Lowell April 15, 1860.

 

My dear Anderson,

                                    Yours of the 10 ult. came to me in due season and I hasten to reply. Just after I mailed the letter that you had the kindness to answer, as I was going home I met Jennie who handed me a note for you. I put it in an envelope with a few lines of my own and forwarded it to you soon after. The point at which I wish to arrive is this—she beset me daily for an answer, and I wish you would send her a small dose of that precious compound in which you so peculiarly abound namely, gas, as a sort of composer to her excited fancy. No hint of this to her, of course. Miss Folansbee has been paying us a visit within a week, and she called in to the store a few minutes last week. She is in good condition so far as I can judge from looks. Lowell and its inhabitants remain in status quo. The only thing here worthy of remark is the high winds that have prevailed to a great degree for the past few days. The remarkable development that / it makes under the crinoline, are noticeable to me as I sit at the window and watch the throng that passes around the corner of Central and Merrimack St. This bountiful display of the works of Nature leads the mind off from the creature to the creator, and impresses upon the mind that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

 

            I was pleased to hear that you were flourishing so finely with your school, and wish very much that I could come down there and see you. I have been reading for the past week Parton's Life of General Jackson, and as his early days were spent in North Carolina and his middle life in Tennessee, and Natchez being a place often mentioned in its pages, I think I often find scenes that you are now seeing in reality. The remarks that you make about being so far away from everything, that you could not think of going on foot to it, is expressed in exactly the same language by the biographer. The old fields too—which is a term so often used by Southerners is here explained very satisfactorily. While I have been reading it, I have had you in my mind nearly all the time. I hope that you will not falter in your pursuit after legal knowledge. I think that with your powers of appreciation that you would / do well at it. I know of no place that seems to offer greater inducements to a young legal practitioner than the south and west; from all that I can gather, you are sure of gaining a competency at an early day, and to a man as smart as you there is more than an average chance for a seat in Congress. In speaking of this latter matter, I much wish that you could see your duty to lie in espousing the Republican side of the question, but as that is a matter for every man to settle for himself, you must make your own choice and then go in and win. Success is now the criterion by which people make up their opinions, and no matter how much justice there may be on the losing side the man may as well count himself out as to espouse it. Then hurrah for the victorious side, always remembering that line of "good old Doctor Watts", "Sure I must fight if I would win". I took great care of those documents that were left here by your order, although I might have had rather a loose way of writing about them. They were not in my way at all, and I am very sorry that I ruffled your dignity by what I wrote. Any thing that I can at any time do, I shall be very happy to. The pictures have since your writing / been taken away by a friend of Valpey's who chanced to come to Lowell. I quizzed the youth some but did not get much out of him. Valpey's mother is very much out of health. About a half an hour ago I rec'd a letter from Geo. H Bartlett in one of the envelopes marked Bixby's Hotel, which brot forcibly to mind the pleasant days that we spent together there. He thinks of going to New York to work. Please write me soon and believe me always your friend,

                                                                                   

Selwyn E. Bickford

 

To William H Anderson Esq

            Sligo Plantation, Miss.

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