News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-08-27
RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.
Ia SCLE sAMs LETTERS AND
ID PArETsS ARE TAKEN CARE OF.
Some of the Old Fashions In Carrying which
Have Been Superseded by the March of


Some of the Old Fashions In Carrying which
Have Been Superseded by the March of
Progress.
Mr.. John Jameson, the General Super
intendent of the Railway Mail Service,
and the man who has done very much
towards making it part of the policy
OF the p. o. Department to deliver
newspapers on regular letter sche-
dule time through the United States,
smiled as he leaned back in his chair and
thought of the difference between the
way we distribute the mails now and the
way it was done before the war. eyes, "
SAID he, things seem to have changed
since the days when the mailbag used
to be received into one corner of the
baggage-car at Washington and thrown
out by the baggage-master at Baltimore
or New York just as he received it. In
those days the railway-car that carried
the mail was not railway post-office,
with It's staff of busy clerks, as it is now.
The railroad did nothing but transport
the bags from one city to another. No
official of the Post-office went along.
either to guard and protect them or in
any way to handle them on the way.
The distribution then used to be done
at stationary office, and it was very
slow work, too; now there is COMPARE
lively little of the work of distribution
done at the receiving offices-there is no
time Tor that. The letters and packages
of all sorts are thrown in mass into the
mail cars, and the work of distribution
is dom on the cars while they are flying
along he rails at full speed on the way
between the sender and the addressed
At preent there are about A, 300 or 4, 400
rallws rastal clerks in the United States
-alysy, - read and busy at this
You have been familiar with the
working of the Railway Mail Service for
a long time?"
FYes; have been connected with it,
nay say, since the beginning. The
Railway Post-office has grown up within
the past twenty years, and was on the
road for more than twelve of them. 1t
was twenty years ago that the Railway
Post-office took the place of the old dis
tributing offices. You know certain
post-otfices, designated for the purpose,
used to receive and collect the mails both
in large parcels and separate packages
from various points for particular regions
of country, and then distribute them to
the various places to which they were
addressed. These were called distribut-
ing offices and served as landmarks to
guide the course of the mails to distant
points. They received them in bulk
from the mailing offices, and, after as
sorting them with regard to their re-
spective destinations, despatched them
by rail in charge of the baggage-master.
This system of asserting in the station
airy Offices was a slow process. While
the work was moving on, time was fly
ing, and so were the railroad cars, but
the mail was standing still in the same
place. Twenty years ago it occurred to
somebody that the work of final distribu-
ton could be done on the railroad car
while it was flying along to its destina-
ton, and then the work was removed
from the distributing offices. Railway
postal clerks, or as they were then called,
route agents, took their places. At first
the number of hands was comparatively
small; during the first year or two their
number was not above 300 or 400 for
the whole country, but now there are
llOAS AAoAi tOu l1IutS OldG con
stantly engaged. Sometimes there are
as many as sixteen clerks aboard a single
train going from New York city.
On an average railway postal clerk
works about fourteen hours a night for
six consecutive nights; then he has six
nights off. You see, as soon as the
mail is received in the Post-office it is
transferred to the mail car, and the rail
way clicks are there distributing and
working with their sleeves rolled up,
sometimes hours before the train starts.
The men who go from Washington to
New York tonight will return with the
mail train from New York to Washing
ton Tomorrow night, and will keep on
going between the two cities night after
insight; then scy rest for tho next six
On the through mail to st. Louis one
set of men work from Baltimore to
Grafton, where they are relieved by an
other set who proceed to Cincinnati,
and third relay take up the work there
and go on to St. Louis. This is how all
the through lines are managed. One
set of men always travel between the
same two points.
For long time the accommodation
in the mail cars was totally inadequate,
and with the facilities it was impossible
to do all the work of distribution salts
factorily and with sufficient dispatch, so
that frequently portions of the mail,
and especially the newspapers, had to
be left behind; but now every mail car
on ever railroad in the country is a
veritable post-office, as it is called, and |
affords accommodation for a sufficient |
force OF clerks to keep the work up
straight along. Isn't it surprising that,
considering the tons of letters and pack
ages to be got through, and the speed |
at which the work must be done to
keep up with the speed of the train,
there should be only one mistake in dis
tributing 5000 pieces, which was the
proportion1a last yearl"
Carving the mail is not the fun 1t |
used to be in the old coaching daysP''
mo; there was no room for a staff of |
distributing clerks on the old stages.
Why, sometimes there wasn't even room |
enough for the mails. When people be-
gan to be numerous and the number of
letters increased, and especially when
the newspapers began to spread them
selves, the mails began to be formidable |
both in size and weight-formidable, l
mean, for two-horse stage. You know
the roads were none too good, and when |
the old machine got stuck In hole, 1t
was quite the custom to heave the mails, |
especially the newspapers, which were
twenty or thirty times the weight and |
size of the letters, overheard, so that |
the passengers might have room, and |
the stage with its lighter burdens might |
trudge on. But the stages were indie
pendent institutions. 1t was only at |
their own convenience they would take |
the mail. The money had a good deal
to do with the matter. You know the |
stage would not take the letters until a |
sufficient number of them had accumu-
lated to pay expenses, and often they |
might lie In apost-otfice for weeks before
Mr.. Stacey would think the quantity |
sufficimtto trouble with.
ADMINISTRATIONS came into
use fiftyyears ago they were very little |
better br speed or regularity; in fact,
the stays beat the railroads for some |
time. h the last years of the coaching |
period, lucknow, the distance between |
PHILADELPHIA and New York was covered |
In SIX hoars, being at the rate of fifteen
miles an hour, whereas for the first year
or so the railroads complained that
eleven miles an hour was too much to |
ask for the money. AS a matter of fact,
the stages kept the mails from the rail
roads for good while on a score of
speed. However, it was but short
time, and the stage had to go. For
many years the railroad was little better.
Sometimes they took the mails and
sometimes they left them behind. When