Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[Sarah and David Galloway]
Transcription
Madison 1862
Dear Brother and sister Perhaps you begin to think it long since I wrote last. After leaving the sheaves and trashing machine the merry sound of our old bell made me all [illegible] with joy, I think I love my studies more and more, and instead of the time for diss -missing them coming nearer, as one term after another passes, it seems to go farther and farther away. We live in changing times, and our plans my easily be broken, but if not I shall be seeking knowledge, for some years; here or elsewhere Our University has reached a crisis in its history, and if not passed success- -fully, the doors will be closed, when of course I should have to leave Madison for some institution which has not yet been wounded to the death by our war demon. If John Reid can spare me money I shall not teach this winter for though
it seems an easy way of making a hundred dollars every winter, yet the time for acquiring as much as I desire, would in that way, be too much prolonged that money will likely be spent, as the Catholics say; for the benefit of my soul. Those pictures are framed and I need not tell you that they are prized a good deal Our tutor takes a great liking to the [illegible], and wishes it in his [illegible], If more time could be spared for drawing I would send you a picture once or twice in a while, as I know you have a taste for them around Pal Pal[illegible] David I suppose is enjoying his adventure very well at the [counter?] [illegible] I suppose the draft panie has been growing old It is thought probable here that there will be a draft soon, but of course - hope that we shall escape it prevents much uneasiness This war seems farther from a close than [ever?] How strange that a country
with so many schools and churches should be desolated by so unsightly a monster. "Leaves have their time to fall" and though indeed there is a kind of melancholy present when they, withered and dead, are plucked from their places and shade the sport of the gloomy autumn wind, yet we hardly [deplore?] their fate, because there is nothing unnatural in it - they have done all that their creator wished them to do, and they should not remain longer in their green vigor, but may the same be said of the slaughtered upon a war field. I f you might be successful you would go far to bring the melenism to get love into those Leopards and Lambs would you not But good-bye I wish Gods blessing for yourselves and little ones Come and see me if you can as possibly I may have to go farther from home. John M Give me a letter, each of you soon
Location
Madison, [Wisc]
Circa Date
1862
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.0 x 24.5 cm
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to Sarah and David Galloway, 1862 Fall" (1862). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1121.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1121
Resource Identifier
muir01_0461-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 01, Image 0461
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
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, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. 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
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
