New-York daily tribune., 1859-12-28

| Fomykng: The advertising days for the lot y l|'
should be the same all over the Union, 80 that per-
sons living miles away after taking great pam: 20
find the paper, need not miss it. The lst aud 10th
are the most suggestive dates with the intermedl-
alton Of the 9Th and I'D in the larger cities, or II
falling ON the Sabbath then the succeeding Monday.
l II should never be optional with postmaster or
printer whether to publish it one day or anothor a.
Il the case at San Francisco, Sacramento, and
MarvsyiIle where the citizens cannot 'irr n,sc =
than week on what day the list VIII appear. LOOK
/ al this advertisement: LIST oR LETTERS RE-
1 ''MAINING IN THE POsT-0FFICE AT -, for the
! "mOnth of July, 1859" Does "for the mo iFh OF
July" mean anything If So What If q man
had failed to see the -, of July %, he would
have missed the list whereas, If it were published
on the LIST, as it should have been, he would have
searched Till he had found copy. sdOSeduons
advertisement is dated August y, showing plainly
that regularity is of small account in that office.
Whether any list has in the interim been published
have no means of judging. As b. the trnssworih-
mess of the Postmaster in that second oty OF Cali
fornia, have proof that repeated efforts, by letter.
have been made TO have forwarded to their proper
destination letters known to have been in his Office
and that he paid no attention whatever to these
requests-nOt even answering them-thus wasting
the postage and wearing ouE the patience OF tnu
people whose unfaithful servant he was In one
case peremptory demand by resident within
day or two Of the time when such Testers would
have been dead had the desired result; other cases
received no such attention from any resident.
Furthermore to the carelessness of affairs in that
Office have good authority for saying that no for
wardiDg list is ever kept there.
Fythly: In one of the Atlantic cities an abomin-
able practice has long prevailed of omltting from
the printed list an immense number of letters;
should think over ] 900 month This omissionsn-
cludes oil letters written IN tho city-a or most of
those from beyond sea by transient ships-and all
those letters which, from their great value, or
great anxiety for their safety arc intrusted to pas
sengers by ship or by land This class of letters,
usually termed "drop letters" is largely composed
of notifications of every conceivable Importance;
life insurance premiums falling due, baggage lying
unclaimed, railroad and ship freight awaiting All
owner, and families and friends wishing to unite;
besides host of notices, the dropping of which in
the Post Office constitutes proper service IN the
eve Of the law The stupidity of this neglect Is
made obvious BY the following experiment: wish
to find friend who has arrived in the city; ad-
dress him note, which carry to the nearest out
of-tOwn Ost-0ffce, perhaps only mile of. Ii is
Immediately brought back again by mail to the oiy,
is advertised and he gets is. Had placed 1t IN the
city Office no would not have got it, because it
would not have appeared in the printed list l
would ask you, Sir 30 follow the train of evil con-
sequences growing out of this th0ughtless and
wicked practice; bdt you cannot it passes tho ina
ginatOn of man. Suffice il to say, that the bitter
curses of wives mothers and sisters who have been
cheated of sailors letters by this stupid trick, would
sink the inefficient system in eternal disgrace. |
have no doubt this shameful negligence prevails
throughout your largest Offices; if so, that alone
might account for all tho dead letters, and few
millions more. Little do the people suspect that,
while you Ostensiby show them a printed list of all
the letters, you have kept out of sight more than
half of it, and then with unblushing face applaud
the SYSTEM and proclaim that dead letters, fOrsooth
are owing to the fault of those who write them.
Sl1thly: The common practice of advertising wO-
mems letters separately from mems is misohievOus,
for two reasons: A woman would seldom have the
forethOught to search the list of mems in which hers
would certainly be advertised if it had prefix to
designate her sex; and the copying clerk is very
liable to make an error in the prefix by misreading
or miswrting. The simple misapprehenson OF an
in Mrs. would cause it 10 be included with mems
letters.
Sepenihly: Assuming to separate foreigners let
ters as at San Francisco is unfortunate and would
almost seem to have been oOntrved 10 prevent their
getting to hand. Those which are gussed to be for
a certain race, appear in Spanish paper OF small
circulation and those for another race, IN Journal
in some other foreign language, while 1t is obvious
that the nationality of men in America cannot be
known by the spelling of their names. The imprO-
priety OF this practice is Illustrated in Marysye,
where, in the French list, letters for Italians
and Germans, and in the Spanish list, letters for
not only French and Italians but even lrishmen,
while other letters which really are for Frenchmen
appear in the American list. Besides, foreigners
do not all know that they to be distinguished by
a special notice, 80 that in San Francisco for
eigner not being aware of this unwse method OF
advertising looks at the great American list, and
not seeing his name ners there is letter for him.
Eightkiy: A forwarding list is an indispensable
auxiliary in every Post Office, much more in Cali
fOrnia where so large population is floating.
would remark that this latter characteristic Of the
State makes il desirable that the San Francisco ad
vertisement should be posted mp at every Post-O.-
fee throughout the State especially as that city is
not only the headquarters of such population, but
It's name and California are synonymous terms oil
over the world among strangers, many OF whom
ought to address their letters into the interior As
never yet saw a lobby-letter list on which there
were not mo~o or less mutiatiOns aud erasures, 1t
ia evident th il should always be covered by glass.
In July last gentleman on departing for the inte
rior len written request with the Postmaster OF
San Francisco to forward his correspondence.
About three months after, happening by the mercst
accident to meet with list of San Francisco let
tiers, what was his surprise to find his own name
among the prospective dead letters. On obtaining
possession of them it proved by the post-marks
that part of them had been in that mans Office as
DAYS, and another part - days. Now, this proves
one of two things, either that he does not keep
forwarding list, if he does that 1t Is not properly
| attended to- Accept which horn of the dilemma
you please dead letters are sure to be the result.
leave il to any merchant if this fast and loose, SLOW
enly way of doing business would not be deemed
contemplate in the most humble order Of shopkeep-
ing. The public can Judge how carefully the adyer-
tised letter list prepared by observing that on the
| llth day after the letters above mentioned had
arrived at the office, the list appeared and also on