The record-union., 1897-12-01
UNCLE SANS POSTOFF|CE.
HOW ITS VARIOUS DEPART
MENTS ARE CARRIED ON.
Interesting Lecture Of Pacific Coast
Inspector Erwin Last
Night.

There was a good attendance last
night at the Sixth-street Methodist
Church at the lecture of Pacific Coast
Postal Inspector j. NJ. Erwin, and
those present enjoyed a treat that they
will not soon forget. Mr.. Erwin Is
most interesting speaker, and the fund
of information poured out before his
hearers by him held their attention
closely.
Beginning with the inception of the
postotfice service under Samuel Osgood,
the first Postmaster-Gener he traced
the increase and spread of the system
all over this country to the present
time the postboy with his lazy horse
and bundle of letters to the postal ears
and rapid transit and the increase of
mail matter fro1x perhaps 1000 letters
a day in 1897 to The enormous quantity
of 10000 a minute at present deposited
lin the various receptacles throughout
the country He described the division
of the postoffices into four classes, and
the differences marking the division
He described the process of securing
a new postoffice from the getting up
of a petition to the opening of the Of
flee. He pointed out the care that has
in the names of offices in States hav-
dng nearly the same abbreviation, as
California and Colorado. In spite of
this care. however, there are twenty
two offices in these two States bearing
the same name. The best way, he said,
is not to abbreviate the name of the
State. His lecture abounded in humor-
Gus stories of ludicrous occurrences in
Il; ,i,aJ,x
thoroughly appreciated by his hearers.
Last year. he said, the enormous
amount of over eleven billions of mail
packages We're handled by the railway
postal clerks and Offices, with an error
of only one in $500 packages. No other
country, he said, has a postal system
TO nearly equal ours. The railway clerk
has a hard time of it, The clerks be-
tween San Francisco and Ogden have
the run with no rest until they get
rhere, when they have twenty hours of
rest and start back, having no rest un-
til they reach San Francisco again.
They are allowed five days rest to re-
cuperate their exhausted energies, and
they have fully earned it. Many quit
the service in disgust very shortly af-
ter entering it, on account of it's exact
ing duties. He explained the duties of
the railway clerks, letter carriers, the
certainty of the registry service, the
money order system, with it's $3.50. 900 :
600 of money orders issued in the last
year. The mikes" or letters improp-
erIy or imperfectly addressed or lack
ing postage stamps and the mike
clerks" in the large cities and their
multifarious duties and patience in un-
raveling wrong addresses and sending
letters to those they were intended
for, was most interestingly told Five
siXths of the letters that fetch up at the
dead letter office, over 100000 an
nually in number, are due to the ignor-
anee or carelessness of the complain
ing public.
The dead letter Office is a. most in
terestinG place, and the letters there
inspected unfold many a tale of happi-
ness or misery. 1t contains a museum
showing the various articles sent in the
mails. Never, he said, send money in
an ordinary letter. The men in the
postal service are of a high order of
lntags'ity, but of the few that go
astray, almost all can trace their fall to
the temptation thrown in their way by
a letter containing money. Don't fasten
parcels with pins over which the clerk
may use profane language when they
prick their fingers. He could give a
whole chapter of "don'ts' TO the pub
lie
He mentioned the penalties attached
10 sending lottery matter, obscene mat
ter duEning postal cards and fraudu-
lent schemes. He recited a great num-
ber Of sells under which money was
Wheedled out of the public
Coming to our own postoffice, he said
that not on the Pacific Coast was there
an office that has a better record for
accuracy. system, promptness and