As I have just came acrost one of your letter I thought I would write you a few Lines just to let you
know that I have not for goting you I am enjoying good health as well as my Family. Cince I last saw you I was Married I have been Married two years to day I have got
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a little boy ten months old1 on the 18 of this month and I named him after you so you see I have
not for goting you How is the times in Washington it has been hard times here but I have
got through the winter allright . We have had very cold weather here it has been the coldest winter I ever experance . Work is very dull here now I am not doing much at preasant how do you get alon out there. I have been away from Brooklyn Two Years next fowl I was throwed out of work in New York with
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about two Hundred others ten days before the Panic from the American Bank, Note, Co and did not do any thing till
January 20th I came to New Britain Conn and I have been here cince I do not like it here I had rather be in the City some where how is Buisness there if you come on this way I should like to have you come and see me if
you can not stay more than one day but I would like to have you
make me a good visit I have got a fine boy I can
till you he is as prety as a picture we all send
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Love I hope you will forgive me for not writing before this
Correspondent:
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.