Famous Single Poems
ing. Probably there are no longer lovers so simple-hearted as to fancy any of them going to a function in a street costume, or in a dress which has already been worn three times, but, if there were, their fate would be as swift and dire. In such things the world does not change, and the plutocrats of imperial New York spell their qualities with the same characters as the plutocrats of Imperial Rome.”
On the basis of all this popularity, Mr. Butler tried to persuade the Harpers to publish the poem in book form, but they refused on the ground that they had sold 80,000 copies of the Weekly which contained it, and there could be no possible demand for the book. They were so sincere in this belief, that when the firm of Rudd & Carleton, just starting in the publishing business, asked permission to publish “Nothing to Wear,” the Harpers granted it, without asking any payment and also without any consultation with Mr. Butler. The book,[1] with illustrations by Augustus Hoppin, was a great success and assisted materially in placing the new firm on its feet. Mr. Butler, of course, received nothing, not even credit, for nowhere in the book does his name appear.
He soon found, indeed, that not only was he
- ↑ Nothing to Wear. An Episode of City Life. (From Harper’s Weekly.) Illustrated by Hoppin. New York: Rudd & Carleton, 310 Broadway, MDCCCLVII.
218
