The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1889-06-12
ODD THINGS IN THE MAIL.
cURloslTlES AT THE WASHINGTON
DEAD LETTER OFFICE.

Human Skulls and Boouacks Among
the Collection-why "The Letter He
Looked For Never Came"
The dead letter office is In one sense the
greatest museum in the world, for here are
daily received the queerest things imaginable
Everything that goes astray in Uncle Sam's
charge goes to this office, and in the course of
a year everything is received there, from
package of needles or bar of soap to an AK
handle. Once every year the department.
has clearance sale of all the miscellaneous
articles that accumulate, and on an average
about 10000 articles are disposed of at each
sale
1t is estimated that every day in the year
about $1,000 parcels letters and packages go
astray in the mail, all of which find their
way to the dead letter office As fast as re-
ceived, this mass of mail is assorted, opened
and classified. The dead letter office is not
very Large, but it is a very busy place at all
times of the day.
SHE IS A DIRECTORY or ALL CITIES.
The operators employed opening, asserting,
correcting and retaining the stray mail mat
ter are nearly all women, and they are count
ed far more skillful than men in handling
the matter Long tables extend all around
the room, piled high with letters and parcels
About twenty-five men and women are en-
gagged in asserting and opening the letters
In the gallery above are seated about sixty
young women who read the letters. They
are of all kinds, from the tender message Of
dove to the more prosaic business letter.
These women determine whether these letters
are of sufficient Importance to be returned to
the writer. Many are the ardent messages
of love that are daily consigned to the flames,
R1 al lo4k H..
writer's are destroyed by fire. If these girls
would talk, many are the mysteries they
could unravel, and'tell why "the letter that
he longed for never Camel
Misdirected and only partially addressed
letters are turned over to a lady operator,
who from long experience has acquired great
skill in studying out addresses, sand who
knows every city, town, village and hamlet
in the world. She also knows all the streets.
In fact, she Is "a veritshic city directory OF all
tine cities. From her almost infinite knowl
edge of names and places, the faculty OF de-
ciphering all kinds of illegible chirography,
and familiarity with English, German,
French, Spanish, Italian and Russian, the
young lady is enabled TO send to the rightful
claimants about so per cent. of these nisdi-
rected or partially addressed letters I'M
opened.
As a rule, English, German and French are
the prevailing languages used In addressing
letters. Occasionally a letter is addressed In
italian. Hebrew. Arabic Persian. Russian:
and. in fact. all other tongues creep into the
MAILS. and. after they reach New York from
their ocean VOYAGE are sent To tho fond letter
Office to be deeiphered md readdressed in
English. SO that the postmaster whose lin
guistic accomplishments are limited may de-
liver II in the good old Anplo-Saxon.
An letters that cannot be deciphered with
ont being opened are turned over TO another
force. who po through them removing all
valuables After all yaluables are taken out
thew are mt into packages of 100 letters each.
and sent to the sixty readers in the gallery.
Money. checks or draftstaken from the letters
nre returned Ia the sender. unless the marty
for whom il was intended can bo found
Last wear noarly s10000 600 was taken from
| tho mails and nhout seooo eonld not ha re-
stored to the owners,
IN THE MUSEUM.
A oueer museum is connected with the
dead letter office. where curious articles that
come in the mails and cannot be restored are
nlaced ON exhibltion All around the room
are placed cabinets. in which the articles are
placed Amonr them can be found n displav
of TOYS. iewelry. and pictures One of the
rafest of the curiosities is a sheet of parch-
ment, on which is ponned tho Lords PRAYER
In afty-four languages. It came to this
country from England in the mail in 1S42.
and as no trace of its owner could be- discoy-
cred. II was sent to the dead letter office. 1t
IL snid TO be n duplicate of a parchment
which hangs In st. Peters at Rome. A beau
tiful crucifix of solid gold rests in. a case ia
one cabinet. Ii reached the office marked
.'unclailned" from southern postoffice.
For whom it was intended is not known, A
lady's fan made Of stork feathers, the plumes
being rarer and richer than the finest ostrich
plumcs, Is without question the prettiest
thing In the whole collection.
1t Is magnificent fan and no doubt graced
tho costume of some court beauty Of the Old
World. In one of the cabinets partially
concealed in an envelope is a lock OF dark
brown hair. An inscription reads: sThis is
a lock of my hair Charles Guiteaun IL
was put into the mail by the assassin of
President Garfield
A human skull grins from one of the cases.
II is brown with age and had apparently lain
In the clay for years before it started on its
journey through the mail. On the frontal
bone OF the grinning skull is the inscription
Jimmy McDufR.n A murderer was executed
"A.