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by judgements & littigation & it leaves me
Destitute for ready means to embark in
anything & the thought occured to me that
perhaps you & I could make an arrangement
that would be Beneficial to Both by my
Selling for you & in your name on comission
as we have but one nursery here & that
the whole community I might Say have
become Disgusted with & there is a great
demand or will be in Spring for Such
Stock & I am growing as fast as I can but it
takes time & capital to get a Stock & it
is for this reason[?] that I have been thus
particular to Burden you with my history
& to state thus plainly that legally I could
not be called good or Responsible or that
money could not be collected from me by law
but not withstanding that I think you will find
that I have in all matters acted Horonable
& Still intend to I can refer you to Hiram
Jefferson Eqr of Maine Cook Co Ill of Dr A. D.
Merritt of Woodstock Ill both of whom are well
acquainted with me & have been for a number of
years Mr. Jefferson was here this fall & knows how
I Stand in this community & if you think Such an
arrangement could be made I would like for you
to see[illegible] & write me what you think & your terms
I want the Catalogue at any rate as I Shall want to purchase some
for myself either of you or some order in
Spring yours truly [illegible] Truman M Smith
[written up left margin:] PS in [illegible] for myself which would not be Larger[?] say from $ 25 to $ 100, what time could
you give me if any from the time of sending the articles in the Spring yours TMS