The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-11-28
OLD TIME LETTERS.
AN EPlSTLE WRITTEN NEARLY ONE
HUNDRED YEARS AGO.


Sweetheart to Elope with Him.
If the prim Puritan maiden of a century
ago 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 ad-
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 de steele
womanhood, as 1t 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 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-had not been modernized. To
affairs really seems a 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 it's perusal
may be pardonable. In a word, it is the
embodiment of flial 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 a 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 beansf In 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. 13, 1S04"-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
/, my dear sir, am equally astonished that
my answer written as early as the Sth 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 should
have considered myself inexcusable If 1
had delayed a day to acknowledge letter
which gave me such heartfelt pleasure. If
you have received my letter, you will find
! in ~ inno Of tho fryor oct
1t will always, my dear father make me
unhappy to know that you are SO, and
particularly if 1 have any reason to sup
pose myself, even unintentionally, 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 circumstantial 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,
will go on to a part of your letter over
which L shed many, very many, tears.
"Oh, 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 1 should read the follow
ing very affecting line in your letter with
out its being torn: Sweet SOUL you will
not have your parents longY When /
came to read this, could no longer re-
strain my tears, so covering my face with
my handkerchief 1 audibly sobbed. Can
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 l could be
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 meekly bow my head in pious
resignation.
And now, my dear papa, hoping that
you will acquit me Of either neglect OF
inattention to the best Of fathers, repeat
again and again that am your ever affec
tionate and dutiful daughter,
JULIA MARCIA MURRAY.
1--WE have got our buckwheat meal. Mr.
Jones and Cousin Mary Allen desire theil
best regards. j. M. M.
A writer on etiquette of those days tell
amorous youths how to write fetching
billet doux to their ladyloyes. ClRndes
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
tion of an estate from his penurious uncle
to 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 branct
of loyemaking:
"MY DEAR MARIA-My Ilncle's laying
his iniunctions upon me not to see you
more has only served to add fuel to my
passion. l cannot live without you, anC
If you persist in refusing to comply an
miserable forever. 1 pay no regard to his
threatening when put in competition witt
= the love have for you. Don't be afraic
. of poverty. If he should continue inexo
rable, have still education sufficient tx
procure a genteel employment in one o.
the public offices, where l may rise to pref
erment Therefore, If ever you loved me
let me beg that you will not make me AM
longer unhappy. Let me entreat you b!
all that's dear that you will comply will
my request and meet me at Sunday
evening at the back door of the garden
xryhavsa a ohafca and fn1tr xryilI ba readv