A Pictorial Address

It requires the wholc Umc of a force of four clorks to decipher thedirectioni on letters received at the post-offico in this city, aml thcy have become so expert in determining letters aud word that wliat looks to the ordinary person like a form of hieroglyphics is readily intelligible to them. Some of the letters whlch are turned over to theui contain some very remarkable and grotesquo varieties of hand-writing. It is no uriasual thing for the men who distribute the mails to find in a. batch a half a dozen enrelopes which look as if some fowl justemergingfrom somo dark liquid had walked acrosi them. The writing of lawyers and men in public life is the hardest the officials have to struggle with. They are so accustomed to write in suca hoste that even in the directions of a letter they employ so many abbreviations as to make the address almostunintelligible to any but a skilled postoflice official. Merchants and bankers also write vorv obscure addresses, but they are by no meaos as bad as the lawyers and statesmen. The worst iiend the decipherers have to contend with is the extremely funny young man whose delicate sense of tastend humor leads him to diseard such common things s good English letters in the addrese of notes to his lady friends. The letters in some very frequently give place to symbols, such as are seen on advortising puzzles, and very often the mail distributors come across an envelope which bears nothing but k gronp of pictures. Postmaster Huidekoper and several of his clerks were engagedin endeavoring to deoipher one of these when a reporter dropped into the post-office. Tlu; j)ictures wore all drawn with hard lead pencil and were very neatly executed. The first one represented a giddy-looking young girl dancing a hornpipe. This was made out to mean "Miss. The next was the capital letter L drawn in monogram form with the small letter n. This was understood to mean "Ellen." There was a figure of Samson and the lion. "I have it," exclaimed Postmaster Iluidekoper, triumphantly. "If means Miss Ellen Samson." The first fignre on the second row was a woman Teaning over a wash tul in tlio. net nf washing Nnxt. tn this was the following: "2,240 pounds." This meant ton, and with washing made "Washington." The next symbol was a figure showing a street. On the third row was a picture of a door standing beside a chest, supporting the letter K. This was interpreted to mean ï)orchester. Then there was a drawing of a letter M being kiefced over by an ass. This was designed to stand for "Mass.," nicaning Massachusetts. So, after lialf an liour's work, it was discovered that the address was "Miss Ellen Sampson, Washington street, Dorchester, Mass." The postmaster very kindlyforwarded it to her, remarking that the young man who wrote the unique address probably thought himself smart.