Patent  Agency   514  Ninth Street

Royal Swedish and Norwegian Vice Consulate, Washington, 1st of May 1872[1]

Mr. Tho. Scmidt.Esq                                   Legation Secretary

Dear friend.

            By now I have recovered enough to stay out of bed almost the entire day, but it will be a while still before I can get out into the fresh air, and for some time to come I will not be able to attend to any business downtown. Concerning Reverend Hansen’s typewriter I wish to hand it over to an agent for him to be responsible for the marketing. – I have had several offers, but a cash payment of 25.000$[2] is such a hard term that I doubt that I will find any buyer. I intend to write to the Reverend today, requesting him to supply me with the name of an agent to whom I can surrender, after June 1,  the patent, the machine and the documents in my possession. - In regard to the tickets for the steamship “Humboldt” I kindly ask you to inform me whether you are in a position to obtain the 25% reduction on each one or on only one return ticket. When is “Humboldt” due to leave New York? I have by now no doubt that I shall recover sufficiently and be able to travel – when can we reserve our state room and when can we buy the tickets? Could you kindly purchase the tickets and reserve us a good state room? Yesterday Lauritzen mentioned that he wished to pay $ 100 for the journey, and if he travels back to New York on a ship from the same company that he would then be able to get the return trip for $ 70.00 -Lauritzen will possibly stay in Denmark for quite a long period and hence doesn’t wish to bind himself to any predetermined time. – If you see anything in New York that you think would be suitable to use in Denmark[3], kindly take note and let me know about it when I get to New York. – Thank you very much for the daily newspapers – during my illness at times I was depressed – I was not allowed to speak and couldn’t be bothered to read – however, when the newspapers arrived I was able to read eagerly.

            Respectfully, yours faithfully    C.F. Clausen

(Text added in the margin: Lauritzen and I wish to have our state rooms alongside each other, etc)

Some of the journeys that C. F. Clausen and Thomas Schmidt went on with Humboldt and other ships can also be found as registrations in The Danish Emigration Archive. There we can see that C. F. Clausen, at the age of 36 - 28/8 1872 - travelled to New York with Humboldt. There are also two registrations showing that Thomas Schmidt went by boat in 1874 and 1883. One can see that he during the nine years between the two journeys advanced from being a secratary of the consulat, into beeing consul. Funny enough his age only encreased from 42 into 46 years. The information can thus not be trusted 100%.

 About Thomas Schmidt