Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-09

with endorsements by seventeen different
be discovered"
Upon one occasion a letter fell into the
hands Of Mrs. Collins which was written by
an old woman in England to a long-lost son
In this country. Its superscription had
only the street and number, without men-
tioning the town. The expert, by complet-
ing the address, reunited the mother and
son. Another time letter came to the
dead letter office from a woman in England
who asked for the address OF a brother who
had gone to Massachusetts, fifteen years
earlier. She only knew his name, and that
his occupation had been that Of weaver.
Mrs. Collins found out where the weaving
factories in Massachusetts were situated.
and obtained information as to which of
them employed an Englishman. In this
manner she found the man at length, and
forwarded his address to England.
1t was in 1889 that the steamer Oregon
sank in the harbor Of New York. Divers
tetched up from the wreck such valuables
as they could find. together with the sacks
Of mail. The letters were SO badly water
soaked that In many instances the ad-
dresses were almost obliterated. But Mrs.
Collins took them in hand and deciphered
magnifying glasses. Nearly all of them
were eventually delivered to the addresses
She considers that this was the biggest
ana cleverest piece Of work she ever did.
States are apparently unknown to the ma
5ority Of the inhabitants of foreign coun-
tries. Consequently 1t Is quite usual for
them to omit all mention of state or terri
tory on their letters. The superscription on
one curiosity of this sort reads: Chicago,
n. T.; dove ri trove"-signifying, where
ever he may be found"
Dead Letters.
The dead letters are sent to the Depart
ment here from post offices all over the
country. On arriving they are receipted
for In books and are put up in packages
OF 100. Then they 20 to q long table, at
which sit ten clerks. who are kept busy
opening them all day long. six days in the
II any Of them Is found to contain money.
. note OF the amount IL made on the en-
velope and the cash Is put aside to be turn
Cd over to the clerk Of the money division.
Lottery tickets. deeds and mortgages are
transferred to another clerk. Cheeks and
drafts 60 to q third clerk. It must be re-
membered that all Of these letters before
being thus treated a. dead are handled by
experts who do their best to discover the
addresses. When the latter cannot be
round, they are returned to the senders IL
possible Letters containing valuables Of
any kind. such as money or checks are put
ployed In the dead letter ONCE tried to steal
some Of the money which he came across
In envelopes. but suspicion Of something
wrong was excited by sums lost and unac-
counted Tor. and the guilty person was de-
tected by means Of decoy dead letters with
cash enclosures. 1t Is almost impossible
to rob Uncle Sam without getting caught.
and where depredations Of the mails are
concerned the decoy letter Ia the favortte
means employed for detection.
Another sort Of stun that Is found In
dead letters Is classified as Immoral" It
consists Of Hash books. suggestive docu-
ments Of a quasi-medical nature. and photo
graphs Of the kind known to amateurs in
such things as fancy" All such stun
as this is laid aside at the opening table,
to be afterward done UP in bundles and
1arlr In,
charge of that division.
The queer and out-of-the-way articles
found In dead letters and packages are
without number. In fact one of the most
interesting of the exhibits Of the Post Office
Department at the worlds fair in Chicago
IL composed Of these oddities. 1t attracts a
great deal Of attention there. a crowd Of
sightseers being constantly gathered be-
fore It, Included in the assortment are
false teeth. gold-headed canes, harmoni-
cons. banjos, tamoourines, horns, carpenters
tools. boxes Of cartridges. percussion caps.
crackers, torpedoes. bottled specimens Of
mineral formations thrown up by the
Charleston earthquake Of few years ago;
opium. wedding cake fifty years old. 500
worth Of gold nuggets In a box. a damaged
plug hat. star fishes. petrified frogs, stuffed
gophers. Toltec idols. silk worm and other
dian woman with long black hair a skull
on which a Philadelphia physician refused
to pay letter rates and gloves from the
steamer Oregon, which were in the water
LA days.
Other Curiosities.
Among other curiosities which have reach
ed the dead letter office In this way is a
letter from the assassin Guiteau inclosing
q lock of his hair and asking q lady, who
never received the epistle for $1,000 to help
his defense. There IL q six-shooter with
every chamber loaded and set at full cock,
which was addressed to a lady in Spring
field, Ohio. Perhaps, fortunately for her.
she was never found and the pistol remain,
ed undelivered. Another relic was a female
hand cut or at the wrist. evidently that of
lady with plump flesh and fingers long
1t that Capt. Liebhardt the last superin-
teiident. had 1t destroyed. Not less tragic
IN Its suggestiveness Is a nail bag slit and
bloody, which was robbed by Apaches after
they had murdered the carrier
But the queerest Of all the things which
are captured in the mails are the living
animals which people send by post In one
package not long ago came seventeen live
srakes-one of them a RATHER eight feet
long with nine rattles. In the excitement
OF opening the parcel one Of the serpents.
a speckled yellow adder, three feet in
length, got away unobserved. Three weeks
later 1t made its appearance under the
desk OF one of the clerks, to the dismay of
the office. 1t Is now preserved in a bottle
OF alcohol. Live centipedes, tarantulas,
no hSu todUS, via monsters and Young
alligators from Florida are also discovered
IN bundles from time to time OF course.
the postal regulations do not permit Uvtnp
creatures to go by mail, though an excer.
ton has been made In favor of bees. tbants
70 the invention of boxes which are ner.
fectly safe for the transportation Of thos.
Insects. Pointed instruments are Forbidden
likewise, because they may do damage to
other mail matter W
Preserved at the department are severo,
great albums hlled with photographs which
were sent by mail from the camps durinr
the war The soldier boys commonly had
their pictures taken for sending home 70
show the folks how they looked in the fe,S
Many OF them mIscarried and tbousanSs
OF such nkenesses. nearly all Of them tim.
types. are still held in readiness for clain,-
ants, when one of them is identified If Is
removed from the album and the s,aras
ture OF the recipient is inscribed on ,ba
space which 1T occupied. 1t is the same
way with large number of corps medals
which were sent home by soldiers dnrin.
the war. Many Of them are still waitine
10" their owners to turn up
WHY THE ENGLISH ARE DIsLIkrn
A Brfton Calls Them ARrre..,v.