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Show "Harmless Animals" in the Parcel Post -Si D CI "D I.F.ARl'-EYKI) and warty eroco-diles eroco-diles a yard or so in length, whose digestion enables litem to chew up broom handles as a man would a toothpick, may be "harmless" in the legal sense of the word when shipped by parcel post, hut Postmaster A. L. Behymer of Cincinnati has bis own personal doubts about the matter. In addressing the National Association Associa-tion of Postmasters, Mr. Kehynier explained ex-plained that live animals and. various kinds of barnyard stock, under the law, were entitled to mail privileges, if, in transit, they wore badges inscribed in-scribed "Harmless." The Cincinnati postmaster was in-.I in-.I inert to doubt that fair postmistresses :r a bevy of young women clerks in the home pos-tofiice would look upon a :-rate of live mice as "harmless." Also, Mr. Behymer appeared not to look with serenity upon the prospect some day af being obliged to "attend, water and feed various fowls and irritated livestock'' live-stock'' as a part of the daily postal routine. The evolution of the egg. he felt, was not so bad, explaining that first the parcel post bandied crates of eggs, then the contents of such eggs after hatching, in the form of live chicks, only to be followed by full-grown chanticleers chan-ticleers and domesticated motherly hens. But when alligators and other gruesome grue-some creatures happen along in the usual run of business and, as was- the case recently at an Ohio postoffice, escape from their crate and wallow about the office snapping broomsticks and otherwise giving vent to playful pranks until reduced to the official "harmless" stage, he declared it was about time to call a halt. The convention failed to take any action upon the revelations of the Cincinnati Cin-cinnati postmaster, evidently feeling the "harmless" phase of parcel post management would in the proper course of events be corrected or modified modi-fied by the postal authorities. |