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  My Dear Old Friend,

Your two postals of Oct 15th & 16th came by last mail & I thank you cordially for your thoughtful kindness in sending them & for your information about J.W.W.'s visits to you.

A good letter from Warry—for wh: I should be glad if you would kindly thank him for me—& another from Horace furnish us with some of the interesting details which are so eagerly devoured. But, like Oliver Twist, we long for more.   Our appetites are as insatiable as that of the horse-leech which constantly cries—"give, give!"

Happy Wallace! Lucky Wallace! What an experience & what life-long memories will henceforth be his!

Later 5.30 pm

Again comes the American mail with a delightful budget for me—a p.c. from you, & letters from J.W.W. & H.L.T. Thanks & again thanks to you all for your kindness in keeping us au fait with the latest particulars concerning yourself & our dear Comrades.

Glad indeed are we all to know that your health keeps (comparatively)   good for you & that you are able to receive Wallace for a short time every day. It joys us too to hear from you that he is "well & hearty" & "Enjoying everything."

And you have had your old friend Andrew Rome over to see you too! That would do you good I know & his presence wd revive many dear reminiscences of the olden days & make you feel young again. You know he & I are cousins by marriage, & he is an Annan man like myself.

I have sent your p.c. upon its round   among the Whitman "Church" members.

This has been a glorious day—bright & sunny—tho cool from East wind—with an almost cloudless blue sky—a day to rejoice the heart of man & make him feel glad he is alive

I am just in from my professional round & write this to the accompaniment of the rattle of lorries cabs & trains the bumping of Railway wagons—for my house is next to the goods yard—& the screaming of engines—the setting sun shining & flushing the paved street & glittering in gold on the upper corridors of the houses opposite.

 

Last Sunday we had Ben Tillett in Bolton. I could not go to hear him but I send you a newspaper report of his "sermon" in which, I am told he spoke of you as one of the world's "five talent men" & dwell upon your hospital work, coupling your name with that of Florence Nightingale & others.

It will interest you to know that I have undertaken by request to read a paper on you before the "Bolton Literary Society," a society consisting mainly of the (so called) upper class & of wh: our F.R.C. Hutton is President

 

This week we have had the first touch of Winter's cold fingers & the recent gales & slight night frosts have almost cleared the woods & hedgerows of foliage

May the oncoming Winter treat you leniently my dear good hearted old friend

Good night to you & god bless you! My kindest regards to Warry Harry & good Mrs D & my heart's devotion to you

Yours ever J Johnston   see notes Nov 17 1891