The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-05-15

SATURDAY, MAY Is,
young man is not ct for life until he j.
clean-clean and healthy, body and soul,
with no tobacco in his mouth, no liquor in
his stomach, no oath on his tongue, no snuff
in his nose, and no thought in his heart
which if exposed would send him sneaking
into darknesss from the presence of all
good women. know q man who believes
that the regeneration of the world is to be
brought about by change of diet. If he
will add the policy of utter cleanliness to
his scheme, will agree not to quarrel with
him. TIMOTHY TITCoxB.
AN HOUR IN THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
We have been fortunate enough to pro-
cure the entree,to this place, through special
favor and influence, althoug gh, as q general
thing, no visitors are admitted. 1t was q
large, light room, with two or three desks,
at which were seated aged officials in silent
occupation among literal dritts of letters
The walls were lined on every side with huge
mail sacks, which had been returned full Of
unclaimed epistles, from myriads of post
Offices, there might have been fifty or hun
dred of these sacks, and each probably con.
tanned thousands on thousands of letters!
"How rapidly you dispose Of them, - said
|, watching the lightning speed with which
the clerks tore open the epistles, glanced
over them to see that no drafts, check, or
other important documents were inclosed,
and then threw them upon an immense heap
OF opened letters at their feat
sit is all in habit ma'am," said the gen.
tleman nearest me. <"We are accustomed
to open certain number daily, and to those
who do not understand the expedition and
accuracy with which we work, would seem
almost incredible.' ~
As he spoke, a tiny gold ring rolled from
the folds OF rose tinted letter, whose pages
were evidently written over by delicate
female hand.
ga child's ring, ;" he said, taking it up;
"would ycu like to look at it, ma'ami"
! took it in my hand-it was a fairy cir
clet of virgin gold, with the words, Mary
to Z. y" engraved within-and wondered
who the "Mary'' was, and whether the little
"E. V."who never received the tiny gilt,
was dead or;living.
Meanwhile, the clerk had been taking
rapid note of the signature, direction, etc.
"What will you do with it?'' inquired,
returning the ring to his care.
"We lay all such things aside in case they
should be called for"
"And are they often redeemed?"
"Not often-not once in a hundred in
stances,' he replied, taking a little gold dol
lar from beneath the seal of another letter,
and laying it carefully on the desk.
We stood in silence, regarding the pile Of
opened letters, which was growing higher
with letters every moment. 1t was a strange
medley of styles and hand writing. Some
were inscribed on huge sheets of foolscap,
in manner that conveyed the impress
sion to your mind that the writer must have
grasped his pen with both hands, and gone
at the paper as he would dig spade into
the earth, and folded with glorious disre-
gard to all geometrical precision; others,
again, were daintily written on colored tis-
sue paper, and some were in that easy, fow-
ing hand that bespeaks energy and refine
ment of character in the calligrapher.
"Oh how should like to read these let
ters" said involuntarily.
The official smiled. ssThat is what the
ladies say. 1t would be almost impossible
to preserve our charge from the curiosity of
the female sex if, fortunately our rules did
not protect US from many visitors.'
"But do you never read them?''
"Never unless they seem very important,
or contain Enclosures of value. It's all we
can do to keep up with the arrival of the
read one letter in hundred, we should be
lamentably behind hand; besides, the priva-
cy of these letters is point of honor with
US. We have no more right to read them
here, unless it is necessary, than to pry into
any personal Secrets"
Here one Of the Clerks leaned over and
handed our companion tiny package.
"From one of the letters" he said; sI
thought the lady might feel interested in it."
1t was single curl of golden hair, tied
with bit of pink ribbon, and wrapped in q
"Baby's hdir!''
knew the history of that letter in an in
slant. Though l had never looked on its
folds. could see the fair young mother
parting the sunny tress from the infant
head, and placing it, with half smile and
half a tear, within the closely written page
that was to glad the heart Of the far away
Perhaps he died under the mighty shadow
Of Sierra Nevada; perhaps the turf of some
Mississippi valley lay cold and close on
his pulseless heart, while she, the faithful
wife. was growing more sad, less hopeful
with every day that brought no answering
word.
"Baby's hairp' Icould not bear that the
bright curl should be thrown carelessly
among the host of letters; it seemed like
dissertation.
"May keep this little lock?'
''Certainly, if you iike.''
And l placed it carefully in my reticule
with tender hand. l know not where the
sorrowing young mothers heart is break
ing, day by day, but certain l am that there
is an invisible bond of sympathy between
her soul and mine, clasped by link of curl
ing silky gold-"B "Baby's hair!" .~-
1t would be in vain to attempt to chroni-
Gle the numerous Enclosures which dropped
from the various letters which were opened
during the short space of time we stood
there. Bits of rainbow-colored silk, sent
for patterns, tiny muslin collars, newspaper
bank bills, gold, coarsely writ
ten messages from little ones at home, whose
A.esuoS WI Soioou W AnoshoA VI Sio'0iS > oS
that the absent father, cousin, or brother
might have little letter, and innumerable
other affecting relics. s... -..
"Where do all these letters 90 when they
have been opened and examined9 Are they
burned2" .. .s.
ssNo; that was formerly the custom, how
ever. We used to make great bonfres of
them, but aside from that. bits of written
papers would always escape from the flames
thus destroying all privacy in the letters, it
was found that many people made it a bu.
siness to seek among the ashes for the gold
jewels, dollars, etc., which often escape our
notice here, and 60 out in the opened let
ters. So now they IRE all sent to a paper
mill and remanufactured as writing paper"
We passed another room, where we're ma.
ny mementoes Of the good old days before
the laws Of pre-paying postage went into
effect. There were two or three huge stones
which had been sent for"s joke, involving
an immense amount of postage to be paid by
some unfortunate, who luckily never receiv-
ed the ponderous packages-a gigantic rag