Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-12-13
HASKIN TELLS OF MAIL IS LOST

NEW YORK CITY, Dec. 1O.-If
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.
\ letter written in New York nine
teen years and five months ago was
delivered in Philadelphia just the
other day, while in another case re-
Gently reported a letter was deliver
&c nearly half a century after it was
mailed.
Such instances, of course, are 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 recovering
letters and valuables disappearing in
this way. But letters are often de-
layed and lost through other, some
times curious, lea
For example, letters occasional
ly get stuck in the mail boxes" says
a post Office worker, but the fire.
quent jarring of the lid generally
dislodges these without great delays.
There is also a chance of a letter
falling through a crack or getting
behind a partition in the wall, to
remain there unmolested until the
wall is torn down and TO be found
occasionally. But the most extensive
cache is in old mail bags. Negligent
clerks fail to shake out all the let
ters 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 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 CO.
lumbia was engaged to a college
youth whose father vas a prosperous
business man in a New England city.
The couple were to be married and
the young man taken into his faith
er's business as soon as he graduated
from college. A few months before
that event, however, the father sud-
denly 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 I'M
prepared for the castrophe and his
pride was hurt. Among other things
he pointed u 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 let
ter somehow got lost in a local POST
office (the post office 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 else.
An amazing quantity of mail fails
to reach it's destination each year, of
course, because it is misdirected. APP
proximately 325. 600 pieces of mail
are received daily in the New York
post office which are insufficiently
addressed-a total of 11S.625,OOO
a year. All of this carelessly adj
dressed matter is handed over to
searchers who give it what is called
directory service-that is, they look
the addresses up in various city di-
rectories.
This misdirected mail costs the
government a great deal of money,
which eventually comes out of the
taxpayers pocketbooks. The direc-
Ftory service in the New York post
Office alone necessitates the employ
ment of 125 clerks at an annual ex-
pense of S225, 900 for salaries. Sim
liar conditions prevail in all large
cities and it is estimated that the
annual cost of such service through
out the entire country is $4,000, OOO.
Hence, the postmark publicity
campaign last year. which urged us
to direct our mail to street and num-
bert The necessity for this precau-
ton is still being emphasized by local
postmasters. 1t is suggested by the
postal authorities that all firm let
terheads should bear the street ad-
dress, and that in every case the full
name of the addressee be given In
stead of merely the initials. In ad-
! dressing a letter to a building, it is
also advisable I o include the name
of the street upon which the build
| ing is located, because in every city
there are many buildings bearing
names with which the distributors in
the post Office are unfamiliar.
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 return address should be written
or printed In the upper left-hand