The Pensacola journal., 1908-12-20

letter from the time il is mailed until
Il Is delivered? It is safe to say that
probably not five per cent can teA,
so, for the benefit of the remaining
ninety-odd per cent shall endeavor
TO give a slight explanation OF an IN
teresting business, namely, the Unit
ed States postoffice.
AS we ali know, there are three
factors entering into the business
the mailing office, the receiving onice,
or Office of address, and the convey
ance which carries the mail between
those points To show how the mail
IS treated in these three places viii
be my principal aim.
To preclude all argument We Will
consider all mail matter to pe proper
ly addressed, with return notice IN
the upper left hand corner OF the en-
velope, or wrapper, and fully prepaid
with the stamps AFFIXED OF the upper
right hand corner Of the envelope, or
wrapper.
The office in Pensacola being the
one nearest (and l almost said, and
dearest), to the majority OF the read
ers, / shall use that as the mailing
Office.
Ten years ago every piece Of mail
matter that came into this office had
10 be hand stamped; this took time as
well as labor; today all letters are
run through machine which cancels
at least six times as rapidly as clerk
could do 1t by hand. from the ma
chine the letters go to the dispatch
ing clerk who has the different towns,
cftteR. counties and states before him
in the shape of pigeon holes. 1t Is at
f7ne dispatching or making case, as 1t
is called, that the opportunity to de-
lay . letter occurs as the slip or the
hand will throw the letter into the
wrong pigeon hole and send it In an
entirely different direction from the
place to which 1t was directed.
Key to Mail Handling.
That every one reading this article
may understand the terms used, /
win dfgress, for the purpose Of trans
lating the more important ones. A
direct pouch is one sent 10 another Of
ica without being opened in transit;
q railway postoffice pouch, or r. p. o.
pcuach as 1t is called is made up OF va
rfous packages to be distributed, by
the railway postal clerk, to other
pouches on the mail car; direct
pxckage rs made up OF ten or more let
tiers addressed to the same postoffice,
or state: an r. p. o. package is COM
posed Of letters mailed too late for a
60 make q direct package. These are
redist1fbuted by the railway postal
clerk into directs and other r. p. o.
packages.
In addition to the above terms are
the schemes. These are tables show
ing by what railroad the mail for diff
fereut states should be dispatched.
also through what offices. IL the town
IS not on the regular line; as, mail
for Fart Barrancas comes Pensacola
Dis, that is. for distribution through
the Pensacola postofffce.
The foregoing viii show that the
dispatching clerk has good deal to
remember, having to be perfectly
familiar vita the location of every
town, city and county m his own and
adjoining states, as well as every
change in name, also the schedules
of the mail trains and boats and yet
he sends $500 out OF every 10000 to
their destinations. on time.
Following a Letter.
Let us follow letter awhile and
see just what happens. TIE letter
just mailed is addressed to John Doe,
City. As Mr.. Doe rents a box the
stamp is cancelled. a ssferk places his
number on the envelope and puts ths,
letter In the box Simple, is it not?
Instead of delivery in Pensacola it
had been addressed to Atlanta Ga, on
being cancelled it was thrown to the
dispatching clerk who placed it in the
Atlanta pigeon hole, and, If there are
ten or more letters for Atlanta, he
ties IT out in a direct package, in
which form 1t reaches yrs destination
If. however, there are not enough tc
make a direct for Atlanta, they are
put in the Georgia state package
which Is opened by the railway post
al clerk and redistributed by him.
Again suppose this letter TO have
been mailed to Atlanta at the las;
moment before closing time, it would
have~been cancelled by hand and plac
ed in. a R. p. o. package and treated
as the states package mentioned
above.
To show the variations OF dispatch
a letter addressed to Savannah, Ga.
If rnailed at 11:20 a m, will go by
way of Montgomery on the 1910 p
m train No. 4; IL mailed at 11:45 a
IN, too late for No. 4, it win be dis
patched by train No. at D. m.
Jacksonville and Pensacola. Thus g
letter going north or west will &c
only one way, via FaomatOn, but q
letter going TO Savannah or contigu
nus territory may go by either the l.
& N. or the p. & A, depending on the
time of mailing.
AS the railway postonfice is simply
a poetoifice on a train, the work va
rying only as 20 details from that OF
the regular postoffice, it will not be
necessary to go into a long explana
ton as it would amount 70 a practt
cal repetition of what has gone be
fore.
What Must Be Done.
Using the Pensacola office as the of
fice of address may explain to some
of our patrons the reasons why they
fail to get their mail half an hour
after the arrival of the train at the
depot
On arrival in the office the first
class mail is in pouches by itself
each pouch containing a large mum
ber OF small packages addressed to
Pensacola or to the small towns re
ceiving their mail through this OF
fee, the latter are put in their proper