Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-06-26
The Dead Letter Office.

The Dead Letter Office has become
the most interesting, if not the most
important, branch of the postal ser
vice. 1t was established in 1926. A
law of that year made it the duty of
Postmasters to return to the depart.
meat as dead" letters which had
remained in their offices three
months. These were to be examined
and returned if possible to the senders
upon tho payment of postage. A sub
seauent law required the return of
dead" letters to their writers with
out postal charge. During the last
wear there was received at the office
an average of nearly 15, 600 letters
daily, or a total of about 5000. 600.
These have been handled by 100 en-
pl0yes, mostly women. The dead
letters are classified as Ordinary"
and unavailable" the latter being
such as do not have sufficient ad-
dress, or which contain prohibitory
matter. Misdirected letters will aver
age 1000 a day, and letters which
have no address at all, 200 a month.
1t is an astonishing fact that the great
err per cent, of the latter contain mon
ey. OF the domestic letters opened
the past year about forty Thousand
contain money, drafts, checks and
money orders, amounting to about
81, 500, 600. Nearly seventy thousand
contained postage stamps. Every
opened letter containing an Enclosure
OF value Is carefully recorded, and
those for which no owner can be
fodnd are fled away, subject to re-
clamation within four years. When
the writer's name is attached to val
liable letter he is informed of the
money being detained, and by satis~
factory proof is able to secure it.
A lady has charge OF the misdirect
ed letters. If possible they are sent
to the person they are intended for.
so proficient has this lady become
that she is acquainted with the names
Of villages and streets as the average
school boy is with the A, b, @. AT
her desk she has railway guides,
directories and books containing the
names of newspapers, bankers, min
listers, and the streets of all the cities
in the United States to aid ia forward
ing letters to the proper person. city
or State. A letter was recently direct
ed to "110 G. street, Nashville, Tenn"
1t was returned to the Dead Letter
Office. At once the lady knew that
the party addressed resides in Wash>
ington, as there is but one G street in
the United States, and that is IN that
city. The letter was delivered, and
the party to whom it was sent was
found, In directing 1t the writer had
placed the name of his own city upon
the envelope-a common error. Of
tentimes the lady is required to guess
at the address; and in no place can u
woman improve her faculty of guess
ing more than right here. She is not
required to guess like the lady
occupying a similar position IN the
department OF Great Britain. A let
ter was received in that office direct
ed: my son, up three flights of stairs,
London" To day letter came to
the department at Washington adj
dressed to "Wine Dock" The name
of the town to which the letter was
sent is Wyandotte.
The principal reason for misdiree-
ton is carelessness, said the lady, as
she throw upon the table before her
pile of a hundred or more letters.
ut is common practice to mix Hi
nois, Indiana AID Iowa; Kansas, Ar
kansas and Nebraska, and Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota"
when it is impossible to forward
letter without opening it is opened
and read by young lady, and, the
address of the writer being obtained,
is returned. One young lady can
open about 1000 of these letters a
day. The majority of Eastern letters
thus opened are characterized by vul
garity, while the majority of West
ern epistles show the finer feelings of
the writers. When there are no sig
natures the letters are cast aside and
sold as waste paper"
So, "your darling, ""your own pet"
lovingly, Laura" and ''sternally
yours, George" If you do not hear
from your epistles, possibly they are
in some paper mill ana eagerly perus
ed by some girl employees.
Parcels by the thousand are also
received at the Dead Letter Office.
A large proportion of the most valu-
able are addressed to foreign countries,
and are detained because they con-
tain dutiable goods or exceed the lin.
it OF size or weight. In all such
cases, if the name of the sender does
not appear, the addressee is notified
that the package will be forwarded
by the express at his expense or re-
turned to the sender, if his address is
furnished. The articles received
which can neither be delivered 10 the
person addressed nor returned to the
sender are sold annually at au ction
and the proceeds are deposited in the