It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a friend of mine, Mr. Charles E. Porter, citizen of Hartford, who comes to Paris to continue his studies in painting. I not only commend him to your own good offices with confidence, but I make bold to venture further & commend him to those various friends of yours to whom Mr. Warner, Mr. Ward, Mr. St Gaudens, etc., made you known when you went to Paris; for I am satisfied that he is worthy of your & their kind attentions & will prove it by his conduct & his appreciation.

Without money or moneyed friends he has fought his way steadily to a good & substantial place in the esteem of the people here, by sheer force of talent & patient diligence in the study & practice of his art; & he carries with him introductory letters from citizens of ours who do not give such things lightly.

I commend him to you & your friends in an especial way, because you are the persons who can be most useful to a student & stranger, & can best advise him where to live, how to live, whom to place himself under—in a word, how to make his path straight & sure.

With love to you both from Mrs. Clemens & me, I am