CURIOSITIES OF THE LONDON POST OFFICE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1585, 19 March 1879, Page 4

CURIOSITIES OF THE LONDON POST OFFICE.

The twenty-fourth report of the Post-master-General has just been issued, and contains a large quantity of interesting information concerning the working of one of the great departments of the public service. The improvement in the system of Beturned Letter Offices, -which was begun in 1877, has been further extended during the past year by the establishment of two more offices, and the Postmaster-G-eneral purposes to extend the system. Respecting the work of these offices the report gives the following particulars: — "Taking advantage of the information afforded by the covers, the experiment haß been tried of returning to the senders, direct from the principal offices in the London district, without passing through the Returned Letter Office, all letters, book packets, &c, which have the senders' names and addresses stated upon them. The experiment has worked satisfactorily, and the Postmaster-Gl-eneral points out that it is desirable that letters, &c, whioh cannot be delivered to the addresses should again reach the hands of the senders without delay." But it is not only letters and newspapers that the Post Office has to deal with. A few of the experiences of the officials are tnuß narrated: — , , " The Post Office continues to be used as a means of transmitting articles of almost every variety from one part of the country to the other. The following articles, among others, were observed during the year:—A dormouse,

four white mice, two goldfinches, a lizard, and a blind worm, all alive ; cutlery, medicine, Tarnish, ointments, perfumery, articles of dress, a stoat, a squirrel, fish, leeches, frogs, beetles, caterpillars, and vegetables. Many of these being prohibited articles, were sent to the Returned Letter Office. A snake, about a yard in length, which had been committed to the post for transmission in a box was observed to be at largo on the floor of one of the night mail sorting carriages on the London and North-Western Railway. After a good deal of confusion and interruption to the work it was killed. A small box which reached the Returned Letter Office in Liverpool was found, on being opened, to contain eight living snakes. A checque for £9 15s was found loose in a pillar letter-box in Birmingham, but the owner, who was traced through the bank, was unable to explain in any way how it had got out of his possession."

The following anecdote seems to rival that concerning the famous magpie or jackdaw : "Complaint having been made last year that certain letters which ought to have reached a bookseller in a country town had not been received, it was concluded, after inquiry, that they had been duly delivered, but had subsequently been withdrawn from under the street door, which was furnished with a slit to receive letters, but without a box to retain them. During recent alteration to the eliop, however, when it was necessary to remove the flooring under tiio window, the discovery was made of thirty-one letters, six post-cards, and three newspapers, which had been carried thither by rats. The corners of the lettors, &c, bearing the stamps, were nibbled away, leaving no doubt that the gum upon the labels was the inducement to the theft. Several of the letters contained cheques and money orders.