t, I I and that you chose a model
of some really exquisitely fine, clear type from some Roman monument,
and that they were made either of metal or some composition gilt--the
point is, could not you, in your land of wooden houses, get a
manufacturer to take the idea and manufacture them at a venture, so that
I could get two or three hundred pieces or so at a moderate figure? You
see, suppose you entertain an honoured guest, when he goes he leaves his
name in gilt letters on your walls; an infinity of fun and decoration
can be got out of hospitable and festive mottoes; and the doors of every
room can be beautified by the legend of their names. I really think
there is something in the idea, and you might be able to push it with
the brutal and licentious manufacturer, using my name if necessary,
though I should think the name of the god-like sculptor would be more
germane. In case you should get it started, I should tell you that we
should require commas in order to write the Samoan language, which is
full of words written thus: la'u, ti'e ti'e. As the Samoan language uses
but a very small proportion of the consonants, we should require a
double or treble stock of all vowels, and of F, G, L, U, N, P, S, T, and
V.

The other day in Sydney, I think you might be interested to hear, I was
sculpt a second time by a man called ----, as well as I can remember and
read. I mustn't criticise a present, and he had very little time to do
it in. It is thought by my family to be an excellent likeness of Mark
Twain. This poor fellow, by the by, met with the devil of an accident. A
model of a statue which he had just finished with a desperate effort was
smashed to smithereens on its way to exhibition.

Please be sure and let me know if anything is likely to come of this
letter business, and the exact cost of each letter, so that I may count
the cost before ordering.--Yours sincerely,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

Relating the toilsome completion of _The Ebb Tide_, and beginning
of the account of his grandfather, Robert Stevenson, in _History of a
Family of Engineers_.

_[Vailima] 29th May [1893]._

MY DEAR COLVIN,--Still grinding at Chap. XI. I began many days ago on p.
93, and am still on p. 93, which is exhilarating, but the thing takes
shape all the same and should make a pretty lively chapter for an end of
it. For XIII. is only a footnote _ad explicandum_.

_June the 1st._--Back on p. 93.