The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-06-14
THE pEAp.LETTER OFFICE.

a
Aft r the White House and the Capt.
tol, thee is perhaps no place in Wash
ington as much visited by the ordinary
sigh seer as the Dead-letter Office. A
large proportion of our fifty millions
seem to have general and indefinite
idea at the great machinery of the
Government is located here, that it IS
huge motor the throbs of whose pulsat-
ing engines is felt from the Lakes to the
Gulf, and from the A lantic to the Pa.
cific. But beyond this all is vague and
misty. The Treasury is term for our
bullion; the Fateht-oifice shows that we
are not billiards in the matter of inven-
ton; the War, State and Navy depart
ments suggest that we have foreign
policy, place among the powers of the
world, and sold ers and sailors when re-
quired. But there is nothing personal
in all this: it awakens national pride,
and that is all he casual visitor re-
turns to his home truer patriot. than
ever, and reads with new gusto and
enthusiasm all about the surrender Of
Cornwallis, following it up with the
story OF the cotton bales on thu historic
10th of January, when, as certa n
Fourth # Ju y orator declared, ct he
bold and naughty lion crouched and
quailed before our victorious eagle"
However, Jas we said, the pivotal
point of interest is the Dead-letter
Office. A letter has peculiar interest
to every indiv dual. A mysterious at
TRACTION belongs to that small sealed
missive. Sometimes it is clumsy and
soiled, and the address smothered under
innumerable pos marks; sometimes it
is a dainty affair, with monogram, coat
of arms, or soul-stirring motto; some
times it is fresh from the hand of the
writer; and again it is worn with long
journeyings over land and sea-
The Post-office Department is pile
of glitter ng white marble, imposing
enough to be the headquarters OF our
immense mail service; and it is some
what str. nge that the proverbial Aneri-
can curiosity hun er on a tour of inves-
tigation does not Pry into its con-
tract offices, stamp division, supply bu-
reau, ETC.; but whatever may be the
cause, the tide ofvsitors GIBBS and flows
with unbroken regularity only through
the departmental Valhala.
For the first eleven years of the exist
ence of this bureau the records OF the
office were kept in single small book,
and showed that 1865 Valuabl4 letters
were received during that time. For
the fiscal year ending July l, 1882,
1888, 5S9 dead letters were received,
562. $40 unma liable, and IL, I'll blanks,
and more than 10000 bearing requests
were returned to tie writer's.
Dead letters proper are such as have
Ill
their destination, there adver ised, and
unclaimed. The ''unmailablen COM
prises several CLASSES: those that have
some de ic.ency in the address, such as
have been held for postage, entirely
blank, insufficiently paid to foreign
countries not included in the Postal I'm
ion, those addressed to hotels and I'M
claimed, fictitious and initial letters,
amounting in all to an average of Co..
900 per month, have proven upon in
yestigation to be the most valuable as
class that come to the office. They
contain more money, checks, drafts and
notes than any others. The majority
of the short-paid foreign letters belong
to Australia. Since our International
postal arrangements now extend nearly
all over the civilized world, and postage
is not compul Dry, this class does not
greatly swell the number of the I'M
nailable.
Many people seem to imagine that
the duty of the clerks in this Office is to
open letters, lesurely inspect the con-
tents, and return them to the writers.
What stupendous mistake this is will
be readily discerned by a superficial
glance at the actual state of affairs.
The employees occupy, in addition to
the main nee, sixty feet long by forty
feet wide, gallery extending entirely
around it, and furnished with double
row of desks, and half dozen smaller
rooms. The work is divided systemat-
ically, and certain proportion of clerks
assigned to eaeh subdivision; for in
stance, the division of dead letters
proper, the money branch, the property
branch, and the unavailable, while to
some is allotted the task of simply re-
turning letters.
About $4,000 per annum finds its
way here, most of VIII eh is restored to
its rightful owners; but in case of utter
failure to do this, it is turned into the
Treasury to the credit of the Post Office
Der artment.
The property branch shows many
curious things; here, as in the money
division, every effort is made to place
an article in the hands of the owner
but this is o'ten not only serious aud
perplex.ng matter, but absolutely i'm
poss BILE. AT intervals of two years a
sale of the accumulation takes place
The catalogue of the last comprised
several thousand articles.
The entrance to the Dead-letter Office
is through its museum. There are
some things which nobody would buy,
and some which the Office did not care
to sell; and glass cases around the
walls contain the rejected and despised.
aswell as those esteemed above none