Feinberg/Whitman Box 8 Folder 34 General Correspondence "B" Miscellany Apr. 1876 - Mar. [1892] & undatedFOREIGN POST CARD FOR COUNTRIES IN THE POSTAL UNION THE ADDRESS ONLY TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE DUBLIN AP 11 '76 WALT WHTIMAN, CAMDEN NEW JERSEY N. S. UDublin Friend's Institute. Thursday Evening, 13th of April, 1876. Instead of the paper already announced for this evening, Alfred Webb will read some estimates of Walt Whitman, and selections from his Writings. Anthony P. Jacob, Secretary.PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING HOUSE. A. J. DAVIS & CO. Standard Books on Harmonial Philosophy, Free Religion and General Reform. 24 EAST FOURTH ST., NEW YORK P. O. BOX 82, STATION D. New York 27 April 1876 Brother Walt Whitman Please send us by express (address as above) 2 sets of your books, $10. each, for which find $20. enclosed. The books are for my wife "Mary F. Davis" & for her brother Tracy Robinson - both great admirers and lovers of you & your work. MrsDavis bids me give you her most cordial regards, and love. Accept the same with a 1,000 greetings from Your friend A.J. DavisCross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Den-Smith, A. J. to Whiteman, July 16, [ 1876? ] See Veoso Literary File Books L of G (1876) British subscriptions Purchaser lists. DCN 48. Box 21Cross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE D.E.G. to Whitman, Nov 10, 1880 See Verso Literary File Books Specimen Days & Collect Manscripts - Original printer's copy. p. 497 DCN76. Box 23 Cross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE DRURY. D.M. To Whitman, Feb.20, 1882 See Verso Notes & Notebooks Notes -- Miscellany North American Review article 1882.. Box 40 be called litterateurs, the managers of the four leading reviews & magazine, &c, &c, will doubtless embrace a number of the working men of letters in other cities. So you see the need of decision before the limit of membership is reached. I enclose you an old copy of our circular call to 38 & of the summons to our first regular meeting, at which I sincerely hope that the "good gray" will be a prominent figure. Let me know soon. Yrs faithfully Charles de Kay [*Come as guest, whether you join or not!*] [*from Chas. De Kay Dec: '82*] The University Washington Sq Newport Dec '16 Dear Walt Whitman We have been forming here a little club, or series of meetings, for authors and writers, and it has seemed to several who have a good deal to do with the management of the club that you, although only now & then in New York, ought to belong to it. I have no sort of doubt that at the next meeting (the 20th) you will be [*I think your last book throws more light on you & your work than anything yet published. No novel is so absorbing.*]elected a member if you wish to belong. The invitation fee is fifteen Dollars, the annual ones ten. Is there any chance of you being in town next Wednesday? If so, I could guarantee that at the business meeting at 8 o'clock you would be elected & at nine you could come in, as my guest for the evening. For our system includes one guest asked by each member. Please let me hear from you at once - whether you would like to have your name put up and also whether you will come, as guest, the next meeting. The club is just organized. Thirty-eight well known & less well known writers have been approached; 36 have accepted. Our present limit is 50, and probably five or ten will be elected next Wednesday. I want your name to head the list, not merely because of my esteem for you personally, but because of your importance in American letters. The club contains all the representative men who can36 South Hill Road Liverpool, S. 26. 4. 83. Dear Sir, I posted to you the other day a copy of the London "Inquirer", containing a notice of your " Specimen Days & Collect," which I wrote some little time ago. Since then I have been very glad to learn that the book is already republished in England, & that a new edition of "Leaves of Grass" is to follow. I hope that you will not consider it an impertinence in quite a young man to write as I have done, but I have found so much refreshment & real delight in your books, that I was anxious to do what I could to extend the good gift to others. If you have time & patience to read my review I should be extremely obliged if you would tell me whetherthere are any mistakes in the statement of facts as to your life. It is so easy to be led into inaccuracies, which ought to be corrected. I have the "Leaves of Grass" constantly by me, & in the intervals of other work am trying to make a study of the book. It seems to me distinctly one of the prophetic messages of our day - a real voice of our best manhood, absolutely free from anything conventional, such as we need to make us feel the true grandeur & infinite capabilities of our life, & the divine beauty of [man] [?fan] the universe. I am not sure that I altogether understand your message yet, especially with regard to the present evil in the world. It seems to me that in the degradation of women, & the brutal selfishness of so many men, we have a form of evil that ought not to be suffered with patience, or hidden under the soothing light of Hegelian Pantheism. On the [contra] contrary I feel that it is a part of our life where the exercise of human freedom must come in, & feeling that this is evil for which we are personally responsible, determine to be rid of it as for as we are concerned, & to do what we can to uphold the right principle of life, honour for women, continence for men, & the home the centre of all good & sacred influence. This I think is essential to the growth of a strong & healthy life, morally as well as physically, & to the full enjoyment of all that is good & beautiful in the world. I shall be surprised if you have just the same feeling - but, as I say, I do not think I have quite understood the whole of your message yet, & sometimes it has seemed to me as thoughyou were too well satisfied with the present condition of your life, in such a way as to leave the poisonous canker of vice slowly eating its way through society, content to enjoy the picturesque side of even the lowest form of life, instead of housing men in the strength of their moral capacity really to be men, & to set right whatever is wrong through their fault. I am afraid you may be much troubled by unknown correspondents, but you have spoken to me so much as a friend through your poems, that I feel almost inclined to claim the right of friendship in saying what I have - & I trust that I shall not have caused you any annoyance. If you can give any help with regard to the above question, I shall esteem it a great kindness; & in any case I assure you of my lasting gratitude for all we have received at your hands. Believe me yours very truly V. D. Davis.Cross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Drake. A.B. to Whitman, Jan. 9, 1885 see Verso Notes & Notebooks Notes- - Reference List of Authors, [ Jan 1885] Box 42Will you accept my "Minutia" - Will you - if you are able - write to me- I am Your's Charles William Dalmon c/o Duggan & Co 34 James Street Liverpool England. S. S. City of Berlin "Inman Line" Jersey City 27-9-88 Dear Sir Today I was coming to Camden full of hope that I might see you but I have not enough money to pay my railway fare to and from Camden. I am only a steward on the City of Berlin -you will see me? yes - you are good - may I come to see you when my ship returns in about a month ? The City of Berlin sails early on Saturday the 29th - may I hope for a few words from you before she sails - I cannot write the things I would write to you - I could not speak the words I would wish to speak - but if I could see your face - if I could hear your voice ! I hope - Dodd, Mead & Company, Publishers, Booksellers and Importers 753 & 755 Broadway, New York. Frank H. Dodd, Edward S. Mead, Bleecker Van Wagenen. Robert H. Dodd. New York, April 15th, 1890. Walt Whitman, Esq., Dear Sir: The enclosed announcement will give you the particulars of a series which we have in hand, and expect soon to begin the publication of. We write now in hopes of securing your co-operation in the work. We understand that you have one or more lectures on Lincoln, and have beside a quantity of available material. Would you be willing to furnish us a volume not to exceed sixty thousand words? We would leave the treatment of the subject entirely to your best judgment, so that you might present Lincoln from any point of view that seems to you particularly affective. The details of his life have of course been done at great length. We think that such a volume as we propose from your pen would attract very wide attention. We are paying the authors in this series ten per cent of the retail price of all books sold. But if you would prefer a lump sum instead of the copyright, we should be happy to pay you Five hundred ($500) Dollars for such a volume as we outline, on receipt of the manuscript from you. Trusting that the idea may strike you favorably, and that we may have an answer in the affirmative, we are, Yours very truly, Dodd, Mead & Company. Dictated.Prospectus of a Series to be issued by MESSRS. DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 753 and 755 Broadway, New-York. MAKERS OF AMERICA. UNDER the advisory editorship of Hamilton W. Mabie, Esq., Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company announce a series bearing the general title, "Makers of America." It is proposed to include in this series lives of Discoverers, Colonizers, Statesmen, Men of War, of Letters, Theologians, Inventors,--in short, men who, in every walk of life, have been of sufficient force to stamp their impress on their times and to help shape the affairs of the continent. These biographies are to be of moderate compass, averaging about two hundred duodecimo pages, and, while exact as to facts, it is expected that each will introduce local colour and atmosphere, so as to give not only the life of its subject, but apicture of the times. In this way each will be, in a measure, an Episode of American History. As will be seen, the co-operation of many of the foremost American writers and historical scholars has been enlisted. The publication of the series will begin in the autumn of 1890, and the volumes will follow one another in rapid succession. They will be issued in duodecimo size, uniform in binding, at the low price of seventy-five cents each. The following are the subjects so far arranged for. Other volumes will be announced from time to time. Christopher Columbus (1436-1506), and the Discovery of the New World. By Charles Kendall Adams, President of Cornell University. John Winthrop (1587-1630), First Governor of the Massachusetts Colony. By Rev. Joseph H. Twichell. Robert Morris (1734-1806), Superintendent of Finance under the Continental Congress. By Prof. William G. Sumner, of Yale University. James Edward Oglethorpe (1688-1785), and the Founding of the Georgia Colony. By Henry J. Bruce, Esq. John Hughes, D. D. (1797-1864), First Archbishop of New-York: a Representative American Catholic. By Henry A. Brann, D. D. Robert Fulton (1765-1815): His Life and its Results. By Prof. R. H. Thurston, of Cornell University. Francis Higginson (1587-1630), Puritan, Author of "New England's Plantation," etc. By Thomas W. Higginson. Peter Stuyvesant (1602-1682), and the Dutch settlement of New-York. By Bayard Tuckerman, Esq., author of a "Life of General Lafayetter," editor of the "Diary of Philip Hone," etc., etc. Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), Theologian, Founder of the Hartford Colony. By George L. Walker, D. D. Charles Sumner (1811-1874), Statesman. By Anna L. Dawes. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Third President of the United States. By James Schouler, Esq., author of "A History of the United States under the Constitution." William White (1748-1836), Chaplain of the Continental Congress, Bishop of Pennsylvania, President of the Convention to organize the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. By Rev. Julius H. Ward, with an introduction by Right Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., Bishop of New-York. Jean Baptiste Lemoine, sieur de Bienville (1680-1768), French Governour of Louisiana, Founder of New Orleans, By Grace King, author of "Monsieur Motte." Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), Statesman, Financier, Secretary of the Treasury. By Prof. William G. Sumner, of Yale University. Father Juniper Serra (1713-1784), and the Franciscan Missions in California. By John Gilmary Shea, LL. D.Cotton Mather (I663-I728), Theologian, Author, Believer in Witchcraft and the Supernatural. By Prof. Barrett Wendell, of Harvard University. Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle (I643-I687), Explorer of the Northwest and the Mississippi. By Edward G. Mason, Esq., President of the Historical Society of Chicago, author of "Illinois" in the Commonwealth Series. Thomas Nelson (I738-I789), Governour of Virginia, General in the Revolutionary Army. Embracing a Picture of Virginian Colonial Life. By Thomas Nelson Page, author of "Mars Chan," and other popular stories. Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore (I603-I676), and the Founding of the Maryland Colony. By William Hand Browne, professor in Johns Hopkins University. DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 753 and 755 Broadway, New-York. Return to Dodd Mead & Company 753 & 755 Broadway, NEW YORK, N. Y. If not delivered within 5 days Apr 15 7 PM Walt Whitman Esq Camden New JerseyCamden N.J. Apr 15 6 AM 1890 REC'DCross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Drewry, Louise to Whitman, July 10, 1890 See Verso Literary File Books Good-Bye My Fancy A.MS.S. notes, Box 20 Books sent July 1 143 King Henry's Road South Hampstead London. England June 20.1890 Dear Sir Will you kindly send me your large 6 dollar edition called "Complete Poems and Prose"; also 'Leaves of Grass. Including Sands at Seventy and Backward Glances. Autograph & 6 portraits small edition bound in pocket book style. 5 dollars 1 copy of each. I enclose an order for [all] of 8I have seen there editions at Mr H Buston Forman's. Allow me to thank you warmly and gratefully for the great joy and profit you words have brought me. I am, dear Sir Yours very truly Louisa Drewry (address ship Drewry) To Walt Whitman Esq P.S. I shall be glad to have the books as soon as convenient to you 487 8 20) 389.6 1948 487 2 974 95 1269 &11.69Cross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Dietrich, C.N. to Whitman, Oct. 23, 1890 See Verso Literary File Prose "Living Old Fellows," Oct.1890 A.MS. draft. Box 34Minnesota Legislature Senate Chamber St. Paul. [*See notes April 1st 1891*] SAINT PAUL MINN MAR30 9 AM 91 Walt. Whitman Esq. Camden New Jersey.[Camden N.J.] Apr 1 1891 Rec'dLieut. Gov. G.S. Ives, President Fred. N. Van Duzee, Secretary STATE OF MINNESOTA Detoile Du Nord Senate Chamber Ignatius Donnelly Twenty-fourth District St. Paul, March 29th 1891 Honored & venerated friend: I have come to know you through your writings and through the warm praises our dear friend, William Dr. O'Connor. I have received your card, through Man. Schulte & Co. of Chicago, and I shall treasure it as a memorial of one I love and honor. I thank you & pray that your days may be long in the land which is proud of your genius. Believe me to be with sincerest respect, Your friend, Ignatius Donnelly (Walt Whitman Esq Camden N.J.)CESAR'S COLUMN A Story of the Twentieth Century. ART ENG CO. BY EDMUND BOISGILBERT, M. D. [IGNATIUS DONNELLY] This wonderful book was first issued in June, 1890. The name on the title page was Edmund Boisgilbert, M. D., and it was given out that this was a pseudonym. The leading magazines and reviews, with one exception, and many of the great newspapers entirely ignored the book, and everything at first was against its success. It created the most profound interest,CAESAR'S COLUMN-WHAT THE CRITICS SAY. however, among those who read it, and soon became talked about. JULIAN HAWTHORNE, BISHOP POTTER, FRANCES E. WILLARD and others spoke highly of it, and CARDINAL GIBBONS praised it as an example of the highest literary form. OPIE P. READ summed up its charm in these words: "It will thrill a careless read of novels,or profoundly impress a statesman. It is as gentle as a child and yet it is rugged as a giant." In six months "Caesar's Column" passed through twelve editions, and considerable guessing was done as to the real name of the author, among those prominently named being Judge Tourgee, Mark Twain. T. V. Powderly, Robert G. Ingersoll, Chauncey M. Depew, Benj. F. Butler and others. In December it was finally announced that Ignatius Donnelly, author of "Atlantis," "Ragnarok" and "The Great Cryptogram," was also the author of "Caesar's Column." Mr.Donnelly had escaped general suspicion because his previous writings are more distinguished by laborious industry and wide information than by the qualities that go to make the creator of romances. "In 'Caesar's Column' Mr. Donnelly takes as his text the dangerous tendencies of our age and gives a picture of what the world will be a hundred years from now, if the spirit of invention and material progress remains the same and the moral spirit of society moves along in its present channels. The San Francisco Chronicle aptly says: In a startlingly original and fascinating novel he presents a profound study of sociological conditions. WHAT THE CRITICS SAY. "A Gabriel's trump."-FRANCES E. WILLARD. "A very extraordinary production."-RT. REV. HENRY C. POTTER. "The effect of an honest purpose is felt in every line."-Pioneer Press. CAESAR'S COLUMN-WHAT THE CRITICS SAY. As an example of the highest literary form it deserves unstinted praise."-CARDINAL GIBBONS. "A wonderfully fascinating book. It will hold the attention of the world as no other book has held it for years."-Chicago Saturday Blade. "'Caesar's Column,' in its vivid portrayal, will lead many to realize the many dangers to which our country is liable."-HON. WM. LARRABEE. "I was unable to lay it down until I had finished reading it. It should be read by every farmer in the land."-H. L. LOUCKS, President National Farmers' Alliance. "Bellamy looks backward upon what is impossible as well as improbable. 'Caesar's Column' looks forward to what is not only possible, but probable."-MILTON GEORGE. "I have read 'Caesar's Column' twice and am convinced that it has been written in the nick of time. * * * I predict for the book an immense sale and a world-wide discussion."-CORINNE S. BROWN, Secretary Nationalist Club, Chicago. "The story is most interestingly devisea and strongly told. It is not the work of a pessimist or an anarchist, but rather of a preacher who sees the dangers that all thoughtful men see in our time, and appreciating the importance to humanity of maintaining what is good in existing systems, utters his warning as a sacred duty."-Free Press. "The book points out tendencies which actually exest and are in need of cure. It warns us with vehemence and force of the necessity of guarding our liberties against the encroachments of monopoly and plutocracy, and of disarming corruption in government by every device that a vigilant ingenuity can supply."-GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON, in New York World. 'The most remarkable and thought-provoking novel that the disturbed industrial and social conditions of the present have produced. * * * The purpose of this book is to arrest attention-to make men think wisely and act justly, and with dispatch. The write holds it as a signal of danger before the on-coming train. Will the warning be heeded ?"-The Arena. "The author writes with tremendous feeling and great imaginative power. The picture gives in startling colors what would be the case if many of our business methods and social tendencies were to moveCAESAR'S COLUMN-WHAT THE CRITICS SAY. on unimpeded to their legitimate results. The book is a plea, and a striking one. Its plot is bold, its language is forceful, and the great uprising is given with terrible vividness."-Public Opinion. "Intense, stirring and eloquent. No such book has ever before appeared in the annals of literature. Its story is here and there brightened by the sweetness of a pure love, but the general tone is one which should make every honest heart shiver for the future. The truth peers out from every page. No man will read this book without a new sense of duty and responsibility to his country."-The Great West. "One of the wonderful features of this wonderful book is that it anticipated Dr. Koch's great discovery. It represents a philosopher living a hundred years from now as finding out that all bacteria are accompanied by minute hostile forms of life that prey upon them ; that these preserve the balance of nature, and by destroying the other bacilli which infest the animal world, prevent the utter destruction of man."-Book Talk. "It is exceedingly interesting as a narrative and is written by a man of thought, learning and imagination. I consider it the best work of its class, since Bulwer's 'Coming Race.' I was impressed with the power of the book-the vividness and strength with which the incidents of the tale are described and developed. The plot is absorbing, and yet nothing in it seems forced. The conception of the 'Column' is as original as its treatment is vigorous. There is no padding in the book; the events are portrayed tersely and clearly. The analysis is reasonable and sagacious, and the breadth of the author's mind, as well as his careful study of social conditions, is made evident by his treatment of the discussions put into the mouths of his characters. Justice is done to each side."-JULIAN HAWTHORNE. ONE VOLUME, LARGE 12MO, 367 PAGES. PAPER COVERS, - - - $ .50 CLOTH EXTRA, - - - $1.25 Sent postpaid to any address on receipt of price. F. J. SCHULTE & CO., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO. THE GREAT CRYPTOGRAM FRANCIS BACON'S CIPHER IN THE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS BY, HON. IGNATIUS DONNELLY, Author of "Atlantis, The Antediluvian World," and "Ragnarok, The Age of Fire and Gravel." OPINIONS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS AND THE LEADING PAPERS IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES. The publishers of THE GREAT CRYPTOGRAM feel that that work has been the subject of so much and such underserved abuse that they are justified in grouping together, in this circular, the favorable opinions of some of the greatest scholars in the world, and many of the leading newspapers of Europe and America. They ask those who have been led by the shallow denunciations of a few witlings in America, (whose incompetency has been so crushingly demonstrated by the late William D. O'Connor, in his little book, "Mr. Donnelly's Reviewers,") to read the following pages carefully. THE JUDGEMENT OF MATHEMATICIANS The first point we would call attention to is, that the reality of the cipher in the Shakespeare plays, as discovered by Mr. Donnelly, is affirmed by two of the leading mathematicians of the United States and England. Upon this point Mr. O'Connor says : ( p 13 ). "Immediately upon the publication of the book Professor Colbert, a distinguished mathematician, having previously been admitted, in confidence, to a complete knowledge of all the laws and numbers of the cipher, disclosed or withheld, came out in a lengthy article in the Chicago Tribune, a journal of great distinction and circulation, and roundly certified, without any qualifications, to the absolute validity and reality of the cryptogram ! In view of this decisive scientific judgment, coming from a source unaccused and inaccusable by even the most unscrupulous of the anti-Donnelly banditti, how could any one dare to call the verity and regularity of the cipher into question ? And how, in view of the decree of an authority like Professor Colbert, could even the most unprincipled and reckless of the patient scholar's abusers, have had the measureless brass to go the length of covering him with scurril epithets ? But the case against the dealers in stigma is even worse than as stated. At about the date of Professor Colbert's finding, Mr. Donnelly, who was then in London, consented, at the solicitation of Mr. Knowles, the editor of the Nineteenth Century magazine, a disinterested person, to submit the entire cipher to the judgment of a scientific expert, to be chosen by Mr. Knowles. The selection fell upon Mr. George Parker Bidder, a Queen's Counsel, which is the highest grade of lawyers in Great Britain, and one of the most eminent mathematicians in England. After a careful study, Mr. Bidder reported that Mr. Donnelly had made a great and extraordinary discovery, and that, although the work was not without errors in execution, the existence of the cipher was undeniable. Here then was additional and incontestible proof that Mr. Donnelly's cryptogram was neither a delusion nor a fraud, but a reality. The finding rested upon the perfect knowledge and unquestioned integrity of two eminent men, widely removed from each other. Under these circumstances it is nothing but folly or impudence in any reviewer to deny evidence with is not based on opinion, but on certainty. The existence of the Baconian cipher in the Shakespeare text, in view of the decision of persons who are authorities, is no longer a hypothesis ; it is a fact ! PROFESSOR COLBERT'S STATEMENT. Professor Colbert, after weeks to an examination of the proofs, wrote a letter to the editor of the Tribune, dated March 11th, 1888, in which he made the following report of the results of his investigation : "I am obliged to endorse the claim made by Mr. Donnelly that he has found a cipher in some of the plays. It can be intelligently traced by the aid of explanations given by him, some of which are only hinted at in the book. I do not say, nor does he claim, that he has discovered the complete cipher ; and I think it is quite probable that some of the readings he gives will bear modification in the light of subsequent knowledge. BUT THE CIPHER IS THERE, as claimed, and he has done enough to prove its existence to my satisfaction." MR. BIDDER'S STATEMENT. HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 19th, 1888. My Dear Sir :-I have given a good many hours to the examination of the proofs of Mr. Donnelly's book, so far as the method of the Cryptogram is dealt with, and write to let you know the opinion I have formed. "In the first place I am amazed at the stupendous industry and perseverance shown, and the ingenuity with which Mr. Donnelly has followed up his clues. The numerical coincidencein the position of words which he has discovered in the plays—notably of suggestive words such as 'Bacon,' 'St. Albans,' etc., are very remarkable, so remarkable in fact, that my own strong belief is that they cannot possibly be due to chance. And considering this in connection with the extraordinary peculiarities of the text, which he points out, both as regard typography and paging, and as regards the unnatural introduction of words into the text, I am further strongly inclined to the opinion that Mr. Donnelly is probably right in his conclusions that there is a cipher interwoven—possibly several—and very probably by Bacon." THE OPINIONS OF DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS What DR. R. M. THEOBALD, A. M., [Hon. Secretary of the Bacon Society, of London] says: "I cannot refrain from expressing my most unqualified admiration of his [Mr. Donnelly's] masterly exposition of the Bacon-Shakespeare case. His first volume is, by far, the completest and strongest Baconian argument ever written. Its cogency astonished even me, convinced as I am from long familiarity with all sides of the argument. How the Shakespereans will wriggle away from those 200 pages of 'parallels' I cannot conceive. It is the most magnificent bit of circumstantial evidence ever produced in the whole range of the world's literature. * * * But there is the same cogency in most of the other chapters; and the bright attractive, eloquent often genuinely poetical, way in which he marshals his arguments and enforces them makes the whole book so fascinating — so absolutely irresistible — that I find it far more captivating than any novel I ever read" What GEN'L BENJAMIN F. BUTLER says: "I know all about Gov. Donnelly, and I am very sure that he has discovered all he claims. I am a firm believer in the Baconian theory." What JULIAN HAWTHORNE says: "It involves the most interesting literary possibility of our generation." The LATE JOHN BRIGHT CONVERTED. The Birmingham Daily Mail of May I3, 1888, says: Mr. John Bright, m. P., is much better and practically out of danger. He has not been troubling his head recently about political matters, but for the last few weeks he has been chiefly occupied in the study of the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy. Mr. Bright is one of the few livign men who have read all through the ponderous volumes of Mr. Donnelly. He does not go all the way and assert the accuracy of Mr. Donnelly's discovery, but in his uncompromising and unhesitating manner declares his belief that, whoever may have written the plays, it was not William Shakespeare. The English newspapers also report Mr. Bright as saying, in his brusque fashion that "any man who believes that William Shakespeare wrote Lear and Hamlet is a fool. The Opinion of COUNT VITZTHUNE D'ECKSTADT. This distinguished scholar and author wrote, from Paris, to a friend in London, under date of May I8th, I888: "Will you be good enough to convey to Mr. Donnelly my sincereset congratulations. I do not know whether the opinion of an old diplomat may be of any value to him. At any rate I give it you. * * * Taking the first volume alone, it is absolutely coclusive. It is a fair, scientific investigation, most skillfully conducted and complete. I do not know which to admire most, the industry, the extreme ingenuity, or the strong power of reasoning shown in these volumes. The style is perfect; terse, business-like, and always to the point. The reader himself assists in the inquiry. Every honest man, after reading the first volume, must come tot he conclusion that the Shakespeare theory has no leg to stand upon. Those who have not studied the book have no voice in the question. Mr. Donnelly may safely appeal to posterity, as Lord Bacon did. * * * It is certain the cipher exists, though whether the actual key, by which it is to be unlocked, has been yet found, may be doubtful. I can never believe that Bacon left this discovery to mere chance; and it has been a chance that a man has been found, in the nineteenth century, ingenious and persevering enough to find and to trace out the existence of a cipher. I am convinced that Bacon left the MSS., together with the key, either to Percy, or Sir Tobie Mathew, with authority to publish the secret after his death. But the civil war broke out, and the trustees may have thought that under the rule of Cromwell and the Puritans the memory of Bacon, as a philosopher, would have been ruined if it were published that he was the author of the plays. In the interest of their deceased friend they may have destroyed the MMS. of the plays, together with the key.' The Opinion of MRS. HENRY POTT. Mrs. Henry Pott, of London, the author of that great work, "The Promus," and other books, and a lady of extensive learning and profound penetration, thus writes tot he Bacon Journal of London: "With regard to the cipher part of Mr. Donnelly's book, it appears to me that the fact of the cipher being there, and of the matter and narratives enclosed in it being as Mr. Donnelly has stated, is beyond question. All those who have expressed themselves, who are competent to understand it, and who have been able to give time to the close examination of the arithmetical calculations, of the sequence of words by means of these calculations, and of the doctrine of chances against or in favor of that sequence, have come to the same conclusion, namely that the cipher exists as Mr. Donnelly has demonstrated. * * * The imperfections in minor details to which Mr Donnelly draws attention are, as he modestly says, 'due, not to the maker of the cipher, but the decipherer.' And we unite with Mr. Donnelly in the belief that where ever a sentence is not mathematically exact, or whenever a gap or flaw occurs in the work, it will, with the further time and labor which Mr. Donnelly is bestowing upon it, be corrected and the rule brought to absolute perfection." The Opinion of Wm. D. O'CONNOR, author of Hamlet's Not Book, etc. "Although nearly a thousand pages in length, it has, by the general admission of its readers, an absorbing interest. The first half contains a formidable argument, supported at every point by copious facts, against Shakespeare as the author of the drama affiliated upon his name and in favour of Lord Bacon; and whatever may be its flaws or defects, every sensible and unbased mind will consider it masterly." The Opinion of HON. GEO. F. EDMUNDS, U. S. Senator from Vermont. Senator Edmunds in reply to a question upon the subject writes: Senate Chamber, Washington 11th March 1888. "The more I have read the Great Cryptogram the more interested I have become in the questions which it discusses. Whatever may be the final opinion of persons competent to weigh evidence, the book certainly deserves and ought to command a careful perusal by everybody interested in literary history and criticism. Very truly yours, GEO. F. EDMUNDS." The opinion of MR. W. F. C. WISGTON. W. F. C. Wigston, of England, the leaned author of "A new Study of Shakespeare" and "Bacon, Shakespeare and the Rosicruclians writes to Mr. Donnelly, under date of December 28th, I888: "You have written a wonderful book. Everybody who takes it up is very soon converted, and I call it the most Iconoclastic, idol-smashing piece of writing ever penned. Shakespeare has been attacked before, but never really shaken on his pedestal with the public in England, until your work appeared. It has made a great, silent and quick revolution. The boys in the college at Ryde," (Isle of Wight—Mr. Wigston's place of residence,)" divide and fight upon the subject; lectures are given pro and contra. What more would you have?" And at another time Mr. Wigston writes, to an American friend. "Mr. Donnelly may console himself for any temporary checks or annoyances. His name will be as eternal as 'the god in art' whom he has vindicated from oblivion. Newton's great discovery was by no means accepted till many years after his publication of it; even Leibnitz opposed it. The greater the present opposition the great will be his ultimate triumph. I have many discoveries which go to confirm his cipher." SENATOR DAVIS'S Opinions. U. S. Senator Cushman K. Davis author of the Law in Shakespeare says, December 30th, I888: "Whatever may be the final judgement upon the question, this work exhausts all the the learning and argument which great genius and wonderful industry and acumen can bestow upon the topic. It is and will remain the text of all future controversy. The treatment which it has received from the reviewers has been most inadequate and unjust. I have not read one examination of the cipher, upon which Mr. Donnelly offers to stand or fall, which can be said to meet his challenge, to anything like the scope of that challenge. The Opinion of GEORGE STRONACH, OF EDINBURGH. George Stronach, Esq., one of the librarians of the celebrated Advocate Library, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a distinguished scholar and writer, write Mr. Donnelly in July, 1888, and speaking of the cipher, said: "I have just got hold of the New York World, and I must acknowledge that your arguments are now unanswerable. You have clearly proved your case." The Opinion of HON. JOSEPH MEDILL. The Hon. Joseph Medill, the distinguished editor of the Chicago Tribune, thus expressed himself the day the book appeared: "For those who have not seen Mr. Donnelly's work, the magnitude of his performance cannot be described adequately without danger of apparent exageration. Whether the world shall accept his conclusions or hold the verdict in abeyance, Ignatius Donnelly must hereafter be counted among the men whose industry, persistence and sincerity have thrust into literature and history a force compelling recognition, if not conviction; and whose prodigious and patient labor has amassed against the current belief about Shakespeare too much testimony for incredulity to scoff at, for jests to smile out of sight, or for learning to ignore." MR. ARMSTRONG'S Opinion. George B. Armstrong, city editor of the Free Press, of Detroit, Mich., thus expressed himself in that paper, May 20, I888: "To the student of English literature no more fascinating book has ever been published than this one by Mr. Donnelly. * * * He has written this book as a lawyer would present his case to the jury. * * * That Mr. Donnelly has discovered a cipher in the Shakespeare Plays, there is no doubt. It is impossible to publish anything like a full account of the discovery in a newspaper article. But the cipher is there.* * * It is as interesting a story to the litterateur as the romance writer ever penned. The two parts of Mr. Donnelly's work which will have the most interest to the general reader, who cares to investigate this subject, will be the arraignment of Shakespeare and the testimony in favor of Bacon. There is about these two sections of the book the glamour of romance, so intensely interesting is the matter, and so consummately skillful has it been arranged. It is impossible to convey any adequate idea of its many beauties. It must be read to be appreciated." MR. WILSTACH'S Opinion. John Augustine Wilstach, the learned translator of Virgil and Dante, author of "The Virgilians," "Dante and the Danteans," etc., writes as follows : "Mr. Donnelly need, I think, have no fears that his arduous labors in the cause of truth will fail of ultimate appreciation. For my part, in my capacity as a lawyer, I acknowledge an ardent desire to see the noblest land-marks in English literature attributed to an ornament of the English bench. And, as to the cipher demonstration, I regard the deductions therein as entirely warrantable and satisfactory; and as, of themselves, decisive of the point in contestation, whether the question be made to rest upon the rules governing the reception of evidence in courts, or upon the propositions governing the doctrine of probabilities in mathematics." The Opinion of SIR JOSEPH NEAL MCKENNA, M. P. Sir Joseph Neal McKenna, an eminent cryptologist, writes to the Dublin Nation as follows : "I have had for many years of my life considerable practice in the construction of cryptograph notes and messages for the purposes of secresy, brevity and economy. * * * What I assert is that there is a genuine, demonstrated, mathematically-constructed cryptogram in the text of the play 'Henry IV,' which tells the story, and it is impossible to maintain that the printer, editor or publisher of the Folio edition of 1623 was not privy to the enfolding of the cryptogram in the text of the edition published in that year. I do not go into minor points, none of which, however, in the slightest degree, derogate from the certainty with which I have already pronounced my own opinion or judgment." The Opinion of PROF. GREENWOOD. Prof. Greenwood, in the Kansas City Journal of May 21, 1888, says: "Without going into all the details in the first part of the book; * * * in point of scholarship, close study, numerous and extended comparisons, minute research and the greatest familiarity with all that is known of Shakespeare and his entire history, * * it must be confessed that Mr. Donnelly, by all laws of evidence, has shown that Shakespeare could not have written the plays that are now called his. * * * On any theory of certainty, the chance that he did so would be as great a miracle as the creation of a world. Any jury of intelligent lawyers, on the first part of this great work, would bring in a verdict against Shakespeare's authorship. * * No one can assert, after glancing through this part of the work, that there is nothing in cipher unless he actually proves it mathematically. It would take an expert mathematician several months to verify all these statements or to disprove them. It would be very much less work to calculate an eclipse of the sun or moon. On the other hand, if the number-relations he presents, and verifies, are simply happy coincidences without any significance, then it is the most elaborate and connected set of coincidences that has ever been brought to light in chance work. * * * It is a strong case with hardly a weak point in it. Of course it would be humiliating for English scholars to give an author justice who hails from the wheat-fields of Minnesota." The Opinion of THE GOVERNOR OF IOWA. Governor Larrabee, of Iowa, writes from Des Moines, December 13, 1888, to a friend in Chicago : "One who is determined not to have a doubt in his mind as to the authorship of the Shakespeare Plays should not read 'The Great Cryptogram.' The argument and testimony presented by Mr. Donnelly will be likely to make the reader a convert to his theory. This work fully sustains the reputation of the author of 'ATLANTIS' and 'RAGNOROK.' " The Opinion of George A. Bacon. Mr. George A. Bacon, of Washington, writes to the Missouri Statesman, August 15, 1888 : "The truths now first made known, cannot be ignored. The disbelief of the investigator yields to the cumulative evidence which confronts him at every step, as darkness yields to the morning light. Sneers, nor abuse, nor prejudice can cope with the multiplication table." COMMENTS OF SOME OF THE ENGLISH PAPERS The impression was given in this country that all leading English newspapers had denounced and ridiculed Mr. Donnelly's book. This is not true. The leading papers, as a rule, treated it with great respect and consideration. It was, as in America, the second and third class journals, and the anonymous critics who were virulent and abusive. I.--From The LONDON TELEGRAPH ("The newspaper with the largest circulation in the world,") May 2nd, 1888: "Any wonder at the delay in the appearance of Mr. Ignatius Donnelly's curious book, 'The Great Cryptogram,' will disappear now that the two volumes are in the hands of the English readers. A feeling of respect arises, instead, for the author and publisher who could prepare such a uniquely complex work with any reasonable punctuality. Here it is, however, and whether it is to be regarded as fatal to the personal claims of our sovereign English genius, a piece of extraordinary special pleading for the long-delayed recognition of his great rival, Bacon, carrying judgment and conviction with it ; or only a vast delusion, based on some remarkable freaks of chance, it will be for specialists and the age to say. * * * The keen interest of the book commences when this literary sleuth-hound gets upon the trail of the mysteries which he believes lie hidden under these leaves. It is then that we watch the tireless industry, the amazing patience, with which he picks out and follows down the coldest scent that ever led through a forest of difficulties. * * * Such are a few of these strange 'finds' of Mr. Donnelly, and, if he has not allowed himself to be deceived, it is impossible to avoid the deduction that, for one purpose or another, a wonderfully intricate series of stories has been threaded through the web of the great English classics. * * * * Every Shakespearean scholar will admit the duty that lay upon the ingenious author to publish, at whatever cost to the tenderness of literary conservation, the character and extent of the wonderful discovery which he thinks he has made, and which is embodied in these perplexing volumes." II.--From LABOUCHERE'S "TRUTH," (The great Independent Journal) May 20, 1888 : "Mr. Donnelly's important work, 'The Great Cryptogram,' is at last in the hands of the reviewers, and a pretty tough morsel they doubtless find it * * * At the present moment I am not prepared to say more about it in detail ; but speaking generally, this I may say, and hardly ever been produced before outside Germany, and that some of Mr. Donnelly's results are very astonishing, while all of them are interesting and curious. * * * "It is safe to prophesy that Mr. Donnelly will make a large number of converts among the people who have the patience to really read the book through. The cumulative force of 998 pages of striking coincidences and more or less plausible arguments, will shake anything short of the mose resolute skepticism." III. - From THE GLASGOW HERALD, May 1, 1888. "The point is not why Bacon, if he wrote Shakespeare's plays, records his authorship in so ingenious a cipher, but did Bacon write Shakespeare's plays ? If he did, then he is simply the most wonderful man the world has ever known, and one ceases to be amazed at ciphers or anything else he might evolve. * * * The prevailing impression will probably be that whether Mr. Donnelly has or has not got the right clue or the whole clue--whether or not he has advance claims which he will be able to sustain under a vigorous scrutiny--there does seem 'something' in the great cryptogram mystery after all. It is certainly a most wonderful example of patience and ingenuity on the part of the discoverer, and it is impossible to doubt his sincerity and good faith." IV.--From THE BIRMINGHAM POST. May 1, 1888. "The Hon. (or Governor) Donnelly, of Hastings, Minnesota, is well known as the learned author of two starling theories of globe history--'Atlantis,' showing that a great continent formerly existed where the Atlantic now rolls, and from which the American and the European and Asiatic continents were peopled ; and 'Ragnarok,' an erudite argument that the 'great drift,' over a large part of Europe and America, was the debris of the stroke of some great comet of the early days of the world. These works valeut quantum, show so much varied reading, careful method and elaborate marshalling of facts and inferences, that their author deserves a hearing and attention when he leaves the scientific for the literary arena, and boldly challenges Shakespeare's three centuries of fame and honor wherever the English tongue is spoken or English literature is read. * * * Mr. Donnelly's work is a marvel of knowledge and industry." V.--From THE LONDON STANDARD, May 1, 1888. "We may say, at once, that no one who examines the purely critical part of his book, will be disposed to treat Mr. Donnelly as a disputant who can be dismissed with a sneer. * * * The argument on the internal evidence * * * is a solid and conscientious piece of literary criticism. * * * When we come to internal evidence, afforded by a comparison of what Bacon has written and what Shakespeare wrote, some quoted coincidences are assuredly very striking. The subject of the plays, the political bearing of some pointed passages, the religious and philosophic notions brought out under dramatic form ; the particular items of curious learning : the reference to English localities, all accord eminently with the circumstances in which the future chancellor and founder of Inductive Science was placed, and with the cast of his intelligence, while they are in some respects, strangely out of harmony with what might have been looked for from the Warwickshire actor. * * * But enough of unimpeachable force has been got togethers to disclose a really remarkable similarity of phrase, of metaphor, of opinions and of inferred attainments. What perhaps affords the nearest approach to a convincing argument for a common authorship, is th euse of the same out-of-the-way quotations, and the reproduction of precisely the same errors." VI.--From THE LONDON TIMES, May 2, 1888. "But though facts, figures and arguments may be all for Mr. Donnelly, the public is prejudiced, if not pig-headed, and much depends on the reception of these volumes, which must be nearly exhaustive, if not positively conclusive. We can well believe Mr. Donnelly when he mentions repeatedly that his publishers were perpetually protesting against the intolerablelength of his work ; but 'the labor he delight in physics pain,' and he was wonderfully carried forward by his fervent enthusiasm to the last of the thousand closely-printed folio pages. We only hope he may find a single reader to give him fair play and conscientiously examine all his complex calculations. But if Mr. Donnelly is exceptionally prolix we may forgive him, for he has set himself to prove astounding proportions ; to subvert the faith that has found unhesitating acquiescence with the most accomplished and sagacious critics of successive generations, who have subjected the plays of Shakespeare to microscopical analysis; and finally to concert us all to a belief in the incredible." VII.--From THE LONDON MORNING POST, May 1, 1888. "However much value we may attach to Mr. Donnelly's discoveries; it is impossible to deny that if genius be indeed 'an infinite capacity for taking pains,' he has considerable claim to the possession of that rare and inestimable gift." VIII.--From THE PALL MALL GAZETTETE, May 3, 1888. "Mr. Ignatius Donnelly's 'Great Cryptogram' is not a thing to be dismissed in a moment. If it be a delusion, it is respectable by reason of its very magnitude. The labor represented by the two great volumes before us, and especially by the second, is stupendous. America, the land of 'big things,' has in Mr. Donnelly a son worthy of her immensity." IX.--From THE LEEDS MERCURY, May 2, 1889. "Mr. Donnelly has done justice to his theme from the peculiar view with which he regards it, and neither he nor his publishers ca be reproached for the form in which the subject is brought under the attention of the reading public. In mere get up the work does honor to the two great names that figure so prominently in its thousand pages. Should it serve no other purpose, it cannot fail to obtain a place in our libraries alongside the writings whose real origin and hidden meaning it professes to reveal. Probably also it will rank as one of the literary events of the year. Much as was said about it beforehand, and detailed as were some of the forecasts of it contents, the appearance of the book was awaited with interest ; and those who were least disposed to accept its conclusions will not, after looking into it, deny that it calls for respectful treatment. There is so much that is conscientious and eagerness in the argument, apart from the demonstration, that we can afford to overlook the eagerness with which the author seeks to prove his case, and feel satisfied that there is a place for the book on other grounds altogether than the theory which it claims to establish. Not anywhere else is there in such convenient, compact form, so much that is instructive and important relative to the life and time of Shakespeare and Bacon." X.--From THE LONDON GRAPHIC : "Is Mr. Donnelly the unconscious dupe of his own cipher, or has he made a discovery of an importance and interest unexampled in the history of literature ? We prefer for the present, to leave the question unanswered." XI.--From THE BURY TIMES, East Lancashire, England. "One of the most remarkable books America has ever produced * * * A monument of ability, industry and literary acumen. * * * An epoch - making book." AMERICAN OPINION I.--From the NEW YORK MORNING JOURNAL. "No book of modern times has excited so much interest all over the civilized world as this volume, and its sale will probably reach a million copies." II.--From the NEW YORK WORLD. "The most startling announcement that has been hurled at mankind since Galileo proclaimed his theory of the earth's motion." III.--From the SAN FRANCISCO ARGONAUT. "The first half of the volume under review, which is denominated 'The Argument,' is a masterly presentation of all heretofore advanced by others, enriched by some very satisfactory additions of the writer ; and it would be difficult for an unbiased mind to rise from its study without a conviction that Bacon was the real author of some of the writings which, for three centuries have been attributed to William Shakespeare. The ignorance of Shakespeare the learning of Bacon; the parallel passages in Bacon's works and in the plays; the unity of thought, the community of error; the employment of identical metaphors, and of unusual and newly coined words; the display of the same phases of religious belief, of politics and of human sympathy ; the acute knowledge displayed in the plays of the common law, even its most technical form ; as well as of science, and of moral, and natural philosophy, are all strikingly set forth, and demonstrate that either Bacon wrote all, or at least a portion of the plays, or that he and Shakespeare were mental twins--each a hemisphere of a single brain." IV.--From the PHILADELPHIA EVENING STAR : "But strong as is the logical portion of the book, and fascinating as is its literary style-- so that its merits will lie readily within grasp of the mass of the readers, and will not at all require that one should be a Shakespearean scholar to appreciate them -- Mr. Donnelly bases no especial claim on his logic or style of expression. His great claim rests upon the second half of his book, wherein he gives demonstration of the existence of the cipher narrative, with very full extracts from it. Even here, with a modesty rare among literary men, he claims nothing more for his great life-work, which, as he says, has cost him years of incalculable toil, than this:--that. beyond finding of the first clue, it has been simply an elaborate task in mathamatics. But what a task, if it were only that, though it is really more! Only to an indomitable nature would the contemplation of such a task have been possible at all. Sisyphus himself might have fancied his endless work of rolling the boulder up a hill, almost an exhilirating outdoor exercise--a sort of crude but classic base ball, in comparison with this brain-racking work, continued through a series of years, with no let up from the strain but the recreation got in the meantime by the writing of other books and lectures ! * * * If Mr. Donnelly has made a single miscount, his critics should be able to demonstrate it. He gives the page and the number on the page of every cipher word. It would, of course, be an easy matter for anybody to pick out words from the pages of the plays that would make a consecutive story ; but here we have a story which is consecutive ; which is grammatical ; which is written in the purest English, with a rhetoric striking alike by its force and its simplicity, and which retains the very flavor of the Elizabethan age ; and all the words corresponding with certain root numbers, which never vary, save according to certain modifiers. This could not be the work of chance. It rest with those who may deny the possibility of the cipher to explain away this startling fact--if they can. * * * Let anybody take any of the cipher pages, as we have done, and a glance at its symmetrical structure will suffice at once, to exclude the idea that Mr. Donnelly has deceived himself. The figures are there. They are not there arbitrarily. It is inconceivable how they could be put there by any system of self-deception ; and no other conclusion appears possible that the alternative suggested by the London editor--that there is a cipher and Mr. Donnelly had found it. * * * It will take time even for figures to effect the prepossessions of centuries, the traditions of Shakespere, the veneration in which he is held--that is to say, the plays are held. And we need not expect that a book which antagonizes the prevailing sentiment of mankind, and which is so elaborate and exhaustive that the writing of it has taken all of ten years, will alter the judgment of mankind immediately." V.--From THE TROY TIMES. Whatever the reader may think of the theory and the demonstrations, it is certain that the book contains a great deal of rare interest apart from the purpose which it is intended to subserve ; and the author has revealed a minuteness of inquiry, and a patience of exploration of the most remarkable character. VI.--From the TOLEDO BEE. "A wonderful work. * * * However considered, 'The Great Cryptogram' is probably the most notable contribution of the period to English literature, and will afford speculation and study for many years to come." * * * Mr. Donnelly asks the reader to divest his mind of prejudice and remember that ridicule doesn't prove the untruth of a theory. Certain, it is, if there is a cipher in Shakespere's works this author has discovered and demonstrated it. If there is none then Mr. Donnelly has really performed almost a miracle in the construction of one, or the discovery of a new arithmetical formula. VII.--From the SAN JOSE (Cal.) MERCURY. The book lies before is, and surprises our minds with its size, with the terse logic of its successive chapters, and with the evident vastness of research and mental labor required for its production. It may be that some astute Shakesperian scholar shall speedily arise and show this book to be a bundle of cunning sophistries. But still the work will continue to occupy the favorite shelf of many a studied library for the well-arranged wisdom and keenly worded criticism with which its pages abound. VIII.--From THE CRITIC, of Lowell, Mass. Of course it is easy to cast ridicule upon the really scholarly attempt to disprove the claims of the Shakesperians. But many facts are introduced by Mr. Donnelly which sustain his theory to an extent that has not been supposed possible by those who have given but little thought to the matter. IX.--From the PITSBURG POST. The work aside from all speculation as to the verity of Mr. Donnelly's cipher, is a curious and interesting one, and of special interest to the students of the plays, and their name is legion the world over. Credit is due the publishers for the satisfactory and clear way in which the author's argument is presented, and the difficulties of typographical illustration overcome. X.--From the CALL, of Harrisburg. Nothing has been put into the book that has not pith and substance and direct relation to its purpose, and, bulky though the volume be, it would be hard for even the most rigid revision to indicate a page which could be left out without detriment to the interest. It is compact argument right straight along. But strong as is the logical portion of the book, and fascinating as is its literary style * * * Mr. Donnelly bases no especial claim on his logic or style of expression. His greatclaim rests on the second half of his book, wherein he gives demonstration of the existence of the cipher narrative, with very full extracts from it. XI.—From the Herald, Helena, Montana The work f Hon. Ignatius Donnelly has for some time been lying on our table awaiting a notice, and we confess that we have purposely avoided reading it for fear that we might be led to suspect the genuineness of one of our life-long idols. We cannot yet say that we have carefully read the book, but we have sampled its contents till the point we dreaded is well nigh reached. As the courts and lawyers would say, there is more than a reasonable doubt that Will Shakespeare wrote the immortal plays that have gone by his name. To write these plays required not simply genius but an immense breadth of learning that genius could not supply. XII. — From the ALTA - CALIFORNIAN. But whether or not Mr. Donnelly succeeds in providing that a cipher exists, his work is wonderfully ingenious, and in either case it is a literary curiosity. XV - From the Sylvania, Georgia WATCHMAN. "For a long time the Watchman has been an ardent, though humble believer in William Shakespeare as the author of those wonderful plays that bear his name; and more than once it has hurled thunderbolts at Mr. Donnelly's head because he was attempting to prove it to the world that Bacon was the real author of the plays and used Shakespeare's name as a mask to hide his own identity. But we now recant, and in light of recent study and investigation, accept as a true the Bacon theory" XVI - From the San Francisco SUNDAY CHRONICLE. There are plenty of flippant criticisms of Ignatius Donnelly's new book, "The Great Cryptogram" but they all beat intrinsic evidence that their writers have not taken the trouble to examine the work. A cursory glance through its pages will convince anyone that Mr. Don -nelly has made a strong case, and until some one can explain away the remarkable facts he has marshaled in support of his theory that the plays known as Shakespeare's contain a cipher attributing their authorship to Bacon, it will not do to pooh-pooh the idea that a butcher's apprentice, who never had an opportunity to acquire education could have written the plays which from beginning to end are crammed with evidence of erudition. Apart from the cipher discovery, THE FREAT CRYPTOGRAM would, by its facts and argu- ments, create a revolution in public opinion as to the authorship of the Shakespeare Plays. It is a profound and exhaustive argument, presentenced in that forcible yet fascinating style for which the author is noted. THE GREAT "CRYPTONGRAM" is published in one imperial in one imperial octavo volume of nearly 1,000 pages. The illustrations include a steel portrait of Lord Bacon, from the painting of Van Somer; portraits of Queen Elizabeth. of the Earl of Essex., and Ben Johnson, and portraits of the leading "Baconians." It contains also a fac-simile of the famous Shakespeare portrait printed as a frontpiece to the great Folio of 1623, and fac-similies of the text of the great work, engraved by photographic process from a perfect and authentic copy of the same in the library of Columbia College. The title and semi-titles are engraved on wood, from original designs, in antique style, and the letter press is from electrotype plates cast from new type. The work is printed on extra quality of calendered paper and will be furnished to sub- scribers at the following prices: PLAIN EDITION. - In extra English cloth, stamped in marron and gold, unique design, plain edges....................................................$4.50 POPULAR EDITION - In extra English cloth, gold and maroon stamping, full gilt edges 5.50 LIBRARY EDITION - In half seal Russia, burnished edges, gold medallion portrait of Lord Bacon on side......................................6 .50 PRSENTATION EDITION. - In full seal Russia, full, gilt edges ........................... 8.50 IN TERRITORY WHERE WE HAVE NO AGENT, WE WILL SUPPLY THE GREAT CRYPTOGRAM AT $2.50 PER COPY IN CLOTH. R.S PEALE & CO. PUBLISHERS, 315-321- WABASH AVE, CHICAGO, ILL. [*see note July 1, 1891*] To Walt Whitman Esq I am making a collection of Autographs of the prominent and public men and women of the country. I would esteem it a great favor if you will attach your Autograph to the enclosed card, and return to me in the within stamped envelope. Yours, Very Respectfully, WILLIAM L. DeLACEY, Poughkeepsie, New York.FROM FRIENDSHIP APIARY, FRIENDSHIP, N. Y. [*see note nov 27 1891*] FRIENDSHIP 25 NOV 1891 N.Y. Walt Whitman, Camden, N. J.CAMDEN N.J, NOV 27 6 AM REC'DFROM HARRY L. DWIGHT, MANUFACTURER AND JOBBER OF BEE-KEEPERS' SUPPLIES. MODEL FOUNDATION. Friendship ,N.Y. 11-24 1891. Walt Whitman: Camden N.J. My Dear Sir: I read in the papers that you are sick and in want in your old age. Now Mr. Whitman I am not wealthy but will be proud to have you come here and live with me. I own a small home and will be only too happy to assist you. Kindly let me know by return mail if the statement in the purpose is true. I sincerely hope it is not . I have a copy of your 'Leaves of Grass." You have always been my favorite poet, and I think it a shame that you should be left in need. If circumstances are such that you need not come or do not want assistance, I trust you will pardon the letter. It is written in all sincerity and truth. Your humble Admirer, Harry L. Dwight SPOKANE WASH. MAR 17 1130 AM 92 NEWARK, N.J. MAR 22 530 PM 92 DEFICIENT ADDRESS SUPPLIED BY NEWARK Walt Whitman [Newark] Camden New Jersey RK N J MAR 22 212 PM REC'D CAMDEN, N.J. MAR23 6 AM 92Spokane March 16 Walt Whitman Dear Brother I pray that you may be well long ere this reaches you. Please write me aline that I may have your hand writing. I held a letter once yeares ago that you wrote to George Chony. I have since then be very desirous to havesome writing from you before you go to your long home. Fraternally your Mrs. L. Dillard Post Fall IdahoCross Reference GENERAL COORESPONDENCE David, Charles to Whitman u.d See Verso Literary File PROSE "Our Monuments," 1880's? A. MS. Draft Box 34Cross Reference GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Dailey, Charles W. to Whitman, u.d Partial See Verso Literary File Prose "On Walter Scott," 1880's A.M draft DCN 133. Box 34