The Van Buren press., 1897-05-29
ARP ON HIS MAIL.
Philosopher Tells of When Postage
Was Two Bits a Letter.
lie Is Asked Many Observation-Disclosures
Man Shows the Pleasure There
Is in n Correspondence with
Old Friends.

TO mankind than that of letters and
their easy transmission by modern
postal service How wonderfully cheap
they are, and how swiftly they come
and go! Only two cents to the utmost
limit of the United States, say
1000 miles, and only five cents to be
carried across the ocean. 1t takes only
two cents to carry a letter to the City
Of Mexico, but it takes five cents to
bring one back.
My wife says that it is hard on Carl,
for besides his weekly letter to US, he
has many friends, and the girl he lef5
behind him, and his postage is quite
tax. She thinks l ought to write to
President Diaz and Mr.. Mckinley
and demand reciprocity, just for
Carl's sake, but compromised with her
by promising to inclose dime in every
letter | wrote to the boy. In almost
every mail that comes she is on the look
out for letter from some of the
absent ones, and when she gets one she
reads it two or three times and files it
way on her side of the room. The
morning and the evening mail has be-
,ome as important an event in
the routine of our daily lives as
our daily meals. 1t is an event
that has grown on us and be-
come indispensable. Time was when
neither she nor l received letter a
month, for she had no lover but me,
md | had none but her, and our postal
iystem was darby boy. 1t was like
hat of Zeb Vance, who received note
from some fashionable woman in Wash
ngton with the mysterious letters
r. S. V. P" endorsed on it, and when
he answered it he put on one corner
S. B. A. ~" just to keep up with So
aiety, he said. When she afterwards
lsked for an explanation, he smiled and
aid: ooh, they stood for: Sent by a
digger"
| remember when the postage had to
)e paid at the last end of the line by
he person who received it, and, it was
5 cents if it came 500 miles. If less
han that, but from out of the state, it
vas 1874 cents, and if within the state
was 1914 cents. We had no decimal
currency then, but we had the seven
)ence 12h cents) and the thrip (6H
,ents) and they were worn to the quick
from constant use. Nothing told their
value except their size. We received
he great United States mail twice a
week and the footing of the stage
rivers horn as he rose to the brow Of
the distant hill aroused all the people
Of the little village, and most of them
gathered at the post office to hear the
news. Perhaps there were as many as
20 weekly papers taken in the town.
but none of them made mention of muir
ders or suicides, or lynchings or elope-
ments, or baseball or football, or bicycle
races or the fashions, or rewards for
guessing or advertisements of celery
compound, or photographs of men or
women or babies, or the arrival of any
body less than president or governor.
But in our state papers there were some
little pictures or cuts of hasty depar-
tures-runaways- all were uni
formly advertised: Ran away from the
subscriber, my boy Dick, ETC., and will
give ten dollars reward for his appre-
pension"
But now the letters-ah, the letters
that come every day! Besides the fam
lily letters from kith and kin, there are
scores from good people who are work
ing for church or charity, or want in
formation about Florida or Mexico.
Very often am | comforted with compli-
ments which l love to receive, and very
often get a good, long letter from some
old-time Georgian who for half a CEN
tury has been living in Texas or Arkan-
sas, or somewhere in the great west. 1t
pleases me to reply to all and make the
best answer that | can. But perhaps
had better say just here that l have
long since ceased to write compositions
for the schoolgirls or to assist the boys
in their debating societies. l wish sim
cerely that l had time to help them,
but | have not. know how it is, for |
used to get help myself.
But some of these letters are anus
ing. One received a few days ago is
very urgent to have my opinion upon
the propriety or improperly of a
Christian man digging a storm pit
and getting in it when the cy.
clone gives its warning. Is 1t sinful
or not to show such lack of faith in
God? He says they are making a
church question of it in his community
| have had several letters asking for as
sistance in guessing the missing word
that the Constitution offers 81 600 for.
These letters, of course are confiden.
tial and some beg me not TO mention II
even TO Mrs. Arp. But the delicious
humor in one of them is the offer to
give me half the reward if will disclose
to her the word. That is very like the
generous fellow who told the boy that
if he would furnish his own hooks and
lines and bait he would give him hall
the fish he caught.
Since my last letter about how to
raise children was published have had
several very comforting epistles from
friends and some from strangers. Rev
| William H. Strickland makes mention
of several families from old Gwinnst II
whose children are all grown and are es.
teemed by all who know them as good
people-honcst, law-abiding and tenn
perate. He names the three sons and
i've daughters of my old friend jim
Dunlap. Also the eight children OF
Rev. D. II. Moncrief. one Of whom nov
lives in Atlanta and has five sons and
five daughters, all grown up and all
good men and women. John and Mary
B. Sammons, his wife, had It. 20 grow
TO maturity, end they were all good
TOW Itch those parents werel-richeI
/ - sTk =. -. ....v.s