The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-24
PosToFFIcEs AT SEA
Conducted on Board the Big Steam
SHIPS That Cross the Atlantic,
From the New York World.

From the NewYorlx World
Inc United States sea post is a most
important branch of the postal service of
which the public, even the commercial
part Of 1t, knows little. and knowing little
fails to appreciate its usefulness. At
present the making up of mails on hoard
steamships is confined under nostal ac-rae1
ment with Germany to the vessels Of tho
North German Lloyd and Hamburo-
and forth. s V''eA
The United States government re-
handles the mail on the New York and
the Paris OF the American line. on west
ward trips only, the British government
having declined to cooperate on east
DOunu trips, claiming that their railway
service gave proper separation of mail
matter, leaving nothing to be accom-
pIlshed by rehandling on shipboard.
service is performed on the vessels of
the American line by one clerk, who has
out little to do because of the small quan-
tity OF mail received, mail being restricted
TO That specially marked to 90 by the New
ork or Paris, and an occasional lot of
mallDags from France or Germany which
misses the vessel for which it is intended
The clerk on an American liner is viz
tually a passenger, whose passage is paid
by Uncle Sam.
The sea service between the United
States and Germany was begun when the
Havel left Bremen on March 81, 1891. I'm
der the agreement made the United
states furnishes one clerk, and Germany
clerk and a laborer
The irst-named clerk receives 81. 0OO a
year-more money than his German asso-
clate-but the representative of the
kaiser wears uniform, and is privileged
TO carry sword, which at least adds In
the place in dignity what it lacks finan-
cially.
The German clerks are recruited from
the army, generally subordinate officers.
who by being used in the sea postal ser
vice, are kept actively employed and fire
from thinking of the abstruse social prob
lens which characterize the life of a Ger
man soldier stationed in quiet garrison
towns, and which sometimes drive him to
suicide.
The natty uniform of the German clerk
contrasts oddly with the store clothes
worn by the American Clerk, who is only
distinguished from one of the steerage
passengers BY the cap he. wears bearing
the words 40 S Sea Post" The laborer
OF the German clerk wears uniform less
military in appearance than that of his
superior, but showing enough in red
trimming to satisfy the wearer's vanity
The American clerks are now taken
from the railway mail service. No rea-
son is known for this, except that man
accustomed to maintain an upright posi-
ton, place letters in pigeon holes, record
registered matter, etc, while a train is
whlrllng round sharp curves at the rate
OF forty miles an hour, is fully capable of
sorting mails and writing out descriptive
lists of registered articles while a vessel
is doing the "outer edge" on the briny.
The clerks board at the officers mess
They are subject to ships discipline
Clerk Hall, who was on the Inflated
Elder when she ran aground, found that
in time of danger. the captains orders
brought him more assurance of safety
than If he were his own master. Halls
responsibility ended just as soon as the
vessel struck the rocks; first he came
under the commanding officers orders,
and when the agent of the Llodys ar
rived he was relieved of his supervision
of the mail bags
On board steamships coming to New
York as many as 100000 letters have been
resorted, Comparatively few letters are
now brought into New York in the origi-
nal bags as made up on the continent, as
each steamship from Hamburg or Bremen
brings an average of 200,0 900 letters, in
GLIDING the sea post letters, and then al
are rehandled.
The sorting of letters under orders cor
stantly issued is becoming Elmer" clerks
now being required to separate into bags
letters addressed to various parts of New
York City by postoffice districts, so that if
you live at No. 2l0 East Fourteenth street
a letter posted to you in Germany would
probably while in transit across the At
lantic be placed in bag labeled Branch
p o., stftion D.
This permits, in short time after the
arrival ofthe mails at the postoffice build
ing, delivery by carrier from the I'D"
station which, under the old system,
might not reach you until many hours
later, -. .-.-..
Under a curious regulation clerks were
accustomed TO open bags of registered
matter aud reinyoice the contents, and
generally, although not Intentionally
succeeded in relisting the registered ar
tieles, so that it was almost impossible to
trace mail, which is the particular
strength of the registry system, at least
as far as the United Stares is concerned
This country's delegates as to the var
ious postal union conventions never
agreed to the indemnity clause, whereby
q certain sum of money was to be paid
the sender, or the one addressed, for the
loss of a registered article, hence ability
to trace mail, which is the important
particular. The arrangement referred to
rendered tracing hopeless.
But finally. after voluminous CORE
spondence, this difficulty was overcome by
a plan suggested by the officer in charge
of registered matter in the New York
Office, who outlined a scheme by which
any registered article can now be traced
on the sea post registry lists or invoices
The German clerks generally speak
English and French and feel at home on
this side, particularly in Hoboken, where
the Hamburg and Bremen steamships are
wharfed The American clerks, with
few exceptions, speak no German, and are
as strangers in strange land in the two
cosmopolitan cities they reach on the
other side,
The Germans are thorough in postal
matters, as they are in almost everything
they do, and their sea post clerks are, as
a rule, considered painstaking and eff
Gent
Few men are perfect" remarked the Man
ayunk philosopher, except the perfect FOOLS