Evening star., 1901-05-04
MAIL THEIR LETTERS FREE.
There Are but Two Ladies' Who Enjoy
This PriNiIeIe.

1T is commonly supposed that only sena-
tors and representatives have the privilege
of writing or stamping a fac-simile of their
signatures upon envelopes. and that. under
the law, all such mail matter goes through
the mails without payment of postage
said a representative to a Star reporter
this morning.
This Is true. and Uncle Sans postal en-
ployes honor our signatures when a bank
teller might not There are two ladies.
however who share with us this privilege,
though this Is a fact not generally known.
and they are the widows of former Presl-
dents Grant and Garfield.
"All mail matter sent by Mrs. Lucretia
R. Garfield and Mrs. Julia ID. Grant, under
their respective written autographic sig
natures. and all mail matter sent to these
two ladies. will be carried free during their
lives. No signature marks are neces-
Sary to the free carriage of mail matter to
either of these ladies. the address being
sufficient. Mrs. Garfield has enjoyed the
privilege since 1881 and Mrs. Grant since
1885,
And in the connection of the free trans
portation of mail 1 will give you a line or
two which is of both local and general
interest. The delegates to Congress from
the territories, the secretary of the Senate
and the clerk of the House of Represent
atives also have the privilege. and there it
ends except for official correspondence OF
the government.
The right of a senator and represent
ative to Use his frank holds good until
the first Monday in December following the
expiration of his term of office, the single
exception being in the case of seeds and
agricultural reports, which may be sent by
or to any member Of Congress or delegate
free for period of nine months after the
expiration Of his term. Members of the
last Congress may continue to use their
franking privilege until Monday, The 2d OF
next December, the day when the Fifty
seventh Congress will convene. The en-
yelopeS must have the word free and the
initials of the official, NJ. c. for repre-
sentative and u. S. s. for senator written
or printed thereon.
Being an Old representative, have been
often asked by new members how they
could get a lot of reports or government
documents into their districts without go
ing to the trouble Of addressing them IN
Washington and saving the annoyance OF
handling the volumes. as well as deciding
to whom they are to be sent. Ii men who
are elected to Congress have this to learn
1t is not supposed that the outside public
would know. They distribute this mail In
this manner:
THE law allows package of franKeI ar-
ticieS to be sent to one addresSee, who on
receiving and opening the package may
place addresses upon the franked articles
and remail them for delivery to their re-
spective addresses.
And we work it this way: We will send
one or a dozen big mail bags filled with
agricultural or other reports to a friend in
our districts with carte blanche to dis
tribute them where he thinks they will do
the most good. People living IN the rural
districts consider it a compliment and spe-
cial mark Of favor to be thus remembered,
and as the agricultural reports are valu-
able to them We disseminate the fnfornla-
ton the government has gone to great ex-
pense to compile. and come IN for g good
work ourselves at the same time. BY this
method the representative and his clerk
are relieved Of a tremendous lot Of hard
work and loss of time.