The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-10-12
DIrectlpREereerr.

Directing Letters.
It was q very pertinent remark made
by an attendant who was conducting .
party over the Dead-Ietter Office. He said
Il was q pity the school children OF the
land could not be permitted to look into
the Dead-Ietter Office in body, to I'M
press upon them the necessity or always
letters In full TO the name OF the
person addressed, the tOtcR, county and
State, and signing the writer's name,
with the address. in the inside, instead Of |
&" Your affecttonate Thomss'' or ''Susan.'
II this very useful suggestion could b. !
tackled to the multiplication tablS, AMI /
drilled into the children with as much |
Vigor, it would save q vast deal Of annoy |
anc0 and trouble In after life.-Harper's |
Bazaar.
The above contains a volume of
good sense. The matter of direct.
ing letters seems trivial in the minds
of most people, and yet it lie one of
importance. The attendent above
alluded to could undoubtedly tell
from actual observation that three
foHrths of the letters which get to
the dead letter Office, would never
be seen there If little good sense
were exercised in directing them.
We are convinced that every school
in the land could do nothing more
useful than to instruct the pupils in
the matter of plainly and properly
directing letters. There is no every
day act Of life that needs greater
care than that OF preparing mail
matter properly to insure safe and
speedy transportation to those for
whom 1t Is intended, and yet there
lie nothing that we do, as an aver
age, so carelessly, so bunglingly and
so wIetchedly. There ought to be
but little use for q dead-letter Office
In Washington, but it is q great es-
Enlistment, working many clerks.
This work is mostly caused by the
carelessness of the public. On the
average, in every hundred letters,
ten will be so poorly directed as to
be almost unintelligible; five will
be directed to the wrong post Office
or wrong State, with no return card
upon them, leaving the officers to
guess where they are intended to
go. AS many more will be put in
the Office without stamps. Occa-
sionally letters, and quite frequent
ly postal cards, are dropped into off,
ces or mailed on trains without any
direction al all. One fruitful cause
Of trouble is the similarity and mix
ing Of names. For istance, in this
State are offices named Emporia,
Empire, and Empire City. FREE
quently EmpOris is written Empo-
ria City, Empire City is written
Empire, while Empire is written
Empire City. There is a general
mixing up, and many people say,
go, it's no difference; It will go all
right" Much of the work of hand
ling letters has necessarily to be
done rapidly, and hence mistakes
occur. People in Emporia get mail
for Empire, and Empire City. The
names are seldom written plain, and
the counties less seldom put on.
Take Colorado and California as
another instance of mixing things.
1t Is almost universal to abbreviate
the States. One is Col. and the 9TH
er is Cal. Now, many people make
an for an o, aud an o for an a, and
hence it is often impossible to tell
which of these States is meant, and
great deal of cursing of post mas
ters and route agents is INDUCED in
because people are too careless or
too lazy TO take the trouble to direct
their letters plainly. The abbre-
viations for Iowa and Indiana are
very frequently written the same on
letters, to wlt-"Ia." Postmasters
and route agents are rushed and
have not time to hunt up their books
to find out which State is meant,
and consequently there is more oc-
casion for cursing post masters and
route agents. So occasionally with
Kentucky and Kansas. A writer
makes q KY with brief tail to the
y so that it may be called 8, and vice
versa. This docs not happen very
often, of course, but we have had to
strike out Ks on letters and send
them on to KY, after examining the
books. We have given but a glance
at what might be written on this
matter, called out by reading the
item quoted from the Bazaar. This
ought to all be remedied. The gov
eminent is working hard to make
the mail service IS efficient as it can
be made, but it works with COM
paratively little purpose SO long as
the public are 30 careless in prepar-
ing their mail matter. The proper
place to begin the much needed re-
form in this really important mat
ter is with the children. There is
to-day q considerable proportion OF
grown people who ought never to
undertake to direct letter. They
are sure to spoil the job in como
way. This may seem to be rather
ridiculous statement but it is true
as gospel. Let the children be in.
structed at home and in the schools
how to direct letters.
who HkAOws?
| WIN EnnWa lint r nj Riah0n
the newly elected Governor of Ohio,