From a letter by Julie to Lucy, Julie was in Hartford but it isn’t clear where Lucy was.

“We have all finished Mark Twain’s new book- it is very entertaining- but not very high toned- not such a book as I should think he would want his little girls to read.

…Carlotta is reading Dickens. Mattie Kilbourne is coming here this afternoon. I do not like Mattie Kilbourne very much. I can’t go out driving this afternoon because- the snow has melted so as to let the horses’ legs down through and I am afraid they would break off and leave me nothing but two bodies on top and I don’t much like bodies.  Now here comes a dun. I have paid the bill, it was not an honest bill but I paid it and I hope the money will bring Mr. Linus Fern into trouble as I have no doubt it will.”

This is a rather interesting letter on several accounts.  It comes from a group where money, 1876-77 was overall a bad economy, was a constant concern and colored the correspondence.  What is particularly interesting is the overall tone of the letter, despite being about two pages long (handwritten), the letter has a stream-of-conscious style which is very revealing of Julie’s mood throughout the day she was writing it.  Her ‘voice’ is very clear.  Unable to get anything written but letters, she was also feeling trapped by Hartford’s society demands and, physically, by not being able to get out thanks to the weather.  A whole paragraph states how she would prefer to be at Esperanza.  Lucy was essentially a confidant for Julie for more personal matters than the letters to Helen or to Morris; Lucy was in frequent correspondence with her mother and the first section is social advice from Julie on how Lucy might select a proper gift for Mrs. Davis (Lucy’s future mother-in-law). 

This sort of letter has almost entirely vanished from the current record, the phone has replaced the ‘sounding board’ aspect, email the social advice aspect.

It also neatly summarizes Julie’s attitude towards literature.  I do wonder what she would have thought of the modern television show….