Mr. I. J. Herrington,

Kensington Gardens,

London, England. Dear Sir:

Your letter in regard to the qualifications of John Dillingham for the clerkship in your office received; and it affords me extreme gratification
25 to testify thus ungrudgingly to his high character. I speak in all sincerity when I state that the facility with which he takes up a
50 new line of business, his absolute reliability, and the technical skill which is characteristic of his workmanship, fit him for something better than photographic work.75

Mr. Dillingham entered my employ some years ago, before he had reached his majority in fact, preferring work of an experimental character to the journalistic
100 career offered him by his parents. Although I doubted at first the advisability of putting a lad of his physical delicacy and sentimental tendencies
125 at work requiring a manipulation of heavy implements, I soon found that he intended this to be merely fundamental. He aspired to a clerical position
150 with our firm, and therefore devoted himself to the study of stenography and later telegraphy, with a tenacity of purpose usually found only in persons
175 of greater maturity. His ambition was shortly gratified; and his strict fidelity to the work in hand, his perfect regularity, and his unvarying affability, always
200 marked by an utter absence of frivolity, at once gained for him a widespread popularity.

Although possessed of an unusual inventive capacity he never became
225 pedantic, but was will-

ing to follow without comment the program laid down by our manager. Can I be too emphatic regarding this particular qualification, unhappily
250 so rare among the young men filling our clerical positions today?

In short, this is a young man whom I can unhesitatingly endorse as an
275 expert stenographer and telegrapher, skilled in rapid, accurate, systematic work. His tenacity of purpose, besides, is admirable; and I find that he has acquired a
300 fairly accurate knowledge of criminology, likely to prove useful in a concern such as yours is. I ought perhaps, to state here that his leaving
325 my employ was for personal reasons entirely to his credit, and may in no way be considered as detrimental to his good name.

Very sincerely yours, (350)