The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-05-03

1 lshed at a time when there were other | questions relating to his own record
 under discussion, and it created a preju- dice against him which conduced to the premature termination of a brilliant ! career.
 Our political history furnishes a still more impressive illustration series of letters written by a prominent states man were secretly copied from the busi- ness files of the man who received them and were published to the world at a crisis of that statesman's career, just at the moment when his rivals were in-
 terested in having the public put the worst construction upon them. They were misconstrued and misrepresented and resulted, twenty years ago, in the annihilation of the writer's political as- pirations. Pertinent illustration the | third: The impulsive letter written by l George Washington's most intimate per- sonal friend in the army, Colonel Jo- seph Reed, to General Charles Lee. That letter practically destroyed Joseph Reeds whole future career. My broth CT, with such examples before you ask l yourself If you can afford to write any letter which will not bear the test of wholesale publicity. However sure you may be of your letters being safely de- livered to your correspondent, who will rightly understand them. do not forget that In the changes of life they may fall into the hands of malicious and hostile persons.
 Furthermore, you should not write a letter which cannot be rightly read by the whole world at large. because you do not know how soon the friend to whom you have written may become your enemy Oh, how easy 1t is to snap the ties of friendship which bind human heart to human heart. Brothers who once slept in the same cradle and played in the same nursery and were the sub Ieets of the same prayers can become so bitter in their hatred that they will even fight mortal combat over their parents graves. Friends who once loved as a Jonathan and as a David may come to hate each other as Cain hated his broth CT Abel. Then the friend who has now become the enemy will nearly always try to destroy you by the evidence of the unguarded letters you have written in times of love.
 When Friend Turns Upon Friend.
 My father used to impress this thought upon me by the recoTlections of an awful night which he passed in an ordeal of indescribable horrors. very near and dear relative of his was his intimate associate for many years. They were to each other as intimate as brothers. They confided in each other everything. Time passed on and there was a rupture. The friendship was broken. What did that relative do? He immediately took all the letters which my father had written and handed them over to the newspapers for publication The night that my fath- CT heard of the despicable act, Jas he has often told me, was the most awful night of his whole life. He knew that he had done no wrong, but he was afraid that in confidential correspondence of many years he might have written something which in the eyes of the world might be imprudent. All that night he tramped the floor. When the first ray of daylight told that the dawn was near, he went out to buy the morning newspaper which contained the published private corre- spondence. He read these published let ters in the street. When he returned, the first words he said to mother were: Thank God there Is nothing compro- missing that I have written! Thank God! | Thank Godr' That Is not the only illus tration which might be given where friend has turned upon friend. Then, my brother. to either friend or foe alike . never write anything which may some day not be able to stand the test of the public print.
 Never write a letter with a ,.engeful l pen, dipped into an ink well filled with hatred. When one has been unjustly attacked 1t is very easy for an injured man to say: "I wish I could see that man. I wish I could give him q good piece of my mind. I wish I could tell him in plain, blunt language what l think of him and his actions. As I cannot SC him, I will just sit down and write him a letter." Then he hastily sits down and writes a Demosthenan philippic Vituperations and denuncia- tions, contemptuous excoriation, sting ing ironies, bitter epigrams and whole verbal avalanches of invective are gath cred together upon the letter sheet at the pens touch. Then he rushes away to the postoffce and buys a special deliv- | cry stamp. He pounds it upon the en- velope with a blow that sounds like a foundry in full blast. Then he goes home, saying to himself: There, I have relieved myself of that matter. I have told that man just what l think of him and his actions. If he should ever repeat the offense. I will not only write to him another letter, but I shall expose his actions to his employers his wife. children and to the public at large"
 The Reveneeful Letter.
 Now, my friend, in one sense it may ease your mind to write a revengeful letter, but what good does such letter do? Does 1t make your enemy feel any kinder or more gentle to you? Does such a letter ever make a man feel any kinder or more gentle to the great world at large? Have you made him a better ! man? Have you made yourself better man also? in fact, In ninety-nine cases out of a 100 does not such a letter dam age your neighbor and also do more damage to the sender than it does to the man to whom the letter Is sent? I once read of an eastern tyrant who wanted to destroy an enemy. He invited this enemy to sup with him. While they sat at meat he had the waiter bring in two glasses of wine, the one poisoned and the other not. But when the king of- fered to his guest cup he dhe king) by mistake took and drank the poisoned cup, Like the king, is it not always the case when a man writes a purely re- vengeful letter that he is hurt more in the sending than the enemy is in the recei ling? Did not the officers of state pr-pare their own death warrant when they persuaded Darius to send forth the public decree by which they hoped to destroy the prime minister? e|
 Never write a letter without realizing that in 1t you have the mightiest oppor- tunites of testlfying for Jesus Christ. We have all studied the far-reaching effect in a literary sense of letter writ ing The private correspondence be- tween individuals fills some of the brightest and the most interesting books of literature. The love letters of Eliza beth Barrett and Robert Browning. the tander words which were sent east and