Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-01
AN INGENIOUS SCHEME.
Saving Letters from the Dead Letter
Office.


HOW THE WASHINGTON POST OFFICE SCORED A
HIT-THE SUPPLEMENTARY DIRECTORY AND ITS
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. LETTERS SENT TO
THEIR PROPER DESTINATIONS.
Some time ago Postmaster General Wanna
maker sent out letters of inquiry to the post
masters in most Of the large cities throughout
the country asking what action might be
adopted to lessen the number of letters which
never reach their destination but find their
way to the dead letter Office. Numbers of sug-
gestions were received from all directions of
more or less value, but it was left for the in
genuity and enterprise Of the officials at the
post office In this city to go to work and put
into effect practical working method of i'm
proving the accuracy Of the letter delivery.
A surprisingly large proportion of letters that
are sent to residents of large cities have in
complete or faulty addresses In cases where
people have moved and have notified the post
office OF their new address it is a comparatively
simple matter to send letter to its proper
destination. And when an individual is well
known and receives a large amount of mail he
is pretty sure to receive all that comes ad-
dressed to anything like his name. But in ad-
dition to these classes there is in every city
large floating population who are continually
changing their places of residence, either be-
cause they find it cheaper to move than to pay
rent or for some other equally potent reason.
These as rule belong to the less intelligent
class with whom the rece ipt of letters is not an
everyday occurrence. Their correspondents,
frequently are not familiar with their address
here, even when they stay in one
place for length of time, and
when they do have to address letter make the
widest guesses as to name and number of
those to whom they wish to write. At first
thought one would expect that letters sent to
the wrong name and address would stand very
poor chance of ever reaching the person for
whom they might have been originally in
tended, but to a certain extent this is not the
case. In city post offices every means is taken
to get every doubtful letter to its proper owner.
THE CARE OF LETTERS.
force of officials is employed whose sole
duty 1t is to study out addresses and translate
writing that to one unaccustomed to the work
would be worse than so much Sanscrit. Thus
at the very beginning Of the search q number
OF letters are switched off the track to the dead
letter office by these expert workers. There is
another class of letters, however, which are
more troublesome. Frequently after the address
has been deciphered or when it is 80 plainly
written as to give no trouble on that score the
person for whom it Is intended cannot be
found He may not be we'll known to the Of
fetal at the Office and the address may be that
Of house where he lived years ago or never
did live at all, or il may bear a number and
street not found in the local geography. In
this the first resort is to the city directory
to see If the persons name ia to be
found there. This is not of so much
service as might be expected, for the city direc-
tory is reasonably accurate only with the class
Ut citizens with whom the post Office has COM
paratively little trouble. The directory of
Washington has in it only about 80, 900 names,
while the population of the city is nearly three
times that number There are no names of
children in the directory and yet they are
nearly as likely to receive misdirected letters
as are their elders. Thus 1t is that the city
directory is only of use to a certain extent.
SUPPLEMENTARY DIRECTORY.
Here is the point where the post Office in this
city has made such great Improvement. Under
the direction of Postmaster Ross and the per-
sonal supervision of Mr.. James E. Bell, super
intendent of the city delivery system, a supple
mentary directory has been compiled which
is remarkably complete and accurate. 1t has
taken a force Of clerks ever since last Novem-
Der to accomplish this work, but now that it is
ciated, and the result is seen in the
diminution of the number Of letters
which are sent from here to the dead
letter Office. The work Of making the directory
was not complicated, but it took time and q
deal Of patience.
COMPREHENSIVE CIRCULAR
Last October 5000 slips we're printed by the
Post Office department bearing the following
head:
To the occupant Of No.-street, section.
Please fill out, on blank at bottom of page,
the names of all person including servants,
using Mrs. or Miss as prefix in case of fe-
males who receive, or are likely to re ceiye,
mail at this number. The information will
enable the Office to promptly dispose Of mail
Office. Notify Office of all changes of address,
Hand TO carrier or drop in letter box when
completed JOHN w. Ross, postmaster.
Every letter carrier was furnished with
supply of these slips and was expected to see
that every house along his route received a
copy. Then each carrier was expected to see
that these were properly filled out and returned.
In case no attention was paid to the notice
another was sent, and il this elected no re-
spouse the carrier had to call in person at the
house, and, if necessary, fill out the slip him
self. In other words, each carrier was ex-
pected to see that every house that he served
with mail made the proper returns to the
office. Some OF them took q personal interest
and pride in their work, and as a result the
records OF many parts Of the city are well nigh
perfect. Others did not do quite SO well, but
the work as u whole was very thorough and
satisfactory. After time enough had been al
lowed for all reports to be turned in, the work
OF sorting and arranging the names began. A
force OF half dozen clerks were detailed at
TINS work, and they have been busy ever since.
Within the next ten days it Is thought the
whole task will be completed.
HOW IT WAS DONE.
The work was begun by cutting up these slips
30 that each name was on separate piece Of
paper. Then these all had to be arranged
alphabetically. 1t will be readily understood
that this was no slight task when it Is stated
that there were seventy-five thousand more
names in this post office book than in the city
directory. After they had all been arranged
In perfect order large blank books were OBJ
tanned and the names entered in these. On the
right hand pages were pasted slips from the
regular city directory. The slips with the
names written upon them were compared with
these and wherever the two corresponded the
written alp was thrown aside to avoid entering
the same name more than once. Wherever the
same name occurred in both but with different
addresses the written address was used as being
the more recent and likely to be correct
Then all the $1,000 names not found in the
printed slips had to be entered by hand on the
left-hand pages Of the books directly opposite
to the corresponding letters ON the printed
slips. Plenty Of room has been left for future
additions, and corrections can De made without
any trouble.
THE DIRECTORY COMPLETED
fills twelve large volumes, some volumes hav-
ing several letters in them, while others can
only accommodate one. Thus B has volume
Of it, own, while A and are in the same one.
and Q larger sized book was needed to accom-.
modste all the Ms. To the letter NJ, for in
stance, the supplementary directory has added
a nau,aa nj n H.. 49, 49, a. N