Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-03-04
Picked Up at the Post Office.
LETTERS THAT GO WRONG
And why They Go Wrong.

\ chapter of Interesting Facts and Notes
Showing how the Mistakes of Letter
writers are Corrected by the Postal
Officials.
The dead letter Office reports that more
than G,S0O,0O pieces of original dead mail
matter were handled last year, being an in
crease of A per cent, but as compared
with the years total volume of mail mat
ter, which was per cent larger than pre-
vious year, it was a greatly reduced per
Centage. OF the opened letters more than
10000 contained money, aggregatng near
" $4,000: about 10000 contained com
mercial paper of a total face value of
more than 81, 100000. For two years
previous the figures were practically
the same. Forty-one thousand contained
photographs, 10000 contained stamps
105,000 were held for postage, and
nearly $1,000 bore no superscription what
ever, the latter being 10000 more than ten
years previous.
The evidence is convincing that nine let
ters out of every ten that go wrong do be-
cause of carelessness and omissions on the
part of senders and in a very small meas
ure only by reason of any fault in the
postal system or in the work of the en-
1
with excellent effect put something on the
inside or outside by which the sender or
addressee might be be found. Care might
be taken in sending letters to cities or free
delivery offices to put on streets and num-
bers, as experience teaches that three-fourths
of the letters addressed general delivery
never reach the addresses, because the adj
dressees trust the carrier delivery 50 much
that they never think of going to the gem
eral delivery \ return request printed or
written on the envelope is a convenience
to the postal officials, and double con-
Venience to the sender, for a letter so
marked, if for any reason undelivered, is
returned to the sender, or he receives a
card request for better address.
Incorrect, illegibe and deficient ad-
dresses are leading causes which occasion
failure to reach proper destination. Fail
ure to give street and number, business or
occupations; inability to find transient peo-
pie, and their neglect to give forwarding
orders for their mail; negligence of perma-
nent or temporary residents to notify car
riers or pOst-otiice of changes of address,
and failure of newcomers to furnish the
post office with their names and addresses
operate to prevent delivery. All writers
of letters may not care to place their
envelope, but if they would do so there
would be few undelivered letters. Guilt
walton of the habit of scanning the adj
dress of letter after it has been written
would prevent nine-tenths of the mistakes
due to deficient or erroneous addresses. 1t
is purely a matter of business habit, and
the remedy is the simplest
As illustrating the fallibility of the great
letterwriting public, Assistant Postmaster
Wilcox has, from his collection of near
ly 100 requests for better address cards,
made up a list of mistakes in addresses
which have been corrected by the Brat
tlebOro Office after correspondence with
Senders, whenever any clue to same APP
peared on the envelope Fully "A third of
the cards thus mailed to senders are not
responded to, the letters being eventually
returned to them after expiration of time
limit in return request. Where no time
for holding is specified they are kept in the
general delivery 30 days, whereas were the
card request replied to any error that may
have been made could be promptly cor
reCted. Last year the local Office sent S9I
such requests, of which less than 600 were
returned In the list of letters following
all were addressed to some person or firm
in Brattleboro, when, in 364 cases, it was
other post-otice; and 24l requested the
return of letter, an error having been
made, but evidently preferring to start the
letter anew with correct address, to having
the letter 90 forward to their correspond
ent with the evidence of the writer's blum
der. The remainder furnished further in
formation, of correct initials, street and
number, Or business or occupation, that
enabled the office to deliver the matter.
An even 80 replied that the letter should
have been addressed to Burlington, VT,
instead of Brattleboro; As were intended
for Bellows Falls 30 for West Brattleboro
"a for Hinsdale, n. H.. IL for Rutland; l.
for Montpelier; ., Attleboro, Mass. {
each for Boston, Mass, Keene, y. H..
Worcester, Mass, and st. Johnsbury; {
each for St. Adams, Marlboro and Gull.
ford; each for Bennington and West
Chesterfield; each for Brandon, Ludlow,
West Dummerston, Winchester, n. H.,
and Baltimore, Nd; each for Barre
Bradford Jamaica, Middlebury, Newfane,
Readsboro, Wilmington, Waterbury, Bat
tleboro, n. c., Lebanon, Manchester, and
North Hinsdale, n. H., North Attleborc
and East Northfield Mass. each fol-
Athol, Mass, Biddeford, Me-, Castleton
Cincinnati, Ohio, Guilford Centre, Gard
Haven, Ct, New York, Peterboro, n. II.
Philadelphia, Plymouth, n. H., Ports
mouth, n. H., Putney, Springfield, Mass.
and VT, Townshend, West Halifax, Wal
pole, n. H., Winooski, Wlliamsville
Woodsville, n. H., and Vineland, n. J
And, finally, one each for 30 different
places in Vermont, 25 places in Massachu
sets, II in New Hampshire, 7 in New
York, in Connecticut, in Maine, in
New Jersey, 3 in Ohio, 2 in Pennsylvania
? in Tennessee, ? in Virginia, , in Hi
nois, in Michigan, l in Minnesota and
in the Province of Quebec.
Here are a few samples of the TWISTS
given names of local firms and individuals
S. A. Sawyer IL Co., and S. A. Story 4
Co. were intended for S. A. Smith d Co.
Scott d Goodwin for Scott d Jones; Eros
q Adams for Frost d Proctor; Howe q
JENNIE for Sherman IL JENNIE; Morrison
Son and O. E. Emerson for Emerson a
Son; Gleason & Nichols for Gleason d
Robbins; Rapp q Jamer for Clapp &
Jones; e. CrOssman & Co. for E. Crosby
d Co.; f. w. Richards q Co. for w. F
Richardson & Co.. j. c. Bowling for Geo
S. Dowley; j. II. Buck for II. NJ. Burke
w. ID. Horton for II. ID. Holton; Oh
Brightman for G. l.. Brigham; Rev. VIII
liam Clark for Ranslure Weld Clarke; O
l.. Flint for O. l.. French: N. j. HowleI
for n. l. Hawley; II. p. Huntington fo
II. p. Hunter; Silas Calvin for John Gal
win; Geo. f. Gordon for Geo, E. Greene
r. Worthington for r. Wadsworth; Val
ley Shoe Co. for Valley Mill Co.; G. b
E.. ~ 4