Page:Irish In America.djvu/226

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THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

out of many, will exbibit the necessity of this advice being attended to at both sides of the Atlantic. Mary Sullivan has come to America in search of her husband. Having some vague notion of his whereabouts, letters are despatched to various persons in the direction supposed to be indicated. No such person as Daniel Sul livan, who came to America four years ago, is to be found. Poor Mary Sullivan is in despair. But at length, owing to some chance observation which drops from the afflicted wife, it turns out that Sullivan was her maiden name, and that her husband was Daniel M Carthy, and not Daniel Sullivan. Letters are again despatched, and Daniel and Mary are once more united. A woman arrives with her family. She has a letter from her son in Washington, or Jacksonville, or Newtown, and she desires to inform him that she is in New York, awaiting him. There is his letter, and she can tell no more about it ; all she knows is, that her son is in the place mentioned ; and why shouldn t he be there, she d like to know ? But what Washington ? what Jacksonville? what Newtown? There are hundreds of places with similar names in the United States ; and which is it ? Where, she is asked, is the envelope of the letter ; for that would have the post mark, which, if not obliterated or indistinct, would be the best of all possible guides. Oh, sure, the simple woman replies, I lost that : but there was nothing on that but where I lived when I was in Ireland ; sure tis all in my son s letter. The envelope lost, and there being no address in the letter, the Commissioners have to communicate with all the Washingtons, or Jacksonvilles, er Newtowns in the country ; and probably it is owing to the enquiries of the priest of the locality in which the son resides or is at work that the family are ultimately brought together. A young woman, Ellen T -, arrived early in the present year, to join her brother, who was in a certain town in Pennsylvania, whence he wrote to her. She was sent to Ward s Island, and her brother was written to. No