Evening star., 1915-02-14
damage having ever been done by one
of theaA hnuouar

damage having ever been done by one
of these. however.
1t is not, however, the practical
joker or the person seeking an easy
revenge that presents the difficult
problem. Their contributions are only
occasional, and often come as an anus
ing break in the monotony of sorting
lost mail. 1t Is the tremendous num-
Der of careless persons. who commit
all sorts of articles to the care of the
government without adequate wrap
ping or address. who make the dead
letter system necessary.
"A very typical example is the person,
probably a fond mother in the coun-
try, who sent to her boy in town a
socks and a check for So. all made
quately wrapped and tied in one bun
die. They were found in the mail
bags, loosely held together by the
string. but the wrapper with the ad-
dress upon 1t could not be found.
A very large proportion of the lost
articles listed at the fifteen division
cities are reported as found loose in
the mail bags. showing that careless
and Inadequate wrapping is the cause
of great deal of lost mail.
The failure to place a return ad-
dress upon mail is also to blame for a
great deal of loss. This is required
upon all parcel post mail and should
be placed upon everything sent by
mail, but great numbers Of both let
ters and parcels annually find their
way to the dead letter Office because
the addresses cannot be found and the
address of the sender is unknown.
More lodge pins and buttons are lost
in the mails than any other one class of
articles. Appa-
Some Of the Things rently this is be-
Lost in the Mails. aass sess .rs ,as nscas- psss
sarily very small, and it is hard to
write both the address and the return
address upon them in clear and legi-
BILE hand. Also, many of them cut
through their wrappings and are found
loose in the mail bags.
Photographs of all sorts, and espe-
numbers. and as they have little or no
commercial value are usually de-
stroyed.
A glance at the lists of articles re-
ported from all parts of the country
shows that the greater part of the ma
terial sent by parcel post is of trifiing
value. A book of sacred love. a shome-
scope, pair of plated cuff buttons.
toy aeroplane and rubber ball are
among the things found loose in the
bags and sent to Boston recently.
There are. however, some striking ex-
ceptions to this prevailingly trivial
character of the dead parcels" Every
year brings to the dead letter Office a
crop of fine laces. often single pieces
being worth hundreds of dollars. They
are generally sent from abroad.
The international parcel post is an
other cause of trouble. for every article
n a
declaration of its nature on the cover,
SO that the customs dues may be as
sessed. Then, too, there are q surpris-
ing number of people who are more
fuse a parcel post package rather than
pay the customs dues upon it. Every
Christmas a large number of gifts are
refused by the recipients because of
unpaid customs dues, often amounting
to no more than a few cents. In such
ca ses the postmaster can do nothing
but send the package to headquarters,
from which it will be returned to the
sender, if possible.
Some very strange articles cross the
seas by parcel post during the holiday
season. Not
Strange Articles From long ago the
Across the Oceans. omca % 81 .oa
by the possession of a
cheese about the size of a small grind
stone, which had been sent from
town in Italy to some one in New
Jersey, but the latter had moved away,
and there was nothing for the cheese
to do but start on it's long homeward
journey, growing stronger at every
step.
The quantity of the matter that fails
to find it's destination is shown by the
fact that the government realized
a bout $4,000 last year from the sale
of these lost articles. This is only
small part of the income derived from
lost mail, however. The loose money
found in the mail bags amounts to
from $4,000 to $4,000 annually. and
it is practically impossible. of course.
to find the owners of any of it. Checks
and drafts fare better Six to seven
million dollars worth of them reach
the dead letter office every year. and
most of them are safely returned
the issuing banks.
The carelessneSs of persons sending
money through the mails is incredible.
One hundred dollar bills are frequently
legible or incorrect address. Many per-
sons put money into an envelope and
mail it without any address at all.
One bank recently mailed live checks
having a face value of $4,000, which
were intended for another bank, with
out any address on the envelope. The
dead letter office, of course, had no
difficulty in placing them. Millions are
thus annually saved for the citizens of
the United States by this branch of
the postal service.