The Flagstaff sun-democrat., 1897-10-07
UNCLE SAM'S MAILS.
He Pays she Railroad s8OOO . Mile
 for Carrying Them.

eight hundred thousand dollars.
 This is what Uncle sam pays his heaviest mail carrier, and it is the
 largest sum paid any similar concern in the United States, or. for that mat. aer, in the world. This big carrier does business every night of the week
 m Chicago. Last Saturday night l96 sacks of mail were unlnaded from the midnight fast mail on the Lake Shore. Soaded in wagons. and caried to the Union Station. where it was placed il, Whe storage ears of the Burlington, to be hurried acrass the country to San Francisco. there again tn be placed on shipboard. it haviug been received from the bug Atlantic mail steamers al New York.
 These mails are due in Chicago four or five times a mOnlh. They ruu all the way from POO to 800 sacks. Chi cago postotiice officials are always no- tiiied by wire when a "grist" is on ihe way. and Chicago in turn wires she railway mail officials at Council Bluffs to look out for 1t. To every body in the service it Is known as -.black strap" It is shipped across the country in both directions, the west-bound mails being the heaviest. 1t is always shipped from New York by the New York and Chicago railway posioflice on the New York Central and Lake Shore lines. unless the train as missed, when it is hauled over the Pennsylvania lines.
 The Lake Shore people do not cara this big sum over Lake Shore rails alone. It is earned in connection with the New York Central and Hud- son River road, but it is all the prop erty of the big Vanderbilt system, and the big mall train which was the first solid fas, mail to be put on rails in this country runs from the Grand Central depot in New York to the Rock Island station in Van Buren street in Chicago. The sum paid this line for mails carried on all trains of the entire system for one year is $2.863,S7S, This includes the car riage of closed mails on all trans other than regular mail trains. In- cluded in the sum is the pay allow ed by law for extra postaI-car space.
 Of this pay the Lake Shore line earns to Buffalo Si.320.24l and the New York Central for its share iu hauling from Buffalo to New York over it's branch lines gets sl,543,6S7. The rate per J ear paid the Lake Shore for each mile of main line between Chicago and Buffalo is $l,6ll.6S. The New York Central rate for each mile per year between Buffalo and New York is s2.5SS. 09.
 The Pennsylvania company over it's lines from Chicago to New York earns the next largest sum. which foots $s,- 756. lSl. Of this sum Sl.34I. 269 is earned between Chicago and Pittsburg and s1,4l4,9l2 between Pittsburg and New York. These figures, of course. represent the total amount for carry ing mails on all trains on which mali is carried. either in railway postoffices or in closed pouches in express cars. The Pennsylvania road earns it's great est mile per year rate between New York and Philadelphia, which is great CT than any rate earned on the Van- derbilt system. The exact figures are $3l5l.53 per mile for each year. This is the largest mile year rate paid by the government.
 All railroads are paid according to the tonnage carried. Mails are weighed for period of thirty days in the spring of the year and on this weight the compensation is adjusted according to rates all owed by law. A is made every four years.
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