The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-19
WAYS OF THE PARCELS POST.
AS Developed Between Germany and
the United States.

Of the New York postoff1ce as he looked
into boy full Of extra fine German
sausages. IT'S Westphalian hams ana
sausages and kuchen, and then It's
kuchen and sausages and hams
But why is that menu running
through the post?" asked the puzzled
Sun reporter.
"All on account Of the parcels-post
convention between Germany and the
United States The law went into eff
feet last October, and all Germany got
UP and began throwing ham and saul
sage souvenirs at friends in the united
States. At least, that's the way IT.
looked You see, under the universal
postal convention, except In extraordl-
nary cases, dutiable goods all came IN
through the regular channels. and we
were not bothered with 1t. Then last
year special arrangement was mace
with Germany by which all articles,
admitted under conditions to the do
nestle mails of either country, were to
be handled as a regular part OIL the
mail matter Of the other country. NO
packet must exceed eleven pounds in
weight, or must be larger than three
feet SIX inches by two feet six inches,
but you see that allows for the hams.
but what was the motive OF this
special arrangements"
"Philanthropy-pur philanthropy
exercise for the postal employees and
accommodation to the dear publlc. IN
cidentally the government gets some
thing out of it, because quantities or
things are exchanged between the two
countries that would never be sent II
the senders had to be bothered with
the regular customs, red tape ana ex-
pense. and the postage amounts to a
considerable sum for the government.
Last month we handled $4,000 packages
from Germany. The sender makes
customs declaration, giving the adj
dress, description Of the parcel, accu-
rats statement OF contents, value, and
sender's address and signature This
declaration accompanies the parcel.
The packages are sent from the dis
patching office in special sacks marked
Parcels postage and sealed with
wax. The addresse pays five cents IN
terror postage when he received the
package and pays duty in accordance
with the tariff of the country in which
the goods are received Brokers fees
and great amount Of red tape are
done away with The postal rate Is
twelve cents a pound and, as that COW
ers the entire cost of transportation,
YOU can see that the system Is great
convenience and saving to the sender.
"Another point in favor of sending
by parcels post Is the saving of time.
That appeals particularly TO the mer-
chants All their German samples
come by parcels post now, and they
can have their statesmen on the road
with samples of stock a week earlier
than was possible under the old regu-
lation. The sample business is more
narrowly defined in postal regulations
than in the ordinary customs depart
ment. Nothing marketable and or
value exceeding 81 can pass from Tor
eign countries into the United States
/ through the mails, without payment or
! duty. IT Is a pity that fact isn't better
understood by our people and their for
| eign friends for either ignorance or in
| difference to this feature of the law
makes us any amount of trouble, Eu-
ropean countries are much more lax
about the sample business Single ar
ticles of value amounting to several
| dollars can be sent into Italy, France
and other countries without imposition
of duty, If marked Sample, without
value and there's general impression
that the same sort of thing VIII go
here. Mail of that kind crowds in at
holiday time, and comes in considerable
quantities all through the year. Any
thing from a gold watch of diamond
ring to a spool Of thread comes marked
Sample, without value and the adj
dressee feels himself horribly abused
when called upon for payment of duty.
Foreign merchants assure buyers that
the goods can come through as samples,
and much more of our trouble Is due to
ignorance on the part of sender or re-
ceiver than to deliberate intent to de-
fraud The ways in which people try
to get around that sample law are fun
ny, though. We are onto most of them,
but occasionally something new Is
sprung upon us. The favorte scheme
is the sending OF the halves of things,
in different mails and to different adj
dresses That's the great act with
French corsets. In comes half OF
a beautiful French corset, addressed to
Miss A. One week later along comes
the other half of the corset addressed
to Mrs. B. For a long time the plan
! worked, but finally some logical man
figured out that no woman could COM
, fortably wear half a corset. These
I fragments began arriving rather thick
and fast, too; so we contracted habit
| of keeping corset half No. l until hall
No. 2 came along and matching them
up. Then we would send for the two
women to whom the separate halves
were addressed. They usually sent
messenger boys to attend to the matter
That wouldn't do. To make long story
short, we collected duty, or the goods
were returned The situation doesn't
often arise now for the corset makers
have found that it does not work.
The same sort of dodge is practiced
| with gloves, shoes, anything that car
be sent in parts, but when we get two
or three right hand gloves, or anything
like that, we just hold them until the
rest of the consignment comes along
and then collect the duty. There is very
little opportunity for smuggling through
our mails. A certain amount of it is
done through concealment of goods IL
newspapers, but that is comparatively
| inconsequential In some countries al
foreign newspapers are punched, sc
htat goods contained in them are dam