Holograph manuscript leaf from "The Unprofitable Servant," first published in 1911

Single leaf, written in pencil, numbered at head 2 and 17. Approximately 90 words. 1 vols. An unfinished story by William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), famously known as O. Henry, first published in Everybody's Magazine for December 1911, and then in his posthumous collection Rolling Stones. Porter notoriously used inexpensive copy paper for his manuscript drafts and correspondence, and this one is no exception. This manuscript leaf comes from copy no. 47 [of 125] of The Four Million (1912), the Manuscript Edition of the Complete Works, from the library of New York financier and property developer Evander Schley. Reading: [Upon] Charley, one of the bartenders, both fame and fortune descended simultaneously. He had once been honored by shaking hands with the great Delano at a Seventh Avenue boxing bout. So with lungs of brass he now cried: "Hallo, Del, old man; what'll it be?" Mike, the proprietor, who was cranking the cash register, heard. On the next day he raised Charley's wages five a week. Del Delano drank a pony beer, paying for it carelessly out of his nightly earnings A choice O. Henry manuscript, giving a taste of his New York low life stories, a vein later mined by Damon Runyon to great success. Browned. Old fold, partial loss of page number at head (separated at top 3/8-inch). With the copy of The Four Million Single leaf, written in pencil, numbered at head 2 and 17. Approximately 90 words. 1 vols.…