THE LETTERS – IN PART
“You say you felt bad when I was taken to the Falls / how do you think I felt to have the hand cuffs put onto me taken away in that way / do you think I felt bad / oh oh oh Maggy I am the same Dan that I always was / I think I have ritten you a good long letter this time / please excuse poor righting and poor spelling and answer when you can”
“Oh Maggy I wish I could come up and talk with you a little while but I am afraid I cant / Maggy we ought to have sertain nights to exchange notes / I will say Monday night and Thursday night or once a week often enough if you think it is then say Monday night providing there is no one else brought in this / it might be I could not get a chance / I don’t know but this fellow that is in here will leave pretty soon and then it will be all right / we have gotta be carefull and not get caught at this / I don’t want to be caught / if the night we set to exchange notes if their should anything hapen that we could not exchange on that night we will the next night or the next or till we can”
“You think I talk about you and run you down and maid fun of you oh Maggy you ought to know better than that / I never said a word against you yet all I ever said I said to Cap [referring to Captain J. W. Tolford, current sheriff] / I told him you must of ben craisy or out of your hed to tell such things as you did and that was all / I now [know] you have been lied to more than once since you have been here / you wanted to know [know] if I thought it would clear both of us if you deny it all/ Maggy I don’t know but I think it would although I don’t know / what did your sister think of me / I saw you and her when you came up”
“I guess you live better than I do / you got lots of apples / we had grean apples sent in here once ‘r twice and you got them every day”
“You want me to excuse your righting and spelling / you right good enough better than I do yes I wish I could talk german and right it / I would give a good deal /
you say you wish that the trial was over / I do to but I think we will be allright”
”Maggie I am about selling out my interist in my farm / Frank and his woman have come back and are going to go onto the farm and take care of me they are going the weak / saw Frank yesterday / I was down town / I haven’t seen sue nor don’t expect to Maggy / the team I had is sold and all the stock / when I get my money for the place I will be free from it / now then Maggy it depends on you our future…..oh Maggy that we was both clear”
“I tell you I lookt at that dress a good many times and thought of other days / I will send my shirt up it needs patching / Maggy what does that girl say about me / please tell me wont you / they don’t think mutch of me I guess /[Attorney] Ring will be up before long / I expected him up today“
“Oh Maggy dear Maggy dear how I would like to open that door and come in if only darst to set a kiss through the door to you did you get it / I guess not / I will right some more and will try and send you some paper……oh Maggy what word did you send her [Sue] by Derby [Ernest Derby, neighbor of Wrights] last spring / she rote me all about it / tell me Maggy if you sent such word to her / I think you must have been pretty mad at me then if you told Durbey what sue said you did and Maggy I was told that when their was tak [talk] of my being linched that you said you did not care if they did / is that so / Maggy oh Maggy Maggy could you say such a thing / now Maggy I never have said a word against you to no one / no not a word”
“It would be to bad if you would fool me Maggy dear / don’t do that / ask Cap if he will let you see me and see what he will say / good by”
“Maggy if they catch us passing them notes over the door I tell you what we can do / if I am in here alone I can get your notes from out of the window in the nite / you can have a long string and let it down (and I will) and swing it out by the corner of the house and I will have a long stick and get it and then you let up on the string and I will get it / do you understand / now be careful of these notes and don’t go back on me and we will be all right”
“….. tell me Maggy now what you intend to do / I will do as I have told you if we can get clear now don’t let Cap have any of these notes nor anyone else / I don’t think that other sheriff will be quite as sharp as Cap and his wife are /Maggy you are in the kitchen now while I am riting I can see you under the door / I can tell you by your slippers and red stockings / be careful about letting down that string / be shure that there is no one around and be shure and have it long enough to reach to me / you can tell when to let it down I will put out the light / be shure and have the note fast to the end of the string and swing it by the corner of the house and be shure and let it down low enough so I can reach it / I will tell yo some time how I get hold of the string / if we can make it work and we can if there is no more [other prisoners] in here / the old Dutchman wont know anything about it”
“Maggy I will get you some yarn for some stockings / I wish you would tell me what kind to get and how much it will take for two pair and I will try and get it for you / I [k]now you need some”
“I have got some hickernuts / I got a boxe from my sister Sally Loop [Sally Allen, Dan’s older sister, married David W. Loop, they lived near Omro, WI.] the one that was their visiting / I wish you was here to help me crack them / I will send you some meats tomorrow night……have a lovely evening”
“We will try and exchange notes again tomorrow night and then wait til Cap gets moved / it wont answer to over do it / it may be we can get them over the door if the old lady don’t tell that woman / I will answer yours tomorrow and you answer mine”
Exhibit #2/E – written preChristmas 1886 – “Did you get them apples I sent up their the other day / I sent up six red ones / Maggy I would like to send you a nice Cristmas presant but it will not do / I don’t expect any this year / I will come see you if I can and give you well yes you know what I mean / does that woman know that you right to me / do you show her the notes / I hope not you can right on the other side if you want to / I will send you paper if I could and some money to get teath but I dasent / right when you can …..good by / thanks for that lock” [lock of hair?]
[New Years Day 1887] – “Magg this has been an affen [awful] lonely day to me / I am glad you have had a good time / I saw you go away and say you come back / oh I feal worse today than I have since I left home / it seams as tho my hopes are all gon if you go back on me / I don’t care to live / many is the tears I have shed today / good by / I can’t write / this is new years”
“Ring was in here to see me / he wants to see you / he is away at present / you say you can hear me cracking nuts / I did not think you could hear up their so plain / can you hear us talk and laugh / Sometimes I useto hear you women up their sometimes but I don’t any more / you say you was glad to get that yarn / did it pay you for fixing my socks and shirts and pants / if it was not enough I will get you something else if there is any thing you want / I expect I shall want some more work done / them woven shirts are getting thin on the elbows and will have to be patcht / it may be I can do it tho / I don’t know as these folks would take them up their now / as to what that was that you spoke of that was in the paper Maggy it depends on you about that if we get clear you will be if you wanto”
“I don’t want you to fool me along until we come to trial and then do and say all you can against me / I hope Maggy you wont do that for I intend to do as I have told you / I hear you are going to have a lawyer from Chicago go to plead your case and he intends to send me to Wapun / now Maggy it all depends on you and I want you to do as you think best / I only want to know what you intend to do and not fool me / you say you worry all the time / I don’t sleep but little / I ly for hours and think Maggy of you and what is to come”
( Poem in Picture Frame)
Things to Think
by Robert Bly
Think in ways you’ve never thought before
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.
Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged: or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.
Maybe wounded and deranged: or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.
When someone knocks on the door, think that he’s about
To give you something large: tell you you’re forgiven,
Or that it’s not necessary to work all the time, or that it’s
Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.
To give you something large: tell you you’re forgiven,
Or that it’s not necessary to work all the time, or that it’s
Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.
CONNECTIONS
For some it never happens;
Many think they don’t need it.
But for people like me
Who are sentimental old souls,
It means the world to have a connection.
To share a thought from the past
A photograph or song
A similar belief or interest
Warms my heart and mind.
It means the world to have a connection.
A connection with a friend
Or a relative or a stranger
With a chat or a smile
Just to know we think alike
Gives me a feeling that we are connected.
If everyone could think this way,
And find a common bond,
The world would be a better place,
If we could all find a connection.
thanks Tom , again more poetry, will have to make a book of just poetry on my own ,just love all of it
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