Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 1912)
The Omaha Sunday Bee PART TWO EDITORIAL PAGES ONE TO EIGHT PART TWO SOCIETY PAGES ONE TO EIGHT VOL. XLII NO. 28. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 29, 1912. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. Uncle Sam's Efforts to Aid Careless Corres Departments of Po&office Where Mistakes of Patrons Are the Care of Experts pond nt WO extensive and expensive de partments of every largo postof flco Uncle Sam lias to maintain, largely on account of tho extreino carelessness of persons who mall letters and parcels, are the di rectory department of tho gen eral delivery division and the inquiry, or "nixie" department. In tho directory department of the general delivery hi tho Omaha postofflce five clcrkii are employed every day of the year looking up addrosses of pcoplo whoao mail comes to Omaha without street addresses. In the "nixie" department seven persons are constantly employed Bortlng out mail of insufficient address, keeping records of valuables found in the mail with no directlono whatever, and stacking and preserving such valuables properly tabulated as to time found so that when they have been kept ninety days, they can bo forwarded to the dead letter offieo at Washington. On account of the carelessness of patrons, hun dreds und thousands of dollars worth of valuablea annually find their way into the "nixie" depart ment, where they are proporly tagged and finally forwarded to the dead letter office where, they are sold at the proper time. The proceeds accrue to the national troasury. In tho "nixie" department a constant effort is being made to discover tho right addresses for parcels that find their, way there, while at the same time an effort is being made to locato tho persons who can properly identify and claim the valuables that happen to come to the departments loose. Gun stocks and twenty-dollar "gold pieces are among the heterogoneous collection that has been found, piece by piece, lying loose on the tables in tho mail cars in tho Fourteenth division of the railway mall service. Omaha boing headquarters for tho Fourteenth division, every loose valuable that is found by tho clerks in their ears, where it has lu some way slipped out of its parcel, muBt be turned in at Omaha. The railway mall plerk brings it to headquarters with a note attached, telling exactly the tlnio of day It was found, where in the car it waa found, and whether It was entirely free from any wrapping. Thus, a clerk, a few weeks ago, brought In four shining new twenty-dollar gold pieces that were found on his table in the car after he had worked a great pllo( of mail. Several five-dollar gold pieces have como into the office in the Bame way. A fine walnut gim stock awaits identification in the lockers. A pearl handled pocket knifo has just arrived. An electric toy engine has long lain In store waiting for some one th claim it. A box of hair tonic awaits its bald-headed claimant. A fine morocco leather, gilt edged Bible is being held for the person it was meant to iustrucl. A delicate solid gold chain with a beautiful locket lies in its cotton bed in a neat box, waiting to gladden tho heart of the ouo it was intended to please. Hundreds of nickels, pen nies, quarters, 'and many dollars' worth of postage stamps in great 'sections, Just as-they wore printed, are .awaiting the passing of ninety days, when they will be dispatched to the deed letter office, as such articles as these can 3ddom, if. ever, bo identi fied. A gae mantle has gone astray and Is-locked in tho locker waiting to bo claimed. These are a few of tho hundrods and hundreds of oddities, not to mention a fine-sot of rattlesnake rattles, and other unthlnkables that have ac cumulated. K. N. Bowles is foreman of the "nixie" depart ment. By studying tho systom In Chicago and other large .cities, ho was able largely to organize the system here. Six men besides himself aro regularly employed in the department. Paul Moyen, ' tho veteran mail clerk, who Jias been In the sorvlce here In various departments for twenty-three years, Is a handy' man to tall into -the "nixie" depart ment, as woll as into the directory department on occasions, as Mr. Meyon spoaka and reads five languages. It not infrequently happens that letters addressed in a foreign language find their proper destination only through the aid of Mr. Meyen's linguistic powers. If anyono is under the Impression that' the clerks In the "nixie" department are having, a Jolly time, he might Just glauco at a few figures. Dur ing the month of November last, this department of seven men supplied addresses for 15,471 pieces of mail. During the same month, this department returned 5,000 pieces to the sender for better ad dresses, wherever the return card was found, or whero tho name of the Bender was otherwise learned. No, these clerks aro not Infallible. They make mistakes. They are human. Yet out of 15,471 pieces of mail, for which they supplied ad dresses, they made just exactly eleven mistakes. Twenty mistakes is the highest this department has ever made in a single month. And this record of a minimum of mistakes la made In a department which in the very first place has to deal with a gigantic "comedy of errors." Tho dear patrons of the postofflce, the senders of mall, are, allowed to make all the mistakes they choose. But this department, hidden away lu the baok corner of tho postofflce, and never on dross parade, Is silently, patently plodding through di rectories, postofflce guides, records or new post pffteos established, and every other available) source of information that will holp them get a letter to tho porson for whom It was intended. And for thU service of five men the sender of the letter has "paid Undo Sam the magnificent sum of 2 cents. Often letters c6me Into this department ad dressed to a man with ouly the namo of tbo stato given.- For example, a letter gets Into tho malls and starts on Its way in the mall car addrcssod to "John Smith, Nebraska." This Is returned to tho sender If a roturn card in on the envelope. If. not, it is sent to Washington marked, "insufficient address." A "nixie" division guide of postofflces is kept ' in this department. It contains tho names of all the postofflces In tho United States. Hvory day a bulletin published by tho Postofflce department at Washington reaches tho "nixie" department. It contains the names of all", the now post offices established. It also contains the names of postofflces discontinued. From this bulletin the "nlxle" force revises Its guide and koepr, it constantly up to date. When u town name appears on a lotter and the department U unable to find suuh a postofflce In the guldo for the stato to which the letter la diroctod, then If thoro is a postofflce by that name in anothor state they try that office. If there are three towns by that name In three states, they try those throe of fices. If, however, there nro more than three of fices in the United 8tates by the name found on the questionable address, the "nlxle" department tries nunc of them, as It Is a rule lu the department not to work" more than three .offices on a lotter. That "to err Is. human" in seldom better shown than in the fact that postofflce officials themselves may be guilty of sending mall so poorly directed that It must find Its way Into the "nixie"' depart ment A bulletin Is now being held at the, Omaha postolfire coming from the fourth assistant post master general at Washington. The return card shown this. Then there is the largo, smooth, white blank space for tne address but no addrecs appears. This will go back to the fourth assistant postmaster generul marked "InHufflclent address." Five clerks, working studiously at five desks in a large room In the goneral delivery department, constitute the directory department. Here aro city directories of Omaha, divided. Into five sec tions. Kacli nlerk works with a section of tho di rector), for example, the first cleric works the directory section, Including names from A to K, while another would work the next section and so ou. Then when an individual has the lncoripre henslblo assurance to mall a letter to "John Smith, Omaha, Neb.," and pays 2 cents postage op that letter, ho has for that 3 cents hired tho services of one of these clerks for perhaps half a day; per haps half a month. The clerk will turn to his Smith column In the directory. There ho finds that in Omaha thoro are oxactly thirty-two John Smlthc liatcd. Ho will take the address of ouo of thoso and on tho envelope ho will write "try ad dress oo-and-so." Thia, operation may have to be repeated thirty-two times before the right Johu Smith in found. During the Christmas rush the letters and par cels in tho "nlxle" department, of course, Increase to a great extent. The eamo is true in the directory department. Along with the accumulation of stacks of mail addressed in hasto, and mailed In greater haste, come the Insufficient addresses, the blurred nnd blotted addresses, and the parcels and letters with no address at all. , During the Christmas rush last week, the Omaha postofflce handled perbups a greater quantity of mail than it ever handled in any one week before. There jwero days when sacks of mall like straw slacks on a Nebraska farm, were piled high and long so that a inan haVl to get a stepladcler to look over them. Many extra clerks were put on duty for tile occasion, and tho regular clerks and car riers on Boveral days volunteered to work ten hours per day, Instead of merely the eight required, in order to help clear the congestion. tm M S