The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-09-20
Telling Superscriptions.

4"H you want position TO study hui
man nature without seeing the person, ="
said George w. Stanton, Jr.. mail
agent, ''you can find it in the railway
postal service. The letters man writes
are nearly always characteristic of his
description, and there are as many kind
of letters as there are dispositions. The
careful, painstaking student writes q
superscription-fo of course that is all
l have to deal with in letters-painfully
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 impossible to distinguish his
Iowa from Ind. Although 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 des-
tination is easily surmised. The square
tinted and perfumed 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
contain what is known as the Dutch
Brig It's batch of foreign letters
generally directed 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 me, but
whatever else is on the letter, Stat
Michigan, Nord Amerika, is invariably
somewhere on the envelope. There are
generally five or six lines of superscrip-
ton. The letters which come from the
east are evenly and plainly written, as
If the sender had leisure; but the west
ern 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 a train.
Western people show 3 hurry in every
thing about their letters. Bothersome
authorizations are common, as if there
was no time to write out the full name.
In sorting mail in the car haste is inn
peratiye, and very often letter is SO
badly addressed that all / can do is to
lay it aside until Eve got time to lie
down and study, and try to make some
thing out of nothing.
''How about the amount of mail on
different days. 1t varies considerably,
don't it?" asked the reporter.
"Oh yes, Monday is the heaviest let
ter day and Wednesday generally the
ightest. Friday and Saturday give the
heaviest commercial mails. The Mon
day morning mail is social correspon-
dence to great extent and it is won
derful how it will vary with the weather.
A bright, pleasant Sunday will make a
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 q rainy, disagreeable
day and it seems as if the whole popu-
lace spent the day writing to friends.
People write more letters in the fall and
winter than they do in the summer
the spring is the lightest season. Many
more papers are circulated in winter
than in summer, as people have more
time to read. Correspondents are tired
then, you know.
'There is lots of fun too in the busi-
ness if 1t is hard work. It's rather
amusing to watch the regularity which
correspondents often show. Idon't no
tice it in the mails from larger places,
but up the road where only q few let
ters come on the train / catch on to lots
of rackets. There is fellow up north
at a siding who always brings his mail
and puts it on the train. Why | can
set my watch by that fellow. It's only
a short time since he commenced to
send with such regularity and when he
hands the letter in to me he gives 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
was going to happen before long"