Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Southern Historical Collection
#1139
O. Henry Letters
Henry, O., 1862-1910.
Letters, 1884.
8 items.
Short-story writer.
Two letters from O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) to North Carolina friends
while he was living on a ranch in La Salle County, Tex., enclosing six
pencil drawings of humorous incidents he had observed, with comments.
Letter:
On the south side of a bush, Jany 6th 1884. W. S. Porter to "My Dear Friends".
Drawings and Poems:
[inscribed on the reverse:]
“So back you wretch & scrape your feet”
Poetry~
A man named Jerry McBowen
Brought a thundering lot of snow in,
The house: But his wife
You can bet your sweet life;
Soon started him backward a goin’
[inscribed on the reverse:]
Ye Merry Texan And
Ye Norther, Ye hoss
beinge Loste
[inscribed on the reverse:]
Poetry
A boarder named Henry Q. Skinner
Could never get quite enough dinner
His landlady one day
Chased him far, far way—
As provisions got more and more thinner
[inscribed on the reverse:]
Orartion of Mark Antony –
Just my luck. Been a big fight.
If I had stayed at home and tended
to my business as town constable,
could have run 4 or 5 people in, and
made some 7 or 8 dollars. Been
tromping allover northern Italy and
aint sold but one charm. Had to
swap that for a dog. Seems as
old man Caesar’s had a run with
somebody. Wonder what ‘twas a-
-bout. Guess he’s been fuellin’
on some of them high toned air
of his in, and got licked.
I’ll go down to Marcus Au-
-relius O Hannegan’s saloon
and find out about it.
Come on Topsy!—
[inscribed on the reverse:]
Caesar – “Et tu, Brute!”—
Brutus, --“Throw up your hands, Fule”
[inscribed on the reverse:]
Leap Year
Arabella—I have nothing to offer
you Augustus but the living
devotion of a heart that is en-
tirely yours, but if you will only
be mine, I will care for you
and cherish you with ceasless
solicitude, your happiness will
be our, my only thought –
Aug— But when your Pa dies wont
You have—
Ara— Yes I will have seven little bro-
thers & sisters to suffer besides your
but didn’t your Aunt Maria leave
you $5,000 last fall when she died?
Aug.— No it was my cousin Gus, in
Cincinatto.
Ara— We can still be friends, can
We not, Augustus.
Aug. Oh Yes, friends, nothing more
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