Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-07-16
Dead Not Delivered.
Baltimore Every Saturday.

Me citing the letter-carriers as thew
leave the post office with their bulky
sacks crowded with letters, one must
wonder how they can distribute each
and every one to its proper owner; but.
bless you! they 60 further than that.
After they have been on route for
while they can tell much more about
family than they ever do. They know
il one of the children is away, if visit
ors are coming, if any of the relatives
are dead, and man. other things hardly
known to the nearest neighbor. An
envelope is nothing but an envelope to
you. You may critcise the hand.
writing and the orthogrcphy, hut be.
yond that you care nothing. To the
letter carrier it is book. He knows
when father and mother are coming
where a truant boy is-whether the
family is respected or not-and Sarah's
beau cannot blind the carrier by get.
ting some one else to direct the en-
velope.
One day one of the oldest carriers
had a letter left over after he had gone
his usual round. 1t was directed to
woman living in little old house stand
ing back from the street, and as he
studied the address he said to himself
that he never had an epistle for her be-
fore in all the SIX or seven years ne had
been on the route. The postmark was
that of an Office in the east, and the
carrier unused to himself:
This is from her son, and she Will
be crying before am out of sight.
! He delivered the letter to a white
faced woman of sixty, who seemed to
be living all alone, and she looked sur
prised as he placed it in her hand.
"a letter for mel haven't relative
on earthl" she gasped.
But he left it with her.
Ia about three weeks a second letter
came, and the old lady opened the door
before the carrier was inside the gaze
She did not say that 1t was from he'
son, hut the carrier knew for all that
and he hoped that the truant boy had
settled down tor life, and was wrlllhg
cheerful words and sending aid to his
poor old mother. Regularly every
three weeks, for half a year or more
there came fat-looking letter tor the
old woman in the little cabin; ana Il
the letter was a day late her Whi'e
face at the window reproached 'he
carrier more than words could nave
done. If it was a day earlier she ""o
at the door to meet him, knowing nl'
step from all others who passed 'n@'
way. ;,~
The other day, when the carrier
found the buff envelope, directed III 'ns
old, familiar, cramped hand, he Saiu "
himself: ho
q will hurry around to-day, ior tn9
last time | saw her she seemed III anu
weak, and letter will give her nc"
strength" n
He opened the gate with bang V
give her warning, but no whlte iace apJ
peared at the window, and no na n,ar
raised the door-htch. Inc cail.o-
knocked on the door for the flrst tiln?,
and after moment a woman opeleu :
and said o,,t;ve
"Sne is dead, and she hasn't relative
in this city" ~ load.
Among the letters to 60 to the deau.
letter office next week will be one acIosS
whose face is written whole chapters ~
three words, Dead-not deil'eie",,
An cd woman has passed away IT, TGs
taee is deserted--a letter returneu' Ia
world will see nothing in these silIP II
facts, but yet in them Is containen ~
the sentiment God has ever given ~
any human heart.