Content:
This manuscript appears to be a draft of a piece of journalism, although it is not known if the piece was ever published. While Whitman wrote journalistic pieces throughout his life, the handwriting, ink, and paper are most consistent with manuscripts known to have been written before the first appearance of
Leaves of Grass
in 1855. Edward Grier details some of the reasons for beilieving the manuscript to date to between 1841 and 1862 in
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
(New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:88.
