Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-027#002

Cambridge Jan 9th 1857
Dear Tom
It is late to wish you a happy New Year but I do so none the less heartily. I trust it brings you every comfort in your new ménage & pleasant society to crown its advent. I was amused last night, reading in the Transcript a laudation of horse flesh, as an article of food, & your friend Mr St Hilaire quoted as its advocate, with an account of some banquet he gave of it to various gourmets to test its excellence. Have you shared in any such equivocal or equine hospitalities? After the choice rat & raw walrus diet of Dr Kane (whose most interesting book I am reading to the boys) it would have been a luxury a kind of venison. It is amazing how easily men fall back into the savage state, [p. 2] how skin deep seem all these thousand years of civilization before such a Lear-like stripper of “lindings” such as Famine. But the resources of science & the million helps of the enriched brain are shown in such singular contrast to the bare cravings of Nature. This Polar weather make us feel a little what those poor men suffered in the best of times. Last night, with the thermometer at zero, a fire broke out nearly opposite us, so that I could see the whole lying in bed. It was a new house on the marsh, fortunately not occupied, but the jingle of the engine bells & the harsh cries of the men made last night ‘hideous’ for hours.
On Tuesday ev’g we had a famous “twelfth night” party. As Harriot could not have her usual Xmas one, on account of Mr Peabody’s death, I thought I would give Hatty & Willy some fun, & we invited some 70 young damsels in their teens & Freshmen [from Harvard], & had a most [p. 3] merry party. Harriot brought out 40 in a big sleigh, by splendid moonlight, & took them a little drive before coming here. Just as they arrived the gas, for the first time, took a fancy to go out! much to my consternation, but the gas man was caught & soon made us brilliant again. All the rooms were decorated with the Xmas evergreens, & the Library was cleared of furniture so that they had the whole space to dance in, & most joyously they kept it up until nearly twelve. At supper I had two cakes & two rings. Mary Warren (Mason’s daughter) got one & bore off the wreath & bouquet as queen, & a Mr Beebe [?] (brother of Hatty’s friend) was king & headed with her a Virginia reel, after all had made obeisance as she sat in state at the head of the room. Henry was cutter of the cakes, & was nearly torn to pieces by the rush of eager youngsters. But so much young blood poured into this old house gave it a pleasant thrill & glow which it greatly enjoyed. [p. 4] Papa was here & had a quiet rubber of whist, in the drawing room, with Mary Motley & Amos & Sarah Lawrence. Mrs Lilith [?] Mary Dixwell, Lowell, Jane Norton, & Mrs Agassiz &c made out a group of soberer people as lookers on. The children, even little Edie!, sat up to see it, & much enjoyed [crossed out: seeing] the fun & the pretty damsels. Emmeline was not well enough to come. She got cold at Mrs Thayer’s ball.
Poor Frank Gray is at last at peace, after a long year of suffering & we all feel what a loss he is, so instructive & genial a companion. He has enriched our Library here with his noble collection of engravings & has delighted Agassiz by giving $50.000 for a museum of comparative anatomy, or zoology. ] Dr Leiber has gone to N. York to begin afresh, in what I know not. He wrote us quite pathetically from his bare study, where his last works were written. Sumner’s physician will not yet allow him to go to Washington. He will be here today for a little visit. He cannot yet sit up all day, & evening too, but is better & will look in on you in Paris in March probably. When you come away can you bring me some note paper with a tasteful cipher of FEL? I do not go out enough to make dresses worth while I have touches of rheumatism which make me [p. 1 cross] shy of balls in our icy climate. Thelberg is here & Henry has made his acquaintance. Arthur Lyman is engaged to a daughter of John A. Lowell. I sent Lowell a bronze candlestick for a N. Year’s present & had in return a charming poem. The Motleys are amused that Hurlburt’s sister is grown up at Emma Rodman’s. Just as they have got a house in town Beck’s here is to let – He goes abroad. It would have been just the thing for them. Lathrop thought we ought to give a ball every week our house looked so big. Henry stands at his desk having just achieved 80 autographs! So goes his time, is stolen rather. The evergreen enfolds Sumner’s & Emerson’s portrait, whose daughter was here, a stiff ‘Yanke [p. 2 cross] girl, the other night) Charley is petting his Canary by the lemon tree, Edie shines in like a sunbeam for pencil & paper to draw wonderful faces, & Alice with a hop & a skip, her brown curls flying, - rushes for her box of paper dolls. Erny comes in, with cheeks like roses, scarf over ears, & booted in india rubber to his knees for a slice of the party’s cake, while I, in dressing-gown, am seated by the bright study fire to present this picture to you. Ever lovingly yrs
Fanny

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; events; twelfth night party; christmas; holidays; subject; family life; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1857 (1011/002.001-027); (LONG-FileUnitName)