Omaha daily bee., 1912-09-22
LIVELY WORK IN MAIL CARS
Sorting Letters While Going the
Speed Limit on Railroads.
TASKS SET FOR THE CLERKS
Filled with POstoffice Names
Practice Makes for
Efficiency.

passenger trains, nor the specials
hired for unusual purposes by millio!:-
aires can interfere with or sidetraok the
fast mail"
Through the black night it goes scurry-
ing across the country, marking time be-
tween cities with clocklike regularity
to deliver our letters at the breakfast
table or to hurry to our office business
communications that mean so much to
us.
A mile a minute Is practically the
standard time for the fast mails" an
average speed that must be maintained
in spite of stops and slowdowns Conse-
quently this often means much greater
speed along certain clear stretches of
road where lost minutes must be made
up.
The fast mail is the pet of the Post
office department also, and only picked
men are in charge of 1t. 1t Is a travel
ing postoffice in every sense of the word.
The train usually consists of four cars
carrying nothing but mail, amounting
sometimes to fifty and more tons. The
engine is one of the biggest moguls of
the railroad service, veritable monster
of iron and steel, carrying ten tons Of
coal and 5000 gallons of water.
), When the bulging sacks of mail are
thrown aboard and the conductor gives
the signal to start exactly on the min
ute. the gaunt. angular engine puffs and
snorts, and starts forth on its swift jour-
ney. Besides a picked train crew there
are fifteen or more trained clerks riding
in the mail cars. Their business begins
the instant the mail is aboard.
-, 49, A Regular Job.
Fifty tons of mail to be sorted and de-
itvered at various points along the route
while running at sixty miles an hour.
That seems like an almost incredible
achievement, but it Is being done every
night and day Of the year. While most
Of US are sleeping the railway CLERKS are
toiling.
The inside of railway postoffice looks
for all the world like an ordinary coun-
try postoffice, with its boxes and pigeon
holes, with the exception of certain ad-
ditions which are necessary for the good
Of the service, For one thing, there are
sometimes series of racks which hold
open mail sacks, and into these the clerks
dispatch their mail as they fly across the
land.
One of these sacks must be dropped off
perhaps thirty or forty miles from the
starting point, and there is always a
hurry and hustle to get this particular
sack tied OUT in time.
The work Of the railway clerk is hard
and exacting, and he must qualify for
the position through study and applica-
tion.. 1t may be said that it Is the am-
= bition Of about, every clerk in the Post
office department to get into the railway
Postoftice service 1t is not because the
pay is so great but because most young
men like the novelty Of sorting letters
while travelling sixty miles an hour in
preference to doing 1t In a stationary
postoffice.
When he gets into the railway service
,he viii receive salary of $500 year.
and In time, when he gets the full ar-
pointment, this will be raised TO $780,
From that time on his promotion is ac-
cording to merit.
Each promotion generally means an in.
crease of $l00 a year in wages until he
may be drawing $1,000 to 81, 400. After
that he must wait and work for the posi-
ton Of clerk in charge of the mail cars
on which he is working. He is at the
head of all the other clerks then and his
Fpay is $1,6OO.
Going Up the Ladder.
4 But the limit of his ambition need not
stop there If he qualities for it, and
there Is vacancy, he may be appointed
for merit only to the position of chief
clerk in charge of the lines running
through his particular part of the cour-
try For this he receives $780, and he
may eventually receive 5000 year as
assistant division superintendent or $1,000
as division superintendent
According to the requirements of the
law, an aspirant for a position in the
railway postoffice service may be any
where between IS and 80 years of age
lHe must take his examinations and pass
with high marks to secure his first foot
hold in the service. After that his ad-
vancement depends upon himself and cir
tcumstances
But by the time railway postoffice
clerk has reached the salary of SLIGO a
year he must have developed a somewhat
phenomenal memory. 70 secure this po-
esitton he must memoriZe some 1900 post I
loffices on his line. That of itself is not |
ian easy Job, but it is rendered more diff |
lficult by the necessity of knowing the |
different counties and railroads and june
tion points. He must also keep accurate
track of all the railroad time tables and |
their changes which affect his district
The railway clerks become so familiar
with their route that they can tell b.
''the feel Of the road where they ara,
and this helps them to prepare the dit
ferent sacks in time.
Without looking up from their work
they know by the grades curves au2
crossings just where they are ana they
judge the speed of the train through the
same sixth sense. Consequently one clerk
will often make his decision when round
ing curve that he cannot unaided pre-
pare his sack for the next junction. and
he will call upon one of the others to
help him.
Arranged in tiers on one side Of each
car there are more than 40 plgeonholes.
Zach hole is reserved for some special
town or city on the way, and the clerks
shuttle and assert the letters with great
rapidity, Tipping the letters into their
respective holes, 1t seems almost incredi-
BILE that anyone could become SO deft