Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1884 — POSTOFFICE CURIOSITIES. [ARTICLE]

POSTOFFICE CURIOSITIES.

Funny Kames for Offices—“ Our Carter” Honored. This great country has now over 50,000 postoffiees for its 50,000,000 people, ox about Ae for each 1,000 persons. There are some curious facts connected with the administration of so large an institution as this. The employes of the department number over one hundred thousand. Of course the sum required to run so large an establishment is something enormous. The salaries of postmasters alone amount to nearly $10,000,0u0, and the sum paid for transportation of mails $25,0u0,G00. The number of poetoffices is increasing steadily at the rate of over 2,000 a year. The task of the fellow who fixes names for all these is a pretty serious one. Of course the people of the section where the offices are to be located are allowed to fix a name* so far as possible, but in many cases they select a name already given to some office in the State, and of course it cannot be used. Then they are permiitted to make some other selection, and so on almost indefinitely. It often happens, however, that the postoffice officials are compelled to finally select, or that in their despair the citizens who have the selecting of the name, by having frequently some name already in use in the State, jump at some ridiculous name altogether unheard of before, or select one suggested by some peculiar surroundings. Some of the old names are as follows: Dismal, Thump, Daybook, Bad Ax, Calico, Rocks, Windfall, Bara Avis, Seven Stars, Leap Year, Haphazard, Boy, Odd, Rawhide, Difficult, Baby Mine, Bean Blossom, Yankee, Pay Up, Hard Money, Happy Home, Wide Awake, Alligator, Needy, Moon, Padlock, Gnatville, Blowhorn, Lnbbub, Cloudland, Butterfly, Zib, Quidnunc, Rainbow, Scrub, Ty Ny, Pucker,‘Bush, Soonover, Bumble Bee, Zula, Sopchoppy, Zero, Jamboree, Marrowbone, Slickaway, Negro Foot, Jump, You Bet, Greenhorn, Tenderfoot, Sunshine, Muck, Shoofly, Kumtax, Oil Trough, Nine Times, Blowout, Gunpowder, Patagumpus, Last Chance, Clear Grit, Greasy, Talla-Ho, Mary Esther, Why Not, Samper, Veto, Round Bottom, King of Russia, Gi, Joy, Hayfork, Picnic, Land of Promise, Squak, Snaillope, Mouse Tail, Pocket, Port Wine, Side View, Good Luck, Bug Hill, Worms. Due West, Fair Play, Coin, Coal, Fire, Sodoin, Hurt, Sleepy Eye, Drone, Bird Song, Black Bear, Pinafore, Buttercup, Unique, Sunflower,Wormwood. The South and the West have the much greater number of unique names, although many may be found in New England and the Middle States. In Texas is an office named “J. Bob, ” the familiar cognomen of a citizen in the community. “Bald Hornet,” an office in Tennessee, is the suggestive nickname of a gentleman residing in the county. Chicago’s Mayor, Hon. Carter Harrison, is honored in Kansas with an office called “Oar Carter.” “Best,” “Cloudy,” “Cutlips,* “Dull,” and “Toadrine” are other offices bearing names of individuals. Initial letters sometimes form the name of an office, like that of “T. 8.," in Maryland. When the first house in the place was erected these initials were found on a stone near by, and were, probably, those of a very early settler and owner. “O. Z.,” in Colorado, is taken from a brand used for marking cattle, and “O. K.,” in South Carolina, from the humorous suggestions of an interested gentleman. The people of Sugar Grove, in Tennessee, refused to suggest other names after their own had been rejected, and the department established the office un'der the initials “A B C.” There is a “Buss” in Michigan to match “Sweet Lips” in Tennessee, but there is a “Maiden” in North Carolina, a “Bachelor” in Mississippi, and “Widows* may be found in Alabama. There is a “Comfort”in North Carolina, and also in Texas, and “Tribulation” in Tennessee. The Tribulation was in selecting a name acceptable to the department, and they ended their tribulation by making it “Tribulation.” “Charity” is found in North Carolina and Tennessee, and “Hope” exists in fourteen States besides that of “Adversity.” There- are “Wells” in several States, but only one “Cistern, ” in Texas. They have a “Concert” in lowa, and Louisiana contributes a “Violin, ” Minnesota a “Cornet,” lowa a “Hora,” Pennsylvania “Drums, ’’and Ohio and Virginia ‘ Fifes. * There is a “Dark Corner” in Georgia, but “Dawn” appears in Michigan and Ohio, followed by “Day” in Michigan and New York.—6’L Louis Post-Dispatch.