Part of a burnt letter

…form rejection is of course warranted, and though my colleagues have pressed upon me the limited resources of our periodical (I cannot write personal rejections to every inquiry which comes across my desk), I feel that, in deference to your obvious, although amateur, dedication to the study of anthropology, I should offer you a chance to prove what some in this office dismiss as nothing more than a Barnum sideshow. If there really is some truth behind the persistent local legend of a Pale Man, the documentation of which I find most intriguing, then some physical evidence must be presented.