Evening journal., 1901-07-13
LARGE AMOUNTS ANNUALLY LOST
BY SENDING COIN THROUGH MAILS

Every few days" said the manager
of Washington publishing house to a
Washington Star reported, Il receive a
letter like this:
"'Last week | sent you so cents in
silver coin for a months subscription
TO your periodical. Is it worth while
to inform you that you value my pat
ronage so lightly that you have not
seen fit to send me even a sample
copy? l posted the letter myself right
in the postoffice box, so that you need
not reply that you failed to receive
my valued favor" as you will no doubt
do when you find ii convenient to reply
at all. OF course you will put the
blame upon the Postoffice Department,
when in all probability you have re-
ceived the money and spent it, Please
send your publication at once or re-
turn my SO cents. / am exceedingly
provoked at your dilatoriness.'
"Of course, We never received the
money in this and similar instances, so
we write an apolOgetic letter and wish
1t We're in our power to let every pa
trCn Of the mails who wishes to become
one of our patrons know that he
should not send coin in envelopes and
expect to receive in all instances the
paper or goods for which il is sent
In speaking to the managers of
other Washington business houses On
this subject, | was surprised to learn
to what a large extent this practice
prevails. The big stores in Washing
ton all maintain mail order depart
ments which have a large number of
customers in the towns and rural dis
tricts of Virginia and Maryland, and
many thousands Of dollars come into
the city annually from this source
These men all stated that the
letters they received were of about the
same tenor as the one / have given you,
and that the monetary loss, to say
nothing of The vexatious delay in filling
the orders, must be considerable"
THE postoffice department receives
annually thousands of inquiries con-
cerning such losses" said a postal Off
cial who happened to be present, land
there are several reasons other than the
commonly thought of one of theft why
these letters do not reach their ad-
dresses.
"Of course, nearly everybody sup
poses that they are stolen by dishonest
postal employees, and most of them are
luA AAflAAtu. IL - NNAy easy AOl Tic Nultl
to detect the coin, even if it is so small
as a ten-cent piece. Where there are
several coins or a quarter Cr 50-cent
piece it is like finding money to the
dishonest employe into whose hands it
falls.
There are several methods Of send
ing coin through the mails to avoid
detection, and the most common is to
fit the pieces into spaces cut out Of
pasteboard. When the hand Is run
over the envelope the presence of the
coin cannot be detected, but if the let
ter is bent backward and forward the
thief, from his long experience in
handling mail matter, detects the coins
therein, and they go into his pockets
forthwith.
"As you stated, most of this money
comes from the rural districts. where
the quality of envelopes is usually in
ferior. AS all mail matter is more or
less roughly handled in transit, espe-
cially in rubbing and coming in contact
with heavy and bulky pieces Of matter
In the mail bags, the corners of the en-
velopes are worn or become torn, and
the coins drop out in the mail bags, or
in postCffices, and cannot, of course,
be identified. So they are sent to the
Dead Letter Office and that is the way.
no doubt, your correspondent lost his
money.
IF the managers OF business houses