Describes a letter-writing hoax he and William Barth played on Frederick Gleason as revenge for Gleason not paying for Gunn's drawing. Transcription: Returned, called at [John B.] Holmes ?, saw Wilkins there, then at sunset crossed Buttermilk Channel & to the [Governors] Island again. Alf Waud ?s letter containing an account of a terrific sell which [Frederick] Gleason hath experienced. How a certain Sonnet to the Maelstrom having been forwarded to him, he, Bellow the Editor & printers did not discover till that thirty five thousand copies had been given forth to the world, that they had publ
Describes a letter-writing hoax he and William Barth played on Frederick Gleason as revenge for Gleason not paying for Gunn's drawing. Transcription: Returned, called at [John B.] Holmes ?, saw Wilkins there, then at sunset crossed Buttermilk Channel & to the [Governors] Island again. Alf Waud ?s letter containing an account of a terrific sell which [Frederick] Gleason hath experienced. How a certain Sonnet to the Maelstrom having been forwarded to him, he, Bellow the Editor & printers did not discover till that thirty five thousand copies had been given forth to the world, that they had published an extremely witty, clever, but horribly indecent acrostic, the whole being one outrageous double entendre. And this appeared in ?ǣthe flag of Our Union, ? a paper boasting morality & purity of the highest order. The wretched Gleason is frantic about it, & hath proclaimed (like an ass!) that he ?ll repurchase all copies of the paper having the obnoxious sonnet, at the rate of 50 cents each. / Talk of this, and after the whist game left me and [William] Barth alone, another plot broached, and forthwith commenced. Barth writing a letter to Gleason, as a Subscriber, one Crawford who hath left the Island; ? heavily and morally indignant at the publication of the sonnet, touching him on adapting his paper to the ?ǣreeking atmosphere of a brothel, ? for the sake of a ?ǣfew more filthy dollars. ? speaking of the arm of justice arresting his ?ǣhellish career, ? and finally bidding him, peremptorily discontinue the sending his ?ǣobscene sheet. ? This with an accompaniment of such zealous nob-shaking merriment that it was painful outright we continued till an hour after midnight. 28. Sunday. Continuation of the Gleason hoax, it waxing immense & comprehensive in progress. A letter from an imaginary John Voorhees, dweller in a Church Street brothel, complimenting Gleason on his ?ǣroaring ? Sonnet, intimating that ?ǣas he was going in strong into the smutty line, he sent him s
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