Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1898-01-22
LETTERS STOPPED IN TIME.
People Saved by Postmasters From the
Result of Hasty Action.

People Saved by Postmasters From the
Result of Hasty Action.
"The tears We're streaming from her
eyes like spray from the Gerkes foun-
tain, said a clerk in the inquiry di-
vision of the postoffice, laugh4pg at the
memory of the stout florid woman who
rushed i'll one hot afternoon with the
plaintive wall Stop my letter Give
he my letter to the old countryl
"That letter." the man went on,
was dropped somewhere within the
city limits and was mixed in with some
1000, 600 other letters yet she wanted
US to get it for her quick-seemed to
think that | would bounce out of my
chair like rubber ball out of a tennis
racket, snatch up that particular epis-
tie and come running back breathless
and hand it to her Now, the facts are
that the government does not permit
the stopping of letter that has left the
writer's hands unless it is important
that it should be done. 1t makes an
enormous amount of extra work. Here
is blank that must be filled out, stat
ing the box i'll which the letter was
reason why the request for the recovery
is made That reason sometimes dis
closes some very interesting and roman
tic facts; but, of course most of the
letters are stopped for the business
houses about town When we asked the
red faced Nlobe what her reason was,
she boohooed, Me an my man had
some troubles, an | wrote to my fader
for moneys to go home, but my man
all me have made up, an | would not
have that letter go for a t'ousand dol
lar We got that letter for her
There was another, young woman
who rushed III here during the opera
season, and when she had caught little
breath she said she wanted letter she
had addressed to Peoria, Ills There
were some S. opera tickets in it that she
wanted to use that night She had had
a letter written to her family, and
thinking there might be postscript to
add, had not sealed it She bought her
seats to Tannhauser and left the win
dow with her purse, her letter and her
tickets in her hand. The open envelope
was so inviting a place for the tickets
that she thought she would carry them
there but Just as soon as she saw q let
ter box it was like Il red rag to bull
She sealed the envelope and posted it,
tickets and all, and it was hours before
she remembered what she had done and
then came down to us for help We got
her tickets too
Young women who have 'reconsid-
cred proposal or who regret a hasty
note. like the men, blushingly confde
their troubles to us, and we have pre-
vented 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 person $ ex-
pense We have more than once cabled
to Berlin and St Petersburg to head off
billet douX or some request from an
impatient and petulant son for a check
A scion of a noble German house came
in here to implore US to prevent the de-
livery OF a demand for money, written,
| fancy, in tone that, in the light of
recent remlttances would endanger his
Inheritance There is some mighty in
terestlng reading among the blanks re-
questlng letters stopped, all of which
are sent on to Washington. ''-Chicago
Infer Ocean