South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-06-21
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE HOME
WHEN AN ANONYMOUS LET
TER CAME TO MADGE.

only one letter for you Margaret.
and such a queer looking thing.
Really. I should almost be afraid 1t
carried disease germs, it's so ter
ribly soiIed."
Cousin Agatha advanced toward
me. her outstretched hand gingerly
holding a letter whose appearance
justified her criticism. II was the
cheapest possible sort of envelope.
and it looked as if it a been care
fully rubbed in lust 10 get it as dirty
as possible.
l flushed resentfully, as l general
~ do a Cousin Agatha's remarks.
Her tone minated that | must have
some extremely undesirable ac-
quaintances somewhere. But al
though l had no possible idea as TO
the sender of the letter. my pride
wouldn't alloy me to crafty her
petty malice by telling her so. She
would have taken il as a bit of def
, erence on my part TO her opinion.
/ Therefore / slipped il into the pocket
Of my sweate without a secon
glance. and went on with the bit of
mending l had in my hands until /
had a chance TO slip away to my
lroOm.
I didn't stop TO analyze the in
stinct that made me turn the key
in the lock and lear against the
- A--..Ls.. L0,,fl. ag fF I had
been running hard. ~Instinctively ]
felt thai within the greasy, dirty en-
velope in my pocket was some mes
sage Of evil for me.
1 took it out and looked at the
superscription carefully:
Mrs. Richard Graham,
Chase avenue,
Marvin. l. l..
Chase avenue, Then it was from
someone who knew that we had
moved recently. The postmark was
Hoboken, and ransacked my mem
DRY 10 see if I could find any recol-
lection of any person from there.
but TO no avail. OF course the sens
ible procedure would ave been TO
! omen the envelope at once n find
out what the letter contained. but
an indefnable reluctance made me
postpone the opening as long as pos
sible.
| examined the handwriting care
fully. II was evidently that of a
person rather unused to writing, and
the characters were rather shakily
made. I looked more closely and
, decided that a child's hand had ad-
I dressed the envelope. More puzzled
than ever, l slowly slit the envelope
land drew out the enclosure.
What IL Contained.
II was a half sheet of the cheap
est kind of note paper. absolutely
blank. evidently put in the envelope
/ for the sole reason of protecting the
short newspaper clipping it enclosed.
The clipping vas from a New
York newspaper and bore the head
ing. Short Shrift for Spanish Spy"
The story bore a Paris date line and
was the story Of a man of mixed
German and Spanish parentage-
but who had lived for years in
! France-who had been discovered in
reasonable practices and summarily
executed.
There was no name or initial on
the clipping. but the words Of the
headline were underlined in red ink,
and there was a wavy line Of red
ink drawn around the entire mar
gin OF the clipping.
Cousin Agatha Comments.
I read the thing through. and
then turned il over and over in my
hands. infinitely examining II for a
trace that might suggest the ident-
ity OF the sender. but TO no avail. II
might have been dropped from the
clouds for any evidence II betrayed
of the hand hat had started IL or
It's mission.
1 was thoroughly puzzled. and al
though tried 20 deny IL 20 myself,
a bit frightened by this newspaper
clipping sent in so strange a man
ner. I tried 20 reassure myself with
!, the argument that perhaps the man
p spoken OF in the dispatch was known
10 some other Mrs. Richard Graham,
who might live in a village Of Ions
Island with a name similar 10 Mar
7 win.
i But knew. even as IL flashed into
my mind. that IL was a most far