The sun., 1896-08-23
ARDUoUs PUBLIC sERYIoE.
Tolls and Tribuiationa OF Letter Carriers
beyond the Harlem.


riers are getting fat for lack Of exercise. but
should there be, all they need do is to obtain Q
transfer TO the district north OF the Harlem
River. the station of which-"R"--is at West
chester and Third avenues. That district
covers all the huge expanso of territp Dry bound
ed by the Harlem River, Jerome avenue. 171st
street, the Bronx River. and the Sound. and
TO servo IL there are only forty-seven men.
There are IN It los letter boxes. from seventy
two Of which-in the central and business sec
tion-twelve collections are made daily, fr. m
the others four day through the week, and
from all twice on Sundays. In the central
section there are fve deliveries each weekday,
and through the vast outlayinE margin sur
rounding II, four.
Nobody can form any adequate idea of the
conditions prevailing in the territory specified.
from looking II over the map, or even by
such observation rs trolley cars and steam
lines Of railway through it will enable. To real
ize what the letter carriers have tn encounter
one must discard conveyances and do as thew
do; go on foot over hills and through valleys,
by country lanes and across fields, climbing
fences. over fields, in and out OF bogs and
forests, with occasional conflicts with dogs and
runs from bulls to vary the monotony OF tho
proceedingL Many streets exist only on pa
per and TO some extent that Is perhaps mildly
the corners shown on the map. the day would
hardly be long enough for half their work. but
now they get through blithely within their
eigbt-hour limit, by taking short cuts across
private ground. Some OF these casual roads are
hard travelling. neces stating here and there
sharp clambering up clayey banks, slippery
as greese in wet weather. risky jumping down
little declivities where landing upon an un-
observed stone is apt to result in a sprained
ankle, miles from relief, and again weary
stumbling through weed.s rown thickets aud
over rock masses. But such taking of chances
savea time, and that is q most important consid-
Grafton, for each mans route is supposed to
be covered in exactly so many minutes. and II
It isn't he must be able to give the superintend-
ent good reason why not.
On an average each carriers walking time
on on each delivery Is es.imstSd ID at one hour and md
station, he has ten minutes in which to sort
and arrange the mail matter for his route-re.
again ''over the hills and far away" Two
men are on each route and so divide their mail
according to their thoroughly intimate knowl-
edge OF the ground and tho special require
Il thS sd ankle. m
ness or some other cause, temporarily takes
one man of. and his partner must do all the
davs since to make all the morning delivery,
which is the heaviest. on the extreme western
Railroad yard was his nearest point OF delivery.
and the most remote, out on jerome avenue,
near Areulsriu old place which Is IA sSout ssS
to zig-zag TO and fro to scattered spots all
through the territory as far east as Morris
avenue. meandering through winding paths,
taking short cuts through forests and over
fields diverging TO farm houses away from all
direct routes. retracing mis- steps at times to
running. 1t took him three hours and a few
m1u.ss over to SoSsr The Eroupf GOmPe,eIy
reason, upon not having been delayed, that
time. by q fight with a dog or hurried by In
turing bull He Vas so we'll used to such ar.
duous labor that he did not particular
esrnest p in his HI hops that Il Would not have to
be repeated soon. Fortunately, IL was found
practicable 10 give him help upon the later de-
rs this occurred, the hardship was BY no means
go great as upon a former occasion. yhen he
when the going was very bad.
Another route Of appalling magnitude Is that
which takes IN what hat !; S III. Fox
It runs out to 169th street. the Southern
boulevard, and Home street. The Greater part
G II Is avenas and Il Is saf
gore TaRdly than any other part OF nGTtherh ,It
and and some ONE Of the haif-msde streets in it are
full Of terrors: Yet ANOTHER big route Is that
sqdss the HdS o the %
the so."sIied "Moantaln route" which takes
Bronx River. about 10th street
and the rather considerable number OF old,
fashioned merchants who do the greater part
Of their advertising by circulars. the letter
one In the Twenty-fourth and Twonty-third
wards. But those two classes Of trouble,
cards, addressed circulars, and sealed enve;
lopes containing party documents tickets. and
bulk Of legitimate mail matter to be Delivered
In the moro remote and sparsely settled parts
of tho district is not large. Some families
nardly average oneletter a fortnight, and even
the well -to-do citiZens, who have sem-country
homes in this land Of health and beauty, arc
their downtown places OF business. But the
sem-occaslonal circulars and periodically
regular campaign d0cumene are nd "faTeSse9 ta ss1
others whose names have been obtained from
other sources, and the carriers groan when
them, for then they must visit every house on
their routes. As, excepting in the closely built
distance back from the street in gardens and
field9. each visitation means so much extra
walking as in the aggregate adds probably nae one
the added work Of NcninR gates and Increased
chances for exhaustive experience inthe un-
The letter boxes being located upon i'm
proved thoroughfnres, collections are eompar-
demoRstats d sast that i It VIII be nracticable 70 en-
ploy bicycles in making them: Even that aid
viii not divest the service o: all unpleasant
features. Tho district ab9pnds in vigorous
small boys, inspired by a lively appreciation
OF crude humor, also In harmless but active
garter snakes. and it has been demonstrated
that there is no end OF fun for the boys and ex-
perienco for the snakes in practising upon the the
collectors There is no trouble involved In
catching dozen sprlghtly garter snakes and
dropping them into letter box. where they
remain in .lore or less content, IL Is 70 be pre-
sImed, and doing no harm. until the collec-
tor comes " take out the letters, H. then. sud.
den alarm impels him to utter wild yel!s OF
terror, drop HIS mail bag, and climb the near
est tree for safety, white the innocent little
reptiles drop out from the open door and sour
~ away in the grass, the bo,s waiting near at
hnnd 10 witness this denouement are made
violently happy. Downtown boys enjoy no
such facilities for fun. ,
Carriers are privileged tu ride on the trolley
cars wherever they may facilitate their work
hy doing 40. the department paying therefor
by contract with the company, but this
helps them little excerpt OIL certain routes, aud
there only in going out and returning. Tie
actual work Of deliyery must all ho done on
| foot and not even bicycles would be OF much
| assistance In IL, until the district Is greatly
| Improved. During the recent hot weather the
Dos1,na.t.r nnrized the omission one