Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, July 14, 1873
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, July 14, 1873
Subject
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Cushman, Emma Crow, 1839-1920
Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882
Jackson, Helen Hunt
Illness
Social Events--Travels
Description
Charlotte Cushman writes from her Newport home. Her health has deteriorated again. Cushman calls Emma Stebbins "Emma S." She is looking after Emma Crow Cushman's kids.
Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.
Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.
Creator
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Date
1873-07-14
Type
Reference
Letter Item Type Metadata
Text
Dear friend,
Ever since I came here & heard of your disappointment about the Colorado trip, & your illness, your Boston sojourn, & your subsequent flattery[?] to Littleton, I have been wanting to write to you to express my sympathy, but the moment has never come. As soon as I arrived here -- /next day but one/ my brother & niece from England arrived here – a week after came two of the children & two nurses, four days after that Mr. & Mrs. Cushman’s two other children & nurse arrived, so I have had my house full & my hands more than full ever since I came. My correspondence has suffered meanwhile. You have not been forgotten though I have not written to you, & now, wanting to know of you & yours well being & whereabouts I send out this feeler[?] which I hope will bring me back satisfactory accounts. For me, dear, I am not in a very satisfactory condition, but I am tired of the subject. The weather is simply joyous, so cool & lovely a July, mortal men fret in these parts! The wind, well the wind is in “a devil of a way,” & is “raising Cain,” all the time, not a moment are we free—my windows all squeal like the 31st [underlined] of November, my little trees lash themselves about until they are all loosened at the roots, but this so beneficently tempers the air for me, that I am “at heaven upon my knees” hourly. Whether this will last beyond July remains to be proved, and old weather wise man at Bateman’s says we shall have no rain until August & it has rained but one whole hour since the 7th of June. I stand in fear & trembling in the middle of my room all the time [last three words underlined], lest the Laundress should come to announce “no more water in the cisterns” -- & that we shall be all obliged to go dirty for fear of not having enough to wash in [underlined]. If August is wet & hot & steaming as usual, I have promised Emma S, who is obliged to be separated from us all this time on a/c of her mother’s illness at Hyde Park, to go somewhere to the hills – tell me where I shall go with a chance of getting in [last five words underlined] & beef “to eat [last three words underlined] & drink & to be clothed or without”. I begin to have the fear that I shall not be able to work at all next winter, if so, I shall see more of you here. Newport has been very empty, but begins to show signs of live. [sic] God bless you, get & keep well & let me hear from you – Emma Cushman desires to be kindly remembered.
Ever yours affectionately, C.C.
Ever since I came here & heard of your disappointment about the Colorado trip, & your illness, your Boston sojourn, & your subsequent flattery[?] to Littleton, I have been wanting to write to you to express my sympathy, but the moment has never come. As soon as I arrived here -- /next day but one/ my brother & niece from England arrived here – a week after came two of the children & two nurses, four days after that Mr. & Mrs. Cushman’s two other children & nurse arrived, so I have had my house full & my hands more than full ever since I came. My correspondence has suffered meanwhile. You have not been forgotten though I have not written to you, & now, wanting to know of you & yours well being & whereabouts I send out this feeler[?] which I hope will bring me back satisfactory accounts. For me, dear, I am not in a very satisfactory condition, but I am tired of the subject. The weather is simply joyous, so cool & lovely a July, mortal men fret in these parts! The wind, well the wind is in “a devil of a way,” & is “raising Cain,” all the time, not a moment are we free—my windows all squeal like the 31st [underlined] of November, my little trees lash themselves about until they are all loosened at the roots, but this so beneficently tempers the air for me, that I am “at heaven upon my knees” hourly. Whether this will last beyond July remains to be proved, and old weather wise man at Bateman’s says we shall have no rain until August & it has rained but one whole hour since the 7th of June. I stand in fear & trembling in the middle of my room all the time [last three words underlined], lest the Laundress should come to announce “no more water in the cisterns” -- & that we shall be all obliged to go dirty for fear of not having enough to wash in [underlined]. If August is wet & hot & steaming as usual, I have promised Emma S, who is obliged to be separated from us all this time on a/c of her mother’s illness at Hyde Park, to go somewhere to the hills – tell me where I shall go with a chance of getting in [last five words underlined] & beef “to eat [last three words underlined] & drink & to be clothed or without”. I begin to have the fear that I shall not be able to work at all next winter, if so, I shall see more of you here. Newport has been very empty, but begins to show signs of live. [sic] God bless you, get & keep well & let me hear from you – Emma Cushman desires to be kindly remembered.
Ever yours affectionately, C.C.
From
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
To
Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1830-1885
Location
Villa Cushman, Newport, RI, US
Geocode (Latitude)
41.4892467
Geocode (Longitude)
-71.3039304
Annotations
added by the person who transcribed the letters (with reference to item 263):
[Letter sequence jumps from Sept., 1871 to July, 1873]
[Letter sequence jumps from Sept., 1871 to July, 1873]
Provenance
Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Part 2, Ms 0156, Box 1, Folder 17, letters from Charlotte Cushman to HH, 1871-75. Transcribed by Nancy Knipe, 2007, https://libraryweb.coloradocollege.edu/library/specialcollections/Manuscript/HHJ2-1-17.html. Accessed 30 March, 2020.
Social Bookmarking
Geolocation
Collection
Citation
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876, “Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, July 14, 1873,” Archival Gossip Collection, accessed April 27, 2024, https://archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/264.