The Washington times., 1917-01-20
POSTOFFICE BEARS
COST OF NEGLECT
Careless Patrons Cause Heavy
Expenditure and Loss to
Selves in Dead Letters.
Are the American people careless?

Are the American people careless?
There are two women in Washington
who have every reason TO believe that
they are. These women are Miss Clara
R. A Nelson, cashier OF the Dead Letter
office. and Miss Annie Monroe. who
places value on and classifies the great
mass Of strayed mail packages which
flow into the Dead Letter office.
During the fiscal year ended last June
Miss Nelson was the custodian Of $780,
600. Of which amount $ss.sS6.a was taken
from letters which went astray in the
mails. The balance was realized from
the sale OF articles in the Dead Letter
Office.
Opens All Letters.
It is Miss Monroe's duty to open the
packages which go astray and value and
classify the articles. which range from
wedding rings to safety razors, and from
wagon parts TO clothes washers.
An interesting story of the workings
Of the Dead Letter Office is contained
in the January number of the Postmas-
ter's Advocate, in which it is pointed out
that in Washington alone thirty-ive
thousand improperly addressed letters
are received each week
Washington. being the main office of
the railway mail service for the Third
division, receives all the stray parcel
post packages for the division, and fol-
lowing the Christmas rush a queer col
lection of Yuletide gifts, which were
carelessly addressed or came open in
the mails. ended their journey here.
Among them were the following:
Six suit cases, a couple of hams, a
fifty-pound sack of coffee, number
of canes and umbrellas and battery
OF alarm clocks.
A Christmas Greeting.
In one broken pasteboard box was
a quart bottle of whisky wrapped
loosely in an old shirt. 1t bore the
inscription, christmas greeting, from
Bill to Jim," but, alas, Jim will never
know that BIN thought of him this
Christmas.
This division is not directly CON
nected with the Dead Letter Office.
This office also handles all mail which
Washington carriers are unable to de-
liver.
Employees of the office arc called
blind readers" whose duty it is to
read hen scratching" which appar-
emily no average eye could straight
en- out. They are trained in common
sense, and their only tools are city
directories, telephone books, and pos
tai guides.
How They Are Handled.
II they fail TO find an address. or
IL, as often happens, the addressee
has moved to some other location, the
letter is returned to the sender IL his
address is on the envelope. If the
Senders address is not given, the let
ter is advertised for thirty days, and
il still unclaimed it is sent TO the
Dead Letter Office, where it is open
ed in search of an address.
Referring to these results of care
lessness in preparing mail, the Post
masters Advocate, states:
Easily Remedied.
"Of the eleven million letters Which
were destroyed in the Dead Letter
Office last year. more than ten mil
lions of them would not have reached
that place, the money and articles
they CONT ned would not have been
lost, their messages of love and friend
Fnlp lON nave anu
the Postofficc Department would have
been spared millions of expense-if
the writers had placed return ad
dresses on the envelopes. Which, no
doubt, should be a lesson to many
who neglect this little safeguard for
their mail"
Number Here Is Enormous.
Dead letters arrive at the Washing.
ton Dead Letter Office, which is the
only one in the service al present, in
such large numbers that the building
would be unable to hold them if the
greater portion were not destroyed
within three days after arrival
The Governments dead letter bust
ness has been growing SO in recent
years that authority has been OBJ
tained from Congress to establish two
dead letter offices in other parts of
the country.