FROM THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1908, Page 7

FROM THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.

SALE OF UNCLAIMED ARTICLES. A STRANGE LIST. The Dead Letter Office, by. its veryname,' suggests mystery. It suggests a limbo of ghostly correspondence, letters from the dead to the dead, messages from the spirit world, faded ink, perfumed paper, lost hopes, sacred confidences never understood, because never received, and things that should never be restored to light from the archives of death. Therefor* it seemed almost a sacrilege to read an advertisement of the sale by auction of " Unclaimed Articles in the Dead Letter Office." " Let the dead past bury its dead," would surely ap pear the. Detter course. Bug read the articles enumerated on the li&t for sale otf Saturday afternoon. The idea of a profanation pi the mysteries vanishes at once: Here are some of the unclaimed articles: — Pair khaki riding breecnes, six gentlemen's ties, electric battery, five tins Dunlop outfit, two pairs babies' booties and two bits, three novels, box of twenty-five cigars, bundle of shuttles and bodkins, manicure set and silver-topped bottle, Catholic prayerbook, four pots of " Mammelia " toiletcream and a fancy tea-cosy. Truly a rhiiscellaneous selection of articles,, , a sample of the 139 lots offered, more like the stock-in-trade of a cheap-jack than the common conception, of the contents of the Dead Letter Office. v Where do they - come from and to whom? They are mostly sample specimens sent out by firms at Home on speculation, and not , claimed by the addressees. Otherwise, what has lot 20 — a tin of Allenbury's food, a tin of asthma powder, and three packets of '' Magnetic " corn salve to do with dead ldttersY Or, again, why was lot 42, consisting of one fascinator and two pairs , ladies' sleeping socks, unclaimed? At the actual sale bidding was spirited, and the auctioneer, Mr. W. F. Shortt, had no difficulty in disposing of the 139 odd lots. Razors were both popular and numerous. The supply was equal to $he demand. A quantity of clothing went off at satisfactory prices. When the khaki riding-breeches were offered, somebody enquired for the horse, an indispensable adjunct !"n a democratic community to the breeches. "Get a clothes horse," was> the auctioneer's ready retort, and \he nether garments were sold 1 . Another buyer made- provision against time and decay by purchasing fifty packets of tooth powder for 6d the lot. Patent medicines sold readily, but the purchase that seemed to give the most immediate pleasure was lot 32— an harmonica and two packets containing tnree cigars each. This fell for a moderate sum to a sailor, who at once commenced to play the ha-rmonica, which is really the common or garden mouth organ. A mate of. his selected a. cigar from one of the packets, lit it, and executed a pas-de-seul to the tune of the harmonica. The musician joined in, and the pair went out dancing the hornpipe.