Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-10-20
FIND NEARLY ALL.
interesting Means Employed in Postoffice
to Deliver Misdirected Letters
and Packages.

claIly, socially or otherwise will NOT
deter him from securing his mail. even
II lhsufhclently addressed, if he will but
take the pains to get in touch with the
postofiice employees and advise them of
his address.
The stranger who comes to Milwaukee
TO reside should go to the postoffice early
and register his address and when he
has occasion to change that address if he
notlhes the clerks he will get his mail
at his new address, regardless of the
carelessness of his correspondents.
fOr years the various postma sters
nave been laboring to keep in touch with
All the residents of the city and to main
tam a complete record of their addresses
ana that feature OF the work is a par
Owen
1t is a wonderful institution. this post-
ONCE system, ana to get behind the ca SEES
ana watch the clerks at work is a priyi-
lege that the layman would enjoy if
Cncle Sam were not so particular But
he is. No one is permitted behind the
postoffice partition who has not taken
the oath administered to every employe
IN the mail service. Therefore some of
the secrets of the system as given nv
the postmaster may be interesting.
In the general delivery department is
kept large directory. 1t is the latest
oihclal publication, with a great many
blank leaves inserted. These leaves are
inserted, two or three between each two
printed pages. If a stranger, John Brown,
comes to the city and leaves his name
and address at the postoffice, the name
and address is inserted in its regular al
phabetical place in the directory
IT. thereafter, a letter comes addressed
TO John Brown, Milwaukee, Wis, with
out street and number, the clerk in the
general delivery department will ascer-
tain the address from the directory and
send the letter by the postman on that
route, with instructions to ascertain if
that letter is intended for the particular
John Brown in question. However * is
always safer and better, and is liable to
cause less delay if correspondents are in
Structed to address to the street and
number.
In addition to the directory. cards bear
ing names of persons recently arrived in
Milwaukee are placed in the distributing
cases. There are three letter cases in
the general delivery department These
are subdivided alphabetically from A to
G, II to n. and o TO Y. At each case
are two clerks, who work eight hours
each The day at the postotIice is but
eleven hours and hence there are three
hours when two are on duty al each case.
1t is the duty of the retiring clerk at that
time 70 spend the three hours in direc-
tory work
TIL alphabetical divisions are subdivid-
ed as closely as possible, and in case
John Brown arrives in the city and
leaves his address as 80 Washington
street, his card with name and address
is placed i'll the alphabetical section '.Br,"
The clerk whose duty it is to study the
directory and do similar work, has Just
put in five hours at the case and nav
have taken out the "Br." letters several
times. He will naturally remember that
letter, if he sees the name in the direc-
tory, if percEance the card has not been
placed, and it is his duty to try the
letter; that is, he is to send it to John
Brown, whose name is found in the di-
rectory as living at 80 Washington
street.
However. the directory address is not
usually required, for the card properly
indexed has called the attention of the
clerk to the address before this Sup
pose the clerk is remiss and does not
study his directory carefully The post
office department requires all letters to
be returned to writer's, when they can
not be delivered, and if that can not be
done they are to be sent to the dead let
ter office. Each day a clerk goes through
all letters. noting the day of receipt A
letter bearing a three days return notice
is sent back at the end of that time A
ten-day notice is observed at the end if
that time. and at the end of thirty days
all letters whose writers have neglected
to give their names in the corner of the
envelope are sent to the dead letter of
fec
In these various ways letters are han
died by the clerks many times every
day, and it would be difficult for a letter
to lie in the Office long if the address of
the one for whom it is intended has
been registered.
When a person moves his residence,
and files his change of address, a card
is made out and placed in a file. Be
fore being filed, to be used in case of
defective address. the postman on the
route of the new address and the post
man on the route of the former address
are required to enter the change i'll
books provided for them for that pur-
pose. If John Brown gives notice that
he has moved from Wisconsin street to
Twenty-third street. that change is re-
corded in three places. The card is
filed, and a record made in the book of
the carrier on both streets, obviating
danger of error.
The postotfice department is n secret
work so far as divulging information
is concerned. 1t would be a sufficient
cause for release from service for a
postman to give the address of any per-
son. He may take a letter properly
stamped, and the clerks will make it
their duty to try and deliver it to the
one addressed regardless of the faults in
the address. but he must not tell
This is done for the protection of the
patrons of the office. it being a rule of
the United States that all letters and
all matters pertaining to them and TO
addresses are secret and sacred 1t is
a very severe offense under the postal
laws to impede the mails or to open
letters intended for some one else, and
the government makes object lessons
of all cases brought to its notice, by in
ficting severe punishment.
Therefore, if a person desires to ascer-
tain another's address, he may do il.
by writing a letter and asking the post
office employees to endeavor TO deliver
it to its destination. If a return notice
is given and the letter does not come
back, the writer may be certain it has
1,1, v