Viewing page 39 of 126

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

37

$241.36 being three years interest on the note my father gave him. I shall be glad when we can pay the principal as it seems too bad to be paying 6 percent interest now when no one gets more than 4. I also paid him his months wages today $25. and for Dec. Jan. & Feb. he is to work for $20 pr month. He and I went over to the cemetery and put the cover on dear Gertrudes headstone in which the crack seems to increase. Maurices headstone is in place and I paid Post for the foundation $3. I have thus paid all the expense of this stone myself but Lucy and Mary are to contribute.

Sunday Nov. 17" 1889. Cold and bright. The mercury down to 11° this morning at 7. About midnight someone tapped on my window. It proved to be Downing who had come up on a late train. I lighted him up to the little hall bedroom and was suprised to find Sara asleep there. She awoke frightened thinking of burglars as Dr. Kennedy's home was entered a few nights ago. We are still occupying the big room. He had Girard and Mary and John & Julia to dinner and I fear they found the house pretty cold. Downing and I looked over the map he made. I found more errors and I told him frankly I had little confidence in it, and that I felt it had been carelessly done. He is I think somewhat troubled about it and is to come up next week and go over the ground again carefully. I felt at that time he made the survey that he was in too great a hurry and I told him repeatedly he was not accurate enough. I am dissatisfied about the way it has been done and if it had been anyone but Downing would have expressed myself much more strongly. He went back by the evening 7:45 train and is to come up again during the week. Mrs. Willis who used to live on the hill and Mrs. Jansen Anderson called, both looking very pretty and attractive.  John and Julia remained during the evening and we read a chapter in the Conquest of Mexico.

Monday 18" Raining this morning and much milder. Abandoned the big room for the present. Down town where I received a letter from Hiram Romeyer inviting me to dine with him on Dec. 6. Wrote to Bailey regretting he and Mrs. B. could not have come. Tom arranged doors to the wood house from the old gates to the barnyard, for keeping out this snow with which I assisted him some. After dinner we went over to my house and brought over my old book case which we have put up in the dressing room to keep china in. It was very difficult to move and I feel as tired tonight as if I had done a hard days work. I find I am easily fatigued, my health is easily gone and I fear asthma or some trouble of that sort. It is sometimes extremely difficult for me to climb the hill and the least exertion finds me out of breath. The papers announce a quiet revolution in Brazil a Republic having been proclaimed and the wise and Liberal Dom Pedro deposed and sailed away for Portugal.

Tuesday 19" Rainy at intervals. Down town where I got a letter from Alice. I also bought all the materials to fix up the book case in the dining room and have been at work at it most of the day, lining it, staining the shelves &c and it looks very nicely. When my china arrives from N.Y. we will arrange it and it will be a feature of the dining room. I have begun a letter to Mrs. Bayard Taylor.

Wednesday 20" Downing came up last night and we have spent most of the day going over accurately the measurements of the lots on Chestnut St. and the one on Newbury Terrace sold to Miss Elliott. It was rainy in the morning but cleared and has been pleasant all afternoon. The news from Brazil shows that the revolution was accomplished without disorder of any kind. The Emperor Dom Pedro was paid a large sum and guaranteed $450.000 annually as a pension. The Brazilians have given proof of their capacity for a government of the people, and have thus in a perfectly orderly manner removed the last trace of monarchical government from the American Continent. It seems to me a grand achievement marking an era in the history of free government. Sara, Dewing and I went down to Johns to supper, after which we had conversation and I read a chapter in the Conquest of Mexico. We did not get home until afer tea. It rained when we went down.

Thursday 21" Downing and I got at our measuring directly after breakfast and have now gone carefully over all the measurements and verified them on the map he made, so that now I do not see why it is not absolutely correct. I find that in the three lots I have bought with the house there are only 142.6 instead of 150 feet. Downing went back to N.Y. by the 4:05 train. We have had a pleasant grey day and I am greatly
 
[[left margin]] Measured all the lots [[/left margin]]

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-22 12:20:25 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-22 22:09:44 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-23 10:47:07