Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-08
A ROSE FOR THE MARTYR.
The Travels OF . Letter to Reach the
Person for Whom It Was Intended.

Burdetss I'm the Brooklyn Eagle
Before the new Postnaster-G General takes hold
OF the canceling stamp, want to testify to the
zeal with which the outgoing administration
sought 10 carry all letters to their designated
resting places. On the 9Th of January-St.
Jackson's day-1SsS, was very appropriately
sotourning, in honor of that great and good
democrat, IN Champaign, Illinois, so called be-
cause there il much cider there. don't know
how came to have 90 much money! may
have held up train or sold poem or some
thing Of the sort-anyhow had much wealth
and decided to pay my debit had but one
(derisive laughter and cries of 'More," and
go on)-and SO enclosed draft in q letter
and sent it to Bryn Mawr, Pa, and then set sail
myself for California. The letter went to Bryn
Mawr. distance of $50 miles, and found that
my correspondent also had gone to California
on a wedding journey. Tho letter was for
warded to Los Angeles, 5000 miles, on January
10. The bridegroom had left the city OF Our
Lady Of the Angels and drifted into the 70
Semitic region, and after vainly advertising for
Nun; the letter went, on the 18th of January,
to the dead letter Office in Washington, 2,879
miles. The final obsequies were deferred by
the government coroner and the dead letter
was sent to Champaign, in search of its father,
on the 18th OF January, 800 miles. On the 24th
OF February it winged its weary way back to
burial. But the young lady who reads all the
languages that were ever written, and a great
many that can't possibly be spoken; who has
way OF finding where a letter wants to go.
when the man who wrote it hasn't the remotest
idea where his correspondent lives. sent it to
Brooklyn on the 18th of March, if haply it
might find me in the eagles nest. But when
the blessed old bird (''Rah, Rah. Rah! Siss.
Boom! Ahe) stirred up her lively brood at
that eventide, one downy eaglet was missing
from the eyre, and I was the one. 1.-TWO hum
dred and twenty-eight miles for nothing; the
letter deadheaded back to Washington same
distance both ways, and again knocked at the
cemetery gate. But the fair prophecies be-
heyed there was life in the wanderer yet.
and she sent it to Bryn Mawr May 10, 148
miles. Finding no rest for the sole of its stamp,
which is usually connected with foot, it re-
turned unto the ark of the dead letter office May
II, l4S miles again. From there it once more
sped away to Los Angeles, 2,879 miles; back
office for the fifth time. But the department
was satisfied that it could yet call back the de-
parted message to life, and sent it to the writer
In Bryn Mawr, where, after journeying ecross
the continent four times and going to the dead
letter Office and demanding burial five times.
travelling in all IA. 987 miles, it was finally de-
livered into my hands by Postmaster Barrett on
the 18th OF September. All this, fellow-citi-
zens, for cents; 2 cents. ''And yet," said Bar
rett, Z. NJ, "the republican platform demands
cheaper postage" All this, you see. is a mat
wanderings one mail car had been burned [
think, trains had been robbed, and yet for
eight months this letter had been chasing after
Its owner all over the United States, and never
thought of getting lost. The postal service
isn't such a wreck after all.