Letter to Walt Whitman

Walt,
I enclose you one of the very many letters I write to you. I think I have written to you at least once a week for the past four years — sometimes I write long letters, sometimes short ones. But so you know my dear friend they are all real to me — and I often keep them months before I destroy them. —
Many and many a mile have I rode on a Locomotive while in charge of a Freight-train and had you by my side in conversation—which to me was as really a presence as in years gone by on the box of a Broadway stage—or asleep and lounge on the deck of a Fulton Ferry Boat—
Walt in all your sorrows that has been made public, I have sorrowed with you—most especially in the death of Dear Mother and your own illness.
If you can Dear Walt write to me and acknowledge the receipt of this. —If you cannot, I shall still keep writing in my own way,
As Ever & always, Yours, Fred. care Levine’s & Weeber, 164 Fulton St., Brooklyn