Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-18
OUR EXPRESS SYSTEM.
MARVELLOUS PERFECTION OF OUR
PUBLIC CARRYING SERVICE.

Mistakcs-The "Old Hoss" Room.
Next to the mystery of the postoffice, with
its thousands, and even millions, of letters,
crossing and recrossing each others paths
daily, coming from everywhere and going |
everywhere else, with comparatively few
miscarrages, the great express systems in the |
modern public carrying service are equally |
matter of marvel to casual Observers In |
primitive days, when keZiah Root passed |
the door on regular days OF the week In his |
farm wagon on the way to market. and was |
the common carrier for everything 'goin TO
town. it was not hard to understand how
the knibhed socks reached Uncle Ben IN
the first white house with a red barn beyond
the orthodox meetin' house at the corners;'
or how Aunt Tabby got her pail of butter,
for Farmer Root was explicitly directed to
.sgo down the mash road" on his way from
Market, land turn in the lane next to So
phrony Thomas, she who was Sophrony
Pearce. old Dea Pearce's daughter, whose
barn in the medder was burned last year and
lost all his pigs, and then 'twould be the
small white house with the cobbling shop in
'front.'
Later, as the world grew and modern bust
ness methods arose with the increase Of
trade, the problem of sending packages,
whether of merchandise or of private goods,
was still comparatively simple for the driver
of the express, who took the parcels at the
door, was in the majority of cases the same
who delivered them at their several destlna-
tions. Even after the railroads were in
vented and put into common use during
the first few years the express service did not
L. NAty bCUaVar with
the greatest business centers of the world
within the country, and with these centers
intimately connected with each other by in
Vulnerable ties, public and private, CONNER
cial and social the Interchange OF goods and
packages has reached an enormous extent,
which is not found anywhere else IN the
| world. In no other country is such mar
veous amount of business done nor such
perfect running service found. And 1t is this
promptness and CELEBRITY Of dispatch, consid-
| cred with the number Of pieces handled and
the confusing variety of destinations, which
makes the wonder of it.
| A man is relieved of all care in sending
parcels. 1t is as easy to send package to a
| friend in Arizona or a great box of dry goods
| To a merchant in New Orleans as to send
letter TO either party All that is necessary
after the parcel is arranged is to know the
| address Of the party to whom one Is sending
the parcel Instead OF getting postage
stamp one simply hangs out flag. There
the consignor's labor ends, The express
| company's carrier appears takes the parcel
in hand, gives a receipt for it, which repre-
sents it in value, and the company thereupon
takes full charge of it until it reaches its des-
tinatiop, or until it is handed over, at the
end of that particular company's limit, into
the hands of some corresponding company,
| which amounts to the same thing as far as
the sender is concerned. One does not need
to know anything about the location in the
city if the address is given, nor take the
trouble TO find out how to get to the city,
whether it is in Maine or New Mexico. The
express people do all that for him
| One of the most frequent causes of mistake
in sending parcels is absent mindedness. A
clerk will fill ont way bill from a box
marked for Portland, putting in the name
and street address all right, and then, with
the name Portland before his eyes, write New
York on the bill The New York messenger,
in the haste of pressing business, simply
counts the way bills, sees that he has the sew.
enteen or twenty pieces marked New York,
| ana StIluS Inc liilstthS 10 NV icuIt
out until the delivery marking takes place in
New York. The same absent way OF writing
what one does not think occurs with the con-
signors themselves. Very often they send a
box to a friend on Fifth avenue, New York,
whose name and number they know init.
mately, with an address to some small town
in Massachusetts, Another cause for great
deal of confusion is the old markings on dry
goods boxes which have been used before
Jordan & Marsh, or any similar large firm
will sell some of the packing cases in which
goods come to them. When the boxes are
again used the address to Jordan q Marsh
Boston, is left upon the side. The new ad
dress is put upon the top, indicating, we vii
say, some one in Pswtucket, r. l. Some
where along the line, in looking over the
stock, the messenger picks out all that which
is going to Boston, among which he take
the box with the name of Jordan & Marsl
= upon it, Then confusion arises, indeed.
There is a curions feature in connection
with these losses which Is known in every
d express Office as the ''old hoss" room. Thi
| is the room which holds all of the unclaimet
wanderers, tn. agless waits and ragged out
casts who are awaiting an owner They ar
goods ''ou hand" and the letters 30. H." OIL
the slips which are attached to them CAV
rise to the equine appellation. These stra.
I parcels get into the ''old hossn room from al
most as many causes as there are startling
varieties to their character. The consigne
couldn't be found, ano the consignor, al
though duly notified, has never cared to re
y claim. One firm has sent goods to some per
son at his own order. He returns them wit
some complaint. The firm will not adni
: the complaint, and send them back with
r very pressing bill, or else to avoid being bel
l for receiving them back at all, they will nc
touch them, but leave them in the store roor
of the express Office.
AS neither party will have them, the
naturally go to the dead room Some al
' absolutely lost No one of the name ind
Gated can be found at the address given, an
for some reason all trace Of the consigno
E, disappears. He has moved, or died, perhap
. So they all drift into the ''old hoss,n and al
Is kept year-unless of perishable nature
and then sold at auction. The variety
these waits is both interesting and amusin,
There is hardly anything In the domest
dictionary omitted, from packages Of hat
pins and sewing machines, laces. silks al
: jewelry to cooking stoves, guns, fishir
tackle, pals of tobacco and empty be-
. bottles. A large general store could not
better than to buy the whole stock at wha
ever lump price they could buy them in, f.
almost every conceivable thing which cou
. be asked for by rational beings is there
re Boston Herald