Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-19
QUEER LETTERS TO THE IpoS7
MASTER.

QUEER LETTERS TO THE POST-
MASTER.
Some Unreasonable Coinplafnts-Sne Cor.
respondent Wants Some kittensl Another
IA Wife.
The habit Of many people gotg off al
half-cock leads to the sending many
letters to Postmaster Van Cot which
would cause him much AMUSEMENT il
they were not so numerous t4t they
have come to be bore. An id ID of the
unreasonableness of some of hf CORE
spondents will be obtained frol the &C
count of letter which reachedIhim not
long ago. 1t came all the \ ay from
India, and was written by an American,
now q resident there, who COZ planned
of the delay in sending lette} 10 him.
The letter, he said, had been Jailed in
San Francisco on April 8, but had not
reached New York until AuS lust 10.
After that it travelled at a rel sonable
speed. Why should it take IL letter
so long to cross the continent?
4 The part of the letter contaAing the
date and the envelope were Enclosed
with the complaint, so that l1r. Van
Colt might have documentary Sroof of
the assertions. It happened bat the
protest came into the bands of assistant
Postmaster Gayler first, and bid trained
eye saw at glance the redicd BUSINESS
of the thing. The date of the original
letter was in figures separated by per-
pendicular lines, that is, 8-line-4 line-90.
The person who felt himself a&prieyed
had translated the characters mean
ing the eight day of the fourt4 month
of 1890. OF course they real stood
for the fourth day of the eight month,
or August 4, so that the journ& from
San Francisco to New York ha4 really
been made in little more En five
days.
What placed the mans pd|tion in
even o more ludicrous light wa That the
San Francisco postmark on thev Envelope
said plainly August 4, 1890, bri it had
never occurred to the man look at
that, although he had exam I'D the
New York one.
A correspondent who was perhaps
equally unreasonable lives not Er from
this city. His complaint was q It it had
taken the postoffice people six bays to
send letter from this city to home,
when it should have been deljered in
as many hours. He too, enclbed the
envelope which should prove he culpa-
bic negligence and the inefciefy of the
postoffice employees. Nj. Caller saw
with half a glance the mistakeIhe man
had made. The letter wasko doubt
dated six days before its redipt, but
the marks on the envelope shMed that
it was delivered on the DIV it was
mailed.
The sender had evidently |ntrusted
the posting of the letter tofome one
who had forgotten all about il or nearly
a week, and had then quietly dropped
it into letter box without t4ing the
writer of his negligence. tn cares of
the Postoffice Department would be
vastly increased if it had Il bear the
responsibility of every delay , mailing
a letter.
Postmaster Van Colt, hoJayer, re-
ceives curious letters that arelnot sent
by men who have grievances.E One such
came from woman in Massachusetts,
presumably an old maid, 1lo had a
favor to ask. She had besAin Now
York lately, she wrote, anJ-n o atore in
Vessey street, not far from Tie post
office. had seen nine lovely Ghck cats.
Wouldn't the postmaster havethe letter
carrier on the route ask in thu various
stores until he found the cats, knd then
send the address of the pl4e to the
writer. She was extremely 4xious to
get some kittens.
Another person had reque4 of far
greater moment to himself to take. He
was farmer in Montana, and wanted
q wife. His helpmate had did few
weeks before, and he wanted a|other in
hurry. He needed one in his business.
She shouldn't be especially ydng, nor
yet remarkably handsome, bit indis-
pensable requisites were health,
strength ana a knowledge of tie duties
of a farmers wife.
Mr.. Van Colt read between he lines
that the man had worked his tst wife
to death, and his second would e likely
to meet a similar fate. so he didnot be-
stir himself much to find wonan who
would ELL the bill.-Nea0 Yq'k Tri-
bal7le.