94: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



I cannot remember that letter. His letter, and my 

 answer to it, I kept it for a few years. Then I destroyed 

 T>oth, fearing that perhaps later I would be tempted to 

 make use of it, and be sorry after. 



ME. Y. W. : 



Dear Sir: Thanks for your check; receipt in- 

 closed. I have received your theme of Billingsgate 

 rhetoric. I have had some trouble to understand it, 

 as I do not profess the English Belles-Lettres as you 

 do. For instance, you tell me I do not like you because 

 you have never treated me with a gin-cocked-tail. 

 Well, sir, I did not know what it meant, but a friend 

 of mine tells me that if I want to know the meaning 

 of it, I must go to the school where you have learned 

 your Belles- Lett res, that is to say, with the company 

 you associate with, viz : Blacklegs, pugilists, cock- 

 fighters, rowdies of all sorts. Yours, 



L. MENAND. 



P. S. The above letter, short as it is, is twice as 

 long as the one I wrote at that date 1858-9 ? My 

 vein is too old to-day, I cannot recollect. 



Those who may have read my above lucubrations will 

 probably think I have done with my of ten far-fetched 

 prose. Remember : at the beginning of these reminis- 

 cences I have said that my weak point was not lacon- 



