The Portland daily press., 1893-09-28
TRANsM lTTlNG MONEY.
Coin is Too Bulky to be carried through
the Mails another Method is Needed
for Patrons of RuIal Offices.
Washington Star. |

People IN rural OlSUf1cUS all over Jue
United States desire postal fractional
currency, such as is being advocated in
Congress, for the sake of making small
remittances by mail. Supplied with cash
in that shape they could deal convenient
ly at city shops, thus getting better OPP
portunities for choice and lower prices
than are found at village stores. Even
now dry goods esta blishments in the great
towns respond to requests for samples
from remote agricultural regions, for
warding goods in return for money Or
dels.
To such an extent does this system pre-
vailsthat the New York post office pays
out $50, 600 day on money orders, while
receiving only 81, 600 per diem for those
securities. 1t is the same way with all
other great centres of population.
Country people constantly have oecas-
ion to transmit fractional sums by mail.
Postage stamps are only sometimes ac-
cepted for money; postal notes are not
safe nor readily negotiable, and coins
are. apt to be lost. Accordingly it is por-
posed that the government shall issue
scrip in denominations of 5, 10, 25, SO
and rs cents, to be kept for sale and to be
redeemable at all postoffices. Naturally
the shopkeepers in cities strongly favor
the plan, which would facilitate their
sales. On the other hand provincial
dealers generally oppose it., knowing
tn at it would work great damage to
their trade.
The problem of conveying money by
post has never been solved by Uncle Sam
to his own entire satisfaction. Consider
able sums go astray in the mails every
week. Every year from $780, 900 to 40, 600
in actual cash miscarries in letters and
reaches the dead letter office, not to mem
ton hundreds of thousands of checks
and drafts. OF loose silver and gold found
in mail pouches about $500 q month is
turned in. Most of that stuff comes
from New York, Cincinnati, Chicago
and Cleveland It is delivered at the
headquarters Of the railway mail service
in those cities by mail clerks, who pick
it up on the various routes running at
full speed, which, by means of hooks,
snatch the letter bags off cranes at the
stations passed Often the shock breaks
packages. containing money and the
latter falls out. 1t is put into official
envelopes and forwarded to the depart
ment at Washington.
Coin Lost by Postmasters.
Postmasters send the money which
they receive for Stamps and money orders
to the nearest government depository.
Some.of it. is usually in coin, and fire.
auently it gets shocked out in the mail
pouches OF course statements respect
ings such losses are Immediately sent to
Washington. The dead letter Office hands
the cash over to the chief inspector. of
the department. who investigates the
claims and REIN burses the losers.
Some of the methods adopted for trans
uniting cash by post are extraordinary.
Only the other day letter addressed to
Ireland was opened in the dead letter
office The red wax seal was an usually
large one, and the clerk took a notion to
break it in two If he had not done SO,
he would not have found the 49, SO gold
piece which was hidden beneath the wax
on the outside of the envelope. Evident
ly this was done by some person cogn1z-
ant of the British law which forbids the
sending of money by mail. Most Euro
pean countries enforce the same legal
restriction, the object of it being to
avoid placing temptation in the way OF
postal officials.
On one occasion a letter sent all the
way from Minnesota to Rome reached the
eternalss city, butsthe authorities there,
instead of delivering it returned it to the
dead letter Office at Washington, having
discovered that it contained 5000 in gold.
The sum was in SO pieces, which were
fitted into holes punched out of card,
the latter being then wrapped in folds OF
cloth and enclosed in a large envelope.
"A new regulation permits the sending Of
metal money, as well as jewelry and
gems, by mail to Germany at letter rates.
In the United States money is con-
cealed in all sorts of parcels sent by the
post, especially at the Christmas season
The fingers of gloves are favorite hiding
places for cash thus transmitted, and
likewise are candy boxes Coins are
frequently mailed in newspapers, which
are folded both ways to prevent them
from dropping out. Letters are often
wrapped up in the same fashion, to save
postage.
Handling Lost Money.
Each one of the clerks who handle
dead letters in the department here has a
pass book for cash. When he opens a
missive that hass money in it, he writes
the amount and his own name on the
envelope At the same time he enters
in his pass book the address of the letter
and the sum of money it contained. At
the end Of the day all the money letters
which have come into his hands are
turned over, together with the pass book
to theschief of the opening division, who
locks them up in a safe.
Next morning the chief takes all the
pass books and money letters handed him
by the clerks the night before, and turns