Evening star., 1899-04-07
DEPARTMENT STORE MoRGUEs.
Where Hundreds of Misdirected
Packages Are Held for Owners.


From the Chicago Tribune.
There is a. "morgue'' in every large store
in Chicago. but not Of the ghastly charac-
teristics of the city institution of that name.
This odd store department is given its
srewsome name because it is the store
house for what are called dead goods"
which are held awaiting Identification.
Goods become dead" when they are mis-
directed when the addresses are lost
from the packages. 1t seems hard to be-
lieve that people will buy goods, and, after
paying hard cash for them, give wrong
addresses for their delivery, but that is
what they do quite often, and 1t is these
careless, thoughtless and absent-mnded
customers who have made the establish
ment OF 1.-The morgue" necessary.
A few days ago a visit was paid to the
"morgue'' of one of the big stores on State
street On the shelves was an array of arti-
cleS that represented almost every depart
ment of the store. There were dolls, wash
tubs, ice-cream freezers base ball masks,
baby carriages, clocks, brooms and wrap
ped-up packages which. it was said, con-
tanned everything from hats, dresses and
shoes to jewelry, groceries and hairpins.
Most things are bought back undellVered
during the holidays and soon after the LIST
of May" said the superintendent. "Of
course, during the holidays many things
are brought back because purchasers were
mistaken as to the addresses of friends to
whom they were trying to send presents.
But some people, by some peculiar meta
physical slip, succeed in giving their own
address wrong.
THAT sounds funny, but it's true. I sup
pose they are here in the big rush times
and get so rattled in their hurry that they
dent know just what they do say Then,
again, / presume they sometimes humble
their address so indistinctly that the clerk
misunderstands them and gets the address
written incorrectly.
Il think that soon after the 1st Of May
we have a greater influx of goods in the
morgue than even during the holidays. OF
course. everybody knows May l Is the pop
of absent-minded people who have moved
forget that they have changed addresses.
They come in here, make a lot of pur-
chaseS. and give their old addresses as
the places for delivery. Then the next
Gay they come back here mad as fury be-
cause tkeir goods were not delivered. They
cool off suddenly and Iook cheap when we
send down to the morgue and bring up
the packages with the addresses they gave
tagged on them.
Then in another way, which is nobodys
fault especially, we get some Of the
mcrgue's supply. In handling as many
hundreds of thousands of packages as we
do, it is no wonder that between the ship
ping department and the points of delivery
numbers of address tags get knocked off.
OF course, when the tags are thus lost en-
ployes are at total loss TO know for what
points the bundles Were intended so the
packages are at once turned over TO the
morgue to be kept until they are claimed
by the right purchasers. Goods which are
not perishable and which not claimed
VIC keep in the morgue about year await
ing identification. At the expiration of
that time they are turned back into the
stock to be resold.'