The morning news., 1897-01-16

about teachers heart. English and Ger
man letters mixed unfortunately, writ
ten with soft lead pencil and spelled ac-
cording to the sound, are of frequent &C
ourrence. One letter was directed 10
'Porniprehri." This was changed TO Paw
nee Prairie. "Provencn taw" was meant
for Province Town, and Dale Verte for
Green Bay. Many of the letters are sent
by Hungarians, who spell very much as
the name of the place sounds.
If letter can be sent from the office
without opening it, it is always done. The
few people in the United States that are
privileged by the government to open and
read other peoples letters grow very
weary of so doing, and all curiosity as to
the contents is quickly lost when one
opens an average of two thousand letters
day.
The inquiry division of the dead letter
Office is a very useful branch of its work.
Here inquiries for lost letters and pack
ages are received, and as all letters OF
value and all packages are recorded and
classified, they are very readily found. A
few days before l visited the office, lady
had written to say that a certain maga-
zine had advertised that for ten cents it
would send a copy of the magazine for
year and also a small teaset Not hear
ing from it, she wrote to the dead letter
Office. They at once looked into the matter,
discovered the magazine to be fraudulent
ana nOtllleQ lne post OllCe III lue CilJs
where it was published to send all letters
directed to the magazine TO the dead letter
office. Five hundred letters were received
| and opened, and were then, with the en-
| closed ten cents, returned to the sender,
| while the people in the office groaned over
the work it had involved and the gullibil-
| ity of five hundred women. This was
| not unusual case.
The foreign department of the Office has
! charge of the letters sent from distant
! lands to the United States, whose owners
cannot be discovered. These letters are
numbered in the thousands. Often the peo-
| pie for whom they are intended have NOV
| ed to a different part of the country and
| cannot be found. Frequently the enVel-
| ope bears only the name of the person that
| the letter is intended for and United
| States" To find the owner is an ardu-
GUS task, and yet it is often accomplished
Every year more than $4,000 parcels are
received at the dead letter office. A par
| eel that is insuffcienty prepaid, with an
| illegibie or an unfinished address, is i'm
mediately sent to the office. There they
| endeaYor to notify the person for whom
| the package is intended, that they may
claim it by paying the sum due. If the
owner declines to do this the con-
| tents of the package become the property
| of the United States. If the address on
| the parcel cannot be deciphered, or if it
| be without an address, it is also claimed
| by the government.
| Addressed articles are held for redemp-
ton for two years; unaddressed for six
months; at the end of that time they be-
| come the property of any one that will
| buy them, for each year, at Christmas
time, the dead letter office has an auc-
ton. Catalogues are printed, and the auc-
ton is advertised in the Washington pa
pers and superintended by a competent
| auctioneer.
There are two museums connected with
the postoffice department, both filled with
interesting curios and postal appliances.
The one connected with the dead letter
Office is used to display articles that have
been seized in the mail as contraband.
Among them is a rattlesnake; an alliga-
| tor Sioux pipe, a large cenupede that
was mailed alive in a newspaper, a pis-
tol mailed with six bullets in it, and a
skull that was sent through the mail to a
doctor in Philadelphia, who refused to pay
the 1913 postage due on it.
There is also in this collection a ash
tub, bunch of sleigh-bells, roller skates,
handouts, several TASKS of whisky, false
teeth, immense rag-dolls, coffee pots, gar
den tools a log of wood four feet in
length a postal card that went around
the world in l20 days, and registered let
ter that Travelled for six months, and is
covered with inscriptions and a great va
riety of other curious things.
A very large book shown here is always
attractive to the museum visitor. 1t con-
tains soldiers photographs lost in the mail
during the civil war. They are photo
graphs of old men and young boys, faith
ers, brothers, husbands and sweethearts,
all in soldier costume. During the meet
ing of the Grand Army of the Republic in
Washington in 1891 these photographs
were taken from the album and hung on
the wall of the museum, and in this way
many people recovered their lost pictures.
In the larger museum one of the most in
teresting exhibits is the mail team used
in the woods of Northern Michigan on the
run from Sault Ste. Marie to Mackinaw.
Three stuffed dogs, which, two years ago,
were alive and in active service, are har-
messed to a toboggan, on which are strap
ped two mail-bags, and by the side stands
the Indian driver. At the door of the room
is a representation of a mounted mail
carrier of the west. He sits on large
horse and is clad in the garb of a cow
boy, with a six-shooter al his hip and the
mailbag firmly tied on behind.
In glass cases about this room are
shown the mail uniform of various coun-
tries. Among them are the snowy white
linen of the town postman of India, the
dark blue of the Japanese, the white and
blue of the Cape Colony carrier. the dark
blue with gold and red trimmings, used
by the postman of Great Britain, and the
blue cloak and yellow leggings of the
Swiss. Ali the European letter-carriers are
more heavily accoutered than are those
of this country, and many of them are
obliged to carry a horn, or a bugle The
Swedish carrier wears heavy belt from
which hangs his sword, bugle, a cart
ridge-box a metal letter-box, a revolver
and passport-box.
All kinds of letter-pouches, registered
sacks and mail bags are displayed; queer
head-coverings and helmets, the largest
of which is snow white and very broad
and protects the head of the postman OF
Cape Town, while the japanese mailman
wears a light basket-like hat, wide and
deep, with a light frame setting, so that
the air has plenty Of room for circula ting
about the head But among all these gaudy
and curious uniforms and bags, none look
ed so attractive and pleasing to us as the
modest gray worn by everybodys friend
our postman.
A Freak of Fashion.
From the Philadelphia Record.
The wearer Of the single-barreled eye-
| oiaee xyho parted his hair I'm the middle