The morning times., 1896-12-20
MAIL SERVICE ON TRAINS
First Established in 1898 and Is
Most Important.
CATCHING LETTER POUCHES
Cranes Are Placed at the Stations
Where the Cars DO Not Stop, and
the Bags Are Snafched From
Them-The improvements in the
Methods.

| Americans are a nation OF letter writers,
and they have made greater use OF the
| Postoffice Department than OF the other
! departments under the executive govern
| meut.
| he growth OF the country and the con-
| tinued increase Of correspondence between
| the various cities nccessitated the organf-
zation of that branch department known
as the Railway Mail Service
| 1t was in 1888 that Congress passed an
| act constituting every railway a POST
| route, and thus really began the travelling
| posto,fice. TWAS not however, until 1862
| that arrangements Were made for the
| asserting OF mail On trains while en- rO ate
| to their destination.
The Railway Mail Service is, Of course
| under the jurisdiction OF the Postof1icc
| Department, and is governed by a SUPER
| intendcnt and assistants. The first super
| intendent waSCOl. Ii orgc B. Armstrong, of
| Chicago, and he was succeeded by Col. G.
| 5. Bangs, Theodore N. VAIL W. b. Thomp-
| son and John Jameson.
The service is divided into eleven dis
/ tricts, with division headG uarters at L os-
| ton, New y ork, Washington, Atlanta, Gin
| clnnati, Chicago, st. Louis, San Fran
| cisco, Cleveland, st. Pau, ana ort Worth,
| Tex. AT each of these POINTS super n
| tendent is located.
Nearly everyone who has ever Travelled
| has noticed attached To tie train directly
| back of the engine a large car bearing he
| words United States PoStoffice," p" paint
ed N large gilt letters on tn q side Insi ide
| Will he seen the sides lined with pigeon
| holes, each neatly labeled, and large iron
racks, from which are suspended pouches,
| waiting 10 receive the packages OF mail.
THE CATCHER.
| Hanging over the outside Of the door is
! large iron hook, known as the catcher"
| 1t is used to take the pouches from the
! cranes at stations where the train does
not stop.
There is crew of clerks busily at work
| inside ;he car. They are rs a rule bright
| and smart and prepare themselves for
| work and not pleasure. The railway mail
! clerk usually wears pair Of old overalls,
/ the front of which is patched until they
! look like crazy quilt. ON his head he
! wears the regulation blue cap with the
/ letters "R. II. s. in a wreath on The
! front.
Al many of the stations along the route
! the train does not stop; so matters have
been facilitated by fixing on the side
| of the rack what is nown as crane" q"
| II Is a wooden device, resembling in ap-
pearance gallows.
! Ire postmaster gees down to the station
! little before train time, and having
strapped his pouch securely in thecenter he
! places ii on the crane, from which place it
| iS caught by the extended arm of the catcher
as the train rushes by. Atthe same time the
clerk throws out Of the car the pouch CON
| tanning the mail forthat point
If the train il one that leaves the city
! about 8 or 10 O'Clock in the morning, the
| faithful servant OF Uncle Sam arrives a t fh g
| car long before the train is made up. Then
again, clerks are required TO be constantly
u rr.ER
| 10 the transfer OF mails from the trains
Mail arriving from Baltimore for points
| in Virginia does not have TO be taken TO the
| Washington postoffice, bot is Immediately
| transferred to the Southern train in many
cases nearly all assorted and ready for te-
| livery.
A postal clerk coming from the West on
the baltimore and Ohio railroad puts all the
mail he has collected at the starting point
and " a - ations for New York Washington
| baltimore. Richmond and Philadelphia in
| in separate pouches for the different cities
a the station the pouches are transferred
quickly 10 trains about the depot and are
| soon en- route to their destination
MAIL FOR WASHINGTON.
The pouches for this city are loaded upon
the large mail wa CONS and hurried to the
city pustoffice. This method keeps The
mail moving constantly.
The latest efforts in the saving of time
low ever, in this city ar in the way of street
railway postal cars and the railway postal
wagon. The latter travels to the most
important letter repositories in the CITY
and collects the mail, which is rapidly
assorted and placed in pouches while
going To the city poStoffice.
Local or city mail is theR transferred
to the Avenue mail cars and assorted tor
the Navy Yard, East Capitol Fifteenth
street, and Georgetown stations. One
feature OF this system is the assortment
on the incoming trains OF the mail matter
| according to streets, so that IL is ready for
delivery Immediately on arrival When
tins train arrives a wagon starts with the
matter intended for distribution in Wash
ington.
At Sixth street and Pennsylvania avendc
one pouch is quickly transferred to a stree
railway car going east, and mail inten le,
for the W estern part of the city and George
town is placed on one of the cars going
west.
In the regular railway mail service tn,
mail cars do not belong to the government
but are the property OF the railroad com
panieS. Every four years a weighing clcrl
Is put on each route, and Ill the mailmat
ter handled is weighed and the raiIroa,
companies are paid accordingly
The trains Of today are run on very faS
time, and with the multitude of smaI
stations, which. in fact, are very close to
gether, the handler of the mail has to kee,
cool head and clear brain to get tn
pouches ready in time.
An experienced postal clerk must hav
his mind heavily burdened. On some O
the long runs the clerks will have to know
the location OF from Is 900 to 20 0CO post
orilces, and as soon as they pick up a let
ter on their train they must be ready n
once to decide the most advantageous an
| quickest route to send it.
A story is told of clerk running on on,
OF the suburban routes out of this citv, who
upon reaching one OF the stations. did no
have the pouch ready to throw off n
worked with all his might and main to pc
IL ready While the train was waiting 70
the passengers to alight, but before h
: could tie up the packages of letters the "a
~ oarr' "f the conductor was heard an,
In a second the train began to move out
He knew it would never do to pass iha
station and he became desperate Reach
ing up he gave the rope over his head ;
sharp pull, ringing the gong in the enein
and stopping the train. The conductor
brakeman and engineer at once jumped Of
and began spirited hunt for the felle
who ierEed the rope"
Meanwhile the clerk had worked dill
gently, and before the train had sta
again he had handed out his pouch, and wa,
meekly asking the conductor WHY he ston
ped. This work of arranging the matter
is no snap.
The amount OF mail is simply enormous
When received into the car it is picket
out, united and distributed in the pigeon
holes marked to correspond with their atl
dresses
The pouches thrown off at the way sta
tons are made up on the trains while il
motion. The letters are taken down. an
those addressed to the station and otbe