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  Dear Walt Whitman,

I feel as though I cannot begin the new year without wishing you all possible health and happiness. I hope you will appreciate these greetings of a stranger when he tells you that to him you are no stranger but an ever present comrade.

Besides telling you of the great good you have done me I want to assure you of the hearty love you are winning, among the students and teachers here. To me you have been—a guiding star—a light in the wilderness. I trace my highest and best thoughts     and feelings to your poems. I wish I could give you some idea of how I feel towards the author of "Leaves of Grass."

I hope you will not think this a bait for an autograph, I am above that – I merely want to thank you for the good you have done me.

Your humble admirer & wellwisher, O. F. Hershey.     see notes Jan 5 1889