RENTING A POST OFFICE BOX.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3021, 2 March 1881, Page 4

RENTING A POST OFFICE BOX.

He wasn't a member of the Lime Kiln Club, but he had a whole wheelbarrow full of philosophy and logic under his ancientlooking plug hat as he entered the postoffice and said he would like to rent a box. The chief clerk was ready to accommodate him, when the applicant said : 'De terms am cash, I s'pose ?' 'Yes, sir.' ' Is dar any trust ?" { No, sir; you must pay quarterly in advance.' 'Jess so, sah. Make out a deed of dis yere box an' your quarter am ready.' • The price is 20 shillings per quarter or three months,' explained the clerk. The coloured gentleman fell back at the rate of a mile a minute, but slowly advanoed after recovering from his shock of surprise, and repeated: ' Twenty shillings ebery free months, an' no trust ?' ' The same.' The man took from his coat tail pocket a broken two-foot rule and measured the dimensions of the box. Then, shutting up the rule, he swelled out and exclaimed r 'Does dis pos'offus take me for a fool,, sah ? Does dis ignoble guv'ment imaginethat I'ze gone crazy, sah ?' ' I guess not.' ' Den why, sah, does this ignoble guv'ment try to rob me, sah ? Look at de ideah ! I can rent ahull hoss-barn on Indiana-street foe two dollars a month, sah, an' yet dis ignoble guv'ment axes me to pay twenty shillings a quarter fur a pos'-office box not half as big as one end of a manger. I wasn't born in de woods, sah—no, sah—an' you kin keep dot box sah, and dis ignoble guv'ment kin mass my letters frew de winder, sah !'—Detroit Eree Press.