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To Mr. and Mrs. Crooker, Tiskilwa, Illinois
Boston, October 26, 1857
My Dear Friends,–Your kind letter came to me last Friday. I thank you for remembering me when so far away, and often think of you, especially when I pass the house you once lived in at South Boston. I did not know that you intended to leave New Hampshire till your letter surprised me with the fact that you were already settled in a place I never heard of before. I am glad to learn that you have escaped the financial troubles which now disturb all the industry of New England. We had never such hard times, at least not for thirty or forty years: great factories stop their wheels, little industries cease, and thousands of men are out of employment. Where their bread is to come from I know not! But the nation has brought this trouble on itself by various causes, chiefly, I think, by relying on bank bills, which will not do for money in America, any better than potatoes will do for bread in Ireland; but we shall grow wiser by our suffering.
I know how much you must, both of you, miss the intellectual and religious advantages which you could find in New England, but am rejoiced to learn you find so many in Tiskilwa, more than I expected. They will grow up about you, and your own demand for such things and effort to create them, will “help the cause along.” Last October at Waukegan, Illinois, I found a congregation of “spiritualists” who had the same hymn-book we use at the Music Hall, and preached to them on Monday. Some time, perhaps, I shall drop down among you and find somebody to listen. Many thanks for the kind for the kind words you say about my services at Boston. It is exceedingly pleasant to me to find out that my words in sermon or in prayer waken so deep an echo in your hearts; I am particularly glad to hear of the school. The manuscript did you good to write, and so is not lost even if it never gladden other eyes. Believe me always,
Yours sincerely,
Theodore Parker
Many thanks for the flowers: they will blossom anew with me for a long time. Let me hear from you again.