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Show I I I . H Tke Discomforts of Life ( ,j LETTER- WRITING. (Copyright, 1905, by C. S. Thompson.) Ii Ton, pnper nnd Ink. nnd a postage stamp, A Jlttlo red box by a tall slrcot ' lamp, Anil a jxxitmnn.ln Ills cult o( pray, i ( Will norvo lo brighten tho Kloomlest day. I I An old saying. I So much has been said nbout the plens- . ures of letter-writing that one hrsltntos l I to speak of Its discomforting side. In deed, any attempt to belittle this enjoy-I enjoy-I mont la looked. upon aghast by tho many, who nrguo that nothing glvos them more i satisfaction than these unexpected calls of dear friends. Granted: but I insist ' , there are thos who frequently suffer a change of feeling when It comes to rc-, rc-, spontling. W oftentimes look upon this I particular part of correspondence In the light of an obligation, lo be met only when necessity demands It. There Is ono kind of letter-writing to bo excluded under this heading of discomforts. discom-forts. Ordinarily one's pen runs only too easily under tho spur or love It Is hard then lo stop at all (so I am led to understand), under-stand), and alas! It Is only when we bring this endearing correspondence to an end that wo feel any discomfort. Owen Meredith Mere-dith has well attuned this feeling to our heart-strinss: If wo wroto When wo Hint lovo, forcscclnc tho hour yet remote Whproln of necessity each would recall From tho other tho poor foolish records of all Thooo cmollonti, whoso pain when recorded scem'd hllss. Should wo write na wo wrote? But ono thinks not of this! But theso nra 'things for tho days of our youth Joys anrj sorrows soon lorgotten. It Is of another Hscomfort that I am led lo speak; ono (!Uat persists year after year. It Is the reward of all thoso who upon parting exclaim: "Well, lot mo hear from you, won't you?" without any proper understanding of tho obligation thorcby Incurred. How many times have wo not cried on the spur of the moment: "Don't, forgot to write!" Half the tlmo tho victim never really cares for tho promised eplstlo; half tho tlmo he never expects one. Yol sooner or later the victim In turn feels duty bound to answer. That 1b tho only thing ho can do, with any grace. Ho invited it, and now let him pay tho penalty. Ho expect to answer at tho proper time, of course; ho pictures himself nt the writing writ-ing desk, and with this very commendable commend-able spirit of sclf-sacrlflco ho carefully pigeonholes the offending envelope, either in his desk, or Just as securely In his inner coat pocket. To ho true, the proper tlmo for answering an-swering comes and goes, and unless ono hns fallen into .a better wav. he has uttered no response. Thnt is but nnother lap in his raco toward tho HEPKTURE HIMdETLF I AT the: -vViutiw mile-post of discomforts. Ho thus begins be-gins to bear with him tho knowledge of his own Incompetence. In plain truth. hie failure to respond to call oj friends, and ho makes now avwaw only to fall with them in lur"-n nn is no escaping his doom nn" more than thero Is a chance of cscai nk tho letters ho Is continually ,"vr'P down upon hla head. They ro fr ccr staring him In the face at tho most In opportune tlmcs-ln a search for a all Intr card, for a railroad tlme-tauic, while hunting through "Is writing desk for a lost shirt stud; or wroo et. lato at night, say after a theater parti . when correspondence Is qulto out of tho nUOncon'agaIn tho letters aro thrust ; asldo-stowcd away now deeper In no desk, to be unearthed only at some llnal rainy day of reckoning.. At this advanced stage of Incapacity the Mc Urn occasionally tears to pieces tho unanswered, un-answered, haunting cpiatles, and .burns all traces of "his crime. But this always al-ways seems llko cremating a dear friend. Usually tho uneasy mortal profera lo keep his letter In hiding, with the result that he reaps a certain feeling of Inquietude, sometimes an utter humiliation, humili-ation, not unlike that attending any other unpaid obligation. At various limes I have endeavored to savo a shred of my letter-writing reputation reputa-tion by spending an hour over a page that flhould have- been 3ent six months before Occasionally I have rc-cstabllnhcd mvaelf by sonic such 3lmple trick as dating dat-ing my lettor back to the hour it should havo been written, and writing then In tho full glow of a delighted correspondent. Again I havo como out llat-footcd in acknowledgement ac-knowledgement of my sin; Mv Dear: Six months havo gono by slnco.I promised you a letter. Do you still remember? Ah, six long months. Tho' may havo blotted out your memory of my word, but you see I am faithful to the end Now, don't you think my devotion hould bo rewarded by an early response? Another expedient I havo tried with somo success Is the writing of my answer an-swer at tho hour of getting a letter, and then withhold tho mailing of It until a proper amount of time lntorvcnea. But again this method has a clear disadvantage disadvan-tage It frequently becomes necessary to rewrlto a paragraph and that naturally mans a now letter One Is templed then to' postpone the whole affair. After all. one needs but to look back poet: aj3- toujJSTjtJf |