mr. Barrett (Lawrence) had spent the morning with me--in the afternoon I was at a Bernhard (Cleopatra) matinee. The next morning when I took up the paper--but we will pass over that. Courage --courage! All will come right.--My Dear,--if I 3 had not been cruelly deceived by falsehoods I should have gone to Danville myself to see you--Had I followed my impressions I should have gone anyway. But I was told the only possible good was to keep entirely silent & that you needed entire quiet & that letters or visits would be the worst harm-- But I am writing too long,-- and yet I am not telling you,--I3 do not need to tell you--of my infinite love & tenderness you know have that is always in my heart for you, & ever is the Divine care that sent Dr. Seward to save you. I resigned the literary editorship of the Traveller last year & took the editorship-in-chief of the Boston Budget--a weekly journal which is why I am so obliged to get back tomorrow night. Later, I have been looking at the time-tables & see I 4 simply cannot go tomorrow-- --Suppose I come next Monday leaving N.Y. 8.55 a.m. & arriving at Goshen 11.05--remaining till 3.26 p.m.-- Will Dr. Seward--to save you all fatigue-- let me know whether "Interpines" is near or distant from the station? He is most kind to say come--If I may, I will do so onMonday next,--at this hour. Miss Willard writes me of you with great affection. Both of us feel the deepest appreciation of all you have been to the world, & all that you will yet be. May I be presented with grateful regards to Dr. Seward-- I put my arms around you--next Monday, if I may, I will see you, & I am Always--Yours tenderly--loving Lilian. If you would in the least like to have me write to you I will do so every day,--but you are not to fatigue yourself to reply-- But perhaps the letters would tire you--? To do, even the least little thing for you--would be the dearest pleasure.-- Hotel Brunswick Copley Square, Boston. 4/17/91 My dear Miss Dickinson-- I have read the N.Y. Herald of today & words fail me to say anything save just this--I am coming to N.Y. Sunday night remaining two days,-- May I come to you? See you? Yours tenderly--loving-- Lilian Whiting. [ * One word-- come-- will bring me to you-- In N.Y. I shall be at The Windsor arriving Monday a.m. *] Hotel Brunswick Copley Square, Boston 4/19/91 My Dear Miss Anna-- You do not write-- again,--and perhaps it is --not now convenient to you to see me--? I still want to come to you for an hour or two very much if I may-- and Miss Willard writes me saying,--"I beseechyou--go and see Anna"-- She is anxious for a directly personal word of you than newspapers afford,--but all this, of course, is as you [decide] prefer. With my people here my only free days are the very first of the week-- I can run over to N.Y. any week from Saturday night till Tuesday night, or there abouts,-- after that it is necessary for me to be here. So while I go to N.Y. very often I stay only a little time. Of course I am most solicitous about you-- as to whether you are regaining strength & whether it is true that you will lecture at any very near date. I see so many conflicting accounts in the papers and take them all with more or less salt. --I have no doubt that the most criminal indignities in this country are connected with Insane asylums, & it may be that God has permitted you to suffer so--to undergo this awful tragedy 2 in order that such a voice as yours should speak.-- There is need for a second and a greater Dorothea Dix-- In all history--from that of the Divine Tragedy to the present time --we see these startling examples of some one individual, counted worthy to suffer, who is permitted to undergo that he may shatter the bonds and serve as the deliver of the oppressed. But I cannot moralize over the experience you have undergone. It came too near me, and if I permitted myself to say anything I should say too much. Only you will let me say that I am always With loving tenderness Your-- Lilian Whiting6/14/91 Dearest Miss Anna-- June 4,--and I sit before a blazing fire in the grate,--this is the New England summer! Yours of yesterday comes duly this dreary morning,-- How sweet it isto hear from you--to see you writing--again. Yes, I rec'd the clippings, --thanks, and read them attentively-- the whole thing seems incredible, and beyond realization. Please present me to Mrs. Ackley with thanks and regards-- Always Lovingly Yours Lilian. Perhaps this word on Boston's "realistic" fad may amuse you--of all Boston fads this was the most absurd.--Hotel Brunswick, Copley Square, Boston. June 2, 1891 Dearest Miss Anna-- "Blame" you? Never. It is very sweet of you to remember me. You may, indeed, trust to my personal interpretation of things. I will come and see you,--I can any time almost.--I have nothing special to take me to N.Y. nor at any particular date, but I always keep a pass in readiness for a minute's warning and my only anchorage is that I must be in Boston Fridays and Saturdays.--To come I could best, I think, leave Boston on a Saturday, or Sunday night,--be in N.Y. in the morning-- run out to Goshen for part of the day with you returning to N.Y. in time to leave for Boston at night.--Any week that suits you will me--I am free from entanglements of social matters now Dr. Seward & Mrs.Ackley are most kind and to meet them will be a pleasure. It is fifteen years today --June 2, of '76--that I reached St. Louis in my intuitive quest for journalist work,--a girl of 20 as ignorant of the world as possible,--It seems to me a life time ago--And then the next autumn I met you--who have always been so dear to me.-- There is a kind of rythmic sequence in hearing from you today --but life is full of such things--of correspondences-- harmonies.-- I put my arms around you and kiss you and pray that all the good angels may be unto you. Lovingly--Lilian Miss Lilian Whiting The Brunswick Tuesday 3 to 6 Please address always at the Brunswick. I am very little at the office.-- Boston.Hotel Brunswick, Copley Square, Boston. June 7/'91 Dearest Miss Anna-- I wonder if you knew Mrs. Robert Hosca in Cincinnati--one of the loveliest of the leading women there! Both Mr. and mrs. Hosca have of late years become interested in Theosophy and possibly the enclosed letter I have just rec'd from her may interest you--as givingin my opinion--a very true and sensible view of that curiously complex character,-- Mme. Blavatsky. When the Theosophical Convention met here in April I attended it--going with interest and coming away with disappointment--and I wrote of it freely to Mrs. Hosca who is so intelligent a believer in it as to be perfectly fair in considering objections or defects. 2 There is very much in its philosophy that I accept, --not as apart from, or in opposition to Christianity, --but as in supplementary & explanatory relations to it. For instance the law of Karma--the cause and effect of the spiritual plane--must be recognized by any thoughtful observer of life,--and the re-incarnation theory I believe in, except that Idoubt if this world is necessarily the theatre of all the incarnations; but that life, as an eternal and immortal whole is broken up into a series of separate existences with events corresponding to death terminating each one,--I do not in the least doubt. It seems logical--reasonable-- and commends itself intuitively. How I wish you were here,-- 3 today--now. I am very pleasantly situated at the Brunswick. I suspect all this new "Back Bay" has largely grown up since you have visited Boston--indeed,-- all save a small part has grown since I came--in 1880. There is a mile & more to the west and more than that distance in width north & south--of solid blocks, that have been built since I came here. At Brunswick whichis a charmingly ideal hotel,--I have two rooms on the brightest floor--my parlor window looking down Clarendon Street to the Charles river by the little water view is very pretty. Trinity Church ("Phillips Brooks's Church" as it is best known) is next door. It is where I always go, my bedroom looks out on the Boylston Street side-- The weather is strangely 4 cold and I sit today with a glaring grate fire--I never knew so cold a summer. Are you reading much now? And what? I hope you did not find the Philadelphia journey fatiguing-- And always I am Lovingly Yours LilianHOTEL BRUNSWICK, COPLEY SQUARE, BOSTON. June $eventeenth 1891 Dearest Miss Anna - It is sweet to have and to hold your writing - the very sight of it made me happy. I greatly hope Mr. $eward will find me - Will you not write and ask him to come and dine with me (or lunch, ifthat would better suit his hours) and say that any day would suit me except a $aturday, on which day I am buried on my paper - tho' $aturday would suit me for dinner, but I can't come up to lunch - or at least I don't - that day and I make it an absolute rule never to see anyone that day till the paper is done - 4 or 5 P.M. - After that I am free again. I don't touch the Budget work till Monday & so do it all in those two days. I wish you would give him , please, my very urgent invitation - to dine or lunch - and ask him, if he can, to drop me a line the day before, as all days, - any day - would suitme (except $aturday) if only I know it. It would give me the greatest pleasure to see him. We have had (according to the mercury) very warm weather here for a few days - today is cool again - but I have not suffered in the least, and I think if people would only eat lightly, dress lightly, and learn the 2 virtues of hot water, internally & externally, they would get on very well. I walked down town & back yesterday - some two miles in all - and enjoyed my walk about as usual, - but I wore a white muslin gown & underwear low necked & sleeveless, so I only had the thin muslin over my neck & arms while Boston women go about in this weather in cloth gowns - lined - boned - heavenknows what - Mrs Moulton will come into my room on a warm day dressed as if for an Arctic winter - they all do it - She has just escaped this last heat in getting off to Europe - but we had very warm weather before. Its the N. E. way to wear heavy clothing. I am & have been planning to get to Newport for the summer but I shall not just yet - if at all - for I want to finish some work for which I need the libraries &c. - If you go to N.Y. on business let me come over at the same time & see you there, - it will be infinitely more convenient to me to go to N.Y. to me & be at the Windsor is as easy as to stayat home, - I can do my work with little interruption - but to take a day out I go off somewhere else is very much of one & I would so much rather see you in n.Y. if I may, - I want to go over anyway, for one or two things, - If you have not yet seen "Suzie Moore's "Impressions" I fancy the book may possibly interest you a little - and I send with this - And I put my arms around you and kiss you - Lovingly - Lilia. This is Bunker- Hill Day & the Charlistain Bostonians are en fété - Fortunately their festivities (which I am told make night hideous) do not extend into the Boston Back Bay, — But as a local holiday everything is Closed & no mails delivered. —BOSTON LIFE. The Glory of June Days in the Back Bay District - A Paradise of Enchantment. Women Who Live in Business Blocks - Plea for a Self-washing Sauce Pan Bohemianism Amid Artistic Surroundings Kate Field's Latest Departure. Summer at the Hub. Boston, June 9, - Special Correspondence.- The glory of the June days - poem and picture in one - is over us. The blue skies bend over blue water, and the golden flood of the sunshine transfigures the atmosphere into a paradise of enchantment. Boston is radiant in these days. The air is all a shimmer of color, of beauty indescribable and untranslatable. There is a glow of vitality in this sunshine, tempered as it is with the salt savor of the sea breeze that sweeps through the old elms on the Common and over the Back Bay. Almost every day to last Sunday, inclusive, fires have been a desideratum; but on Monday summer came, swiftly, as she has a way of coming in Boston, in a sudden glory of transfiguration. Nowhere is the changed--and changing-- position of women more clearly shown than in the easy nonchalance with which the modern professional woman, of arts or letters, calmly surveys desirable chambers or apartments and takes possession of them, sans chaperonage or companionship. If a model building goes up with rooms arranged for masculine use either for office or living purposes, and the rooms chance to be especially convenient and desirable, lovely woman preempts them at once, and sets up her household gods, consisting largely of art draperies and bric-a-brac. If she can take a whole flat, and keep a maid, so much the better; if not, she arranges herself luxuriously in two or three rooms, and is the happy and independent monarch of all she surveys. For the modern woman the tyrannical inconveniences of the boarding-house are in the remote past. She is a law unto herself, and she dwells where she pleases at her own sweet will. There is much comment and COMPLAINT IN NEW YORK in behalf of ways and means for women to live, but in Boston, if a woman discovers one place more desirable than another she simply takes possession. In a former letter I fancy I may have mentioned the striking and amusing instance of the Pierce Building --one of the massive and ornamental buildings on Copley Square, which was primarily designed for men's offices, with a large assembly hall and accommodations for private dancing parties. But lovely woman looked upon it and it straightway found favor in her eyes. Two gifted and accomplished artists, the Misses Durgin, just returned from several years in Paris, set up their studio and their household goods [*gods*]. Fraulein Stolle, a German teacher, whose specialties are modern classics and lectures on art, ensconced herself in the most delightful fashion in one of the great rooms, where, with true foreign ingenuity brought to bear on screens, palm trees and art draperies, she metamorphosed the great [*bare*] room into a cluster of cozy corners. Other women, professional and otherwise, followed suit till it was only a bit of good fortune if any place at all were left for "tyrant man." Now there is just finished an immense building of brown stone with granite foundation, iron balconies, and every modern device EXTERNALLY AND INTERNALLY, called Exeter Chambers--a building that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, was intended as a purely masculine refuge from the snares and temptations of a too fascinating world. But here, as usual, woman steps in. Shall these delightful little apartments of two rooms and bath, with private entrance, be given over to the traditional "tyrant" of the woman suffrage argument? Go to! And enchanting woman fell upon them and marked them for her own. Fraulein Stolie considered the apartments a trifle better than those she had valiantly pre-empted at the Pierce Building, and she moved over without delay. The feminine intellect in general followed this illustrious example. The Boston woman by no means retreats meekly to the back chamber of a boarding-house and bemoans her fate, as the press correspondents of New York assert that the Gotham woman does. If the Boston woman discovers one thing better than another one may be reasonably confident that she takes possession of it forthwith. There is a good deal of easy bohemianism in the feminine living, too. To-night a little group of us were chatting together as we sat in a great open bay window looking out on Copley square and the architectural beauty of Trinity Church, and an INTERCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE and counsel between two of our number was very funny. One--an artist--lives in a sort of dainty Bohemianism, with a gas stove, and the most approved style of coffee-pot, and cream from the famous Deerfoot farm delivered every morning--the Deerfoot farm being that belonging to Mr. Burnett, James Russell Lowell's son-in-law--and another feminine aspirant for this picturesque style of living was inquiring into ways and means, being ambitious to set up a gas stove and a model coffee-pot of her own. After some valuable information regarding the true inwardness of the gas stove the artist remarked, meditatively: "And then there is oatmeal; if you had a sauce pan you could cook it. But then," reconsidering, "a sauce-pan has to be washed and you wouldn't like to do that. No, you had better not get a sauce-pan." So the weighty question was settled, and the whole group of us vetoed saucepans. If Mr. Edison would invent one that would wash itself the Boston woman artist might consider it. Lovers of Balzac are again revelling in two new translations of two of his most admirable novels--those superb translations by MISS KATHERINE WORMLEY, OF NEWPORT which the Roberts Brothers are issuing uniform with their previous issues of his works. In "Le Lys dans la Vallee" (The Lily of the Valley") there is a "curiously pathetic and thrilling tale, even though it go to the verge of fantasy. Mme. Mortsauf, the principal character, lives her life in a passionate struggle between duty to her husband whom she does not love, and who is quite unworthy of any consideration, and a devoted lover, whom she theoretically keeps at a distance, but actually proceeds in quite the reverse directionmay be reasonably confident that she takes possession of it forthwith. There is a good deal of easy bohemianism in the feminine living, too. To-night a little group of us were chatting together as we sat in a great open bay window looking out on Copley square and the architectural beauty of Trinity Church, and an INTERCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE and counsel between two of our number was very funny. One--an artist--lives in a sort of dainty Bohemianism, with a gas stove, and the most approved style of coffee-pot, and cream from the famous Deerfoot farm delivered every morning--the Deerfoot farm being that belonging to Mr. Burnett, James Russell Lowell's son-in-law--and another feminine aspirant for this picturesque style of living was inquiring into ways and means, being ambitious to set up a gas stove and a model coffee-pot of her own. After some valuable information regarding the true inwardness of the gas stove the artist remarked, meditatively: "And then there is oatmeal; if you had a sauce pan you could cook it. But then," reconsidering, "a sauce-pan has to be washed and you wouldn't like to do that. No, you had better not get a sauce-pan." So the weighty question was settled, and the whole group of us vetoed saucepans. If Mr. Edison would invent one that would wash itself the Boston woman artist might consider it. Lovers of Balzac are again revelling in two new translations of two of his most admirable novels--those superb translations by MISS KATHERINE WORMLEY, OF NEWPORT-- which the Roberts Brothers are issuing uniform with their previous issues of his works. In "Le Lys dans la Vallee" (The Lily of the Valley") there is a "curiously pathetic and thrilling tale, even though it go to the verge of fantasy. Mme. Mortsauf, the principal character, lives her life in a passionate struggle between duty to her husband whom she does not love, and who is quite unworthy of any consideration, and a devoted lover, whom she theoretically keeps at a distance, but actually proceeds in quite the reverse direction. At last, however, she sends him away, and writes to him in Paris a letter in which one passage is as follows: "Be not too confiding, nor frivilous, nor over enthusiastic--three rocks on which youth often strikes. Too confiding a nature loses respect, frivolity brings contempt, and others take advantage of enthusiasm * * * Believe the voice which commands you to be noble in all things, when it also prays you not to expend your forces uselessly. Unhappily, men will rate you according to your worth * * * Hide your pure sentiments, or put them in regions inaccessible, where their blossoms may be passionately admired, where the artist may dream amorously of his masterpiece. But duties, my friends, are not sentiments. To do what we ought is by no means to do what we like. A man who would give his life enthusiastically for a woman must be ready to die coldly for his country." At last the heroine dies of her disastrous struggle. The tale is one of the most deeply tragic that Balzac has given us. And Balzac has presented few more delightful pictures in provincial life than that given in 'Ursula,' the other novel just issued, where a noble and elevating character is portrayed in the midst of provincial dullness, and the supernaturalism introduced serves well its purpose in the conversion of the Doctor. Ursula Mironet is the happiest of the figures in the scenes from provincial life, and the admirable translation of Miss Wormley lends, as usual, new and abiding attraction to the work. Miss Wormley's translation of Balzac entitles her to literary merit. Miss Kate field is making a valuable effort to further the advancement of arts in her work for a National Art Congress to be held in Washington early in December, and "which owes the origin of the project to Miss Kate Field, who first formulated the idea in her Washington, in its issue of Nov. 5, last autumn, taking the shape of, first, an art congress, to be called early in December, for the advancement of free art; second, the organization by the Government of a commission of art and architecture; third, A NATIONAL LOAN EXHIBITION of paintings by American artists, composed of the best work only; and lastly a reception by Mrs. Harrison at the Executive Mansion, thus giving to art the cachet of the highest official recognition, socially. The loan exhibition will be held in the lecture-room of the National Museum. The trustees of the Corcoran Art Gallery have signified their intention to heartily co-operate in this scheme. General di Cesnola, F.D. Millett (Vice President of the National Academy), Mr. St. Gaudens, and many other eminent curators or artists, have expressed their recognition of Miss Field's valuable thought in originating this great movement, which will give [?] art a new impetus throughout the Nation.' There is much discussion here and there regarding reason and intuition and their relative values in life. There are people who should never do the thing they know they ought to do, so to speak. Which were sometime a paradox; but it is that there are a certain class of persons who are so little ion touch with the prudential range of the world. who have so little affinity with the facts and figures of the economic plane, who are so lacking in the power of rational and business-like calculation, that any attempt to set their chart of life by the logical method of the world of affairs results in hopeless entanglement and failure. To the intuitive temperament intuition is the only safe guide. It is the illuminationof high light, whole reason would be merely, for this type of temperament, groping with a candle. whose faint and flickering ray would only serve to make the darkenss visible. Concversely, however, the logical and reasoning temperament would be still more at sea if attempting to set the course by intuitive perception or insight. Intuition is a gift, not an acquirement. The Eastern philosophers hold that it is the result of the stored-up experience of a multitude of lives in the endless chain of being whose inflorescence is the intuitive power. It is vision, insight—the swift recognition of the whole at once rather than by estimating it in detail and by partial steps. The residium of each incarnation, according to this philosophy, is a certain amount of experience, and this stores up in the spiritual nature, becomes intuition. Reason is of the terrestial , while intuition is of the celestial plane. "It is as the glowworm to the star, and who would grope about with the one when he might walk under the illumination of the other? To the intuitive nature trust in this invisible leading is the only path to success. Take, for instance, the preeminently practical plane of income and outlay. Prudence may suggest the reduction of the latter in order that the latter may accumulate into capital. But one is not enriched by money alone. There is that scattereth, yet increaseth. Atmospheres and influences, however intangible, are as potent in life as are stocks and bonds. There is always the power to make stones into bread, always the unseen force close at hand to transmute the commonest things into the heavenly gifts. THE STEAM FROM THE FOUNTAIN may, at any moment become the living water. There is not the slightest necessity of laboriously warning possessions and toiling for worldly goods, if one can but catch the eternal secret of living in the current of receptivity to divine influences. We can not take as readily or so swiftly as these influences are ready to give. The treasures of life are poured out freely. The best gifts are without money and without price. 'it is only necessary to make place, to make room for happiness and happiness descends [?]At last the heroine does of her disastrous struggle. The tale is one of the most deeply tragic Balzac has given us. And Balzac has presented few more delightful pictures in provincial life that that given in 'Ursula,' the other novel just issued, where a noble and elevating character is portrayed in the midst of provincial dullness, and the supernaturalism introduced servers well its purpose in the conversion of the Doctor. Ursula Mironet is the happiest of the figures in the scenes from provincial life, and the admirable translation of Miss Wormley lends, as usual, new and abiding attraction to the work. Miss Wormley's translation of Balzac entitles her to literary merit. Miss Kate Field is making a valuable effort to further the advancement of art in her work for a National Art Congress to be held in Washington early in December, and "which owes the origin of the project to Miss Kate Field, who first formulated the idea in her Washington, in its issue of Nov. 5, last autumn, taking the shape of, first, an art congress, to be called early in December, for the advancement of free art; second, the organization by the Government of a commission of art and architecture; third A NATIONAL LOAN EXHIBITION of paintings by Americna artists, composed of the best work only; and lastly a reception by Mrs. Harrison a the Executive Mansion, thus giving art the cachet of the highest official recognition in the lecture-room of the National Museum. The trustees of the Corcoran Art Gallery have signified their intention to heartily co-operate in this scheme, general di Cesnola, F. D. Millett (Vice President of the National Academy), Mr. St. Gaudens, and many other eminent curators or artists, have expressed their recognition of Miss Field's valuable thought in originating this great movement, which will give ??? art a new impetus throughout the Nation. There is much discussion here and there regarding reason and intuition and their relative values in life. There are people who should never do the thing they know they ought to do, so to speak. Which were sometime a paradox; but it is that there are a certain class of persons who are so little in touch with the prudential range of the world , who have so little affinity with the facts and figures of the economic plane, who are so lacking in the power of rational and business-like calculation, that any attempt to set their chart of life by the logical methods of the world of affairs results in hopeless entanglement and failure. To the intuitive temperament intuition is the only safe guide, It is the illumination of high light, while reason would be merely, for this type of temperament, groping with a candle, whose faint and flickering ray would only serve to make the darkness visible. Conversely, however, the logical and reasoning temperament would be still more at sea if attempting to set the course by intuitive perception or insight. Intuition is a gift, not an acquirement. The Eastern philosophers hold that it is the result of the stored-up experience of a multitude of lives in the endless chain of being whose infloresence is the intuitive power. It is vision, insight—the swift recognition of the whole at once rather than by estimating it in detail and by partial steps. The residium of each incarnation, according to this philosophy, is a certain amount of experience, and this stored up in the spiritual nature, becomes intuition. Reason is of the terrestial , while intuition is of the celestial plane. "It is as the glowworm to the star, and who would grope about with the one when he might walk under the illumination of the other? To the intuitive nature trust in this invisible leading is the only path to success. Take, for instance, the preeminently practical plane of income and outlay. Prudence may suggest the reduction of the latter in order that the latter may accumulate into capital. But one is not enriched by money alone. There is that scattereth, yet increaseth. Atmospheres and influences, however intangible, are as potent in life as are stocks and bonds. There is always the power to make stones into bread, always the unseen force close at hand to transmute the commonest things into the heavenly gifts. THE STEAM FROM THE FOUNTAIN may, at any moment become the living water. There is not the slightest necessity of laboriously warning possessions and toiling for worldly goods, if one can but catch the eternal secret of living in the current of receptivity to divine influences. We can not take as readily or so swiftly as these influences are ready to give. The treasures of life are poured out freely. The best gifts are without money and without price. 'it is only necessary to make place, to make room for happiness and happiness descends swiftly yo fill the place prepared for it. And so with material things. The earth has a profusion of them prepared, and entreating all who will enter into possession. If one will but work for and with the higher ideal, the material conditions adjust themselves. The secret of commanding them is to hold one's self receptive to the higher, to live in the magnetic current of divine energy, and in zeal for co-operating with the important and the permanent work of life; and all material details on the physical side of existence fall into order by means of la law as unerring as the law that holds the planets in heir courses. Now when the person of the intuitive and ideal temperament sees before him the parting of the ways-—the one in which he shall follow the practical and prudential lead of restriction of outlay, of the narrowing of social life, because,, indeed, social life implies social expenditures, and of the shutting out of atmosphere in general, because this alone shall he increase his bank account; ort the other, in which he shall live in freedom of thought and in beautiful surroundings, and in a magnetic current of all high and beautiful inspirations—when before him appear this parting of the ways, which shall he choose? If he have a nature in touch with the ideal would then only can he live out his best by keeping on the sphere of his magnetic attraction. Saving and calculating may be all very well for the temperament adapted to it. "It requires judgment, logic, and that quality rather nebulously known as common sense. But while extravagance and lavish wastefulness are by no means to be commended or recommended to the intuitive nature, yet to such a one the most hopeless extravagance is in any contemplation of material economies. Where he could thereby save a penny, he could, if he followed the bent of his nature, earn a pound, because his line of action is the creative, not the restrictive. The bird that can fly through the air to a given point would, manifestly, waste time and energy to a deplorable rate if her were to attempt to reach it by walking on the ground. "Intuitive power gives wings. It is this marvellous gift that can realize its thought and its vision; that can transmute, by some process of divine alchemy, transient conditions into imperishable realities. And these realities are always of the spirit —always of the eternal—not the temporal. LILIAN WHITING.HOTEL BRUNSWICK, COPLEY SQUARE, BOSTON. 6/19/91 Dearest Miss Anna - Dr $eward has just left me. I am most glad to have seen him he is one of the noblest of men - a man to trust - and life itself seems better in that it holds so noble and generous and honorable a gentleman. After June 30th I am particularly submergedin some matters and so I spoke to Dr. $eward about seeing you - possibly, on $unday the 28th for a few hours. "If so I would go over to N. Y. $aturday night (arriving $unday morning - I travel by the Fall River (not because I have passes on that line) Dr. $eward says there is a train out of N.Y. about eleven - and I 2 Could find one back in the afternoon - or - if I can get a train from Goshen back to N. Y. on Monday afternoon in time to connect with the five p.m. boat, I could run out Monday morning, - but I must leave N. Y. at five Monday night, again -All this will depend, dearest Miss Anna, on your inclination and feelings. - I also spoke to Dr. $eward of having you come in to see me - as my guest at the Windsor - which would give me the greatest pleasure - but he seemed to think it might be better for me to run 3 out there. - But you will decide and it shall all be just as you like - or if you'd rather I'd wait till August, or after I will do that. It is useless to try to write - I want to sit down all alone with you and talk - and I want you to know that always I an in tenderest love and unfailing care for you Your Lilian. OFFICE OF THE BOSTON BUDGET. PUBLISHED BY THE BUDGET PUBLISHING CO., 220 WASHINGTON STREET, GEORGE B. JAMES, Treasurer. BOSTON, MASS., June 20 /91 Dearest Miss Anna It occurs to me that it is possible one might tale board at Dr $eward's for a few days —? and if this is practicable "I will do so and thus be able to see you at such times as you may feel like it, and pursue my work at the same time. A condensed talk that has to be shared within certain limits - of train time is never very satisfactory. I am exceedingly busy, - but still my art is of a portable nature, and if Dr. $eward will receive me as a boarder for a wekk (nearly) I would come, - sayperhaps from a Sunday or Monday to Friday, - $aturday is my one anchored day here. To do this I could take a July week, too, - I have some special work to do after June 30, -- but by going on with it I can do wherever I am. I should like to be where you are fro a few days, - and see you as the spirit moves, rather than on a specific dash. It is cold here, very cold that I have a little fire in the grate, - Always, Most Lovingly Lilian Dearest Anna the good days are all to come back to you again Believe in happinessHARPER & BROTHERS. FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK. June 27, 1891 Miss Lilian Whiting, Dear Madam: Your two notes of the 24th inst. are at hand. The sale of Miss Anna Dickinson's "A Ragged Register" has been very slight for some years, and we have quite a number of copies on hand. In accordance with your requests, we send you, by mail, a copy of "A Ragged Register" and of "Criticism and Fiction," for notice. please to send copies of your notices to Mr. J. F. Phayre, in our care. Yours truly, Harper & Brothers, per E. W. F. HOTEL BRUNSWICK, COPLEY SQUARE, BOSTON. June 28 / 1891 Dearest Miss Anna - I am going to do all in my power to give a little start again to your "Ragged Register" and Mr. James W. Clarke - leading editor of Boston Globe - Mr. Arlo Bates editor the Courier, Dr. Hale (E. E. ) of the Commonwealth and Rev. Julius H. Ward, of editorialeditorial staff of the Herald here, will all say a word in their respective papers, and I shall ask some of the editors in other cities to do the same - I think we can give it quite a start again - A book always needs that after it has been out for a while - I wrote to Harpers about it and enclose you their reply - I hope you are still gaining health - It is cold here - so cold that I have 2 an open fire this morning. - I send you with this a magazine or two - and always, dear Miss Anna am I Lovingly Yours Lilian The Brunswick Boston, June 30 / 91 My dearest Miss Anna - You must not think about writing to me at all unless you happen to feel like it, - but you don't mind my writing a little often to you —? If you don't then I shall give myself that pleasure. Youare always in my thoughts & my love, & no years of separation or silence seem in the least to affect that feeling of nearness to you that I always had Those things are predetermined by temperament, - by a thousand things outside our immediate volition. One recognizes rather 2 than makes friends, - don't you think so? I am going to Newport soon for a few weeks - coming up to town once or twice a week, - I am going to board on the quiet old "Point" - two or three doors from my dear friend, Mrs, Milton H. Sanford - (Kate Field's Aunt) - at whose hand I have been a good dealthese past two or three summers, - I love Newport. The "Register" has arrived form Harper's - It is a most charming little book and should be revived, and needs only to be made known again. - We are having lovely weather here - just a hint of coolness in the East wind full of salt 3 sea savor. I shall not go to Newport until the 13th I think - and will tell you when I really do go, - Its rather a moveable feast, and something of an experiment, - in being two hours distant, - but I plan to come up Friday and return there $aturday night so as to have two days in town with only one trip. I hope you are still growing stronger - And you anticipate lecturing in the Autumn - ? May I know? Lovingly Always - Lilian I did not tell you, I think, of a recent letter from Miss Genevieve Ward also said many sweet and lovely things of you. I just met Miss Ward in Chicago when I was out writing there three or four years ago. - She wasplaying an engagement - the last time she was here - and I stayed for a few days at the Leland with her and with Miss Field who also happened to coincide there - then when Miss Ward came to Boston she came to the Brunswick & since then we have always corresponded, - and when I go to London I an to be at her house - She has a house of her own - out at Regent's Park, - In a year or two, I hope to go - to live there.HOTEL BRUNSWICK, COPLEY SQUARE, BOSTON. July 25 / 91. My Dearest Miss Anna- I am going to N. Y. on Aug. 2, and the next day (Aug. 3) I will run out and see you if I may: if you care to see me? I want so much to come to you and I am always with tender love - Yours - Lilian,OFFICE OF THE BOSTON BUDGET. PUBLISHED BY THE BUDGET PUBLISHING CO., 220 WASHINGTON STREET, GEORGE B. JAMES, Treasurer. BOSTON, MASS., Aug. 8 / 91 My Dear Dr. Seward - I am more sorry than ?I can tell you to say that I cannot, after all, go to see Miss Dickinson next week - I am very particularly sorry, on [accout] account of the proposed lecture - but it proves to be the impossible, - for reasons too long to inflict on you, - I think I can come on the 17th or 24th if I do not hear to the contrary from you, - I am so entangled that anything except at the very first of a week grows impossible for me, and I am powerless to help it, - I shall very much interested in hearing about thelecture - had it only been on a Monday or Tuesday night, I could have managed it. - Please give my love to Miss Dickinson and with thanks for your kindness I am always faithfully yours Lilian Whiting?, BOSTON. ??? 12 / 91 Dear Dr. $eward - Is this true and is it possible that she has gone back to her sister? And is she incurable? O, I am so sorry, - if this is true. Faithfully Yours Lilian Whiting HOTEL BRUNSWICK, COPLEY SQUARE, BOSTON Aug 10/ 91 My Dear Miss Anna - I am greatly disappointed in not being able to hear you on Thursday night, - "Jeanne d'Arc" is almost the only one of your old lectured that I have never heard and which I have very greatly desired to heat: and, too, - if possibly I might be of theleast service, in a press way, that would be reason enough alone for me to come. But I am held by circumstances - I have a good many irons in the fire and this week I am unable to break away. If Dr Seward will kindly send me the press notices here I shall be very glad and shall like to make some mention. I have been silent about you - in the newspapers - because I thought for the present, and until I could see and consult with you, that were best. Today a letter carrier stopped me on the street, to inquire about you. I did not know him but he knew me, and knew that I was your friend — to how deep and warm a degree perhaps he did not fully know. I want - O, how I want to see you and now I begin to see the wayvery near, - I have had no end of things to do this summer - Do you know this year of grace 1891 is the year of the strange and the unexpected? - unaccountable things happen to every one - — O, I have such worlds of things to tell you, - to tell you when I can put my arms around you and sit down alone with you. (2 You will be well - You will yet realize a fair and lovely future and we shall rejoice in it together - I never - never forget All the kindness you have given me in the long years ago when I was a stray waif essaying journalism - Do you remember that exquisite fan you sent me for xmas? It is just as lovely now, andeven the note that came with it lies still in the same box with it, - I have every scrap of your writing that I ever received - letters - notes, - I never could let one word you had written be thrown away. — But I am writing too long - There is not an hour in the day that I do not look forward to seeing you again, dear miss Anna, and always and always am I Your loving LilianHOTEL BRUNSWICK, COPLEY SQUARE, BOSTON. JHN Feb. 8 / 92 Dearest Miss Anna - The silence had been so long that I ventures to write Dr. $eward for news of you and his reply gladdens me, with its assurance of your returning health. I wonder if you have everything you want to read - or if I could sendyou any of the new books that might interest you? - "David Grieve" for instance - Mrs. Humphrey Ward's new novel and are of far more breadth than "Robert Elsmere." You are never out of my thoughts - my love - my sweetest wishes, and always I am Lovingly Yours - LilianNo. 465 West 22 st New York City 12.31.1895 To / Miss Lilian Whiting Under date of Nov. 12. 1891 - you wrote to Dr. N. W. Seward a note concerning me in which you ask "[is she] "And is she incurable"? Will you do me the favor to let me know from what disease you deemed me [incurable] suffering & of which I was to be cured or incurable? & on what was your idea based? If uponmatter commun???ted to you by Dr Seward [I will] since he did not hesitate to both show & give me letters of yours to him you may care to enlighten me on statements [of his.] he has made to you, - if any. [Be sure] I am not writing you from idle curiosity nor from trivial motive & I will be glad for explicit answers to my questions. Anna E DickinsonPrivate Nov. 12 18?? Dear Miss $usie- Who is Mrs. $heldon? I took her an trust supposing she was Miss Anna's friend & that was enough. Nor have I any possible reason to suppose otherwise now, only that I do now wish to know. Is she a woman in whom you have confidence? At least all the best people her accepted her - She made a strangely instantaneuis social success, - but now, everybody is questioning, She has done so many unusual things. I do not mean bad, but simply unusual. Ladies are asking me - Who is she? (She first telegraphed to me here - them came - I invited her to lunch - & so first met her) - As I say, I had the impression she was a friend of Miss Anna's & of Mrs. [Hu?which?] I so took her on trust. am I mistaken? Do please tell me - it will go no farther LilianTraveller Decr 1: Dear Miss $usie - Now for it - In for a penny, in for a pound, I mean to tell the whole story. On the morning of the night an which Barrett was to open here I recd a telegram from — — — At Victoria inviting me to her box at Barrett's here that night. Of course her name had been familiar to [her] me thr Miss Anna, & I supposedShe had heard of me, & in fact thought no more about it. I was engaged to go that night with Mr. Jarves, & so couldn't accept her invitation anyway. During the day she (of course I am talking of the woman of whom I wrote to you as doing peculiar things) arrived - & came to see me at the office. When [*[That Agnes Booth is a ]*] 2 [3] She came in, before I knew her name, I took an intense dislike - rather , distaste to her, - one of those swift intuitions. However, when she said "I am Mrs. —" this vanished & she overcame it completely while here & I invited her to lunch with me the next day. The moment she had gone the intuition asserteditself again. However, - [by repressi] that night appeared in her [box?] Miss Anne Whitney, Miss Alcott E.E. Hale & Susan Hale, & Seeing this I took myself rather to task for my intuitive dislike. $urely I said to myself she must be nice to attract as good people. Well, in a day or two the lady was launched at high 3 social tide - All the best people "called &c, &c, &c, - $he offered to give us a Cols. of B's Hamlet for $at. paper & i accepted & we sent a stenographer at $50.00 expense &c - She returned to N. Y. & telegraphed to everybody - 2 - 3 - 4 a day sometimes. $ent me a long article on Chatterlow - I [got] cut it down & had 1/2 Col. or so in type, when in came two ladies with the question "Who is Mrs. — well, I confessed that my knowledge was nebulous but that she had translated - & written - & Stanley & King launched her $alambrubo - & — " You all reassured me," I said, " you took her up so amazingly." I can't write all, but I was sufficiently impressed to [4?] have her matter already in proof at once "killed" in the composing room & I told Col. W - I feared her name would be a disadvantage to us. - This was about the state of affairs when I wrote to you. - I really knew nothing bad, but a good deal was in the air, & her profuse telegrams to me - to 1/2 dozen other women2 -3 - 4 qaa day some days, was — peculiar, not a crime you know, not a thing to allege against any one, but very odd. The telegrams were mostly to come to her box, or some such incidental & no consequence matter, and was puzzled. But since then it is 5 really serious - whether justly or unjustly I know not but she was requested by the proprietors to leave the Vendome hotel. it is said she would go after the theatre to B—'s room & not return from it, - to tell you plain truth. The [Vendome?] is now under the Brunswick Control & management, & I hear the proprietorvery well, - they live at the Brunswick, but now control [Vendome?] & Victoria - our new hotel here. I have never asked them, of course, but I have it from the housekeeper of the [Vendome?], & it is true that she left unexpectedly within an hour. She told me ( tho' I never mentioned this before ) that she was here to see Miss Anna's "Aurelia" to B—. [*Dear K*] There has been no end of gossip - however - true this all, - but - Since you asked I thought I'd tell you I had a lovely time in ? ? Saturday at Mrs. Bullord'sto lunch, & Mrs,. & Mr. Moulton & I went in the afternoon to see "Jim the Penman." LilianThe Traveller Nov. 6 - Dear Miss Susie - With this I mail all Boston papers of Nov. 2, with Barrett Hamlet Criticism So sorry for delay - Absolutely no time, - Yesterday Mr. Barrettcalled & passed an hour or more with me - I was ill yesterday & unable to be at office, but enjoyed his call greatly - he is charming - $o is Mrs. $heldon - See today's Traveller With love LilianAMOR OMNIA VINCIT. My dear Miss Susie - I have just returned from New York and find your paper & message I am inexpressibly shocked & anxious, - Anxiously enough though they tell me the papers have been full & telegrams & announcements, I had not seen one, I have been with friends and I don't suppose that for ten years there was ever such a four days in my life of not looking at the papers. In fact I know there never was, My dear Miss Susie, you must not be taxed in any way, - only, - because I am so terribly anxious, will you send me just one word - as to