Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1921-12-16
POSTAL FACTS
WORTH KNOWING
BY F. M. Winters

just q lew pOSIdl IdCtS WHICH may
be of interest to the general public.
100000 persons arc employed in
tho postal service.
An average of 100, 900 letters are
handled every hour OF the twenty
fouf hour day
Over 100000 postage stamps are
sold daily, or $4,000. 900. 900, an
nually.
100000 stamped envelopes are
sold daily.
15O,OOO,0O0 money orders are is
sued annually.
Over $500. 100000 parcels wero
handled By parcel post last year.
In the making up Of the mails the
letters arc separated into bundles
first by, states and then by cities,
these bundles are then labed and tied
In thus tieing these bundles of letters
100000 miles of twine are used, or
enough Irvine to wrap the earth
thirty times.
An average of 100000 letters
go to the Dead Letter Office each
year, this because of the carelessness
of the public, the actual cash coming
into tho Division of Dead Letters by
reason of the carelessness of tho
senders OF these letters during the
last year amounted to over $55, 0OO.-
90. The careless public either fails
to put any address upon their let.
tiers or only partially addresses them
and they go to the Dead Letter Divi-
sion where they arc opened and re.
turned to tho sender If the name
and address of the sender is given.
but over half of the letters going to
the Dead Letter Division do not bear
the name and address of the sender
and the letter is lost so far as tho
sender and addressee is concerned,
letters of no intrinsic value are de-
stroyed those Of value are kept on
file and If ownership is finally estab-
lished the letter and it's contents
is restored to it's rightful owner
otherwise it reverts to the Depart
ment.
A visit to the Dead Letter Division
of the Postal Department would dis
close some very curious and interest
ing facts.
There the visitor would find arti-
cles of wearing apparel of all kinds
and description, jewelry of all kinds
and value, brir a brac Of all kinds,
all kinds of fire arms from small
combination pen knife and pistol to
sawed off shot guns and Springfield
rifles, enough fire arms to equip
platoon of the army, parts of machin-
cry, enough parts were received last
year to build mower with the ex-
ception OF the tongue and two drive
wheels and these parts are too large
to go through the mails or doubtless
they too would be in evidence. Auto
mobile parts sufficient to build an
automobile and SO on down the list,
parts OF the human skeleton enough
to build complete skeleton, cooking
utensils enough for young married
couple to start up in housekeeping.
ALI of this could be avoided If the
public would exercise a little care in
wrapping and addressing their let
teri and parcels.
The Department provides for the
return address to be put upon all
letters and parcels intended for mail
ing, the return address should be
put upon the upper left hand corner
of envelope where it is very apt to
case of letters the postage should be
placed on the upper right hand cor
ner of the envelope not on the back
of enpelope where it is very apt to
be overlooked, say nothing of the
inconvenience and loss of time thus
oecasioned. Where these simple rules
adopted letters which were undeli-
vered would be returned TO the SEN
der without any delay or without
going to the Dead Letter Division,
then too, of the sender should make
a mistake in the addressing of his
or her letter, which is a daily oc-
curance, often 1t is detected before