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THE COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE 1789 BROADWAY NEW YORK CITY August 7 1905 Dear Mr. Muir: I am here on the tripod in the
Cosmopolitan office, and have been thinking a heap about you, particularly since I read your beautiful essay in the Outlook
and Mr. Johnson's biography of you. Could you not write a short article for us descriptive of some of the most perilous moments
of your life while exploring mountains or glaciers when confronted by bears or rattlesnakes? I should like this for a series
of articles of personal reminiscences of noted writers in this country. The article should be of about four thousand words
in length, for which I could pay you one hundred and fifty dollars. Remembering your literary methods, I should like to remind
you that in this case it will not be necessary to put so much of long-considered and carefully-worded writing into your text.
It is not so much an essay that I want as a merely descriptive article full of human interest. I do not care if the incidents
have been published previously, as a collection of them now for the first time would in itself constitute an original paper.
Or, if you would not care to prepare an article on that subject, wouldn't you like to tackle a paper descriptive of your visits
to New York and of the impressions which you gained there, everlastingly swatting the town, as I know you are capable of doing,
and tell of the folly of people huddling together in such an absurd fashion as is found here. I do not mind telling you that
this article would quite suit my present mood, and would be 03602