Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-13
OUR EXPRESS SYSTEM.
MARVELLOUS PERFECTION OF OUR
 PUBLIC CARRYING SERVICE,


 NIistakes-The "Old Hoss', Room.
 Next to the mystery of the postofice, 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 mlscarriages, the great express systems in the modern public carrying service are equally a 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 knibbed socks reached Uncle Ben "in the first white house with 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 ''go 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- Pearces 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 frout'
 Later, as the world grew and modern busi- 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 destina- tions. Even after the railroads were in- vented and put into common use, during the first few years the express service did not form any great system. Now, however, with the greatest business centers of the world within the country, and with these centers intimately connected with each other by in- numerable ties, public and private, commer- 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 velous amount of business done nor such perfect running service found. And it is this promptness and celerity 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. It is as easy to send q package to a friend ill Arizona or great box of dry goods to a merchant i'll 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 a postage stamp one simply hangs out flag. There the conSignor'S labor ends. The express companys 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 it's deS- tination, 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 ill sending parcels is absent mindednesS. A clerk will fill out a way bill from box marked for Portland, putting in the name ard 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 tho way bills, sees that he has the sev- enteen or twenty pieces marked New York, and sends them on. The mistake is not found 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 8 box to q friend on Fifth avenue, New York,
  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 &J Marsh, Boston, is left upon the side. The new ad- dress Is put upon the top, indicating we will say, some one in Pawtucket, 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 takes the box with the name of Jordan & Marsh upon it. Then confusion arises, indeed
 There is a curions feature in connection with these losses which is known in every express office as the ''old hoss'' room. This is the room which holds all of the unclaimed wanderers, the tagless waifs and ragged out casts who are awaiting an owner. They are goods Ion hand," and the letters 70. H." on the slips which gre attached to them gave riso to the equine appellation. These stray parcels get into the "old hoss' room from al- most as many causes as there are startling varieties to their character. The consignee couldn't be found, and the consignor, al- though duly notified has never cared to re- claim. One firm has sent goods to some per- son at hlS own order. He returns them with some complaint. The firm will not admit the complaint, and send them back with g. very pressing bill, or else to avoid being held for receiving them back at all, they will not touch them, but leave them in the store room of the express office.
 As neither party will have them, they naturally 60 to the dead room Some are absolutely lost. No one of the name indi- cated can be found at the address given, and for some reason all trace of the consignor disappears. He has moved, or died, perhaps. So they all drift into the 'old hoss i" and are kept year-unless of a perishable nature and then sold at auction. The variety of 5hese waifs is both interesting and amusing. There is hardly anything in the domestic dictionary omitted, from packages of hair pins and sewing machines, faces, silks and |ewelry to cooking stoves, guns, fishing 5ackle, pails of tobacco and empty beer bottles. A large general store could not do better than to buy the whole stock at what 'ver lump price they could buy them in, for Almost every conceivable thing which could % asked for by rational beings is thsre.- Boston Herald.