Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-02-19
AMYSrERY OF TEE POST.

oQL VI IlC OGdu AClJcI OOPAt ShhASh'
of the Post Office, related to a report
er recently one of the romantic ira
dition of his department.
81 have a story to tell yOu," said
he ''though," glancing at the busy
surroundings of his Office, ''this i
not exactly the place for story tell
ing. But l have had this one on my
mind forty years now, and per
haps 1 can get rid of it through You
There is enough romance and mys
terry in it to interest you, l am sure
and tho I have got only tie outside
of it now, the inside will perhaps
come some day. Forty years ago
was delivery clerk up at the park
before we moved down here, an6
either in 1884 or 1885, a tall, large
fine-looking, well-dressed lady com,
menced calling at my window to-
letters addressed to "Miss Mary Ill
Russell. Post Office" She used tC
come every Friday morning, and il
the letter she asked for was not
there and sometimes it was not, she
returned in the afternoon and was
then sure to find it.
'sShe did not ask any questions be
yond the mere inquiry for her letter
and never volunteered any informa
ton. So matters ran for many &
year, and at last the Post Office was
moved down here where we are now
l retaining my old position. Thirty
years or more passed, bringing
changes to Mary Russell as well as
to ali of us; they made her woman
of sixty, grey, infrm and bent with
age. Still all through those years
she never failed to come to my win
dow at her regular time, and never
was the letter waiting. About that
time, ten years ago, l saw her last.
and then I was promoted to the su'
perVison of this department, and sc
lost sight of her.. For a short time
afterward she kept coming, but
soon her visits ceased. She did not
become irregular, coming once in
two or three weeks or once a month
and then finally dropping off entire
ly but she was precise and punctual
up to the very last time that she was
seen here.
Her correspondent, who in 1885,
addressed the letters in a bold, firm
hand, grew old too, and the writing
which we saw was tremulous and
weak. Either he has outlived Mary
Russell or the associations of the
past cling more closely about him
than about her, for during the years
that she has failed to come, his letters
have never stopped. When the first
one was sent up here to me to be for
warded to the Dead Letter Office, it
caused thrill all through me, for my
interest in the case had never tagged.
So long had l known one of the par
ties, SO mysterious had been her regu-
lar appearance, so sudden the termi-
nation of the thirty years. drama,
that you cannot wender at my eager
ness to learn something of the un-
known correspondent.
The letter was opened but there
was in. it nothing more than a five
dollar note, and the words, 'Iwill
send more next Friday" There was
no name, no clue. The next Friday
another letter came just like the first,
and the next, another. They were
all "drop letters" mailed in the
Post Office, and our regulations did
not authorize US to advertise them;
but l did advertise Mary Russell's,
nevertheless, and did it three or
four times.
For years more there was no fur
ther change, the letters comming
to me with every week and
always the same. They still come,
but not so frequently. There was
one on Aug. Z, another on Oct. 6,
which read: l will send more on Dec.
6. ''Do not write" On Dec. 8 the
letter came as promised, but why he
should have asked her not to write
is the mystery. elias she written to
him of late ? If so, why does she not
call for his answer and his money !?
But if she has not written since the
last time she came here, what must
be bis nature that after ten years of
silence, he sees the need of warning
her not to address him."
SHALL THE DEAD REST.
Great cities need great graveyards,
but are 10th to give up the necessary
ground. They grow up to the out
Iying cemeteries, grow around them,
and finally engulph them. The plea
Of health insures the condemnation
Of the area. The decree is issued. A
few grandchildren remove what is
left of thier ancestors. The other
dead people are forgotten. Nobody
claims their ashes, and hired hands
scatter them to the winds. 1t is not
D pleasant process, but it is inevita-
BILE. Philadelphia has opened
streets and built houses on half-a-
dozen, Goods acres" and the few
burying-grounds still left in the heart
Of the city are doomed. FRANKL1N's
grave may save one of them, but
even this is doubtful. Brick and
norter cover many tomb-stones in
New York. The living hurry over
,he dead. One slice has already been
,ut from even Trinity churchyard.
Ere long the old church will be ell
bowed by the palaces of business.
New Haven, Conn, has made one of
he most beautiful of American
parks out of an old graveyard.
Chicago is following her example.
What is true of the New is truer
till of the Old World. Everywhere,
he living encroach on the homes of
lead.
Now the cry comes from England
hat it is waste of good ground to
lse it for burial purposes in city or
Some interesting statistics
re given. An acre can contain
200 graves. Half-a-million people
low die in England and Wales an
Iually, and the habit proves so con-
agious that more people do it every
ear. The annual consumption of
round in graveyards is, then, about
90 acres. "Every year, that is,
hose who die in England require,