Wichita eagle., 1889-12-07
THE POsTOFFICE DEPARTMENT.

Anent the annual reports OF the depart
ments of the government at Washington
now being submitted through the presi-
dent to congress for its consideration
and for the information of the people,
that of the postoffice department is not
second in interest to any Of the others.
Of this most intricate portion of the ma
chinery of government the dead letter
Office is perhaps the most striking and
interesting feature. This is the place to
which all misdirected, missent, illegibly
addressed, unavailable and unpaid letters
and packages are sent. In former years
all such matter was almost literally
dead, for scarcely any effort was made
to restore it either to the addressee or
the sender, and most of it was perma-
nently lost. Now every effort is used to
trace the matter, and most of 1t either
finds its proper destination or is restored
to the sender. The statistics of the office
show the extent of its operations. The
report of the superintendent shows the
following:
During the year ended June 80. 1889,
6,206. 493 pieces of original dead mail mat
ter were received. OF these, 1850 1856 were
ordinary unclaimed letters, Isl, 120 were
returned from hotels. %, 701 were fictitious
addresses, and $50, 49l were returned as I'M
deliverable from foreign countries. OF
the unavailable there were 109,S 1868 "held
for postage" 455,421 misdirected or in
sufficiently addressed, 1864 without any
address, and 6,876 miscellaneous, 534, SOP
letters and parcels Of foreign origin. 76,O3S
al, %
and 22,3l6 registered articles. There were
6S,034 letters returned to the card address
unopened; 6,7S3 "held for postage" for
warded to the addresses 90, los misdi
rected letters, upon which the addresses
were corrected and letters forwarded. OF
the matter opened q, ell contained money
amounting to S34 $50; 24,075 contained
negotiable paper amounting to 81 497, 2S2.
face value: 3,4l7 contained postal notes
amounting to $3.50, 1859 contained
books and articles of merchandise; 6,349
contained miscellaneous papers; 10, 159 con-
tanned photographs, and 127, TBS contained
postage stamps. There were restored to
owners A. 64 money letters, containing
So, o66; - SI3 letters containing negotiable
paper amounting to 81, AS, sos; 3, III letters
containing postal notes amounting TO
S4.69S; 29,1l5 letters containing merchan-
disc articles; 30, 207 containing miscellxn-
eouS papers; 81, 40 containing photographs
and 120, 552 containing postage stamps.
These figures show volume of bust
ness which keeps large force of clerks
constantly busy. The average number
of pieces, letters and parcels received at
the dead letter office is over 1900 per
day, and the average from day to day
does not vary much from that number.
A singular thing is that the number of
letters mailed without being stamped,
the number of misdirected letters, ETC.,
each maintain a very even average
throughout the year. Perhaps you
never mailed letter without having
affixed a stamp; perhaps you do not per-
sonally know of any person doing it; yet
not day passes without several scores,
if not hundreds of letters are dropped in
the mails without being stamped.
Among the ingenious devices to assist
in tracing instructed letters is street
directory, containing in alphabetical Or
der the names of every street. avenue.
court and alley il every city in the
United States. If the name is duplicated
or used in several cities the name of
each city Is given. Suppose a letter is
addressed TO number -, Meridian
street. Minneapolis, MINI. There being
no such street in that city, it goes to the
dead letter Office. There the street di-
rectory shows there is Wichita street
in Wichita, Kan, and the letter is
sent here. If the name of the street
should happen to be Washington, or
some common name, used in dozens of
cities, each one is tried in turn until the
right Washington street is found.
The packages and parcels which reach
the dead letter office contain an endless
variety of matter, all sorts of merchan-
disc. Yankee notions, fancy works. pho
tographs. samples, jewelry, botanical
specimens, minerals, garments of ali
kinds. live snakes, horned toades. etc.
These articles accumulate rapidly, and
at regular intervals are catalogued and
sold at auction. and the proceeds turned
into the treasury. Last year the sum
OF s.. 44s IN money. for which no owner
could be found. was turned into the
treasury, and the packages sold at auc-
ton realized $500.