It was in this year that Richard enjoyed the thrill of seeing
in print his first contribution to a periodical. The date of
this important event, important, at least, to my brother, was
February 1, the fortunate publication was Judge, and the
effusion was entitled "The Hat and Its Inmate." Its purport
was an overheard conversation between two young ladies at a
matinee and the editors thought so well of it that for the
privilege of printing the article they gave Richard a year's
subscription to Judge. His scrap-book of that time shows
that in 1884 Life published a short burlesque on George W.
Cable's novel, "Dr. Sevier," and in the same year The
Evening Post paid him $1.05 for an article about "The New
Year at Lehigh." It was also in the spring of 1884 that
Richard published his first book, "The Adventures of My
Freshman," a neat little paper-covered volume including half a
dozen of the short stories that had already appeared in The
Lehigh Burr. In writing in a copy of this book in later
years, Richard said: "This is a copy of the first book of
mine published. My family paid to have it printed and finding
no one else was buying it, bought up the entire edition.
Finding the first edition had gone so quickly, I urged them to
finance a second one, and when they were unenthusiastic I was
hurt. Several years later when I found the entire edition in
our attic, I understood their reluctance. The reason the book
did not sell is, I think, because some one must have read it."

In the summer of 1882 Richard went to Boston, and in the
following letter unhesitatingly expressed his opinion of that