Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-06-11
7,OO0.O 900 Letters Go
Astray Nearly livery Year
Uncle Sam Keeps Big Room Full Of
Clerks on Hand to Read Con-
tents and Extract Valua-
bIes from Packa ges.

FURNISHES occupation Tor a big rOOmfu
OF clerks. Not few Of them owe thei
fate to illegible addresses, and these, i
exceptionally hard to decipher, ar,
handed over to woman employe VIII,
is famous for her skill as a "bline
reader. Some Of her performances in
this line are nothing short of marvel
Gus. Once in while it happens tha
somebody mails cryptogran for {
joke, afoTding q problem of much diff
ficulty. Carelessness is resi- sponsible TO
a great majority Of the accidents Ii
the course Of a year about 80, 900 letters
containing money find their way to the
dead letter office, and it is astonishing
how many packages and letters are
posted without any address at all or
envelope or cover, writes Rene Rache
1t happens occasionally that people
refuse TO receive letters or parcels ad
dressed to them, and such articles even
tually reach Uncle Sans capacious
w l..
When it is considered that more than
10000 packages of merchandise find
their way to the dead letter office in the
course OF year, it is not surprising
that many OF the articles are strange
and curious. Apparently there is moth
ing small enough to do up in parcel
that people will not send through the
malls-not even high explosives, rep
tiles bottled in alcohol, or live ami
mails. All such things, as well as fluids
and pointed instruments, are classed
as unmailable, and when recognized
are promptly confscated.
AS for live animals, only one kind is
allowed in the mail; namely bees. In
these days a great many of the little
honey getters, mostly queens-though
sometimes the female is accompanied
by half dozen workers-are shipped
by post in small wooden boxes of pre-
scnbed pattern, special indulgence in
regard to them being granted by law
They are intended for breeding pur-
poses; and, quite naturally, consign-
ments of them turn up now and then
at the dead letter office
Centipedes, tarantulas and horned
toads, both living and dead, are fire.
quently received at the dead letter Of
fee. People who visit Arizona usually
consider it the proper thing to send
home few horned toads, these being
regarded as a typical local product, and
new and then they forward a Gila
or two at second class rates.
A living rattler with nine rattles,
which went astray in the post, now re-
poses in glass jar of alchol, labeled
''From Florida" But the most alarm
ing parcel to date proved to contain II
small snakes, all squirming and wrig-
gly
Among the odds and ends in the col
lection of curiosities are false whiskers,
brass knuckles, coffin plates, wigs,
poker chips, rat traps, pocket cook
stoves, dental instruments, pipes and
tobacco, opium pipes and packages Of
opium, corn huslking gloves, kitchen
utensils, musical instruments, spirit
photographs, starfish, petrified frogs,
idols from Mexico silkworm cocoons,
and baby alligators from Flerlda.
A relic somewhat out of the ordinary
is a revolver which was sent in pack
age, at full cock, to woman in Spring
field, Ohio. All of its six hambers
were loaded, and that it did not go off
is a wonder. Another oddity was a
lock of hair forwarded by Charles G..
Guiteau, the assassin OF Garfield, to a
woman in Cincinnati-it was his own
hair, by the way-With request that
she contribute thousand dollars fol
the defense.
Notwithstanding the regulation for.
bidding the transmission of explosives
by mail, large quantities of firecrackers
and torpedoes, thus dispatched, are
confscated. Most people seem to think
that it is the business OF the Postotfice
Department to carry everything. One
O. the letters preserved is written on
the jawbone Of a dog, with stamp af-
fixed.
Likewise carefully preserved for curl,
osity's sake are packages of dried herbs
which were fonnd to contain dutiable
articles. Smuggling through the mails
is frequently attempted: but does moi
often succeed, because the postal au
thorities cooperate with the customs
service in watching every letter OF
bundle that can reasonably be suspect
ed Of containing anything contra band