CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL OF THE POSTAL SERVICE.

A former learned wit of the Post Office Department, cogitating

over, upon, under, and between, the multifarious and abstruse

problems submitted for adjudication, evolved the following gems of

keen, mental penetration. That:

Feather beds are not mailable.

A stamp of the foot is not sufficient to carry a letter.

A pair of onions will go for two cents.

Persons are compelled to lick their own postage stamps; the

postmaster cannot be compelled to do this.

Nitro-glycerine must be forwarded at the risk of the sender. If

it should blow up in the postmaster’s hands he cannot be held

responsible.

When candy is sent through the mails it is earnestly requested that

both ends of the package be left open, so that the employees of the

post office may test its quality.

John Smith gets his mail from 674,279 post offices, hence a letter

directed to John Smith, United States, will reach him.

Poems on “Spring, Spring, the Beautiful Spring,” and “The Beautiful

Snow, with its White Efulgent Glow,” are rigidly excluded from the

mails. (This is to catch the editorial vote).

It is earnestly requested that lovers writing to their sweethearts

will please confine their gushing rhapsodies to the inside of the

envelope.

Ducks cannot be sent through the mails alive. Their discordant,

vociferous greetings are apt to disturb the slumbers of the clerks.

It is unsafe to send fruit-laden trees through the mails; clerks

are known to have a weakness for such things.

The Postal Service (Fifth Edition) · 第 18 / 21 章