The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-06-26
Everything From Bibles to Bias
sOons Found There.
Joy FOR HAY FEVER PATIENT
Single Bundle of 1,149 Hand
kerchiefs Stored Away.
Result of the Evil of Careless
Addressing.

Washington, d. c., June 26.-Won-
derful beyond belief is the collection
of articles which the postoface de-
partment can make within a year
from the mail that can't be delivered
because of bad addresses. Through
the benevolent agency of the parcels
post the department has this year ex-
ceeded all records. and upon the
shelves Of the historic ,1ead letter Of
flee are q series of packages contain
soons
All of these articles were sent to
the wrong address: Their original
packages were stampe\ and re-
stamped until the paper was worn
out. They have such announcements.
mot at that address, try SO and SO. !"
"Try the next county.
In fact, there are more suggestions
as to different things to try than you
would find in the Office OF a patent
medicine vendor. For the sake of
convenience, the officials Of the dead
letter Office have Jumped certain arti-
cleS together In large packages. Thus
one passes q package of handker-
chiefs and runs into a bright young
assortment of brass castings. Or,
turning from a particularly melan-
choly collection of books, he runs
smack into a collection of toys that
might have come right out Of the bag
of Santa Claus.
Think of the joy of King Solomon or
good old Brigham Young If they had
lived in these days and times and had
given to them the contents Of the dead
letter office. There Is a single pack
age that contains pa women's aprons,
with fifty-one assorted garments. which
the gay young nappers of these parlous
times consider obsolete.
Then there are 176 pairs Of hose
bundled together.
Even the most pessimiStic sufferer
from hay fever cheers up when he goes
by the handkerchief department Of the
dead letter office. There Is a single
handkerchiefs reposing near him. which
is about the number that hay fever
patient uses during a twenty-four-hour
day..
If the postoffice department decided
to give away its toys it could present
one-and probably more-to every boy
and girl in the city Of Washington.
They are in abundance. They are every
where-dolls and elephants. and little
carts and dishes, and all the other
things that are reminiscent of Christ
mas time.
Caps OF Aviators.
Sixty-six aviators in the United States
are wondering where those AVIATION
caps are that they were told about in
The caps are in the dead letter office
with some automobile hoods.
1t Is astonishing how many motor
cyclists must have broken down in the
road and written for help during the
last year. In the dead letter office
there repose four speedometers, II
tires. 20 pairs of goggles and 1876 parts
Of machinery-the kind of furniture
which one always finds around the
greasy and perspiring man who has
stopped his machine 20 miles from any
where on a hot Sunday afternoon.
And the dead letter Office must ring
at night with the disappointed cries Of
many fishermen. It has received 1872
fishhooks and 595 pieces of fishing
tackle. The only thing the dead let
ter office hasn't got is the fishernian's
alibi.
Yet the office has done some good.
It corralled during the past year 573
miscellaneous musical instruments and
6,846 talking machine needles. That
meant that there are about 600 disap-
pointed musicians in the United States
thousand persons who would have had
to listen to them If the instruments had
arrived safely.
From musical instruments to hair
switches is nothing for the dead letter
office. They have ninety-eight
switches Of hair and sixty-two Access
series stored away. This is nearly
equal, in bulk. to the crop Of whiskers
raised by the Populist party in Kansas
during the Bryan campaign of 1896
A few other side lines in the dead
letter office are avis, bicycle tires,
shotguns. horse blankets and picture
postal cards to the number Of about
10000. There are also brass castings
and parts whose aggregate weight is
estimated a. two and one-half tons