Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-16
JOHN CHINAMAN'S MAIL BOX.
New York Celestials Have n Post Office
of Their Own.

From the New York Times.
Chinatown now has a post office. 1t was
established last Thursday at ! Mott street.
Ii is not full-fedged office. there will
be collection for or delivery from it,
but it will give the citizens of that section
convenient opportunity of registering let
tiers and buying money orders and stamps,
which is really all that is desired.
The new substation is known as No. 1873,
and the patient official in charge of 1t is
Theodore Frelinghuysen Baldwin. Mr..
Baldwin is not a tirs't-class Chinese linguist
but confesses to having a dangerous smat-
tertng of that language His middle name,
furthermore, has about 1t a vague sugges-
ton of Chinese tea. which. 1t is hoped, may
lead his customers to trust him. He is as
sisted by Edward ]. Granville and julius
Rothschild, both of whom said to have
a speaking acquaintance with the Chinese
language. and are, Furthermore. noted for
unlimited patience 1t is they who will
wrestle with the careless and indistnct
handwriting of hurried Chinese merchants
Superscr1ptons suggesting nothing but the
wearisome wanderings of an erratic fly
walking over paper after having been res
cued from an inkwell, will be referred as
last resort to the joss house near by,
where arrangements have been made for
the care of desperate cases.
Heretofore the residents of Chinatown.
nave been forced to Datronize substation
No. y at $50 Worth street. which is some
distance removed from the center Of Mon
golian activity. The new substation is a
branch of the International Banking and
Trust Company, of which Mr.. Baldwin is
manager, and he will, in addition to his
post office duties, try and find time to do a
little banking.
The collection and delivery of malls in the
district will still be done by carriers from
the general post Office. The new substa-
ton. 1t is said. will in no wise tighten the
burden Of the carriers who have labored
through Chinatown for years
Letter Carrier James Cauonara uybo hos
circulated through the district for eight
years. affected cheerfuness in discussing
recently the life he leads. He is a we'll
preserved man. considering his years of
struggle with Chinese addresses Beneath
an air of assumed nonchalance can be de-
tected spirit of ineffabe WEAKNESS such
as might be found in a man who spent his
haystack.
"Oh. it amt so bad" said Campora.
when you get used to it. In the first
place, the Cinnamon, who, by the way are
great writers of letters, always try to mt
the address in English and Chinese.
Those who write from China have gener-
ally had the addressed envelopes sent to
them. On the other hand. the Cinnamon
who write to each other from different
parts of the city or state always address
the letters In both languages one great
trouble however is that there are so many
Cinnamon of one name. This came near
driving me crazy at first. l might start out
with bag full of letters. about 300 of
One Lung. One house might have two
dozen Chong Lings in 1t. For a time /
used to wander around trying to get some
Chinaman to claim a letter Sometimes ]
to take q letter off my hands Nowadays
! just take all the letters addressed to a
house to the storSkeeper on the nrst floor
! and he gets rid Of en- somehow"