William Moodie letter 29 March 18th,
1861- 10 pages
I have attempted to transcribe this letter using Google voice typing (apologies for any
inaccuracies or grammatical oddities).
I have inserted some extra paragraph breaks
for ease of reading, and the numbers at the start of lines show the start of a
new page, e.g. p.2).
Scans of the original letter are included
below the text.
Busby March 18/61
Dear
Alexr,
I was more than ordinarily well pleased with
the news of your last letter (of Dec 23rd). I hope that your venture may prove
successful and your business prospects ever brighten as you go forward on the
road to independence. I am satisfied that you have taken sufficient care in
your choice of a commercial partner and I hope that you may find in him all
that I feel he has secured in you.
You
may think that I am very partial towards you, thinking on you as the boy of
past years, and forgetting or failing to realise the many roughening and
hardening influences that are constantly at work in the world, and more
especially in the world colonial, modifying, remoulding or changing entirely
the Manhood of Man, but, no: thro all the changes of years and they are many,
I, changed too, can see in your letters still the honesty and sincerity which
often puts my own conscience to the
p.2)
blush, and ...itted you to my boy’s soul by the strong bolts of esteem and
respect and regard, a friend whom I always thought to always I could not value
too highly. Very well now, “three cheers” for Messieurs Magee Dick and Co.!!!. –
I hope
that John and William are getting more and more encouraged to go on and
prosper. Send them my very best wishes when you write to them. Now I have to
thank you for the papers you have sent since I wrote last. I think I get them
all quite regularly. I am sorry that the book of The Edinburgh review was lost.
It would have interested you much I dare say, and I am sure would have given
you a much grander and better (?)
notion of the magnitude of that great gathering of loyal subjects ….. a
faithful and good sovereign than could possibly have been gathered from
scattered descriptions in the columns of a daily or weekly paper.
I have
sent you papers with a full history
p.3)
of the “Gelverton (?) Trial” in
Dublin. This is in rather painful contrast to what immediately precedes it in
shape of its lasting consequences but I think the latter fully eclipses the
former in point of intense interest of concern at the moment. Since the trial
of Madaline (?) Smith there has been
nothing at all approaching this in pregnancy (?) and importance to the penny-a-liner; (whom altho I seem to hold
in contempt, I pity) not even accepting Sayers’ encounter at Farnborough.
We must congratulate each other and all lovers
of freedom on the great works going down still on the continent of Europe. I
think the glorious day of Hope for the Peoples will soon be at the dawn, or
should I say, the Meridian.
Let it be Day without an evening: what, altho,
an evening has its sublime lessons to teach, in the half unfolded pages of a
history of the universe? Who, that is mortal, would not grow weary of its
mysteries, its Shadows, its uncertainties, and you and to behold The Splendid
Majesty of Day? If the Day of
p.4)
Liberty presided over by a Sun that shall be the Glorious God himself and yet
when we turn to the young (?) hope of
the World, America; what a sad picture is presented of the degradation which is
brought on a nation (?), however great
its origin or however generous its impulses, if it permits Slavery to grow
within its borders. It is still the same great principle of Liberty asserting
its sway, and I hope that they may be brought to understand this before they
hurry each other to destruction, the great good has already been derived from
this, and that is, - the shewn necessity of this country looking to other
fields for its cotton supplies, to prevent to us, a ruin (?) as inevitable and complete as that which now threatens the Americans
themselves.
I
believe that Australia is considered a very favorable climate and country for
this purpose, so if it be prosecuted there and such like places
p.5)
it may tend still further to the enriching and fertilizing of vast and
unproductive territories; benefiting this nation both in the production and
consumption of this great article of manufacture and trade.
Our
political news at home is at present without importance, so I will not attempt
to enlarge upon it, leaving the matter to the dailies and the breakfast table.
In Busby we are not suffering much through the general depression.
We are more fortunate in this respect than any
of the print fields in the neighborhood.
Your
father is still at work here, and as the orders are still coming dribbling in,
he expects to be here for some time yet. I gave him your last letter to read as
he had not heard from you by that mail and as there was nothing private in it.
I am still enjoying good health and have gone
back to rifle drill again. I will not try the cornet although I might be able
for it too, but the band members are so absorbed in their music practisings
that they never
6) get
a rifle into their band.
I have tried target practice on two Saturday
afternoons now, and scored in 20 rounds at 150, 200, 250 and 300 yds on the
first day - 20 and on the second 21 points. This is rather better than the
Busby average but it is not very great work for all that. James Hurt (mechanic)
registered 23 points, the highest on the roll, but several others at private (?) practice, like that of mine, have
made as many as 25, 27 and 29 points.
However
I don't intend to “ give in” for a long time yet, if perseverance can overcome
anything at all. I am very fond of the shooting. It harmonizes with something
that has lain dormant in my breast since my birth, and which you may remember
used to waken up at times and come forth in the shape of a shapeless little
cannon mounted on a stick,Chinese fashion.
The
corps is meeting for drill
p.7)
twice a week now, but the attendance is anything but praiseworthy, yet I think
that the summer parades and the clear nights will in fuse fresh life into
flagging spirits. I hear that Mr Hall has engaged with this company again; if
so, we will still have the privilege of a first-rate Captain to command and
lead us.
Our
foreman Thornton has come back to his work, but he is still so lame that I have
to do his work (and receive his pay) until he be able to go about easily
himself. This accident has been a great windfall to me both in a pecuniary and
in a moral point of view, and I feel my “status” raised accordingly, because there
are many older and cleverer men in the shop he might have been preferred before
me. –
I am dabbling again among my music although
not yet reconnected with the association, which I think John leads well enough.
I am busy on a glee just now
p.8) -
one of an imaginary cast. It is intended to represent the music which would be
heard coming from an old Cathedral early in the morning; the listener, at a
good distance, and interpreting the feelings of the worshippers by the fitful
swellings and sighings of the strains. Thanksgiving, sorrow, hope and prayer
alternately pushing forth in varied and suitable accents.
I have
just finished a glee which I was arranging for the band. It is German and vocal
only, but Mr Maitland would have me try it. It has not been played yet, so
whether success or failure attends my first effort in that line remains to be
seen.
All our folks are well and send their kind
wishes to you. Mary is desirous of being remembered too. She was very ill with
sore throat, but has quite recovered again. James has got a first prize for
geometry and freehand drawing in the “Normal”, and has passed his first year’s
examination as a student, second division of first class, which is considered
very good for one who had no training as pupil-teacher before entering the
Seminary.
p.9) I
have no more thin paper so I must send my “concluding remarks” on this stray
leaf.
Mr
Crum has come to a very melancholy end last week but one. He had been involved
in heavy speculations through his wife's brother Pollock of Broom. These went
against him and he went wrong in the mind. He paid off nearly all his workers,
and one afternoon, (after having been amissing from the previous night) he was
found in one of the empty floors of the old mill, with his throat cut and just
dying. No one knows how his affairs may be settled, as he has left no will; at
present the mills are all but shut.
Mr
McLechtie is building a new house above “Pea Hughes’” and opposite Jamie
Wilson’s.
p.10)
I doubt it is rather an untimely project, seeing the number of houses that are
thrown empty through Mr Crum’s sad business. We are starting a cooperative
store too here, which I hope will do good. Above 900 5/- shares are already
taken up, no man possessing more than £25 in his own name.
We are
to get Hunter’s old shop in May so if it succeeds the grocers will suffer
seriously here, and they, in a measure, deserve it.
Now Alexr once more I must lay down the pen
and say goodbye. I never did it less willingly than now. I have been so happy
in your company. I hope this will find you in excellent health and prospects,
with this sincere wish I close, remaining ever faithfully
Dear
Alexr yours, WmMoodie
Scans of the original letter (click
on the image below for a larger file; note the order of the pages p.4-1,
then p.2-3, etc.):
p.4,1
p.2,3
p.8,5
p.6,7
p.9
p.10
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