If you come away or go away from London, I shall be sorry and disappointed in you. English people demand stability. And there is to be no talk even of preference for any other place. The time will surely come when you can put your preferences into execution, but it does chill and turn away interest to have a vanishing prospect.
Mrs. Borglum has too much sense and far too much affection for you not to see that this is for your true interest. You cannot re-cast a national mold and England is set to its “slow-and-sure,” sure being its complement to slow. I do not blame Mrs. Borglum’s American impatience, but “stay where the money is.”
The artist’s prevailing mood during 1897 seems to have been one of profound melancholy and disillusionment regarding Europe. He kept a diary at this time which, with his letters from Mrs. Frémont, is the chief source of information concerning his life in England.
Mrs. Frémont’s letters gave him great cheer and comfort. General Frémont had an artistic and sensitive nature with frequent ups and downs of mood. Circumstances beyond his control had ruined his dreams for developments in California. The United States government itself had taken land from him for war purposes in 1861, and he had never been paid for it. His widow was still hoping to have her claim settled thirty-six years later. She knew the value of money, the need for patience and diplomacy; and she could sympathize with a struggling artist in language that he could understand.
Gutzon’s diary opens with an indication that he needed the sympathy. He begins:
Now, at last! I feel some—enough—desire to make notes of steps and landings in this, this curious life that we are doomed for a certain time to bear. I must be honest with myself—else why record? Lies, trivialities and the daily doings of the body are not worth thinking of much less making memoranda of. But it’s not
for the public—not for one single soul. For I am alone and who would understand?