Daily Gazette & Comet [Baton Rouge, LA], August 8, 1860
Some simple contrivance, is certainly wanted, so as to fix in a visible manner, the Post marks on letters. In the hasty manner in which letters are stamped at the various offices in the country, the mark, is utterly worthless, to indicate the place and date of mailing. This is always, important. The mark on the envelope, is not unfrequently the only index as to where the letter was written—at least here in Louisiana, where many persons seem to labor under the impression, that the world ought to know in what particular place they live. The largest half of the people seem to think in dating their letters, that all necessary for them to do, is to give the name of the Parish from which they write. In all such cares , unless the Post mark can be deciphered, it is impossible to give an answer. Another thing in this connection. Ordinary people, have to an alarming degree fallen into the ways of remarkable geniuses. They will write a letter intelligibly, but when it comes to signing the same, they make scratches, something like the legs of a fly, who inadvertantly falls into the ink and afterwards crawls over the paper and flaps his wings. If the post mark is legible, by cutting out the signature and pasting it on the envelope containing an answer, the local post master may by accident discover the writer. Cannot this remarkable age of invention discover some simple printing machine, to go with a handle, like a coffee mill, and stamp letters legibly?