Perfect sunny day—am feeling pretty well—grip palpable tho'—(cold in the head feeling)—ate my breakfast with rather subdued appetite—bowel action this forenoon—miss Mrs: D[avis] somewhat—call f'm my sister & niece this mn'g—Ab't the Ingersoll affair I am in favor of New York decidedly, but it is probable they will have it in Phila:—there is some opposition to me or my cause being identified with I. wh' seems to make the special I[ngersoll] and freethinking folks more intense in identifying this W W affair with mark'd freethinking and non-orthodox (almost) passion—all of wh' is annoying to me—But I let the current move as it will or may, & shall not meddle—but there are items ab't it that are not acceptable to me—for instance I do not like Col. I being solicited to do this as he appears to have been—of course it is not his fault in the least degree—Certainly I have neither prompted nor authorized any thing of the kind—I welcome him & applaud him—he is a noble & frank man, and I am proud of his endorsement & advocacy, & think that speech at the Reisser dinner one of the chief pinnacles of my life—but I wince f'm any solicitation of that kind utterly—but enough of all that—I have just had a nice basket of seckel pears (f'm Prof: J McK Cattell, Penn. University) & have sent some to old & sick neighbors—(best tasting pears ever was)—
later P M—the grip trouble is middling pronounced—sit here & read & write—day continues extra fine—am worried a good deal ab't a dear sister Mrs: Heyde (aged, sick, nervous) at Burlington Vermont a noble woman, her life (& mine too) made miserable by the damndest whelp of a husband ever allow'd on earth (the snakes & bed-bugs are not half as loathesome as some humans can be)—I call the H man whelp altogether in my private letters—so you see I have some worries—
Love to Mrs: B and the childer— Walt Whitman