TO BRANDER MATTHEWS DEAR BRANDER, The publishers are doing all they possibly can to make a success of this book—they call it a book—and they have asked me for a dedication. After the manner of mid-Victorian poets, I could have made the dedication mysteriously to "Dear BM-," but I used to know a girl of those initials; my wife also knew her. Her name was Mary Brannigan. But nobody of intelligence is going to be deceived by a mere transposition of initials, so I thought I might win as much as I stood to lose by coming right out with it and saying Brander Matthews. I learned in the railroad yard that separate cars thrown in on the same track could subsequently be coupled up, then hitched to something with power enough to push or pull them out as a freight train; perhaps with hopeful attention to the English market I should say, "goods train." Nobody knows better than yourself the difference between push and pull, and having both you might be willing, I thought, to assist a fellow who has neither, especially as my cars when they are not empty contain stuff that is perishable. Then I had another idea. There is a story of General Custer at the head of a marching column on our American plains one day in the middle seventies. He suddenly threw up his hand after the manner of Western commanders, gave a signal, and moved sharply "column V 498420 right" over a rod or so, then resumed direction. Every pair of troopers reaching the first angle peered eagerly forward to see what had deflected the march. In the dried brush was the nest of a meadow-lark. The bird was frightened and had flown, but the nest had four eggs in it. At the head of the marching column of reviewers your gesture has all the authority that Custer's had with those troopers, and you have the same sympathetic apprehension of possibilities. Many readers will immediately infer the low and defenseless character of my hopes and incubations when I simply say Dear Brander. And some critics are as gentle as cavalrymen. Affectionately yours, AUGUSTUS THOMAS. NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y. |