The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-02-10
LETTERS THAT GO ASTRAY.

UecN uiAUlc ~ HUI proper C1oiAo"s0
for. There are many of these, and where
are due to carelessness. They consist of
wrong street numbers, wrong streets,
wrongly spelled names, and omissions
of each of these parts of the addresses.
When the carriers have thrown these
letters into the boxes, all the letters In
all the boxes are examined by all the
carriers, some of whom arc certain 10
I find the names Of persons with whose ad-
dresses they are familiar. For instance,
a careless person addresses q letter 10
JohppSpith,At 3O1 Bfoad way, wpen ~
shoiil1 have sent il to 8Ol Bowery. ipe1
Broadway carrier finds no such person,
but the next day the carrier for that part
of the Bowery recognizes the peculiar
names aud iyersthe letter. Those that
remain after this ex animation by the
carriers are handed over to the searehefs
who have the directories ofalt the prin-
cipai cities in the United States, and
by studying them they are able TO.
correct the addresses of more than fifty
per cent of those letters on the envelopes
Of which the sender has written t.NeW-
York" or getty" by force Of habit,
when he should have written Balfi-
more or Memphis.
1t is said in the postoffice that there
can he no error conceived of that is not
made daily in the addresses of the en-
velopes handled there. In order to
doubiy protect New Workers the New
| York postoifice receives every day the
list of letters advertised in the various
large cities of the country, anil when
these are carefully scanned it happens
almost invariably that the names OF
| some New Workers are found among
them. This is because man is equally
fallible in all cities, but the New y ork
Office is probably the only one that thus
takes advantage Of this we'll established
fact. Misdirectcd letters are sent out
from the banks and the big business
houses as fre4unily in proportion to
the correspondence they have as are
sent out by persons generally. Careless
ness is the trouble in nine cases out 81
every ten. The now almost general
address on envelopes greatly ltghtens
the labor and increases the chances OF
through delivery. When everything
else fails the searcher is very often able
to send II mistiirected letter back to its
author.
The last searchcr to whom letters and
packages arc given before they are
pronounced inexplicable is MIR. w. w.
Stone, the famous "blind reader" whose
work has often been described. The
letters that go to him are called shards,"
and he has over a thousand OF them
day. They are for ssMrs. Smith, New
Jerseys" or "Mr. Smith, Canal street
| America - or for ST. uslS, which he
finds to mean Santlusky; Sot bent,
which he rewritcs South Bend, and so
on. "But suppose send n letter to my
friend Jones in Derby, Conn.,, and he
says he never got it," the reporter
asked.
The answer was found in room one
flight up from the ground story where
there is q corps of clerks and a tremen-
dous dayhook filled with the, histories
of letters that went or were led astray,
and that havo been, as the record
shows, nearly all brought hack to those
who missed them. When Il complaint
is made at the New York Office, a
\ circular, called Il ssscarcher," is sent to
the place Mt which the letter should
have gone, and afterward to places
with the same name, or with Il name
very like tho one in question. The
trouble is found to he that the letter
was wrongly addressed, or not fully
addressed, or that it went to an address
or II person for which it was not in
tended. For instance, there ARE. in this
city many persons with names alike Oh
almost alike, aud they frequently &c,
one anothers letters. Eventually the
letters reach the proper destination
but if they arc expected and inquired
for the delay is noticed. II is found
that many complaints are made by
persons who have sent important letters
or packages containing valuables, and
who pretend that they are missing
simply to learn of their proper and
prompt delivery. On the other hand,
letters that arc expected and com plain-
ed of are frequently delivered after a
slight detention somewhere, but tho
persons who receive them fail to notify
the officials, who continue searching
persistently and ingeniously until they
can think OF no new effort to put forth
when they send to tho writer or to the
receiver and find that they have wasted
a weeks or fortnight's effort anG
expense.
A lady died of heart disease In Louis
ville recently, and the family gave per
mission to couple of physicians tt
hold an autopsy in order to ascertain
the precise nature of the matady
The heart was removed, an examin
alton made of its condition and the