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a case to Sara. If I could afford it I would have a nurse for him to relieve her. I went over to where the men are grading Chester St. They are getting on well. Girard went over there with Nathan Sims to look at the cot his sister proposes to buy but he seems slow in deciding.

Monday 4. Another charming day. I raked the road in front of the house which is dry and the snow going rapidly although there are still deep banks of it in places. Went over to Chester St. and looked about. The men are at work and so far finding only sand to remove. I expect they will come to work but there is less than I feared. It was so delightful up in the country I was reluctant to leave which I did by the 435 train. Sara and Emily drove me up to the station and went on to Kingston. The cars were over heated and I have been too warm all evening. Went to the century and had some supper.

Tuesday 5" Very cold again. I went up to the Academy to see just how the hanging committee had treated their own pictures. I found them all in the line and in excellent places, except that one of Bolton Jone's pictures was in the corridor and Eastman Johnsons portrait of Dr. Porter was over some very small pictures. I also found that there were 70 pictures in the line, of artists in no way connected with the Academy either as Academician or associate while the pictures of Academicians are put in ignominious places. Robbins came up to see me. He is provoked about the hanging of one of his pictures high up in the corridor, but I was careful what I said to him. I have had a feeling of discouragement all day. No one wants my work seemingly and even my artist friends seem to indicate by their action that I am retrograding. I am not however as I think my work will show. I see some of the most meretricious and vulgar things in the Academy sold and some of the best, unsold.

Wednesday 6" I had a letter from Booth yesterday from San Francisco. An application from a man in Michigan for one of the $50 pictures in answer to one advertisement in the Century, but he wants to select it. Bowyer answered the letter. I hear of pictures being sold on all hands, a great many on the Academy, but not of mine and I feel troubled about it. I understood that Vedden sold $10,000 worth of his pictures in Boston. I dont even get paid for the one I sold to the Buffalo Academy. Bowyer and I dressed in our dress suits and went to call upon Mrs. Donaldson, but they were both out. I went around to the club and met several of the artists, Howland, Ward, Perry, Linton Homer. We talked of the Academy and of Satterlee whose picture was rejected. They made him an associate and now will not exhibit his pictures. It is all wrong. The members of the Academy are easily admitted and then are at the caprice of all sorts of ignorance and thoughtlessness on the part of the committees, just because there no fixed rules as to the rights of members. But I found he got no sympathy. No one does, no matter how he is treated.

Thursday 7. I took up the Winter Sunset in the Kaatskills I painted several years ago and have begun to repaint it but I am afraid I have spoiled it. Went to the club this evening and met several of the artists. I find there is a good deal of dissatisfaction with the hanging at the Academy. George Hall is displeased and so is James Hart to my surprise, for his picture is in the line and in a place I would be glad to have.

Friday 8. The weather is not warm. The grass is just showing a faint tinge of green in the parks. I painted over the sky in my Winter and have been over the whole picture. I think it is better but still not what I want. I went