Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1890-10-02
Postofice Information.

useful to those using the mails:
Over six million pieces of mail matter
are sent annually to the Dead Letter
Office l'g reason of incorrect, illegal, or
deficient address. insufficient postage,
insecure inclosing. whereby matter
mailed becomes separated from the en-
velope or wrapper. or the failure to be
called for or delivered to the person
addressed. This is daily average of
over twenty thousand pieces.
Matter sent to the Dead Letter Office.
which cannot be delivered TO the person
addressed. is required to be opened in
its treatment for the purpose of return
to the sender, and if the name and adj
dress of the sender be not shown or
cannot be ascertained from the con-
tents, and it contains no valuable in
closure it must be destroyed.
Letters opened and found to contain
any Enclosure of obvious value are en-
tered upon proper records. and, of
such, those which do no. disclose sufii-
Gent information TO enable them to be
returned are flied, subject to reclama-
ton upon proper application and iden-
LITIGATION.
A large proportion of packages and
parcels sent to the Dead Letter Office
fail to be restored to the owners because
OF the absence on the wrappers or in
closures of anything to indicate owner
ship thereof
OF the unclaimed and undeliyered
mail matter received at the Dead Letter
Office during the past fiscal year, four
hundred and fifty-one thousand were
letters misdirected, or only partially
addressed-that is, not addressed to a
post office. or, addressed to post office
without the State being given. or, adj
dressed to postoflice not in the state
named. etc, etc.-while twenty-four
thousand were entirely blank, bearing
no address whatever. Among the latter
were frequently fond the correspon-
dence of business men, of which large
portion contained Enclosures of money,
drafts, checks, etc.
Twenty-eight thousand contained
money amounting in all to $4S,642. 90.
Four thousand had Enclosures of
postal notes in small sums under &5,
aggregating $500.
Twenty-seven thousand were found
to contain drafts, checks, notes. com
mercial paper, etc. etc., in the sum of
S1,471, S71.OO.
As the immense quantity of matter
sent through the mails is necessarily
required to be handled rapidly by the
railway mail clerks and at the post
office in the cities, too much care cannot
be exercised in addressing mail matter
clearly, plainly and correctly.
Matter mailed to cities and free de-
livery offices, addressed without street
and number, or some other designation
enabling delivery, goes into the general
delivery, subject to be called for; and
of such matter, the statistics of the post
offices of some of the larger cities show
that not more than 25 per cent. is called
for.
The name and address of the sender,
either printed or written, should be
placed upon the upper l0ft-hanG corner
of the envelope or wrapper of all matter
mailed. This will secure its immediate
return to the sender from the mailing
Office for correction if improperly adj
dressed. insufiiciently paid. or otherwise
defective.
Packages and all matter mailed at
less than letter rates of postage, should.
in addition to the name and address of
the sender upon the envelope or wrap
per, bear in connection Herewith a re-
quest for its return in the event of nom
delivery, in which case it is also
returnable directly to the sender
from the postofiice addressed,
charged with return postage at the rate
required for the class Of matter to
which it belongs.
The distinction, under the postal reg
ulations, as regards the return of un-
claimed and undelivered matter is, that
letters and other matter prepaid at full
letter rates are returnable free, whereas
matter mailable atsless than letter pos
tage requires the payment of return
postage.
In mailing packages addressed to for
eign countries, care should be taken to
ascertain whether they are prohibited
from transmission to the country of
destination, or can only be forwarded
when the postage is fully prepaid at