o carry a message to New York that
he could not only do it but would express no surprise at the
commission. This conversation resulted in the bet described in the
following letters. The boy slipped quietly away from London, but a few
days later the bet became public and the newspapers were filled with
speculation as to whether Jaggers could beat the mails. The messenger
carried three letters, one to my sister, one to Miss Cecil Clark of
Chicago, whom Richard married a few months later, and one to myself.
As a matter of fact, Jaggers delivered his notes several hours before
letters travelling by the same boat reached the same destinations. The
newspapers not only printed long accounts of Jaggers's triumphal
progress from New York to Chicago and back again, but used the success
of his undertaking as a text for many editorials against the dilatory
methods of our foreign-mail service. Jaggers left London on March 11,
1899, and was back again on the 29th, having travelled nearly
eighty-four hundred miles in eighteen days. On his return he was
received literally by a crowd of thousands, and his feat was given
official recognition by a gold medal pinned on his youthful chest by
the Duchess of Rutland. Also, later on, at a garden fete he was
presented to the Queen, and incidentally, still later, returned to the
United States as "buttons" to my brother's household.

Bachelors' Club,
Piccadilly, W.

March 15th, 1899.

DEAR CHAS.

I hope you are not annoyed about Jaggers. When he started no one knew
of it but three people and I had no idea anyone else would, but the
company sent it to The Mail without my name but describing me as "an
American gentleman"-- Instantly the foreign correspondents went to them
to find out who I was and to whom I was sending the letter-- I told the
company it was none of their damned business--that I employed the boy
by the week and that I could send him where-ever I chose. Then the
boy's father got proud and wrote to The Mail about his age and so they
got the boy's name. Mine, however, is still out of it, but in America
they are sure to know as the people on the steamer are crazy about him
and Kinsey the Purser knows he is sent by me. After he gets back from
Chicago and Philadelphia, you can do with him as you like until the
steamer sails. If the thing is taken up as it is here and the fat is
in the fire, then you can do as you please-- I mean you can tell the
papers about it or no