The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-12-03
Mark Twain's Idea of a Good Letter,

StFSh oA SA8as TcSAc
. old. This is petrified truth. Hap
, PLY they have got nothing else to
, talk aboua bat home, and neighbors,
and family-things their betters
think unworthy of transmitting thou
| sands of miles. They write simply
and naturally, and without strain for
effect. They tell all they know and
then stop. They seldom deal In ab-
stractions of homilies. Consequent
Ily their epistles are brief, but treat-
ing as they do of familiar scenes and
persons, always entertaining. Now,
therefore, if you would learn the art
Los letter-writing let child teach
you i have preserved letter from
a little girl eight years OF age-pre-
served it as a curiosity, because it
was the only letter / ever got from
the States that had any information
lin it. 1t ran thus:
| ST. LOUIS, 1869.
Uncle Mark, il you was here j
could tell you about Moses in the
bulrushes again. / know it better.
Mr.. Sowerby has got his leg broken
off a horse. He We, riding it on
Sunday. Margaret, that's the maid,
Margaret has taken all the spittooas,
and slop-huckets and old jugs out of
your room, because she says she
don't think you are coming back
any more, you been gone SO long
Sissy McEiory's mother has got an
other little baby. She has them all
the time. 1t has got little blue eyes,
like Dir. Swimley that boards there,
and looks just like him. / hsve got
new doll, but Johnny Apderson
pulled one of its legs out Miss
Doosenberry was here to-day; l
give 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 Belden's.
And there's one, such a sweet little
puff one, with a short tail, and 1
named IL for you.
All of them's got names now
General Grant, and Halleck, and
Moses, and Margaret, and Deuter-
onomy, Captaia Semmes, and Exo-
dus, and Leviticus, and Horace
Greeley-all named but one, and l
am saving it because the one l nam
ed for you's been sick all the time
since, and I reckon it'll die. 1t ap-
pears to have been mighty rough on
the short-tailed kitten, naming it for
me. / wonder how the reserved
victim will stand it.) Uncle Mark, L
do believe Hattie Caldwell likes you,
know she thinks you are pretty,
because I heard her say nothing
could hurt your good looks-noth
ing at all. She said even il you
were to have the smallpox ever so
bad you would be just as good look
ing as you were before. And my
ma says she's ever SO smart (Very. J
So no more this times, because Cen
eral Grant and Moses is fighting.
ANNIE.
This child treads on my toes in
every other sentence with perfect
looseness but IN the simplicity of
her time of life she doesn't know it.
/ consider this 8 model letter--an
eminently readable and entertaining
letter--and, as / said before, it con-
tains more matter or interest and
real information than any letter /
ever received from the East. had
rather hear about the cats ct home,
and their truly remarkable nanes,
than listen to lot of stuff about
people l am not acquainted With, or
read "The Effects of the Intoxicating
Bowl.n illustrated on the back with
the picture OF ragged scalawag
pelting away right and left in the
midst of his family circle with a
junk bottle.
SURELY the world moves. AS an
indication of this we call attention to
the following, taken frem the Macon
Telegraph, formerly a violent rebel
sheet:
"Nesrly five years have passed
and We see that the theory of race
conflict is not 3 sound one We see
that the colored race csB exercise
all the civil and political rights be-
longing to the whites, and yet no
conflicts of violence necessarily take
place. Doubtless it is great evil
that political power should be shared
between people so divided b. the
hand of God, and there is danger in
it; but this danger can be obvisted
by prudence and forbearance. On
the whole, every man looking back
through these five years feels assured
that the relations between these
races instead of getting worse, are
vastly improviDg-that the feeling
of security has increased until it has
become well nigh absolute-and that
emphatically the whites of the South
are masters of the situation, and
have the whole future under God, in !
their hands. We have but to 90 on |
as we are moving, and our social,
industrial and political future will all
be, in time, secure beyond eontin-
gency. We have conquered our
prejudices and passions-we have
learned to rule our own spirits--wei
shall certainly maintsin the peace,
order and security of Georgia.
Simplicity is Beauty.
The late Fitz Greene Halleck said:
ga letter fell into my hands which
a Scotch servant girl had written to
her lover. Its style charmed me-
1t was fairly inimitable. wondered
how, in her circumstances IN life,
she could have acquired so elegant a
style. l showed the letter to some
of my literary friends in the city Of
New York. and they unanimously
agreed that it was a model of beauty
and elegance. then determined to
solve the mystery, and l went to the
house where she was employed, and