Title
Edward Strange Junior to Mary Ellen Strange Feb/Mar 1868
Philadelphia 20.2.1868 - 25.2.68
My very dear Sister
Many many thanks for your most welcome and delightful letters, the second of which I received this morning. I can hardly think that you can possibly be so much on the look out for my letters as I am for yours, and I was so very glad to hear from you. I am glad to be able to send you a very favourable report of my doings, and intend to make this as long and exhaustive a letter as I can.
Please thank Sam for his welcome letter, and tell him how delighted I am to hear of his improved prospects; how I hope he will like his position and soon be able to settle down, which I believe to be the correct expression for getting married, and may he long live to enjoy the happiness he so well deserves.
Give my very dear love to Annie also, and tell her how glad I am to hear what good hands she is likely to fall into.
I am sorry to hear such a bad account of Dory's health, I hope it will soon improve; but don't let him think of coming out here for some time at any rate; for things were never worse for immigrants whether in the Atlantic States or Westward.
You must also be my mouthpiece to all my dear friends in the dear old Country, to tell them how often I think of them, and how dearly I would like to see them again, as I hope I shall some day.
My last note, informing you that I had obtained employment was written on the day I was so fortunate as to find myself possessed of the splendid (?) income of $7 per week and had found out how to live on it; no easy matter here. I have since improved in my circumstances, and have to report that Mr: Magee my "boss" was so well satisfied with me at the expiration of a week, that he increased my salary to $10 per week.
Henry Morris advised me to remove my quarters from the "hotel" at which I was stabled; and I was the more glad to do so, as, independently of its offering great temptations in the way of drinking &c &c I was by no means comfortable there. At his recommendation, therefore, I have removed my impediments and myself to the house from which I date, & which I will try to describe.
It is a Friend's Boarding House, quite private, kept by a widow lady of not very advanced years, but still blooming, assisted by her niece, a young lady of about nineteen summers I should guess, also blooming. I believe we number about 17 in the family all told; and a more agreeable family you could hardly find.
They are not all Friends; though all are connected more or less with the Society. Ten are of the female persuasion and constitute by far the most communicative and lively part of the body; American gentlemen in general society are dreadfully heavy & reserved; they principally confine themselves to answering the questions of the ladies, which are decidedly not of the nature of angel's visits. From this verdict I must except one of our gentlemen, Dr Thomas by name, a Friend, tho' whether M.D. - D.D. or any other species of D. I am unable at present to inform you. He is a man who has travelled much; to Europe & India especially; a very learned man; a lexicographer (on the strength of having written a Pronouncing Universal Gazzetteer), a man well versed in both American & English literature; but he has no pedantry about him, and he imparts his information in a simple & very pleasant manner, and helps on the conversation wonderfully.
The other gentlemen seem content not to be counted as talking animals, but at the same time are negatively pleasant.
I enjoy myself very much, and find something to say now and then, though it requires some assurance & some consideration, and to keep one's wits in pretty good working order to converse with these New England ladies (as several of them are), for they are so terribly keen and good at cross examination; and let an idea once be started, trust them for hunting it to death.
There are but two married couples among us; two or three ladies have arrived at tolerably mature years without making a personal acquaintance with a wedding ring; two or three are widows and the balance are juvenile, i.e. from 18 to 25 I should judge, (never having asked their age or examined their teeth.)
And now I suppose you would like to know how I live here. Well, I have a good sized room all to myself, lighted with gas, warmed by hot air from the furnace in the basement, which I can admit or exclude from my room at pleasure (usually the latter): marble top washstand, rosewood chiffonier, easy chair, clothes cupboard, carpet, iron bedstead, towel horse and two windows.
We have a nice sitting room with easy & rocking chairs, sofa &c &c, (N.B. no spitting allowed and no spittoons). There is also a double parlour down stairs with folding doors between; with very luxurious chairs and sofas; Miss Carrie Shreve, the niece of Mrs Jones, the proprietress, owns a piano (and a beauty too) in the same parlour, in which I am now writing, and we often have some music and singing (mostly sacred) in the evenings.
At 7 o'clock in the morning a bell is rung to let us know it is time to get up, and at 7.30 we have breakfast, and a good one at that. I start at about 7.45 for business and get there at 8. At 2 p.m. we have dinner and tea at 6.30 p.m. I come home to all meals, and after tea go back again till about 8. Americans don't take suppers.
I wish I could describe some of the strange dishes we have (tho' common in America); you would be amused or horrified at the great variety of different things an American will put away with the aid of his or her knife fork or fingers; it seems almost immaterial which.
At Breakfast they make a hot cake something like a pancake, but concocted with buckwheat flour & yeast; eaten with butter & molasses they are delicious. Toast they spoil by soaking it in milk; bread is home made and very nice; little, tiny rolls hot and homebaked are also very good. On the same table for the benefit of those who like the mixture (their name is legion) are potatoes, sweet potatoes, stewed plums, baked apples, and many other things, including preserved cranberries; not the sort that Uncle Francis used to import, but a large berry, round & red, doing duty here for a gooseberry; which it very much resembles in taste, tho' rather acid but very nice.
Dinner is a still more formidable affair: meat over here is much the same in look & taste as in England, but every thing else is different. Potatoes are always either baked or boiled; the turnips are what we give to sheep in England, viz. Swedes: parsnips are cut in slices and fried: beans are the ripened product of scarlet runners boiled hard and black: hominy is boiled Indian Corn (or Corn as it is exclusively called here), tolerably insipid unless "fixed" with molasses, but the prince of all table vegetables here is the sweet potato. I never tasted anything equal to it, and it is indescribable. It is in shape something like one piece of a very large dahlia root, and has a mealy, slightly sweet taste: boiled or baked it is superb. Pies are made in shallow flat tins, and are so thin that I saw a notice in one of the papers the other day that St Louis boasted of having a champion "pie biter" who could bite through 24 pies at once: I believe he didn't find a competitor. Tea is breakfast repeated.
For this accommodation I pay $7 per week, and cheap at that. My washing, which I have to employ a black woman to do, I pay for at the rate of one dollar per dozen pieces, large and small; isn't it dreadfully dear? But I can't get it done cheaper anywhere.
I spend my Sunday afternoons & evenings at H.Morris' house in Tasker St, and have found a most valuable friend in him.
The weather has been very cold, as low as 14o below zero; but I find I bear the cold very well indeed, much better than 9 out of 10 natives. They make their rooms so very hot with heated air or stoves (no grates) that they can't bear the fresh air at all while I enjoy it.
I have had the most excellent health, having had nothing the matter with me all through the winter. It is now thawing rapidly, and the streets are in a dreadful mess but will soon be better. There has been a great deal of snow, and consequently capital sleighing, it sounds so very cheerful to hear the sleigh bells as they go gliding down the streets: it is now pretty much over.
You say "won't you be glad when you hear the click of your own hard earned money again"! Quite the reverse; for that would imply that I couldn't muster anything larger than a 5 cent piece; that being the largest piece of coin in circulation, everything above that being in greenbacks, as well as a great many 3 and 5 cent stamps. There are only 4 coins seen now, 1 cent, 2 cents, 3 cents & 5 cents.
25/2/68. There is a tremendous disturbance here just now on account of the bold & unjustifiable proceedings of Andrew Johnson towards Congress & Mr Stanton. Many people think civil war is imminent between the Democrats or Proslavery and the Republican or Antislavery parties. Others think that the removal of the President under the vote of impeachment passed yesterday in the Senate by an overwhelming majority (126 to 47) will tend to tranquillize affairs. I need hardly say that the belligerent talkers are Democrats; the same party who received the denomination during the war of Copperheads or Southern sympathisers.
New York City & Philadelphia are intensely Democratic, while the states are of the opposite party. At home we are ultra republicans, a party who believe in the negro as a man and a brother,- the Republicans proper think him a man but don't want him as a brother,- and the Democrats won't have him on any terms.
The "Dickens" excitement is cooling down a bit, now that he has lined his pockets pretty well; some say to the tune of $250,000.
I have been rather troubled for a week or two with a cold in my eyes, especially in the evenings, but think I shall soon be well again. In consequence, however, I intend to curtail this & conclude on this sheet.
I have exhausted the leads of my pencil, & cannot procure a fresh supply here; so I want to ask you to induce some kind friend to get me some in London. I enclose the size: they are to fit one of Modan's pencils.
I want you too, whenever you write to send me two or three violets or some English flower that doesn't grow here, I shall like them so much.
The weather, which when I commenced this was rapidly thawing, has changed; and on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, & today have been some of the coldest days this winter - the thermometer in the neighbourhood of Zero, and sleighing being in the fashion again. Yesterday (Monday) a freezing snow storm set in and is not yet over - several inches having fallen. You may imagine that Skating Parks are good speculations - for one day, the only one in which the figures have come under my notice, the receipts at a very second rate park (The Harrison) the receipts were $885.
I have lots more to say, but must not miss this mail, and my eyes rather give out.
I must again assure you that I very often think of you all, & desire that all my dear friends in England as well as myself may be blessed with all happiness here and hereafter by the Giver of all good things
With my very dearest love
Believe me
Your affectionate Brother E.Strange
Please address me at the house
116 North Eleventh St.
Philadelphia
Pa.
[PHSilver (transcriber of letters) note on The "Dickens" excitement
Charles Dickens is said to have estimated that he earned nearly $200,000 in a 3 month tour ending April 1868, to pay his son's debts. Dickens' diary says "Philadelphia 14 Jan, Astonished no flourish before walking on and reading - lurking doubt it may imply disparagement of the audience". He paid two more 2 night visits, on 13 Feb and 13th March. By this time his liquid diet was "7am a tumbler of new cream & 2 tablespoons of rum, 12 noon a sherry cobbler & biscuits, 3pm a pint of champagne, 7.55pm an egg beaten in a glass of sherry and between the parts hot strong beef tea. 10.15 soup and any little thing to drink I may fancy."]