A. BURNING JR&dLYD. 467

come to internal evidence, it's a big field and a game that two q«c*
play at : as witness this other internal evidence, discovered by tlie
writer of the note above quoted, that * it is a wonderful letter —
which no Christian genius, much less one unsanctified, could ever
have written.*

I had permission now to print — provided I suppressed names and
places and sent my narrative out of the country. So I chose an
Australian magazine for vehicle, as being far enough out of the
country, and set myself to work on my article. A -ml the ministers
set the pumps going again, with the letter to work the handles.

But meantime Brother Page had been agitating. He had not
visited the penitentiary, but he had sent a copy of the illustrious
letter to the chaplain of that institution, and accompanied it with —
apparently — inquiries. He got an answer, dated four days later tihan
that other Brother's reassuring epistle ; and before my article was
complete, it wandered into my hands. The original is before me,
now, and I here append it. It is pretty well loaded with internal
evidence of the most solid description —

STATE'S Paiso», CHAPLAIN'S OFrejx, July 11, 1873.
DEAB BBO. PAGE, — Herewith please find the letter Mndly Loaned me. I
am afraid its genuineness cannot he established. It purports to he addressed
to some prisoner here. No such letter ever came to a prisoner here. All
letters received are carefully read by officers of the prison before they go into
the hands of the convicts, and any such, letter could not be forgotten.
Again, Charles Williams is not a Christian man, but a dissolute, canning
prodigal, whose father is a minister of the gospel. His name is an assumed
one. I am glad to have made your acquaintance. I am preparing a lecture
upon life seen through prison bars, and should like to deliver the same In
your vicinity.
And so ended that little drama. My poor article went into the
fire ; for whereas the materials for it were now more abundant and
infinitely richer than they had previously been, there were parties all
around me, who, although longing for the publication bedbre, ware a
unit for suppression at this stage and complexion of the game. They
said : * Wait — the wound is too fresh, yet.* All the copies of tbe
famous letter except jnine disappeared suddenly ; and from that time
onward, the aforetime same eld drought set in in the churches. As