The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-03-10
The Railway Mail Service.
Some Description of It's Operations

the Portland post-office, and the large increase
of the same during the last few years Now /
propose to speak of the railway mail service
because am we'll aware of the fact that but
few, even of our merchants and men OF busi-
ness, to say nothing of the public generally
understand the nature of the service or the
and woman in the United States, from its hay
ing been introduced and carriel forward to its
present state of perfection. 1 cannot in one
brief article present it to the public as would
desire, but still can give very good insight in
to the manner in which the business pertaining
to it is carried on. First, however, will speak
OF the Introduction of the system of carrying
the mails upon the cars. This took place in
the year 1889. Up to that time the mails were
transmitted by the stage coach. A moments
reflection makes plain what great improve
ment it was, and long stride towards more
perfect system. This was properly called
the Railway Mail Service" and the introduc-
tion OF this system soon led to another i'm
provement, the employment by government of
route agents. The duty of these officers was
to go upon the train and deliver at the various
post offices, and also to take the pouch of mail
from the same stations and, opening it, sort
the letters and papers for the next station or
stations. The duties of the route agent have
increased considerably of late years, for the
postal lines make up large mails for them,
which have to be opened and distributed. In
1S47, the number of route agents was AZ, in
1878 it had increased to S6a, and at
the present time, they, together with the
postal clerks number nearly 5000. f
This great improvement in the matter of
transmitting the mails was much appreciated
by the public. The merchant found it easier
to reach his customers and they in .a-E.
could bo sure OF a quicker response to the orders
they might send by mail. i a-s id4 q
In all ages it has been noticeable fact that
when the time for a great improvement has
come some person we'll calculated to introduce
it, and carry it forward to grand success, has
always come to the front, ready for the duty
In 1864 gentleman by the name of Armstrong
conceived the idea of having the mails dis.
tributed upon the train. He was the first gen.
eral superintendent and to his untiring energy
the country is much indebted for the perfected
system of "Postal Car Service. SO beneficial
to the public, and so thoroughly appreciated
by them. Of course the first appliances for
carrying on the work of the service were Of
rude kind. The cars were small and lily pro-
vided in their fitting up with the needed cases,
ETC., for the work in hand. The employees
were all new to the business, and months
elapsed before the service could be run in
satisfactory manner. Still it was move in
the right direction, and the officers in charge
were at work all the time, bringing it to a
more perfected state. From this small begin
ming the service has grown into gigantic in
stitutiOn, and one that the government and
the people must be proud of. The cars in
which the work of distributing the mails is car
ried on are models of workmanship and conve-
nience. In them are arranged nice large letter
cases, where the packages of letters are sorted
into routes. Then comes the paper rack where
a large number of sacks are hung TO receive
the papers going to certain routes In connec-
tion with this rack there are large number
for the papers but also for the packages of let
ters. The contents of these boxes are put into
leather pouches. 8 Outside the distributing
roonland separated by partition, is the room
in which are placed the mails after they have
been made up for the various routes and placed
in sacks and pouches. The cars upon the Bos-
ton and Bangor lines are 40 feet long, while
upon some of the roads running out of Boston,
fifty-foot cars are in use. During the year 1880,
sixty.foot cars were placed upon the Union Paci-
tic road between Omaha, Nebraska, and Og-
den, Utah. 1 will add here, that owing to the
great increase of business upon the Boston &
Bangor line, longer cars are very much needed
and will probably ere long be substituted for
the ones now in use. N
Now will speak of the bulk of mail matter
hon Had in, c+ol l~o<
Bangor and Boston. At the Boston end the
clerks receive into the car all the way from 40
to 125 sacks of papers, and from 125 to 800
packages of letters for distribution. This
amount of matter must all be worked ere the
train reaches Portland. in order that all mail
tion and for the routes running out
of Portland may be delivered at the
Post Office. These mails are all made up and
the Post Office has nothing to do
with them, only to see that they are
placed upon the teams to be conveyed to
the various stations where the agent receives
them. Ere the introduction of the postal car
service, these mails would have gone into the
post office for distribution, which would have
delayed them many hours West from Ban
gor the mails are very heavy which are sent
out on the Pullman The Vanceboro & Bangor
route brings into Bangor for the mails bound
west all the matter from the Provinces, be-
sides heavy way mail. Then at Augusta the
mails are so heavy which go west by the Pull
man, special car has to be provided wherein
is placed the through mails, while into the reg
ular postal car is put all the way from 25 to 80
sacks of papers for distribution. The weight
Of the entire mail put on the train at Augusta
at one time has reached as high as tons.
And it will average tons every night. si
Each postal car has three clerks, two for the
paper mail and one on letters. To the public
this may seem more help than is needed; but
speaking from an experience of years. l can
testify to the fact that the clerks in the railway
mail service are fully occupied from the
time the trains leave the station un-
til arriving at their destination, oftentimes
into the depot. If space would permit 1 could
enter into many details of the business which
would be very interesting to the public, but
can only speak of few. The system of back
mails is one which but few understand. For
instance: we are moving east, party comes to
the train with letter for Boston, and the ques-
tion is asked, how shall | get this letter to its
address tomorrow morning? Oh! that is easy
enough, the clerk answers; we make up a back
mail which we leave at Portland for the train
going west, and into that mail your letter will
be placed, so it will reach Boston at the time
desired. So it is the mails are thus carefully
looked after and are kept on the move all the
time. More than three-fourths of the work
formerly done in the post offices is now done
upon the train. 3i4
This work is in charge OF one general super
intendent with headquarters at Washington,
assisted by the division superintendent, of
whom there are in all. The Office of the Su-
perintendent of the New England Division is
in Boston. The different lines Of roads are
consolidated, and they, in turn, are in charge
of chief head clerk, whose business it is to
look after the details of the business upon the
lines he has charge of. All orders for the dis
tribution of mail matter come through the
general superintendent and the division SUPER
intendent. The postmasters all take orders
from the same source, regarding the distrbu-
tion of mail matter in their several offices. In a
word, this Railway Mail Service" governs and
controls the entire distribution of mail matter in
the United States. The public are prone, be-
cause of their ignorance of the Service, to give
the credit of discovering valuable packages or
letters that have gone astray, and other details
of the business which tend to facilitate the
proper forwarding of all mail matter, to the
post offices, when in fact in nearly every case
it belongs to the offices and clerks of the r. M.
S. Whenever q merchant of Portland has his
mail go astray, he applies to the postmaster for
information as to its whereabouts. He, in turn,
goes to Mr.. Jafferds, the chief head clerk of
the Service there, places the matter in his
hands, for him to work up, and if possible dis
cover where the missing letters or articles are
Mr.. Jafferds at once commences an investiga-
tion to find out, if possible, what has become
of the missing articles or letters. He works
the matter up to successful ending, and hav-
ing obtained the Information sought for, noti-
fies the postmaster, and he, in turn, sends word
to the merchant that the matter is all right