The Passenger at Midnight

To the passenger awake at midnight,

A famous ballad opens with a question: "Who rides so late through night and wind?" — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "The Erl-King" (1782)

On this night train, the answer is you. At midnight a single lamp remains in the sleeping-car corridor. It is November 1913, and the train is crossing the snowfields of Central Europe toward Budapest. The envelope is burgundy laid paper with a restrained, handsome Blackletter title and cream flourishes wound between the letters. In the dark teal arched carriage window falls a bat-like heraldic shadow, which is really only printed folk ornament and cannot fly. Look too at the brass corner rule and the ivory sleeper-car ticket.

Do not be afraid. You need not ride a horse; you have a berth, and the conductor will knock before dawn. Welcome. Write a letter while it is dark, and then sleep.

Good night; just a pattern, I promise

Storm Post Office

November 1913 · Bound for Budapest