The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-15
ONE MAIL U B CHoKEDUP.
FOR sETEN HOURS 1T WAS UsELEss
10 THE POST OFFICE.

.-,.r Got stuck Somehow, souaevvhere, aud
rs,t n. All ApJ body viii Tell About IT
y.,r un,s Had Elapsed since tho last Ac-
.,.svt aud Another was Duo ana Carne.
nh. rheumatic mail tubes owned and oper-
.,.a by tho Tubular Dispatch Company and
$500 TO the United States Government for tho
srrpose Of carrying mails between the General
D., Office and Station IL, which Is In tho Grand
rsn,ral Palace, flunkod again yesterday, and
,or seven hours one tube was wholly idle, and
~, 4 niece OF mail. for the carrying of which the
government has contracted to pay the company
ais 200 a year. passed through tho tube. The
T,hulor Dispatch C%ompany's record for acct.
s,n.s is ono every four days. Yesterday was
M fourth day since tho last accident and the
.-,ntietb day since tho tubes began their
corr. breaking, mail-chewing, and mail-soak-
49, o,reer. An accident was due and IL came In
the early morning.
rrom the point Of view of destruction OF mail
mi. accident was the simplest that has hap
,,ped in the tubes. No mail was chewed up
.,na destroyed and no mail was waterlogged
ana grease soaked. as 1t has been in other acoi-
s,Dts. Il was the Tubular Dispatch Compsny's
-ood fortune that the carrier that tied up the
is,,tem was journeying empty.
There Ia the same mystery about the exact do
.,y, Of the accident that there has been about
.he details OF every accident II the minor Off.
,io,s IN tho Post Office were In the pay of the Tu-
hular Dispatch Company instead Of In tho public
..rvice they could not be moro close mouthed.
Tho Postmaster himself. of course. can make no
oeacial statement except to the Post ONCE De-
cartment at Washington. He has made this
statement, 1t Is assumed, In every case, but
strangely enough. the facts have been withheld
a. Washington. too. particular secrecy being
ID H. slA G.nnrl Aantafant DoatraoctAr
Generals office. 1t is tho branch of the service
under the Second Assistant Postmaster-Genora
that made tho contract with the Tubu!a Dis
match Company, and that branch Of the service
n now asking Congress to provide S225. 600
trorot to carry out tho contract with the company
this year in spite of the numerous accidents and
the destruction OF mail that have occurred.
Yesterdays accident. 1t 10 learned, happened
At 1915 o'clock in the morning. The tubes
we're working apparently all right. Suddenly
the rause which tells the air pressure in them
.phowed signs of disturbance. The men in charge
realized instantly, that IN accident had hap
pened. and. as quickly as they could, they re-
,yersed the air in the tube and tried to suck the
carrier that they had sent out a few moments
S before rs oaSn % t aSain and sent he air GhuS
ihe tube at tor. speed. That's all the good 1t did
them. Something had happened that was
i EssSG Of what i was than q man wholly ignorant
Of q pneumatic tube system could have. Ro-
luctantly they N, notified led ,d MT; Maze; supesr In.
ported TO the Postmaster another accident in
the tubes"
gifts experts on wind propulsion. They got the
statements of oil the employees and then they
about what had happened. than the men who
had been operating tho tubes knew. A carrier
had gone into the tube and it had failed to come
sent q 10 more wind propulsion experts. They
tried the methods that the other men had tried.
ssar iSe t Gaaa w Ssq IN the nsi tube. p1H h nC aifRie Ssn te oi
the situation was that nobody could tell OF what
point the carrier had concluded to stop. 1t was
Post Office. A curious thing about the company
system Is that there IL No way of telling, onco q
, stIsiss tin ats until IL /. p IT, ]'s sat e IL " dsssn 1t io at q
Hour after hour tho employees ef the company
worked on the plugged.uR tube. but rot . Sit q
Sos inpatient. Tho delay. to the mails was
serious. In addition to turning, on tho air and
reversing it, both At full sSeSa, q carrier va
the obstruction that held Il, whatever, that OBJ.
3. and resulted only In damaging 5ae carrier. sev:
ssiyias " r. stters = slsssaas she tube ara
Il there had been any means Of hndine the OK
aot location Of the carrier, but. opening all the
streets that the tube occupies between the Post
Once and the Grand Central Palace, at Ferty.
fourth street. was Q little too much OF o job, 10
they stuck to their work.
1t was some time after 3 o'clock in the after
noon that they were % last successful. What
methods they took finally to remove tho obstruc.
aon they declined to state. The Post Office
Qott said that he himself would have to walt
tr me official report before he would know
what had been dene and that he would not be
department matter and must 10 een1 ct once
ethe department. Al he woulA Say was that
plugged had been stopped entirely for more
man seven hours by the ACCIDENT