The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1897-06-09
phiIssophr Talks Of The Old Tine Postal
Charges.
He IS BEslEGED WITH QUESTIONS.
CORRESPONDENCE With Old Friends a
Great Pleasure to the Sage of Bar
tow-The First Nuptials Of His Re-
collection Named.

fully cheap they are and how swiftly
they come and go! Only 2 cents to
the utmost limit of the United States,
say 1000 miles, and only 5 cents to be
carried across the ocean. 1t takes only |
2 cents to carry letter to the City OF
Mexico, but it takes 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 left
behind him, and his postage is quite
tax. She thinks I ought to write to
President Diaz and Mr.. Mckinley and
demand reciprocity, just for Carls
sake, but 1 compromised with her by
promising to inclose dime in every
letter I wrote to the boy. In almost
every mail that comes she is on the
lookout for a letter from some OF the
absent ones, and when she gets one
she reads it two or three times and
files it away on her side of the room.
The morning and the evening mail has
become as important an event in the
routine of our daily life as our daily
meals. It is an event that has grown
on US and become indispensable. Time
was when neither she nor I received
letter o month, for she lad no lover
but me, and / had none but her and
our postal system was q darkey boy.
1t was like that of Zeb Vance, who
received note from some fashionable
woman in Washington with the mystic
rious letters, "R. S.V. P" endorsed on
it, and when he answered it he put on
one corner IS B. A. NJ" just to keep
up with society, he said. When she
afterwards asked for an explanation he
smiled and said: ooh, they stood for
Sent by niger. I"
remember when the postage had to
be paid at the last end of the line by
the person who received it, and it was
% cents if it came 500 miles. If less
than that, but from out the state, it
was 49, cents, and if within the state,
it was 121 cents. We had no decimal
currency then, but we had the seven
pence 121 cents) and the thrip (64
cents and they were worn to the quick
from constant use. Nothing told their
value except their size. We received
the great United States mail twice a
week and the footing of the stage dri-
ver's 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 postoffice to hear the
news. Perhaps there were as many as
twenty weekly papers taken in the
town, but none of them made mention
of murders or suicides or lynchings OF
Opponents or baseball or football OF
bicycle races or the fashions or re-
wards for guessing or advertisements
of celery compound or photographs O
men or women or babies or the arriva
of anybody less than q president or {
governor. But in our state papers
there were some little pictures or cut
of hasty departures-runaways-ant
all were uniformly advertised: ERA,
away from the subscriber, my DO,
Dick, ETC., and I will give $40 reward
for his apprehension"
But now the letters-ah, the letters
that come every day! Besides tn
family letters from kith and kin, ther
are scores from good people who ar
. working for church or charity, or wan
e information about Florida or Mexico
J. Very often am I comforted with CON
pliments which I love to receive, an
S very often I get a good, long lette
/ from some old-time Georgian who fo
half a century has been living i
l. Texas or Arkansas. or somewhere
:, the great west. 1t pleases me TO re
W ply to all and make the best answe
that I can. But perhaps had bette
say just here that have long sine
ceased to write compositions for IL
school girls or to assist the boys
their debating societies. I wish Sill
cerely that 1 had time to help then
II but I have not. I know how it is, fl
| used to get help myself.
But some of these letters are anu
CD ing. One received few days ago
N ils very urgent to have my opinion upe
IL the propriety or improperly of a chri
tan man digging storm pit and ge
ting in it when the cyclone gives i
warming. Is it sinful or not to sho
such lack of faith in God? He sa,
they are making a church question
it in his community. ] have had Sc
' eral letters asking for assistance
guessing the missing word that II
. Constitution offers thousand dolla
for. These letters, of course, are co
r fidential, and some beg me noC
t mention it even to Mrs. Arp. But t
!, delicious humor in one of them is f
= offer to give me half the reward il
= will disclose to her the word. Th
$ is very like the generous fellow W
told the boy that if he would furni
his own hooks and lines and bait
would give him half the fish he caugf
D Since my last letter about how
raise children was published ha
had several very comforting epistl
from friends and some from stranger
= Rev. William H. Strickland max
: mention of several families from c
e Gwinnett whose children are all gro1
: and are esteemed by all who kns
:, them as good people-honest, la
q abiding and temperate. He nam
the three sons and five daughters
my old friend Jim Dunlay. Also t
eight children of Rev. d. II. Moncri
r. enc of whom now lives in Atlanta, a
has five sons and five daughters,
= grown up and all good men and v
n men. John and Mary B. Sammo,