Creator
Geo[rge] Hansen
Recipient
[John Muir]
Transcription
Oct., 9th., 1905.
Dear friend oi' our home,
The first rain of the season. We know it is coming, but we impatiently wait for it, and we stream out in the open to drink the air laden with blessings, rich in fragrance. I too, "stressed " out with my "private carriage" of a wheeling chair , and I "recalled in mind all the "tarwoods" that I could discern in the over of the air. Their invigorating perfume come from over the Contra costa hills, the region that you choose for your material roof. And ere the day wore away when the lights lit up in hundred stars, a belated messenger brought the materialized blessing of the first showed of this blessed season of growth and hew harvests in our California.” From Martinet " he said when the all-governing, ever-busy mother told 'him that is surety was a mistake, Ah, R 'Roland know better !'.'Mans, it's for zou, let me open it " -- True enough, it was for us, the harvest from vineyard that blossoms for us when. never pruned by us , that yields when never cultivated by these blessed receivers.----"I want to open it first,' insists the excited little man. But mother rules defferent, and father nodes approval to make things harmonious. We share our supper, and, late as it is , the little man never awake. He it is who has to take brunch after launch, bunches such as the children of Israel brought forth to the multitude mother spreads them into canan. He loads then into the dish pan, and mother spreads in the basement on cleanly boxes.”Mama, I lay’em out for zou, they are too heavy for zou”.
Blessed sleep came over me as I lay there the window wide open, listening to the palter or the big raindrops,! enraptured with the music in the treetops. Gods closed sentences when I wan but half through with the lord's prayer, and he accepted my petition and my thanksgiving and
[03300]
thoughts for my friends and all friends when I woke up again in the night and continued where I had left off "and forgive our debt as we forgive our debtors".
I write these lines, and address then to your wife. You are a "all of one mind" and I [illegible] mean these lines for everyone in your household, hoping that someday, one of you shall drop in and show his or her face in lovingkindness. But the ultimate destination for these 1ines shall be with you. You, man of plain garb and true heart , where are you? The morning paper tells us of jailbreak and yellow war streaks, but not a line of what would tend to build up the Kingdom of God. Do you now walk under Cypress or Bamboo? It is only gradually, gradually that learn t? love my brother as myself, and almost tremble when I believethat I also will have to love the [illegible] as I love my bindentree. How can I? Is the music of the tamtam as sweet as the vibration of the harp? Is the [illegible] of the leathery foliage as the [illegible] of the soft network of a maple? a beech ? - And yet, God lives in all of them, and, I dare say, by the time I again read the chapters of the prophet who wrote on t he [illegible], I shall now hide my face, and ash forgiveness of the "Great Spirit". --- Travel, friend, walk and rest, be it under Magnolias, be it under Breadfruitterees. Then come home, your lungs laden as mine are, now with the fragrance of the moistened earth. Breath out your tales of field and forest, and be again one of us, one under your vinetree, one with your quail find cricket. Buy that time my crutches shall bloon. They have already cracked their dry lignum. And as you, some day, walk near this home, I can again stand on my feet, I can stretch out an arm, I can [illegible] of my fellow man. Believe it, as I know it, the [illegible] is filling the cleansed pores and shall odwell forever in the [illegible] tabernacle.
Blessings for you all from
[illegible] George Hansen
Location
Berkeley [Calif.]
Date Original
1903 Oct 9
Source
Original letter dimensions: 28 x 21.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, George, "Letter from Geo[rge] Hansen to [John Muir], 1903 Oct 9." (1903). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 2703.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2703
Resource Identifier
muir13_0836-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 13, Image 0836
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
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written 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
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.
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
