too, as she is not quite as well as usual. She has "sleighed" the cold weather with good success, but is subject to attacks of industry in the hands, and this sometimes renders her sleepless, as it did last night. She has endured the coid unusually well, owing to much comfortable preparation for it, and going daily into the open air. I hope, as the weather moderates, she will improve still more. We hope, my dear child, that you may be able before long to visit us. It seems a long and dreary time since you were bere. We are reconciled because you are gaining health; but this cold winter, like all else, will yield to the action and influences of time, and you can come home in the spring. In the mean time, let us all be patient. It is so long since I have seen Sam, that I presume (as your uncle John, when a little boy, said of his calf which had been out to pasture a few weeks) "he is twenty years old by this time." Your mother has just told me that you were about to do what Job wished his enemy would. She desires you to lay the scenery" in the Susquehanna and Chenango vallies, that you may describe our magnificent landscapes. I would suggest the commencement as follows: "It was in one of those beautifully clear, cold days, so peculiar to the northern climate, in the month of January, 18, that a single person, in a sleigh, might have been seen passing down the valley of the Chenango, where it is lost in the classic vale of the Susquehanna, near the beautiful village of B. The air was filled with glittering particles, and the mass of snow which covered the earth, in reflecting the light, seemed like a carpet of silver inlaid with gold and diamonds. The horses might have been of a dark chestnut color, vying with each other in spirit and symmetry, and the clouds of vapor which issued from their distended nostrils floated gracefully away in the surrounding atmosphere. The vehicle might have been of a deep blue, with a box of fawn color, closely curtained and finished with an air of comfort approaching elegance and taste. The driver might have been nearly middle-aged, with a good-natured, rosy countenance, bespeaking a familiarity with the elements so peculiar to the laboring classes of the Northern states. The single occupant within might have been a lady between the ages of eighteen and fifty-three, enveloped in furs, and almost buried under a robe, so that her form was scarcely perceptible. Her face was pale, but lighted up with animation and intelligence, and her mouth evinced profound decision of character. Her mild blue eyes were half concealed under a pair of gold spectacles, evidently worn more for ornament and convenience than for necessity," &c., &c. (Continued in our next.) Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MARY S. DICKINSON. BINGHAMTON, March 14, 1856. MY DEAR MARY-We are all as usual. The weather begins to yield to better influences, and spring will soon be here, and we hope that you will be with us again after the long, cold winter is over. Judge M. yesterday wrote me for a daguerre otype, from which to have a portrait painted for a friend. I have not time to sit for one now, and wrote him that you would lend him yours, and perhaps leave it with him. If he calls, please let him have it, to keep or return as you please. I can send him another if you prefer to keep this, or get you another, as you may wish. Do not part with it if you desire to keep God bless you, my child. Your affectionate father, it, but lend it to him. D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. CHARLOTTE M. DICKINSON. BINGHAMTON, May 31, 1856. DEAR CHARLOTTE-I have just read yours to Mrs. D. We are of course anxious for your return with our dear Stevie, but do not wish you to disregard the doctor's directions. As soon as he thinks it admissible you had better come, but not before. Autie is a most excellent boy, but is quite lonesome, and is anxious for Stevie's return as well as yours. Our good girl Ann has left us for the West, to join her husband, pursuant to his directions. Autie was determined to go with her: packed his clothes the night before she left, and was with difficulty persuaded to give it up. He cried himself almost sick over the separation, so deeply was he attached to her. Love to all. Affectionately, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. WALLACE TO MR. DICKINSON. NEW YORK, March 25, 1856. DEAR SIR-I did not reply to the letter which you were so kind as to write me some time ago, because at the time I expected to visit Binghamton and pay my respects in person. Courtesy as well as desire impels me to pen this note. I am deeply gratified at your approval of the lyric, every line of which sprung from my heart; because I regard you as the purest, noblest, and most clear-headed statesman in my country. I hope to see you nominated by the Cincinnati convention; and in case of the Democracy pursuing so wise a course, be assured that every effort will be made in your behalf by Yours most respectfully WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE. MR. DICKINSON TO MR. ROGERS. BINGHAMTON, May 31, 1856. MY DEAR ROGERS-Nothing new occurs to me since writing you last. Every day's events tend to satisfy me that the disintegration of parties is steadily and surely going forward; that a semi-fanaticism is enlisting a strong force for the campaign, and that we shall not succeed without a strong candidate. Phases at Cincinnati are, and, during the sitting of the convention, will be so constantly changing, that were Solomon himself here in all his glorious wisdom he could make no suggestion that would be likely to profit you in the least. "God and Liberty." Sincerely yours, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. COURTNEY. BINGHAMTON, June 12, 1856. MY DEAR L. L.-Your mother, Uncle Cyrus and wife, and Aunt Lee, and "other articles too tedious to mention," started for Guilford to-day, to visit the old homestead. I told them that the cavalcade looked like Titmouse going to take possession of Yatton. They expect to stay over at Oxford tonight, visit Guilford, and return there to-morrow night, and reach home on Saturday. The hotel accommodations at Guilford are about what they were in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of our Lord's nativity. Cyrus, you know, has a beautiful family of children. Stevie's eyes continue to improve. All send love to you and Sam, and hope you will come soon. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. BRIGHT TO MR. DICKINSON. WASHINGTON, July 26, 1856. DEAR GOVERNOR-Would it be possible for you to attend our great mass convention, to be holden on the Tippecanoe Battle Ground, September 3, 1856? It will be a monster meeting, and your presence would be of infinite service. I have received several letters urging me to beg you to attend. Do go, if possible. Let me hear from you. Your friend, JESSE D. BRIGHT. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. DICKINSON. ASTOR HOUSE, N. Y., September 16, 1856. MY DEAR LYDIA-We had a quick run down, and were here at about half past eight. Yesterday was a day to me, as I saw it was to you, full of melancholy reflections, and I was pained to leave home. Every day increases my domestic feelings and affections, and relaxes my hold upon everything else. What others "enjoy," I do not, but go into their amusements and pursuits mechanically. No one knows how much solicitude I have for our two dear remaining children, Lydia and Mary. The young never can appreciate the feelings of those who have no hope in life except the present; whose affections are never to twine around new objects. I cannot but hope and believe that Lydia will, with more quiet and gentle exercise, recover her health and spirits. She has youth, prudence, and an excellent frame of mind to bear her forward. Mary must not forget that to us she is yet but a mere beloved child. She knows not how many anxious moments her parents have contemplated her loveliness, and how necessary she is to their enjoyment. That their circle of dear ones is never to increase, but to be broken and reduced as time progresses-no one knows how soon, or how painfully. I would that we could all have a better opportunity, and hope we may, for indulging in domestic quiet, and learn to cultivate that spirit of home enjoyment so refreshing to the careworn and contemplative, and so beneficial to the young. Love to all. Affectionately, D. S. DICKINSON. REV. MR. BARTLETT TO MR. DICKINSON. STRATFORD-ON-AVON, September 22, 1856. DEAR SIR-I have just visited the birth-place and the tomb of Shakespeare, and knowing somewhat of your appreciation of his genius, I avail myself of a little leisure to enclose you a leaf from the old churchyard, and a plate or two, I procured in the room of his birth. The engravings may give you too favorable an idea of the appearance of the house, it being very much dilapidated. The mud walls within are literally carved with autographs-among which I noticed Sir Walter Scott's upon a pane of glass. Lucien Bonaparte left the following record of his visit in 1810: "The eye of genius glistens to admire How memory hails the sound of Shakespeare's lyre; For all that's grand, immortal, and divine.” |