Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-06-24
About Postal Matters-No. 8.

|
Editor Republican,: A husband cannot
control the correspondence of his wife,
nor wife that of her husband, but in
the absence of specific instructions to
the contrary, the mail of both will be
| delivered to either of them. Minors
can control their correspondence under
| certain conditions; but the requests
sometimes made by boys and girls II
or IA years of age, who are living with
their parents or guardians, to hold
their mail personally, cannot be COM
piled with.
The special delivery system now ex-
tends to all postoffices in the United
States, however small. The privileges
of this system have also been extended
to all classes of mail matter, instead of
being confined to first-cass matter as
heretofore. Accordingly, every article
of mailable matter &c which is affixed
ten-cent special delivery stamp, in adj
dition to the postage required by law,
will. upon it's arrival by mail, have i'm
mediate delivery by a special messen
ger within the carrier limits of any
ree-deliverv postoffice, or within one
mile of any other postoffice in the
United States TO which it may be adj
dressed. The hours within which spe
cial delivery will be made are from IA.
NJ. to IL P. NJ. at freedelivery offices, and
from A. NJ. to P. NJ. at all other post
offices.
A person after leaving an order at
the postoffice that his mail shall be de-
livered only to himself or upon his
written order, should not tell his neigh
Dor to call for it verbally, expecting
that the mail will be delivered to him.
An order of this kind is placed on file
and remains in force until properly re-
voked.
The holder of a lock box should al
WAYS bring his key, or send it with any
other person whom he desires should
get his mail. 1t may happen once in
a while that he forgets himself, but
this should be the exception and not
the rule, instead of the rule and not
the exception One of his objects IN
having a lock box is for the better Sc
curitv of his mail, and this object should
be kept in view. Duplicate keys can
always be had on application to the
postmaster On return of the keys the
money received therefor will be re-
funded.
Postmasters are servants of the peo-
pie; they are also servants of the post
Office department, the rules and regu-
lations of which they are sworn to obey
If some postoffice methods seem to be
encountered too much with red tape.
or to evince disposition on the part
of those employed in the postal service
L ln x.f
before condemning such officials that
you know they are not acting in strict
conformity with the law.
ANY delays, losses or Irregularities in
the mail should be promptly reported
to the postmaster. More or less of
these will occur through one cause OF
another and it Is the postmaster's duty
to investigate them, which he will al
ways do cheerfully. When mail re-
ported lost is subsequently received,
the postmaster should be notified that
he may in turn advise the chief post
office inspector at Washington, and
further investigation cease. People
are careless about this, and it frequent
ly happens that postoffice inspectors
are looking for mail some time after it
has been received by the addressee.
In concluding these notes which
have been thrown together hurriedly
and somewhat incoherently, [ desire
to thank THE REPUBLICAN for the space
which it has cheerfullv given for this
purpose I have endeavored to pre-
sent such only as come oftenest into
play between the public and the post
office. Much more might have been
said, but enough has been printed to
give the people better ideas about
many postal rules, regulations and
methods than they formerly possessed,
which | have reason to know have re-
ceived some degree of appreciation.
J. 7. MoAK, P. M.