STORY OF AN AMERICAN POSTAL CARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 4

STORY OF AN AMERICAN POSTAL CARD.

Since Eve and Adam ate those apples, there has probably been nothing invented more comfortable and convenient for the gratification of curiosity than the postal card. Thanks to this attribute of the new thing, Mr. Creswell, postmaster-gen eral of the United States, has had an opportunity to distinguish himself, and in this wise : A merchant of St. Joseph, Mo. , named Johnson, put a label about the size of a postage stamp on a postal card and sent it to Chicago. The label contained his business address only, but the Chicago postmaster decided it illegal, and collected six cents postage of the recipient. Johnson heard of it, and having sent on a good many labels, consulted the !St. Joseph postmaster, who, being a man of sense, told him 'twas the extra charge that was illegal, and not the label. Then Mr. Johnson, rapidly drawing an inference, sent another postal card to Chicago, with the terse and natural remark, " Our postmaster says your postmaster is an ass." Theoretically missives sent through the mails are not read, but it is so hard to resist a postal card ! The missive, accordingly, reached Gen. M' Arthur, the Chicago postmaster, who, not sharing Dogberry's famous ambition, sent the offensive card straightway to Creswell, instead of delivering it, as one would suppose his duty was. Creswell's avenging arm was prompt. In the first place he sent an official note of stern rebuke to the postmaster of St. Joe, who, unfortunately, hadn't read Mr. Johnson's abridgment of his remarks before sending it, or he might have escaped the trouble ; and, in the second place, he ordered the arrest of Johnson for sending obscene and scurrilous language through the mails. Poor Johnson, who may have to go to jail and pay a fine, if judges in his region are sufficiently in awe of Creswell — poor Johnson quotes in his own defence the dictionary definition of " ass," videlicet," a dull, heavy, stupid fellow," and wants to know the postmaster-general's grounds for calling that "obscene and scurrilous." — Springfield Republican.