Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-12
POST OFFICES AT THE CAPITOL.
Where Congressman Receive and Mail Let
tiers and Campaign Literature.

Where Congressman Receive and Mail Let
tiers and Campaign Literature.
Cincinnati Times Star.
After the discussion of a great question
the amount of mail-matter that passes
through the post-offices at the House and
Senate is something enormous, writes
correspondent. Any day, and almost
any hour of the day, you are liable to see
heavily loaded bags pulled away from the
House and Senate, carrying tons of pub
lie documents, speeches which have been
made in the House and Senate, and are
sent out as campaign literature by the
thousand, reports of the various depart
ments, documents of all kinds and char
acters. Even the letter-mail of the mem
bers of Congress is something remark
able. The big mail bags which go from
the city post-office to the House of Rep
resentatives post-office every day carry
probably on an average ten thousand let
tiers daily. Ten thousand letters day
seems good many, but pretty careful
estimate of the number received there
shows that this figure is not too great.
They come from all directions and are
upon all conceivable subjects. Your aV-
erage Congressman gets more letters, of
where, but he is not confined to his own
people and the section which he immed-
lately represents, in his CORES pOndence.
Many of them get letters from all parts
of the country, and from all parts of the
world, indeed. For, ign stamps aud fore
ign postal cards are by by no means a
novelty in the House and Senate post
offices.
All mail intended for members of Con-
gress is sent direct from the Washington
p0st-office to the House and Senate post
office. Letters and newspapers for mem
bers of the House and Senate are not
sent by carriers to the residences of mem
bers, except by special directions. They
all go IN huge mail-bags as soon as
they reach the post-office, and are hurried
to the offices of the House and Senate.
These post-offices as they are termed by
courtesy, are not post-Offices in the full
sense of the word; that is to say, they
are not part of the Post-office Depart
ment, nor branch post-Offices in any sense
of the word. True, you can mail any
letter there, buy postage-stamps and
postal cards, and if Congressman wants
a money order or a postal-note, he can
get it by leaving an order at these offices,
but they are not part of the Post-office
System. They are simply established for
the convenience of members of Congress.
They look very much like an ordinary
country pOst-Office. There is a big screen
filled with letter-bags, and in the middle
window, behind which stands an official
who passes out the mail just about as the
postmaster at a country pOst-Office hands
out the mail to a waiting populace. Each
member has his own box, and in it are
put his letters and papers. A thousand
times a day, on an average, page rushes
breathlessly into the post-office 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 leisurely wends his way back to
the House. The registered letters, how
ever, he does not get, for they are too
precious to be intrusted to these Arabs of
the House-foor. There is a staid and
careful messenger of the House and Sen
ate post-offices, whose business it is to
take these precious packages, laying them
before them, receiving reception for
them, and delivering packages in person.
The number of these registered packages
which reach the members of Congress is
very great.
Many of them contain documents which
the office-seekers or others send, and con-
slider too important to be intrusted to
the ordinary mail system. 1t is probable
5hat the average number of letters and
packages and newspapers delivered to
the members of the House and Senate to-
day is nearly or quite 10000. As to the
number of packages that leave the House
and Senate postoffices for all parts of the
world and country it would be almost i'm
possible to make an estimate. You can
get the figures by the number of tons,
but as to the packages and letters, it
would be practically impossible. The
postal card mail arriving at the post-offi-
ces is quite large also, though not so
,reat proportion of the Con
CHEESEMAN'S correspondence is now upon
the postal cards. as was the case when the
postage was three instead of 2. Most of
he postal cards come from the South and
Vest, very few from the North and East.
The South seems especially devoted to
postal-cards, particularly the Eastern sec
lions OF the South. North Carolina, for
instance, seems to have a particular af-
ectlon for postal-cards, and the number
of these little missives reaching Congress
from that State is astonishing. When
Re House and Senate pOstoffices receive
their mail, and see among it huge pack
postaI-cards, somebody makes the re-
mark:
THAT is the mail for the North Caro-
ma members"
The Southern members patronize the
ne Money-order System of the Post-ofice
department. more extensively than those
: the North. Banks are not so common
the South, and the Money order System
5 in great favor for transmissions of sums
mall or great.
The Bees Eye.