The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-11-08
Mark Twain.s Idea of a Good Letter.

The most useful and interesting letters we
get here from home are from children seven
or eight wears old. This is petritied truth.
HaD1ily they have got nothing else to talk
about but home, and neighbors, and fam.
ily-things their betters think unworthy OF
transmission thousands of miles. They
write simply and naturally, and without
strain for effect. They tell all they know,
and then stop. They seldom deal In alb
stractions or homilieS. Consequently Their
episties are brief, but, treating as they 90 OF
familiar scenes and persons, always enter
tanning. Now, therefore, if you would learn
the art of letter-writing let child te :.;
YOU. l have preserved a letter from little
oirI EIGHT wears of age-preserved ii as GU
riosity. because it was the only letter 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.
| know it better now. Mr.. Sowerby has
cot his leg broke off horse. He was riding
It on Sunday. Margaret, that's the maid,
Margaret has taken all the spfttoons and
slop-buckets and old jugs out of your room,
because she says she don't think you are
long. Sissy McElroy's mother has got an
other little baby. She has them all the
time. 1t has got little blue eyes, like Mr..
Swimlev that boards there, and looks just
like him. / have got new doll, but johnny
Anderson pulled one Of its legs out. Miss
Doosenberry was here to-day: | give her
your picture, but she said she didn't
want it. NY cat has got more klttenS-oh
you can't think-twice rs many as Lottle
Belden's. And there's one, such a sweet
little buff one with a short tail, and L named
it for you. .,
"All of them's got names now-General
Grant, and Halleck, and Moses, and Mar
garet, and Deuteronomy, and Captain
Semmes, and Exodus, and Levltlcus, ana
Horace Greeley-all named but one, ana
am saving it, because the one / named for
you's been sick all the time since, and l
reckon it'll die. 1T appears to have been
mighty rough on the short-tailed kitten,
naming it for me. / wonder how the re-
served victim will stand it, Uncle Mark. |
do believe Hattie Caldwell likes you, and l
know she thinks~you are pretty, because
| heard her say nothing could hurt your
good looks-nothing ut all. She said even
if you were to have the smallpox ever so
bad you would be just as good-looklng as
you were before. And my ma says she.s
ever so smart. [Very.] So no more'this
time. because General Grant and Moses Is
ngntlng. hNNih'
This child treads on my toes in every other
sentence with perfect looseness; but in the
simplicity of her time of life she doesnt
know it.
consider that model lettcr,-an emil
nently readable and entertaining letter.
and, as l said before, it contains more mat
ter of interest and real information than any
letter ever received from the East. had
rather hear about cats at home, and their
truly remarkable names, than listen to. a lot
of stuff about people / am not acquainted
with, or read "The Evil Effects OF the
Intoxicating Bowl" illustrated on the DaG Gt
with the picture of ragged scalawag pelt'
ing away right and left in the midst OF his
family circle with junk bottle.