St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-11-08
OF CHARRED LETTERS.
II Legible They Are Returned 10
Their NAddresses-Redress 1of
Lost Treasures.

The burning of the car does not
necessarily mean the loss OF every
thing in it. Every railway mail car
is supplied with fe extinguishlng ap-
paratus, axes, ETC., in the use OF which
the clerks are instructed, SO that the
best practicable Roadway is mace
against fire, and time is often gained
at least for throwing out that mail
which is in such shape as to be handled
in bulk. OF what is injured by the hre,
part is of course ruined past all hope OF
Identification, if it does not actually
90 up in smoke, says the New York
Evening Post. Letters which are SO
charred as to be ready to drop apart
but are still legible, are put, envelopes
and all, into fresh wrappers. sealed ana
forwarded to their addresses, SO
marked as to indicate what has hap
pened to them. The fragments OF those
which are too nearly destroyed to be
capable of treating that way are
gathered up and sent either to the dead
letter Office in Washington or to the
nearest inspector of the depredations
division. The inspectors are scattered
all over the country, having certain
districts of territory under their Jurls-
i diction. and it is their business to know
their districts very thoroughly. Some
remarkable rescues of letters so bad
" burned as to battle all ordinary IN
; genuity have been made by these men.
Burned remnants are preferably sent
to them, other things being equal, be-
cause sending to the dead letter office
involves the loss Of all the time OF
Journey to Washington and back, to
say nothing of the delay in the office
there, where the work is always more
or less congested. But where
wrecked car contains mail for very
! wide section of the country, and the
contents are SO confused that there
are no proba bilities to proceed on as
:, a basis, nothing is left but to send the
S burned pieces there and let them take
their chances.
d Whenit is finally settled in the mine
S of the writer of letter that it has
J been Destroyed, it depends on goot
q many circumstances whether he cal
get any redress. If the destruction O.
I the car was due to culpable negligence
d on the part of the railway company
d the latter is liable. OF old, the con
t tracts between the government and
d company for mail carriage used t
n stipulate that the company should b
d responsible for losses under certal
It conditions. Later this was made par
e of the general law, so as to do ava
= with the necessity of clause in tn
IS contracts. The difficulty in most case
n lies in producing legal proof OF tn
ID loss itself, the question OF culpa blilt
'e being decided by the regular inqulr
a. into the cause Of the disaster. Eve
le in these days of universal postal col
id veniences not a few men of large
tie fairs are still willing to take risk
;" with the mails which they would NJ
think for a moment of taking wit
anything else. They will enclose
A considerable sum of money, in tt
ed form of government notes or bar
notes. loose into a letter, without s
much as telling a friend of it. drop tt
letter in a post-box and trust the re
-. to luck. OF course nothing but luz
~ ian ever restore that money to the
49, if it is lost in transit. Registered ms
rs rs 10 reasonably safe, if not of too his
: a value, for the government undertak
~ to insure the patrons of its regist
10 service against at least part OF the
~. losses, and the registry office recei
is prima facie evidence that somethi1
of value was in the package which h
not reached it's destination; the re
of the case consists in bringing sat
~ factory evidence of what that thing
III value was. Safest of all the means
me protection provided is the money
lot der: for its documentary evidence
nj spread over four surfaces-the ORD
lat itself. the letter of advice to the payi
IN post Office, the receipt and entry
no. the books of the issuing post office
and any three of the four may
:. destroyed and the government has 81
=, something from which to recogn
~ its liability.
lin, Minnesota's Legal Lacking.
,ss, The state of Minnesota has
the valid Inheritance law on its staff