The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-06-24
PECULIAR DEAD LETTERS.
Found In the Straw Mail ct the
Capital Of tho United
States.
Tho Government Keeps q Big
Museum OF. these Kinds
OF Freaks
a Frosted Wedding Cake Thnt the Bride
Never Got q Chance to Cut
Quaint AddFssses.

One Of the most interesting places In the
Capitol city il the museum In she dsad-iet-
tor Office. II 10 full Of queer things that
have Travelled through the mail and ~ LAST
found . permanent resting place. When
ever II is possible articles that reach the
dsad-letter office owing to failure Of dsliv-
cry are returned to tho sender, but II often
happens that not even the sender can b
found. Then the unclaimed article. Il II
be curious or interesting; - placed on q
hibition in the cabinet that lines the walls
Of the museum. There are pictures ana
sovs and jswelry In profusion.
Several Indian hatchets give TO . section
Of the cabinet an archaeological appsas-
spes, and Q pair Of Indian pipes of rcd
sandstone cross each other In peaceful
style. A rare curiosity is . piece Of parch-
snent on which ID renned ths Lords prayer
in dfty-fouy languages. II 10 said to DO .
duplicate Of . parchment which hangs Ia
st. Peters M Rome. II cams TO
this country In the mail from Europe
In 1s42, and 40 It was never claimed and
its origin could not be traced. IL was sent
TO the dead-let:sr office, whore il has been
on exhibition eyer since. One Of the pres-
tiest things in the cabinet II alady's fan
made Of stork feathers. the plumss being
rarer and richer than tho fnssts ostrich
plumes. II 10 most magnificent in appear
ance. and doubtless eraced the costume OF
some court beauty In the old world. II
capas- to this country from Europe many
yearsl ago, but NO clew 10 its owner OF it,
sender val aver found,
On one Of the shelves II . piece OF we'd
ding cake which came to the dead letter
Office ten years ago - unclaimed" II 10
getting Q little old and dissoloysd and
would doubtless be pretty dry eating.
Considering its present Characterization IL
might be excellent wedding cake TO
dream on" Certainly IL has all the sle-
ments necessary to produce Z fanciful
nightmare. Rosaries are quite common in
the cabinet, and cTucifixes are also plsnti-
ful.
Resting in a cornelian case in one corner
of the cabinet is a pretty cruoiix of solid
gold. il Was found in n OF the southern
postoAices at the close of the war and was
marked '.unclaimod." II had been n
probably by some pious mother to her son,
who persisted OF the field Of battle or In the
hospital. There was no name attached and
nothing to tell its story: Near IL in an en-
v6tOUo u = AOOR VA ANbA VIVA AWAAs 1A0
inscription On the envelope, in q nervous
hand, reads: This contains my hair.
Charles Guitesu." 1t was put n the mails
bv tho murderer of President Garfield with
out any address, just % it appears in the
eahinet.
A few years ago says q correspondent Of
dead letter Office a tin can upon which NO
I'd liess could be found. The can was
opened and sixteen lively looking rattle
snakes made their escape. There wal .
stir,i ing scene in the dead letter Office for =
few minutes. Everybody got Iron the
ohairs and tables. sna .hs .stsls1s were isft
snakes were dispatched, and fifteen of
them were picked In alcohol. One was
missing, though nobody knew IL.
( One sunny afternoon a few days later .
big. sleek-lookine ,attlesnake crawled from
among the papers in the chief clerks desk
and unobserved made his way to whore .
young lady visitor was sitting. His snake
ship slyly crawled TO her feet and. gracefully
winding himself about her slender ankle.
frightened his folds. The young lady no.
ticed tho intrusion, and. hastily looking
down. saw the willy serpent. was Mortified,
and very properly tainted. The Yattle-
snake offered no further insult or injury.
tiosliy encased in . glass jar which now
adorns the cabinet.
From q Of the cases g1ins q human
skull. It ia brown with age, having sppar-
emily lain under the clay for a long time
before its resurrection and its journey
through the mails. There was no adde's
or postmark when it came. All that It bore
was b inscription '''Jimmy ,MoDuff."
carved on the frontal bone. Jimmy Me
Duff 10 the name of a murderer who per-
ished on the scaffold ont west some years
ago. but the skull IL not believed TO be
Jimmy's. Somebody evidently sent it a. q
joke to some friend acquainted with the
oil circumstances of Jimmy's taking of.yH
Another exhibit is q negro dol. baby,
black as H.. Rider hagzaro's African hero,
U%mslopogsas. II was addressed a few years
age TO . young society lady in New York By
some joking friend. but. ascertaining the
contents of the package. she declined to
pay the postage that was due and it came
back to ths dead letter Office. A huge axe,
such as 10 used by ~frensn, came In the
mails a short time ago n landed in the
dssd-lester Office because il Was ''unmail-
able" for three reasons: It Ia sharp
pointed. it is overweiRht and it is oversize.
Axes are not allowed in the mails. though
some people seem to think NO limit il pre-
scribsd. There are persons who would ssnd
a threshing machine or q sawmill through
the mails il they could only find q post
master reckless enough to give it a start.
One Of the most curious exhibits is a COL
lection of envelopes showing the desperate
but futile efforts made by various persons
to address them properly. ''Pinte rookie,
u. d." is a pretty fair stagaer for Point OF
Rocks, Nd, but it takes an expert to de-
termine that st. Trailer. Illonsy," 10
meant for Centralia. iii. There 10 not
much poetry about "Yummar t~allar." con-
siderinR that the writer meant Umatil!a,
which Is in the state Of Oregon. But tbs
sentimental goes all to smash when We
realize shat a young lady of presumably
scholarly attainments wrote Sarah Gar
dea" for Cerro Gordo. an Illinois town.
A foreigner OF The Bulgarian persuasion
made q strenuous effort to write 'St. Louis"
He didn't get It exnotly. bat when he wrote
''St. Sokloysz" it WAS not because he didn't
Wy hard enough. People are sometime %
apt to e~onfus, the idea and the name, One
correspondent who had this failing wrote
''Risine Sun. Col.." tor ''Suashine. Col"
Another writer addressed u letter 10 RAT
Trap, Miss.." when he should have written
'Fox Trap, Miles," He knew it was a tran
Of some sort, but he was not quite certain
a. TO the kind. One of the envelopes
copied and on exhibition indicates that
some people are very particular. The per-
son who add esssd q letter TO Fred CLARK.
3 South Liberty street. Hartford. Conn.
wrote "Faird Clark, in the cair of Berry
Cla'k. Hartford. 3 8. Lib. g.. Ct, Hsrf.
Co." Fred got the letter. but it was . close
CALL"