Letter from Charlotte Cushman to [Emma Crow], Jan 15, 1863

Dublin Core

Title

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to [Emma Crow], Jan 15, 1863

Subject

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Cushman, Edwin "Ned" Charles, 1838-1909
Cushman, Emma Crow, 1839-1920
Crow, Wayman, 1808-1885
Italy--Rome
Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue, 1830-1908
Relationships-- Intimate--Same-sex
Rumors
Gossip--Private
Finances
Reputation
Manners / Etiquette
Social Events--Travels
Family
Patriotism
Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882
Mercer, Sallie
Fields, Annie, 1834-1915

Description

Charlotte Cushman stresses that she reads only "portions" of Emma's letters to Emma's sister Mary who is a very "unamiable" character. Cushman is "fully aware of all her propensities," she say speaking of Mary who gets an "occasional rebuke" from Charlotte. Mary loves Harriet Hosmer as much as her husband, Robert, loves Mary. Robert gave Mary a "diamond & ruby ring" which Charlotte compares to her own. Cushman goes on talking about an American-Italian quarrel that she witnessed. She is frequently making acquaintances on her transatlantic trips at sea. Cushman tells Emma about her house refurnishing and describes the interior to her. Wayman Crow, whom Cushman describes as a "hard man," raised Emma and Ned's rent since is is not particularly fond of Ned. Cushman rants about Dr. Muspratt. Ned is drinking too much wine and has health issues.
Cushman finds Robert Browning "objectionable."
She comments on a Philadelphia matter that could interfere with her financial situation:"Mr Macalister writes to your father that he thinks the Phila matter will come out right. but requires patience time & money. If it does come at allright — on even half right. I can afford to live more comfortably & I am going to do so. for I am tired of putting about expenditure."
Cushman mentions Kate Field and a letter from Annie Fields that brings "all sorts of news & gossip."

Credit

Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Creator

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Source

LoC, CCP 2: 614-617

Date

1863-01-15

Type

Reference

Letter Item Type Metadata

Text

[614] Your dear & welcome letter of the 15 "De." came to my hands on Monday last. 11". I was so thankful to feel the chance[?] of communication reestablished. for I had begun to fear that what with your wanderings & postal delays: & +++ on the +++ & &. I should not be +++ my letters relularly any more. However it seems right now. Thank God. & yesterday I was almost startled by receipt of your letter of the 22d- 25 "Dec." postmarked 26". & in my hands here in Rome on the morning of the 14 Jany. only 20 days from your dear hands. It came by the Australasian. & happening to catch the +++ boat of Monday night 11" — we had it here in good time yesterday. maybe I was not happy to get two letters in a week — only the thought that next week I should not have any troubled me. however I must not answer this last one until next week. & pretend it came on Monday. — Mary had not had any letters from home & was wanting to hear. so I read her portions of your letters – such as she might hear without prejudice or fear of making fun — for I am fully aware of all her propensities & have said to her two or three things about it. she gets an occasional rebuke from me. which hurts I can tell you. for instance I know that she had made fun out of grandmothers [sic] visit before I recd your yesterdays [sic] letter. & in joking her[?] about it. I said (in Roberts [sic] presence, mind you.) but what should I expect if you can make fun of your nearest & dearest. Father mother husband brother sister & all! she was a little cut up at it — but I dont [sic] care! she ought to be rebuked for such things & nobody rebukes her. Robert ideologizes her to that extent. That she has her own way in everything. & rides rough shod over him. he is as much in love as he ever was. & she rules him with a rod of iron. & she makes George stand round. as she used to do all the people in her fathers [sic] house. & as she made you. with regard to little Isabel. That day shortly after you got home to St Louis I never saw a much more unamiable character. agreeable

[614 reverse] & pleasant as she can make herself she could be no friend of mine. About six days ago — she talked of remaining here in Rome & sending Robert & George to Naples. This was because she wanted her fish with Hatty — with whom she is just as much in love as Robert is with herself. — So I thought I would put a 'spoke in her wheel' as grandmother says & the other night. when Robert said he was going later — but as he & George should be doing the sights of Naples which Mary did not care for & would be lonely. I said "why if you are not going until after carrival perhaps I will go down with you — & Miss Stebbins & perhaps Hatty! He was delighted — but as soon as "little sister" heard of it I know how it would affect her. & she immediately announced her intention of going down to Naples on Sunday 17". with Robert & George. to be gone ten or fourteen days. she keeps her rooms at the +++ here — while she is gone for fear she wont [sic] get as good when she comes back. (at 6 sendi[?] a day) she takes a little woman with her who has been sewing for her here. to attend to her & dress her &. she has been buying lots of things among them Hatties [sic] Zenobia in half sign — at 800 dollars
Yesterday Robert gave her a diamond & ruby ring. quite large — not quite [inserted] as big as mine. but a beautiful one which she wears on her fore finger. She is fitted out with the very most elegant dresses & head dress is from Madam +++. you ever saw. in fact. she could not do more if she was Grand Duchess. She has not been very well lately. & I had to send +++ to her. she has been dreadfully troubled with hemorroids. & constipation. but dont [sic] say any thing about this — for she says "every thing +++ write +++ heard of again & she says "of course every thing I write you hear of again!" — perhaps if she believes this —  she will be a little more careful how she writes & this would be an advantage. She is better now: One accident has proved a nine days wonder & is forgotten. by every one except the one who has to pay for it "poor pillicoddy". Mary is now the worse for it. nor am I. at least 

[615] this morning. Sallie has given them all a breakfast of +++ cakes. golden syrup & beef steak — of which they all partook with great appetite & gusto & it went off very well! They are just gone. I have been occupied since with a pittore who is to paint the ceiling of my billiard room. ready for the paper when it comes from America. if those boxes which left early in "Nov". ever reach here. I expect my things will be taken[?] by +++. By the bye. I send out yesterday in company with a Mr Edgerton from New York. who left N.Y. in the scotia crossed the Atlantic in 8 days. & he was exactly 14 days from New York to Rome. having Saturday & Sunday. to spend in Paris! Pretty good evening was it not? — Well. on board the Scotia — was a party of people who sate [sic] at the capt +++ table among them a Mrs Courad (who by the bye has property in St Louis. & who has been in America lately to try & get enough of it to make a sufficient show to marry an Italian Marquis Carvalette[?]. a man who has nothing & wishes to be supported in doing nothing —) one day after dinner some gentleman at the opposite table to the Cap — who had been having a good dinner & feeling "good" began to sing among themselves the "Star Spangled Banner" +++ the people at the Captains [sic] table. Mrs Courad amongst the rest. began to hiss! Theres[?,sic] for you. what it is to be a people without a country. to have no responsibilities. to or for a government. & got. let them be seized by pirates or be wronged abroad & see how soon they would insist upon being protected by the flag of that country which they dishonour & discredit! But that Capt +++ brings me backward & forward safer & quicker than any one else. I declare to you. I would never see him or speak to him again ! These are the things which make you despised among nations there are some tolerably
nice Americans here this winter among them the +++ Lippincottes of Phila — & the +++ +++ of Boston. the daughter had been engaged to
Stebbins[?]. very nice people indeed

[615 reverse] (by the bye Robert hears from his father. that +++ is in Prison & living on prison fare.) Did you hear a good thing that was said about the great organ in Boston It was imported by +++ for Miss Shallucks[?]. but as he failed before it arrived the music Hall took it off his hands!" — Do you see that all the other +++ of +++ are to have organs — larger grander &[?] than Boston!!! — Then there is here a Mrs Gorden Dix. who by the bye crossed in the ship with me. she was an amory[?] of Boston. Then there are a Mrs & Mr Colden[?] Murray[?] of New York. & Mrs & Miss Cl+++land & Mrs S. Parkman very nice people. I arrived so ate here & have been so busy. that I have not been able to see much of any body except casually or out at evening Parties which arriving just at Xmas in a short season. I have seemed to drop in the midst of. my cook has been ill ever since I arrived & I have been getting along in a sort off +++ mugger way. neither one thing or the other. not able to have any one to dinner — but Mary & no one in the evening at all — tomorrow Saturday some dozen or more people are coming for a chat but no music — no nothing! There are so many things to be done in my house — so many things which require time & attention that I am almost crazed — now things seem approaching a settlement. curtains are almost up. carpets almost down. my bed rooms almost all ready. & I shall then have the very nicest house in Rome so that when my children come to me. they will have a really beautiful appartment. The room which was my bedroom when you were here is now the very most beautiful room in the house. I brought a lovely paper from Paris. olive green. dusky — which receives the old furniture beautifully. here — until the room is ready which I am intending for a dining room. (wh used to be aunt Emmas [sic] bed room) we eat & drink our breakfast & dinner. & here I write & attend to all my business matters. In removing the doors of the drawing

[616] room so that they would +++ outward. the room has been made very cold. so badly were they done. Then the stove which was in my dining room has been allowed to get into a delapidated [sic] state. so that no fire could be made in it. The weather has been so dreadfully cold that in no room or house could you get warm. I think I never was made so irritable by the cold. as I am in Rome. & certainly I never felt the sold so severe. The ice on the campagna makes it dangerous to hunt. We had a show & +++ which was so cold. That the snow remained on the roofs of the houses two days. The gutters have ice in them & every body is sniffling & coughing. but for the name of being in Italy — it night be Sweden! At the moment when unmaterial things are resolving themselves out of chaos, my servants are in rebellion — They find the work too hard. & must have more help. & so they shall. I am not going to skimp myself any more but live to my income. Mr Macalister writes to your father that he thinks the Phila matter will come out right. but requires patience time & money. If it does come at allright — on even half right. I can afford to live more comfortably & I am going to do so. for I am tired of putting about expenditure. Darling — how strange it seems that your father should raise your rent. just as Ned has put money upon the house in improving it. I declare I do think he is much too hard on Ned. I dare say he feels hardly towards him for persuading you to marry him. but I cannot but think he is hard & unjust to him. more than he is to other of his belongings. Funny too that he sd. raise your rent 500 dollars a year which Ned has to pay & then makes you a Xmas present of $250. He is a funny man! — I am so glad you found your house & servants all right on your return from the +++ it is a comfort. I rarely know to return & find my house right. Poor Sallie has been so busy unpacking since we came home. That she has never been out of the house but

[616 reverse] twice since we came. aunt Emma is getting better. I am giving her +++ and & she is improving under it. It is an admirable tonic. I am sure. I am fearful that Ned is indulging in too much wine — if his eye is so bad you could not give me much worse intelligence. I am destressed to death about it. it spoils all his good looks & makes his face unreal. oh, I cannot tell you how it destresses me. The well being & doing of my dear ones. make up my happiness — but this trouble of Neds eye makes up my unhappiness. for I am fearful it is too far gone & never will be well. No dear I have not Jean Ingelow. & I fear it was not among my books sent out from Fields. what you say of Mrs Howe & Mrs Kemble & Browning— is most admirable darling & I am delighted with your +++. nothing could be better conceived or said. & it is this — which makes Robert Browning so objectionable to me. He says some splendid things. but most of his finest[?] is spoiled be materialism — or rather man ism. — I have read nothing since I came back only paid visits — received them. & visited & settled house affairs for myself & Mrs King — who has small agonies. She is a very nice woman indeed & I am very fond of her. she comes to me in all her troubles & I believe I am a comfort to her. He is nice & the daughter is a sweet little girl, very much in love with your mamma. I have a letter from your gandmother telling me of the bad illness of your uncle Charles [sic] wife — with carbuncle in the back of the neck. she refused to see a Dr. until it was almost too late. & is now very low. poor uncle Charles is a faithful & devoted nuse. though over whelmed with work at the office. She wont [sic] let a soul touch the thing but him & it makes him a slave. Your grandmother is to be allowed to have the children with her for two days. This holiday — she was too poorly & weak to go down to Liverpool to pass a portion of their holidays with them. Dr Muspratt takes them to London

[617] & lets her have them for two days. ah I wonder if the good dear God — sees & knows how vile a creature he permits to cumber the ground in the person of that miserable creature. The only one human being who excites all my depravity & is here I believe to subdue me to a +++ of injuries. I dont [sic] know whether the time will ever come that I can conquer my intense hate of him nothing can ever satisfy me but for Ned to beat him until he almost kills him — horsewhip him in the street that is the thing for which I wait. & then I can let him go. The children, I am satisfied dont [sic] care a straw for me. either of them. Their grandmother tries to persuade me they do — but they dont [sic] & there is no disguising the fact! — but never mind, my daughter loves me. as I would be loved & that is all I care for — I have never thanked you for your lovely Xmas present which I have used three times for +++ cakes & very +++ & beautiful it is. I love you for thinking of it, dear one. but & do not and that to remind me of your loving thought of me. — I kiss you & thank you for it. you got no present from me dear, on Xmas. but I thought of you lovingly & and this year you shall have a Xmas gift which will please you. — I am very glad darling that you are busying yourself in Church matters for your fathers sake. anything wh. can give him happiness is surely one of your larger duties he is a good man — a good father. but a hard man.— will you thank him dear for his letter to me if I am not able to find time to write to him particularly which I will try to do. This letter was interrupted this morning by its coming time for me to get dressed for my ride with Hattie — Oh darling I am getting very well satisfied with my horses. I do so wish you could be here to enjoy them with me. ah. when will this happy time come for me?. when? since I returned after a road scamper — for the grounds too

[617 reverse] +++ & slippy on the campagna — we have dined & I have been up to the villa +++ to pay a little +++ to the Dexters. & have come home to find Aunt Em busy writing & not ready to go to bed — So I set down to finish up this letter to you. — I think I told you darling that I had a letter from Col Hamilton — +++ letter which I myself put into the lamp post that rainy day when I was late for dinner at the Stebbins [sic] because I was anxious to get that letter off. has never reached his hand. I wonder if +++ could not be found at the Dead letter office in Washington if you wrote to Mrs Seward. If you do write will you give them all my dear love. & tell them how much I like the Kings. who are as sweet as they be./ Poor Mrs Sanford & Kate Field. I am so sorry them all — ah. I am so sorry for every body! — +++ a nice little letter from Mrs Fields. telling me all sorts of news & gossip. Do you ever think of sending a little line to Mrs Truman. tell her I find +++ so well & so happy. she has made a long bust of +++ Tracy. & a most beautiful ideal head. she has impressed[?] in many ways — Your aunt Em & Sallie send you +++ of love. I love you darling as you would wish me to love you — perhaps more than is well I want you — I wait for you — & hope Eva may get you to me some day when it will be well for +++ all to be together. Give my kind love to your mother & sister & Miss Newster[?] & your father — kiss dear Ned for me a hundred times — if so many is proper. I am anxious to know for certain whether your father & mother will come to Europe. I hope they will. Hattie is coming to America in August — if the Crew +++ will let her. God bless you my darling +++ your own fond & worshipping Lady Aunt[?] 

From

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

To

Cushman, Emma Crow, 1839-1920

Location

Rome, Italy

Geocode (Latitude)

41.8933203

Geocode (Longitude)

12.4829321

Provenance

Unfortunately, tape was used to stick the letter pages to blank pages in the folder, which impacts readability of the words at the end of lines on some pages.

Social Bookmarking

Geolocation

Collection

Citation

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876, “Letter from Charlotte Cushman to [Emma Crow], Jan 15, 1863,” Archival Gossip Collection, accessed March 19, 2024, https://www.archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/360.

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