What My Lover Said
She entered the field with the following astonishing letter to the New York Sun:
Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.
To the Editor of the New York Sun:
About twenty-five years ago I sent the subjoined poem anonymously to the New York Evening Post. Since then I have seen it extensively copied, as originating from your paper, and attributed to Horace Greeley. Of course I felt much complimented; but as the true author is yet unknown to fame I think it would be but tardy justice to render honor to whom honor is due by republishing the poem under my signature.
Respectfully,
- Mrs. O. C. Jones.
Accompanying the letter was a copy of “What My Lover Said,” which the Sun obligingly republished, with Mrs. Jones’s name attached. At about the same time she had written a similar letter to the New Orleans Times–Democrat, which had also printed the poem with her name signed to it, and from these two sources it started on its newspaper travels once again, this time credited to the Abbeville candidate.
Mrs. Jones soon discovered, no doubt considerably to her surprise, that her rival claimant was not the deceased Horace Greeley, who could say nothing, but a very much alive Homer Greene, whose friends quickly rallied to his de-
305
