Telegram, Van Helsing, Antwerp, to Seward, Carfax

[van_helsing1897]

(Sent to Carfax, Sussex, as no county given; delivered late by nearly twenty-two hours)

17 September. Do not fail to be at Hillingham tonight. If not watching all the time, frequently visit and see that flowers are as placed; very important; do not fail. Shall be with you as soon as possible after arrival.

Comments

[mortalwombat731]

This is such a great moment--technology and modernity fail!

[elettaria]

In one sense. In another, when my mother fails to send me an e-mail because, despite all my explanations about how the address has to be 100% correct, she types it wrong, I blame her, not e-mail. This definitely resonated with me as the daughter of a technophobe. If you're feeling charitable, you could call it a generation thing. But still - come on, man, the postal system at least has been around for centuries, do you really not know how to address a telegram?!

[mmebahorel]

Well, it's easy to not pay attention when the structure of an address is different in a different country.

But Van Helsing is still an idiot for not double-checking. This is England - if you want something to get to Shakespeare's birthplace, it's Stratford-on-Avon. If you send it to Stratford, it'll arrive at a railway interchange and and future location of several venues for the 2012 Olympics.

Too bad postcodes didn't come in until WWI, though Van Helsing may well have mixed that up, too.

[vgnwtch]

At the same time, he's clearly in a rush, and could he have known that there was more than one Carfax?

[sulinpanda]

Dun, dun dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun!