Creator

J. E. Calkins

Recipient

Wolfe, Linnie Marsh

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Transcription

with those plain, gMK forthright persons it seemed to me that they were giving us something far beyond mere courtesy, as John Muir was somehow boyond all that I had been imagining. The dominant note of that interior, as I caught it in that first look about, was its dignified simplicity; or, perhaps, its simple dignity. There was no telephone, no electric light, no domestic gadget of all the myriad of \ inventions with which even that day was beginning to complicate the American standard of living. Candles, and the open fire, gave light by night, and it was by the grace of the horse and buggy that one went to town. That same simplicity pervaded all the house. Sizable oil paintings of noble Sierra scenery surmounted some of the stately white marble mantels, or adorned wide wall spaces, all of them, I surmised, from the brush and palette of William Keith, but there was nothing ostentatious about them or their hangings, "Jfhe kitchen was an ample and adequate workshop, with sufficient equipment. It did not overwhelm one by the number and variety of the mechanized appliances of the more abundant life, but it was a pleasant place in which to provide a good, plain old-time meal. I cannot definitely picture the dining room, but I am sure there was no mounted deer's head, and no stuffed fish to gaze goggle-eyed from its varnished plank, and I still remember that I felt refreshed by their absence* but there was plenty of plain satisfying food, and no ado about it, and very little waste. And I have the happiest tX

Location

unknown

Circa Date

[1941-1945]

Page Number

5

Resource Identifier

MSS048 Vb.7

Copyright Statement

Some material related to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Owning Institution

University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.

Keywords

John Muir, biography, reminiscence, colleagues, contemporaries, archives, special collections, University of the Pacific, California, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, history, naturalist

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