Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-08


Villas:
POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT.
OFFICE OF POSTMASTER GENERAL,l
WASHINGTON, March 31st, 1851
Railway postal clerks who have be.
come efficient and valuable men, against
whom no just complaint of neglect, mat.
tention or want of fidelity or efficiency
can be brought and who have not turned
their attention to political labors during
their service, will have no fear of being
disturbed so long as they continue to rem
der meritorious and faithful service
VIM. f. Villas,
Postmaster General.
"This order only applies to railway
clerks. How do the rest of you fellows
expect to fare?"
ooh, l don't know" was the compla-
cent response. 81 presume the same
general rule will be observed in all
branches of the department. OF course
there will be some removals. We expect
| that"
"Can you give me some idea of the
amount of business done here?'
owe receive about 1000 letters daily
and send out about 5000, total of 5000
handled every day"
Chow many clerks are required to dis
tribute this mail?"
81 distribute all that is received, Mr..
Billings handles all that is sent outs
Il suppose a good many blunders are
made when addressing letters to Salt
Lake?'
eyes, it is hard for outsiders to under
stand the street system here, but they do
! better than / expected. | noticed letter
the other day addressed to '35 west Fifth
East street. sent it to 50 south and it
proved to be the right place. l have
noticed some curious addresses sent out
from this office. Here are a couple that
| copied, " and Mr.. White handed the
following to the reporter:
To Berlin Cross Roads take me straight
THAT town is in Ohio State)
There put me down and let me be
Till Sadie Woodson calls for me.
Here is another:
Mid sage brush in Nevada State
Where silver miners congregate,
There dWells one Hen. Long, q healthy pill
Who works at the Manhattan mill,
For cash to raise his beer and hash,
And round in Austin cut DASH
Where he will find this brief epistle
And have chance to wet his whistle,
II not, for want of bail,
He's in the Lander county Jail.
Chow is the free delivery system work
ing?"
''Finely. The carriers last month de-
livered 5000 letters and 1926 newspa-
pers. They collected q, 254 letters, / ,097
postal cards and 1900 newspapers.
Each one is required to make a daily
statement of the number of letters
collected and delieered from which a
monthly statement is made. Their bust
ness this month will be much heavier,
owing to the fact that about 300 more
boxes have been given up. Out of nearly
1000 boxes, 600 are still retained One
hundred more will probably be given up
during the present month. The general
delivery business has dwindled down to
almost nothing We have closed one
window and there is very little mail to be
distributed at the other''
Say" chimed in one of the carriers, 'T
wish you would tell people to have mail
boxes put up at their residences. Half
of them are not up when we call in the
and consequently we have to
keep their mail until we make the next
trip. A mail box only costs dollar"
The carrier was assured that his COM
plant would reach the public and Mr..
White continued:
1.-The districts are about a mile long and |
contain about twenty-five blocks The |
Third district is over two miles long. en-
bracing the entire western portion of the
city, but that carrier is mounted. The
carriers make two daily trips except in
the business part of town, where three
trips are made. O'Reilley is the carrier
1or the central portion of the city and de-
ivers about $50 letters daily. The others
average 200 daily"
The reporter was then shown the MANY
ingenious arrangements for asserting the
nails. The clerk who distributes the in
coming mail has row of pigeon holes in
ront of him and the letters for each &
he seven carriers, general delivery, reg
stry department, etc, are separately de-
'oslted. Each carrier also has an in s
enious contrivance, by means of which !
le asserts his mail for convenient distri- /
ution before starting out. In an adioin- t
1g room is semi-circular table upon $
hitch are dumped the papers sent out of I
ne city. These papers are "fired" with
herring aim into the gaping mouths of
)rty-four mail bags, and the rapiditv :
18th which Mr.. Billings disposes Of the
fountain before him is astonishing. :,
here is also separate table for assert | !
lg outgoing letters, and every !
tate and large city in the I'm y
N is represented by a pigeon 4
ole. The letters for each point of destina- ! !;
on are done up in separate bundle and =
he name of the distributing clerk at =
lched, so that, when letter is missent u
lie blunder can be traced directly to the d
lilty party. All letters received are also <
packages and are accompanied by the =,
anne of the distributor Mr.. White stated ?
lat the New York Office sent its Mem !! II
MS, Tenn, mail to Salt Lake II
gularly and under this sys- i ie
m of labelling the packages u
e blunder was traced directly to the
URGE and reported. The Union Pacific
llway clerks also make frequent mis-
kes, and the Salt Lake office reports as
any as l25 letters missent to this city in
single day. Only the other evening
enty Ogden letters were sent down to in
is city. All these blunders are readily bl
iced to the proper source, under the adj en
rable system now in vogue, and are
omptly reported to the inspector.