Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1888-04-27
DISTRIBUTING LETTERS,


everywhere, his quick eye and nimble
fingers slam those missives in the identi-
cal spot desired, but how he does it and
makes no mistake is one of those things
hard to find out. One bunch of letters
may represent half hundred postofiices
In half dozen states and territories, and
In order to get the letters in the right
holes he must be an encyclopedia of rail-
way knowledge. The clerk must not
only know the county every Office is stu
ated in, but the line of railroad it is on
and in what manner it is served with
mail, whether by direct poush or by an
other mail car. He must, in fact, be
able to draw postal map Of the state,
%ld place thereon all the postoifices, rail-
ways, stage and mail routes. Multiply
this by half a dozen states and territories
and you gain an idea of the extent apd
complexity of the gazetteer q railway
mail clerk must carry in his brains and
makes demands upon hundred times
minute.
In the other end of the car are scores
of newspaper sacks hanging with their
mouths open. Above them are scores of
boxes Here stand four men opening
sacks of papers and firing the packages
into the open bags and boxes as If their
lives depended upon the number they
could thrown in n minute. Two clerks
thus work on letters and four on news
papers. Just before town or junction
point is reached each man gathers up all
the mail he has for the town or the con-
Meeting lines, and along comes another
man who punches it all in bag and
throws it of as the train whisks by the
station. At the same time he puts out
the "catcher," that iron frame which
takes bag of mail from crane by the
side of the track as neatly as ball player
catches an easy fly.
He must not only throw them, but he
must site them out" That is, wrap them
In packages again before permitting them
to leave his hands, and the most cruel
part of it nll is that he must attach to
each bunch slip bearing his name and
date. Supposing he puts into one of
these packages letter which does not
belong there. What then happens. Why,
the postmaster or railway mail clerk into
whose hands the package next falls looks
at the name on the slip and reports an
error to the chief of his division, and all
such errors are charged up against a
clerk until too many of them accumulate,
and then off goes his head.
If you spend five minutes with a rail
way mail clerk you will hear him mem
tion his scheme" A railway mail clerks
scheme is not one of money making, but
the plans by which he learns and remem-
bers how to throw your letters and papers
so they will most quickly arrive at their
destination. The scheme is made out by
states, and some clerks have to learn
three or four states or parts of states, and
learn them thoroughly. Necessary changes
in the scheme are made by general order
every Saturday, and the poor clerk who
has been studying so hard toperfect him.
self finds that he must at once start in
and learn his lesson over again. The
scheme is a railway clerks nightmare.
He sits up with it, sleeps with 1t and
dreams of it. Most clerks are given runs
which work them pretty hard for a week
, say two Of these fast mail runs to Chi
|. cago and back, or twenty hours of inces-
SAINT toil-and then they are given week
. off to rest and catch up on sleep and
study their schemes. If it wasn't fol
these weeks off, the business would have
to stop. The men would die of exhaus
ton, and besides, the schemes would g
to wreck.