St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1892-06-18
the POSTAL DEPARTMENT.


00pplles Used n Cnele Som'O Many Rooo
O0ces.
The post-ofhce department n the
great business department Of the gov
crnment and the nearest In touch with
the people. There are many people who
have rarely seen . soldier or . sailor.
and many more who have never set
eyes on Q fort or man-of war; but IL
must be q blind man or q hermit who
has never seen . post Office or mail
carrier. Therefore, any details of tho
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 O.. 900 post Offices in the
United StateA The supplies are all
shipped from the big brick warehouse
on E street, Washington city.
One great room in the building il
nearly filled with sacks Of jute wrap
pihg-twine. Twenty Eve thousand
pounds of this alone are sent ont every
week. 1t comes in balls, and, according
70 contract. each one has four inches Of
string sticking out Of its middle. BY
this device employees are induced ia
start unwrapping the balls from that
end. Formerly they began from the
other extremity, 20 that each hall
wound mp with . tangle. and quarter
Of each on an average was wasted. The
loss in the aggregate was no trifle,
amounting to :5 per cent. of the cost
On the other side of the same room Is
. sack containing 1000 rcams of MANILA
paper blanks, called 'facings." That
quantity lasts just forty days. Two hum
dred 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 pest Office, with information
written upon il as to the place nom
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, 1.50O barrels of ink. 10000 pounds
Of rubber bands and $4,000 gross Of
pens.
The pens alone cost q. 900 every twelve
months. Only first and seeond-class
post Offices get such luxuries rs
pens. ink. mucilage and blank
books. Twcnty-eiRht thousand ink
pads and thirty thousand pounds Of
stamping ink are needed yearly for
making postmarlxs. Six million cartle
arc used in the same length Of time for
receipts for registered letters and pack.
ages. But these are only few Of the
articles which are supplied to postmas'
tiers.
One Of the costly items in the &C.
counts Of this supply division Of the
post Office department is weighing
scales. Two hundred Of them. on an
average. arc sent out every week to n
place those which are worn out. get
broken by dropping OF tables or are
burned mp with post Office buildings.
This represents an annual expense Of
q, 900, although Uncle Sam buys his
scales for less than third of the reg
ular market price. For example, g. 50
scales cost the post Office department
only Is cents.
All stationery is got at about the same
discount Mercantile firms are willing
70 sell to the government 1t cost, be-
cause they consider IL IN advertisement.
The scales go al the way from little
ones. that will register only four
pounds, mp to big ones for weighing
newspapers and other large packages
which will balance ono thousand
pounds.
New York. Philadelphia, Boston, Gin
cinnati and San Francisco have i've
thousand-pound scales, which will weigh
teams and their luads.-Golden DayA