American fiction -- 19th century; California -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Western stories
MR. EDITOR,--I see you have got my poetry in. But I don't see the
spondulix that oughter follow. Perhaps you don't know where to send it.
Then I'll tell you. Send the money to Lock Box 47, Green Springs P.
O., per Wells Fargo's Express, and I'll get it there, on account of my
parents not knowing. We're very high-toned, and they would think it's
low making poetry for papers. Send amount usually paid for poetry in
your papers. Or may be you think I make poetry for nothing? That's where
you slip up!
Yours truly,
WHITE VIOLET.
P. S.--If you don't pay for poetry, send this back. It's as good as what
you did put in, and is just as hard to make. You hear me? that's me--all
the time.
WHITE VIOLET.
The editor turned quickly to the new contribution for some corroboration
of what he felt must be an extraordinary blunder. But no! The few lines
that he hurriedly read breathed the same atmosphere of intellectual
repose, gentleness, and imagination as the first contribution. And yet
they were in the same handwriting as the singular missive, and both were
identical with the previous manuscript.
Had he been the victim of a hoax, and were the verses not original? No;
they were distinctly original, local in color, and even local in the use
of certain old English words that were common in the Southwest. He had
before noticed the apparent incongruity of the handwriting and the text,
and it was possible that for the purposes of disguise the poet might
have employed an amanuensis. But how could he reconcile the incongruity
of the mercenary and slangy purport of the missive itself with the
mental habit of its author? Was it possible that these inconsistent
qualities existed in the one individual? He smiled grimly as he thought
of his visitor Bowers and his friend Jack. He was startled as he
remembered the purely imaginative picture he had himself given to the
seriously interested Bowers of the possible incongruous personality of
the poetess.
Was he quite fair in keeping this from Jack? Was it really honorable, in
view of their wager? It is to be feared that a very human enjoyment of
Jack's possible discomfiture quite as much as any chivalrous friendship
impelled the editor to ring eventually for the office-boy.
“See if Mr. Hamlin is in his rooms.”
The editor then sat down, and wrote rapidly as follows:--
DEAR MADAM,--You are as right as you are generous in supposing that
only ignorance of your address prevented the manager from previously
remitting the honorarium for your beautiful verses. He now begs to send
it to you in the manner you have indicated. As the verses have attracted
deserved attention, I have been applied to for your address. Should
you care to submit it to me to be used at my discretion, I shall feel
honored by your confidence. But this is a matter left entirely to your
own kindness and better judgment. Meantime, I take pleasure in accepting
“White Violet's” present contribution, and remain, dear madam, your
obedient servant,
THE EDITOR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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