New Britain herald., 1921-08-16
MS DIRECTED MAIL
 KEEPS CLERKS BUSY
Two Mems Time Occupied Sort
 ing Out Letters

Practically two clerks are busy all the time handling misdirected or im- properly addressed letters at the New Britain postonice, according to a statement mado by Postmaster Will Ham F. Delaney today. Tho state ment was made following discussion of an appeal recently sent out by Postmaster General Win H. Hayes in which it was stated thousands of pieces of mail go through the post offices without proper addresses. Kecpa Two Men Busy.
 Letters arriving in this city address ed to local people which do not have the street address cause most of the trouble here, it was stated. This part of the work alone keeps the two men busy nearly all day looking up ad- dresses and finding out what part of the city to send the mail to. Letters addressed as follows: John Doc, New Britain, Connecticut" do not get de- livered on the average al soon as letter addressed to John Doe, 147 South Morning Glory avenue" would be apt to be delivered. The reason for this is simple. Several clerks are employed for the purpose of sorting mail for the different carriers. These carriers work on routes which often include the same streets. For in- stance there arc eight different car riers who serve different parts of Stanley street. There are tight carriers whose routes include parts of Main street West Main street is served in parts by four different carriers. These clerks must know Just whore ono oa viA ArS~ af and NyhAPA the other ono stops.
 A Letter . Second.
 From 50 to 50 letters a minute are handled by these clerks. This means one second per letter. A clerk must know instantly just where the letter belongs as soon as he gets hold of it. He has no time to stop and think. Tho clerk does not read names. He wears a rubber over his thumb to keep from wetting i, and for sanitary reasons and this rubber covers the name when he gets hold of the let ter. He sees the Morning Glory ave- nue but he does not see tho name. Delivery Delayed.
 Therefore when he strikes | letter without a street address he throws 1t aside until he is finished. The sorted mail is taken by the carrier and leased up," acording to his system of delivery and then fs taken out. E The letters without street addresses are turned over to other clerks who must look them up. Sometimes let Ger goes through seven different hands before it strikes the right carrier. By lvhis time several deliveries have been made. If it should happen to strike .he right man first all is well. But there is not always a sure way of Eknowing. One time New Britain had 32 men by the name of John Johnson. Sending a letter without q street address, according to Post tlnaster Delaney, implies that two men must know more about the people than 75 per cent of tho other 60,0OO. l Married Women's Names. l Another troublesome feature is the l habit some people have of addressing mail to married women by their given l names For instance . letter might be I addressed to Mrs Mary Doe. The l costoffice has no way of knowing, un- I less the exact street address is given
 whether this is the wife of Richard Doe, Bill Doe or Mike Doe.
 Abbreviations Make Trouble. l Another trouble is caused by the lfellow who abbreviates. Mail for Pennsylvania, Tennessee or Connec- ticut sometimes gets mis-sent because of poorly written abbreviations The
 words Penn" Conn. and Tenn. often looks alike in handwriting. Missouri Mississippi and Massachusetts often
 set mxed as do abbreviations for New York and New Jersey. Colorado and California often look alike, although
 st the postof1ce it is said that 'Calif. ''
 Is the correct abbreviation for Cali
 fornia and not Cal"
 Forget The state.
 Sometimes correspondents writing
 to a large town forget to put in the
 name of the state. This again causes
 trouble. There are 1s Hartfords in tho
 United States. There is Mount Car.
 mel in con4Acticut, one in Pennsyl.
 vsnia,one in Virginia, one in Kentucky
 one in Jerusalem and probably man,
 cthers. There are New Britains al
 over the country. Several times a veal i a letter comes here addressed to 6
 certain man in New Britain, U. s. A
 The letter comes from Australia ant lis meant for a retired seaman resid ing somewhere on the Pacific coast
 It has become such a common oc
 currence for this letter to come her,
 that local clerks know where to for
 ward it to.
 Good Penman Poorest Writers.
 More trouble is caused the posta
 department by letters addressed b,
 good penmen than by those addressed
 by poor writer's said Postmastel
 Delaney. The reason for this is sim
 pie enough. The poor writer know
 he is poor writer and takes pain
 to form his letters. The good penmal is so confiden that he Is an expert il
 penmanship that he nourishes. all ove
 the paper and his writing develop into a mere scrawl