Creator

John Muir

Recipient

Louie [Strentzel Muir]

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Transcription

Tacoma Hotel, Tacoma Aug. 29th 90Dear LouieThe answer to my Victoria telegram was a grand & much needed relief. The letter with the terrible news reached me by the Queen on her trip preceding this one but I did not see it until she sailed, for when yours & the childrens letters were handed me the cabin was full of excited visitors all talking & I ran through them hastily without noticing the dreadful news. As soon as the Queen sailed I took a quick reading of them all & when I discovered Helens condition I varily regretted not being able to recal the steamer to take me aboard as she slowly vanished down the Inlet among the icebergs. Then I should have been home 3 weeks earlier. On the way down I received your letter of Aug 1 which was a grand comfort & when the ship reached Nanaimo I managed to catch the train for Victoria in time to telegraph 014552& receive an answer the same day as I reached Victoria about 5 hours ahead of the Queen. When the bad news reached me I had just got back from an exhausting trip which had an exciting danger in it connected with that wild man I took with me & wh I will not now attempt to tell then the danger of losing our darling made a burden unbearable & got horribly nervous & lost my appetite no matter what I did. But now I am well again though I still dream more or less. Mr. Loomis left 2 weeks before I did, & Mr. Reid & party intended leaving a week after I left. The Queen is not going to make any more trips north. She will leave here Sunday & go back to Nanaimo to coal then sail direct for S. F. Captain Carroll invited me to stay on the Queen & as 014553I would have to wait 4 days for the regular steamer I thought I would accept the invitation & thus save the trouble of transshipping baggage. So you may expect me in 3 or 4 days after receiving this or about the 5th of Sep. Had your telegram been less blessedly reassuring then of course I would have pushed home by rail. I am stopping at the hotel though my things are on the ship, but I mean to sleep on the ship hereafter & try in the quietness to regain the run of my journal which since the bad news was neglicted.My love over & over again to my darlings & allJohn Muir01455

Location

Tacoma [Washington]

Date Original

1890 Aug 29

Source

Original letter dimensions: 20 x 12 cm.

Resource Identifier

muir06_0627-let.tif

File Identifier

Reel 06, Image 0627

Copyright Statement

The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html

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.

Copyright Holder

Muir-Hanna Trust

Copyright Date

1984

Page Number

Page 1

Keywords

John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle

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