Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1899 — Lost in the Mails. [ARTICLE]

Lost in the Mails.

It is not so many years since the province of the mail was limited almost entirely to letters, newspapers an# magazines, but now it has become a veritable beast of burden, nnd parcels miscarry for the same reason that letters do; consequently an annual sale is necessary to get rid of the accumulations. This usually gives a net profit of about $3,000. The museum of the dead-letter office contains a varied assortment of articles wbich have not been included in the sales. Amqng them may be seen ivory miniatures of great age, watches, false teeth, boxes of raisins and of Wedding cake, pistols and knives, a clothes wringer, a coffee pot, a kerosene lamp, Infernal machines, decorated china, dainty fans, horned frogs, centipedes, human skulls, a mounted alligator more than four feet long, and, In short, everything that one would imagine would not be sent by mail. It hardly seems necessary to say that dynamite and live serpents are classed as “unmailable,” yet the maU service hits beep called on to transport both. Meantime, If more care were taken with wrapping parcels, In having them weighed so that the required amount at postage would be put on, and In addressing them the museum would be less rich In little things which were intended for gracious gifts.— Ladles’ Home Journal, df Parlor was Originally the talking place.