Evening star., 1916-12-24
1HE United States Post Office De-
partment officially has no time
for the celebration of Christ

-7HE United States Post Office De-
partment officially has no time
for the celebration of Christ
q mas, but indirectly 1t adds ma
terially to the happiness of a large pro-
portion of the hundred million people
throughout the country by doing its ut
most to deliver their Christmas mail
for them.
With mailing facilities making postal
transmission an easy matter, the num-
Der of people who are careless or ig-
norant in the matter of addressing
cards of greeting, letters and packages
Is still very great, and here 1t is that
the unobtrusive dead letter division of
the department steps in. and through
its intervention thousands of pieces of
Christmas mail deficient in directions
are delivered, which but for the dill
gent force of men and women in this
division of the service would never
reach their destination.
Christmas sees this efficient corps of
blind readers" worked to the limit.
and every day for weeks before the
day of festival letters. cards. packages
and money keep pouring In in a steady
stream, which holds deft fingers and ac-
tive minds busy every working moment
Of the day.
The work OF two of the women in
this bureau Is unique. and at Christmas
time they are frequently referred to as
the Santa Claus ladies'" of the depart
ment. for their duties trend largely to-
ward keeping the Christmas work NOV
ing smoothly and steadily along
Miss Clara r. A. Nelson, cashier Of
the dead letter office, has the care Of
all the money which has miscarrIed on
its way to its destination at Chr
as well as the year round, and she
manages to find possessors of over 60
per cent of it. Miss Annie Monroe has
task quite different. When the dead
letter office has exhausted all means Of
finding an owner for the lost packages
which come to 1t. 1t lays them aside for
Six months, during which period they
may still be reclaimed by their owners.
After that they are sold at auction, the
results being placed to the credit Of
the Post Office Department. Miss Mon
roe's work is to strip these packages
of their wrappings, and value and
classify the goods for Uncle Sans dead
letter Office package sale.
Miss Nelson in her work handles
many thousands of dollars annuall.A.
For the year ending June 81, 1916, the
amount of money placed In her care as
lost through the mail and realized through
100000. The lost money totaled $63.-
G96.S4. OF this amount s57,61185 was
contained in 46.937 letters, the balance
of $6.0s4.ss being loose money which
fell from letters. mainly in coin. From
every part of this broad land comes
money lost through the mails to this
busy corner of the dead letter Office, at
Washington.
There is good deal of red tape at
tached to the collection of loose money.
Every item relating to the finding OF
even one cent is recorded by the rail-
way mail or other clerk finding 1t. and
the time and exact spot noted down.
This record. with the money. is handed
over weekly or monthly. through the
railway mail division post offices to the
dead letter office. The larger post Of
fees. where the amount is large. make
weekly returns: from the smaller Of
fees reports and money are sent In
monthly.
The money lost through misdirected
letters is chiefly in bills, checks and
money ORDERS and owners may be more
easily traced. Every effort is made to
find the persons to whom letters are
addressed. or. failing them, the senders.
When all efforts fail to locate either
tho money 10 turned. over 70 the Treas.