Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-02-24
LETTERS STOPPED IN TIME.
People Who Are Saved by the POST
master From the Result of
Hasty Action.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.

rom the thlcaso inter ocean.
THE tears We're streaming from her
eyes like spray from the Yerkes fountain"
said a clerk in the inquiry division of the
postoffice, laughing at the memory of the
stout. horid woman who rushed in one hot
afternoon with the plaintiye wall. stop my
letter; give me my letter to the Old Coun-
try"
That letter. the man went on, was
dropped somewhere within the city limits.
and was mixed in with some 2.1wp.pW othfr
letters. yet she wanted us to get 1t for her
Quick-Seemed to think that l would bounce
out of my chair Like a rubber bali out OF a
tennis racket, snatch up that particular
tennis racket. snatch u pthat particular
epistle. and come running back breathless
that the government does not permit the
stopping of a letter that has left the writ
er's hands unless 1t is important that 1t
should be done 1, makes an enormous
amount of extra work. Here is a blank
that must be filled out. stating the box in
which the letter was dropped, the time. the
the recovery is made. That reason some
times discloses some very interesting and
romantic facts. but. of course, most of the
Letters are stopped for the business houses
about town. When We asked the red faced
Elobe what her reason was she boo-hooed.
Me an my man had some troubles; n 1
wrote to my fader for moneys TO go home.
but my man an me have made up. an l
would not have that letter go for a t'ous-
and dollar We got that letter for her.
who rushed in here during the opera sea-
son, and when she had caught Il little
breath she said she wanted a letter she
had addressed to Peoria. Ill.-there were
some s. opera tickets in it that she want
ed TO use that night. She had had IA letter
written to her family. and. thinking there
might be a postscript to add. had not sealed
1t. She bought her seats to 'Tannhauser'
and left the window with her purse. her
letter and her tickets in her hand. The
open envelope was so inviting a place for
the ticket that she thought she would
carry them there. but just as she saw
a letrerboX it was like a red rag to a bull.
She sealed the envelope and posted ii.
tickets and all. and IL was hours before she
remembered what she had done. and came
down to us for help. We got her tickets.
too.
Young women who have reconsidered'
a proposal or who regret a hasty note. like
the men. blushingly coniide their troubles
to us. and we have prevented more than
one broken heart.
Sometimes the letters have left our
hands and We have to telegraph to catch
them. which IS done at the PERSONS eX-
penSe. We have more than once cabled
to Berlin and St. Petersburg to head of
a billet-douX or some request from an I'M
patient and p~etulant SON for a check. A
scion of a noble German house came in
here to implore US to prevent the delivery
of a demand for money. written. / fancy.
in a tone that in the light of recent remit
tances. would endanger his inheritance.
There is some mighty interesting reading
among the blanks requesting letters
stopped: all of which are sent on to Wash
ington."