The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1876-08-31
The Dead Letter Office Museum.

walls OF travel, displayed Win a view 10
their respective attractions and sugges'
tive of the trcachery Of postage stamps
and the adverse fate which sometimes
oyertakcs even mail-bags, There Is
everything known to the useful and
ornamental; everything not smaller
than Il thimblc or larger than a stove
pipe hat. such a pathetic array of
might-haye becns, 80 eloquent Of disaJ~
p%ointmcnts and blightcd hopes! Locks
Of hair-thcrc are whole switches Of
thcm-and as for photographs, we are
told that there are forty bushels Of them
in the basement Of the building. But
fancy yourself the recipient Of a nice
parcel from the hands of the pOstman
some morning, which upon being opened
discIoscs II live snake Whether one
would 90 into rapturcs or Mysteries at
such a treasure would he a matter
OF taste, | suppose. But then peo-
pie do send snakes through the mail,
and sometimes they come back to the
dead letter shice for want Of Il claimant,
and we sec them leading a serenely
spiritual existence in a glass jar, among
other stray postal curiosities, 1t is a
fact that a postmaster once found a small
live alligator disporting among the let
ters and papers in a mailbag. There
wa, also a boQuet Of fresh flowers, which
had slipped out Of its box and n couple
of empty boxes, very similar in size and
shape, and both addressed to ladies, left
the poor man in doubt as to which the
alligator belonged and to which the
flowers. Imagine the fair recipient OF
the flowers finding a monster in her box,
instead of the delicate offering which she
had expected But the postmaster
made no bIunder he put the flowers
into one box, the alligator into the other;
notified the ladies Of the slight confusion
of property which had taken place, and
directed each to exchange with h eothCr
if she should receive the wrong article.
But he was gratifed to learn, shortly
afterwards, that there had been no mis-
take made, Jcwclry is one Of the arti-
clcs most commonly intru,tCd to letters
and postal packages.
One can hardly realize that there is a
daily average Of $1,000 or $4,000 dead
letters, or about 100000 Il month. Al
lowing n person to a letter, there are
lOO, 600 person every month who under
take to send letters either without
stamps, without addresses, or with can.
cellcd stamps, insufficient postage, or il,
lcgiblc or incorrect addresses. Many 0
them are without either stamp or adj
dress, and oft II with no signature which
give the slightest clue to persons sending
them. There are 10000 n month re.
ctiycd that either lack postage or adj
dress, or else have insufficient or can
ccIIcd stamps; and, strange Us it may
seem, these are sometimes the most val
liable letters, often containing currency
or drafts for large amounts of money. 1t
is estimated that there is about 81, $780,
GOO in drattsan $4,000 in cash received
yearly through dead letters. This is all
returned, il possible, to the persons send
ing it, but if amy portion Oft fails to find
a claimant it is turned over to the post
office fund. Very little difficulty is eX
pcrienccd in restoring the checks and
drafts to the rightful owners, but the
money generally comes in small sums,
and is usually sent in the most careless,
haphazard fashion, and the loss Of these
small sums and the ignorance or care
lcssness with which they are launched
upon Il Journey represents a deal ofsuttcr.
ing and disappointment. Some hard
working man may send $1,000, the say
ings Of months labor, to his wife and
little ones, whom he has had to leave
behind him, but, alas he is II Of forty
thousand who trust to providence, with.
out II stamp or address, or else his writing
and photography are beyond mortal ken,
and 50 the poor wife never gets the pit
lance which is her all.
1t is very amusing TO see the letters
opened, and guess at their contents before
they are brought to light. Three out of
five from a bundle of unaddrcssed letters
contained money, one Of them a $500
note. Then there are such quantities
of dress samples in letters. One would
imagine that all womankind had dis.
covered u language in the inter
change of these scraps Of dress fabrics.
Onc-half show their prosperity in bits OF
silks and %satins, and the other halt in
slips Of six-penny calico, and it is only in
the dead letter Office that they meet on
common ground. Certainly every fifth
letter contains a photograph, and ! don't
imagine that any great care is taken to
return lost photographs; but any one 50
bcreaved has the privilege Of rummag-
ing among the forty bushels of human
" countericits" which have accumulated
here, and if he does not find hisOwn there
may be a chance, among so many, of find
ing one he likes better.
Continued complaints of n rural post
somewhere in the wilds of Georgia
point to the postmistrcsS, an ancient
maiden, who was accused of opening all
the letters that fell in her way. The mos,
aggrieyed ones were pair Of flowers whose
passed through her hands almost
daily, and were invariably opened and
the contents devoured by alien eyes be-
fore they could reach the loving mes for
which they were alone intended. Aspe-
cial agent investigated affairs, and, t nd
ing that there were NJ grounds for sus.
pecting the old lady of theft, he asked
her motive in opening the letters, and
was muchamuscdt to find that she thought
it her prcrogatiye as postmistrc75 to IT nd
all of the letters she chose to or had time
for reading. She had shown much di,-
elimination in choosing those that would
be most intercsting--for instance the
love Ietters-and, judging from her cp-
po%rtunities, she was probably the bet
posted gossip in that town.
The Indians ms Fighters and Athletes.
Chicago Field.