I send you this picture in exchange for the one that you have--I'm
"redeeming" all those with these. But I asked you to return that a
long time ago. Please say if you like this; to me it looks like a
dude. But I hate the other--the style of it.
It is very good of your father to take so much trouble as to go over
and work on that stone. I want the pictures--lithographs--only for
economy: so that when persons for whom I do not particularly care want
pictures of me I need not bankrupt myself in orders to the
photographer. And I do not like photographs anyhow. How long, O Lord,
how long am I to wait for that sketch of _you_?
My dear girl, I do not see that folk like your father and me have any
just cause of complaint against an unappreciative world; nobody
compels us to make things that the world does not want. We merely
choose to because the pay, _plus_ the satisfaction, exceeds the pay
alone that we get from work that the world does want. Then where is
our grievance? We get what we prefer when we do good work; for the
lesser wage we do easier work. It has never seemed to me that the
"unappreciated genius" had a good case to go into court with, and I
think he should be promptly non-suited. Inspiration from Heaven is all
very fine--the mandate of an attitude or an instinct is good; but when
A works for B, yet insists on taking his orders from C, what can he
expect? So don't distress your good little heart with compassion--not
for me, at least; whenever I tire of pot-boiling, wood-chopping is
open to me, and a thousand other honest and profitable employments.
I have noted Gertrude's picture in the Examiner with a peculiar
interest. That girl has a bushel of brains, and her father and brother
have to look out for her or she will leave them out of sight. I would
suggest as a measure of precaution against so monstrous a perversion
of natural order that she have her eyes put out. The subjection of
women must be maintained.
* * * * *
Bib and Leigh send love to you. Leigh, I think, is expecting Carlt.
I've permitted Leigh to join the band again, and he is very peacocky
in his uniform. God bless you.