The Press., 1888-01-19
AT THE LADIES' WINDOW.

4 City Postmaster Tells About the Harm It Does--Some of the Good.
 The postmaster of one of the three great cities that practically compose New York was spoken to by the father of a modest young girl, but little inclined toward rebel lion because forbidden to correspond with young man of her acquaintance The par ents, seeing no more letters come to the house, supposed their daughter was all obe- dience, but she had confessed that she was still exchanging letters.
 "Woll,n said the postmaster, "there it is again-that satanic ladies' window. You do not begin to appreciate the harm it does But what can we do7 There must be a window, call it what you will, where men and women and boys and girls having no permanent ad- dress can call for letters addressed simply in the care of the postoffice. It is necessary and good that the convenience be kept up, my dear sir. The clerk at that window in this office is trying to lessen the harm of that window and what he is doing has my ap- proval, but every such effort is unwarranted in law. He says to the girls and married women who give different names to different persons as their own names: You can have the letters for Sarah Stewart, but you must always be Sarah Stewart after this if you take them. You cannot come tomorrow and ask for letters for Sarah Watkins He does that, and he holds back lots of letters, but he has no right to. In your relative's case, if she is under age and her parents or guardian ask us not to deliver letters to her we can hold them back or deliver them to her elders, but all the women who are of age can keep on misusing the governments service, and there is no lawful way to stop them.n
 The ladies' window also accomplishes good in many cases. Woman are apt to make confidants in the strangest quarters, and the consequence is that the grizzled men at those windows hear many queer things when the callers are few and there is time to talk and to listen. One of these condolences was that of a sad visaged wife who asked that her letters never on any account be given to any one else, "because," |" she said, ''they bring me the only money that stands between starvation and my children and me. My husband does not work, but drinks up all I can earn with my needle, even collecting my earnings before l can go to get them. My brother in the west sends me what he can spare, and with that l make up the rent and get food and clothing for my little ones. 1 do not want to desert my husband, but he must never know of this extra money that l get" Then there are the women who are secretly en- gagged or even secretly married, who tell the man at the ladies' window all about why they nave Jakeu Jne SCep, anu WnaU JefTlDle consequences would follow if it were ever found out. II tell you this, though I have never told any one else," one of them ex- claimed "because must tell some one. had to talk to some one about it, and come to you, because you are the one get his let ters from" One young woman on securing regular weekly letter remarked one day to the clerk: 'What jolly row there would be if my folks knew I was getting these let ters My sister has married Christian, and we are Jewish, you know. She has been re- nounced by all my family, but she and keep each other posted every week, for she is my sister just the same, and all she did was to marry the man she was fond of, after all. '" Thus the ladies' window lends itself to the best as well as to the weakest and the worst impulses and motives, and thus, so far as any one can foresee, it must continue to do as long as postoffices are public institutions.