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Authors and Friends by Annie Fields
page 25 of 273 (09%)
knowing it.'"

In one of Longfellow's notes he alludes humorously to the autograph
nuisance:--"Do you know how to apply properly for autographs? Here is
a formula I have just received, on a postal card:

"'DEAR SIR: As I am getting a collection of the autographs of all
honorable and worthy men, and think yours such, I hope you will
forfeit by next mail. Yours, etc.'"

And of that other nuisance, sitting for a portrait, he laughingly
wrote one day: "'Two or three sittings'--that is the illusory phrase.
Two or three sittings have become a standing joke." And yet how seldom
he declined when it was in his power to serve an artist! His
generosity knew no bounds.

When a refusal of any kind was necessary, it was wonderful to see how
gently it was expressed. A young person having written from a western
city to request him to write a poem for her class, he said: "I could
not write it, but tried to say 'No' so softly that she would think it
better than 'Yes.'"

He was distinguished by one grace which was almost peculiar to himself
in the time in which he lived--his tenderness toward the undeveloped
artist, the man or woman, youth or maid, whose heart was set upon some
form of ideal expression, and who was living for that. Whether they
possessed the power to distinguish themselves or not, to such persons
he addressed himself with a sense of personal regard and kinship. When
fame crowned the aspirant, no one recognized more keenly the
perfection of the work, but he seldom turned aside to attract the
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