Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-10-16
THE OLD AND TIE NEW
MAIL SERVICE CHANGES FROM STAGE.
COACH TO PosTAL-cAR.
1hs Railway Posto0ace Grown Up Within
The Past Twenty Yean-A Railway
Postal Clerks work-Ths
Good Old Way.
Washington Post.l

washington fOst.l
Mr.. John Jameson, the general supsrin-
tendsnt Of the railway mail service, smiled
q he leaned back in his chair and thought
Of the difference between the way We dis.
tribute the mails now and the way it was
done lefore the war EYES, said be,
4things seemed to have changed since tho
days when the mailbag used to be received
into ous 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 tho mail was not railway
postofice, with its staff Of busy clerks, as It
il now. The railroad did nothing but trans
port the bags from one city to another. No
official of the postoffice went along either to
guard AMI protect them or in any way 70
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 comparatively little
Of the work Of distribution done at the re-
receiving offlces-there Is no tins for that
The letters and packages Of all sorts are
thrown in mass into tho mail-cars and tho
work OF distribution Is done on the cars
while they are flying along the rails at full
speed on the way between the sender and
the addressee. At present there are about
4.3oO or 4, 400 railway postal clerks in the
United States always on the road and busy
at this work.
.You have been familiar with the work
nZs OF the railway mail service for . long
timer
"Yes, Ihave been connected with it,
may say, since the beginning The railway
po'toffics has grown up within the past
twenty years, and / was on tn, road for
more than twelve OF them 1t was twenty
years ago that the railway postoffice took
the place OF the old distributing Offices You
know certain postofices 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 adj
dressed. These were called distributing
Offices, AMI served as landmarks to guide
the course Of the mails to distant points.
They received them in bulk from the mail
ing offices, and, after asserting the n with
regari to their respective destination, dis
patched them by rail in charge Of the bag
gage MASTER
This system OF asserting in the station
ary Office was slow process. While the
work was moving slowly on tims was flying.
anu ~ WCi0 bAc AhiiEOuu CiIS but Jig man
was standing still in the same place.
Twenty years ago it occurred to somebody
that the work of distribution could bs dons
on the railroad car while 1t was flying along
to its destination, AMI thus the work was
removed from the distributing Offices. Rail-
way postal clerk, or, as they We're then
called, route agent. took their PLACES At |
first the number Of hanis was complra-
lively small During the first year or two !
their number wa not above 800 or 400 for |
the whole country. but now there are mora
than ten times that number constantly en- |
gagged. Sometime, there are as many a
sixteen clerks aboard a single train going |
from New York city.
'On an average a railway postal clerk |
work. about fourteen hours night for six |
consecutive nights, then he has six nights |
of. The men who go from Washington |
to Now York tonight viii return |
with the mail train from New |
York TO Washington tomorrow night, |
and will keep on going between the two |
cities night aftsr night then they rest for |
the next six On the through mail TO |
St Louis one set Of men work from Balti- |
more to Grafton, wh,re they are relieved by |
another set, who proceed to Cincinnati, an |
q third relay take up the work there anil go |
to St. Louis This is how all the through |
lines are managed Ons set Of men always |
travel between the same two points.
Carrying ths mails is not the fun it used |
to be in the old coaching daysr
sNo; there was no room for staff OF dis
tributing clerk, ON the old stages Why, |
sometimes there wa MT even room enough |
for the mails. When people began to be /
numerous and the number Of letters in |
ILL ~,
began to spread themselves, the mails began |
10 Be formidable both in size and weight
formidable, mean, for q two-horse stage. |
You know the roads were none
too good, and when the oil 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 sig, Of the letters,
overheard, so that the passengers might have
room, and the stage with its lighter burden
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 q good deal to do with the
matter. You know the stage would not
take the lettsrs until q sufficient number Of
them had accumulated to pay expenses,
and often they might lie in poStoffi,s for
weeks before Mr.. Stacey would think the
quantity sufficient to trouble with.
sand when tho railroads came into use
fifty years ago they were very little better
for speed or regularity; in fact the stage,
beat the railroads for some time. In the
last years Of the coaching period, you know,
the distance between Philadelphia and New
York was covered in six hours, being at the
rate Of fifteen mile, an hour, whereas for
the first week or so the railroads complained
that eleven miles an hour was too much to
ask for the money As MATER Of
fact the stages kept the mails from
the railroads for a good while on
q score OF speed. However, it was but short
tim,, and the stage had to go. But thirty
years ago $50 route agents and thirty-four
local agents performed all the work required
in handling the mail for the whole country.
@Do you know that at present more than
10 tons Of mail matter leave New York ely
every dayi Some years ago. whom a good
deal Of the distribution was done in the city
office, the work fell behind, and there was
great accumulation OF paper mails on GER
tain days Of each week. Tho department
then arranged with the publishers to separ-
ate their mails by states. AMI by this means
the block was entirely overcome. At
present one-half Of the newspaper mail re-
ceivsd at the New York Office for distribu
ton passes through it intact TO the railway