Anna Dickinson GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Wa-Wh, Misc. 1863-97 & undatedWashington September 18, 1872 Dear Miss Dickinson, I send to night printing house proofs of another Table, presenting the figures of Occupations in a new form.Aren't you 'most sorry You asked me for Statistics, by this time? With high respect. Your servant, F.A. WalkerWaller, Cook & Wagner, CABLE ADDRESS "COMITY." Attorneys & Counsellors at Law, 15 Wall Street. Thomas M. Waller. William W. Cook. S. Harrison Wagner. New York, Oct. 31, 1892 Miss Annie Dickinson, 44 W. 12th St., New York, My dear Miss Dickinson,- I received your letter of the 28th and also a letter from our mutual friend Mrs. Hanaford. I am very sorry to say that I have not influence enough to induce our people to secure your services in a few speeches. Most politicians are cowards, and they are more afraid of women than anything else. When I come out of political quarantine I shall be very glad to see you and do anything I can to aid you, for your own sake as well as the good of the cause. Please tell Mrs. Hanaford of this reply and thus save me at this time from writing another letter. Sincerely yours, Thomas M Waller N.C.No 44 West 12th St. New York/ 8.28.1892 To/ Hon Thos. M. Waller Dear Sir, This afternoon I left my card & a message at your office [this afternoon], with the request that both be [to] forwarded [it &] [a message] with your mail. - But add this line. -When will you be at your office with time to look at the notes of a ["Free Soil Democrat] radical republican (or "Free SoilDemocrat") tariff reformer? Who would like to [do some] make some votes with them&, by chance, do herself a little good service at the same time. = are you not to speak in this city somewhere under roof where one might hear you? Sincerely yours Anna Dickinson Fifth Avenue Hotel, Madison Square. New York.Baltimore Jan 23d/ 1871 Miss Anna E Dickerson Esteemed Lady for some time the hundreds of Colored people of the City of Baltimore have had a great desire to hear one of your very valuable lectures. They are not allow (as you know) to attend lectures at the "Maryland Institute". I therefore as a representative of two thousand of the religious portion of the Colored people of Baltimore extend an invitation to you to give us a lecture in our City. Should this meet your approval you will please state the time when, and the terms upon which you could lecture. Any time after this week would suit us. Yours A W Wayman Bishop of the A.M.E. Church PS direct to Bishop Wayman 127 East Baltimore Stno 405 west 22st NewYork, 1.25.1896 to/ Mr. Thomas Watts, Dear Sir & friend; - = I wrote to Pa. - but have as yet no word of answer. = Judge Dailey I saw this morning, & have from him the letter of which we talked, & which I desire you to see. Will you be in New -York soon? -- Talking is a way much more satisfactory method of communication than writing. = Mrs. Ackleydesires her regards - & I am, most truly yours Anna E. DickinsonWILLIAM VANAMEE THOMAS WATTS ALTON J. VAIL VANAMEE, WATTS & VAIL ATTORNEYS AT LAW 4 EAST MAIN STREET NEW YORK CITY OFFICE HILLEN BUILDING 275 BROADWAY, cor. Chambers St. MIDDLETOWN, Orange Co., N.Y., February 3rd. 1896 Anna E. Dickinson Dear Mrs. Dickinson: Since I was in New York Friday, I have had a chat with Mr. Vanamee about your matter in Pennsylvania. He seems to feel that it is more than he could possibly undertake, with the other work he now has on hand. In talking with Mrs. Ackley Friday, I told her that I would suggest the name of some reliable person whom I thought would please you. I find that he is in the Legislature, and his time so occupied that it would be impossible to get him. I would suggest that you go at once to Pennsylvania and see your counsel there and make arrangements with him to obtain some one in Pennsylvania to assist him in the trial of the case. I think it would make him feel better, and he certainly would select some one fully equal to the emergency. Wishing you the very greatest success, I am Very respectfully yours, Ths Watts Publication House Of FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, 18 AND 20 ASTOR PLACE. New York, May 27, 1893 Dear Miss Dickinson: Enclosed you will find a letter to the Messrs. Prang & Co. I find they have an office in NY quite convenient for you. The Editor of The Century I am informed is Rec'd Watson Gilder. Very Respectfully yrs, A.W. Magnalls Publication House Of FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, 30 LAFAYETTE PLACE. New York, June 4th 1897. Dear Miss Dickinson: Referring to your conversation about a publisher for your proposed book; I would say that I have had the matter constantly in mind and now address you this at my first opportunity. The book has its difficulties. I doubt if any prudent publisher would promise to publish before carefully reading the MS. His fear naturally would be about possible libelous matter. Then next, his concern would be, will the book command sufficient popular attention so as to be profitable? Your national reputation and skill as a writer is decidedly in your favor; but just how you will construct your book I cannot judge; nor is it likely any other publisher can tell. My hope is you will give to the world the master production of your life. My wish is that it may prove such a succes for you as to measurably requite you for the trials and tribulations through which you have been made to pass.My suggestion is that you prepare your Ms. then submit it to one publisher after another until you find one with whom you can make reasonably satisfactory terms. With appreciative thanks for the compliment implied in making your call, I remain Yours Gratefully A.W. WagnallsNew York City Mai 18 1864. Miss A. E. Dickenson Much respected Lady, Hoping you may have charity with my writing remembering that I am a foreigner and illiterate and come up therefore with more hesitation than otherwise to your kind wish to write to you what I was going to speak to you verbally after your last discourse at the Cooper's Institute in this City. I am a Texan Refugee as you may have perceived by the recommendation of my Gov. J. Hamilton, I gave up and lost all I had for principles sake and the devotion to see this Country and Free Republic in its broadest, deepest and highest sense not merely by its only word but by actual execution. I had been a poor laboring man all my life time and it is only through this Rebellion, that I come a little up to my proper Manhood, reasoning more than before, wherein the happiness of ourselves and our country we inhabit lies, through the corruption of our political diabolical, selfish ambitious, avaricious sneaking Party Leaders, who cowardly shrink from all progressive and intuitive ideas, as one of excluding Noble hearted and highminded Woman in the voice of the councel of the nation and similar dissimulating rather regressive into barbarity than unfolding of a better race, I commenced to hate them and observed their tools and confreres closer. I had been employed for the last year in the Chief Quartermaster's Department and there I had ample opportunity to learn and see much and gain by observation to live amongst robbers, merchants or contractors what it is to be in a net of defaulters and saviors of the National CreditBeing poor and helpless I had to be silent what I witnessed and enangled by an occasional grand dinner of the Chief Clerk J. V. Bogert to keep my mouth shut and my eyes closed and my ears deaf to what I saw and heard. Poverty, ignorance can endure much, but conscience will keep hammering away and will have its outburst one day another. I concluded to save my pennies together and lived literally on beans, rice and cornbread for nearly a whole year with the intention to come here and study and publish those rascalities I had to witness whilst in that Department, but to mention them all here would take sheats and days to put them together and my language to feeble to enumerate, but let it be said from the Commanding General N. Banks, Chief Quartermaster Holabird, his assistant Quartermaster, Chief Clerk, Clerk, Commisary Stores keeper, Hospital officers, their inferiors, messengers and their help mates all try to outreach each other to gain, to gain and wallow themselves in the mud of debauchery, the acquisition of a rapid gained wealth and ill adopted property. It may be proper to allude to a few examples, which I have seen with my own eyes, heard it and even had to give a hand to it and what I did not see I can prove by honest men and Citizen. For example: As the property of the Rebels was to be confiscated, their splendid libraries [an] books and statues were brought into the Quartermaster Building and according to General Banks appropriated for public schools, but my! Miss Dickenson you ought to have seen the grasp of greedy hands after those valuable books. The public libraries of New Orleans are very insufficient. Most of the schools have no library at all. The library is a mere name, old worn acct books, containing ideas, which may better suit way back into the antedeluvian world, than at the present progressive age. The new established schools have no library at all and how necessary would it be there, that only good and the only best books should be selected and deposited there. Now amongst this ingathered books of the Secessionist were some of the most excellent and refined of the latest authors published works and what good they would have done, language can not unfold. Had they been properly distributed, as the proclamation of General Banks sounded it out an equal share to each school, a considerable little library would have fallen to each school, but alas we saw the books where they were of less use, than in the hands of those thirsty and hungry for knowledge poor ones. They may be gathered in Northern Aristocratic families but the despised freed man or his child will never see a book from his former master, who oppressed and robbed him of his life's blood.Whenever a lot was brought General Banks would walk for an hour or two amongst it and picked out the best he liked and have it sent away, one time I was sent with a clerk with a pack of books behind our backs in his own carriage to bring them to his house. After he had his share, then other Generals, Colonels, Quartermasters and Clerks, seeing everyone stealing I will not exclude myself that I took one or two old Dictionaries too but left them unfortunately in the Clerks Office when I left and instead to see these books & statues to adore public Schools Rooms and be instructing to the minds of the people, we see them wandering back to aristocratic houses and so be[d] hid away from the people. The Chief Clerk who is not entitled to buggy and horse claimed the first confiscated chariot of that kind and got the clerk of the Forage Master to issue him forage rations on Government accounts, for which the same was invited to several grand dinner and so toasted up, that he forgot all about the fraud he committed about his lord and master. Now you may likely ask how a Clerk could afford to give lordly dinners and champaigne suppers. Mr. Bogert a rich Merchants son from New York was at the same time cashier, had 150 dollars a month and could have impossible given such grand table as I witnessed, had it not been for the frauding people out of their money, there is Mr. Keller of Philadelphia who is there now and can bear witness to one fact I am going to mention. A Poor Man had a claim on the Government of about 100 or 125 Dollars. Bogert could have paid him the money easy, but dissimulating he had not the keys to the safe, he could not pay him, that [al] poor old man coming from a distance was anxious to receive his money and Mr. Bogert Yankee like observing his anxiety [a] let[ting] him struggle[ing] for some time offered to buy his account or Voucher from him and offered him 75 Dollars for his bill, pretending that he only would have trouble to get the money back again, oh! that grand hypocrite and on Sunday afterwards I saw him sitting most devoutly in the Episcopalian Church of that City, when in fact it wouldn't have been the least trouble to pay that poor man his full amount. I wish you could speak Mr. Keller of Philadelphia he knows more about his cheating than I do, but enough be it said that the corruption of the Departments is enormous and fearful. When I heard you the first time speak, which was then at the Coopers Institute, how my heart beated and yearned that God may give us in You a second Johanna d'Arc, but not to go and kill but to look after the destruction of our administration, oh! let your voice be heard in all the cities and towns of this so glorious Republic, disregard Aristocracy, Royalty and Wealth, oh! My noble lady continue to do good and unfold and develop the Golden Freedom of our common Country, what would be the gain of all the wealth of India to you and your country would hate you and rather have the name of your family in obscurity andoblivion. But no I fear no such thing from a woman whose heart is struggling so far to extricate her poor down trodden country from the thraldom of political demagogues, public thieves, robbers and oppressors. Would I not feel myself so utterly unworthy, ignorant and poor, the tone of your voice, the magnetic influence of your presence, I [as] feel quite intuitive would encourage me to a still higher aspiration but nevertheless as I had the inestimable pleasure to speak with you I shall be satisfied to worship you in my heart and pray God, that almighty Universalum of Truth, Justice and Righteousness to preserve and make us all by the rehearsal of your heroic deliberations better men and women, fervently praying that the time may fast approach, that we all shall be our own judges, priests and agents and learn to take care of ourselves and support nothing but good schools and turn our backs to ambition, Avarice and vice. Excuse these lines, they are written so abruptly, the regard for my adopted country, which I love more, than my Native Land, makes me look upon it [upon] with sadness. Education neglected, Greenback and Gold grasped like the swine goes to its trough. The poor are slaughtered up for the sake of the ambitious and the country is robbed by the avaricious and the idolent. Inhumanity prevails on all sides. The reformer, the philanthropist, and the just is despised and persecuted when I told Col. Holabird Chief Quartermaster of New Orleans of the evil conduct of his Chief-Clerk Chief-Clerk, he called it nonsense and got mad with me for reporting the truth to him, so I had to be silent and in the grief of my heart I took my discharge and came here to improve my mind as I never had much education I intend to profit here during this summer by a close application to books and an economical living and playing that we may hear you soon again. I should leap for joy [and] to hear it announced and would you have any further information about Banks administration I can refer to reliable and respectable men of New Orleans. I am not astonished at all, that the people and country most suffer by such an usury, frauding administration like that of New Orleans, where every one only seeks to advance his own interests. Jews, Merchants, ministers and broken down lawyers of New York are the sole managers of the public affairs in that place. Oh! Miss Dickinson could your intuitive spirit look into this sad situation of things you would turn away with disgust and curse the whole management with your most emphatic anathemas. Honest men are discharged and thieves and rogues and speculators put in their place. I [had] heard a certain Mills of New York say, and a Clerk in the Quartermaster's Department utter: "A Man is a big fool if he can not make 200 Dollars in the Quartermaster's Department beside his salary."But enough of these, by these few statements you may easily imagine the corruption of that department from the highest to the lowest position and what I said I pledge with my honor and word for it, besides I can appeal to witnesses, and sufferers of its consequent cruelty and wrongs. We had to give way to the miserable ambition and power of those few, who had it in their hands to rule, but praying God and trusting in good men and women to their real heroism and nobler grandeur of ambition we hope these old idols may soon totter and their lies grow pale and obscure. May free men and free women arise to displace depravity and affectation, let free thoughts be boldly outspoken and Independence and Freedom will rule forever. Miss Dickenson should you ever come here sooner or later I take leave to pray you, imploring pardon for my liberty, to send me a card, that I may be an attentive listener and learner of your eloquent and Godgiven Discourses. I live almost retired and hear very little whats going on abroad and by being so kindly informed I may not miss to be present at the place for which and ever please to accept this assurance of my highest veneration and respect Yours very devoted servant Martin Wolfgang Wagner In Care of the Herald of Progress 274 Canal Street New York CityPaints and Varnishes Painters and Builders Supply Store. Window Sash, OF ALL KINDS. DAVID WARNER, Blinds, Doors, Paper Hangings 7 & 8 Market Street, Glass, &c. &c. Springfield, Mass., April 1 1863 Miss Dickernson We host lectures every Sunday at a Stall in this Citty We have no speakers engaged for April We pay Ten dollars and expences per Sunday for 2 Lectures, . If you give any lectures, under such circumstances, we would like to have you lecture for us any sunday in April upon any Subjectt for the good of humanitty that you chosce, We are called Spiritialists but we do not confine ourselves to any ism but our platform is free on any Subject that you chose Please answer Yourse D WarnerLarchwood, Southport. Connt, Jany, 9, 1867 My dear Miss Dickinson, I noticed with pain, the accounts of [your] the severe attack of sickness, which overlook you in your late Western tour. (I am more pleased to learn from the papers, that you have returned to Phila. very much restoring in [to] health. I beg to congratulate you upon your recovery ( It is claimed by some, that, Woman, travels out of her sphere, when. she speaks in public, or becomes a lecturer I do not entertain this sweeping view ( I will confess however, that I have but little esteem, for those 'Woman Rights Woman", or as they were termed a few years ago, with much point, 'Come outers'. Yet I believe God, has endowed you with great abilities,& with the grace of oratory, for his own wise purpose, to bring about his own end I think you are simply an instrument in his hands to do a great deal of good, I cannot doubt, but that you will be abundantly blessed in all you labor of love, It had not been my fortune, to see you, or to hear you speak, We hear that you intend, trusting yourself in Yankee land, when that, shall happen, I promise myself the pleasure of hearing so 'gifted a lady' Very faithfully yours Maurice Wakeman Miss Anna E. Dickinson OFFICE to SECRETARY of the U.SENATE WASHINGTON July 12 1872 Miss Anna Dickinson 1710 Locust St Phila. Penna In accordance with the requests of Senator Pomeroy. I herewith enclose you a brief synopsis of the action of Congress is regard to the Eight Hour Movement, and as far as I have been able to obtain them all the documents relating to the movement. Very Respectfully Geof Wagner. Lowell - Feb 22d 1879. Dear Miss Dickinson.- My best thanks to you. for "Pulpit & Stage," I do hope I may hear it from your own lips some day; your wordsare grand & good, may they bear the harvest we all wish for, & help those struggling on the stage, as well as those off- My tour is very successful, I go to Albany next week, & then make a return visit to the Eastern cities I have lately visited, terminating I hope in Boston-My permanent address is Care Abner Bartlett - 109 East 59th St. NEW YORK. excuse the omission, this constant rush is not conducive to clear headedness - Sincerely yours Genevieve Ward 195 Madison Av April 16 ' 79 Dear Miss Dickinson Here I am until Saturday, when I sail about 3 PM - From 4 to 6 in the afternoon is the best time to find me - You are good to think of me - Your sincerely Genevieve WardGenevieve WardLafayette Ind Oct. 24. 1888 My Dear Miss Dickinson: Your favor of 6" ultim, from Coldwater, Michigan, was very welcome. I should have acknowledged it long since had I known just where to address you. It is true it did not call for an answer but as I wanted an excuse to write you, I should have ventured on a reply. Pardon this frank admission, but it is my nature. Your speech here, did, I think great good. It arroused the Republicans to fever heat and they have been more active ever since. I see [that] you have done a similar work wherever you have gone. The prospect in this state is improving daily & we are becoming quite hopeful: and yet I have grave fears as to the result. I hope that you have entirely recovered fromyour cold. Now, Dear Friend, I should like to know you better. Being quite well acquainted with your history and greatly admiring you for the ground work which you have accomplished, I should account it a special honor to number you among my personal friends. In what will you engage after the election? Will you enter the lecture field? You are still young and in the full possession of all the qualities & powers for which you have long been so preeminent - A great work still lies before you. Should you so far take me into your confidence as to talk freely on these and kindred subjects, and favor me with an occasional letter I should be pleased. Not knowing where you are of present, I am obliged to send this to your address in Pa which you were so kind as to give in your letter. Hoping to hear from you and wishing you happiness & prosperity I remain very respectfully & sincerely your friend W. De Witt Wallace.INSURANCE AGENCY. Louis & Geo. E. Wagner, No. 204 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia, Oct. 9th 1872 My dear Miss Dickinson I, as one of the Park Commissioners, was not aware of your connection with the Lincoln Monument when the report was written by our our President Morton K Michael else proper acknowledgement would have been made and it was far from my mind to touch "a sore spot" in your memory. As you are now at home I shall take the liberty to call soon to express in person my regrets for even ignorantly causing you pain. Yours truly Louis Wagner Kansas City. Mo. Oct 20th '81. Miss Anna Dickinson. Dear Madam, I would like to get an engagement with, if your company is not already full, to play. Osric, Malcolm, (the Servant, or Gaspar in Lady of Lyons,) and other characters of like nature. I am sixteen years old; five feet, three inches tall; a blond, rather slightly built. I have been preparing myself for the stage for two years; and am considered a very fine reader, and actor, as an ametuer. My address is Geo. C. Warren 208 Campbell St. Kansas City Mo. I send two or three of the many notices I have received. I am a hard student. I studied Elocution under Mrs Scott Saxton, of Louisville. Mrs Chas Benton, the lady who trained Haverly's Juveniles, said I was better than Bishop, the great Widow Bedott, in female impersonations. She said when made up a company, I should have a position. Salary is not much of an object, though I am poor, and an orphan, that is my fathers is dead and I must make my own living. I would travel with you for my expenses and a little extra money; I wish to get experience. Hoping you will give me a favorable answer, I am Yours Truly Geo. C. Warren Enclosed is a stamp to return answer and notices. New. York Sept 9/82 Dear. Miss Dickinson I am very sorry that I could not write you any sooner. but the fact is there was really nothing of any Importance to write about until now. I went to see Emma last night about 8: o'clock and. she told me. that Percy. Hunting had been there two hours previous and that he. told her. he was going to leave. to day or on Monday sure for Honesdale to seeyou. he. told Emma that he. did not think Mr Kelly would do anything. And as he had some. money. he. thought that he would go and see you on his own behalf. So I told Emma I would write you and be. prepared. for him I think though that he will not go before Monday. After leaving Emma I went up to Union Square. and. I met Mr McCormick and he. Introduced me to Mr W. W. Kelly. under the pretext that I wanted an Engagement with "Charlotte Thopson" who is now Starring in "Jane. Eyre" under Mr Kelly's Management. I had quite a Conversation with him. I said (I am laboring with a frightful Bad Pen) to him. I understand that you are in communication with Miss Dickinson in regard to going on the Road. this Season and. he. said.. Yes he was and. that he received. a. letter from you and awnsered. it by. making an Appointment here in the city He said that he would. rather see. you in person here because he cannot leave New York. as he. is Ahead. of his Company. doing Buisiness [doing] in the surrounding Towns. where they play. he said that he had the highest Regards &c for you. and he also Spoke of. the Mismanagement of. last season and. understands it thoroughly. and. as for. Percy. Nunting he says that he. has no use for himin any. capacity Except as an Actor. and he dont think much of him as an actor even He was at the first performance given in Rochester and thought he was very bad. He also told me. that he thought of. tring to make arrangements with you three weeks ago before he Ever met Hunting - he also spoke of a Gentleman who will be connected with him if he can make any arrangements with you and as he cannot give all of his time to you- this party will represent him. So after a few. more words I bade him good night. and meandered. home. For the past few day's I have been making. Inquires concerning Mr Kelly as a Manager. and the result is that he is - very good- a. - Splendid worker &c &c - does not drink at all. and Buisiness from the word go And I understand from parties that he has built Miss Thompson up in "Jane Eyre" and. is now doing a Splendid Buisiness My own opinion of him is that he is a pretty Smart Manager he is a very Jolly sort of a man and quite witty - talks very quick and looks very much like Mr Mendum but taller than Mr M- He was very amusing. among five or 6 of a party (myself. included) and very generous to 2 or 3 Tramps who wanted money to get a drink with - but when asked by one of the party to "Have Suthin" he. Exclaimed no I am not drinking any more - He tells me thathe is going away on next Tueasday and will not be back for quite a while. I think that the man means business as far as I can find out from him - Business at all the theaters is splendid with the exception of Maggee Mitchell who has made a failure in her new play called "Elsa" at the "Union Square Theatre" Miss Newcombe is playing "Eliza Wethersby's part of "Ned." a boy in the Black Flag and does it very nicely. "Laura Dans" play. Called [of] "Daughter of the Nile" at the "Standard" has been a failure - I can no more so will close with the hope to see you in the city soon Yours very respectfully Joseph WatersSan - Francisco - Cal March 10/83 Dear . Emma. I am at last out of an engagement and left here. Mr. Lingard and myself had some words at Los_Angeles_Cal (about 380 miles from here) on last Saturday and he discharged me for no cause unless it was an account of an insult which he gave me and I resented it - he called me a "Liar" and I returned the compliment by calling him a D_____ Liar and so I was discharged. I don't know howit will [it] turn out - for I have seen a Lawyer - About it I am in the right and all of the company say so - Mr Lingard and Company open next Monday night at "Baldwins Theatre" in the "Parvenue" I can not tell you anything further until next week Let me know if Miss Dickinson is going to do anything this Season - and ask her if you see her if I can do anything here for her interest and. Oblig Yours Every Truly Joe Address me Joseph Waters Bradley House 1126 Market St San - Francisco - Cal - P.S in haste to catch the Mail before it closes - [*P.S write and let me know Everything for you must know that it takes a week for a letter to reach me Joe*] Overton will be here with the "Harrisons" next week they open at the Bush st Theatre Theatres all doing well - I think Miss Dickinson would do well here will write you again as soon and I hear from you I. Can Communicate with Miss - D- if she wishes it - Remember me kindly to her - also to Enquiring Friends Yours Joe Miss Dickinson. Dear Madam. My name as a Philadelphian must be somewhat familiar to you. I read your foot light speech in the Tribune, I have not seen your acting, I have heard you lecture with a power that shook my whole being, - I write to say that your experience and observation I know that not one actress succeeds who was not born of a stage mother or father or who is unwilling to compromise herself to [?}please the miserable set of agents, managers or associates she is forced to work with. And the work! God pity my dog and preserve it from such torture. Dramatic business is in the hands of a ring, I have talked with Charlotte Cushman, and if you wish ocular proof come to my house, (Mrs Rosalie Clapp is my sister's sister-in-law) and I will show you in Madame Jamashick's own hand- writing the history of her persecution in London last spring. Oh, Miss Dickinson3 be bolder than you have ever been, take Olive Logan's plan, sell out your wardrobe, denounce stage business, and the ring of critics and agents, and declare that you will retrace your steps to the platform where no interference can prevent your proclaiming with womanly independence the principles that God inspired you to teach. I do not apologise for this as a liberty, it is an inspiration. Yours faithfully E. D. Wallace 621 St. Mark's Avenue Brooklyn near Nostrand Avenue.Newark, Thursday. Miss Dickinson: Dear Madam: I have written an article for the Newark Advertiser, in which I express my opinion of the contemptible manner in which [scr] divers scribblers who by courtesy are termed critics have seen fit to attempt to crush a woman. Lest that article, however, should not reach you as soon as I could wish, I send this. I have spent some twenty years in the study of dramatic art, & especially elocution, & desire earnestly to send you a word of encouragement. That you have decided dramatic talent, & even genius, [that] there is no doubt whatever. And the reason why you have been so immercifully criticized is simply because you have dared to be original.This with prejudiced, cold-hearted, & blase' critics is [of] an unpardonable sin. If you were a machine-made actress, fresh from the hands of one of those frauds who pretend to manufacture actors by the dozen, you would have encountered no opposition whatever, But I [h] perceive you have the genuine dramatic fire, & beg of you not to be discouraged. Profit by whatever suggestions you may think positively good in the midst of the critical venom, & continue to "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling." At least two-thirds of your assailants know no more about dramatic art than horses. The main element in [dramatic art] acting & in platform oratory is precisely the same thing - personal magnetism. Dr. Johnson says of Garrick "that there was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not havedeclaimed, "To be or no be" better than him, & yet he was the only actor I ever knew who was a master of both tragedy & comedy." My wife joins me in kindest regards & warmest sympathy. Very truly yours Augustus Watters, Elocutionist. Dear Mrs. Watkins, When I said "a Happy - New Year" to you & yours, I did not dream that for him it was to be spent in a sunnier clime. - But to you who stay - ! - I hesitate to write you this line fearing you may deem it an intrusion & yet I do to say how [want to say that] wish to express to you how sincerely & deeply I sympathize with you in your grief.I hear that Slayton is to have Miss Clara Shitsman on his list for engagements with the summer Chataqua & [else] otherwise - in the West this season I congratulate him confidently & [hope he] expect he will [se] make for her many appointments. No one need fear a disappointment. She will be there. She always keeps her contracts. And being there her new audiences will speedily admire her as do her old Eastern [friends] hearers--for she [has] possesses the essentials of [an artistic] success a dignified & handsome presence,--the simplicity, breadth & thoroughness of [style] method & of the [perfect] [true?] artist, & a [most noble ] sovereign & contralto voice.-"May your own bless you; Your firs shake like a filed of native corn, and hang their heads with sorrow." -That is a sound wish for a lawyer - is it not? - & with is let me wish you good health, happiness - and "Merrie Xmas!" -93. Anna E DickinsonGermantown February 10th 1885. Miss Anna Dickinson. Phila Pa. According to Mr. Wakelin's instructions I write to ask you to book Germantown for February 26th at $125.00 net. I can assure you that we are well pleased that you have arranged matters so that you can fill this engagement for us. I suppose the subject of the lecture will be 'Joan of Arc'. Yours respectfully W. E. Wayte Sec'y Y.M.C.A. Germantown Pa.The Independent Editor's Room New York Aug. 26. 1872 Miss Anna E. Dickinson Dear Madam, X X X X X X = We should like occasional articles from you. X X X X X It will be a pleasure to us to have you among our contributors. Very truly Wm Hays Ward Superintending EditorThe Independent, Editor's Room, New York, Aug 26 1872 Miss Anna E. Dickinson Dear Madam, II have written for the Independent the statement which you suggest & It will appear in this week's paper - We should still like occasional articles from you on any live subject . A "series" we dread; but if there were several successive articles on same subject sufficiently disconnected in form to be read separately that would avoid the difficulty. We would like them not over a column and a half long - Less quite as agreeable - [if] It will be a pleasure to usto have you among our contributors - - Very truly Wm Hayes Ward Superintending Editor.Swinton Park Bedale, Yorkshire England May 8th 1863. Dear Madam. I have this day read a report of the Brilliant and Courageous address delivered by you at the Cooper Institute New York on the subject of the present Rebellion in your country and I cannot forgo the pleasure ofwriting myself to congratulate you on the noble sentiments of devotion & patriotism expressed therein - Think not Dear Madam that the mere fact of my being an Englishman necessitates my sympathizing with those cut throat vagabonds the Southern Rebels - No indeed, believe me that you gave utterance to my sentiments the other night - as completely as I could have done myself and let me assure you that the feelings of the whole North of England are emphatically with the "North & Loyalty" and not as the "Times" would present us - with "Secession and Slavery" - But my dear Madam I am wandering far away from my first object in thus addressing you - It is this - I think I can perceive, in the evading of that address - the sentiments of a fearless, true earnest heart - outspoken & dauntless - clever yet sensible andwithout any of that mankind humbug & nonsense that my countrywomen are infatuously so famed for - Trusting such then to be the case I write to offer you the Hand & Heart of an Englishman. Do not imagine that I think lightly of Matrimony - such is not the case I assure you, but the reading of your speech today has fired my inmost soul & indeed one thus to throw myself at your feet - With regard to myself, my age is 31 - my height 5 ft 11 fair complexion - with a face that would pass in a crowd my present income is about £2000 to £3000 a year which will be many times doubled on the death of a relative - my connections are good and very numerous and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see you at some future day Mistress of Swinton Park - Should you fall into my view of this case - (whichI most earnestly trust you will do) - will you favor me as soon as possible with a reply to this letter - if possible enclosing a carte de visite & stating age - height - whether fair or dark - together with taste & general pursuits - of course all communications will be held strictly private and I beg that for the present mine may be considered in the same light. - If on the other hand you should discard these overtures - may I beg you to return this letter with your name written accross it - to show that it has really reached you Should you wish to hear again from me - will you kindly give me your directions where to forward my letters to - as now my only chance is to send them under cover to Mr. Beecher - Thinking he will be sure to knowyour address - And now anxiously waiting your reply. Believe me Yours very faithfully Martindale Ward.[*I thought you & Jean would grin at this.*] 209 West 21st St. N.Y. May 8th 1879 To Miss Anna Dickinson My dear Madam I take the liberty of addressing this brief note to you, care of "Dramatic News", not knowing your address, to ascertain if you intend, sooner or later, to produce your play of "Aurelian"? & if so, whether my services as stage manager, or actor, or both could be utilized by you. Awaiting a reply, at your earliest convenience I am Most Respectfully Truly Yours D. W. WalleyBoston 17th Apr. 1891 Dear Sin I cannot refrain from writing & urging you to be firm in Miss D.'s case no matter what symptoms may be awakened by excitement. I am a retired Physician & have given years to this class of cases. I don't want or need compensation. I am entirely at leisure except for 2 to 5 each afternoon. At all other times you or Miss Dickinson's friends are welcome to my counsel or aid. I have taken persons out of different asylums & can give you the best of reference. Miss D. may go on all right, but may have sudden relapse when she would be liable to be sent to an asylum the worst thing to be done. O.H. Wellington M.D. Hotel Wyman , Belvidere St.TOUR OF Anna Dickinson REPERTOIRE. "HAMLET," "Richard iii.," "RUY BLAS," "LADY OF LYONS," In the Leading Male Characters, AND AS "ANNE BOLEYN," In her own play of that name. SEASON 1883-84. UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF J. WENTWORTH. Boston, Aug 1 1883 Dear Miss Dickinson Yours of the 26th & 7th duly received. I got the train in time and I did not see any thing about the lunch that called for an apology. You say you will be in NY the end of this week. I wish you would let me know the exact date. I think as you do, that you should have an "old stager" to support me as her experience would be invaluable. I positively concluded to take in the large cities of the South and have signed contracts commencing in Louisville Dec 6. The ManagersManagers speak very encouragingly of our prospects there. Hunting says [the] you are going to Atlantic City so perhaps you will not receive this promptly. Be sure and direct to 89 Pembroke St when you write, the last was directed to Pemberton St Sincerely Yours J WentworthOffice Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 6 vols., 8vo. 63 Bleecker Street, New York, 15 Jan 1887 Editors: Gen. Jas. Grand Wilson. Prof. John Fiske. Publishers, D. Appleton & Co Miss Anna Dickinson Dear Madam: The editors of our Cyclopaedia will be glad to receive your photograph likeness and signature, to be used to illustrate a sketch of your life in the above work. Your early reply will oblige yours Very respy: I. W. WeidemeyerSt. Mary's Hospital, Detroit, Mich. August 22d 1868. Dear Friend, I received your letter this morning and am anxious to lose no time in replying to it. I have been for upwards of thirty years intimately connected with the efforts for the abolition of slavery in the United States, have been a constant reader of American newspapers during the whole of that time; and have, I think, been in more intimate relation, both personally & by correspondence, with prominent American Abolitionists, than any other person in the three Kingdoms, with the single exception of George Thompson. I mention these things to show you that I have been for a long time in a school perhaps as well suited as any for forming independent opinion. I do not think I am a blind follower of any2 man or any body of men. Although I have a very hearty respect & affection for Mr Garrison, yet I am no believer in human perfectibility, nor do I think him free from his share of prejudices or failings. Still, I regard him as one of the very best men I have ever known. I trust, then, you will believe me when I say that he is entirely innocent of having influenced me in respect to anything I may have said of you. And as to anything I have really said, I have nothing to repent of, or retract. The only time I ever heard you speak in public was at Longwood. I then listened to you with breathless attention, & when you sat down, I turned to a person near me and observed that you were "the ablest woman I had ever heard speak in public." At the same time I was greatly impressed with the partisan character of your remarks, and I think you must remember that I 3 told you subsequently in your own house that I looked upon you as a partisan, and you did not appear to me to take the observation in ill part. The observations I made respecting you, in the confidence of private intercourse, and which have been to some extent distorted on their way to your ears, were founded upon what appeared to me the decidedly partizan character of your remarks at Longwood. I thought you were unjust [?] in your estimate of the Republican Party, which I regard - whatever may be their sins of omission or commission as the only party [?] truly & sincerely [love?] aiming at for the interests of the country. "The Nation" in a late number remarks that the Republican party is to a large extent [?] composed of men who are influenced by moral ideas, and who therefore [are] can be induced to take hold of reforms; whilst the Democratic party is utterly dead to all4 moral considerations. Under these circumstances I greatly regret that such talents as yours or those of Wendell Phillips should be employed in discouraging the efforts of the only respectable political party in the country. For such appeared to me to be the tendency of the remarks I heard from you at Longwood. Now I gathered from your conversation in your own house, that you wished to study the subject of education in England, with a view to lecturing upon it in that country. The English continually boast of being a very practical people, strongly addicted to facts, and rigid in exacting strict accuracy, in any statements you might make in public respecting them or their institutions. They would be additionally exacting because you are an American, and more so still because you are a woman. I cannot possibly see what more friendly hint I could give you, (5) if we were face to face, or what harm it would do you in your absence; and I am positively certain that any expressions had no unfriendly intention. I have a very great admiration for your talents, and have expressed it wherever I have been, as well as my acknowledgment of your friendly attentions to me while I was in Philadelphia. In reviewing all I remember to have said respecting you since we parted, I cannot recollect anything that I would have scrupled to say to your face. As I had so much to say in reply to your letter, and am unable in my prostrate condition to write excepting with a pencil, I have employed the kind hand of amanuensis. With sincere regard to your Mother & Sister, I am yours truly, Richard D. Webb [*over*]6 P.S. - I just wish to add, as a matter of explanation, that whilst a majority of my most intimate friends in the United States hold with Mr. Garrison, I very soon discovered that a majority of the Abolitionists with whose names I was familiar are adherents of Wendell Phillips, in his views of the necessity of upholding the "Standard" and continuing the existence of the American Anti-Slavery Society. My own opinion of the merits of these questions is by no means decided, and I am not aware that my respect & affection for the members of either party are different from what they have ever been. This is the true state of the case as far as I am concerned. R.D.W.Camp Washington, Cin. O. May 24th 1873 As you are not a "dear ridiculous girl," I shall have to call you My Dear Miss Dickinson. You know it sounds as respectful, and you no doubt wish and intend that every one shall respect you. I was so pleased & surprised to get a letter from you so soon. You see Col. Holloway told me two years ago that you were so negligent or independent you paid no attention to letters. You see further he was, and is, and is to be a friend of the beautiful and talented Mrs. Sykes. I wonder now if you did neglect her letters, and answer mine. But then you said you would answer one, and any how I am not talented though perhaps you would n't know it, I am not beautiful either. That you talked to Waterson, while your young man tried to look at the Fox was very like the cause of his dissatisfaction. He may have come prepared to turn on the main, and almost deluge you in the flow of his eloquent votary squirt (I have read some of his letters), and instead had to ooze away under the eye of your young man. Do you blame him for feeling the disappointments. Perhaps after all he objected to the character of your intellectual good more than the manner of your physical feeding. Fountains are affected by slight things sometimes. Why not Fountain Fox--Now suppose the creature's name is Fontaine, and Fountain just a nicknamenickname. 'Tis sad to think how flat my wit would sound. I am delighted with the plan for the benefit night, cabbage and all. By the way you have a friend in the "Golden Age." It comments on the gradual development of dramatic power, and the hope entertained by your friends that you will leave the narrow lecture platform for the broader field and better opportunity of doing good, afforded by the stage--or words to that effect. As to the capacity for work that is in me, I'll tell you what I've been doing for a month past. I asked Sweeny of the Put-in Bay House for the position [of] in the Linen Room. My reference was a newspaper woman whom he especially admired. He seemed to have no doubt of my being competent, but hemmed and hawed for three weeks, and at last the objection came out i,e I appear to Lady like for that position. Now being a thoroughbred, not because of breeding, but by my own choice and work in spite of breeding has always been a matter of pride to me. Imagine my feelings. Too much of a Lady to be allowed to work for $20.00 pr. month, but not too much of a Lady to be allowed to starve or choke on bitter unwelcome bread. This I told him. So he promised me the place, and unless he is again overcome by a sense of my gentility, and writes me to the contrary, I shall be installed as Linen Girl at Put-in Bay House the 1st of June. Wouldn't you like to come to see me there and roost with me on a pile of damp sheets This is the enormity of which I have been, or will be guilty. What do you think of it? What do you think of the quality of this handkerchief? Had I bought a finer one my work would have looked coarse, and I couldn't buy a finer one any how. You needn't use it on the stage, unless you play something where you go to jail--prison I mean. There now-- I am summoned to lunch. It is not the kind of lunch which "is base ingratitude to breakfast, and premeditated insult to dinner." It is the kind of lunch that comes midway between breakfast and supper twelve hours apart, when the man gets his dinner at a Restaurant. Good bye, Yours as ever Jenny West Camp Washington Cin. O.Sturtevant House. Broadway, 28th & 29th Sts. J.C. Mathews, Prop. Fort Griswold House. New London, Ct. 8 35 P.M. Tuesday My Dear Miss Dickinson Your charming note I recd on Friday--Your telegram I found at the Club this noon.--In accordance with your request I called on Mr Pomeroy on Monday and also today. He was obliged to leave town with his wife this P.M. and hopes to return tomorrow when he will try to see you here.--I came this evening. The clerk tells me you expect to reach this city at 2 P.M. tomorrow (Wednesday.) I am arranging to have my family leave for Montana Thursday A.M., and may be in the mystery of securing tickets arranging for parlor and sleepingcars, sending transportation for baggage, and other cheerful items incident to a long journey by rail. This may prevent my having the pleasure of greeting you until very late in the evening. Be assured that I will make a desperate effort to reach "the Sturtevant" as much before 10.00 P.M. as possible.-- I write this now in anticipation of any line I may find at the Press Club from you in the morning. Both Mr Pomeroy and myself were delighted to hear from you, and I can well understand your delay in communicating with me. [before.] I have nothing to forgive--you are a true, noble, and much abused woman, and I am not the wretch to add to your burthen. Remember me kindly to Mrs Ackley, Don't try to do to much now and get ill; I hope ere long to see you strong and hearty I am afraid you will think me a poor letter writer, but hope you will believe me with profound respect Ever Faithfully Yours Edward Payson Weston Miss Anna E. DickinsonSt. Mary Hospital, Detroit 7/8/68 Dear Anna S Dickinson, It was only this day a letter reached me from Dr W. B. Hodgson, a very eminent promoter of education in London of whom I spoke to you. I did not write to him but to Jacob Bright, on whom I relied more for an answer. He applied to D. H. It is clear that the subject is prodigious not to be mastered but at a great expenditure of time, patience & money. Extreme accuracy wd be required of any lecturer & especially any American woman as to facts connected with England. I had to hurry from Philad. to see a sick relative in Ohio who died a week after my arrival. I then took a trip up the Great Lakes often thinking of you & Minnesota. Fell into the man hole of a steamer on the dark lower deck. Cut my head & right leg but not seriously. Sprained my back badly--and told I shall recover with time. Was greatly frightened lest I had been crippled for life -- and perceptibly mending. D. H. always writes horribly on shabby bits of paper.Have met great kindness from several & am well cared for here by the Sisters of Charity.My kind regards to your sister & to your mother who calls me Richard for which I thank her. Also to yourself who are a wonderfully able woman ( and I have known several - but none such. I wish you were not such a partisan. I shall watch you with anxiety but with cordial interest & will be glad to be of any use to you Your ever truly Rich.d D Webb 7 & newPhilad. 1/7/1868 Dear Anna [M]S. Dickenson Owing to the serious illness of the cousin with whom my daughter is staying, I must go to Ohio today. I am sorry to miss the chance of going to R. Purvs in thy company & hope we shall meet again Thine in haste R.O. Webb My addres will be T.E. Frihot, Kent, OhioPo'keepsie Dec. 22. 1868 Miss Anna E. Dickinson Dear Madam Many thanks for your noble lecture on "A Struggle for Life" delivered here but with especial reference to the Profession of Medicine as a pursuit for women would I speak, and speaking as a physician I would say that I do not believe that there is any greater want than that of well trained thorough educated women who have well earned the title M.D.I mean with especial reference, to the health and consequent happiness of American women. Pluck off the beard of the silly Monster Prejudice that a woman may have the chance to do whatever she can do well. With great respect Yours truly Dewitt Webb M. D.To Miss Anna Dickinson An Acrostic. A noble type of noblest womanhood art thou; No wild ambition leaves its marks upon thy brow. None see thee but to love few hear thee but to praise, And all admire thy winning unassuming grace. Dare to do right, to break false Error's galling chain; If Fortune seems to frown, she soon will smile again: Conquering by slow degrees, persistency is power. Knowing that truth must win and Error's reign be o'er It matters little when, the victory is sure. Nature bestowed on thee a gift almost divine, Succeeding but where others fail, such words are thine, On every heart they burn, and leave a lasting trace, Not even eternity can from our minds efface. Lucy R Weeks Newark N.J. Jan 31, 1867.Louisville, Ky Dec. 28th 1876 Miss Dickinson I am just this moment home from the East & find, among many others, your note from Baltimore. Lest I do not find, soon, another so favorable opportunity I answer now. I scarcely expected a reply to my former little note, & would not presume to obtrude myself upon your time & attention, did I not think that I discover in the words - "I have been so cut & scarified since I have made my new venture &c" - an undercurrent that, translated into words or express language, means:"In the long ago past I knew what it was to receive the adverse criticisms of mine enemies. In the later part I had risen to such a hight in the estimation of my country-men & women that I was the petted child, rather than the despised fanatic. But now I have dared to embark in a new profession & my friends say not pleasant words of me - hence I am not unwilling to receive commendation even from you - a stranger, whom I have never met & may never meet." I am not only averse to speaking well fo you, but am pleased that I can & I may. Many years ago - How long is it? Not less than 16 years & you then a youthful girl of say 17 or 18 years. Strangely bright you flashed over, about & upon the platform - I learned to look very kindly upon you. I sympathized with, appreciated, I mean, the motives actuating you in your life-work. I was pleased to watch you as your star rode higher & yet higher in the intellectual firmament , & when you dared to stand before Charleston & Savannah audiences in April / 75 I was glad of the opportunity of being one of your most attentive auditors. Your "later venture" has met with what may be termed captious criticism. It is idle to attempt to conceal the fact that the southern people do not take kindly to one having a record like yours. Merit goes for naught when brought in contact with, or opposition to, prejudice.This you will always have to encounter in the South, & Louisville is as intensely southern as Charleston, or Montgomery. For this reason, if there had been not any fact to urge me on, no appreciable merit to warrant it, did I wish to say words of encouragement to you. Nor are the people of the South (Louisville) wholly to blame in this matter. Critics, dramatic critics, do not look charitably on a person who steps from one intellectual arena & seeks to earn a name in another. Anna Dickinson of 16 years ago would have been received at the North, as an actress, in very much the same spirit that the people of the south have welcomed Miss 2 Anderson. But being lashed, "cut & scarified" as you have been in the house of your friends, is it altogether strange that Louisville did not treat you more kindly? "There is therefore an universal & varied prejudice which you have to overcome. That you will accomplish this I do not doubt for a moment. I may be permitted to say that just before leaving for the East, on the 14th inst., I was delighted to hear one of Louisville's brightest & most intensely southern ladies speak very highly of your play & of you. Further that it would have given her infinite satisfaction to have met you. Another, while criticising some parts of your acting, said: "TheCrown of Thorns is superb, classic. It will immortalize her name. When her fame as an actress will have been forgotten the play itself will have a place alongside those of Shakespeare." Many kindred expressions have I heard since you were in Louisville. I trust I have not wearied you. This letter has not been written to draw out a reply, or to introduce , or solicit a correspondence. I am will aware that your time is, & always will be, fully occupied — mine own, too, may be — & what I have so hurriedly written has been the offspring of a desire to gratify a longing which [seemed] seems to live in your short note to me. Nor would I have you cast this scrawl too lightly aside. It has been written in too sincere & earnest a mood. Let it be preserved for a little, as a memento given & received in the whirl of busy lives. It may serve to tone down life's asperities & when, someday, a year from now if you please, you are looking over your old letters (Do you ever do?) let this be the first one consigned to the flames — while you think of the "ashes of life". Not deserving & hence not, for a moment expecting a reply hereto & with an apology for the great length of my letter, I am Sincerely, Yours [Newden?] WelchI gave your communication to Maria. 16 10 Cherry St. Philada. June 20th 1887 My Dear Friend, I have just received the slip of newspaper - I am very sorry indeed to hear of Anna's illness - I am glad she is better. Oh my! how terrible it seems to have those we love so near death's door. I pray and hope that very soon she will be out of all danger. How I like the thoughtfulness of not ringing the church bells, and how low Anna must have been. Dr. Selfridge a Californian who boarded here,is at Nanticoke and was invited to visit a Doctor at Pittston. I wrote him that if he went, to call for me, on you and your Mother, to see her if at all possible so I might know exactly how she is. I told him to remember me to Anna if he saw her, I never gave a thought of her being ill. Giver her my love, and tell her to be very careful of herself, and say how very sorry I am that she has suffered so. How are you? When you can steal the time I would be glad to hear from you all. Did John go to Los Angeles or not? Did Martha return from California. I have wondered about you each and all - My family is small Maria, my Father and I. My Father has not been well for the last three months and he looks the worse of it. But he is set in his way, he will only take such medicine as he chooses and will not be careful about his diet. His teeth are worn off, he cannot properly masticate his food and the consequence is his food is not properly digested, and his bowels trouble him. I prepare a special diet, and I have done every thing that can be done, so my mind is free on that score - but for awhile,we thought he would soon leave us. He is better and is quite careful of himself, in a certain way. It is dyspeptic diarrhoea. I thank you for sending the slip of newspaper. If I could leave home, I would spend a day with you. I should like to do that, also to spend one at Drifton, and one at Hazleton, and then go on to Carbondale, to spend another. But I guess I am through for the the Summer. Oh if I were only rich - I would travel quite a ways. Much love, Your friend, Annie J. WeichmannTHE SLAYTON LYCEUM BUREAU Established 1874 Season * 1884='85 THE SLB SLAYTON & WHYTE PROPRIETORS AND MANAGERS, Central Music Hall, CHICAGO, ILL. MANAGERS OF ONLY FIRST-CLASS CONCERT AND OPERATIC ATTRACTIONS LECTURERS, MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC ARTISTS. ENGAGEMENTS NEGOTIATED CORRESPONDENCE THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, INCLUDING THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF EUROPE. ADDRESS SLAYTON & WHYTE CENTRAL MUSIC HALL, CHICAGO, ILL, U.S.A. GENERAL MANAGERS OF ALL BRANCHES OF THE CHICAGO MUSICAL COLLEGE. In reply to yours of... Chicago, March 23" 1885 Dear Miss Dickinson:- We trust you are well and write to know if you can be in Chicago in time to go up to Evansville, Wis April 30" providing you are coming here on legal business. This engagement has been made for a long time and they will hardly take "no" for an answer. We might made several engagements to connect with this one if you so wished it. We have at last succeeded in settling your South-west engagements by substituting and by paying damages. Please let me know at once yes or no, in regard to the Evansville engagement. The ladies send kind regards. Yours Sincerely - Slayton +Whyte. H. N. B. - All engagements of talent are so conditioned, that if through sickness, accident, unavoidable or legitimate causes, the party or parties engaged, fail to appear at the time, and place, specified, no charge shall be made for damages.THE SLAYTON LYCEUM BUREAU Established 1874 HENRY L. SLAYTON. J. ALLEN WHYTE. SLAYTON & WHYTE PROPRIETORS AND MANAGERS, Central Music Hall, CHICAGO, ILL. LECTURERS Hon. Schuyler Colfax. Frank A. Dean. Anna Dickinson. Hon. Daniel Dougherty. Prof. Almon B. French. Hon. John R. French. W.M.R. French. Theophilus B. Hilton. Col. Jacob Kemple. "Petroleum V. Nasby." Rev. J.P. Newman, D.D. Col. J,P, Sanford. Hon. Carl Schurz. Frank W. Smith. Prof. David Swing. Benjamin F. Taylor, LLD. Dr. H.W. Thomas. Rev. J.H. Vincent, D.D. Hon. Geo. R. Wendling. READERS R.L. Cumnock, A.M. Mina G. Slayton. Emma J. Wilson. Minna Wright. 1884-1885 Musical Organizations. THE ABBIE CARRINGTON GRAND OPERA. THE HANS BALATKA CLUB. THE BERNARD LISTEMANN CONCERT CO., Seven artists of reputation, including a first-class Soprano. THE SCHUBERT QUARTETTE. THE SLAYTON LADY QUARTETTE. THE SLAYTON CONCERT COMPANY. SOPRANOS. Mlle. Kate de Jonge. Mme. Christine Dossert. Miss Emma Von Eisner. Phoebe Schaffer Gray. Miss Dora Henninges. Miss Grace Hiltz. Miss Emma Howe. Mlle. Camille Mouri. Mlle. Marie Roe. CONTRALTOS. Rose Anderson. Miss Della Oakford. Mina G. Slayton. Tenors Sig. P. Brignoli. J.L. Johnston. C. Jay Smith. BASSOS. Julius Von Bereghy. Alfred D. Eddy. Geo. H. Iott. INSTRUMENTALISTS. Sig. A. Carrano, - Flutist. Mme. Teresa Carreno, - Pianiste. H.N. Hutchins, - Cornetist. Miss Zeline Mantey, - Violiniste. Mons. Ovid Musin, - Violinist. W.H. Sherwood, - - Pianist. Edwin Shonert, - - Pianist. Johannes Svendsen, - Violinist. Baron Leon DeVay, - Violinist. A.C. Yttrup, - - Violinist. In reply to yours of ADDRESS: Slayton & Whyte, MANAGERS .................... Chicago, Feb. 24, 1885.............188... Chicago, Feb. 24, 1885 Dear Miss Dickinson, We have been impatiently waiting for two or three days for an answer to our last letter. It is absolutely necessary, if you come West this Spring, that we have a chance of fixing the dates, and we would like to know whether you are coming or not, as we have you booked in six or eight places, and these local managers will demand damages from us, and we cannot stand it. The whole work is at a stand still, and we dare not go on with your work, until we hear from you. Please telegraph on receipt of this letter. We would commencing dating you Mar. 14th; your first date is at Edwardsville, Mar. 17th; we could not offer you earlier than this, without serious inconvenience and trouble. We wanted to commence March 7th and take in, enroute, Greensburg, Pa., as we wrote you in previous letter. Awaiting an early reply, we remain, Yours sincerely, (Dictated.). Slayton & Whyte.1 Reading Pa Jan 21st / 69 Dearest most lovely Miss Anna E. Dickinson I cannot restrain my feelings any longer consequently I must commit still another breach of etiqutte. My thoughts uncontrolably continually wander to thee. I wish to explain what I meant by saying " if I was P. T. Barnum & " I fearing that you may have (misconstrued my meaning). While at Syracuse N.Y. I was forcibly impressed that you could make vastly more money by lecturing on your own responsibility - (unless you have steady engagements-) & (even then )by having a good practical business manager who would take special interest in your success & welfare at a moderate salary (owing to your very great popularity & talents) & you would be enabled to do more good at the same time as you would thereby bring more "outsiders" of the faith. "They that are [sick] whole need not a physician but they that are sick." "On the other hand" people might be disposed to censure you more & probably might not have so pleasant a class of hearers. However this is what I meant please excuse me for the sugestions. I am aware they do not advertise properly; having had quite extensive observation in this line. It is quite inconsistent & unpilosophical in me to attempt to give a lady of your extensive experience advice. My affections are so firmly fixed upon thee, that I would feel guilty of doing a great - injustice to you & thereby - to humanity (as I regard - you as - the "greatest of - humanitarians") to neglect doing anything whereby I could by any possibility benefet you in any manner. If all the women in the world were arrayed before me, I would not hesitate in choosing thee.Here's this astonishing donkey again - two letters, postmarked this time, Reading, Pa. [*J.T. Whiteman Phila Pa.*] With all my heart, with all my will; The more I think of thee the more I love thee still. When[er] I have an uneasy mind, It gives relief to write to thee so ever kind. I feel as though you are too good, for this world of sin, I will most earnestly strive your hand & heart to win. If I would but this boon receive, It would at once my - troubled heart relieve; It is the most anxious wish of my life; to make you my most happy wife.Believing then that I - might, Greatly aid you in this "good fight." I can - not relinquish the claim, To - assist you in this - worthy aim. I am devoted to thee & to thee alone, This truth to my God is known. Wilt thou great God above, Aid me to be the most worthy recipient of this dear "Angel's" love I know you have me "charmed," I hope I have not you harmed. For thee I'd gladly live, If this is wrong, my God forgives. You may think that your diamonds have - dazzled my eyes, - And caused me to tell many lies, If this you think I cannot you blame, For many, too many would do far worse for the same. If anything would cause me to - tell lies, It would not be your diamonds but your piercing, mild, beautiful, benevolent eyes. I am not accustomed to compose ryme, My God wilt thou haste the time When I will be a husband kind, To - the lovely lady now in my mind. J. T. Whiteman Miss Anna E. DickinsonJ. T. Whiteman Phila PAThe Sunnyside Press. TARRYTOWN, N.Y. Jan 13 1881 My Dear Miss Dickinson It is absolutely certain that with your "bringing up" and your independent methods of thought [that] you must have some convictions and opinions about the actual stage that are quite as valuable as your hopes and desires about the idea stage were when I heard you at Chickering Hall. What I want is a candid expression of those opinions. Forney says you are "courageous." So you are. Write me a good gossipy article as long as you like, and give me your experience in endeavouring to make a marketable play and to fit Davenport. It need not be personal or vindictive - but O, it may be true and severe. I want to avail myself [on] of the courage and ability of the only person in America who has written a good play. I want to avail my self of them [it] for a Scheme in which you are indirectly interested - the establishment of a dramatic paper that can tell the truth without being coarse and be severe without being ruffianly and that can come to the defense of true ability when the necessity arrives Yours A. C. WheelerMiss Dickenson You did not send me the promised message - but I do not like to leave the house with-out a glimpse of you. Very likely you do not know who I am - tho' I have led a public cause - for a good many years - You may have seen my name attached to poems & stories plainbly. I leave the house at 10.45. May I call for a minute, - or will you call at Room 515? - Ella Wheeler.285 Warren street Boston Highlands Feb. 7th /79 My Dear Sweetheart: - I've been in chronic state of enthusiasm over you all the week, which the severest of influenza colds, and the most "damnitive" kind of grind has failed to even check in the slightest degree. I feel like snapping my fingers in the face of all the old harpies who've been gloating over your silence for the last year or two and saying "I told you so." Can you fancy how the dry bones would rattle and the manufactured teeth grind? I can just. I haven't had any opportunity but I'm waiting for it and it's bound to come sooner or later - sooner I hope. The more I think of it, the more delighted I am over your last Sunday night speech. I have even given over being sorry for one minute that you did not come on a week since I have seen one or two professionals, and heard what they have to say. My dear - you've laid the profession under [*Kindest regards to Mr. Richardson*]everlasting obligation to you by that speech. I met Ned Buckley on Monday, and he could no more resist stopping to tell me his opinion, than I could have resisted asking it had it not been volunteered. It is enough to say that he was enthusiastic enough to please even me, so you can imagine to what degree his appreciation reached. She was, he told me, the echo of ever professional he had with since the lecture. He said it has the most eloquent impassioned and logical tribute he had ever heard paid to the stage. "I never saw Miss Dickinson before last night," he said "but now I want to see her again, to know her. I consider her the representative woman of the Century. I want to see her act - for I know she can, you needn't tell me that a woman who can talk as she can with such dramatic intensity and fire cant act - the man's an idiot who says it." Of course I responded Amen so heartily that a woman who was passing and who evidently saw us both looked quite startled; I suppose she wondered what "was up" to set Ned Buckley and Sallie White off on such a talk. Then he added a bit of praise of your powers of charm and said he knew you could play comedy from the charming fashion in which you related your experiences. That was all "nuts" to me and didn't I wish you had been hidden away at my elbow somewhere to have heard it all. I told him about your play "Aurelian", saying nothing about the "G.A.L." of course, only sketching the things as best I could. Did you meet Harry [Arnault?] and his wife in California? She went to play there and was quite a favorite, and she is a very charming woman. They are very much carried away by the lecture I hear, and so are all the professors who attended. Ned Buckley said that every man and woman on the stage owed you a debt of gratitude which they could never repay, no matter what they did for you. So on the whole I am glad they heard it, even if Hatheway & Pond did lose money. You've [been?] [give?] allies, [ever?] for the fight. Have you heard any more concerning "ye noble Roman?" I hope he is in sack cloth with piles of ashes in his classic head, and has had the grace to acknowledge his repentance. The more I think of him the stronger becomes myinclination to mutilate his Roman features. He's a troll and I wish he could be made to realize how little nobility there is in his brutishness; he's no lion - only an ass. I see nothing more in the papers of his denial of any connection with "Aurelian". I think he must have nipped that little paragraph in the bud, before he stomped himself too widely as a "scorner fo the truth." You don't know how delighted I was to hear of your reception and success at Sing-Sing. It was only what I expected though, and what you will receive every where. Wont it make the people mad who thought you were shelved as far as the platform is concerned. Ah! you bless?d [????] girl- they don't know the woman they thought they had pushed the side, they didn't dream how the public loved her, and how far she stood above and beyond all the rest. They've a lesson or two to learn yet. Do you [ny] know the little I saw of you has only made me want to see a great deal more It's like getting just a taste of something good when you're famished. Let me hear from you - do. We're all well except me - I shall be in a day or two. You'll see I'm nothing if not professional in my pique. Good bye with love Always & the same Sullie J. W.285 Warren Street Boston Hgts. March 10th 1879 My Dearest Anna: It isn't I, is the Advertiser; else be sure I should have answered your letter last week; but that worthy sheet has of late accquired the habit of keeping me up to my eyes in work, and leaving me no time for anything outside. I committing deliberate theft this morning; for "I am due at the cooking school, which I an to serve up for the Boston breakfast to-morrow mornng. But I have made a solemn vow not to budge an inch until this letter is written. Such a delight as your letter was to me, and I thank you so much for sending me the Herald scrap. I had previously seen the notice int he Graphic. I think for New York papers they were very good indeed. A gentleman said to me the other day, "I would give any thing to see Miss Dickinson's new play; you and Rob Fitch are so united in your expressions that I'm sure it must be good. I have had your matters on my mind very much, and have tried to think it all out for you,. First of all, in regard to the lecture;Your plan of putting it into a pamphlet is good. I have been enraged beyond measure at the mis-statements regarding it, which I have both seen and heard, and I think people ought to have some way of informing themselves of the truth. In regard to the person to publish it - all I can say is - I am sure Charlie Shepard would work for your interest as no other person would, for he is so heartily and entirely your friend I don't know the New York publishers as well as I do those in Boston, but I should give the choice to Scribner or Appleton there. I would however if I were you consult Mr Shepard. He'd tell you frankly what was best - As to the success of the pamphlet, it would I think be sure to sell, wherever it might be published. I'm sorry New York did not agree with you, since you like it so much. Would Boston suit you any better? I wish you felt "called" to make this your home. Don't you think you could be content? I'm glad you have the California time so satisfactorily arranged; Ah! dieu- I wish I was part of that good time. If I hadn't a husband and two babies, I should seriously consider starting off in your train. It would give you an opportunity of advertising the "persistent admirer" who followed you from place to place, hooking all adults. I shall feel very badly to have "Aurelian" played and I not there to see. Do you know I have thought of an "Aurelian" and I didn't want you to turn up your nose at him because he's so little known. Honestly I didn't know any one who would play that part as Charles Benson would. He is with our friend the Finnegan with playing opposite characters. He is fine looking, and can play tragedy. You knew he used to have to do all that sort of work at the Museum, and I never knew him anything but fair. Besides I think it never put him on his mettle to have the oration of such a character, and he would put his heart into it. I don't want that play brought out a hap-hazard, there's been too much said about it, and its too fine a play to peril in any way. I wish I could see you and talk this matter over with you: there's so much more to be said than can be written. You don't know what a natural matter that seems to me. It may be foolish, but I've got sort of a good motherly feeling for "Aurelian;" and I can bear that it should be presented in any way but the best. This is all for your sake - for it must be a triumph As to ourselves - we're all well and busy. The babies are funny and uproarious - all that is required of babies I believe, and Harry is making experiment in newspaper work. I think he has it in him to succeed. As for me I have lots of work to do, and no time to get into mischief. I wrote you a short note and sent you a paper to the Fifth avenue Hotel. Did you get them? I hope you'll run over before you go to Col, for it does seem as though I must see you. Good bye - Harry sends kind remembrances - Yours ever Sallie J.W.86 Clifford Street Roxbury April 14th My Dear Anna; What - where - how - when - I'm in a state of bewilderment and I want to get out of it. Are you coming? I don't mean to play Claude, for Stetson's you're not, and he'll know why "or words to that effect." I laughed when some one told me that, and said that Mr John Stetson might make up his [one] mind to one thing. He wouldn't know unless you chose to tell. But what is it all about. I want to see you and I am so disappointed. Tell me what I may say, and I'll say it. I know you've good and abundant reasons for every step you've taken, else you wouldn't have taken them. My "rheumatiz" forbids my writing more - It's a damp day, and I feel it all through my spine. Still I love you - in spite of the ache - Yours ever Sallie Jay White.43 Bowdoin St. Boston Dec. 25th 1870. Anna E. Dickinson. Dear Friend, I wish you a merry Christmas, & a happy New Year, & good health to go on in your course of free criticism of our national & social morals and manners. Our interviews, for many years, have been so very few & so very brief, that I really know not whether you care at all for the particular department of reform - theological reform - in which I am now engaged. Ever since I escaped from the yoke of that rigid Calvinism in which I was educated, I have felt it a duty & a pleasure to testify against that system whenfavorable opportunities arose for doing it effectively; and I have taken special care to use these opportunities against the Sabbatic doctrine of the popular theology, because that doctrine is eminently assailable, being contrary to that very Scripture from which the said theology professes to derive itself. A specially favorable occasion for attacking the Sabbatic dogma is now about to occur, our City Council having decided to petition the coming Legislature for leave to open our Public Library on Sundays. This, of course, will bring the whole question into debate, first before the Committee, then before the Senate & House, & so in the newspapers; & while this is going on, the public will be more ready than usual to read other matter upon that dry subject. To meet this opportunity I have prepared two tracts, setting forth, as well as I could do it in 8 & 4 pages, first, the abundant Scripture evidence that observance of a Sunday sabbath forms no part of the Christian religion, & next the great desirableness, while recognizing the fact just mentioned, of continuing to keep Sunday separate from the ordinary course of labor and business. Separating the day from superstition, we want to keep it for use; for rest, recreation & religious instruction. My desire is to print many thousands of these tracts for gratuitous distribution through the City & State, before, & at the time of, the legislative debates above referred to. Vehement opposition will be made in every way to the opening of the Library, & it will probably not be accomplished this time. But the widecirculation of these documents will, I think, give it an additional chance, and will at any rate improve the chances for the next trial. Having time to write and circulate these tracts, I have no money to print them, & can do that only as friends of the idea assist me. Now that the stereotype plates have been obtained, they can be printed for $11. a thousand. I send you copies of the tracts with this. If you care for the idea, & think these documents well suited to promote it, consider what you will give for this purpose. And, whatever you decide about this, believe me Yours with sincere regard, Charles K. Whipple.[*Love to Sue and your mother. We have lots to tell you when we see you*] W Friday, January 20th 1871 My dearest Anna, Many thanks for your kind note which was duly received and which gave much satisfaction to the inmates of 412 Spruce St. Do not think that I have been negligent in calling upon you when you were in the city. I should love dearly to see you always whenever you are here, but I do not always know of your being among us, and sometimesthem, I think as you do, no doubt, that there are things more important in this life, than devoting all the time that I wish, to communion with them. We must do our Master's work in so far as we can while the strength and opportunity are given to us, else what sort of an account shall we be able to render of our stewardship? I heard your lecture on Joan of Arc, and was very much pleased with it, and extremely interested; it is the only lecture of the Star course which I attended except that by Susan B. Anthony, and it is the only one to which Richard went. when I do, and have ascertained that you are only to stay a day or two, I am loath to call for fear of encroaching upon the time that you need for business or for rest; on the Sunday however before New Year's, or rather New Year's day, I passed your house, and should certainly have stopped in for a few minutes if I had known you were there, but I did not ascertain that fact till afterwards. I lead such a busy life, that I have not like yourself, near the opportunity for social intercourse with my friends that I desire, but dearly as I love I am very glad to hear that you hope to have a little more leisure next winter and trust that we shall be able to have a few more glimpses of you and Sue. Moreover we are going to move, and perhaps we shall have a house nearer to you than the one we occupy at present so that it will not be a Sabbath days journey from one to the other. It was a real disappointment that Sue and you could not attend our Fair; it was so beautiful and in so good taste. I understood that Mordecai Dawson said he liked it better than any he ever attended. Our dear "city of brotherly love" is never dull to me. Though I can easily imagine [*that you find it so in contrast with some of those that you visit. I am so entirely engrossed with trying to help a little the condition of the poor animals that I find it contains all the excitement and variety, I care about. I wish you much success in your lecture on behalf of the poor French for whom we all feel a great deal. With much love to you from the "boatman," your "beloved Haskins" and from your own "pretty cretur," (was not that it?), I remain ever your faithful Cass E. White*]ARTISTS GUILD 158 1/2 TREMONT ST. BOSTON H.K. WHITE JR. MANAGER. 36 Clifford Street Roxbury Jan'y 15th Dear Anna; I am happy say that I am at present turning off my convalescents as cured, having only one left that is not quite well, and that is my little Gracie; however she was the last to fall ill, and she is rapidly improving. I have been wonderfully well my self this winter, thank goodness for so much good luck — in all the bad. I think S.D. is a fool and worse. Don't let her cheat you . The "hot [miserdness?]" of this affair should be known. I think she has behaved like a beast all the way through. Mr Fields address isMr. R. M. Field, Boston Museum. I am glad you think of coming on. I do want to see you — I wish you were to be here for the [?apti??] to-night. It will be just lovely. I will try and write you a letter this is only a scrawl to give you Mr Fields address and to let you know how we are - Yours with love. Sallie Joy White Chicago Tribune. July 14,1872. Miss Anna E. Dickinson No 1710 Locust St Philadelphia Your letter of the 12th making certain interrogatories concerning "the strike in Chicago this summer", is received. There was a small parade & demonstration of 3000 workingmen here about the first of May but there has been no strike and none is expected. Therefore there can no answer to questions predicated upon the supposition of a strike. The wagesof laboringmen are about 33 per cent higher than before the fire. Yours very sincerely Horace WhiteForm No. 1. THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. The company TRANSMITS and DELIVERS messages only on conditions, limiting its liability, which have been 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, beyond the amount of tolls paid thereon, nor in any case where the claim is nor presented in writing within sixty days after sending the message. This message is an UNREPEATED MESSAGE and is delivered by request of the sender, under the conditions named above. THOS. T. ECKERT, General Manager. NORVIN GREEN, President. NUMBER SENT BY REC'D BY CHECK 103 JN 11 Collect 50 Received at S.E. Cor. Broad & Chestnut Sts 2/5 1885 Dated...........................Chicago To..............................Anna Dickinson 1428 Spruce St. No dates after February twentieth positively fixed until March seventeenth Slayton & Whyte