The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
washington, D. @.
HOW NAIL IS LOST.

HOW NAIL is LOST.
New York City, Dec. Eff you
/ fail to receive a letter when you know
one is due, don't give up hope You
are apt to get it in the long run. A
letter written in New York 10 years
and 5 months ago was delivered IN
| Philadelphia just the other day. while
I in another case recently reported a
( letter was delivered nearly half a cen
tury after it was mailed.
/ Such instances, of course, are not
common Phe majority of mail that
/ is lost is lost forever, because 1T is
stolen and destroyed by thieves. the
postoffice authorities rarely recover
| ing letters and Valuables disappearing
in. this way. But letters are often de-
I layed and lost thru other, sometimes
curious, means
! For example, letters occasionally
| get stuck in the mail boxes" says a
| postoffice worker, but the frequent
! Earring of the lid generally dislodges
these without great delays There is
also a chance of a letter falling thru
a crack or getting behind partition
! in the wall, to remain there unmo-
! Tested until the wall is torn down and
| to be found accidentally. But the
/ most extensive cache is in old mail
! out all the letters the last time the
| bags are used. The sacks may remain
! for months in a storage house and the
mail lie undiscovered until the bags
/ are sent to a repair shop"
The postoffice worker of our ac-
quaintance knows of at least one case
/ in which such an accident had very
! serious results. A young girl who was
| in New York attending Columbia was
/ engaged, to college youth whose
/ father was a prosperous business man
/ in a New England city. The couple
were TO be married and the young
man taken into his fathers business
as soon as he graduated from college.
A few months before that event. how
evera the father suddenly went into
bankruptcy under most distressing
circumstances.
Love Letter Lost.
The boy Immediately wrote to the
girl in New York, releasing her from
the engagement. His letter was not
precisely gentle, for he had been ur
prepared for the catastrophe and his
pride was hurt. Among other things
he pointed out that he would not be
able to support a wife for some time
to come, because he would have his
fathers debts to pay off. The girl
wrote back, refusing to give him up
and explaining that she could, if
necessary, support herself. This letter
somehow got lost in a local postoffice
(the postoffice worker blames a mail
bag) and was not delivered until two
years later-two years too late. In
the meantime, the girl, who also had
her pride, had married someone elsa.
An amazing quantity of mail fails
to reach its destination each year, of
course, because it is misdirected. APP
proximately 1926, 900 pieces of mail are
received daily in tie New York post
office which are insufficiently ad-
dressed total of 11S, 625, 900 a year.
All of this carelessly addressed matter
it what is called directory service
that is, they look the addresses up in
various city directories.
This misdirected mail costs the gov
ernment 4. great deal of money, which
eventually comes out of the taxpayers
pocketbooks. The directory service
in the New York postoffice alone nee
essitates the employment of 125 clerks
at an annual expense of $225,000 for
salaries. Similar conditions prevail
in all large cities >and it is estimated
that the annual cost of such service
thruout the entire country is $1,000
600.
Hence, the postmark publicity cam
paign last year, which urged US to df-
rect our mail to street and number.
The necessity for this precaution is still
| being emphasized by local postmas-
ters. 1t IS suggested by the postal au-
| thorities that all firm betterheadS
! should bear the street address and
that in every case the full name of the
| addresses be given instead OF merely
| the initials. In addressing a letter to
a building, it is also advisable to in
| clude the name of the street upon
which the building is located, because
! in every city there are many buildings
| bearing names with which the dis
tributors in the postoffice are I'M
familiar.
AS a further precaution, the post
| office department suggests that the
| address of the writer should be placed
at the top of every letter and a re-
! turn address should be written or
4 printed in the upper left-hand corner
! OF every envelope placed in the mails.
Address Clearly
It would also be a great boon to the
postoffices of every city if people
would take the trouble to write clearly
and correctly instead of treating en-
velopes as if they were scratch pads
One letter a day for each family of
five persons is the postal record of
the United States. and it is estimated
that one family in every ten puts a
badly addressed letter in the mails
every day. The time required by ex-
perts to decipher the nations weird
penmanship naturally causes delay.
| Now, during the Christmas season
especially, the cooperation of the pub
lie is requested in facilitating the
rapid handling and movement of the
postal matter. Most people have been
considerable enough to do their Christ
/ mas shopping early this year, thus
relieving the strain on department
/ store employees and incidentally on
themselves, but they are not likely to
be so thoughtful of the overworked
postal clerks, who are always buried
| in packages during the last few days
before the twenty-fitth. In this final
hectic period, delays and losses are
bound to occur.
4 The postoffice department has
taken laborious precautions to insure
the safe handling and delivery of the
mails. In addition to maintaining a
large staff for interpreting the mis-