Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-20
THE Pr.

ency is Pittsburg's peculiar position geo.
graphically is such that a vast amount OF
mail which has not the slightest connection
with the city and its population has to pass
through the Pittsburg postofice and be
ticketed for points all over the East, West,
North and South. 1t is usual to refer to
Pennsylvania as the keystone State, but in
postofice parlance Pittsburg is the keystone
of the United States mail field. Hence, it has
for years been demanded that the Pittsburg
office should do an amount of general work
outside of its purely local incoming and out
going mail. Other postmasters have had q
share in the high plane attained, but it NAV
be said that Mr.. j. B. Larkin has measured
up to the highest demands of the position.
The stationing of one of the veterans of the
mail service, Superintendent Of Mails
Stephen Collins, in this city, has been a
steady recognition of the importance of the
situation, and the great need of the best OBJ
talnable talent in dealing with the knotty
mail problems elucidated in this city.
THE VITAL ELEMENT.
In every way speed has become a vital
element of the service, both for local and
other mail service. To trace the course of a
letter through the mail boxes, pouches. dis
tributors and carriers is fascinating pursuit
and will undoubtedly interest a public
always eager for information of an instruct
i've nature. First and foremost the letter
duly sealed and stamped, is deposited in a
box, say in the East End or Southside
Then comes along one of the new little
mail carts, a cross between a ro-cart. a
s'oDe-horse shay" and a sulky. The COL
Iector of mail stands on a footboard at the
rear and drives. At every box the mail
matter is collected and chucked into the
mail receptacle, place somewhat similar
In shape and size to the fboot' Of an En-
glish mail coach, so charminglv described
by Charles Dickens in Pickwick Papers.
The cart carries 100 pounds of mail matter.
and when it starts toward the main
Office no grass is allowed to grow
under the feet of the motive
power-a more or less spry horse. The
driver turns into the blind court between
CITY Hall and the postofice and dumps the
mail into sort Of clothes basket. Two men
seize the basket and weigh the matter and
it is then hustled into the canceling tables
to have the sickly green stamp defaced and
rendered valueless by smart blow from an
linked stamp. A man stands in front of the
huge pile of letters. In one hand is the
stamp and the other "skins" over the letters
rapidly. Then, when bunch are gotten
into position, the canceling clerk begins to fly,
hitting the postage stamp and an ink pad of
buckskin with alternate strokes, and SO fast
does the clerk work that the eye is puzzled
to follow his motions, while the ear can hardly
count or separate the blows Henry Richline,
the fastest man in the Office has a record of
200 minute. There are 30 letters estimated
to the pound and the biggest kind of pile is
not long in melting away rapidly under
such Lightning manipulation. Newspapers
take much more time to cancel than letters
and no one pfetsnds to establishing record.
When men first begin canceling they have
a hard time in getting good brisk "move"
on the business Is the blows in such rapid
succession tire the wrist and arm and
callous the hand. Between the hours Of 8
and II P. N. when the bulk Of the mail
from business houses and individuals comes