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

Assorted. Distributed and An
swered-Post- ONCE Notes.
The President of the United States
receives daily an average Of fifty thou
sand letters, which, as a rule, are an
swered or their receipt acknowledged
on the day Of delivery. To enable him
vs. cope with this vast correspondence,
much Of which requires not simply .
formal reply but considerable research
and special knowledge, the Executive
Is furnished with about ten thousand
clerks. who, for convenience, are divid-
ed into seven departments, according
as their work has to do with our foreign
relations, the army or navy, the fiscal
machinery Of the Government its in
ternal relations, the postal service or
the administration of justice. The
heads of these seven principal depart
ments ale asked by the President to
meet once or twice week at the White
House and form what is known as his
Cabinet. At these conferences the
more important business Of the several
departments Is discussed, 50 that the
work may be done promptly and har-
moniously; and so we'll regulated is the
system that it is not necessary for the
President to see personally but very
small part of the Executive correspond
ence. Two or three sacks only, out of
the tons of mail matter that is dumped
every morning on the floor of the Wash
ington City post-office, goes to the
White House.
This post-office 10 the third il the
country In volume of business, though
Washington is only the fourteenth city
in population. This is ON account of
the enormous official mail that passes
through Postmaster Conger's hands
During the fiscal year which ended June
80, 1885, The letters received were in
excess of $4,000, 900, or about 10000
daily, and Of this total it is estimated
about 20 per cent goes to tho depart
ments.
The reduent tide is even larger, for
the outgoing delivery includes all the
publications of the Government. Sta
tistics in this field would be staggering.
They would be on such huge scale
that the figures would lose their mean
ing. On some days, for instance, dur
ing the busy days of Congress, 1000
large sacks, mostly of Executive docu-
ments, will pass through the office, and
the average for the summer months is
10000 sacks month. Much of this is
registered, for greater safety, so that
the work thrown on the city force is
prodigious.
Evidently, then, the Washington
post Office is busy place. 1t is. in a
vile building, but the clerks agree to
condone its contracted spaces, dingi-
ness and vermin on an understanding
with it that it won't tumble down dur.
ing office hours. The postmaster is a
son of Senator Conger and an active
Republican politician. The clerk in
charge of the manipulation of the mail
is Mr.. Springer. He looks and acts
much like General Francis A. Walker,
and, like that gentleman, has a knack
Mt turning of business quickly and well.
There are "crews" of men in the office
all the time, night and day, week days,
Sundays and holidays. One section
works from seven a. m. to three D. m.
one from three to eleven p. m, and one
from eleven p. m. to seven a. m.
The busiest time of the day for the in.
coming mail is early in the morning,
when the great night mails arrive.
From seven till nine o'clock the Office
seethes with activity. Shortly before
nine o'clock the mail wagons for the
departments and the outlying bureaus
are hauled up in the rear of the Office,
and the mail is handed out to them fol
distribution. These vehicles are Of
every description, from heavy, red, cir.
cus-like vans to neat covered carriages
which have astrong suspicion of twilight,
and Sunday excursions about them
The heaviest mail generally goes to the
Post-office Department, due to the rou
tine correspondence between the depart
ment and the so, 900 postmasters of thu
country. Each postmaster has occasion
to write at least four letters each quarter
to the department, thus involving {
mass of 100000 letters every ninety
days, or moro than 1000 day from
this cause alone. Then there is al
equal volume of business in the Deat
Letter Bureau, where all uncalled-for
misdirected or unintelligible letters ar,
sent The other two departments tina
receive enormous mails are the interior
and the Treasury. The mail for tn,
Pension Bureau of the Interior alon,
often mounts into the thousands.
All the departments have a mai
room where the letters are received aut
, sorted. In the larger department.
these rooms have quite post-office lool
of their own, and exceed In the volum,
of business transacted the figures o
many towns of considerable size. Her,
the.sacks are opened and the content
distributed into trays or boxes whicl
represent the Office OF the Secretary ant
the different bureaus When thus sorte'
the letters go to the chief clerks, VIII,
60 through the pile, whether 'confi
deniiar' or not. Heads of department
are not supposed to have any guilt.
secrets. and they certainly have not th
time to read all the missives whicl
come TO them as confidential matter
So the clerk rips open everything, ant
many s'confidentiar' letters drop int,
his waste basket Communications Oh
business matters the clerk losses int
wicker trays. and these are borne b
messengers to the chiefs of division ant
the heads of rooms having specis
supervision e the matter. II. however
the letter is seen to Be importan. il ]