Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-20

/ not dnfrequently given three and four help
/ ers instead of one, and the platform
/ forces-the men who load and unload the
| express cars attached to passenger trains,
1 and the express car trains exclusively, at
i the railroad terminals in Jersey City and
| Hoboken-are doubled, Ito platform men
becoming 800 at the smaller platform.
| Then, while I've given strict orders to
let no precious time be wasted In sleep, I
| do feed the men UP until, for all the great
strain put upon them, I'm sometimes fear
| full that the whole lot Of them are on the
| verge of possessing bellies that will rival
mine for rotundity and jelly-like shaking
when they laugh
! Here that famous portion of Santa's
| anatomy gave an exhibition of Its peculiar
powers until I, in turn. was fearful lest
| the resultant waves of motion should shake
my good wtfes treasured ornaments off
the mantelpiece. But just as thought a
| fine bit of Bohemian glass was getting
| ready to totter to destruction the old gem
tleman managed to gain control OF his
! middle by clasping 1t tightly In his two
| stocky arms, and after a delightful little
| chuckle, resumed the thread OF his CONVEX
| sation
II don't care who he is-terminal agent,
| bill-maker, bill-maker's caller, drivers
| helper, platform man, route-marker, the
| agent himself, who is constantly on hand
| in the height of the rush and in direct
| cliarge-every man IS fed at the Console
dated Express Companies expense in
| convenient restaurant. / insist on the best
| of food being furnished. Naturally the bill
| is large, but plenty of good food keeps men
| on their feet sleep from their brains, work
| in their hands and desire for strong drink
1 at safe distance.
/ 4
But Inn convinced that the chief thing
| that enables my express trust boys to keep
at it steadily for three and four days at
| stretch without stealing of to the seductive
realm of King Night-o Dreams ts the
| Christmas spirit Mr. United States, Mr.
wells-Fargo. Mr.. Pacific and the rest be-
! lieve so, too--you see keep them in direct
| charge of their respective subsidiary COM
| panies, SO they ought to know. care say
| Won know how you can get yourself worked
| into the spirit Of an ordinary piece OF WORK.
| Well, here is work on the correct and swift
performance Of which the happiness OF O
| nations good boys and girls depend. And
| Is there anything more easy or delightful
to be possessed than the Christmas spirit?"
| l shook my head; old Santa looked out
| iy. and. with his ludicrously fat, stumpy
| hands folded contentediy on the peak of his
| paunch, ratified out:
"The old drivers and helpers and platform
| men, and who not, become thoroughly sat
urated with the spirit with the commence
ment of my Christmas business around the
| first of December. Then, as new men are
| taken on, my trusted aids see to 1t that
4
| fours between old hands, who not only keep
! tho newcomers up to the work in hand, but
| encourage them with words of Christmas
| cheer when the great press of freight, or
loss Of sleep, or breaking backs make strong
| spirits droop. Thus they are buoyed up I'M
| til they. too. are inbued with the Christmas
| spirit at the height of the rush, and work
| as II all the boys and girls in the country
were their own dear boys and girls, and not
entire strangers to them. And do you
know" pronounced Santa, mo one is ever
quite filled with the simon-pure Christmas
| spirit till he works hard and long to give
some besides himself happiness?"
| AS he paused to give emphasis to his
words he removed his cap and critically
scrutinized the number it bore-'19O5.''
by the way" he said. that reminds me
Il haven't given you an idea of the enor-
nous business that the Consolidated Ex-
press companies do. 1 can't give you the
! figures for the entire country just now-my
mind is SO full of figures connected with
| that twentieth order for 100000 drums
| and as many dolls that gave this morning
to my various factories. But 1t will suffice
| to say that when Mr.. United States is run
ming his $500 offices to suit himself and I'm
dividing my time between resting and get
| ting in shape for another Christmas, he
| handles at one of his two New York city
terminals from $4,000 to 10000 express
packages per day. But when I'm It-what
are you SO shocked about? I've heard many
a good boy and girl say that-ten times that
I number is handled in as many hours.
/ 1.-The system by which the work is done
seems sinple-is simple. The hard work
! comes in keeping the system from breaking
down under the strain put It to in my eff
| forts to have filled the stockings of all my
| boys and girls before the sand man quits
pouring sand on their eyelids early on
/ Christmas morning.
TRAINS are unloaded as fast as they come
l In. EsxnraSS attached fn ms
| senger trains are unloaded In the stations
Express car trains. composed exclusively of
1 from nine to sixteen express cars, and sent
! through from big city to big city. are run
! alongside covered platforms, and as the
| precious Christmas cheer is taken out by
| the platform men 1t is scattered along the
platforms in piles according to the various
wagon routes which 1t must take to be safe
| ly and quickly delivered. Then drivers and
| helpers check one another by loading wag-
4 ons other than their own. and off the
/ wagons roll, to be back again for fresh
i loads as soon as circumsta noes will permit
| In New York city all packages for boys and
girls who live below 18th street are deliy-
! cred direct by wagon. Above Both street 1
facilitate matters greatly by. having most
of the packages hauled to the various ex-
press stations above that street on the sur
face street car lines and the elevated rail-
roads, and from these stations they are dis
| tributed by wagon.
~
In sending express packages out of a
big city, say New York, every one of NV
| drivers has his own route for collection.
The size OF a route varies, of course, ac-
cording to where / have my stores and
home workers. around this time or year
one OF my big department stores Is route
80 big route as it's all one wagon can
do to handle the business. Below seth
| street let Mr. United States haul the OUT
gsing freight turn over TO him to a relay
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