Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[David Gilrye Muir]
Transcription
[4]
the saw table after he had gone to the surgeon, one finger was sawed off about the second joint, another close to the palm, and the others together with the thumb terribly lacer- ated -. Another man a carpenter was fired yesterday to take his place at $2 1/4 per day-. French in six easy lessons left for his country home without his fortune a few days ago, [illegible] our own circle all is unchanged The weather is not so bad. I recd a letter from Mary Hark & Hattie Trout lately They both congratulated me upon having Danie to care for and comfort me. I felt awful lonesome a day or two after you left, the table [illegible] out of order without you Louis was particularly sorry about Dan leaving Osgood & Smith have not asked for you. I suppose your path has [illegible] [illegible] theirs yet. Write me a long letter soon. May you be [quite?] successful in your new [illegible] and live to realize your best anticipations
Yours in brotherly love M[illegible]
[1]
Ind' Aug 12th [ illegible]
Dear Danie, I am really glad to hear that you have found a shop so very near the thing you wish, and that you have so good a chance of getting into it.
We were all considerably amused with your house building exploits, You beat all as a scotchman for Yankee [brass], but in a new country a smart man needs to dabble his fingers in everything and every trade even before he learns their names, and so you have taken up the carpenter trade, "I think they [can’t]" There is no better exponent of the point to civilization, taste, and general refinement to which nations and individuals arrive, than their houses, and I trust that you
The bridge at the Hollow has fallen down
[2]
will erect in this your first enterprise a [donns] worthy the name; and if, as you seemed to [intimate] might be the case, you build a whole town. I hope you will be very [ferrteekeler] - begin well-remember the nation to whom you belong, and the age in which you live - its streets must be troddin just by "black gentoos & pagan Turks" but by the white & fexin loving people of the sons of Japheth, and its squares and avenues must be shone upon by the [sun] of the nineteenth century. May your town be spared from the attacks of cholera and all the dire epidemics of the day, and be noted more for its schools & churches than for arsenals, castles, & cannon.
P S "I think" you might invent a better mode of watering the streets in dusty days than these barrels mounted on drays A! Dan! Dan!.-
[3]
I am glad I am that you have found a shop where so many handles are made, it will be just the place for you, and I shall be very much interested in the working of the lathes, Tell me as soon as you can what is considered a days work in different kinds of handles, but be careful not to say much about my invention. I think of attending to that after finishing this scythe. John [Keens?] is going to move to the south end of the town in about a week. I am sorry to say that the sawyer who took your place sawed his hand dreadfully the second day after he commenced. his accident happened about as your did - his hand before it was dressed seemed to be torn in pieces, the bone of one finger joint was found by the
Location
Ind[ianapolis, Ind.]
Date Original
1866 Aug 12
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to David Gilrye Muir, 1866 Aug 12" (1866). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1201.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1201
Resource Identifier
muir01_0864-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 01, Image 0864
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
The Huntington 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
