The Tupelo journal., 1903-04-17
BILL ARP's LETTER,
Gives the Young People Pointers
Concerning Correspondence.
Bothered Again with the Chain-Let-
ter Busfne ss-Helped Raise Funds
to Mark Confederate Graves
at Fredericksburg.

Kind friends, please forbear. know
that the time for compositions and de-
bates and essays is near at hand, but I
am sick and cannot help you this spring.
l I'm weak and don't want to strain my
mind. | haven't been out of the house
but twice in three months. Ny wife
n the doctor watch me and won't let
me go. A few weeks ago l slipped off
to my daughters one pleasant evening
and had to be hauled back in a buggy,
for it is uphill to my house, and / was
weaker than l thought. You see, l had a
sunstroke last June and have never re-
covered from it. Every night, if the
weather is bad, l have to get up about
midnight and sit by the fire and cough
for an hour or two. But / can answer
letters, and have from a dozen to a
score every day. 1t pleases me to an
swer the letters of the young folks, for
many of them need help. know that l
did when l was away off at school. My
Rfather was an old school teacher, and
knew how to help me. He wrote near
ly all of my junior orators speech, and
l got credit for it, though l only crossed
the It's and dotted the is and put my
name to the end of it. But there are
hundreds of boys and girls who have no
help, and L am sorry for them, and so
for many years past l have tried to
help them. Some of them just want
help a little, a few ideas, but others
want the whole thing. In fact, one boy
asked me to write him two, so that he
could take choice. Most of them for
get to enclose a stamp, and my postage
account got to be. such a burden that,
as Rip Van Wrinkle said: II swore off"
and quit answering such letters. 1t is
bad manners to write to a man on bust
ness that does not concern him and ex-
pect him to pay the return postage. L
receive many long manuscripts with
request to read and criticise and return
and tell where to have published and
what the writer will probably get paid
for them. / have two on hand, just re-
ceived-no stamps enclosed-one is a
grammatical curiosity. Hardly a Line
that does not contain bad grammar or
a misspelled word. 1t takes nearly half
a line for the word ''spectacles" and it
has IA letters in it. The word angel is
spelled angle, and yet the writer ex-
poets to get paid for the story.
The other manuscript is an inquiry
into the race problem-no stamps-and
it contains II questions for me to an
swer. Another long letter on foolscap
writes of the good old times, and says
in conclusion that if l will answer it
he will write me again and put his name
to the next letter. There is no name to
this. He is an Irishman, l reckon. One
other request l wish to make about let
ters. Please place your post office ad-
dress plainly at the top and your name
plainly at the bottom. Many a time |
have passed a letter all around the fam
lily trying to decipher the signature.
Sometimes l l have cut the signature off
and pasted it on the back of the reply,
thinking that probably the postmaster
at the writer's home would recognize
it. Ii the post Office address is omitted
and the postmark on the envelope is
blurred, as it frequently is, it is impos-
sible to know where a reply should be
sent, and if 1 guess at it and guess
wrong it goes to the dead letter office.
Now, you young people must not forget
these little things, for they are i'm
portant, especially the stamps. Some
times we literary men are greatly per-
picked to know what to do with some
letters. One more request. Do not
write to me at Atlanta. l do not live
there. My home is in Gainesville, and
1 thought that everybody knew it by