St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-08-26

W dS "llltCil DdOy HUiT.
| knew the history of that letter il
an instant. Though had never look
ed on its folds, | could see the fai,
young mother parting the sum,
tresses from the infant head, ant
placing it, with a half smile and @
half tear, within the closely writer
page that was to gladden. the heart o.
the far away husband And he neve,
received the letter Perhaps he died
under the mighty shadow of the Sierra
Nevada F.; perhaps the turf of some
Mississippi valley lay cold and clos,
on his pulseless heart, while she, the
faithful wife, was growing more sad
and less hopeful with every day that
brought no answering word.
"Baby's hair ~ I could not bear
that the bright curl should be thrown
carelessly among the host of lost let.
ters. 1t seemed like desecratiou.
May | keep this little lock |"
Certainly, if you like" And l
placed it carefully in my reticule with
tender hand. | knew not where the
sorrowing young mothers heart was
breaking, day by day, but certain
am there is an invisible bond of SYM
pathy between her soul and mine,
clasped by link of curling silky
gold "Baby's hair"
1t would be vain to attempt to
chronicle 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 para
graphs, bank bills, gold, cards, coarse
ly written messages from little ones
at home, whose hands were guided by
mother or sister so that the absent
father, cousin or brother, might have
a little letter, and innumerable other
affecting relics.
. Where do all these letters go
when they have been opened and ex-
amincd - Arc they burned 2"
"No that was formerly the custom,
however. We used to make great
bontres Of them, but aside from that,
bits Of papers would always escape
from the flames, thus DESTROYING all
privacy in the letters it was found
that many people made it business
seek among the ashes for gold, jewels,
dollars, &c, which often escape our
notice here, and go out in the opened
letters. so now they are all sent to a
paper mill and manufactured as writ
ting paper.
We passed another room, where
were many mcmcntos of the good old
days before the laws of the pre- paying
postage went into effect There were
two OF three huge stones which had
h"nn aent for " = joke" involving an
immense amount of postage to be
paid by some unfortunate, who luckily
never received the ponderous packa-
gcs-a gigantic red baby said to have
been sent 10y a young man to some
vinegar faced old MAZDA neatly
manufactured night-cap, which some
indignant old bacbclor-namc not re-
corded-rcfused in high dudgeon, to
receive, and which, consequently,
found its way here, and daguerreo-
type OF u young man, which had been
cracked across the nose, and wrath
fully sent back by some fair damsel
with whom he had quarrelld
We asked the Postmaster General,
to whom we were introduced, how it
happened that all the employees of the
Dead Letter Office were gray-haired
old men.
Because they have more discre-
ton, and less curiosity he said
smiling, Younger men could not be
depended upon they would probably
read the letters oftener."
And why don't you employ ladies'?
| am sure they could discharge the
duties admirably"
Indeed" said the Postmaster
General, mischievously II am afraid
their curiosity would be so extreme
that the departments would fall into
inexplicable confusion, to say nothing
Of the number of secrets they would
ferret out of the dead letters"
We We're SO indignan: at this hor-
riblc and herctical opinion that we
asked no further questions, but took
our leave, much gratitied with our
novel and interesting experience in
the Dead Letter Office at Washington.