Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-03-11
MAIL MATTERS.
HOuse-tO- House Collections an
Assured Success.
Experiments Made by the Post
master of ST. Louis.

VentOrs Wiling TO nave 1helr BOXES
Given TriaI-Six Selected Out of Over
I,5OO Boxes Submitted.
WASHINGTON, March 1.-THE post
office department has just had reports
from st. Louis that the trial of house
letter boxes just now getting under way
i'll that city will almost prove the FEAST
bility of house-to-house collections of
mails. Similar experiments are to be
begun in Washington in few days, and
the best informed postal officials, both
OF the department and at the city post
office, believe that the results will be al
most, if not quite, as satisfactory as in
ST. Louis.
These tests are the outcome of ex-
aminations made at various times dur
ing the past two years by the postmas-
ter generals commission of some l 800
devices tot the delivery of mails at
house doors without delay; and, if pos
sible and feasible, and without loss of
time or money to the department, for
house-to-house collections on regular
delivery routes. 1t will be recalled that
six boxes out of the 1,500 or over were
selected for the tests. OF these only
liilto nave tuuS ldI hnOWH du dCbudI
disposition to make the experiment.
One of the boxes, by Boston inventor,
will be tried in Washington; another, by
st. Louis inventor, will be tried in st.
Louis, and a third, by a Wheeling in.
ventor, will be tried in Washington as
well as in St. Louis.
How 1t Worked in st. Louis.
A detailed report of the exact opera
ton of the trial in st. Louis says that in
making preparations for the test of the
Wheeling box fhe interior collection
and delivery box) a circular letter was
sent to each resident on the carrier
route chosen for the experiment by the
postmaster, Major Harlow. These let
ters were given to the carrier for distri-
button at o'clock one morning and by
noon of the same day twenty-five of the
143 residents had responded in person
and accepted the box. They had been
requested in the letter to call at the
postoffice and examine the box, which
by the proposition of the inventor was
to be given free of all charge to those
testing them-in Washington as well as
in st. Louis.
Liberal newspaper accounts of the
proposed departure and of the trial
brought interested crowds to the post
office to examine the device. Some two
or three hundred persons desired to give
orders for the boxes at once, despite the
fact that there was as yet no assurance
that the complete system would be ac-
cepted. Within five days after the is
suance of the postmaster's letter great
majority of the residents of the test
route had called at the office and given
their hearty consent to having the boxes
placed on their doors, and most of those
unable to call replied by letter to the
effect that they were greatly in favor
of any box that would permit them to
post mail at their houses"
1t is believed that all of the owners of
the 143 residences on this route will, by
the time the boxes are ready to be put
up, accept the joint offer of the postof-
flee department and of the inventor of
the box A majority of the real estate
brokers and landlords in st. Louis have
requested the postmaster to have these
boxes placed on their premises at once,
even if they are to be served only as de-
livery receptacles, and to be collected
from only when carrier has mail to de-
liver. One land company, interested in
the laying oLt of a new residence tract,
has made every effort to have the new
system put in force in their district at
once, las means of inducing the sale
and renting of their property"
Major Harlow, who has been for the
past year leading the people of his city
to expect this important innovation
which the department is considering,
thinks that st. Louis is ready and
anxious to accept its benefits at once by
supplying its dwellings, stores and
Offices with these boxes at their own ex-
pense, which would be perhaps seventy
five cents or 81 per box or upwards, as
the tastes and pocketbooks of the house
holders might dictate, the inexpensive
boxes, however, always being as dura-
BILE and as convenient as the more ex-
pensive.
II am quite confident" says Major
Harlow, "that when this test has been
thoroughly made (as it will be, under
the supervision of this Office, in order
that neither strong nor weak point
strated that collection from house to
house, as we'll as delivery, has come to
stay"
The postmaster at st. Louis, also ad-
vances the opinion that the house-to-
UOuSt COllCOliOu Will dlSO
afford many ather desired facilities,
such as ordering stamps from the post
office through the carrier, by the pay
ment of postage backward aud forth,
etc.
In Washington.
In Washington, Postmaster Sherwood
has similarly issued circular letter to
the residents of two average carrier
routes, informing them that each of the
two inventors whose boxes with the per-
mission of the householders, free of cost,
for trials like those undertaken IN st.
Louis, the inventor will personally call
upon each householder and exhibit the
box, if it is desired. The object of the
department is, of course, not merely to
find out whether the door letter box ia
popular thing (Which it is evidently GER
tain to be, if it combines collection with
delivery, but also to determine whether
collections can be made on carrier
routes, from houses where mail is to he
collected, on the regular deliveries, with
out loss of time to the carrier force,
and hence without expense TO the de-
pal tment.
The inventors who are making the
tests bear all expenses themselves, upon
the prospect, no doubt, that the expect
ed adoption Of the system and the con-
sequent sale of large numbers of boxes,
even at the low price of say seventy-five
cents to 81 per box, will be profitable
enough to make the experiments an OBJ