The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-05-13
From the Barnwell Is. CO. Sentinel
Richest Correspondence of the Season.
157 BROADWAY, New YORK, }
March l6, 1854.

DEAR SIR Your name has been proposed
as "a suitable one to occupy place III our
Portraits and Memoirs of Eminent Amer
leans" now living, of which several vol
umes have been alread published. This
yreat work has been received everywhere,
and contains many of the first names IN
the country. For further information OF
its general scope and plan, l beg to refer you
to d circular herewith sent. Our portraits
are engraved on steel, by the first artists, SO
that the likenesses are true and llte-llke rep
resentations of the originals, possessing
greater value TO the subjects and their trends
than the mast costly painting.
You are respectfully solicited to occupy
a place in the pages Of this work. Should
YOUR consent afford us the opportunity OF
thus giving to the world true and perma-
nent record of your life and features, please
send me your likeness "a good daguerreotype
of the same size as our portraits is best,) so
that it may be handed over to our engravers.
Please cause to be sent to me also me-
moir of yourself, or such facts as will enable
me to prepare it !; and | will not forget to
say that the facts for the sketch should be
fully and accurately given.
hope you will send both the daguerreo-
type and memoir at your earliest con-
venience, as we have a volume in progress,
and wish to avoid delay. Hoping to hear
from YOU, / am yours truly,
JOHN LIVINGSTON.
c. F. ToBlN, Esq.
DEAR STR: The above communication
reached me last week, and, in replication
heg leave to state that il have ever done
ANYTHING worthy of the Immortality your
magazine is likely to confer upon me, | am
not conscious of it, However, as true merit
is always modest, it may be to that virtue
that | owe my ignorance ; at all events, (and
| atn anxious that all the world at large
should know it,) I have not sought fame,
but fame has sought me. AS Alexander
Smith the poet would say:
Fame Fame next grandest work to God"
In taking retrospect to my early days. l
can discover nothing worthy of record, un-
less it be the stealing Of few watermelons
at school, for which was beaten with many
stripes, or the riding of few quarter races
for which | received an occasional and soil
tary ginger cake, or adventures OF similar
import.
At II ran away from my venerable Old
guardian, the Rev. Hanstord Dade Duncan,
Ilong life to him) and vamosed to the great
lar west, where fourished for short time
and short time only and upon returning,
l lost all my money upon game vulgarly
called poker" (of which, of course, you
know nothing) upon one of the boats of the
Alabama river. This was about the time
1he Ben. Franklin bursted, and killed Sc
many; and had not been standing so neal
the stern of the vessel, you would never have
had the opportunity of handing my name
fac-simile, character, and adventures, down
20 ada eager posterity in the columns of your
Justly celebrated magazine.
returned to my own, my native land
fundless, and perhaps somewhat seedy In
appearance, and ran for first lieutenant in q
distinguished militia company, but was un'
fortunately beaten by the loss of one vote
by nay worthy competitor.
In the year of our Lord l849, my illustri
Gus friend, Thomas d. Condy, gave me the
office of assistant deputy United States
marshal, for the district of Barnwell; and
while taking census, killed one horse and
another ran away and broke my buggy, upor
which occasion rode my horse bare bacl
fourteen miles in forty minutes, of which
fact, Col. B. HI. Brown is living witness
After had concluded this herculean un
dertaking, a man calling himself c. Franz