The Property-Branch is of a most miscellaneous character. It involves the recording and returning of jewellery, and of almost every other article under the sun. Many of these it is impossible to return. These accumulate in such vast piles, it is necessary to dispose of them at auction, at least, as often as once in four years. At each sale, a complete catalogue of the articles is presented, and the proceeds are deposited in the United States Treasury. A room, leading from the Dead-Letter Office, lined with closed closets to its lofty ceiling, is the receptacle of all these stranded treasures. When the custodian unlocks their doors and you behold what is shut within, you are lost in wonder as to what must be the conceived capacity of the Post-Office in the minds of your compatriots. Before your eyes, crammed into shelves, you see patchwork quilts, under garments, and outer garments; hats, caps, and bonnets; shoes and stockings; with no end of nicknacks and keepsakes; “sets” of embroidery, baby-wardrobes, watches, and jewels of every description—though the greater proportion is of the “fire-gilt,” “dollar-store” description. Many really beautiful pictures are retained, because not sufficiently prepaid. Some of these, sent as gifts, are left by the chosen recipients to be sold at auction—the postage often amounting to far more than the value of the picture. Many motley articles peer forth from their hiding-places ignominiously “franked,” yet retained, the frank not being sufficient legal-tender to insure their triumphal passage to the place of final destination. Among these is an iron apple-parer. Many of these cheap treasures were precious keepsakes from the hearts which fondly sent them—under very unintelligible superscriptions—to sweethearts whom they never reached. Some are tokens from beyond the seas, which came from a far-off land only to find the one sought—dead or living—gone, without a clue.