The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-08-23
LETTERS AND MESSAGES.
Bill Apps Advice to Wandering Boys
The Cheapness and Quickness of
the Mail Service.

L was Illuminating upon the Presi
dents message and have come to tn,
conclusion that perhaps am the onl,
reading man in all the country wht
does not understand the question. The
trouble is read both sides and have
got all tangled up. If a man wishes tc
preserve his peace of mind and his sell
conceit he should read only one side Of
politics or religion. This may make
him wrong in his path, but he is more
conteDted and more jealous. He car
just rip around and raise Cain in politics
and he can go it blind for his church
and his preacher. An Intelligent
friend who is just from Washington
told me yesterday that Mr.. Cleveland
was the grand impersonation Of the
national government that he was
greater than parties or platforms and
would run the machine independent OF
all restraints. IT," he said, "Grover
Cleveland should die tomorrow the
country would go to ruin in thirty
days" Another friend said the mes
sage was an abortion and Mr.. Cleve-
land was u huge mistake--the most
overrated man in the nation.
But l am not going to worry about it..
IL there are not enough brains among
the statesmen at Washington to fix up
this money business can't help it. So
let it rip. 1 read the message on my
way home from the postofiice and when
| l reached the piazza where Mrs. Arp
was sitting l said:
Here is q letter, q message from
the President, would you like to read
it ?"
"No," she said. "Did you bring me
any letters from the boys ?"
"NOne," said I.
81 am afraid they are sick" she
said. "They haven't written for three
or four weeks. They never write when
they are sick"
There it is. A letter from a son or
daughter who is far away is bigger
thing to a mother than Grover Cleve-
lands message. Everywhere all over
the land the "old folks at home" are
waiting for letters from their absent
children. l have seen them sitting on
the piazza or by the freside with a
shade of sadness on their faces and as
they look dreamily away l know what
they are thinking about. There is
nothing sadder in life than the separ-
alton of aged parents from their chill
dren. DR.. Samuel Johnson said: 81
have always looked upon it as the
worst condition of mans destiny that
most persons are torn asunder just as
they become happy in each others
society,""
If this be true concerning the friends
and companions of our youth, how
much more touchingly does it apply to
the aged ones whose children have re-
moved far away from the old home
stead. Love and memory is about all
their earthly capital and from day to
day and week to week they look for let
ters-kind letters, loving letters from
the absent ones whom perhaps they
x,,t1
Mayss' siae. hope to meet-0n the other
Letters from the children are the
next best thing to their presence, and
the children ought to write them-
write them often-write regularly.
While l was Illuminating about this 1
heard the sweet strains of that pretty
song, 81 Sent a Letter to My Love-"
and then | got to thinking what q
blessed contrivance these letters were,
the daily mail, the government post,
the swift messengers that like Mer-
curry speed over sea and land to COM
time when | was away from home for a
long, long year and how happy I was
when letter came-a letter from
home, especially when there was a lit
tie money in it. Heard a college boy
say the other day that q letter from
home with money in it was the best
letter and the best money in the world.
Parents are sure to write them and to
send little money when they can, and
so when the parents grow old and
feeble the children should pay them
back and let no sad memories make
burrows on their brow. l would plead
with the boys everywhere to comfort
their old mothers with kind and loving
letters-the good old mothers who
have petted them and nursed them
and comforted them and took
their part in all their troubles-never
let a mother feel tho truth of the
proverb, How sharper than aserpent's
tooth it is to have Il thankless child"
| have heard of boys going away to the
far West to seek their fortune and not
writing line back home for years. |
have seen aged parents who had not
heard from their boy so long they had
given him up for dead. They had
no answer. But he was not dead and
in one case he came back after eleven
years Of absence-came back and com
| forted them for he had sown his wild
oats and reaped the crop and was tired.
| Boys don't do that way, please don't;
write letters, write from every place;
your letters are treasures, they are
read and reread. / know where is q
bundle now, big bundle tied around
with tape and it gets bigger as the
years roll on. If the writer's should
get killed or die from sickness the tape
will be united and the letters read
again while tear drops here and there
upon the open leaf.
Writing letters regularly to kindred
and friends reacts upon the writer and
makes him better, gentler, kinder
They take but little time and cost only
two cents to send and are really the
most valuable things for the cost that
can be found in the world. A good
loving home letter that cost only ter
minutes in time and two cents in money
is worth ten dollars to any mother who
loves her child.
The mails are blessed privilege
and one that was almost unknown tt
our fathers. One hundred years age
there were but seventy-fve postofiice!
in the United States, now there arc
nearer $4,000. 1t is not generally
known that Ben Franklin was the frs
postmaster general in this country, ant
held his office for twenty-one years un
der the British government. One mai
a week was considered quite enough
between the large cities. / remembe,
when one mail week was the allow
ance in our country towns. BY and b,
we got it twice q week and felt ou
consequence. -Four times q day W,
have it now in Cartersville. remem
| her when the sound Of tho sfope hor,