“I venture to trouble you with a question, which I trust your kindness will excuse, as I know of none so likely to solve it, nor to whom I would so confidently apply. The affair is this. The songs of mine which have appeared in the ‘Dispatch,’ have attracted the notice of musical composers, who give me a fair price for them, lately I have sold many to N. J. Sporle, but he has been told by some person that the words being already published may be appropriated by any one, and turned to profit, that they cease to be my property, and that I cannot sell them. Now this seems hardly probable, and I am certain not just. I take no remuneration from the ‘Dispatch’ proprietors, consequently the copyright is not theirs. No composer or publisher has yet thought proper to risk publication without applying to me, and those who have been long in the trade have told me the poetry is still my sole property, although printed in a weekly journal; but the declaration that I cannot secure them has so alarmed my friend Mr. Sporle, that if you would enable me to give him a decided answer, you would much oblige me. Your knowledge on literary matters induces me to address you, and I only hope you will not consider me too presuming if I beg the favour of a line at your leisure.
