The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-20


From the Washington Star
During the last fiscal year ended June
80 1894, $40, 662 letters from foreign lands
drifted into the dead letter Office at
washington. The individuals addressed
being not discovered, nearly all of these
uissives had TO be sent back to the coun-
tries whence they came Yet the United
States postOfice is vastly more clever at
fndingsp people than are the authorities
abroad Only few days ago letter dis
patched from New York with the super
scription, Levi p. Morton, Paris.
France was returned marked 'Inconnu"
i E., unknown" Nevertheless, the
ey-Vfce President was in the French cap
ital at the time at one of the great hotels.
The foreign authorities seem to be
stupid about such things. Letters from
the United States addressed to Walter
Besant or Algernon Swinburne, ENG
land" are sent back marked insufficient
address, One might suppose that
English people would know about their
own famous literary men. 1t used to be
the same way with Charles Reade and
Robert Browning. An American child's
letter to "Santa Claus, Hartz Mountains
& many was returned with "Un-
known, D." Not found" and s.Insufficient
address" stamped all over it by seventeen
pOstmasters.
At Christmas time every year children
write letters to Santa Claus and mail
them, usually unsJamped. If a foreign
address is given, the missiye is dispatched
in the mails, the rules of the internatio
postal union not requiring prepayment
Eventually it finds its way back to the
postofice department. If it contains pc
tition from some poor child for small
gift the employees of the office viii occa-
sionally play Santa Claus, making up a
purse to buy the article requested.
Comparatively few of the foreign let
tiers which reach the dead letter office
here can be delivered to the persons ad-
dressed, because it is not allowable to
open them. If one of them is open when
received it is sealed with a special stamp,
which looks somewhat like an ordinary
postage stamp, bearing the words, Post
office Experimentation !ally sealed" The
first stamp of this kind that was issued
had the words post Obitum" on it,
meaning after death" A specimen is
worth to-day $40. The sealing stamps
are hard to get, and are in demand by
collectors
The letters from abroad which have
failed of delivery on account of badly
written addresses are handled by eX-
perts, who exhibit wonderful skill in de-
ciphering then. Miss Clara Richter in
charge of the foreign division, is famous
hand at such work. The spelling ON some
of the envelopes is amazing. For exam
pie, "Susanmeri" is intended for Sault St.
Marie. That is a comparatively easy
one "Schinescham, Toulocontus" is
Chinese Camp, Tuolumne county. "Grym
Pantewnia" is meant for Green Point
avenue.
MEMORY AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT.
Memory is an important element in
s'bliud reading" as this work is called
Miss Richter GOT hold of a letter the other
day with a peculiar name, and nothing
else on it except America " She remem-
bered that twenty years or more ago a
person of The same name had been found
-atC5rand Rapids, Mich. The letter was
forwarded to that point and reached its
intended recipient. On one occasion the
local pOstonice of Washington did not
know how to deliver a letter addressed to
n eserero General de Nacion" It was
advertised as for Gen. Teserera' - Miss
Richter perceived at once that it was tor
the treasurer of the United States 1t
was registered and contained a considera-
bic sum of money.
All unbelievable foreign letters are
done up in bags or other parcels and sent
back once a week TO the principal Euro
pean countries and TO Canada. These IRE
turns, " as they are called, comprise all
mail matter received at the dead letter
office here during the previous week But
to the other nations in the postal union
the dead stuff is returned only once a
month. The United States go eminent
exchanges unclaimed matter with eighty
seven countries and colonies. Nearly
100000 foreign pieces of mail come to
our dead letter ONCE annually. A great
many of these are printed publications,
most of which are thrown away and not
returned.
All printed matter received at the dead
letter once from Canada, Great Britain,
Germany, Switzerland South American
countries and Australasia is destroyed,
in accordance with a special agreement.
Most of the stuff consists of newspapers
and trade circulars. The countries men
toned do the same with similar matter
States. But France, Italy Russia,
Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden. Den
mark and Belgium want every bit of
their printed matter back and it is re
turned to them During the last fiscal
year SO 935 parcels and printed publica-
tions and circulars were returned.
Take Russia, for instance. All I'M
claimed matter from that country is sent
back 10 the Russian postomce depart
ment at ST. Peters burg every week, in
GLIDING printed stuff. The material is
done up in bags. If there is reason to be-
HeNe that parcel or letter holds any
thing Of value the bag containing it is
registered Many of the letters returned
to Russia come to Washington from the
postoIhce at Boston, in which, city there
is large Russian colony. Returns" for
Newfoundland and small dependencies in
various parts of the world.are made in
big envelopes, the bulk of matter sent
beng small r t-.
DEAD NATTER RETURNED.
In the same way we get our dead mat
ter back from foreign Countries weekly
from some, monthly from others. The
returns sent to us amounted last year
TO Al,i19 pieces-ouly little more than
one-lhird as many as we forwarded TO
governments abroad. One reason for this
great difference is found by the fact that
addresses in Europe are more certain and
permanent. Immigrants coming to the
lnlted states give their first addresses
10 relatives and friends on the other side
OF the water. Pretty soon they move.
anu track of them is lost Natl @ Ameri-
cans are mostly educated, and address
letters TO foreign parts with accuracy
foreigners here, when they write home.
are sure Of the addresses.
me number OF letters returned TO Italy
Is very great, most Of them for non-pay-
uent OF postage. As has been said under