The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

If a man wishes to arrange for his marriage to take place he applies without hesitation to the clergyman of the parish or to the registrar of the district, but if he wants to know of a lady whom he can marry, he more frequently consults the postmaster. The following is not by any means an exceptional application of this kind:— “DEAR SIR,— Enclosed you will please find a letter which I would like for you to give some young lady or gent— lady preferred— who you think would like a correspondent in this country. Will correspond on topics of general interest.” We all recognise this as an ingenious beginning of a romance; in its earliest and most artful phase it is even comparatively indifferent to sex. A good postmaster must of course be domesticated and know the comforts of home. A lady wrote to the postmaster of Goole in these terms: “Not knowing of a good Registry Office for maids in Goole, I am writing to ask you whether you happen to know of a good cook general who is wanting a situation. I am wanting a thoroughly respectable trustworthy girl, age about twenty-four years; must be able to do plain cooking well and be clean in work and person, good at getting up in the morning, and small amount of washing done at home, such as house cloths and servants' underlinen; other things go to a laundress, including caps and print dresses.” A postmaster is allowed wide discretion in replying to such letters, and the answer to this correspondent was that the postmaster had been for years in search himself of a woman of the age of twenty-four who could do plain cooking, get up in the morning, and not object to “small amount of washing done at home,” and when he had found her he claimed the right to the first refusal.