It is possible that both these packets were the fruits of robberies, and the thieves, to avoid the risk of being found with these hauls on them, had made them up into postal packets and addressed them to places where they intended to follow, but their plans had been frustrated.
Here is a curious example of carelessness on the part of a member of the public:—
A registered parcel which reached one of the Returned Letter Branches as undeliverable was found to contain jewellery the value of which must have exceeded £2000. The contents included a pearl and diamond necklace which was valued, according to a letter found in the parcel, at £1100. The sender was advised in the usual course, and in reply she stated that the parcel was of great importance, and she requested that it might be forwarded at once to the correct address (which she furnished), adding that the amount of postage required for re-direction was enclosed. The stamps for fresh postage were not, however, enclosed, but were afterwards received in a registered letter, with a note that the sender had forgotten to enclose them in the first letter. We should not be surprised if we heard that the lady was an authoress.
It is no uncommon occurrence for valuable documents to be found in pillar boxes. Here are a few examples:—Bonds to bearer of the nominal value of £800 were posted inadvertently with their correspondence by a firm of brokers; an unaddressed letter from a marquis enclosing a cheque for £3000; a letter of credit for £1000 posted without address.
A watch and chain, and several articles of personal jewellery such as might fittingly adorn the person of a gentleman in easy circumstances, were found in a pillar box, and the why and the wherefore remained for some time a mystery. Eventually a nurse wrote up to the Head Office about them, and it then appeared that the articles belonged to a poor fellow of weak intellect who, on this particular day, escaped from his keeper, and was subsequently found wandering about in a state of partial undress.
A small bottle of white powder was found loose in the post some years ago. It presented no uncommon feature, and was placed with a number of similar and more or less valuable articles to await inquiry. There was some astonishment when, a few days later, an inquiry came from a professor at an English college describing the contents of the phial as a compound of radium, and stating that the insignificant white powder was almost priceless.
There have been many instances of letters having been posted in the receptacles used by scavengers in cleansing the streets. One old lady complained that letters sent by her were not reaching their destination. On inquiry it was found that she had been in the habit of posting them in a drain outside the post office. But her action was quite intelligent when compared with that of a servant girl who had recently arrived from a rural district, and was sent by her mistress to the bank with a pass-book and cash to the value of £38. The maid, it seems, had possessed from childhood a money-box in the shape of a miniature pillar-box which she always called her bank, and seeing a duplicate of her treasure standing in the street she immediately concluded this was the bank of her mistress; its greater size compared with hers seemed to be evidence of the fact, in that her mistress was a woman of ample means. She then posted both pass-book and money in the pillar-box. On her return she was asked for the pass-book, and replied that she had put it in with the money. “Whom did you see?” asked the mistress. The girl replied, “I couldn't see no one, ma'am, although I looked for a long time in the hole.”
Now let me give a delightful facsimile of the posted packet which is despatched unaddressed.
A lady, almost overcome with indignation, seized a postcard and wrote an angry note to her butcher. In her wrath she thought only of the strong words she wanted to use, and she wrote these on the address portion and then posted the card, omitting altogether the name and address of the butcher.
