Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-04-01
APRIL 1, 1886.
&eadiug,
THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

; THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.
TIE ARDUOUS DUTIES OF THE RAILWA1
POSTAL CLERKS.
Probably the work of no class of public
servants is so little understood as that of the
United States Railway Postal Clerk. Many
people suppose that this class Of public en-
ployes are furnished room and free pas:
on fast train simply to take on mailbag
at one station and kick off one at the next
and that the mail is all ''sorted" and made
up at general distributing offices in large
cities like Detroit, Cleveland or Chicago.
Were the public permitted to view the ac
tual work in one of these mail cars it would
take but few minutes to undeceive them.
When person is appointed to a United
States postal clerkship he is first sworn tc
abide by the rules and regulations Of the de.
partment, and to support the Constitution Of
the United States, etc. .s-----
He is then given ''scheine" and placed
in charge of an experienced postal clerk, who
takes him out on his "run" and initiates
him. He must first sign the trip "record,' u
giving both the schedule and actual time OF
his departure, and the failure to sign this
upon both arrival and departure forfets his
days pay.
He must accompany the mail wagon to
the train. and upon entering the car, if he
had any idea that he was to get a "soft job,"
is soon convinced that here, at least, is
business. If he has on his best suit and is
unprovided with overalls and "wamus," he
will return with ruined clothes and soiled
linen.
He finds one side of the car covered with
from 100 to 500 pigeon holes for letters. AT
the end forty or 100 larger boxes for papers,
and sometimes an iron rack hung full OF
sacks and pouches. He has, perhaps, pre-
viously been given a list of the stations
along the route, and now begins his first SER
vice as "neWs dispenser" by emptying a
sack of papers. He must first notice the
wooden tag and see if it is labeled for his
road, and when done the strings must be ta-
ken from these; they must be counted and
a record kept of the number, and they must
be returned to Detroit or Syracuse N. Y, or
some othe large town by the first mail.
The mail car being generally next to the
engine, the hiss of escaping steam, and oc.
casional whistle, incessant ringing of the
bell, the noise of wagons on the pavement,
all tend to make confusion worse confound-
ed, and the novice suddenly finds himself
very awkward-he can hardly unite the
knot in the string which fastens the sack
the sack is heavy, he can hardly lift it; the
papers roll out on the board, some catch in
the string and refuse to come out.
He begins work by picking up paper,
it is wrong end to; he turns it around, it is
wrong side up he turns it over perhaps he
will read the name written in an imper-
feet scrawl, to Miss Jemima Jenkins, Jack
sonvile; he is going to throw it into the
Jackson pouch, but the head clerk tells him
Jacksonville is not Jackson, gives it a
glance and says Illinois; he then finds he
must learn to read up, State at the bottom,
then county, then postoffice, and never
mind the individual. This was missent ;
he will somewhere in the sack find slip of
paper containing the name of the clerk who
put up that sack, with the date and post
mark of his run he will check this error
by crossing the face and writing on the
back the name of the postoftice of the piece
missent, the number Of such pieces found,
and write his own name and postmark it
and lay it one side to send with his next
trip report.
A record of these errors checked against
each postal clerk is kept by the Superin-
tendent of his division, and at the end of
the month or oftener, these "checks' or
slips are sent to the clerk making the error,
whereby he can learn of his own ignorance
or carelessness and correct it in the future
a summary of the aggregate he has check
ed and those against him is also sent him.
And now just q word about this check
ing business. Although it is one of the re-
quirements that every error be checked, l
doubt if ten per cent. of them are, and
for that reason would not give fig for
the general departmental report of the
number Of pieces miscarried, neither would
we for that of the amount of mail handled,
for postal clerks are required to count the
tags on the sacks Of papers and the slips on
the packages of letters handled and re-
port it every day. The majority of clerks
we haye come in contact with have advo.
Gated the plan of checking but little, if at
all, and do not count their slips regularly,
some not more than two or three times a
month, and guess at it by taking the aver.
age, being sure to get it large enough.
In justice to these clerks let me say that
the time is often so limited and they are
so overworked that if they stopped to check
or count slips they would not have time
to do their work and would often carry
mail by its destination. SILL much more
could be done than is toward perfecting
the reports else the record is useless and the
regulation dead letter.
The man who conscientiously endeavors
to check every error is often stamped as a
"smeller," and his reputation is widely
known. He soon find checks flowing in on
him of errors he never made, being paid
by unscrupulous and revengeful ones. Dis.
gusted he falls into line, and only checks
when he feels like it and has plenty of time
But to return to our new clerk. His aWk-
wardness grows upon him; it is cloudy,
the steam from the engine shuts out much
of the little light that can find a way in
through the dirty windows. Nine out OF
ten papers he picks up come from the news.
paper office, where, for their own interest
one would suppose they would put on legi.
BILE and secure addresses in order to insure
prompt and safe delivery; but no-a little
yellow slip about an inch long and one.
eighth or one-quarter wide, on which is
name pOSt0ffice county and State is only