Long Valley advocate. (Lardo, Idaho) 1904-1907, 1905-01-26
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.

nunt Tor material teeming with frank
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 coneen-
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 general rule, have warn
Ing Of approaching danger and are
given at least a 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
conferred within the narrow confines
OF the car prevents his catching the
danger signal, and about the first in
timation he has of a catastrophe is
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 a varying tide of let
ters 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-
Idle addresses in a car swaying VIC
lently from side to side. Sometimes
the light is poor; sometimes the adj
dress given is little strange to him,
being new and obscure post office
but as the service demands of him
something approaching infallibility,
his list of errors must be trimmed
down to the minimum.
AT the holiday season or any time
If 81.
railway mail clerk is immensely null
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
to be made up" in shortened time,
with the drawback of a footing uncer-
tain from the jump in speed by which
the conscientious engineer tries to re-
gain a portion of the lost minutes or
hours.
These are only a few of his trials.
The chronicle could be prolonged un-
TIL 1t filled three times this space re-
cording the simple truth in each line
Enough has been said to show that
the clerks life is spent literally Gin
the midst of alarms" His is one of
the hazardous callings which receive
such scant sympathy, because so lit
tie understood. He is the modern
Mercury in more literal sense than
the postman, since his work is
broader and done under infinitely
more parlous conditions, and he
should rank very near the top of the
list OF men who are bona fide heroes
IN observation-disclosures Constitution.