Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1894 — The Dead Letter Room. [ARTICLE]

The Dead Letter Room.

An Interesting portion of the Dead Letter Office is the room in which an accumulation is made of those articles on which an insufficient amount of postage is paid, or which have been incompletely or wrongly addressed, writes Alice Graham McCollin, In an interesting sketch of the presiding genius of the Dead Letter Office, In the Ladles’ Home Journal. It is a most heterogenous collection, ranging in kind from skulls to confectionery, and in value from one cent to one thousand dollars. Sales of these articles are held annually, and after they have been held for claim for over two years, and after every effort has been exhausted to find the owners the parcels become matters, of public investment. Most of the packages contain articles of too small value to be sold separately, so parcels containing the contents of several packages are made up and sold at an average price of sixty cents each. The attempt is made to have articles in each package worth that amount The original wrappers are removed from the parcels, and new ones, on which is written a description of the contents, substituted. This description is also entered In the auctioneer's sale book, and from this description, not from a personal examination, the purchase Is made. The sale Is held in December, before the holiday season, and continues for about a week. The proceeds, like the money found in unclaimed letters, are delivered to the Third Assistant Postmaster General for deposit in the United States Treasury.