The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-01-30
AUTOGRAPH FlHNDS.
The Amusing Experience
Which Julian Hawthorne
Had With One Of
Them.
HE DESIRES 10 R. S. Y. P.
And lie is Not so Big as He Thinks
He is, According to Mr.. Furay
of Nebraska.
HE DESIRES TO R. S. Y. P.

Omaha autograph hunter to whom
he SEN a typewriter reply worded
thus
SAG HARBoR. Dec. Is, 1892.
DEAR SIR-Your letter without date is re-
ceived. l have to inform you that I never send
autographs, and TO this rule make no excep-
lion. Yours truly,
Mr.. FRANK A. FuRAY, No. a.395 Seward street,
Omaha, Neb.
Mr.. Furay returned Mr.. Haw-
thorne's note with this unsigned en-
dorsement Tin lead penciD:-
Your autograph is not so valuable as you
follow out such a rule? You surely are not as
big as you think you are. Hoping you will &C
cept this, l am yours truly. You can R. S. V. P.
Il you wish.
Mr.. Hawthorne does wish to "R. s.
V. P.," but addresses his responsen OF
to the furious young Nebraskan. but
ITO THE EDITORS OF The Critic
The enclosed document explains it
self, and may some time afford you a
text for one of your little To
my thinking, it is not only amusing,
but instructive. The gentleman
whose rejoinder to my own typewrit-
ten letter is inscribed in pencil on the
latter, had, in his original letter. re-
questing an autograph from lie, writ
ten in the style OF an enthusiastic dis
cipIe, and had signed himself Your
young Nebraska friend, etc. He de-
scribed himself as a boy with a gener-
Gus ambition to possess a noble collec-
ton of AUTOGRAPHS, and drew my atten-
ton to what he was kind enough to
describe as the obvious fact that no
collection of autographs could pre-
tend to hold up its head in the mar
ket which lacked the signature of my
self. The arguments, the turn OF
phrase and all the earmarks of the
communication will perhaps be famil-
lar to you, as they would be to any
author, and as they were to NE.
Autograph collectors have several
methods, but / have latterly noticed
a special leaning to the assumption OF
ingenious youth; it is the artless and
enthusiastic young boy or girl who
overcomes his or her native shyness
TO lay at the feet of the particu-
larry adored author the tribute of
homage, and to beseech in return
and how slight a return it is-the
boon of the honored signature, and, if
possible, just a sentiment an ex-
tract, or some apothegm that may Ell
able the disciple to rise above the sor-
did level of common life towards
purer ideals. AilNstais is touching;
but, to one who for. twenty years and
and upwards has contemplated the
holiowness of mortal things, it is not
convincing. The truth is. | have re-
ceived substantially the same letter
from SO many Different collectors, in
various parts of theicountry that |
.... IN.. a;,o1 10, - fl,o I,,,.;1;,r
ing conviction that there is such a
thing as The Autograph Collectors
Complete Letter Written, y containing
specimens of all manner of forms of
address, one or other of which
is warranted to capture the
wariest or most reluctant game.
A glance at the first line or two of u
given appeal will enable the expert
enced in such matters to repeat the
rest of it without looking" Pre-
sumably the collecting of autographs
is an industry precisely similar in OBJ
ject and kind to the postage stamp
album business; each specimen bears
a certain market value, and these
are exchanged and assorted until
the album attains u COM
pleteness which renders it ex-
AdlS6dOI0 " d. 1GdoOudOlG Oulu
in ~greenbacks, when that account is
closed and a new one begun. To sup
pose that these collectors have aver
read any of the works of the authors
they solicit, or would comprehend or
care for them ii they had, would be
delightful, but is unfortunately i'm
possible.
As for my present interlocutor, Mr..
f,uar- la h,1y0an, IN bo 70 lat bio 1o+
out of the bag with rather more
abandon than usual, and therefore |
make him the subject of this DISGUST
ton. | am not, he scornfully assures
me, so big as | think / am. He is
value l place upon myself; but why,
if he shares this humble self estimate
of mine. did he expend not less than
pondence? Or why should he allow
me because |. in the exercise of what
I supposed to be my ~inalienable priv
ilege of either withholding or CON
ferring a gratuity, had chosen the
former alternative2 As a matter of
fact, l was at the pains to inform him
that | was making no invidious ex-
ception in his case; / never under any
circumstances accede to the autograph
collectors demands; though, no
doubt, were | to give up all other liter
airy employment, | might do so. But
since | have become the happy oper-
ator of a typewriter, | have occasion
ally sent printed replies similar to this
which | enclose; in the perhaps vain
hope that sooner or later the tribe of
mendicants to which Mr.. Furay of
Nebraska belongs may take the hint,
and cease to waste their substance in
supplying me with stamped and adj
dressed envelopes.
'Of course, as every author knows,
letters-welcome letters-occasionally
come from some unexpected hand,
showing genuine and generous APP
probation and sympathy for what he
has done or tried to do; and these
have q value which no reply that the
author can make can repay. But
there is no danger of installing these
communications for that class to
which the production Of our Ne
braska friend belongs. There is a
worldwide difference between those
who, by showing that you have touch
Ell 9 chord of common humanity of
nature in their souls, lay you under a
delightful obligations; and those who
seek to obtain by false prentenses
such poor goods in the way of time
and labor as the object OF their at
tempted fraud may have to bestow.
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