Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/135

Rh he has made Lee of Arlington sit at the feet of Davenport of Stamford, that he has made the Virginia Cavalier learn duty from the Connecticut Puritan!

And now he falls in love with his imitation—and especially with the old Puritan story unknown as yet outside of Connecticut—and the thought of newspaper publication occurs to him. Could he deceive a paper like the New York Sun, and add one more to the long list of literary impostures? He decides to try. But now comes the rub. It was easy to follow the model letters as to style and topics, and address the forged letter to G. W. Custis Lee, at a date near that of the model letters when he was a cadet at West Point. But how begin the letter? In the pretended copy sent to the Sun, the original not being produced, there must be an introduction, and that introduction must have vraisemblance, or success will be impossible. He knows that General Lee resigned his commission as Colonel of a Cavalry regiment, when on his State's secession, he left the service of the United States for that of his native Virginia. He also knows that for some years prior to the war he had been stationed somewhere in the distant Southwest. He knows that the letter must be short (it is said that Shakespeare killed Mercutio because he could not sustain the character any longer), and so he decides to represent the letter as "hasty." But why haste? Because General Lee is in the act of leaving home to join his regiment just ordered somewhere, from Texas to New Mexico, probably. Hence the first two sentences. He knew that he was weak on his facts; but he hoped that this introduction would be "a good enough Morgan until after the election." And so it proved. Though he "missed with both barrels" as to time and place, was not the New York Sun deceived, and also the Whig, and the Sentinel? Doubtless he expected detection ultimately, but this would be a part of the fun. What is the good of a practical joke if its victim is never the wiser?

But he was not content with the first two sentences of the introduction. He adds a third, which for a long time was a puzzle to me—the fact stated is so unnecessary, and so improbable. It is this: "I have but little to add in reply to your letters