Hints to Careless Writers.
By Editor
We long since concluded to cease taking up any labor with those correspondents who forget, when writing to this Office on business, to give the name of their post office, or that of their State, or even their own name, and many other things necessary to the removal of address from one P. O. to another, or the appropriation of money. We have noticed that every paper with which we have any acquaintance experiences similar troubles, and settling down into the conclusion that there were some who had always written in the above loose manner, and probably always would, we determined to cultivate our guessing faculty the best we could, and say nothing. But as a specimen of the perplexities to which we are sometimes subjected, and to show a very fruitful source of the mistakes which are incident to all offices of publication, we give the following from the N. Y. Independent, every item of which has occurred in our own experience: We never attempt to cover up the blunders of negligent postmasters of which we have ample and costly experience. But we have also too much occasion to realize how stupidly the writers of letters often blunder, and themselves occasion the losses and perplexities of which they are so ready to complain. Many of these mistakes and omissions would be ludicrous in the extreme if they did not occasion so much waste of time to us, and so much disappointment to others. A few instances will be given as a specimen, taken from about two hundred letters received one day last week. Our publisher's name is given several times in every copy of the Independent, JOSEPH H. RICHARDS, yet we have letters addressed, "J. H. Richards," "J. E. Richards," "J. M. Richards," "H. S. Richards," "Jacob H. Richards," "J. H. Beckman," "J. Ricard," and any quantity directed to J. H. Ladd, although it is more than a year and a half since Mr. Ladd left the paper. Great numbers send money without the name of the subscriber, or without the name of their post-office. One sends $2 to pay for "a neighbor of mine," but omits the name of his neighbor. No doubt he knows the name "just as easy," and if he had told it to us, we should have known whom to credit with the money. Mr. A. Slosson says he inclosed money to us in September, "in presence of the postmaster," but forgets to tell us at what post-office. Another subscriber has moved to Tanktown, Ohio, and doubtless knows the name of the place he removed from, but not having told us, we cannot change the direction as requested. J. E. Peck wishes the paper sent to Montpelier, Vt., but with the same omission. A friend sends us four new names at "Springfield," but without naming the State, and as nearly every State in the Union has a Springfield, we know not how to direct the papers. Another sends the name of a new subscriber at Washington, without saying which Washington, and does not even sign his own name. Another sends $2 inclosed in one of our printed circulars, without any direction whatever. Mr. John H——n, a true friend of our paper, has sent us money, and sent three letters of inquiry concerning it, to each of which a respectful reply has been written, addressed as his letter is dated, "Franklin, Badax Co., Wis." We have no such name on our list at that post-office, as we have repeatedly informed him. We are as sorry as he can be for any mistake in the matter, and do not know where the error is, or what is the remedy. Since Jan. 1st, 1858, we have received 153 cash letters of this description (to say nothing of those not cash), of which 25 have been cleared up.