Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1885-10-23
Dead.Leiter ONCE.
Washington Letter.

The dead-letter Office has become The
most interesting, If not the most i'm
portant, branch of the postal service.
1t was established in 1925. A law of
that year made 4 the duty of post
masters to return To the department
as dead letters which had remained
in their offices three months These
were 10 be exam ned and returned If
possible to the senders upon the pay
ment of postage. A subsequent law
required the return of dead letters
to their writers without postal charge.
During the last year there was received
at tho Office an average of nearly
fifteen thousand letters daily, or a
total Of about five million. These have
been handled by l2O employees, mostly
women. The dead letters are classi-
fed as ''orGinary' and unavailable,
the latter be ng su1h as do not have
a sufficient address, or which contains
prohibitory matter. Instructed letters
will average 1000 a day, and letters
which have no address at all. 1000
month. 1t is an astonis hing fact that
the greater per cent Of the latter con-
tain money. OF the domestic letters
opened the past year about forty
thousand contain money, drafts,
checks. and money orders, amounting
TO about ~ 300, coo. Nearly seventy
thousand contained postage stamps.
Every opened letter containing an in
closure of value j. carefully recorded,
and those. for which no owner can be
found, are filed away. sub ect to re-
clamation within four years. When
the writer's name is attached TO a
valuable letter he is informed of the
money being detained, and by salts
factory proof is able TO secure IL.
A lady has charge of the misdrected
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
critics. villages. and streets as the
average schoolboy is acquainted with
the A, b. c. At her desk she has
railway guides, directories. and books
containing the names of newspapers.
bankers. ministers. and the streets OF
all the large cites in the United State,
to aid in forwarding lie tiers TO the
proper person, city. or State. A letter
was recently directed 10 ''ll0 G street,
Nashville. Tenn" l. was returned 10
the dead-letter office. AT once the
lady knew that the party addressed
resided in Washington, as there is but
one G street in the United States. and
that is in that city. The letter was de-
livered, and the party to whom it was
sent was found In directing it the
writer had placed the name of his own
city upon the envelope a common
error. Oftentimes the lady j. re luired
to guess at the address: AMI in no
place can a woman improve her fac
ulty of guessing more than right here.
She is not required to guess like the
Engl shman occupying a similar posi-
ton in the department of Great Bri-
tain. A letter was received in that
flights of stairs. London" To-day a
letter came to the department at
Washington addressed to Wine
Dock " The name of the town TO
VIII CHI the letter was sent is Wyan-
dotte.
The principal reason for m sdirec-
ton is carelessness, - d the lady as
she threw upon the table before her
pile of n hundred or more letters. 1T
is common practice 10 mix Illinois,
Indiana. and Iowa; Kansas, Arkansas,
and Nebraska and Mich gan, W soon
sin, and Minnesota.
when it is imposs bic to forward
letter without opening it is opened and
read by young lady, and. the address
of the writer being obtained, it is re-
turned. One young lady can open
about one thousand of these letters
day. The majority Of eastern letters
thus opened are characterized by vul-
garity, while the ma orty OF western
epistles show the finer feelings OF the
writers. When there are no sigma
lures the letters are cast aside and sold
as waste paper
SO your darling" your own pet, !"
lovingly. Laura, and externally
yours, George" if you do not hear
from your ep stiles possibly they are
in some paper m II and eagerly perused
by some girl employees.
Parcels by the thousand are also re-
ceived at the dead letter office. A
large proportion of the most valuable
are addressed to foreign countries,
and are detained because they contain
dutiable goods or exceed the limit of
size or weight. In all such cases, if
the name Of the sender does not APP
pear. the addressee is notified that the
package Will be forwarded by the ex-
press at his expense or returned TO the
sender. if his address is furnished
The art cles received which can neither
be delivered TO the person addressed
nor returned TO the sender are sold
annually at auction, and the proceeds
are deposited in the treasury.