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.