
Still cloudy, dark & threatening rain—My sister Lou this forenoon with a nice chicken & some Graham biscuits—Warren (my nurse, my sailor boy) drove her out in a little wagon to the cemetery "Evergreen" where my dear mother & Lou's baby children are buried—as she wanted to go out there to see the graves—Ab't the same as usual with me —have been sitting here trying to interest myself in the morning papers—Tom Harned took 200 of the little book & has sold 100 of them already— they have not yet been delivered—Horace told me last night yours had not yet gone—I urged him to see they were sent forthwith—(there is a good deal in the little book—partly as a curio—partly as a momento of L of G. history)—
P M—Of course still sitting here—"potter" around, bathe or partially bathe, hitch around, &c: &c: to while away time—have quite a mail of papers &c: sometimes the queerest letters imaginable—No news yet of Ed's arrival & y'r reception of the packet of pictures—A friend has just been in with a lady's album for autograph—
These two scraps I cut from Boston Transcript just rec'd—Kennedy's letter enclosed—(Mrs: K lately visited me—very pleasant & good)—
Walt WhitmanNew York is to have a monument to Goethe. It is to be erected in Central Park, at an expense of $30,000. The sculptor is Henry Baerer, who designed the Beethoven monument in New York and the John Howard Payne statue in Brooklyn. The Goethe monument is to be twenty-four feet high, with a colossal bronze figure of the great German poet at the summit, and four lifesize sitting groups in bronze around the granite pedestal, viz., "Faust and Margaret," "Iphigenia and Orestes," "Hermann and Dorothea at the Well," "The Harpist and Mignon." The cost will be defrayed by the students and admirers of Goethe, with the coöperation of the Goethe Society.
EMIN BEY AND HIS WORK
In person, Emin is a slender man, of medium height, and tough and wiry figure. He is swarthy, with black eyes and hair. His face is that of a studious professional man, and that impression is heightened by the glasses which he always wears. His attitudes and movements are, however, very alert. He stands erect and with his heels together, as if he had been trained as a soldier. He was always reticent about himself, and his history was knownt to no one in the Soudan or the Provinces of the Equator. He was supposed to be a Mohammedan. I am not sure that he ever said that he was, but I am quite sure that he did not deny it when I knew him. It has become known later that he is a German, of university education; but there were many at that time who thought that he was a Turk of extraordinary acquirements. He is certainly a man of great ability in many ways, and of strong character. Just why such a man should have gone where he has and stayed there is hard to see. Probably it was largely force of circumstances and a spirit of adventure. Certainly when he went there there was no prospect of much pay or distinction, and he was actuated by no great philanthropic ardor. Responsibilities gradually came upon him, and he rose to them. It is easy to see how, in a character like Emin's—sympathetic, reflective and enthusiastic—noble purposes were developed with a noble example before him and great opportunities around him. Emin's uncertain power in a savage land is all that remains of the late khedive's central African Empire. [Colonel H. G. Prout, in November Scribner.

I am immensely pleased (tickled) with the result of my little Wifekin Dame Kennedy's visit to
you. She has read yr books & Bucke's ever since she has
returned. She was finally converted by the impression made
by your personal presence. Says she felt that strange thrill (caused by yr great
magnetism) that so many others have felt. She wrote to-day a tremendous arraingment
of the Leslie Nutler I told you of. She hauled him over the coals finely. I rubbed
my hands in glee after quoting some of the good great fellows (in England &
America) who stand up for W. W. & love him she says, "Thoreau thinks he is a great fellow, & I think so, too." She says, "I saw
with my own eyes, his nobility & manners," &c. She thoroughly understands and
approves yr Children of Adam poems, too! Sees their noble purpose.
She doesn't need you so much as I did, though, for she has always been a liberated spirit. Her father & grandfather were deists.
I tell you she's a rare little soul, I wish you knew how keenly she pierces to the heart of shams & humbugs. Yet generous enough to forgive everybody. Tears spring to her eyes at the recital of some noble heroic deed. All unfortunates flock to her.
Just begun to rain. The wooded hills & farmstead slopes give grand spreads of dull-glowing brown; not bright but rich-subdued. Have you had any new cider yet. I "hant."
affec. W. S. Kennedy.
