proved to be intended for

2 Threadneedle Street, London.

In another case,

No. 52 Oldham & Bury, London,

was written for

No. 52 Aldermanbury, London.

On another occasion the following address appeared on a letter:--

too dad Thomas hat the ole oke Otchut 10 Bary. Pade.

Sur plees to let ole feather have this sefe;

the address being intended for

The Old Oak Orchard, Tenbury.

A further odd address was as follows, written, it is presumed, by a German:--

Tis is fur old Mr w.i.l.l.y wot brinds de Baber in Lang Kaster ware ti gal is. gist rede him a.s.sume as it c.u.ms to ti Pushtufous;

the English of the address being--

This is for old Mr w.i.l.l.y what prints the paper in Lancaster where the jail is. Just read him as soon as it comes to the Post-office.

The next address is one made use of, apparently, owing to the true and particular address being lost, but the directions given served their purpose, and the letter was duly delivered:--

For a gentleman residing in a street out of the ---- Road, London.

He is a shopkeeper, sells newspapers and periodicals to the trade, and supplies Hawkers, and others with cheap prints, some of which are sold by men in the street. he has for years bought the waste of the Ill.u.s.trated ---- their prints printed in colours particularly.

he is well known in the locality, being wholesale. Postman will oblige if he can find this.

Similar cases are as follows, but we are unable to say whether the addresses given served their intended purpose:--

Mr ----. Travelling Band, one of the four playing in the street.

Persha [Persh.o.r.e], Worcestershire.

Please to find him if possible.

To E----, a cook as lived tempery with a Mrs L----, or some such a name, a shoemaker in Castle St. about No. ---- Hoburn in 1851; try to make this out. She is a Welsh person about 5 feet 1--stoutish.

Lives in service some ware in London or naboured. London.

This is for her that maks dresses for ladies, that livs at tother side of road to James Brocklip.

Edensover, Chesterfield.

This is for the young girl that wears spectacles, who minds two babies.

30 Sherriff St., Off Prince Edwin St., Liverpool.

In two further instances the indications sufficed, and the letters were duly delivered. Thus--

To my sister Jean, Up the Canongate, Down a Close, Edinburgh.

She has a wooden leg.

And--

My dear Ant Sue as lives in the Cottage by the Wood near the New Forest.

In this case the letter had to feel its way about for a day or two, but Ant Sue was found living in a cottage near Lyndhurst.

Another letter was addressed thus:--

This letter is for Mrs ----. She lives in some part of Liverpool.

From her father John ----, a tailor from ----; he would be thankful to some Postmaster in Liverpool if he would find her out.

Unfortunately, in this instance the directions given failed to trace the person to whom it was sent, and it had to go to that abyss of "rejected addresses," the Dead-letter Office.

It occasionally happens that when the eye is unable to make out an address, the ear comes to the rescue. In London a letter came to hand directed to

Mr Owl O'Neil, General Post Office.

But no one was known there of that name. A clerk, looking at the letter, commenced to repeat aloud, "Mr Owl O'Neil, Mr Owl O'Neil," when another clerk, hearing him, exclaimed, "Why! that must be intended for Mr Rowland Hill,"--which indeed proved to be the case. A similar circ.u.mstance happened in Edinburgh, with a letter from Australia, addressed to

Mr ---- Johns. 7.

Scotland.

It proved to be intended for Johnshaven, a village in the north of Scotland.

Two odd addresses are as follows, one being from America, the other from Ireland:--

Little Alice, Serio-Comic Singer, London, England.

to Edinburgh City, Scotland, For Pat Feeley, Katie Kinnigan's Son, Ould fishmarket close, Number 42, send this with speed.

An American gentleman having arrived in England, and not knowing where a sister was residing at the time, addressed a letter to her previous residence thus--

Upper Norwood, or Elsewhere.

The letter having been delivered to the lady, the writer intimated to the Post-office that he had received a reply in ordinary course, and explaining that the letter had been delivered to her on the top of a stage-coach in Wales. In admiration of the means taken to follow up his sister, the writer ventured to add, "that no other country can show the parallel, or would take the trouble at any cost."

It would be impossible to explain in words the difficulties that are met with, and the successes which are obtained, in deciphering badly written addresses; and facsimiles of the directions upon some such letters are therefore appended to enable the reader to appreciate the facts. In the London Post-office indistinctly addressed letters are at once set aside, so as not to delay the work of sortation, and are carried forthwith to a set of special officers who have an apt.i.tude for deciphering indistinct writing. These officers, by a strange contradiction in the sense of things, are called the "blind officers"; and here the letters are rapidly disposed of, either by having the addresses read and amended, or marked with the name of a post-town for which the letters may be supposed to be intended. To facilitate this special work, the blind officers are furnished with a series of gazetteers and other books containing the names of gentlemen's seats, farms, and the like, throughout the country, and many a letter reaches the hands of the person addressed through a reference to these books.

In addition to instances of indistinctly addressed letters, a few specimens of addresses of an artistic and humorous character are furnished in this chapter.