Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, July 29, 1874
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, July 29, 1874
Subject
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Cushman, Emma Crow, 1839-1920
Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882
Saturday Evening Post
Social Events--Travels
Actors and Actresses
Gender Norms
Jackson, Helen Hunt
Lippincott, Sara Jane (pseudonym: Grace Greenwood), 1832-1904
Description
Charlotte Cushman is with Emma Stebbins and Emma Crow Cushman in Newport. She despises T. Tilton and tells Hunt that he and Grace Greenwood (together with S. Ames) are friends. Cushman describes them as "rotten."
Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.
Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.
Creator
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Date
1874-07-29
Type
Reference
Letter Item Type Metadata
Text
Dear friend,
Your letter of the 16th has reached me on the 24th, since when I have been having one of my bad attacks & have been too prostrated to write. But on the same day your letter arrived Miss Chapman arrived, set a large travelling Basket trunk here which she had bought for me, & into which she had put all [underlined] the things she had brought for Everybody—Miss Cushman, Miss Stebbins, etc. I have not been well Enough to attend to having the things forwarded to you until yesterday when I took them down to Cozzens’ to have them properly packed & forwarded to you, at Colorado Springs Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado by the safest & most Expeditious means. I had no proper box or trunk for them therefore entrusted them to him, as he has those things to do… I have not yet seen Mrs. Chapman she came on the morning of my birthday (23d) with Mrs. Bronson to bring me some flowers, but I was in my midday bath & did not see her. Consequently I know nothing but I can say she will write to you. She is with Mrs. Bronson at Castle Hill to which address I forwarded the note you enclosed to me for her. I hope your gowns will fit, but they are certainly not fit for warm weather. Here we have had no warm weather yet. The comet settled all that & gave England the warmth this time. Since the [moon?] changed, last night, we have clouded up & now it feels Newport-like, warm & close. I have been quite poorly this last week but am not better. I lift very much sooner from this attack (abscesses) than I did, & they are much less severe. This is what the water cure is doing for me. It cannot cure my trouble & nothing else can [last eight words underlined], but it can make me generally better & clearer, as it is doing, If I could [underlined] ask that wonderful physician of mine & go to Colorado, I would go in a moment but, it cannot be. If he makes me able to act this season, it will be my last upon the stage [underlined], though I won’t give up reading [underlined], Ever [underlined], while life lasts! I am to act in New York, Phila, then get to Louisville for Thanksgiving work. Then for a few days at St. Louis, resting, & on the 3d Dr. (Dr), I shall start for California, on my way back from there, the end of Jany, I shall see you. I fear not before, unless fate refuses to let me work, which I hope she will not, for I have certain things to do with next years earnings. --No dear I do not see the Independent. I will try & get your papers. What a dreadful mess, this “Woman’s friend” Theodore Tilton, & the “pure Christian man” & the “white souled woman” have made of it—ah—what dirt we Americans like. I don’t believe in any [underlined] of these “Woman friend” men. They are rotten at the core. G.G. & Mrs. Ames are great friends of T.T. & he of them, & they are “all of a piece,” all too rotten to wash. The account from me[?] of the Exhibition of S.S. & S.A. who by the by keeps a boarding house on 23d St New York she flings about & keeps a housekeeper for the house— who supports it? No. Juggernaut sent for me, but I have not responded. I can’t [last two words underlined]. [TWH?] don’t like it that I don’t. That [underlined] pleases me. I don’t care how much he is displeased with me, he can’t beat my dislike of him.
Ever your faithful C.C.
I am going to Lenox on the 10’ of August for 3 weeks & to New York 313 W. 22d St. on the 3 of September, for four weeks.
Your letter of the 16th has reached me on the 24th, since when I have been having one of my bad attacks & have been too prostrated to write. But on the same day your letter arrived Miss Chapman arrived, set a large travelling Basket trunk here which she had bought for me, & into which she had put all [underlined] the things she had brought for Everybody—Miss Cushman, Miss Stebbins, etc. I have not been well Enough to attend to having the things forwarded to you until yesterday when I took them down to Cozzens’ to have them properly packed & forwarded to you, at Colorado Springs Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado by the safest & most Expeditious means. I had no proper box or trunk for them therefore entrusted them to him, as he has those things to do… I have not yet seen Mrs. Chapman she came on the morning of my birthday (23d) with Mrs. Bronson to bring me some flowers, but I was in my midday bath & did not see her. Consequently I know nothing but I can say she will write to you. She is with Mrs. Bronson at Castle Hill to which address I forwarded the note you enclosed to me for her. I hope your gowns will fit, but they are certainly not fit for warm weather. Here we have had no warm weather yet. The comet settled all that & gave England the warmth this time. Since the [moon?] changed, last night, we have clouded up & now it feels Newport-like, warm & close. I have been quite poorly this last week but am not better. I lift very much sooner from this attack (abscesses) than I did, & they are much less severe. This is what the water cure is doing for me. It cannot cure my trouble & nothing else can [last eight words underlined], but it can make me generally better & clearer, as it is doing, If I could [underlined] ask that wonderful physician of mine & go to Colorado, I would go in a moment but, it cannot be. If he makes me able to act this season, it will be my last upon the stage [underlined], though I won’t give up reading [underlined], Ever [underlined], while life lasts! I am to act in New York, Phila, then get to Louisville for Thanksgiving work. Then for a few days at St. Louis, resting, & on the 3d Dr. (Dr), I shall start for California, on my way back from there, the end of Jany, I shall see you. I fear not before, unless fate refuses to let me work, which I hope she will not, for I have certain things to do with next years earnings. --No dear I do not see the Independent. I will try & get your papers. What a dreadful mess, this “Woman’s friend” Theodore Tilton, & the “pure Christian man” & the “white souled woman” have made of it—ah—what dirt we Americans like. I don’t believe in any [underlined] of these “Woman friend” men. They are rotten at the core. G.G. & Mrs. Ames are great friends of T.T. & he of them, & they are “all of a piece,” all too rotten to wash. The account from me[?] of the Exhibition of S.S. & S.A. who by the by keeps a boarding house on 23d St New York she flings about & keeps a housekeeper for the house— who supports it? No. Juggernaut sent for me, but I have not responded. I can’t [last two words underlined]. [TWH?] don’t like it that I don’t. That [underlined] pleases me. I don’t care how much he is displeased with me, he can’t beat my dislike of him.
Ever your faithful C.C.
I am going to Lenox on the 10’ of August for 3 weeks & to New York 313 W. 22d St. on the 3 of September, for four weeks.
From
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
To
Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1830-1885
Location
Villa Cushman, Neport, RI, US
Geocode (Latitude)
41.4899827
Geocode (Longitude)
-71.3137707
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 29, 1874,” Archival Gossip Collection, accessed April 27, 2024, https://www.archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/270.