Morning journal and courier., 1888-02-02
ANONYMOUS LETTERS.
They May be Good Sometimes, !
 They Are Better Let Alone.

TheY RAaY DC SOOO S0enGG1meGs blI
 They Are Better Let Alone.
 From Talk by Rev. Dr. Talnage.l
 In boyhood days we were impressed with the fertility of certain author, whose name so often appeared in the spelling books and readers styled Anon. He seemed to write more than Isaac Walters or Shakespeare, or Blair. In the index and scattered through all our books was the name of Anon. He appeared in all styles of poetry and prose and dialogue. We wondered where he lived, what his age was and how he looked. It was not till quite late in boyhood that we learned that Anon was an abbreviation for anonymous, and that he was sometimes the best saint and at other times the most extra ordinary villain
 After centuries of correspondence Anon ymous is as fertile of thought and brain and stratagem as ever, and will probably keep on writing till the last fire burns up his pen and cracks to pieces his ink bottle. Anonymous letters sometimes have mission of kindness and gratitude and good cheer Genuine modesty may sometimes hide the name of an epistolary author or authoress. It may be a "God bless you" from someone who thinks herself hardly in position to address you. It may be the delivery of a plot for your damage, in which the revelator does not care to take the responsibility of witness. It may be any one of a thousand things that mean frankness and delicacy, and honor and
 
 ymous letters which we have put away among our most sacred archives.
 But we suppose most people chiefly asso- ciate the idea of anonymous communica- tions with everything eowardly and base. There are in all neighborheods perfdious, sneaking, dastardly, filthy, calumnious, vermin- Infested wretches spewed up from perdition, whose joy it is to write letters with fictitious signatures. Sometimes they take the shape of valentine, the 14th of February being a great outlet for this ob- scene spawn. Sometimes they take the form of delicate threat that if you dc not thus or so there will be a funeral al your house, yourself the chief object of in terest. Sometimes they will be denunciato ry of your friends. Once being called to pre- side at 8 meeting for the relief of the sewing women of Philadelphia, and having been called in the opening speech to say some thing about oppressive contractors, we re- ceiyed some twenty anonymous letters, the purport of which was that it would be un- safe for us to go out of doors after dark. Three months after removing to Brooklyn we preached a sermon reviewing one of the sins of the city, and anonymous letters came saying that we would not last six months in ! the City of Churches.
 Let every young man know that when he l is tempted to pen anything which requires him to disguise his handwriting he is in fear. ful danger. You despoil your own nature by such procedure more than you can dam age anyone else. Bowie knife and dagger are more honorable than an anonymous pen sharpened for defamation of character. Bet. ter try putting strychnine in the flour barrel Better mix ratsbane in the jelly cake. That behavior would be more elegant and Chris 1 tian. If, since the world stood, there have been composed and sent of by mail or pri vate postman 1,600,379 anonymous letters ! derogatory of character, thsn 1,600, ,376 were vicious end damnable. If you are compelled ! to choose between writing letter with false signature vitriolic of any mans integrity ol any womau's honor on the one hand, ane the writing letter with a red hot nai dipped in adder's poison on a sheet woven o1 lepers' scales, choose the latter. It were healthier, nobler and could better endure the ! test of mans review and Gods scrutiny.