466 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

and fluent, and nicely put together for an ignorant person, an
unpractised hand. I think it was done by an educated man.'

The literary artist had detected the literary machinery. If yoa
will look at the letter now, you will detect it yourself—it is observ-
able in every line.

Straightway the clergyman went off, with this seed of suspicion
sprouting in him, and wrote to a minister residing in that town
where Williams had been jailed and converted; asked for light; and
also asked if a person in the literary line (meaning me) might be
allowed to print the letter and tell its history. He presently
received this answer—

REV.------------
MT DEA^ FETEND,—In regard to that * convict's letter' there can be no
doubt as to its genuineness. 4 Williams/ to whom it was written, lay incur
jail and professed to have been converted, and Rev. Mr.------, the chaplain,
had great faith in the genuineness of the change—as much as one can ha?e
n any such case.
The letter was sent to one of our ladies, who is a Sunday-school teacher,
—sent either "by Williams himself, or the chaplain of the State's prison, pro-
bably. She has been greatly annoyed in having so much publicity, lest it
might seem a breach of confidence, or be an injury to Williams. In regaid
to its publication, I can give no permission; though if the names and places
were omitted, and especially if sent out of the country, I think you xnigfet
take the responsibility and do it.
It is a wonderful letter, which no Christian genius, much less one ua-
sanctified, could ever have written. As showing the work of grace in a
human heart, and in a very degraded and wicked one, it proves its ow
origin and reproves our weak faith in its power to cope with any form of |
wickedness,
' Mr. Brown' of St. Louis, some one said, was a Hartford man. Do aH
whom you send from Hartford serve their Master as well P
PJ3.—Williams is still in the State's prison, serving out a long sentence
—of nine years, I think. He has been sick and threatened with consumptaoa,
but I have not inquired after him lately. This lady that I speak of corre-
sponds with him, I presume, and will be quite sure to look after brm.
This letter arrived a few days after it was written—and up wen!
Mr. Williams's stock again. Mr Warner's low-down suspicion TO*
laid in the cold, cold grave, where it apparently belonged. It was t
suspicion based upon mere internal evidence, anyway; and when you