Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-12-19
THE DEAD LETTER SALE.
The One Lottery That the Post Once RecoS-
Mics Commenced Operations Today.

The One Lottery That the Post Once RecoS-
nizes Commenced Operations Today.
As a rule the Post ofiee Department is OPP
posed TO lotteries of every kind Once a year
however, the official sanction of the department
is given to lottery. 1t is not called b. that
name. 1t is known the annual sale Of arti-
cles accumulated in the dead letter Office
These articles are neatly wrapped in brown pa
per packages, and as they were arranged on the
long shelves in the auction rooms of Radcliffe.
Darr d Go. this morning they wore an inno-
cent, If not inviting appearance, to the people
who assembled to attend the opening day Of
the sale. There are more than LOO articles
catalogued, besides some 220 articles Of jewelry
The catalogue aims to describe in brief but
truthful manner the character of each and
every article found in the packages. For exam
pie. the word cheap" occurs very frequently;
the purchasers are told that there is cheap"
jewelry, cheap" clothing, child's Cheap"
coat, child's cheap" finger rings. cheap
pocket knives, &c. but somehow the average
man or woman. and especially the women who
attend these sales, ente rtain a strong doubt as
to the truthfulness of these official descriptions
That is the only explanation of the keen inter-
est which is displayed at these annual auction
sales. Ii is well known that the articles in this
array OF packages are not of valuable chsrac-
ter, and yet the announcement of the auction
is sufficient to throng the place of sale with an
eager and interested crowd. The auctioneer,
MIR. Radcliffe. found no difficulty this morning
in disposing of his goods as fast as he could
talk, and as rapidly rs his corps Of nimbie
sistants could handle the packages they were
passed over the counter TO the purchasers and
the money was returned TO be eventually placed
in the treasury to the credit of the Post Office
Department
About "a 600 is, as a rule realized from these
annual sales, and this fact alone is a sufficient
evidence that the public do not place entire and
implicit confidence in the official description of
the articles offered for sale. II is this element
of uncertainty, motto say mystery, in regard 10
the contents OF the packages that constitutes
the main element of attraction to the public in
these sales
For this reason the sales may probably be
called lottery" for while there 10 attempt
to deceive the public on the part of the govern
ment, yet the public is inclined to believe that
there is a good deal more in those packages
than the author Of the catalogue is willing to
admit The hope of getting something for
nothing, Of securing some rich prize for a
moderate sum, is the secret Of the success of
these auction sales. The price obtained seems
to vary with the description given in the cats-
logue and also with the size OF the package
which is held up to view by the auctioncer
Some Of the packages are knocked down for Is
or 20 cents, while in the Of others the COM
petition becomes so lively that the bids some
times 60 as high as a dollar. II is perhaps
needless to say that the majority Of those who
attend the sale are women. This morning they
occupied the chairs, while the men formed a
fringe at the rear. The packages were sold at
the rate Of about 100 an hour. and at this rate
it will require several days before the entire
II L. a.l II