| Title: | O'Connor, Charles to O'Connor, Frances, 1926 |
|---|---|
| ID | 6414 |
| Collection | New Brunswick Letters |
| File | newbrunswick/49 |
| Year | 1926 |
| Sender | O'Connor, Charles |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | lawyer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Manchester, N. Hampshire, USA |
| Destination | Fredericton, N.Brunswick, Canada |
| Recipient | O'Connor, Frances |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | siblings |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 879 |
| Genre | lack of work, finding a teaching position, moving south |
| Note | |
| Transcript | 14 Off. BLK, Thursday 30-9-26 My Darling! – the last star in the group of my life! [Combining] in you all the beloved recollections of our kind father our beloved mother and our [Timothy] – Do you think I have changed a particle in my estimate of you? I dared to Canonize you! That Sister looked strange when I declared you my “St Frances of Fredericton!†You mistake me altogether My Frank! Don’t you understand that I only stress the “Degrees†you speak of to commercialize them! To turn them into bread & butter! not to glorify myself to you! O my dear how I bless and thank our good God for bringing you [thru] that terrible acute indigestion so fatal to most! Do I not know how saving and careful you are! and my love, I am doing the very same thing you are as far as I can! I sleep in my office, and get my own meals except a cheap dinner of potato & meat (pork) & not always that. I say my “office†Dear! There is no law business for any body now here – horribly dull times! Especially for an 83 yr older! I can’t expect it! Do my best to appear youthful, which my spare form and my activety, prolonged, D.G., by the care I have taken to avoid harmful luxuries & live plainly & simply have favored a lot so far; but “Tempus edax rerum†“Time the devourer of all things†will have his prey! I got the idea of selling my degrees or using them to dignify for gain. I called on the Convent here & Saw the big tall important and not very polite or genial, She did not ask me to sit down! Superior yesterday! She referred me to the teachers in charge of [their] Academy a very able Sister I assure you I told her a telling story – “My Going away as a Rep of U.S. – (Consul) had of course killed my law practice & when I got back, a new crop of lawyers had sprung up & a lot of my old clients had “passed on†and that I could not endure to be idle & I told her very nicely of my “ Record†including my hard won degrees which every one has a right to – the declarations of Un Bapt. Semry. making me – a Cath. – the leading student in their history, and of my 1st standing in the U.N.B. & they wanting me to go to England as their [repve] for the East India Civil Service – (which [I’ve vetoed]) and then showed her how completely my scholarship had been acknowledged here in my reforming their whole educational systemin the 9 or 10 years I served on the Board here – all this very carefully. My off I told her I had determined to offer my services to the noted Wellesley College for ladies in Massts but And to give a set of special “lectures†in Latin Greek French [or] Mathematics, and Showed her how any academic standing (Degrees) would be a drawing attraction not only in N.H. but in Mass, (Harvard being its trump cardâ€!) She is very bright and was intensely interested, but told me regretfully she had not the pupils for it – Young girls only striving to get to be type writers and stenographic clerks [x] for the business folk here, and O she wished the time would soon come she could avail of my offer – She was discouraged at the low standard her young girls aimed at I, however, encouraged & cheered her & told her what she could do. She was deeply interested and most grateful for the appreciation I showed of her efforts and how I showed her very clearly the high point she could reach. So there! I am sure I’m in the Right track, and may hit Wellesley She was expressed herself as highly obliged that I brought the matter to her attention, (as I told her thought I ought to, to promote home institutions first), and she has hopes we may yet deal! ---- But! I told I told her of Wellesley, but told her I did not know whether the O in my name and its “belongings†straight out prejudices me there – But she said she thought not so. You see it’s a [dashing] proposition and I claimed it would be an attractive advertisement – even to getting pupils from Massachts – Harvard being its Star! We’ll see! If it don’t take there I feel very sure it would take well further south and there is the further advantage there of a mild climate as in Tennessee* or Kentucky, where I have friends – Such as Rhodes who would I’m sure be well disposed – There Taken too much time God bless & keep you & pray for me Love Chal *And there’s a gal “Way down in Tennesse†would like very much to see me, I know! Where to go I don’t know – No room yet – but I try to comply with the psalm I like Qui habitat “He who dwells in the help of the Most High†[ps] It’s unpleasant – and hard to [root] up an old tree! Quite cool here now & my little “perfection†heater is a great comfort, C. |
