The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24
A BUNDLE OF LETTERS.
The True Story of an Absentminded
-4f Man
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New York Commercial-Advertiser
Once upon time she had written
him beautiful love letters, and in those
days the sight of her pretty flourish
ing handwriting had been like the per-
fume of honey to bee or the oaof Oh
honeysuckle to a humming bird. He
knew every twirl and dot and dash Of
her fernatic letterssS every little curlycue
with which she was wont to adorn
those tender missives. Then they We're
married. Years passed; He was ampl-
tious and absorbed in&hiS work. She
was occupied with her household. They
were quite content to jog along side by
side, although he oftenf urged her to
go to the seashore in summer, and she
sometimes begged him to stop work
long enough to take a vacation. But
he said he didn't need rest. and she
wouldn't go away without him. so 1t
came to pass that she had not written
him a letter since the days of their
courtship.
A few weeks ago she made up her
mind to visit friend in the country.
He was buster than usual and more
absent minded than ever, but he reused
himself sufficiently to draw a big check
for her and drive her down to the sta
ton Then he went back to his office,
and not having any one to go home
to, stayed down town all evening, work
ing and smoking and becoming more
absent minded and immersed in work.
| every hour. The next day square,.
white envelope for Mrs. John A.
Blank came by post. John A. slipped
it into a drawer Of his desk and forgot
! it. The next day another letter in the
square, cream-wl1ite envelope peculiar
to feminine stationery arrived. An
!. other letter for Mary Arabeila," said
! John A., and popped it into the drawer
! with the other letter. When he had
time he was going to post them to her.
! But in the meantime there was no news
of Mary Arabella herself. He thought
1 he would send her telegram when he
got through calculating how many tons
/ of ice it would take to cool 5000 cubic
feet of air, irrespective of humidity, or
some such absurd problem for warm
| weather.
When Mrs Blank had been away five
weeks the number of square White en-
veiopes in the drawer in Mr.. Blank S
desk had grown to quite little pile.
/ Then Mrs. Blank came home. She sent
him telegram to say when she would
arrive, and he wandered down to the
wrong railway station to meet her.
When he discovered his mistake it was
too late to do anything but so home.
There he found his helpmeet offended
and angry. II should think she said,
/ that you could have found time to
/ come to meet me, John Blank; the first
time I've been away from home in five
/ years, too
But I started out to meet you, my
| DEAR protested the absent minded
| Blank. You see, 1 was working on an
estimate for Smith & Co, and l got
on the wrong car
Il think you ought to devote a little
of your attention to me-
Indeed! Well, don't think you
wasted much thought on me, Mary
| Arabella, since you've been away You
haven't written to me in five weeks,
/ madam.
Don't talk nonsense, John Blank. I
wrote every other day, and in your
usual absent minded fashion you never
answered a question l asked you or
pretended to be surprised at any news
l told you"
j II didn't get letter from YOU, per-
sisted Mr.. Blank, and then they both
! wfeaked their arrogance on the post
office system. and sailed forth to re-
cover the lost letters. 3
! The postoffice was searched and the
clerks were put through a cross-fire OF
j questions that must have reminded
them of the days of their civil service
examinations. But no letters were
Forthcoming. When the Blanks reached
home Mr.. Blank opened his desk.
by the way, Mary Arabella, here are
some letters for you. l meant to send
/ them, but you know I've had a lot to
think about He tossed the pile OF
envelopes into her lap. Mrs. Blank
gave them one look and then leaned
back in her chair, speechless. her eyes
fixed upon her husband in hopeless, in
expressable pity-shaded with con-
! tempt.
.Well?' said Mr.. Blank.
well, John Blank" was all his wife
could say. well, John Blank, do you
know who wrote those letters, all but
this one, this five weeks old one? did
And you never opened one of them
And to think" and here, Mrs. Blank
produced little scrap of lace and
lawn and began to weep. ITO think
that I tried so hard to make them
sound nice and bright and-loving, be-
cause you used to say my letters were
such BIB beaut-i-ful ones."