The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-07-14
THE RAILROADS.
An Exciting and Interesting Jour.
ney on y Fast Mail Train.
Denver News.


An interesting, and in some re-
spects an exciting journey. is a trip
westward fir m heyenne on the fast
Union Pacific mali train Especial y
is this SO il you are permitted enter
the racred rece.ses of the mail cars
The Term "fast mali i. no misnomer.
"ThunderboI troins, "lightuing ex.
presses" Flying Dutchmen," are
popular names for fat trains, but
some OF them are fast in name only
and make no better time than more
mod.st trains with only schedule
numbers to designate them. But the
fast mail" is mt one of this kind.
From the ,iue the ,hrottle valve is
pu led open at Cheyenne until the
Journey is over speed is the prime OBJ
ject of every engineer. Up grades or
down grades, long curves or short
ones. snow sheds, tunnels, BRIDGES or
tres,les cut no figure in comparison
with maintaining the schedule, or
taking up time.
The run over the Union Pacltc Is
but part of The general fast ma ser
vice from New York to San Francisco,
but the run from Cheyenne to Ogden
is over the heaviest grades on the
whole journey, and as on this part Of
the route the most important separa-
ton Of the mail is made, the journey
is of notable one and full of interest.
When the train leaves Omaha six
mail clerks are at work in the two
cars. Forty to fifty tons of mail mat
ter lie no unusual load to art out
with, and to this every station on the
line contributes more or less as the
the train proceeds. The men work
steadily and unremittingly all the
way to Cheyenne. East Of Omaha all
that has been done on the rapid runs
from New York to Chicago, and Chi
cago to Omaha, and on the various
mail routes converging has been the
distribution of the mail into
packages and pouches for the
various western states, and mail for
Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming, Ntsh and Wash
ingtOn may be sid 10 be in bulk. On
an average run HOO packages of let.
tiers and 300 sacks of papers are
worked, that is separated and dis
triquted and placed in packages d.
recied to various lines Of railway
which will take them quickest to their
destination. Letters tor each town
are tied into packages and properly
labeled. Besides The ordin Try matt
there are several hundred registered
letters to be put off a small stations,
forty to fifty registered pouches for
the larger Offices, like Cheyenne, Og-
den, San Francisco and Portland,
each pouch containing several hundred
letters and packages.
While the mail cars are strong and
substantially built, and the dangers oh
the work thereby lessened, still the
work is hazardous. Travelling at An
average speed Of fifty miles an hour,
by day and night, across stretches OF
bad road, up and down heavey grades
Ground short curves, is necessarily
dangerous. A broken rail or wheel,
q mistake of an operator, may at any
time plunge the fast mail into awful
disaster, almost certain to bring
death to the clerks shut up in their
irOn-barred cage next the
engine. Surrounded by a
mass of inflammable matter,
An accident by night, when the lamps
are all lighted, is certain to he fol-
lowed BY that horrible fate death in
. burning wreck. The question Of
pensioning the families Of clerks who
meet with accidents lie being sgitsted,
and Considering the arduous work and
small pay of tqe clerks and their con-
slant exposure to danger, the project
con ainly seems reasonable and just.
MeElrss's WINE OF cARpUI for female diseases