Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1899 — SAD ERRORS BY HONEST MEN. [ARTICLE]

SAD ERRORS BY HONEST MEN.

Truthful People Who Mean Well but Get Sadly Mixed Up. “You can’t believe an honest man on oath,” remarked an old postal clerk, as he finished his ran. ’Tve Just had a carious experience that proves it. As the Illinois Central was ready to pull out Thursday afternoon with onr mall car on the end a fine-looking old gentlemen came running along the platform. I was standing on the steps of the car. “ ‘Are you a mail clerk?’ he asked, hurriedly, and, finding I was, said: ‘Well, here, I wish you’d take these letters for me. I was so anxious to be Bure they got off in this train I wouldn’t trust a messenger, * but brought them down myself. The one to Mobile Is very important.’ “He handed me three letters. Now, It’s a curious fact that nine times out of ten a man will hand letters to a mail clerk with the address on the under side. They seem to think we have no business to read the address, as if mail ever would arrive at the right place if we didn’t. I took the letters and turned ’em over. “ ‘You say that the Mobile letter is Important?’ I shouted. “ ‘Yes, very.’ “ ‘Well, It hasn’t a stamp on it.’ “ ‘Young man,’ the old fellow remarked, as he looked at the envelope, ‘I would have sworn that I remembered licking that stamp and sticking it on!’ “That’s the way it goes,” continued the clerk. “A man can’t trust his own senses. A few years ago a registered package was missing from the malls between a town down in the center of the State and Chicago. The postmaster at the small town, a judge and a prominent citizen, swore that he put the package in the mail pouch. An Investigation was commenced, and this affidavit was forwarded to Washington. “ What (iave you to say to that?’ the Inspector demanded of the clerk whe should have handled the package. “ ‘Nothing, sir, except that the package wasn’t In the pouch,’ replied the clerk. About a week after that, when It looked pretty blue for the clerk, t6e postmaster overhauled his desk. Right on top, under an accumulation of newspapers, was the package, which the postmaster swore he remembered putting Into the mall sack.”—Chicago Inter Ocean.