Letter from Louie Strentzel to [John Muir], 1879 Aug 12.

• Main Author: Strentzel, Louie
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1879
• Subjects: John Muir; correspondence; letters; author; writing; naturalist; California; correspondent; mail; message; post; exchange of letters; missive; notes; epistle; Gloom; Union Lake; glacier; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/11989; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmcl/article/36923/type/native/viewcontent/fullsize.jpg

[6]with gold-touched bloom is really grand. At sunrise the wee birdies seem fairly delirious with ecstasy over the honied richness. Those little northern trees seem sadly pining away in our August weather, though I sheltered them carefully all the time, but the dear wee Linnaea is sending out new tender leaf-buds. Poor exiles, carried a- way from cool, damp, mossy glades to a clime that drives thermometers up to 98°!! Even papa came in after a dusty ride groaning, “O for some Alaska glaciers!” Mrs. Theobalds who lived five years at Union lake, Seattle, was here yesterday and described all with great enthusiasm, except the November mists. But our German neighbor, Mr. Kaap, tells of different experiences and many hardships, a wild year as a Fro river miner — and when I look over newspapers, old or new, all the hunters’ stories ever written about the northwest, seem to come just to my hand. [7]So do you wonder that Indians, and panthers, and lost trails [underlined: will] trouble me? Were it not for them, the thought of “Beautiful Columbia” could be delicious to me. Now that you are coming nearer home where there need be no long month unheard, maybe I can be good and not fret, if only you send me the charmed line, Safe and well. I did not mean to write so doleful a letter, dear, and I entreat you to remember a Bible transla- tion, and give me in return for all this gloom,- a beam of light from the sunrise glow on the glacier-crowned mountains. May the Heavenly Father who rules the storms, hold you in his tender mercy now and evermore. Faithfully Yours, Louie Strentzel. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/36923/thumbnail.jpg