Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-05-15
The New Postal Cards.

arrangement is destined undoubtedI,
to work immense good, and in man,
directions not yet revealed. There i
scarcely any class of the commuuit,
which will not in some degree be ben
Gifted by the system, and to certain
branches Of business the postal care
will be a veritable godsend. The sta
tistical and financial results of the eX
pertinent will be awaited with consid
cradle interest but, whatever they
may reveal On the question of govern
mental profit or loss, it is not at al
likely that the people are going to let
the Post-otiice Department 90 back
on itselfand on them by inetficiency
in executing its new trust, or inditfer
ence to any reasonable popular demand
connected Herewith. The system
means cheap postage in its widest sig
nificance and application for the
great bulk of correspondence is of 8
kind which may be brought within
the purview of the postal card scheme
Hereafter, for single cent, one can
send any message or conundrum OF
international it be but brief-to
whomsoever he pleases and wherever
in the Union the party may live. Cir
culars, cards, invitations, bills, duns,
notifications, price-lists, daily quota
tons, friendly messages land the other
sort, for that matter) modified erotics,
and pretty nearly everything else, eX-
cept sermons, orations and wifely ad-
may now be scattered all
over the country, "thick as autumnal
leaves in Vallambrosa. 1t is unneces-
sary to suggest that the new system
no facilities like the sealed
letter for keeping secrets; on the con-
trary, the postal cards will resemble
Mark Twain in their chronic habit of
letting information ooze out in a spon-
taneous and promiscous way. Lovers
md all other such visionary specula-
Iors will learn all this, however, by
due course of mail, and unless able
10 moderate the expression of their
and give over evolving
nonsense from their inner conscious
less, the postal card will be Of no use
% them, but, "on the contrary, quite
he reverse
But there is one particular in which
he new system may be held worthy of
he walmest welcome, and this is an
educator in the art of letter writing.
The same propensity to difluseness
which marks the popular style of talk
ne is equally characteristic of the av-
.rage American letter writer. There
S among us altogether too much of
hat sort oftwaddle Spoken and writ
en) which, to quote the poet Young,
resembles ocean into tempest wrought
o watt feather or drown a fly" A
minority Of our business men may in
Iced be ashamed to know how to
write a compact letter; but the greater
portion of all the correspondence that
'asses through the mails is of a kind
which, if the words were numbered or
Weighed and charged accordingly,
would pay mint Of money for post
ge, and thus be compelled to correct
IS own evils. Let us hope that the
liscount now made by Government
say 66$ per cent.) for very short let
ers will have a good effect in curbing
he epistolary Pegasus, and reforming
he carelessness and ignorance which
S rule, finds expression in needlessly
rolix letters. From a journalistic
we must look upon the
ew system as being sort OF bow in
he cloud, which promises future i'm
nuni;y to our profession from the del
ICE Of words, words, words-which
re not things.-New YORK; Mail.
The scales Of justice are not trif-
Il with in Nevada A lowvnr had nc