St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-03-08
THE DEAD.LETTER OFFICE.

freaks and Humors of Those Who Use
the Mails-The Museum at the Dead
Letter Ofhce-A Rare and Curious Col
Iection-Droll Franks of Letter Writers.
The greatest attraction TO visitors, of
whom there are hundreds daily, is the
s'museum," where are displayed, in
glass cases, a very large collection of
strange and curious articles that have
been taken from the mails. Few of
those who are accustomed to patronize
the post-office in the usual way would
believe that many Of the articles here
shown could ever have found their way
into the mails, but we have the assur-
ance of the officials that everything in
the museum was sent, or tried to be
sent, by post and we do not feel at lib
ertY to doubt their word. Some of
them found a permanent resting place
on these shelves by reason of their be-
ing E'deado matter, others because they
exceeded the limit of weight allowed by
law to be carried in the mails, or for
non-payment of postage-not enough
or none at all-while many come under
the class of articles excluded by the
regulations of the Department. 1t may
W
transmission by mail is prohibited of
anything that is of a perishable nature,
or that can injure other mail matter or
is liable to harm those who handle the
mails. Liquids of every kind, anything
that can produce combustion, loaded
weapons and vegetable and animal mat
ter, except under certain harmless con-
ditions, may be cited as examples of
the excluded class. No one can fail to
see the necessity of strictly enforcing
these regulations. Doubtless many.
packages containing unlawful articles
are daily received and delivered, in all
parts of the country, but if by any ac-
cident or other means the contents of
such parcels become known they are at
once taken from the mail and carefully
forwarded to Washington.
A very pleasant lady of ffty-five is in
charge Of the museum. She knows the
history of every article, and answers a
thousand questions day, more or less.
Our attention is first attracted to
SEVENTEEN SNAKES
of different sorts and sizes, one of them
a rattlesnake between two and three
feet long. Although we have been told
in q general way that everything in
sight was taken from the mails, shade
of doubt as to the snakes involuntarily
crosses our mind and we inquire: = Did
those reptiles really come in as mail
matter?s'
4 Certainly, they did," she replies.
= That large RATHER and five or six 9TH
ers arrived in one lot, and they were all
alive, tool They were coiled in tin
cans, with holes to let in the air. I be-
ieFe they were mailed in Florida. Of
course if their contents had been known
they would not have been forwarded.
The big one got out of the can into the
mail pouch, and his loud rafting re-
vealed his presence to the man who
was handling the bags. The others
have arrived at different times during
the past three or four years. =
The snakes are all picked il alcohol.
It happened that while we were talking |
a clerk came in with q bottle contain
ing small snake that had just been
found in opening dead packages. II
was immed ately placed on the shelf be-
side its fellows.
There is also quite large assortment
of tarantulas, centipedes that the boys
in the army used to call Texas bed
fellows horned toads. lizards and
scorpions, and several juvenile alliga-
tors, nearly all of which were alive
when they reached Washington. There I
are several very fine cards of butterflies
and insects, and an assortment of stuffed /