The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-12-31
OLD TIME LETTERS.
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Girl of That Period Addressed Her Fa-
ther-Proper Way For Lover to Ask His
Sweetheart to EIope With Him.
If the prim Puritan maiden of century
ago did not startle masculinity by wear
ing boomers on the public highway, or
pompously presiding at political mass
meetings, or-horrible to relate-smoking
perfumed cigarettes on the sly, she must
have been a deucedly charming girl
withal A typical gentlewoman, she com
mands, irresistibly, more than ardent adj
miration.
If character can be portrayed in letter
writing-and no one doubts the fact-an
epistolary message written nearly cen
fury ago by devoted young Bostonian
maiden to her much beloved papa in Phil
adelphia will afford an intensely interest
ing study of commencement de steele
womanhood, as it were.
To be sure, the dear young girl who
penned the loving message. decades and
decades ago never dreamed that her letter
would be published at the dawn of the
twentieth century in a Chicago newspaper
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SO called For fact Chicago was not on
the map in these days, and woman-love-
ly woman had not been modernized. To
peer into this primitive maiden's private
affairs really seems sacrilege. The epis-
tie is, however, so essentially unique, SO
different from the fippant style of CORE
spondence today and withal SO suggestive
of the excessive formality and great rever-
ence accorded parents by children in the
proverbial good old times that its perusal
may be pardonable. In word, it is the
embodiment of filial affection. 1t would
doubtless surprise the average indulgent
papa of today, who is quite used to being
told few things occasionally by his 'ad-
vanced,' all wise daughters.
The fair writer was evidently young
woman Of exceptional culture in those
early days. OF course she must have been.
for did she not reside in the Hub City and
eat baked beans? In peculiarly artistic
and legible handwriting the remarkable
letter is thus addressed: 'iRev. John Muir
ray, to the care of Colonel John Connolly,
Philadelphia.
There is the customary heading-"Bos-
ton, Feb 13, 15G4"-but the usual saluta-
ton of s'My Dear Father is omitted.
After this interesting fashion Miss Julia
Marcia Murray makes reparation for
supposed sligM to her paternal ancestor:
SIG You are astonished, my dear papa, at
not receiving an answer to your letter, and
I, my dear sir, am equally astonished that
my answer written as early as the 9Th Of
January has not yet reached you.
Eyes indeed, you are entitled to my
utmost gratitude, my utmost affection, to
my duty, and my veneration and should
have considered myself inexcusable if I
had delayed day to acknowledge a letter
which gave me such heartfelt pleasure. If
you have received my letter, you will find
in it expressions of the warmest gratitude.
1t will always, my dear father, make me
unhappy to know that you are so, and
particularly if I have any reason to sup
pose myself, even Internationally, the
cause of it. You ought not to be kept in
suspense and do indeed, my dear papa,
consider it prime duty to attend to you,
and have given ciroumstantial account
of the school exhibition and other particu.
lars And now, my dear sir, indulging
the hope that have rendered you easy on
the subject of my not writing to you, i
will, go on to part of your letter over
which shed many, very many, tears.
'tOh, my father, my heart is indeed
filed with tender affection for my dear,
my excellent parent, and If my heart be
an affectionate feeling heart how could
you expect that should read the, follow
ing very affecting line in your letter with
out its being torn: Sweet soul, you will
not have your parents long?' When I
came to read this, I could no longer re-
strain myetears, SO covering my face with
my handkerchief audibly sobbed. Can 1
endure the thought that those dear, in
dulgent parents must ascend to the bosom
of their God before me? Would to heaven
could continue here as long as I could be
useful to them and then wing my fight
to the regions of the blessed, where might
prepare garlands Of never fading roses to
crown them with, but as this is a felicity
too great for human beings to attain I
must content myself with the lot of NOR
tality and meekly bow my head in pious
resignation.
"And now, my dear papa, hoping that
you will acquit me of either neglect or
inattention to the best of fathers, I repeat
again and again that am your ever affec-
tomato and dutiful daughter,
''JULIA MARCIA MURRAY.
Jones and Cousin Mary Allen desire their
best regards. j. M. M"
A writer on etiquette of those days tells
amorous youths how to write fetching"
billet doux to their ladyloves. Clandes-
tine marriages must have been as popular
in the long ago as they are today. At any
rate, the writer gives an ideal letter from
''a young gentleman, who is in expecta-
ton of an estate from his penurious uncle,
to,a young lady of small fortune, whom
he desires to elope with him to New Eng
land After this fashion was the anxious
lover instructed in this interesting branch
of lovemaking:
''MY DEAR MARIA--My uncle's laying
his injuEctions upon me not to see you
more has only served to add fuel to my
passion. I cannot live without you, and
if you persist in refusing to comply am
miserable forever. pay no regard to his
threatening when put in competition with
the love have for you. Don't be afraid
of poverty. If he should continue inexo-
rable, have still education sufficient to
procure genteel employment in one Of
the public Offices, where may rise to pref
erment Therefore, if ever you loved me,
let me beg that you will not make me any
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