The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-12-13
How Mail Is Lost
BY FREDERICK ). HASkIN

NEW YORK City Dec. 13.-If you
fail to receive 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 months ago was delivered in
Philadelphia just the other day, while
in another case recently reported
letter was delivered nearly half cen
fury after it was mailed.
Such instances, of course, is not
common. The majority of mail that
is lost, is lost forever, because it is
stolen and destroyed by thieves, the
post office authorities rarely recov-
ering letters and valubles disappear
ing in this way. But letters are often
delayed and lost through other, some
times curious, means.
For example, letters occasionally
get stuck in the mail boxes" says
a post office worker, but the ire
quent Earring of the lid generally dis
lodges these without great delays.
There is also a chance of a letter
falling through crack or getting be-
hind a partition in the wall, to re-
main there unmolested until the wall
is torn down and to be found accident
ally. But the most extensive cache
is IN old mail bags. Negligent clerks
fail to shake 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 post office worker of our &C
qualntance knows of at least one case
IN which such an accident had very
serious results. A young girl who
was in New York attending Colum-
bla was engaged to a college youth
whose father was a prosperous bust
ness man in 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, however, the father suddenly
went into bankruptcy under most dis
tresing circumstances.
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 I'M
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 ne
! cessary, support herself. This letter
! somehow got lost in a local post office
| 1.-THE post office worker blames a mail
| bag) and was not delivered until two
! years later-two years late. In the
meantime. the girl, who also had he1
| pride, had married someone else.
An amazing quantity of mail fails
| to reach it's destination each year, oil
| course, because it is misdirected. AID.
proximately $4,000 pieces of mail are
received daily in the New York post
| Office which are insufficientIy address
ed-a total 118,625, 900 each year. All
of this carelessly addressed matter is
handed over to searchers who give il
! what is called directory service-that
! is, they look the addresses I'D in vari
GUS city directories
This misdirected mail costs the
government great deal of money
which eventually comes out of the tax
/ payers pocketbooks The directory
service in the New York post offic,
alone necessitates the employment o
10 clerks at an annual expense O
s22o,OO0 for salaries. Similar condi
lions prevail in all large citiess anc
1t is estimated that the annual cos
Of such service throughout the entir,
country is s5,0O000O.
Hence. the postmark publicity cam
paign last year, which urged US to di
rect our mail to street and number
The necessity for this precaution /.
stlll being emphasized by local post
masters. 1t is suggested by the posta
authorities that all firm letterheads
should bear the street address, anC
mat IN every case the full name of the
ster and the limousine are killing PEG
pie daily; we pile the bodies on the