During my travels so far away from home; I have often thought of you and especially so when crossing the same territory that you at one time traversed.2
But you would scarcely know it now, in fact while now in the centre of the U.S. I
enjoy the same elegant meals & comforts that would surround me in your city
& how happy would I be could I now instead of writing you, just walk as once
before into your grand presence & explain the interesting parts of my loc.03562.002.jpg
loc.03562.005.jpg late travels together
with the immense success I am on all hands meeting with
You I feel will be happy to learn of my success and which is added to occasionally (as while here) with an $800.00 order, I continue west to Denver & Leadville and upon my return during the summer I ask again the pleasure of seeing you when I shall remember you with some thing from the great West in happy memory of your kind attention to me through Mr Wm Ingram3 who I write occasionally & who kindly answers me & assures me of your good health
After my long confinement4 which in my case & very many others was a gross injustice upon free men I enjoy the varied & grand sight now ever so much and while Beer & music is yet one of my standards & enjoyed by all the West We dont have to go to Prison three years for enjoying thence out here nor should we either in Philada "That Dog Stokley"5 I could laugh while they were hanging the scoundrel while to you & Mr Ingram I return my true & sincere love—
Your Friend Forever Geo Rush jrCorrespondent:
Little is known about
George Rush, Jr. When William Ingram called on August 3, Whitman gave Ingram a
copy of Specimen Days for Rush, who was then in prison in
Bucks Country, Pennsylvania (Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of
the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.). Ingram's letter of August 10, 1888 reported
how gratified Rush was to receive the gift.