Mohave County miner., 1888-04-21
CAPTURE OF AMELIA.

One evening last winter, a. I was I'M
| patiently walking up and down the plat
form at q Paris rairoad station, waiting
Tor the 7s30 express train, received =
tremendous thump on the back. turned
around, and 10 and beholti II was ny
friend Jacques.
Where ars you goingf' be asked.
ITO Nice"
~ nm going TO Nice, too"
"That Is first rate. We win travel to-
zethcr."
The train had I'm the meantime arrived,
and an 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 sll
the time, too. I should think they would
be tired out" remarked.
Eyes, 1t Is not agreeable 10 travel In
one of those cars. Travelled 200 miles IN
one Of them once, and don't think / ever
| suffered as much In my life."
'How did that happenf'
''It's right funny story. Let us get
our places, and then I'll tell you all about
| It."
We got into the coupe, and Jacques told
the following yarn. which Think 10 worth
repeating: -...-
'.lAt the time 10 which ! refer" said
jacques, II was acquainted with GER
tain blonde countess. You knew her, be-
cause several times caught you trying to
dirt with her. She was living at that
time at her villa near Var. Her name Is
Amelia. We used TO write to each other
laily. wrote to keep her thoroughly In
| formed Of the fact that loved her madly.
She wrote to me because life Ia very tedi-
ous 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 ef-
fort to reciprocate my affections. Just ut
this crisis / was carrying on q correspond
snce 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 howlder, I" responded
Jacques, lighting . cigarette.
II suppose you mean TO quote that he
who Is without sin among you should cast
the first stone"
Just so," resumed Jacques. "Miss
Louisa, this Normandy correspondent of
mine, was no countess. Neither was she
blonde. We had reached that point I'm
our correspondence when she felt Il in-
cumbent on her to inform me almost
every day that she loved me for myself
alone. replied very coolly and indiffer-
emily, for was desirous Of giving her no
announcement whatever. ! was trying
to give Louisa what is known a. the cold
shake, but wanted to do it genteelly, a.
gentleman should"
~ presume the countess is the one that
had the most money" remarked Gym
ically. .. 49,,
"You are good gucsser. The countess
was very wealthy and Louisa was not.
Poor Louisa! did hate 70 go back on
her. II 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 10 do with the
POSTAL carr
"You shall hear. Both Of these CORE
sp0ndents of mine had the mania 70 send
me orders to I'LL. Hardly a day passed
that did not have TO buy something and
mail II TO them. / was at Paris, you
know, and they were I'm the country.
was eternally hunting up samples Of dress
goods and sending them by mail
swell, one morning got two letters
One full Of love and devotion from Louisa
She also wanted me to pick out sample
of merino and send It TO her. The other
letter was from the countess. II was q
very gossipy sort Of q document, but there
was nothing gushing about II. She also
desired me to pick oct some samples Of
silks and mail them to her. Louisa was
merino and the countess was silk with q
big s. That was the difference between
them.
al Immediately sat down and composed
two love letters--one Of them, however,
without much love I'm IL. 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-
s1pbical and non-committal: very much
90, indeed. As had something 10 attend
10, hurried to dry goods store, selected
the patterns, and put them with the let
tcrs 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 10 get
in. / did so, and just as we were passing
tie postofIice II occurred to me post the
letters"
"Yes, begin to understand"
~ got ont, bought two stamps, stuck
one of them on the letter to the countess,
showed Il through the hole, and was about
to do the same for Louisa's epistle, when
! felt faint. gasped for air. had ad-
dressed my letter TO Louisa to the coun-
tess ut Var and posted IL. In my hand
was the letter to the countess with the
samples Of silk, addressed to Louisa in
Normandy"
"You were In FIX"
fNever was in so hideous fix I'm all my
life. Unless / regained that letter IL was
all up with the beautiful countess, who,
as Lstold you, was US rich as she was
pretty"
Eyes, you told me she was quite
wealthy"
s'Not only that, but I was really des-
perately in love with her besides. went
right into the postofYice and asked the
clerk TO hand me out the letter. The
clerk began TO croes-examine me, and in-
timated that was a 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
n high official In the postofiice department.
Jumped into hack and was driven to
his Office. He was not I'm. Then I went
to his residence. found him, explained
matters, and armed with an official docu-
ment drove back 10 the possofiice The
mail was already made up and on board
the postal car. jumped aboard just a.