New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-19

said to the Superintendent: docs thiS poS' oH'0
answer your demandsI"
"By 10 means perfectly. In dividing up the into
rior the architect should have looked more 10 our
practical necessities His corridor should nave run
trou vh the centre. not around tue sides, ana then
we would have poss sssed light from the sun to Work
BIZ. instead of being supplied now by gas AZ
through the brightest days and aided by electric
lights"
stopping at a place where several clerks were
weighing letters, the Superintendent SAID: mere
was the first leak Mr.. James stopped mp when lie
took the Post Office the insntficlent poStaVo
collections Formerly they were left pretty much
to discretion and the carriers collected wnat IheJ
liked and kept what they liked. BY weighing
letters Of overweight and stamping the deficit upon
it. and charging it to the carrier, we made re-
turn OF forty thousand dollars year the h-Se year
"What do the suits of the 500 carriers cost 7"
About $l4 in summer and SID III winter
Have You any Civil Service rulesI -. 80
Eyes; we examine not on text BOOKS ouc On
postal duties. The pay varies from @i,oCo aea "
5000 or thereabOut. Formerly political influence
graduated the recipients of those salaries. since
Mr. James came here not one removal has Deel
made except for cause We put the letter asoroers
through an examination with CARTS to cor
resDond with the lock-b0Xes in the post
Office of which there are some thousands. these
cards are of letter sz addressed front and marked
in cipher OH the back so can trace mistake 10
its perpetyatOT We first try the assorterS NJ Tue
boxes. Those boxes were once the porqulslJF OF tc
postmaster and II they were Sill SO lie W0ulu geC
$40 600 a year out of this one post Once. We place
the competitors at the lock boxes MS ana uScip
them to asserting; next We set mem 10 assortlng az
the general boxes where every aSSOrer must reInei
Der some thousands of addresses. here Is DOCK
where we keep The averages"
He showed me a book which had list OF ABOUT
thirty or forty names of the hlghest-paid clerks,
opposite each the average OF the examination
and the whole divided by lead pancl Into three
Glasses of relative pay aud proficiency.
Nov you will observe that ut the htst eXamina-
ton ever gave the average was extremely low.
The principle of competition had not operated on
the office force 1t Is only about slxty-tWO. But
turn here to the second examination and you see the
average of proficiency mas gone up u eghty-nie aiu
the hi CHEST the list STANDS nnety-nIne or only
one error of asserting in one hundred letters az
the fourth or fifth examination We enlarged the
task making 1t harder to get tho high average anu
down sank the ratio. But If you VIII
Keep your eye on the list OF the names, you
Will how one man, supported mere
by political influence for years, receiving all tnat
time tie highest notch of salary. fell away INTO the
third grade till he his wits alone could lit INN
back and now. observe him here rising III grade on
the successive examinations or falling fof MONTH
until at last be clutches and keeps IN the foremost
street to try his hand at the asserting examination
That permitted, too, anu observe that he mas got
the third average There he increases II to the eleven
hundred dollar average, And sgnn he has reached
rank the first, with q salary OF $3.50"
such the sayings oil the letters on 81, Falen-
tines Day. when, according to the legend OF lts
sanity origin IN the reig On of Nature, the birds
proceeded to choose their mates and be at house
keeping the spring. and larger lovers 70 run their
biliets together in the lamp-bOxes St Valenilne,s
Day this year was more celebrated in New YORK
than for years, said the Postmaster.
JOHNNY BOUQUET