able, or. account of my infirmities, to attend to these matters myself.
In union with your holy sacrifices and prayers, believe me to be, etc.
'I have just received your good, dear letter of the 21Sta most agreeable surprise for me; for in these days it is an occasion of consolation, every time any family news reaches me. I shall continue to feel most grateful to all those who write to me and remember me. I pray especially for them every time that I have the happiness of being able to ascend to the altar and offer the holy sacrifice of the mass. Encourage them all to write to me often, though it be only a few lines. I am not well, dear Emile. Since last March, when I had my first attack at Brussels, I have had several severe recurrences, and my strength is leaving me very perceptibly day by day. Since my return to St. Louis I have hardly left my room, and my cane has become my support and my constant companion. " Usque Quo? " Is it hard to guess? I pray to God every day to obtain his holy grace, that he may grant me great patience in my little miseries and ailments.
This is a really curious time here, and amusing for a neutral onlooker. The city of St. Louis, and it is just the same everywhere, is flagged from one end to the other, for Greeley and for Grant. Every night brass bands with their banners tramp the streets, accompanied by thousands of partisans uttering hurrahs, waking everybody up and burning enormous quantities of powder. It is a nuisance - and still I have come to find it amusing; the world has to go on and be busy. And after all there is no great harm in it, whether
it be for Greeley or for Grant. One is about as good as the other.
Europe, you say, is to win: it seems individual majority
is in suspense to know which of them just as difficult to decide here. The is in favor of Greeley; but Grant has
29 Extract from letter in French to Nephew Emile, Sept 6, 1872.