Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-12-03

use OF WHAT are Calleu request
envelopes" would dispose of most
of the remainder. Let us see.
Ask your postmaster to show you
the twenty letters which he is to
send to the Dead Letter Office to-
day. Ten of these, you find to your
surprise, were dropped into the
post office only yesterday. Per
haps four of these were put in with
out stamps, or had the stamps rub
bed off in mailing. Two Of them
bear two cent stamps, instead Of
three. One has a revenue stamp
only. One has stamp previously
used, and put on perhaps accidental
ly. Eight letters have thus become
"dead,' all Of which would have
been saved by the use of stamped
envelopes. An envelope which can
not lose its stamp, nor assume a
wrong stamp. The only possible
chance is that the wrong envelope
may be used and the "request en-
velope guards, as we shall see,
against the consequences of that.
These are eight Of the ten fresh
letters. Then there is another with
stamp and no address; and
another with the name of John
Smith, and no sign of a town or
county or state to distinguish J. S.,
from his numerous cousins.
These are the new letters. Now
look at the old ones! Some with
addresses perfectly illegible; some
clear, precise, accurate, looking so
distinct and unmistakable that you
feel as if the very man must live
just round the corner-yet he has
never been heard of in the parts,
and the letter has been waiting for
weeks unclaimed. Some bear the
marks of hopeless experiments in
penciled memoranda-"try New
York." "try Newport ''try New
Fane;'' but no spot on earth, new
or old, can give this poor letter any
respite, till it finds at Washington
the repose Of death. Then the for
eign letters-the Galway and Cork
missives, the letters to Portuguese
sailors, the big letter from the Ger
man frau, and the coroneted ano
perfumed note from the French
marquise to her pet American fine
lady, all gone hopelessly wrong
and drifting together into tina
Morgue of stationery, the Dead Let
ter Office.
How to save these poor letters
from their doom? One simple pre-
caution would have saved ever,
American letter from death. Had
you written on your envelope tn,
single words ''If unclaimed in ter
days return to'-giving your ad
dress, wherever it may be, thel
your letter would have borne
charmed life. 1t would have beel
like the return balls the children
play with, if the ball does not hit
the rubber string brings it back
Better still, buy Of the ready post
master the envelopes on which thi
request is already printed, leavin,
you to fill in the address. Or, bes
Of all, if you can possible afford it
buy five hundred of these at once
in which case the Governmen print
your own address without charge
and henceforth you can snap you
fingers at the Dead Letter Office.
You may then put your letter il
without an address, if you are cap
able of that folly; or you may &C
cidentally write the wrong address
or you may be led into error b
your correspondent. No matter
your letter is safe, unless it crosses
the water. Sooner or later, n
doubt, the invaluable principle O
request envelopes will be mad
international, and that large brancl
Of the dead letter business be ais,
cut Off.
We err in supposing that dead let
ters are chiefly the result of ignol
ance, They chiefly procee
from sheer negligence in those VIII
should know better. It is negli
gence TO use stamp whe
you might use a stamped envelope
1t is negligent to use even this with
outa request on the outside. LIE
US close with moral tale. It wa
once necessary that we who writ
this shonld enclose a $50 bill to
particular person in Providence, r
l., to make sure Of its identity, as i
was suspected of being a counter
felt, and we were charged with hav
ing passed it, The note never a,
rived. Servants were cross-exam
ined, private inquiry made. n,
clue was found. Weeks after, tn
letter reappeared from the Dea
Letter Office We had addressed
to the right person, the right street
the right mum moer-and the wron
city. In some moment Of stupidit
Or hurry, it had been unconsciousl
addressed to New York, instea
of Providence. What we thus di
any one of our readers may do wit
) his very next letter, But we, q
least, learned by experience. Fror
that day to this we have used "rt
quest envelopes and have had n
more dead letters.-New York II
dependent.
@ My dear what shall we nam
Bub p a.