The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-11-01
CLERKS KEPT BUSY.
DEAD LETTER OFFICE HANDLES
MUCH MAIL.
Average Force of One Hundred and
Fifty Persons Employed There
Museum of Curiosities Has
Been Abandoned.

4 VIII give you an epltOme regard
Ing the dead letter office which will BIZ
found of interest" said a postal Off
cial.
THE dead letter office was estab
lished in 1925. and from an insignia
cant beginning has grown into an es
adjustment which gives employment
to an average force of about $50 per
IONS, and handles about II, 000. 000
pieces of mail matter annually. The
work tn which the office devotes it
self Is the disposal of the various
kinds of undesirable mail matter sent
This mail matter is divided into two
general Observation-Disclosures and un
mailable.
"The former includes such matter as
has reached the destination to which
IL Is directed, and has beer uncalled
for, or refused, or of which the adj
dresses cannot be found. The latter
embraces a variety of matter which
Cannot be dispatched for various rea
sons. such rs non-prepayment Of post
age, misdirection, entire want of ad-
dress, etc. The unclaimed matter is
classified as domestic and foreign, the
latter designation, of course, apply
Ing to such as originates in foreign
countries.
THE work of the Office, generally
speaking, is to deliver as much of this
matter as possible, either to the send
81 or addressee, the former almost
exclusively. This disposition Is made
from day to day as far as may be
done. There is a popular fallacy that
matter is held for a stipulated period,
and arranged for delivery upon appii-
cation In much the same manner as To-
cal post Offices are ~cond This
would be wholly impracticable, and re-
ceipt and disposal must be made as
nearly concurrent as possible.
Old Museum Of Curiosities.
"One of the features of the old dead
letter office of the old post office de-
partment building on f street was its
museum of curiosities found In the
mails. There Is o no longer a
distinctively dead letter office mu-
scum. The articles which were for
merly exhibited In 1t, which were of
the diversified and interesting type,
have been included in the general
postal museum. situated in the south
east corner of the city post Office floor
of the main department building, on
Pennsy lvania avenue. Articles of GU
rious interest for which owners can
not be found, and which are without
considerable value, are occasionally
contributed to the exhibit.
From the very large quantity OF
dead mail matter sent to the dead let
ter Office, including periodicals, pic
t%orials, fancy cards. etc. of which
the bulk is consigned to the waste
and sold to contractors, there are
many thousands annually selected
which are at intervals distributed
among some of the benevolent institu-
tons OF the district. such matter be-
ing carefully selected. having in view
the purpose for which 1t is intended.
The dead letter Office, however,
which is now situated on the third
floor of the main department building.
on the south side, is still one of the
features of life in the government of
fees in Washington, even with It's
museums a thing of the past, and all
day long at intervals the visitors and
guides file through the office and
watch the clerks at work. Such Wis
itors are welcome, but all they can
see and all there is to see are a lot
OF very busy clerks behind the wire
gratings working like beavers over
other peoples errors in mail mat.
ters."