Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1883-10-06
a GREAT A7eN6poa.v
AAsa kA0yg tts V8 orAAings AZ
2ect sEae Community.

1EG NlsfARITIES OF People, AS ZEN
FROM THE PosT OFFICE DELIv-
cry WINDOW.
"Do yoiNNeet with many pecu-
liar people ~ the INDEPENDENT
reporter asked x Theo. Buser, the
veteran clerk in Vie Martinsburg
post office.
II should think so, he replied,
and his fellow-clerk, J Ee Dieffen-
derfer chimed in: "you justbet we
do ~
This broke the ice for deshed
interview, and from first one ana
then another Of these gentlemen we
obtained In substance the facts here
given:
Zone popularity shown--perhaps
the most common one--is the regu.
lar daily call for mail at the general
delivery, by both white and colored
people, who don't average the re'
ceipt Of one letter in three years.
Why, I've known an old darkey to
come up and ask: 'sIs dar any letter
fur me, boss ?" Answered in the
negative, he would 60 away numb
ling, and in less than 20 minutes he
would again appear at the window
with the same query.
Another specimen Of the pecu-
liar people is the one who asks first
for himself, then for his family then
for his neighbors, until he has ex-
hausted his list of acq uaintances,
and I'm morally certain that the
questioner no more expected a letter
than ] do a commission.
'Oh, yes, its awful entertaining to
stand here and receive full benefit
from . variety Of perfumed breath
and be blessed because we hadn't q
letter for each applicant.
Eyes, its quite bother to answer
the applications of school children !;
suppose there are three. or four or
five in the family, each one will be
sure to call twice day regularly,
and all the time its dead sure the
old man has already got the mail, If
there is any.
"But you have abundant time in
which to extend these little courte-
sies-to answer questions in fact
your position is quite sinecure, is
it not ?" suggested the INDEPEN-
DENT man.
"Oh, yes, any amount Of time.
Hardly have anything to do. Don't
have to be at the Office before five
O'Clock in the morning, and can al
ways get Off by 8 at night. How
many mails are received and dis
patched Let'ssee: Seven come by
the b. q o.; two each day by the g.
V. and one by stage. Itsjust fun to
assert the mails, of course. IL we
can't make out the address on let
ter received or on one to be forwar-
ded, all we have to do is to guess at
it. People never make any COM
plants, they rather like it.
"Another class of peculiar people
are those who occasionally find that
a letter addressed to them has been
opened by mistake by another person
of precisely the same name. These
people never make a fuss. They
never think Of calling us idiots and
threaten to report the office, aud all
that sort Of thing. 1t is said though
that at Hagerstown and some other
points the people are not yet educa-
ted up to this standard.
"Still another class of p. p. land
we wish there were more Of them)
are those bright eyed, smiling faced
ladies, who after inquiring, politely
thank us, and make us wish they had
forgotten to ask for somebody else. I"
Just here we had to close the in
terview. We had been interrupted
half hundred times, and SO we
babe adieu to the post office attaches,
not neglecting to first ask If there
wasn't some matter for us--force Of
habit had manifested itself.
The Postmaster of Martinsburg is
]. Nelson Wisner, who was commits.
stoned January 26th, 1880, succeed
ing G. w. Tabler. The Office is rat
ed Ord class, but that rating doesn't
apply to its management, by any
means. SO far as the facilities en-