thanks Barb;  that quote is a good ways away from the oft-cited quote
circulating on the web (and the one in Karr's book) -- imagine my
surprise.  And MT's version is just so much better.  It also has the
advantage of sounding like MT, which for readers of this LIST is certainly
a plus!

-hb

On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 8:32 AM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hal,
>
> Here is the source in context:
>
>
> The most useful and interesting letters we get here from home are from
> children seven or eight years old. This is petrified truth. Happily they
> have got nothing to talk about but home, and neighbours and family--things
> their betters think unworthy of transmission thousands of miles. They write
> simply and naturally, and without straining for effect. They tell all they
> know, and then stop.
> - "An Open Letter to the American People" _New York Weekly Review_, 17
> February 1866
>
>
> Barb
>



-- 
Prof. Harold K. Bush
Professor of English
3800 Lindell
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO  63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>