The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1858-09-24

energy and refinement Of character in the
caligraphsr. aas ul. st.,aa d4
ooh, how I should like to read these
letters" said l. nvolunlarily. ,s s,,e
The official smiled. "TLis is what
all the ladies say. 1t would be almost
impossible to preserve our charge from
the curiosity Of the female sex, If, loltu-
nately. our rules did notprotect us from
many visitors"
"Do you ever read them?'
"Never, unless they seem very impor-
tant or contain Enclosures Of value. 1t
is all we can do to keep up with the arri-
walls Of the dead mails now. If We were
to stop to read one letter in hundred,
we should be lamentably behind hand /;
besides the privacy Of these letters is o
point Of honor with us. We have no
more right to read them here, when un-
necessary than to pry into any other
personal Secrets M# r.f4..
Here one of the clerks leaned over
and handed our companion tiny pack
age. ..,.,... ..s..
"From one Of the letters" he said, l
thought the lady might feel interested in
IT," ...... .. l.0......... ..r
1t was single curl Of golden hair tied
with bit Of pink ribbon. and wrapped in
little piece Of paper on which was writ
ten "baby's hair" a
! knew the history Of that letter in an
instant, though l had never looked on its
fields; l could see the fair young mother
parting the sunny tresses from the infant
head, and placing it with half smile and
half a tear, within the closely written page
that was to gladden. the heart Of the far
away husband. And he never received
the letter. Perhaps he died under the
mighty shadow Of Sierra Nevada; per.
haps the turf Of some Mississippi valley
lay close on bis pulseless heert, while she,
the faithful wife, was growing more sad,
less hopeful with every day that brought
no answering word. ves ..sa s5
"Baby's hair?' / could not bear tha t
the bright curl should be thrown careless
ly among the host Of letters it seemed
like desecration. v1 q 'cl9 li9H III
"May keep this little lock p ID
Certainly. if you like" @
And placed it carefully in my rsticule,
with tender hand. know not where the
sorrowing young mothers heart is break.
ing day by day, but certain ! am that there
is an invisible bond Of sympathy between
her soul and mine, clasped by lock ol
curling. silky gold-"baby's hair"
It would be in vain to attempt to chror-
icle the numerous enclosures which drop
ped 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 paragraphs, bank bills, gold,
cards, coarsely written messages from lit
tie ones at home, whose hands were guil-
ed by the mother or sister, SO that the alb
sent father, cousin, or brother, might have
little letter, and innumerable other af-
fecting relics.
."Where do all these letters go when
they have been opened and examined p
Are they burned ?"
"No; that was formerly the custom,
however. We used to make great hon
fires Of them. but aside from the fact that
bits Of written papers would always escape
from the flames, thus destroying all pri-
vacy in the letters, it 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 60
in the open letters. So now they are all
sent to paper mill and remanufactured
as writing paper. es
We passed into another room where
were many mementoes of the good old
days before the law Of pre-paying postage
went into effect. There were Of the huge
stones which had been sent for ga joke"
involving an immense amount of postage
to be paid by some unfortunate, who new
er received the ponderous package gi-
gan,ic rag baby, said to have been sent
= /. = Al