The Portland daily press., 1882-03-03
IN. Y. Times.j
Curiosities of the Post Office.


That so comparatively small an amount OF
mail matter is lost in course of transmission lsa
matter Of considerable credit to the post Office
officials, when one considers the extremely
careless way in which matter to be sent is in
closed. This carelessness can be thoroughly
understood only by those who have had an op-
portuuity to see the mail bags come into post
office and their contents dumped upon the as
sorting tables. Such an opportunity was re-
Gently granted to q Times reporter by Post
master Pearson, of the Office in this city. Hard
ly pouch comes to the city from any distance
but contains number of broken packages"
This term is applied by the postal employees to
all kinds of Enclosures transmitted through the
mail, and the catalogue of materials that are
mailable would fill closely printed column OF
the Times Letters without envelopes, with
broken or torn envelopes newspapers, in eve
~ known language, without wrappers, pack
ages of all kinds of material without address
tags, and envelopes without letters, wrappers
without newspapers, and tags properly address
ed attached to nothing at all, are the frequent
contents of q mail pouch, especially of one from
one of the foreign countries, which cause the
postal officials trouble and the public generally
much profanity To an observer it seems sim
gular to see the postal clerks carefully pick out
and tenderly set aside this mass of matter,
which, on the arrival of an ocean steamers
mail, accumulates rapidly Every scrap of pa
per that is not certainly attached to piece of
the well preserved mail matter is preserved,
and the accumulated mass of scraps, wrappers,
envelopes, newspapers, &C., is placed in bas-
ket and sent up stairs to the inquiry room. In
credible as it may seem, the quantity of this
material that is forwarded to the inquiry room
from the general delivery alone aggregates
three or four bushels daily.
Arrived in the inquiry room, this matter is
handled by Superintendent Jones and bis
CORPS of assistants as tenderly as though each
piece of paper were choice and fragile bit OF
glass. The newspapers are placed IN one heap,
the letters in another, and the miscellaneous
naailable matter in another, but the real work
of the experts begins only when there is left
simply the pile of torn and apparently worth
less paper that formerly constituted the wrap
pers of some of the papers or letters. Each
piece is critically examined, and all such as
contain post-mark Or a bit of writing are pre-
served. Each letter is carefully examined ,end
IL the address, signature or contents give evil
dence of the party for whom it IS intended and
his whereabouts, it is at once forwarded to its
destination. If in the mass of apparently
worthless papers antenvelope is discovered, ev-
identity written by the same hand as the body
of an uninclosed letter, the letter and wrapper
are together inclosed and forwarded. In case
the address and signature of the writer of q
letter can only be ascertained, he or she is at
once communicated with, and asked for direc-
tion as to the disposal of the nissive. If the
only clue that is left to the examiners is the
address on what was once an envelope, that
person is informed that such an envelope is in
the possession of the postmaster, and that if he
can give any idea OF what he expects in the
mail, the inclosure is in the possession of the
postmaster, and will be forwarded. The torn
and ragged bits of paper that have been gath
cred from the wrecks of the mail are frequent
iy SO skillfully manipulated that, by being put
together properly. needed name and address
Is brought to light, or the patchwork reveals
the destination of some bundle Of foreign peri
odical literature, or of some package of more
or less value that has been intrusted to the
mails in an insecure wrapper. A record and
description of every package whose sender or
destination cannot be ascertained IS kept, as is
each letter that cannot be forwarded or return
ed because the only clues to identify it are the
vague address and signature. as, for instance
my dear Harry" from eYour own Gertie,"
names significant enough to the two parties in
terested, but of no earthly use to the post Office
authorities. These letters and packages, num-
bering hundreds in the course of a week, are
held at the office in this city as long as the law
will allow, and at the end OF that time for
warded to the dead letter Office in Washington,
ants, should any appear.
This system has been brought to its present
perfection by Postmaster Pearson. and results
in the discovery of many OF the writers, or par
ties who would have been the recipients, and
the delivery to them Of letters and packages
frequently of considerable Importance or value
Less attention is paid to the periodicals. and
newspapers, because it is almost an utter inn
possibility to ascertain the final destination of
foreign papers bound further west, north or
south than this city. If they are forwarded to
parties in this city, and complaint of the loss of
q paper is made at this Office, it is a very rare
thing indeed for the loser to be unable 10 find
his missing paper by calling at the inquiry |
room Papers published in this country, which
come to the post Office here without addresses
wrappers are returned TO the office OF pubica-
ton The foreign papers that are unclaimed
here are, after thirty days storage, sent to the
general dead letter Office at Washington, many |
tons of them in the course of year. This same |
disposition, after thirty days OF storage is made
of the packages containing samples of silk or |
other goods, pieces of jeWelry, bits OF machine
ry, spools of thread boxes of buttons, hosiery, |
gloves, and the thousand and one other arti- |
eies of merchandise that are now allowed to be |
transported through the mails
The articles that arc thus thrown out Of the |
mail bags have value, but it is inconsequen- |
tial in comparison with that of the broken let |
ters and packages that frequently come to light |
when q registered pouch is dumped out on the |
sorting table. That much Of the money ship
ped in registered letters reaches its destination |
Is due rather to the care exercised by the en-
ployes of the post office than that shown by the |
shippers. Gold and silver coin, often in large
Quantities is carelessly enclosed in no safer |
wrapper than a common business envelope |
Unless these envelopes are handled with the |
utmost care they are liable 10 be torn or brok- |
en- open by the weight of the coin striking |
against the thin, creased edges of the en-
velopes, even belore they are ready to be start |
ed toward their destination. Sometimes |