The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-12-31

sea,
The land that is known - tho land Of tho
free.
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!
TRACING LOST BAGGAGE.
The Glover System Used By All the Big
Express Compsnies.
All the big express companies nowa-
days have systems by which lost or
misdirected baggage can be traced to
the point where it disappeared, and
when baggage is damaged just who is
responsible, and when and where the
damage occurred.
''There is very little baggage lost
now.' Agent r. A. Mckinney of the
American : Express company said re-
Gently. Il mean entirely lost. There
nre lots Of things reported lost every
day, but we generally manage to find
thom.'
win you explain the process by
which missing baggage is traced?'
''When man comes in and inquiries
for lost package he is asked to show
his receipt. which is compared with
the stub in the receipt book from which
it was torn, and which bears cores
ponding number. A tracer is then
sent to the freight Office to q clerk
whose business it is to look over the
tissue impressions of all the way bills
to New York. He takes down the
number and date of the way bill on
which the package is entered. Ii
there is no record of the missing pack
age in the way bills, blanks are filed
out describing the package, and sent
to every Office in the country where W.
make up package trunk. A package
trunk is receptacle in which many
small packages are placed for safe
transportation. The description which
is filled in the blank takes in not only
the name, address, and date on which
the package was received by the COM
pany. but also gives q detailed &C.
count of its contents. At the same
time duplicates of tho tracing which
has the name and address are mailed
to every place in the United States of
the same name as that on the package.
Then the clerk in charge of the tracing
department refers to the reports Of our
$500 offices to see If any package cor
responding to the missing one has
been wrongly sent to any one of these
Offices.
'%You must understand Mr.. McKin-
ney continued, that it is by no means
unusual for senders of packages to mis-
direct them. 1t is frequent occur
renee for person who wants to send
a package to John Smith, Cleveland
to write John Snlth, Cincinatti.' So
at many offices misdirected baggage
accumulates. At the end of every four
or five days the agents send in reports
Of this leftover baggage, as it is called.
II there is nothing in these reports to
correspond with the lost package, then
we forward tracer over the route
that the package ought to have gone.
If there is nothing about it on any of
the way bills, he finds the messengers"
"Who are the messengers?''
"A AO0SOASI4 10 du cup1OyG0 WHO
takes care of money and valuables af-
ter they leave the express Office, and
until they are delivered to the ageut of
the office to which they are sent. He
travels on the cars, and has charge al
so OF all the baggage. Each messen-
ger has q run. A messenger who trav-
els between here and Buffalo has a run
of $50 miles; that is, he looks out for
things for that distance. They are tried,
picked men, and must be physically as
we'll as morally sound, for it is trying
life. But to 60 back to the tracing.
The messenger has to put his initials on
the way bill opposite to every package
he carries. If he finds any packages
left over, he enters them in . way Bill
of his own. He has log book, which
is called the messengers overs and
shorts If the package is entered on
any way bill, then the messenger can
be found whose initial is opposite to il.
and the messenger should be able to
tell something about it.
package after the investigation, or if it
is traced to certain point where it dis
appears for good, then we notify our
agent at the place to which the package
was intended to be sent to call on the
consignee and get from him state
ment of the contents and value of the
package, and a certificate that he has
not got it. We always look upon the
consignee rs the owner. We get from
him an order to pay the shipper before
we pay for the package"
''HOw about trunks?''
''They are rarely lost, and it's very
seldom, indeed. that anything is missed
from them. When We receive trunk
we weigh it, and put lead seal on the
lock, so that We can readily tell if the
lock has been tempered with. II, on
reaching its destination, it is not called
for at once, it is placed in the On
Hand or Old Horse department, as
we call it 1t is then weighed again,
and it's weight compared with the first
weighing. This is check on its being
opened. If it is called for ut ary time,
and the owership proven, we gladly
give it uD.''
What is done with it if it i.to
called for7"
1T remains in the on-hand depart.
ment for q year along with . lot OF
unclaimed other thing r.. Then it is
sold. All unclaimed baggagesis adver.
tised for month every year.
''Are there many trunks unclaimed?'
Last year there were only eight.
Altogether there were not over SOC
pieces of baggage and packages at the
last sale.''
us there ever anything valuable in
them?''
mo. Most of them are unclaimed
because the owners do not want 10 nav
the expressage. Years ago an occasion.
al valuable package was bought at the
sales, but those days are past"
If baggage is damaged what do you