The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-05
THE GENERAL DELIVERY.
rPhiladeiphia News.1

Philadelphia News.
 "When a girl begins to receive letters away from home there is something funny about it said Philadelphia post office clerk to reporter the other day You may depend upon 1t, she is in for filtration, and the chances are that she will regret the step. There is no window in the post-ofice where such a fine op- portunity is afforded to study human character in all its phases as at the gen. erai delivery Of course the females a:- tract the most attention, and 1t is a source of wonder what becomes Of some ofthem. We can tell when a young lady begins her flirtations. Not being very well versed either in postal laws or the ways of the world, she will give two or three names to the beaux she meets. She will ask for letters in each name, but as we can only deliver to one she fails to re- ceive the other two, or else must take her selection of which she will have. That girl is marked and she receives no more epistles unless in the name she gave originally. The old stagers know this and all their letters come addressed to the same person. The manners of the steady callers at the window undergo wonderful changes. When they first appear they are quiet and inclined to be modest. Soon they become bold, and as this increases so do the gaudiness of their attire and the amount of paint and powder on their faces. Finally they 20 no one knows where, and you can only conjecture. The steady visitors at the window change every year and as fast as one set falls out a new one takes its place. Ever since we have been in the new building there are many new faces, and the old ones have taken to themselves wings.
 ' One of the most remarkable things that has come under our experience here was the rush of females for letters about the year 1878, when times were hard and money scarce. There was a great many husbands watching about the office in taose times. remember one case where the lord of the mansion had captured letter which his wife received from a friend of hers. He followed her to the ofhce, and when letter was given to her he grabbed for 1t. There was a scuffie in which brute force predominated. He hastily read the letter, cursed the man who wrote 1t and sailed out of the build ing vowing to have the fellows blood. As did not hear of a murder, suppose the trouble was amicably adjusted. cal ous and suspicious husbands are a con- stAnt source of annoyance to us. Scarcely a day passes but some man rushes up to the window and wants to know if lady dressed in such and such style obtained letter. Was l, in mans handwriting How long ago was i, delivered to her Which door did she leave by: and dozen other questions. We know his ail- ment in a second. He obtains no satis- faction from us, because the orders are never to reveal the identity of any person who receives letters. The fellow usually foams and raves, but the orders are i'm. perative. You should know that letters are never delivered from this window unless the person to whom they are ad- dressed calls for them or sends a written order. Husbands often demand their wives letters, and when we tell them to produce the order they go away. Then we watch for them, for invariably they return with an order and the fun begins. Where do you reside? we ask, if there are doubts as to the order being genuine. The chances are that the man lives away up or down town, and then we want to know how he could secure the order from his wife so quickly. The truth is they go around the corner and write the order themselves, and when we ask for receipt for the letter they are caught short.
 The migratory population all receive their letters here, The foreigners are the worst to handle. An Englishman always refuses to give his first name. He will ask for letter for Mir. Brown or Mir. Smith. An lrishman will say yes to every question. but when he is asked the number of his house where he resides he oanno, tell, so he mus, travel all the way home to ascertain this, and the chances are the letter is not for him. The foreign CTS are always expecting remittances, and If an epistle fails 10 arrive at the time they think it should, it is lost for certain. And the funny part of it is that every de layed or missing letter is said to contain money. If that is the case there must be barrels of cash which some one filches, for of the hundreds who make this com plaint we never know of thelr receiving a farthing from abroad