Washington Nov 26

To the Editor of the American Hebrew,

Sir:
I consider it an honor to be allowed to write my name among those of the friends of Miss Emma Lazarus. Her early death is not only a deep affliction to those of her own race and kindred; it is an irreparable loss to American literature. Nowhere among our writers was there a talent more genuine and substantial, a devotion to art for its own sake and for the sake of high principles, 

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more earnest and simpleminded. From the very beginning of her literary life, her poetic faculty showed a constant and regular growth in strength and depth; her last writings were the richest and most attractive fruits of her genius. Her friends will never cease to mourn the loss of a personality singularly winning and sincere, which at once compelled respect and affection; and her place 

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is already secure among our best writers -- those who to extraordinary gifts have added an ardent and self sacrificing devotion to justice, to purity, and to humanity.

I am yours sincerely

John Hay