Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-01

Familiar as souvenir post cards have
come to be- it is safe to say that but
few persons have any idea of the i'm
mense quantities of them which are
sent through tie mails in this country.
An official of the Brooklyn postoffce
said today:
"The number of souvenir cards pass
l. through this office in the summer
vacation season Just ended has been
enormous, severely overtaxing the en-
ployes and causing unavoidable delay
in the handling of mail matter not of
the first class. These cards began to
circulate here I'm a noticeable degree
about four years ago, an steadily in
creased until last year, for the first
| time they began seriously to burden
the mails. In this last summer the
flood of them has been something ap-
palllng, beginning to flow about July
is and to ebb on September 1. The for
eign mail contains a great many of
these cards, coming all the year round,
but 1t is the American cards, sent from
all parts of the country in the vacation
season, which have caused the bulk Of
trouble.
AT one time have seen $4,000 of the
cards on the distributing table in the
city delivery division Of the Brooklyn
postofice. This was when they had
been sorted out so as to give letter
mail and regulAr postal cards the pref
erence, for, although the souvenir cards
are first-class mail by rate Of postage,
the other first-cl IS mail is presumed
to be the more important, and is expe-
dited ahead of them in most of the
large offices. AS first-class mail,
though, the souvenirs have the prefer
ence over the second, third and fourth
class matter, which has been delayed
In consequence. The latter classes of
mail have also been heavy in the last
summer to a degree before unheard of.
This was largely due to a great deal of
advertising through the mails by means
of circulars (of which, for instance, a
single Brooklyn firm sent $4,000 to this
office in one day. and to the extensive
circulation of certain periodicals., one
of which alone furnishes us with about
150 sacks monthly. At times 400 and 500
sacks of newspapers have been piled UP
In this office, awaiting the distribution
of the first-class mail.
"At the Coney Island office, in the
outgoing mail from September / to
September 3 Oabor day., inclusive,
there were 175,000 souvenir cards, figur-
ing by the stamps and the bulk of the
matter had to be sent to IT, Brooklyn
office to be handled there by the mail
ing division. On Friday, September Z,
there were 100000 of the cards in the
Coney Island office, partly owing to a
baby show the day before. In the week
ending September s there came to the
Brooklyn office, addressed to one pri-
vate house in the city, not less than
fifty souvenir cards all sent from one
neighborhood in Sullivan county, and
probably posted by not more than half
a dozen persons.
"All post cards regarded as indecent
or improperly suggestive are stopped,
and sent to the dead letter office to be
destroyed. Formerly they were received
in large numbers, mostly in the for
eign mails, but these have become COM
paratively few, and It Is believed that
they have been stopped by the postal
authorities on the other side. Those
received now, about one hundred and
fifty month, are chiefly posted in this
country, but most of the worst were
printed in Europe"
In the New York Postoffice
At the New York postoffice Assist
ant Postmaster Morgan said that i'm
mense numbers of souvenir cards had
passed through the office during the
last summer, the quantity having quad
rupled since last year. but that the
force had been able to handle them
without delaying other matter.
In the official language of the de-
partment, he said, the term postal card
was applied to the regular United
States card, while post card was the
designation of the private mailing
cards, requiring stamps. The New
York office had been getting from 800
to 1000 post cards day. either without
stamps or with insufficient postage,
the greater number of these bearing
a One-cent stamp whereas the letter
rate of two cents was required by the
regulations, because messages were
written upon the face or address side
In such cases a notice was sent to the
addressee, informing him that If the
proper postage was remitted the card
would be forwarded, and so many oc-
o-A@.-.M..n