Omaha daily bee., 1906-10-07
LEAD A STRENUOUS LIFE
Facts About the Nerve Wreokine Work Of
Railway Nail Clerks
DUTY BRINGS THEM NEAR DEATH LINE
Percentage of killed and wounded
Exceeded Only by Army and
Navy I'm Time of War
Emergency work.

The clerks that man Uncle Sans travel
ing postoflces are silent forces we fail
to reckon when we receive our mail morn
ing after morning with unfailing prompt
ness. They are among the most import
ant links in the great chain of the 9 )vern-
ments mail service, and in order that we
may receive our friendly missives and our
business letters, threads that bring us In
touch with people and things hundreds Of
miles away. in order to draw the links of
communication closer, they conduct post
Offices on the fast-hying trains, standing
ready TO dispatch budget after budget as
they reach the stations and taking on and
sorting the new mail from each wayside
station to quicken the service. To do this
involves work under conditions Of confu-
sion and complexity, and demands a heavy
strain. day after day and night after night.
Wherever a train wends its way in the
thickly populated districts, in the most
deserted and dangerous part of the country
there goes along with 1t the mail clerk
precious. important messages of the mail
pouches. With him lies the most sacred OF
trusts, for the letters that pass through
his hands are the heart throbs OF people
and the misplacing of one might mean the
swapping or strainlng of some close tie.
The duties of the mail clerk demand con-
slant vigilance. Many of the stations where
he must throw of the pouch with its price,
less contents and take the new mail, the
train puffs by without stopping and some
times these little places come as thicky
as FIVE in four-mile run. The pouch must
be thrown of at the right second and the
bag from the station caught by the iron
mail-catcher which IL extended to lift It
~
In the meantime the sorting of the mail
must go on within the car. No letter must
be slipped into the wrong pigeonhole and
every pouch must be ready for its station
All this keeps a clerk keyed to the highest
pitch. And he has always staring him in
the face. the risk Of wrecks. a risk almost
as great to the mail clerk as to the engi-
neer and the fireman, for the mail car is
almost invariably next-door neighbor to the
engine and closest to the danger in case OF
accident. The mail clerks run varies
greatly, but more often than otherwise 1t
involves ten or fifteen hours a day, some-
times as long as nineteen hours with hardly
a breathing space to rest The strain Is
heavy and the six days of rest that come
after six days OF steady work are none
too long for a man to recuperate and get
back In trim for his work. The average
run in a day is $50 miles, sometimes it is
three, four, even Ave and six times that
long Where the run is shorter the time
for recreation comes once every three.
every four or every five weeks, according
to the duties of the man. 1t il this time
of rest, the six days of, that allures many
a young man to enter the railway mail
service, ignorant of the hardships OF the
work. The six days do not always signify
that amount Of recreation. because the mail
clerk, in order to keep up with the ex-
aminations which he is constantly required
to stand, must do q great deal of studying