The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-12
LOVE LETTERS USED AS
 HER DAILY TEXTBOOKS

Most married women have their ten- der memories about the love letters sent them in their pemafrfed day by the men who are now their hus- bands. says The New York American. Some men even plead guilty to hav- ing a certain amount of fellow-feel- ing on the subject themselves. Some friends of the writer held . council of war loon after their mar riage, one on oE,e side of the hearth. one on the other. each with a bundle of the others letters in their hands and each trying to decide which should be destroyed and which kept.
 Listen, Dick. I'll read you out loud to you, and you read mine out to me. and we'll see which we had bet ter burn:" but before the reading had gone very far Dick decided that he must keep Helen's letters and she de- cided that she must keep all of Dicks Really, they were all too precious for any of them to be destroyed Later on Helen confided to the writ CT that she had hit upon a brilliant idea. T do have ideas sometimes" she said. This one really Is brilliant. though" and then she proceeded to elaborate it.
 Most people," she said, have daily readings of some sort some people read the Bible, some read poetry, some birthday books but I mean to read one letter a day. from Dick to me. I shall bind them all together in chron- ological order, book form. and fastep them with ribbons at the backs, to strengthen them"
 Then every morning I shall read one. then that will help me to remem- Der the sweetness of our courtship days, and if Dick seems cross or tried. and he often is, poor boy, when tusi- ness worries crop up. shall just try to remember what was like when we were engaged, and shall ask my self if the faults are all on Dicks sweet and as charming as a wife as I was as0 a fancee, and l think that the reading of his letters to me will be helpful.
 Tt will serve to remind me. at all events, what he thought of me then. and I shall know that he thinks as much of me now, if not more, orly that the cares that infest the day are bound sometimes to come in and cause friction, unless we are both on the alert to prevent this from happening. I feel very strongly on the subject of Ietters," went on Helen.
 "I think, for instance, that when husband and wife are parted for Q time. as, for instance. Dick and my self, when he is away travelling. the letters are far too prosaic. Too often the wife's letter is catalogue of woes a request for a check for the weekly housekeeping, or a declaration that the tax gatherer has called for the third time. I mean to try to make my letters as a married woman to her husband as sweet as my letters as a girl to her lover. were"
 It was many years ago when Helen first aired these ideas. The other day her fifteen year-old daughter got hold of her mothers desk. and pulled out g packet of love letters.
 Just then Helen, bonnie matron. came into the room.
 What are doing, child?" she asked.
 '.Oh. only reading yours and fathers letters to each other" she returned: then added nayiyely What awfully nice letters they were! In one of them you tell him about a chapeau you had just bought. 1t had blue wings on 1t. and in the next letter from him to you he had evidently seen you in the hat. for he says how sweet you little face looked from under the hatbrim, and that blue wings suit you down to the ground"
 An then Heleh's young daughter added: E,.t,,5rs-
 And mother, I've been reading some which you've written to each other since you've been married and really there does not seem to be much dif- ference; and one would think you were sweethearts still"
 50 we are," said Helen, smiling and dimpling. q made up my mind when we first married that I would not let our correspondence grow pro- safe"
 Then she let her daughter into the secret of the daily reading of old love letters.