Am getting along fairly I guess considering. Dr Longaker, of 652 north 8th St. Phila. has been here & we have had a good long comprehensive talk—he too thinks the use of the catheter unquestionably advisable—& I have used it for the first time—He has given a prescription for the terrible bowel obstinacy (pills) & I have just sent off to the druggist's for it—the proofs of the poetic part for Good-Bye are sent back & the plates of them (18 or 20 pages) will probably be cast to-day—(are likely cast now)—then they will set up the prose pages—y'r letter rec'd last evn'g—I receive frequent & loyal & affectionate letters f'm the Bolton, Eng. friends—one to-day—Horace is going off soon to N Y. to hear Ingersoll orate on Shakspere Shakespeare —will be a great treat—Harrison S Morris was here, telling me of Stedman's "Poetry" lectures at Johns Hopkins—S. spoke of me & L of G. several times & in favorable tone—there are to be more lectures.
Tom Harned here last evn'g—full of business—a roast apple for my breakfast—am reading "Holland, its Places & People" trans. f'm the Italian of Amicus—What a people they have been and are! "The pills have come" f'm the druggist's & I have just taken one (take every three hours)—Have you the Round-Table pamphlet 52 pp: Walt Whitman—Edinburgh? If not I can mail it to you—As I close it is ab't 3 & I am feeling in fair mood—dark & damp out, mild, looks like more strom— very uneasy ab't my sister at Burlington Vermont—She is sick & old & nervous & in a bad way—my niece Jessie (Jeff's daughter) at St Louis is getting along fairly—my brother Ed is still at the Blackwood institution (we pay $3½ a week) all satisfactory—
Love to you all & God bless you Walt Whitman