St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-13
when you visit Boston should be happy
to see you and tell you about it,

NAfCh yOu 4 Slloulu Dt IldDDy
to see you and tell you about it,
George William Curtis answered:
II have no doubt that was very
much such boy as you are; that my
playing and studying were like yours.
L went to boarding school at Jamaica
Plain when | was six years old, and
rode on the top of the stage of the Ire
mont line as l went home at vacation to
Providence, where | was born and lived
until was your age. was quiet boy
and not very mischievous, and always
fond of my books, as am still.
sit is very pleasant to me that YOU
care to know something about my
younger days, and l hope that your days
may be long and happy"
"Oliver Optic" wrote characteristic
ally:
II have your note and, of course,
am very much delighted to know that
you like my books. have hardly time
to write my biography. l was born in
Medway, though L lived there but few
years. My early life was mostly spent
in Boston. l went to school. and there
was nothing at all eventful in my youth
When was seventeen l lived on farm
in West ROybury, and went to school
there and studied two years with a
private teacher. | used to write long
compositions, 8. 81, so and 120 pages.
''When l was eighteen | sat up all
night once writing with great coat and
gloves on-for the fun of it.
Il don't do so now. Very truly yours,
WILLIAM L. ADAMS"
Congressman John ID. Long, from
bingham, Mass, writes:
Il am in receipt of your letter asking
me to tell a boy how L passed my boy
hood passed it in the country village
Tn 10
school summer and winter, and to a
neighboring academy for two or three
years before l entered college. For
work, did the chores which country
boy has to do-milking, chopping, hay
ing, etc. For play we had the usual
hearty out-of-door games and berrying
and rambles. | found great delight in
reading, and at fourteen | went to col
lege at Cambridge. My bOyhood was
very pleasant bOyhood, and the best of
it is that it has continued for over forty
four years-up to the present moment.
With kind wishes, very truly yours
From Edward Eggleston comes this:
Dear Boy 'Hoosier School
master is, every word of it, as true as
L could make it, but it is not, by any
means, all of it fact. Did you ever
think that book might be true and yet
contain few or no facts? and that there
are many books filled with facts which
are not, as whole, true?
You wish to know what / count my
best book? Doesn't Il father always
consider his youngest child the most in
tereSting? 1t is not surprising, there
fore, that 1 think 'Boxy' my best book.
And now as to how | passed my boy
hood. That would be too long story
to tell. Part of it in village, part of it
in the country. part in the small cities,
the earlier years in Indiana, one year in
Eastern Virginia, and the later years
III Minnesota i'll frontier times. Much
of my time was passed in sickness.
Some in farm work, some i'll school,
some as clerk in country and city
stores, and some as a young gentleman
among wealthy kindred. The best
things that happened to me in boyhood
were those that taught me two lessons:
To do disagreeable work without finch
ing, and to tell the truth Never tell
lie. and knock any man down who
says you do were the words my father
said to him. Pm sure that is enough
about myself
Cardinal Gibbons simply wrote:
Baltimore, June 20. 1SS6.-Dear Sir:
May the blessing of God attend you.
Faithfully yours in y.
JAMES, CARDINAL GIBBONS,
archbishop of Baltimore.
r. B. Hayes, the great fraud, replied
briefly, without dating or addressing his
letter, and signing the initial H., as if he
disliked giving his autograph away, or
didn't want to waste ink. He said:
''See HOwell's sketch of the Republi-
can candidate for 1876. have no time
to write the note you wish. H."
DR.. Walker had no boyhood, but she
wrote with an immense flourish under
the signature:
Sir: Yours has been received. am
the first woman who went to the polls to
attempt to vote, and the first that COM
mittee in congress heard plead for wo-
man: also the first that state legisla-
ture passed resolution inviting to lect-
ure on woman suffrage. am very truly
yours, etc. MARY WALKER"