The Forrest City times., 1900-01-12
MISTAKES IN MAILING.
sums of Money That Go AStray
in the Post once.

An enormous proportion of gifts
transmitted through the mails 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 al. large cities there is
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 employe of a large banking
house in this city about three months
ago was sent to do a number of err
rands. Among the things he had to
do was to mail a big package of let
tiers aud to deposit more than half
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 discovering 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 be-
fore the valuables got to the inquiry
department the bank clerk was there
Having recovered them. the young
man did not lose his place; this mis-
take was not so liable to happen to
him again as it would be to one who
had not had such lesson, argued the
bank president.
Another busy man dumped into a
letter box a bag containing $3.50 in
gold coin, upon which there was not
single sign or letter by which it
might be identified. He had intended
to transmit the coin through an ex-
press company, but dropped it into
the post office, along with the letter
announcing that he had sent it and
how. The letter reached its destina-
ton all right. Not so the coin. After
few days of waiting for possible de-
lays the absent-minded man got let
ter from up country which set him
thinking. He got back his gold.
1t is not an unusual occurrence to
find an envelope containing the week
~ wages OF some factory hand in the
letter box of the post office. A boy
gets a package of letters t. mail at
the same time he gets his wages. In
his tEoughtless haste he slips the let
tiers through the opening, and his
wages with them.
Small sums of money in coin are
often lost in transit through the
mails. The person addressed gets a
mutilated envelope that should CON
tain 25 cents. but does not He says:
Those thieving letter carriers" and
there the matter ends. In cases of
this kind the coin, slipping around
loose in the letter, pressed by heavy
article, perhaps a book or an electro
type, is forced through the envelope;
but, although it does not reach the
person for whom it was intended, ii
has been neither stolen nor lost. The
aggregate of small coins lost in this
way from letters and sent from the
New York city post Office to the dead
letter office in Washington is not less
than 800 a month. This money can
be recovered by the owner at any time
if he will take the proper steps; but
if the amout is small, as it usually is,
it IS more trouble to look it up than
it is worth. N. Y. Sun