A friendly rejection

Today's letter comes from one Miss Addie Bowker to Egbert Garfield.  The Bowkers and Garfrields regularly pop up in my family's stories and as cousins here and there, and somehow we ended up with a fair number of letters that were written to dear Egbert, though no one knows quite how they came into our collection.  This is one of two letters that we have from Addie to Egbert, and I only wish I could have seen the one he sent her that preceded it.  

This letter has excellent spelling, which made my life easy with only two minor mistakes in the first part of the letter, and just one in the second section.  It is that word "finly" that causes slight confusion as it could be meant as either finally or finely, and it is impossible to know which as both would fit in the context.  

"1869

Guilford Center Aug

Egbert,

I received your letter a short

time since and will now endevor

to answer it this beautiful Sabbath

afternoon.  I find it a rather

difficult subject to write upon.

    But I might as well tell 

you first as last, I am sorry

that you ever thought of me

any farther than a friend 

and aquaintance.  I fear if we

should be ever be married that

we should be an unhappy 

couple.  Matrimony is a subject 

that should be well weighted

for it is taking a step for

life.  I hope you will look 

farther and find some one that

would be better fitted for the 

place than I am, someone 

that will make your life

smooth and easy and happy.

    I hope you will think of me

no more than a friend and 

acquaintance here after for as

such I shall ever retain you.

    The Guilford mineral Springs

are prospering finly the

city people are giving great

attention to them the village

is full of them.  it is getting 

late and I will close

from Addie Bowker

Guilford Center

Vermont "

I love the cool-headed response that Addie gives, there is no passion in this letter, which makes it somehow a little more sad in my mind.  Also, the transition from "no, I won't marry you" to "by the way, business is booming"--particularly set apart by two blank lines on the page--is clearly (at least in my mind) the effort of a woman to regain control of her friendship and to not close the letter with rejection; an attempt to create conversation, even if it is awkward.  I can see such a scene playing out in a parlor where a young woman rejects her suitor, hesitates then goes on to talk about the farm conditions, weather, or the previous week's sermon.  No amount of technological innovation will remove awkward silences followed by awkward segues.

This letter has excellent spelling, which made my life easy with only two minor mistakes in the first part of the letter, and just one in the second section.  It is that word "finly" that causes slight confusion as it could be meant as either finally or finely, and it is impossible to know which as both would fit in the context.