The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-12
CONGRESSIONAL NAIL.
ma PosToFFICE BUSINESS DONE
at THE CAPITOL.

,,.-, the Letters of Senators and Rep
-.santatives Reach Them-Scenes in
.sa CAPITOL Post Ohices-Men Who
rove Hundreds of Letters-The De-
livery Wagons.
From the Washington Star.
The postofices of the Hou and Senate
the handle enough mail for a city of
,-9Oo0 inhabitants Few postoffices in
10. Of 100 900 souls handle as much mail
= masses through the House only. The
-o,rasentatives of more than GO, 900, 900 peo-
ia have full letter Doves. A few hours
lrant in the postoffices at the capitol would
Give one the impression that the two houses
| If congress composed one immense cores
,ondance bureau, and that the members and
so,stors did nothing but receive and an
suar letters, with perhaps an hour or so set
oside at night for reading newspapers and
,onding off public documents. Every news
,aner published in the United States passes
throurh the postoffice of the House at least
onca week, and every public document
-,,blished is sent out from there. An aver
Zoe of 500 worth of 2-cent stamps per day
ore used by the representatives during the
sossion though all the bills, reports, records
and other public documents, which form a
--eat bulk of the mail they send out, go
free and the average sale of stamps the
wear round is $50 per day.
They have five deliveries of mail per day,
e+arti1g before the sleepy members have
rolled over in their beds for their second
morning nap, and each time there is as
n,uch mail as can be handled. Even the
registered letters number from twenty to
CITY per day. In order to distribute the
various letters, papers and small packages
II thar come addressed to representatives the
routes have to be divided off into five car
rier districts-entirely independent Of the
citv's free delivery system-with a wagon
and t*o men to each district. The first de-
livery is made at 1880 in the morning At
mat hour the five "H. r." wagons collect
their mail from the city postoffice, where it
has arrived during the night and early
morning on the mail trains, and start out to
distribute it at the houses of the members.
At 1880, again at II 80 and at $50 these
wagons bring in loads of mail which is dis
tributed to the members through their letter
boxes at the capitol Again at 4:30 the
wagons start out to deliver mail at their
houses, hotels and lodging places. The five
wagons and ten men are thus kept busy
about all day carrying about the letters and
papers, and the horses generally have to be
kept at such a fast psce to get around that
their fast driving. The horses are well
tagged out at the end of the day and the
men feel that they have fully earned their
salaries. Formerly deliveries were made at
night and they still are on the Senate side,
but the House has ceased it. These wagons
rushing about the streets at night and stop
ping now and then while men moved mys-
teriously about inside of them with lanterns
used to send thrill of terror through the
nervous system of some of the colored pop
ulation, who mistook them for might doc
tors y outfits.
Besides these delivery wagons for the
lighter mail there is q big double wagon
which is used merely to cart off public docu-
ments to the mail trains. From $50 to 200
bags, each holding two or three bushels, are
mailed off full of documents every day.
The western members are the ones who get
the most mail. Those from Kansas get
mare than any of the rest. The mail for the
southern and eastern members is compare
lively light, which goes to reduce the gen.
eral average to from thirty to forty letters
per member each day. The average in the
west alone runs far above this figure.
Mr.. Peters Of Kansas, who has concluded
that he cannot afford to waste his sub
stance on congress any longer and has noti-
fed his constituents that he will not again
be candidate, gets more letters every day
than any other man in the House. He often
gets 100 letters day and sometimes his
mail runs as high as 800 letters in a week
Next to Peters, Dorsey and Perkins get the
most mail. McKinleys mail is next in
bulk Mr.. Reeds mail has, of course,
jumped up amazingly since he has been
Speaker, but for some years he has got more
letters each day than any other man from
the east Lodge, Greenhalge ana "Rising
Sun" Morse come next to him in postage
popularity. Carlisle gets more mail than
any other man from the south and Mills
next. There is probably no other man in
congress who wants any more letters to an
swer than he has each day,
All this tremendous postal business is con-
Quoted in a room in the basement of the
capitol Just at the left of the basement en-
trance of the south wing The members
elevor runs within a few feet of the door of
the office. Every morning the members on
arriving at the capitol 90 first to the post
office to get their letters, which have come
i'll on the 1890 delivery, and each, as he
stands waiting for the elevator, has bundle
under his arm and takes the opportunity
to read one or two of his letters. The ele-
vator is usually crowded with members in
the morning going up TO their seats or to
their committee rooms from the
postoffice with packages of letters under
their arms and reading as they ride.
THE LETTER BOXES
are arranged on three sides of square in
the postoffice and the members entering the
door are on the inside OF the square, while
the attendants make themselves active in
the space around its outer wall, distri butin &
the mail in the boxes, handing it out on de-
1nand or selling stamps. The postoflice is a
sort of directory office, too, as members
leave their address there, and people are
constantly inquiring where this or that
member lives or if he is in town, or has yet
reached the capitol that day. The first
place member goes is to the postofice
when he reaches the building. The business
of the Office IS conducted by postmaster,
who is one of the elective officers of the
House an assistant postmaster and eighteen
attendants of various degrees of rank and
Importance, who are kept busy to attend to