The Osceola times., 1880-08-14
FAST MAILS.
rapers aud Mail Bags Delivered on the
F,y-seyenty Miles an Hour.
Rochester telegram 10 n. Y. Herald.

ne UTSl ldSl man iibih -'N'
York for the West over the Hudson
River and New York Central road trav-
elled 400 miles in thirteen hours. Inc
time is not fast taken as whole, but
the schedule makes it 50 fast IN some
places and so slow in others that to
travel on it is like journey over the
rocky road TO Dublin-there are varieties
of speed. Because of the day being cele-
brated as the fourth the enthusiasm
along the line of route was as varied as
the speed of the train. In some places
it received an ovation, while at others a
few people gathered and gazed at 1t
stolidly, making no sign. At Hudson,
Peekskill and Fonda there was crowd
on the platform to greet its arrival. The
welcome they extend was harty and
noisy. Atica, Amsterdam and Little
Falls and few other half dead and halt
alive places, its coming was not greeted
with any demonstration whatsoever, and
the people who were at the depots
would not look at the New York morn
ing papers that were put in their hands
through the agency of the new tram
eight hours in advance of the time they
ever received them before. AT Syracuse,
however, there was generous reception
and the people of that salt environed
city made great haste to possess the
Heralds that were brought to them in
time for MONDAY lunch. So, too, at
Rochester, where the morning mails
from New York have been received
hitherto at 10 o'clock at night and where
they are now brought 5 o'clock in the
afternoon. Buffalo, Batavia, Niagara
Falls, Dunkirk, Erie and Lockport share
IN the general benefits thus literally
distributed, and rs the fast train dropped
| its load of news and letters eight or ten
| hours in advance of what these cities
had been accustomed to receive them,
the appreciation, like the benefits, be-
came general and pronounced. The
train was very fast from New York to
| Poughkeepsie. From there to Albany
| the mail cars were hooked on to an ac-
commodation train that stopped every
| where il could get chance. From Al
bany to Syracuse, the speed was such as
| justified the train being called fast
mail train but arriving there 1t relapscd
| into an accommodation spirit, and made
slow work of it to Rochester, where it
again went upon fast schedule and
reached Buffalo, Niagara alls and places
| further west in short order.
The train left the Grand Central depot
in New York at twenty-five minutes of
five o'clock. 1t was made up of matt
car No. 2, baggage express car, engine
| No. II and an old Danforth q Cooke
machine, rebuilt in the Hudson River
railroad shops, furnished the motive
power, while Engineer Farrell, a driver
of fast trains, had his hands upon the
| q TO- ,tptttng - fhraa
| O'Clock the first wagon from the post
Office had ratified up, bringing the crew
of the car, and af an hour later the
wagon with the letter-mail began to ar
rive. At the postoflice, Assistant Post
master Pearson and Superintendent OF
Railway -Mail-Service Jackson had been
superntendlng the makeup of the
mail, and when the morning newspapers
came piling in at a few minutes past SAC
O'Clock everything was out of the way
There was no delay in receiving and
sending them of. At 800 the first
wagon with the newspaper mail was
dashing toward the Grand Central de.
pot, and exactly at four o'clock the last
load was on its way TO the train. Thirty
minutes later the cars were loaded and
ready for the start. Engineer Fare
leaned out Of his cab and nodded tC
Conductor O'Conner, who stood at the
mail-car door. The condu.or said, "Lct
her go" and the engine, with sputte'
and puff dragged her load off the side
track and darted into the tunnel. In ths
car, beside the Herald correspondent
were Messrs. VIM. Warning, assistant
general superintendent New York post
office; G. D. Sandford, chief head clerk
of the railway service; Charles II
Lyon. chief clerk second division OF rail
way mails; VIM. Morris, head clerk o
the car; ID. NJ. Martin, George Reynolds
VIM. ii. Evans and Abram Bogardu
composing the crew. Six minutes latel
the train was out of the tunnel anC
iattling over Harlem bridge, and di
rectly aitcrward, with a twist that Sc
everybody out of his place, it passed the
Harlem junction.
1t was just daylight there was fog
resting on the marshes OF Harlem river
and the silence of early day allowed the
cchos from the fast morning train to be
brought clear and ringing. The tai
piers of High bridge loom up like ghosts
out of the morning mist, but only for 9
moment, for Farrell has cut off the stroke
very short and his throttle valve was
wide open, Old II was making the fas
trip of her life for the watch showed
that she had come to Spuyten Duyyille
tten niles in twelve minutes. She
mi"ht have done better, perhaps. but the
road is made of reverse curves, sharI
ones too, that handicap her going pow
ers, but now her way skirts the bank o
the Hudson, the road was level and the
curves gentle and easy. Farrell looked
back from the window Of his cab ant
bowed gravely to Agent Morris, who
held out his watch and indicated the
number of minutes with his fingers
Then he leaned out and looked forward
and the fast mail was fast mail indeed
for the watch and the mile posts showed
that it only required three and hal
minutes to cover three miles
In the mail car there was scene OF
activity consistent with the mad rate o
speed at which the train was moving
The great packages of Heraids were
thrust into the car in what appeared to
be inextrlcable disorder. They were
heapcd in confused piles with other
morning papers One bundle contained
one paper, the single contribution of the
metropolitan press to some wayside flag
| DiiltlS 'OHldilli Il HtbTt Ol
papers and others held thousands. Be.
fore the steam had been let into the
cylinders at the Grand Central depot the
mail men had gone to work and the
great pile was separated into little piles
ana order came out of the confusion, SO
that at Gonkers the half dozen of bags
and llali hundred of parcels marked for
that sleeping village were piled up at
| tba JonrJ