The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-11-16


very gaunt and shriveled.
The war came on, the mails were ladeI
down with messages of sorrow and be-
reavement; the clerks were hurried off as
soldiers, and the widows and sisters OF
those whose places they went to fill came
along into the postoffice to do the public
service; but the wan old woman came
just the same as ever, and the yellow
wrapped letter was always waiting hel
there.
The war was over; the clerks who went
out to fight came back limping and arm.
less, to inquire after their mysterious
friend. She was still coming, but soon
after, in March, 1865, she was seen for the
last time. The letter came as usual, one
of the first days of April, but no one
called for it. The clerk, who was lady,
then put it aside as if it was too good for
its company, and kept it near the window,
so that it would be ready when Maria
Russell came. Another month went by,
and another letter came, which was put
away with its mate. Two more months
and two more letters, and four Of them
were lying there in a pile, waiting for the
queer old woman" the mysterious
woman of the delivery window" they
called her nOw-to come for them. How
often those letters were examined. How
closely the address and the seal were
scanned, how they were held up to the
light so that maybe word of their con.
tents might be discovered. What temp.
tation they were.
The chief of the delivery Office ordered
them advertised.
NO" said the clerks "She will
come for them. She knows they are here.
She must be sick or something. She has
come for them for thirty years, and they
never have been advertised yet. Let them
wait another month";"
So they waited another month, two
more, and still the queer old woman
didn't come. And they had to be adver-
tised. On long list in the newspapers,
near the bottom, under the head Of LA
dies Letters were these words:
Russell, Maria H., 6.
People glanced at them-almost every
tiers to see if by some chance one belong
ing to them had strayed among the vaga-
bonds, and people remarked:
wonder who Maria II. Russell is /;
she has six letters advertised"
TO the clerks in the P0stotfice it seemed
a shame that old Mrs. or Miss (perhaps
she was an old maiD Russells letters
should be advertised, and stuck off into a
dirty corner with lot of sOiled envel-
opcs, and there was quite an Indignation
meeting held over the matter. But still
the queer old woman did not come.
Perhaps she is dead" they said,
"poor thing. Perhaps she is dead.'
But if there were whispers of displeas-
ure when the letters were advertised,
there was a storm of wrath when the clerk
that they must be sent to the
Dead Letter Office. The Postmaster was
appealed to. He was man of business,
and didn't care much for romance. so he
said the letters must go, and the rules of
the department carried out, and that the
seventh letter, which had come in since
the six were advertised, must go with
them.
But through all the sorrow there was
cleaning the sunshine of relief. AT the
Dead-Lett Office it would be found out
what these mysterious envelopes contained.
And the lady who made up the packages
for the Dead Letter Office pinned this
note to Maria Russell's seven letters:
These are very peculiar letters. They be-
long to a woman who has been coming to
the Post flee gularly every month for
tuirty years; but she has ceased to come,
and we Think she is dead. Whoever opens
these letters will confer great favor by in
form ng the clerks of the New York Post
office of their coLtents, as we have Il great
to know who Maria Russell is, or
W 8, and something about the person who
has been sending her these letters regularly
for SO long.
This note was submitted to convention
of clerks, and declared unanimously to be
the proper thing. A reply was awaited
anxiously. Before it came two more let.
tiers had followed their fellows in, and
were waiting for Maria Russell; but she
never came to get them, and they were
sent off like the rest to have their secrets
revealed in the great mail morgue at
Washington.
Finally there came an envelope ad-
dressed to 1.-THE clerks of the New York
Postoffice," and it was opened Ivy the first
person included in that category into
whose hands it came. That person read
the inclosure hurriedly through, and called
a convention to which he read the follow.
ing:
Although it is directly against the rules of
flying your curiosity. Nine letters addressed
to Maria H. Russell ha come to my hands.
Each one contained a brief note, calling at
tentlon to an Enclosure, without date or sig
nature Each Enclosure was a ive-dOllar
bill. We have great deal of curiosity Our
selves here to learn something about this
strange matter. Won't some of you write
us what you know! And if any further
disclosures are made we will inform you.
Horo woo ro,nanoo irIooI N;-o
signed notes, each with similar inclOs-
ure of money. Was it possible, they
thought, that for thirty years these same
sort of letters, with the same Enclosures,
had oeen coming to Maria Russell. And
why didn't they stop, if she was dead, as
she certainly must be. The whole Post
office was excited and perplexed in its ef-
forts to find solution of this mystery.
But there was no clue to Mrs. or Miss
Russell; nor clue to her mysterious cor
l cannot repeat the many
theories that were advanced, or the many
speculations that were put out to explain
the matter; but each was different one,
and each had as good ground for believ-
ing his the true one as any other, because
none of them had any ground at all. To
add to the mystery, some one brought in
a daily paper which contained the follow
ing advertisements:
Personal---very. person having any knowl-
ed. e of the " hereabouts of Maria H. Rus
sell, who has been u resid. Mt of this city for
lhir y ears, will reli eve a terrible anxiety
by communicating wi III c. B. R., Postofice.
What sensation that personal made
in the Postofice Department. Here at last
was clue to the unknown correspondent
who was wondering why he had received
no acknowledgment to his letters for nine
and TO add to the excitement an
other letter, in the same pale-yellow style
of envelope, addressed in the same famii-
lar chirography, was tossed with hundreds
of Others to the distributors table, where
it came to light. Fifty letters were adj
dressed to &C. B. r. each of which
stated that they had important informa-
ton concerning Maria H. Russell; but be-
fore many of them were mailed it leaked
out that the personal was put in the pa
pers by one Of the clerks, who hoped to
reach in advance of his fellows clue to
the mystery. But nothing satisfactory
resulted even from the personal. Several
Maria Russell's turned up to answer it,
and were very much Disguised to find they
weren't the person wanted but it brought