Water Valley progress., 1903-05-02
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Gives the Young People Pointers
Concerning Correspondence.
Bothered Again with the Chain-Let-
ter Business-Helped Raise Funds
to Mark Confederate Graves
at Fredericksburg.

Alnu Irlen enQS, please fOrbear. know
that the time for compositions and de-
bates and essays is near at hand, but /
am sick and cannot help you this spring.
am weak and don't want to strain my
mind. l haven't been out of the house
but twice in three months. My wife
and the doctor watch me and won't let
me go. few weeks ago / slipped off
to my daughters one pleasant evening
and had to be hauled back in buggy,
for it is uphill to my house, and was
weaker than l thought. You see, had
sunstroke last June and have never re-
covered from it. Every night, if the
weather is bad, 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 dozen to
score every, day. It pleases me to an
swer the letters of the young folks, for
many of them need help. Iknow that
did when was away off at school. My
father was an old school teacher, and
knew how to help me. He wrote near
~ all of my junior orators speech, and
! got credit for it, though 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 am sorry for them, and so
for many years past have tried to
help them. Some of them just want
help little, 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 stamp, and my postage
account got to be such burden that,
as Rip Van Wrinkle said: II swore off,
and quit answering such letters. 1t is
bad manners to write to man on bust
ness that does not concern him and ex-
pect him to pay the return postage. /
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 q
grammatical curiosity. Hardly line
that does not contain bad grammar or
q misspelled word. It takes nearly half
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-nos 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 / 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 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 time /
have passed letter all around the fam
lily trying to decipher the signature.
Some times have cut the signature off
and pasted it on the back of the reply,
thinking that probably the post tmaster
at the writer's home would recognize
it. If 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 reply should be
sent, and if 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. do not live
there. My home is in Cartersyille, and
I thought that everybody knew it by