The Arizona sentinel., 1888-08-25
QUEER MAIL MATER.
Things That Amuse the Clerks or Make
 Them Trifle Profane.

Things That Amuse the Clerks or Make
 Them 8 Trif1e Profane.
 Many queer things pass through the mails. Some of them afford amuse- ment for the clerks and others, for a time, cause them to forget their relig- ious training. Every conceivable thing that comes under the rules of mailable matter, and many others be- sides, is daily received at every large post-office in the land. Many packages are stopped because of violation of the law and are confscated, while occa- sionally an unmailable article slips through under the guise of something else. Speaking of the matter a Balti- more post-ofice official said: The mailing of merchandise, samples and other things, has reached such an extent that I wouldn't be surprised at any time to see man come in and ask if he can mail a ton of coal to San Francisco. A great many things are sent by would-be jokers. A short time ago fashionable uptown lady received a aneatly-doue-up and per fumed package from point in Vir- ginia- On opening it garter-snake jumped out and ran across the floor. The lady screamed, and when some of the other members of the family went to her rescue she was standing on a center-table and the snake was coiled up on a sofa A few days ago when a mail-pouch was opened a small dia- mond-back terrapin crawled out. The little reptile was carried to Gus War field, who placed it on his desk. It crawled about quite actively for awhile, and then pulled ip its head and feet and went to sleep. MT. Warield placed it on the desk of one of the clerks who had gone out for lunch. When the clerk returned he noticed the terrapin and thought it was a paper-weight and went on work ing. in a few minutes the terrapin awoke, stretched out it's head and crawled over on the clerks paper, as if to see what he was writing. The young man had never seen live terra pin before, and, still thinking that it was a new-fangled paper-weight he picked it up to make closer inspec- tion. Somehow the right thumb got caught in the terrapin's mouth, and part of it stayed there. He now knows what a terrapin is, but is very careful about inspecting new designs in paper weights. On recent occasion box full of lizards was found in one of the pouches. They were thrown out.
 Very frequently commission men re- ceive samples of all kinds of grain and other farm products with inquiries concerning their value. Often the samples of straw wberries are sent this way, but on their arrival they are generally mashed into pulp. Hand some bouquets frequently make their way through the mails, but on arriv- ing at their destination they are usually crushed and worthless. A watermelon came few days ago ad- dressed to a man on Pratt street. The carrier who took it down had the mis- fortune to drop it just as he entered the owners door, but it made no difference, as it was green any way. Small orders of all kinds of goods are sent in every direction all over the country. The meanest tricks ever played in this direction was when the envelopes for hospital day were collected. Many of them were not stamped, and as the department had been requested not to stamp worthless ones they were opened and found to contain peanut hulls, bugs, sand, pieces of bacon rind, horn buttons, tin, etc.
 One of the most annoying things to the officials was candy, and recently line was drawn there. That is, rule was adopted that candy should be put up in such manner that it could not get loose among the other matter. Formerly nearly every pouch con- tained a broken box of candy and a lot of sticky letters. Baltimore Her. aLd.