The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-12
NATIONAL PUZZLE BUREAU
BRANCH OF THDs POSTAL. DEPART.
MENT AT WASHINGTON THAT
SOLVES MANY PROBLEMS
MYSTERIES IN THE ADDRESSES
That Carry Many n Letter to WASH
ington to BE Forwarded After
the Experts Have De-
ciphered Them.

| The puzzle bureau of the postal service
| is located in the postofice DEPART
inert building in this city Half a million
| kEotty problems. involving conundrums
| in geography languagea, spelling and
writing are presented every year to the
clerks in charge Of this division Nine
! tenths Of the mysteries are successfully
solved through the skill and cleverness
! OF the experts in the dead letter office.
which is the great clearing house of the
nation fer misdirccted, Incomplete ana
| illcs IDLY addressed letters.
When It is realized that the cases
| which reach the dead letter office are
Only those that have been worked over
| at the various postoftlces throughout the
country without success, the remarkable
| ability of the experts here will be more
carefully appreciated. Only as last re-
sort are the envelopes broken to enable
the searchers to locate persons for whom
letters are intended. This is an extremity
seldom resorted to, however. as most Ct
the addresses are deciphered without
hesitation and in a manner that is eX-
plainable to visitors only on the ground
Of intuition Much of the credit for the
marvellous proficiency of the dead letter
Office force is supplying deficient names
and addresses and sending lost letters on
the proper path, Is due to Mrs. Patti
Lyle Collins, who has practically mado
past tWenty-one years she has handled
these puzzling missives, rackng her
brains to determine where stupid and
illiterate persons want their letters sent.
With little or no aid she has built up a
system to it's present perfect state. In
recent years she has had the valuable
assistance of Miss Caroline Childs, and,
together, they dispose of the great mass
of dead" letters that drift in from all
the big offices. The old saying that the
hardest worked clerks in the depart
mental service are the most poorly paid
Is exempllied in the case Of these two
women, and when Postmaster General
Smith makes up his next list for increase
of salaries he could not do better than
include in it the names of Mrs. Collins
and her assistant
If a person were to ask what guides
are followed by the dead letter clerks in
solving the problems that are daily pre-
scented to them, the answer would be
that their memories are their guides. 1t
is true that there is at hand a large col
lection of city directories, gazatteers.
year books directories and reference
books generally but the greatest ai1 is
their memories The first thing thu is
attempted when "a dead letter is picked
up is to find the postoffice address of the
person for whom 1t is intended, and when
this is discovered it is forwarded TO that
point with instructions to the local post
master to deliver 1t. When the entire
address, is iIlegible the experts here, when
possible, supply all that is lacking.
While tie Brooklyn Eagle correspondent
was talking with Mrs. Collins she picked
up handful of letters that had just
been sent to her desk. The top one bore
a Scent stamp and was addressed as fol-
lows: