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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
242
As
it
happened,
the
obliging
comrade
was
a
poor
scribe,
and
was
without
any
great
experience
in
letter-writing,
or
in
the
art
of
addressing
letters.
The
only
word
in
the
direction
which
had
been
plainly
written,
and
stood
out
in
a
way
to
catch
the
eye,
was
the
word
"Canton."
This
was
the
key
to
the
mystery;
the
letter
had
been
sent
to
China!
At
the
period
in
question
the
sailing-ships
conveying
the
mails
took
about
six
months
to
reach
that
distant
country,
and
the
same
time
for
the
return
voyage.
The
soldier's
letter
had
made
the
double
journey;
and
the
blunder
being
discovered
when
the
letter
came
back
to
France,
it
was
sent
to
the
village
in
Provence
to
which
it
was
really
addressed.
But,
alas!
adversity
had
overtaken
the
family
in
the
old
home.
They
had
left
the
place,
and
gone
no
one
knew
whither;
and,
so
far
as
the
Post-office
was
concerned,
it
only
remained
to
return
the
letter
to
the
writer
through
the
Dead-letter
Office.
The
moral
of
this
anecdote
is,
that
letters
ought
to
be
plainly
addressed.
Some
examples
of
the
rambling
style
in
which
addresses
are
often
written
are
given
in
another
chapter.
It
would
be
a
useful
work
were
the
school
boards
to
give
some
instruction
in
this
matter
to
the
children
under
their
care.
The
copy-books
might
be
headed
with
specimen
addresses
for
the
purpose,
and
the
teachers
could
point
out
how
desirable
it
is,
in
addition
to
plain
writing,
that
the
addresses
should
be
well
arranged--the
name
of
the
person
occupying
one
line,
the
street
and
number
another,
and
the
name
of
the
town
a
conspicuous
place
to
the
right,
in
a
line
by
itself.
In
this
particular
"they
do
things
better
in
France,"
for
in
that
country
instruction
of
the
kind
in
question
was
introduced
into
the
primary
schools
more
than
twenty
years
ago.
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