The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-03-06
| she losses it into the box ready for re-

She looks ~intently for a moment or
two, refers to a directory and writes
"Franconia." THAT corresponds with
the State and county and l think it will
60"
"Now here is one that should not
have been sent here at all. Any post
master ought to be able to read that"
1t is addressed ''Tuppke, Rance" I
venture the suggestion that the design
of the writer would De carried out by
sending it to Topeka, Kansas. THAT
is undoubtedly right" says the lady,
and the letter properly addressed is
tossed into the box.
''This one is directed to the Wood
County Sentinel, o. That paper is
published, 1 believe, at Bowling Green.
That is easily fixed.
'Here is one of a kind that
times trouble us. 1t has the street and
number, but no city or State is given.
This is directed to '2518 st. Mary's
Avenue, corner Twenty-sixth Street.
and that is all. l look at the directories
and | find that several cities have streets
so designated; but these streets cross
each other in Omaha. So St. Mary's
Avenue, corner of Twenty-sixth Street,
must be there. 1t is strange how
thoughtless many people are in address
ing letters, and then they blame the
Post-office Department because they do
not go. There is more excuse for those
who make mistakes through ignorance.
We get a good many so badly written
that we are utterly baffled; we can't
make anything at all of them. Such
letters have to be opened, and if we get
no clew by that means they are de-
stroyed."
''This letters addressed 1896 Tchoupi-
toulas Street. and no city, county or
State is given. But we know that
street is in New Orleans and we send it
there. Here is another with nothing
but '210 Woodward Avenue;' that goes
to Detroit. If in an address of this
kind the name Is a common one such
as Washington or Jackson we are
at sea, for it may go to any one of
twenty cities. By opening such letters
we often find the full address, or some
thing that enables us to complete it.
This is a comical one. 1t was evil
IDENTITY written by an Englishman. He
wants it sent to 'Eyewood, Hillinoie,'
but sHighwood, ILL., will do better and
we'n send it there.
"Look at this: .Nerage, Conicut. >
We will mail that to Norwich, Conn
The writer hit very closely to the way
they pronounce it.
Here is a letter addressed, as you
see, in a very plain business hand, to
'Crotty, La Sale County, H. The
nearest | can come to that in La Sale
County is OTTAWA and 1 presume that
was what he intended. Well try it.
"We can't do. anything with this:
Mrs. Rose Story, Montana That will
have to go to the openers.
This is pretty good: Pat O'Donnell,
State of West Sconsen, Oirentown, Sea
Co. l think if / change that to Iron
ton, Sank Co., Wis., Patrick will get
his letter..
l. THE HARD ONES.
Gin many cases it is not nearly as diff
f~icultto solve these riddles as might at
first appear. If we can decipher the
writing we a almost always make out
in some a what the addresses are in
tended to be. Illiterate persons, who
have not mastered the intricacy of our
post-office photography, can only write
from the sound as they hear the names
pronounced. 1t is painful to think oil
the struggles such persons have with
many of u post-offices, that often
bother the best of us. 1t is not strange
that people make a mess of such bar.
barous words as Ypsilanti, Kalamazoo,
Oshkosh, Skowhegan, Waukesha an6
hundreds more that might be men
toned.
"Nowlet me show you how compare
lively easy it is, sometimes, to correct
an address that at first sight seems ut
terly unreliable. Here is one 1 came
across a little while ago. If You car
tell at a glance what that was intended
for"-covering the corrected address
! 81 will pronounce you a frst-class ex
pert
And it does seem as hard as the eff
teen puzzle" 1t is written '.Ocreg
ALA" Without hazarding a guess W,
turn an inquiring eye to the lady.
"You give it up? Well, 1 don't won
; der at it. We take a word like that ane
pronounce it in every possible way unit
we hit upon something hat suggest.
the right one. 1t is evident that thi
word has two syllables. If we sounc
the 90 short and the 90 hard, we cal
make nothing of it. We will try it an
other way. We will divide the wore
VII II hiop wv 1COlCIS. NOW we VII
: sound the 'O' long, the &C. hard and 90
soft. We pronounce it slowly and W,
have something that sounds very mucl
A., like Oak Ridge The State is plai1
q enough, if it has an an extra d Their,
is such a post-office in Alabama, and
: have no doubt that is where the write
T wants the letter to go. This example
will illustrate our plan of guessing
ont fhnSn niScnnl1ol yp1rI,
l $4,000 of these misdirected letters wer,
corrected and delivered to the RICH
persons.
D "You can readily understand that W
have much difficulty with letters from
b foreign countries. They come ad
t dressed in alllanguages, and the writer
< make sad work with our town an,
e county names But you will lear
more of this class of letters if you will
visit the foreign department"
Y PICKINGS FROM THE ALBUM
=, Postmasters at the offices wher
these corrected or ''guessed at" letter
are sent are instructed, if the right per
r sons are found, to return the empty en-
velopes to the Dead Letter Office, bear
!; ing the Endorsement that the letter
were delivered. 1 was shown a larg
: album in which are preserved the NOR
curious ones: 1 give below a few o
them. The types cannot convey tn
: faintest impression of the monstrositie
in the way of penmanship:
J WRITTEN. CORRECTED.
) 1pschlanty, Mitchen. Ypsilanti, Mich.
e Osta Leuce. OSkalooSa.
Uingtoun. Ewington.
Jew City, Co N N. Jewett City, Conn.
Murfur Burty ten see. Murfreesboro Tenn.
4 bracil linda Brazil, Ind.
SuertSon. Stewartstown,
> Newpar. Newport.
st Tullia, ii. Centralia, Ill.
Bugnor st, Lulca co. Buckne Station, Lou
= sa Co.
Ro Warty Dunwitty Rowanta, n wi dbl
O Co. County.
Cohey sureu baltimore CockeySville, Bait
Co. more County.
o Indiana Polisind. Indianapolis, Ind,
W Rehaner, D.. o., OfeSt. Rayenna.