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letterhead Aug 24, 1905- Mr. John Muir Martinez Cal Our very dear friend, We were greatly shocked on reading just
now, the enclosed clipping and hasten to extend to you and your dear girls, our warmest sympathy in your affliction. We had
heard nothing from you since your letter, written a few days before you started, with Helen, for Arizona, and have heard nothing
about you since a letter from our mutual friend, Lummis, in June, saying Muir has been here for a week . . . and has gone
with his 2 girls to Palm Springs, and from there tackles the desert. Your poor dear motherless girls, my wife says her heart
goes out to them more warmly and wishes greater sympathy because she has recently lost her own mother. The dear old lady died
in June, and it seems impossible for my wife to become reconciled at all to her loss. I feel quite worried about her, and
would liked greatly to have taken here a long way from home, but I know you had gone to Arizona, and she did not seem to want
to go anywheres. Her youngest sister, Ella, with her family are going Sunday night to Los Angeles to live, so I think we will
come out much earlier this winter than usual.