Letter from
Henry King Burgwyn, Jr. to
his Mother, March 29, 1859
Burgwyn, Henry King, Jr.
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Chapel Hill
N.C.
March 29th 1859
My Dear Mother
When I last wrote you I fully intended to write again during the
week but really I was so hard pushed for time that I was quite unable to do so.
The eruption which I wrote you about after spreading over both hands & a
short distance on my arms went back again almost as suddenly as it appeared the
Doctor prescribed ammonia & camphor water. I had the day after I wrote you
a chill & not taking quinine enough it was followed by another & I was
quite unwell for a day or two. I soon however applied my knowledge of chemistry
to my case & excelled now in feeling very well. Last Friday I analyzed some
dirt father gave me just before I left. I will give him the result of my
investigations in a letter in a day or two. I wish first to consult
Mr. Martin
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on a certain reaction. You may tell him however the
principa constituents are silica, Iron, & Alumuna. Speaking of Chemistry
you may assure
Mary Ann that I have
nothing to do with dissecting dead bodies that if I did & had have poisoned
myself my alchemy would have told me the antidote. With regard to the
patriarchal turkey I maintain his toughness was owing not to the principle of
quick cooking but either to his age to the length of his demise or to
Amy's not carrying out the
principle judiciously. In other words I hold that ceteris paribus exposing a
turkey for the proper length of time to a
quick heat
will render him jucier sweeter & tenderer than if you tortured him by
burning him before a slow fire. For as in the case of an egg exposing him
quickly to a very high heat coagulates the albumen of the flesh
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& prevents the juices from being sucked or
driven out by the slow fire. You can not think that any juice can get through
the white of a hardboiled egg & in as much as in the flesh of the turkey is
a substance precisely similar to the white of an egg you yourself inveterate
disbeliever that you are must confess I think that quick cooking a turkey
should be preferred to the old fogy & slow method you formerly used.
I am very sorry indeed to hear from you that father had decided to
employ
Wilkins again. I suspected
he would as soon as I heard that he was remaining at
Thornbury from day to day.
I despair now of ever seeing him go away. He will stay with father until he
loses him some '4 or $5000 & then for the next three or four years
there will be a great hue & cry versus that "miserable scoundel
Wilkins" as there before was against "villain
Reed," the
"treacherous
Sterling," the
"[d]rinking
Fairgrove["]
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& that "miserable fellow
Boyce." I would not
be at all surprised if next year
Wilkins were head overseer
& then there would be no telling where it would stop. My heart sinks within
me though I try to hope for the best. I am sorry
Mr. Scott's family are not
further removed from him yet they are much better off there than where they
were before.
My not getting the appointment to
West
Point was as you may imagine a great disappointment to me. I had hoped
that after so many endeavors I would at last get it but l'homme propose mais
Dieu dispose. As soon as I heard you say that
Uncle Tom had written
Clingman on my behalf I
determined to write & thank him for his interest but I have not yet had
time. I shall make it a point to do so next Tuesday night.
Poor
Tupps &
Pollok do not appear to
like
[Georg]etownso
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much as
they did
Mr. Horners. I attribute
their dislike chiefly to their being confined rather more in
Georgetown than they have been accustomed to.
You have received the accounts from
Boston.
What is the income you say it is less than you hoped for. Has
Mr. Dehon made any
definite decision with regard to accepting the bonds of Person made payable in
Massachusetts? Who is
Miss Juliette Gerard's
fascinating intended.
There is a young lady
Miss Delia Haywood from
Raleigh
staying with
Mrs Hubbard
. As in duty bound I called on her but was not
very much pleased: however to night I & another young man have engaged to
carry her &
Miss Hubbard to church.
He is to take the latter while I am to devote myself to
Miss Haywood. We are to
wait until the 11
th hour before asking
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to "be
allowed to have the pleasure (?) as well as honor (?) of escorting them to
church" in hopes that somebody else may ask before us & — pardon
the expression — we in consequence Save our mutton. If however we should
be so unfortunate as to get cornered & swung, I for one am determined
resolutely to shoulder my burden & appear in a perfect ectasy of joy at
being allowed to conduct the
Raleigh
delegate to church.
On Friday night we had I think one of the heaviest blows I ever
experienced. Poor
Mrs Hubbard
at supper was very much frightened &
shook at every blast. It certainly blew most terribly one could hardly walk
against it. It has been blowing more or less ever since but has lulled a great
deal since Friday night. It has been quite cool too. So cool that were it not
for the winds having been very high we would undoubtedly have had a
sufficiently
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severe frost to have killed all the
fruit trees in this county. The oaks have all put out & their buds too
would in all probability have suffered.
Do you know whether father received my letter warning him of the
Jackson Seraphina scheme
by which both he & I were to be bamboozled out of some of our hard earned
gains. I wrote him explaining the plans of the enemy & conjured him not to
be taken in by them. I interpret his silence unfavorably.
There is a young man just here from the
Institute of
Virginia. I am going to call on him & find out from him something
about the place. I think I mentioned to you that I had written
Colonel Smith a letter
requesting a catalogue & some information as to the requirements for
entering certain classes. When I come home I will tell you all about it. In
looking at an almanac today I was
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astonished to
find how fast time had passed & how near the end of the session it was or
rather how near senior vacation at which time I leave. I have heard that but
one other partial course student besides myself was to receive a diploma if
this be so & if strict justice be shown it will be. I shall consider it
quite a triump considering all the time I have lost & that which they have
thereby gained.
This is quite a long letter for me but I thought I owed you some
amend for my last weeks single page & was determined to make up for it. I
wrote
Maria week before last
& have impatiently expecting a reply. Give my love to all & don't
forget to tell father I shall send him the result of my analysis in a day or
two accompanied by a letter demanding pay for said work. Ever yr most
Affectionate Son
H.K. Burgwyn Jr.