The Goodhue volunteer. [volume] (Red Wing, Goodhue County, Minn.) 1861-1864, 1862-05-07
..DLINn, WAITING.

ANs40u@.sssO PSS0v u5toOhtS0E VI AO-
name life --xt least. Of the life Of q
Posto6ios olerk tile vedatinns .atten.
|dant upon tho task Of decipheriinq
|sprawling and onrelessly> written su.
prescriptions are sntilled to a place in
the front rank. Although the illegi-
bility of the greater part of these
wretched scrawlssis attributeable to
defective educators, and therefore
rather to be considered ~ 4 misfortune
than . fault, yet some of them would
seem to be written with no other OBJ
jsct than TO bother and confuse those
whose official duty tits to endeayor to
forward them to- their destination.
Nor is it only upon those connected
with the postal service Tint the incon-
venience Of this practics always falls,
as the following anecdote will demon
strate. 5ss ''''<s's 1.sSt 80, w.
The late Ruf,s chosa,tel 8 w.s 4 8 probrb;;
~ the "blindest" writer Of all educated
men--the mysterious hieroglyphioa
which he dignifed by the name of his
Handwriting" beingsso decidedly su'
generis as to render them fairly worthy
of distinguished from the writing Of
ordinary morals BY the title of Choat.
ography. Several years ago, while
this eminent lawyer was conducting q
correspondence with a distant client
in a case Involving thousands: OF dol
lars, (the name of tho plaintiff being
Peter Packer, while, with a euriou;
a!literative coincidence that Of the
defendant was Phillip Parker,) letter
was written and mailed by him, in
tended for the plaintiff aforesaid, Civ.
ing an abstract Of the line of policy
which he intended to pursue in the
conduct of the case, the principa
points in which he relied on to assis,
in obtaining verdict, urging the i'm
portance of a clear recollection witt
regard to certain matters on the par
Of important witnesses, &c. in short
resume of the entire plan Of attack
This letter he directed in his usua
"blind" way to "P. Packer, ESQ.,
but when it arrived at the office O
delivery, the postmaster, after exercis
ing all his ingenuity to discover fo,
whom it was intended, finally arrived
at the conclusion that Up. Parker" thu
defendant, was the party addressed
and accordingly delivered tito tha
gentleman, who opening it in good
faith, soon, though with great difficult,
made himselfe so master of it's con
tents as to render him fully posted ~
to the proposed movements of th'
enemy, after which he resealed ant
again deposited it in the post office.
*'Fordwarned is forearmed" -ant
Mr.. Parker's organ Of conscientious
ness not being developed to the ex
tent Of preventing him from availin!
himself of the information thus clan
destinely (hough not criminally) OF
tained, the consequence was that whe,
the case came on for trial, Mr.. Choat
was surprised and puzzled to find tn
opposing counsel prepared to NEE
him at every point: each thrust whic
the great master Of legal fence deliver
r ed to his opponent was met by its az
proPriate parry-every move on tn
j illegal chess board encountered checl
and finally, when Mr.. C opened wit
his heavy artillery-the columbiad al
4 gument upon which he had depende
!, to decide the fortune of the, day-t
, his disgust he found his battery take
, in flank, his great gun effectually spike
and verdict recorded against him
. and not until some time afterwarc
was his wounded professional prid
, soothed by discovering that his defe:
was owing not to his antagonists 81
:, perior tactics, but to the unfortuna,
accident which gave the other side
r glimpse of his own well laid plans.-
u. S. Mail.