People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1896 — POSTOFFICE AT HOME [ARTICLE]

POSTOFFICE AT HOME

LETTER CARRIERS TO SELL BTAMP6 AND COLLECT LETTERS. Detail* of tho Latest Plan Adopted by th* Department at Washington So Peddle Stamps Prom House to House—P«f Already Proved a Time Saver by Testa Hade. The postmaster general has issued an order extending the boose to house mail collection and delivery system so as to provide for the sals of postage and special delivery stamps by letter carriers while making tbeir rounds. The scheme is one outlined to the postoffio* department six years ago by Postmaster Harlow of St Louis. Th* oarrierswill be provided with an offioial stamp stlling envelope, which will contain order slips, npon which orders for stamps may bs indicated as follows: ■ Five (8) two (3) cent stamps; twentyfive (35) two (3) oent stamps; two (3) five (6) oent stamps; five (6) one (1) cent stamps; twenty-five (IB) one (1) cent stamps. The department order* further provides that the Postal Improvement company shall assign to the United States all United States patents now held by it on the envelopes adopted, and all United States patents pertaining thereto which may be held by it in the fnture, with the understanding that these envelopes shall only be used in conneotion with the house to house collection and delivery boxes adopted and tested by the department It also provide one of these envelopes with each house collection and delivery box of the forms adopted by the department, without cost to the United States or to the person purchasing such t>oxes, such envelope to become the property of ths United States. The requisite number of envelopes for the use of letter carriers is to be provided by the department Carrier shall collect from house letter boxes official stamps, selling envelopes containing orders for stamps when such orders are properly indicated, with the name and address of the person ordering written thereon, and when accompanied by an amount equal to the value of the stamps ordered, and he shall turn over to the clerk designated to receive them such official stamp selling envelopes, whose duty it shall be to fill suoh orders by placing in the envelope the stamps so ordered and paid for, and the carrier, on his next trip, shall deliver this envelope in the delivery compartment of the box at the address designated in the order. This order provides for one of the improvements made in the postal system. In operation the system is perfectly simple. The following is an explanation made by Major Harlow of its workings when he first presented the plan to the postoffice department: Mrs. A. in San Francisco has written a letter to her husband in New York, bnt when she goes to post it finds that she has no stamp. She does not live near the postoffioe, a postage stamp agejjcy or even a convenient drag store, and it is raining hard. Mr. A. would have to wait for his letter if Unole Sam did not step gallantly forward and his services as errand boy. Mrs. A., having provided herself with a house collection and delivery box of the form specified by Ijhe department, has one of the above described envelopes and marks in the space designated on t£e order slip for unstamped matter a cross—thus, X She makes a similar m&rk opposite some one of the quantities of stamps, perhaps five 2’s, writes her name and address on the margin, incloses 13 cents and slips the envelope in the collection compartment of her letter box. The aet of mailing the letter has raised the carrier’s signal on the box. He sees it on bis next trip, unlocks the box and carries the letter and the stamp selling envelope to the postoffice, hands them to the clerk in charge, and the latter takes out the money, inserts the proper number of stamps to fill the ’ order, affixes the stamp to the letter, forwards it by the next mail, and on his next trip the carrier returns to Mrs. A. ’s letter box the envelope containing the stamps. Mrs. A. removes the stamps and keeps the envelope Until she wishes to order again. Perhaps she wanted the letter to be delivered qnickly, and 'she generally does. If so, she indicated this on the order slip, in the space provided, by ordering a special delivery stamp, and added 10 cents to the amount in the envelqpe, and the stamp was pnt on for her at the postoffice. ( v The system of collecting mail from honses by means of letter boxes has already been proved a time saver by tests begun under the last administration, as the time saved by having a box in which the carrier can leave mail without having to wait for a tardy servant to answer his ring at the doorbell more than compensates for the time consumed in collecting mail. Now the department takes another step and proposes to sell stamps to its patrons in a manner wbioh will take no more of the carrier’s time than to collect or deliver an ordinary letter. It is expected that this peddling of stamps from house to house, for that is what it really means, will largely increase the sales of stamps as soon as the system is well introduced and in general use.—St Louis Globe-Democrat.