The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-06-10
MYSTERIES OF THE MAILS.
THINGS THAT PUZZLE THE EAPbhIS
or THE DEPARTMENT.
''RemaiIed at Sender's Rcquest' ="
Sent TO Fictitious Addresses !. ~
49,. s,.,m.d- Psinstaking Biunderers.

lew NffhN a&'
OhIo ers, called attention to the suspicious
practices Of persons who send letters to a posi-
office with the request to stamp them and re-
mail them to another town. Packages ana
bulky enyelopes marked circulars" or print
ed matter. but prepaid at letter rates. are
mailed to city Postmasters to be forwarded
In tho same manner for what purpose has to
remain a matter Of conjecture since there ~
no law authorizing a Post ONCE to open and
examine such consignmennts. The senders
evidently desire to conceal their actual where
abouts, but at the same time do not seem 10
expect replies. since COMMUNICATION 10 ue''
fictitious address are watched for In VAIN
A circular of the Assistant postmaster
General elected the fact that the Postnasters
of SOM twenty other towns are regularly law
ored with similar requests, some OF them nav
ing to forward pouches full Of twice PAD man
The senders avoid country villeses a. wen ~
cities of the first magnitude, fearing rural IN
discretion apparently as much as metropolitan
shrewdness. and select towns of $4,000 70 %.oo
inhabitants Fort Wayne. Ind; Manchester
n. H.; Wheeling. ". Va, with Post Offices un-
doubtedly acquainted with the limitations
the assistance of special detectives.
All things considered. II. was decided 70
counterfeit presumptive tricks by stainbiha
lines: "Received from Fakirville and remalleedi
al senders request" That precaution vii!
answer the purpose OF preventing abuses OF
employees. but cannot hinder schemers from
repeating their trick with the assistance OF a
hired accomplice, Nor can u obviste the pos
sibility OF abusing the confidence OF oross-road
Postmasters not in the habit of studying their
YEARLY enlarging manuals OF rules and reg
limitations. The shrewdness OF a United States
,,nnio1s trick attempted at Charlestown. s.. G..
W lere a soldier was awaiting trld ior deseItion
and assault with intent to Kill. and caused me
Judge Advocate 70 receive a tP },.fn abpsH,
Mountain town. Certain analogies OF hand
writing aroused the suspicion OF the post COM
mander, and inveStiehtion proved ma the mel
nj Charlestown. and reached the unsnspecting
mountain Postmaster with the request TO re-
mail IL, In order, to test the writer theory as
10 the cause of the frequent loss OF letters sent
from a neighboring highland town." True
merit is apt to he recoRnized In the long run,
thought the honest Postmaster. and told his
neighbors that people, had begun to send letters
out OF the way 10 mail them under the auspices
of his extra-reliable office.
less easy to explain; even BY, conjecture. Is
IL" sG Hr snk a a Arms RI eu' Wat et co %ti' have 20 eF IN.
duced the schemer TO mislead hundreds OF cor
respondents whose replies he did not care TO
sSNrS Absconded. and preferred to lose his
letters rather than his liberty2 The Dead
Letter Office receives unclaimed maj OF thao
senders. unless the fraudulent intent Of the IN
known addresses has been clearly established,
, But for G sn,i s%Gn in S!S % fret 70, al ABOUT STp let n,sl,
that never come. They, are not all %,lovelorn
maidens or dupes Of the sreen-goods iaklr;
scores OF business men experience an inter-
mission OF their correspondence as compre-
hensive and continued as II an enemy had tapped
their customers list or found means TO inter
cert the contents Of their letter box. One Stn-
cinnati bookkeeper stuck TO IL that the safety
of the Yale locks had been ovcrrated and that
some sharper must for weeks have succeeded
in opening the firms Post Once box with a coun-
ters and checks failed 20 arrive: there was not a
shadow Of a doubt that most Of them had actu-
ally been mailed and contrived to vanish before
The mess Th oos nsa v was r '" estedal VI" cross pss.
examined. Had he lost a box key or left, II
sticking in the keyhole long enough TO enable
an sny ss Z to ss ,sSs ta am p sisS K Fl. w sonch s0q Hs
emphatically denied those possibilities. ana at
his own request was laid on" Tor a few DAYS 70
Bv way Of extra precautlon a trusty, clerk sc-
COMMANDED the new messenger, but the deficits
continued, for OF fifty letters that ought TO have
been received only a dozen or two had come.
In stress OF circumstances a special detective
was engaged 10 watch the hoodooed box day
and night. and the depredat!ons then suddenly
ceased, and in the course OF Tune tne nrm p se,
what had become OF the oriainalsf Had tho
thief tried TO pass them and got alarmed at the
results of the first attempt1 Or had some novice
In crime opened the letters In the nope OF nno-
inR enclosures in cash?
Subscribers to cheap periodicals often for
ward remittances In that manner, and the gem
eral knowledge OF the fact costs some publishers
a considerable percentage of their income.
Thousands Of letters vanish every year. TO-
aether with United States maj pouches, In spite
= atx yFAalttfinn2 ME- hana r
supposed TO be always either under lock and
kew or in the hands of responsible employees,
vet not a month passes without the discovery
hiding places, atramp's" hans-out" in 2 deserted
building or a weed-Rrown ditch OF railway
track. The only explanation Is that some OF
the carriers or distributors have been caught
mapping. But of a number Of mail bags trans
ferred from train to train in aTennessee railway
Junction three disappeared in broad daylight,
s Ssr M tba ma a wSeIl dressed Stranger, APPARENTLY
in ahurry to reach the ticket Office, had stopped
him Tor a moment TO ask a question or two. He
had not touched ST g The f SendA 9 lons ms sS dnps sd tn siSa
a possible accomplish Of the stranger q chance
to make a grab and dive into a recess OF the
In Post Office transactions the lack Of
ingenuity and even of ordinary common. sense
is astonishing. The curios Of the Dead Letter
Office include envelopes leRibly. c~ross-marked:
IN rRs sya d a sG Tet asllyt to send If W r h2t Sal a ad 5Si
OF further specifications. Others bear names
without typographical data: Hermann kem-
per, painter and decorator. successor to Richie
Brothers 4 Co." Workingmen, foreigners es-
pecially, often seem to credit mail clerks with
the gift Of geographical clairvoyance: Jan
Jansen, at the miners boarding house, or. per-
haps, stops AT Mrs, Baumgarten's place"-no
| town TO hint about the State or county OF the
mining camp. Please deliver as soon as pos
sible, some such letters are marked and seem
often to have been plastered with an extra
| stamp in the hope Of inducing the carrier to
give the matter his earliest attention.
Money to the amount of $50 has been found In
envelopes with absolutely illegible addresses,
| hieroglyphics. too blurred and tangled to fur
nish even n clue to the nationality Of the sender
In some cases marginal notes, In American or
Kalmuth Partarese, for all the best experts can
tell. attest the senders anxiety to obviate mis-
understandings. and one might suppose that per-
sons taking such risks and trouble would have
thought 1t worth while to adopt the collateral
precaution of letting q competent native re-
wise their chirography. but the, idea Of that ex.
pedient may often have been nipped In the bud
by the dread Of n Ave or ten. cents fee.
No packages-certain classes Of printed
matter excepted-are forwarded In excess of
five pounds. but within that limit all possible
chemicals, comestihles. machines, beasts. bird
and bugs are mailed every day in the year. and
forwarded. too, unless tho sender should com
nit the mistake of an amateur naturalist who
shipped a live rat OF the speckled denomina-
ton In n package ingeniously constructed to look
like n good sized book. Everything would have
! gone well. but in his overanxiety TO avoid ex-
animation or prevent the escape of his pet, the
sender had bandaged and sealed the parcel all
around. and thereby made IL subject 10 letter
rate charges. His postage covered only the
book rates for a consignment OF three pounds,
| and the addressee declining 10 pay the differ
ence, the package was filed away I'LL the most