The San Francisco call., 1910-12-11

an hour and braces himself against racks as
1t swings around curves and whose eyesight
is his only asset toward living in the serV-
ice should certainly demand considera-
tion from the individuals who will use pale,
blue ink on a blue envelope. No man who
is a good member of a church Will do such
thing, for postal clerks are human and
for postal clerk to omit swearing under
such conditions is to put him in the class
with male angels.
And another thing The only thing the
postal clerk the is interested in is
the city and state He cares nothing about
the name, whether it is Smith, Jones or Rob-
inson; that is all up to the local postoffice.
He only wants to know where, Illinois
Iowa, Nebraska; and where in those states,
Chicago, Des Moines. Omaha His interest ex-
tends no further. He doesn't care whether
the letter is meant for Sally Jones Bill
Brown. It's their city alone that he cares
one cent about. Where? Where?
So thinking this over nowadays, to make
the life of the in the overalls who lives
among a tangle of canvas and leather mail
pouches, last little longer, / always follow
the rule of putting state, city, number of
street, or no street at all if the house is
very prominent, and then the name of the re-
eeiver; and in doing I imagine hear the
postal clerks when they handle my mail cry
'Hurrah!"
New York.
s52 West 9o0th ST.,
James Madison, Esq.
5000 Michigan Avenue,
The Smith Clothing Co.
New York" carries with it the city; at
once into the New York pouch the letter
drops without ado. It is the thing the clerk
is hunting for and it is the first thing that
meets his eye.
Ills" comes first, Joliet" next and the
rest of the proceedings interest the clerk no
more; 1t went into the Joliet bag and that
ended it! If every man. woman and child in
the United States so addressed their en-
velopes. the mail clerks and all concerned
would be the gamers. and 1t is harder to
write Ills first than last. Try it and see
how natural 1T comes after a trial or two.
Years ago, my brother visiting me in Lon
don l showed him around. The main post
ofnce at st. Martins lie Grand of
the sights, so there we went after doing the
tower. guide showed us through, and final
ly brought US to the last, but not the least.
interesting room in the building the Dead
Letter office-that may not be its colloquial
London name, but that is what called the
room.
The desks long low. continuous shelf like
affairs ranged along three sides of the room,
number of clerks being seated thereat. I'm
oundles at the end of the desk next the door,
Tor here the new men and less experienced
In reading hieroglyphics were placed. the
better posted men in the work were more and
more dlstant from the beginning in the ratio
to their service-until the letters got to the
end man. and IL he failed to decipher the
superscriptions then they were opened and II
possible returned to the senders. His word
was nnal and what he failed to decipher was
a signal that else need try.
1t was interesting to watch the work and
see now the newer fell down as the
older ones~would plainly pencil the correct
aduress on the envelopes. But there were
some sticklers" there and no mistake. When
the rush was over and the men idle and
awaiting another batch the man who was
gray In. the service and whose word was