Dead Letters

The Daad Letter office is one of the most curiously intörestiDg branches of the GoTernmeut, and tho causo of it, or tho necONsily for imch an iu.titution, is a uijsiory. It is Imponible alinost to conceive of tbo crolessnes3, stupidity and igiiorance by which more than fourteen milliong of letters were intrusted to tbo postoffice in a single year, for wbiob do designatioa coulil bo found, in o:nsequence of iuacouraeies, imporfection oud fatHl omissioiis u direction upward of 3,000 haviug no ddress whatever. And tlie niystery is the moro reiiiaikablo wbeu it is considered tliat theso letters conttiin money to the amouut of nt ldast 8100,000, in smul] sum3 gooerally, an,d cheeka, drafts, etc, lo Uiü amoÜDt of g.-500,000 moro. Thi prqperty was of oom se r'eturped, or most of it, upon iriformation oblained by opeuing ind examining the leltciH "at the Dtad Letter office.