Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-16

X IN " other Enclosures of
value, though not
registered. The dam
age and distress involved by the loss of
those two hundred and twenty sacks of
mail matter may hardly be calculated.
How often do life and death hang upon
the prompt arrival of a written message?
The delay of such communication for
week may cause the failure of a firm.
Drafts and other papers representing large
sums are in some of the missing letters.
Only the other day e wrote from
Germany to the Post Office Department at
Washington inquiring about missive con-
tanning $1,000 in greenbacks, which he had
sent by post to this country. Fortunate
", it had already been returned to him,
the address being defective.
Divers will seek for the mail of the Elbe.
Presumably only part of 1t will be re-
covered. The ship sank in water not so
deep as to make the quest for the missing
letter bags a hopeless one, but some of
them are not unlikely to drift away with
the currents of the tempestuous North
sea. When the Oregon went down in the
harbor of New York, skillfu men in div
ing gear had no difficulty in fetching up
from the wreck two hundred and fifteen
of the bags of mail which she carried.
There We're five hundred ard ninety-eiSht
sacks in all, but most of them hoated off
ard out to sea. They were picked up dur
ing the next six months at various points
along the Atlantic coast from Portland,
Me-. to Cape Hatteras.
Such mail as may be recovered from the
Elbe will be forwarded Immediately to
News York. where it will be examined with
a view to it's delivery TO the addresses at
the earliest possible moment. Much of 1t
will be reduced TO the condition of papier
mache: wrappers will have disappeared.
and addresses will be beyond decipher-
ing. What cannot be made out will be for
warded to Washington. where it will be
treated by experts who have had exper-
fence in this sort of business. They ac-
complished wonders with the stuff that was
brought up from the Oregon. but few of
the letters recovered failing to reach their
intended recipients. The letters were first
dried by furnace heat. while the packages
and printed matter were spread out in the
SUM-
Smuggling ThroagH the Mails.
The Oregon disaster occurred on March
Z, 1856. All but one hundred and thirty
four of her sacks of mail were saved by
divers or recovered as 1otsam and jetsam.
Incidentally to their Inspection of the wa
tersoaked stuff, it was discovered that the
smuggling of jewelryA and other dutiable
articles in newspapers was being carried
on to an extent previously unsupported.
Laces fine handkerchiefs. and more par
ticuIarly gloves, were being sent across the
water in this fashion III enormous quanti-
ties evidently. No doubt the same sort of
practice goes on today, for the post Office
authorities can do very little toward pre-
venting it. 1t is not possible to examine
every newspaper and parcel OF printed
matter for contrahand goods. Further
more, the mails from abroad addressed to
Chicago, ST. Louis and other cities are
made UP on board of the steamships and
go straight through to their destinations
without undergoing inspection In New
York.
of of
Cured in 1892, when, on the 31st day of
January, the steamship Elder was wrecked
off the Isle of Wight She carried three
hundred and eighty-seven sacks of postal
stuff. none of which would have been
saved probably but for the heroic behavior
of William Fl. Hall. the postal clerk in
charge While the vessel was sinking and
all was confusion. the passengers taking to
the boats and anxious only to preserve
their own lives. he stood at the post of
duty >and got out the mail bags, all of
which save forty-seven were safely landed.
For this act Hall received a testimonial
from the German government.
The Sen Post Offices.
Two postal clerks lost their lives board
of the Elbe. The men who do this kind of
service for Uncle Sam have no easy life.
They are chosen from the railway mail
service, or sometimes from among the
clerks who have had experience at post
offices in the handling and sorting of for
eign letters. The space allowed for them
on board ship is usually i'll ventilated and
too small for comfort-a room over the
screw or opposite the Storage kitchen.
Perhaps the quarters will measure twenty
by ten feet, with case Of sixty boxes for
distributing mail at either end.
Every ship that carries the mails across
the ocean has a completely equipped post
office Though crowded into small space,
it is provided with everything of import
hot &c To no in Hoo,
land. The clerk in charge is the postmaster
of the sea post office. He must be proof
against seasickness, and it is preferred
that he shall be unmarried. On an average
trip he has to sort 10000 letters, and in adj
dtion the contents of perhaps fifty bags of
printed matter. With plenty of room and
better facilities he could accomplish this
task in day two; but conditions being
unfavorable more time is required The
sacks, on being placed aboard the ship, are
put in the storage rooms, from which they
are brought by the deck hands as they are
wanted.
The sea post office on board of a ship of
the North German-Lloyd line, such as the
Elbe, has two clerks, one an American and
the other a German. On the voyage to
Europe the post office is called United
States German post Office, and is under the
direction of the American clerk. On the way
back it is termed a Deutsch-Amerik post
office, and is under the charge of the Ger
man clerk. The latter is quite an impress
d
with brass buttons and ia sword. The
American clerk has no such distinctive
costume nor regalia, but only a regulation
cap.
Life of Sea Clerk.
The Elbe on her Inflated voyage carried
mail not only from Germany, but also from
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and
Austria. The British stuff was not to be
taken on board until the ship reached
Southampton, and thus it escaped. 1t was
the business of the clerk, Hall. to sort all
of the letters and other material, making
them up in packages for the various cities,
SO that they might be forwarded express
by fast trains without delay as quickly as
the steamer should arrive at New York.
BY the adoption Of this method from two
to fourteen hours are saved in New York
city, and the mail Is received at many
western and other distant points from two
days to week earlier. Merchants in Chi
cago and st. Louis are often able to reply
to letters from abroad by the same vessel
on her return trip. To make the connec-
ton between railway and steamer close
as possible, outgoing foreign mails at New
York are not closed until ten minutes be-
fore the time of sailing, and up to the
very moment of the ships departure a
mail clerk stands at the gangway, with an
open pouch in his hand, ready to receive