The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-09-13


becomes mountainous. Such noun
tain was required to represent the
number of mail bags, pouches and
sacks used last year by the United
States Postofiice Department to handle
the business of the IS, 403 postoffices
in this country. Sixty per cent. of
these 13, coo, 900 receptacles were used
by 6s, 400 posto1f:ces, while the single
remaining office on the list required
forty per cent, Or 100000 Of the
pouches and sacks. This single Office
is at New York City.
All bags used by the postofice de-
partment are not two-bushel bags.
There are variety Of sizes and they
are designated as leather pouches five
Sizes, through register pouches three
sizes), catcher pouches lone size), horse
mail bags three sizes), iute canvas
sacks three sizes), United States for
eign register sacks -four sizes), United
States foreign canvas sacks -four Sizes,
domestic inner register sacks four
sizes), one size of cotton canvas sacks,
and one size of coin sacks. Each size
of each kind of sack does a certain kind
of service, and wherever any sack may
be doing duty at any time. the mail
equipment division of the postotfice
department at Washington can locate
it.
As these sacks are made of leather,
or fabrics of cotton or iute, they will rip
and tear under certain conditions, and
as they are dragged over floors of stone,
iron or wood at times, to be pitched
into wagons or cars, or to be tossed
upon rocks or hard frozen ground oc-
casionally, these injurious conditions
are frequently present. This is par
ticularly the case with the catcher
pouches, which, thrown off from and
taken aboard of trains, travelling fifty
or sixty miles an hour, get unusually
hard knocks. Thus, it is no trihing
matter to look after the welfare of the
mail bags of the country, and for this
reason the Government has established
and conducts the mailbag and lock-
repair shop in Washington.
Postmasters Throughout the country
are instructed to prevent, daily, any
surplus mail bag or lock, in good con-
dition, from lying idle, by shipping
such excess of supplies to the ware
house and shop at Washington. They
are also notified that it is not lawful
to use any such bag as convenience
for the storing of records or the re-
ception of waste paper or for any pur-
pose not legitimately under the head
of the transportation of nails, and,
finally, when any bag shows the slightest
rip or tear, or when any lock is bent
out of shape, or, for any reason fails
to work easily and securely, those arti-
cles must be at once shipped to the
shop.
For this reason the shop IN question
is very busy and interesting place.
It is in five story building, at Nos.
479 and 4S1 G street, n. W., and it is
5Ox14O feet in size. From 10000 to
$4,000 mail bags are received each day
at the repair shop, and as you enter
the lower floor where the receiving
clerk and his assistants perform their
duties, you see one single apartment
fifty feet wide by 40 feet deep, which
is occupied by tiers of empty bags,
sacks and pouches, neatly piled ten
and twelve feet high, and looking quite
like a storeroom for the exhibition of
bolts of jute and cotton fabrics and
various qualities OF leather.
The inspectors pack the damaged
bags in lots of ten, taking five badly
damaged and five slightly damaged for
each lot, the leather bags, the jute
bags and the canvas bags being kept
separate. From the inspectors these
lots are distributed to the repairing
department, the leather bags going to
the leather workers and the other ones
going to those who work on jute or
canvas. By the operation Of this
system, it will be seen, there can be
no favoritism in the distribution of
work-each workman gets five badly
damaged and five slightly damaged
bags to work upon. All repairing is
done by piece work. There are 104
women employed in the repairing of
jute and canvas bags, and they receive
three and one-half cents per bag.
They work eight hours day, and earn
from 81 to 81 % day. An interest
ing fact connected with the duties of
these workers is, that they are sup
piled daily between noon and half-past
II O'Clock, free Of charge, with all the
coffee, milk and sugar they may desire,
as an accompaniment to the lunches
they bring. These supplies they
are Of the very best quality-are OBJ
tanned by money received from the
sale of Junk accumulations at the shop.
The hopelessly damaged sacks are
only hopeless in g. certain sense. They
cannot be repaired, and retain their
identity, but they are of service. Al
ter being sorted according to the ma
terial of which they are made, they
are sent to the foreman of the leather
shop, and the shop where jute and
canvas bags are repaired. There they
are inspected for salvage. The top of
one bag is found to exc out perfect
bag by the aid of bottom from a
second bag, one sido from another and
a second side from fourth bag. So
expert are these foremen in fitting
salvage bits together in almost in
Vulnerable combinations that a very
large majority of the material from
hopelessly damaged bags is utilized in
the production of combination bags
as good as new.
This mending of leather bags isper-
formed entirely by men who are ex-
perienced workers, men who are com
petent harness, saddle and beltmakers
thoroughly acquainted with the quality
of leather and the cutting of it, and
who know all there is to know about
stitching and riveting thereof. These
men work eight hours day, earning
from s15 to S19 week.
Perhaps the most interesting feature
H. bnaDt I. tho look,