Rolling Stones Page: xii

lRollingy Stones
,: l' anId have neve.'r been elected anything yet. We
understand the Mayor business thoroughly and if elected
some people will wish wolves had stolen them from their
cradles. ."
This page from the Patriot is presented with an array
of perfectly confused type, of artistic errors in setting up,
and when an occasional line gets shifted (intentionally,
of course) the effect is alarming. Anybody who knows
the advertising of a small country weekly can, as he
reads, pick out, in the following the advertisement from
the "personal."
Miss Hattie Green of Paris, Ill. is
Steel-rivited steam or water power
automatic oiling thoroughly tested
visiting her sister Mrs. G. W. Grubes
Little Giant Engines at Adams & Co.
Also Sachet powders Mc.Cormick Reapers and
oysters.
All of this was a part of The Rolling Stone, which
flourished or at least wavered in Austin during the years
1894 and 1895. Years before, his strong instinct to
write had been gratified in letters. He wrote, in his
twenties, long imaginative letters, occasionally stuffed
with execrable puns but more than often buoyant, truly
humorous, keenly incisive into the unreal, especially
in fiction. I have included a number of these letters,
to Doctor Beall of Greensboro, N. C., and to his early
friend in Texas, Mr. David Harrell.
In 1895-1896, Porter went to Iouston, Texas, to work

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