The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-06

| Business EXcept Money Orders and
| Residents of free delivery cities who
J have two dollars and a half to spare
will shortly be able to purchase. at
that price, the privilege of keeping a
branch post office at home, if an in
teresting system straightway to be
introduced in washington proves sue
The family branch post Office will be
a trihe over foot long, six inches
wide and four inches thick. With ac
cess to it, you will have offered to you
every ordinary service now rendered
| by your druggist who keeps the sub
station at the corner. You will purchase
these services for a life time, minus
| the frowns and condescending glances
which the bored pill-roller now ex-
| hibits when he tears you off a strip of
| stamps, or rings for your special de-
| livery messenger. The postman will do
all of the walking which you ordin-
arily perform. although you will have
| no direct intercourse with him what
ever. In short, you may have in your
| Vestibule, If you wish, a compact, in
animate medium through which you
may transmit all of your business di-
rectly with the city Post Office, except,
| as yet the dispatching of registered
mail or money orders. You will be able
| to buy stamps, send unstamped letters
TO the postotltce and have them mailed
dispatch special delivery messages in
the same manner, and receive all of
| your letters without their passing
through the hands of careless SER
| wants.
The family branch post office selling
Jfor two dollars and a half will be
made of enameled steel. You can have
your name and house number stamped
upon it for a meagre sum. 1t will be an
ornament to the entrance of your
house. If your taste is luxurious or
beyond the mediocre, you may pur-
chase more elaborate styles for vary
ing prices, running up to a maximum of
SIX dollars and sixty cents The high
est grade is of solid bronze and is
adorned with artistically moulded de-
sings.
but the most interesting and novel
| feature or this new system Is the pri-
| Nate mail pouch, through which you
Will transact with the main post office
all business requiring the exchange of
money. 1t will be made of transparent
cellulold, the edges being bound with q
thin sheet of composite metal 1t will
be six inches long and three and one
half inches wide, being fiat like an or
dinary envelope, Pasted against the
inside of one face will be a printed list
oil instructions carefully prepared by
the post office department, explaining
every detail OF the new system to the
user. Through the transparent cellu-
lold forming the other face Will be Visi'
bic what at first might be mistaken foi
a blanket ballot This will be neatly
printed upon slip of opaque celluloid
such as used for making washable me
morandum tablets. The end of the sill
will protrude a fraction of an inch from
the open end of the pouch and may bC
pulled out of slipped in, like the covel
of Photographic plate-holder Thr
indelible printing on the movable sliI
consists principally of five lines, indi
} eating different quantities and denomi
= nations of stamps. Your purchase i!
limited to five tWo-cent twenty-five
t tWo-cent, two tive-cent, five one-cent o.
twenty-five cne-cent stamps. Opposite
each line IS a little hollow square o.
frame. a cross made in one or more o
- these indicates that stamps of the mum
= Der and denomination in the opposite
/ line are ordered.
= After making the crosses, according t
I your wants, you will sign your nam
:. and add your address in appropriate
j spaces at the bottom. You will next in
=. sert the slip into the pounch, printed
side up, so that it may be read through
/ the transparent face. You will thel
e take from your purse sum, in eXac
change, corresponding to the worth o
your order. 1t must rest between th'
y order slip and the transparent piece o
. celluloid, in order that it may be dis
/ tinctly seen from outside, though pro
e tected by the pouch. The end of TIL
= slip will fold over, forming n sort o
!. valve, preventing the money from fall
= ing out. The other end is folded in lik
i manner that the money may be pulle,
= out with the slip. Your next step will
be to drop your pouch through the liz
of your private branch post office, whicl
g is similar to the valve lid of the ordin
j. ary letter box. Before you can do this
o however, YOU must work a mechanism
j., which raises above the ton metalli
\. signal, bobbing up from inside and con
Y tanning the word Mail" Some of thes
- signals will be supplied with discs o
Il nhosnhorous which will be cOnsDicuou
# in the dark on his next round, tn
c postman. noticing that the signal i
> raised, will unlock the door, take ou
the nouch. note whether il contains tn
proper amount of money and procee,
u with II on his round If the correc
% change is not inc!osed he deposits tn
q nouch in the box again. together wit