After a lapse of fourteen months a letter was received from Sydney,
Australia, addressed to a small town in a Southern State, signed by the
Christian name of the writer, Henry, we will call him. The letter was a
rambling, disconnected communication, addressed to no one, not even to
the Postmaster, but simply to the town. The Postmaster, being the
self-appointed recipient of the Communication, incidentally mentioned it
to the father of the missing boy. The father did not associate the
letter in any way with his lost son, but that evening upon returning
home, he told his wife of the letter which the Postmaster had mentioned.
I can almost see in your faces now that you have read the sequel to my
story, that the mother’s love quickly put the question: “Did you see
that letter?” and when the father said, “No”, the mother insisted that
the letter must be from her lost boy. A visit to the Postmaster was made
immediately, the letter was produced and identified by the mother as
having been written by her boy. The letter was then two months old. The
Congressman had come to see what could be done as to locating the boy in
far away Australia.
Although the distance between the yearning mother and her lost boy was
over 12,000 miles, I do not think I am exaggerating when I state that
within thirty minutes after learning the facts a cablegram was under the
water, requesting that the Consul General at Sydney cause a thorough
search to be made in the hospitals and other institutions in the city
with a view of finding the boy whose personal description was furnished,
and to hospitalize if necessary and cable results. Within two days a
reply was received, stating that the boy had been found and placed in a
hospital. He has subsequently been returned to the United States, where
he is now being cared for as a beneficiary of this Bureau, and I am glad
to say that he is progressing satisfactorily. Is it strange that the
Congressman and the Bureau should have the gratitude of these parents?