The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1905-01-20
IN CONSTANT PERIL
THE RAILWAY MAIL CLERK
PERFORMS HIS DUTIES.
Death or Serious Injury Almost Ger
tain to Follow Disaster to Train
Marvellous Quickness of Hands and
Brain In Demand.

II any ambitious author is on a still
hunt for material teeming with franl
melodrama, stripped of theatric tin
sci, let him study the life and hard
ships of the railway mail clerk. Pub
lie knowledge of his usefulness Is re
stricted to very meagre generalities
and the average man has scanty
idea of the hazards perpetually com
passing Uncle Sans employees in the
flying railway post Offices all over the
United States.
He is ever at the post of danger
from physical standpoint. Right be-
hind the ponderous, pounding loco
motive, with his mind tensely concen.
trated on the work in hand, he Is ex.
posed to any disaster which may as.
sail the speeding train. The engi-
neer, the fireman, the train crew at
large, as a general rule, have warn
ing Of approaching danger and are
given at least fighting chance for
their lives. The clerk is behind
locked doors, most of the time.
Doors that open slowly, and heavily,
too. The fact that all his senses are
centered within the narrow confines
of the car prevents his catching the
danger signal, and about the first in
timation he has of catastrophe is
a terrific collision with the locomo-
tive, an abrupt stop from high speed,
which throws him the length of the
car, or the crushing in of the car
shell, to be followed frequently by
fire, from which escape is made i'm
possible by combining timbers.
Agility is not an adequate defini.
ton of what is required of this clerk,
mentally and physically. He must be
almost superhuman. Stations, large
and small, are constantly being
reeled off by the galloping train and
they each pour varying tide of let.
tiers and papers into the car 1t is
highly probable that large percent.
age Of this mail is intended for the
next stop, distance possibly of ten
miles, more frequently four or five.
Like lightning he must sort out this
varied heap, reading scrawling, illeg.
ible addresses in car swaying vio-
lently from side to side. Sometimes
the light is poor; sometimes the ad-
dress given is little strange to him,
being new and obscure post Office; |
but as the service demands of him |
approaching infallibility,
his list of erors must be trimmed |
down to the minimum.
At the holiday season or any time
Of national stress the work Of the
railway mail clerk is immensely mul.
tiplied, consequently his difficulties.
Periodically his train or another is
late, no matter how punctual the
schedule in the majority of cases,
and there is an accumulation of mail
% be made up" in shortened time,
with the drawback of a footing uncer.
ain from the jump i'll speed by which
he conscientious engineer tries to re.
rain portion of the lost minutes or
hours.
These are only a few Of his trials.
The chronicle could be prolonged I'm.
IL it filed three times this space, re.
ording the simple truth in each line.
though has been said to show that
he clerks life is spent literally Gin
he midst of alarms" His is one Of
be hazardous Iallings which receive
UGH scant sympathy, because so lit.
lie understood. He is the modern
1ercury in more literal sense than
he postman, since his work is
reader and done under infinitely
lore parlous conditions, and he
hould rank very nesr the top of the
st of men who are bona fide heroes
observation-disclosures Constitution.