Tufting Comfortables

Summit, NJ
May 3, 1896

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell, % Mrs James Myrick, 279 Gates Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Dear Ruth:

This morning dawned very dark and gloomy and continued so until your letter
arrived, which seemed to me to be an agreeable substitute for the sun which has failed to appear thus far.

Your letter was the first intimation I have received of the postponement of your visit,
until Wednesday, but this is not strange, in view of the fact that I spend 24 hours of the day in this isolated place (Amber Lodge) and am almost as remote from the affairs of the rest of the world as though I were an occupant of the planet Mars.

I must confess my ignorance of what you mean by that peculiar past time “tufting
comfortables.” I should rather call it, tufting uncomfortables, as it seems to have the
tendency to give one a head-ache. Isn’t that work rather unseasonable for now? The mere thought of the weather we’ve recently gone through would have given me a sort of incurable head-ache. I confess it isn’t so today, for I could have used a couple of them last night without having felt any different than their name implies in the singular. 

 

A Hand of Silver is Better than a Hand Full of Rheumatism

Summit, NJ
Oct 1, 1895

From: William A Gray (ill at home)
To: Ruth Barrell, New Providence, NJ

Dear Ruth:

I presume your conclusion after not seeing me at any time on Sunday was that I was
again victimized by that pet disease which I have been nursing for some time back. Of course that conclusion was or would have been quite correct for yesterday was the first time since Saturday that I have been able to use my right hand.

I had the presumption to anticipate spending Sunday rather differently than I have
for some time back and you can imagine my disappointment when Saturday evening came to find that my hand and wrist were so united that one would think that some of Sunday’s nights frost had gotten into it. It made me think of the afterward conclusion of the story you read aloud “A hand of silver is better than a hand full of rheumatism”  

 

Tied Up in Red Flannel

Back: Joe, Bessie, Ruth. Front: Dolly, Bob, Ethel 1895

Summit, NJ
Sept 28, 1895

From: William A Gray (ill at home)
To: Ruth Barrell, New Providence, NJ

Dear Ruth:

I am not a sort to appeal to the aesthetic at this moment. Completely tied up in red
flannel, my head and finger ends being the only exposed parts, to say nothing of the triple harvest of ______? that exists on my countenance and seems to be crying out for the reaper, or sickle or something else.

Words can hardly express my gratitude and appreciation of your kindness in coming
so often. I am on the mend and promise to be presentable the next time you call, which occasion I shall await with pleasure.

I was going to say something else, but since you started playing my thoughts have
all been on that Shadows on the Water and Plymouth Bells and the middle selection all arouse the sweetest memories. I will stop trying to write & listen which lately I can at least do well.

Sincerely as ever

Will

 

A Strange and Novel Experience

Manhattan, 1895

(Ruth did not return to school, so the letters now jump to July of 1895. Will was working in New York at this time, and often stayed in the city. Because the first letter here is short, and he writes again the very next day, I have posted two letters today.)

327 West 32nd St
New York, NY
July 13, 1895

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell

Dear Ruth:

I will not be in New Providence, or Summit rather, over Sunday as I have concluded
that under the circumstances it will be best for me to stay here.

Tomorrow will be the first Sunday in weeks that my presence will have been lacking
in New Providence, but if I can’t be present personally, it is still my privilege to let my thoughts wander in that direction, a reverie which is indeed very pleasant to me.
I hope you are enjoying the best of health and every other desirable condition. 

 

Douglas, Tender and True

Summit, NJ
Nov 5, 1894

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell, State Normal School, Trenton, NJ

Dear Ruth:

I rec’d your letter last Wednesday Eve, just previous to my calling upon your family
and home.

We played a game of Whist, and to my great surprise our side won. The
arrangement was Mr Burrell (Uncle Charlie) and Dolly versus Bessie and myself. I think the receipt of your letter upon All Halloween brought with it my change of luck. We didn’t duck for apples, eat half an egg-shell full of salt, pour melted lead into a basin of water, or do anything of that sort, for the Whist, including the Deacon Pottering etc, took up the entire evening.

Lack of time would be a poor excuse on my part for not answering your letter more
promptly. I could have answered it the same eve, or the early morning of the following day, but the material was lacking and I think I’m not very well equipped tonight, but I’ll do the best I can. (Bear in mind the organist.)

I hope you will not think me so exacting as to expect you to be prompt in answering
my letters, thereby occupying time which is demanded by matters of far greater
importance. I can’t fully realize, but I think in part, just how fully you are occupied in school work and how few and far between your leisure moments are, and then when an interval of rest from study does come, I can imagine the accumulation of letter answering, etc which has piled up and what a good economist you must be to make everything fit in.

Yes the vicinity (I mean New Providence) is becoming famous for its eccentric
marriages, past and to come. I believe that it is quietly rumored, although not publicly announced, that Miss Ackerman and Jones the musician are to be the next to participate in the sea of matrimony. Whether they will founder in the eddying currents of the whirlpool of failure or caught up in the smooth tide of happiness and content it is premature to predict.  

 

Wanderings

State Normal School

New Providence, NJ
Oct 22, 1894

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell, State Normal School, Trenton, NJ

Dear Ruth:

I am the honored recipient of your letter of the 19th and I wish to dispel right here
any ideas you entertain about your letter being uninteresting; to prove the contrary, I read it over quickly, and coming suddenly upon the end, reread it to make sure I hadn’t missed a word.

The weather today is decidedly in contrast with that of last Friday, the day on which
you wrote and indeed I do not blame you for taking liberties so earnestly prompted by the pleasantness of the day. Your walk to the station must certainly have been pleasant and beneficial, rather than anything else and I would strongly advise a repetition of the medicine as often as opportunity afforded.

Yesterday was an agreeable one here in every way but the weather. I surprised
myself and everybody else by going to church, together with Ed, Dave and Walter. The attendance was about as large as I have ever seen it, although just about 50 miles from being complete. I met Miss Bessie Runyon there and also today, in Summit. She remarked how strange and unreal it seemed to visit here without seeing you.  

 

Don’t Shoot the Organist

New Providence, NJ
Oct 10, 1894

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell, State Normal School, Trenton, NJ

Dear Ruth:

Your letter arrived on time and I take the first opportunity to reciprocate to the best
of my poor ability.

I am very glad to hear you are enjoying good health and hope you didn’t take
seriously my joking about your loss of weight being due to your not getting enough to eat; I don’t think any body ever loses weight on that account but the old chestnut tells us “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest,” so I, having a minimum amount of wisdom, am licensed to indulge in a great deal of nonsense.

That your birthday was an enjoyable one goes without saying. It must have been
pleasant, to have been treated so generously by everybody at home. I think I saw that combination letter you speak of just previous to its being mailed. It certainly was a whopper, and worth its weight in gold. 

 

Don’t Entertain Any Scruples When it Comes to Taking the Last Piece of Bread

Ruth, Dec 1894

Summit, NJ
Oct 2, 1894

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell, State Normal School, Trenton, NJ

Dear Ruth:

It is just a week since I rec’d your second letter and I hope you will not attribute my
delay in answering to neglect, but really a consideration on my part. I mean to say that I knew you would be in receipt of something from home, about Friday past which would probably occupy all your spare moments and the monotony of a letter from me would only tend to mar your complete enjoyment of same.

It does one good to know that although your school work is difficult and arduous,
that there is some pleasure derived at the same time. I am glad to hear you have secured more desirable quarters and that your room is so thoroughly equipped with all modern conveniences and safe guards. I hope your fire escape will be a source of great pleasure as a balcony but that nothing so unfortunate will occur to make its presence an absolute necessity. I think a moderately small room well furnished is a great deal nicer than an unnecessarily large room, whose scant supply of furniture seems lost and where there is a large area of blank space always staring one in the face.

I don’t think it will require a tremendous effort on your part to be successful in the
work you have undertaken. You are one of a family who have inherited a strong appetite for study and books and I’m sure it will be very much easier for you than for others less fortunately endowed. 

 

The First Letter I Ever Addressed to a Young Lady

New Providence, NJ
Sept 18, 1894

From: William A Gray
To: Ruth Barrell, State Normal School, Trenton, NJ

Dear Ruth:

Your most welcome letter was received this evening about 7 o’clock upon my way
home from Summit.

You can imagine my great pleasure in hearing directly from you when I tell you that I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t have the pleasure of addressing you until Thanksgiving Day, (and that verbally), nine long weeks off. Of course I would have heard from Bessie from time to time concerning your welfare, still so long as the government furnished so splendid a mailing system, I don’t know why we shouldn’t use it to our mutual pleasure, do you? So I’m heartily glad, Ruth, you broke the ice.

I am delighted to hear you are getting along so nicely, and that things are so
pleasantly arranged as to give no room for homesickness to set in. I trust your Hoboken friend will not be representative of the misfortune we shared at our last game of cards together, but cheat the town she comes from, by proving a most interesting and agreeable companion. I don’t think you are wasting any time down there even though you may never use the information you receive for a pecuniary end. To be competent to give your sisters a higher education than New Providence will afford will certainly be a source of gratification to you and you will consider yourself fully repaid for the 3 years of patient struggle required to secure it.