Again have I to thank you for your kindness in writing to me. Your p.c of June 18th1 reached me on the evening of June 29th while J.W.W2—who had dropped & had tea with me—& I were sitting here talking about you; thus realizing the old proverb—"Speak of the Angel & you hear the flap of his wing!"
Its arrival then was doubly welcome & we thank you most cordially for it.
Wallace at once took a rough facsimile of it for himself.
loc.02498.002_large.jpgWe are especially pleased with the brightness & cheeriness wh: pervades it—W. called it "a reamer!"—& for the good spirits in which you evidently were at the time of writing & to which the presence of those "two dear little boys" & "their delicious chatter" no doubt contributed.
God bless them for cheering you with their childish prattle; & may it be long before their young hearts lose their freshness and charming naiveté.
And they are fortunate little boys too, though of course they cannot know that; but some day when they are grown up loc.02498.003_large.jpg they will perhaps think so & be able to tell their little boys that they were friends of Walt Whitman!
We rejoice to hear that you were "emerging as before" from the prostration of those "fearful, unprecedented, three days' hot spell" which "pulled you down like a pack of hounds" & we hope soon to hear of your getting out & enjoying the fresh air with all its delights.
Do you know that this is the anniversary (by the day of the week, tho' it is tomorrow by the calendar) of my sailing from England to America, last year?3 loc.02498.004_large.jpg Today I have been pondering over the events of that ever memorable month of July 1890; beginning with the long sea voyage, during which you were so often the topic of talk on board & you were my chief object of desire for so many days; thinking of the time when I sat for countless hours [illegible] the ship's prow, facing America & watching our steel Leviathan wedging her way thro' the green waters of the broad Atlantic, & every moment bearing me nearer and nearer to you; when, anchored in the Delaware I lay in my berth and loc.02498.005_large.jpg looked across the water at the gleaming lights of Camden where I knew you were; when, next morning I ferried the River, booked at the West Jersey Hotel & with a palpitating heart made my way to 328, Mickle St. & was at length shewn up stairs by Warry,4 heard your welcoming words:—"Come in, doctor! Come right in!" and was received by you with such open-hearted loving-kindness, not once but many times.
When I think of loc.02498.006_large.jpg those two happy, happy days I spent with you & all you have been to me since, my heart swells with reverential grateful love to you, my Benefactor, my dearest & best friend.
How appropriate are your words!—
"Out of the rolling ocean the crowdThough we shall probably never see each other again with mortal eyes, yet "we shall surely meet again"!'6
Later
A good letter just to hand from H.L.T.7 from wh. I am glad to note that he thinks you are "much better this last loc.02498.008_large.jpg ten days"—letter dated Jn 22nd & wh I took to the train by wh. JW.W leaves town. Had a few minutes there with him & have since recd a telegram from him wh. says that he has recd the "Good-Bye,"8 & the Pictures & asks me to thank you & Traubel for all—
I am glad to say that the effects of my accident are passing off.
Disappointed at not finding H.L.T's articles in July Lippincott9
My best love to you now & always, Yours affectionately J JohnstonCorrespondent:
Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927)
of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, was a physician, photographer, and avid
cyclist. Johnston was trained in Edinburgh and served as a hospital surgeon in
West Bromwich for two years before moving to Bolton, England, in 1876. Johnston
worked as a general practitioner in Bolton and as an instructor of ambulance
classes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways. He served at Whalley Military
Hospital during World War I and became Medical Superintendent of Townley's
Hospital in 1917 (John Anson, "Bolton's Illustrious Doctor Johnston—a man
of many talents," Bolton News [March 28, 2021]; Paul
Salveson, Moorlands, Memories, and Reflections: A Centenary
Celebration of Allen Clarke's Moorlands and Memories [Lancashire
Loominary, 2020]). Johnston, along with the architect James W. Wallace, founded
the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston and Wallace
corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members of the
Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet and
published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire
Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more information on
Johnston, see Larry D. Griffin, "Johnston, Dr. John (1852–1927)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).