It has been discovered that many Londoners mistake old and
disused pumps, in which there is a slit where the handle used to work, for letter-boxes, and put their letters in them. In one in Great Titchfield Street several of these were discovered, and three are said to be still lying in the slit of a pump near Port- land Place. It is assumed that this is mere blundering, but is it certain that some of these letters were not robbed of their stamps before being thus deposited? A very short time ago certain errind-boys who were entrusted with the posting of letters did not scruple to annex the stamps and post the letters down the gratings of the common sewers,—we suppose under the im- pression that that was the safest way to got rid of the evidence against them, since they might have pleaded ignorance as to the distinction between one grating and another. Evidently for such children as these, disused pumps with slits would be quite a godsend. Some people are indignant that the Post Office does not seal up all the available slits in London. We trust it will not, or private letter-boxes are likely to suffer a great deal more severely than the blockheads who make these mistakes can benefit. It is a childish proposal to attempt to extinguish the external opportunities for stupidity. If such opportunities were not to be found, they would be engendered by the prolific faculty of human blundering.
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