James Buchanan.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO MISS LANE.]
Bedford Springs, August 3, 1863.
My Dear Harriet:—
We arrived here safe and sound on Friday last before dinner. I hardly ever passed a more uncomfortable day than that on which I left, having suffered the whole day with a violent diarrhœa. At night Mrs. Baker gave me a dose of your friend Brown’s Anti-Cholera mixture, which cured me outright. The water has had its usual good effect upon me, and I think I needed it much. No healing fountain can cure old age; but with God’s blessing it may assist in gently sloping the way which leads to death.
The company here consists of about one hundred and fifty, and I think there is fully that number. There are many sensible and agreeable people among them; but they are not very gay. On Saturday night they made the first attempt to get up a cotillion, and it partly succeeded, but they wanted the buoyancy and brilliancy of former times.
There are several naughty secession girls here from Baltimore,—some of them very bright. My principal amusement has been with them, and I am really inclined to believe they give General Schenck a hard time of it. The stories they tell of how they provoked him are truly amusing. They praise General Wool, and I have no doubt they flatter him into a compliance with many of their wishes. They speak rather contemptuously of our friend General Dix, but Schenck is their abomination.
I treat them playfully, and tell them I love them so, that it would be impossible for me ever to consent to part from them, and that the shocking idea has never once entered my head of living in a separate confederacy from them. I am like Ruth, and that they must not entreat me from following after them. We must be one and indivisible. I hear accounts from the other side, and it is certain the Baltimore women must give General Schenck a rough road to travel.
Our little party is very agreeable. Mrs. Nevin is as gay as a girl let loose from school after a long session of hard service. I could hardly tell you how much she enjoys herself. Miss Hetty gets along quietly and well. Her manners are ladylike, and she behaves with perfect propriety. Mrs. Baker is very good and very ladylike; and Miss Swarr is modest but cheerful. I need not speak of Messrs. Swarr, Baker, Carpenter, and North. We are all grateful. There have been many kind inquiries after you, but a watering place is like the world, even the grandest performers are soon forgotten.
Mr. Babcock, of the Yeates Institute, preached here last night, but I did not hear him. Those who did, say he preached very well. I never saw him to my knowledge.