Flaget wishes Brute a happy new year and assures him of his affection. He thanks Brute for having brought back his good Roger whose services have become so necessary. He also thanks Brute for the apparatus and their things which arrived in good condition and for which Brute paid the customs. They arrived some days before Christmas and Flaget has opened the boxes except those containing the apparatus, since the room for it is not ready. Father Stephen Theodore Badin has announced that the Duke of Orleans has planned to send him an episcopal throne but Flaget has seen no sign of it yet, unless it is among the machines. All goes well. The Delegate from Michigan Gabriel Richard has escaped from prison and the suburbs has asked for $50 as Flaget's part of the customs. But Brute is to tell Father Jean Dubois that the books and apparatus are custom free because of a special act of Congress in favor if St. Joseph's college. Brute can therefore reclaim whatever he has paid for them. Futher he does not think the apparatus is worth fifty dollars. He would pay for if necessary but his pocketbook is as empty as Dubois. Nor have they paid for the wing of the building that will house the machine and will cost about $7,000 or $8,000 in the spring. He can see from that how much he does not have the money for a church 4 or 5 hundred miles from Bardstown. He had been pleading for six years for finishing the facade of the cathedral without success. Further they have had two fires without a fortnight in which they lost lumber and their infirmary. Luckily a heavy snow kept the first from spreading to the cathedral. Old Morgan whom Brute might know was alone in the infirmary. A student tried to save him but another student from the college dashed in and brought out the old man who died a few hours later. The young man suffered burns in his hair and on his hands. He is not a Catholic. If Brute has suspicions about the cause of the fires, Flaget thinks they were result of their own mistakes. The citizens of Bardstown worked hard to put out the fires. Brute is to assure Father Gabriel Richard about the $50 and his subscription for the church of St. Anne. If Richard has patience in a couple of years he will pay him double. Flaget sends his regards to Father Jean Dubois whom he compliments on the second edition of his college. David send his regards, also to Father John Hickey. :: II-3-o - A.L.S. - French - 3pp. 3