The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-12-10
DEADLETTERS.
Somo Interesting Facts About De-
ceased Missives.
Statistics That DO Not Speak Well for
the Caution and Intelligence Of Mano
writers-superscrIp Which
Are Hard to Decipher,
washington Cor. Cleveland Leador.l

Washington Cor. Cleveland Leader.1
dropped into the dead-letter office to-
day, and watched for q moment the
hundreds of busy clerks who were sort
ing the thousands of letters sent from
the fifty thousand Post-otfices all over
the country. Some were taking the let
ters from the mail bags and tying them
In packages of one hundred each, ac-
cording to the class to which they be-
longed. All those mailed without stamps,
and an average of six hundred of these
comes in daily, are put into one class,
and other classes of blunders each have
their corresponding packages. There are
more than fourteen thousand dead let
ters received every day, and the number
received last year was large enough to
have given one dead letter to each citi-
zen of Ohio, and to have had some hum
dreds of thousands still to spare. Over
1000, 900 letters were sent during 1884 to
the dead-letter office-a fine record in
deed Of the mistakes of the human
race. OF these, 10000 did not have
sufficient postage, the addresses of 2SO,OOO
were illegible, and nearly 1900 bore no
superscription whatever. Seventy EIGHT
thousand OF them and more were re-
turned to Post-ofiices by hotel-keepers be
cause the departed guests for whom they
were intended failed to leave an address.
and over 100000 were sent here because
they were not called for at the Post
office to which they were directed. Mort
than 100000 came from abroad, and these
were all remailed to the countries from
whence they were sent.
Only domestic letters are opened by the
dead letter Office, and of these during thu
past year 1900 contained money; $1,000
contained drafts, checks and money
orders, and 10000 contained receipts. In
these letters the actual money received
was 32,647, and the drafts, checks and
money orders amounted TO the enorm-
Gus sum of $1,3O0,OOO. In these let.
ters there were 5000 photographs,
and 68,0O0 Of them contained post
age stamps. A great many Of them
contained articles of merchandise and
curios Of various kinds, and there Is now
in the dead-letter Office museum enough
specimens of the different things which
have been sent through tho mails to AL the
shelves lining the walls Of good-sized
parlor.
These curiositles are Of all kinds, from
dirty shirt-cuf to a polished dirk, from
hand d-made lace to Indian moccasins, from:
q cows hoof to human skull, from ar
eagles claw to live snake, from an Easter
card to an alligator, and from gold nuggets
to fine jewelry. Everything, in fact, that
one would think impossible to send
through the mails people attempt TO mail.
Those that come to the dead-letter office
and are unclaimed are sold every year al
auction, sight unseen, and the proceeds OF
these sales are given over to the Treasury
OF the money received ninety seven pei
cent. is returned to the owners, and this Il
the case with every letter or package al
far as possible. Every letter containing
articles OF value Is recorded, and all such
| letters Of which the owner can not be found
are filed away for reclamation at any fu-
ture time. Letters are only read at the
dead letter office to ascertain the name OF
address OF the owner, and q clerk who
would report the contents of letter open
cd by him at the office would be speedily
discharged II the fact became known. In
the ante-room of the office there has beer
lately placed a curious scrap-book, con-
tanning tho backs of large number oi
letters which have been sent TO the Office
and have been remailed to the persons for
whom they were originally intended. 1t III
a queer autograph album, indeed, and
many Of its writings would shame Horace
Greeley's ghost and drive that Of George
NJ. Bloss crazy. Some Of the envelopes dc
not contain the name Of the State, some
have no postofice address, and others, fol
foreign lands, have neither city nor coun.
try to tell where they are to go. In some
cases IL was evidently the intention OF the
writer to puzzle the Postmaster, as In the
following which was posted In Dakota In
1888:
| ......................
/: woop