Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-12-14
A LOTTERY SCHEME
TheNovember Postal Guide Defines
Departments Position.
NO MAIL MAY Be SENT SOUTH AFRICA
A Ruling on the Much Mooted Guess
ton as TO Whether or Not Mail Nlat-
ter sent to Prisoners May be
Opened.

The November Postal Guide is in
the hands of postmasters and other |
government officials throughout the
country, and it contains some in /;
formation which will be valuable to
the public in sending and receiving
mails.
The acting postmaster general calls
attention TO a foreign lottery company
which has been working more or less
vigorous language he uses on the sub
ject: SIT having been made to ap-
pear to the postmaster general upon
evidence satisfactory to him that w.
Fodor & Co., Buda Pesth, Germany,
are engaged in conducting a scheme
for the distribution of money by lot
or chance through the mail, under
authority of the law in the case the
postmaster general forbids you to for
ward any postal money order drawn
to the order of said w. Fodor & Co.,
and you are hereby directed to in
form the remitter OF any such postal
money order that payment thereof has
been forbidden and that the amount
thereof will be returned on presenta-
tion of duplicate money order ap-
pllSu lUE dllSl uliNGI Lie
ulations of the department. And you
are hereby instructed to return all
letters, whether registered or not, and
other mail matter which shall arrive
at your office, directed to the said firm
TO the postmaster at the Offices at
which they were originally mailed, TO
be delivered to the senders thereof,
with the word fraudulent plainly
written or stamped upon the outside
of such letters or matter
At first and second class postoffices
the postmaster, assistant, clerk or let
ter carrier when not on regular hours
& OF duty, or other salaried employees OF
any postoffice is authorized to deliver
special delivery matter and receive the
lawful fees thereof.
Postmasters at international money
order offices are notified that owing to
the war now in progress in South AZ
RIGA, money orders cannot be delivered
in the Transvaal or Orange Free State,
and orders payable in those places
must not, therefore, be received until
further notice is received from the de-
partment.
Explicit orders have been issued re-
garding matter in transit. Superin-
tendenf White says that Complaint is
made that valuable books and expensive
catalogues were seriously damaged by
rough handling in transit. This otffcs
trusts that postmasters and postal
clerks will appreciate the necessity of
handling such matter Win unusual
care in order that the department may
not be open to the charge of careless
ness and disregard of the interests OF
its patrons"
The attention of postmasters and 9TH
ers is called to the ruling on the right
of prison officials to open the matters
of prisoners. The department quotes
Judge Freeman and Edwin Bryant, as
sistant attorney generals for the post
office department, who say among 9TH
er things, after quoting the law: "a
letter once placed in the postoffice is in
the custody of the department for
transmission and delivery to the party
addressed. No other postmasters nor
officers of the law have any authority
Z to open it under preteSt that there
might be something improper or even
criminal in it, or that would aid in the
detection, or furnish evidence for the
conviction of offenders against the law.
A letter to a criminal must therefore
be delivered to him unless he may 9TH
erwise direct.
"There are but few questions
fraught with more difficulty than that
involving the right of prisoner to
use the mails. It not only involves the
question of individual right, but fire.
quently presents the not more impor-
tant but more intricate question of the
respective powers Of the state and ma
tional governments