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Stockbridge, Mass., Oct. 12, 1895. My dear Muir: I am most interested and obliged by your long letter concerning Yosemite
affairs, and I hope to make use of the facts you have given to the advantage of the Valley -- sooner or later. I have been
spending a month's vacation in Stockbridge -- and this last week I have been visiting here at the country house of Joseph
H. Choate, a beautiful big house built by Stanford White and overlooking the Housatonic Valley. I like the region greatly,
and hope to have a country home here within two or three years. (See the July and August Century for articles on the Berkshires.)
When I settle down you must come and visit me and I'll have a tomahawk masquerade with war-whoops, etc. to give this mellow
and gentle country the wild suggestion necessary to your enjoyment When I get back to the office I will send you under the
seal of secrecy the letter about Radford. I doubt if he is a man to tie to. I am rejoiced to hear what you say about Recession.
Can't the Sierra Club be got to take the initiative in the movement? Your Legislature doesn't meet this winter, and there
is plenty of time for making preliminary canvass of a few men of influence in the Club. I believe you might carry them for
recession and thus form a nucleus for a canvass of the state. The electric light and railway suggestions show how little the
true grandeur of the Valley is suspected by the authorities. The latter can be fought at Washington, for it will have to traverse
government land, the National Park, and this I will oppose with all my energies. But recession is the thing, and before you
break your neck on an earthquake talus you ought to accomplish that great result. You underestimate your influence, I am sure.
The argument, and the contrast of the two parks are all with you. I will ask Mr. Choate if there is any method except recession
practicable. He has just come up from New York, where my family are. The Choates have a copy of your book which I gave them,
and you will soon be a household word here I am well and trying to get strong as Gilder is soon to go again to Europe. My
warm regards to Mrs. Muir. Ever gratefully and faithfully yours, R. U. Johnson02037