He made another discovery altogether different, a real gem of its kind.

The drag-net of a newspaper catches all sorts of poets and poetry, good, bad, and indifferent--oftener the bad and indifferent, rarely the good.

The drag-net of the _Free Press_ was no exception to this rule; but, one day, it fetched up from the depths of the hard commonplaces of our New England town life a genuine pearl.

We will let Mr.Garrison tell the story in his own way: "Going up-stairs to my office, one day, I observed a letter lying near the door, to my address; which, on opening, I found to contain an original piece of poetry for my paper, the _Free Press_.

The ink was very pale, the handwriting very small; and, having at that time a horror of newspaper original poetry--which has rather increased than diminished with the lapse of time--my first impulse was to tear it in pieces, without reading it; the chances of rejection, after its perusal, being as ninety-nine to one; ...