From Samuel L. and Olivia L. Clemens
to Annie Moffett Webster
1 September 1876 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: NPV, UCCL 01361)
(SUPERSEDED)

Elmira, Sept. 1.

My Dear Niece:

I am right down sorry, but there has been no time since we have been here that Livy & the children have all been hearty enough at one & the same time to venture the journey to Buffalo; & now at this present date, although Livy & Susie are well enough, the baby has been during some days in the doctor’s hands, & still is. So you see, the possibilities have been dead against us.1

I have got to be in New York & Hartford on vital business at the earliest practicable moment; so, just as soon as the baby can travel, we are off.2 We have got to put off our Fredonia visit to a future date. When you become an [anvalid] & are possessed of two little children instead of one, you will appreciate the checks that interfere with distant visits, but doubtless you won’t understand the thing earlier.

I hope your baby is still performing well & giving satisfaction. A baby is an inestimable blessing & bother.3

Tell Ma to take the gas stove if she prefers, & I will pay for it, if she will send me the bill. It is the most convenient fire in the world & is plenty cheap enough, at $2.50 a week, 12 hours a day. An open (soft coal) fire is prettier, but enormously troublesome—& besides, one is always either freezing or roasting with it, for the angels of heaven could not regulate it.

With all our loves to you-all,

Yr aff uncle

Sam

David Gray spent a day or two with us, but we could not return the visit, of course.4

I strongly incline to the gas stove, if it will make the room warm enough, but I am a little afraid it won’t.

P. P. S.—Livy is utterly & bitterly opposed to the gas stove. She says it is not a fire, but the mere chilly pretense of one. She says you must buy one of those beautiful [ ‸tile Stoves‸ ] (they cost from $20 to $35 according to size) & you must burn nice so c a nice quality of soft coal that will make a fine blaze. You can doubtless get the s ‸can‸ have a stove dealer order one for you. Send the bill to me.

Your soft coal (2 tons) will not cost you half as much per winter as the gas would.

S L C

If you like the stove, your best way will be to write Mr. Theodore W. Crane & state the size you want, & he will order it for you from [headquarters].5

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The doctor was Rachel Brooks Gleason, of the Elmira Water Cure, who delivered Clara Clemens in June 1874, and regularly attended Olivia Clemens when the family was in Elmira. The Clemenses had been hoping to visit their friends David and Martha Gray in Buffalo. If “the possibilities” had permitted that, they also would have been able to visit Fredonia, about forty miles away, where Annie and her husband, Charles L. Webster, and Jane Clemens, Pamela Moffett, and Samuel E. Moffett all lived (L6, 27 n. 1, 71 n. 3, 155–56, 160–61, 213).

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2 The Clemenses evidently arrived in New York, where they registered at the St. James Hotel, on 6 September. They arrived in Hartford on 11 September (“Hotel Arrivals,” New York Herald, 7 Sept 76, 7; “Prominent Arrivals,” New York Tribune, 7 Sept 76, 8; 14 Sept 76 to Fairbanks).

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3 The Websters’ first child, Alice Jane, was born on 24 July 1876 (L6, 613).

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4 See 4 Aug 76 to Fairbanks, n. 3.

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5 Crane, Olivia Clemens’s brother-in-law, had been a partner in J. Langdon and Company, the family coal firm, since 1870 (L4, 125 n. 1).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

MS, Jean Webster McKinney Papers, Special Collections, NPV.

Previous publication: MTBus, 135, partial publication; MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

anvalid • [sic]

‸tile Stoves‸ • ‸tile Stoves‸ [added by OLC in space left blank by SLC]

headquarters • head-|quarters