Franklin NH.
March 24th 1849.My dear Sister.
I recd your letter in one season and am very glad that you find yourself so pleasantly situated at South Hadly [sic] - the region must be somewhat romantic if travellers tales can be accredited, embosomed as it is between a "twin couple" of huge mountains upon whose rocky tops you schoolgirls probably delight to rove of a Saturday afternoon -
Excuse me - I believe these holidays are confined to Primary Schools and Collages [sic] and do not obtain in our more refined Institutions - And by the way you must pardon all mistakes which may occur in the direction of my letters as I hardly know whether to address to - Mount Holyoke Institution - Girls family boarding school or Young Ladies Seminary, though I presume the latter will
answersuffice for although incorrect yet it cannot be altogether inappropriate - Why don't you send me a Catalogue and enlighten me on this point?I see by the newspapers that you have met with a great loss in the death of Miss Lyon, who (though I have a horror of female teachers in general) was evidently [?] a woman of great worth and superior attainments - But I will not make a fool of myself in eulogizing one that I never saw and know nothing of - - -
I would like to learn if proper what sort of a figure our Concord ladies make in the galaxy of Beauty, which you hinted at in your letter - one feels a little native pride on such points you know although it might be somewhat presumptious [sic] to injure [?] as I hardly know who you have from Concord. -
- Concord - Concord - (I love to linger on the sound) is I understand soon to be transformed into a city - just think a city - for all the world just like Boston New York and Philadelphia, though I must think it will be more liable to the vices than the virtues of these places -
Dialogue - 1st Schoolgirl - Who is that?
2nd " " - Miss Bouton.
1st " " - Where's she from?
2nd " " - The City of Concord - New Hampshire.
1st " " - Lor. Dew tell!! how pleasant it must be living there -
omnis exeunt.Buy a feather as soon as possible and stick it in your Bonnet in honor of the wonderful transformation - to be.
I have just returned from this delec. place where I have been spending a few days under the old parental roof. By old I mean no disrespect, but simply indicate a sad want of shingles, paint, new water spouts and such embellishments. It will doubtless improve however as the city progresses in refinement and wealth.
I find the
samefondness for gossip, scandal, evil reports, envy and back biting has grown upon the good people to a truly alarming degree - Stories of engagements love matters, gambling and drinking in high places, and such nonsense are bandied from one mouth to another andtakeremind me strongly of the game of battledore and shuttlecock in which the object of each is to keep up the bit of cork and feathers longer than the other[.]If I wielded the power of the N.H[.] Legislature, the very first law I would promulgate, and put into rigid Execution would be this - Mind your own business And I would have it painted in huge characters, and stuck up at the corners of all the streets, and over the pulpits in all our churches, and the penalty for its infraction should be either cutting out the tongue or muzzling it - What if a judgement by Providence should strike the inhabitants all dumb, so as to cut them off from the use of that language which they so wickedly abuse - Sherman is stopping at St Johnsbury Vt and is about going out west on an agency for Fairbanks Platform Scales - I have not heard from Elizabeth very recently - I am enjoying pretty good health - I hope you will excuse this crabbed penmanship which forms quite a contrast to your own neat and legible hand. I have two styles of writing, one for office writing and ordinary every day business and another, and better one for correspondence &c. unfortunately I wrote the first half of the present letter, in the former style before I discovered my error, and then thought I would keep it up throughout rather than break the uniformity -
With much Love,
Your affectionate brother
John B BoutonGive us a reply as soon as possible -
[John Bell Bouton was Harriet's brother; she was born Jan 25, 1832 and he was born Mar 15, 1830. Elizabeth is probably John Bell and Harriet's older half sister, Elizabeth Ripley Bouton, born Aug 15, 1826. Sherman is probably John Bell and Harriet's older half brother, Nathaniel Sherman Bouton, born May 14, 1828.]