The Andrew Wylie Family Letters - Indiana University Bloomington

his old partner Vale.
Nearly all my acquaintances among the gals here are to be married about New Years--and-
-and not one of them to me. How goes it in B? You ain’t going to do nothing of that sort your self
nor nothing.
I think if I don’t accomplish that thing in another year, I shall give it up entirely. There
are two or three rich girls here, some one of whom I think I could get and any one of whom could
remove the objections of poverty on my part no doubt, but they are all objectionable on some
ground or other. Nature is after all generally an impartial dispenser of gifts. I have never yet seen
riches, beauty, talent and amiableness combined in one individual of the feminine gender. But
when I think on’t I believe I have not even seen the three latter that is among the young ladies.
I shall not make any pleasure trips during the approaching holidays for two very good
reasons--want of time and means & especially the latter. I should like to make a trip to Louis ville
and if you had any way of getting there--home, but have dismissed both ideas as chimerical.
I believe I have nothing more to say & shall leave this open for John to add a line if he
wishes. With love to all
Yours affecty,
Sam
P.S. You criticize me occasionally and very justly & I hope with profit to myself; let me return the
favor. You ladies (so far as my acquaintance extends) are universally faulty in your punctua tion.
I don’t think there are more than three or four punctua tions in the whole of your last letter, and not
a single para graph. It is one heap of words thrown into a hodgepodge. Howev er, I have got so
used to reading the fine things in your letters in that form, that I dont think I should be satisfied to
find them in any other --
I hope Aunt Abb received her doings all done up in a bag. I should like to have the chance
of boxing her ears or pulling her into the creek once more, just for the fun of the thing.
John declines writing but sends his love to all.
S.T.W.
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1850
Andrew and Elizabeth Wylie to John H. Wylie, Richmond, Indiana
Bloomington Jan 2 d 1850
Dear Son:
I was disappointed in your not going on to Phil a & had made my calculations to pay the
remainder of what I promised you for horse & buggy which I had hoped, with what you might
scrape up from your debtors about Richmond, might carry you through the winter. But it seems,
from your letter that the scraping has been the other way & that you have been the scrapee. So
you made Cincinnatti do for Phil a It is all for the best, no doubt. I have no wisdom in such
matters. But debt is to be abhored: though I have never been out of it & sometimes pretty
deeply in, considering. One thing your mother could never learn (& perhaps you may take after
her somewhat in this respect) viz that saving of money in numerous small items is great in the
aggregate reckoning only for one year; & that this aggregate it is which gives power, peace of
mind, & ease of movement, also efficiency in action--to say nothing of being pinched & bare of
material comforts--a catastrophe not to be kept off by what one gains but by what one saves. To
spend the revenue of Croesus would be easy & yet so as to have nothing to shew for it at the end
of the year.
I have sold Salim for 55 dolls to be paid the middle of next month. My next quarter’s
payment will be due in a month, when I shall try to spare you another hundred--but I think I shall
hold on to Fann. I shall try & cure Pet’s lameness, & then she might answer your purpose till you
could sell her.
Jan y 2nd 1850
Dear John.
Father handing this, says, I, or whoever pleases may add a P.S. I have often heard say, that
a lady’s P.S’s generally contain the most important news, of her letters; & since this will be one
of 3 pages, am in hopes to make it, of sufficient interest, to come under that category, although
the letter is from one of the sex who first made, & now keep it agoing, the above impertinent &
ungenerous observation. And now after having said this much, allow me to wish you a happy
New Year; which wish I fear, will not be realized to the extent I wish, nay that could never be
on any spit of Earth since you have got back to the claws of Miss Mary Laws. Am not going, to
read you another Candle Lecture, on matrimony knowing you preserved the last; to that we beg
you will refer, when in danger, of being smitten with a daughter of Eve, minus, even one, of the
qualities qualifica tions--quota &c we thought essential, & would like you to think so, in your
selections of a helpmeet. Abbe says, she told you of every thing (in her last of a week or two
since), that was of the least consequence; of all that happened in the year 49; nothing remains for
me to detail, & so I shall detail--nothing. Of course the young gentlemen (& old) of B. are aware
of the present foolish, tiresome custom, of making calls on the first day of the year, whether you
follow the custom being old fashioned quakers, is more than I am aware; however I am too hasty
in condemning the fashion, as being foolish, & tiresome: at least should except, should defer, to
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