The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-26
WONDERFUL BRAIN WORK.
Mail Clerks Memories are Heavily
 Taxed in the Service.


 Chicago Record-Heraid.
 Millions of people are complaining now. adays of being tax d financially. but an army of men in the employ of Uncle Sam heard of, as regards extent. in any other country of the world.
 Things that a railway postal clerk must remember have increased in such volume brain would be filed with the name of e postofilce or railway connection, and the wonder is that the clerks mind does not falter under the pressure. Despite class of public servants are rare.
 One Chicago postal clerk maintained for several years record of 2,600 cards arninationsS with an ayerass per cent. pf correct distribution of a fraction over ss per cent. He knew how to reach that many ofiices in several States by the State. ~ VI s " "
 "A clerk in the New York and Chicago reet oeaton of eyery the in group of States made tip of Illinois. Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota. South Dakota and Nebraska. In these seven States there clerk required to be 'up'' on the general scheme, which means the correct location of the postoffices in each State, but he must know how to reach the whole 12,0oo postoffices from one or more stations.
 A clerk running between Chicago and Minneapolis underwent no fewer than seventy-eight examinations In fifteen years. learning l3,3os offices in fifteen In some of these examinations he was required to make a Chicago city distri- button. which means that while running . minute he must distribute letters to the carriers of the Chicago delivery. He must know not only where every public building and leading mercantile house is located. but also how to divide the numbers on a particular street so that he can "tie out his letters to the cor. rect carrier. according to the route of the latter. This same clerk made thirteen examinations in ten months. with an average correct distribution of 99.SS per cent In twenty examinations he came out of nine of them with clear 100
 Think of such a task. taking into con: sideration the puzzling similarity of names that are used to designate post: offices! Then, too, must be considered where in each State is a postoffice of the same name. For instance. in the States named above there are five postoffces named Hamilton. six Grants. four Gar Gar fields, four Genevas. four Smithvilles. four Spartas and five Jeffersons. and so on. In some instances there is post office of the same name in each of the seven States. As one may imagine. this
  Periodically the clsrks are examined at railway mall headquarters. Packs of cards. each card bearing the name of postoffice are furnished a candidate for examination. He takes a position in front of case of pigeonholes labeled with the names of the different railway post offices throughout the country. He to proper routes, just as he would pack ages in a postal car. After he finishes. the examiner goes over the cards and and gives him his per centage of correct distribution. The clerk also is examined on general and standpoint" or station schemes at different times.
 There are some features about the work that one would think would rem der 1t impossible for a clerk to maintain his Hay" of the States. which he is ex- pected to work. He may have a run three leading railway pnstolhccsi run ming between Chicago and New York. With but little notice he may be taken in the afternoon instead of 2:3o a. m. Notwithstanding this interruption he goes on with his work, but with few errors.
 The examiners whose duty it is to supervise the examinations have differ ent ways of explaining the wonderful ca pacity of the clerks to remember the names of postoftices and their S i9cauons;; s; clerks, who have put in time on the rail. They say that many of the clerks commit to memory the names and locations and routes as a schoolboy learns declama- tiion. There are others. however. who rely almost entirely on an association of ideas. If a clerk is "rusty" in cer- to the place. He figures 1t out that if he were to go there he would go to such and such a place and there buy ticket ,.l sst mind and when 1t comes up again he re- members the depot at which he bought the ticket, and then the line he wishes to use comes to mind.
 If is asserted at railway mail service nea dauarters that there are clerks who have reached the capacity of their minds in the matter of remembering names: ,rhey now remember so many that 1t would be absolutely impossible to learn another State or mart of a State; It would seem that of the millions or ceLs ss in their brain machinery none are left to fiji all having been taken up in the nrosecutioin of the exacting duties i'm