Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-03-24
CAPTURE OF AMELIA.

ZIG ttG1l1S5 1rtoU-H tt4A&SSA 90 liza
patiently walking mn and down the plat
form at Paris railroad station, waiting
for the $50 express train, received
tremendous thump ON the back. turned
around, and 10 and beholdt it was my
friend Jacques.
"Where are you goings' he asked.
ITO Nice
81 am going to Nice, too"
ssThat Is first rate. We will travel to-
gether.n
The train had in the meantime arrived,
and as we went to take our places in the
coupe, we passed the postal car.
81 shouldn't like to be employed in one
of those postal cars with all those dirty
letter bags. They have to stand up all
the time, too. l should think they would
be tired out, remarked.
eyes, it Is not agreeable to travel in
one of those cars. travelled 200 miles in
one of them once, and I don't think ever
suffered as much in my life. !"
Show did that happenr'
''It's a right funny story. Let us get
our places, and then Tilt tell you all about
| it," 8Gfa fst
We got into the coupe, and Jacques told
the following yarn, which think is worth
repeating:
| Az kHc LtulC ~ NAA4NA ACACAt ctht0
| Jacques, II was acquainted with q cer-
tain blonde countess You knew her, be-
cause several times caught You trying to
| fiirt with her She was living at that
| time at her villa near Var. Her name is
| Amelia. We used to write to each other
| daily. I wrote to keep her thoroughly in
formed Of the fact that loved her madly.
| She wrote to me because life Is very tedi-
| Gus out in the country, and she had to do
| something to kill time. Her letters were
| rather cold, and / was much afraid that
| she was not going to make much of an eff
| fort to reciprocate my affections. just at
| this crisis I was carrying on a correspond
| ence of pretty much the same character
| with another lady whose name was not
| Amelia, but Louisa, and who was living
| In Normandy
"a nice man You are"
| SIT is the prerogative of innocence to
project the initiatory bowlder," responded
Jacques, lighting cigarette.
81 suppose you mean to quote that he
who is without sin among you should cast
| the first stone. y
"Just So" resumed Jacques. Miss
| Louisa, this Normandy correspondent Of
I mine, was no countess. Neither was she
blonde. We had reached that point in
|
| cumbent on her to inform me almost
| every day that she loved me for myself
alone ] replied very coolly and indiffer-
emily, for I was DESTROYS Of giving her no
encouragement whatever. I was trying
| to give Louisa what Is known as the cold
| shake, but wanted to do it genteelly, as
| gentleman should.n At aa
II presume the countess is the one that
had the most money" I remarked Gym
| ically.
"You are good guesser. The countess
was very wealthy and Louisa was not
! Poor Louisa! / did hate to go back on
her 1t was not her fault, nor mine
either for that matter, that she was i'm
| pecunious There was something about
| her looks that reminded me of the coun-
tess" and Jacques sighed heavily.
| "What has all this got to do with tho
postal carr" 5000 4
| ssYou shall hear. Both Of these CORE
spondents of mine had the mania to send
me orders to I'LL Hardly day passed
that did not have to buy something and
| mail 1t to them. / was ut Paris, you
| know, and they were in the country. l
was eternally hunting up samples Of dress
| goods and sending them by mail. e
| 'sWell, one morning got two letters.
| One full Of love and devotion from Louisa.
She also wanted me to pick out q sample
of merino and send it to her. The other
| letter was from the countess. 1t was o
very gossipy sort Of document, but there
was nothing gushing about it. She also
| desired me to pick out some samples of
| silks and mail them to her Louisa was
| merino and the countess was silk with o
| big S. That was the difference between
| them.
81 Immediately sat down and composed
| two love letters-one of them, however,
| without much love In it, The other let
rer-the one to the Countess Amelia
was running over with affection and hints
| at suicide. The one to Louisa was philo-
sophical and non-committal; very much
SO, indeed AS had something to attend
to, hurried to dry goods store, selected
the patterns, and put them with the let
| tiers in the envelopes, and put them in my
pocket Just at this moment, who should
see driving past in his buggy but my
| friend Maxine. He called to me to get
in. did so, and just as we were passing
the postofice it occurred to me post the
| letters.''
eyes, begin to understand"
81 got out, bought two stamps, stuck
one of them on the letter to the countess,
showed it through the hole, and was about
to do the same for Louisa's epistle. when
| felt faint. gasped for air. / had I'D
| dressed my letter to Louisa to the coun-
tess at Var and posted it. In my hand
was the letter to the countess with the
samples of silk, addressed to Louisa in
/ Normandy 3atl=.,ss5sfs
s'You were in fix
"Never was in so hideous a fix in all my
| life. Unless regained that letter it was
all up with the beautiful countess, who,
as told you, was as rich as she was
pretty"
wealthy"
mot only that, but / was really des-
perately in love with her besides. went
| right into the postofice and asked the
| clerk to hand me out the letter. The
clerk began to cross-examine me, and In
timated that was candidate for the pen
itentiary As my answers did not suit
him, he refused to hand out the letter.
| remembered that / had friend who was
high official In the postoffiee department
/ jumped into a hack and was driven to
his Office He was not in. Then i went
! to his residence. / found him. explained
| matters, and armed with an official docu-
| ment drove back to the postoffice The
| mail was already made Ep and on board
the postal car. jumped aboard just as
the train moved Of The postal officers
in the car, under the impression that
| was trying to rob, hurled me to the floor,
and while one kneeled on my breast the
/ others choked me and searched me for
| arms. As soon as l got a chance "a
| speak showed my document and ex-
| planned Profuse apologies were offered
and accepted. However, my collar was
4 torn of and my clothes suffered in the
scuf1e. y
did they give you your letter.