The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-17

assigned. 1t must be, too, that there is
no smile at all upon her comely face as
she turns the letters to Santa Claus
into the wastebasket to be burned, for
it would be sheer cruelty to return them
to the senders even were this always
possible.
Children are not the only ones who
send vain wishes out upon the unknown
at Christmas time
1t is not likely there is in the civilized
world today an individual who excels
Mrs Patti Lyle Collins in the deci-
phering of ilIegible chirography and
defective letter addresses. She was
appointed in 1880 to her place as ex-
pert in the dead letter Office at Wash
ington. Every day from each of the
large cities of the Union is sent to the
Washington Office a large package of
letters for which no owner can be
found. In some cases the address is
wrong; again, it is so illegible that no
body can make it out, and, again still,
the person who should have received it
has gone away from the place to which
it is sent, and the present address is
unknown All these missives are over
hauled at the Washington dead letter
office. dozen clerks go over them
first. Those that are easy to take care
of are disposed of at once. The ones
that no brain cracking on the part of
to Mrs. Collins to decipher.
The dead letter office is called the
blind" division of the department, and
Mrs. Collins is known as the blind
reader" or reader of the so called blind
letters. In the nearly twenty-fi five years
during which she has occupied her
present post the department has not
been able to find any expert who could
I'LL her place.
To hprin NTrS ColIfpc had Iit,a-oI
education. especially in languages, for
which she has a natural gift. She is a
southern woman and has Travelled
much, noting race chara cteristics. So
far as the needs of her work go, she is
acquainted with every tongue except
Russian and Chinese. Comparatively
little Russian script comes under her
eye, and Chinese letter writer's, with
the carefulness of their race, usually
address letters in beth their own Ian
guage and in English, so their missives
seldom go wrong.
Most of the epistles finding their way
to the dead letter Office are written by
foreigners ignorant of English or by
the few native Americans who are
equally ignorant of their own language.
For instance, letter is turned over to
Mrs. Collins addressed to an individual
at Lacey Jane" Kan. Would anybody
except one in whom the sixth sense is
developed know that this means La
Cygne?" Or, again, could anything
short of downright intuition compre-
bend that 'Tossy Tanner" Tex, was
meant for Corsicana?
1t may be that behind all we name
the intellectual faculties is one supreme
power we may call the knower which
inheres in the soul and cognizes always
whatever comes under the notice of the
physical senses. Thus beyond all re-
Numbering, beyond all forgetting, sits
this 'lSnower," ready at any moment to
bring the necessary information into
the field of human consciousness if
only that consciousness can receive it,
In the case of Mrs. Collins there seems
no veil between the knower and the
consciousness. If once she looks at the
name of a place or person the knower
seizes the word and holds it ever after
and the lady never "forgets'' it, speak
ing after the manner of the flesh.
She can locate any street, except it's