Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-12
Romance and Tragedy
Continued from First Page. \

Continued from First Pagel
Office. Here again Uncle Sam showed
himself gentleman. To each of these
correspondents he sent a reply. saving
politely that the law prohibited the
distribution of funds taken from dead
letters Such money must go to the
public treasury.
This instance and others bring to
light the fact that women fall easiest
Tor all manners of monkey business
schemes" Especially in rural COM
munities, some good housewives have
httle nowledge of everyday economies
or Government affairs. II Ae on record
that comparatively few such letters
come from people whose literacy is ad-
Vanced beyond fourth-grade spelling
manual
The Post ONCE Department has
/ waged campaign after campaign for
| more accurate identification. To-wit,
IN olrect nrst-class mail advertising
| the Dead Letter Once has retelced the
| mortality rate by comforting with large
| commercial mailerS and pointing out
the advantage of having the return ad-
oreSS on the envelope, Many mail boxes
over the country carry the warning. rs
your Return Address on the Envelope"
DURING a recent Better Mailing
week one post office Powered into
poesy, entertaining and warning its
patrons at the same time. Said a poster
pharaphraSing one Omar Khayyam:
The moving finger writes, and hav-
ing writ--not half the world can read
one word of it."
This rhythmical line was displayed
in bold type on mail trucks and in post
Office Hobbies.
The Dead Letter ONCE is busiest in
the Christmas mailing season. Hun
dreds of thousands of greeting cards
are misaddreSSed, but because of their
unimportance they receive little atten-
ton. But Christmas never fails to
boost business for the dead parcel serv-
Ice. An ter-ChristmaS auction draws
buyers whom Santa Claus forgot. or
whose stockings were "holey"
Just a few weeks after the New Year
Uncle Sans coaxing voice will BE- heard
again from the old soap box
An Christmas auction folks
Bargains and bargains
All what have we here? A pair of
reinforced suSpenderS gentlemen, guar
anteed To support YOU the rest of your
lives. Lively bidding, now
The man with the crocheted necktie
bids dime Dime dd-di-di di-di-d -di-
dimmmmmmmeee.
The need for dead letter division
in the Post Once Department was felt
as far back as 1928, when there arose
demand To identify the SenderS of
vast quantities of undelvered mail
As early as 1890 the Dead Letter Of |
flee handled as many as $50, 900 eptStleS !
BY 1889 the annual volume was some |
thing like 100000 pieces In early |
years Washington examiners handled |
the undeliverei mail from all over the /
country and In 1860 only nine people |
were required To handle the OUTPUT of |
the Nation. in 1875 this number was |
increased to 70 persons BY 1910 the |
bulk of mail amounted TO more than /
100000 pieces and within the last |
year or so the annual volume Is around |
Is. 0OO, 600
In 1917 dead letter congestion In |
the Washington office became acute /
and postal authorities decided, for the /
sake of convenience and expediency, To /
divide the country into four dead letter |
districts, with headquarters In WASH
ington and branches In New York,
Chicago and San Francisco
The Capital handles dead letters for
Is States, as well as parcels from Mary