The sun., 1903-12-27
A Special Sale of 25c. Books for 14c.
the andcl

| There we're nearly 100000 merely mis-
directed letters and packages. exclusive
Of postal cards, in last years mails, an in
crease of more than 20 per cent. These
| the Department managed TO set on the right
! course.
But out of all the 10000, 600 pieces OF
mail matter that passed through the Office
only l,250 900 pieces could be returned to
their owners, even after experts who can
solve almost any old sort of postal riddle
had opened them and studied their con-
tents
How much of hurry We are in, or how
careless we are, is shown in the fact that
of the letters opened in the Dead Letter
Office 81 400 contained money. Altogether
the office took out $4,000 in currency, and
besides this $1,000 more letters contained
bank checks, money orders, drafts and
other forms Of money, till altogether there
! was 81, 10000
Some of this money was in blank en-
velopes, with not trace of either sender
or intended recipient. More than 1900
couldn't be returned, so it was turned in
TO the Government treasury and benefited
everybody in the aggregate to the extent
of minute fraction of mill apiece
More than $4,000 persons sent their photo
graphs in wrappers 30 Dlindly or SO i'm
perfectly addressed that nobody could tell
for whom the pictures were intended.
The Post Office could have fine gallery of
family portraits if it had room, but il hasn't ,
50 they are destroyed Besides photo
graphs and currency, 249,OOO letters con-
tanned postage stamps. Uncle Sam was the
gamer Of S. 900 from that source alone.
The hospitals and charitable institutions
lIfr ~. 81,
another phase OF the national carelessness.
Under the law the magazines, illustrated
papers, fancy cards and such things which
go astray and for which owners can't be
found are distributed among these as they
come in. Last year these Institutions got
more than 10000 picture books and papers
from this source, bountiful supply which
many New York institutions would like to
share.
AS to the packages, the public gets these
oackLbut at a price The Department
merchandise not returnable to the owner
be retained for year in the Dead Letter
Office and then sold at auction. They
used to be held for two years, but the num-
Der OF packages has increased so rapidly in
recent years that it has become necessary
to have clearance annually. Nobody is
the worse for that.
The annual auction sale was held in
Washington the other day. and of all the
strange collections of rubbish the stuff
disposed OF at this sale was surely the
queerest. There We're rather more than
1000 lots in three sections jewelry, books
and miscellaneous
The last section was the biggest. There
were $500 lots in it. The net sum turned
over to the Treasury Department as the
result will he about $4,000. The last an
nual sale brought only $7,l30.
"Jewelry' sounds impressive, rather
more so, in fact, than the collection war
ranted. There were few diamond studded
articles in it, though there were some The
mos; valuable items in the list were three
rings, gold nugget scarf pin and many
pairs Of opera glasses.
There were dozens of wedding rings,
watches of all kinds brass, gold plated,
silver. nickel and even solid gold. if the
catalogue is any guide; and it was evident
that the cataloguers had put their best
efforts into not overestimating the value
of anything No fakes--none of the usual
tricks of the auctioneers' cataoguers for
the catalogue said so, If it was gold filed
it wasn't catalogued as gold. The pub
lie wasn't, knowingly, cheated into paying
more than the worth OF the thing.
Pens-gold and pearl and such-figured
prominently in the jewelry section. Next
came silver toilet articles and tableware
Many silver basket could have been fur
nished from the large collection of forks
and spoons which the senders had allowed
to 60 astray and had never sought again.
Then there were pins of almost every
existing society and fraternity. and all
sorts of small regalia plentiful sup
ply of athletic and other medals and
literally hundreds of foreign coins A
more comprehensive collection OF small
wares and commonplace trinkets was
probably never got together.
The book schedule had nearly q thousand