The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-11
POST OFFICE MERCURIlS.
Great Expansion of the Rail
way Mail Delivery.
UNREQUITED RISKS.
Report Of the superintendent Of
the Second Division

The report for the year 1870 of Superintendent R.
G. Jackson. OF the Second division of the Railway
Mail Service. with headquarters at New York. has
been completed. The statistics 1t contains reveal
an extensive expansion in the mail distributing
business OF the service, within the past three
years. Considering that IL has been practically
tablished only ten years. it has made surprising
strides forward. and its progress marks AN impor-
tant revolution in the letter aud newspaper carriage
of the country. To carry out its operations eff
GENTLY it has been necessary to make application OF
the leading principles OF civil service reform. The
service is. perhaps. tho hardest under the govern
ment and it is estimated that tho heavy railway
routes the postal clerks who have no holidays and
work Sundays and week days alike perform
in the round OF the year hundred days more labor
than the ordinary class of public employees. Accord
ing to Superintendent Jackson it under the ad-
ministration of Postmaster General Creswell. in
1862 that the first vigorous steps taken to make
the system success. For Eve years before that
time it was in feeble ana languishing condition.
lacking vitality and general usefulness. An indie
pendent organization was formed and general su-
perintendent. with an Office at Washington. APP
pointed. The service divided into sections
divisions. each having it's superintendent
porting directly to the general office. and the various
divisions made to embrace the entire territory
q .the United States.
THE WORK IN THE SECOND DIVISION.
The Second division, which is the most important
of all. embraces New York. New Jersey. Pennsyl-
vana. Delaware and the Eastern shore Of Maryland,
and comprises PSI mail routes. with aggregate of
1900 post Offices 3.O9s miles of railroad and &c. 176
miles of stage route service. The number of miles
OF service performed daily average during the
past year was ~, 564 miles. The number Of postal
cars and mail compartments in was $40. The
number of clerks on duty the lines OF the divi-
sion was 523. and the promotions for the year
23. The number of letter packages handled
3706.19S OF registered packages, 1907 $780, and Of
sacks OF papers, 664 604 The following table gives
idea OF the extent and expansion Of the service
within the past three years.
6Otoa 200 ~-1s79 ovr 1875
Yeav. Package. Sack. Letters. Papers.
1879 3a $50 400
1877. 76,Q54.77O 444l2.4OO 146sl7.1 $780, 400
THE MATTER OF CASE EXAMINATIONS.
The next item in the report referring to the num-
Der of case examinations during the year needs
PLANTATION to be properly understood. An applicant
Tor position postal clerk receives probationary
appointment for six months at salary ranging
from 5000 10 $500 year. If he fail to graduate at
the end of the term he is dropped from the rolls. It
is estimated that thrty-three per cent Of the ap-
U
under the instruction Of the older postal clerks
aud he undergoes six examinations to his knowl-
edge Of the location Of post Offices by counties. In
the Second division there FIVE places for
tiop-New York. Syracuse, Harrisburg. Pittsburg
and Dunkirk. the chief examiner being at New York
The probationer comes to OF these places and il
given tray of cards containing. as in the instance
Of Pennsylvania. the names of 5000 post Offices.
frame of piseonholes labelled with the Of the
sixty counties in the State is placed before him.
aud he is asked to distribute correctly under the
county heads the cards bearing the names of the
post offices belonging to each county. This
quires strong effort OF memory, and few are
able to do it ut sitting, after six
months study and practice After he has made
himself familiar with this task he has to get
quainted with . ''scheme examination" division
OF the States by routes For instance, there
three separate railroads passing through Westcheser
county, with constantly recurring stations along
each route. The postal clerk must see that he does
not locate White Plains Post Office on the Hudson in
place of the Harlem road. The probationary clerk
has to show a record OF fifty per cent; in other
words, he must know at least the location of half
the post offices in State by counties before he put
duty regularly and here is where the civil service
comes in for the examination is too rigid pre-
tender to slip through. Major Frank Butts. head
clerk and principal examiner in the New York Office
who has been in the service since 1863, passed
twelve examinations on twelve different States.
and achieved in seven of them record OF 100
per cent, his lowest being 1878 This is unpre-
cedented performance. Although the division COM
prses only four States the clerks examined ON
1900 post offices. The number of examine
lions for the year was 1882 and OF cards
handled .406 464 of these there found correct
1,120.453. In the examination 1000 offices and
13l clerks made above 30 per cent each at
examination. The number of questions asked in re-
gard TO the postal laws and regulations q. 1852,
out of which 90 1852 were correctly answered. In the
distribution ON the of over 900 letters
occurred in every $50. aud out Of over
1000 900 registered letters but was missent 1t
il estimated that in distributing $50 packages of LETT
tiers in day man makes 5000 motions OF his right
arm.
THE REoRGANIzED SERVICE
Since the reorganization of the service in 1869
there have been tour general superintendents. the
present one being Mr.. William Is. Thompson. who Is
credited with being the equal in energy aud eff
cheney of any OF his predecessors. The great point
of difference between the old system aud the Is
IN making the distribution Of mail matter route.
This sort of work requires sharp wits and nimble
fingers, and the railway postal clerks are awarded
the credit of having both. In former years the
larger part of the mails in transit had to lie
from twelve to twenty-four hours 1t
distributing post office. and il frequently hap
pened that several such delays bcfell let
vxof,r Anal To- os.I,,p tbot~