Life — August 20, 1896 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“LIFE: Tite following letter, highly characteristic of the Autocrat, was received, in 184, with a copy of a short poem, in the hand-writing of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and signed by him, to be sold at a great sanitary fair which was then in operation, The letter, which is printed now for the first time, was discovered too late to be included in the Life and Letters, a tact which Mr. Morse keenly regretted: My Drar Six: The mere mechanical labour imposed in answering the numerous applications from various parts of the country takes up so much of my time that I think I do pretty well if I get off my batch of autographs, and answer my indefatigable and interminable female correspondents, so as to be clear of dead and unburied letters at the week's end. I have been slightly prostrated with a mild autographic fever for some weeks. Within a few days it has put on a malignant aspect. It was only a slight efflorescent affair which played about the surface at first, but now it is striking in and aims at the vitals. In short, I am now besieged for original communications, from different quarters, all at once, remorselessly, and if I do not yield at once, per- sistently, I should be false to my country and to my duty, if [ killed the goose that is laying golden eggs for the good cause every day. If I should attempt to answer these requests fur original communications, it would be the death of me, Lam sure. Now I am writing autographs for my country at such arate, that I am quite satisfied the income from this source alone (that is, their sale at innumerable fairs) must be an important item in the resources of the Sanitary Association. I have several other reasons why I feel that I ought not to be urged on this point, which I will briefly classify under their several heads. First, — Excuse me, my dear sir, but a sudden demand upon me for a gross anda half of autographs ‘with sentiments,” by return mail, compels me to relin- quish my enumeration of the reasons, which, I am sure, you would have found convincing. I will, however, promise that as soon as my new autographic, automatic arrangement is completed, by which the enormous labour of the manual fabri- cation of signatures can be transferred to machinery, | will send you the first instalment of a story to be called St. Sebastian in the woth Century; or, The Sufferings of a Living Target. Yours respectfully, OLIVER WENDELL Hotses, Boston, January 28, 1864. —The Bookman. No jokes are better appreciated than those that are made unwittingly by sober-minded men, : An English journal relates a case in point, the sober-minded man being Mr. John Burns, a very serious member of the House of Commons. He was speaking in a pessimistic strain about what he felt to be a great falling off in the character and standing of that august body. . “Since I came into this House, four years ago,” he said, * the confidence of the public in it has much diminished." WE SELL THE BEST RIFLE 4*° SAVAGE .303 SIX SHOOTER. SMOKELESS POWDER. If you want a good thing send for our yellow catalogue. SAVAGE REPEATING ARMS C0., Utica, N. Y. LIFE IS REGULARLY ON SALE ABROAD IN Condon. 2 ww PUBLISHING OFFICES, 30 Newcastle Street, Strand, and atall the principal news- dealers. G@lasgw. 2... GET THE BEST PRICE. Ask any dealer. NUBIA Cotton Dress Linings—For Waist and Skirt, Will Not Crock. Fast Messrs. WM. PORTEOUS & CO., 5 Exchange Place. Paris. . 2... BRENTANO'S, 37 Ave. de Opera. | Berlin, 2 2 wwe A. FREYBOURG, 36 Zimmer Strasse ; GEORGE STILKE, Black It is positively unchangeable and of superior quality. Nothing else so fully satisfies the highest requirements and yet the cost is moderate enough for any dress. . . . . . All Leading DRY GOODS Stores, Look for this on EVERY YARD CETL) CEE BASE of the Selvage. Tit ART OF BREWING WAS DEVELOP Ss 3 Dorotheen Strasse. And at the leading newsdealers through- out Germany, Switzerland rance. Abbott's Angostura Bitters, the only genuine Original Angostura, all claims to the contrary notwithstanding, ald digestion, At Druggists. THE Washington ‘ Post” tells a story of 3 | young man in Washington who came to this city the other day, not because he wanted to see New York, or because he had any business here, but because he had a pass on one of the railroads and didn't mean to let a thing like that escape him. He came back yesterday. Everybody asked him what he had seen over in town. He hadn't seen anything.” “Well, didn’t you go anywhere?” asked some- body, finally. “Not on your life," said the boy. ‘ D'ye think 1 was going to pay $2 a day for a room and not use it all the time2"—New York Tribune.