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Hennepinn Ill 17^th Dec 1857

Dear young Friend

I am sorry that infirminty
had to be my excuse for the unseemly long
delay I have been guilty of in my attempt
to communicate to you any little information
in my possession that would be available
to you in making out a paper for the
United States Patent office reports

I shall not fill my paper with apologies
about my ignorance or my present want of
health but simply say that I indulged a
pleasant hope that you might be spared
to a good old age and that in the improvement
of your selfe in your favourite pursuit
you might become a second Uncle Peter
Purley Now thought I if any thing
I can communicate will answer as a
fact to keep by in the memory or as a
suggestion directing your future enquiries
I shall have contributed something for the
entertainment and instruction of
those who will come on the stage hereafter