New Britain herald., 1919-04-11
100000 LETTERS
 BACK FROM FRANCE
Post Office SWalnped by Onde-
 liYered A. E, r. Mail

New York, April I -Four million letters, each one containing q message or a gift from the home folks to cheer ' the American soldiers fighting the worlds battle in France, have cofne Lack to New York, undelivered slhco last July. Fortunately, the men uo not now need the moral support to oe found i'll the letters quite as much as they did at the time they were Wr1t- ten. However, the money when the letters contained in- amounts ranging from 3 dollar to twenty dollars, anu totaling approximately a million, prop ably would be a. acceptable now ap IL would have been in 1918.
 The enormous problem of straight ening this beWlldering tangle has de- volved upon the dead letter depart ment of the general postofflce -aI lnirty first street and Eighth avenue. 4 score of clerks have been at Norh constantly, opening the letters and en- deavoring when possible to return them to the senders. The letters are endless in variety Practically all of them were Wrlttea by anxious parents, wives or sweet hearts, at a time when America "As in the thick of tie fighting and no one could foresee that the end was to come as quickly it did
 Stamps Tell of Wanderings. They were dispatched to France and there entered the tortuous machinery of the system which took care of the mail for the eNpeditionary force. The stamps and labels. on the returning ,'prodisal'' letters tell the story of their Nanderlngs about France i'll search of rra h. tended.
 The letters are being opened at the dead letter office at the rate of 2o,ooo a day The clerks make | careful ln- spection Of each one. If the letter contains the address of the writer 1t IS g, simple matter to return it to h1m or her with the note that It never was delivered. .t.. ":'
 Many letters are opened, however, which contain money gifts of varying amounts, but which do not contain any address that would help the clerks to trace the sender and return the money. The money found in these letters is held at the dead letter of- rice with q record of the letter. By the time all the undelivered letters have been returned from France it is estimated that. this fund will have doubled. The governm ent will never be able to return all the money to it's owners so tho question of what will be done with it is to be decided.
 Much of Money Returned.
 The clerks at the local office have succeeded to creditable extent in untanglipg tho mess into which the mail of the expeditionary force was shuffled by the inefficiency of the mail service in France. A large amount of money has been returned to the own CTS and letters have been forwarded to soldiers, on the principle of better late than never .....=
 A typical case is that of 8 private in the marine corps from an upstate city When his friends and relatives heard he was wounded at Chateau Thierry they dispatched an avalanche of mail to cheer him. Most of the let ters contained money for the purcha SC Of luxuries. Most of the letters never reached him-at least not while he W'1s in France. He is back home now In hospital. near New York City and & woek ago his family received a bulky package by parcel post, con- taining most of the mail which had been sent to him while he was in France. The money gifts were intact and the marine enjoyed the odd ex. \ e|"IAe naesea ges of his friends.
 Sold for Old Paper.
 The letters which bear no address that can serve to identify the writer are sold for old paper. Many of the letters bear grim messages sprawlec over their faces. Killed in action, Missing or "Dead' tell graphically the reason why the man for whom they are intended was never able tc read them.
 The letters sent from Am erica, tt France are not the only ones that flnc their way into the dead letter office Fighting in France were a great man, brothers and pals not always in thu same outfit" After being separated they wrote to one another and man, of these letters are now in the deat letter office in New York city.
 Packages come back, too, with ncndescript array of articles inside They furnish a problem as difficult a the other.
 The dead letter office is used to be ing swamped with lost mail, especial, at Christmas time, but the backwate from France far ecltpses anythin ever before experienced.