Feeling it!

This is its own cool story. Not related to what I’m doing but damn: ghosts! Thanks for your help today!

I’ve been there with earlier work. It is a pretty cool place. I walked in and saw a painting related to my first book and was like oh I know her and they thought it was pretty funny.

I also don't see any sign that their letters were published, so I wonder if this diarist (who was also from Middletown and roughly their age) was reading a scribal "journal"? Whatever is blacked out seems to be prompted by his encounter with their story--like he has some shit on them or on himself.

Now can you use your x-ray vision to get beneath the blacked out lines? 🤔

Thanks, Shirley! I was close but was trying James instead of Joseph. This is super helpful.

Thank you!

Would love to make out the names of whose journal/letters he's been reading! He refers to them letters "sent home" from "poor young men" and "in eternity cut off amidst the greatest hopes and most promising expectations." Date of this entry is Nov. 1788. 🗃️

That was my first thought too.

Let's not forget the time he regaled Boy Scouts with Tales from the Creepy Yacht before leading them in a "Lock Her Up" chant.