#most of this twelve page letter is Nell obsessively requesting and inquiring after specific monograms from Will

[yeoldenews]

Today marks the 148th birthday of Will - the recipient of most of the letters from my "Rachel & Co." collection (a box of 1000+ absolutely delightful letters from the 1890s that I purchased at a flea market.)

Will shared his birthday with George Washington, which was a considerably more important holiday in the 1890s than it is now, and often (jokingly) complained about this fact.

On his 20th birthday, in 1897, Will received a letter from his friend Nell reassuring him of whose birthday she found more worthy of celebration:

"You ask which I think is more important – your birthday or that of George Washington. Yours, of course. There isn’t a shadow of a doubt in my mind, my good friend. We are going to celebrate George’s birthday here, instead of yours, for the reason, I suppose, that, as you say, the opinion of the common drabble is apt to be wrong and the herd have decided that George’s birthday is the greater event of the two."

The letter was sent with a box of homemade fudge - "Sweets to the Sweet" - Will responded "Sweets from the Sweet" in thanks - and a mysterious gift referred to only as "Mrs. Piper".

"I send along with this letter, a little birthday gift, in the form of “Mrs. Piper”. I hope you will love and cherish her and never use any slang before her, for she is a dear old lady and slang shocks her very muchly."

My best (wild) guess is that "Mrs. Piper" may have been an elf-on-the-shelf style rag doll sent to ensure Will behaved himself at college, but alas I fear her true nature may be lost to history.