The weekly miner., 1880-08-10
CUEEOSIEIEss OF THE MAIL.
ScnNe Of The Queer matter that tnsas It's
Way into the Mali Pouches.

1t is only occasionally that any such al
| Internal machine as a few months since nearly
| killed the Spanish counsul-General at New
| \ ork goes through the mails. Although the
utmost care in examining the mails is
generally taken by the post office, still such
| an explosive as was sent to Senior d riarte
| could easily deceive the most practiced eye,
| for, to all ntents and purposes, it had the
appearance of a small, compact roll of parcll-
ment. That, of course, was an arrangement
! prepared, no doubt, with view TO assass-
nate the Counsul, hut there are many other
explosives sent through the mails which are
really not intended to do any harm. but. ln-
fortunately, deceive the intention Of the
sender. Such was the case when patriotic
old gentleman a short time since sent some
percussion caps through the Baltimore
mail, to his grandson, for the Fourth Of
July. When the stamper in the post office
cancelled the stamps on the envelope there
was an explosion, which very neatly cost the
clerk his eyesgVt. Certainly the Old gentle
man, when he heard of the accident, was
very, very sorry and all that, but that will
scarcely be called an excuse for his careless
ness. A similar accident happened about
two weeks since on the Philadelphia, Will
m1ngton and Baltimore Railroad. One of
the mail agents, when near Havre-de Grace
which exploded, cutting his hand severely
and nearly setting fire to his clothes. The
perpetrator Of this act Of foolishness or
deviltry has not been discovered. A nitro
9lycerlne arrangement some time since nearly
blew up the stamping clerk in the New York
post office, and created for II few moments the
widest CONSERVATION in the department.
"Well, there is such host of curious and
strange things go through here" said Mr..
Joseph b. Thomas, of the Baltimore post
office, to the reporter, ''that | cannot begin
to tell you all" A lot of stuffed hummLg e
birds, from Trinidad, in the West Indies,
were sent through short time since, as were
also about twenty living Italian bees, mailed
by A. A. Pike of Smithburg, Nd, to Peter
Lallance, Syracuse, Ohio. These valuable
insects were inclosed in a wooden box with
close wire top, which admitted the light
and air. Probably one of the greatest
curiOsities that ever passed through the Balt-
more post Office was about month since,
when lot of silk-worm eggs from the
WOmen's Silk and Cotton Association 1928
Chestnut street, Philadelphia, were Matched
on their trip to Baltimore. They were
mailed to DR.. Conrad, st. Denis, Maryland.
and doubtless that gentleman was somewhat
surprised to find the worms hatched, growing
and thriving, instead Of the eggs which but
p"Sh't nun iooio plCNiottS lcll
Dnling the past Winter several young
alligators in small boxes with wire tops
passed through the Baltimore post office for
New York and other Northern cities. Live
frogs and lizards are frequently among the
mails in pastebOard boxes, from Which, they
sometimes escape, much to the disgust of the
mail agents. A box of grasshoppers and a
dead snake three feet long, are among the
most recent arrivals at the post cffice, while
several links of sausage and pounds of lim-
berger cheese astonished the eyes and nasal
organs OF the clerk the other day. When
postal cards first came into general use
numbers of them We're held at the post
office as being counterfeited, having been
manufactured by the sender with a 0ne-cent
stamp pasted on each side of them. These
continue to come in occasionally from parts
Of the country, and ohly few weeks ago
some anXionswaiting maiden in Greene
County, Ohio, failed to receive loving
epistle from her beau in Deleware, which
had been written on Il piece of white bristol
cardboard, cut in the shape of hart by the
sentimental youth, with one-cent blue
stamp stuck directly in the middle of it.