The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-06


are content.
Here, also, in the Swing rooms" tur-
quoise haze of smoke, the relaxed postmen
narrate unto each other their experience
Of the day on the highways and byways of
the town, and their strange and weird deal
ings with the citizens and citizenesses
thereof. For instance, No SO will slip in so
quietly and thoughtfully, and proceed to
add to the general smokiness with such
studlous elaboration that, as with one
voice, the others will demand him to come
to the front.
rs that woman at No 265 again." says
NO. 80. She made my head rattle again to-
day, and I'm going to beg to have my beat
changed. L knew when l started out with
out a letter for her that / was in for it, but
dldnt expect to get Jolted around the way
l was How can / help it if her husband
skips a day without writing to her? Well;
she came out on the steps this time and
made holy show of me. l thought she
was going to throw something at me.
She"
That's right" said the veteran postman
in an aside to one present who wasn't a
postman L suppose that at least once a
DAY FOR the past twenty years l nave been
pulldozed by some one or other on my beat
because l don't bring EN- a letter. 1t seems
TO me that that's worse kind of lunacy
than throwing rocks at the President. But
/ tell you, it's getting more common all the
time. The women are the worst.
HELD UP FOR LETTERS.
I've been hustling around a letter car
rier's beat for a good many years, and am
pretty thoroughly hardened, but the
tongue-lashings l get once in a while from
women for not bringing them letters still
set me on edge occasionally They don't
hesitate to tell us that we steal their letters
you know, and they say it so the whole
block can hear them. They lay for US as
we go by the gate, and, say, do you know
that I've often been tempted to cook ur
some kind of letter to them myself so as
most or them are what are called nice
women, too. Generally they are hostile be-
cause their absent husbands are not writing
regularly to them, and SO they take it oul
on US. OFTEN, too, their madness is made
worse because they are expecting money
IN letters from their husbands When this
IS the case letter carrier has got to stand
by for heavy weather if he has to deal with
one OF these unreasonable women. l hao
lhdt sort or experience not many months
ago. She was a middle-aged woman, ano
lived in a nice house of her own and he1
hubands, up on P street. | had just taker
the beat when her husband went off on
trip, and for three or four days after / went
on that route | brought her a letter right
along IN the same big handwriting. Their
they suddenly stopped. For the first day
or so the WOman-she was close on to mid
| die aged-only looked at me kind of glurn.
Ike, without saying anything, but / saw
that there was a squall in sight. On the
third day, when / had no letter for her in
my pouch, / own up to it that | walked
kind Of gingerly to where she stood waiting
Tor me on the steps There was a bad loo1
in her eye.
Well, have you got my letter., says
" Nome said I Not to-day, I'm sorry
She grew about foot higher all of a
p" My man. she said in voice that al
lhe nelghbors for half block around coulC
near, do you want me to tell you what you
| lief
common, everyday thief, and I'm not only
gong to nave you arrested for stealing my
| Ieehtters, but I'm going to see that you go tc
L could see that there was no way fol
me to square myself around there and sc
went down the street about nv business
But it made me feel pretty small and sore
all the same. Well, sir the very next trip
on the same day, | brought her big fat
she smiled all over and tore it open before
could get away. l noticed a check dropped
cut Of it e..
me, as nice as pie as l was going out the
| gate, but didn't feel so soft toward hel
| ton, and so went on without answering"
TRAGEDY ON THE SIDE.
While the old-timer is speaking No a.
comes in quietly and takes his corner with
the air of man doing some thinking.
Say" he is heard to remark through the
| mist, you know that old lady out on Sew
enteenth street I've been telling YOU about
who's got boy somewhere in the navy and
Whos been cryin' and goin on so for the
past three months because he hadn't writ
ten TO her? Well, on this last trip | had ar
oInclaI letter, with Navy Department and
the name of ship way out in China or
II, Tor her, and | was tickled to death tC
H fan IL TO her and kind o waited around
LOT minute until she opened it on the
porch lust to watch her enjoy herself Well
SIR, she hadn't read two lines before she lei
out scream that raised my hair and
or9ught all the neighbors to her. Then She
Iell IN a faint on the porch. One of the
women that came from the next house
PICKED up the letter and read it to the
othefs. 1T was from the skipper of the
BOYS ship out in China and was pretty
ninety written, too. 1t announced to the olc
lady' with profound regret, and all that
sort OF thing, that her son had died aboard
the ship on the trip between Shanghai AND
Hong Kong, and that it had been necessa nv
to bury him at sea. 1t kind O. breaks q
man up to have to haul around documents
like that
Then, on another day. No. 60 is likely r.
wander in with well-defned grin on his
countenance, and upon being asked what
ais him. thus he responds:
They've still got things all mixed IN al
that mother-in-law house on Ninth street
Ihey did everything but tear my scalp off
to-day, but it was too good to feel bad over
IT, You see, the mother-in-law land the
boss of the house, if I'm any judge). has
got the same name down to the middle mi
l1etl Dis H6T QduSnCer-ln-IdW, and / don't
think they like each other very well. Ever
since went on that route I've been delty-
ering slews of letters every trip addressed
with the one name and the nother~in-law
and daughter-in-law haven't been able to
sort EN- out single time without a scrap
Both would claim the whole lot every time
each OF EN- saying that they knew the
handwriting of all the letters They would
never get the right batch, either. even when
they made an equal division and the only
way for them to do would be to open them
ali In each others presence and size up the
signatures, from which they could generally
tell for which of 'em the letters were in
tended
But it has been happening right along
that when / reached the house one or other
of EN- would be out, and the one that hap
pened to be in would open all of the letters.
rot time they had up there when the one
that had been out came home and found
out that her letters had been carefully read
by the other one. For the past two week
they have been staying in the house All the
time think, just TO wait for me TO turn I'm
with their letters, for I've seen them hot h
at the window every time l went around
there.
The last trip last night only the daugh-
ter-in-law appeared when I turned I'M and
she looked kind o triumphant when I hand
ed her more than a dozen letters / heard
about ii this morning. The mother-iT1-lau NJ
know that she gave me the worst lambasf-
ing you ever heard because | had given the
letters up to her daughter-in-law She said
that the name on the envelopes of some of
the letters was parted in the middle and
that | ought TO have known that those were