The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-11-24

thing can think of anyway, but In this
new form it seems to me too much like
swallowing some of the campaign statis-
tics which l have heard secretly.
l presume that every one who writes
pieces for publication receives more or
less in the way of correspondence pro or
con, and good deal of it is evidently the
work of indolent or morbid minds, but
now and then letter that is not only
gratifying, but full of ideas, relieves the
monotony.
Ny own correspondence in that direc-
ton is a most kaleidoscope one. ranging
all the way from the wobbly vaporings
of a rancid mind up to the magnificent
suggestions offered me without money
and without price by those who have
been most wonderfully unsuccessful ex-
cept as suggesters.
There are four mirth provoking mani
acs who have been writing to me for
years regularly. One of them sends me
page after page of Scriptural references.
as, for instance, 81 Timothy, 8 to 10
verses" ''V Chap. Revelations, s and 9
VERSES IL 0CuCS1S, ~ 61uO 81 NClSCS,
ETC. Once l looked up these passages
of Scripture to see if there could be
any conference or point to their use in
my case, but found that they were evil
IDENTIFY furnished by man in California
whose mind had been neglected at
season when he should have put the Bor-
deaux mixture on it.
Then every little while I got letter
in female hand, breathing words of
love. They have been coming for over
five years now, and though, as heaven is
my judge, have never replied to one Of
them, they follow me over the Union
wherever 1 go lecturing and tell Of
tender heart that is throbbing for me, of
a warm affection that has been inspired
by the beautiful but rather idealized
portraits made of me by the able but
unscrupulous artist. Oh, is it not COM
fort to know one is beloved even by a
stranger whose mind has slipped cog2
Is it not encouraging when life is over
cast and ones manager or ones breakfast
disagrees with one, to know that far
away in some quaint retreat there is
heart that beats for one?
The following letter is given here be-
cause it is out of the usual run and has
some quaint lines in it which the public
ought not to be deprived of. So l take
out names and dates and give it below:
OcT. 9, 1851.
Edgar W. Nye:
MY DEAR SIR-I don't want you to write to
me-not even in revenge-for hear from you
each week through the press, and on my study
table Tor rather on the hull Of dismantled
sewing machine) in a little room over the stair
which my employer kindly allows me to share
with his deed box and an old pistol left him by
his father, and last loaded in 1868. to keep down
his insurance, and then deducts each week
from my salary of six dollars $1.50 for use of
same.
AS stated above, on this hull of machine,
in company with "Bunyan's Pilgrims Prog
ress," How to Get Rich on Two Dollars Per
Week." and an intensely humorous book called
salad for the Solitary" lies a recent number
of the paper containing your love letter to Mr..
Hamilton Aide, which, when read, makes my
blood tingle with patriotism till fancy can
almost see the national colors floating from
the bare, unused fagstaffs of this city. LAST
week, by the way, man near here did buy
flag for his hotel-a U. S. flag, may add-and
sent MS nead Fortef 10 ming IL 10 the Ore6ze
from the housetop, which he innocently did,
Union do1Un, thereby causing great consterna-
ton among many And as l read and reread
it, this grand old country seems actually worth
living in.
And when Saturday night comes and 1 sit in
my bare little room with only big, round half
dollar left for the coming week after paying
my board and washwoman-and big, round
lump is in my throat-I read your letter and it
helps me to forget that l left my home in
Brockton, Mass. and fifteen dollars week at
making shoes. to come here and sell shoes to
other men because my sweetheart, who had
seen the play Alabama" and read Mrs. Bur-