The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-09-18

respondence, and yet even these letters
are heavy though pleasant tax upon
the time of busy woman, for one can
not dictate an intimate letter or letter
of coincidence or ceremony, or, in fact,
any kind of personality, and most peo-
pie feel little annoyed at receiving
typewritten communication, except upon
matters of pure business.
But, these quasi welcome letters dis
posed of, there comes the grand army of
unwelcome applicants for time, thought
and reply or nonreply.
Not long since | gave small sum to
a very worthy charity, and the next day
unhappily the fact was noticed in the
daily journals, and the day following
received no less than 20 letters suggest
ing my subscription to some other char
ity, no less deserving, doubtless, hut not .
within the scope Of my intentions.
Begging letters are not, however, a |
novelty any day in the week and range |
over vast area Of purposes and
amounts. | have been asked for $40, 900
| to assist in the building Of church in
some distant city and was considerably
informed that l "need not send the
money until after Easter. " | have been
asked for many and many $4,000
and 50, 900 check to pay off the debt of
u church or hospital in n city which
could scarcely be located on a map, and
/ recently received from an individual
request that, although n stranger, he
would feel obliged if would send him
az 600 admitting that he had no Sc
cpritv. Int that "the Lord would re-
nav y In fact. innumerable hundreds
and thousands have been asked of me
NV nersons unknown. whose necessities
were ALWAYS TEMPORARY and ALWAYS I'M
deserved.
One anneal of this sort showed such
n confidence in human nature. and in
NV noture especiollv. that | always felt
that the writer shonld have lived in the
nastorol ages
II was from n stranger. AS usual. who
snpgested that as | ALWAYS 20 to Europe
every summer for rest and recreation
7 should invita- his sister. who was
cripple and confirmed invalid, as he
stated, to accompany me as a guest and
Communion. while the number Of de
formed and ailinp children which have
| hpan lrDnunt
is legion.
Another letter suggested that I be-
come nrincipal shareholder in n COM
pany proposing to irrigate the great
plains by a system of aqueducts from
the Rocky mountains.
have been invited to sink my money
in mines to fly it in the air MS the sails
of navigable balloons, to send it to sea
in the shape of freights of every imag
Unable kind, and to burn it up i'll oil
wells and natural gas plants, wherever
such products of nature are supposed to
Turk unimprov ed
Occasionally, however, my petition
ers disdain the vehicle of earth, air,
water or fire. of charity, religion or per-
sonal benevolence, and boldly follow
the method of good Mrs. Bond " who
sings beside the pond, ''Ducky, ducky,
come here and be killed ~ In sober fact,
1t is not infrequent for me to receive
, letters informing me that unless per-
sonally appear and hand over certain
sum of money to the applicant my office
and myself will be blown up with dy-
Mantle, l shall be shot through my car
riage window, / shall he poisoned. |
shall be kidnapped, or some other dire
fate shall befall me too horrible to men
ton.
However, | have never attended any
Of these rendezvouses and have not as yet
been murdered or kidnapped.
Then there are the letters matrimo-
NAL One would not wish to give in
delicate publicity to authors of that
sort, but in good many cases one can
not but suspect that publicity is what
the applicant is seeking At least it is
impossible to suppose that perfect
stranger, with no especial claims to con.
sideration, can have any serious ex,
pectation of being accepted as hus
band by woman who has never seeI
him.
One Of these letters from the "wilt
and woolly" regions suggested that a,
the writer was u "rustler," and as
was etc. and we each had our "pile, ;
we were the couple to paint the tow
red" ON both sides of the Atlantic arr
win for ourselves deathless renown.
u Another sent me list of his securi
ties, amounting to $4,000, 900, to
l
and position, and requested me to pre-
side over his heart and his home.
Another suggested that, as he ha,
never been able to make his own way il
the world in spite Of every advantage
of education and was poor, sick and dis
couraged, he was, in the eternal fines
of things, the proper complement of I
life the exact opposite of his, and tina
it was worthy and noble mission fo
me to supply from my abundance tn
deficit of his less fortunate fate
To all Of these applications I have
stereotyped form of reply for what j
called "the greatest compliment tina
man can pay to woman. l resist tn
temptation of having it printed, and al
ways make an autograph copy for eacl
applicant.
y Another "compliment" as flattering
4 but even more onerous, is the reques
for advice upon every possible subject
x from mechanical engineering to tn
classification of butterflies and the hes
means of softening the obdurate hear