Here be stamps. Again & again I ask thee: wilt thou have the timbres of the bastard French usurper??

My Milanese project doth not much [...] me. Why send packages for Messina & Catania to Milan? Here is honest Joseph Actoni, Attaché of this Legation, good man & true, who will serve your needs faithfully, but gratis. Mark that. Also send not thy cases to Paris or Petropavlovsk when thou wouldst they should go to Bologna, but ship always to Leghorn. Thou wilt save half the time & three quarters of the money. But more of this when I get an answer from the govt, & so fare thee well. Thine

Prof Baird

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P.S. When the Dutchman who wrote the letter about the snakes going overboard dies or runs away, send me a verbatim copy of it. I want it for philological purposes.

References in this letter:

An Italian who had spent twenty years in Philadelphia, Johseph Artoni served as Marsh's private secretary from 1861 until Marsh's death in 1882.