Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE:
REVIEW
MUSIC IN THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
Accumula ion of Music and Musical Merchandise to Be Sold by the United States Govern-
ment in Washington, D. C, During the Week Beginning December 16—How Sheet
Music Reaches the Dead Letter Office and the Modus Operandi of This Important
Government Office Discussed by Waldon Fawcett, The Review's Special Writer.
Dealers in small musical instruments or in sheet
and folio music who are on the lookout for "joh
lots" at bargain prices will have an opportunity to
bid on musical merchandise of this kind at an odd
auction sale which the United States Government
will hold in Washington during the week begin-
ning December 10. This sale, which is conducted
by an expert auctioneer on behalf of the Post-
Office Department is an annual event and the
goods to be auctioned comprise a year's accumu-
which are sent through the mails in great numbers.
Of course, under the present postal regulations,
with their limit of four pounds in any individual
package, few musical instruments, except har-
monicas, etc., can be sent through the mails, but
among the unclaimed articles are many parts and
supplies such as violin strings, etc.
Not infrequently talking machine records and
player-piano rolls go astray in the mails, but by
reason of the labels, etc., which such articles bear
it is usually possi-
ble to trace the ori-
gin if not the in-
tended destination
of the shipments
and to return the
wanderers to the
shippers, for, be it
known the Dead
Letter Office makes
every effort to trace
the ownership and
make restoration of
every article found
loose in the mails.
That, indeed is the
special function of
this unique branch
of the Post Office
Department, and no
article is ever given
place in the yearly
Dead Letter Office Where Music Lost in the Mail Is Received.
sale until every ef-
lation of the articles remaining unclaimed in the fort has been exhausted to find the rightful owner.
U. S. Dead Letter Office.
Sheet and Folio Music Most Often Lost.
The Dead Letter Office, it need scarcely be ex-
The particular line of musical merchandise
plained, is Uncle Sam's morgue for the waifs and
derelicts of the mails—the letters and parcels that
remain undelivered from any cause. Widely varied
are the causes which bring articks of musical mer-
chandise to the Dead Letter Office and ultimately
to the block at the annual "bargain sale." In-
sufficient or illegible addresses on the parcels are
responsible for some of the strays. Or again the
person to whom the goods have been addressed
may have moved and failed to leave his new ad-
dresses. Or, most common of all cruses, the wrap-
pings, or at least the address label, may have been
torn off or lost in the mails, leaving no clue as to
the addressee.
Much
Musical
Merchandise
137
which above all others swells the volume of the
Dead Letter auction stock is sheet and folio music,
operatic scores and librettos. The primary ex-
planation of the preponderance of this class of
goods in the accumulation is found in the enormous
quantity of publications of this class that are al-
ways in transit in the mails in all parts of the
country. The business of selling music by mail
has expanded—both on the part of publishers and
regular mail-order houses—in full proportion or
perhaps even in excess of the growth of some
One
of the Famous Experts
Letter Office.
at the Dead
other activities in the trade and it is only natural
that the tremendous volume of sheet and folio
music passing to and fro in the mails should get
considerable percentage of loss.
Why Sheet Music Reaches Dead Letter Office.
In the case of the cheap sheet music, however,
there is another explanation and one that obtains
in thousands of individual cases in the course of
a year. This is the refusal of publishers or dealers
to send postage for the return of sheet music pub-
lished or sold by them and which, from one cause
or another has found its way to the Dead Letter
Office. When a piece of music or any other article
that has been found loose in the mails is received
at the D:ad Letter Office the first move on the
part of the officials in charge is to ascertain if pos-
sible for whom the article was intended. Failing
in this they seek the name and address of the ship-
per with a view to returning the stray article to its
place or origin and allowing the shipper to again
start it to its destination if he be able to ascer-
tain it.
With sheet and folio music it is usually a com-
paratively simple matter for the Dead Letter Office
Unclaimed.
Musical merchandise constitutes one of the main
items in the accumulation of unclaimed matter at
the Division of Dead Letters in the Post-Office
Department in Washington. It shares this dis-
tinction with books, jewelry and other commodities
Merchandise Boxed in Lots for Annual Sale.
Concentrate Your Energy In Buying Music!
Buy it all in one place and save
time, postage, express and money.
All music from all publishers
shipped.
Branches at New York, Chicago, Boston
and Toronto, where complete stocks are.
Send a postal to-day to Springfield and
get our MONTHLY BARGAIN LIST. This
list gives cut prices on music.
A. H . C O E T T I N G , Springfield, Mass.
Preparing a Box Containing Thousands of
Pieces of Music for Dead Letter Sale.
officials to ascertain the name of the firm that
mailed a package. The name of the publisher of
the music is, of course, to be found on the cover
whereas if the goods have come from the stock of
some retailer his label is likely to appear some-
where on the publication. With the name of the
shipper ascertained the Dead Letter Office pro-
ceeds to send notification that the goods will be
returned to said shipper if the latter will send to
Washington sufficient stamps to prepay the postage.
Why Lost Matter Is Not Sent Back.
It is just here that a surprising number of music
(Continued on page 138.)