The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1892-06-02
THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT.
Supplies Used in Uncle Sans Many Pos

Supplies Used in Uncle Sans Many Post
Offices.
The post-office department is the
great business department of the gov
eminent and the nearest in touch'with
the people. There are many people who
have rarely seen a soldier or a sailor,
and many more who have never set
eyes on a fort or man-of war: but it
must be a blind man or a hermit who
has never seen post office or mail
carrier. Therefore. any details of the
workings of this great department must
be of interest to the public.
Six tons of stationery and such sup
plies are required every working day in
the year for the $4,000 post offices in the
United States. The supplies are all
shipped from the big brick warehouse
on E street. Washington city.
One great room in the building is
nearly filled with sacks of jute wrap
ping-twine. Twenty five thousand
pounds of this alone are sent out every
week. 1t comes in balls, and. according
to contract. each one has four inches of
string sticking out of its middle. BY
this device employees are induced to
start unwrapping the balls from that
end. Formerly they began from the
other extremity, so that each ball
wound up with a tangle. and a quarter
of each on an average was wasted. The
loss in the aggregate was no trifle,
amounting to 25 per cent. of the cost.
On the other side of the same room is
sack containing 4 200 reams of MANILA
paper blanks, called ''facings." That
quantity lasts just forty days. Two hun
bred millions of these blanks are used
every year.
One Of them has to be fastened to the
outside of every package of letters sent
from any post office. with information
written upon it as to the place from
which it is dispatched. the name of the
sender, the date and the like.
Half million lead pencils are con-
sumed in Uncle Sans postal service an
nually: likewise 1900 quarts of muci-
lage, 800 barrels of ink. 10, 600 pounds
of rubber bands and $4,000 gross of
pens.
The pens alone cost S.. 900 every twelve
months. Only first and second-class
post offices get such luxuries as
pens, ink. mucilage and blank
books. Twenty-eight thousand ink
pads and thirty thousand pounds of
stamping ink are needed yearly for
making postmarks. Six million cards
are used in the same length of time for
receipts for registered letters and pack
ages. But these are only a few of the
articles which are supplied to postmas-
tiers.
One of the costly items in the ac-
! counts of this supply division of the
post office department is weighing
scales. Two hundred of them, on an
average. are sent out every week to re-
place those which are worn out, get
broken by dropping off tables or are
burned up with post Office buildings.
This represents an annual expense of
&c. 900, although Uncle Sam buys his
scales for less than a third of the reg
ular market price. For example, 81
scales cost the post Office department
only Is cents.
All stationery is got at about the same
discount. Mercantile firms are willing
to sell to the government at cost, be-
! cause they consider it an advertisement.
The scales go all the way from little
ones, that will register only four
pounds, up to big ones for weighing
, newspapers and other large packages
which will balance one thousand
pounds.
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Gin
cinnati and San Francisco have FIVE
: thousand-pound scales, which will weigh
teams and their loads.-Golden Days.