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days and seems not inclined to sit up, complaining of dizziness when he does. Brays law suit was to have been called on Tuesday. I have been there ever since waiting to testify which I was not called upon to do until late this afternoon and I came down with the 7.25 train arriving here at 10.30. I find no more from Detroit as I expected to. My two pictures have come back from Philadelphia, "Clouds" and "Over the Hills, so that my room is pretty well lumbered up again. I left my father sitting up but I am very anxious about him for he seems to have lost all desire to leave his room and even leaves his bed reluctantly.

Friday Dec. 18" 1885. Rain this morning. After breakfast I went to make some purchases for Sara at Vantines then to Wilmonts to have him send the two pictures to Booth "A Kaatskill Brook 30 x 36" and a Mountain River 20 x 24" I also ordered four little frames for sketches for Christmas presents and a frame for a water color 15 x 18. Then I came to my room and hung up the picture of "Clouds" which necessitated taking down 9 of my framed sketches which I finally managed to put in other places. Wilmont sent for the Booth pictures and I was able to get my room in order. I spent the rest of the day painting four little sketches 4 x 7 for Xmas gifts. Vanderlip came in. He spoke very greatly in praise of my picture in the Whitney collection and said it ought to bring three thousand dollars and thougt it would. I told him I didnt believe it would bring seven hundred. Downing came to dinner and he and Bowyer and Marion went out for the evening. I called on Fred and Annie Norton. No word from Detroit.

Saturday 19" My picture brought $950 at the sale last night which was a good price as compared with other American pictures. Have painted another little sketch today, and worked a little on one of my pictures. Am going home tomorrow morning and will remain over Monday to attend Mrs. Cantines wedding anniversary party. Miss Durfee called and Bowyer called with Mr. Rankins two little daughters who were to lunch with Marion. I wrote to Booth about the sending the two pictures and intended to put in a statement of the account between us and asked him to say "Correct" and sign and return it to me if satisfactory but I find my memorandum book is up home and cannot mail the letter until I go there. 

[[newspaper clippings]]
THE WIDOW OF J. WILKES BOOTH.
CONTRADICTING THE STORY THAT HE IS ALIVE IN Alabama
Tribune Dec, 5 1885" 

Boston, Dec. 4 (Special).- An item recently appeared in a Boston paper to the effect that some person in Alabama had published a book in which he attempted to show that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was still alive. It is not generally known that Booth at the time of his death left a widow and two children, yet such appears to be the fact. A man in the city, who professes to be well acquainted with the widow of Booth, recently addressed her a letter enclosing the paragraph, and suggesting that anything she might write in relation to it would prove interesting to the public. He received a reply from the widow, in which she makes the following statement:

"An item has just come to my notice of some man, unknown in Birmingham, Ala., who has a desire to resurrect John Wilkes Booth. Whoever this man may be, let me warn the public that his only motive must be to make money; for, as sure as the sun shines in the heavens, so sure is John Wilkes Booth dead. I myself saw him buried saw and examined his body before it was laid in its final resting-place. He carried marks upon his body known only to his family and intimate friends, and these marks were identified by his family. We all know that the last act of his life was wrong. We also know we should not judge. We know not the why or wherefore, but it is my opinion that those of us who live long enough will yet learn that, although it was John W. Booth's hands that struck the fatal blow that ended a good man's life, yet it was those in high authority who were the head of a diabolical conspiracy, Andrew Johnson leader, the results of which steeped several families in the deepest of woe, and left a nation to mourn. Although not generally known, J. W. Booth left a family; a wife and two children, a daughter and a son, now grown to womanhood and manhood. This family has lived in seclusion and under a false name for twenty years. For these innocent ones' sakes, let their dead alone and let them sorrow in peace. I beg for the sake of the Booth family, now mourning over the death of the mother of J. Wilkes Booth, that the public will show some little charity and leave the wrongs that some one has done on the hands of a higher Power, who, in His own good time, will make all things right. Let the dead rest for the sake of the living and the innocent."

DEATH OF MRS. MARY BOOTH.    Times
Mrs. Mary Booth, the widow of Junius Brutus Booth and mother of Edwin booth, died yesterday morning at the age of 83 at the residence of her son, Joseph A. Booth, No. 339 West Twenty-third-street. Mrs. Booth, since the death of her husband, has lived most of the time with her son Joseph. She has been for several years past failing gradually in health, and her death was not unexpected. A year and a half ago, while out for a short walk, she had the misfortune to slip and fall heavily upon the pavement, breaking one of her legs. She never fully recovered the use of the limb, and had always to be drawn about in an invalid's rolling chair when taken out for an airing. Ten days ago she caught a cold and was obliged to remain in the house. On Tuesday pneumonia set in, and, in spite of the incessant labors of several physicians, she declined speedily until death ensued.

Mrs. Booth's maiden name was Mary Anne Holmes, and she was born in London. On Jan. 18, 1821, at the close of Mr. Booth's successful engagement in London, she was married to him at the house of a friend in London. She started for America with her husband in April of the same year on the schooner Two Brothers, reaching Norfolk, Va., on June 30. Mr. Booth played an engagement in Richmond immediately afterward, opening in "Richard III." Mrs. Booth's children were Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., Edwin, John Wilkes, Joseph A., Rose, and Asia Booth. She was well known and highly esteemed among members of the theatrical profession. The body will be taken to Baltimore on Saturday for interment.

FUNERAL OF MRS. BOOTH.   Tribune
Funeral services were held over the body of Mrs. Booth in the parlor of No. 337 West Twenty-third-st. yesterday afternoon. The Rev. Dr. Sill officiated. There were only a few of the intimate friends of the family present. Edwin Booth arrived on Thursday night, and was present, as were Joseph A. Booth and Miss Booth. This morning the body will be taken to Baltimore to be buried near that of Junius Brutus Booth.
EIGHT YEARS FOR FORGERY.

END OF THE WHITNEY SALE.
There was no diminution of interest in the last evening of the sale of the Whitney collection. On the other hand, there was an increase of over $8,000 in the prices realized. B. Vautler's "Annual Dinner," which won a first-class medal and decoration for the artist at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, came near the price of "The Departure," bringing $5,150, and "The March of Miles Standish," by Boughton, followed at $3,175. Few of the pictures sold for less than $100. The collection brought nearly $75,000, an average of $333 33 for each picture. The following pictures were among those sold:
[[three columns]]
| The Broken Bank | Bockelmann | $1,550 |
| The March of Miles Standish | Boughton | 3,175 |
| Before the Bath | Bouguereau | 1,330 |
| Prussian Soldier (water color) | Detallie | 870
| Connoisseurs of Engravings | Gilardi | 725 |
| Autumn Flowers | Girard | 935 |
| At the Farm | Goubie | 2,225 |
| Making a Train | Guy | 580 |
| The old Stage Coach | Johnson | 2,810 |
| The City Girl | Knaus | 2,500 |
| Going to the Sepulchre | Landelle | 610 |
| The Martyr | Leloire (dec'd)
| "The Melancholy Days Have Come" | McEntee | 950 |
| The Good Sister | Merle (dec'd) | 795 |
| The Bouquet Valley, Adirondacks | Richards | 525 |
| Land's End, Cornwall, England | Richards | 1,250 |
| The Annual Dinner | Vautier | 5,150 |
[[/newspaper clippings]]

Tuesday 22. Went home on Sunday morning 20". Found my father perhaps a little improved but his dizziness continues when he sits up and he keeps his bed most of the time. Saturday night we had our French class and afterwards I went to the club and had a satisfactory 

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