Letter from W. Huger FitzSimons to his mother, continued — banking, the rice crop, the children (page 2 of 3)
Book 1, Page 477 ·1896
Transcription
A bifolium opened to show its two inner pages.
Left-hand page (continuation from page 476):
… and yet sounds magnanimous.
I got your letter, with enclosures, dated Sept 28. I put the check for $1000 to your credit in the Miners & Merchants Bank on Oct 2/96. I took a duplicate deposit slip because I have not got your Bank Book and think you might draw it; when you come I can have the proper entry made in your bank book. It is disappointing that the storm should have caused a loss to the rice planters (your sons) but they will make money this year anyhow and I hope the loss will not prove as great as feared. It took away some of the profits, which is very discouraging — but Sam is bright and cheerful
Right-hand page (continuation):
… and said on Sunday that he had his banks mended so that the river was shut out. I am sending James to the Crofts School next door and hope his health this winter will be such as to enable him to attend regularly, for I do not like him to get too far behind his contemporaries. My boys are a great pleasure to me, dear old lady, and I hug them up in the morning and try to answer their numerous questions. It is embarrassing however to be appealed to as a source of knowledge and wisdom and encyclopedia of information. They will pretty soon find out that they don’t have to go very far on their questions to arrive at
AI Notes
Centre leaf of the three-page letter, an open bifolium showing both inner pages side by side. The left-hand page continues the discussion of the recipient’s character/manner, acknowledges the receipt of a letter dated Sept 28 with enclosures, reports the deposit of a $1,000 cheque to the recipient’s account at the Miners & Merchants Bank on Oct 2 1896, and discusses storm damage to the rice planters’ (the writer’s sons’) crop. The right-hand page picks up mid-anecdote about one of the boys’ play-river (‘his banks mended so that the river was shut out’), describes sending the boy James to the Crofts School next door, and reflects affectionately on the writer’s sons and their endless questions. The trailing clause reads ‘but Sam is bright and cheerful’ — referring to the writer’s brother Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons (‘Sam’); the school name ‘Crofts School’ carries no apostrophe (the school is named for the Crofts family but the original cursive has no possessive). The ‘Sam’ reference makes the brotherly news in this letter — a cheerful Sam at home while the rice crop is damaged — line up with the family’s well-attested closeness.
Letter continues on page 478. “Sam” here is Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons, the writer’s brother — known elsewhere in the album as “Uncle Sam” (see p. 653, his letter of 8 Nov 1918).