Creator
Jeanne C. Carr
Recipient
[Louisiana E.] Strentzel
Transcription
[May, 1880]
[1]
Pasadena, Friday evening.
Dear Mrs Strentzel.
I ought not to write you on a Friday, or in a Fridayish mood; but tomorrow is one of our mail days, and I cannot allow it to pass without carrying to you all and especially to John Muir the congratulations of Dr Congers family, and his many friends in this region, as well as our own. We read the news in Wednesdays Record, [illegible] — just a week after the wedding: as I read it aloud to the family some one reminded us of a friend whose husband was a sea faring man; when the news of his death reached her nearly three years after the event, she said she had been a widow so long it was not proper to wear mourning. So having lost the pleasures of anticipation in Louie’s case, we seem to think of John & herself as having always been mated, and the event as long past. I have been accustomed
06379
[Page 2]
[2]
to think of John as one specially beloved & cared for by the higher powers; now I know that he is. Since he may call you mother. He will never know how sweet a privilege that it while you remain with us; but when the “well done” shall be spoken to you he will feel it the one great blessedness that has come after many lonely years. A man quickly comes to think of his wife as another self, and this is many men’s excuse for negligence and [unattention?]; but men hold the mother thought, the mother relation in great reverence. I am grateful to you all that you have enclosed with your love one so precious to me. It seems a suitable mating — and rarely do two spirits so finely tuned strike the perfect chord. I shall be interested in every particular which any of you may care to report to me. I felt like writing Dr Strentzel that he should have telegraphed the advent of a son in the family, and that Mother was doing as well as could be expected. I hope you will be on your feet this
[3]
summer, and make your b[illegible] [illegible] you about a great deal. Let the young people take the laboring over, & you & the dear Doc — too rest and travel. We have had almost continual cold weather, and an excess of rain. But the succession of fruit flowers has made it delightful, nevertheless. Tell Muir that Calypso [Borealis?] is blooming exquisitely, and the [illegible] growing under an O[illegible] cedar in the grounds. My wee beech tree is full of tender leaves. maple & scarlet oak showing their colors. I have more than a hundred species of Eastern f[illegible] trees, most of them quite small, but growing well. Tell Louie that if I could bring her here to be bridally kissed and congratulated there should be no lack of favor in the performance. I commission John to [illegible] for me; he does not need to be told that I rejoice in his happiness. Above fame, and far stronger than my wish to see his genius acknowledged by his peers. I have desired for him the
[Page 3]
[4]
completeness which can only come in living for others, in perfected home relations. My sons have been out for twenty four hours after some grizzly bears; I can look up the mountain side scarcely more than three miles in an air line, where the canons are so nearly inaccessible that the bears have half a county to themselves. They have visited the bee ranches nightly for two or three weeks; and yesterday a regular hunt or as organized. The deer came down every few days but no one shoots them. Our trees are full of birds. Dr Carr is heartier & stronger than he was in Sacramento, but a good deal depressed at times from the great change – he misses the spur of daily duty. I am too busy to get the blues, and perhaps lack sympathy with natures less hopeful. It easy to rejoice with those that rejoice, and this I do most heartily tonight, with the house of Muir — Strentzel. Love to John, [illegible], its honored head, Your affectionate Jeanne C. Carr.
[in margin: 480b]
Location
Pasadena, [Calif.]
Circa Date
[1880 May]
Source
Original letter dimensions: 25 x 40 cm.
Recommended Citation
Carr, Jeanne C., "Letter from Jeanne C. Carr to [Louisiana E.] Strentzel, [1880 May]." (1880). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 552.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/552
Resource Identifier
muir04_0182-md-1.pdf
File Identifier
Reel 04, Image 0181
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
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
