Wichita eagle., 1889-06-25
ODD THINGS IN THE MAIL.
CURtOSITiES AT THE WASHINGTON
DEAD LETTER OFFICE.

1
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 Sans
charge goes to this Office, and ID the course OF
year everything is received there, from a
package of needles or bar Of soap to an az
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 Is, 900 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 very busy place at all
1 times OF the day.
SHE Is 4 DIRECTORY OF ALL CITIES,
The operators employed opening, asserting,
| correcting and returning the stray mail mat
ter are nearly all women and they are count
| ed far more skillful than men Ii 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
| love to the more prosafc 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,
for all letters that are not returned to the
writer's are destroyed by fire If these girls
would talk, many are the mysteries they
could unravel, and toll why 'the letter that
he longed for never came''
Misdirected and only partially addressed
letters are turned over to lady operator,
who from long experience has acquired great
skill in studying out addresses, and who
knows every city, town, village and hamlet
in the world. She also knows all the streets.
In fact, she is a veritable city directory Of all
the cities From her almost infinite knowl-
edge of names and places, the faculty Of de-
cipsring 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 misdi-
rected or partially addressed letters un-
opened.
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 the dead letter
Office to be deciphered and readdressed in
English, so that the postmaster whose lin
guistic accomplishments are limited may de-
liver it in the good old Anglo-Saxon.
All letters that cannot be deciphered with
out being opened are turned over to another
force, who go through them removing all
valuables- After all valuables are taken out
they are put into packages of 100 letters each,
and sent to the sixty readers in the gallery.
Money, checks or drafts taken from the letters
are returned TO the sender, unless the party
for whom it was intended can be found
Last year nearly $40, COO, 900 was taken from
the mails, and about 50, 600 could not be re-
stored to the owners.
IN THE MUSEUM.
A queer museum is connected with the
dead letter Office, where curious articles that
come in the mails and cannot be restored are
placed on exhibition. All around the room
are placed cabinets, in which the articles are
placed Among them can be found display
of toys, jewehy and pictures. One of the
rarest Of the ouriosities is a sheet of parch-
ment, on which is penned the Lords Prayer
in fifty-four languages. 1t came to this
country from England in the mail in 1872,
and as no trace of its owner could be discov-
cred, it was sent to the dead letter Office It
is said to be a duplicate of a parchment
which hangs in st. Peters at Rome. A beau
tiful crucifix of solid gold rests in case in
one cabinet. 1t reached the Office marked
unclaimed" from a southern postoffice.
For whom it was intended is not known. A
laGy's fan made of stork feathers, the plumes
being rarer and richer than the finest ostrich
plumes, is without question the prettiest
thing in the whole collection.
1t is a magnificent fan and no doubt grnced
the 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: ''This is
a lock of my hair. Charles Gpiteau." 1t
was put into the mail by the assassin of
President Garfield.
A human skull grins from one of the cases
1t 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 McDuff A murderer was executed
in a western town number of years ago, but
it is not supposed to be his skull A novel
letter is in the form of pretty pink shell on
which is inscribed tender message of love-
1t reached its owner in Massachusetts, town.
who refused to pay 81 cents due, and was sent
to the dead letter office.
There are several hundreds Of dollars
worth of gold and silver quartz in the cabi-
nets. 1t is ali on exhibition. A negro doll, |
that was addressed to New York society |
belle, upon which she refused TO pay the |
postage, is also on exhibition. Coins of every |
!tlonality and age are among the curiosi- |
ties collected. In one case is q set of false |
teeth An AK, such as is used by f1remen, |
few years ago a tin can was received at the |
Office, and when opened sixteen rattlesna8es |
made their escape. The men and women |
took elevated seats on the tables and gave the |
reptiles full possession. After the scare the /
reptiles were dispatched In one of the cases /
hangs bootblacks outfit, also saw, tin |
cup, waShboard, hat box, gold headed cane |
and black felt cap. Articles Of wearing
apparel, for both male and female, are re-
ceived daily. The clerks in the dead letter
office work hard, but they find many anus
ing Things to break the rnonotony of their
routine duJieS.-N ashingten Letter
When the Hair Grows Thin.
If your hair is thin and threatens to fail |
ha is