Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1882-05-18
The Po,t.Onlce Delivery Clerk.

onClal PAD by the Government OF the
United States TO make the travelling
public, and those who have not got lock
boxes paid for quarterly in advance, feel
that there are worse things than not
getting the letters they expected. The
worse things are the delivery clerk him
self and the manner in which he treats
the anxious Inquirer. There is no inn
petuous haste about the movements Of
the delivery clerk, but, instead, there is
a calm repose of manner and leisurely
disregard of time, as he turns to his
pigeon holes TO look for o letter for YOU,
and, becoming interested in the reading
of a postal-card, forgets all about your
presence. .lLh
We heard man say, the other day,
that the average delivery clerk is of a
retiring disposition will retire be-
hind desk for half an hour to finish
reading the catastrophe of Seaside
Library novel, while the unletter0d pub
lie howl like fog horns outside, and
pound on the sides of the window with
their sticks and umbrellas. f a.
The post office delivery clerk is really
very mild and inoliensive creature
when he is deld or discharged. In his
official capacity, however, he is not ex-
cessiyely communicative or oppressively
polite. He never comes out of his win
dow to chat with friend, or to point
out to stranger the way to the court
house. There are several characteristics
and eccentricities of the delivery clerk
that may be worth mentioning. He
will look ut the inquiring one in a pre-
occupied sort of way, and when the
latter states that his name is j. f. Will
son, and asks if there are any letters for
him. the clerk will go into reyerie over
about forty letters that he will fish out
of the w box. After he examines them all
and has had ten minutes of joint dis
cussion with the first assistant mail
ing clerk, with regard to wheth-
er the second throw that Smith
made last night was two skies
and a three or two threes and
six, he will then look over few more
letters, until he comes to one that looks
as if it might fit the man outside, and
coming to the window says: "You are
sure your name isn't j. Z. Williams, are
youP" as if Wilson might have lost or
mislaid his name and unconsciously
picked up some other mans name by
mistake, as one might exchange a hat or
umbrella. When the man assures him
that his name, as well as he can remem-
Der, is Wilson, the clerk looks disguised
and disappointed because he is again
baked in disposing of some of his stale
literature.
The most eXasperating specimen of
delivery clerk is the one who has the
reputation of having a remarkable
memory. He remembers, or pretends
to remember, the names of all the let
ters in all the pigeon holes, from A to
II, and we never saw man yet who
wouldn't doubt the accuracy of his
statement when, withoutlo looking through
his stock of letters, he says: Nav,
nothing for that name"
That the delivery clerk should have a
gloomy and cherries disposition is not
to be wondered at. He has much to an
noy him and prejudice him against the
people, who seem to have a deplorable
and Unsuitable yearning for a letter or
even a one-oent circular. He is worried
by all sorts of unreasonable people.
There is the drummer who wants any
letters that may come for him during
the next ten days forwarded to him at
Chicago; the man who wants to know
if a letter mailed now will 90 East on the
ago train; the boy who mailed letter
without q stamp and wants it back; six
men who forgot their box keys and want
their mail handed to them the woman
who knows there must be a letter for her
and asks the clerk to F" look again." the
countryman who gets angry, and wants
the clerk to "come out on the sidewalk
for just two minutes" because the
clerk wants to charge him six cents on
an insuiliciently prepaid letter. and
the colored female who does not get a
letter, on an average, once in two years,
but who comes every Monday morn
ing, and inquiries, not only for letters
for herself, but for all the cook and wash
ladies in the ward she lives in.-TeraS
SifIiuOS