Show SER by THE TRAGEDY TR OF THE MAIL BAG text ye are our letters known and road oi ot all men 11 II cor lil ill 2 there is no census of the mail wg bag its contents are unnumbered millious millions only post offices are counted the une city of london has of them vl with ith in city limits new york Is next nath ith a larger percentage of letters to the hie population then there is alilea chicago 0 paris philadelphia berlin and BUL buda pest and tens of thousands of cities and villages in every land much aluch of the worlds tragedy goes by mail to day the elie loer watches for the letter that never comes the silence of the mail ball bag tells of waning affections with anxious tearful eyes the old mother watches the postman coming the street maybe be has a letter from her absent boy in next block the letter carrier turns ills his face quickly as lie he hands out black bordered envelope telling of death in distant city that thin letter tells in cruet cruel business brevity that dividends have failed stocks are worthless savings saving gs for old age are swept away but I 1 like to think there are a thousand love letters to one of faithlessness a thousand mothers reach out smilley ny for the letter from absent son a thousand good news letters to one one bad A tragedy of the mail bag the newspapers are telling a atory that Is stranger than fiction god does not always right injustice here on earth but now and then comes in an incident that makes us stop and think here Is the story that made tears spring to my eyes vindication has come to iter charles burdette of springfield mass a brother of our beloved bob bardette of humorist fame after thirty years of silent suffering frering su that clouded his whole life and left him under unjust suspicion thirty years ago when mr burdette was a registry clerk at the post fieo office at peoria ill a number of letters containing disappeared although no formal charge was made against again st the clerk cleric only the faith of the postmaster ster general D W magee a civil war veteran veteran prevented his leaving the service branded as a thief mr burdette Bur detto as seated his innocence and left the matter with god unable to live down the suspicion and conscious of his innocence he be entered entered the ministry and devoted himself to missionary work in the far east on monday morning mornin g feb 13 1911 an old and b battered ma mail bag was taken from the san francisco office for repairs when the workmen cut open the bag in the w work ork of repairing between the heavy leather lining was found faund an old mar marcilla lilla envelope containing the that disappeared so mysteriously from peoria in the summer of thirty iwo wo years ago the art of letter wr writing biting do you ever pick up an old time handy letter writer at the second hand band book store its makes you smile it 11 1 I take my eny pen pea in band to write you these few faw lines to lot let you know we are all well at present thanks to a kind and merciful hoping you are enjoying the same great blessing in ill well chosen language the writer covered several pages telling of trade in the counting house crops in the field fieh the marriages births and deaths of if the community and closed with an eighteenth century flourish but letter writing Is a lost art today folks send a souvenir postcard sa saying ying aint this place grand we past through this town ye stady meanwhile the cry of the business and so caal world is that not even the high school and college graduate can write a correctly spelled and fairly written letter occasionally one gets a letter that Is chatty refreshing breezy and carries the spirit of the writer with it some letters ban hang their under lips some borne laugh like the summer bummer wind some are gossiping scavengers raking the garbage of a community and sending t it through the mail some are angry they bring sorrow afterward some are grumpy some are penned iti ID gall of bitterness some snap like a dragon durn burn such as soon as aa then write one to a abut in a lonely missionary a boy or girl away from home a letter of praise or one of con Lo lation your bread cast upon the waters will come back after many days people as living letters lots of men never read gods message im aa found in the bible but they do read all they know 0 of god is through us makes ono sober rober christ annote nu lio lette letters s indeed I 1 might suspect he write were it not it speaks of his writing on the ground one day when the pharisees Pharis ees brought a sinful girl to bo be stoned to death but men read his life aud and its the inspiration of the centuries cheap postage and hourly service Is not more effective than the page we present to men what hat Is your message I 1 listen to a bit of music or view a painting or read a book and when I 1 am done I 1 carry away its message last night at a banquet the chancellor of a great university leaned over before I 1 rose and said tell them the message of the church to the twentieth century I 1 thought of other century messages I 1 letters discovery colonization anven in cd alons the th twentieth everyday everada eve ryda broth br tb ephod god Is the father christ carl st the brother men read god through christ creed and doam a are e kerpl x ing Chiist lan falth faith I 1 Is rend d t through men what kind of a letter lettjr are men n adang through me |