San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-05
THE RAILROAD MAIL SERVICE.
Collection and Distribution of Postal
Matter by Flying Trains.


Matter by Flying Trains.
The railway mail service of today affords
a striking contrast to that of score of
years ago. Special cars to the number of
over GOO, designed especially for the use of
railway postal clerks, and 1000 other cars
partly occupied by the clerks are in use.
Some of the new cars are models of con-
venience, and the clerks are enabled to
perform their duty as easily and rapidly as
if they were in well equipped postoffice
in one of the large cities. Special trains
consisting of three or four of these cars,
and having no passenger cars attached,
are dispatched at frequent intervals be-
tween the large cities Mail is taken up
and left at various points along the line.
The clerks not only distribute the mails
from the starting point, but those from
and to various stations along the route,
and mails for the large terminal points are
distributed by street and number, so that
the carriers may take them at once to their
destination.
A trip ON one Of the postal trains is a con-
slant panorama of busy action. Tons Of
mail matter in pouches and sacks are
placed in the cars before the start is made.
Trained clerks are occupied from the mo-
and distributing the letters, papers and
packages according to their addresses. The
cars have convenient cases, and pouches for
various stations are ready as soon as the
mail is distributed As the train approaches
a station at which mail is to be left and to
be taken on, the side door of the car is
opened, a clerk stands with closed pouch
of mail in his left hand and with his right
ma M ha iyc ,arba ptS fnro atrh
ing the mail bags. AS the train approaches
the platform a motion of the clerks hand
throws out the catcher ready to take the
mail bag hanging from crane close to the
track. The pouch containing the letters
for the station is thrown out by the clerk
upon the platform and the catching ma
chine takes from the crane the pouch which
has been left there by the local postoffice
messenger The train rushes on and the
exchange is made without q moments de-
lay to the swiftly moving cars. The pouch
is brought into the car, opened upon the
long tables and the contents are quickly
distributed.
The work of the clerks is continued at
high pressure from the start until the fin
ish. A first class postal clerk not only
knows the name and situation of every
postoffice in the large portion of the several
states through which he passes, but on
many of the lines he must be familiar with
the streets and street numbers in the great
cities to and from which his route lies.
The mails which reach New York and
other large cities in the early morning
hours, and which could not be distributed
by the local clerks in time for the early
morning delivery. are so arranged by the
lxyou fo1 he mi ba cor M
station clerks can begin at once the work
Of sending out and promptly conveying to
the persons addressed the often important
messages intrusted to the mails.
The life of a postal clerk is not only one OF
busy occupation, but one of physical hard
ships and of no little danger. The motion
of the cars frequently gives the clerk SEN
sation hardly distinguishabls from that
caused 6y the rolling Of ship on the
ocean. "Seasickness" is a common Incl
dent Of the work. Some clerks, like some
sailors, have feeling Of nausea with every
trip, and others after the first few days
suffer little. At the end Of each trip the
clerk has a time for repose, sometimes
longer and sometimes shorter. In some OF
the large postoffices or near the principal
railroad stations there are dormitories
fitted up in which the clerks may obtain
few hours sleep at the end of each trip.
In the New York postoffice there are
scores of white covered iron bedsteads
ranged in rows In some Of the rooms on the
fifth floor. Visitors passing the open doors
in the daytime mistake these rooms for
hospital, but in the night hours they are
occupied by a particularly healthy and par
ticularly drowsy set of mortals. After
short repose the return trip must be be-
gun, and the home life Of railway postal
clerk is almost as limited and unsatisfac-
tory as that of commercial traveller or q
seafaring man.-Albany Journal