In a Dead Letter Office.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7286, 14 August 1893, Page 2

In a Dead Letter Office.

A good deal of amusement is afforded by the reports of the Dead Letter Offioe in London, and the Melbourne office also reports a good deal of grotesque blundering on the part of letter writers. The authorities of the dead letter office (says the Age) are daily made confidants against their will. These gratuitous confidences are regarded with the most honourable scrupulousness 5 but at the same time there are many secrets which the official custodians would gladly be relieved of it it wore possible. Thus the poor woman who writes at regular intervals of three months from London to 41 Mv Son Joe, Australia,’ has caused more than one tender hearted official anxiety and trouble. She invariable encloses a £1 note, which she explains she h'is saved from her scanty earnings at great seif sacrifice, which, however, she does not mind, seeing that it is to help “ darling Joe.” But as Australia i* a tolerably large place, and there are several “Joes” in it, all the acumen of tbe officials has failed so far to discover this particular one. And as the old lady merely beads her letter 44 London,” and signs her Christian name only, no better luck has attended the efforts of the English officials to trace her. This is only one instance chosen from many, for it is perfectly astonishing to find that letters by the hundred arrive during the course of each month containing money, and addressed to persons in a spirit of the most irritating and baffling vagueness. 44 To my husband, who lives at the corner of Green street," is tbe inscription on one envelope, and the solo clue—which, after all, is no clue at all—to the writer is the signature 44 Martha." It can easily be imagined that a letter bearing the general add r ess 44 Melbourne" on the outside, and inside the touching inscription, 44 Hunky, Bendigo,” is sometimes delayed in trasmission. fc 0, too, are the letters that are addressed in a spirit of hopeful prophecy, such as 44 To my uncle, who came into a fortune in the Western District,” or 44 To Bister Jine, who left Bradford three years ogo, a* d is now happily married,” or 4> To Ezra, who turned over a new leaf.” Of addresses in this strain countless examples could be given. One gentleman addresses a letter to 4 ‘ Bundy, who rode my bay mare over the ring fence at Eureka four years ago,” and another 44 Miss Kitty, tbe only girl I ever cared for.” A mother writes to her boy from Manchester, and encloses a few pounds. The letter simply overflows with love and concern for her boy, who, a recent arrival,is probably in the deepest d'stress at the fancied neglect. But, of course, 44 Dear Will, Australia,” is scarcely explicit enough for the Post Office. Considering the care that the average man , takes es regards thej actual handling of his money, the way many people ore in the habit of carelessly tossing coin and cheque* into pillar boxes seems astounding. The regularity with which £ I notes arrive has been referred to and this kind of carlessness appears to be epidemic j but very large amounts are often placed in envelopes with impossible addresses. The other day a bill of exchange for £BS was found in one of the clearing boxes at tbe Post Office addressed merely to a member of the numerous Smith family. It was restored to the sender after infinite trouble. Again, a chrque for £74 was found in an envelope addressed to no one at all. The Dead Letter Offioe, besides being the receptacle for all sorts of unexpected outpourings, acts in a curious manner as a repository of cherished manias of the insane. There is an instance which argues an unusually grotesque delusion. For months past, letters have been arriving at stated intervals, addressed to 4 ‘ The Patriarch of the Mt. Zion Church, Jerusalem.” The first two letters were duly forwarded and returned unopened, and it then became the duty of the officials of of the office to open them. It was found that the writer bad enclosed £lO to the Patriarch with the request that he might be supplied with a goat of the same breed mentioned in Qenesi, when Esau was ordered to go forth and procure a kid. The strange part of the thing is that the letters come in at regular intervals, and are addressed from a town up the country. Although the town bas been searched to find the sender, no trace of him can be discovered. In the miscarriage of the money, however, there is just a touch of irony. Whether there is a patriarch o£ Mount Zion Church at Jerusalem is not known, but it is believed that the letters have been tendered to a functionary of the church, and refuted on account of there being a tax on each Jotter of 4d, In this direction people are penny wise and pound foolish. Numbers of letters are every year delivered tc* the addresses, but being improperly stanapedi the recipients refuse to pay the extra few pence and take them in. It is not infrequently found that such letters have valuable enclosures.