I'm posting the following with permission of Cathy O'Hare who would like to know if anyone is familiar with the song/poem or knows who authored it and when. When my mother died in 1978 one of the "items" I found when cleaning out her closets was a box old papers, letters, news clippings, etc. The time period covered was about 1900-1920. The most interesting thing about all of this was that none of this "stuff" was hers. It did not even belong to anybody we knew. It was just somebody else's "junk" that would have been tossed long ago, had my mother not picked it up from wherever it was dumped. Whatever it was that made my mother save it must have been in the genes that she passed along to me because I packed them up and brought them back to California with me. They have been packed away in MY closet for 23 years. I recently went through and sorted them and am attempting to return the letters to the authors families and the birth, graduation and wedding announcements to the descendants through the Genweb as well as sharing other information that I have gleaned from the papers. The point of telling you all of the above is because among the papers was an old brittle, yellowed clipping of a poem/song from a newspaper that I thought you would appreciate and I wanted to share it with you. I don't know if it would "fit in" anyplace on the web, but it sure gives me goose bumps when I read it. I don't know the author. A Package of Old Letters In a little rosewood casket that is resting on the stand, There's a package of old letters written by a cherished hand; Will you go and bring them, sister, and read them all to-night? I have often tried, but could not, for the tears would blind my sight. Chorus: In a little rosewood casket that is resting on the stand, There's a package of old letters written by a cherished hand; Come up closer to me, sister, let me lean upon thy breast, For the tide of life is ebbing, and I fain would be at rest, Bring the letters he has written, he whose voice I've often heard. Read them over, love, distinctly, for I've cherished every word. Chorus: Tell him, sister, when you see him, that I never ceased to love, That I dying prayed to Him in the better world above; Tell him that I was supported, ne'er a word of censure spoke, But his silence and his absence this poor heart have well-nigh broke. Chorus: Tell him that I watched his coming when the noontide sun was high, And when at eve the angels set their star lights in the sky; But when I saw he came not, tell him that I did not chide, But I spoke in love about him, and I blessed him when I died. Chorus: And when in death's white garments you have wrapped my form around, And have laid me down to slumber in the quiet church-yard ground, Place the letters and the picture close beside my pulseless heart, We for years have been together, and in death we will not part. Chorus: I am ready now, my sister, you may read the letters o'er, I will listen to the words of him whom I shall see no more; And e'er you shall have finished, should I calmly fall asleep, Fall asleep in death and wake not, dearest sister, do not weep. The end. Cathy O'Hare ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Elaine Rathmann Assist. CC: Scott Co, IA USGenWeb Project List Adm. for: *IA-CIVIL-WAR *IA-DANES