Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1878-02-14
From the Scientific American.
The Mali of the Metropolis.

600 900 newspapers which In the same pc.
riod are dispatched. and then roughly
approXimated idea of the enormous mass
OF mail matter which Is handled in the
lower floors of the new Post Office build.
ing will be obtained. IL Is curious to re.
mark that the aggregate of letters is more
than half of the total number dispatched
in all France, and over four times as many
as are forwarded in Russia, while a notion
OF how extensively news and information
is disseminated in this country may be OBJ
tained by comparing the above total OF
newspapers transmitted from New York
nan6er mnf6 's sehia tsia' ii tsf
or even with the same in all Great Britain.
which is only about fifty per cent. In
excess.
To explain with any detail the elaborate
yet very simple system perfected by Post
master James. and under which the mail
OF the metropolis is handled, would require
far more space than is here at our dis
posal. but there are some interesting fea-
tures which are worth notice. At the
outset the public Is made to distribute Its
own mail by dropping its misslves into
boxes marked with names of States and
large cities. and from these receptacles the
letters are constantly being gathered and
transmitted TO the cancellers, who atilx the
post mark and obliterate the postage
stamp. 1t Is well known that this Is done
by the use of the hand stamp, and that
simple as the problem seems 10 be, no oae
has yet devised a mechanical system of
cancellation which has been deemed
worthy of adoption. Machines have been
tested In the New York Post Office. but
have been discarded, and the prevailing
ha narf. har Il tlaf
until the public can be made to produce
letters uniform In size and thickness, and
always with the stamp in a certain posi-
ton. no purely mechanical contrivance il
likely TO succeed, or even advantageous!y
compete with hand work. The skill of
the cancelling clerks Is such that they can
now mark on the average 100 letters per
minute, and a machine TO be of value
would OF course have to do much better
than this.
Amer the letters are stamped they are
separated into bundles for States and large
cities, and sent to be further distributed
on board the railway postal cars on the
different routes. or in many cases they are
made up isto packages Tor direct delivery
10 their different destinations There is
one point here that inventors might look
10. and that Is the way the bundles are
done up. II was the late Mr.. \. T. Stew
art, we believe, who once reproved a clerk
for putting an extra and unnecessary turn
OF string on 4 bundle. That estImable
merchant would doubtless be horror
stricken could he witness the numerous
turns OF cotton twine which are deemed
ncedful to hold n few letters together.
We asked why. and the reply was Gus
tom" and that "thc Government issned
G...l .
simple elastic fastening device might
easily be contrived which could be affixed
IN much less time, and which might be
used until worn out. Security - Of course
the tiSst necessity. and readiness OF appli-
catidW the second. Some phiIanthropic
inventor might also devise system of
mnemonics which would facilitate the Ia
OF individuals. of counties. OF post offices.
and box numbers. The skill these men
attain now IS wonderful. Every as>orter
Of city letters is obliged TO remember $500
names with the corresponding box num-
bcrs, and, besides, to keep track of the
changes constantly occurring; aud he must
be able besides 10 use the knowledge as
rapidly as he can glance at the superscrp-
tions of the letters and toss them into the
proper receptacles. TO show how this
recent examination exhibit degrees of pro-
fcienCy represented by from 99'67 TO 64'j4
per cent.
The clerks also become exceedingly eX-
pert 10 weighing letters by merely holding
them In their hands for an instant In dis
trbuting them. and on their individual
estimate they toss the misSive aside as
undergrad. It is afterward weighed and
delivered la the city with the amount due
stamped upon it.
sill another kind Of eXpertness Is to be
found among the newspaper distributors.
Each employe stand, before \ semi-clrcu-
lar tier OF pigeou-holcs, the openings In
which are a little over a foot square. In
some tiers there are 40 OF these recep-
tacles. yet the distributor in front Of them
tosScs folded newspapers into III" proper
openiu"s, often fifteen or more feet distant.
a. rapidly as he can glance al the adj
dresses. Another field for expert talent
j., in the foreign letter department to de-
cipher addresses, and here the qudltlrt-
tions are simply a knowledge OF al! mo-
languages. genius for decph-rlu.
hleroglyphics which seemingly would
make light of cuheiform inscriptions and
Egyptian papyri, and an intuition of what
people mean to write when they don't do
these phenomenal capacities informs us
that OF all letter writers the Italians are
the worst, and he fully verified his state
nent by exhibiting collection of mis-
sives, the addresses of which contained
such words as "uOfbrg,' which We were
told meant Mulberry" and which to add
10 their difficulty embodied all the compli-
cations OF bad callgraphy, pale ink, and
blotS.
There is room for the exercise of no
small skill. especially at guessing. in the
searchers' department. flither comes
every irste citizens to know why his letter
has not reached its destination, and in the
majority of cases he departs with mitigated
and somewhat crest-fallen feelings on dis
covering that he has left out the essential
portion of the address, or very possibly
written only his correspondents name and
forgotten the address altogether. IL is an
anomalous fact that people on one hand
should insist on the absolute accuracy of
their mail service, and vet prove so extra
ordinarily careless them selves in regard to
their correspondence. 1t is common
sight in this city TO see papers and some
times letters left on top of five telegraph
boxes, and as for defective addressing. no
less than l52, ,266 letters misdirected came
TO the New York Post Office last year. BY
way OF proving that some at least of this
was not due to ignorance,
our attention was called to the fact that
over $500 OF these letters came from
banks. where. of all business houses. ac-
curacy is supposed in greatest degree to
exist. 1t is admirable proof of the efficiency
Of those charged with sending these letters
on the right path that out of the above
total l47 $40 were redirected and forward
ed. The amount of labor involved in
overhsuling all the directories of the coun-
Try and the geographical and local knowl-
edge requisite was of course very great.
The Post Office is subjected to constant
inconvenience by the mailing OF so-called
matter. No doubt hundreds
Of people are anathematizing the mails for
losing their Christmas gins when the
articles are probably snHgly entombed in
the dead letter office, whether they have
been sept after a temporary sojourn in the
Office where dispatched. There is quite
museum in the New York office of this
material. and 1t is a most heterogeneous
collection. Here are bottles of hair tonic.
packages of -four. dainty fancy work made
evidently by fair hands, but ruthlesslv
consigned to this limbo because not prop
erly prepared. jostling big bundles of shoe
backing. Some damsel Is minus her