54 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



bookstores and pay my living expenses. While I feel that it 

 is desirous to be able to lay broad the foundations of future 

 usefulness, I shall strive to make no unnecessary expenditures 

 and hope to live and repay partly in money, if needful 

 the long list of debts that I owe my dear and deeply honored 

 Father, whom may Heaven bless in time and Eternity. . . . 



The same mail carried letters to his mother and to 

 Ms little sister, Elizabeth, then aged eleven: 



Zwei und Zwanzig Nikolai Str. 

 Leipzig, Konigreich Sachsen, 

 Januar den 24ten. 



Dear Mother, The above flourish is intended to assure you 

 that your dutiful son is able to write two short lines of German 

 in German style, an evidence of my progress in literature. 

 "What I can write of German life that will interest Mother, 

 I don't know. The mothers of Germany are like those of 

 other parts of the world in many particulars. The German 

 education of ladies usually stops with a full inculcation of 

 the duties and details of housekeeping. Daughters of literary 

 men learn languages, and this is all, save that they all know 

 music and can drink beer, two things which are mysteries to 

 me. They are great lovers of flowers, and every patch of 

 ground and every place where a flowerpot can stand or hang 

 is appropriated. On a fine day the city promenade is covered 

 with nurses drawing children in neat little basketwagons, the 

 little innocents packed warmly between large pillows, two 

 or three of them often together in the same vehicle, enjoying 

 the fresh air. The amount of amusement furnished to chil- 

 dren is astonishingly great. There is no end of toys, games, 

 etc., of all possible kinds. The little boy of my landlord has 

 swords, guns, pistols, drums, fifes, violins, wagons, birds, 

 horses, etc. by the bushel, and something new every week. 

 The old people keep up the love of amusement acquired in 



