It is five days since the election but the excitement has not yet subsided.2 The government will have a majority of about 30 but made up entirely from the outlying provinces—extreme east and extreme west Ontario gives them little or no majority and Quebec has gone badly against them. If old John A. (the Premier)3 was 20 years younger he might pull his party together and tide it over—but as it is I do not believe that he with his 76 years can pull through. He will keep things going for a while, of course, but when he strikes a rapid, and there are several bad ones just a little downstream of him, his boat is apt to go to pieces.
Did I mention having received and read the "National Literature" piece?4 It is good, first rate in fact—the language a little loc_zs.00323.jpg cranky and queer in places but the thought fresh and vigorous and true. I like it well.
This morning I have your card of 8th5 & the "Critic"6 (sent by you) of 7th—thanks for it.
Your condition still seems wretched—you do not seem to rally—that is bad—why do you not send for a good doctor? Surely something could be done to give you relief.
Thanks for the "Critic"—I have glanced through it and shall read it later.
All quiet with the meter,7 we have not got into the swing of manufacturing it yet but are on the way and will get there all right—I am at present at work organizing a staff to manufacture.
We have had dark, damp, raw, very unpleasant weather here for some weeks. Today bright and pleasant—spring will soon be with us again—with you it must be about arrived?
R M Bucke loc_zs.00324.jpg loc_zs.00325.jpgCorrespondent:
Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).