Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-02-25
Heres Your Mail. :"
BY CAPT. HOWARD G. WRIGHT, OF LA.

Here's Your Mail"
BY CAPT. HOWARD G. WRIGHT, OF LA.
eHere's your mail p ''Here's your mail ~
was the joyful cry, and we all jumped up and
awaited the entrance of our Mail Carrier, with
more or less of eagerness and anxiety. No one
but a prisoner can tell how our hearts beat as
that little package of well-thumbed misslves
was called over.
looked around upon the group. All sorts
of faces and forms there. Proud eyes and week
ones, stern faces and genial, handsome and
plain intelligent and dull; but upon every one
was the impress of longing expectancy; a
yearning desire for one of those pen-and.ink
links to the outer world: one of those little
fancy bridges that span the great gulf separa-
ting us from our homes and our loved ones.
That ruddy, smiling, round faced man is the
practical Joker of our room, who makes every
one the victim of his jokes and his SELLS, and
then laughs with such hearty zest that it
brushes the last cob-web of annoyance from the
dusty corners of his victim heart.
That earnest looking young man, with whom
life is too serious for joke, is his principal
victim. Here is the despondant, who discred
its all good news on principle, and believes that
every conceivable disaster is to happen until it
is proven not to have occurred; who hears OF
victory but to predict defeat; and who is told
of defeat but to declare it worse than repre-
scented. But there again is his antidote-see
that jolly looking face which is ever ready to
explain away bad news, or reverse, and as
quick to confirm and substantiate the pleasant
reports If you look around again through the
group, you will see that in the inner row are
faces made bold and confident by the frequent
receipt of letters Behind them are expressions
of mingled doubt and anxiousness, and the far
ther from the postman the less Of hope you
see imprinted upon the still wistful counten-
ances. Upon the very outside of the group is
little elderly man of whom / know almost
nothing. l believe he was found here, a pris.
oner, when the most of us arrived. He never
has anything to say; he never has any friend
ships to seek; he never complains OF hunger
nor cold, although his rations are as short as
any, and the blanket that he is drawing around
him, does not conceal the thin, torn garments
which make up his only suit. He always sits
in the corner, as much out of the way as posi-
BILE; but there is nothing misanthropic in his
manner. He listens attentivey to the prosiest
talker, who has lost every other listener, and
he smiles in his quaint way, at every joke, lame
or threadbare, though it be.
Every day, when the mail comes in, he gets
up with the crowd to hear the names called,
and to see the lucky ones seize their prizes and
go off with beaming faces to enjoy the perusal,
but no letter had ever come for him. Why
was it that Hope still deceived him? The
| twitching of the mouth; the quickened glance
of the eye; the faint halfforced smile; did
they not speak Of thoughts far away among
pleasant scenes, with those who looked up to
him with reverence beside blazing hearth of
some one, perhaps, who had rested weary
head with loving confidence upon his silent
heart?
And now the letters are called over "Hur-
roh p cries one. 'Atlastr' exclaims another.
"Plenty of letters hereP' Joy to dozen
hearts But stop! What name was that? ?
post-man reads it over again as if to make sure
that he was not mistaken. MOI all spelt right
Ha Hah the little elderly man has gotten
a letter! What an event to be sure? 1t is
something decidedly funny. 1t ought to slim
ulate the wits Of every joker in the room. -
"Brdro! old man p cries the practical joker,
slapping him on the back with his heavy hand ;
perhaps, its a special Exchange, or, billet
dou1 from Mrs. Lincolnr' How eagerly he
steps forward to take it; but the hand trembles
strangely, and although he tries to smile I'M
concernedly, and to say something, his smile
looks sickly, and the words seem to stick in his
throat.
1t is a very commonplace, dirty, little letter.
The writing is bad scrawl, and the words are
neither elegantly selected, nor spelled according
to Webster or Worcester. There is but little
in it, and that tells in formal terms-very much
as if business style had been attempted by a
sorry sort OF business person-that the little,
elderly mans wife had died after a very long
illness, and in deep poverty, and that their only
child had been killed in one of the recent bat
ties
well, Old Chapl' cries the practical joker
lis it billet dour from -
Why does he stop so suddenly? Why does
he look so awe-stricken? Why does the noisy
room suddenly become as hushed as if it's occu-
ly man started towards the door, and the letter
was tightly clutched within his hand. He stag.
gered bit, at first, as if he had been struck
heavy blow, that had made him dizzy, but soon
he seemed to recover himself and walked stead
lily out, closing the door carefully behind him.
Everybody returns to their seats, but no one
seems disposed to converse. Dreamy looks
and sad ones sit enthroned upon many rough
| visage. Perhaps, there are other wives per-
haps, there are mothers, sisters or little ones,
and Death is such quaint old rummager-he
| looks In at so many doors, and into SO many
| unthought of corners!
| Evening comes, and the natural buoyancy Of
manly hearts had thrown off unpleasant dav
| dreams, sorrowful and cankering thoughts.
The jest and the gibe were banded about, and
| the laugh sounded as merrily as ever. The lit
| tie elderly man sat in his old t-of. the way
| corner but there was no smile upon his face
The hanging lamp was burning brightly, bu
| the corner of a bunk cast deep shadow upor
| him.
There was another shadow resting upon hi
heart-deeper Oh, much deeperl He may
move from out the shadow of that bunk, bu
| from out that deeper shadow of grief, he will
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
JoHNsoN'S ISLAND Dec. 1864.
1mpeaching Judge.
We believe that the present Legislature con
| templates the impeachment Of Judge Hlndman
We do not propose discussion of the case.-