Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-03-08

Dropped into letter box by mistake'"
the bureau of information man in tie
postoflice repeated. Room IA, second
floor"
lis that the regular course for the pub
lic?" he was asked. eff any citizen drops
an article into letter box accidentally,
must he go to room IA to recover it?'
Eyes, sir. You're on the right track"
the information bureau replied. THE
man naturally comes here first to make
inquiries, and 1 direct him to room H. and
there he finds out all about it and RECEIVERS
his lost article
Room IA is under the charge of Mr.. A.
Firmin, who is probably the most patient
listener to explanations and answerer of
questions in the city of New York. He
has need of great patience, for it is poor
business day when / 90 persons do not open
his door and ask how they are to recover
something that has been dropped into
letter box. The number is more likely TO
be 200
1T is observation-disclosures that makes this
department necessary" Mr.. Firmin said,
Observation-Disclosures on the part of the pub
lie. Give busy man a cuspidor at one
other side, and how many times day
will he throw his lighted match into the
wastebasket and toss scraps of paper into
the cuspidor? Possibly you may have no
ticed that with bottle of red ink and
bottle of black ink before you side by side
the black pen steals into the red hot le
more than half the time. 1t is just so in
mailing letters. A man holding in one
hand letter to be mailed and in the 9TH
er hand carrying a small parcel to be tax
en- home approaches letter box. He is
almost certainly thinking of something
else, and he mails the parcel and walks off
with the letter.
THAT happens so times a day in this
city" Mr., Firmin continued. "Tho first
thought is that the parcel is irretricYably
gone, for the letter box can be opened only
by the carrier, but if it is valuable par
GEL worth the trouble of journey to the
postofiice, the absentminded man soon
concludes that there must be some way to
recover it. He applies at the bureau of
information and is directed to me, and
within a few hours he has his parcel again.
You saw the account few days ago Of
an office boy who accidentally dropped a
5000 check belonging to his employer into
a letter box? That was not an exceptional
case at all. Such things are happening
every day. The boy was frightened be-
cause he lacked experience. If it had been
the employer himself he would merely
have come here and made his statement
confident that in short time his check
would be returned to him. a
1--WE had a much more important case
than that short time ago AT $3.50 in thu
afternoon carrier brought in certified
check for $40, 900 that he had found loosC
in a letter box. Five minutes later an al
most crazy man rushed in to see me. HI
explained as soon as he was able that HI
had carried the check in the same hanC
with letter to be mailed and had thought
lessly dropped them both into the box. HI
had no fear of losing the check. 1t wa
time that worried him. His affairs, b
said, were in such a state that it was pos.
lively necessary for the check to be dcpo
tied in bank before the close Of bankiDH
hours He had then about 20 minutes lefl.
He gave an accurate description of thci'
check and identified himself fully, and hr
got it into the bank in time.
lone night sailor who was doing tn,
town found the Bowery whisky overco.n
ing him and dropped his silver watch il t,
letter box for safe keeping Soon aftar
ward he was comfortably asleep in the
gutter, but when he got through with the
police court next morning he came down to
the postoffice described his watch and 20.
it. Watches are frequently found in thu
boxes; so are rings and other articles o.
jewelry. Money is found oftener than any
thing else, except loose stamps. They drul
out of letters that have been mailed. We
average about ten letters day that have
been mailed without any address and 80
postal cards.
MANY inquiries arc made for none.
supposed to have been lost in the mails
that has never been mailed. 1t is very
easy matter to write Enclosed please fine
SO many dollars and then forget to in
close the dollars. The ADDRESSED come
here post haste to make inquiry and COLI
plant and often learns by the next mail
that his money was not sent. These in
stances of observation-disclosures one woulu
think, could not possibly happen in II
metropolitan newspaper office, but the
newspaper offices have to thank us for
great many lost articles returned Work
is done in hurry in a newspapers mail
ing room just before daylight when the
wrapped papers are flying into mailbags.
Small articles must keep ont of the way
or they are likely to be mailed with tn,
papers. You would be surprised to see how
many mucilage BOTTLES, pairs of scissors.
balls of cord rulers, even hats, come to IL
every week in bags of newspapers from.
publication offices. But we know wher
they come from, and of course they are al
ways returned. n,
Recovering an. article from letta
box is easily managed If application - I,
made here at once before the carrier go
out again. Sometimes the article escap
even the carriers eye as he pours the let
tiers from the box into his bag When tho
application is made in time it is no trou-
BILE to warn tho carrier of the route and
have him recover the lost article. But ,
when the application is made after the I
carrier has gone out and after the contents .
of his bag have become part of few hun
dred tons of other mail matter the clerks
are given great deal of extra labor. -
New York Times.