The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-29
TROUBLES OF
A POSTMASTER
Arthur L. Thomas Relates a
Few Instances Brought
to His Notice.
ALWAYS GETS HOT END
CLERKS sHOULD BE scHOOLED
IN cLAIRVOYANCY.

There are many unreasonable peo-
PIE In this world and they ike to stir
up trouble If possible by complaining
against others when they themselves
are really the persons TO be blamed for
many rcoavente1ces to themselves"
The forcEotng remark was made yes
terday ~ arthur L. Thomas, post
master of Salt Lake he referred to
several complai hts that have recently
been made against his Office by per-
sons who allege that they did not re-
ceive letters aud rackages as soon as
they arrived III this city. Speaking
further about the matter, Postmaster
Thomas said:
I'VE will first take the case Of Dr.
Henry La Motto. He was somewhat
put out over a telegram that miscar-
ried, and which he had ordered mailed
to postoffice box 995. The doctor has
had trouble about other mail i'm this
connection so we will use the telegram
as an example
Not a Box Renter.
Now as a matter of fact DR.. La
Notice does not rent box 995. He did
rent this box in the early part of 1904
that time the box has been rented to
several different persons. DR.. La
Motto had stationery printed with the
number of this box on il and his mail
kept coming to that box for some time
When he was asked about the matter
he replied: Wei. 1 may want to rent
that box again, so 1 have not made any
changes.
How the recent telegram happened
to be sent i'm care of the postoffice box
1 do not know. unless Dr. La Motto
gave instructions to have il mailed
there. At any rate il was addressed
in that manner and was put in the
box. 1t seems to me that DR.. La Motto
should censure himself first and stop
there.
The next case is that of Mrs. Mary
e. Drenkel, who complained because
the delivery of a package to her was
delayed several days.
Arrival of Package.
This package arrived in the local
postOffice addressed to NJ. Z. Drenkel
Now. no clerk in the registry office even
thought that NJ E. Drenkei was wo-
man. and as there was no street ad-
dress on the package, a notification
card was made out and deposited i'm the
mems rack in the general delivery. The
woman called at the general delivery
several times and asked if there was
anything for Mrs. Mary E. DrenkeI
and was answered in the negative. She
hnally came to me and said she ex-
pected q registered package, and after
making an investigation discovered the
Iacts IN the case and the woman was
given her package. If people will have
mail sent to them addressed under diff
ferent names than the ones they use
when calling for their mall the post
office cannot be held responsible Be
sides, II woman has mail addressed
n har~ 0n will
the letter or package miscarrying if
she viii take the precaution to instruct
her friends or business associates TO
prefix Mrs. to her name Otherwise
the clerks might not know that the
letter is intended for a woman
Still Another Instance.
The Thomas Z. Ewing case is an
other instance where a complaint was
made that any man would not have
made had he taken the time to consider
the facts.
Ewing has box 933 and ordinarily
there is no trouble about his mail get
ing into this box, especially when if
Is properly addressed. The letter i'm
question, however, was addressed to
IhomaS Ewing, without the "E." and
the sender had been very careful to
write across the envelope General De
livery Now it is a fundamental law
OF the pOstOffice department that a
clerk snail not do any guessing in
handling mail However. there was no
occasion for any guessing in this case.
as the instructions were plain, and the
presumption always is that the sender
or a letter knows what he or she is
doing when the letter is addressed.
Mr.. Ewing Dissatisfied.
We'll. this letter was intended for
Thomas Z. Ewing, renter of Postof1ce
Box 933, and in course of time there
was trouble The matter was finally
Strengthened out and Mr.. Ewing re-
ceived his letter. He apparently was
not satisfied to get his letter under
such mixed up circumstances. but
seemed to think the clerks in the
postoftice were incompetent because
they did not know the letter was in
tended for him.
Had some clerk taken a chance and
deposited the letter in Box 933, and If
subsequently developed that the letter
was intended for another Thomas Fw-
ing, and that it should have gone into
the general delivery, another story
could have been told and the clerk
who took a chance could expect to be
disciplined.
THE rash charges of incomDetencv
that are being made through certain
sources against my office are there
fore seen to be groundless. These cases
have been held up to the public as
examples of neglect of duty in the Of
nee, but the real facts were not made
public What 1 have stated is the
facts, and any person who is fair
minded can readily understand that we
had no control over the condition s11r
rounding these cases.