Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-24
OLD TINE LETTERS.
AN EPISTLE WRITTEN NEARLY ONE
HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
The Reverential Manner In Which . Young
Girl Of That Period Addressed Her Fa-
ther-Proper Way For . Lover to Ask His
Sweetheart to Elope with Him.

ther-Proper Way For q Lover to Ask His
Sweetheart to Elope with Him.
If the prim Puritan maiden Of century
ego did not startle masculinity by wear
Ing bloomers 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
tury ago by devoted young Bostonian
maiden to her much beloved papa in Phil
adelphia will afford an intensely interest
ing study Of commencement dc steele
-Yomanhood, as it were.
To be sure, the dear young girl who
Fenned the loving message decades and
decades ago never dreamed that her letter
would be published at tho dawn Of the
twentieth century in a Chicago newspaper
and read by the eyes of modern woman.
so called. For fact Chicago was not on
the map In those days, and woman-love-
ly woman-h had not been modernized To
peer into this primitive maiden's private
affairs really seems a sacrilege. The epis-
tie is, however, SO essentially unique, SO
differsnt from the fiippant style of CORE
spondence today and withal SO suggestive
of the excessive formality and great rever-
ence accorded parents by children in tho
proverbial good old times that it's perusal
may be pardonable. In word, it is tho
embodiment of flial affection. Tt would
doubtless surprise the average indulgent
papa of todaSs who il quite used to being
told few things occasionally by his lad
vanced," all wise daughters.
The fair writer was evidently q young
woman of exceptional culture in those
early days. OF course she must have been.
for did sho not reside in the Hub City and
rat baked beansS In a peculiarly artistic
and legible handwriting the remarkable
letter is thus addressed "Rev. John Muir
ray, to the care of Colonel John Connolly,
Philadelphia.
There is the customary heading-"Bos-
ton, Feb. 10, lS04''-but the usual saluta-
tion of "My Dear Father" is omitted.
After this interesting fashion Miss Julia
Marcia Murray makes reparation for q
supposed slight to her paternal ancestor:
"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 6th OF
January has not yet reached you.
''Yes, indeed, you are entitled to my
utmost gratitude my utmost affection, to
my duty, and my veneration, and l should
have considered myself ineXcusable IL
had delayed day to acknowledge letter
which gave me such heartfelt pleasure. II
you have received my letter, you will find
in it expressions of tho warmest gratitude.
1t will always my dear father make me
unhappy to know that you are SO, and
particularly IL / have any reason to sup
pose myself, even unintentionally, khe
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,
o. have given circumstantial account
uI .ae school exhibition and other particu-
lars. And now my dear sir, indulging
tho hope that have rendered you easy on
tho subject of my not writing to you, 1
will go on to part of your letter over
which shed many, very many, tears.
"Oh, my father, my heart Is indeed
filled with tender affection for my dear,
my excellent parent and If my heart be
an afrectionate feeling heart how could
you expect that l should read the follcw-
ing very affecting limo in your letter with
out it's being torn: Sweet soul, you will
not havc your parents longr When
came to read this, could no longer re-
strain my tears, SO covering my face with
my handkerchief audibly sobbed. Can
endure the thought that those dear, in
dulgent parents must ascend to the bosom
Of their God before Ine? Would to heaven
! could continue here as long as ! could he
useful to them and then wing my flight
to the regions of the blessed, where | might
prepare garlands of never fading roses to
crown them with but as this is felicity
too great for human beings to attain
must content myself with the lot of NOR
tality and mcekly bow my head in pious
resignation.
"And now, my dear papa, hoping that
you will ncquit me of either neglect or
inattcntion to the best of fathers, l repeat
again and again that am your ever affcc-
tionate and dutiful daughter,
JULIA MARCIA MURRAY.
"Wc have got our buckwheat meal. Mr..
Jones and Cousin Mary Allen desire their
best regards. j. nj. M.
A writer on etiquette of those days tells
amorous youths how to write fetching"
billet doux to their ladyloves. Clandos-
tine marriages must have been as popular
in tho long ago as they arc today AT any
rate, the writer gives an ideal letter from
"a young gentleman, who is in expecta-
tion of an estate from his penurious uncle,
to young lady of small fortune, whom
he desires to olope with him to New Eng
land" After this fashion was the anxious
lover instructed in this interesting branch
of lovemaking:
"MY DEAR MARTA-My uncle's laying
his injunctiolss upon me not to see you
more has only served to add fuel to my
passion. / 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. Ii he should continue inexo-
rable, / have still education sufficient to
procure gonteel employment in one OF
the public offices, where may rise to pref
erment. Therefore, il ever you loved me,
let me beg that you will not make me any
longer unhappy. Let me entreat you by
all that's dear that you will comply with
my request and meet me at Sunday
evening at the back door of the garden,
xvbere n chaise and follr will be ready,