Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-15
ton, went out the several hundred bags
for Montreal. Quebec, and other Canadian
Distributing the Mail.


cities.
Distributing the Mail.
The 40 bags for the New York post Of
flee were not long in reaching there The
registered mail was turned over to the reg
istry department. Twenty men seized the
bags stuffed with ordinary letters, cut open
the seals, poured their contents upon a
long table, and began frantically sorting
the gigantic pile of international CORE
spondence. Into one of the big mail tubs,
mounted on trucks, close by, went letters
for the city; into another, letters for all of
the United States outside of New York
city; into still another, mail for Soreign
parts, particularly South America; aid into
fourth all short paid mail, of which there
is always an enormous quantity.
Near by another small force of clerks
bags, throwing the papers and packages
into big square boxes that rose several
tiers high from the table upon which the
mail had been dumped.
AS fast as it was separated the mail was
turned over to the various departments
The city department got all the mail for
the city; the domestic department the let
ters and papers for distribution through
OUT the country: to the foreign branch was
sent the contents of the tub known by its
color as foreign, and the short paid stuff
was sent to be rated up and put through
the machine which stamps the amount of
So that by the time the second consign-
ment of bags was delivered at the post Of
tce by wagons just from the Postmaster
Generals dock, the tables had been cleared
and the job of tackling the contents of a
little over a hundred bags seemed small
by comparison. In half an hour the work
was done; all told, the clerks spent two
hours distributing the contents of the two
deliveries. And as they finished with the
second delivery the downtown business
houses were receiving their foreign mail
that had come in the first delivery.
The Umbria's Contribution.
In the Umbria's mail there were over
10000 letters for New York city delivery,
and twice that number for distribution
throughout the country. The short-paid
letters aggregated close on to %, 600 to say
nothing of thousands of papers on which
postage was due Then there were several
thousand letters for foreign parts, and the
tens of thousands of papers and packages,
both for city, domestic and foreign distri-
button. Yet it was all taken care of in two
hours after reaching the post office
On some of the transatlantic lines the
work of distribution is largely accom-
plished by the sea post offices maintained
ABOARD the ships expressly for this pur-
pose. In this way the handling of mails IS
much expedited But many liners are not
equipped with sea post offices. and the
Umbria is one of these. In view of this
~ .'iA0'oiisc' INC SeiSiity Win WHICH pef
mail was handled was all the more re-
Inarkable.
This mail that the Umbria brought was
only an average one. Frequently the num-
Der of bags pass the 1900 mark especially
around the holidays. But no matter Uncle
Sam works the trick in the allotted two
hours just the same. He does sleight-of-
hand with something like 100000 pieces
of foreign mail in the New York post Of
nee annually, and in the same period he
makes thousands of bags of sealed mail
disappear in a twinkling from before the
very eyes of dazed onlookers
Surely he is a prestidgitator of no mean
ability.