The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-06-29
LOVE LETTERS,

ture Your wife," or :'tYour husband"
conveys a whole world of unbounded
affection and regard, The shortest
letter brought by the postman and
handed in at. the breakfast table is a
hand-clasp that conveys heart-throb.>>
y
Letters of still more tender sweet
ness, were it possible, are forever fit
ting across the continent in Uncle
Sans mail, letters sent by mothers to
absent sons, to daughters at college OF
to children away on a visit. Some O:
the sweetest letters ever written are
penned by hands that are more accus-
toned to the broom and the rolling
pin than to ink and paper. So many
wise cautions, SO many gentle remind
ers, SO many loving counsels weave
themselves into homely letters, that 60
from the farmhouse or the city fiat to
the distant child, that one fancies the
recording angel smiles as he peeps
over the writer's shoulder. ::
Every great catastrophe, a tornado
an earthquake, a vast conflagration or
disaster at sea, is the occasion of let
tiers that, in their Straightforward and
pithy narrative, surpass much that is
written directly for the press. When
San Francisco was destroyed by earth
quake and flame, and it's thousands
upon thousands of happy people were
made homeless in a day, the first mail
bags were burdened with letters of
Homeric simplicity and force. They
were sent to kindred and acquaint-
ances, who watched for them eagerly
and snatched at every detail with an.
avidity that could not wait Times
like these test the sincerity of love
and letters written in the ground-sweIl
of homelessness and loss come straight
from the heart. 1t is curious to note
in letters of this kind characteristics
of bravery and faith in an almost uni
versal absence of complaint. People
who lost everything they had in the
world were impressed with the suffer-
ings of others and wrote as If they had
been spectators of a calamity >rather
than victims. Instantly, by wire and
post so soon as it was possible, targi-
BILE relief went flying from the east to
the west, not merely in great contribu
tons, but in Individual Gums that In
every case meant real self-denial and
sacrifice.
Love and letters might be interpret
ed life and letters il cases like this.
Looking over the vast range of liter
allure, we discover little to our sur
prise, that the greatest achievements
of genius are surpassed by the same
authors in their letters to kith and
kin. Carlyle, for instance, was mag
nificent as historian and essayist and
undivalled as biographer, but no
where does he appeal so directly to the
heart as when he is writing to his old
mother in the little cottage at home,
in Annandale, or to his sister or bro
Their in the wilds of Canada. If We
would look for pictures of life in any
period, We must go to the letters Of the
time, letters not written in ceremoni
GUS terms or in full dress, but by the
campfire, on the march, or in the
haste of the last hour before bedtime
"A Ne%utAOA AAoy CO dOu4 Oo0Vu w eAAA
writer's of hove letters, especially before
marriage. Never write that which
would cause you blush or fleeing
embarrassment should it fall into the
wrong hands. Letters sometimes 60
astray. It is foolish and futile to pour
out upon paper string of fulsome adj
jectives and supertluous superlatlves,
that really mean little. Love should
not waste itself in written endearments
that lose force by needless repetition.
Love Is a thing that should stand the
wear and tear OF life, that should wash
and not lose color or fiber, that should
endure wind and sun and neither fade
nor tarnish. The best love letter is the
one that the recipient may hold close
to her heart while she would not blush
should It by accident fall under the eye
OF a stranger. s.ts <..,,;.: IL"