The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-09-08
THE OLD AND THE NEW
MAIL SERVICE CHANGES FROM STAGE
COACH TO POSTAL CAR.
The Hallway rostofico Grown UP within
the Past Twenty Years-A Railway
Postal Clerks Work--Tho
Good Old Way.
Nv aslIincton Post /


Mr.. John Jameson. the general superin'
tendent OF the railway mail service, smiled
as he leaned back in his chair and thought
OF the difference between the way dis
tribute the mails now aud the way it was
done before the yes" said lie,
things seemed tt have changed since the
days when the bag used to be received
into Of the bagglge-car at
Washington and thrown out by the baggage
master at Baltimore or New York Just
he received it. In those days the railway
car that carried the mail was not railway
postofiice, with its staff of busy clerks, rs it
is now. The railroad all nothing hut trans-
port the bags from one city another. No
official Of the postofIice 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
a stationary Office, AMI it was very slow
work, too; now there is comparatively little
of the work of distribution done at the re-
receiving offices-there is no time for that.
The letters and packages of ali sorts are
thrown in mass into the mail-cars and the
work of distr ution j. dono on the cars
while they are flying along the rails ut full
speed Oh tho way between tie sender and
the addressed. At present there are about
1890 or i 400 railway postal clerks in the
United States always on the road and busy
at this work"
"You have been familiar with the work
ings of the railway mail service for q long
timez'
Eyes, have been connected with it,
may say, since tho beginning. Tho railway
postofiico 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 postotlice took
the place of the old distributing Offices. You
know certain postoiIices, designated for tho
tp
mails both in large parcels and separate
packages from various points for particular
regions of country and then d distribute them
to the various places to which they were adj
dressed. These called distributing
Offices AMI served landmarks to guide
the course of the mails to distant points.
They received them in bulk from the mail
ing offices, and, after asserting them with
regard to their respective destination, dis
patched them by rail in charge of tho bag
gage master.
"This system of asserting in the station
airy Office slow process. While tho
work was moving slowly on time was flying,
and so were the railroad ears, but the mail
was standing still in the same place.
Twenty years ago it occurred to somebody
that the work of distribution could be dons
on tho railroad while it was flying along
to its destination, AMI thus che work was
removed from the distributing Offices. Rail
called, route agent. took their places. At
first tho nun Der Of hands was COMPARE
lively small During the first year or two
their number was not above 200 or 400 for
the whole country, but now there are moro
than ten Times that number constantly en-
. gagged. Sometimes there are rs many a
sixteen clerks aboard single train going
from New York city.
ron an average a railway postal clerk
work about fourteen hours n night for six
consecutive nights, then he has six nights
off. The mon who go from Washington
to New York to night 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 naxt six. On the through mail TO
st Louis ono set OF mon work frnsn BaIti-
more to Grafton, where they arc relieved by
another set, who proceed 10 Cincinnati, AMI
y thirl relay take up the work th re AMI 50
to 81. Lluie. This is how all tuc through
lines are managed. One set OF mon always
travel between the samo two points.
Carrying the mails ls not tho -un il 'Fr2l
to be IN the oil coaching days"
mo; there was room for a staff OF dis
trbutlng clerks on the old stages Why,
sometimes there wasn't even room enough
for the mails When people began to DO
numerous and the number of letters in
began to spread Themselves, the mails began
to be fornIidab both i'll siza and weight
formidable, | mean, for Il two-hcrse stage.
You know the roads none
too good, and when the old ma
chine got stuck in hole it was quite
the custom To heave the mails, especially the
newspapers, which were twenty or thirty
times the weight and SiZs of the letters
overheard, SO that the pas engers might have
room. ana the stage with its Lighter burden
might trudse ON. But the stages were inds-
pendent institutions. 1t was only at their
own convenience they would tako the mail
The money had a COOL dAal to 10 with the
matter. You know the stage would not
take tie letters until a Sufficient number of
them hal accumulated to pay expenses
and often they might liz in poStatlias for
weeks before Mr.. Stacey would think the
quantity suiiicientt to trouble With.
And when tho railroads canfe into use
fifty years ago they wero very little better
for speed or regularity; in fact tho stages
beat the railroads for some TINA In the
, ihe di5tance between Pt1Eiaoie fphaa and M
York wa covered in six hours, being at the
cate of fifteen nliies en- hour, whereas Tor
che first week or So thera RiTpedS complai,sed
that eleven miles an hour was too much to
ask for the money AS q matter ,of
fact, the stages kept the mails from
the railroads Dads, fer sol I ~, %hii2 9 7
TIM. and the stage had t. g. But thirty
years ago $50 rSstts aRensS AMI thirty -four
local agents performed all The work required
IL, handling the mail for the whole country {
ado YOU know that st present moro than :
100 tons of mail matter leave New York city
every day? Some years ago. when good
deal of the distribution was done in the city
Office the work fell behind and there was o
great accuritiia tio'i of paper mails Cer-
tain DAYS of each week The. department
then arranged with tie publishers t. separ-
nte their mlilS iv states an by this means
tho block was entirely overcome At
present oue-naff 6f@at,fe newsrsar er Tssas4sse-
ceivel at the New York office for iistrihu-
tion passes through it5ntac. to the ilFv9,y
Office i %E hE k% 81
The sIiSer aud ti,c-yyidop. & Il
detroit Free Press. -
A Notorious old Miser, who was near his
last End. was visited by a Widow, who
entreated him to lend her q small ss;ts-sJf