Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-11-27
Letter Office, from which ,ho-

WHICH tney are again
at staseu per!ods, according to the inter
aioH" poS'"I engagements returned te
the General Post-Oftice Of the countrx
iIoil WHICH they came. 1t then become,
1he uuey oi tna' foreign office to find out
by opening the letter or otherwise N.
writer, and return 1t, with a statement ot
the cause OF ltsnon-delivery in the Tnited
states. All postage which, on unnaiG
Iorelgn ~letters, Is charged against the
United States, IS again credited for snch
OF these as are returned as dead" letters
ana gace refs1 with regard to letters FROM
the United States, unprepaid, which re
turn here dead from abroad. ~
mus, 1t VIII be seen, that the whole
system, so Tar as we have vet observed i
emlnently business-like and well-arrang ed
a clerk having a fanction of his own
and dong nothing else, which enables
the whole huge machine to work with the
precision and accuracy of clock-work
But, SO Tar, we have only seen half OF
what there is to see, and are only berin.
nlng to understand the mysteries of the
once. a great many letters received
here contain money or valuables in the
shape OF bonds, drafts, checks, receipts
oeeus OF property, mortgages, coupons of
various KINDS, often payable to bearer,
etc, etc. More numerous, even. are the
letters when contain fractional cur.
rency IN small amounts, from a ten o. ff
teen cent stamp up to a dollar; and also
postage stamps, sent either in place Of
currency or TO secure an answer. In order
to give an adequate idea of the impor-
lance OF this, the 'm~oney-lettern and
property" branch of the Dead Letter
Office, | shall here give a few
figures, which will serve to illustrate
it: During the year of 1870 the total
number of letters received at the Dead.
Letter Office, in Washington, amounted
to 4,152,46O. Of this number, l9,733. none
of which were registered, contained
money to the amount of So. $1,000, in
sums of one dollar and upward; and, of
the registered letters received here. 2.5SS
contained $20,3327.73, making a total of
22,32l letters, containing $92, 867.S2. But
for the Desd-Letter Office, this money
would have been-where? Certainly lost
to the senders, who now, in nearly all in
stances, have it returned. The number
inclosing fractional currency in sums
less thar one dollar was %, 944, contain
ing s., 1913. so; and of this mount. So
05S.72 Che contents of 30, 1856 letters was
returned to the writers, while the remain
der, 2,63S letters, containing, $734SS, were
filed for reclamation, there being no clew
to ascertain the names or whereabouts OF
the senders. Finally, as regards postage
n revenue stamps, these were found in
closed, in various amounts, in 45,457 let
tiers; while the number of letters con-
tanning bank-checks, drafts, coupons,
deeds, etc, etc, was 1850, of the non
inal value of $3,057, 544.9O.
But" it will very naturally be asked,
chow m it that there are so many
dead letters-what is the cause of it?"
The answer is, that the causes are
several, carelessness, however, being
the principal one. 1t is really
surprising how careless some people
are in addressing and posting their or
other peoples letters, even if these, as we
have seen above-contain money, and
papers of value. An instance of this kind
came before uly notice while | was in the
office, which nay serve as al example. |
have already said that a letter was hand
ed me at the assOrting-table bearing only
the name-W. G. Campbell, Esq.-and no
further address. When this was subsc-
quently opened 1t was found to contain a
certified check for the sum of S1O2.35
drawn upon a bank in indianapolis, Ind,
from which place the letter came, while
1t should have been addressed to Warsaw,
in the same State; but the sender had
neglected to write the address in full, and
consequently the letter came here to the
Dead-Letter Office. While letters to GER
tain foreign countries may be mailed I'M
paid, and the postage collected on deliv-
cry, every domestic letter must be prepaid
to secure its delivery, with at least one full
rate, or it goes invariably to the Dead
Letter Office. Yet, during last year, nc
less han 312,GS4 letters were dropped in
the p~ost-otfice boxes throughout the oun
try without stamps, or stamps of the
unpaid, were not prepaid one full rate, or
were stamped with illegal or revenve
stamps, which cannot be used for post
age; 6S,123 letters were "misdirected,"
the pOst-office, State, or some necessary
part of the address, being omitted; and
3,016 had no address Uhateuer, not even the
but had been mailed with the en-
velOpe in blank. Only a small portion
800 were addressed to places where there
is no mail-service, which is a good indi-
cation OF the v~astness and perfection OF
postal ramifications in this country.
Perhaps it would be proper also to in
clude under the head of caIelessness or
negligence the deplOrable fashion of a
certain class of writer's to address their
letters from some country seat or other,
with some fancy or aristocratic name,
without giving the post-otfice address.
This silly and absurd practice has Of late
obtained to a very great extent. The
PostOffice Department in Washington is
in possession of a list Of upward Of eighty
thousand Of these fancy names, to which
are daily found directed without
any post-office address; and almost every
day adds to this 'list of botheration."
receiving letters which are dated
Locust Hill,""Sunnyside Farm"
Myrtle Grove" Rose Villa" etc, etc,
etc, eighty thousand of them) take no
heed of the stamped pOst-mark upon the
envelope, but naturally direct their replies
to the place indicated at the head of the
letter, and the result is that the letter is
forwarded from one part OF the State to
another until, by accident, it reaches the
right place, or, more frequently, is sent to
the Dead-Letter Office, from which again
it is, in due time, returned to the writer.
These letters, which are not "unmailable,"
being addressed and prepaid, cannot,
however, be delivered, and thus form a
very large proportion Of the four or five
million letters which annually are recelv-
ed at this office. Now, when we have
called attention to it, let us hope that a
in this respect may be
wrought by which people who are
in the habit of thus dating their
will save themselves much
and their correspondents from