Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-12-26
Postoffice Business This Week
sn1ashes All Previous Rec
ords TO spIinters.
TOTAL INCREASE is $4,000
More Than the Record Last Year
Vaccinated Clerks Worn to q
FRAGILE With the Rush.

With the SUN of STATS as the largest
record ever established for single
days sale Of stamps in the Salt Lake
postofice. the Christmas rush has end
ed for 1908 with average sales amounts
ing to $1,000 and record run of over
$1,000 for the largest single day.
Christmas to a postofflce is an occa
son in which all the good winds blow
ing everywhere else blow i'll for the
few weeks Of fearful crush, and In
Salt Lake this mornnE--the morning
after Christmas, group Of tired clerks
are celebrating the fact that everybody
got his Christmas present-that not q.
single package arrived at the postoft1ce
before the psychological moment OF
5"Christmas morning that was not iii
the hands OF him to whom it was adj
dressed, and that today only mails are
moving which have originated since
the climax of the rush was reached.
CLERKS HANDICAPPED
To break all records in the point of
business handled. not only in bulk but
in each single department., has been
the privilege OF the postoffice this sea-
son, in writing its particular kind Of
record on the remarkable growth of
Salt Lake. The fact that many or
Z
and that nll of them we're
suffering from vaccinations made
while the rush was il, progress
complicated the matterEof handling OF
big inflow and outflow OF mail, ami
made for the season story OF deNo
ton on the part OF clerks who welsa
able to work that. like the business
shifts, the employment Of stout nlent to
carry surplus mail along the routes
with the carriers, and working days
that stretches almost to both edges
of q "a hour period, are among the iii
ctdents Of getting the mail under coll
8trol and keeping it there. From the
5depots the mail sacks reached bulk
enough to COMPEL the abandonment at
effort to get them to the postoffic2
with the regular equipment of wagons.
and consequently Fl. b. Prout, the con-
tractor in charge, had to hire express
wagons III addition to the screened
wagons regularly used 5. d
TWENTY PER CENT INCREASE. Il
The total increase in business for the
Christmas rush was 5000 more! than
thesrecord OF last year. This amounts
to 20 per cent increase for the period.
Among those who were off duty on ac-
count Of sickness were the superinten
dent of the money order department.
the assistant superintendent and two
assistants of the registry department
the superintendent and assistant sup
erintendent of the city delivery. AMI
one mail clerk. The appearance of
smallpox in the postoffice and the re
moval of those afflicted, together with
the fumigation of the building will be-
recalled by News" readers
FLOOD OF POSTCARDS.
A new feature of the work this year
has been the flooding OF the postotflce
with christmas cards, which came i'm
to vogue in larger numbers than ever
before Often people enclosed them in
transparent envelopes, which made il
impossible to cancel the stamps put on
the cards themselves, and necessitated
the holding OF the cards. together with
the notification of the sender or those
to whom they We're addressed. Humid
reds of such cards arc held up. For
the cards. when in envelopes, first class
mail prices are demanded. and this
was not understood by many who used
the new style envelopes
+ Packages of merchandise addressed
to Europe are also held in consider
able number This is because such
packages, to so through the parcel
post, must be accompanied with a.
declaration of their contents and such
declarations We're frequently omitted,
for which reason the packages We're re-
turned from New York. lE5 535