The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-04-18
RUNNING \ PosToFFICE.
FRANKS" Trials and TribuIatiOns for
Six Long Weeks.

Six Long Weeks.
H. L. G. Friends never knew until last
summer just how much outward grace in
ward cussin' and few postage stamps il did
take TO run fourth-class postoflice
You see. the proprietor of one of these
aforesaid things went off 10 hunt a better
job and inauguratcd me TO attend the bust
ness. and they say l hadn't much more
than taken me safe" until the people
talked Of impeaching me. And ] wish they
had. for my trials and tribulations were
many those six weeks
Everybody knows the manifold tricks Of
the small boy and the general SaucineSS
of the girl just old enough to begin her
first lo-e correspondence. Well ] had my
share Of both. once in a while when the
small boys got too obstreperOus ! could
take them by the scruff of the pants, or
what was left of it, and knock their heads
gently together but the small boy was all
| could wreak my pleasure upon in this
line.
Then. beside other troubles. there was
era ndpap Sims. who never got a letter i'm
his life. / verify believe. and / know never
wrote one, for ne can't write. would come
hobhling i'm two or three times day
wanting me to see whether there
nOthin for him up there in some of them
boxes. Then when | would do that and
Of course get nothing" for him, he'd
want me to look down in the waste paper
an see if / hadn't dropped his letter down
there by mistake: he'd heerd tell Of post
wife hadn't been living and just as active
" jealous Of him yet as she certainly was
sixty years ago. I'd have got some old
maid to written letter to grandpap
just for change.
Then old man Jones was another one.
They don't get much mail at the Jones :,
but that don't cut any figure at all as far
the pOStOfiCe is concerned \ month
or two, though. before | went in the bust
ness Becky Ellen Jones had subscribed for
the Ladies' Repository and every day old
man Jones asked for that blessed RepOsi-
tory and when I'd tell him it wasn't here
Nrpf haf6 ETarp n - /
asked him what kind of a magazine that
was Becky Ellen was taking. a daily,
weekly, yearly or Semi-yearlY. He said he
didn't know whether it semmy or
a sammy yearly. but II Ort to been here
long ago. wrote 70 me publishers ABOUT
it. They said their publication was a
monthly one and that Miss Joness number
had been mailed to her on or about the
18th of last month, and on or about the
18th of the present month her magazine
would promptly be mailed to her and not
TO bother them again in that style And
sure enough, on or about the 18th that de-
teStable Repository came sailing in. And
/ told old man Jones / didn't want to
hear tell OF that Repository again until on
or about the 18th of next month; If l ever
lived 10 see that time arrive. He said he
guessed / didn't run the government and
he'd ask for that Repository whenever he
pleased. He stayed away about three days.
Then one day when I'd settled down in
peace as | thought, TO write a letter 10
an unknown correspondent I've got out in
Arizona and ] hope she will stay there;
l wouldn want 10 see her turn out 10 be
q SQudW), Wllen VINO SnOulu come SuCkluB
his long nose through the delivery win
dow but old man Jones. Has Becky 81
lens Repository lie dldn hnlsh II
and he didn't stick his nose through that
hole again until the swelling went out of
But don't think everybody is so ag-
gravating Oh no. There are some that
you just feel like turning the whole bust
ness over to do with as they please, they
are so refreshingly polite and afraid they
might make you a little trouble. Old
Squire Dinglebeck and his daughter be-
long to this class, and did Just literally
turn the office over to them one day.
1t was an awful hot day and I'd had
and old man Jones and the rest of the
boys and girls Then some of the men had
been IN and said a fellow had started "A
soda water fountain up on the corner ana
they'd ever drunk. And what was better,
the proprietor was the best character
reader they. ever saw; he could JUS. tell
from mans face without him a-sayin' a
word just about what kind Of haVOrin
he'd be likely TO take. and Just about how
deep the havorin' ought to be under the
Miss Dinglebeck had in the meekest.
politest tones, asked If she might write a
read his paper while she was doin' that
if | didn't have any objections. OF course
] hadn't and ! asked a favor Of them;
Would they watch the office while L went
a little errand?
1 staid longer than I thought. but the
soda water fellow was an entertaining sort
of a chap, anG there isn't many of that
kind, that is. in a general sort of a way,
around Jimtown.
When / came back the squire said he
had sold "A postal card. and his daughter
said she had handed out some mail. and
looked over the office for Becky Jones's
Repository for the old man. but there was
no such book in the office. ] thanked
them very kindly, but when looked in the
were deserved two-dollar bill 1 had laid
on top of the change was gone. L suppose
the old squire thought he needed some pay
for selling that postal card But that
parker came in for her mail a letter that
j had put up in her box that morning was
gone.
A sewing machine man had come into the
neighborhood lately, and l knew that he
was paying attentions to both the squire's
daughter and Lydia Ann. The letter that
morning for Lydia was from him; and Miss
had just nailed it and taken it home to
read AZ her leisure. But she had left me ia
a deal of u fix, as | found the next morn
in demanding TO know why that letter he
had mailed the day before had never been
given to the address upon it. | told him
/ didn't know anything about it. The Par
kers. as far as 1 knew always got all
their mail. Perhaps the young lacy in
question had received her letter all right;
that is if he had ever written her one, and
was 3uSt looms ~ MN 8909t hof getIing H.
whether she did or didn't ! couldn't say. /
wasn't expected to keep a record of all the
the s NJ a. dent bluff worth copper
And before we were through he had said a
good many things that laid up to his ac-
count afterward. And when he got a doz-
en- more girls on his string, my second best
girl among that number, and the soda
water proprietor. who could tell what
a person was. business and all. from his
face, said he'd bet a Canada dime that $
NJ A. was a married man. / just held
back a half-dOzen or so of those letters he
was getting from the girls one day or
course he raveGs, fumed and reared but to
no use. | had his letters. and he hadn't
them And when ! got tired OF his chin
music 1 politely invited him out IN tr-v a
little muscular music. He wasn't on that
tack al all. but said he'd send man that
could sing me scale OF two Of another
tune.
And so one day who should / see saunter-
ing down the street but long. lank
stranger The soda water proprietor was
In the office. I'm bet that's an Inspector.
he said. Il guess Id better be gittin' mp
10 the corner III ~ is answered Il
have an idea he's one Of my kind not
yourn" And sure enough. just as he got
to the door he began solemnly to turn mis-
papers toward my view. But interrupted
that view very quickly by shutting and
barring the door in his face Then didn't |
he get hot. and in time he had the in |