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August 11th

Villa Crawford
Sant' Agnello di Sorrento

Dear Mrs Stanford -

Although I have
never had the pleasure
of seeing you as often, or
knowing you as well, as
I could have wished, yet,
I have always felt strangely
drawn towards you ever
since I first met you
in Constantinople. You
were there with your
Husband and dear only
son. When I saw you
with the latter, I could
hardly supress a feeling
of envy, as only two years
before our only son had
been taken from us.
Then a few months later
I heard that you had
lost your boy, and have

[pages clearly missing]

President Cleveland will have
his hands full & [to?] [has?]
[compass?] . We will do if the
Democrats will do any better
than the Republicans -- of
course everything is changed
and although the Democrats
pretend they wish Civil Service
to be enforced - still, even
those [???] second was of the
best have been thrown out
of employment. In my
own family my brother
in law Cal. [Lay?] who was Counsul
General on Canada & who
had placed everything
[such?] an excellent footing
was suddenly deprived
of his post without the slightest
warning. This is very hard
especially now. While writing
this it has occurred to me
that possibly you might
be in need of a person in whom you could [???]
absolute confidence, excellent
knowledge of business &
accounts. [???] thorough [several words unintelligible???] / he is a Catholic/