Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-08-21
THE CAPITOL MAIL.
HOW CONGREssMEN RECEIVE
AND SEND AWAY LETTERS,
Documents and Speeches Sent Away
Daily by the Thousand-The
Correspondence of Mem
bers-PostaI Cards.

passes through the postofiices at the
Gouse and Senate is something enor-
FOCUS, writes a Washington correspond
ent of the Cincinnati Times Star. Any
day, and almost any hour of the day,
you are liable to see heavily loaded bags
pulled away from tbe door of the House
and Senate, carrying tons Of public docu-
nents, speeches which have been made
in the House and Senate, and are sent
out as campaign literature by the thou
sand, reports of the various departments,
documents of all sorts and sizes and
kinds and characters. Even the letter
mail of the members of Congress is
something remarkable. The big mail
bags which go from the city postoflice to
tie House of Representatives postoffice
every day carry probably on an average
of ten Ethousand letters daily. Ten
thousand letters day seem good many,
but pretty careful estimate of the num-
Der received there shows that this figure
is not too great They come from all
directions and are upon all conceivable
subjects. Your average Congressman
gets more letters, of course, from his own
district than elsewhere, but he is not
confined to his own people and the sec
ton which he Immediately represents in
his correspondence. Many of them get
letters from all parts of the country, and
from all parts of the world, indeed. For
eign stamps and foreign postalcards are
by no means novelty in the House and
Senate postofficcs.
All mail intended for members of Con-
gress is sent direct from the Washington
postoffice to the House and Senate post
offices. Letters and newspapers for
members of the House and Senate are not
sent by carriers to the residences of men,
bers except by special directions. They
all go in huge mail bags as soon as they
reach the postoffice, and are hurried to
the offices at the House and Senate
These postoffices, as they are termed by
courtesy, are not postoifices in the full
sense of the word; that is to say they are
not part of the Postofficc Department,
nor branch postoffices in any sense of the
word. True, you can mail any letter
there, buy postage-stamps and postal
cards, and if Congressman wants
money-order or postal-note he can get
it by leaving an order at these offices,
but they are not part Of the Postoffico
system. They are simply established
for the convenience of members of Con-
grrss.
They look very much like an ordinary
country postoffice. There is big screen
filled with letter-bags, and in the mid
die window, behind which stands an
official who passes out the mail just about
as the Postmaster at country postoffice
hands out the mail to waiting populace
Each member has his own box, and in it
are put his letters and papers. A thou
sand times a day on an average page
rushes breathlessly into the postoffice
and yells at the top Of his voice: "Give
me Mr.. So and Sos letters and papers.
If he does not get them at once he yells
again, and keeps it up with pertinacity
until Mr.. IS mail is deposited into
his hands, when he lesureIy wends his
way back to the House. The registered
letters, however, he does not get, for
they are too precious to be trusted to
these Arabs of the House-floor. There
is staid and careful messenger of the
House and Senate postodices, whose bus
mess it is to take these precious packages,
laying them before them and receiving
receipt for them, and deliver packages
in person. The number of these regis
tered packages which reach the members
of Congress is very great.
Many of them contain documents which
the office-seekers or others will send, and
consider too important to be intrusted to
the ordinary mail system. 1t is probable
that the average number of letters and
packages and newspapers delivered to
members of the House and Senate
nearly or quite twenty thousand. As to
the number of packages that leave the
House and Senate postoiiices for all parts
of the world and country, it would be
almost impossible TO make an etimate.
You can get the figures by the number
Of tons, but as to the packages and let
tiers it would be practically impossible.
The postal-card mail arriving at the
postoffices is quite large also, though not
so great proportion of the Congress
mans correspondence is now upon the
postal-cards, as was the case when the
postage was three cents instead of two.
Most Of the postal-cards como from the
South and West. very few from the
North and East The South seems cspe-
o;aiiv 1ovofoI q, Tho t,,ctoI o.-d ,,ar