The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-01-22
OBJ. B.5I,s 1aiilp 5onraa'.t., !.
The london Post Office.

| 40e 4OAoou GO5b OAAsS'
AS post establishment the Office in st
Martins-le- Grand, London, is the first in tht
world The Postmaster General and his stat
are at the head of an army of over q, 700 per
sons; and such is the concentration Of business
that in this office is performed about one
fourth of the postal business of the kingdom
Theinumber of letters passing through it in :
year is eight times as great as the number pass
ing through New York, and nearly as great as
the entire number in the United States. The
number of letters received for delivery in
London, the year 1854, was 103, 3,377, ,728, and
the number sent out 81, ,645, JOG. This gives
a total of over 2O0,O00,OO0 letters in single
year.
To an outside spectator there is little to be
seen except plain substantial stone building
some 400 feet by l3o, supported by Ionic
pillars, and having a large. hall for the accum-
modation of the public. But during late
visit to London, we were permitted, by the
courtesy of Mr.. Rowland Hill, to see all the
arrangements, and inspect the machinery by
which the immense establishment is kept in
motion In the finland Ofice,' where the
mails are made up for the country, there is a
Hull in the middle Of the day, the letters and
papers coming in so slowly thatb but few clerks
and sorters are on duty. There are employed
in London, 3, ,035 persons in the mail service.
EQf these, 4985 are letter receiyers-keepers of
the small sub bsofficess-located in all parts for
the convenience of mailing letters. 5se1 eds 81
There are, in London, ,285 letter carriers,
and there are rooms in the Post Office build
ingseit requires many of these carriers to
sort and arrange the letters.Je Then there are
$50 other persons employed in the London
Post Office but of these, 16O money order
clerks, have quarters in another building -
There are 253 in the General Post Office, and
739 clerks, stampers, sorters, and subscribers,
engaged in the reception, delivery and dispatch
of the mails. The mails are so arranged that
Iall letteas leave London-no matter what di-
rection they are going-at the sane hours; at
mine in the morning and nine in the evening"
Men on foot on horse back and in carts, are
constantly engaged during the day, in collect
ing letters from the various b-offices and re-
ceiving houses in all parts of the twelve mile
circle a circle having radius Of twelve miles.
To induce publishers of newspapers to get
their papers ready early in the day, the Post
Office sends the mail carts, at certain hours, to
the publishing houses, to. transport all the pa
pers, then ready, to the central Office. This
saves trouble both to the publishers and the
Post Office Department. There being about
.l5O, ,00Ol newspapers, passing through the Lon
don Post Office daily and these forming nearly
four fifths ef the bulk of the mails, there is
an immense labor nsorting and packing them
Unless some such plan were adopted, it would
be almost impossible to get off all the evening
mail; for the bulk of the sorting, stamping and
dispatch of letters is done in the last two
hours-from six to eight O'Clock. =
As the hour of6 P. M. approaches, the num-
Der of persons to deposit letters begins to in
crease. = Faster and faster gathers the crowd;
and, instead Of dropping their letters ieisurely
they rush up to the box, and with a nervous
twitch, dash them in, and then stand back and
give room for others. Many stay and look on,
while the scene grows fast and fnrious.' About
quarter before six, men bearing the bags,
come staggering in, and by tapping at wood
en- slide, whole window is opened by clerk,
who receives the bag, empties it and throwsit
out. Boys with handsfull ofpapers, a woman
bearing a letter, and a penny to pay the post
age, rough looking mechanics, with braWny
arms, and honest faces, some with letters,
generally stamped and struggling through the
slit in the window, prepared to receive them
IN the inside there is also busy scene, but no
hurry nor confusion. AT first there are sepa-
rate letters dropping one after another, then
"a handfull;s then thicker and. faster they pat
ter in as ifthe elements without were charged
with letters, and they were by sudden tenn
pest showered into the post Office. The hand
Of the clock keeps moving toward the figure,
and the crowd without and the shower within
increase. The clerk at the open window is
nearly inundated with parcels of letters and
sacks of newspapers, and fellow clerk comes
to his relief, and opens another window ! t
lacks three minutes of 6. Boys no longer
walk up to the boxes to mail their papers, but
stand back and throw them at the open win-
dows. s8 5tiH ed1 .dssf 3sU o3nsas4oag. j
d Faster, faster, and faster they come-it lacks
only minute and half--the crushing, furious
crowd; men, women and boys, many holding
their arms aloft with letter ndpenny tightly
grasped, are trying to get to the place of de-
|Iiyery.L A spectator would naturally suppose
they were each striving to obstruct one anoth-
Ter as much as possible. 4 1t lacks but thirty
seconds. and still the crowd collects. A seedy
looking man, looking at the clock very
deliberately ties his two letters and news
paper together, with piece of twine, and
| throws them directly at the clerk in the win
ldow. Amid the rush of the crowd comes a
faint scream from, some poor squeezed, mortal
fwho can't get her, letter IN; and now the ham
imer comes down, one, two three-au the
clerks at the window get ready-four, five, *;
bang 90 the windows down. with one stimuli
ltaneous slide, Several letters and one paper
caught in it. but they, like these outside, can
not go by this mail, because they are toolate
There is very good regulation; which en-. n.
ables the tardy public to get their letters on;
tb1t they have to pay fine for their tartiIness.
one letter-box is left open, labeled Late Lett
lter-box.' All letters that are dropped IN this
box. before halfpast six, with the postage paid
| in full in stamps, and having no additional
IL IL -
stamp will be sent by the man now beng
made up Then there are other orxes open,