Show UNCLE bams AUCTION SALE annual disposal of the accumulations ol 01 the bead letter office one of tho queerest institutions of tho national capital is tho annual clearance sale of tho dead letter office in which avast accumulation of articles gone astray in tho mails is sold to the highest bidders the auction bouso where it is held is continually crowdog with excited men women and children and beside it tho bargain counters during the holidays are as havens of rest for when uncle sam goes into the junk agop business great things are expected As in the church fair raffle you pay a small amount of money and trust to luck to get back more than ite value the articles previously listed in a wholesale sort of way are tied up in bundles of from three to a half dozen and auctioned for what they will bring the average bids ranging between 10 cents and a dollar nobody is permitted to examine tha goods before purchasing and no money is refunded to tho dissatisfied everybody hopes to pull a genuine plum from the pie in the shape of a diamond ring a silk dress pattern or a silver teapot and although comparative blanks are the rule there is always the possibility of a prize for example the auctioneer holds up one of these odd shaped bundles listed pictures underwear mu bio cigars going going gone foi BO cents to a dapper young gentleman who was caught by the word cigar he opens it on the sport an unwise thing to do if one objects to good natured ridicule and this is what he finda sis cigars broken into bits with so strong an odor that one wonders how a sledge hammer could have done it underwear a female 10 cent jersey pictures a collection of newspaper cuts designed for amusement of some small child the lot would be dear at a quarter and is of no use to the buyer in the dead letter office proper that chabol house which swallows nearly half a million missives every month it is positively harrowing more than 40 bushels of photographs have accumulated there awaiting the annual cremation there are tresses of hair enough to stuff a dozen mattresses grandmothers silver locks and babies golden curls many no doubt out from dead brows and small sums of money which poor workmen send homo to feed their wives and little ones and servant girls save from their scanty wages for needy parents gone to uncle sams rich purse not because the united states wants it but because the senders writing or orthography tho graphy was beyond mortal ken it is hard to realize that in this land of schools at the close of the nineteenth century there are so many people BO ignorant or so careless as to send several millions of letters a year without stamps or addresses or with addresses which no man can make out people seem to be BO intent on what goes into the letters that they forget all about the superscription it is estimated that in drafts and in cash is received every year through dead letters indianapolis di journal |