Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-12-25
HANDLING FOREIGN MAILS.
HOW IT IS DONE IN THE BIG NEW
YORK PoSToFFIcE.
accuracy and Rapidity of the System
Sorting Mail at Sea-Intricacies
of the Work.

even i'll broad daylight there twinkle
thousands of electric lights, you will
come to stairway which leads you
into the northern end of the building,
and there, in cramped, insufficient
quarters, corps of sixty men receive
and distribute each week fro N Europe
alone an average of one hundred thous-
and foreign letters to residents of this
city, and three hundred and fifty
thousand additional letters addressed
to out of town people by each of the
incoming mail carriers.
just how long it takes letter
dropped by friend in London to
reach resident of this city depends
largely upon the speed made by the
ocean greyhound which happens to car
ry the mail bag. But within twenty
five minutes after the black hull of the
steamer has been made fast at the
dock the ten wagons employed for the
purpose have hauled to their destina-
tion the entire mail, and in one hour
and half from its arrival two hun
dred and fifty pairs of hands have
sorted and prepared the city letters
and carriers are on their pay to de-
liver them. The regular force espe-
cially designated to take charge of
this department is composed of its
sixty regular men, and their hours of
duty, or ''tours," as they are called,
are from II m. to 8 q. m, and from
in the morning till 5 in the afternoon,
ard from 5 in the evening till 2 the
next morning. The overlapping of
hours is designed to provide against
the possibility of being shorthanded
on the unexpected arrival of large
mail.
Besides this regular force there are
twelve additional employees, "Hoat-
ers," so called, because their hours of
occupation depend upon the tides and
winds. They may report at eight and
work until five, or they may be called
upon at midnight to work until the
distribution is completed. Opposite
their names on the attendance book,
which contains a complete record of
every man employed in the depart
ment, is cross, and if they were not
known as "Aoaters" they would be
known as emergency men,"
The number of rorts from which the
mail is received in this city is 100 and
the number of languages represented
in the addresses is 100 multiplied by
the various dialects spoken or written
by people the round world over, and in
the decipherment of this multiplicity
of tongues there is rarely a serious
mistake, although there is no one per-
sou specially commissioned to attend
to this branch of the department.
The "hards," as the illegible or out
landish addresses are called in the
slang of the Office, are sent to the
"blind reader" (which seems a mis-
nomer) and his assistants, and by
means of directories and the forty
years of experience of the head of this
department the most ill addressed let
ter seldom fails to find its proper
owner. OF all the foreign countries it
seems singular that India should fur
nish the best addressed letters and
Russia and Italy the worst. With ref
erence to the latter country it is a
curious fact that correspondents writ
ing to their friends on this side almost
invariably neglect to prepay the post
age, and the carrier who delivers the
mail in the Italian quarter always car
ries small hand satchel to bring back
to the Office the money due for the
"collect letters" In adopting this
course the writer's take advantage of
the law, which enables any one to send
letter to any point comprised within
the postal union.
In connection with the arrival of the
boats carrying the mails to any part
of the world the Government issues its
weekly bulletin, in which each ship re-
ceives all initial letter, beginning with
A and continuing through the alpha
bet This letter is used to designate
the mail that came by that particular
boat. The same table contains in an
other column the exact time of the ar
rival of the mail at Quarantine and at
| New York, and the initial letter is
used to trace any bit of matter that is
either delayed or lost. The bulletin
is, as a rule, dr. reading, but recent
issue contained the interesting state
ment that live bees might be shipped
to the Philippine Islands under the
classification of samples.
The outgoing mails from this city
are under two classi6cations-"c close
and "open"--a "close" mail being one
that is made up for direct Transports
tion to some particular point, as, for
example, from here to Bombay, while
the "open" mail is via London or
some other point. In the preparation
of the bags for shipment the letters
are assorted with reference to this dis
tinction. Every business man in New
York is aware of the fact that any let
ter intended for foreign port must
be placed in the postoffice thirty min
utes before the closing of the mail, and
the average number of letters received
lin the last moments is from six to eight
Thousand. This apparently unman,
ageable mass o mail is handled by elgh'
people. Passing from TIE drop where
it is received, the letter goes 10 tne
cancelling machine, which can by tht