The Ann Arbor Post Office

Postmaater feeakea lias been figuring out the business of Uncle Sam at his postoflice in (His city, and flnds that there was quite a lot of dollars g&thered from the sales, il' they were small. The foüowing figures will be of interest: "How many stamps, stamped envej lopes, postal cards and newspaper wrappers were sold at the Ana Arbor post office during the year 1896? That isa qnestion whicli the Argus will answer, but before reading further let each one make a guess. During the year ending on the uight of December 31, 1896, there were sold at the Aim Arbor office over a million and a half stamps and stainped paper, or to be exact the nuinber was 1,661,506. Numbers are hard to conceive. If a man sells five stamps or envelopes in a minute and works ten hours a day without cessation, Sunday included, in a year he will sell 1,085,000, so that i-ounting each day of ten hours, eight stamps, cards or envelopes went out of the Ann Arbor post office every minute last year. They found their way back in again with interest, for there are more stamps used at the Ann Arbor office than are sold there, many stamps from outside being sent in to different patrons of the office. The receipts of the Ann Arbor office during 1896 were $32,203.94, divided as follows : Stamps and stamped paper, $31,684.05; box rents, $515.60 ; sale of waste paper, $4.29. After defraying all the expenses of the office the sum of $12,888.30 was turned into the United States treasury. To show the fluctuation in business here and the big decrease in the summer sales, the stamp sales may be divided by quarters as follows: For the three months beginning January 1, $8,681.30; beginning April 1, $8,289.26; beginning July 1, $5,902.04; beginning October 1, $8,811.45. There were over a million two cents stamps sold. This includes the two cent stamped envelopes. There were over 200,000 postal card sold. To be exact, the stamps sold of the different denominations were as follows : One cent, 189,436; two cent, 892,848; three cent, 7,241 ; four cent, 5,235 ; five cent, 10,922; six cent, 6,500; eight cent, 5,253 ; ten cent, 6,869 ; fifteen cent, 200. There were sold 262,991 two cent envelopes ; 23,250 one cent envelopes ; 237 five cent envelopes ; 35,932 one cent newspaper wrappers and 2,000 two cent wrappers. The postal cards sold were 200,352 one cent cards and 2,295 two cent cards. There were also 2,920 special delivery stamps sold. The postage due stamps used in collecting deficiënt postage numbered, 4,347 oue cent stamps ; 1,875 two cent stamps and 863 five cent stamps. The newspapers mailed at the Ann Arbor office, by the publishers during the year weighed 96,172 pounds, averaging nearly a ton a week. There were 2,182 special delivery letters delivered in the city during the year. There were 3,412 registered letters and packages sent out and 4,80(3 received. The money order departraent is run as an altogetlier separate branch of the postal service and none o& the figures above given have any reference to the money order departraent. Ann Arbor is a paying office rather than a inoney order issuing office. During the year the money orders paid exceeded the money orders issued by over $100,000. During the year ending December 31, 1896, there were 10,030 money orders issued, of whicb 9,629 were orders payable in the United States and 401 orders payable in foreign countries. The domestic orders were issued for $47,297.61 and the foreign orders for $3,592.14. The fees collected for the orders amounted to $540.26, of which $482.66 was for the domestic orders and $57.60 for the foreign orders. The orders pd were 20,628, of which 20,389 were orders originating in this country, and 239 were foreign orders. The orders issued here and repaid amounted to 64. The total amounl paid out for inoney orders during the year was $151,817.83, of which $147,423.71 was for domestic orders and $4,394.12 for foreign orders. The average domestic order issued was for $4.9' and the average order paid was for $7. 23. The average foreign order issuec was for $8.96 and paid, $18.38. The Ann Arbor Courier.