To A Lonely Boy

ARTHUR HOPKINS T A LONELY y DOUBLEDAY, DORAN AND COMPANY, INC. Garden City 1937 New York TO A LONELY BOY y ou ou ARE TO SPEAK no more of being a burden. Your father was my dearest friend. Your affliction denies you much in life, but somehow I think your greatest depri vation was not to have known him. His death left a great gap in my life which twenty years have but widened. On rare occasions in life we meet persons who seem in some previous life to have been freed from the dross and scale of humanity. These people seem to move in a special light, a shining light. The early painters saw this light, thus the halo. Your father was one of these. He was in the true sense a good man. He recognized evil in no one. He never tried to change anyone. He loved his fellow man and, more than that, re spected him. He imposed his will on no one and yet had more TO A LONELY BOY influence on the lives of those about him than anyone I have known. Yes, he came from a very special place and I am sure went to one. Now that your mother is gone you must be my son, the son that I never had. What love I have is yours, and what comfort I can bring you will doubly comfort me. I will write to you often of things that have happened to me, of people I have known, of life as it has glanced by me. How long you will be confined Dr Tanner does not know. Whether you will recover is equally uncertain. This is a truth we both must face and then put behind us. Only thus can we readjust ourselves to a way of life. There are many ways of living, and afflicted people are most ingenious in finding them. I have a friend, once a famous writer, who has been con fined to his room for years. In the early days friends called tosympathize with him, and had the strange experience of finding that they were the ones in need of sympathy their spirit was so poor in comparison with his. He has kept close track of his friends activities, frequently counseling them TO A LONELY BOY and arousing the interest of others in their aspirations. He has found a way of life far more beautiful than he had dis covered in his days of vigor. Is this coincidence As I am writing my office door is open. A moment ago I heard laughter and looked up. In the outer office was a blind man walking toward me, led by a boy. His face was alive with smiles. It was he who had laughed, not the normal, furrowed auditor, nor the normal, troubled press agent, nor the normal, impatient secretary. It was the blind man. Is this coincidence, or was he sent that I might tell you about him You are not lacking in resources. You will find a way of life that is rich. You have your fathers courage. T JL L H H I E BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES will be sent to you today. I envy your being able to enjoy music from the un played score. In realizing that you will now have time to study all the great works you have found the first blessing of your new life. It seems that time is the one thing that few of us have no matter what means we employ to save it. When the timesaving mania of modern life reaches its climax there probably will be no time left for anything, the timesaving devices will keep us so occupied. One marvels at how much was accomplished by men in the pre-speed, leisurely age of Thomas Jefferson, for instance, a man who apparently led an unhastened life and in so doing found time to master so many subjects ancient and modern languages, law, govern TO A LONELYBOY ment, architecture, agriculture, horticulture time for much original thinking and writing time to help launch and guide a new nation time to found a university time to carry on a vast correspondence time to manage his estate and entertain his friends, yet we picture him as a gentleman with a pair of garden shears enjoying a day in the sun. Apparently it is not speed but rhythm that counts. I am glad the story of the dream interested you Yes, there is another one. It happened when I was with the Cleveland Press and the story was given me to handle...