The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, No. 05, May 1891: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, No. 05, May 1891: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
A black-edged envelope reveals a curious address on a letter intended
for a Frenchman. All it has is the man's name, with "Sailing on Sunday
night, half-past three o'clock, Angleterre" (Fig. 2). This was a
decidedly smart move on the part of the Frenchman's correspondent. The
letter was faithfully delivered, the postal authorities going down
to the boat which left this country at that hour, on board of which
they found Monsieur. A well-known firm of music publishers were put
down as living in "Cocks and Hens," otherwise the Poultry; whilst an
enterprising grocer of Naples gave the Post Office a slight test of
far-sightedness in discovering addresses, when, for a wager, he drew on
the envelope a couple of pears, adding the word London (Fig. 3). It is
needless to say for whom this was intended.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
The sending of a solitary postage stamp through the post with the
name, address, and message written on the gummed side, is of frequent
occurrence. It is, however, a foolish practice, for not only is the
stamp likely to be lost amongst the shoals of letters, but no small
amount of inconvenience is caused to the sorters and other officials.
If this should meet the eye of the gentleman who wrote on a postage
stamp (Fig. 4) to a generously disposed friend, "Meet me to-night
without fail. Fail not--_I am hard up_," will he remember that, though
he probably parted with his last penny, considering the state of his
exchequer, he ran a great risk of remaining still hard up, owing to
non-delivery of his communication?
[Illustration]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
The missive for a fishmonger at St. Albans who lives "Opposite the town
pump," found him (Fig. 5).
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
We now turn to the artistic creations. One of the scrap books is
devoted to fac-similes of letters intended for distant parts of the
world. Many most humorously addressed envelopes were received by our
soldiers during the Egyptian War. There is one with a redcoat in a very
awkward predicament. He is trying to shelter his trembling form amongst
the foliage of a tropical plant, and is suggestively labelled "Up a
tree," for a small army of aggravating alligators are waiting for him
below, and one more hungry than his companions has already commenced to
sample Tommy Atkins' helmet. Another is addressed to a lance-corporal
at Christmas-time. He is standing with his tongue out for inspection
by an officer, and the sender has unkindly suggested that this is "the
results of too much Christmas duff." These little postal humours are
decidedly personal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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