The Scientific Lecturer. 91 



NEW YORK, December 23, f?j. 

 MR. FRANKLIN D. LOCKE: 



MY DEAR SIR: I deeply sympathize with you in your 

 lack of early educational opportunities, but thank Heaven 

 that I was not thus neglected. My opening intellect was 

 most sedulously and skilfully cultivated, as is shown by the 

 fact that, when Alonzo Green came around winters in Sara- 

 toga County to teach writing school, I took a tallow candle 

 and some paper and quills and waded through the snow for 

 two miles that I might develop my precocious genius for 

 chirography. Such was my proficiency that I resolved to 

 pursue the destiny of a writing master, and if my eyes had 

 not failed me I should probably have ornamented that 

 itinerant vocation to this day. 



Yours with commiseration, E. L. YOUMANS. 



V 



Here followed an " interpretation " of the letter 

 which had been " too many " for the chairman and 

 members of the lecture committee. 



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SPECIMEN OF YOUMANS'S HANDWRITING. 



