[A letter on Hume House letterhead, short, in Edmund's hand. In the Tanner Collection at the Hume Polytechnic Library, marked RESTRICTED per catalog entry CARG-01917-R. Viewable only by written permission of a Hume family representative. Folder labeled in Cargill's hand: "TANNER — correspondence from parishioners, 1894 — one item restricted."]
Hume House Vanderlin Row Port Hume Saturday the Fifth of May, 1894
Dear Tanner,
You will have by now heard, I expect from Mrs. Quarles, who heard it from Mrs. Whipple, who was seated close to my brother August at the Ladies' Musical Society dinner last evening, an account of certain intemperate remarks my brother addressed to me during that occasion.
I write this morning to ask you, as my pastor, a small kindness.
On Sunday tomorrow, and again on the Sunday following if you will, I ask you to forbear from preaching on the subject of family, or of brothers, or of the obligations of brothers to one another in our faith. This is a very particular ask of a particular man. You have great latitude in your choice of Sunday text and I know of no specific sermon you have prepared upon this subject; but I know also that the events of an evening in a town of our size find their way into the pulpit of a thoughtful pastor, and I ask you not to bring the events of last evening into yours — on Sunday or on the Sunday following.
I do not write this out of shame for my brother, whose trouble, as you will gather from the account you have heard, is of a nature that no sermon will ease. I do not write this out of fear of the congregation's opinion, which in a town like ours is pre-formed and indifferent to sermonic reinforcement. I write this because there are matters to which our household is attending, in the present weeks, which do not benefit from public handling, and which ought to be permitted to run their course in the private rooms in which they are the proper subject.
I do not ask you to preach anything untrue. I ask you not to preach, this week or next, what is true of me and my house. Let the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the text of Isaiah, or the meditation upon the season of Pentecost — which is upon us — serve these two Sundays. That will be more than enough.
Evangeline and I will, as is our custom, be in our pew on Sunday morning. My brother will not. We will attend to our own private conversation at home.
I remain, as always, your grateful parishioner and your friend,
Edmund
[small postscript:]
If, at some future date, after the present matter has been resolved or has ceased to be a present matter, you judge that the pulpit would benefit from a meditation upon the subject of brothers, I shall be the first to listen. For these two Sundays only I ask the omission. — E.H.
[clipped to the letter, a small white card in Cargill's hand:]
"Access to this item restricted per the request of Mrs. Clara Westbrook, conveyed to the Librarian on the 12th of June, 1921, upon her review of the Tanner donated papers. Mrs. Westbrook requests that the restriction be maintained during the lifetime of her brother. — E. Cargill, Librarian."