The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-08
THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
,,n ~, THE CURIOUS THINGS TO
BE FOUND THERE.

~ Office Divided Into Divisions.
,rne Daily Average of the Number
letters Received-The Medley
articles They COntain-The Adj
,resses of Some of the Letters and
10 DifIicuIty of DecipherinG
,,,,,em-What Is Done with the
,outents of the Letters-Other Mat
,ars of General Interest.
washington, April 6.-The average
v.,shngtonian would know little about
49, rs,l sights" of his city, mean those
10 he found elsewhere-were it not for
..-asional visiting friends For their edif1-
zion he is constrained to look up things,
INN, which he has vague idea, but
'n,,,i5 never take the trouble to find for
himself Your correspondent is no excep-
lion 70 the rule, though, of course, it is the
a.,o-oran's business to be a walking en-
a,,olonedia of general information Enter
.,i,inq visitors from afar last week, we
1siiv hunted up fresh novelties peculiar TO
.t,. capital. and were richly repaid for our
Minis. one may spend very long time
in the quest, with interest that never
f,os one of the oldest and most inter-
es,ing things we found, and one which is
seldom seen by visiting strangers, or even
by residents Of Washington, is the museum
nj the dead letter office. 1t used 10 be To-
Gated in an Old building in the Hebrew
.4r4rter oe Seventh street scattered about
various floors and in sundry dark hooks
and musty corners; but has recently been
removed to the third floor of the fine new
Postofice building, ON Pennsylvania ave-
nue. midway between the United States
ire asury and the Capitol.
The dead-letter department is organized
in eight divisions for the handling of its
diferent classes of matter. These are
separated by low partitions of iron-wire,
"a that while detached from each other,
as far as the transaction of business is
concerned, they have in common the ad
yantagos of light and air. One can hard
" realize that in this enlightened coun-
trv there is a daily average of twelve to
fifteen thousand dead" letters, or about
100000 month. Allowing one person 70
a letter there are 100000 every. year,
who undertake to send letters without
stamps, or with cancelled stamps, or IL
( leeibe or Incorrect addresses, or no adj
\ dresses at all; and strange as it may
\ seem many Of these are valuable letters,
often contain currency, or drafts for
large amounts of money II Is estimated
| that fully 100000 in drafts, and $4,000,
| 90 in cash is yearly received in the dead
Il letter department. This is all returned to
the senders, if possible; but the considera-
ble portion of it that fails 90 find a claim
ant is turned over to the post-offiee fund.
AS a rule, little difficulty is experienced
an restoring the checks and drafts to
rightful owners; but the money generally
tn ,,1T1 ant In "a mo st
careless, hap-hazzard fashion, though
their loss no doubt, details a deal of
suffering and disappointment. Some hard
working man may send $40, the saving of
a months labor to his waiting wife and
little ones whom he has had to leave be-
hind, or the soldier far away sends the
whole Of his poor little $l3 to the old
mosher depending upon him; but alas!
both may be among the yearly millions
who trust to Providence in the matter of
stamps or addresses; or else their writ
ing and photography are beyond mortal
ken, and the destitute loved ones never
get their pittance.
The visitor to the department is
amused to see the letters opened so
rapidly by deft hands of the employees,
and to guess at their contents before they
are brought to light. In five minutes we
saw brought forth enough dry goods
samples TO make a dozen crazy quilts.
One would imagine that all woman-kind
had gone into the business of exchanging
Il these scraps of dress-fabrics. About half
Of them showed their prosperity in bits of
A 81 = and satin, the other half in four-cent
ca \Qs and cheapest woolens; but all met
on Nmon ground in the dead letter Of
fec m a bundle of unaddressed let
teys, three out of five contained money,
one a S note. At least every fifth letter
contains a photograph. l don't imagine
that any great care is taken to return
them; but anybody who has been so be-
reaYed has the privilege of rumaginS
among fifty bushels or so of counterfeit
presentiments' that have here accumu-
lated.
In the department of misdirected letters
there are many remarkable things The
worst of them, which it seems no human
beng can decipher, go to an expert who
IS known as the Blind Man" because
ne seems to make them out by instinct
rather than by vision. For example, a let
Ter addressed, in chirography even worse
IMAM NINE to "Sanduik," he decides
should go to Sandy Hook. Another letter
read Bet Feet Rue de Aqua" What in
pe world would you make of that? The
pllhd man is something of a lnguist, and
hho"s that Rue de Aqua is mingled
french and Spanish for Water street. but
VINO else would have imagined that Bet
Ieet means New Bedford, Massachusetts?
u dd' though and in time the letter
iouhd Its proper destination. A bad spell
VI aho' her kind irdted "Pizzo Burg Mes
ITtSslp was promptly sent to Vicksburg.
might fill every page of this paper
i'H similar instances. before which even
me Wanted astuteness of a Philadelphia
lawyer would quail.
4 .Iost curious of allis the dead letter mu-
sun containing the most unique and eX-
udonlinary collection of it's kind in the
~oFla' All articles prohibited by law from
io mails are confiscated and kept here,
"Cn enshrouded in a veil of mystery
"H!ch Will probably never be lifted. One
~, tne most startling objects received by
y, 'is department was a perforated tin can
ai,. Mneh were three Arizona rattlesnakes,
80 and in fighting condition. The su-
sott1uendent sent in haste to the Smith
Cr a" institution for the snake-expert o
o o,Ie quick and chloroform them. The
POidtlOn was successfully nerformed as