Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-07-16
IN THE rOsToFFICE.
A GLANCE AT THE WORKING OF A
BIG MACHINE.
How New York's Mail Matter Is Received
Sorted, Stamped, Distributed and
Sent on Its way-Details
Of the Work.
INeH York Times

SSi>>
as prison corridor. Now and then an en-
ploye Of the Office fits along over its stone
floor or possibly a visitor walks through il
Standing in this gallery one look, down upon
the principal working room of the largest
and best-managed postofice in the United
State. He is near enough to the roof 10
note the great glass ceiling, ribbed with
iron, through which the sunlight filters, and
On which the rain falls with a muffisd sound
or the snow lies heavily. He is not too far
from tine floor below to be confused by the
scores of hurrying men, the glare Of dozens
Of electric lights, if the day he at all dark,
and a curious tumble of sounds, some Of
which he has seldom or never heard before,
and all Of which seam 70 lie hopelsssly en-
tangled, although striving valiantly to ex-
| tricate themselves
A bell clangs somewhere, and the men
dash about like the bits Of glass in a kaieid-
oscope. Fat and important-looking baskets,
loaded t. the brim with letters and papers,
go whisking around at q breakneck speed,
turning corners with squeak and a scrape
and rushing down narrow lanes as il bent on
destruction and determined 70 have their
own way. Stout bags and thin bags; bags
that are old and humble; bags that are new
and vain; bags on clutches, SO to speak, and
bags that look as il they could almost 60
scurrying over the world alone; bags that
have seen better days; bags that will see
worse; terra-cotta- coiored bags, buff-colored
bags subdued buff-colored bags, ash-colored
bags. black bags, bags Of colors which
are not named and never will be,
bags Of every kind, shade, character and
| shape-all these are running in and out
| opening themselves on great tables, gasping
as fattened out and empty bags ought TO
gasn and then hiding themselves away in
the basement with thousands Of their kind.
until called into use again, when they will
go almost to the uttermost ends of the earth
at the rate Of q, 900 day.
Piles and bales Of letters grow up on the
tables like mushrooms and melt away like
a spring flood when the ice goes out There
are all kinds Of letters for all sorts OF people
in all parts Of the world
But Of all these things the great machine
down below the little gallery, unlike the
postmaster or postmistress who somewhere
may hand you this paper, cares nothing.
Behind the nigh screen that hides its opera
tions from the public gaze the machine
stands waiting. At the little holes through
which the public shoots its letters the post
Offices work begins. The acquaintance of the
ordinary letter writer with the machine is
confined TO the cogs who sit behind the little
windows and wrestle with him over the
amount Of postage he must pay. Even if
they were not true and faithful parts of the
great mechanism these cogs would have a
selfish interest in doing their work we'll
They own their own stock in trade as alb
solutely as though the stamps were so many
village lots or shares Of railroad stock.
The room in which these cogs turn are
fenced off from the rest of the building,
and there are locked gates to prevent in
truson Beside the stamp clerk are the
sheets of perforated paper ornamented with
portraits of statesmen and soldiers who are
dead and gone, boxes Of envelopes. pack
ages of postal cards. little piles of coins and
rolls of bills On shelf within reaching
distance are tho scales which furnish an
answer to the question which in all tie
gamut Of vocal expression bounces through
the window hour after hour and day after
day, "Whats.the-p ostage-on-th
Outside the four great white faces OF a
clock fastened TO a column in the center of
tho room looks solemnly down on n scene
that is infinitely more confusing TO one
standing there than when viewing it from
the little gallery OF all the tumble of
sounds the one most readily separated from
the Others is the convulsive patter of the
date and canceling stamps. These two are
cast in one frame and attached to the same
handle One blow cancels the stamp and
prints the time of the letters receipt and
the date. The time in hours is changed
every thirty minutes the year round. One
man does nothing but change the dates,
working upon one set OF STAMP while the
other is in use. The clang of the bell ind:
catss the change, and from this man the
stampers get the new stamps
Through the openings in the screen on the
Broadway and Park row sides runs the fuel
of the MACHINE The letters fly up through
the openings, strike a shield and fall down ON
a table as smooth as glass and without an
angle into which letter may obstinately |
slip. During the day there are two or three
men at each OF these tables engaged in pick
ing up the letters raining in through the
openings, facing them-that is, turning |
them fac, up-and carrying them to the
tables near by. dab of the stamp ON the |
bit of ink-saturatei felt beside each stamper,
a light dab on the letter, and away the piles
go TO the men who separate them
Standing in the center Of this room.
which is not as large as it looks to 10 from
the outside, with the screen rising up to the
ceiling on three sides, and medley Of
boxes, bags. doors and men on the
tsrca pied by the rows of pigeon holes in
front Of each separator. Each one Of these
pigeon holes. which rise above each other
from the table to which they are attached
to a convenient height for man TO reach,
has some specific use and if a man puts it to
any other he is bound to hear Of it Those on
the city side are mainly for the different
carrier routes. and they are emptied OF their
contents at regular intervals by the carriers
who fish cut the letters from the back
Those on the distribution side where let
tiers going out of New York are handled,
are for different cities mail routes states,
and localities New York state, for in
stance, has five separations, and there are
3S3 pigeon holes into which letters 60 Ne
braska has only one pigeon hole, the work
of further separation being done on the
postal cars. The separator must learn the
location Of these holes in the frame before
him precisely printer learns his case
In fact acquiring this knowledge is called
-learning the case