The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1860-03-15
From the Washington Constitution

1t is very important thst the public
should understand, and particularly note,
the reason of the failure Of many letters
to reach their proper point Of destina-
tion. by reference to tho last official
report Of the Postmaster General, it will
be found that, besides the letters held for
postage, amounting to about ffty thou.
sand mailed, and FIVE hundred thousand
dropped letters, the number failing to
reach their destination by mails is little
less than two millions a year. Particular
efforts have been made to ascertain the
cause Of these failures. and particularly
with regard to those letters containing
valuable enclosures The truth is, that
! ia ma jority of cases, the fault rests en-.
/ tirely upon the writers themselves, Ell
ther on account Of an W,yiGie or a mis-.
direction indeed with reference to
eligibility, it is strange that more are
not mis- carried or withheld
ss The "t ~: and a'nc, new
countries, prevent them from receiving
their letters, aud another difficulty has
arisen of late years, since the Western
and Southwestern wilds have become
sparsely scattered with settlers, who are
entirely out Of tho way of mail conven.
fence Of any kind, aud it is impossible
for the Government to establish post
Offices tor the benefit of only a few per.
sons. To illustrate the folly of doing so,
will state that on the post route from
Council Grove, Kansas Territory, to Fort
Riley, distance Of forty FIVE miles, to
my personal knowledge the mail carrier
has frequently taken over to the Fort one
paper, and more frequently brought back
nothing; yet the contractor received
over $500 yearly, Now this is one cause
of the great depletion Of the treasury,
for there are several thousand post routes
of the sane kind throughout tho Wsst
and South. More than sir per cent. Of
! the letters recently restored to their
owners were either nisdirected or held
for postage, or addressed to transient
persons; and Of those containing other
valuables than money, such as drafts,
notes Of hand, and such like, for the
same cause, more than eighty per cent.
have been sent to the Dead Letter Office.
With regard to tho letters which con-
tain no valuables, about one third of tho
persons to whom they belong are willing
to pay for their recovery.
/ All letters must remain on hand one
week before being advertised, and. if
still unclaimed, may remain in tho Office
from one to three and half months. 1t
is better, however, that they be sent to
the Department as soon as practicable,
in order to avoid delay in their return to
their owners, or lessen the risk Of loss,
provided they contain valuable enclos-
ures.
! These facts should be particularly
noted and generally distributed by pa
pers throughout the country, that per-
sous may be more careful in the direction
Of their letters aud in prepoy;ny the
requisite amount Of postage; for many
heavy letters are put into the Offices
without word being said to the Post
master, and these being detained for
postage, the Department Is blamed for
the carelessness Of the writer.
These are the facts, and facts are
stubborn things, not to be consroverted.
and it is to be hoped, therefore, that
letter writer's will romove the Gauss, in
order that the Post Office Department
may remedy the effect.