Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-11-28
THE DEAD LETTER OECICr GAIT
Ine AccumuI"tfon OF Articles Never
Delivered by the Post Omee-How
Christmas Gifts and Tok an. ~ 1rac-
ton Find Their Way TO the Dead Let.
ter Division.

Tne annual sale Of articles sent to the dead
letter ONCE Will begin on the IL tn Of December.
For the past two or three years these sales have
been made annually, instead of biennially as
Formerly, the large accumulation of matter of
| this KIND making more frequent clearing out
OF the storeroom Of the office necessary, Last
year there were over three thousand articles In
the catalogue. and this year the list Is swollen
to over i've thousand. During the holiday sea-
son the number OF articles received at the Office
| reaches five and six hundred per week.
but this proportion is not maintained
during the year. The increase is owing
h 70 the se,S custom Of citizens of foreign
Christmas gifts and through their ignorance
OF the postal regulations they either fail to put
on sumcient postage or else the articles are sub
lect 10 DUTY and, for this reason, withheld.
This latter cause affects the mail matter sent to
Canada, where in addition some things are not
character Of the Police Gazette and such articles
Is tobacco The system is SO devised in hand
ing such matter that every effort is made to
which, 6y the way, are very numerous, when
me sender falls to put his name and address on
t u package the person to whom it is addressed
ton articles are held for two years before being
disposed Of and then If they still remain In the
Office they are disposed of at public sale and
the proceeds turned into the Treasury.
LARGE PERCENTAGE RETURNED.
The number OF articles sent to the dead letter
office in one Year reaches the enormous amount
OF 600, and as may be seen from the cata-
logue list very large percent is returned either
TO the sender or forwarded to the person ad-
dressed a very exact system Is in operation
for handling such matter, and the storeroom
where all such articles are kept Is u very curious
ana interesting place. 1t is in the basement of
the Post Office department building, and Mr.
Charles n. Dalzell, who is in charge, has the low
basement rooms fitted up with lockers, which
are mum bered, and where everything is checked
and recorded in books. The system has It's
checks something similar to those employed in
fanything is called for from that enormous
collection Of two years Mr.. Dalzell and his as
sistants can place their hands upon it at once
AS rule the articles that remain un-
very valuable. although there are
some that have a good marnet price.
But, Ii the articles arc not of much value in a
commercial sense yet they are often the ex-
preston OF great deal of affection and are in
tended 10 convey sentiments which, after all is
said and done, are waived more in this world
than money. This is especially true At this
season OF the year, and it seems nothing less
than cruel that the postal regulations should be
allowed to come in and Interrupt the circuit
which was about to be established between two
loving hearts separated by long distances.
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.
Such, however, is the case, and SO at these
annual sales, packages that were intended for
Christmas presents are offered for sale and
knocked down to the highest bidders As tho
articles are all securely fastened up in brown
paper packages, and as the description in the
catalogue does not convey an exact idea OF the
value OF the contents bidders, taught by ex-
perience at previous sales, are not apt to be en-
travagant in their bids, and SO it is not often
that they pay more than the intrinsic value of
the article. The average price obtained at these
on this basis the present sale some i've thous-
and articles will realize about $1,000