The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-06
How Uncle Sam Traces the Lost
Mail.
Extreme Care Exercised In
Handling Packages.
REPORTS RECEIVED.
Official List of Unclaimed Ar
ticles on File.
Advantages of the Government
Postal Service.

Very few people who do business ev-
| cry day with the United States post
! office, realize the care which Uncle Sam
exerts to carry out his contracts in the
matter of mails. Whenever he under
takes the job of carrying a letter or
parcel to any certain person, it reaches
the person designated if the person is to
| be found. The sender may be careless
about writing the address and not give
| it correctly, or he may write it poorly
but when it is once committed to his
care Uncle Sam does not rest until the
/ letter Is delivered, or the department at
Washington knows the reason way. He
| invariably demands his pay in advance
and he does no work free. but he does it
we'll
Every year thousands of dollars
worth of property are reported "lost" in
the mails, yet every possible effort is
made by the postoffice department to
find such property and restore it to its
owner, and the department generally
succeeds if the person who mailed the
article reports to his postmaster that
it never reached it's destination.
Oftentimes when railway mail clerks
dump out a sack full of miscellaneous
mail loose money rolls out. 1t is money
Which has been placed loose in enVel-
opes and the wear of travel has caused
it to work through the paper and fall
out. Then again, packages become bro
ken in the mails and articles of various
kinds become separated from the ad
dresses to which they are sent
These articles and money are sent by
the postal clerk finding them to the
| headquarters of the division under
which he is working. A division en-
braces several states and the postal
clerks in those states are under the di
rectiOn Of a superintendent The sup
| erintendent of the railway mail service
for this division has his headquarters at
st. Louis.
Whenever a person who has lost an
article in the mails reports to his post
master in writing that the article never
reached it's destination, the postmaster
forwards the complaint, with a descrip
| ton of the lost article, date of mailing
and destination, to the division head
| quarters. The superintendent or his as
sistants, know the route over which the
| article ought to have been sent When
| ever a found" article is sent in, the
| route on which it was found and the
| postal clerk finding it are recorded. In
| great many instances the lost article
| can be restored to the sender as soon
| as the complaint reaches the headquar-
| tiers.
There are many articles. however.
concerning which no formal complaint
! is ever received. The senders either do
| not know that the articles never reach
! ed their destinations. or they believe
| them lost beyond recovery. In order to
aid in restoring such articles to the
owners, each division at the end of each
| month publishes a list of found" ar
ticles sent in to that division two
| months before. This list is sent out to
| all the large postoff7ces in the United
| States for examination by the postmas-
! ter, who aScertainS if verbal complaint
| has beeen made to his office about any ar
ticle on the list. If so. he investigates.
Postmaster Guthrie has just received
| a list of articles received at Cleveland,
o., during January and still unclaimed
| On the list are 296 articles First come
| the various sums of money. There are
| 1873 of them, and they vary from l cent
to $40 gold piece. So great is the ac-
| curacy of the poStoffiee department that
| the same efforts are made to find the
| owner of the penny as are made to find
| the owner of the gold piece. There are
ten sums of only 1 cent Very few are
| more than 81. There are two sums of
| $40, one of SIS, one of $40, and a few be-
| tween 81 and $40, but the great major
ity are 10 cents, 20 cents and so cents.
But it is the miscellaneous articles
| that are curious. Some of them doubt
| less have histories. The most of them
are presents which are sent through the
mails. For instance, some man missed
many good or bad smokes, as the case
| might be, in the box of cigars that was
lost in a Michigan mail car.
| Plated SilverWare seems to have a
great faculty for getting lost. A half
dozen plated teaspoons are reported
from a Detroit and Chicago train; an
other half dozen from a Pittsburg and
Toledo train; a dozen came from a De
troit-Chicago train, another from Utica,
n. Y, and another half dozen from a
New York-ChicagO train. There are a
score or more of sugar spoons and cof-
fee spoons, with now and then a SouY-
| enir spoon mixed in.
Fountain pens also seem to have an
inclination for losing themselves in the
mails. as there are half dozen of these
| articles.
A semi and broken heart
undoubtedly lies behind this entry
Package containing 2 photos of lady
and correspondence
Photographs and knives are numer-
Gus. Doilies appear frequently on the
| list. Some of the more peculiar articles
are: child's rug. damaged; 6 rubber
rings; fancy cushion; pair of yarn nit
| tens; a diary for 1900: IS doilies and
correspondence: nhotos FTilinfno ladies'
8 door keys; package of cancelled post
age stamps; package of deer hair; Sal
walton Army songs; small purse con-
tanning 1 cent; a silver bracelet.
The thoroughness and cheapness will
which Uncle Sam conducts his postof
flee department is the best argument il
the world in favor of public ownership
of public utilities. No other carrier sys
tenn in the world is so cheap or so com
plete. If corporations had the job o.
carrying letters as they have of carry.
ing express packages and freight, PEG
pie would pay five times as much for
service not one-fourth as good. If tn,
postal system were owned by a privat,
monopoly, as is the telegraph system
the rates would probably be ten time
as great and it would cost a dollar o.
more for a Kansas mother to send
letter to her soldier boy in Manila
whereas it costs only two cents unde
| public ownership.