Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1884-04-24
ON A POSTAL CAR.
An Insight Into the Operations of the
Railway Pos. office.

nO uld5 uAtuuC VI tHe Sicdo idllWdJ
mail system in the United States, says
the Chicago Tribune, is almost beyond
human comprehension, and en-
braces details of such minute character
that it requires nearly lifetime to master
all of its branches. The recent develop
ments in this line of service has brought
the subject anew before the public, and
in view of the newly-inaugurated rapid
transit in the West, additional interest is
attached. The same general system is
employed on all the various branches,
and it is the purpose of the present
article to give rough outline of the
workings of the department. Areporter
who accompanied the first fast mail be-
tween Chicago and Minneapolis was
afforded an opportunity of studying the
practical operations Of the railway post
Office, and the route will be used as an
illustration.
The train leaves Chicago at A. NJ,
and the postal clerks begin work at the
depot at 5 o'clock the previous afternoon,
their car being stationed in the yard
The last mail from Chicago is taken to
them about 80 A. NJ, and the mail
from the Eastern train, arriving here at
1890 A. NJ, is generally placed on board
the train for the Northwest Just few
minutes before its departure. The New
York train usually brings from four to
five carloads of mail, a portion of which
is sorted on the road and the remainder
at the Chicago depot, where it is separ-
ated from the Western and Northwestern
lines As the Eastern mail is fre-
quently late, large amount of heavy
work is necessary in order to make the
connection. Then at the last minute,
when the letters, etc, have to be safely
stored away, the daily papers are rushed
to the train. It now wants but few
minutes of o'clock, and in order that
the train may leave on time some lively
work has to be done.
The postal-cars are fitted up like min
lature post-offices, each one on this divis-
ion containing about 600 boxes and
paper and pouch rack, upon which are
hung at. least 200 tie-sacks and letter
pouches. As fast as pigeon-hole be-
comes full the package is tied up, prop
erly labeled either for railway post
Office or city, and thrown into its
pouch. The same is done with all the
States. When the destinations of the
pouches are reached, they are taken out
of the racks, closed, printed pouch
label placed in the label-holder, the
pouch locked and thrown off the car.
While this is going on it must be borne
in mind that the work does not stop
upon the receipt of the mail at Chicago,
but at each stopping station more is taken
on, 50 that the supply is steadily on the
increase.
Places where stops are not made are
called ''catch stations, :" the mail being
thrown off and taken out from crane
erected at the side of the track.
The engineer signals the approach
to catch-station by whistling,
and the clerk whose duty it is to
exchange the mail must be promptly at
the door when the station is reached.
Where stops are made it is only for a
minute or two. 1t frequently happens
that the clerks are behind time when a
junction is reached, especially when the
mail is very heavy. In that case the mail
is carried by, and advantage is taken Of
the first return train with which connec-
tions can be made
Every package Of letters made up by
the clerks must bear label-slip giving
plainly the address of the postoffice or
railway postoffiee to which it is to be for
warded. If it is railway postoffice
which is to be reached at certain juno
ton the label-slip must be marked
North, "South, u Cast or "West, .
as the case may be. This slip must also
bear the name of the clerk who made up
the package, initials showing the direc-
tion in which he was running. and the
imprint Of his post-marking stamp. If
any missent letters is found in one of
these packages, note is made on the
back Of the label-slip, the clerk signs his
name and stamps on his imprint. All of
these slips are forwarded daily to the
Office of the superintendent of the rail
way mail service, carefully examined,
and a complete record kept Of all errors
made by each clerk. If mans record
becomes bad he is called in for examina-
ton, and if he fails after short trial to
improve he is removed or reduced. The
number of errors depends altogether
upon the line on which a clerk runs. On
some lines men make only from two to
five errors per month, and on the heavy
runs where clerk is obliged to strain
every muscle from sixteen to twenty
hours at a stretch, the number will reach
as high as one hundred or more.
To give an intelligent idea of the tons
of mail that are daily sent over the conn
try by the different railway postoffices
would be difficult matter, and the near
est approach that can be made to it is to
present the number of pieces that are
handled in any given time. At the close
of the fiscal yea- last June there were 200
railway postcffices in the sixth division,
which embraces Illinois, lowe, Wiscon-
sin. Minnesota and the northern PENN