My advice to all the young men that write to me depends
somewhat on the handwriting and spelling. If these are of a certain
character, and they have reached a mature age, I recommend some honest
manual calling, such as they have very probably been bred to, and which
will, at least, give them a chance of becoming President of the United
States by and by, if that is any object to them. What would you have
done with the young person who called on me a good many years ago, so
many that he has probably forgotten his literary effort,--and read as
specimens of his literary workmanship lines like those which I will favor
you with presently? He was an able-bodied, grown-up young person, whose
ingenuousness interested me; and I am sure if I thought he would ever be
pained to see his maiden effort in print, I would deny myself the
pleasure of submitting it to the reader. The following is an exact
transcript of the lines he showed me, and which I took down on the spot:
"Are you in the vein for cider?
Are you in the tune for pork?
Hist! for Betty's cleared the larder
And turned the pork to soap."
Do not judge too hastily this sincere effort of a maiden muse. Here was
a sense of rhythm, and an effort in the direction of rhyme; here was an
honest transcript of an occurrence of daily life, told with a certain
idealizing expression, recognizing the existence of impulses, mysterious
instincts, impelling us even in the selection of our bodily sustenance.
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