The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-06-01
A Day In The PostoMce,

present position and he has more au-
thority In the postoffice than anyone ex-
cept the postmaster and assistant post
master. He has from thirty to forty
clerks under his control.
A distributing clerk must be walk
ing directory of names and addresses,
and a competent clerk really knows
about everybody in town, where they re-
side and where they receive their mall
Saw on an average that 10000 people re-
ceive each day the proportion Of the
$50 900 pieces of mail handled In the post
office About half of this Is received and
distributed here. Thus a clerk as he mas
to know the names and addresses OF
those to whom the mail Is sent and the
proper carrier who is to deliver 1t must
carry at least 10000 facts in his MIND
ready for instant use. The entire amount
of mail received Is not distributed by
one clerk. but each clerk Is liable to
have to start any letter on It's right
course, and he therefore must have the
facts IN his mind although they are not
all called upon for Use each day.
distributing clerk before he Is en-
trusted with handling the mail has TO I'M
dergo an examination at the Birmingham
postofYice by n civil service examiner. He
has to know the thirty different routes
in the city covered by the thirty car
rlcrs, and when a letter comes, say for
JOHN Smith, he must know where the
street is to which the letter Is addressed,
and must put ii In the proper carrier
box. for each carrier has box INTO
which is thrown all the mail for people
on his route. Each carrier in turn has
his desk arranged for asserting his mail.
All the mall for one street goes In Ger
tain pigeon hole, and SO on. When 1t is
all tiled out the carrier then has his
mail arranged so that he distributes it
as he goes and does not lave to look
through the whole pile of mail to find
anyone's letter
The distributing clerk Is supposed to
know every prominent firm In the busi-
ness section and the name Of every per-
son who receives his mail with the
firms. He also has to know the name Of
every man In the CITY who receives his
mail in a box at the postoffice All mail
going to boxes from one to 100 is thrown
into one box from 100 70 200 In another,
and so on. This Is then assorted In turn
just as the carrier asserts his mail after
taking 1t from his box. There are also
the rural free delivery routes which the
distributing clerk has to know as well as
the names of all the people who re-
ceIve mail on each route. While he may
not know the people by sight, distri-
buting clerk knows more names than any
politician in town.
At the birmingham olIlce there are ON
an average 70 changes of address each
day. The distributing clerk has to learn
these and they are also posted up for
each carrier to learn. Every carrier is
also required to keep a directory of his
route giving the names and addresses OF
all the people in his section of the city
Thus if q letter comes addressed simply
John Smith," without any street num-
ber the carrier must know where John
Smith resides and If there is more than
one as there usually Is to which John
Smith the letter Is for. There Is no rule
to determine this other than instinct
which comes from long experience.
All changes of address are entered In
the general delivery at the postoffice and
in the city distributing department be-
sides in the carriers books.
There are five distributing clerks In the
postoffice and six deliveries are made
daily to the hotels, four to the business
section and two to the residence section.
Thus the clerks and carriers are kept
busy and have little time to build castles
in Spain during business hours.