Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-05-11
1T COSTS TO BE CARELESS.
Surprising Result of an Inquiry Int
Reckless Methods of Men.

Surprising Result of an Inquiry Into
Reckless Methods of Men.
The somewhat meodramatic if not
grewsome sound in the title. dead-let
ter office, the report of which the gov
eminent binds in pink cover meary
red, seems appropriate to the matter.
IT'S is information of the kind that
the social student or historian of civ
ilization might find valuable. The
number of pieces of mail matter of all
kinds that came to the deadletter Of
flee in the last fiscal year was 10, 1884,
52S; this was an increase of So pee
cent over the previous year. While the
per cent of increase necessarily dimin-
ishes each year, the superintendent
says a comparison of the reports for a
series of years shows a heavy and con
tinuous increase each year; that is, we
are getting more careless instead of
less so. About seven-tenths of the
total was ordinary unclaimed letters.
which shows an increase of 0 per, cent
over the previous year.
Ordinary letters returned from for
eign countries increased 60 per cent.
Letters with return al ess in
creased slightly. There IS an in
crease of nearly I per cent in the NUN
Der of letters and parcels held for
hostage Misdirected letters-and here
is one of the strongest arrangements OF
our intelligence-numbered G94. 97I
fthis did not include postal cards.,
~fD
and is unprecedented And who would
think that in the course of the year
IS, 1896 persons had been so absent
minded as to mail matter with 10 al
dress at all (and among it letters with
money, jewels, etc.? But so it was
last year. In round numbers about
100 letters day last year were posted
without addresses.
Letters sent to hotels and failing of
delivery numbered 80, 1876, and this
was a slight decrease from the pre-
yious year. There were 11,075 letters
and packages sent 10 fictitious ad-
dresses; this was a decrease from the
year before of nearly forty thagsand,
but IA that year there had been tran
sent causes (what. the superintendent
does not say a phenomnea! increase
OF more than forty-five thousand.
About the same amount of money
went astray as in previous years
S4S.634.04. 1t came in 51,146 letters.
BESIDES this. there was 81, 493,J63.G5 in
drafts, money orders, checks, etc
There were deeds, wills. pension GER
titicates, insurance policies and such
things that found their way to the
dead letter office Nearly three million
pieces of matter were held awaiting
delivery, or flied because they could
not be delivered, and his. was an in
crease of about 10000. The great
amount of this matter is due TO the
failure of the writer's to give their
names and address and the sending of
advertising and printed matter under
seal (Which must be destroyedI; also,
because n large per cent of the parcels
do not contain merchandise. but 'cat-
alogues and the like. medicines and
perisha5le articles, which must be de
strOyed."
Among other things that went to
this poStoffice graveyard were S0030
photographs and 249, 25J pieces of mat
ter in which were postage stamps-an
increase of nearly 10 per cent Here
is another curious thing. There were
separated from letters in the mail and
found loose in the mail and in post
offices $J.S219O worth os stamps that
could not be returned If it is any
consolation to those of us that have
waited for the letter that never
came" it is to be noted that the super
intendent says that about 100 manu-
script communications were received
by the office pertaining TO the treat
ment of mail matter.-Indlanapolis
News.