The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1873-09-10

lHe family letter is written on Sun
he reason that day;is selectal
alone because Of the leisure
E5iaaSnt4, The quiet ofrthet day, its III
lief from all influences that irritate o
agitate, frees the mind from irrelevan
and antagonistic matter, and makes i
pre-eminently fit occasion for com
mu1ing with distant loved ones. Il
nine cases ont Of ten the letter is writer
| by the head Of thofamily, and of those
sent an equal proportion are addressed
to his wife's folks. We don't know why
it is that man so rarely writes to his
own folks, but as it is not the province
of this article to treat on that subject,
we will pretend we don't care.
The hour being selected for inditing
the letter, the first thing is to find the
paper. There is always a drawer in
every welI-regrtlated family for keeping
such things. Itis either in the table or
stand. Here the writing, paper and odd
screws, and fddle-strings, and broken
locks, and fish-lines, and grocery re-
ceipts, are kept. There may be other
things, but If there are he will see
them. The sheet of paper is finally
found the fly stains neatly scraped off,
and the search commences for the ink
and pen. The former is invariably
found on the mantel next the clock, and
is immediately. laid on the table con-
yenient to the rs1rurr;,'i',c, c, -y,,,-, rrho CO.
casticalfy inquiries if the letter is to be
written to-day or next Sunday. This
inspires the wife with new zeal in the
search. She goes over the drawer again
because she knows he wouldn't see any
thing if it, was right under his nose, but
the pen is not there. Then she looks
over the top Of the bureau, and lifts
everything on the front-room table, and
says it seems so singular it can't be
found, when she saw it only the day be-
fore, and thought about the letter. Then
she goes into the pantry, and, after ex-
ploring the lower shelf in vain, stands
upon a chair, and carefully goes over
the top shelf where the medicine bot
ties and unused cans are stationed.
After she has done this, she starts up
stairs, and pretty soon returns with the
pen, and takes it to the sink to wash the
grease from it, but does not succeed in
quite effacing the delicate scent of ber-
gamot. This leads him to observe that
anybody, who takes a pen-holder to lift
hair-grease from a bottle, is too pure
and innocent for this world.
Everything nov in readiness, good
humor is, restored, the wife takes a sent
opposite, with her elbows on the table
and her chin in her hands, and assumes
an expression of countenance that is
calculated to both en-
courage and depress the writer and he
grasps the pen tightly. between his fin
gers, and stares at the paper with an
intensity that is entirely unnecessary.
The date line starts off glibly, and then |
ceases as it reaches the date
itself. He puts the helder in his mouth,
and Immediately spits. it out again,
making up face that is no wise sug-
gestive of bergamot, and pettishly asks
her if she knows the day of the month.
OF course she does. It is the 13th-or
is it the-but not must be. She hesi
tates, stares at him, wavers, and is lost.
She don't know whether it is the 18th |
or 18th, but the almanac will tell, and
she at once starts to hunt it up. This
a delay of some Is minutes,
during which he makes 50 passes at one
fly.
The date having been satisfactorily
settled upon, and the things which
rolled over the floor, as the stand drawer
Unexpectedly fell out, having been re-
stored to their place, the date line is
and "Dear Mother" started.
The pen is a home pen, of bashful
mould, and whenever it starts line it
requires half dozen passes to make it
give down. All home pens do this.
And all home sheets of paper have weak
spots which the ink refuses to cross,
thus creating some remarkable divisions
DC words, and considerable confusion
among sentences. Some of these spots
are two inches in diameter, and any
body in the next room can tell the mo-
ment the writer comes to them, just as
well as If he was looking over his
shoulder. When the letter is completed,
which generally occurs at the end of the
fifth hour from the commencement, it is
read over and supplied with
absent words, and then gone over again
and artistically touched up with the
pen at the bare places. Then it is.
folded up ready for the envelope, and
The discovery is made that there is no
envelope in the house, and the letter is
5ueked in behind the clock until the
want is supplied.-Damb'sry NeD8.
SCIENCE is the element in which great
things fashion themselves together
5hat.at length they may emerge, full
rrned and majestic, into the daylight
ffe, which they are thenceforth to
-uIe. Not William the silent only, but
III the considerable men I have known,
md the most undiplomatic and unstra-
yetic Of these forebore to babble Of