Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-02-27
UNCLE SANS MALL SACKS.
How the Many Postal Pouches
Are Handled.
All Locks Must BE Changed Once In
Eight Years The Busy Post
Onteo Equipment De-


United States mail bags must DO
changed, if not oftener, says the WASH
ington Star. This is because after
awhile a good many lost keys get
around, and they are not very safe to
have so distributed. Just now the
equipment division of the post Office de-
partment is making over two hundred
and Fifty Thousand old locks, merely for
the purpose of rendering them different
They were worry good in their day and
are so still in other respects.
At first it was suggested that all these
two hurdred and fifty thousand locks
should be thrown away. The junk men
were asked how much they would give
for them, and they said twenty cents a
hundred pounds. This did not seem
large, inasmuch as the post Office had
originally paid fifty-seven cents apiece
for the locks. Therefore it was con-
cluded to make them over again, and
this is being done now at the repair
shop of street at a cost of six and
thrce-fourths cents per lock. tits very
pretty sight to see the worlzmcn cut the
old contrivances apart, polish them up
on idly-revolviug grindstones, which
give out showers of sparks, reorganizing
the tunblcrs and putting together the
pieces into as good shape as the new
lamps which the magician in the story
of Aladdin exchanged for old ones.
These locks as has been said, are to
secure mail bags, but even more inter
esting are the mail bags themselves and
their histories. Naturally, in the course
OF human events, these receptacles wear
ont now and then. This being regarded
as inevitable, in former times they were
turned over promptly to the junk man.
Now, however, it is all very different.
According to the regulations, as fast as
the bags show symptoms of wearing
ont they are forwarded to Washington
from all over the United States. Thus
one finds in the equipment shop on G
street great rooms heapcd with enor-
nous stacks of mail sacks in all stages
of use, decay, and, one might almost
say, of decomposition.
Upon arrival they are conveyed bv a
big elevator to the third floor, where
one hundred and ten women sit sewing
with coarse thread. The bags arc made
OF jute. Some of the women wear
Ounce caps of brown paper on their
heads, and all are as busy as so MANY
BEES They are all sewing upon mail
sacks, and when one has finished her
task she holds up her hand. At once
the foreman in charge goes to her,
takes the bag she has finished and laws
1t on pile. In exchange, he gives her
another, which he takes from stack
near by. The sacks in the latter pile
are in oil stages of dilapidntion, and
the rule is that each worker must take
tho one on top. A wooden partition
ha 60
pile, because some complained awhile
ago that it was possible for others to
see when there werc good sacks on top,
and so escape bad ones. It is like the
system of ''takes" in IL newspaper office.
Thus far only the iute bags have been
spoken of. But there Is another room
in which the leather mail pouches ore
mended, twenty-five worl1men being
employed for the purpose. This sys-
tenn has grown up within the last four
years. So short Il time ago only eight
women and three leather workers were
employed to do the work. But it was
believed that great economy would
result from dcvoting attention to the
mending of old sacks, and this has
proved so far true that many Thousand
fewer bags arc made annually now than
were required in 1887, although the
post Office business has increased one
quarter since then. The bags are man
ufacturPd in New York state.
When the mending of each bag is An
ished 1t is inspected by a man who is
the only person in the United States
with whom the decision lies as TO when
mLil sack Is worn out md shall be
used no longer. Condemned ones are
all utilized in one fashion or another,
The best parts of them are used for the
bottoms Of sacks that have to be re-
pnired, while other portions serve for
patches, the ragged bits being slashed
Oft with sharp knives. Such rags go to
the junk shop. After each sack has
been repaired 1t is taken TO room
where piece Of rope for drawing its
mouth together is strung through 1t by
blind woman ADo+I,o,. ,..,,,-. Z, n