Creator
Geo[rge] Hansen
Recipient
[John Muir]
Transcription
Geo. Hansen
Landscape Architect
Scenic Tract Berkeley Ca.
Nov. 25th., 1902.
My dear Sir,
My last installment of "Baby Roland Booklets", printed and original, leaves by even mail. I trust that you consider the entire let the equivalent of your very kind order. I wish that more were being printed, and that you could receive a wider range of effects of my work. But if you are a man who fraternizes with the Seouoia, it is not the bulk that overawes you, it is the majesty. And so it shall be the sweetness of my booklets that assesses their worth.
I delight in the thought that my little bundle shall reach you on Thanksgiving day. I love to associates circumstances with feeling. Then first away from mother and home. I used to open my family album at the sunrise of every sunday, and other keepsakes were spreads along with it on the fresh tablelinnen of my room. May this package arrive in good time, and add to your feeling of Thanksgiving the mite of reliogisity which I have installed in the work.
Look over the booklet "In Company" where I invoke the spirit of my only sister to also guard him if my time down here should be up [illegible] a father’s duty could find full satisfaction. I had a fain day when I scribbled those lines, and I think they are as true as the hand, then was steady. But the tight grip around the handles of my crutches makes them drawn out of shape, and the fingers, once able to draw and paint as
near to nature as men dare immitate God'S handiwork, they now refuse, many a day, to sign the name beneath my typewriting. - I have a dear wish. I see by the papers that you are to be in Berkeley on Arborday. You know where Mr. Keeler lives. We are in the block next to him. Make a little circuit, and let me, once, see you face to face and let the warmth of your hand’s touch stroke the face of the child "that God gave me to raise me when I was about to fall".
I am unfortunate in always seeing the shortcomings of others. Perhaps that is no more a mere difference in opinion, and that my self-opinion[illegible]tedness prevents me from appreciating fully the efforts of others. I allude to the memorial for Joe LeCente, to be erected by our Sierra club. "Memorial". It seems to me that the people cannot get over the idea of combining something "churchy" with the thought of "memorial". The design looks to me like a chapel. Just think of the idea of men, men, the conceited men, attempting to erect a chapel inside of God’s grand church that he built with such master stroke in the Yosemite. It would sound to me like a goat-bell around the neck of the queencow of the choicest band of stock. Is not in the smile of a face as much of prayer as in the long drawn mistery of a sister of mercy? – If you cannot agree with me, you, surely, will sympethise with me in my sensitiveness.
I know you will be glad to know that the first piece of work has come to me after six months’ idleness. I have to be carried into the carriage, but I can "get there" and do what is required of me. I am to design a tract into choice residence lots for the Oakland Realty Syndicate. They promised me this four years age, and they stick to me inspite of debility (in my nether parts). I shall start the work at New Years, when their contour survey is done. Mother will have flour, and the boy shall have jelly right along, and the salt I can gain when I burry my face in the pillow where once the most noble hope rose to God’s throne when the dreams of the night set in.
With a blessing "Thanksgiving" for your Home
[illegible]
Location
Berkeley, Calif.
Date Original
1902 Nov 25
Source
Original letter dimensions: 275. x 21.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, George, "Letter from Geo[rge] Hansen to [John Muir], 1902 Nov 25." (1902). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 4784.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/4784
Resource Identifier
muir12_0817-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 12, Image 0817
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
