Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-03-22
have to take cab to beat 1t and be for
innate in your train connections.
LONDON ENVIOUS.

have to take cab to beat 1t and be for
innate in your train connections"
LONDON ENVIOUS.
Such an interest is being taken in
this new postal delivery by foreign cit
les that letters arrive daily at the Wash
ington postoffice from different parts OF
Europe asking what success has been
achieved and urging the advancement
OF so brilliaat a thing
Should our machines be in operation
before the London ones, the Londoners
will commission the United States to
build their postal cars. This was fore
Swallowed some years ago, when Post
master Dayton. of New York. after
studying London's system 10 fit himself
for his great work, said: London sys-
tenn is now better than ours. But we
will lead London in a few years
! The plan Of running the motor car is
a simple one. No experienced motor
man will be needed though, before be-
ing put in charge, the motorman must
show his intelligence There will be a
lever which he pulls TO set the car go
ing and which he reverses To stop It..
The steering gear is simple.
The cost Of operating is slight and
will save the general postoffice enough
money TO meet the annual postoffice def
icit. Thepostal system of the United
States does not pay for itself. New
York. Chicago. Philadelphia Baltimore.
st. Louis Boston. New Orleans, Cleve-
land. Pittsburg. Salt Lake City San
Francisco, Cincinnati. Detroit. Toledo,
Louisville and half dozen other very
large cities return an annual revenue to
the government. New York alone turns
over yearly about three millions profit.
But the little postoffices fall so far
short that the government must make
an annual appropriation TO meet the
deficit The motorcycle will be so much
cheaper than men and horses that next
year the United States postoffice will
pay its own expenses. IF such proves
to be the case, Gen Nelson should be
pensioned for life" said an official,
speaking of the great saving in taxes
and revenue
The new motorcycle now being eXpe-
rimented with at Washington is kept as
secret as possible. Pictures Of it are
not distributed, but enterprising artists
have caught glimpses of it and have
pencilled its designs. Within few
weeks il will be common sight all
over the country and will be used as
rapidly as new cars can be built.
4 pOstofiice man, speaking OF the
horseless cars, said that an interesting
feature of it would be the contests be
tween the mail distributors inside the
car. "To a layman, said he, the idea
Of sorting 400 letters in less than five
minutes is a preposterOus one.
q" 'Impossibler he says. But this is
done over and over again. In the new
mail cars now run in New York City.
upon the Third avenue cable road, there
is a station where upwards Of 400 letters
are gathered up and transported to the
Forty-second street depot, a run of less
t1an five minutes. In this run all the
letters are sorted by one man inside the
car.
LIGHTNING OPERATORS.
I'm these few minutes he puts the city
letters in pouches, according to their
stations, places the foreign mail by it
self, sorts out the packages for different
cities. and has all ready for placing on
the trains The uninitiated could not
even handle the letters during this
time, but this man not only handles,
but reads the inscriptions; and this is in
a district where many foreigners reside,
and the writing is both cramped and
odd the queerest characters being en-
ployed for letters and figures.
This" continued the official us no
more remarkable than the movements
of skilled compositor or an accom-
plished typewriter, but it is less known
to the public"
The use of the motorcycles. or horse
less mail car, will begin this spring. 1t
is hoped that if 1t can be placed in the
country for the large rural correspond
ence of the summer months. Ii will go
on country roads as well as on city
streets, and will far outrun the infre-
quent rural trains in making time be-
tween city and country. The car in
strange and lonely spots of country will
be well armed. and will carry, as it
should, awe'as well as interest.
The postoffice officials are 10th to dis
cuss the full first workings of the new
wagons, but they do not hesitate to say
that there will be several of them in OPP
Grafton in less than a month. And if
were you" said one of them confden-
italy, Il should say in less than two
weeks form this time
CLARENCE S. RUSSELL.