Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-30
WORKING IN RAILWAY MAIL CAR
Clerks Who Sort Letters While Going
60 Miles an Hour Must Memorize
1,5OO Postoffices.

Si0THs SHo SoTt GoetoTs VhhS Soh'S
60 Miles an Hour Must Memorize
1900 Postoffices.
The fast mail flyer is the pet of the
railway service. Not even the limited
passenger trains, nor the specials"
hired for unusual purposes by mil
can interfere with or side
track the fast mail"
Through the black night it goes
scurrying across the country, mark
ing time between cities with clock
like 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 maintain
ed in spite of stops and slowdowns
Consequently 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 it. 1t is trav-
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, veri-
table monster of iron and steel, car
rying ten tons of coal and 5000 gal
Ions 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 journey. 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.
Fifty tons Of mail to be sorted and
delivered at various points along the
route while running at sixty miles an
hour! That seems like an almost in
credible achievement, but it is being
done every night and day Of the year.
While most of us are sleeping the rail-
way clerks are toiling.
The inside Of a railway postoffice
looks for all the world like an ordinary
country postofflce, with its boxes and
pigeon-hole with the exception of
certain additions 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 drop
ped off perhaps 80 or 40 minutes
from the starting point, and there Is
always a hurry and hustle to get this
pan ocular sack tiled out" in time.
The work of the railway clerk Is
hard and exacting, and he must qualify
for the position through study and ap-
the ambition Of about every clerk In
the postofflce department to get into
the railway postoffice service. 1t is
not because the pay is 80 great, but be-
cause most young men like the novel;
ty of sorting letters while travelling
sixty miles an hour in preference to
doing It in a stationary postoffice.
When he gets into the railway SER
vice he will receive a salary Of $500
a year, and in time. when he gets the
full appointment, this will be raised to
5000. From that time on his promotion
is according to merit.
Each promotion generally means an
increase of 500 a year in wages until
he may be drawing $1,000 to $1,400.
After that he must wait and work for
the position 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 pay Is $1,000.
But the limit of his ambition need
not stop there. If he qualities for it.,
and there Is a vacancy, he may be ap-
pointed for merit only to the position
Of chief clerk in charge Of the lines
running through his particular part Of
the country. For this he receives
$1,000, and he may eventually receive
$4,000 a year as assistant division su-
perintendent, or $4,000 as division su-
perintendent.
According to the requirements Of
the law, an aspirant for a position In
the railway postoffice service may be
anywhere between IS and 35 years Of
age He must take his examinations
and pass with high marks to secure his
first foothold in the service. After that
his advancement depends upon him
self and circumstances.
But by the time a railway postof-
flee clerk has reached the salary Of
$1,000 a year he must have developed
somewhat phenomenal memory. To
secure this position he must memorize
some 1900 postofflces on his line.
That of itself is not an easy job, but
it is rendered more difficult by the ne
cessity Of knowing the different coun-
ties and railroads and junction 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 IA
miliar with their route that they can
tell by "the feel of the road" where
they are, and this helps them to pre-
pare the different sacks in time.
without looking up from their work
they know by the grades, curves and
crossings just where they are, and
they judge the speed of the train
through the same sixth sense. Conse-
quently one clerk will often make his
decision when rounding a curve that
he cannot unaided prepare 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 140 pigeon
holes. Each hole Is reserved for some
4. ,,xI