Evening journal., 1910-08-17
FIND LETTERS OF
WAR TIME LOVER
MlSSive From John to LiSbeth
Dug Up With
Refuse
WHEN | COME HOME"
BUT HE DID NOT COME

NEW YORK. Aug. 17.-"You would
be surprised" said the watchman at
one of the dumping boards of the city
on the Harlem river, ito know the re-
markable finds that the employees at
the dumps make i'm their work OF
sorting the refuse that the city teams
bring to the scows for disposition.
The STRENGTHENING wagons gather
up ashes, paper, cans and bottles and
bring them here and dump them to
the decks OF scows. Then tugs drag
the scows out to sea and send such
refuse as is of no value to the fishes.
That which has some value is sorted
out and sent to various reducing
plants, etc.
'My Precious Lisbeth.'"
The other day, while our men were
shoveling over a lot of garbage and
picking out the bottles and tin cans.
one Of them came upon a package
roughly tied up I'm brown paper. 1t
looked interesting and the string was
cut In side was package OF. letters
from a soldier boy who went to the
front in 1862 and wrote home regu-
larly to My Precious 'Lisbeth' in New
York. They were beautifully written,
] duu III many VI lutln Ntit Adutu
roses, leaves and sprigs of wayside
plants picked beside the road on long
marches i'm the hot sun.
That boy was 10 years old and he
was very fond of Lisbeth. The letters
we're signed simply John" and we're
the tenderest, most respectful and low
! ing epistles that you ever read. There
was not an envelope in the whole lot
and not a word to tell what had been
the last name of either John or Eliza
beth. They were tide with a faded
gray ribbon that had once been blue.
The first of them told of his tedious
drilling in Washington and then of
the hurried march South and of the
skirmishes that followed leading up to
real battle in Virginia.
Then there was a hastily written
note from an army nurse, telling Lis
beth that John was desperately
wounded and was in the field hos
pital. There were months and months
of sickness there, and finally letters
showing that he was again at the
front, this time with a stiff leg that
made il necessary for him to join the
cavalry.
"'Tell those accured copperheads,
he wrote, that after this war is over
If any of us come home we will settle
with them one and ALL And again he
scribbled, I am sorry that you must
work to care for my poor mother
would never have left her If / had
supposed that father would have died
so soon and left her to shift for her.
self. But It cannot be helped now
When / come home, dear, I'll make 1
all up to you
Last Word was 'Lisbeth.'
But he never came home. After tn
Battle of the Wilderness he wrot
once. saying that he had a bulle
through his left shoulder and that h
still had a lot of fight left in hin
Then there was a letter from his car
tain, saying that the boy was dea
and that his last word had been Lis
beth as he turned his face to the wal
and fell into a sleep from which ther
had been no waking. We lost a soil
hour looking over those letters an
trying to find some clue as to tn
owners. Then, finding none, ant
thinking that someone had wantel
them destroyed. we gave them to thu
tide.
Another letter was found still un
opened. AS we picked it up the we
envelope fell of and revealed this
Dear Mike, the cat is under a barre
in the storeroom I went of and for
got to let her out. Please see to It.
and so far as we could see the ca
was still under the barrel"