Registered mail

“ Undeliverable domestic non-registered newspapers or magazines shall be returned to the origination post office and a notice shall be sent to the sender for payment of accrued charges and pick up at the designated post office branch within 15 days starting the day after the notice has been sent. Mails unclaimed after this period shall be disposed of in accordance with regulations regarding undelivered mails. All undeliverable international mails, with or without the name and address of the sender on the cover, shall be returned to the country of origin. ”

“ Where the mail is large, it is usually brought from the post office by wagon, the smaller deliveries being brought by regular post office carriers. All registered letters and parcels are carefully checked as to number, by actual count, and compared with number entered on post office registration sheets, before signing for them. Envelopes are first cut open by one or more persons. Registered letters are kept separate from all others, are distributed separately and accounted for before any ordinary mail is handled. ”

“ In addition to the telegraphic notice to its Florida representatives, the New York office follows the practice of sending notice of the purchase by mail directly to the customer. No stamp is r quired for this notice, which is signed and transmitted in New York. Finally when the purchase has been completed by delivery, there are times when the New York office, instead of holding the certificates for the account of its Florida customer, forwards them to him by registered mail. When this is done, a form of receipt is inclosed, which the customer is asked to sign. ”

“ He has to cast the unpaid postage and enter the correct account on the letter bill; take charge of registered letter bags and loose registered letters, and advise them on the letter bill; see to the correct labelling, tying, and sealing of the mail bags he makes up; check the despatch of mails on the bag list; dispose of his letters by a given time, the hours of the despatch of mails being fixed. In consequence, he often has to work under great pressure in order to finish in time. The postal clerk has to surcharge unpaid and insufficiently prepaid correspondence ”

“ The cars furnished the Post Office Department and those furnished the express companies differ very materially. The former are built according to specifications furnished by the Department, and are fully equipped with letter cases, paper racks, drawers, and lockers for registered mail and supplies, and all of the equipment necessary for the distribution of mail en route. The cars furnished the express companies have very little, if any, interior furnishings, and are more like the cars used for the transportation of baggage. In both cases the cars used are owned by the railroad company. ”

“ Any article of the first, second, third, or fourth class mail matter may be registered at any post-office in the United States. The fee on registered matter, domestic or foreign, is 10 cents for each letter or parcel, to be affixed in stamps, in addition to the postage. Full prepayment of postage and fee is required. Two or more letters or parcels addressed to, or intended for, the same person cannot be tied or otherwise fastened together and registered as one. ”

“ Through bags should be exchanged by all offices between which pass a large number of letters and papers, including Travelling Post Offices on different routes.
5. When, as a general rule, an office has a large number of registered letters for another office with which it does not exchange a direct mail, the registered letters may be enclosed in a sealed registered packet, addressed to the office for which the letters are intended. ”

“ Indeed, it is somewhat doubtful whether it could be material at all in view of section 5468, declaring that the fact that any letter, etc., has been deposited in any post office or branch post office, or in charge of any agent of the postal service, shall be evidence that the same was 'intended to be conveyed by mail,' within the meaning of section 5467. ”

“ 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, Washington. A secret plan for the certain detection of prying delinquents has recently been devised.
[Pg 416]
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. ”

“ The first comprehensive law providing for the classification of mails was enacted on March 3, 1879 (20 Stat. 355) . From that time to this, mail classification, frequently approved by this court, has dealt only with 'mailable matter.' In section 7 of that act (Comp. St. § 7302) , still in effect, 'mailable matter' is divided into four classes, and by section 10 (Comp. St. § 7304) the second class of such 'mailable matter' is defined as including newspapers and periodicals. ”

“ Every concern, except possibly the small establishment doing a strictly neighborhood business, uses the mails more and more in the transaction of its business; we buy, sell, pay bills, collect money, make contracts, and execute all sorts of transactions by mail—all of which necessitates writing letters. Not only is it necessary to answer letters promptly, but the increasing accumulation of correspondence must be preserved and filed in a manner that will permit of easy reference; all of which emphasizes the necessity of systematic methods in the conduct of this very important department. ”

“ Formerly, people went to the nearest postoffice for their mail; now, in all cities, the mail is delivered by postmen, just as the letter from Uncle Charles was delivered to-day.
“In almost all parts of the country there is a rural free delivery. By the roadside in front of each farmer’s house is a mail-box, having the name of the owner upon it.
“A letter carrier drives through the neighborhood with the mail. When he leaves mail in a box he raises a little signal which is attached to it in such a way that it can be seen from the farmhouse. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And, if any person shall take any letter or packet, not containing any article of value, nor evidence thereof, out of a post-office, or shall open any letter, or packet, which shall have been in a post-office, or in custody of a mail carrier, before it shall have been delivered to the person to whom it is directed, with a design to obstruct the correspondence, to pry into another's business or secrets ”

“ To implement the statute the Post Office maintains 10 or 11 screening points through which is routed all unsealed mail from the designated foreign countries. At these points the nonexempt mail is examined by Customs authorities. When it is determined that a piece of mail is 'communist political propaganda,' the addressee is mailed a notice identifying the mail being detained and advising that it will be destroyed unless the addressee requests delivery by returning an attached reply card within 20 days. ”

“ Postmasters are instructed not to receive any letter, &c. which there is good reason to believe contains any thing likely to injure the contents of the mail-bag or the person of any officer of the post-office. If such a packet be posted without the postmaster’s knowledge, or if at any time before its despatch he should discover any such packet, he is directed not to forward it, but to report the case, with the address of the packet, to the secretary. ”

“ Such mail matter must not be delivered until the postage due shall have been paid.
When carriers making collections from letter boxes find that it will be impossible on any one trip to carry to the post office the contents of all the boxes on their routes, preference must be given to mail matter of the first class. Newspapers and packages placed on the tops of letter boxes should be collected when it can be done without overloading the mail sacks and preventing the prompt collection of mail matter properly deposited in the boxes. ”

“ It will be a very pleasant thing to be able to post letters without going off our own doorsteps, but this is only half of the comfort which the new box is going to be to us.
In each post-box will be a special envelope containing blanks, on which the householder can order one and two cent stamps and postal-cards, putting the money to pay for them into the envelope with his order.
The postman collects this envelope with the regular mail, and hands it to a special clerk, who takes out the money, fills the order, and drops the envelope in the mail for the postman to deliver on his next round. ”

“ A post master will suffer no person whatever, except his duly sworn assistants, 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 constitutes a part of the mail, or to the mail locks or keys. ”

“ When express mail is not delivered on time and after investigation it is determined that the post office is at fault, the post office branch of origination or destination shall refund the postage paid save for the value-declared fee and insurance fee upon seeing the proof of mailing or the cover of the mailed item. ”

“ The mailbox systems automatically add your name (i.e., the sender's return email address) , the creation date, and forward it to the recipient. If the recipient's mailbox is on another system, the message is routed through one or several networks to reach its destination. Several email services offer forwarding to fax, telex or ordinary postal service delivery. Some offer forwarding to paging services. When new mail arrives in your mailbox, messages with text like 'MAIL from [email protected]' will be displayed on your beeper's small screen. Soon, you can send electronic mail to anyone. ”

“ Small closed mails are at times enclosed inside of closed mails for other offices; for instance, the mails made up at Paris for Guatemala are in a sack duly sealed and labelled as aforesaid, but this sack is put inside of one of the bags for the New York office, and in such cases the fact is noted on the letter bill sent with the New York mail. ”

“ And for every letter or packet so received, there shall be paid at the time of its reception, a postage of one cent, which shall be for the use of the postmasters, respectively receiving the same. And the Postmaster-General may make arrangements with the postmasters in any foreign country, for the reciprocal receipt and delivery of letters and packets through the post-offices.
Sec. 33. And be it further enacted, That the postmasters and the persons employed in the transportation of the mail shall be exempt from militia duties, and serving on juries, or any fine or penalty for neglect thereof. ”

“ In relation to opening the mails on the Sabbath, it may be noticed that the ninth section of the “act regulating the post-office establishment” makes it the duty of the postmaster to attend to the duties of his office “every day” on which a mail shall arrive at his office, and at “all reasonable hours” on every day of the week. When a mail is conveyed on the Sabbath, it must be opened and exchanged at the offices which it may reach in the course of the day. ”

“ It is not just that the farmer, who receives his mail at a neighboring town, should not only be compelled to send to the post-office for it, but to pay a considerable rent for a box in which to place it or to wait his turn at a general-delivery window, while the city resident has his mail brought to his door. ”

“ This is only one way in which you can be independent of the ordinary mail service. I suspect that many persons who have not a Postal Guide in their possession are ignorant of the fact that a letter weighing 4 oz. may be handed in at a passenger station for immediate transmission by railway. This is a convenience to many people who have lost the post and are near a railway station. Then you can use the telephone to speed up your mail service. You can telephone a letter to a post office, and it will be taken down in writing there and despatched by express delivery. ”

“ It has long been held that first-class mail such as letters and sealed packages subject to letter postage-as distinguished from newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and other printed matter-is free from inspection by postal authorities, except in the manner provided by the Fourth Amendment. ”

“ The registration-fee of fourpence, prepaid in stamps, will secure careful treatment to any letter, newspaper, or book-packet addressed to any part of the United Kingdom. Record is kept of all such letters throughout their entire course. The registration of a packet makes its transmission more secure, by rendering it practicable to trace it from its receipt to its delivery. For a fee of sixpence letters may be registered to any British colony, except Ascension, Vancouver's Island, British Columbia, and Labuan, for which places they can only be registered part of the way. ”