Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-10
Department to Act in Local
Post Office TangIe.
PUBLIC DEMAND IS Needed
Some Remedial Measure May Be
Adopted at Once.
LAxITY STILL PREVAILING
Letter for Langdon Goes to London
and Back Again-Lecture 1nv1-
tation Nine Days Late.

Definite action by the Post Office De-
partment on the Decentralization OF the
local ONCE will probably be taken this
afternoon, but what form this action will
assume may only be conjectured.
One of the most ingenious flights of the
post official Imagination pecently brought
to notice is.the dispatching Of letter
plainly addressed "Langdon. D. c." to
London, E. c.. giving England temperate
". one more letter than it was entitled to.
Nos so far aheld. but equally inconvenient.
was the trip of letter sent to ]. B. N.
Berry, The Luzon. 2oth street and Penn
sylvania avenue. to The Logan. the let
ter being thus delayed five days. 1t was
mailed In Washington.
Further delays are reported from va
rious persons of invitations to a lecture
by Hamilton w. Mabie. at the Y. M. c. A,
March /. The invitations we're sent out
by Cuno H. Rudolph. February %. Sew
eral. at least, were not delivered until
March 8.
The Treasury Mail.
A reporter from The Star called this
morning upon E. B. Daskam. in the pub
lie moneys division Of the Treasury, to
find out how he was receiving the import
ant mail with which he is intrusted. MI.
Daskam has charge Of preparing the
TIT asury statement, issued daily to banks
and to the press.
ho
Daskam, ''by the delay Of certificates Of
deposit and other important and valuable
mail, which used to reach my desk at $50
am. but which now does not arrive until
almost noon. This makes 1t touch-and-
60 every day whether the bank statement
gets out on time or not. This sort of
thing has been going on for four or five
months, but for a month before that time
we had some relief.
II had requested the authorities in New
York, from whom seven eighths of our
important mail comes. to have printed
In large letters on the envelopes sent to
us the word Important This served to
stir up the local post Office for a month,
but after that the word had no effect. The
mail which does not reach us until noon
Is stamped as arriving in the Washington
ONCE at $50 or 6 am. Maj. Gaines. chief
Of the mail and files division. has COM
planned about the servi,e, but no improve
ment has followed. You'd better come
with me and see Maj. Gaines"
So The Star reporter accompanied Mr..
Daskam to the Office Of Maj. Gaines.
Wanted Better Service.
ct want you to confirm, major" said
Mr.. Daskam, 1.-The statement have made
to The Star regarding the hardness of
the mail and about your visits to the post
Offices to get better service"
Certainly" Maj. Gaines replied. THE
mails are delayed, and I have tried to
can be better served. l have visited Mr..
Barnes and he has told me that Congress
will not allow him enough men to per-
form the work. have also been through
the distributing division and seen the
quantities Of letters-sometimes 10000
piled up. It has been demonstrated to me
that they cannot sort out the Treasury
mail, since to do so would mean the sort
ing of all the letters. and that when that
Is done 1t must all be done as one task. l
have been figuring on plan by which
the Treasury shall have a special mail
pouch from New York. and then we may
get our letters promptly"
The major, however. disclaimed any In
tention Of criticising the postmaster.
If>the United States Treasury is COM
from New York on account Of the in
ability Of the Washington post ONCE. as
at present administered, to deliver its let
tiers promptly. perhaps some scheme
could be devised by various groups Of
District residents whereby they also
be Independent Of the vagaries of the
post office until remedial measures are
applied to 1t. 1t is a scheme worth
thinking over. though somewhat millenial.
primitive method. which may soon be-
come necessary, of dispatching each let
ter by special messenger in order to
feel reasonably sure of its arrival.
Frightened His Brother.
Albrecht Nest of the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company has brother
in Berlin. His brother wrote TO him,
under date Of December %, 1901 The
letter was plainly addressed. but was
sent back to Berlin February :5. 1905,
marked Not Deliverable" Mr. Nests
brother was frightened, thinking his
kinSman dead, but he sent one more
letter. On the chance that it would be
delivered. declaring also that a number
turned In the same way. When, by
chance. this last letter reached it's des.
tination. Mr.. Nest called Immediately on
Postmaster Barnes, who received him
politely and, Mr.. Nest says, assured him
that 1t should not happen again.
But the German letter. aside from the
enlightening comments on the frailty Of
humanity, Is not SO exciting a subject
as the unexpected European trip freely
given to letter mailed in Washington ad-
dressed to person living in Langdon, d.
c. One Of the post Office employees must
have thought that ''Langdon. D. c." was
London. E. c. for he dispatched the
letter across the salt sea waves all the
way to the capital of the United King
dom. London handed out a Welcome to
our city, and then saw the joke, for it
returned the stray with polite intima-
ton that Langdon, D. c., would be found
closer to Washington than Charing Cross
station Is to the Tower.
Army Retiring Board Finds Col.
nAnpoe E,,lI~x