The true Democrat., 1856-01-01
POSt-oMce Incidents

An interesting work, entitled "Ten Years Among the Mail Bags" will be published in a few days, and number of extracts have been sent us as a sample of the whole. It is by Mr. 5. Holbrook who has been special agent for the post office department for ten years, during which time he has collected the interesting materials which compose his forthcoming work. We subjoin few extracts:
 BE CAREFUL HOW YOU ADDRESS LETTERS
 The omission of the name of State from the address of letter often causes much un- certainty in its notions
 There are, for instance, seven Philadelphias besides the one in Pennsylvania twenty three Salems as many Troys, and no end of Wash lnStons, Jeffersons, and other names diStin- guished in the history of the country.
 There are three New Yorks and eleven Bos- tons Indeed the majority of the names of the post offices are at least duplicated, and often repeated many times, as we could easily show; but two or three more specimens of this will suffice. Twenty three Franklins, twenty three Jacksons, aud sixteen Madsons, will help to perpetuate the memories of the distinguished men who, once bore those names.
 The danger of letters miscarrying in con- sequence of the omission of the name of the State on its direction is, of course, reduced to nothing when there is no other post office in the country with the same name as the one addressed especially if there is any oddity about the name Thus were we to direct letter to "Sopchop- py," it would be likely to find the place re- joicing in that euphonious title, even were the State (Florida,) omitted in the address; al- though it would often involve the trouble of consulting the list of post offices "Sorrel Horse" also could not fail to receive whatever might be sent to 1t.
 A teetotaller would not be surprised to find "Sodom" in Champagne county;'' and while on this subject, we would say that temperance views seem to have prevailed in naming post offices. We have two named Temperance, and three Temperancevilles, to balance which, besides the above Sodom, there appear only " Gin Town," and Brandy Station,'' one of each.
 Some villages seem to aspire to astronomi- cal honors. There are in our social Armament one Sun, one Moon, and two Stars: also one Eclipse, and Transit whether of Venus or not is unknown. So it appears that the man in the Moon' is not altogether fictitious cha racter, but may be postmaster
 The twenty-five thousand contained in the list of post offices would furnish many other curosities as noticeable as those just cited, and we refer those who are desirous of entering more into the subject to that work. It IS suffi- cient for us to have called the attention of the public to the necessity of exactness and suffi cient fullness in the address of letters to insure their delivery at the place where they are in- intended to go. Much vexation and real in- convenience would be obviated if more care were exercised in this respect and the Dead Letter Office would have fewer inquests to make.
 The following anecdotes are illustrative of the amusing incidents which occasionally come under the eyes of post office clerks: TO MY GRANDMOTHER. A little bright-eyed, flaxen- haired boy was one day observed to enter the vestibule of the post office at Washington, with letter in his hand, and to wait very modestly for the de- parture of the crowd collected about the de- livery window. As soon as the place was cleared, he approached the letter box, and carefully deposited his epistle therein, lingering near, as if to watch over the safety of the pre- cious document. His motions attracted the att tention of the clerk stationed at the window, whose curiosity induced him to examine the