The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-08-22
THE POSTAL MoRGuR.
Odds aud Ends That Find Their Way Tnts
the SarcOphagns at Washington.

the SnrcOphagns AT Washington.
In every large Post Office there is a de.
partment which, like waste pipe, carries
OIL all trash and refuse matter. The Begin
ming of the conduit is 10 each city Post Office
the outlet in the Dead Letter Bureau al
Washington. Superintendent Glascoe. tn,
head of this department in the PHILADELPHIA
office, stated to reporter the other day
the amount of trash accommodating daily was
simply wonderful and included unmailable
matter, lettersins with efficient amtoun
of postage on them. letters and postals not
properly directed, and those which are not
stamped or have no directions on them at all.
We receive here, on an average, two or
three letters and about twelve postals a day
with not one word on them to indicate theii
destination, "said the Superintendent. eve
get still larger Of letters not stamped.
Every day froma dozen to fifteen letters
are deposited insuficiently or inaccurately
addressed. Then IL letter is mailed to a
foreign point not included in the Postal
Union, without the proper amount OF postage
upon it, that, of course, would be detain.
ed"
but what becomes of all this accumu.
alton" queried Times reporter.
The system is a complete and perfect
one" replied the official. " Letters moi
directed or stamped, and those inaccurately
addressed or without enough postage upon
them, we describe in book which we have
for the purpose and then send them to the
Dead Letter Office. There they are opened
and. If the party sending can be found, they
are remailed to him.
IT the writer can not be found he went
Oh to explain, :" they are destroyed. If,
however, any one should call here for his
letter we would be able to inform him, by
reference to our book, when il was sent to
Washington, so that he could apply there
forit When we receive letter that has
been misdirected and on the envelope the
card or residence of the writer is noted, we
keep it for thirty days, unless there should
accompany the address request to return
it lint delivered within specified time
Postmaster Hnidekoper has adopted an ex
celient plan that very often saves valuabl,
letter which has been misdirected from re
naming too long in our Office printed
request is sent to the writer asking for such
additional information as will lead to the
proper delivery of his letter. and the reptile.
to these requests are often very funny"
The superintendent, to verify his state
ment, picked up bundle OF printed circu.
lars containing the request he had alluded to
with written replies appended. "See, :"
said he, " one man writes, instead of New
York should have said New Jersey put
California. A third replied:
II put New Hampshire was mistaken
as l meant New Orleans. These people
were either very careless or they afterwards
discovered that the party addressed had
changed his habitation. When msdirected
letters have not the address Of the writer on
them they are sent to Washington. City
letters OF course are advertised, but Il
is singular TO note that not one-fourth of the
whole number Of letters weekly advertised
In Philadelphia are ever called fer"
But the greatest euriosities which slide
through our duct into the Dead Letter
Office" continued the speaker, "are pack
ages not properly stamped or directed and
That class of matter, such az liquids and
sharp-pointed instruments, which we call
unavailable For example, here is razor
which has just been deposited, wrapped in
q thin piece of paper and not directed.
Here is bottle of medicine, box of salve
and II package of flower seeds with no adj
dress on the wrappers. The razor is likely
to open and cut somebody; the bottle Ia
likely to break and the fluid might destroy
lozen valuable letters. We can't send the
seeds or the salve. because we don't know
where to send them. We therefore box
these things up very carefully and send them
to Washington, and whenever they get
large accumulation at the Dead Letter Office
they are sold Mt auction" While Superin-
tendent Glascoe WAS speaking he held ug
before the eyes of the reporter a long car.
dinal stocking. Was that stocking left
here without any wrapper ~ asked the
uewsman. That is just what mean,r
responded the Official perhaps it was done
by crank or perhaps ii was done IN
joke certainly it was not mistake that
could occur through carelessness. And right
upon the top of that came this handsome
photograph of young lady. No covering
upon 1t and no address accompanying
either. An ingenious person who had the
time to think about it might readily connect
the two and imagine that this stocking be.
longed to the original of that photograph.
But l don't think so, however, as so many
strange things of the same kind happen here
every day that really don't get the time to
think about them at ALL" Philadelphia
Times.