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My relations toward the sketches you are illustrating are those of a compiler
merely; consequently I cannot pretend to know what is meant by Miss Meadows. She
plays a minor part in the entire series, as you will perceive when the
concluding numbers have been sent to you. Why she is there, I cannot say, but
your conception will give to the sketches a poetical color (if I may say so)
which will add vastly to whatever interest they may have for people of taste.
[?] By all means let Miss Meadows
figure as Nature in the shape of a beautiful girl in a simple but not
unpicturesque costume. As it is your own conception, I know you will treat the
young lady tenderly. How abundantly you justify my anxiety to get you to
illustrate these queer relics! I feel sure that no one else would have ever
dreamed of investing them with poetical interest. I trust you will not change
your intention in this respect, but if you do, please let me know; otherwise, I
shall allude to the matter in the preface, and give you due credit for the
conception.
There are several sketches yet to come, but to save you the trouble
of plodding through the MS., I will send the outlines to your address. I
appreciate the difficulty of obtaining variety, but nevertheless I trust to your
versatility to obtain more than twelve drawings. At the very least I hope you
will be able to furnish an initial piece to each sketch. I wish you would get
the photograph of Moser's ideal portrait of Uncle Remus, which I have already forwarded to the Appletons,
and study the type so as to illustrate the story of the war which is to follow
after the sketches in the volume. The story will afford you an opportunity to make at
least two effective drawings. Moser's conception of the negro is perfect,
whatever technical defects there may be about it. Moser will make two drawings
in wash; one a conrnshucking scene and the other a plantation frolic—each
illustrating a song. I wish you would see them when they get to New York and
tell me what you think of them. If they are not technically up to the mark, I
don't want them engraved, but you can take the idea and work it over in your own
style, the conception in neither case being original with Moser. Each is a part
of my own memory and experience, and each has been drawn under my supervision.
[?]Thanking you for your kindness in replying to my letter, I remain
By the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in conjunction with the Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis.