Robert Burdette to Clara Baker

Robert J. Burdette, minister and humourist, best known for his first book, "The Rise and Fall of the Mustache" (1877) to Clara Baker. They were married the following year. She published a collection of all his writings following his death.

April 25, 1898

And when I have reasoned it all out, and set metes and bounds for your love that it may not pass, lo, a letter from Clara, and in one sweet, ardent, pure, Edenic page, her love overrides my boudaries as the sea sweeps over rocks and sands alike, crushes my barriers into dust out of which they were builded, over whelms me with its beauty, bewilders me with its sweetness, charms me with its purity, and loses me in its great shoreless immensity.