The Portland daily press., 1882-03-03

a dozen or more envelopes containing coin are
placed together in one of the special
envelopes provided by the department for
this purpose, and by the time that these nave
made the trip, say from San Francisco 70
this city, the coin has worked its way through
both the original envelope and that furnished
by the government, and is found on arrlval
here loose in the bottom of the pouch. hardy
a day passes but there is dumped upon tne
sorting table of the post office here iroiD regis
tered pouch shower OF gold ana SILVER coin
which has in this way cut through the PACK
ages in which it was enclosed and lodged In the
bottom of thepouch 1t is not coin alone that
finds its way out of insecure packages lnIo the
mass of matter contained in the pouch. !ester-
dag morning, when the contents oil one OF Jnese
nouches was dumped, there fell out, without,
inclosure, and with no protection but
small rubber band, package OF coupons
destined for one of the large banking houses
in the city whose aggregate value was $oo,-
0O0 In the poorly made envelope that had OF,
iginally contained the coupons, and which had
been broken open while in process of transmits
sion, was also found $4,000 in greenbacks;, AS
the coupons were negotiable, it speaks wen 1or
the honesty of the registry department CLERKS,
that when the count of the coupons was COM
pleted they tailed exactly with the forwarded
invoice to the firm. A singular thing about
this carelessly shipped package was that when
the firm to whom it had been forwarded were
notified of the arrival and Dreakage OF tne
package, they only asked the post of1ce authorl,
ties to account for the S3Oo0O IN c0upohs, ana
backs which came with them. 1t was but
abort time AGO that pouch when emptied on
the sorting table brought to light several MIL
lion dollars worth Of bonds that had been
shipped from the other side OF the water in
such an insecure package that it was broken
open. One pouch that was emptied in the
office in this city short time agolet fall on the
sorting table $4,000, 900 of the bonds of the New
York Central Railroad Company which were
in process of shipment and had been placed in
an insecure wrapper Almost lnnumerabie
instances might be cited where the coin and
preenbacks or negotiable bills, checks and
drafts that are dumped without wrappers on
the table aggregated thousands OF COLLARS Inc
average number of broken packages received in
this city daily in the registry department. OF the
post office is so, and the values in money contain
ed in them is from $2upward. A singular fact in
relation to these broken envelopes is that many
OF them contain renittances OF daily balances
from postmasters to the assistant United States
treasurer-the last persons, one would natur-
ally think, who would be careless IN Inc man
ner of inclosing money for transmission through
the mails.
This carelessness is source OF great annoy
ance to the authorities because it necessitates a
great amount of labor in separating the loose
money into packages to correspond with the
amounts called for in the accompanying state
ments and letters. The presence OF the loose
money in the pouches, too, is a constant source
of temptation to the men who handle the pack
ages. In order to remedy the trouble caused,
and remove the source of temptation TO en-
ployes, Mr.. Russell, the superintendent OF the
registry department, has recommended to the
general post office authorities that an order be
issued prohibiting the transmission OF coin
through the mails unless it is enclosed in a
properly constructed envelope OF stout paper,
lined with linen or some other suitable mater,
ial. The result of such an order, Mr.. Russell
thinks, would be beneficial to shippers as well
as to the service, and would certainly prove
check toward possible populations by dishonest
employees.