The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-01-14
A CHANCE INTRODUCTION.


DELAYED by a railroad accident and
compelled to remain over Christmas at
Fordsville! Here was predicament
for an overworked reader for popular
magazine off for a hard-earned holiday!
What made it the more eXasperating
was that / happened to be on my way
to visit some friends who had with them
& young lady guest who had been de-
gcribed to me as such a paragon of love-
illness and worth that / had quite settled
1t in my mind that she was destined to
prove the ''inexpressible she" whom l
had hitherto sought in vain.
Fordville! Where had l heard the
name before, and what association had
with the placer Diving deep into the
recesses of my memory, made the rath-
er startling discovery, that had once
actually had a correspondent in Ford
vile. 1t happened in this way:
A few months back manuscript had
been put into my hands for examination
which as / at once perceived, was the
venture Of a very young lady, whom 1.
subsequently discovered to be certain
Miss Nelly Temple. This fact was
stated in confidential note to the ed
itor, the young authoress desiring that
only her nom de plume "a sweetly senti
mental one) should be given to the
world. After reading her story, had
written to the young lady, and the con-
tents of my letter i now found it rather
irksome to recall. After somewhat
more lenient criticism of her manuscript
than was usual, had been compelled to
write and decline the honor of its pub
ication. l had chosen this task myself
instead of intrusting it to the CORE
spending clerk, because | had an ire
sistible desire, which Ihardly knew how
to explain to myself, "to let her down
gently as the phrase is. The fact is,
the little letter that had accompanied
the story interested and pleased me in
inverse ratio to the effect of the work
itself. The letter was girlish, natural
and frank, while the story was arti-
fetal, mawkish and dismal. All
the hearts were mere shattered
wrecks, and all the hopes DESC
late and unrequited. The heroine
sighed and sobbed her way through
from beginning to end, and the hero
only appeared upon the scene to glare
about him with orbs of consuming gloom
and to discourse solely upon such sub
jects as wasted hearts and blighted hopes,
in a basso-profundo voice. In the end,
although no reasonable obstacle to their
union appeared, they were ruthlessly
torn asunder, and the authoress dropped
her curtain over them like black pail,
1t was eXecrable, and there was nothing
to do but decline with thanks. This /
did in a note unnecessarily apologize
and diffuse, which had the effect of pro-
curing me another letter from the young
authoress. 1t was pretty little epistle,
as the other had been, and interested me
much in the same way. She asked for
counsel and advice, and appealed with
awed timidity to my wide literary expe-
rience. She told me that she desired to
make literature her profession, it being
necessary for her to support herself,
though, like DIR. Johnson's nan, she ac-
knowledged that she haG several other
irons in the fire. / refrained from imi-
tating his advice and telling her ito put
this where the other irons were;' but
confessed that the witticism required to
me with startling fitness. Two or
three more letters passed between us and
then, though had been really interested
in the innocent young creature, had, as
it annoyed me to remember now, let the
correspondence dieout. 1t had left me,