The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-06-05
EXCURSIONS IN
CORRESPO NDENCE
BY THOMAS ARKLE CLARK
Dean Of Mems University Of Illinois.
Timely and Unexpected
Letters


i per this morning of Donald
Mounts marriage, of John Customs
election to very important public Of.
fee, and of the death of Gerald Jones
mother. have known these young
fellows well in past years, but the.
have lately drifted away from my i'm
mediate acquaintance. owe them ne
particular obligations; we are not In
any sense close friends and yet these
announcements of marriage and de,th
and political preferment give me
chance, if l wish, to do gracious and
courteous thing.
l know it would please Mount If /
should write him letter of congratu-
lation and 1t would encourage Jones.
who has been working hard for some
time for public favor, and it would
comfort CASTOR to get from me letter
of sympathy, for / knew his mother
very well and can realize what her
loss will mean to him.
But If do these things must not
delay. One cannot with propriety
write Christmas letter In July or a
birthday congratulation when the year
is half gone. Unless such letter is
written on time it were better usually
not to write it at all.
should have acknowledged the
book that was sent me by Lois Simp-
sons publishers, for knew very well
at the time that it was by her direc-
ton that 1t was done, but I did not,
and now that the time is past and she
herself, perhaps, forgotten the whole
incident, I may better forget 1t myself.
hrs. Kirkpatrick's solo in church
this morning was beautifully sung;
can say so to her or not as L choose.
but If write her at all it must be to-
day. It would seem joke to do 1t a
week or q month later
had a letter from Charles Boyd
last week-a most unexpected letter.
l haven't seen him or heard from him
since we were boys, more than thirty
years ago. We went to school to-
gether; we paid attention to the same
girls, and took them to dances and
singing school and revival meetings.
We were inseparable for time, and
then went one way and he another,
and the girls married neither Of us.
= He's thousand miles away now
and more, but he had seen my picture
or something about me In a metropoli-
tan paper that6came to his hand, and
he had decided to write me.
1t was like going back to my youth
again to get his message. He recount
ed many of the escapades Of which we
had been part; he asked questions
about the old friends with whom we
used to scour the prairies, and he told
me briefly about his family and what
he had been doing during the years
that had interviewed since we were to
gether.
1t was gracious thing for him to
do to write me-the more so because
writing letters is rather out of his line
of business-and appreciated it very
much. 1t gives me pleasure still to re-
read his letter and to live over again
in doing so the events of long ago.
At Christmas time Nancy and get
a bushel basket full of letters and
cards from people we know and have
known. They come to us from all over
the world where the young men and
the young women whom we have
known are making name and home
for themselves. We like them all and
read their messages with interest and
pleasure. Most Of them we could an
ticipate, for the writer's have been
sending us pleasant messages for
years. 1t Is the unexpected ones that
please us most, those which come from
people who, we had supposed, had for
gotten us years ago or who had no OBJ
legation to write us at all.
was thinking about Williams few
weeks ago. do not know why he
came into my mind-telepathy pos
sibly might explain 1t. I knew he was
out in an unknown part of the world
to him engaged In new business, I'd
been, in Just such a position myself
thirty years ago, and / could recall
just how discouraged / used to get
and how much felt like throwing up
the sponge and going home. Perhaps
he was discouraged, too. at this time;
he is young and inexperienced.
hunted up his address and wrote
him a cheerful, newsy letter. told
him a little Of my own experience
years before and metaphOrically
slapped him on the back and told him
to go ahead and win out as was sure
he would. He wrote me later that he
was Just on the point Of quitting when
my letter came, but 1t was just the i'm
petus that he needed to stir him on.
He was going at 1t, he said, and he
was sure he would make go of 1t.
It was the timely and the unexpected
letter that had saved him.
% 1925, by Western Newspaper Union)