Show MAILED TWELVE YEARS AGO A postal card which has been to europe and come back has baa just been turned in at the post postoffice ioe office department in washington to give the he officials there a chance of dine who Is ie responsible for its long delay lu in transmission it was mailed in washington late in december 1881 addressed to a bookseller in london directing hind him to send to the writer a large number of books which were even then sufficiently rare not to be readily noces accessible ces sible in this country the card reached its ita desti destination late in may 1892 the bookseller apparently without noticing the disparity between the date written on the card and the date of receipt filled the order after taking time to hunt bunt up the books which in the course of the ton ten years interval had bad grown still rarer the surprise of the author of the card may be imagined when so long after having concluded that the dealer could not fill his order he suddenly had bad this large supply of literature dumped upon him from the post postoffice ioe office when he charged the dealer with neglect the date on the card appears to have bave been examined for th the first time but it was pleaded that a dealer would be justified in filling ailing such an order in spite of the antiquity of the written date dai because he would have a right to assume that his customer had himself been careless about dating the card a slip of the pen making 1891 read 1881 new york evening post |