Metadata
Title
Mrs. C. A. Hopkinson to Sarah Josepha Hale
Date
1865-02-07
February 7, 1865
Subject
Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879
Medium
Manuscripts
Language
eng
Type
text
Collection
Sarah Josepha Hale Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Identifier
46-M-124
Rights
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html
Text
Cambridge Feb 7th 1865.
My dear Mrs. Hale,
Your letter of Feb 5
is before me - I was glad to hear
from you, & particularly that your
health is better. Please take your
own advice to me, & "dont work too
hard" - for my part I have worked
so many years, I should really be
sorry to stop, & shouldnt know what
to do with rest.
You ask me where Miss Cunningham
is? I only know that she
is in S. C. - Miss Tracy the Secretary
is at Mount Vernon & resides with
the Herberts, who have charge of the
place. There is to be a meeting of
[ED: next portion of text is written along the
lefthand edge of the page]
One thing I must ask you to do, if you do not already do
it, that is, to put my letters into the fire. I have long ceased
to keep letters except
of business -
Always most
truly yours,
CAH.
the Grand Council' the 22nd of Feb in
Washington - perhaps she may be there
although it is not likely. I hope thust
she may see the fruit of her self denying
labors & live to see Mt Vernon a garden of
beauty. Wont people have got used to
giving, so that at the end of the war,
they will think it a mere trifle to take
good care of Mt Vernon? I hope so. -
I went last week to the M'Lean
Asylum to call on Mrs Hale. But at 4
ock PM. she had retired for the night. The
matron said she rose about 10, & went to
bed at 3. Docr Tyler said she was rapidly
failing in every way - & I confess it
was with a feeling of relief that I drove
away without seeing the wreck of so
much youth, beauty, sense, animation
& womanly grace, as has fallen under these
deep waters. It is so sad to think of it.
With regard to your question about
the compensation for "letters on domestic
economies" - I hardly know what to say.
If you are satisfied with such sort of
letters as the last, (which are written
currente calamo & not even revised)
I can write you one once in two months
for the year to come without exhausting
my quiver. I suppose they would not be
worth more than half the same amount
of matter in the shape of a story, which
requires care in the arrangement, etc. -
I have plenty of things to say, I assure
you, if your readers want to hear me.
If you decide to employ me in this
way, I should be glad to know it at once
that I may write & arrange my essays so
as not to repeat myself, at least, and to
be most useful to you. The type in
which they will be printed allows the compression
of one third more matter in a
page of the Mage [Magazine?] than the type in the body
of the book. - Make me an offer for six
letters, & I will see what I can do at the price
you offer, The Lady's book comes regularly, if it
didn't, I dont know what my family
would do. I think it is excellent, - Who
wrote "Domestic Science in Schools for young ladies"
in the January no? - it is good, So is your
sketch of Mrs. Delany, wh[?]ther I learned to love in
reading Miss Burney's life of herself. - Marion
Haviland has much of the spirit of ASlice
Haven, dont you think so?
I wrote a notice of Miss Dodje's book
(Gail H.) which I wish now I had preserved,
wherein I spoke of her book as I thought it
merited. Much of what she says is truly noble,
much well deserved castigation - some rather
coarse, & all prolix. But she writes from a
full mind & is an addition to American literature -
Mrs. Sarah J. Hale.
Care of Louis A. Godey Esqr.
Philadelphia.
My dear Mrs. Hale,
Your letter of Feb 5
is before me - I was glad to hear
from you, & particularly that your
health is better. Please take your
own advice to me, & "dont work too
hard" - for my part I have worked
so many years, I should really be
sorry to stop, & shouldnt know what
to do with rest.
You ask me where Miss Cunningham
is? I only know that she
is in S. C. - Miss Tracy the Secretary
is at Mount Vernon & resides with
the Herberts, who have charge of the
place. There is to be a meeting of
[ED: next portion of text is written along the
lefthand edge of the page]
One thing I must ask you to do, if you do not already do
it, that is, to put my letters into the fire. I have long ceased
to keep letters except
of business -
Always most
truly yours,
CAH.
the Grand Council' the 22nd of Feb in
Washington - perhaps she may be there
although it is not likely. I hope thust
she may see the fruit of her self denying
labors & live to see Mt Vernon a garden of
beauty. Wont people have got used to
giving, so that at the end of the war,
they will think it a mere trifle to take
good care of Mt Vernon? I hope so. -
I went last week to the M'Lean
Asylum to call on Mrs Hale. But at 4
ock PM. she had retired for the night. The
matron said she rose about 10, & went to
bed at 3. Docr Tyler said she was rapidly
failing in every way - & I confess it
was with a feeling of relief that I drove
away without seeing the wreck of so
much youth, beauty, sense, animation
& womanly grace, as has fallen under these
deep waters. It is so sad to think of it.
With regard to your question about
the compensation for "letters on domestic
economies" - I hardly know what to say.
If you are satisfied with such sort of
letters as the last, (which are written
currente calamo & not even revised)
I can write you one once in two months
for the year to come without exhausting
my quiver. I suppose they would not be
worth more than half the same amount
of matter in the shape of a story, which
requires care in the arrangement, etc. -
I have plenty of things to say, I assure
you, if your readers want to hear me.
If you decide to employ me in this
way, I should be glad to know it at once
that I may write & arrange my essays so
as not to repeat myself, at least, and to
be most useful to you. The type in
which they will be printed allows the compression
of one third more matter in a
page of the Mage [Magazine?] than the type in the body
of the book. - Make me an offer for six
letters, & I will see what I can do at the price
you offer, The Lady's book comes regularly, if it
didn't, I dont know what my family
would do. I think it is excellent, - Who
wrote "Domestic Science in Schools for young ladies"
in the January no? - it is good, So is your
sketch of Mrs. Delany, wh[?]ther I learned to love in
reading Miss Burney's life of herself. - Marion
Haviland has much of the spirit of ASlice
Haven, dont you think so?
I wrote a notice of Miss Dodje's book
(Gail H.) which I wish now I had preserved,
wherein I spoke of her book as I thought it
merited. Much of what she says is truly noble,
much well deserved castigation - some rather
coarse, & all prolix. But she writes from a
full mind & is an addition to American literature -
Mrs. Sarah J. Hale.
Care of Louis A. Godey Esqr.
Philadelphia.