The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-09-15
ANCIENT LETTER
FOUND IN DUMP
MiSSiVe From ''John" to sis
beth" One of Many Things
in City Refuse.
NEVER RETURNED HOME
No Trace Found Of Lover or Faithful
Sweetheart-One HumOr-
Gus Letter.

New York. Sept. 14.--'You would be
surprised, said the watchman at one
Of the dumping boards of the city on
the Harlem river yesterday. ito know
the remarkable finds that the employees
OF the dumps make in their work of
sorting the refuse that the city teams
bring TO the sCows for disposition. The
street cleaning wagons gather up
ashes. paper. cans and bottles and
bring them to the decks Of the 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
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 package
roughly tied up i'm brown paper. 1t
looked interesting and the string was
cut inside was a package OF letters
from a soldier boy who went 90 the
front in 1862 and wrote home regularly
to My Precious Lisbeth' in New York.
They were beautifully written. and in
many Of them faded roses, leaves and
sprigs OF wayside plants picked be
side the road on long. weary marches
in the hot sun.
hoy 10 Ycar- Old.
That boy was 10 years old. and he
was very fond OF Iisbeth.' The let
ters were signed merely John and
were the tenderest. most respectful
and loving epistles that you ever read.
There was not an envelope in the
whole lot and not word to tell what
had been the last name Of either John
or Elizabeth. They were tied with n
faded gray ribbon that had once been
tedious drilling IN washington. and
then OF the hurried march south. AMI
OF the skirmishes that followed. lead
ing up 10 a real battle in Virginia.
Then there was hastily written note
from an army nurse telling Tisbeth'
that John was desperately wounded
and was in the field hospital. 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
Tor him to join the cavalry.
His Vain Regrets
" Tell those accursed copperfeads.'
he wrote, that after this war is over
n any or us come home we will settle
with them one and an And again he
scrubbed. 7 am sorry that you must
work 70 care for my poor mother. 7
would never have left her IL 7 had SUD-
posed that father would have died so
soon and left her TO shift for herself.
But sc cannot be helped now. When
] come home, dear. I viii make Il all up
20 YOU
battle OF the Wilderness he wrote once
saying that he had bullet in his left
shoulder. but that he still had a lot
OF fight left IN him. Then there was a
-NAANA AAplh ms captain saying tnaN Iue
boy was dead. and that his last word
had been Lisbeth' as he turned hts
face to the wall and fell into a sleep
from which there had been no waking
We lost a solid hour looking over those
letters and trying 70 find some clue
20 the owners. Then, finding none. and
| thinking that some one had wanted
| them destroyed, we gave them to the
tide.
Another letter was found still UNI
| opened. As we picked St up the wet
envelope fell off and revealed this.
| Dear Mike. That cat IS under the bar
rel I'm the store room. I went Off and
forgot TO let her out. Please see TO &C..
| And so far as we could see. the cat
Nns sLlLl mnlar the harral--