St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-02
A BUNDLE OF LETTERS.
1t Causes Queer Feelings to Read over
Old Epistles.
A Love Letter that Made Trouble
for the Writer.

Its one of the most melancholy diver
sions in the world" said society man to
the writer the other day, ''to read over
ones old letters. Now, I've cot all the
letters that were ever written to me. I'd
carry them around in my pocket awhile UNI
til they got to be burden and then fire
them into hole in my trunk, until now L
have about two cubic feet of them. I'm
going to be married week after next and 1
thought the other day it would be Just as
well to look over the pile and see if there
were not some that ought to be destroyed
before have better half Pm glad did
IT, too, )" he murmured muSingly
But tell you, looking through that
bundle of letters was like section of indg-
ment day. Old half-forgotten incidents
they recall, some of them not so pleasant.
Once, when l was away at college, the fac
ulty sent my father letter which bore
rather heavily on my moral character, I
suspect, for he sent me one back that re-
member kept me absolutely straight for
| several weeks, and which makes me blush
even now to read it. I've more than two
hundred letters from him now, and as I
read them l can't help thinking how much
| better of and better would have been had
L followed all the precepts there laid dewn."
A sCHooLBoY's DILEMMA.
Then there is a note reading with the
| compliments of Mary r. - to Mr.. -
L remember well when L received that note
and its Enclosure. There was female sem
mary not many miles from the college and
sometimes we boys used TO go down and
witness their exhibitions. The she dragon
that kept the institution didn't like to SUBJ
NIT her young wards to the contamination
of set of college boys and so she would
fence her pupils OFF in one corner of the
room and erect barricade of benches be-
tween them and us. One night when we
were down there, however, the number of
seats the girls would occupy was miscalcu-
lated and they overlooked into the part of
the room where we were, the same as
molaSses will sort of boil over out of ket-
tie when you're making candy. Well, one
of the girls sat beside NE and during the
evening l noticed her tanning herself VIII.
card which she afterWard laid down where
l could easily get it. OF course L reached
for it and it bore the same name as at the
bottom of the note. OF course it was nv
place to reciprOcate, but being new in the
business L had no cards and so wrote my
| name on piece of paper and passed it
over A few days after | received this note
| and with 1t q half dozen exquisite cards with
my name engraved on them. Well, it got
into the college papers and my life was
burden for months after.
Then, there are lots of letters from
girls. Most of them l have consigned to
the fiery furnace. Some of them come
pretty near being love letters, too, and it
gives me quite tender feeling for their
writers even now, as read them. But that's
wrong, for I've also the wedding cards OF
most of them. 1t makes me feel real old to
think that l am almost the only one of my
old associates left unmarried, and any one
of several of those girls l might have mar
ried, too, no doubt, it had wanted to.
IT MADE HIM TROUBLE
"There was one letter in the bundle that I
burnt too quick. 1t came near getting me
into lots of trouble once. l wrote it myself
several years ago. My folks kept insisting
that l ought to get married. saying that
nothing else would ever make man of me.
quite agreed with them on that topic, but
had no idea who the lucky girl should be-
The fact was that | was comparatively poor
and all the girls l thought anything of were
rich, and couldn't bear the thought of i'm
posing on anyone of them by tempting her
to share my humble lot. Further
more, 1 seriously doubted my
ability to love anybody well
enough. had made several Intellectual at
temptS at it, and this time L made supreme
effort. picked out one of the most desir-
able of my lady acquaintance and wrote
her letter chOck full of the most burning
passion. made it as artistic and symmet-
rical as possible, beginning with an enum-
Grafton of my own unworthineSS and my
astounding audacity at daring to address
such peerless creature with words of love.
plead, however, an uncomfortable passion
which would not allow me rest day or night
until l had declared it. Then rising lit
tie from the dust in which | metaphorically
groveled, l described my affection as one
so strong, true and answering that a
princess might felt hOnOred at receiving it,
and named that as cOmpenSating circum-
stance for my worldly poverty. l remem-
Der it took me nearly all night to write it.
1t was done more than anything else for the
purpose of watching the effects of the COM
position on my own mind, and l stopped
every few minutes to make mental review
of my heart to see if it showed any signs of
responding to the ardent words of my pen.
And it did respond nobly. My affection
for the girl increased at each line l wrote,
until toward the end every word came
burning straight from my heart. In order
to make the thing complete, L also wrote
a letter to her father, one which
is described in novels as a manly, straight
forward epiStle in which l spoke mainly of
| my own SITUATION, prospects ana eXpecCa-
tons and made a formal demand for the
hand of his daughter. By the time 1 got
through l was intoxicated with love and
congratulating myself on the entire and
complete success of the experiment I re-
tired to dream of the sweet visions of do
meStic bliss. When I woke up next morn
ing it was with feeling of shame some
thing like the one you experience when
you've been drunk the night before. Not a
breath was left of the love that threatened
to incinerate my beating heart the night be-
fore. L read the letters over again with a
sort of amused pity for the poor fellow that
wrote, them as though it were some other
than myself. But ever since I have had
sort of tender feeling for the girl with
whom was SO desperately i'll love for a
few hours"
You said this letter got you into trouble.
How was that?"
well, my best girl got hold of it last
spring, and didn't stop until she had read it
through and since then l have never been
able to convince her that she is my first and
only love-"