Cats in the Mews: January 24, 1899
On January 24, 1899, a cat reportedly named Eurita sprang out of a mail pouch after the pouch had been unlocked at Branch Post Office H on Lexington Avenue and 44th Street. The unexpected contents gave the postal employees quite a startle, to say the least.
According to The New York Times, there were no postage stamps on the cat, and no tags indicating ownership or providing any explanation for its presence in the mail bag. The only clue was that the bag had been collected from a postal sub-station in F.W. Schoonmaker’s drug store on 42nd Street and Park Avenue (the new Grand Central Terminal had not yet been built on this site).
The mail clerks soon learned that the cat was named Eurita. She belonged to Mr. Schoonmaker, and had full run of the drug store.
The mail at this particular sub-station was sent down a chute in front of the drug store, where it then dropped into an open mail pouch at the bottom of the chute in the store’s basement. The mail clerks thought that the curious cat must have jumped into the pouch to investigate the items falling into it. Once in the bag, the cat could not get out.
It was further surmised that Eurita had fallen asleep, and was thus taking a cat nap when the pouch was locked up and delivered. According to the Times, “The animal was in the bag only a few hours and did not appear any the worse for its experience.”
If you enjoyed this cat story, you may also like this story about a cat that was mailed through the pneumatic mail tubes in 1897, or this story about a cat and rabbits that were mailed to the Brooklyn Post Office in 1926.
