Viewing page 194 of 607

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

172

performance of ten trained St. Bernard dogs which was interesting. It struck me that this cheap and interesting entertainment was most timely and ought to be encouraged. I hope they make it pay for everything connected with it struck me as most decorous and the people polite and obliging.

Friday March 27" 1885. The spring seems to have come. Today is mild and grey and a slight rain fell towards evening. I confess I began to long for the spring day although I know they will be filled with a tender sadness for me. I have tried to paint a little picture but my work is not from the heart. I seem to lack some stimulus. No one comes here to look at pictures and I have almost ceased to expect anyone. The picture I sent to Springfield has been injured by fire and none of my ventures are successful. I begin to feel very discouraged but try not to look into the future. Girard has written me wanting more help. I dont at all understand his situation but I fear it is discouraging. Where will it all end? I wrote to Mr. Pelton a letter of sympathy but it seemed to me I could not say much that would be comforting. Still I thought the mere act of writing would show him that he was in my thoughts. Major Wilkinson called. He always seems happy and to be getting on well. I called at the Stoddards in the evening. Mrs. Stoddard spoke most tenderly of my dear Gertrude and of her devotion to me. She said among all the friends she had lost none of them seemed so real as she. What a lovely memory she has left in the hearts of all who ever knew her. I often am amazed that I was thought worthy the love of such a woman.

Saturday 28". The sun is shining pleasantly today. I spent an hour looking at the pictures in the Suney collection. The Evening Post has questioned the genuineness of some of the pictures and the American Art Association has sued them for $25.000 damages. The affair has called out a great deal of discussion and seems to advertise the collection. I was no more favorably impressed by the pictures on a second view. They do not come up to my standard and Whittredge whom I met in the street said the same. I bought a bottle of Tokay wine for my father and went down to the Fulton market and got him some little birds and some wild pigeons to take up home. Went home by 4 o clock train. John and Nannie went also and they rode home from the station with me. Found Mrs. Davis staying with Sara. 

Sunday 29" It was snowing this morning but it cleared before noon and the weather was mild. My father came down stairs for the first time in six months and dined with us. He went back to his room early in the afternoon with my help as he felt uncomfortable to lie down with his clothes on. I had a talk with Girard who is still in the drag and needs help the result being that my father and I endorsed a note of $800 for him with which he is to take up the $250 note now out but not due and pay some of his companies according to a memorandum I made. Poor old Aunt Ann fell a week ago friday and injured her hip. I went down to see her. Jane and Julia Van Valkenburgh were there. She was propped up in bed and looked very pitiful and feeble to me. She knew me but I could hardly understand her. I see so little in old age that is comforting or attractive that it leads me to wish I may not live to be feeble and a burden. My father received a letter from Joe Tomkins announcing that he and Miss Odell are to be married. John McEntee received a telegram today from Nyack announcing the death of Mrs. Reid, the wife of Wm Reid, who went to State prison from Rondout. Poor woman! What she has suffered for his misdeeds and now perhaps he is suffering for her loss and for the sorrow he has caused her.

Monday March 30". Bright, sunshiny morning, but I awoke with a 

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-03 14:03:09 First portion of a word connected to its beginning on previous page of diary. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-03 15:36:38