Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-21
POSTAL AMPUTAT|ONS
Useful Information as to the
Use of Stamps.
LETTERS SELF-ADDRESSED
Matter That With Care and Stamps
Becomes Unavailable.
ANYTHING TO BEAT UNCLE SAM
Misguided People Who Hoard Their
Cancelled Stamps for the Pur-
pose of Sale.
ANYTHING TO BEAT UNCLE SAM

If sFtElitt VI "illIlS Ait Srhuti
nam, and address on the back of the en-
velopes." said a clerk In the city post
office to a Star man lis not a good one,
and should not be encouraged on the part
of the public yet is is surprising how many
patrons Of the mails adhere to this custom
and then find fault with the post office
thoritics if their letters thus enormously
salf-addressed go astray.
"Of course all business houses and firms
print their name. street and city address
on the upper left hand corner of the en-
velope. required by the postal reguia-
lions. and my remarks are chiefly eau
tiouary to individuals who appear to think
that II is a Disagreement of the envelope to
make such an inscription.
The postal service uses it's best en-
deavors to deliver it's patrons letters to the
addresses. and, filling in this. to return
the undelivered mail to the senders. This
Is done with comparative ease. where the
address Of the sender also appears on the
envelope While it is true that the assort-
Ing clerks In city post Offices in ar
ranging this uudelivered mail matter for
advertising and alphabetical listing. turn
over the envelope and glance at the back
and thus note a return address. yet il is
also true that this may be overlooked and
the letter go to the dead letter office as
undelivcrabie whereas such would not be
the case Were the writer's name and adj
dress to appear clearly on the Pace of the
enVe!op'. And when t.IiS unbelievable mail
gets TO the dead letter offich, is opened and
the name and the address of the sender
does not appear therein. and il contains no
valuable iuClCsure, il goes into tn, waste.
though in itself tho misSve might be of
the greatest Importance to either the sender
or the addressea, or both. All of this
trouble and annoyance often of a serious
nature TO the n1rtjpS Interested might he
avoided by few scratches OF the pen in
the rIgi., place the envelope by the
sender.
STAMPS Not Postage Stamps.
"Som' persons Will spend a lot of time
and travel long distance to save penny
or two to beat Uncle Sam. where they
might have scruples to get ahead of indi-
viduals IN money deals. and among this
class are thosa who will clip the embossad
postage stamp from the regulation stamped
envelope, which may have become spoiled
In some manner. and aftiX it neatly with
muscilase 10 the upper right hand corner
OF a plain envelope and drop it in the let
ter box.
Then there are some. especially among
our foreign population, to whom all
stamps look pretty much alike who will
perform this postal amputatio1 through ig
norance. but whether through ignorance or
design, postase-due stamps internal reve-
Veiopes or stamps cut from postal cards
will not be accepted in payment of postage
and the afiiX!ng of these stamps instead of
the regulation postage stamps, renders the
mail matter to which they are attached I'M
malta BILE
do we get many of these postal amputa-
tons. as we call them? Yes indeed, we get
pretty much everything through the mails
from live snakes to old Confederate postage
stamps. though the latter are now becom-
Ing very rare stamp is a stamp to some
people. just so the government issues 1t.
and not long ago caught up a bulky
piece of mail matter from Kentucky with
an uncanceled whisky revenue stamp af-
fixed, no doubt in good faith, for the regu-
lar postage.
Suggestions as to Money
"Another suggestion l will give you which
will be Of value to the public is about max
ing change. Some persons Will present
themselves at the stamp windows of our
city post office. flourish a bill of large de-
nomination in the face of the stamp clerk.
insist upon change for the purchase Of a
penny postal card or a two-cent stamp, and
raise fog II the clerk doesn't forthwith
hand out big bundle of bills in change.
CITY post Offices are not in the banking
business with the public in this connection
and only expected to make change as
far possible.
Another erroneous impression on the
part of the public is that it Is supposed
that anybody can go to the stamp window
OF a city post office and dump a bag of pen
MES nickels on the glass ledge and ask
for stamps In return. OF course any one
can do this II he feels inclined but unless
the stamp clerk wants some of this chicken
feed TO reStoCk his penny and nickel boxes,
he can reject all but p cents worth of each
denomination. and require the experimenter
with the clerks temper to gather up the
remainder himself
Sometimes our patrons. especially some
OF the more thoughtless of our fair sisters
are indignant because the stamp clerks will
not aiflX stamps to their letters pack
ages, or trust them for few moments
until they return when they happen to be
shy on the full price of their postage. The
stamp clerks are not required to afflx
Stamps, though some Will accommodatingly
moisten the musctIage from little sponge
cups near at hand for their patrons. es-
pecially ladies. while they are expressly
forbidden to give credit in all instances
even II the applicant happens to be I'M
usually pretty
Facts About Old Stamps.
THE same rule holds true as to the
making tout OF money order forms on the
part of the clerks at the money order win
dows for patrons. To hear some of these
mistaken persons dress-down the money
order clerks in this connection would make
you wonder where they were educated to
acquire such fiuency in rapid-fire speech
ana yet nave 1alleu 10 learn Few rudi-
ments OF every day life.
Another thing to remember about stamps
is that all postage stamps issued by the gov
eminent since 1860 good today for post
age. so II you happen 10 have any of these
old-timers lying around. and wish to mail
q letter you may do SO: IL you find any
that were issued before this date hand
them over TO a stamp collector: they are
worth more than their face value to col
lectors.
And sttll another point is that If you do
happen To have any of these old stamps
don't waste postage writing into the Post
Office Department asking their probable
value; II you do go to this trouble never
theless you Will simply get back In reply
q penalty enveloped answer that the depart
ment can furnish you with no information
regarding rare stamps except as to their
face value.
Some persons imagine that they can
exchange stamps OF one kind or denomina-
ton Tor another. the stamp clerk wishes
to obliSe you to limited extent he can do
SO OF his own volition, the rule OF the
department Is that postage stamps are
neither redeemable from purchasers nor
exchangeab BILE for those OF other denomina-
tions or any other stamp paper; hence be
sure of the exact denomination desired be-
fore taking II away from the stamp win
dow.
s.And you might supposa nv thfS TINA