The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-04-21
Early Writings

Once, long time ago. d!du't ,tou
think how grand II would he 10 write
n look? am almvs, sure that YOU
oid. rev of ~ have lived through the
period Of the first composition INA;
was any good at all at school and III.
nice blue mark al the bottom of the
baee without tccn,InS with literary
ambition. The day that your rambling
remarks concerning ;hc birth anh death
or man Of letters was put up on the
board AS Il mod Fl. then and there was
ambition born ia your soul! VIVA,
does 1t matter II tho Whole thing ,vus
copied out o: the biggest encyclopedia
an the library? Didn't you leave out
whole chunk OF the middle part abou,
the things the man wrote? All the rest
~ the children did the Same thing
You knew from that day forward
that genius stayed %, YOUR shoulder
h!aoc, and a nice lnurci wreath vas
surely hanging in the closet Of som
mighty EDITORS sanrtuary, merely
waiting for YOU 10 walk up and say:
This is mine. bulicve" Happy
dreams. happy days, once you wrote :,
story for tho school magazine. pub
'lS''o WIN hcfchlnncaD effort by III.
entire student body 1t mast have been
called How on. Old Man Was con
tuered' or some such trash. The girls
thought II waa perfectly wonderful
They said she writes" In Whisper
and your soul hardly lived through
the delight Of seeing ali the ",res" ana
lands" printed
Yes, Al some period Of almost ans
ones life. believe tins Muse mas
dwslt moment Dig far down into
the depths OF the funny old brown
desk that YOU had iii your room al
school Manuscripts. neatly rolled
utterly out Of accordance with the
proper mode of handling z;un---the desk
IL full Of them You yourself thought
they were thu best things done IN col.
1nEe; occast onally Your best friend IN.
dertook 10 difcr with you, hu, yru
smiled Mt her Ignorance and wrote two
moro detective stories
WHAT monstrous subjects wero at
fen:Eted? Everything was suited u
your talent and pen and you wrote
reams on the characters OF Hamlet
end Romeo 10 say nothing Of dis.
rcitations OF love and aui,ors, when
SOU had only seen ono love letter.
and that was tho one that tho girl
who rnomcd next door had from ;,
friend on the aoor above ON. tho
"aEon Is hitchcd to a star very sure.
j..
Have you Rad ,hom ovnr. those
things that YOU wrote long tinlc
GEo' Sacred to your innrrmost soul
arc they, and as much unknown az To
character as the cunrtforn writings
In the libraries OF Babylon What
H;as your style? You didn't have any
You Just rambled along and shed not
tears In the pantry hopping your
face with a tai towel because the
Comp teacher didn't fan down am,
worship and say, "Behpld n genius
u I'm Our midst You simply could
not understand her lack NJ perception
nnI the red ink aroud everything YOU
wrote.
Tho s,orias are stNl In tho desk.
end few very few. Of us would have
the courage 20 wade through half OF
tho lot. II one wcrc poetic ono Nigh;
gay ,hc;' were stepping stones or dead
t.!vcs. but one Is not poetic But II
IS phase Of life, and once a long
time ago you thought YOU would
write book and your younger sister
busted the manuscripts and forgo, 10
hrrn UP your letters. and tho girls
nre grown up that thought the first
story WAS any good What is In yonr
desk that YOU had when you went to
school:
BRENT WITT.