Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-02
expected to insert your tongue between the

expected to insert your tongue between the folds and moisten this border so that the ends, when all is complete, will be tightly shut, and the letter will be as private as though it were in an ordinary envelope.
 In theory the letter-sheet is luminous success. In practice it is dead, dismal failure. The government Postal depart ment in the first place seems to have had doubts about the convenience of the con trivance, for it didn't go into manufacture wholesale, as it did in the case of the stamped envelope or the postal card. It simply authorized tho inventor of the let ter-sheet to furnish it i'll such quantities as the postofices of the country demand ed, and to get his pay for just what the postoffcess might sell, and not for what they ordered. For instance, suppose the Indianapolis postofice ordered l0,0OO let ter sheets and only sold 1000, the manu- facturer would receive pay only for the LOGO sold.
 When the letter-sheet first came out, it's novelty caused it to sell quite readily until the inconvenience became known. Then the demand for it almost ceased. In the first shipment to the Indianapolis postoffce 25, ,O0O of the sheets were sent. Since that one order for 2,000 had been filled and there are still enough on hand to last a year. Were it not that small postoffices occasionally order the sheets from the postoffices here, the demand for them would scarcely justify bothering with them. "Dave" Elliott, supply agent at the postoffice, who knows more about | the inside working of the postal system 1 than any other man ill the state probably, | says the sale of the letter sheets to actual | consumers at this office does not exceed | fifty per month. They are not econom- | ical enough to compensate for their lncon- venience. They cost the posto&ce about 1 two and one-third cents each, and, conse- 1 quently, if customer buys one he must I pay three cents for it.
 ''The next postal reform which we need," said Mir. Elliott, "is not reduc- ton of postage to one cent. Two cents is low enough for long time yet, be- cause something is needed to balance the big loss which the government annually experiences from carrying newspapers and packages. The thing to be done next is | to sell stamped envelopes at just the price l of the stamps. If that were done there would be almost enough saving from the 1 first to balance the extra expense. Every body would buy the stamped envelopes then for ordinary correspondence, instead of stamps as they now do. Look here at this big bundle of letters. They were all mailed without stamps. I should say that as an average we find a dozen un
 stamped letters in our mail collections
 every Monday and half dozen every othel
 morning. It takes fully an hour of my
 time every day to correct the blundsr
 caused by this alone. Now, with stamped
 envelopes furnishing the cheapest means O.
 correspondence, this trouble would be erad icated in short order. The same reform
 would save trouble and expense in the Deat Letter office and in every postof6ce in thu
 country.
 'sThen on each stamped envelope should
 be plainly printed that, if it were dam
 aged or made unfit for mailing, it nigh
 be taken to any postofice and exchanged
 for good one free of cost. That's tn
 law now, but very few persons know it
 Many people refrain from buying stampe'
 envelopes because they fear they will spoi
 them in addressing, and in that way los
 the stamp. We are always ready to giv
 fresh, new ones in exchange for damaged
 but as so few persons know it, it ought t l be put on the envelopes some place wher
 it would certainly be seen."
 Speaking of stamped envelopes, any pel
 son who will order as many as 800 of ther | at once may have his name or his bushes
 printed on the corner by the governmen
 without extra cost. He cannot have bot | name and business printed however. UT
 cle Sam draws the line at that, as he doesn propose to do anybody's advertising free
 For instance, John Jones, of the "Old Re liable Grocery Store," may have printed o his stamped envelopes instructions to rt
 turn in ten days to "John Jones'" or b
 may have it, if he prefer, returned afte
 ten days to the ''Old Reliable Grocer Store" but he cannot have it returned i ten days to John Jones, Proprietor of th Old Reliable Grocery Store"