The Opelousas courier., 1885-10-10
THEDEAD TIL OFFICE
About Five Million Letters q
Year that Go Wrong.
An Interesting Branch of the Postotice
Department at Washington

in the post office department, says a
Washington correspondent, he told
me that a mar had been discovered
shipping an entire stock OF goods from
New York t. Baltimore through the
mails to save express charges, and the
goods hal been detained at the dead
letter Office. The dead-letter Office
has become thu most interesting, II
not the most important, branch of the
postal service. 1t was established in
1926.
During the last year there was
received at the office an average
of nearly $4,000 letters daily,
or a total of about 5,9)O.00l.
These have been handled by 100 en-
ployes, mostly women. The dead-let-
tiers are classified as ~"ordinary' and
'unmailable," the latter being such as
do not have a sufficient address, or
which contain prohibited matter.
Misdirected letters will average 1000
a day, and letters which have no adj
dress 1000 a month. 1t is an aston
ishing fact that the greater per cent,
of the latter contain money. OF the
domestic letters opened the past year,
about 10000 contained money, drafts,
checks and money-orders amounting
to about s1,500,O00. Nearly 10000
contained postage stamps. Every
opened letter containing an enclosure
Of value is carefully recorded, and
those for which no owner can be
found are filed away, subject to recla-
nation within four years. When the
writer's name is attached to a yalua-
bic letter he is informed Of the money
being detained, and by satisfactory
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 as we'll acquainted with
the names of cities, villages and streets
as the average schoolboy is ~acquain-
ted with 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 cities in the United States to
aid her in forwarding letters to the
proper person, city or state. A letter
was recently directed to "11O Cstreet,
Nashville. Tenn" 1t was returned to
the dead-letter Office. At once the
lady knew that the party addressed re-
sided in Washington, as there is but
one "C' street in the United States,
and that is in that city. The letter
was delivered and the party to whom
it was SEM was found. In directing
it the writer had placed the name Of
his own city upon the enyelope-a
common error. Oftentimes the lady is
required to guess at the address; and
in no place can a women improve her
faculty of guessing o Il an Fight
here. She is not required to guess
like the Englishman occupying a SIM
liar position in the department of
Great Britain. A letter was received
at that office directed: Ny son up
hree flight of stairs, London" To-
day a letter came to the department
at Washington addressed to "Wine
Dock" The name of the town to
which the letter was sent is Wyan-
dotte.
"When it is impossible to forward q
letter without opening, it is opened
and read by a young lady, and, the adj
dress 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 vulgarity. while
the majority of western epistles show
the finer feeling of the writer's. When !
there are no signatures 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 epistles possibly they are in
paper mill and eagerly perused
by girl employees.
Parcels by the thousands are also
received at the dead-letter office. A
large proportion Of the most valuable
are addressed to foreign countries, and
are detained because they contain du-
table goof:s OF exceed the limit of size
or weight. Ia II, such cases, il the
name Of ..1a sender does not appear
the a1lressee I. notified that the pack
age will be forwarded by the express
at his expense Or returned IT, the send
er, if his address Is furnished. The
articles received which can neither ba
delivered or returned to the sender are
sold annually az auction, and the pro-
ceeds are deposited in the treasury.