< A Letter from D. D. Home (continued from page 1-165) >
edge, as has been done in the present instance, places himself in no enviable position. I will give to the poor of any city of the Union you may designate the sum of one thousand doldars for every charge against my moral character which can be proven by Mr. Anthony Trollope or anyone of the family. I have never known but one Mr. Rymer, and as it is just possible this “sotto voce Comte” has been giving notes from his diary, and making use of another name, which has been given me by a person in America, and with whom, (had I been able to make the charges clear) I would have had a law-suit for libel and slander; but he has denied being the author of the charges referred to by the American correspondent. I regret to say that the said correspondent sought to frighten me by the threatened publication of these fabrications, and if you will kindly grant me space I will take the wind out of his sails and give them to the public for what they are worth. I now quote from his letter. “I will tell (quite a refreshing memory this, of one’s school boy days) of the £50 fur coat, for which Mr. Rymer had to pay for you. I will recall the story, (here the school boy language is very polite; naughty boys usually say lie instead of story.) of Mr. Chinnery’s Parisian friend. I will cite the tailor’s bill Hiram Powers had to pay for you.”—No. 1: Mr. Rymer never gave me either a fur coat or £50; the shoe is on the wrong foot. The time alluded to was 1855, and I have a letter from Mrs. Rymer acknowledging the receipt of £50 which I sent her, when a chain of unfortunate and most painful circumstances necessitated the departure of Mr. Rymer for Australia.
My Dear Dan: — I cannot in words express my thanks for your affectionate liberality, which enables me to join my beloved husband. Believe, with affectionate greetings and many pravers how truly I am, dear Dan, always, in this or a far off country, your sincere and grateful friend,
If this “Comte” has kept notes, he will find that in 1855, a Mr. Kerritch, of Florence, made me a present of a fur coat worth £12; and as he may not have been able to play the sneak, or have his valuable information sotto voce, I can inform him that being in Pisa in 1858, on a visit to some friends, aid hearing that Mr. Kerritch had met with a reverse of fortune, I sent him the full value of the said fur coat. No. 2. I have a letter from Mr. Phinney, dated May 9th, 1876, saying: —
‘‘If anybody has used my name in the way you mention, I can only say that it is without foundation.”
No. 3. The tailor’s bill supposed (falsely) to have been paid by the late Hiram Powers, a friend of ours, the Countess Pornigia, residing No. 8 Via Jacopo da Diaceste, Florence, called, at our request, on the family of the Powers, and was told (as is the truth) that “such a thing had never taken place to their knowledge.” I fear I may as I grow old get proud; a public life extending over twenty-five years, living, as I mostly have, in the homes of my intimate friends, whose names and positions are too well and honorably known to allow even a shadow of doubt to attach itself to them, vet being surrounded by enemies, incited, in comparatively few instances, by a personal dislike to me; but by far the greater number prompted by a wish to injure the cause whose truth and dignity I have ever sought to maintain. I say, to think that after all this, such despicable and trumpery charges only to be brought against me, I have every reason to be proud. In case there should be any other “Comtes” who wish to bring themselves into public notice by attacking me. I beg to inform them, one and all, that I have no dread of “sotto voce” insinuations. As I said in my reply to Mme. Lemarie, the letter published in the Sunday Herald was not intended for publication. I had no right to touch the private life of anyone, and had 1 been in possession of a letter written me in March, wherein the author of a book explains that certain most monstrous assertions were “assumptions” and “slan ders” of his, much that has been to me, as well as to others, unpleasant, would have been avoided. This is the first and it will be the last time I have ever taken the trouble to reply to “sotto voce” absurdities. When distinct proofs are given of what is asserted, I have my refuge in a Court of Justice, and I will use it.
Your most obedient.
La Malou, Herault, France, May 10, 1876.
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