The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-01-22
MISSED MAIL.
An Accumulated Mass of Stuff for the
Dead Letter Office at Washington.

An Accumulated Mass of Stuff for the
Dead Letter Office at Washington.
cleveland LEADER
A Leader reporter happening in at the
post Office yesterday beheld the large maya
zine of goods which have been sent or
attempted to be sent by careless parties
during the past few weeks and for one rea
son or another has stopped here. Deputies
Hardy, Harding, etc, were engaged in cata-
loguiDg the matter, and boxing and bagging
it preparatory to sending it to the Dead
Letter Office at Washington. There were
about 200 packages in all. BY permission
the reporter was permitted to look over the
catalogue and examine such of the articles
as be saw fit The first class of the matter
was that which had been dropped into this
Office and could not be sent on for one reason
or another.
''Here is a package said the deputy,
(which contained Christmas gifts for the
whole family. There is pair of gloves for
the mother, PAIR of mittens for the little
girl and little plate for the baby"
1t was all properly addressed as follows,
but had no stamps upon it:
j. ID. JOHNSON,
POS Richmond street,
Toronto, Ont.
Another package in this same class was
quite large, and evidently filled with dry
goods, 1t was addressed:
ARTHUR STEWART, Esq,
Sunny Side,
No. Springfield,
Manitoba,
Dominion of Canada.
Jan. I, 1879.
1t had ten three-cent stamps upon it, but
could not leave the Office, tor it weighed
81 ounces while the limit in weight beyond
which package can not go when directed
out of the country, is eight ounces
A paper box, carefully directed to young
man IN the Lake Shore and Michigan South
ern Railway office, when opened was found
fr,o ,fai- obs I11I Ial; a
/ because there were no stamps upon it.
| Two pairs of ladies' shoes slippers had
plenty of stamps upon them, but no address.
| Another package was addressed with
! lead pencil and the directions rubbed off.
| A box of considerable size with the follow
| ing written upon it was detained because it
weighed II ounces, while 1t should only
weigh eight ounces.
Mr.. ALBERT MILLER,
Prescott, Ont, Canada West, Box 20,
! There are many other packages of interest
| in this class which can not be noted The
second class includes a number of packages
addressed to such places as can not be found
| in the post Office directory. The following
are illustrations of there A package to
Miss Lille A. URNEsT,
GreSoville, Ill.
Another to
ID. LAWRENCE,
Haslem Spr, o,
Still another:
CHARLIE E. INMAN,
Statersyi1le, Ill.
The third class of packages, and by far the
larger one, is that of articles which have
been sent from other places and in transit
have got their wrappers torn off. and SO are
handed over to the office at this point by
the railway mail service. They are careful
ly catalogued, and, to show some of the
peculiar things that are from time to time
consigned to the mails, specimens are here
with submitted. Beginning with the head
of the list it reads:
l. Thirteen boxes cards.
2. Game of sold Maid"
3. One box type.
4. Two electrotype plates.
B. One piece type metal.
From this point selections are made from
the list whish best show the character of The
pile:
One rubber stamp, three pocket knives, one
steel spring, one small key, one button hook
one gold tooth pick, mouth piece to cornet
one black breestpin, one ladys gold pencil
one key tag, marked Captain Drake; one care
of studs, five tin whistles. six pen holders
pieces polished steel, one piece of tobacco
two packages of cigarettes, s5.2l inclosed in
office warrants, one too tn, one fady's shaw
strap, one picture frame, three gold rings, one
child's shirt, one box of berries, one set o
plated spoons.
One of the things strictly prohibited from
being sent through the mails is glass of any
descr1p tion. This Is pretty generally under
J stood, but still people will disguise bottles
and other articles rnade of glass in one way
J and another and entrust them to the tender
mercies of Uncle Sans pouches. A mum
Der of these prohibited articles have beer
taken out. The most interesting are tire,
: square bottles OF medicine evidently put vi
by some local physician. 1t has the direc
tons as to the time and quantity of admins
tering the doses written on the outside. How
} the patient did patiently wait, and conva
i. lesce much faster than he would have dons
with the doses faithfully administered!
Another package contains bottles of DR.
! Pierces medicine.
Still another is that of large bottle which
is empty, being sent as a sample.
, One bottle containing very bad smelling
7 oil isplaced in a block of wood with a hol
! bored in it. The oil began to leak and re
7 vealed the nature of the package.
These glass packages can not even be sen
: to the dead letter office. They will be de
I scribed to the postmaster general in full, an,
} the postmaster here will await orders in re
, gard to their disposal. which will probabl,
3 be that they be destroyed.
There Is large quantity OF this matte
3 at this time of the year, said the deputy
Il suppose that Chicago will have three o
four times as much as this, and New Yorl
t will have dozen times as much. Peopl
! never learn anything so far as care in thes
matters is concerned. Come in after
month or SO, and we will show you anothe
!. | lot"
/, Impertinence Rebuked.
4 We are not told 10 what country the ind
t vidual belonged who got SO well matched il
It the following story: "A person more re
e markable for inquIsitiveness than goo
4 breeding-one of those who, devoid O
g delicacy, and reckless of rebuff, pry int