Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-13
A COMPLETE DIRECTORY.
The City Post ONCE Has n Big List of
City Residents.

The officials Of the city delivery division
recently completed the new directory Of
names and addresses Of Washington people.
the work on which was begun on December
last. The new directory fills large num-
Der of bulky volumes, and contains in all
1855, 459 names. or a little over two-thirds Of
the entire population Of the city.
This scheme of making q more complete
list of the population Of this city is Of the
greatest possible assistance to the post
office, especially in the matter Of delivering
mail which is Improperly or carelessly ad-
dressed. The plan followed out in making
this directory was a very simple one On
the LIST of December the letter carriers were
all furnished with blanks which were lert
at every house on their routes, with a re
quest that they be filled out with the fuli
name and address of every person living In
the house. In cases where an immediate
response was not received the carriers were
instructed to call again and make another
effort at securing the desired slips. They
met with very satisfactory success, now
ever. and the work of compiling the new
directory was begun on January l. rms
was no small task. as may be inferred
when 1t Is said that these returns gave the
names and residences of % io9 more people
than are contained in the regular city Oh
rectory. Large blank books were then Sc
cured. The pages of the regular yearly oil.
rectory Of the city were cut out and pasted
in the blank books. leaving enough space
about them for the extra names to be en-
tered in proper order. The directory an
nually issued contained this year $1,000
names, SO that the post office directory Is
now more than twice as large. Its value Is
increased, however more than twice as
much, for large proportion OF names In
the city directory are of people and firms
who are we'll known, and in whose case
there Is less likelihood of mail coming i'm
properly addressed. With the large direc-
tories which Capt. Bell and his assistants
have recently completed the number OF let
tiers which eventually find their way to the
dead letter office has been very materially
decreased.
1t Is rather interesting to note how the
additions have been made to the different
letters. The largest number of extra names
secured by the post Office comes under let
ter b. and amounts to 10. 16S AS might be
expected, the smallest number is under the
letter X, where only six additional names
names added under the different letters Of
the alphabe: are as follows: A, 2,29S; B.
10. 1873; c. 1850; d, 5162; Z, 1726; F, 3,44O;
G. 4,T95; H, 7,271; L, 3, 1872; X. 3,04O; L, 1888;
r, 1853; S, 9,279; r, 1896; u, al; V. GA;
w. 1884, X, 6: Y, 476: z, ISL. Total. $3.50.
The first directory Of this sort was made
in 1873. under the direction of Postmaster
Edmunds. In 1885 the second was made,
under Postmaster Conger. and in 1889 the
third, under Postmaster Ross. On the latter
occasion this plan of adding to the efficiency
of the city delivery division was called to
the attention of Postmaster General Wanna
maker. and he was so pleased with 1t that
he communicated with every free delivery
post office in the country. recommending
the plan to them for general adoption. An
exhaustive account of the workings of the
system was published In The Star at the
time. and Mr.. Wanamaker had this rep::S-
lished in convenient form, and a copy was
sent to every frst-class post office In the
country The present directory, made under
the direction of Postmaster Sherwood and
Capt. James L. Bell superintendent of the
city delivery division. contains a large in
crease in the number of names over that
contained in the directory Of 1882