New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-07-12
a. Honr Il the Dead Letter once.


to this place through special favor and influence, al
though as general thing, no visitors are admitted
1t was large, light ROOM with TWO or three desks,
at which seated aged officers IN silent occnpa-
ton among literal drifts Of letters. The walls were
lined on every side With huge mail sacks which had
been returned full Of unclaimed epistes from myrads
OF postoaices; there might have been fifty or hum
| bred of these sacks, and each probably contained
thousands on thousands OF letters
How rapidly you dispose Of them n said I, watch
ing the speed with which the clerks tore open the
epistles, glancing over them to see that drafts
checks, or other important documents were enclosed,
and then threw them upon an immense heap Of open
ed letters at their feet
Il is all habit, ma am, y said the gentleman near.
est me- WeaTe accustomed to open certain NUM-
Der daily and to those who do not understand the
| expedition and accuracy with which we work, it
would seem, indeed almost Incredible"
As he spoke, tiny gold ring rolled from the folds
Of rosetnted letter, whose pages were evidently
written over by a delicate female hand
F" A chid's ring he said. taking it up; would
yOu like to lock at it, ma'am2o
took it in my hand-it was a fairy Grelet of vir.
gin gold, with the words Mary to b. v" engraved
within and wondered who the Mary was, and
whether the little "E. w." who never received the
tiny gift, 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.
lay all such things aside, in case they should
be called for
| And are they often redeemed ~
mot often-not once in hundred instances he
replied, taking little gold dollar from beneath the
seal OF another letter, and laying it carefully under
! the desk.
We stood in silence, regarding the pile Of opened
letters, which was growing higher with every mo.
ment 1t was strange medly of styles and hand
writing Some weTe inscribed on huge sheets of fool
scap in manner that conveyed the impression to
your mind that the writer must have gTsped the pen
with both hands, and gone at the paper as he would
F die iufO
regard of all ge0metriCal precison others again were
daintiy written on coloTed tissue paper, and some
were in that easy, flowing band that hespeaks energy
and refinement of character 10 the calligrspher.
i "0h, how should like to read these letters, said
| l. invoOntarily.
The official smiled "This is what all the ladies
say It would be almost impossible to preserve our
charge from the curiosity OF the female SEX it, for
tunatelyt our rules did not protect us from many
visitors.n
6 Do you ever read them n
Never, unless they seem very important or con.
tain Enclosures of amount 1t is all we can do to keen
! up with the arrival of the dead mails now. If we
were to stop to read letter hundred should
be lamentably behind hand besides the privacy Of
these letters il point of honor with us. We nave
no more right to read them here, when unnecessary
than to pry into any other personal seGrets.H
Here one of the clerks leaned over and handed our
companion tiny package.
From one Of the letters he said; Il thought the
lady might feel interested init
It was a single curl of golden hair tied with bit
OF pink ribbon, and wrapped in little piece of
paper which was written, Baby's hair
knew the history of that letter in an instant
though had never looked on its folds. | could see
the fair young mother parting the sunny trsses from
the infant head, and placing it with half smile aud
halt tear within the closely written page that was
TO gladden. the heart OF the far away husband Aud
he never received the letter Perhaps be died under
the mighty shadow of Sierra Nevada perhaps the
turf Of some Mississippi valley lay close on his pulse
less heart while she, the faithful wife, was growing
more sad less hopeful with every day that brought
no answering word
Baby's hair n | could not bear that the bright
curl should be thrown earlessly among the host of
letters it seemed like Dissertation.
May keep this little lock n
Certainly, if yon like
And placed it carefully in my reticgle with tender
hand | know not where the sorrowing young
mothers heart is breaking, day by day, but certain
am that there is an Invisible bond of sympathy be-
tween her soul and mine, casped by lock of curl
ing, silky gold-"babys hair"
II would be in vain to attempt to chronicle the
numerous enclosures which dropped from the various
letters which were opened during the short space of
tune we stood there. Bits Of rainbow silk sent for
patterns, tiny muslin collars newspaper para
graphs, bank bills, gold cards, eoarselywritten mes
sages nom little CUES at home, whose hands were
guided by the mother or sister so that the absent
father, cousin or brother might have little letter
and innumeTable other affecting relics.
Where do all these letters 70 when they have
been opened and examined? Are they burned?"
NO; that was formerly the custom, however. We
used to make great hOniires of them but aside from
the fact that bits of written papers would ALWAYS
escape from the flames, TINS destroying all privacy in
she letters, IL was found that many people made it
business to seek among the ashes for the gold Jewels
dollars ETC., which often escape our notice here and
go ont ia the opened letters So now they are all
sent TO paper mill and remannfaetured as writing
paper.H
We passed into another room where were many
mementoes OF the good old days before the law Of /
DFe-DaVlnE hostage
Two or three huge stones which had been sent for
Joke" involving an immense amount of postage, to
pc paid BY some unfortunate, who luckily never re-
ceved the p0ndeTous package gigantic rag baby
said to have been sent to some yinegar.faced Old /
MAZDA neatly manufactured night-caD, which some
old bachelOr-name not recofded-refused
In high dndgeon, to receive, and which consequently
ioand its way here, and dagueffeotype of a y0nuf
man, which had been cracked across the nose ana
wrathtully sent back by some fair dlrnse with whom
he had quarreled.
We asked the Postmaster General to whom we
were introduced, how it happened that all the EN-
poyees iii the dead letter Office happened to be gray.
haired old mea.
" Because they have more discretion and less curl.
osty he said smiling. Younger men could not
Pc depended upon they would probably read the
letters ottenern
And why do you not employ ladies'? lam cutie
sure they could discharge the duties admirably? n
:" Indeed, said the Postmaster.General mischiev.
ously, am afraid their curiosity would be so ex.
treme that the department would fa into neStrica.
BILE eontusi0n to say nothing of the number of secrets
they wonld ferret out Of the dead lettersn
We were SO Indignant at this horrible ana beretical
opinion, that we asked further questions but took
our leave, much gratided with our novel aud interest
ing experience in the deadIetter Office at Washington
----p -
ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS AND rAg IRTsHMAS-A
the tfeeLoVe Convention in Rutland Andrew Jackson
DAVIS according to the Troy Times, remarked, that
Tue results 81 sptituaiam to make man hammer
and wiser and better and of its greatest effects 10
have done away with the Mrs Grundy, who used to
getin the pulpit with her night.eap on to Tighten
SILLY people ont OF their Senses Sprtualism teaches
that there Is no devil and as the Individual with the
eleven foot ls removed from society," men viii lose
their superstition and become sensible, rational
beings.
There was an anecdote Of an Trishman SUFFERING
from disease which his physician pronounced incur
able who received extreme junction Mt the hands of
the priest, Whether it was that the unGtinn Cnra3
him. or because he was afraid to try the experiment
Of dying, he got we'll The priest coming and seeing
him cured, said Well, Patrick am clad Won
have recovered, but were yen not afraid to meet vor
Cod " o, no. your reverence" replied Patrick |
-" it was the other chap
Immense laughter followed which was broken nv an |
adgty voice, IN rich Irish hrogue, exeaiming
Give us the name ig that Irishman will yez ~
Davis! He had no name"
Ifishman-" Then what are ye1 BLOWN, about?n
Davis" On, my friend, it was merely an auec-
Irishman-'' A nanny goat was it ~ Wen. want
the names and dates, or | tell ye that yer d dirty
I