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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
272
The
following
incident
occurred
about
twenty
years
ago.
A
gentleman
of
the
uncommon
name
of
Onions
was
travelling
in
Scotland,
and
was
expected
by
his
friends
to
call
at
a
certain
post-office
for
letters
on
a
particular
day.
The
day
prior
to
this,
a
telegram
reached
this
post-office
from
his
home
in
the
south
of
England,
requesting
that
he
might
be
told
to
return
at
once,
owing
to
the
serious
illness
of
his
brother.
The
telegram
upon
its
receipt
was
duly
placed
in
the
proper
box
by
the
clerk
in
charge
of
the
poste
restante
at
the
time,
and
who
of
course,
the
telegram
being
open,
was
aware
of
its
contents.
Next
day,
when
the
same
clerk
was
upon
duty,
a
Mr
Onions
presented
himself,
asking
for
letters;
but
the
clerk,
on
going
to
the
box
to
get
the
aforesaid
telegram,
was
unable
to
find
it,
nor
could
any
one
in
the
office
at
the
time
say
anything
about
it.
Mr
Onions
was,
however,
informed
of
its
import,
whereupon
he
said
he
had
no
brother,
but
as
his
father
had
been
ailing
when
he
left,
he
supposed
a
mistake
of
"brother"
for
"father"
had
been
made
in
transmission,
and
that
the
message
was
no
doubt
intended
for
him.
He
then
left
the
office.
A
few
days
later
the
postmaster
received
a
letter
from
this
gentleman,
then
in
the
south
of
England,
stating
that
he
had
been
made
the
victim
of
a
cruel
hoax
(he
having
found
on
reaching
home
that
no
telegram
had
been
sent
to
him),
and
he
was
the
more
convinced
of
this
because
his
visit
to
Scotland
was
in
pursuance
of
his
honeymoon.
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