Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-24
REAL SANTA CLAUS
What That Parsonage Means
in This Country.
DISTRIBUTES JOY
FROM THE MESSENGER BOYS TO
THE ENGINEER.
Work Of the Letter Carrier Doubled
and Trebled This and
Next Week.
DISTRIBUTES JOY

| lduSu0 LING q UOWAluA Va JCliys 40 q
type he is as straight as an arrow. fiat as
a board. muscular and 1.-The His features
are as clear cut as a cameo; his eyes snap
with the strenuous energy Of which his
whole body is a breathing exponent: and
often a reckless, devil-may-care spirit Is
fascinatingly combined with an unshakable
great sense Of duty.
This twentieth century st. Nicholas Is
found in many places. and he wears many
costumes. Sometimes he sits in the loco
motive cab and his hands and face peaked
cap and Jumper" suit are grimy with the
contents Of his oil can and coal dust. Some
times he rides back Of the locomotive in
the first cars, and, as the train plunges
through the country. white with snow or
leaden under dour skies, in his shirt sleeves
he works miracles with bag after bag Of
Christmas messages and packages. He Is
the nimble- handed railway mail clerk; and
his twin is the express messenger who, In
neighboring car. bearing the company
NAME as does his blue cap sometimes ham
dies as many as five thousand parcels at
this time Of the year in single run.
Again he Is that picturesque relic Of the
great VESTS most picturesque days-the
stage coach driver. Still again he is the
man who goes down into the deep with the
f1eet-footed liners. And yet again he IL
the gray-garbed letter carrier, the express
wagon man, the department store delivery
man, the man who makes out and clears
the foreign orders sent to fathers and
mothers and sweethearts in Europe by
Anton szacz, miners helper in the anthra-
cite coal region; Pietro Bobetti, resident of
q little Italy: Bridget O'Brien, charwoman
in a skyscraper, and John Dobbins. carpet
weaver. transplanted from the right little.
tight little island
The Messenger Boy Santa Claus.
Last. but not least. he Is the blue-clad
| messenger boy, although. strictly speaking,
he Is not a representative type Of the real
American Kris Kringle.
It is at this season of the year that tho
messenger boys troubles are thickest for
row his work is hardest. For a week be-
fore the holiday, and from dawn until far
into the night, he is loaded down with piles
of packages which hide all Of his body ex-
cept hands and legs from view. It is not
an uncommon thing for one boy to deliver
800 or 400 packages day at half as many
houses. And to do 1t he has to work all
the way from ten to twenty hours a day,
according to circumstances.
But they all work hard. do the real Amer
lean Santas. During the two weeks proceed
ing the dawn Of Christmas the railway mail
clerks scarcely have time to eat and snatch
| a little sleep. Every one Of the 10000 In
the United States works feverishly at ever
| increasing mountains Of mail. Not one
| gets his usual lay of between runs, for
| when the amount Of business increases over
| rs cent almost in the twinkling OF an eye
| no time can be wasted II the great Amer
| lean public Is to receive its gifts on Christ
mas morn. f9T
As the mail clerks task is phenomenally
multiplied. SO is the work Of the letter car
rier. In q skyscraper. where he usually de-
uvers $1,000 letters a day to 5000 tenants.
beginning at the twenty fifth story and dis
tr1buting as he walks earthward, he scat
| tiers among the occupants 10000 messages
and packages. In the residential sections
| he not only appears with two bullying bags
| suspended from each shoulder and one In
| his hands, as in the skyscraper: in addition,
| he is accompanied by two or three assist
| ants-often messenger boys-pushing hand
carts loaded heaping full with holiday re-
membranes. On the day before a recent
Christmas a Philadelphia carrier was
obliged to employ horse and delivery
| wagon.
Santa Claus Substitutes.
Even though the letter carrier thus makes
grooming beast Of burden Of himself, he
| would not be able to play his role Of Santa
Claus to the entire satisfaction Of his peo-
pie were 1t not for the substitutes pro-
vided for just such an emergency. 1t Is a
| strictly enforced rule Of the Post Office Lee
partment that letter carrier must not
work a minute over eight hours q day. II
| he does and his superiors find it out. he is
brought before q postal court and fined
days pay. Eight hours work would scarce
| ly permit q carrier to get rid Of the mail
brought In by one through train for the
people along his route: therefore. of neces-
sity. he falls back on the substitute. and
often he has five and six helping him. Even
in the outlying districts of big city, where
the population thins out almost to village
density, the carrier frequently has SUBJ
stitute.
Closely akin in their line Of work to the
man clerk and the letter carrier, the ex-
press messenger and the expressman can
hoa az of M time salad The number of
packages handled increases all the way
from 100 to 25O and 400 per cent. This
means putting scores Of more express cars
into service. using all sorts of wagons OBJ
tainable for delivering. and employing hum
dreds Of extra men. But let regulars and
extras work as hard as they can Christ
mas day will find them still handing pack
ages In through front doors. and still stran-
gers to rest and sleep that they have not
INDUCED in for forty-eight hours. Similar
conditions prevail among the delivery men
for the department stores. Generally dis
tributing few hundred packages day.
they now are compelled to scatter thou
sand and more.
A Santa Who Goes Across Seas.
While the man whose duty it is to set
packages to their destination is all but
overwhelmed by an avalanche Of them, the
300 men in the foreign money order de-
partment Of the New York post office have
no spare time on their hands as at other
seasons. Through this post Office are cleared
all the money orders sent from this coun-
try to Europe. and practically all other
parts Of the world except the extreme
orient; and about the LIST of December
these orders begin coming in by the thou
sands. Last year the holiday business was
IS per cent above the average. and SO far
this year the amount Of money sent abroad
shows about 10 per cent increase over last
Christmas.
On only four Closes" or sailings, last De-
cember 159 457 "advices." or orders calling
for 81. S88 col 3s were sent to Europe. OF
this amount $915 1853 IA went to S4921 per-
sons in Great Britain. and 3O.6O6 Germans
received $29S59O.N as gifts from their
American relatives. Sixteen thousand seven
hundred and twenty-one Swedes got $17s,-
5625S; Sill, 922.08 went to 4,l06 Italians;
S57, 40 is to 1857 Inhabitants Of Norway !:
SO % to 1888 Hungarians: $s7 cor 10 to
1914 Austrians, and $24,54t36 to 2,430
Danes. Five hundred and forty-two of
Queen Wilhelmina's subjects were made
glad with $4.661 81; 1926 jewellers In Russia
got $72,547.14: SO4 Belgians, $11.974.S2, and
2,740 Swiss, $50, 1882
Manifold Dangers Surround Real Santa
In his task of bringing Christmas cboor