The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1860-01-28
THE DAY BOOK.
SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY Is.
A Row About a Post-Office
Stamp.

The followin g incident which French
exchange brings us as having taken
place ii Paris, is so good, and contains
such capital moral for the edi6cation OF
people prone to finding faint with Post
masters, that we translate it with pleas
ure:
The widow Richard is an old lady
badly addicted to making "bulls," and
of piece with the good woman who
poured out the coffee to feast upon the
grounds. It was blunder something of
this character she has just committed,
for which she has come Rto answer at the
police Office.
The case of the hubub had occurred in
one of the city post-offices of Paris, where
clerk, whose duty it was to attend to
prepaid letters, was suddenly accosted
bya woman who rushed in in great trepl'
dation. This woman was the widow
Bichard.
"Sir," she exclaimed, addressing tn e
clerk in voice tremulous with anger,
show does it happen, should like to
know, that when one has prepaid the
postage en- letter, the person to whom
it is sent is made to pay for it again p
"How it happens, madam % cried the
clerk, "why it don't happen at ALL
Well, say it does happen, and what's
more, that it happened to-day-there !"
"And / tell you again, that it is i'm
possible that it should be so.'
"But it is person of my acquaintance
to whom l wrote yesterday, and whose
letter was prepaid, who says she had to
pay for it, too. She was furious about
it, and don't wonder she was; for
wrote to her concerning my own affairs,
and she had to pay the postage. It's
down right robbery, | sayl"
And thereupon the widow kicked up
such a rumpus that it was found neces-
sary to call in a policeman and take her
before magistrate. Instead OF paclfy-
i1g madam Bichard, this proceeding
nearly threw her in the last degree of
evaporation. Although the officer re-
qpested her to assume a proper line OF
conduct, the widow persisted in her fu-
ry, and stamped, and screamed most up
roariously.
"To be told too, that l don't know
what / have done with it p she cried.
"Dene'with what?" inquired the mag
istrate.
"The receipt" answered the widow;
"the receipt which proves that pre-
paid the letter" So saying she fumbled
in all her pockets.
"There," she exclaimed suddenly,
"I've got it ! Here it is !"
And she exhibited triumpantly to the
magistrate--what can you imagine 1t
was a postage stamp! The poor lady
took it as receipt for the money she
had paid to the clerk, and had treasured
it sacredly instead of passing it upun the
letter
The blunder was duly explained to
her amid the laughter from the specta-
otrs. She promptly acknowledged her
fault, and regretted she had given way to
herIanger, begged the Court to deal len
iently with her. She pleaded her igno-
rance as the cause of her storming and
abvse of which she stood convicted.
The Court took the culprit's general
good conduct into consideration, as well
as her contrition, and fined 'feFsl6 francs
only" -,
However ridiculous this piece OF
French Partingtonism may seem to the
reader he can rest assured that scarcely
a week passes at any ?. O.ssin this coun-
try without some absurdity like it occur
ring, for which the poor P. M is roundly
berated without enjoying the satisfaction
of seeing the blunderers.punished for their
perverseness.
A Young ladM had an aunt in prison;