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About Southwest Oregon recorder. (Denmark, Curry County, Or.) 188?-18?? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1884)
IV f 3 9 "DEAD LETTERS." And "Wlat Becomes ol Tliem Tlore Than Four lUillioav a Year. A "Washington letter to the Cleveland Herald ' describes the operations of the dead letter office as follows: It is diffi cult to imagine a place more inviting to a lover of the curious. Not a day passes without almost numberless instances, hu morous, droll and pathetic, revealed by ' the letters that find their way. into this great receptacle for the waifs from the mails. But before entering upon this . tempting part of my theme let me pre sent a few figures taken from the records of the office, that cannot fail to interest the reader. During the last year the number of pieces of mail matter that reached the dead lettter office was nearly four and a half millions! The exact number was 4,440,822. This is about 14,500 for every day. A daily record is kept, and for the day before my visit this showed over 19, 000. Of the yearly aggregate given 4,856,915 were letters, domestic and for eign, and 83,907 were parcels of every description. Of the letters 3,246,892 were "dead," strictly speaking that is, they were uncalled for at the offices where received, advertised according to law, and duly forwarded here. There were 78,865 returned from hotels, transient quests having failed to leave direc . tions where letters should be forwarded ; 13,507 bearing fictitious addresses; 133, S09 returned from foreign countries, and 8,749 registered letters. There were 475, 45 letters not properly "dead," but classed as "unmailable," as follows: For non-payment of postage, 181,584; mis direction, 324,429; containing inclosures prohibited by law, 1,345; without any address whatever, 11,979. The number received mailed in foreign countries was 105,348. According to the terms of the International postal treaties all these are returned unopened to the countries in which they were mailed, and there treat ed as dead letters. The gentleman who has been kindly placed at our disposal, "to show us through," announces his readiness, and we start upon our tour. "We enter a large room in which are nearly a hundred slerks, busy as bees. On every hand there are niailbags and great heaps of epis tolary corpses and papers ready to meet their fate. "Here," says the guide, as we approaeh i long desk, where half a dozen ladies, with quick eyes and nimble fingers, are busily at work, "is where the dead letters ire received, from more thau fifty thous nd different postoffices in the United States. You see they are all done up in -packages, the wrapper showing the nature if their contents, and addressed to this jflice. About 14,000 letters are handled it this table every day. Our force is in adequate to do our constantly increasing work, and our "openers," are now two or three weeks behind. In that large Case you see yonder are over 300,000 let ters tied up in packages of 100 each, wait ing to be opened. "Let me open for you one of thee pack ages that has just come in this morning. Here is a large one from Chicago. That will show you the different classes of let ters we have. These ladies look them all Dver and sort them, and then they are sent to other desks for examination. Now look at these letters. The first we come to, you see, has no stamp. "We get about 600 of these every day. Strange, isn't it, that so many people, through care lessness, mail unstamped letters. That letter is not 'dead,' and if legibly ad dressed we send a notice to the person to whom it is directed, informing him that a letter for him is held here for postage. The chances are a hundred to one that he will immediately send the required stamp, and we stick it on his letter and mail it to him. If we get no reply to the notice within due time, the letter is then treated as dead, opened and returned to the sender. That is the way that class is disposed of." " "Now here is another kind. This one is misdirected; it has the town and county but no State. The postmaster could not send it, and had no alternative but to forward it to the dead letter office. We get more than a thousand a day that -come under this head. They embrace all sorts of errors in the address, as well as those that are illegible, for you know -some people try to write when they can't, and the result is, nobody can read it. The department does not allow 50,000 postmasters to do the guessing. If a letter is not properly and legibly ad dressed it must be sent here, and we have some experts whose sole business It is to do the guessing. And they are good guessers, too. "Look at this one. It is properly sealed and stamped, but the envelope is blank, there isn't the scratch of a pen upon it anywhere. Forty or fifty of these come here daily. Ui course such mis takes are attributed only to carelessness or inadvertence. And it is a singular fact that a much greater percentage of these unaddressed letters, than of any other class we get, have valuable in closures, such as money, checks and drafts, they are largely business letters. showing that they are mailed from offices and counting-rooms, the fatal omissions resulting from the hurry and confusion of business. .But it seems queer that there are so many of them. "We can do noth ing but open and return them. Here are a number returned from hotels. "We have no possible means of knowing the permanent address of these persons, and we can only treat them as dead. "These, you observe, were mailed in Germany, England, France, etc. They will all be returned, unopened, to those countries. Here are a couple of refiri3 tered letters. They undoubtedly contain value, which will be returned to the senders. But it often happens that a man sends money or a draft, in ' either a registered or an ordinary letter, while traveling. He dates his letter at the place where he happens to be. "We can only send it to him there, and of course it comes back to us again. Postmasters everywhere are instructed in" all cases of a returned money letter to take every possible means to find the sender, but when he fail3 he can only send it here again. All such returned letters are held here for three months, and it is the sole business of one elerk to endeavor, by cor respondence or otherwise, to find either the sendor or the person addressed. Often he succeeds, but if not, the money is turned into the United States treasury. The data in each case are carefully recorded and the amounts are subject to reclamation by the owner on making proof within four years. At the expiration of that time the money by law passes absolutely to the government, and can only be re covered by act of Congress." ""What per cent, of the money is re turned or delivered to those addressed?" "Ninety-seven per cent. nearly all of it. The number of letters opened last year containing currency, checks, drafts and negotiable paper was over 34,000. The amount of actual cash taken from letters was nearly $30,000, and the value of checks, etc., representing money, about $1,600,000." At t"i moment one of the clerks en gaged in opening letters at a table near by calls to the gentleman who is enter taining me. He goes to him, and imme diately beckons for me to follow. " Now, what can be done in this case?" he says. "Here is a letter this instant opened, and you see what it contains?" There is a clean, new twenty-doll '.r bill, neatly folded and wrapped in a piece of perfectly blank brown paper not a mark of pen or pencil to show from whom it was sent. The letter had been advertised as unclaimed and was dead, and the examination of its contents made it more completely dead than before. ""We have nothing but the postmark, and even that is almost obliterated, but our expert will take hold of it and do the best he can with it. There's a pretty slim chance in this case. I guess Uncle Sam will get that money. This reminds me of something in my own experience. A few years ago, when I was opening let ters, I found one just like this, except that the amount was $30, and on the paper wrapped around it was writ ten in pencil, 'A friend, Matthew vi. : 3.' I looked that up and found it to be : 'But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.' The letter was addressed to a woman, and it was clearly a case of charity. I really felt bad that we could not succeed in finding either party, and the money is in the treasury to-day. "There is one class I want to mention, and that is the letters sent out by or addressed to the frauds and swindling concerns that gull innocent people. Just look at this printed list we have of over 400 of these concerns in all parts of the country. This list is furnished to all postmasters, and they are directed to forward straight to this omce all letters addressed to them, lhese letters, and we get them by the thousand, are usually written in response to attractive adver tisements or circulars, in which they promise what they never intend to ful fill. A short time ago there was a firm in Philadelphia that advertised a Bible a3 the means of swindling the people. At first nobody thought of its being a fraud, and a great many bit at it, and they all got bitten, too 1 We 'caught on' pretty soon and found that the concern wa3 raking in the money and giving absolutely nothing in return. "We sent a notification right away to all post masters, and, would you believe it, we received in one day 6,000 letters ad dressed to them. Nineteen-twentieths of them contained money, from seventy five cents to $2 each. That was the greatest lot of the kind we ever had. There was not les3 than $7,000 or $8,000 in those letters, all of which were re turned to the senders, with a circular in forming them that the concern was a fraud. You see the government takes a good deal of pains to accommodate the people and protect them from imposters and swindlers." Daily Life of the Chinese Emperor. The Chinese emperor is a lad thirteen years of age. He lives in a state of semi seclusion in the palace of Jan-Chien-Tien, where he is waited on by a staff of picked retainers, who never approach him other wise than on their knees. His mothei visits him once a month, and she kneels while uttering her first sentence. Con sidering the extraordinary respect in which parents are held in China, no more complete recognition of the transcendent character of the impenal dignity can bjt imagined. His father goes through ex actly the same ceremonial. The emperor devotes two hours and a half daily to the study of Chinese, and the same time to Manchu. Needless to say, the professors approach him on theii knees ; but to remark the respect to let ters which Chinese traditions exact even from the emperor, he invites, or rathei commands, them to rise when the lessor, begins. He passes two hours each daj in riding and in archery, and in wmtei he takes sledging exercise. Eight eunuchs wait upon him at table, and have orders to prevent his partaking too freely of any of his favorite dishes, as boys, even though they be emperors, will sometimes do. He sleeps in a mag nificent Ningpo bed, the frame of which is of massive gold and ivory, and which belonged to his distinguished ancestors, K'anjr IIsi and Ch'ien Lung. The Inseparable. "Margery," said Ethelbert, as they sat on the opposite ends of the Turkish di van, "Why am I like the letter Q ?" and a silence fell, broken only by the melodi ous cough of Margery's warranted New England throat. "Because, dear," added Ethelbert, ' feel that I am useless without U." Boa- ton Bulletin. THE NATION'S PROPERTY. Public Uuiltf ins in Washington and Their Value The national government is the owner of an enormous amount of property in "Washington, as appears by the books of the assessors of the District of Columbia. They make up their accounts by figuring the actual cost ot all public buildings and other structures, and estimating the value of the United States reservations by the value of the land around them. Following are the valuations: The land in Reservation 1, which includes the President's house, having an area of 3,378,172 feet, is valued at $ 7,198,123 President's house... 753,580 Treasury Building k 7,158,454 State, War and Navy Building. .. 7,638,925 Treasury workshops 77,000 President's stable 28,500 Total $22,844,597 The Capitol grounds are valued at $ 7,1)07,6 And the building at: 15,599,656 Total $23,507,251 The sum of $15,599,034 i3 the amount actually expended on construction of the Capitol to date. The Navy Yard is valued at $ 1,403,500 Buildings i... 3,615,805 Total $5,019,303 The land occupied by the Patent Office building is valued at. ... . $ 906,105 Cost of building 3,245,778 Total $4,151,883 Judiciary Square, containing sev eral buildings, is valued at. $1,254,561 Cost ot City Hall 275,153 Cost of Pension Building 137,000 Total $1,666,713 Reservation 2, containing the Smithsonian, and other buildings, is valued as fol lows : Agricultural Department Land $689,086 Buildings 501,825 Smithsonian Land 2,553,378 Buildings 493,651 Armory Building Land 1,454,354 Building 45,702 Total $5,980,996 Other items are: ' Washington monument Land $1,815,781 Superstructure 794,163 Total $2,609,944 United States Observatory Land $125,861 Buildings 255,264 Total $381,125 Arsenal buildings Land $1,221,607 Buildings 270,324 Total $1,491,931 The Marine Barracks are valued at $370,872 Naval Hospital 123,713 Government Printing Offiec 318,854 General Post Office 2,472,985 Medical Museum 98,312 Bureau Engraving and Printing.. 378,731 Department of J ustice 288,922 Winders building 274,269 Botanical Garden 2,053,927 Powder Magazine 674,998 New jail ; 525,550 . These are the principal items in the government's list of the property here. The aggregate of all the government property is over $86,000,000. The actual investment of money in buildings is something more than half that sum, say $50,000,000; Beside this the govern ment has paid great amounts, although never a full share till of late, of the ex penses for improving streets, avenues, etc. The buildings now underway will involve an expenditure of at least $5,000,r 000. It does not look very much as if Uncle Sam were thinking of pulling up stakes and moving his Federal family out "West, ne would have to sacrifice nearly $100,000,000 were he to do so. New York Telegram. Pithy AdTlce. Keep your head cool, your feet warm and subscribe for your local newspaper. Don't spend more than you can 'borrow, and don't borrow more than you can pay promptly. Don't kindle the fire with kerosene un less you are prepared for a land that is fairer than this. If you are angry at a man count fifty before speaking; if he is 'a great deal bigger than you are count four hundred and sixty. Don't blow in your gun to see if it is loaded, unless you want to get your name in the papers and ycur family is well pro vided for. Be satisfied with the world as you find it, remembering that you are only a ten ant here and may not find yourself as well suited when you move. Love your neighbor. If he keeps a dog that howls at the moon do not make harsh remarks about him, but borrow the dog to go hunting and forget to bring him back again. Don't brag about the achievements of your ancestor. A great ancestor in the grave is poor capital of itself for a man to go into business on. And, beside, our ancestors had their faults. Even Adam's record is not as clean as we would like it to be.Middktown Tran script. Origin of the Word "Punch." The origin of this word is attributed by Dr. Doran, in his "History of Court Fools," to a club of Athenian wits; but how he could possibly connect the word "punch" with these worthies, or derive it from either their sayings or doings, we are totally at a loss to understand. Its more probable derivation is from the Persian punj, or from the Sanskrit pan cha, which denotes the usual number of ingredients of which it is composeI, viz., five. The recipes, however, for making this beverage are very numerous; and, from various flavoring matters which may be added to it punch has received a host of names, derived alike from men or materials. Mark Lemon was accus tomed to say that the composition of his punch required three lemons, viz. : Leman Rede, Laman Blanchard and Mark Lemon. Notes and Queries. . POPULAE SCIENCE. "While on his way from England to Australia, Mr. M. D. Conway, who is making a tour around the world, saw a very peculiar sun. One morning, he says, that in place of the usual orb, an in tense blue sun rose above the 'horizon, and maintained its startling color the entire day. The Glasgow Medical Journal describes an electro-magnet having a power to rise upon its point a weight equal to six ounces. It has been used successfully in cases where workmen in iron and steel have been severely wounded by flying chips, and the writer says that such in struments must henceforth become an es sential part of the apparatus of ophthal mic surgeons. Sir Samuel "W. Baker, the African ex plorer, states that the camel will cross the deserts with a load of 400 pounds at the rate of thirty miles a day in the burning heat of summer, and require water only every third or fourth day. In the cooler months the animal will work for seven or eight days without water; and if grazing on green foliage without labor will drink only once a fortnight. From a report on American precious stones, by Mr. George F. Kutz. it ap pears that some eighty-eight different minerals occur in the United States which have been used as gems, and twelve of these are found only in the United States. Systematic mining for gems is carried on at only two places in this country, viz : at Paris, Maine, famed for its tourmalines, of which probably more than $50,000 worth have been ob tained; and at Stony Point, N. C, which has thus far yielded some $7,500 worth of tourmaline and hiddenite. In other cases where gems are found they are either met with accidentally or occur in connection with other materials that are being mined, or in small veins which are only occasionally to be discovered. The analysis of snake poisons, made last summer by Drs. Wier, Mitchell and Reichert, have been fully confirmed by other investigators. All the venoms ex amined are essentially alike; in every case they are made up of three proteid bodies. The first reduces the blood pres sure, induces swelling (oedema), and anally brings about putrefactive effects. The second is a virulent substance, one twentieth of a grain of which will kill a pigeon in two hours ; it gives rise in a tew minutes after injection to enormous Infiltration of blood into the neighboring tissue. The poisonous properties of the .hird substance are doubtful. The ob ject of the analysis is to eliminate the renomous principle, so that experiments may be made as to what drug can be ased to the best advantage in neutral izing it. THE HOME DOCTOR. Sick Headache. Coarse brown paper joaked in vinegar and placed on the fore head is good for a sick headache. If the eyelids are gently bathed in cool water the pain in the head is generally allevi ated. Cuke for Croup. One of the best ;ures for croup, and one which is always it hand, is to dip strips of flannel in very aot water and then bind tightly about the throat. Remove as soon as cold and lpply others. A cold in the chest can ilso be cured by wetting several thick nesses of flannel in hot water and laying it upon the chest. Drink for a Sick Child. One of tho best and most strengthening drinks, as well as a pleasant one, to give a delicate child, is made by beating up an egg in a tumbler with a little sugar until it f roths, then fill it with rich milk and have the child drink it at once. The nourishment in the egg and milk combined sustain the system all day if nothing else is taken. Curing "Weak Eyes. Bathe your eyes daily in 6alt water; not salt enough though to cause a smarting sensation. Nothing is more strengthening, and we know several persons, who, after using this simple tonic for a few weeks, had put aside the spectacles they had used for years, and did not resume tnem, con tinuing, of course, the oft-repeated daily use of salt water. Never force your eye sight to read or work in insufficient or too broad light. Reading with the sun up on one's book is very injurious to the eyes. The Arab and His Horse. The Arabians never beat ther horses; they never cut their tails; they treat them gently ; they speak to them and seem to hold a discourse ; they use them as friends; they never attempt to increase their speed by the whip, or spur them, but in cases of great necessity. They never fix them to a stake in the fields, but suffer them to pasture at large around their habitations; and they come run ning the moment that they hear the sound of their master's voice; In conse quence of such treatment these animals become docile and tractable in the high est degree. They resort at night to their tents, and lie down in the midst of the children, without ever hurting them in the slightest manner. The little boys and girls are often seen upon the body or neck of the mare, while the beasts con tinue inoffensive and harmless, permit ting them to play with and caress them without injury. A Proposal. " Had a proposal from any of the fair sex since leap year began, Jones ?" "I have, Brown ; I had a proDOsal from the daughter of my boarding missus." " Gimini! you're in luck. How did she muster courage to make it, and what did you say I" "Well, you see, she keeps the books ' for her mother, so she came to me the other day and proposed." " Yes, yes, lucky dog I go on." " She proposed that I pay up my arrears or git." "Whew!" "So I- got!"--SomereiUt Journal. LEAP YEAR. Jomr: Come, Sally, dear, it's getting late, and mother's wide awake; She knows you're here, and therefore your departure you must take; Fve got to lock the door and then put out the parlor light; Please go, dear Sal, and you can come again some other night. SAL: Oh, pshaw! dear John, it's early yet, I'm sure I needn't hurry; It's scarcely half-past 10 o'clock, you mother need not worry; But if you want to go to bed then Til no longer 6tay, ' So, love, give me another i iss, and I will g away. John: Oh, Sal, please don't I Well, take It then, now go; oh, please, make haste? If mother should come down and see your arm around my waist I think Td faint; come, dearest, don't delay a moment more," Put on your hat and shawl and I will see you to the door. Sal: I think it's just too bad that I have got to go so soon; Well, never mind, I'll see you, love, to-morrow afternoon; m hush! I hear your mother coming down with footsteps light; I'm off just one; oh, my, how sweet! Well, Johnny, dear, good-night Somerville Journal. PUNGENT PARAGRAPHS. An exchange speaks of "Limburgerby the tou." "We have frequently seen Lim burger by the Teuton. " "Why do they call it leap year, pa t Is it because it comes along just about the time when hops are most prolific ?', "Guess not, child! Most likely it's be cause it keeps men on the jump to keep out of the way of embarrassing situa tions." Yonkers Gazette. During a conversation recently on the subject of cold weather, a stranger said: '1 don't care how cold it is, my fingers never get frost-bitten. " " How is that ?" inquired several. "Why, because," re plied the stranger; "I once monkeyed with a buzz-saw." Puck. To get rid of the smell of fresh paint in a chamber or living room, slice a few on ions and put them in the middle of the room. After that it will be desirable to get rid of the smell of the onions. This can easily be done by putting on another coat of paint. Philadelphia Call. "Why, how wonderfully life-like I" said Mr. Derrix, gently carressing a bumble-bee which reposed among the artificial flowers and insects on his wife's new bonnet. "If it was on a garden flower I'd swear that it was all G-r-r-reat Caesar !" he suddenly shrieked, inserting a wounded finger in his mouth ana dancing around like a whirling dervish, "why, the blame thing is alive I" Drake's Magazine. ACKNOWI.EDGINO THE CORN. How much the fair but potent sex Is like a crop of corn, For in whatever place they're seen, That place they do adorn. The corn is green when young, as is The offspring of man's rib ; It's then they're taken by the ear And placed within a crib. You find on them the finest silk, Becoming, too, no doubt; And when the season comes around In tassels they come out. In reaping time some fellow comes, And in his arms they're locked, Surprised ? Well, yes ; but then they like This way of being shocked. But when the days have come and gone, And filled life's golden page, A difFrence you will find, my friends The corn will tell its age. Yonkers Statesman. The Chameleon. 'Philosopher as he is, the chameleon requires food, and since he is tQO slow to 20 after it, he brings it to him. As his Ball-and-socket eyes roll this way and that way, one of them marks a large white butterfly walking up the bars of his cage, and he forms a purpose to eat it. He unwiuds his tail, then relaxes the !?rasp of his broad palms one at a time (for he is extremely nervous about falling ind breaking his bones,) and so he ad vances slowly along the twig until he is within six inches of his prey, then he stops, and there is a 'working in his swollen throat; he is gumming his tongue. At last he leans forward and opens his preposterous mouth, and that member protrudes like a goose-quill steeped in white bird-lime. For a moment he takes aim, and then, too quick for eyes to follow it, the horrid in strument has darted forth, and returned like elastic to its place, and the gay but terfly is being crunched and swallowed as fast as anything can be swallowed when tongue, jaws, and throat are smeared with viscid slime. But this part of the pro cess is inconceivably vulgar, and we may well leave the chameleon to himself till it is over. Why the Pepper-Box Resembled Him. It was only yesterday that an inveter ate stammerer dined at Parker's. On at tempting to help himself to .pepper, he found, after a violent shaking, that there was none of the article to be obtained.. Turning round and beckoning to the waiter, he said: " wa-wa-wa-wa-waiter ! this pep-pep-p-p-pepper-box is som-som-something like me." "Why so, sir ?" asked the waiter. "It lo-lo-looks well, but has mi-mi-mighty po-po-po-poor delivery 1" Boston Pod.