The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-07-26
POSTAL MATI'EliS.

right. There are doubtless dishonest
neil in the mail service as there is III
| all other avenues of business. l am
positive, however, that nine-tenths OF
the LOSSES and delays in the mails result
from the c;,relessless Of those sending
matter through the mails. No one but
Il postmaster would believe that the
general public were SO careless. Scarce
ly Il day passes but that parties drop
letters into the postOtiice without ray-
ing the postage or without addressing
the envelope or addressed to some town
and ceunty without putting Oh the
State. One gentleman came in to our
office some time ago and purchased u
money order, put it in Il letter and
dropped the letter into the postotlice
without stamping. The envelope did
not contain the nAme Of the writer las
it sh"uld) but the postollice clerk know
i'g from the application tor the money
o. der ION file in the utiice) that this
- ntleunan should send Il letter to the
| p, lit addressed on this letter held the
letter until the gentleman came in
dead letter office. as was oar orders
then. The gentleman identified the
letter and paid tie postage, ;emarking
that he did not think he would do that
| t',inn again, and within half an hour
| mailed another letter without stamping
We had now come to know his chirog.
| rlphy and hunted him up and had him
pay his postage before he left town.
n gentleman of WOrthing.on uesir-
ing to go east sent to his son, a clerk
in a st. Paul railroad office, for a ticket.
The son bought Il limited ticket and
mailed it to his father. The father not
hearing from his son rs soon rs he eX-
pevtCd wrote Linn and got d reply say
ing tEr ticket was forwarded promptly
by mail Il week before. The gentleman
! came regularly for his mail but did not
get his ticket, and finally came to me
| and said he was afraid the ticket was
! mislail III our office. I wrote to the
| son in st. Paul and to the St. Paul
| post"tlice. The son was positive he had
made no mistake in mailing the ticket.
and the st. Paul Office could give no
| clue. \ month after the letter WAS
said to be mailed to Warrington the
father got 4 letter from his son in St.
Paul which asked him to open in my
presence and it contained the railrt
ticket now nearly lapsed and an ex-
planation of the delay. The son in
stead of mailing the letter to his father
In Worthington had addressed him il,
st. Paul. The envelope containing the
letter had the card Of the house for
whom the son was clerking on it bnt
with no request to return. The letter
was held in the St. Paul city delivery
for thirty days and then sent to the
house, opened and handed to the son
who now properly addressed it to his
father at Worthington.
| 1o6v IL, Wcrt Il rfor cont IN Chi
cago for some merchandise. Promptly
got her bill of it but no merchandis,
came. She waited some time and thel
wrote the firm in Chicago. They wer'
positive the merchandise was sent tt
the lady's address by mail ut Worthing
ton, MINI. AS a last resort told he
there was Worthington in Iowa, In
diana, Ohio, Massachusetts and Scvera
other States; gave her a list of the Wor
thington offices and she wrote to th'
various offices aud enQuired for he
package and it was forwarded frOn
Worthington, Ind, where the Chicag'
firm had plainly addressed it.
Only few days ago business maj
of Worthington came to me and salt
he had sent a draft for quite a larg|
sum to a firm in Chicago which the,
had never received Only two days af
terwards the letter containing the draf
was returned to him with the informa
tion that no such person could b.
found at the address. The gentleman
had addressed it to the wrong numbe
in Chicago. Had the envelope no
been stamped with the address of tn
sending party and Il request to return
it would have been sent to the dea'
letter office.
Many times person will buy none
order and thinking tho paper we Civ
them 1.-THE order) is a receipt for tn
money and that we will send the none
they give US direct put the order il
, their pocket and then complain to u
is lost. AS absurd as this may seen
is frequently done. If the patrons @
the postot1ice would comply strictl
, with the following directions it woul
!, do away with nine-tenths of the com
plants made to or of the postmaster:
/. Never send anything of valu
through the mails unless 1t is by none
, order or registered letter or package
, The cost is nominal. During the pas
. year (1SS2) only one registered packag
i'll 1920 was lost. During my tw
years as postmaster not a single regis
tered package has been lost on thi
route. Money orders, if lost, are re
issued and are therefore absolutely safe
J 2. See to it that every envelope de
, posted in the postoffice has on it
upper left hand corner your name an
address and request to return in te
/. days if not delivered. Letters wit
3 name and address on as above in
dicstea, if addressed wrong, or if post
age is not paid, or not addressed at al
3 are Immediately returned to the write
{ for correction when they would othel
wise be sent to the dead letter Office, &C
if without postage would be detaine
in office until addresser can be inform
ed and can send stamps to pay til
postage.