Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1882-03-30
Misss!!
Imc-.
Curios.,ies Of the Post Office.

laAt 80 Hu.rI:at.',.N >.uA4. aH amount ui
niA.. matter Is lost 90. COURSE % transmission
Us q matter of considerable ofe..t 10 iac
pos; ofiI officials. "acu uur consider, The
"Ntrcm..s careless N4y .u UA.oh matter e.
h,. ,eu, j., .nr.u,,d- la.> carc.c>>uc>, can
b., thoroughly uuGcf,tuu,. auir b, iuu>, " hu
have had an opportunity 10 ,rc the ma..
bag, COME into post o,ficc and their con-
tents dumped upon thu asserting tables.
such an opportunity VA, recruiA granted 90
a Inns reporter ny Postmaster Pearson. OF
the office ID ihis Ci;y. Hardly a pouch
comes TO thu, ciit from any distance but
contains a number OF broken plgka:rs"
THIS term is applied By the postal cmp,olc,
tu %. Aiul If enclosures transmitted tAIaI-h
the mai. and the catalogue OF material, that
are mai.ahlr would fi.i CLOSELY printed col
umn Of the Imc,- Letter, without cu,,l-
uYcs. with broken or torn envelopes. news
papers, IA every known language, without
Wla4nvr> pack Isc, of all Aiud- oi material.
without aa.r,>> lag, and envelope, with
out letters. wrappers without newspapers,
and tags properly addressed attached 70
nothing At ali, are the tregacnt contents of
a maIl pouch, especially of one from one ot
the foreign countries, which cause the postal
official, trouble and the pGbAc generally
much PROFANITY 10 an Observer !, seem,
singular to see the postal CLERK, carefully
gltA uu, and tcudrTlN set aside tnls mass Of
o. after. which. Oh the arrival % an ocean
steamers mai, accumulate, rapidly. Every
scrap # paper that : not certainly attached
lt a piece o: the vel preserved mail matter
J., preserved. and the accumulated mas, OF
scraps. wrappers. envelopes, newspapers.
&C. = placed IN basket and sent up stair,
To the .uqulr, room. Incredible a, It NAV
seem. the quantity of tais material that Is
fora 4rdrd 10 the inquiry room from the
general delivery alone assrrgat three Or
four ba,hcl> daily.
Arrived IN the inquiry room. this matter
j, handled by Superintendent Jones and hIs
corp, of assistants a> tcnderly A. though
each piece Of paper were q choice and irag
lie bil Of glass. The newspapers arr placed
IN one heap. the letters in another. and the
miscellaneous mallth.e matter IN another
but the real work OF the experts hegin> only
when there j, left simply the pile of torn
and apparently worthless paper that formerly
constituted the wrappers of some Of the pa
per, OF letters. Each piece Is critically eN-
amlned. and all such as contain pOst-mark /
or a bIt of writing are preserved Each let
ter j. carefully examined, and If the address, /
signature OF contents give evidence Of the /
uarty for whom Il Is intended and ms where I
abouts. il is al once forwarded to It's desti-
nation. Ii IN the mass OF apparently worth
less papers an envelope IL discovered, evil
IDENTITY written by the same hand as the body
of an unncloSed letter, the letter and wrap
per are together Inciosed and tOrw arued.
In case the address and signature Of the
writer OF a letter can only be ascertained, he
or She is at once communicated with, and
asked for directions as TO the disposal of the
missiye. II the only clue that Is left To the
e. iminers is the address on what was once
an envelope. that person Is informed that
such an envelope is ia the possession of the
postmaster, and that if he can give any
idea of what he expects in the mail, the in
closure l. in the possession of the postmas-
ter. and will be forwarded The torn and
ragged bits Of paper that have been gath
cred from the wrecks of the mail are fire.
quenty so skilfully manipulated that, by
being put together properly, a needed name
and address is brought TO light, or the patch
work reveals the destination of some bundle
of foreign periodical literature. or Of some
package of more or less value that has been
intrusted to the mails in an insecure wrap
per. 4 record and description of every
package whose sender or destination cannot
be ascertained is kept, as is each letter that
cannot be forwarded or returned because the
only clues to identify it are the vague ad-
dress and signature. as. for instance, MY !
dear Harry" from "Iour own Gerte,' +
names significant enough to the two parties I
interested, but of no earthly use to the post 4
office authorities. These letters and pack /
ages. numbering hundreds in the course of /
week, are held at the office in this city as
long as the law will allow, and at the end of /
that time forwarded to the dead letter office |
in Washington, there to be registered and 1
held to await claimants, should any appear. |
This system has been brought to its pres |
EN- perfection BY Postmaster Pearson, and |
results in the discovery of many of the writ |
ers. or parties who would have been the re- !
cipients, and the delivery to them of letters |
and packages frequently of considerable i'm |
portance or value. Less attention is paid to |
the periodicals and newspapers, because 1t is |
almost an utter lmpossibility 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 paper is made |
at this office, it is a very rare thing indeed /
for the loser to be unable to find his missing
paper by calling at the inquiry room. Papers
published in this country. which come to the
post Office here without addressed wrappers,
are returned to the Office of publication.
The foreign papers that are unclaimed here
are, after thirty days storage. sent TO the
af