The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-06-07
TIE NAN On WOMAN WHO
MASTER TO III MAILED WILL
HAVE TIE WHOLE S0KElrE Be-
T1AYED.

There are Is mail trains in and out
Of Spokane every "a hours. How the
ordinary layman and few people have
any conception Of the work Of the
large force of men who assist Post
master Harrison in handling the tons
of letters, papers, books and mer-
chandise which enter and leave the
Spokane ONCE each day. A represent
alive of The Press was given per-
mission to wander through the de-
partments and talk with their chiefs.
After he left the Offices he realized
for the first time why it is almost
impossible for properly addressed,
stamped and mailed letter to go
estray. System is the keynote of
the greatest postal department in the
world.
The work at the postoffice is d.
vided into departments with superin-
tendents In charge. At the Spokane
postoffice there are the following de-
partments and superintendents: Gen.
eral delivery, B.. w. Macy: money or
ders. Charles Riddiford; stamps,
Edith G. Grimmer: registry. Harry G.
Brown; distributing. w. H. Overend;
carriers. Delano Davenport: box. Ida
B. Nelson; mailing. p. M. Gauvreau.
Work Il Routine.
In every department the work is
hn do 10
Once in a long time a mail car is
dumped into a river and the postal
employees. after fishing 1t out. bring
tons Of water soaked bundles Of let
tiers and papers to Spokane and
spread them over the floor of the
postoffice, where patient clerks go
through 1t all. deciphering
half-obliterated addresses. But the
routine of the Office work is seldom
thus interrupted.
One Of the most interesting spots
in the postoffice is the place where
the cancelling machine does It's work.
This machine is run by electricity and
can cancel $4,000 postals an hour.
Letters can be stamped at q rate
from 10000 to 10000 an hour, accord
ing to their condition. Stamps should
always be placed in the upper right
hand corner of a letter. II they are
not. the letter must be stamped by
hand.
I'll venture that 10 per cent of
the letters mailed here have the
stamp in some other corner or on the
back Of the letter." said Mr.. Gauv-
reau.
Stamp Flirtations.
The department apparently has no
objection to the letter Of the school
girl who conveys some subtle mean
ing in a stamp Irritation by putting
the stamp upside down. cornerways
or crossways. She can write a pretty
word or two under 1t If she chooses,
but 1t is provoking when a letter has
its stamp any place except in the
upper right hand corner.
Many people kick because they do
not get their papers or letters. They
insist that the carrier knows them
and yet the letters go to the general
delivery THE carriers see only the
mail that Is thrown to Them" said
Mr. Davenport. when we get a let
ter without street address we must
throw 1t into the general delivery
bunch unless we happen to know the
party. Each carrier has box and
we throw to the carrier only the mail
which is addressed to his run"
Old Trick Fails.
The old trick Of enclosing a letter
in another to the postmaster of some
distant postoffice for him to mail SC
that the postmark will not show from
whence 1t came will no longer work
The letter will be mailed and will
reach it's destination as desired, but
across the face Of it will be stamped
the information showing whence II
came. This may be received as an
embarrassing shock to some people
in Spokane.
Received under cover from Van
couver. b. C." This was stamped OH
letter to local bank. The letter
was enclosed in an envelope addressed
to the postmaster. When Mary runs
away from her husband she often en-
closes the letter in one addressed to
the postmaster. She thinks John will
not know where she Is. Before the
postmaster mails the letter he stamps
the above on the envelope. The