Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-15

, the overlapping deck of the liner the mail
boat sent chute, and it had scarcely been
secured in place when a bullying mail bag
slid from the broad shoulders of a sailor
| into the chute and the next moment landed
upon the deck of the Postmaster General.
After that it literally rained mail bags
on the mail boats deck. AS fast they
fell eight pairs of hands grabbed them and
threw them to right and left while the
rinth man stood at the foot of the chute
and as bag rolled upon the deck the
| counter in his hand licked it off against
! the count being made by the liners purser
| at the head of the chute
For half an hour the bags followed one
another with clock-like precision down the
| chute from the deck where they had been
piled up under the purser's direction as
| the liner was steaming up the lower bay.
| Then. the quarantine doctors having given
| the ship clean bill of health, the liner
got under way again. to the great delight
| of the 2.000-odd impatient passengers.
But still the Postmaster General chung
| like a leach to the great black side tower
ing above. And down through the chute
rolled the bags and breathleSsly the men
worked sorting them into four piles, hur-
ried glances at the tags giving them the
information necessary for sorting.
During the half hour that was consumed
by the Umbria between Quarantine and the
dock of the Postmaster General the trans
fer of the mail kept up. Then, as the UNI
bria was to dock further upstream the
mail boat cast off and made for her dock
with the 2,000-odd bags she had on board.
Here she threw off the bags tagged for
New York city, which were in two piles,
one being registered mail, and here, too,
mail wagons took the bags of through
mail for Chicago, Canada, the orient and
Australia and were soon rushing with
them to the station of the railroad which
takes care of these mails across. the conti-
nent.
Mail Forwarded.
One pile of mail still remained on board.
It. too, was through, sealed, mail, hav-
ing been made up at the various exchange
stations in Europe an exchange station
being post Office that makes up mail d.
rect for foreign city that makes up mail
direct for it. Some of this pile labeled
for Baltimore and Philadelphia, two of our
six exchange stations with Europe. There
were twenty sacks for Mexico, eleven
for Havana, six for Belize, eight
for Guatemala, half that number
for Puerto Barrios, one sack less for
QGeZaltenango, two for Retalhulou, and
many others for equally outlandish places
in Central and South America With this
mail the Postmaster General steamed
straight across the river to Jersey City,
threw 1t off in care of a well-known rail-
road, and then turned her nose in the di-
rection of the Umbria's pier for the sew
eral hundred bags of mail still remaining
on board of her.
In the meantime the men to whom the
mail boat had already delivered the great
er part of the Umbria's mail had not been
idle Before half an hour had passed the
Mexican mail was on its way to St. Louis,
an exchange station, there to be dispatched
south through Texas. Another train MAX
ing for New Orleans, had on board the
mails for Guatemala Puerto Barrios and
the other places of tropical America; and
as the train would pass through Baltimore,
1t also carried the mail for that city, the
St Louis train having taken the sacks for
Philadelphia. AS for the mails for the ex-
change station of Chicago Honolulu, To-
kyo, Shanghai and Australasia, they too,
had been started on their way having been
loaded into waiting train Immediately on
the arrival of the mail wagons at the sta
ton. And little later, from the same sta