OFFICIAL COURTESY, ETC.
The post-office clerk who fails to do his duty thoroughly, is like a
light-house keeper, who now and then allows his light to go out, or
become dim. Sometimes no harm may result; but it may be that the
helmsman of some gallant ship laden with precious goods, and far more
precious lives, seeing no light to direct him through the angry storm,
steers blindly onward, and is wrecked upon the very spot whence the
guiding star should have beamed.
Not only is it the duty of those connected with post-offices to
exercise the utmost carefulness and exactness, in order that mail
matter may promptly reach the persons for whom it is intended, but
sometimes much caution and discretion are required from them, that
letters may not fall into hands for which they were not designed.
There are other qualifications scarcely less desirable for post-office
employés than exactness and caution. Patience and courtesy toward the
various individuals constituting that public which it is the duty of
these officials to serve, go very far in carrying out the idea of the
post-office,--that of being a convenience to the community.
We have elsewhere shown that the life of a post-office clerk is not
passed upon a bed of roses, and we would here call his attention to
the truth that many annoyances must be expected by him in the course
of his experience. The ignorance and consequent pertinacity of those
who apply for letters, frequently try his patience to the utmost.
A person, for instance, anxiously expecting a letter, and not
understanding that the mail by which it would come arrives only once a
day, inquires at the office half a dozen times on the same day, and it
is not very wonderful that the clerk in attendance should give short
answers to the persevering applicant, or even omit to search for the
letter. Yet, even in a case like this, much allowance should be made
for the possible circumstances of the person in question. He may be
waiting for news from a sick child, or for some other information of
the utmost importance to him, and it is surely hard enough to be
disappointed in such expectations, without being obliged to suffer the
additional pain of a harsh response.
Of course post-office clerks seldom know the peculiar circumstances of
those who apply for letters; but the exercise of patience and mildness
toward all, would be sure to spare the feelings of those who often
rather need sympathy than rough words.
Many who carry on little correspondence, and therefore have little
occasion to be informed respecting post-office matters in general,
often make blunders which are very annoying; but it is to be
remembered that those in charge of the post-office, were employed for
this, (among other things which contribute to the perfection of this
branch of public service,) namely, to bear with all classes of
correspondents, and to maintain a uniform courtesy toward every one.
This would render it possible for even the most timid to approach the
"delivery window," without experiencing the sensation of looking into
a lion's den, as has sometimes (but I trust seldom) been the case.
On the other hand, it is reasonable that those who avail themselves of
the conveniences of the post-office, should take pains to inform
themselves on those points which it is necessary they should know, in
order to avoid giving inconvenience to themselves, and unnecessary
trouble to those appointed to serve them.
The times of opening and closing mails, and similar matters, should be
known, that the post-office may not bear the blame due to negligence
outside its walls.
Cases now and then occur, similar to the following, which happened but
a few years ago.
A letter came into the Windsor, Vermont, post-office, containing a
draft on the Suffolk Bank for three hundred dollars, and directed
"Johnson Clark, Windsor, Ct." The "Ct.," however, was written so
indistinctly as to resemble "Vt.;" and as there was a person by the
name of Johnson Clark (as we shall call him) in the latter place, the
letter was handed to him.
When he looked at the post-mark, (that of a town some twenty or thirty
miles distant,) he remarked, "I can't imagine who can have been
writing to me from there," and after opening and reading it, he
returned it to the post master, saying that it was not for him.
But his honesty was only of a transient nature, for he could not keep
the money out of his thoughts, and he soon began to think that he had
been rather hasty in returning the letter, when, for aught he knew, he
could have retained its contents with impunity. For was not the letter
directed to Johnson Clark? And may not one take possession of a letter
directed to himself?
This course of thought and these queries were followed by the
determination to recover the letter, and appropriate the contents.
Clark accordingly went to the post master the next day, and stated
that he had heard, the evening before, of the death of a relative who
had been living at the West, and who had left him a small legacy,
namely, the sum contained in the letter. On the strength of these
representations, the post master gave him the document, without, so
far as appears, making any attempt to verify his statement. The
inheritor of legacies proceeded forthwith to the Bank in the village,
and obtained the money on the draft, endorsing it, as is customary. It
only required his own name to be written, and where was the harm?
thought he.
A few days after this, the person who had written the letter came to
Windsor, Vt., having been informed by his correspondent at Windsor,
Ct., that it had not reached him; and thinking it possible that it
might have gone astray.
On his arrival at the former place, he soon ascertained that the
Vermont Dromio had taken possession of his letter.
This worthy found that the name of Johnson Clark was not a spell
potent enough to protect him in the enjoyment of his unrighteous gain.
He was sent to the State Prison for two years.
In this instance, the post master was clearly guilty of carelessness
in allowing Clark to obtain the letter on the pretext that he offered.
As there was a well known town in Connecticut of the name of Windsor,
prudence would have required a closer examination of the address,
after the letter was returned by Clark. And the story by which Clark
imposed upon him, was sufficiently lame in some particulars to have
called for a closer investigation of its truth. If the post master had
requested to be allowed to read that part of the letter which referred
to the pretended legacy, a refusal on the part of Clark to permit it,
would of course have created a strong suspicion that he was playing a
dishonest game, and would have justified the post master in
withholding the letter until further proof could be obtained as to the
identity of Johnson Clark with the one for whom the epistle was
designed.
Cases similar to the above are not unfrequent; and in all such
instances, those who rely on a name identical with that of some other
person, as a shield for attempted dishonesty, have found their defence
fail them in the hour of need.
The matter seems too plain to need elucidation; yet not a few persons,
equally compounded of folly and knavery, have actually supposed that
the possession of a name like that of another man, would enable them
to keep on the shady side of the law in making free with his purse
also.
This accidental resemblance of name has often been used for dishonest
purposes in other ways than the one just described.
Snooks manufactures a patent medicine which is beginning to obtain
some celebrity, when some obscure Snooks starts up with _his_ pill, or
elixir. The innocent public, ready to swallow pills and stories
bearing the name of Snooks, makes no distinction between the two
personages; and the "original Jarley" is compelled to share his honors
and emoluments with his upstart namesake. Trickery like this can
seldom be reached by law, but the appropriator of the contents of a
letter under circumstances like those above detailed, is dealt with
like any other kind of robbery.