164 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW
LETTERS OF GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM TO
JAMES S. ROLLINS
EDITED BY C. B. ROLLINS
PART II
letters: October 3, 1853—august 10, 1856
Philadelphia Oct. 3, 1853
My dr Major
We have been near three weeks in the city of brotherly
love, but had not succeeded until yesterday in fixing ourselves
in comfortable quarters. The very long railroad ride, all
the way from Cincinatti, proved rather too much for Eliza
and Clara, and they were both attacked with chills the day
we reached Philadelphia, a free administration of Quinine,
however, put them right again in about a week.
The County Election appears to me to be progressing
rather slowly, though Mr Sartain assures me that it will
be completed by the 20th December, which is the time specified
in the contract.
He appears to be taking a great deal of care in the execution of the work, making the line greatly preponderate
over the Mezzotint. This line process is very slow and
tedious, but it marks the picture so deeply into the plate,
that allmost any number of impressions can be taken from
it. Mr Sartain tells me that the plate of the County Election, in the manner he is completing it, will make 18 or
20,000 good prints.
I visited New York a few days since. The Crystal
Pallace appears to have attracted thither a great many
strangers. Having but little time, I passed hurriedly through
the exhibition. I saw a few good pictures and several fine
productions of the chisel. I called upon the two houses
which are engaged most extensively in the picture trade,
Goupil & Co. and Williams & Stevens. Goupil1 expressed
^dolphe Goupil (1806-1893), the founder of the famous French art firm
of Goupil et Cie, now Manzi, Joyant et Cie. {New International Encyclopaedia,
Vol. X, p. 190.)
