Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1925-01-15
POSTAL BUSINESS UNDER
DIFFICULTIES
(By Don carlos James, }

utive sub-station of the Toyko post
office one evening to mail some let
ters and cards and buy some sup
plies. The lobby" was a narrow
space in front of the wood and glass
| partition which separated it from
the office proper, the latter having
approximately the dimensions of 10
by IL feet. ALI the windows were
| shut and the two attendants inside
paid no particular attention to the
stranger who wondered if the office
was closed for the day.
That idea was dispelled by a ma
tive coming In and being waited up
lon. In the foreigners inability to
speak the language of the land. he
was at disadvantage, and Others
were waited on ahead of him. One
of his letters was due to go to
America and he desired to know
whether it was lover weight" or
not. To ascertain this and yet pre-
vent them from sticking a stamp on
1t (for he already had stamps for
that purpose). that was the point.
The letter was passed through the
wind W and boy made some queer
marks upon it which probably meant
to the Japanese postal clerks that it
was to go to the United States. FL
nally it was learned that "jis SEN"
(ten sen or five American cents)
would be sufficient and it was ac-
cordingly stamped.
The next proposition. was to ascer-
tain the postage on a rather bulky
long letter to Yokohama about 20
miles away Again the boy went to
marking and after weighing the let
ter, stamps to the amount of 16
sen were placed upon it, The for
eigner observed that 10 sen for a
letter clear across the ocean and
16 for one to neighboring city in
Volved an error, so he spoke out
Yokohama, and his pronuncia-
ton being sufficiently good to be
understood, lis sen" were peeled
off leaving two three sen stamps re-
naming. The boy had perhaps sup
posed the second letter, like the
first, was to go to America.
AS the foreigner had not had
lyon sen" flour SEM postal cards
at hand when he was preparing his
mail, he had used two domestic
cards bearing one and one-half sen
postage each. 1t was now necessary
to purchase two sen and a half
sen stamp for each in order to make
them go to their destination with
out postage due" when they ar
rived. This being consummated,
the foreigner undertook the last item
of his errand, buying four postal
cards for messages to the United
States, but his pointing to the cards
he already had in trying to secure
those of the four sen denomination,
the attendants seemed not to under
stand. So to simplify matters, he
paid for the postage already receiv-
ed and received back-not enough
change. This error arose from the
clerk counting in the foreigners
ten sen stamp which had been affix-
ed to the first letter.
Now that the change has been
made all right, a diagram of pos
tai card with good clear figure
four in the corner was presented
and they caught the idea, but did
not have the four sen cards. The
foreigner had had a similar expert
ence in Yokohama at a large post
office where he could not buy
enough two sen stamps to qualify his
mail for travel, and had to take a
quantity of one sen stamps to finish
out. By erasing the four on his pic
ture of postal card and writing
some fractions he was able to get
five of the sen and half cards, five
two sen stamps and five half sen
stamps and by good, old-fashioned
American arithmetic that enabled
him to build up the postage on each
of his foreign" cards to the value
of four sen. Having passed two ten
sen "shin plasters" (paper money of
the value of five cents each at home)
through the window, he was ready
to say that one word which the jap
anese can understand from him
very we'll" "So-yo-na-ra." which Is
their expression for goodbye.
And now why should it take so
much Of time and patience and ges-
turing like a deaf and dumb person
to buy little postage and mail
few letters and cards? What's the
use in having so many different
languages which are unintelligible
to all who are not taught? 1t all
goes back to the eleventh o. Gene
sis. The food is over and people
are again multiplying upon the
earth, land the whole earth was of
one language and of one speech"
Then they proposed to each other
that they would become brick max
ers and city builders-that they
would erect tower with its top
heaven high and make themselves
name. Were they seeking to cir
cumvent the danger of another
food. or were they merely ambitious
for a name? Or were they dis