The evening times., 1895-12-19
HANDLING XMAS GIFTS
Hust|ing, Busting Days in Post
and Express Offices.
HOW THE WORK is DONE
Postmaster willett Employs Force
of 400 Men to Dispose of the 10000
or More, Parcels Sent Through His
Office-Attempts to Mail Queer Of
ferings to Distant Relatives.

Just as the summer girl on the seashore
piazza has LETT the balcony-adorning Juiiet
of days far back on life's roadway, SO have
the mailman and expressman of 1898 shorn
Santa Claus of his pristine reindeer noto-
riety. In the good old days when the yu!e-
log blazed In the depths OF the great IRE
place and shot its cracking, scamperinS,
mjschievous sparks elf-huntinG up the
tall chimney, Santa Claus was always
billed to come behind an octette OF snortmg
animals, whose horns resembied a Christ-
mas tree stripped or its green But nus
ting, BUSTING time. has overtakeu the
scamperng stceds and ir MIR. Ciaus now
expects to complete his distribution or
gifts before the Fourth OF July he must
call out the reserves OF later-day creauon.
That is the reason there has been SO
much hurrying and scurrying about the
big postoffice building down on q street
and at the many express offices in the
last ten days, and the scene OF animation
extraordinary will continue until the day
of days is gone.
KEPT BUSY AT NIGHT.
"Yes, indeed, we are busy" said Post
master james p. WiEett to 4 Times re-
porter The regular men, with a large
number OF extra assistants, are kept busy
night and day, and think We are going to
have every present Off in good time-at
least we have done SO up to date. One who
has not had peep at Christmas mails
cannot ina sine the work We have to do"
a single peep at the mails is worth the
whole price of admission itself. For days
the postoffice building has been like a great
ant hill, with the mass of humanity running
to and fro and in and out with packages
of varying sizes under their arms, like the
little insects with their herculean burdens.
Last year there were approximately co.
900 pieces of mail passed through the Of
flee in the last ten days preceding Christ
mas. The number will undoubtedly be
increased this year. Over 400 men are
required to get these parcels on their jour
neys, and to handle the presents that Santa
has mailed to WashingtonianS.
Ever since last Thursday an extra force
of collectors with extra wagons has been
busy getting the mail out of the way from
the mail boxes and sub-stauons, in order
to give the dear public room to put more
there. In the corridors of the postoffice
building weighers and mailers have been
stationed, as usual, whose duty 1t is to ma ke
present-scnding life a pleasure by telling
the giver how much postage will be re-
Quired for this article and for that,
whether il is securely wrapped and whether
1t is ''mailable."
With his characteristic generosity, how
ever Uncle Sam has made comparatively
few things '.unavaiia able." He permits
1n fact, almosteverything to go through, ex-
cept bombs. loaded firearms, menageries
or Limburger cheese. The dead letter Of
flee proves, however, that evensone of these
occasionally slip through.
The whinIs of humanity cannot be better
studied than in the postoffice at Christmas
time. In spite of the suggestions. the rules
and the warnings sent out by the postmas-
ters and the Postofflce Department before
every Christmas, the same display of care
lessness i'll wrapping, the insufficiency Of
postage and the indistinctness or utter lack
of direction are noticeable.
COST OF MAILING A DOG.
While the reporter waited the other morn
ing, gentleman with every other external
appearance of possessing his full quota of
senses, appeared at a weighers table with
q handsome mastiff at his heels, and in
Quired what it would cost to mail him to
New Orleans. The animal's collar was
adorned with q card bearing the address
of the would-be recipient of the canine. and
after the wcigher sufficiently recovered his
presence of mind to say that dogs had been
barred ever since Uncle Sam entered the
mailing business. the dislain on the gentle
mans couDtenance was fil-concealed.
Following him came man with half
dozen bundles exactly alike, the contour Of
each of which showed a tumping-jack
wrapped within. Package after package
sho wed their contents to be dolls OF every
size, from the tiniest to the largest.
Every conceivable variety of toys finds
the way through the Christmas mails. There
are whole toy armories, menageries, brig
ades and steamboats, and railway trains
galore. And yet withal the mailman ispatient
and slow to anger and he goes on with the
monotonous collection of the packages, dis
figuration of the stamps so that their COM
mercial value is forever gone, and shuffles
them offfor hisbrothers in the mail-car, and
in the next city, TO wrestle with.
Almost as patient is the expressman who
must get up before the proverbia, pioneer
bird nowadays, and not go to bed until it
is almost time toGet up. A canvass OF theex-
press offices of Washington shows that the
bulk of the matter that has passed through
the companies hands up to date this
Christmas is identical with that of last year
almost TO n pound.
The express-handling people always have