Evening star., 1896-10-24

own story as sooeOas It gets into the hands
Of the bag inspectors. Post offices very
rarely get back ths same bags they ship
only happen by accident When q post
master needs m0reimail sacks and pouches
than he has on hand he simply makes q
reouistion for the number he wishes, and
they are sent to him out Of the general
heap Of thousands which we always have
OH hand after they have gone through the
hands of the repasers.'
How theuhNork IL Done.
AS soon as theV bags are unloaded from
the wagons thatt bring them from the
trains, they are PASSED upon and sorted by
the inspec tors. Who do their work on the
first floor of the Gsstreet factory. If it be
tern or unrivetedaleAther pouch, it is imme-
diately sent to ehe leather workers, who
have a corner of the building to them
selves If it be d torn or worn jute sack,
it is sent aloft, with hundreds Of others in
the same condition. to the women employees
who attend to the machine and hand mend
ing. If the drawing string that closes the
bag Is broken, 1t Is sent to the "strihger''
for the renewal Of the cord. For the sack
or Fouch, in whatever condition of dilapi-
dation. there Is the appropriate workman
or workwoman to attend to its refurbish-
ing.
| About one-third Of the force employed in
the shop are women. They are, for the
most IudCuHtc operatives ana string
ers. The jute and canvas sacks are all
patched and mended by large-sized sewing
machines operated by these Industrious
women There are sixty of these ma
chimes, all furnished with steam power.
The betting runs through all of the floors
to the fourth floor. where this work ia car
rfed on, and the simplicity Of starting
sewing machine in operation by merely
touching lever Is a thing that many
housewife would appreciate. The women
operatives perform their work with in
credible rapidity. which is not thing to
wonder at, when 1t is considered that they
are paid for their work by the piece.
The average number of lutte and canvas
sacks patched by each woman operative
day is 102. There is one especially clever
operative who has made record for the
past three months Of 127 bags repaired a
day. They take the bags as they come,
some OF them requiring much more work
than others. Some of the sacks are la tch-
ed and repatched more than Huck,eberry
they are nearing the end of their course.
often contain none of their original r. a.
teriaI
In u Work Room.
Mail sacks are not very clean things to
handle, and the women employed in the
patching dress themselves with this point
in mind. The immense room in which they
work is overhung at all times by a dense
brown fog OF dust. arising from the con-
stantly handled bags. and the women en-
ployes have all fashioned for themselves
large, oddly constructed head coverings
made for the most part OF newspapers. for
the protection of their hair.
The 'stringers" are the women who re-
Few the broken draw cords of the sacks
Their work requires both skill and speed,
and, curiously enough, the most adept of
the stTingers ts a totally blind lady, Miss
Hattie Maddux, VINO has been an employe
of the repair shop for seven years. Ii is
wonderful to see her threading needles and
Shipping. the cords intricately through the
holes in the tops of the sacks. Her work Is
always perfectly done, and none of it has
ever been decided against by the inspectors
who pass upon all of the WORK, performed
by the operatives Miss Maddux works SO
rapidly that she sometimes runs out of
bags. During these intervals she takes up
some crochet work VI what seemed to the
reporter the most remarkably involved
character. and it is' said that she never
misses a stitch. b It
The .'darners" dire the women who attend
to the bags which do not require patching,
being merely worn in spots. Their work
has home and 'hreside look about it that
seems oddly out of place in the big noisy
room, where the whirring of many belts
makes conversation impossible There is
no talking whatever among the operatives,
perhaps as much for'this obvious reason as
for the other reason that they appear too
busy to talk. 4
The leather workers, all of whom are
men, have the third foer. The extraordi-
nary facility with which these skillful me-
chanics convert an apparently hopeless.
tattered. ripped, utterly worn-out mail
pouch into a whole affair." just about as
good as new, is .fenaarkable. Nearly all Of
their patching Is done with rivets. and ma
chineEy for this purpose Is largely en-
ployed. Superintendent Cullen showed the
reporter. however three leather pouches
recently made for the carrying of State De-
partment mail, any one of which might
leather working done by hand. There are
about dozen men employed to do this
fine fancy sewing with the sailmaker's
needle. Nearly all of these men have been
sailors In their time. rated as sailmakers.
- Weight of Mail Bags.
The greater portion of the work of re.
pairing is done by the women, however,
for the men operatives only work on the
leather pouches, and there is only one of
these to be repaired to six Of the jute and
canvas sacks. The Post Office Department
Is seriously contemplating the doing away
with VI hall all Of the leather pouches: on account
States pays the railroads for hauling mail
by the pound. and every effort Is made to
economic In the matter of weight. when
such economy Is possible. The leather
pouches used for the carrying of first-class
mail matter weigh twelve pounds.
A strong canvas pouch, leather-trimmed,
has lately been devised and tried for first
class matter. which only weighs six pounds
BY adopting these canvas sacks, which
only cost one-third as much as the leather
pouches, the government would thus save
six pounds of weight on every pouch of
first-class mail matter in transit Second
Assistant Postmaster General Nelson, who
takes strong interest in the work of the
mail bag repair shop. is one of the advo-
Gates of the change.
Here Is kind Of mail-carrying contri-
often orf 30
the country" said Superintendent Cullen.
exhibiting to the reporter kind of saddle.
with a pouch. broad and capacfous, at each
Of its ends. This is slung over the backs
Of the horses who do the mail carrying
on the star routes. There are not many
Of these routes left now. but the old horse
pouches turn up here once in q while. One
was repaired here the other day that bore
the stamp of 1909. It came from one of the
star routes in the Pan Handle Of Texas
1t did not require much patching, either