Evening star., 1896-11-28

leave mail under the door of a private
house when their tugs at the door bell are
not responded to. If mail matter so left Is
lost stolen, the postman Is held responS-
ible for the loss or theft For this reason
letter carriers usually wait until their next
round to deliver mail at houses deserted by
all of their tenants upon the first visit.
The Post Office Department, and the Wash
ington city post office authorities. have
tried to impress upon the public the desira-
bility of providing in the Vestibuies OF
houses post boxes for the collection and
delivery OF mail, but their efforts have been
practically unavailing.
Letter carriers on deliverey routes figure
On losing few dollars every year owing to
the insufficient stamping of letters address,
ed to persons on their routes. 1t does not
appear to be generally known that when
letter reaches the post office with not
enough stamps pasted upon 1t to provide
for its delivery, the postman has to pay the
required extra amount Of postage out Of
his own pocket before he can take 1t out Of
the building for delivery to the addressee.
A stamp showing the amount of postage
due is pasted TO the letter. The postman
is not required to deliver 1t unless he is
paid the amount Of postage he himself has
been compelled to pay in order to release
the letter from the custody Of the post
office.
Needless of Due Stamps.
Very often. however, servants who an
swer to the alarms Of door bells are the re-
cipients of such letters, and servants do
not customarily carry around small change
for the payment of their employers public
obligations. The letter carriers leave such
mssives without the necessary payments
very often, trusting that the due stamp
will meet the eye of the addressee and thus
elicit payment upon his next tour. But the
postmen are mistaken in their trust to the
extent Of a few dollars worth of stamps
every year. They are not men who care to
haggle over a few pennies here and there.
ard so they generally let such cases go
without saying more about them.
The greatest difficulty with which mail
encounters with persons who nourish
perpetual grievance because they are not
in receipt of more letters These persons
lcok upon the postman with a darkling eye
every time he goes by their houses with
out entering with an armful of mail. They
regard the letter carrier with extreme sus-
picion. They have had telegraphic mes
sage. perhaps, announcing the posting at
San Francisco several days ago of letter,
which generally contains a check for
large amount. Where is that letter? In
Omaha. very likely. by this time, says the
postman. Why has 1t not arrived? What
got 1t in his bag at that very minute las it
might be inferred from their remarks), and
Is maltctously and criminally holding it
back from them for the purpose Of worry
sort of thing that flecks the horizon of the
delivering postman with little threatening
cirrus clouds.
Uniformed Santa Clauses.
The season is rapidly approaching which
the letter carriers look upon with dread
The holiday period is an i'll time for post
men. From the 10Th Of December to the
9th of January they patrol the streets in
the guise of uniformed Santa Clauses
loaded down with spine-wearying packages
that in five cases out of ten have become
broken or disordered in their crushing
transmission through the mails. Every
time the postman delivers one Of these dis
arranged parcels he stands by for trouble
He is often accused of having torn the
package open out Of mere idle curiosity
just to see what it contained.
Postal employees very often cut q small
slit in a second-class mail package to see
that it contains no written matter that
should have been mailed first class and
during the holiday season, when every in
coming mail train is jammed to the ceiling
with packages, the knocking about such a
cut parcel receives occasionally enlarges
postman who delivers the package has to
stand, in many cases. the brunt Of the be-
laborfng which should properly be be-
slowed upon nobody, as in cutting pack
tions. But the hard work and occasional
reproaches which the letter carriers endure
during the holiday season are more than
atoned for by the kindness with which they
dTo tTedlSO Ill HdHy quarters around
Christmas time. OF recent years it is be-
coming more and more a practice of busi-
ness men to remember the postmen who
pass their doors with some sort Of holiday
offering, as a kind of extra compensation
for years faithfulness, and the custom is
even spreading to the residence portions of
the city.
AS a class. letter carriers are the health
lest men in the world. The constant out
of-door life which they lead is the cause of
this. Cases of sickness among the post
men of Washington are exceedingly rare.
They become so used to exposure that
neither extreme heat nor cold affects them
When other men are roasting during hot