[Letter to] My dear friend
Contributors: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1871
Place of publication: Dublin, [Ireland]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871; Women abolitionists; Railroads; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

Richard Davis Webb presumably wrote this letter to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman. Richard D. Webb says that Mrs. May (the wife of Samuel May, Jr.) sails today from Queenstown. Webb writes about Mrs. May: "She is a charming woman." Mrs. May spent a week at Richard D. Webb's house and did her shopping with his daughter and sister-in-law. Webb does not doubt that Mr. May will write a good biography of his cousin Samuel Joseph May. Webb praises Samuel Joseph May and notes that he made few enemies. Webb tells of communistic trends envisaged by a "deep thinking" friend; Webb, being "less philosophical and more cheerful," expects things to "go on pretty much as they have done heretofore." Webb was shocked by the "terrible Revere railway collision in which so many were scalded to death." Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannet lost his life. William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., was terribly scalded about the head and hands. He is married to a niece of Lucretia Mott. The Villards are postponing their voyage to Germany on account of the accident. Referring to the Franco-Prussian war, Webb mentions his sympathy for the innocent sufferers; but Webb feels indignation against the ruling classes in France because of their exploitation of Italy.