The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

Transcription

<Stamp: RECEIVED
APR 7  1892
Ans'd___________18>
<Marginalia: no ans.>
Port Huron April 5th 1892  St Clair Co Michigan
Respected friend — From your many old projects and duties many of them of immense consequence to mankind I shrink to include the tryles incident to your father and me — Nevertheless it is right that you are apprised of the facts — In the fall he had a project of going down with a steamboat and had made arrangements to that effect — I continued to dissuade him from this wild project — In January we started with only 200 dollars — I saw with this small sum great economy would need to be used — Accordingly we took second fares both by land and water till we got to Fort Meyers — On the way people remembering your splendid reputation would ask me why your father was so shabbly dressed and why we travelled second class — I would reply that he belonged to the old Style regarded the modern habits as a nuisance — That if you would dress him up in broad Cloth and patent leather boots he would not live a month — This was universally Satisfactory — At your place I formed a plan to live cheap and at the same time better for your father than any Hotel — His favourite food is Oat meal and milk or Molasses and soup — So we bought Oat meal mollasses Ham cheese and butter tea and coffee — The man on the place cooked our meals and being single paid one third of the expense and we helped him to hoe as compensation — The expence weekly was the miraculous sum of illegible one dollars and fifty five cents a week each for 3 months and upon this sumptuous fare your father gained 15 lbs and now feels stronger than he has in six years — Economy is a virtue and I claim credit for making the 200 dollars go so far — I have had to serve an apprentiship to it from necessity — That 200 dollars took us from home to Detroit thence to St Louis thence to New Orleans thence to Mobile thence by water to Tampa thence to Punta Gorda thence across the woods to fort Meyers paid our board for 3 months — We left no bills behind — You sent down some money to your father which was expended in getting up to your place all your father had was 90 cents — Compare this economy with the fact that you paid Mr Hibble 180 dollars for our board alone and if I had not stopped it it would have been more — Are there any virtue in this economy — So that your father upon the plea that he is hard up proposes to pay me five dollars a week instead of the 10 a week you paid me the winter before — This is surely wrong but you well know his eccentricities — The amount at 10 dollars a week would be 110 dollars he has paid me 55 — I claim that I have saved nearly 300 dollars in this economic way — If you think there is any merit in what I have done send me a Cheque for 55 dollars which will be the same as you paid me last year — You know what the Scripture saith — Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn
I send you a rambling article about us both
Jas Symington
T A Edison Esqr