The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-03

.h ssrvice in the department ae 1H,osbington. William c. House IS post master at Altopa, Mo. Adam Buzzard IS a Pennsylvania mail messenger. J. M. Goose performs similar service in Louis- jana. while Will H. Gander is rural carrier in Iowa and A. B. Goslin is Cal ifornia postmaster. Henry w. Stork holds a similar position in Indiana. There are people called Blizzard, Freeze, Burst, Wonder and a thousand other curious names who help carry on the service
 It is interesting to note, in connection with the agitation that has been going on for some years In favor of parcels post, that today a man can mail package from Washington to Lon don cheaper than he can mall the sam; rackage to Alexaidrla, seven miles away. In other words,
 package that 1t costs cents to mall to
 London will require something like z
 cents to send to Alexandria, This is De-
 cause they have parcels post in England,
 and the United States has an agreement
 with that country.
 The letter carriers of the United States are preparing to buy themselves nome
 for their aged and infrm at Colorado
 Springs. They are now passing the hat
 around for funds, and are meeting with
 success. Every branch of the service
 now has its national organization, and
 most of them have a fraternal Insurance
 order which gives them life and accident
 insurance at rates far below those usu-
 ally charged. In Delaware the rural
 carriers are having trouble with the mos
 quitoes Tho news from there Is that
 they attack the carriers and their horses
 so ferociously that only timely plunge
 in salt water can save them. The post
 master at Dover is said to be at his wits
 end over the situation, because all at tempts to outwit the mosquitoes have been unsuccessful
 Postal employees often have a hard time figuring out the addresses of letters. Some of them are illegihle, some of them are | incomplete, and some of them take the | nature of rebus or some other kind of | a puzzle. Recently a postal clerk got 1 hold of a letter which was addressed: Wood
 John
 | .. Kanaas. The postal officials had to think long | and hard over that letter, but 1t finally was Ia the rIfau TOT whom it was in- tended-John Underwood. Andover, Kan. There are some things that are unmail- ] able by law. but the man who looks over the exhibits in the museum of the dead
 letter office at Washington will readily conclude that the law Is more honored In it's breach than in its observance. one
 may see there almost anything from a toy | locomotive to a needle, and all sorts of creeping things from a ratt1esnake to a 1 bed bug. There are dainty and care | fully fashioned gifts for Christmas that
 were sent to cheer some lonely heart but
 were lost on the way. One of the ex- l hibts is an old white hat bearing little | lines and limericks which tell of the TO-
 mances of school days. There is a rattle-
 snake hide, a doll baby's leg, a grinning | skull. old-fashioned wooden stirrup,
 a woman's hat and the hind leg of wolf. Just think of all the things you
 can that weigh less than four pounds 1 and you will have a pretty good list of | place in the museum of the dead letter | office.
 | Speaking of curious things going | through the mails recalls the experience 1 of a rural carrier in Kansas. One day he | brought his mail into the Topeka office, and after the bags had been in the warm l room little while the air began to grow l odoriferous. There seemed to be a whole | nest of slSunks around somewhere, and | 1t was only after a most painstaking in | vestigation had been made that the | trouble was located. skung hunter on | one of the rural routes had used the mails ' to forward a consignment of belts to a | hide dealer.
 Tomorrow-"Fourteen Feet Through the | Valley