The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-12-17
HANDLING A SMASH.
How System and Hard Work Care for the
Mails In New York.


How System and Hard Work Care for III,
Mails In New York.
One of the most extraordinary spectacles
which take place in the many sided drama
OF metropolitan life may be witnessed at
frequent intervals in great granite build
ing fronting the Herald office, although
there is never spectator to look on and ap.
plaud.
1t is dusk, and the great army of day
workers are hurrying home for supper and
rest. portion of the stream pours through
the great portals of the Post Office and
showers letters and circulars through the
receiving windows by the thousand. With.
ont, the huge structure looks peaceful and
undisturbed, but within human volcano is
boiling and seething. The night force is
hard at work preparing the flood of postal
matter for the outgoing trains, but the day
force has not been dismissed as usual, for
word Inns come that three big ocean steamers
have reached Quarantine too late to pass the
line but in time to send three tug loads of
foreign mail mp to the city, and this must
all be cleared away before the wearied clerks
can think of home.
While the rush of New York's outgoing
mail is at its height, and men are working
tooth and nail to make some progress
against the inundating flood that comes in
from the business houses the rumble of
heavy wagons comes family in through the
open doorways at the northern end of the
building, and growl of pardonable pro-
family passes around among the hard work
ed men as they think of over hundred thou.
sand extra pieces suddenly to be dumped
upon their hands. This is n ''smashp in
tho yernacular of the Post Office 1t is like
break in the levee to the inhabitants of a
Mississippi town, and can be conquered
only by the most herculean efforts. II differs
from the Western flood chiefly in the fire.
luehey of its coming.
II Is at such times as this that the splen-
did efficiency of the New York Post Office
is shown to perfection. The magnificent
spectacle of regiment of trained men
working together with the precision of clock
work, and u keen intensity which causes
great mountains of paper TO dwindle away
INTO thousand receptacles, is worth going
great ways TO see But few are privileged
to see it. The Post Office is q hard nut TO
crack 1t is nut with two shells. All
can penetrate the outer husl5, but when il
comes to cracking the inner shell, the pene-
tralia, of this hive of industry, one must
have uncommon good luck to make n sue
cess of it.
Exactly how big "smash " it would
take to oyerWhelm the Office is one of those
problems that have never yet been solved
Tor the reason that the office has ALWAYS
come out triumphant from the seyerest
trials. Considering that the daily average of
pieces handled is two and u quarter millions.
and that the run of mail matter is always
more or less irregular, the working force Mt
the disposition of Postmaster Pearson must
of necessity be large aud flexible that is to
say, some must be qualified to move from
one place to another whenever stress comes
upon particular department. But when,
an the contrary, tho eoaetent pressure of
the regular work is brought into eonsidera.
ton one cannot help wondering that the
Office should be capable of performing one
of the tremendous spurts which 80 frequent
ly is recorded by it.
The first thing which happens to pies
of mail matter when it enters the Office ut
either end is the stamping of the day and hour
upon it. This record is never omitted. II
is the departments badge of honor, for one
can always see with what CELEBRITY his mail
reaches its destination after it has once been
branded with the familiar "P. O. N. Y"
Next comes the distribution, SO divided up
into large" and close assortments that
landings. In the case of mails coming
into town as much assortment as possible
has already taken place. The bank letters,
for instance, have been placed together.
and they are always bundled first. This ont
department is no childs play, for the New
York banks receive from two to four thou
sand letters apiece every day. Then comes
the separation Of box letters from carrier
letters by distributing clerks of the highest
degree of experiences, and then the more
CLOSE distribution, either into the boxes
of the different carriers or of the box ten
ants If it be near the carrier hour of de-
parture the clerks are concentrated upon
their mail while the box delivery fills up
the chinks Of time between whites. These
are MI somewhat familiar processes, how
ever, and do not need enlarging upon.
II The worlds correspondence were all
carried ON by careful and intelligent writer's
the work of the Post Office clerks, onerous
though il be, would be comparatively plain
sailing Unfortunately it is not. Their
work is constantly interrupted by specimens
of illegible writing, extraordinary spelling
and wrongful addressing or no addressing
at all. The American people furnish
good share of the careless super
scriptions, but by far the greater pro-
portion of blind" addresses come from
foreign countries. Russia and Italy furnish
the Post Office with more trouble than all
the rest of the world put together.