The Opelousas courier., 1886-09-18
POSTAL FREAKS.
Some Peculiarisies Of a Great'
City's Mail.
Misdireoted Letters, IJ~aaladdressed Postal
Cards and Other Irregularities

There are as many as 5000 letters re-
ceived in the New York post-ofice every
day which arc INSTRUCTED. This partic-
ular branch of the service is in charge of
superintendent E. Perry Jones, who has
been in the employ of the government
for ci eighteen years. His first assistant is
j. Fl. Toll, who is also a veteran at the
work. The reception of each piece of
mail matter in Superintendent Jones' de-
partment is recorded in q big book, and
everything that i, done with it is also re-
corded so that a complete record of
each piece is at hand, and letters may be
traced for years back. Especially is this
done with regard to letters containing
money, and q great many of these are
received, the total amount received in
department being about $500, 900 to
800, 900 a year. To give an idea of the
interesting system employed and the
amount of work entailed by gross care
lessness of persons who address letters,
it is only necessary to give the story of
o letter as it is found upon record. A
letter bearing the postmark 'tNew York"
was addressed to "John Smith, Jackson
vile, Fla" Mr.. Smith could not be
found. - The letter in due time was re-
turned to Washington and opened at the
dead letter office. It contained $40 in
money, and was signed ''Katle, e.
38th' street." 1t was forwarded to Su-
perintendent Jones. At thcnumber given
no sKatie" coulo be found. The letter
was kept thirty days, and no inquiry
being made about it, it was sent to
Washington. But should "Katie" ever
desire to look up her lost letter she could
yet obtain it by proving property, as it
could be quickly found by reference to
the records.
An average of fifty postal cards are put
in the New York office every day with
no address at al upon them. Many which
are intended for out of town aredlrected
to New York city, the person addressing
them evidently having had his mind on
something else than his work. A great
deal of matter on which the charges have
not been fully paid is refused. Th:sclass
of matttr causes the department a great
deal of trouble. The most of this is mat
ter sent to large firms who establish q rule
not 10 receive anything that is not fully
prepaid. aOften they refuse letters on
which there is but two or three cents due
which contain money. All this matter
is sent to Washington, and the sender is
traced out from there. 1t is seldom that
a woman refuses to receive mail matter,
whatever the extra charge is. Her natural
curiosity is too great. Cake and candy
are mailable in q tin box, but not in a
pasteboard box. This regulation is often
violated, and any quantity of sweet
things are captured by the keen-scented
postal clerks. Fruit is also unavailable
except it is securely packed, but hardlya
day passes that some sort of fruit is not
taken out of the mails. When packed
in pasteboard boxes perishable stuff is
liable to be crushed and to injure other
mail matter. Liquids of all kinds are
49,.
unavailable, yet a great many bottles are
found in the mails.
There is only n rate to Canada for
packages. It is ten cents no matter how
large or how small the package is. But
the package cannot of course exceed the
maximum weight or dimensions pre-
scribed by the postal regulations. A
great many packages are held under the
law. With nearly every foreign country
the arrangements is such that mail mat
ter will be forwarded aver if it is short
paid. But it is not SO with Australia.
The result is a great many Australian
letters are held for prepayment.
Not long ago letter containing two
500 bills came into the hands of the
department clerks. It was addressed to a
certain number on Seventh avenue. A
most thorough search was made to find
the owner. Each carrier on Seventh ave-
nue. took it in turn, but the owner could
not be found, and the 5000 went into the
treasury of the government. Some very in,
teresting things were found in the mall,
sent to the department from the wreck of
the Oregon. The greatest part of it was,
SO thoroughly soaked with salt water that
it could not be forwarded, but a great
deal of excellent work was done in max
ing out superscriptions with only slight,
eleWs to work upon. Hundreds of pho,
tographs, love messages, and tokens sent
from the other side had to be dumped;
into bags and sent on to Washington,
there to be officially destroyed. The av-
erage number of letters returned to:
Washington each week is from 5000 to-
10, 900. An an average about 800 of the
letters returned to Washington weekly
be delivered even after they have
been opened at the Dead Letter Office
NeD York Star.
Fire Frightened the Bear.
4 Miabs0an nsharrno a., rvbo ba5 ~.