A more careful reading of your late letter has set me thinking, & I do plainly see in that SouthendⒶemendation business calamity for my lecture season. I never made a success of a lecture delivered in a church yet. People are afraid to laugh in a church. They can’t be made to do it, in any possible way. And Lord knows it wasn’t “business” to pav Ⓐemendation start me in my most important city in an obscure course, & that, too, in a church. What could you have been thinking about? Seems to me that an agent would feel the importance of a first-rate start for his clin Ⓐemendation client—is that correct?

Hang it, if the Southend business looks more & more fatal, the more I think of it. We must get rid of it, even if I have to write the proposed letter—which is a heavy pill to take, there is no question about that. Can’t you fix it some way, so as to get me liberated without prejudice? I certainly haven nothing against that society, but to talk elsewhere than in Music Hall & in a big course may ruin me. But if n everything else fails, present the letter & let the heavens fall.

Read over the enclosed, & if you want it altered, return it & state the alterations.1explanatory note