The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1907-01-26
T heRAlLWAY
Mail JerviCe D


II man werr paid fer whas he
sn.~ and for shat be - ssFzss-ssgs -
sno~ solely. N. rsil~sy postal ciers
should Do placed to Tho hundred
thousand class. In thss 'irz; place.
even 20 become eligible for a rail-
way mail satvtce position man
must first inland civil service II
animation In order 20 pass ciyil
service examination he must poesess
a common school education that
alone insures good men for the ser
vice The civil service examination
consists Of questions ou spelling
arithmetic, better writing. r~nman-
ship. copying plain copy. geograph,
Of the United States. second grade,
railway and other systems and read
ing addresses. He then enters the
service as - substitute and is broke
in" on h. DUTIES that will develop
upon him X is while here that he
gets hts first insight Into what he
must know and what he must do.
Nowhere, in no other service. is such
unfailing accuracy required Of q
man as in the railway mail service
mail clerk. when he stands his eS-
animation. must average 9S per cent
in order to pass. Just think what
that means To make Is per cent
means that out of every 90 cards
handled. each bearing the name Of
a station. the mail clerk must not
miss more than two.
A mail clerks examination. while
principally upon the stations along
his route and in the entire district
for which he handles mail, takes IL
some other features. He must be fui-
lv acquainted with every route IN
his district and many times in 9th
or divisions; he must know the ar
rival and departure OF all passenger
trains at junction and transfer
points and must figure the time his
train is running and how close a
connection will be made at the
transfer station
All of these things he must keep
in his mind: he has no chart, with
the exception of a railroad schedule
and he seldom uses that after he be-
comes once acquainted with it, He
must stand before his case and shut
fle the letters and must do so with
unfailing accuracy. The letter case
becomes so well known TO the clerk
that he seldom has to look to see the
place into which he is throwing the
letter BY the time his eyes rests
upon the address and the impression
is carried to his mind, his had Is
already in front of the box into
which the letter should go. This un
failing accuracy is MAINTAINED
throughout the service. A clerk Is ex
amined so many times a year ant
graded: then he is notified when hi
next examination will take place ant
on what subjects he will be exanlin
ed
The postal clerk, besides having
to be acquainted with thousands o.
things, has plenty of work to do
The run of some clerks are shorI
and average but 100 miles day
while others are much longer anc
average many miles more. The long
er the run the more the clerk mas tC
know. If he runs only in Texas, tol
instance, he has to keep up with only
the thousands of stations and con
nections in his section, or the dlstrlc
for which he handles mail; but /
he covers a larger district, embrac
ing parts OF two or three states, h
must of course know thousands o
more stations, handle much NOR
matter and keep up with many mor'
train schedules.
The average clerk is said to wori
100 sacks of papers and $50 pack
ages Of letters per day. That mean
in addition to thousands OF papers
that he must shuttle 10000 let
tiers per day. shuttle $4,000 letter
and not make more than two mistak
as TO a hundred! Is it "A wonder tina
letters are sometimes missent, Whei
one man has To shuttle 5000 pc
day?
And for all of this amount @
work and for all of the time sp.n
in Incoming acquainted with m