March 1895 starts with an invitation to be presented to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.

There are six letters for March 1895. Clifton writes to his friend William Wilson (March 1) and to his sister Mary Maltby (March 24). KCB writes to Lily (March 10), My precious sister (March 13), Aunt Lees (March 19), and Rachel (March 23).

Clifton’s letter to William Wilson is to congratulate Wilson on this cabinet appointment. Apparently, Mr. Straus had cabled CRB with the news.

• Mr. Straus is most likely Isidor Straus, owner of Macy’s Department Store and Democratic Congressman from New York.
• William Wilson is most likely William Lyle Wilson – a lawyer from West Virginia and a Bourbon Democrat. Wilson served in Congress from 1882 to 1895 (about the same time as CRB). Cleveland appointed Wilson as Postmaster General (maybe after Straus had declined the position). Wilson served as Postmaster General until 1897 and then became president of Washington & Lee.

The themes of KCB’s March 1895 letters are correspondence, sickness, weather, and making calls.

She tells Lily that she is “struggling to keep up with her correspondence” because she has not felt well.

It has been several weeks since I have written to anyone until day after yesterday…

Letter to Lily, March 10, 1895 from St. Petersburg

She longs for letters from home and worries that people will forget her. But letters also make her homesick.

Your letters are always such a joy to me. Your last was specially sweet and did me good.

Letter to my precious sister, March 13, 1895, St. Petersburg

She tells her aunt that the sun is “streaming into our rooms” and it cheers her up. Her homesickness is apparent in the statement, “I don’t think anyone can fully appreciate our beautiful country until one leaves it for a while.”

As for sickness, she talks about her own morning sickness (she’s pregnant with her fourth child) and the sickness that has spread through the household. She calls it influenza and says that the “little girls” (so Mary and Lees) are just getting over it but are not seriously ill. The governess and several of the other servants have been sick as well. She mentions that the illness was “epidemic” in London.

I wrote Hazelwood of our having a housefull (sic) of invalids. Nobody seriously ill however and all getting stronger.

Letter to my precious sister, March 13, 1895, St. Petersburg

By March 19, 1895, the letter girls are “about recovered” from the sickness.

The weather is a continual thread throughout all her letters. In a letter to her aunt Susanna Preston Lees (dated March 19, 1895), KCB writes that the temperature is 20 to 25 degrees below zero in St. Petersburg.

And the people seemed to enjoy [cold temperatures] immensely. Many were under the influence of ‘vodka’ but they never get fighting drunk as they do with us. It only makes them happy and extremely affectionate to one another.

Letter to Susanna Preston Lees, March 19, 1895, St. Petersburg

She describes how the Russians deal with the great amounts of snow.

The streets are kept in beautiful order and a great deal of snow was never allowed to accumulate.

Letter to my precious sister, March 13, 1895, St. Petersburg

As the snow thaws, she describes that “an army of workmen began with pickaxes to break it up.” But she tells her sister-in-law that the cold weather is not yet over and that the ground won’t thaw till late April. In the same letter, she seems to contradict herself by saying “We had a brilliant sun for several days, and the snow melted rapidly.”

The activities she covered in these letters from March 1895 include fishing (for Clifton), sleighing (it’s almost over), sewing, skating, and making calls/receiving visitors. In the summer they will go to Finland to get out of the city and she tells her sister-in-law Rachel that “‘His Excellency’ can indulge in his favorite sport to his heart’s content.” Of course, by His Excellency, she is referring to Clifton.

KCB really enjoyed the sleighing and it is coming to an end as the winter comes to an end. She states “It has been the pleasantest feature of the winter to me.” She explains that Clifton sometimes goes with her and sometimes Carson or Mary and Lees. “Generally I go alone,” she says. But the confusing part of her sleigh ride description (which she makes to Lily in a letter from March 13, 1895) is that she calls it “dreadfully dull work” and that “there is absolutely nothing between me and the people I meet.” This statement could be taken a few different ways. Does she see her sleigh rides as her duties? Or have I taken this statement out of context without meaning to?

I went back to the letter transcription and here is the full quote.

At one or half past, according to the time the minister gets home we have dejeuner. After that the little girls go, when all are well, with the governess to skate for an hour or too. Only I don’t let them go out when the thermometer is more than ten degrees below zero. Carson, Mr. Boggs, and Shep either take a walk or the two former skate, I sew or attend to other matters until three, when I start out to make my calls. When there are no calls pressing I take a sleigh ride. Sometimes the minister goes with me and occasionally I take Carson or the little girls. Generally I go alone. This is dreadfully dull work. There is absolutely nothing between me and the people I meet.

Letter to Lily, March 10, 1895, St. Petersburg

Ah! See! When making notes, I attributed the later part of this section to sleigh riding not making calls. So taken in context, she goes alone to make her calls and she finds that work “dreadfully dull work.” Her statement is not a denigration of the common people she might encounter during her sleigh ride but a statement of having to make small talk one-on-one with the person she is calling on or the person calling on her. And most likely having to communicate in French which she is not comfortable with – which adds to the stress of these calls. She confirms this anxiety later in the paragraph.

Tuesday afternoon I stay at home and receive my visitors. But the most trying time is when I am thrown with some one who doesn’t speak a word of English.

Letter to Lily, March 10, 1895, St. Petersburg