Transcription:
4 valley, because he settled upon it under the prevention laws. before it was donated by congress to the state for a pleasure
ground etc - But his claims are contested. he is in Washington at present seeking satisfaction from government - I am not
annoyed with over much gold at present I will have about a thousand dollars in the fall. I may need one or two hundred dolls
myself I promised to let Mary have enough to keep her at Madison a year or so if she wishes it you may have the rest Dan or
the girls may want some of it if in the course of human events I be over taken with calamities such as sickness or marriage
I shall need it myself I fear that so small a sum in margin: with so many indeterminate conditions dangling about it will
be of little use to you 00507 1 May, 1870 1st You say that you have some thoughts of retiring from the dry goods business
I think you had better not be discouraged by these hard times. So great a number of depressing influences do not often occur
at the same time After learning your business stay with it as Califorians say, untill you make a competence. If however you
have come to dislike your business in itself apart from the accidental losses depressions of hard times, then by all means
leave it soon as possible You are still a young man it is well worth your while to battle with the vexations inconveniencies
which attend the labor of making a new home in margin: I do not know how soon I may escape from Yosemite. I am under a spell
in this place.