New-York daily tribune., 1859-12-28
NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, DECEMBER ss 1888

| referred TO a written list which he always found
hanging in the lobby, supposing that If letter ar
rived for him his would appear on the list, in
accordance with the practice prevailing In the coun-
| try town whence he came. L now assure him all
1 the mail letters addressed to him for two ye
| been burned up in the Dead-Letter Office at Wash-
| ing.On; they never appeared on the written list
which, for over two years, he had been in the habit
of inspecting. In the third city o. CaiiOlnlI, 80
| great mail for San Francisco clJses nine moral
hours before its departure; as it Les in San Fran
cisco ten hours before delivery, the two Exprcsse
are enabled by the very eOHv 'gaHe- n h-ing
correspondents nineteen hours nearer together than
the Post Office does. If there were no expresses,
and we depended on the facilities you afford, n4.-
ters of business, or sickness or DEATH how accom-
mOdating that would be AN unnecessary dead loss
Of nineteen hours time in distance of only l05
miles No nstco is publicly posted stating the l1ar
OF closing this important mail, or OF receiving the
arriving mail, or of opening or closing r,' iii
either on Sunday or any other day. On arrival Of
San Francisco mail, or OF heavy Atlantic mail,
no idea can possibly be had by visitor ~ VIA.
hour he may expect to receive his letters; Out II
happen to see it arrive h9 must lose his tlma lott
ering around the place for hours and hours some
times over four hours, when 1t might be well known
and notified, at the Eastern offices, the time
CURED to assort it. At this office n b,
been given of the departure of an overland mail.
Whether valuable letters are evor purloined by
scores of hard-looking men, whom yol would nOs
trust alone in your paror but to whom the tempta-
ton is freely given by lightly tapping at the back
door, would be difficult to prove.
have now before me, addressed to an inhabitant
of that city, letter taken from that POST Office,
where, as proved by the pOst-msrk, it had lain SIX
weeks. In the interim the owner had mad, several
attempts to obtain it, without success. At last, on
tho intercessiOn of friend, assurance was made
that no such letter there, but, not to be put off
80, the gentleman insisted on the letter being pro-
duced; when, after examining half dozen coec-
tons OF letters in remote part of the Office it
eventually found. A circumstance | may MENTION
in passing, is, that this letter was not advertised
under its initial it should have been according to
custom There is in operation at this Office an in
geniOus, and, believe, unique trick, supplying
you with dead letters; g., declining to distribute
letters to persons to whose care they may be ad-
dressed. Ex. gr.: A stranger comes TO visit in
gentieman's family for a couple Of weeks, having
given directions to the friends left behind to address
letters to the gentlemans care. No letters are
brought home, the circumstance gives great uneasi-
ness, the visitor departs, score of the strangers
letters are sent to your DeadLetter Office at Wash
ingtOn or San Francisco as dead, and you pub
lsh TO the world that dead letters are never atri-
butable to the stupidity of your Postmasters. What
the object OF addressing letters to an0thers care
is there any ono so ignorant as not to knowl 1t
and always will till the destruction thereof An in
cident witnessed at the second heaviest Office in
the United States, on holiday, eyinces the neces-
sty of code of universal regulations to supply the
want of capacity and thoughtfuness of public SER
wants in the Post-Ofice. The Office being closed,
man inquired of a byStander at what hour it would
be Open as be wanted letter. Not getting the in
formation he nervOusly desired, he raps repeatedly
on the Office without hearing reply. AT last, i'm
patiently, he cries, +" If you don't answer, come
in" This had the desired effect. The man was
overheard to tell the clerk that be had right to
close the Office, without giving notice at what hour
it would be reopencd. 1t is obvious to any person
mot an Officially that the man was right, and it
evinces profound misapprehension of personal
rights to suppose that men will wait whole day
because it is holiday for tdings of dying mother
sister which they conscious their servants are
wrOngfuly Withholding from them. Contrast all
this loose method of doing business with the pre-
cisiOn of ancient mercantile house, or OF the Ger
man Post Office, where is noted upon letters the
hour at which they start on their journey, and the
hour at which they passed the principal towns or
that of the East India Co. POst-Ofiice, where the
applicant for letters is furnished with written
swer, stating if there are letters, and how many,
OF even if there are no letters
But perhaps ought not to expect that the affairs
OF Republic should be managed as sklfully as
those OF merchant; and yet, Sir why should they
not be Why should we not nave, 10 transact Dusi-
ness, men of business capacity Instead of men
occupying the responsible position Of Postnasters of
cities, who are deficient in the business tact re-
quiIed Of a merchants youngest apprentice, there
might be, and ought to DO, in the United States of
America the most complete system of postal ar
raDgements that is afforded in the wide world.
/ have said nothing Sir, of the cruel law by
which the poor discouraged suicides of this State,
containing more beartbroken men than all the other
thrty-twO States put together have been compelled
to pay heavy penalty to the Postal Department
for their remOteness from home and happiness. l
have said nothing of the disgusting mbecility of a
Department which allows newly-arrived semi
monthly mail to lie dormant in San Francisco for
As hours, thereby shutting out the population of
nearly tho entire State from the privilege of answer
ing letters by return mail, which otherwise might
easily be done lin the language of leading Califor-
mia journal, "such arrangements are disgrace to
the Government and to the age in which we live);
for intended to cOnfne myself strictly to the con-
futation of the assumption that the Department
over which you preside is not at fault for the loss
every year of $3.50, 900 letters and if have not
proved as clear as the light of Heaven that the pre-
tense is utterly groundless, leave the people to
Judge. A MERCHANT.