The Selected Letters of Elizabeth Stoddard

Letter 52. To Whitelaw Reid, August 23, 1871

156 letter 52 To Whitelaw Reid August 23, 1871 New York City, New York Office of The Aldine, 23 Liberty Street 75 East 10th New York, August 23d 18711 Dear Mr Reid We have returned to town, and are ready for any sort of fray. I wish you, through the columns of the Tribune, to propose me for the State Attornoyship.2 I feel within me that pure womanliness, and spirit of self-sacrifice which eminently qualifies me for the position. To prove this, I am willing to refuse all fees or salary for the space of five minutes, after I have attained it. With your help, and I need the help of all short-sighted, long-legged broad shouldered editors, our beloved country will prosper! I have a new combination, instead of fiddlestick it is Tiltonstick. T.T.3 does not know how good a thing he said, when he said The Tribune has no more moral mission &c. If it is true, I will begin to read that journal faithfully if it has outlived its youth, and attained the experience which all reflective individuals attain in regard to “missions” &c—it will be worth the trouble. Mr. Greely seems to me to be right, and clear minded on the question,4 but God help us women, there are frightful abuses in our lives—our husbands dare to neglect us, dare to rate us as they would no ordinary acquaintance in their outside lives—simply because they can. Miss Dunning5 turned up the other day, and told me her tale. Sad enough it is. She married Mr. [Paly?],6 according to his wish privately, and went to her own home—in the course of time she gave birth to his child. He denies that it is his. He has treated her shamefully and has deserted her, she does not know where he is. She came to Miss Swift the other day with the child in her arms, and penniless. The money 157 due her, had not come, as she expected, she could not pay her board at Earle’s Hotel, and she was obliged to leave, and her luggage was detained. Miss Swift lent her money, & then came home and asked me to see her, for Miss Dunning was doubtful whether I would wish to recognize her. I asked her about her work &c—she said she had been fortunate till lately, earning more than enough to support her. She spoke of your uniform kindness7 &—now think of this young, talented woman, nursing her boy, tending him alone, and writing for their dear mutual lives! You see a young, talented man with the same chance, does not have a baby tugging all night at his nipples, twisting, writhing, squealing in his arms all day—he has his sleep, his leisure his strength for himself—and he is not bound to a jealous being who has the law on his side! I was pleased with Miss Dunning’s bearing and all that she said & I hope you can give her employment. She thinks her husband is deranged & says his friends believe so also. See too, the muss and wrangle made about woman suffrage, as if we hadn’t enough to do with our own weakness, and the weakness and wilfulness of men, who fasten upon our natures, as parasites fasten (vide natural history). Did you see the slap at Bayard from Chicago?8 Someone told me his letters were simply awful. I have not read one, for I never see the Tribune except when I borrow it. If I did, I might give you more of a deluge in the way of notes. So it may be God’s mercy. Stoddard you know is to edit the Aldine.9 I wish to write a novel this year—No Affinity—will you buy it for the semi-transparent weekly Tribune. Trusting that your hard heart will be smitten with an irrepressible longing to be once more in communion with that able but desolate and decaying pair of starlings who can neither get out or in—the Stoddards. I remain as ever yours EDB Stoddard. Manuscript: Whitelaw Reid Papers, Library of Congress 158 notes 1. Stoddard uses Aldine stationery for this letter, crossing out the printed address and adding her own and the date. 2. Probably a response to Victoria C. Woodhull’s presidential campaign, initiated in April 1870 when she placed a notice in the New York Herald...