I received your letter2 last Eve and was glad to hear from you but I am sory to hear that you have sick so long I have been sick with the Chills & Fever I have had wine to day my wife and Child3 have gone home on a visit to her house at Norwalk Conn have been gone cinse the 20th of June so I am loc.01874.008_large.jpg alone I am at the same employment yet I have plenty of work but the pay is small My boy was not very well before he went away he has been better cine they have been there they are near the Salt water my wife is well [deletion] the young Lady you met with me at the Cor of Fulton and Cart Sts that is my wife. Last wensday I went to Hartford to the reunion of the Conn Vetrans and spent two days I met a good many of my old camrads we had a good time there wa asembled about Four thousands at loc.01874.009_large.jpg charter Oak Park near Hartford. I have grown thin cince you last saw me I do not weigh so much in [illegible] 125 lbs I have worked very hard this sumer and I do not think it agrees so well with me heree as it does near the salt water and I shall not stay here any longer than I can help so good by for this time
I remain yours &c John M. Rogers loc.01874.010_large.jpg loc.01874.011_large.jpg John Rogers July 24 '75 loc.01874.012_large.jpgCorrespondent:
John (Jack) M. Rogers was a
Brooklyn driver with whom Whitman had a loving relationship. Whitman
first met him in Brooklyn on September 21, 1870. For more on Rogers and his
relationship with the poet, see Charley Shively, ed., Calamus
Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados (San Francisco: Gay
Sunshine Press, 1987), 122–135.