Business Hints for Men and Women Part 18

Postal cards two cents each, double four cents.

Registration fees or letters or other articles, four cents each.

Ordinary letters for foreign countries, except Canada, Cuba and Mexico, must be forwarded, whether any postage is paid on them or not.

All other mailable matter must be prepaid.

Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Tetuila, the Philippines and Porto Rico are regarded as insular or territorial possessions of the United States, and are ent.i.tled to the same postal rates.

STAMPS

Postage stamps may be purchased at any United States post office, or at any place authorized to sell them.

Anyone may sell postage stamps as he would any other personal a.s.set.

If stamps are bought to be enclosed in a letter, they should never be of a higher denomination than twos and ones, as they are easily disposed of.

Letters should always be stamped on the upper right-hand corner of the envelope.

Packages should be stamped in the same way and on the addressed side.

The using of cancelled stamps is a felony.

Foreign stamps have no value on letters or parcels mailed in the United States.

A domestic, unstamped letter will not be forwarded.

If a stamped letter is found to require more postage, the amount lacking is stamped on the letter, and must be paid by the receiver.

Stamped envelopes and stamped wrappers are sold by the post office at the usual rates of postage, with the cost of the paper added.

If a stamped envelope or wrapper is spoiled, the stamp must not be cut off and used by pasting on another envelope or wrapper, for it will be treated as if no postage were paid.

Such spoiled wrappers or envelopes will be exchanged, without charge, by the postmaster, for stamps of the same value.

POSTAL CARDS

Never use a postal card to dun a debtor.

Never send a confidential message on a postal card.

Foreign postal cards, that is those bearing a foreign stamp, cannot be used in the United States.

An international postal card can be bought.

Postal cards and letters may be redirected and forwarded without extra charge, where the address of the receiver has been changed.

Packages require a renewal of payment in such cases.

REGISTERING LETTERS

A letter or a parcel may be registered to further insure its safe delivery.

When a letter or parcel is registered, it must have the sender's name and address written across the left-hand end of the envelope and on the reverse side.

In addition to the stamps required ordinarily, eight cents in stamps or in a regularly prepared stamp, is the registration fee.

The clerk, receiving a registered parcel, gives the sender a receipt for the same. After the letter has reached its destination, the sender gets a second receipt, through the post office, signed with the receiver's name.

The receiver of a registered parcel signs two receipts, one for the post office and the other for the sender.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

The purpose of what is known, in connection with the post office, as the "Special Delivery System", is to insure the delivery of any letter or package to the person, to whom it is addressed, as soon as it reaches his post office.

In addition to the regular post charge, a fee of 10 cents is added for special delivery. This is in the form of a special stamp, though when this cannot be had, the same amount in ordinary stamps may be attached.

In the case noted, the sender should write in line with the stamps, "special delivery."

Special delivery messages are delivered, not by ordinary carriers, but by special delivery messengers.

The special delivery letter is used when immediate knowledge is necessary. It saves a long telegram.

MONEY ORDERS

Money, in limited sums, may be sent through the post office. One advantage of sending money in this way is that it practically insures the sender against loss.

All post offices are not money order offices.

A post office money order may only be sent to those places where there are such offices.

At all post offices, authorized to send money orders, proper blanks can be had on which the sender can write his order.

Any sum may be sent by postal order, from one cent to one hundred dollars.

The fee is from three to thirty cents.

Read the blank carefully; it is simple, but be sure you understand it before filling out the order.

If in doubt, ask the clerk.

Having filled out the order, hand it to the clerk with the sum required, and the additional fee.

The clerk then prepares and hands out an order for the amount, on the postmaster of the town to which you are sending your letter, and this you enclose to your correspondent.

CASHING POST OFFICE ORDERS

The money order never contains the name of the sender; this the postmaster of the office from which it is sent supplies in a separate communication to the postmaster who is to pay.

No money pa.s.ses from one office to the other.