The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-12-12
MISCELLANY.
rELLrNo supERscRlprloNs.


" If you want q position TO study human
nature without seeing the person. said
George w. Stanton, Jr, a mail agent, g you
can find 1t in the railway postal Service.
The letters man writes are nearly always
characteristic of his description, ond there
are as many kind of letters as there are dis
positions. The careful, painstaxing student
writes superscription of course that
is all have to deal with in letters-pain-
fully plain with all the requisite shading Of
the Spencerian style. The clerk in a hurry
TO get off his mail combines a good business
hand with so much haste that it is impossi-
bic to distinguish his Iowa from Ind. Al
though the letters of persons not used to
writing them are addressed in cramped,
uneven hand, yet they are generally plain
to read, and if their spelling is not too bad
their destination is easily surmised. Tho
sqRare tinted aud perfnmed envelopes
which swell up Mondays mail are in deli.
cate little hand but always easy to read.
Every few mails we get from New York con.
tain what is known MS the Dutch brig.n
It's patch of foreign letters generally di.
rected to the settlers up in the north woods.
That is picnic for US poor fellows. Some
OF the names are regular jaw-breakers, but
OF course stations are all that bother mo,
but whatever else is ON the letter. Stat
Michigan, Nord America, is invariably
somewhere on the envelope There are
generally five or six lines of superscription.
The letters which come from the East are
evenly and plainly written, as If the sender
had leisure but the Western letters, while
the writing is just as good as that upon the
Eastern letters, look as if the superscription
had been written while ready to take train.
Western people show u hurry in everything
about their letters. Bothersome abbrevia-
tions are common, as if there was no time
to write out the full name. In sorting mail
in the car haste is imperative, and very often
letter is so badly addressed that all l can
do is to lay it aside until I've got time to lie
down and study, and try to make something
out of nothing"
g How about the amount of mail on diff
ferent days. It varies considerably, don't
IL /! asked the reporter.
" oh yes, Monday is the heaviest letter
day and Wednesday generally the lightest
Friday and Saturday give the heaviest COM
mercial mails. The Monday morning mail
is social correspondence to great extent
and it is wonderful how it win vary with
the weather. bright, pleasant Sunday
will make comparatively light mail on
Monday morning, as people don't stay at
home and don't get time to write letters.
But let the Sunday be rainy, disagreeable
day and it seems as If the whole populace
spent the day writing to friends. People
write more letters in the fall and winte.
than they do in the SUMMERTIME spring is
the hghtast season. Many moro papers are
circulated Ia winter than in summer, as
people have more time to read. Cores
peaaeata ara tired then, You know.
" There is lots Of fun too in the business
If it il hard work. It's rather amusing to
watch the regularity which correspondents
often show. / don't notice II in the mails
irom larger places, but up the road where
only q few letters come ON the train catch
on to lots of rackets. There is a fellow up
north at siding who always brings his
mail and puts IL on the train. Why can
set my watch by that fellow. It's only
short time since he commenced to send
with such regularity and when he hands
the letter to me he gives a wink and
small smile, The letter goes to girl on
the Central and the regularity with which
the replies come back Is a fair omen,
should think, although not much of a judge
myself, that something is going to happen
before long. Grand Rupids DsmOcrat.