The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-05
Bill Apps Letter.
tAtlanta Constltution.)

that the time for compositions ana de-
bates and essays is near at hand, but /
am sick and cannot help you this spring
mind. | 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
A few weeks ago j slipped off to my
daughters one pleasant evening and had
to be hauled back in a buggy for il is up
bin to my house, and ! was weaker than
] thought. You see ! had a sunstroke
last June and have never recovered from
1T. Every night, If the weather is bad
/ have to get up about midnight and sit
by the fire and cought for an hour or
two. But / can answer letters and have
a dozen to a score every day. 1t pleases
me to answer the letters of the young
folks for many of them need help.
know that / did when / was away off at
school My father was an old school
teacher and knew how to help me. He
wrote nearly all of my Junior orators
speech and | got credit for it, though
only crossed the is 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 his choice. Many OF them
forget to enclose a stamp and my post
age account got to be such a burden that,
as Rip Van Wrinkle said, Il 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.
receive many long manuscripts with re-
quest 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 received
no stamps enclosed-one is a gramma>
tical curiosity. Hardly a line that does
not contain bad grammar or a misspelled
word 1t takes nearly half line for
the word "spectacles" and it has four
teen letters in it. The word angel is
spelled angle, and yet the writer expects
TO get paid for the story
The other manuscript is an inquiry into
the race problem-no stamps-and it con-
swer. Another long letter on fool's-cap
writes of the good old times and says in
conclusion that if | will answer it he
will write me again and put hs 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
tiers. Please place your postoffice adj
dress plainly at the top and your name
plainly at the bottom. Many Cme
have passed a letter all around the fami-
ly trying to decipher the signature.
Sometimes / have cut the signature off
and pasted it on the back of the reply,
thinking that probabl ythe postmaster at
the writer's home would recognize It, II
the postofflce address is omitted and the
postmark on the envolpe Is blurred. as
il frequently is, it is impossible to know
where a reply should be sent, and II
guess at it and guess wrong IL goes 10
the dead letter office. Now, you young
people must not forget these little things,
for they are important, especially the
stamps. Sometimes we literary men are
greatly perplexed 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 l
thought that everybody knew it by this
time. 1 have been living here twenty
years.
And now let me ask the good charitable
ladies' who seek to do something for some
good cause TO send no more endless chain
letters TO me. They are nuisance and
have annoyed me greatly. l thought that
when that common cheat and swndler,
Joel Smith, of Monticello Fla, was
broken up and arrested the endless
chain business had stopped, but OF late
il has revived and l received three last
week One of them started in Canada
for a so-called missionary work and got
all the way down to Louisiana and
from there to me, wanting me to copy
two letters and send ten cents in Christ )
name, and under no. circumstances to
break the chain. Well l broke it and
shall break every one that comes to me,
and shall burn the letters for they never
contain any return postage. Some years
ago the good ladies of Fredericksburg
Va. wrote to me. saying they wanted
about $500 or $500 to place head stones TO
the graves of go Georgia soldiers who
were buried there / made an earnest
appeal to our people and asked for dol
lar from each good man or woman. ana
I raised $500 in three weeks. Adjutant
General Phil Byrd sent me 50 all the
way from New Brunswick. l bought the
marble. all lettered nicely, from the
Northern men who own the works at
Marietta-bought them at one dollar
each. which was less than the cost, for
the company said they helped TO put our
bows there and they ought TO help mark
their graves. The railroads shipped them
free There was no endless chain IN
that business. Three thousand neglected
Confederate CRATES. at Marietta! Our
boys. our dead. buried on our soil died
in defense Of their homes, their state
their people On the other side OF the
railroad are about as many VINO were
trespassers on our soil-vandals VINO
came as invaders with arms and torches
and their graves are marked with costly
marble and adorned with gravel walks
and flowers and evcrgreens, and there Is
n grand entrance to their city OF the
dead. all done by the national govern
ment. and keeper employed. And yet
To PfS and TnGN