"LITERARY" POSTMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 17

"LITERARY" POSTMEN.

BOOKS AMD PAPER* TAKEN. " PARIS. It Is an excellent thing to have literary tastes; but if you are a postman you are sometimes tempted to indulge them at the expense of the public. Journalists are particularly heavy sufferers in this respect. Review copies of books so infrequently reach them by pott that publishers — who, it will be remembered, always send out books [direct to the critic in person, with a flattering dedication by the author and not to. the newspaper—have, been driven to organise a joint service for delivery of review copies by hand. As for the daily papers, which do arrive by post, it is generally possible to tell whether the postman on duty that week is the Socialist, in which case it will be the "Populaire" which will be missing, or the Royalist, when it will be the "Action Francaise." The climax was reached by a dramatic critic who could not lay his hand on his tickets for the repetition generale, and asked the management to issue duplicates to him. This was done; but when he arrived with his wife at the seats in question—critics in Paris always have two seats — he found a couple already installed and in possession, not only of the seats, but the vouchers. It was only after pressure that the man admitted that he was responsible for the delivery of the morning mail.