The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1897-08-28
Mail Carriers Who Make Millions.

Mail Carriers Who Make Millions.
Two million eight hundred thousand
dollars
This is what Uncle Sam pays his
heaviest mail carrier. and it is the larg
est sum paid any similar concern in the
United States or for that matter in the
world. This big carrier does business
every night of the week in Chicago.
Last Saturday night 1876 sacks of mail
were unloaded from the midnight fast
mail on the Lake Shore, loaded in wag
ons, and carted to the Union Station,
where it was placed in the storage cars
Of the Burlington, to be hurried across
the country to San Francisco, there
again TO be placed on shipboard, it hav-
ing been received from the big Atlantic
mail steamers at New York.
These mails are due in Chicago four
or five timee month. They run all the
way from 200 to 800 sacks. Chicago
Postofiice officials are always notified
by wire when 'grist' is on the way,
and Chicago in turn wires the railway
mail officials at Council Bluffs to look
out for it. To everybody in the service
it is known as "olack strap" 1t is
shipped across the country in both di
rections, the west-bound mails being
the heaviest. 1t is always shipped from
cago railway postoffice on the New York
Central and Lake Shore lines unless the
train is missed, when it is hauled over
the PENNSYLVANIA lines.
1t is owing in great measure to this
immense transcontinental business that
the Lake Shore is enabled to earn the
largest pay for carrying the mails Of
any contractor in the history of mail
carriage. If it were not for this fact the
Pennsylvania company would be neck
and neck with its big rival, if indeed it
would not distance it.
There are some interesting figures
connected with this matter " hich show
to what wonderful extent Uncle Sam
is really patron of the railroads. The
sum over Lake Shore rails alone. II is
earned in connection with the New
York Central and Hudson River road,
but it is all the property of the big Van
derbilt system and the big mail train
which was the first solid fast 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 s. S'i5 SIS.
This inclu'les the carriage Of closed
mails on all trains other than regular
pay allowed by law for extra postal car
space.
OF this pay the Lake Shore line earns
to Buffalo 81 ,320. 2il and the New York
Central for its share in hauling from
Buffalo TO New York over its branch
lines gets 81 ,543. 6371 The rate per year
paid the lake Shore for each mile of
main line between Chicago and Buffalo
is 81 ,6ll IS. The New York Central rate
for each mile per year between Buffalo
and New York is $22,1SS.G9.
The Pennsylvania company over its
lines from Chicago to New York earns
the next largest sum, which foots S.
30, Isl. OF this sum 81 81 ,269 is earned
between Chicago and Pittsburg and ST.
4l4,9l2 between Pittsburg and New
York. These figures, OF course, repres-
ent the total amount for carrying mails
on all trains on which mail is carried,
either in railway postoffices or in closed
pouches in express ears. The Pennsyl-
vania road earns its greatest mile per
year rate between New York and Phia-
delphia, which Is greater than any rate
earned on the Vanderbilt system The
exact figures are s3,l5l.53 per mile for
each year. This is the largest mile
year rate paid by the government.
The ten largest mile per year rates in
the niteu States are as follows: