Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1885-09-17

sent up instead Of down, and eventual
ly may find its way to the desk of the
Secretary, or even to the President In
the ordinary routine. however, a letter
first goes to the city post-oflice. then to
the department, and .Aen, step by step,
to the chief clerk OF the bureau, the
chief clerk of division and the particu-
lar clerk who is assigned to attend to
its subject matter.
Then, in due progress, the reply
goes back, on thick white letter paper
of official size. deliberately headed, and
gathering Endorsements as it proceeds.
red marks and blue marks, numbers and
dates, circles, squares and crosses-till
it 10 finally signed, folded and mailed
again. Necessarily there is some red
tape, for unless rigid system was fol-
lowed there would be fatal confusion in
a week in all the large departments.
These mysterious marks all have q
meaning, az the careless or stupid clerk
finds out soon enough, for by them
every step is registered and . blunder
traced back to its source.
The last hour or two OF each ONCE
day in the departments is devoted 70
finishing up; the correspondence and
signing it The latter means great
drudgery to the Secretaries and
their responsible subordinates. Some
days these officers sign their names for
two hours as rapidly as they can write,
with messenger at their elbow to pass
them sheet after sheet, and blot the
signature as it is scratched of. Rarely
are the contents of the letter noticed. 1t
comes to the desk through the proper
channels, and is assumed to be correct
If not, the one who suffers by the error
will be likely to complain. Ut course
the more important correspondence is
treated more carefully.
And now the reply begins its travels,
Again the department wagons, from the
heavy red vans to the suspiciously neat
carriages, convey the SACKS to the city
post-olhce, where they are emptied and
| the letters hurried from clerk to clerk.
One arranges them in piles, then the
canceling stamp and the post mark are
put on, and then the first rough dlstri-
button by States and chief cities begins.
At the city post-office, also, further
distribution takes place to ease the
strain on the railway postal clerks
About 5000 post-ofiices are located by
the most direct railway lines, and let
tiers are distributed for these lines, thus
saving this railway clerks from a vast
task that would have to be done very
quickly.
The great official mail goes out to thu
North and West at ten o'clock at night
but as much matter as possible is sen
at four o'clock to help the railway
clerks There are few buster spots thar
the postal cars en- the ten o'clock trair
between Washington and Baltimore.
The Government mail consists almos
entirely Of sealed packages, so that lit
tie need be said of the methods O
handling the lower grades of mail mat
ter. Some parcels go open, however
and these are handled in connection
with newspapers. samples, books
shoes, horned toads and other bulk!
articles. The size of these parcels doe
not admit of a pigeon-hole basis of dis
tribution. The clerks therefore stant
in the arena of mimic amphitheate
of labeled pouches rising about them il
overlapping tiers, and toss the bundle
into the gaping mouths of the sacks
1t looks easy, but it is special art
One calm elderly clerk, who has spen
a life shooting pouches, has a perfec
aim. 1t is as beautiful to watch him a
he pops the bundles into the prope
holes as it is to see DR.. Carver brea
glass balls or Ewing throw to Gerhard
ct second base. N Y Sun