Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1858-08-11
Names of Post Cfice Towns.

G recommend tne IOlIOWlii1 aftlclS from
the Philadelphia dollar Newspaper. to the
attention of every reader. Il is plain com
mon sense-a rare thing these days:
1t is getting to be matter of importance
to man sitting in the country, especially in
the W est, 20 know what is the name Of the
post town to which his letters and papers are
directed or If he De the nrsE settler, what be
shall call the village or town on which h..
confers a name. Many an honest fellow. in
the excessive zeal of his patriotism, will not
be blest by coming generations for calling his
little village Washington, in honor of the
great General. He is not aware perhaps.
that this is the name already Of territories,
counties, towns, post Offices to the number of
nearly, if not quite tIco huRdrcd There ere
nearly one hundred Jcffersons onlY twenty
or thirty Adamses. All the Presidents end
candidates have at least dozen places named
| after them. Popular Generals come next
jackson, in the douple capacity of General
and President, heading of; next TO Washing
| ton, Lafayette has quite number OF places
named after him, and all the revolutionary
Generals fair share, except, Of course, Ar
mold.
All this may seem very amusing and pos
sibe, but at the post Office aud all the express
| offices it puzzles many poor clerk. EFery
man living in one OF these places yearly lcses
about half Lis papers. '' sent to the wrong
! Office" to lie returned six onths cid His
! letters too. sre sent 20 the wrong Office, and
perhaps opened by mistake. He sends for 2
piano, by express, and it is seD. to Jackson.
NO. instead CT Jackson, Ne. and before
the express Office can correct the error the
piano is broken. Let no one who dwells in
a small town of an ambitious name, blame the
Post Office clerks of the larger oficcs if his
letters and papers get not only into the
wrong box. brt into the wrong icttel bag
You mail a letter. perhaps. to friend in
New York, In the State OF Mississippi, a
small post Office. OF course you abbrey.at.
Miss, and the post-ofiee clerk in the towu
where you live viii be almost certain to takt
you at your word, and miss it sure enough
so far as to send it 30 New York city, or Il
New York in Tenn. or New York in Wash
ington Territory, on Admiralty Iulet. or t
New York in Ala, for there ere New Yorks
in all these places. In fact there are abou
twenty or thirty Columbias. and near as many
towns Of the name OF Columbus
Do not fatter yourself that you are saf
If you put the name of the State fair sn;
, square You may direct letter to lewis
burg, Pa, but 10 all probability ii will &c
into some mans box in Lewisburgh, Va
siugle capital being the only mark of differ
ence, and 4 very slight flourish in the v
making quite as much ike P, or else
goes to Lewis iu Northumberland county, o
to Lewist0wn in Mifflin Co, or to Louisville
IN Chester CO.. in this State. II YOU NOV
out West to Wisconsin, and call the name
your town Rochester, because some of tn
G folks are from that city, halftheir letters an
. papers will go back t. phere they came from
: or else be distributed evenly among the doze
little Post-offces of that name, all throug
. the West. including another town of the sam
l. name IN Racine county of that, State.
IS Some names suggest odd ideas of antiquity
e In Maine a man makes nothing Of talking
i, driving over from Palmyra to Antioch, or
China, or to Athens for dinner. There a,
20 indeed twenty two modern representatives,
e name at least, of the ancient capital of Learn
IN ing Bangor, Name, and Bangor in Vale
k have sometimes been indicrously mistake
for each Other. All this grew out of the a
tachment of al old Deacon for the tune CALI
q Bangor. lie had forgotten the Indian nam
which the inhabitants had desired, as that
D. which the young city should be called VIII
he went as their delegate to the Legislatur
and put in this name which has answer
r quite well cut of regard for his fayori
tune.
r. Let the names of the new town and plac
be kept distinct from all others, ancient a
- modern That is the first essential Of nan
Hence many have suggested the propriety
adopting the Indian names. This does We
well when they are pronounceabe and sped
He. But most of them have at least doz
- distinct ways of being spelled. creating
=. kinds of confusion. The postmaster in I,
,er caloosa, Ala, won wager few years sir
lt that he would go into the office there a
- produce letters directed in at least ten diff
- ent rays, as to the spelling of that city
Indulge fancy, but look out first for the 81
DIS stantials.
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