The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-16


 mands the greater portion of the post card business, and while most people still send cards to show where they have been and what they have seen, it is d fact that to a great many of the faddists q post card is a picture card and nothing more Thus 1t is that every imaginable thng may be had on a post card Copies of every famous painting in the galleries of Europe are to be had, as well as Gib son girls, Hut heads Christy beauX. Opper cartoons, Buster Browns, Mo Cutcheon sketches, Bergman bears everything
 The season and holidays are remenn- bered, of course. and St Valentine last year had to be introduced to an entirely rev corns of Cupids Easter, Christ mas and every holiday is sure to cause e i.tou ui pOsl cards through the mails. European peoples have always been lib- eral buyers of portraits of rulers and prominent people. Thus far Americans have not indulged that peculiar. fancy but the post card portraits of prominent people are quite popular. Those of MT Roosevelt lead all others, of course. For eign visitors to the United States never fail to buy the post card pictures of the President and his family
 Tho postoffice authorities have made d
 
 sending vulgar and obscene cards through the mail Of course any of these cards mailed as a card are immediately stopped and sent to the dead letter office, but many of them are sold in various places and 1t must be presumed that they are sent in sealed envelopes. The sealing of the envelope does not protect the offender from the law. and penitentiary sentences are awaiting some of the coarse persons ..ft,a otto tn Q riaa f1t fad In n an indecent one. Four thousand or 5O00 cards considered unfit are turned into the dead letter office each month Some of them are really shocking.
 Through these returns the observing officer in the dead letter office may get a line on the morals of various sections of the country as reflected in the judg- ment of the postmaster, who is the judge of what is unfit" New York, for in- stance can see nothing wrong in the portrait of an actress as she habitually appears on the stage even if she is clad in tights. St. Louis, the contrary. IS strictest of the larger cities and post cards with shocking stockings do not get by the Missouri censor The larger cities, as q rule, are inclined to be much more lenient than the country towns
 "Unmafa ble. post cards, of which so. many come to the dead letter office ln cude not only those considered unfit, but many other classes. Those cards which are decorated with tinsel made of mica or glass, for instance, never reach the addressee but are sent directly to the dead letter office. This tinsel was found to be very injurious to the eyes of the clerks, and was, therefore, declared by the department to be unmailable s- those cards which have anything what ever pasted or attached to them are un- mailable as post cards and are dead if they do not have the 2-cent stamp P quired by letter postage rates. A scheme was arranged whereby cards were mailed in thin transparent envelopes, to keep them clean, the envelope having a hole cut just over the stamp to permit can ceiling. The department held that such envelopes were mailable only at letter rates, so the dead letter office received hundreds of them every day
 There is a popular notion that the postoffice is careless of these souvenir cards, but it is erroneous. The postofflce makes every effort to deliver them to the addressee. Norfolk, for instance has been literally flooded with post cards all summer on account of the Jamestown ex- position. A young lady visiting in Nor folk addressed a post card to a friend in St. Louis. She gave his name and street address correctly, but inadvertent- ly wrote Chicago, ILL" Instead of St. Louis, Then she dropped the card in the box without stamp. The postoffice at Norfolk sent an official notification to the Chicago address, saying the post card would he Forwarded on receipt of postage. The Chicago postoffice knew there was no such street and number in Chicago The directories were consulted, and such a street being located in St. Louis the Chicago postoffice forwarded the letter from the Norfolk postoffice to St. Louis. It was there delivered to the right man, he sent a 1-cent stamp to Norfolk, and in course of a few days got the post card This is an incident which shows how even the busiest of offices take care of the post cards And in spite of that care 40,000 of them a day are dead. It is a mighty fad.
 Tomorrok-"The Banks of the Richest of Nations.
 WANTEn