Viewing page 47 of 58

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM
HIGHLAND PARK
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

them dramatic and educational rather than examples of portraiture. Many of your readers will want to know just how you looked crawling in a cave, and the exact nature of your finds would make fine pictures. A few showing you in perdicaments would be most interesting.

Please study your use of the words "hardly" and "quite". Look them up, and memorize their meanings. Then use them all you can in your daily conversation, and see to it that you use them correctly. Watch your step when composing sentences, and see that each one is a complete thought.

This will sound useless to you I am sure, but I most emphatically advise you to read each and every word that you write aloud, preferably to Mother and to Father, and all of the time that you are reading try to feel the shape and the sound of the words, so that you will know the effect on the readers' ears.

Now old boy forgive me if my preachments have bored [strikethrough] me [/strikethrough], but it is your own fault that this torrent of words has been deluged upon you. Had you not expected it you could have kept the manuscript at home.

Now that I have read this book from your"pen" I am somewhat uncertain about your future as a scientist. I almost feel the caloused places on your fingers from the grip of a pencil. Why not try your hand at short stories! They teach construction better than any other form of writing. The second form in this importance is the essay--especially those about abstract subjects. Read Emerson and the Essay of Elia.

Your type of humor can be improved by a careful study of Mark Twain. Read, read, read all and everything that comes your way. Concentrating on the better things will speed your progress, remember that.

And now, dearie, I must be on my way to Clifford Street School where I will rave and rant about Plains Indians.

Best regards to all three of you, and sincerest congratulations on this your first book. It is my wish that it will do for you just exactly what it should--spur you on to higher levels and to broader horizons.

Sincerely,
Fred K. Hinchman

1921 Victoria Ave.

No time to correct- so take it as is.
I put in the word "dearie" to keep this a personal letter.