Bagley, William, fl. 1842-1850
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Chapel Hill
Feb 13th 1845
Dear Mose
The reception of your letter afforded me perplexity, curiosity & pleasure. Perplexity in
finding out those fractions, curiosity to know what they contained and pleasure to hear from you but
I must confess that you did not give me as much news as I desired or expected to hear. In your next
you must be more profuse & give me an account of all the little
incidents that have taken place since I left. I was not surprised to hear
of the separation of Smith & his wife. It has taken place so often that I dont wonder at it
at all, but it seems rather strange that the people of
Wmston
[unrecovered] suffered such a creature to remain there so long, though they tolerate almost
anything. In leaving home I must admit that my regret was very much increased [unrecovered]
the circumstance of leaving
Miss Charity
there also, but I soon overcame the emotion & consoled
myself with the reflection, that if I live, I shall see lots of good times yet. You ask me if I have
any notion of cutting in there, I answer none, but I tell you what if is it would not have done for
me to have staid in her company much
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longer for at one time I was almost smitten.
Dr White is very much mistaken in supposing the next six months will be an
age to me for I begrudge almost every hour that passed away. I am very glad however that the
Doctor takes so much interest in my welfare, but I think I shall turn my
attention to another direction which I will tell you of in a subsequent part of this letter
& which I wish you to disclose to no one on earth.
A fellow, calling himself the "Fakir of Ava" came through here the other day with a boy
& girl proposing to give a grand scientific entertainment to the inhabitants of Chapel-Hill; after procuring a house & getting in readiness, about a
hundred of the students went down & the house I understand was crowded to such an extent
that the "Fakir" had very little opportunity of "showing
off" & the students being rather noisy he dismissed the assembly gave them tickets
& told them that on the next night he would have a better place & consequently a
better chance for exhibition, but the next morning he left having made some forty or fifty dollars
at the expense of the students. Several of them followed him to Hillsboro' & I expected that an engagement would have taken place
there but as he was exhibiting he let the students go in which I supposed pacified them. One of them
however, while there became intoxicated & with some other fellows went to one of the taverns
& began to be rather noisy & the landlord came out & ordered them off
& to enforce his command raised a chair at one of them & this fellow immediately
shot him, the ball went into his arm near his shoulder but they say his life is not endangered; the
name of the fellow that shot him is Ruffin, he was a member of the sophomore class & lives in Alabama, I believe he has not been heard of since the occurrence.
Why is it that
Henry does not write me? Has he again fallen a victim to the smiles &
caresses of his fair one? or is he diving into the profound & abstruse regions of medical or
legal erudition? In any case, though, I should think he could spare a few moments for the purpose of
writing to
"Bill"
. Please remind him of it & tell him also
that he owes me a letter.
[Included are 11 lines of mathematic figures resembling fractions that based on the statement below
appear to be a code. It is unclear if the code was used in the original letter or just as a means to
preserve his privacy in his letter book. In
Bagley's
earlier correspondence with
Moses Pierce there is nothing to suggest that they had a code in place.]
As you value me as a friend, I hope you will not disclose the above under
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any considerations but place it in the same laboratory that already contains many of my
secrets.
You say nothing in your letter about the Wednesday night meeting. I truly hope it has not perished
in its bud but that it increases continually in interest & benefit to the souls of all those
who attend it, you must write me all about it, the state of religion in the church also which I am
afraid is continually degenerating. I hope, My Dear Mose, that you still hold out faithful, that amid all the snares, temptations
& difficulties to which you are continually exposed that you still remain firm as adamant & never let Satan, under any form beguile you & let me especially caution you to
beware of evil company, you may consider me as rather presumptuous but still I have experienced so
much evil myself from that source that I can scarcely refrain from cautioning you to beware of the
rocks on which I had well nigh wrecked. Please write soon & consider me always
Your Friend
Moses G. Pierce
Williamston N.C.