Ten Years Among the Mail Bags Part 53

The address of letters intended for delivery in cities, should include, if possible, the occupation, street and number of the party addressed.

When a letter is, by mistake or owing to a duplicate name, delivered to the wrong person, it should be immediately returned to the post-office with a verbal explanation, and not be dropped into the letter box. If inadvertently opened by the party taking it from the office, the fact should be endorsed on the back of the letter, with the name of the opener.

Experience has shown that locked letter boxes or drawers opening on the outside, especially in cities and large towns, are unsafe, as depositories of letters, especially those containing articles of value.

No letters should be given to Route Agents upon the cars or steamboats, except such as cannot be written before the closing of the mail at the post-office. Under no circ.u.mstances can Route Agents receive letters that are not pre-paid _by stamps_.

When there are good grounds for believing that letters are opened and read from motives of curiosity, complaint should be made in writing to the Chief Clerk of the Post-Office Department, Was.h.i.+ngton. A secret plan for the certain detection of _prying_ delinquents has recently been devised.

Two or more letters directed to different persons, cannot be sent by mail in one envelope or packet, without subjecting the sender to a fine of ten dollars. This does not apply to any letter or packet directed to a foreign country.

Costly and delicate articles of jewelry or other valuables, should not be placed in a letter, as they are liable to serious injury in the process of stamping.

It is a violation of law to enclose a letter or other thing (except bills and receipts for subscription,) or to make any memorandum in writing, or to print any word or communication, after its publication, upon any newspaper, pamphlet, magazine, or other printed matter. The person addressed must pay letter postage, or the sender be fined five dollars.

If a letter is deposited in a post-office, and the enclosure accidentally omitted, or it becomes necessary to alter or add to the contents, it is much better to _write another letter_, than to trouble those in the office to look for the original one. In large places, especially, a successful search for it, even immediately after its deposit, would consume much valuable time, and such a request is altogether unreasonable, when the remedy suggested is so simple and cheap.

On calling or sending for a letter known to have been advertised, the fact should always be stated, otherwise only the _current_ letters are examined.

Although it is strictly the duty of post masters and other agents of the Department, to correct or report such errors in the mail service as may come to their knowledge, it is, nevertheless, desirable that any private citizen should inform the Department of continued neglect or carelessness in the execution of mail contracts or mismanagement in a post-office.

Legal provision has been made by Congress, by which letters may be sent _out_ of the mail in cases of emergency. By the use of the Government envelope, _with the stamp printed thereon_, and const.i.tuting a part thereof, letters may be so sent, provided the envelope is duly sealed, directed, and addressed, and the date or receipt or transmission of such letter written or stamped thereon.

The use of such envelope more than once, subjects the offender to a fine of fifty dollars.

A letter or ordinary envelope with a postage stamp _put on_ by the writer, _cannot_ go out of the mail (except by private hand,) for the reason that the law confines the matter entirely to the envelopes furnished by the Department. Were the privilege extended to the other kind of stamps, there being no way to cancel them, by their re-use, extensive frauds upon the revenue would be the result.

A singular notion seems long to have prevailed that it is no violation of law to send an _unsealed_ letter outside of the mail.

This makes no difference whatever. Even if the paper written upon is not folded, it is a letter.

Where bundles of newspapers are sent in the mail to "clubs,"

without the names of the subscribers upon the papers, the post master is under no official obligation to address them. Still the Department enjoins a spirit of courtesy and accommodation towards publishers and the public, in all such matters.

A person receiving a letter from the post-office by mistake, or finding one in the street or elsewhere, can under no pretence designedly break the seal without subjecting himself to a severe penalty.

A printed business card or the name of the sender, placed upon the outside of a circular, subjects it to double postage; and for any writing, except the address, letter postage is charged.

The following are among the established rules and regulations of the Department founded upon existing statutes of Congress:--

Only the dead letters containing enclosures of value, are required by law to be preserved and returned to their owners; but if the writer of a letter not containing an enclosure of value desires to have his letter preserved, it will be done if he pre-pay the letter and mark the words "to be preserved," in large characters, on the sealed side. Upon the return of his letter he will be required to pay the postage from Was.h.i.+ngton.

The masters of steamboats under contract with the Department, will deliver into the post-offices (or to the route or local agent of the Department, if there be any,) at the places at which they arrive, all letters received by them, or by any person employed on their boats, at any point along the route.

Masters or managers of all other steamboats, are required by law, under a penalty of thirty dollars, to deliver all letters brought by them, or within their care or power, addressed to, or destined for, the places at which they arrive, to the post masters at such places: _except letters relating to some part of the cargo_ and left unsealed. All letters not addressed to persons to whom the cargo, or any part of it, is consigned, are therefore to be delivered into the post-office, to be charged-with postage.

Every master of a vessel from a foreign port is bound, immediately on his arrival at a port, and before he can report, make entry, or break bulk, under a penalty not to exceed $100, to deliver into the post-office all letters brought in his vessel, directed to any person in the United States, or the Territories thereof, which are under his care or within his power, except such letters as relate to the cargo or some part thereof.

Stage coaches, railroad cars, steamboats, packetboats, and all other vehicles or vessels performing regular trips at stated periods, on a post route between two or more cities, towns, or places, from one to the other, on which the United States mail is regularly conveyed under the authority of the Post-Office Department, are prohibited from transporting or conveying, otherwise than in the mail, any letter, packet, or packets of letters, (except those sealed and addressed and pre-paid by stamped envelopes, of suitable denominations,) or other mailable matter whatsoever, except such as may have relation to some part of the cargo of such steamboat, packetboat, or other vessel, or to some article at the same time conveyed by such stage, railroad car, or some vehicle, and excepting also, newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, and periodicals.

A newspaper, pamphlet, circular, or other printed sheet, if in a wrapper, should be so folded and wrapped that its character can be readily determined; and so that any prohibited writing, marks, or signs upon it may easily be detected. If closely enveloped and sealed it is chargeable with letter postage.

No post master or other privileged person can authorize his a.s.sistant, clerk, or any other person to write his name for the purpose of franking any letter, public or private.

The personal privilege of franking travels with the person possessing it, and can be exercised in but one place at the same time.

No post master or privileged person can leave his frank behind him upon envelopes to cover his correspondence in his absence.

Money and other valuable things, sent in the mail, are at the risk of the owner. But, if they be lost, the Department will make every effort in its power to discover the cause, and, if there has been a theft, to punish the offender.

Letters can be registered on the payment of the registry fee of five cents for each letter.

Post masters, a.s.sistants, and clerks, regularly employed and engaged in post-offices, and also post riders and drivers of mail stages, are by law exempt from military duty and serving on juries, and from any fine or penalty for neglect thereof.--_Act of_ 1825, _sec._ 35; _Act of_ 1836, _sec._ 34.

A post master will suffer no person whatever, except his duly sworn a.s.sistants, or clerks and letter carriers, who may also have been sworn, to have access to the letters, newspapers, and packets in his office, or whatever const.i.tutes a part of the mail, or to the mail locks or keys.

If no special order upon the subject has been made in regard to his office, a post master is allowed seven minutes only to change the mail.

If the mail be carried in a stage, coach, or sulky, it will be the duty of the driver to deliver it as near the door of the post-office as he can come with his vehicle, but not to leave his horses, and he should not be permitted to throw the mail on the ground.

Post masters will not suffer newspapers to be read in their offices by persons to whom they are not addressed; nor to be lent out in any case, without permission of the owners.

If newspapers are not taken out of the office by the person to whom they are addressed, the post master will give immediate notice to the publishers, and of the cause thereof if known.

Packets of every description, weighing more than four pounds, are to be excluded, except public doc.u.ments, printed by order of either House of Congress, or such publications or books as have been or may be published, procured, _or purchased_, by order of either House of Congress, or joint resolution of the two Houses, and legally franked.

Newspapers and periodicals to foreign countries (particularly to the continent of Europe) must be sent in narrow bands, open at the sides or end; otherwise they are chargeable there with letter postage.

Drop and box letters, circulars, free packets containing printed doc.u.ments, speeches, or other printed matter, are not to be advertised.

If newspapers are carried out of the mail for sale or distribution, post masters are not bound to receive and deliver them. Pamphlets and magazines for immediate distribution to subscribers cannot be so carried without a violation of the law of Congress.

The great mails are to be closed at all distributing offices not more than one hour before the time fixed for their departure; and all other mails at those offices, and all mails at all other offices, not more than half an hour before that time, unless the departure is between 9 o'clock, P. M., and 5, A. M., in which case the mail is to be closed at 9, P. M.

Postage stamps and stamped envelopes, may be used in pre-payment of postage on letters to foreign countries, in all cases where such pre-payment can be made in money.

A letter bearing a stamp, cut or separated from a stamped envelope, cannot be sent through the mail as a pre-paid letter.

Stamps so cut or separated from stamped envelopes lose their legal value.

It is expected that a disposition to accommodate will prompt a post master to search for and deliver a letter, on the application of a person who cannot call during the usual office hours.

No person can hold the office of post master, who is not an actual resident of the city or town wherein the post-office is situated, or within the delivery of the office.--_Sec._ 36 _of Act of_ 1836.

Letter postage is to be charged on all hand-bills, circulars, or other printed matter which shall contain any ma.n.u.script writing whatever.

When the mail stops over night where there is a post-office, it must be kept in the office.

Any person wis.h.i.+ng a letter mailed direct, and not to be remailed at a distributing office, can have his directions followed by writing the words "mail direct" upon the letter.

The use of canvas bags of any kind, for any other purposes than the conveyance of mail matter, subjects every person so offending, to all the penalties provided in the 4th section of the Act of 1852. Contractors, mail carriers, and others in the service of the Department, are by no means free from censure in this respect, and increased vigilance in the detection of such practices, and the prompt and indiscriminate punishment of the offenders, have recently been enjoined by the Post Master General.