Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-08
THAT NEVER COME.
How Their Delay Is Explained by Postal
Officials.

WHAT FIGURES AT THE DEAD LETTER oFrIcE
sEow-TLE ANNUAL LOSSES DUE TO CARELESS
NEss-sTNPLE RULES, WHICH II FOLLOWED.
WOULD SAVE MUCH TROUBLE
Tho tremendous amount Of mail matter that
has accumulated at the dead letter Office and
the rapidity with which it increases are matters
that at various times have received consider
able attention from the officials o. the Post
Office Department. Just how to dispose of all
this matter and how to keep so much undeliv-
cred and unclaimed mail from finding its way
into the ,ombs Of that greatest Of all literary
graveyards, are two questions that are of the
greatest importance to the handlers of the mail
OF the great army of letter writer's
THE POSTMASTER GENERALS INQUIRIES.
Recently the Postmaster General as stated in
THE STAR, issued circular letter to tho post
masters OF the leading cities throughout the
country asking them what reasons they would
ascribe for the tendency Of SO MANY letters to
go astray and calling upon them for suggestions
as to remedies. He also asked them to give as
much publicity to the efforts that are being
made IN this direction and also to tell the gen
eral pubic politely, but firmly, that it would
be very much 10 their own interests il thew
would quit putting uuaddressed and amped
letters INTO the post Offices or if when they do
address them they would write so that the poor
hard-used clerks. whose business it is to guess
at doubtful addresses, would be able to make
some sort OF satisfactory guess ct them.
FUzzLING ADDRESSES.
Some of the addresses that these letter guess
ers meet with are droll, to say the least To
call them illegible would be complimenting
them too highly. for they never como any
where near being legible. Expert as the postal
clerks are they have to give up many Of these
graphic puzzles, and one after another in quick
succession love letters, bills. remittancos duns
circulars. jeweiry and samples of every imag-
Unable class of goods that could be transmitted
through the mails find their way to their last
resting place, unread or unseen bv those to
whom they were intended TO be sent. and read
only as matter of business by those whose
business II Is to try to find out from the inside
what they never could learn from without
newspaper in a western city recently published
cuts OF several envelopes deposited ut the post
Office there and offered large rewards for the
first correct Guegser eff what those addresses
really were. 1. is more than doubtful if the
rewards VIII ever be claimed,
THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
"Have you any idea Of the amount Of bust
ness done by the dead letter Officer" asked
Capt. Jas. Z. Bell, superintendent of the city
delivery division at the city post Office, of a
STAR reporter recently. mo? Well il il
amazingly large and the amount OF labor that
Is required to Ga'e u deal more of matter from
finding its way in the same direction would as
tonIsk you. And yet the whole difficulty. or a
very large part of it, would be solved If people
who write letters would follow three very sim
pie directions: Be sure to address all your let
tiers. write SO that people will know what you
have written and last. but not least put stam5
on your envelope. Simple rules, of course, but
IL Is amazing how many people faI! to follow
any one of them.
haf To- 10 old oJoo
l would apply it to letter writing-look at what
You have written before you mail it and see if
your address is really what it ought to be.
WHAT LITTLE ATTENTION WOULD DO.
The observance of such a rule as this would
have resulted last year in the prompt delivery
of 4jl.296 letters which through the careless
ness OF their writers were necessarily sent on
to the dead letter Office. OF this number
1889 bore no address whatever and 81, Isl
were dropped into the letter boxes without
beng stamped. So you see simple lock be-
fore mailing would have saved untold annoy-
ance and considerable distress to pocket books
Why to pocket books? For the reason that
Zo.4SS OF these letters contained paper money,
to the extent of nearly $50. 900 and &c. 623 con
tanned checks. drafts and other valuable con-
sIdcratlons to the amount of Sl.47l, S7l. 3d.
The delivery of each and every one of these
was delayed for weeks or months as the result
OF simple carelessncss. The post Office people
know these facts anu figures. SO that mirror
might be held up as it were, where they may
see the result OF lack of care in what they
consider very small matter. An idea of the
total number OF letters sent to the dead letter
oitce may be had when it is known that over
3.OOO.OOO letters have been sent there which
we're found to contain no inside address or
other means by which they could be identified
and returned TO their writer's.
EDUCATION as A REMEDY
What is the remedy and what provision can
be made against tho accumulation of this vast
amount of dead matter? Education, think
Educate our children in the schools in the art
OF letter writing. Teach it on the blackb board
and drum 1T in with the other studies which
are necessary 20 equip the rising generation to
I'LL useful stations III life. Instruct them never
to write letter without giving prominently,
at the beginning ending. definite address
to which reply may be sent The wise sug-
gest;on which the Post Office Department
makes, that a return request be printed or
written on the envelope should be inculcated
Had this been observed the millions OF letters
sent to the dead letter Office for lack of such an
address would have been delivered or promptly
returned with but little delay. There is nothing
more important than return request on an
envelope.
lone very fruitful cause of the failure Of
letters TO reach their proper destination is the
IlleSIbillty OF the addresses they bear III let
ter writers only knew Of the trouble, the
bother, the worry and tho headaches that
many OF them cause the poor post Office clerks
who try to decipher their hieroglyphics they
would either be little moro painstaking or else
they would get some OF their more intelligent
NosaT N lsNr g., H. -.