Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

I can scarcely believe my senses when I recollect that I am 750 miles from all that is dear to me and yet the facilities of travelling by steam are so great that one passes two three hundred miles with as much facility as we do in Virginia 50 or 60. we left N. York 3, o clock Tuesday evening & arrived here without fatigue at 8 wednesday. 250 miles 29 hours. This is a city of Luxury beyond any thing I have yet seen. the stile of furniture &cc is as much more extravagant than Baltimore & B is than Tufton. I washed my feet last my night in a plain basin that cost $30 had the water been deep enough I might have taken a swim. a plain bedstead alone without ornament in which I slept cost $120 and Mr Coolidges is a plain small establishment in which he does not entertain company. These things are beatifull to look at but so far I can say with truth I have not coveted. it Every thing is by comparison. horn cups & wooden bowls are articles of wonderfull Luxury to a poor indian. and if one can compare with ones neighborho however plain we feel satisfied. When I can once more fold to my arms the partner of my life and my weel & my woe these glittering visions will quickly sink in to the horison of indifferent remembrance unregretted oblivion. I hope to meet you in Baltimore by the middle of may. I do not think that I shall be there before the 1st or 10th.

This is to be sure a most frightfull climate for the last 4 or 5 days the ground has been covering covered with snow, icecylles in the sun three feet long and every thing indicating the depth of winter. All the pretty & novel & splendid shows I have, seen, have not for a moment removed the fond recollections of my home. my wife my little ones. to me the world of feeling of home & of happiness and you our mother and Margarett next to yourself in my warmest affection and who pass as regularly before my imagination in the pleasing recollections of home.