The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1906-05-30
Uncle Sans Dead Esttsr
Office Brought Up.tu.D,t,
Observation-Disclosures, !,

Postmaster-eeneral Cortelyou 81.
he Is desirous of undermining tho ~ ~
tai service in every respect. He a.
present paying particular attentlon !.
the division of dead letters. in orass
that all of the enormous amoun, :.
WORK there may be properly handlaa
Fourth Assistant Postmaster-Ge Geners,
he Graw has been giving his persons
attention to this division. and has :.
Gently materially strengthened N,
force by the addition of d number :,
competent clerks from other dlvison,
inder his supervision.
lThe dead letter office is becomin,
lie of the most important divisions q,
he department, and the skill that !,
Jelng developed by the employees IN
:heir own particular lines is somethln,
more or less remarkable AS n resnl,
)f the enlargement of the force tbs
1eavy accumulation of mail. numbo,
ing upward of 100000 pieces, has been
completely wiped out. and the work 4
low up TO dare.
The monthly report of the division
Of dead letters shows that the numbor
II unopened letters on hand on Febru.
lry 2S last was $4,000. against 23OOO
On January 81. This reduction is very
pleasing to Mr.. De Graw. as it shows
the efficiency of the force under his al.
cection. In the month of February ot
the present year 100000 more letter,
were opened than We're opened in the
same month last year. Last month
$1,000 letters We're returned TO the
senders, and altogether 73S, coo letters
were disposed of in various ways. The
lead letter FUNDS delivered into the
office of the Third Assistant Postmas
ter-General amounted to $1312.57 fol
February.
Few persons, perhaps. realize ;he i'm
mensity of the work performed by
this division. Established in 1925 with
nm insignificant force, 1t has grown &c
be the largest division of the Postofice
Department, employing 40 persons
three-fourths of whom are women
An aged employc, recently deceased
after Il continuous service of more than
forty years, recalled that he and one
other clerk were able in the most lels
urely manner to open all dead letters
received. The same person recalled
the fact that 1t was the custom at one
lime to convey unreturnable dead let.
ters to what is now the White Lot,
south of the White House, where they
were burned.
The division is divided into several
sections. The employees in each of
these have specified duties. in which
they become amazingly deXtrous. In
the opening section, for instance. there
are experts who have each opened in
excess of $500 letters in one day. Sur
prislng proficiency is also attained by
the clerks engaged in correcting wrong
or insufficient addresses. Thousands
Of apparently hopeless cases of misdl-
rection are set Alright by these EN-
ployes.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the
department to lessen the amount of
dead matter by means of printed circu-
lars and posted notices to users of the
mails, giving advice as to means of
avoiding loss to mail matter by observ.
ing proper care in addressing, etc.. the
number of pieces received in the divls-
ion of dead letters continues to in.
crease, reaching Il total of 11,500,000
in 1903. Letters and packages bearing
the addresses of the senders are. under
The rules, when delivery is rot possible,
returned directly from the postoffice of
destination to the senders. 1t is sur
priSlng that this important method of
insuring the return of mail matter, au-
thorized half a century ago is not more
generally employed in correspondence.
OF the letters and parcels opened in
1905 there were enclosures of money
in 76,9S3; drafts, etc, in 70,404; photo
graphs in s5,315 and postage stamps
in 31G,557. Those containing merchan-
disc numbered 331,4 ,42G. The actual
money found amounted to $59,1O1. .1G,
and the face value of the commercial
paper found was S1,6O3, 1876. The
last annual sale of undelvered mer-
chandise included 115,00O articles,
made up into S162 lots, and the pro-
ceeds, excluding all expenses, netted
$7054.03.
The beneficence of the service Is IL
Illustrated in small degree by the distrl-
button from time to time. among the
benevolent institutions of the District
of Columbia, for the use of their iu-
mates, of undellvered periodical and
other printed matter suitable for the
purpose This distribution includes
magazines, pamphlets, picture cards,
etc.-Washington Star.