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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
301
The
division
of
the
letters,
which
can
hardly
be
called
a
system
of
sorting,
is
a
proceeding
worthy
of
study.
Some
letters
are
placed
up
on
end
against
sweetie-bottles
in
the
window,
others
are
laid
down
on
shelves,
others
again
are
spread
out
on
drawers
or
tables,
quite
in
an
arbitrary
fashion.
The
postmistress
has
no
difficulty
in
reading
the
addresses,
as
a
rule,
but
the
name
of
a
new-comer
seems
to
demand
a
little
study:
the
letter
is
looked
at
back
and
front,
and
then
laid
down
hesitatingly
in
a
place
by
itself,
as
if
it
were
an
uncanny
thing.
The
address
of
a
letter
for
any
young
lady
supposed
to
be
engaged
in
correspondence
of
a
tender
kind
seems
also
to
require
scrutiny;
and
should
she
happen
to
be
well
in
at
the
door,
it
is
immediately
handed
to
her,
those
who
are
in
the
secret
and
those
who
are
not
forming
different
ideas
as
to
the
reason
for
this
special
mark
of
favour.
While
this
is
being
done,
an
undefined
sensation
is
produced
in
the
small
crowd,
and
the
recipient
retires
in
confusion
to
peruse
the
letter
in
peace
and
quiet
elsewhere.
At
length
the
whole
treasures
are
ready,
and
the
distribution
to
the
eager
callers
is
a
matter
of
a
very
few
minutes,
to
be
renewed
again
at
the
same
hour
next
day.
Something
like
this
is
the
routine
observed
when
the
delivery
is
being
effected
at
small
rural
Post-offices
in
our
own
days--the
keeper
of
the
post
being
a
shopkeeper,
generally
a
grocer.
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