Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-14
IN THB MAILS.
Thirty Thousand Articles Go Astray
 in the Post Each Year.

lost things has been established by Uncle Sam at the postotfice depart ment. It is a repository for all ob- jects that go astray on earth-of arti- cles, more exactly speaking, which are found in the mails, unbelievable for one reason or another. Many of them are wrongly addressed, while others are confiscated because "unmailable'' under the law. The collection mum. bers not far from 3O,OO0 specimens, which, viewed as whole, present to the mind a vivid notion of the varie- gated character of the merchandlse transmitted through the agency ot the postal system in this country. . Among the curios thus captured and placed on exhibition for the : amusement of the public are razors. 1 dark lanterns. false teeth, packs ot cards, poker chips, hair curriers', gar i ters, pads for the hips and bust, boxes of bunion plasters, trusses, electric l belts, hypodermic syringes, artificial eyes. imitation whiskers, coffin plates 1 and a wig or two.
 People will persist in sending through the mails live stock of various kinds, particularly reptiles, such as al ligators and snakes. One day not very long ago, seventeen snakes were found in one package-among them rattter eight feet long, one of the biggest ever captured with nine rattles on the end of his tail. Tn the confusion caused by the disclosure of the contents of the parcel one of the serpents, three foot adder. made its escape unobserved and three weeks later the dead letter office was set in stir by the reap pearance of the "varmint' from be- meath desk.
 There is q large two-story glass case i'll the postal museum completely filled with reptiles stuffed or in alcohol, which have turned up in the mails at various times. Tourists who go to Florida are fond of sending small al- ligators home in this way, sometimes alive. From Arizona they forward Gila monsters and horned toads, while giant centipedes and unpleasant-look- l ing tarantulas are always considered appropriate gifts for shipment by post. Many of these animals are sent abroad by people who look upon them as af- fording picturesque illustration of the American fauna.
 One of the most notable curios is a shaving set sent by Pittsburg young lady to young man in whom she was | interested. It consists of a razor with half of it's edge broken off, shaving I brush formed of a beer jerker and a 1 bunch of straws for bristles, q small wooden cup containing sapolio for soap and two or three other things suppos- ed to be appropriate to the masculine toilet Unfortunately the joke missed 1 fire, the package going astray; and that ! is why the damsel's gift is now on eX- l hibition, together with her letter which accompanied it, at the postoffice de- 1 partment. ,k
 There was another joker, a man in this case. who had been thrown over by young lady of Fifth avenue, New York. When the cards were out for her marriage to a rival, he sent to her by mail life-sized colored baby made of calico. She indignantly refused to receive it, and so it found its way to the Limbo of Lost Things. The. girl was surely lucky to have got rid of such a lover, whose sense of shumor was about on par with that of an other person who sent to his lady love a love letter written on q board four feet long, There was 90 cents postage due on it when it arrived, and she very properly declined to pay it.
 Probably intended as an insult was q iawbone without any wrapper ad- dressed to man named Burke at Wa tervliet N. Y, though there was noth- ing on it except the address written on the bare bone, with, a postage stamp It got there all right, but the addressee would not accept it. Yet am other joke and a heavy one, was an ordinary brick done up in paper and sealed and lacking about dollars worth of postage, which the recipient refused to supply. A pigs tail, at tached by a ribbon to a card, went wrong somehow in the post-a misfor- tune, inasmuch as it must have had some occult significance, possibly de risiye
 Opium pipes, packages of refined opium, bottles of stuff thrown up by the Charleston earthquake firecrack
 CTS, kitchen utensils, carpenters tools
 horns and other musical instruments of all sorts help to compose the re
 markable collection described. Of pis tols and knives there is a great va
 riety. One six-shooter, with every
 chamber loaded and at full cock, was | dutLSSSSu lO WOIIdA III Ohio. but perhaps fortunately for her
 she could not be found.
 There is $100 worth of gold nuggets
 awaiting claimant Ditto human
 ear, which nobody has called for. 4
 skull, addressed to Philadelphia doc
 tor, which he would not receive, an(
 the scalp of an Indian woman witt
 long black hair are among the grew
 some contributions. Even more tra g
 ically suggestive is mail bag bear
 ing blood stains and slit with a knife
 It was borne by carrier named Peter son, who July g. 1885, was attacked by Apaches while on the mail rout' from Lochiel to Crittenden, Ariz. H,
 was shot to death and the sack wa
 slit open the letters it contained beins
 torn to bits in search of money.
 Starfish, petrified frogs, silkworn ! cocoons and dried fishes are included ] in the assemblage of curiosities. Ther are pieces of wedding cake, gon astray in the mails, and a pair O 2 gloves which were under water il. - days in the sta&mship Oregon. PeonI