Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-09-24
Fhe New York POstmaster's Queer Cor.
respondents.

respondents.
''We have dozens and dozens of let.
ters every day. said Assistant Post
master Gayler, ''which may be termed
Private Inquiries They have become
so numerous that we have been COM
PEELED to issue circular answer to such
Inquiries stating that they are not con-
nected with any official duties here and
that we have no time to attend to them.
They include all sorts of anxious and all
sorts of foolish questions. If we can
conveniently do so we make inquiries
and send reply, provided there's
stamp inclosed. Some time ago there
was man wrote to us from California
saying that he wanted the address of his
father, whom he had not seen for ten
l,years. OF course he gave the hame and
last address, and one of our carriers on
his rounds asked for the old man at his
f. last address. There it was found he had
removed to some other place years be-
fore. Another carrier on the other
round then took up the thread and in
quired at the new address. Well, to
make long story short, the old man
was found working in Bowery shoe
shop, and his son, who, of course, had
grown rich and prosperous, sent him
money to come out to California, where
he has lived happy ever since.
ga clergyman once wrote to us to
hunt up dissipated son, and more by
accident than otherwise we found him.
But he was a bad one. He had been in
State-prison once or twice, and when he
was informed of his fathers search he
told us to reply that it was all right, he
lad married an heiress, was very rich,
icing in partnership with jim Keene,
and he would like the old gentleman to
call and see him. ..
Many inquiries are made daily of the
Postmaster respecting business schemes,
the virtues of medicines, and as to the
character of men who are about to mar
ry in some distant place. These the
Postmaster can hardly reply to, except
on his own personal knowledge or that
of some one Of his trusted subordinates.
One letter came inquiring "if - had
a good paying gambling saloon, as he
is counting my daughter, and says he
has, The Postmaster responded
mildly that he didn't know. 1t was too
delicate an inquiry to 60 into, where the
future happiness of two human beings
may have been at stake. s.' q
"There isl said Mr.. Gayler, ga big
correspondence carried on under cover
of the Postmaster. For instance, per-
sons who may want to perpetrate Joke
or start scandal will often write let
ter from some other town dating it New
York and addressing it to the proposed
victim in that town. Then they will in
close the. letter, enveloped, addressed,
and stamped, to the Postmaster here
with ha request tnt that uH il will will be p9stsd
on it, which Is what they want, and Of
course il shunts suspicion away from the
original sender, while it increases the
mystery. But, under the regulations,
all such letters have special mark put
on them which greatly disturbs the send
cr's expectations. Each one receives an
extra mark which reads thus MAILED
at - under cover to Postmaster, New
York This" continued Mr.. Gayler,
'rather gives away the sender, especial
ly as he is apt to care little about con-
cealing his handwriting when the sup
posed postmark will help SO much to
hide him. Some days ago sent one 81
) these to, say, John Smith, in Pough-
keepsie, with our special mark on it,
and in less than three days saw that
John Smith had been on regular horse
whipping excursion around that beauti.
: ful city.
"Then there are great many letters
which come under cover for the very
rich men or noted philanthropists, like
Gould, Vanderbilt, or George l. Seney.
The writer does not know the full ad-
Q dress, and requests the Postmaster to
: fill it in. This, of course, is always done
n if the stamps are on the envelope. The
It letters may be begging letters or threat
J., ening letters for all we know. All we
d have to say is, Has the envelope got the
l.. stamps onP But of course these inclosed
i letters must also bear our postmark, and
|. so l suppose Vanderbilt, Gould and
d Seney are often perplexed to find let.
= ter postmarked New York and dated
It out in California or down in Georgia
l. Sometimes, | suppose, very innocent let
1t ters are set down as frauds by these
; gentlemen because there appears to bt
: some sham in the date"
e The Postmaster has one regular cor
respondent who sends postal card full
, of uninteligible nonsense day after da,
from Essex junction, VT, his screed
!, . reading on like continued story from
u one postal to the next one. One CORE
. spondent strongly urges that the Post
= master send an order for 81 or NOR
. hawking birds,n and another recon
's mends the ''Besling stone as the onl
sure thing"
:, "Good morning, gentlemen. I hop
l. you are living under the eye of tn
IF Lord" said a genteel little old lady, a
she tripped lightly into the room an
=, tripped out again, when the reporte
4 was about departing.
"a "That," said Mr.. Gayler, isis our lii
at tie Miss Elite. She owns all the groun
"a "a the post-onice stands on, and come
tS around every day to see how her proI
erty is getting on. She told me conf
;, dentially the other day that she was yer
T much bothered in her mind to kno
y what sum she should allow the Unite
- States for improvements. IN J. TiT
l. Reporter Murphy, of the Unite
ne States Senate, relates of Daniel Webst6
that one day when he was to debat
a with Silas Wright, loquacious frien