The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1869-12-23
MARK TwAIN's 5pEAs OF A geon
LETTER.


The most useful and interesting let
ters we get here from home are from
children seven or eight years Old
This is petrified truth. Happily
they have got nothing else to talk
about but home and neighbors and
family-things their betters think un-
worthy of transmission thousands of
miles. They write simply and natu-
rally, and without strain for effect.-
They tell all they know, and then
stop. They seldom deal in abstrac-
tions or homilies. Consequently their
epistIes are brief; but, treating as
they do of familiar scenes and per-
sons, always entertaining. Now,
therefore, if you would learn the art
of writing, let child teach you.
have preserved letter from a little
girl eight years of age-preserved it
as curiosity, because it was the on
ly letter I ever got from the States
that had any information in it. 1t ran
thus
ST. LOUIS, 1865.
Uncle Mark, if you was here / could
tell you about Moses in the bulrushes
again. 1 know it better now. Mr..
Snowberry has got his leg broke off a
horse. Hewas riding it on Sunday.
Margaret-that's the maid-Margaret
mas taken all the spittoons, and old
slop buckets and old jugs ouf Of your
room, because she says she don't think
you are coming back any more, you
have been gone too long. Sissy Nc
Elroy's mother has got another little
baby. She has them all the time. 1t
has got little blue eyes, like Mr.. Swim
ley that boards there, and looks jus
like him. have got q new doll, but
Johnny Anderson pulled one of the
legs out. Miss Dusenberry was here
yesteday; I gave her your picture, but
she said she didn't want it. My cat
has got more kittens-oh! you can't
think-tWice as many as Lottie Beld-
ems. And there's one-such sweet
little buff one with short tail-and
named it for you. I....-
All of them's got names noW-Gen-
eral Grant, and Halleck, and Moses,
and Margaret, and Deuteronomy, and
Captain Semmes, and Exodus, and
Leviticus, and Horace Greely-all
named but one, and am saving it be-
cause the one | named for you's been
sick all the time since, and l reckon
it'll die. 1t appears to be mighty
rough on the short-tailed kitten for
naming it for me. [ wonder how the
reserved victim will stand it. Uncle
Mark, do believe Hattie Caldwell
likes you, and know she thinks you
are pretty, because I heard her say
nothing could hurt your good looks
nothing at all-she said, even if You
were to have the smallpox ever so
bad, you would be just as cookbook
ing as you were before. And ma says
she's ever so smart. [Very.l So no
more this time, because General Grant
and Moses are fighting.
| ANNIE"
This child treads on my toes in ev-
cry other sentence, with perfect loose
ness, but in the simplicity of her time
of life she doesn't know it.
1 consider that a model letter-an
eminently readable and entertaining
letter, and, as 1 said before, it contains
more matter of interest and real in
formation than any letter 1 ever re.
ceived from the East. I had rather
hear about cats at home and their tru.
ly remarkable names, than listen to 8
lot of stuff about people 1 am not &C.
quainted with, or read "The Evil Eff
fects of the Intoxicating Bowl" illus,
trated on the back with the picture OF
a ragged scallawag pelting away rigt.i
and left in the midst of his family cir.
| cla irnl-