DEAD LETTERS. Letters transmitted through the mails according to direction, and remaining for a specified time uncalled for by the persons addressed, are called dead letters.
By the act to amend the laws relating to the post office department, March 3, 1863, chap. 74, the post master-general is authorized to regulate the times at which undelivered letters shall be sent to the dead-letter office, and for their return to the writers; and to have published a list of undelivered letters —by writing, posting, or advertising—in his dis cretion. If advertised, it mnet be in the nowaploer of large-t circulation regularly published within the delivery. If no daily paper is published within the delivery, then the list may be advertised in the daily paper of adjoining delivery. One cant to he ;,paid the publisher for each letter advertised. Let . tere aldressed'in a foreign language may be adver tised in the journal of that language most used Such journal must be in the same or adjoining delivery.
Dead letters containing valuables shall be regis tered in the department; and if they cannot be delivered to person addressed or to writer, the con tents, eo far as available, shall be included in re ceipts of department, subject to reclamation within four years; and such lettere, containing valuables not available. shall be disposed of as the postmaster. general shall direct.
Foreign dead letters remain subject to ,treaty stipulations.
The postage on a returned deed letter is three cents, the single rate, unless it is registered as valuable, when double rates are charged.
By the act of July 1, 1864, c. 197., sect. 13, the contents of dead letters which have been registered in the department, so far as available, shall be used to promote the efficiency of the dead-let. er office.,