The Portland daily press., 1878-03-20
The General POstOffiee, London.

The General POstoffiee, London.
In London there Is great central postal es-
adjustment called the General Post-ofice.
Besides there ara many post offices, subsidiary,
one ior each OF the many postal districts into
which what We call the city, is divided. In
writing to London correspondents the initials
Indicating these districts, If known. ara alwavs
ADDED TO the address which insures the delivery
OF the letter or other thing sent by mail,
some hours earlier than would otherwise bs
done. Mr.. Solomon Roe 1855 Parliament
street. s, W. London. A letter directed thus
would 60 directly to the Post-ofice, for that
district, but the s. W. were omitted 1t would
go to the General Post-ofice and in the regular
course OF business would be sent, not TO Mr..
Roe, but to the Local office, aud thence 10 its
particular address.
The Eoglish postal system seems to be a.
nearly perfect as such an establishment can be
made. The office work is largely at night. so
that letters and other matter by mail are usu-
ally delivered in the early morning and letters
are put upon the breakfast table beside the
plate OF the guests to whom they are directed.
These letters are often the pleasantest thing on
the table and frequently gives rise to much in
teresting talk at the morning meal. There are
certain trains on some Of the great mall routes
that run very rapidly-35-40-4 and even 80
miles an hour; and the mails are delivered and
taken by very simple continuance, without
diminishing the speed. These trains stop only
at important stations, and only for few mo-
ments, so that a great distance is run 10 few
hours, and Intercourse by letter is almost as
easy and far cheaper between all parts Of the
kingdon than it is usually between distant
streets in large town. All letters to and from
any part OF the kingdom go for penny for
every ounce or fraction thereof, and are delv-
cred promptly at that price, in every city, town,
village and rural district In the kingdom.
There is no country house, villa or outlying cot
tsge in the kingdom to which mail matter will
not be taken by tine regular letter carrier IL
addressed there. ral-
The post office officials take pride in doing
their work well. They make it a poilt of
honor as well as of duty that every letter shall
be delivered to its address. They take great
pains for this. once received letter in Stir
ling, Scotland. that had been sent first to Glas-
gov, thence to Edinburgh and thence to Stir
ling. 1t was marked at Glasgow "Not here.
try Edinburgh" Here it was marked "Not
here, try Stirling" And once received a lat.
ter at Geneva in Switzerland, that h nd passed
in that way through three or four English
post offices; and once letter that was ad-
dressed to me as at London, nothing more.
A friend 10 London whose guest was, asked
me if l would not like to see the General Post
Ofice-a great thing to see. OF course said
yes. We went there at half-past five; closing
time was six. After six no letter could 20 ex-
cept with double postage. People were going
in crowds to the office with letters, newspapers,
and packages of every available matter. AS
the time woie on, the people were walking
faster and faster and BY and by they were run
ming. There were large spertures for letters
dom. Others marked "Contineut," "Austra-
lia," "North America" And there were two
large windows into which newspapers and
packages were thrown; these were TO be closed
by sliding shutters Two minutes before six
man came on the inside to each of these win
dows, to be ready to close them. People were
now running furously to be in time, and the
boys threw their packages of newspapers with
all power at these shutter men, who were
skilled from long practice in dodging the mis-
siles r1 ac
As the clock struck six the windows aud let
ter boxes were closed, and Q letter box was
opened, marked Late" into which letters only
were put with an extra stamp-only such letters
would be sent by that mail My friend and
having special permit from the Postmaster
General, then entered the Office to see the won
ders of the interior. There was one large
square room, the floor covered with large tables
in rows, surrounded by three hundred clerks.
Letters were brought in large baskets and put
upon the tables in the first row; here they
were faced" that is, put in small piles with
the address up. These piles were rapidly trans
ferred to the tables in the second row, face
down, the clerks here stamped the reverse of
each letter, and put them upon the tables In
tne @ snira % roS race 1p % where the posta, stamps
tables in the fourth row, where they were
divided according to their addresses, into four
departments corresponding to four great rail-
way lines, and on other tables they were SUBJ
divided, so as to reach their several destina-
tions eI 4T
The upper floor was precisely like the lower
in size and arrangement, with three hundred
clerks also, there being six hundred in all.
This floor was devoted entirely to tho mailing
of newspapers, pamphlets and all other malta
BILE matter except letters. The material for
this floor was brought from below 10 large bas-
kets upon an elevator constantly in action.
In one hour, exactly, the work was finished,
and the six hundred clerks were gone, and the
two floors were entirely deserted.
We were then taken in to large side room
called the "Blind Office" where badly written or
illegiole addresses are sent and those with no
addresses, of which there are many every day.
The experts of this office have great skill from
long practice in decy phering "bind addresses''
to which the outside clerks pay no attention.
A great macy lettsrs in the course of every
year come to the off e contaiinng valpables to
q large amount, but with no address. The SO
are opened by officials assigned to that duty
and are generally traced to the writers, or are
sent TO their Intended address, when this Is
evident from the manuscripts. Bot with all
their care and pains to trace such letters to
their source or to their intended destination, Q
great many remain to which no clue can be
found. and there is a very large sum of money
in the department coming from this, awaiting
the small chance of the discovery Of the own
ers .. f.-
On the occasion of my visit to the office I
saw many letters SO badly direcsed that
could make nothing Of the address while Ii was
simple aud plain to the experts; aud saw also
several letters cropped into the boxes for that
mail, aud many newspapers and pamphlets
with no address. 1t is quite curious that macy
of those letters with no address, come from
banks, from merchants and other persons in o
large way of business aud from persons with o
large correspondence. N ID.