The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-08-06


The most important event in the his
tory of the railway postal service of the
United States has just transpired. The
negotiations for the fast express mail
train between New York and the Missis-
sippi have been completed and approved
by the Postmaster General. The train
starts from New York October l at
o'clock a. M, and will reach Chicago in
twenty-six hours. 1t will be composed
of four cars, which are being rapidly
constructed. The first car will be fifty
feet in length. It will contain 1000
pigeon-holes for the distribution of the
letter mail, and boxes sufficient for the
distribution of 100 separations of news
paper mail. In this car will be a safe
compartment for registered valuable mat
ter, and an office for the chief clerk in
charge of the train. The entire letter dis
tribution for the line will be in this car.
The second car will be sixty feet long.
1t will be managed for the distribution of
through newspaper mail and for storage.
1t is estimated that between New York
and Chicago twenty tons of mail will be
sorted and distributed in this car. The
third car will be fifty feet long, and will
be devoted to undistributed mails. The
fourth car will be forty eight feet long,
and will be used when necessary for
heavy mails.
The train will be white, and will be
called "The New York Central and Lake
Shore Railroad Postoffice." The train
will arrive in Buffalo in eleven hours, at
Cleveland in fifteen, at Toledo in eigh-
teen, and at Chicago in twenty-six. 1t
will leave and take mail at every station.
1t will stop only for wood and water at
the functions of railroads. It will neither
carry passengers nor express, nor will it
do any business but carry the mails. 1t
will carry letters, newspapers, packages,
and newsdealers' packs. 1t will connect
with every postoffice line between New
York and Buffalo. At Albany it will pick
up all the mail from New England. The
time table will be so arranged that the
fast mail will connect with the latest New
England trains. 1t will leave the mail of
! the morning at most every town and
hamlet in New York before shutdown. At
Buffalo it will overtake the train leaving
New York on the Erie road the previous
evening, and will receive from it for the
West the mails of Northern Pennsylvania,
Southwest New York, and the tributary
country. At Cleveland it will connect
with trains which will deliver the mails to
the country fed from Columbus, Cincin-
natl and Indianapolis, early in the
morning. The mail will arrive
in Louisville in time to connect
with all parts of the South, giving the
South the advantage of all the time
gained north of the Ohio river. 1t will
arrive in Indianapolis at 6 a. M, at
Lafayette and Logansport at 1880, con-
Meeting there with trains for all parts of
Indiana, and the adjoining portions of
Illinois. At Toledo it will drop the mails
for the Wabash country, for Southern
Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and also
for Michigan and the North. The train
will arrive at Chicago in time for early
outgoing trains, will reach Milwaukee
at noon, and Dubuque, Clinton, Rock
Island, Davenport, Keokuk, Burlington,
Quincy, and Hannibal before shutdown.
The mail will be at Omaha the morning
of the second day from New York, and
in the afternoon at Kansas City, st. Paul,
and Minneapolis, and will make direct
Pacific coast connections.
Returning, this train will leave Chi
cago late in the evening after all the
trains are III. 1t will arrive at New
York in the evening, but the mails will
be ready for the first morning distribu-
ton before the train arrives at any cities.
Going either way, experienced clerks,
detailed from the large offices, will board
the train and make the distribution of
the mail for the carrier-routes in the
several cities, thus saving at least two
hours in every distribution.