we welcome the little olivia with the warmest and heartiest of welcomes, and we send you the most loving congratulations. the great news had been in the house three or four days before we were aware of it; because the coachman’s family have been visited threateningly by scarlet fever the past week, and mrs,Ⓐemendation clemens has been dangerously ill herself; wherefore the letters which have been arriving from time to time in the meantime, have been left un-opened. but mrs,Ⓐemendation clemens passed the danger point yesterday morning, and since then we have resumed our usual way of living, and have gone to opening and answering letters.

your letter containing the professor’s certificate making you number seven in a concourseⒶemendation against a field of sixty arrived this morning, and we take the liberty of applauding enthusiastically; because, from what st gaudens once told us we judge that this is doing extravagantly well.

i imagine that the best way to send medallions and all such packages, is through the american exchange in europe; i know the head of the london house mr. gillig, very well, and he told me a short time ago that the american exchange in europe has its agencies in every city on the continent and that whenever any one wants anything done in europe he need do nothing but put the matter into the hands of one of its agencies. he said that if i wanted to order a purchase of any sort in europe, or in egypt, or in any part of the world civilized or uncivilized, i could do it through their agency and they would take all the measures necessary to ship it from a foreign country to ours and that the new york agency would attend to the customhouse part of the matter, and in due time we should receive the thing all right. he said that if i wanted a boarding place in berlin or a passage in a ship in any part of the world to any part of the world his agency would attend to the matter. i own $10,000 worth of the stock of the london house, and therefore am a large stock holder, in as much as i believe nobody is allowed to own more than that amount of stock in his individual capacity. take my letter and go and see the head of the paris agency of the american exchange in europe, and he will doubtless tell you how to proceed, in order to send the medallion or an elephant or a dwelling house or anything you please through his agency to hartford in the state of connecticut.

we saw mr. gaudentⒶemendation in new york, and he inquired after you with strong interest, and was greatly gratified with what we were able to tell him.

we send a world of love to you and josephine and the french boarder.