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Show I How Millions of ' JPx ROBABLY there lb no department of the I national govern men t that comes iu closer t yS touch with tho people than the post otllce ) ' I system; for It Is iumkJ by all daises. For this ', reason Ii behooves iertons to understand some 'i of the laws and regulations by which It lb governed Innd the best methods of preparing mall for traub-niission traub-niission ami delivery. People complain of the Post . Olllce Department, but they have little idea of what the ofllclals contend .with For Instance, some persons take a delight In uslug odd shaped or small-envelopes. All this means delay In the post otllce routine, and the f postmnster of one of our lafgc cities Irf so annoyed by J . them that he bays: "Jf 1 had the power I would make I It a rule that envelopes of speclned arid approved sizes ond .shapes only would he allowed Iu the transmission I of correspondence, the niinlmunulo be three and a half 'J by sl and a half inches, and the maximum sje to be II five by eleven." Instead of this tho post otllce Is Jhf flooded with envelopes from those that hold a tiny Eg calling card to those used for large photographs I When it Is considered that the pigeon hole cases In Ijg the poat olllce for tho distribution of mail and clrcu- Ww 'un r'nnnot l)0 ndnptt'd to any and all sizes of enve- l. Jopes, and that It Is not practicable to have additional ' cases for each size package likely to be mailed, one readily sees that this postmaster Is not suggesting 1, anything, unreasonable. Yet probably npc one person 5 -1 out of a hundred thinks of this In mailing .matter. ' ; Of course every post office department wjsh'es to ' work : rapidly as possible, and this is another reason f for ulng uniform lze of envelope. All letters are , .lamwd with a stumping machine, but the Utfpnrl- j jmeni Is always cousWerate. For lnsbuicp, if one r. Letter Writers Retard the Work- of the Matt Handler s of the Post Office Department sends something that may crush If the mtichliiu siamps it. It can be marketl, "Not for cancelling machine." ma-chine." and the officials will take note of ll nnd treat It with care. Some firms send out u quautlty of matter marked In this way, and as a rubber stamp is better than a pen they keep one for the purpose. The post otllce clerks have Instructions to look out for such markings nnd to try to observe them wheu possibles. pos-sibles. , In fact, It Is surprising what aVvell regulated machine ma-chine the Post Ollice Department is. Of course it ha gained Ibis efficiency as the result of decades or practical adaptation of the latest requirements for business and social Intercommunication. To carry op its business systematically Is a tremendous uudertnk-Ing. uudertnk-Ing. which could be simplified If people understood Us organization and realized that when unsatisfactory results are obtained It Is often the fault of' the Individual In-dividual rather than of the Post Olllce Department;. Take the matter of Insufficient and illegible addles. Millions of lellen go wrong just because of lhaso mistakes. These can be corrected sometimes by lUe sunder or they may reach the Deiqj Letter Ofilea, but there are also thousands of letters tlfat are mailed without postage, and It Is a common faulj. especially with women, to put no return address on'a letter. The Return Address. 1 This placing of name and address of sender on ou't-' ou't-' side of an envelope seems a small matter, yet cloven million pieces of mail went to the Dead Leller Olllce last year, and all oTIhis might have been saved if the sender had placed on tho outhldf a Arl1ten or Minted reaiiesXor its return In case of iioji-duHviit. E t-u if these letters arc opened at the Dead Letter Office with the Idea of returning them to the sender, few contain tho -names and addresses of the writers. Then peoplo fret nnd fume because the mall service is so poor. It would be a simple thing to train one's self to write "Kelurn after five days" over one's name and address, so that mall could be returned to the sender within the time specified, if the name and address of the sender are alone affixed, a package Is held for thirty days and Is returned to the sender from the post olllce to which It was originally sent. The request that It be returned In five days saves time and expense. Many persons do not know that uncancelled and unservlcuublo postal cards are redeemable in postage stamps by the original purchaser at seventy-five per cent of their value and that stumped envelopes spoiled In addressing can bo redeemed at tho stump window of the post otllce. Sometimes a letter Is posted that 1 insufficiently prepaid nnd addressed to a point outside of the delivery of the office of mailing. In such a casi! the letter Is held and the addressee notified of tho number of stamps necessary to forward It. Immediately Immedi-ately on receipt of these btamps the mall is sent on. Tlie Post Ufiicc Department gives many privileges. For Instance, Senators, ltepresoutntlves and Territorial Delegates, the secretary of thoSennlo and clerk of the House may send public documents free. These persons per-sons may also send seeds and agricultural reporLs. and when a Senator writes he may omit the stamp If liN name and bfilcial designation are written on the envelope. en-velope. These are called "franking" privileges, and they continue until the llr-,t Monday of December following fol-lowing the expiration of the legislator's office. Sometimes Some-times railroads have the stimc "franking" prhileges A recent change In the post olllce regulations which Is a great convenience, especially to the travelling public, pub-lic, Is that "special delivery" letters can be sent by attaching at-taching ten cents worth of oidluary stamps instead of tho special delivery stamp. This saves time and If the words "special delivery" are written on the envelope tho letter or package is delivered immediately within certain limits. The hours for free delivery are between be-tween seven A. M. and eleven P. M Upon delivery tho messenger procures a receipt from the persous addressed ad-dressed or some one authorized to receive the letter. If peoplo understood the value of registering letters they would ptojc often do so. Several years ago there was a prejudice to this method on the ground that tho word "registered'' on n letter simplv Induced the post offic.e employes to take it- This was unfounded, nnd for the last thirty-live years the registry system has gradually been reaching perfection. Perfection of Routine. As a matter of fact, tho routine Is so jwrfect that absolute safety is assured. If a registered package Is lost the government pays an Indemnity, and It Is as safe to send "IU this way as to despatch by express. This Indemnity cannot exceed the value of the contents, con-tents, but may run as hlghvus $2T, and It Is paid If the lost registered package Is addressed to any post office In the States or Island possessions. Many persons think thai If a letter Is mailed It is Impossible to recover It, but If it has not already been put In the mail or pouch for the train. tho postmaster will return It pro Ided proper Identification Is made! If it has been despatched and the case Is urgent the postmnster may telegraph to the post otuee to which X. .mlili-.ti p. cfn I Inrr tJtnJ. it Iw tv ha roiiimial on receipt, Thfs is- sometimes done where large H business transactions are involved and where news jl arriving after tlie despatch of a letter renders IH it-s delivery uuwlsc. Often the similarity in jH mimes in different Stales confuses the p6sr?olliee em- H ployes, and poor handwriting Is distracting In some H instances States Have towns with names that, while H not alike, are so similar, that mistakes can easily! bit H made. For Instance In, Pennsylvania are Bela and H Bala, Dcumorc and Duumore, and examples like these 1 can be noted In every Slate H in reality, the more one knows about the Inner workings of the Pot Office Department the more H astounded h one at the completeness of it methods. H Take the Dead Letter Ollice as an example. This ottico H makes every possible effort lo find persons lo whom H letters are addressed, and Its system Is being improved H constantly A competent force makes the handling of H mall complete and expeditious Certnlh persons are H engaged for the purpose of deciphering addresses and H correcting them so letters can be forwarded to their H destination. Others open letters without addresses H and trv to rind the address of the seuder. Of course, H many times tills cannot be found, and as a result the H office has a motley assortment of articles which have H never readied their desjinajloii. Some Of those are H false teeth, horned toads, deeds, wills, haln s,wltches H In fact, qvorv conceivable thing that can be sent H through the mail and the collection makes an inter- H cstlng exhibit. Often letters which contain money reach the office. H These are carofully filed away with the hope that some H Inqulrv will be' made. The majority of the letters B that roach the otllce do not have enclosures of vnlue, H and when the names of the writers do not appear and B the addresses arc' Incomplete tllfy are Immediately destroved. Newspnpers, pamphlets and vnrloas pub- Mentions meet h'slmllar-fiile,. for it would be impos- si hie to fill thu olllce with vnlueles matter. Parcols- of merchandise meet with a belter luck, for they are. B held for two years and at the end of that time are) uxld. . ' ' H |