Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-09
Various LANGUAGES.

'Inasmuch as the letters which reach the
dead letter office are addressed in a variety
OF languages, 1t is necessary for me to have
at least smatte-ing Of German, French,
Spanish. Portuguese and Hungarian. Oc-
caslonauy have to decipher a direction in
modern Greek, and now and then one in
Arabic. With Chinese letters, oddly enough,
we have less trouble than with any others.
They are usually very carefully addressed,
bearing the direction in Chinese as well as
IN English. Very rarely does one of them
go astray. If the Americans did as well,
the business of this office would be much
lighter. One trouble that is found in re-
turning dead letters to the senders is that
people do not sign their full names. Many
persons consider 1t sufficient to subscribe
themselves Your loving Tom Your de-
voted Julia or sinply Mother That sort
OF thing doesn't help us very much.
las many letters are effectively or
wrongly addressed from carelessness as
from ignorance. English people when they
write communications of business or friend
ship nearly always put the street and mum
Der of the sender Inside. With them 1t is
a national custom, and IL is very much to
be recommended Confusion Of mind Is &C
coun table for not a few wrong directions.
For example, Goose Bay will be put In
stead Of Duck Creek, or Mount PiSsah' for
Mount Horeb. At the same time persons
do not hesitate to address abusive notes to
the Post Office Department because their
love letters have gone astray. If an epistie
is not delivered, il is usually supposed to
have been lost through the rascality OF
postal officials. individuals want letters
hunted up that were missing as far back
as the beginning Of the century, and heirs
to imaginary property are continually ap-
plying to US for supposititious communtca-
tons from relatives abroad or elsewhere
"Only the other day q letter came into
my hands which was addressed to Mrs. p.
A. de Isle. Culling street, Washington.
D. c. / saw right away that 1t was In
tended for myself, being mailed by some
body who wanted to catch me mapping.
The p. A. de- Is for my first name. Patti;
the Isle Is Lyle. and the Culling' is for
Collins. 1t was an easy puzzle. My prac-
tice In this work has been SO long that,
as a rule. the true reading OF dimcult
address strikes me like a fash. An ex-
ample of the phonetic method was afforded
by letter from Germany which reached
this Office not long ago. The addressee
could not be found and all that was inside
of 1t was the single word-'Wynheldon-
yourite' That was not a very dificult
problem, as you can perceive for yourself"
One Of the most difficult problems ever
solved at the dead letter office was pre-
sented by a letter inclosed in q big envelope
which Is now on exhibition In a frame at
the Post Office Department. Upon IT are
inscribed a few bars of music, together
with the following verses:
There Is a young man In Brooklyn,
Far away to the sea.
r. o. B., Bob, We call him.
o. carrier, find him for me-
THIS was all, except the words 81.
Marks ave" in the lower corner The ex-
perts looked up the Brooklyn elite directory
and sent a circular to every person named
Robert living on the avenue mentioned.
In this way the right Bob was found. He
received the letter. which was written by
the author Of Goodbye. Sweetheart"
Here Is the superscription on an envelope
addressed to an Italian named Carmino
Catiso. at Morristown, N. j. Observe the
highly original rendering Of the New Jer-
sey."