The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-11-07
AT THE POSTOFFICE.
NT-MiNDEDNESS AND CARELESS
NESS OF A GREAT MANY PEOPLE.
Incidents, Humorous as Well as Pa
thetic-The Mistakes Which are Made.
stamping Without Addressing The

New Envelope-Curious Address.
1t would probably astonish you, ;" remar ked
clerk in the granite building on Devonshire
street to reporter, 'to see the large number
and kind of mistakes made by the public
when doing business with the postoffice.
Every evening letters misdrected or without
postage stamps attached are thrown through
the orifices i'll the panels. 1t seems that when
some persons enter the postoffice they are be-
wildered, and suffer a partial eclipse of their
senses, and do things that they would not do
in other places. Letters innumerable, from
some OF the largest business houses in the
city, are received here without the necessary
postage affixed. This shows the mistake is to
be attributed to carelessness-not to iguOr-
ance"
What is done with such letters" gueried
the reporter.
The senders, if their card is printed or
written on the letters, are notified, otherwise
the matter is sent to the dead letter office e..
Washington to he disposed of there"
Il have no doubt you witness many Incl
dents humorous well as pathetic do YOU
not: observed the reporter.
STUDYING HUMAN NATURE.
Yes, the postofiice is great place to study
human nature. You come i'll contact with all
sorts of characters. Only the other evening
young woman, crying piteously, approached
the window, and i'll answer to an interroga-
tory as to the nature of her business replied
that she would like to have two letters that
she had posted during the day stopped 1t
could not be done, 1 told her, because the
mail for the place she mentioned had closed
and was gone 1t seems that she had recently
married, without her parents knowledge, and
during the absence of her husband from town
on business had written him a letter, and also
one to her paternal parent. She placed them
in envelopes, sealed and posted them. The
same day, some hours after, she thought she
had placed her husbands letter in her fathers
envelope, and vice versa; hence the tears 1t
Is not an unusual thing for a man to throw in
Al check book or some valuable papers with
his letters, and not discover his loss for some
time. 1t is interesting to observe the per-
picked and anxious look upon his face as he
makes inquiries for his lost property, and the
relieved and pleased expression that succeeds
it as he gains possession of the lost article.
"Then," resumed the speaker, after a short
pause, there are some persons who neatly
and firmly place a stamp upon n letter and
then throw it in, utterly devoid of direction
The great army of phonetic spoilers come to
the front and create havoc with such names
as Philadelphia, Jamaica Plain, etc, and
make of the poetical Indian names something
terrible and hardly recognizable Fertile in
p
when superscribing the address. Some direc-
tions are gotten up in the form of REFUSES and
enigmas. Milk street is sometimes called
street OF the lacteal fluid, while Cross, Temple,
Franklin and other streets are easily repre-
Sented."
THE NEW ENVELOPE.
How does the new envelope, the fap-cov-
cred postal card, er whatever it is, seem to
take with the publict" asked the reporter
Sc a.,lx-
will be successful or not. The majority of
the users of this latest idea show a lamentable
ignorance i'll folding it. They are folded in
shapes never designed by the inventor. 1t is
hard to tell whether or not they will be n sue
cess. If they contain money or anything
valuable they can be easily opened at the
sides by dishonest clerk and the contents
extracted without apparently injuring the
cover. The only advantage they have over
postal card is the contents are not known
to everybody who handles them"
''How is the special delivery business at
this office in number of letters deliveredt7 was
propounded by the reporter.
''Since the Introduction of that system it
has shown steady falling off, but it will
probably boom up on Oct l next when all
kinds of matter, if the usual stamp is affixed,
will come under the rule. At present only
first class matter Is delivered by special
delivery"
The reporter was shown collection OF
curious addresses copied by the clerk into
book. Some We're very remarkable. Ono
was addressed like the following:
BOOTS AND SHOES REPAIRED
Heeled, pc: Solcd, 1Jc
Dover street, Boston, Mass
This letter was delivered to a shoemaker on
Dover street who had over his shop door a
sign with the above legend upon it-Boston
Globe.