The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-03-17
SAFETYiN THE MAILS.
The Different Government Devices-Foul
Methods to Choose From.
IN. Y. PoSt.l


| ORDERS" said the woman to the clerk at
the branch post office. How much is ii
! 10 cents?"
By dint Of considerable questioning,
| the clerk ascertained that the customer
wanted to send a small sum of money
| IN letter, and knew that the United
| States government had provided some
means by which she could insure its
| safety in it's course through the mails;
| but her mind was in hopeless confusion
| as to the nature of this device, for every
| friend she had consulted had called 1t
| by different name, and she had con-
| ceived that all the names referred TO
| the same thing. 1t took the clerk some
| time to explain. He told her that ne
| was not surprised at her misapprehen-
sion, for hundreds of valuable letters
Sassed through the local post once
every day whose writers had evidently
resorted to some insurance process other
than the precise one suited to their case.
You can take your choice OF four
ways, ma'am, according to just what
you want" SAID he" If you are going to
send only little money-less than IS
and your only wish is to avoid enclos-
ing coin or postage stamps, or paper as
soft and bulky as green back, which
may be felt through the envelope, we
can give you postal note, for 3 cents.
This is printed on thin, stiff paper,
of a size which will lie fat in an ordi-
nary folded letter sheet. The clerk and
letter carriers might handle your letter
from the feeling what was inside of it.
When your correspondent receives it,
he can either take it to the postoffice and
get it cashed, or bank it as he would a
piece of money, or use it to pay his
grocer, or send it away in letter him.
self; for it is good at anybody's hands,
SO long as it is presented for redemp-
tiou within three months from the day
of issue. But this very convenience is
the chief drawback of the postal not;
for if any dishonest person should get
hold of it, it would be the same as
money in his hands.
eff absolute safety is what you are
most ANXIOUS to secure, we can give you
a money order. That is pretty nearly
as good as bank check. We send from
here private letter of advice contain
ing your name; and when your cores
pondent receives your order, he can col
lect the money ON it only by telling who
sent it to him. and by being himself
identified as the person in whose favor
it is drawn for, else by endorsing it to
somebody who is known at the post
Office. This, you see, is decided ad-
vantage on the score of safety. But,
more than that if your order should be
stolen or destroyed. the government
holds itself responsible, and if you com
ply with certain requirements, VIII issue
.a new order. This is something it will
not do for you if anything happens to
your postal note. The bad feature about
the money order, however, is that it can
be cashed only at the one post office on
which it is drawn.
If YOU have it drawn on Carson City,
for instance, and your correspondent hap
pens to be gone to Santa Fe and to have
left word to have his mail forwarded to
him there, the postmaster at Santa Fe
won't cash his order for him. The sonly
thing he cansdo is to endorse it to some
body who can collect it at the Carson
CITY post Office, which in many cases
might be inconvenient. On account of
the additional security surrounding the
money order, we charge more for it than
for a postal note. A five dollar order
WI
lar order eight cents, fifteen dollar
order ten. cents, and SO on upward.
"Then, again, there is the registered
letter. You give us your envelope,
sealed and endorsed in your own hand
writing. We know nothing about Its
contents You may have put only
love letter in it. or thousand dollar
government bond-it is all the same to
US, and the price of registry is uniform
for everything-eight cents. This pro-
cess has the advantage of absolute Sc
crecy for you don't have to take single
soul into your confidence. 1t has the
further advantage of assuring you that
whatever you send reaches It's deSt1na-
ton: for we refuse TO deliver it to any
one except the person addressed who
must either present himself in person
and be identified or give us his authority
in writing to deliver it to somebody
else whose Identification we require in
the same way and whoever receives it is
obliged tosgive US written receipt in
his own handwriting which we send
back to you without expense. This
makes a good deal OF difference if you
are making payment to slippery
creditor or if you are sending bill to
a debtor who might want to make be-
lieve he had never heard from you. In
any such case you have his own sigma
uure to confront him with. The safety
of the registered letter is pretty well
guarded. Every post official through
whose hands it passes has to account
for it to the one fromGwhom he received
it; so thatrrif it is lost it can be traced by
our vouchers to the very point where 1T
disappeared-even into the hands OF the
carrier who took it out to deliver. Reg
istered letters sometimes do go astray
but the risk attending loss or THEFT IS
too great to make either carelsesness or
dishonesty profitable. The government
does not hold itself responsible to you
but if it is lost the last postmaster or
clerk or carrier who is found to have
had your letter in hisvpossession' is likely
to lose his official head and ii the evi,
dence of crookedness is strong against
him is liable to go to the State prison
for a term of years.
YOU may find it best to use the special
delivery. We sell you peculiar kind
of ten cent stamp which you put on Your
letter besides It's regular postage. The
instant the letter is taken out of the
box into which you drop it it is hurried
into the first mail Oh top of the whole
pile of other letters with the stamp
sticking up SO as to catch the eye of
every clerk who handles the package.
When it reaches the town to which it is
ad 1ressed if is picked out without an