Creator
John Muir
Recipient
William Trout
Transcription
Martinez, California
Aug. 10, 1904.
William Trout.
Dear old friend:
Your kind letter of Aug. 2d came yesterday laden with Meaford memories & auld lang syne in general, and with it came the draft that has given you so much trouble. This closing a transaction 40 years old, illustrating moral integrity & patience of a kind far from common in financial annals.
The news of your coming to visit me is delightful. I have many visitors & thousands of friends, but those of the old days have for me an immortal charm wanting in others however high & honorable & flattering.
Often & often I look
2
longingly back into that blessed old "Hollow" among the hemlocks hoping to revisit it, & I believe I shall yet. Indeed I feel quite sentimental about it, it was so full of trees & mosses & liverworts & wild life of so many kinds, & its far reaching associations I could almost sing with Johnnie Boyce "O! how I love the sawmill"! I remember nearly all of that immortal poem. In the last verse mechanics & religion were curiously mixed, & both sense & rhyme went a trifle wrong, faith not uncommon in older poets. Here it is
"It was God who made the sawmill
That stands beside the stream
I hope to go to Him when I die
And in his kingdom reign"
But if I allow myself to wander
3
into these old days this letter will spread far & wide like a Wisconsin prairie.
When you come to California come direct to my house & bring Charlie Jay with you. "Muir station" on the Santa Fe railroad is on the side of our ranch & within an hour & a half of San Francisco. There are 2 morning & 2 evening trains to & from the city, so you can go & come to & from the meetings in the city, you refer to in your letter, every day. The first train from our station reaches San Francisco about 8. 30, A.M. - time enough for any sort of meeting - Let me know as soon as you decide the time of your visit so that I will be sure to be at home.
With kindest regards to Charlie & all your family I am ever faithfully yours John Muir
[in margin: I send herewith some old clippings I discovered lately which may amuse you or the children]
Location
Martinez, Calif.
Date Original
1904 Aug 10
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to William Trout, 1904 Aug 10." (1904). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 2850.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2850
Resource Identifier
muir14_0464-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 14, Image 0464
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, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
The Huntington Library, Muir Family Papers, HM 57349-57497. 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
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
