Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1915 — Germany’s Dead Letter Maill. [ARTICLE]

Germany’s Dead Letter Maill.

The German post office is to spare the feelings, so far as possible, of the families of soldiers who have fallen in battle, when mail matter, nondeliverable for that reason, is returned to the sender. Hitherto it was the custom to stamp on the letter or package merely the word “fallen,” or “dead, and send it back home to shock the relatives with this harsh brevity. Now s the military authorities have been directed to use the words “fallen for the fatherland,” or “fallen on the field of keaor.” . In still another way the authorities are trying to soften the blow 'of death notices from the front. Hitherto this was attempted only in country districts, where the returned mail of the fallen soldiers was handed over to the local authorities or the clergyman, who then undertook to break the fatal news gently to the family. Something like this is now to be done also in the towns and cities. The local authorities will now be asked to select some person suitable for bearing the me* sage of death. .