Business Hints for Men and Women Part 19

A post office order is like a draft drawn by one postmaster on another. The one credits the sum, the other debits it.

The holder of an order will not get his money unless he is known to the paying postmaster or is identified.

Before paying an order the postmaster requires the holder to receipt it.

A post office money order, like a check or draft, may be transferred to another for collection.

Banks receive transferred money orders as if they were cash deposits.

The party to whom orders are transferred must go through the same forms at the office, where payment is made, as if he was the original payee.

ADVICE

It is not necessary to register letters containing checks. Never write "personal" on a business letter.

Always enclose a stamp for reply when writing to a stranger.

See that the addresses on your letters are distinctly legible.

CHAPTER XIV

TELEGRAMS--THE TELEPHONE

To send a telegram, you or your messenger must take what you have written to the nearest telegraph office.

You may write a telegram on any kind of paper, provided always that the writing is plain.

All telegraph offices are provided with regular blank forms, which may be had without cost, and it is better to use these when they are available.

The blank is properly ruled, with lines for the date, for the address of the one to whom it is to be sent, and for the message.

CHARGES

The telegraph company charges a fixed sum for a message of, say, ten words. These words do not include the name and address of the sender.

The amount of the charge is always dependent on the distance between the office from which the message is sent and the one at which it is received.

Every word over ten, in the message, pays an extra fee, dependent again on the distance.

Getting just what you mean into ten words may seem difficult when you have a lot to say, but it is surprising how you can boil the message down when each additional word costs five or more cents.

It may pay to practice this.

If it is actually necessary to make your meaning clear by the addition of more words, do not hesitate at the cost.

If you are known at the telegraph office, you can send a message to be collected from the receiver.

Never permit the receiver to pay for a message that is exclusively on your own business.

Always make and keep a copy of every important telegram you send away. Do not neglect this.

If you have neglected to keep a copy of a telegram, or having made one have lost it, you may get a copy from the telegraph office, provided the application be made within six months of the sending of the message.

Telegrams are delivered by the company's messengers.

You must give receipt to the messenger on the delivery of a telegram.

Where the receiver lives a long distance from the telegraph office, it is customary to pay the messenger an additional fee, depending on the distance.

The charges for telegrams to be sent at night and delivered in the morning, are much lower than for day messages.

For an additional charge, less than the original, messages may be repeated back to insure their accuracy.

Read over to the official, or still better, have him read your message over in your presence, that you may be sure he understands it as written.

You cannot hold others responsible for your own mistakes.

TELEGRAPHING MONEY

You can telegraph money with as much safety as you can send it through a bank.

In handling money in this way, the telegraph company does not act as a banker but as a carrier.

Telegraph money orders are a great convenience, when one wants to send cash to a distant point in a hurry.

Country telegraph offices do not, as a rule, transmit money; that function is left to the offices in the larger centers.

THE METHOD

One wishing to "wire money" will find at the telegraph office suitable blanks; they are furnished gratis.

On lines provided for the purpose and properly indicated, as in a postal order form, write the name and address of the person to receive the money, with the amount.

This paper, properly signed, is handed to the clerk with the money to be sent and the fee for transmission.

The fee is double that charged for an ordinary message of the same length.

If, for any reason, the person to whom the money is sent cannot be found within forty-eight hours, the money is returned to the sender, but the fees are retained, as the company is not to blame for failure.

The receiver of a money order, if unknown, must identify himself as he would at a bank, and he must receipt for the money.

If the person to receive the money is an entire stranger in the place to which the money is sent, the sender knows it, and he provides for the situation by signing, on the reverse of the application, an order to the distant operator to pay the money to the person named within, without further identification.