I did not think I should ever stand on a platform again until the time was come for me to say, “I die innocent.” But the same old offers keep arriving that have arrived arriven every year & been every year declined—$500 for Louisville, $500 for St Louis, $1000 gold for 2 nights in Toronto, half gross proceeds for New York, Boston, Brooklyn, &c. I have declined them all, just as usual—though sorely tempted, as usual.

Now I do not decline because I mind talking to an audience, but because, (1.) traveling alone is so heart-breakingly dreary, & (2), shouldering the whole show is such a cheer-killing responsibility.

Therefore, I now propose to you what you proposed to me in November ’67—ten years ago (when I was unknown,)—viz., that you stand on the platform & make pictures, & I stand by you & blackguard the audience. I should enormously enjoy meandering around, (to big towns—don’t want to go to little ones)—with you for company.

My idea is, not to fatten lecture-agents & lyceums on the spoils, but put all the ducats religiously into two equal piles & say to the artist & the lecturer, “Absorb these.”

For instance—this being the plan: Pay the lecture bureau 2 per cent of gross receipts to engage halls & arrange dates & route for us. Take an agent with us to tend door, at & shoulder all details, at $70 or $75 per week, he to pay his own expenses. Perform at a dollar a ticket, & only in towns capable of furnishing from eight to 1200-dollar audiences.

Have 50-cent or 75c admissions, also, in halls & theatres where there are galleries, if considered expedient.

Take a hall in New York for 2 weeks (with privilege of extending the time if it is were if necessary); go from there elsewhere, & come back & finish there with 2 to 3 weeks more, at the end of the trip.

Begin Feb 1st & perform 100 times (not including Wednesday & Saturday matinées)—call the gross result $100,000 for 4 months & a half, & the profit from $60,000 to $75,000. (I try to make the figures large nough enough, & leave it to the public to reduce them.)

I lectured 2 nights in Steinway Hall once, on for half of the gross receipts. We packed the house both nights at a dollar a head. The rent of the hall was either $200 or $250 per night, & the advertising little or nothing, because there was not time to do much. Now I think know you & I could pack that hall 6 nights & 2 matineés—& double this ti that time in a smaller hall. We could clear $3000Ⓐemendation apiece for a Steinway week with no trouble at all.

We can pack Music Hall in Boston (it seats near about 2500) 2 nights & one matinée, or run a week in a smaller hall.

New York,– –	12 days (or 24)
	(small hall & 4 matinees)
Baltimore– –	2 (& 1 matinee)
Washington	2—
Boston—–	2 (& 1 matinèe)
	(Music Hall)
Providence—	1
Chelsea—–	1
Portland—	1
Binghamton	1
Elmira—––	1
Buffalo—–	2
Cleveland—	2
Pittsburgh—	2
Columbus—	1
Detroit—–	1
Chicago—–	6 4 (& 2 1 matinees)
St Louis—	4
Cincinnati—	4 (& 1 mat.)
Louisville—	2 (or 3)
Toronto—	2
Hamilton—	1
New Haven—	1
Stamford—	1
Bridgeport—	1
Hartford—	1
New York	12 (again)
	(& 4 mat)
	————
————
Total 75.

I have no mapⒶemendation by me, else I could easily pick out & add 25 one-thousand dollar towns scattered about n New England & along that route.

You & I can cram any house in America just as full as it can hold.

I did not put in Philadelphia because Pugh owns that town, & last winter when I made a little reading-trip he only paid me $300 & pretended his concert (I read 15 minutes in the midst of a concert) cost him $600 a vast sum, & so he couldn’t afford any more. I could get up a better concert with a barrel full of cats.

I am deep in a book, which I can have ready for the printers & the dramatist (for I want it dramatised) by the end of January, & be ready for you then, if you like the project.

I have imagined two or three pictures & concocted the accompanying remarks to see how the thing would go. I was charmed.

Well, you think it over, Nast, & drop me a line. I am not proposing a novelty in business. In California & Nevada I always ran my own show, took all the risks myself & pocketed the whole profit. My agent got nothing but a salary. I know this business from A to Z.

By George, w We should have some fun!