p. 200 | Prepay Your Letters by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 6, 1860

Prepay Your Letters.

By Editor

It has for some time been customary with the P. O. department, when a letter was put into the P. O. unpaid, to notify the parties addressed to forward a letter stamp and they would receive the letter. Many letters in different parts of the country have been put into the office for us, unpaid, and upon notice from the Post Masters, we have sent for and received them; and in nearly every instance they have contained money, some to the amount of several dollars. But it appears that this arrangement is no longer to be continued, and that hereafter all letters that are not prepaid will be sent to the Dead Letter Office. Be sure therefore that your letter has a stamp on it before depositing it in the office. We present below the recent regulation of the P. O. department on this point:

"POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Oct. 8, 1860. "Whereas, By the Act of March 3d, 1855, the postage upon all letters, except such as are entitled to pass free, between places in the United States, is required to be prepaid; and, whereas, the Department, through courtesy has hitherto, at considerable labor and expense, notified the parties addressed, in all instances in which the writers failed to prepay, that their letters would be forwarded, on receiving the postage due thereon; and, whereas, instead of diminishing, the number of such letters continues to increase, thus showing that the omission to prepay is intentional; it is, therefore, ORDERED, that from and after the first day of November, 1860, all such unpaid letters be sent to the Dead Letter Office, to be disposed of in like manner as other dead letters. "J. HOLT, Postmaster General."