Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-27

PATCHING OLD MAIL BAGS.
The Shop Where Uncle Sam Has His
Sewing Done.
NH1pLE WOMEN, SAIL MAKERS AND LEArHER
WORKERS KEPT BUSY MENDINa RENTS IN NAIL
sAcKs-rHousANDs OF BAGS PASS THROUGH THE
oSTroz-THE SCENE AT YouNe's BUILDING.
Did You ever wonder what becomes Of Q mail
bag when it is prematurely old, when Q
catcher" has torn it or when repeated hauling
across rough floors and throwing in and out of
cars has worn holes in its ordinarily durable
substance2 Some Of the bags are nothing but
dirty rags when they are rescued from smash
up or dragged out of river, but il Is very
rarely that IL has been rendered entirely use
less. Down on @ street between Four and
half and Sixth and on the north side Of the
street 10 large red brick structure known as
Young's. building, and here IL Is that the dam
aged jute sacks and leather pouches are taken
for treatment On the ground door, which is
under the control Of Postmaster Ross, is the
intendent and he has for an assistant q
veteran Of two wars, Capt David Crouch.
Day after day brings to this place
huge wagon loads of torn bags and on the
back trip the vehicles arc loaded up with sim
liar goods which have gone through the re-
pairing process. The bags are separated in
the depository-each laid in a heap with its
kind. That which ID good and seryiceable re-
| mains down stairs, while the damaged re-
ceptacies are sent to the story above. Orders
for repaired bags are received in this depart
ment, and The number necessary is sent out in
bags of the same description; that is all the
packing that is done. The superintendent. an
assistant, and about fifteen laborers manage
to do the work just now, but the force
huctuates considerably.
THE REPAIR SHOP.
On the second floor another Jurisdiction is
entered upon. Capt. Robt. Collier il superin-
tendent and he is responsible to the Second
Assistant Postmaster General. This is the re-
pair shop. Up large elevator huge piles Of
bags are continually coming and going. The
| arrivals are stacked up against the walls. and
as soon as possible they arc examined by a man
who works at a long table near the center of
| the room. He examines each bag separately
and decides its fate. III no thinks it can profit
ably be repaired he whsks it off to one side,
but if the wreck is hopeless one he drops
them through a rallied opening to the floor
below. Whatever can be saved is taken care
of. The metal catches and the closely woven
cords are taken off the remains OF the dilapi-
dated sacks, and If there is piece Of good jute
two inches square in the makeup of a sack it ia
cut out and saved SO that it may be used for
patching. The department disposes of not less
than $4,000 pounds of jute each month.
AN ARMY OF NEEDLE-woMEN.
On the third floor is the most interesting
sight in the building. Sixty-fve women, young
and neutrality-suspicious. of them old-are hard
at work, and they do not talk very much either
nor do they often upset the equanimitv of As
sistant superintendent A. J. Ryder, whose desk
faces the major portion Of them. Five Of them
are engaged in putting strings through the
brass eyelets which are i'll the jute sacks. FIRE.
quently they find an old cord which is quite
good and then they use it instead of new one
That's economy, for each cord costs seven cents
Each of these five women can string $50 sacks
day. The other sixty are repairers, and sew
eral Of them wear odd-shaped head gear dur
ing their hours of toil-head gear such as only
a woman could design and manufacture--hand-
kerchiefs OF all hues, aud twisted in many
shapes. and paper caps and bonnets. Some Of
them look well. especially the pink-tinted Tam
OShanters worn by bright-iooking girl. In
front of each one of these workers is a pile of
sacks, and from these they take the nearest
one and patch it or do whatever else it needs.
They average fifty-six sacks each for every
day. All their work passes through the hands
OF an examiner, but il is only in rare cases that
any sighting is discovered One of the
women is totally blind. but she does very fine
work. The hours of labor are from to with
half an hour out at noon for lunch) except on
Saturday, when work ceases at 3 pm.
WHY THEY ARE THANKFUL.
Light, ventilation and mmodations are
well-nigh perfect. Illumination comes prin-
cipally from large skylight, but there are
also windows opening on to street. When
Second Assistant Postmaster General Whitfield
selected the Young building for the repair shop
he realized that on the upper floor the heat
would be intense when there was any sunshine
he Immediately ordered two powerful cylin-
drical steam fans, and when the shop was
opened on the LIST instant the fans were in place
ready to stir up the warm air whenever such
proceeding was necessary. The name of Whit
field Is revered by the employees on that floor
Especially proud Is Capt. Cullen of the capa-
cious dressing rooms which have been par
titioned Off for the accommodation of the ladies'
Everything in moderation that would add to
their comfort or convenience has been done
Their remuneration is S45 per month.
A PILE OF DAMAGED POUCHES.
On the west side of the room are about 400
catcher" pouches. waiting to be repaired. The
shop is getting away with them very rapidly. so
Capt. Cullen told STAR reporter, and it can.
he says, keep away ahead of either the demand
or the inflow. Foreign mail-sacks are stacked
up against partition that runs aci oss near the
northern end of the room. They have to re-
ceive good deal of attention, especially those
which have to go to Germany. The German
government insists that whenever one of its
sacks is patched it must have leather patch
beneath the strip of jute which is sewed on
All these foreign sacks are repaired by expert
sailmakers. In one corner are kegs of rivets
and burrs and boxes Of the many little things
needed in the makeup of mail sacks. Such
things as these will, as soon as a storeroom can
be constructed. be placed therein.
THE SAIL MAKERS
and the leather workers are on the northern
side Of the partItion-eleven Of the former and
twenty-one of the latter. They are paid S75
per month. The number of laborers in the
repair shop is twenty-one and $50 is their re-
gular rate of monthly pay. The present force
is amply large to do the work and to do it with
advantage to the department. There are no
vacancies. OF course the force fiuctuates con-
siderably. In winter time the mails are heaviest
and there is most wear on the bags consequently
the force in the repair shop is larger that it is
now.
CONSOLIDATING THE WORK.
Up to little while ago there were several
repair shops in the United States Boston,
New York, indianapolis, Chicago and Atlanta,
all had one each. Now they have been concen-
trated here. Chicago, however, still has a
small branch shop, but its privileges are few;
it is not even allowed the poor satisfaction of
cutting up bags which may be thoroughly
worthless. All such must be sent here and
when Chicago wants a few Matches the noat