Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-10-04

THE OLD AND THE NEW
MAIL SERVICE CHANGES FROM STAGE.
COACH TO PoSTAL-cAR.
The Railway Postonice Grown Up Within
the Past Twenty Years-A Railway
Postal Clerks Work-Tho
Good Old Way.
Washington Post.l

Washington Post.l
4H. John Jameson. the general superfn
tendent Of the railway mail service, smiled
Is he leaned back in his chair and thought
Of the difference between tho way We dis
tribute the mails now and the way il wa,
done lesors the war. -Yes." said be,
| -things scemsi to have changed since the
day when the mlh-bag used to be received
into ons corner Of the baggage-car q,
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
postoftice, with its staff Of busy clerks. As it
Is now. The railroad dill nothing but tram
port the bags from one city t. another No
official of the postoffice went along either to
guard ami protect them or in any way t.
hanils them on the way.
~The distribution then used to be done a.
q stationary Office, ami it was very SLOW
work, too; now there is comparatively little
OF the work Of distribution done at the re-
receiving offlces-there i, no tins for that
The letters and packages of all sorts are
thrown in mass into the mail-cars and the
work o; distri ution is done on the cars
while they are flying along the rails at full
speed on the way between the sender and
the addressse. At present there are cbout
400 OF 4, 40 railway postal clerks in the
United States always on the road and busy
at this work,
"Ycu have been familiar with the work
ings Of the railway mail service for q long
timer
Yes, Ihave been connected with it,
may say. since the beginning The railway
postoffice has grown up within the past
twenty years, and l wa' on thu ROAD for
more than twelve OF them 1t was twenty
years ago that the railway postofiice took
the place of the Old distributing ofIice. You
kn1w certain postofiicss. designated for tas
purpose, used to receive and collect tne
mails both in large parcels and separate
packages from various points for particular
regions OF country, and then distribute them
10 the various places TO which they were adj
dressed These wero called distri buting
offices, eni served as landmarks to guide
the courss of tho mails to distant points.
They received them in bulk from the mall
ing Offices, and, after asserting them with
regard to their respective destination. dis
patched them by raii in charge Of the bag
gage master.
This system Of asserting in tho station.
airy Office was q slow procesI While the
work was moving slowly on time wa, flying
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 distribution could bs done
on the railroad car while it was flying along
to its defamation, AMI thus tho work was
removed from the distributing cfficss. Rail-
way postal clerks or, as they were then
called, route agents. took their places. At
first the number Of hands was comp,ra-
lively small During the first year or two
their number was not above 800 or 400 for
the whole country. but now there are more
than ten times that number constantly EN-
gagged. Sometimes there are as many a,
sixteen clerks aboard single train going
from New York city.
'On an average railway postal clerk
works about fourteen hours night for six
nights. then he has six nights
off. The men who go from Washington
to Nav York tonight will return
with the mail train from New
YORK t. Washington tomorrow night,
and will keep on going between the two
cities night after night then they rest for
the next six. On the through mail to
st Louis one rot of men work from Balti-
more to Grafton, where they are relieved by
another set, who proceed to Cincinnati, AMI
4 third relay take up the work there AMI go
to St Louis. This is how all the through |
ines are managed One set Of men always |
travel between the same two points
Carrying the mails Is not the fun it used |
20 be in the OLD coaching daysP
sNo; there was no room for q staff of dis |
clerks on the old stages. Why, |
,,r,asinaS sba-a ua-n't ava,, roovr, apn,,yh |
.or the mails When people began to he
numerous and the number of letters in
,reas,d, AMI ,pscially when the new apers
,egan to spread them-elves, the mails began
% be formidable both in sizs and weight
l mean, for a two-horse stage
You know the roads were none |
90 good, and when the old ma
Inc custom to heave the mails, especially tine
,ew- papers. which were twenty or thirty |
lines the weight and siz, Of the letters
,verboard, SO that the pas -engers might have
-oom, and the stage with its lighter burden |
might trudge on. But the stages were indie
PENDENT institutions. II was only at their
,wn convenience they would take the mail.
Tie money had n good deal to 30 with the
matter. You know the stage wouli not |
axe the letters until sufficient number Of |
hem hal accumulated to pay expenses.
,n1 often they might liz in postn.ii D for |
weeks before Mr.. STACEY would think ffe /
sufficient to trouble with
@Ani when tho railroads came into use
fifty years ago they wers very liStls better
or speed or regularity: in fac: the stage.
beat toe railroads FIR some time. In the |
asst wears Of the coaching period. you know,
he distance between Philadelphia and New
York wa covered in six hours. being at the /
ate of fifteen miles an hour whereas for 1
he first week or SO the railroads complained |
hat eleven miles an hour was too much TO |
sk for the money. As matter of
act the stages kept the mails from
he railroads for good while on |
score OF speed. However. if was but a short (
i,n., and the stage had to e. Blu. thirty
ears age $50 route agents and thirtv-four
ocal agents performed all the work required
n han1ling the mail for the whole country
@Do you know that at present more than
90 tons of mail matter leave New York CITY
very dayi Some years ago. when a goot
leai Of the distribution wa dons in the city |
,ilice the work fell behind. and there was n
.reat accumulation of paper mail on GER
ain days of each week The department |
hen arranged with the publisher t. separ-
tie their mails by state AMI By this means |
he block was entirely overcome. At |
present. one-half 81 the newspaper mail re-
eivei at the New York oi!ice for distribu
ion passes through it intsc; "a tie railway
,f3ea