The Washington times., 1901-10-06

tested, or abolished. The letters contain
everything from politics to housework
After her first winter IN Washington tn
writer addressed herself to the task o
taking care of the house while her mothe
was absent. The letter from which tn
following extract is taken was written a
the time of the Prince of Wales visit Il
America:
My Dear Mother, As you are so
roma OF letters. and as l have just fin
ished one 70 DIR. Dexter, which | don't
see now You can get at, and as ! am
gong soon to write one to DR.. Kirk,
which you must lalso deny yourself
why, l thought l would write you
little WiSp of a letter Just to comfort
you. As soon as you were gone
l turned and went, too-straight home.
INTO the house changed my boots, and
started off for Ipswich. II was seven
teen minutes past nine when / started
ana 1t was twenty-five minutes past
ten when | got to the Ipswich Station.
The prince came out and l had good.
fair, full look at him-though not half
long enough, of course. was more
pleased than l had expected to be. Now
for home experiences. We still live, as
you judge. ! toasted bread Saturday
night for supper-no, it was Sunday
morning. Father took to frying pork
l sat down to read the paper while
waiting-forgot the bread-Smelt II
burning, but never thought what it
was-and, oh. my. wasn't ii black. We
had quite search for the cheese, put
couldn't find it. | concluded at last
that it must have walked off. | am
sure it had every facility: 1t appeared.
however, this morning. l guess father
whistled TO it,
Here is a scrap of correspondence which
has a humorous side:
Hamilton. Mass, Feb. 3. 1868.
Mr.. Derby my friend, on the nine
teenth of this month | sent you a
letter. Did you receive it?
Yours, very truly, NJ. A II.
Now. Mary Abby. my friend. how
could that be possible? Dfdnt I you
mean the nineteenth of next month?
SMITH"
And here is glimpse of her mother:
&c. and S were here to tea Monday,
long enough to hear n few of my
book letters read Mother is greatly
alarmed lest | should be puffed up
overmuch, but no sooner does any
member of the family come into the
house than she says oh, Abby, just
get your st. Louis letter and read" or
your New York letter. or your Chicago
letter, as it happens. And If she has
heard them read a hundred times be-
fore. she sits with as wide open ears
as If they were entirely new and fresh.
Not newspaper puff appears but |
see her 'nosing round among the old
papers with her scissors three or four
days afterward, and ! can always de-
tect her errand by her sheepish look"
Two or three letters of the time OF Gar
field are interesting. Here is a bit of
one of them:
''Mr. Thomas, of Portland, says he
was there (at the Garfields) an even
ing or two ago, and a dozen or so
others, and the ladies wanted to be
presented to Grandma Garfield. and
were bowling and smiling and begged
grandma not to stand because she
would tire herself. 'Mebbe / shall.
and mebbe / shan't, perked out
grandma. At dinner the President
told his son to take OUT grandma; so
he went up to do it, but she said no:
she had gone out a good many times
alone. and she guessed she could
now"
The adjective which one instinctively
applies to Gail Hamilton is 'irrepress-
ible." Whether right or wrong. she was
always ready to speak her mind; and her
chatter. sometimes CHEEKY, sometimes Sc
rious, fills her letters and brims over.
Boston: Lee & Shepard.)