The Washington times., 1903-06-22

Major James r. Bell. of the Wash
ington postofice. is issuing his annual
warning TO careless users OF the mails.
He warns the public every now and then
about carelessly addressing letters and
cites instances OF the evils that may
come upon those who do not take the
trouble to see that their letters are
dire cted to the right place.
In common with all other postal on
cials Major Bell is an enemy Of the
practice OF people who. living In the
same city with the person TO whom they
are writing. direct the letter town" or
city or "locaI.v Every day he has
large quantities OF mail TO straightsn
out as a result of this habit and the
major is about getting tired. In speak
ing Of this feature of his troubles yes
terday he said:
Write City Name in Full.
1T requires only little more time
and trouble to address letter with the
| full name OF the city and then the
writer is sure that it will go where he
intends This matter OF addrC ssing a
letter town local and city is merely
a habit which is nuisance to the post
office officials throughout the country
and not infrequently causes the delay
Of important mail.
"A man goes to another town and
writes a letter to someone in his home
town. He addresses It in one Of these
three words and let's her go. He does
/ hn
poets and writes again. making a COM
plant about the slowness of his cor
respondent. The correspondent replies
that he did not get the first letter. A
kick is al once made 10 the postofice
and we are blamed for the delay We
look up the matter and hnd that tho
letter has probably been addressed 10 Z
non-existent street in the town where
It was written. We tell the writer that
but very often he has sort OF sneakinF
suspicion that II we had done our iurl
the letter would have been delivered CT
time
New York a Great Offender.
New York people are especially prom
to misdirect their letters, probably be
cause they think New York is the onl
town on the map. Not day goes D
that letters are not turned over to m
addressed 90 Wall Street. City or 4
some such manner. redirect them an
send them on their way; but II IN
writer loses any money by the delay
he Immediately charges the Postofilc
4 Department with carelessness.
After redirecting the letters of care
less writer's for years. we obtain sur
: prising knowledge of the streets in tn
, different cities, and can generally tie
at a glance what the writer intended
i There is sort of intuition that como
20 US, and we have to rely on tina
( Sometimes we get hold OF a letter ad
dressed TO a street with which we ar
not familiar. and have TO send It TO III
: dead letter office il the writer's address
: is not on the envelope. A large numbe
= Of these dead letter office letters al
u the result OF the habit have mentione,
= Towa" Read for "Town"
Another result of the habit is th'
= postal clerks sometimes misread the az
It dress one OF the commonest of the'
n mistakes is TO read Iowa for 'Towr
- In sorting the mail the first clerk lool
Il only at the State and puts the letter
the box for the State he reads II
= next clerk looks only at the town, al
the third at the street. Consequent
: If the letter starts wrong. II is apt
go all the way TO the state which Il
6rst clerk read.
! Some weeks ago a lady came in he
ca
package containing valuable papers
another lady in Washington. and aft
several days found that It had never be-
received. She told me that she had n
:. dressed the letter Town and l ask