Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1902-12-23
THE CHRIST
MAS RUSH
The Local Postoffice Has
Kept Even With the
Mails.
WORKING DAY AND NIGHT
Express Companies, too, Having
Their Troubles, and the
Outgoing Matter is
Very Heavy.
WORKING DAY AND NIGHT

When it is considered that a post
office like Columbus, Ohio, is 400 mail
sacks behind with it's work, or in other
words, that all mail matter other than
first and second class, is delayed four
to six days by the congestion of the
mails at that point, it is certainly to
the credit of the local postoffice that 1t
is keeping right up to the minute with
the mails, despite the fact that the
work incident to the holiday season is
double of what it is at other times and
no extra help is employed. In all the
larger and many of the smaller post
offices, registered mail unless brought
in several hours before train time, must
lie over day, while at the Santa Fe
postoffice mail is registered up to the
minute that the mail is due to leave the
office. Several Of the postoffice en-
ployes have been working from o'clock
in the morning until midnight the past
week, hardly taking time for their
meals, and not one Of them, during the
past month has averaged less than IL
to Is hours a day. Yesterday 13 lock
pouches Of first class mail and "a sacks
of second, third and fourth class mail
was received and promptly distributed,
and almost as much mail matter was
sent out. AS much Of the matter is Of
fetal and sent without postage, the pos
tai receipts of the Office give no indica-
ton of the enormous amount of mail
matter handled daily. The irregularity
of the train service makes the task OF
distributing the mail promptly quite
difficult and means late and early hours
for the postoffice force. This month, up
to last evening, S97 pieces of registered
mail were received and 1893 pieces sent
out. AS each piece must be handled
several times and recorded and receipt
ed for in various ways, the registered
mail alone has been keeping one man
busy the past week. During the same
period $7,341.09 was received on domes-
tic money orders, SOP of these being is
sued, while IA International money or
ders amounting to $2O8.3S were issued.
Three hundred and fifty money orders
amounting to s4,30S.92 were paid. In
the same period $4,000 stamps were sold
amounting to s632.67. The postoffice
force knows no holidays in an office like
Santa Fe, for the mails arrive and
leave on Sundays as we'll as on week
days, on Christmas as we'll as on 4th Of
July. The postal laws do not require
the distribution Of the mail after or be-
fore business hours in offices like Santa
Fe, where there is no night force, but
this is done right along at the Santa
Fe office for most of the mails arrive
and leave after or before office hours.
When it is considered that thousands OF
pieces of mail are handled every day, 1t
is remarkable that so few mistakes do
occur. At other offices, the complaints
are much more frequent than at Santa
Fe, and in larger offices one or more
clerks are kept busy handling COM
plants made about non-delivery or de-
layed delivery of mail. There isn't a
day that mail matter intended for other
offices. is not received at Santa Fe, es-
pecially since there are 26 other post
offices in the world named Santa Fe. On
the other hand mail matter intended
for Santa Fe Is often delivered by rail-
way clerks to other places and thus
delayed if not lost altogether. Every
week Postmaster Walter sends to the
dead letter Office 20 to 40 letters and
parcels illegibly addressed. The num-
ber of people who drop letters into the
postofice without stamping them, or|
without naming the destination or the
state it is in, or without any address at
all, Is legion. Much Of the mail matter
received and addressed to Spanish
names is often very ineligible and 1t
takes considerable ingenuity to deci-
pher many addresses and deliver such
mail matter to the right person. Then
the fact that there are so many individ-
@@@NNAfN@@NNsssA
ma NEW H0uE.