Advertising Unclaimed Mail In The Newspaper

Sometimes we see a 19th Century cover handstamped "Advertised" and wonder what it's all about. Unclaimed mail was advertised in the local newspaper in many cities and towns. I found this example (short excerpt) by accident; there are many typos because the text was picked up from a .pdf document:

Advertised Letters.
List of letters remaining uncalled for
at the Post-office in the city of Lockport,
in the county of Niagara, State of New
York, December 25,1882:
GKNTIEMAN'S LIST
Atkinson, Jas J
lirekllao, August
Brunson, Edw
Bogart, F H
Borst, James
Brush, Warren O
Cooke, Alfred S
Carpenter, John A
Cronan, Patrick
Ornlgan, John
Doyle, Jas
.....
Wins, Mrs W
Persons calling lor advertised lsttera will please
give the date of this notios sad say "advertised."
JOHN A. HUBBARD, Postmaster.

Doug2222

This is the first time I have ever heard of an 'advertized' cover in this way.

I didn't realize that the post office did this.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Those were the days when the post office took its job to deliver mail seriously

Well, hmmmm. They didn't actually DELIVER, you had to go to the Post Office and pick up your mail in many of the smaller towns. If you remember the 5c City Mail Delivery stamp of 1963 (Scott U.S. #1238), that marked the 100th anniversary of individualized residential city delivery, beginning in 1863 in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, I believe.

The local sheriff or constable got an advanced look at the "advertised" list, by the way, as criminals' last-known whereabouts were inconveniently published for the whole world to see.