Condolence letters re: death of Leland Stanford: St - Sw includes Stanford family (Jane E. Stanford, Thomas Welton Stanford, and others), Stanford Faculty, Horatio Stebbin (Tel.), John N. Stewart, Clara Stoltenberg, and Joseph Swain

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY RECEIVED at Menlo Park June 22 1893 Dated Santa Barbara Cal To Stephen T Gage Palo Alto Cal

Assure Mrs Stanford of my sincere and respectful sympathy I leave at four oclock today to be with her on Saturday

Horatio Stebbins

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY RECEIVED at M P June 21 1893 Dated Sacramento Cal To Mrs Leland Stanford

You have my heartfelt sympathy in this your great loss in the death of your husband I have lost the best friend I ever had on this earth and California has lost its truest champion.

B U Sternman

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY RECEIVED at M P June 21 1893 Dated Sacramento Cal To Mrs Leland Stanford Palo Alto

The people of this city deplore the death of Senator Stanford who was ever their steadfast friend. This was the scene of his early struggles and successes and we always regarded him as one of our own. Our citizens mourn his loss and extend to you through us their heartfelt sympathy in your bereavement

B U Sternman Mayor City of Sacramento

[ans Sept 10/93]

Melbourne July 6th 1893

Hon Mrs Leland Stanford My dear broken-hearted Sister

If I was to listen to the voice of impulse, I would delay writing you till your agonizing grief had been softened by time, for sympathy expressed when the wound is beginning to heal, is sympathy perverted, & instead of soothing, as sincere expressions of love & regret from affectionate relatives, loving & kind acquaintances, & appreciative & sympathetic strangers are intended to do, the wound is reopened & the sad heart is made to bleed afresh. But did I not wish you by the first opportunity my motive might be misunderstood, & I might cause you sorrow of another kind - a suspicion of the absense of warm

brotherly love, and this must not be, for nothing would be further from the truth. Though far separated from you by time & space my heart yearns to comfort you & is as full of sadness as if I had left you but yesterday.

Your cablegram of the 21st {?} reached me on the morning of the following day, & so overwhelmed me that, for a time, I seem dazed & unable to comprehend it, and even now I experience much difficulty in expressing myself coherently. My mind is restless & my thoughts find no finality. Turn which way I will I am comfronted by your terrible suffering & loss, by the Nation's loss & by my own sorrow. The anguish that rends your heart I understand, for I, too, have lost