Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1894-01-27

department OF lae
New Fork postofice where even in broad
daylight there twinkle thousands of
electric lights, you viii come to a stair
way which leads You TO the northern
end of the building, and there, in
.ramped insufficient quarters. a corps
IF sixty men receive and distribute
each week from Europe alone an aver
age of 100000 foreign letters to resi-
dents of New York, and $50, 600 addi-
tional 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
a resident of New York depends largely
upon the speed made by the ocean
greyhound which happens to carry 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 EN-
ployed for the purpose have hauled
to their destination the entire
mail and IN one hour and half from
its arrival $50 pairs of hands have
sorted and prepared the city letters
and carriers are on their way to deliver
them. The regular force especially
designated to take charge of this de-
partment is composed of its sixty reg
ular men, and their hours of duty. or
tours, as they are called, are froTa
~ m 10 Q a. N. and from in the
morning till in the afternoon and
from in the afternoon till the next
morning. The overlapping of hours is
designed TO provide against the posi-
bility of being short handed on the un-
expected arrival of a large mail
Besides this regular force there are
twelve additional employees. ..fioaters. "
SO called. not in the sense that this
word is used in connection with Indi-
ana politics. but because their hours
of occupation depend upon the tides
and winds They may report at and
work until ;. or they may be called
upon at midnight TO work until the
distribution is completed. Opposite
their names in the attendance book
which contains a complete record of
every man employed in the department
is a cross, and if they were not known
as foaters' they would be known as
emergency men.
The number of ports from which the
mail is received in this city is loo 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 displacement of this multiplicity
of tongues there is rarely a serious mis-
take, although there is no one person
specially commissioned TO attend to
this branch of the department.
The ''hards as the illegible or ont
land sh addresses are called in the
slang of the Office. are sent to the
ssh1sraI -.
nomer) and his assistants. and by
means of directories and the forty
years of experience Of the head of this
department the mo i i'll addressed let
ter seldom fails to find its proper
owner. OF al the fo.s..a countries !.
seems singular that India should fuI-
nish the best addressed letters and
Russia and Italy the worst. With ref
erenca 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 writers take advantage of
the law, which enables any enc 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
receives an initial letter, beginning
with A and continuing through the
alphabet. The letter is used to desig-
nate the mail that came by that par
ticular boat. The same table contains
in another column the exact time of
the arrival 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 bulle-
tin is, rs a rule, dry reading, but re-
cent issue contained the interesting
statement that live bees might be