Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-04
TAKING MAIL ABOUT A CITY
One Of the Ticklish Jobs Of the Pos
tai Service.
HOW NEW YORK IS CARED FOR
Pneumatic Tubes and Autos COminG
In, bat the Big wagons Have
Not Yet Been Done Away
with.

NEW YORK. July s,-An important part
Of the postal system Of this country IL the
transportation OF mail in and around Man
haitian Island. This part of the city is one
of the most congested IN the world. Traffic
problems have become infinitely more diff
ficult, but Uncle Sam has kept ahead OF the
procession. Everything else may be hin
dered, but there is no delay moving mail.
The receipts of the New York postoffice
today equal those Of the entire country
thirty years ago. Twenty million dollars
worth Of business was handled by Post
master Morgan last year without a hitch,
Already there Is a pneumatic tube service
connecting various branch postoffices in
this town, and II Harlemites were letters,
they would get home without a stop.
With the enormous increase of mail mat
ter, has come the problem of getting 1t
through the crowded city. This must be
done on time, for the express trains and
ocean liners wait for no man.
An automobile service, Just installed, is
a success. And here might be explained
the workings of the New York Mail com
pany, an organization which handles the
bulk Of the post traffic. Some 800 wagons
mostly the immense two horsed vehicles,
familiar to us all-are kept busy day and
night the year around. They seem to hurry
about promiscuously, but there isn't an
interval when John Crawford, president OF
the company, II he so desired, could not
get into communication with any of the
drivers.
Handling Foreign Mail.
Mr.. Crawford and his right hand man,
Colonel Grldley, have a despatching sys-
TEN all their own. When the mall boat
Postmaster-Genera which meets all liners
at Quarantine and takes off pouches al
dressed to the local postoffice, pokes It's
nose into the pier at Cortland street,
there is q flock Of mail wagons to meet 1t.
Most OF the pouches are taken by wagon
direct to the general postoffice and the new
auxiliary station In the Hudson Terminal
buildings. Remaining pouches are carried
by the vehicles direct to the Jersey rail-
road terminals and to the Grand central
station. Before the liner which has brousnt
the mail to port has docked, the pouches
are aboard the railroad postoftices ana
New York business men have the foreign
mail before them. The ocean mail is al
ways heavy, and the quantity constantly
increasing. Christmas time brings the max
imum business. A record is when the Teu-
tonic dropped In last December with nearly
1000 pouches. 1t took seventy odd mail
wagons to carry this cargo. More remark
able was the despatch in handling 1t. Ac-
cording to official figures by W. N COX,
treasurer of the company, the liner was OH
Quarantine a little after Z O'Clock In the
morning and by IL o'clock the pouches were
not only landed nj New York, but distri-
buted.
once the pouches are at the general post
office the letters are distributed through
the tubes. But for other classes OF mall
the wagon service again comes into play
Some Of the big hauls are from the post
office downtown to the Grand Central, the
Lackawanna, Central Railroad OF New
Jersey, weehawken and Long Island City
stations, and to the Staten Island ferries
for Richmon Borough. Then there are
the wagon transfers from the stations
mentioned above to each other and In
turn back to the postoffice. The mileage
mounts up when It is remembered that q
haul such as that from Grand Central TO
Jersey amounts to six miles.
Up to this month the work has not been
done on a mileage basis. From now on
the distance will be considered, and when
the territory increases there VIII be more
money in It for the carriers.
wagons Get Hard Usage.
The wear and tear on these mail wagons
is In the transportation COM
pAny btaDl6s, d IlN0-slOIy a"
East Fifteenth street which shelters nearly
that many hundred horses, is a good sized
wagon building department and a large
force work day and night rebuilding those
wagons. Trolley car motormen have little
respect for the mail wagons and car col
lisions are most common. Three wagons
have been smashed In a day.
Drivers suffer. too. Many have been
HlInR @r lKaA aa fhn raaftlf nf in1nTinQ |
Bennett, a veteran who has been driving
in New York City for twenty years or so,
shows a mass OF scars. Time and again
he has been bounced off his high seat.
Once a railroad train swept a wagon from
under him. His experiences have aged
him, but at 81 he drives better than the
youngsters and has yet to get a written
complaint filed against him. Bennett puts
on the speed When he has to. Rather than
urge his horses along unnecessarily he has
made it a practice to turn up at the barns
half an hour earlier that he may walk his
horses on the long trip to the general post
office.
Horses are MANNED and crippled and a
special hospital service is maintained at
the stables for injured animals. A veterin-
airy surgeon Is always on duty and he
seldom is without patients.
Francis r. Roome, superintendent of
mails in the New York postoffice, has had
much to do with the tube system. The
present expenditure for the entire tube
system in the United States is about S724,OO
each year, but it is pointed out that there
have resulted economies by a discontinue
ance or reduction OF other transportation
services to an amount estimated at about
$4,000. The closest interval between the
tube carriers is thirteen to fifteen seconds,
and the total number Of letters despatched
one way an hour is rated at los, 600. The
use Of pneumatic tubes in the United States
mail service commenced experimentally in
1898 with about half a mile Of service in
Philadelphia
Parcels Post Delivery.
A departure in the local service is the
parcels post de~livery-parcels sent under
the new agreement, which allows eleven
pounds. This extra traffic is handled by
the wagon service.
An important unit in the New York
postal service has just finished its trial
stage, the branch station in the Hudson
TarminaI buiIdinRs. from which all letters