Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1882-11-02

ing, except 70 give some information
in reference 20 the business Of the
office, and with apparent ease. every
thing is going on exactly at the prop
er time and in proper place. /
thought if | Only was running the
business. how nice it would be done.
50 much better and easier. for in 6f-
teen minutes. would have snch
mess piled together that it would
hazs - ,s xsn sssesasla mil aszii
ground over and rolled out 10 straight
en- it.
But. those men. like little ants car
rying grain Of wheat TO deposit it
in some certain place for safe keep
ing. always deposit the pouches in
their proper places to be emptied or
shipped. Now, this room contains
other articles in the shape of locks
and wooden tags and little slips of
paper, with the name of / suppose
every P. o. in the U. s. on them,
which are fastened to the mail pouch
to be shipped. Among the other ar
ticles. are benches, desks, stands, and
everything pertaining to an Office, ex-
cept the greatest thing necessary, as
one may suppose. which are nice soft
cushion chairs to lay back and puff a
delicious cigar from, bnt not SO. Not
one single chair Of any description is
10 be found in this Office, except lit
tie round stool at the dispatching
desk. / have seen many better one
in common wheelwright shop, but
poor as it is, no one has a moment to
sit on it, nor do they have any time
to idle away, but instead. they are at
work as if for their lives, and if all
persons could see how government
employees have to work. there would
not be such clamor for Office.
With the rattling, clanking, scrap
ing, such confounded noise is raised,
one would think it impossible such
strict business and of such Importance
could be carried on, with men at the
tables emptying the pouches and drag
ging out the filled ones, which are
done in surprising manner.
The pouches are placed with their
mouthes open aud hung on hooks, un-
der chutes fixed in movable tables,
about eight feet long and four or FIVE
wide, made so as to form nearly a cir
Gle in the immense room. There are
two rows, one just behind and touch
ing the other, and under each table
are hung eight mail pouches, the
mouth of each one around the bottom
of the chute, and on top of the chute
is pasted the names of the most i'm
portant post offices of each State and
county.
These tables are fixed on rollers and
placed in almost a circle, leaving a
space in front the same as if you form
a circle and cut off about one-fourth.
leaving the balance. and get on the
front or inside, you will find several
men engaged in handling or distribu-
ting the mail in each pouch, through
the chutes, which has to be done by
throwing some 10 or Is feet. as the
case may be, and to an inexperienced
eye, appears very careless way of
doing it.
But, strange to say, seldom, ifever,
does any mistake occur, and if does,
some of the men are called on, who
are on the outside Of this circle, to
correct it, and the section of chutes is
wheeled out and the mistake correc-
ted, and then the section is wheeled
back to its place in less time than a
man could slip up on the slick side of
frozen piece of fried ice. Here
they are now while / write, with the
confounded noise of wheeling out and
stripping the sections or racks. as they
call them, fastening up the pouches
and dragging and wheeling them out
Of the room for some mail train, which
is done faster thar / can write. The
names of the different bags are then
called for by the dispatcher, are un-
hooked, fastened and tagged, wheeled
out to the front platform. placed in
locked wagOnsand sent of to the steam.
boat or railroad. or taken by mail
stage to the surrounding country post
Offices.
Now, Messrs. Editors, as ! have
mentioned the most important duties
Of this Office. and the names Of the
able men at its head, must not fail
to mention Mr.. Horace p. Springer
superintendent of mailing division
whose duty Is to keep everything il
a "a
working order. His high business
capacity enables him to detect AM
irregularity in the discharge Of hi