Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1899 — Dead Letter Office Curiosities. [ARTICLE]

Dead Letter Office Curiosities.

“Just before the Christmas season the office receives several thousand letters addressed in unsteady <liai artwo to ~- (Santa Claus, The North Pale.) or the: (King of Fairyland, Paradise.) or, (To a Rich Santa Claus.) It seems a pity that these pathetic appeals which have been surreptitiouoly dropped iu the post boxes by truants from home should meet no tender eye of parent or guardian, but be wasted upon that imaginary idol of ehthihood. Letters from abroad are dealt with In a separate room, and the clerks who occupy desks in this apartment from 9 a. in. till 4 p. m. hold no sinecure positions. They seem to be gifted with vivid imaginations, too, for, turn and twist some epistles at every conceivable angle as they will, still tbeir unknown characters continue to mystify them. As a specimen of foreign inscriptions: Me Maria Peratala. uura Pa Kamlin Ka. tnte takkata ter nurt Amerikaa. after passing through expert bauds, was sent to a real: Mrs. Maria Peratola. Nora, Hamlin Co., Dakota. —Ainslee's Magazine.