The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-23
MISTAKES IN MAILING
Large and Small Sums of Money
Go AStray in Post Office

At this season hundreds of thousands
of people in all parts of the civilized
world are thinking about the Christ
mas presents they will send and re-
ceive. An enormous proportion of
these gifts will be transmitted through
the mails, and of these, many will go
astray on account of violations of the
postal rules or carelessness in pack
ing. An investigation will usually put
the blame where it belongs; and in the
inquiry department of the post offices
of all large cities there is a force of
experienced clerks employed to attend
to just such cases.
AS an illustration Of the fact that
even in the best regulated concerns.
mistakes will happen, it is related that
an employee of a large banking house
in this city about three months ago,
was sent to do a number of errands
Among the things he had to do was
to mail q big package of letters and
to deposit more than half a million
dollars worth Of checks and drafts. In
his haste, he slipped the package of
checks and drafts with the big bundle
of letters into the letter box, and
rushed off about his other business. He
returned TO the bank without diScoy-
ering what he had done.
Fortunately, receipt that he should
have brought with him necessitated
questioning; and shivering in his shoes
before the president, there stood the
worst scared young man in the city
The time he made on his first round
was not circumstance to that he
made on the second. Almost before
the valuables got to the inquiry de-
no rtT ha e,
Having recovered them, the young mar
did not lose his place. this mistake was
not so liable to happen to him again
as it would be to one who had not haG
such lesson, argued the bank presi-
dent.
Another busy man dumped into ;
letter box a bag containing $3.50 il
gold coin, upon which there was not {
single sign or letter by which it nigh
be identified. He had intended t,
transmit the coin through an express
company but dropped it into the post
office, along with the letter announcing
that he had sent it, and how. TIL,
letter reached it's destination all right
Not so the coins. After a few day,
of waiting for possible delays, the alb
sent-minded man got letter from III
country which set him thinking. HI
got back his gold.
1t is not an unusual occurrence t.
find an envelope containing the week.!
wages of some factory hand in the
letter box of the post-office. A DO!
gets a package of letters to mail at thu
same time he gets his wages. In hi
thoughtless haste, he slips the letter!
through the opening, and his wages
with them. t
Small sums of money in coin ar,
often lost in transit through the mails
The person addressed gets a mutilateC
envelope that should contain rs cents
but does not. He says, "Those thiey
ing letter carriersi" and there the mat
ter ends. In cases of this kind thu
coin, slipping around loose in the let
ter, pressed by a heavy article, perhap
book or an electrotype, is force(
through the envelope, but, although i
does not reach the person for whom i
was intended, it has been neither stol
en- nor lost. The aggregate of small
coins lost in this way from letters, ant
sent from New York city post-offic
to the dead letter Office in Washington
is not less than 800 a month. Thi
money can be recovered by the owne
at any time if he will take the prope
steps, but if the amount is small, as
usually Is, it is more trouble to lool
it up than it is worth.-New York Sun