Lizzie Borden Society Forum

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Wow, you did a lot of research here, IR!

I guess I'm a bit confused. There is absolutely no doubt that the letter was written to Emma Cummings? The envelope had her name on it...is it possible that Emma knew who Lizzie wanted it delivered to?

I can only offer my opinion here, nothing more, nothing less. I've read the letter many times, and it always has seemed, to me, to be romantic. "I dreamed of you the other night." Simply telling someone that you've dreamed of them is an intimate revelation. Dreams are intensely private things. I know that years and years ago, when I was a young lass in my 20's, I was engaged in a flirtatious relationship with a man I worked with. I once told him that I had dreamt of him the night before...it was intended to let him know that I was interested.

She could have phrased it: "I had a dream about you last night." or "I had a dream last night and in it you _____" but no, she says "I dreamt OF YOU last night." Hmmm.

Then, she follows with "I do not dare to put my dreams on paper." This is also suggestive. WHY didn't she "dare" to write down the nature of the dream? Because the letter might fall into the wrong hands and the nature of the dream would embarrass her?

Finally, the 3rd clue that, imo, reveals this to be a romantic letter: "Every time we pass your corner the pony wants to turn down."

This odd sentence is sandwiched between asking about a NY trip and a comment about the weather. It is a total non-sequitur, and seems too random NOT to be significant.

I have no doubt Lizzie was a lonely woman...but I don't think this letter conveys loneliness; I think it is deeper than that.

Just my humble opinion.

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Brava! I like this interpretation. In looking at the past, especially the Victorian era, I tend to forget that, although fashion and cultural norms were stilted and Puritancial, people were still PEOPLE...they laughed, joked, were sarcastic, foolish, whimsical, and as you mentioned, self deprecating.

My daughter is a total clothes-horse. She never met a dress or pair of boots she didn't like. She loves consignment shops and little boutiques, and I could see her saying these words to a proprietor..."I dreamt of you (and your fabulous bargains) last night but I dare not put my dreams on paper (if my sister saw what I spent on dresses last month, she'd had a fit.) And the pony stuff too...

You've improved this no end! Me I was just taking the pony-thing as a humorous comment on her clothes-buying habit. Kind of, I've been in your shop so often the pony turns automatically. But when you put the dream in the same light it seems totally plausible.

Lizzie is laughing at her own extravagance. The 'dreams' are outfits and finery. In the 1890s, any bespoke costume was still a collaborative invention between lady and dressmaker, and whether restrained or lavish and no matter how much perusing of the fashion-plate magazines, it was projected, designed, executed according to personal requirements. A lady did dream up her wants. So here's a guilty giggle at something the dressmaker would readily understand - Lizzie's foible for luxury.

This fits so well with what contemporaries were saying of Andrew Borden, that he'd been thrift personified. Do you remember that interview with the elderly Alice Russell where she's implying Lizzie was justifiably driven into a murderous rage because her father was so tight with money?!

I'm sure we've all been in situations where some degree of guilt attaches itself to the spending of money - and women especially make wry jokes about how much we've gone and blown on clothes. Well with Lizzie her money's been released by murder - each frock of hand-worked lace comes courtesy of butchered brains. You can imagine the kind of things people said in Fall River whenever Lizzie Borden was seen swanning around in something new and costly.

So I think you've hit the nail on the head. What Lizzie means by too sinful to specify is her love-affair with clothes!

This thread is a pure joy to read; my compliments to both of you.

I was thinking that the letter she wrote in August to Mrs. Cummings seems to be one of guilt, perhaps for indirectly accusing her ‘dear friend’ of gossip or spreading false rumors through the press report in December of 1896. We will never know the actual meaning to the odd contents of Lizzie’s letters, but the two of you have come up with a very plausible explanation.

Kudos to both of you.

Hi Twins. I've been trying to find Fall River City Directories online and try as I might, these are all I've so far found to work with:

1880, 1896, 1905 (first half only), 1918, and 1921.

Do you know of others? Kat used to reference the 1892, which would be jolly useful, but she seems to have had it on CD. I can't find that online.
Are they somewhere but I'm just missing them?
Thanks ever so.

Hi Interested. I am sorry to say that I don’t recall any others off the top of my head, except for the post by KGDevil in the thread titled, Bridget's Whereabouts, where he stated that he obtained city directory information from ancestry.com. http://tinyurl.com/gog6b4q

I wonder though if Stefani may know, or can find out, if Kat kept her city directory information on a CD, or the source of where she obtain the city directory information from. This is just a suggestion, but it may be worth sending a PM to Stefani, since she is Kat’s sister.

Sorry, I couldn’t be of more help.

Thanks for that, Twins. Whenever I tried the Ancestry site it led to lists of links which weren't successful, as to Fall River. The ones I mentioned are something else... courtesy of Archives.org or something. All a steep learning curve for me - I've never had any interest in genealogy. Perhaps I should ask Stefani about these Directories - she probably knows off the top of her head.

... The other day we were watching that David Lynch film about a man on a lawnmower and Wisconsin looks beautiful. I think it's called Straight Story.

You’re welcome, Interested. I understand what you mean about the Ancestry genealogy site; I have had other people say the same thing about them. I am not a member of a genealogy site, mainly because sites such as Ancestry, Family Search and My Heritage, cannot get my father’s name correct in their database. My father had two first names plus a middle name, and as confusing as that is, a good genealogy site should be able to at least get his name correct. Maybe I am way off base thinking like that, but trying to trace my family via my father is sort of like trying to trace Bridget Sullivan’s movements before and after the murders, and I know you are quite familiar with what that involves!!! Stefani is definitely a good person to ask, since she also lives in Fall River.

The Straight Story film is a wonderfully warm-hearted and touching film; it’s one of those ‘get the Kleenex out’ films. Richard Farnsworth, who portrayed Alvin Straight, spoke volumes through his melancholic tear-filled eyes. What I find incredibly sad is that Richard Farnsworth was terminally ill with metastatic prostate cancer during the shooting of the film; the cancer had spread to his bones and caused the paralysis of his legs as shown in the film. Richard Farnsworth died 6 days short of a year after the The Straight Story film was released; it was released on October 12, 1999; Richard Farnsworth committed suicide by gunshot on October 6, 2000. ( http://tinyurl.com/gwn4w3p and http://tinyurl.com/hk3h4bv )

Yes, Wisconsin is a beautiful state, for sure, with its rolling tree-covered hills, verdant valleys, rivers and lakes. Here are a couple of videos that show the beauty of Wisconsin: http://tinyurl.com/zyfsefc and http://tinyurl.com/hslwpzq

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