The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-09-11
Dead.Letter Once.
Washington Letter.

Washington Letter.
The dead-letter office has become the
most interesting, if not the most inn
portant. branch of the postal service.
1t vas established in 1925. A law of
that year made it the duty of post
masters to return to the department
as dead letters which had remained
in their Offices three months. These
were to be examined and returned if
possible to til ee.,ders upon the pay
ment of postage. A subsequent law
required ire return ~ .'dead' letters
to their writer's without postal charge.
During the last year there was received
at the Office an average of nearly
fifteen thousand letters daily, or a
total of about five million. These have
been handled by 120 employees, mostly
women. The dead letters are classi-
fed as Ordinary and ''unmailable,"
the latter being such 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 a
month. 1t is an astonishing fact that
the greater per cent OF the latter con-
tan money. OF the domestic letters
opened the past year about forty
thousand contain money, drafts,
checks. and money orders, amounting
to about 81, SEQ, 600. Nearly seventy
thousand contained postage stamps.
Every opened letter containing an in
closure of value is carefully recorded,
and those. for which no owner can be
found, are filed away, subject to re-
clamation within four years. When
the writers name is attached to a
valuable letter he is informed of the
money being detained. and by salts
factory proof is able to secure it.
A lady has charge of the misdirected
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
cities, villages, and streets as the
average schoolboy is acquainted with
the A, b, e. At her desk she has
ra lway 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 letters to the
proper person, city, o rState. A letter
was recently directed to '110 G street,
Nashville. Tenn" 1t was returned to
the dead-letter Office. At once the
lady knew that the party addressed
resided in Washington, as there is but
one c 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
a.+u .,No- nv. .,o1>,~o
error. Oftentimes the lady is required
to guess at the address; and 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
office directed: My son, up three
flights of stairs. London To-day a
letter came to the department. at
Washington addressed to ''NNine
Dock" The name of the town to
VIII CHI the letter was sent is Wyan,
dotte.
The principal reason for misdirec.
ton is carelessness," sac the lady as
she threw upon the table before her 8
pile of a hundred or more letters. at
is a common practice to mix Illinois,
Indiana, and Iowa; Kansas, Arkansas,
and Nebraska: and Michigan, Wiscon
sin, and Minnesota.
when it is impossible to forward 8
letter without opening it is opened anc
cad by a young lady, and, the address
of the writer being obtained, it is re
turned. One young lady can oper
about one thousand of these letters {
day. The majority of eastern letter!
thus opened are characterized by vul
garity, while the ma ority of western
epistles show the finer feelings of the
WI tiers. When there are no sigma
lures the letters are cast aside and solo
as waste paper"
So your darling ''your own pet
''lovingly, Laura and Externally
yours, George if you do not heal
from your ep:stles possibly they ar
in some paper M II and eagerly peruset
by ONE girl employees.
Parcels by the thousand are also re
csived at the dead.letter Office. I
large proportion of the most valuable
are addressed to foreign countries
and are detained because they contain
dut.able goods or exceed the limit o
size or weight. In all such cases, i
the name of the sender does not ap
pear, the addressee is notified that tn,
package will be forwarded by the ex
press at his expense OF returned to tn
sender. if his address IS furnished
The articles received which can neithe
be delivered to the person addresse,
nor returned to the sender are sol
annually at auction. and the proceed
are deposited in the treasury.