Arizona republican., 1908-02-22

have been able to write during my re- cent pressure.
 And now, at last, am able to beg, most humbly, your pardon for my seeming indifference to your last let ter. Ever since it came it has been at the top of the heap affecting me re- morsefully. Hear the truth. and for give me, Just before it arrived I was taken ill., and had besides lost the last remnant of my senses. When I recOv- cred, l found myself bewildered with the contracts I was under to edit-ten volumes of Poe and this Victorian Anthology Since then I have worked every night without a day away and always unable to keep up with the printers. All my letters had to go un- answered except to those which my secretary could write. Of course l wished to write you with my own hand. You see I have been forced to neglect my friends, and my own repu- tation entirely. Even now the doctor forbids correspondence; but having got out the Anthology and all but Vol. x. Of Poe l make it my first business to ask your forgiveness.
 'I was much gratified by your kind report of the evening at the club and especially pleased to learn that you, like myself, date from the war time, as that makes us comprehend each other quite readily. It is a comfort too, to be able honestly to say that your poems, The Red Bird. 'Omnipo- tence, and The Green and Gold are poetry with both art and feeling, and each in its own way quite above most of the verse which comes to me day after day. So much of the latter lacks simplicity and natural quality that I despair of It.
 My sheet is full in spite of the doc tor, and I can only add that you are surprisingly good to show that you make allowance for my burdens"
 Again, the same date, November 4th. 1895, he wrote the following brief note transmitting another of his books pre- sented to the club:
 ''I beg the club to accept the copy. which l mail to your address of my Victorian Anthology just published. It has cost me as much labor as if it were an original work, and l really believe it will prove to be of service"
 After l had left Topeka, and gone to Washington, D. C. to reside, I received the following dated November Sth 1897:
 'I suppose the literary club which conferred upon me the honor of being its godfather has by this time fulfilled its functions.
 But l have very pleasant memories of your goodwill. and of our corre- spondence-so that I must ask you to accept. with my best wishes, the copy mailed you today of my new) Poems Now First Collected
 T nope that you will let me know that the book and this note have safe ly found you"
 On November l7th, 1897, he wrote m as follows:
 'I have your good letter, and am proud to know that the club is still at the top and well-disposed towards its godfather. The book sent to To- peka was of course to you, so, now, 1 wish to send one to the club. and will do so at once. It is sent on condition that there be no resolutions of thanks. etc-it is such a little one as Marry att's girl said of her baby.
 Tt will give me pleasure to receive The Trumpeters,' and still more to welcome its Captain to Lawrence Park whenever he can march in that direc- tion"
 A few months later I was advised by Mir. Stedman's secretary that he was ill., and that he had gone south { hoping to recover his health by long | vacation. About the same time my own illness lasfiue- four months N-ir- tually closed our correspondence, al- l though I received other letters from | the secretary and from Arthur Sted- | man who was with his father
 I shall not attempt in this communi- | cation to make any analysis, or esti | mate of MT. Stcdman's literary work | This is being well done in the current | monthlies and newspapers on both |