The Washington times., 1904-12-25
RECORDS BROKEN
At POSTOFF ICE
Christmas Business Heayi-
est Ever Known.
CARRIERS AT WORK ALL DAY
Gifts Will Be Delivered Despite 1t
Being Sunday-Another
R-sh.
CARRIERS AT WORK ALL DAY

The heaviest Christmas Eve mai, in
the history of the city postoff1ce was re-
iee1ved yesterday, and the sight pre
sented last night was an extremely IN
teresting one
Almost every train which entered
Washington was loaded with Christmas
packages, and they were hurried to the
Ipostoffice. AS fast as the bags arrived
there they were rushed to the ..assort
ing table" and prepared for delivery to-
day
Twelve men were busy until long after
midnight around this table, upon which
tons o. packages had been deposited
within the last day or So While the
outgoing mail reached its zenith Thurs
day, the bulk of the incoming mail is
just arriving.
If package is for one of the SUBJ
stations, IL Is placed in special bags for
that purpose. II it Is to be delivered
from the central Office it is thrown, into
the tub" ano marked with the mum
Der of the carrier whose route covers
the address on the package When the
tub is flied 1t is taken to the car
riers' division, and the contents distrih-
uted according to numbers.
Ihis carriers division, perhaps, pre-
sented one of the most interesting scenes
In the postoffice. There piles upon piles
OF packages We're heaped all ready for
delivery today
postmaster Merritt has arranged to
have force Of fully sixty carriers busy
until late hour this afternoon.
Regulars Willing.
Many Of the regular carriers have been
working on an average of from fifteen
to twenty-three hours out of every
twenty-four for the last three or four
days The law only requires them to
work eight hours For all time over this
they draw extra wages.
For several days a number of subst5-
tute carriers have been working under
the direction of Joseph Van Fleet.
superintendent of carriers These SUP
stitute carriers have already delivered
$50 bags of Christmas packages At the
same time the regular carriers have been
making their usual trips each day
In order to insure safe delivery of
Christmas packages an interesting
method. known as "stringing," is pur-
sued Two years ago Superintendent
Van Fleet hit upon the scheme. and 1t
has worked SO successfully that all
substitute carriers and many of the old
men refuse 10 go out unless 1t is in use
Tied on String.
The packages for each route. which
averages from six TO eight squares, are
placed on table in order of the num-
bers on each street. A long string is
brought forth, and every package for
house after house is fastened to the
string By following this string the
carrier can go the entire length of his
route without the slightest mix-up OF
the packages. Without this string many
small bundles would be lost in the bot
tom of the bag. and great difficulty
would be experienced by the carriers IN
delivering the mail. !
Major James z. Bell, Superintendent
of the Mails. has done everything pos
sible. under Postmaster Merritt's super |
vision. 10 provide quick and safe de-
livery of Christmas things sent through |
the mails.
Another Rush.
This has been the heaviest Christ |
mas mail in r.y recollection said |
Major Bell. There has been a tremen-
dous amount OF outgoing mail. but that |
became almost normal yesterday There |
will be big increase again on Monday |
and Tuesday. You know there are a lot |
of people in Washington who failed TO |
send their friends Christmas remern- /
berances.
In case they should receive presents |
they Will feel 1T incumbent upon them |
selves TO reciprocate. The result will |
be a great increase in the amount of |
outgoing mail Monday and Tuesday |
have never known 1t to fail. Most peo-
pie do not know this, but it Is true.
After tomorrow or next day the in
coming mail VIII drop down to almost |
the usual amount, and we can reduce |
the force of carriers"
The postoffice authorities said last
night that if Christmas fell on Mon
day there would be practically no work
done on Sunday, but falling as it does
on the Sabbath it would be unwfse to
walt until Monday to deliver the vast
amount OF mail on hand this morning.
By tonight all Of the packages received
up to noon viii be delivered safely into
the hands Of the owners.
4 ~ n ~