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  My Dear Old Friend

Just a few lines to acknowledge receipt by last mail of the copy of Ingersoll's Address which you so kindly sent & to thank you very cordially for it.

I have read it through with intense interest and pleasure & I regard it as a valuable contribution to "Whitman Literature"—from Ingersollism the best that has yet been given—significant both from what he has said & left unsaid for he has left untouched   what I regard as the main & vital element in L of G vis the spirituality which permeates & animates every page, every line & is the inspiring element in your teaching. But as we could not expect him to recognise this we must be thankful for what we have got, as, apart from this, the address is really a wonderful bit of work & will, I think, rank as one of his most brilliant oratorical achievements. I shall prize the pamphlet very highly for its own sake, but more so because you have sent it to me & I again thank you for your great kindness in doing so.   It is the intention of "the boys" to have the whole of it read aloud at the next meeting of the "College" (Feb 9th).

During the last week I have been a little uneasy about you, wondering at times how you were, & I accepted the pamphlet as a message that all was well with you. But today I have been grieved to read the following par: in the London Daily Graphic:—

A post card received from Walt Whitman says "Am having an extra bad spell these days. May blow over may not"

This is indeed bad news for me & for all your friends   here & I sincerely hope that by this time the "extra bad spell" is blowing over & that you are through the worst of it. We shall be most anxious until we receive some more definite news & I have asked Warry to send me word in case you are unable to do so.

There has been a great change in the weather here—all the frost & snow have gone & we have lately had a continuous spell of "open" weather.

With kindest regards to all the members of your household & with best love to yourself

I remain

Yours affectionately J. Johnston

P.S. J.W.W. suggests that the p.c. referred to in the D.G. par may not be a recent one. If not all the better!

I enclose a cutting from the Literary World about your friend Tennyson which may amuse you.

 

London | Literary | World | Jan 30/91 —Lord Tennyson is said to be contemplating a voyage in the Mediterranean, if he can find a vessel in which he can be protected from his fellow-passengers. The dread of being mobbed is said to interfere even with the Poet Laureate's country walks, and a good story is told of his surprise on one occasion when a fellow-creature passed him without taking any notice of him whatever. "The fellow seems not to know who I am!" is said to have been his exclamation.