Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-12-24
POSTOFF|CE RUSH
BREAKS RECORDS
UnClassified Employees Needed
to Help in Getting Out
Newark Mail.
STAMP SALES so LARGE
ESTIMATE NOT POSSIBLE
Money Order and Parcel Post
Departments Working Over
time Today.


The Christmas rush this e a is a
record breaker at the local postotice.
The superintendent of every depart
ment report thai the traffic this year
is greater than ever before. SO great
was the demand fer help that the
eligible list or substitutes soon
exhausted and Postmaster Book was
obliged to seek unclassiied employees.
The clerks OF every department in
the p~ostofiice have been pressed into
the service Of sorting and stamping.
Thousands of postals and Christmas
cards have been packed in large boxes
and are being sorted in various offices.
Even Herbert Meyer. the postmas-
ter's private secretary, has been
pressed into service as d sorter. In
Assistant Postmaster Cyphers's Office
are six of the packing boxes contain
ing postals and he also is pitching into
the general work.
An Aii-night job.
All night long the clerks and coll
lectors worked in the postoffice clear
ing away the big business of yester-
day. The 2Sd of December is always
the heaviest day at the ~postofice.
Those desiring to send gifts by mail
generally reckon on having them de-
livered the day before Christmas, and
the result is hat more than o%ne-third
of the Christmas traffic is thrown
upon tho ~postoffiee two days before
Christmas. The twenty-third. this
year on Monday. adds greatly to
the congestion, as there is the Sunday
accumulation of mail to be disposed
of also.
Despite these facts TIE p~ostoffice
was practically cleared tbs morning
at : o'clock after the carriers ard
sub-carriers mad set ont on their
routes. The carriers We're almost out
of sight necause of the bundles and
packages p%rotruding from the bags
carried IN each side. In addition TO
the double bags MANY OF the carriers
lad boys along with them drawing
huge boxes of mail on sleds.
O,UOU mORCs Nv -
The carriers are the ones to suffer
the most from the binding snow
storm which besieged the city early
today. At 10 O'Clock very few of the
carriers who had set out at : had
returned.
As a result of the storm only two
deliveries we're attempted in the
three-deliveries-a-day section. The
four deliveries were made as usual in
the business section. The outlying
districts are chiefly congested with
packages and bundles during the
holidays.
The greatest increase was notice
able in the registry department OF the
postofice. The regular traffic in this
department amounts to about 400
pieces of mail a day. Yesterday, ac-
cording TO the estimate of Superin-
tendent Lewis A. Edwards, there were
fully 5000 pieces of mail or packages
received for delivery at the registry
window in the Postofloe.
In addition to this there was prob
ably 1000 more pieces brought in from
the forty-fve sub-stations throughout
the city, bringing the total of pieces
handled yesterday up to more than
5000. Poo, u.ns,..n.
The foreign parcel post is causing
no end of trouble TO the local federal
employees. Barrels of foreign mail
matter and packages are stacked up
in the inquiry department awaiting
declaration and examination. The
packages that are sen out in the
parcel post of foreign countries T
left to the postoffice department OF
this country to handle, and they add
greatly to the holiday congestion.
The foreign packages must be X
amined for dutiable articles if no
declaration was made when mailed,
and the fee must be fixed before de-
livery. 4,
The postal savings bank was kept
busy by the Christmas shoppers. Ac-
cording to Miss Mary Higgins. the
cashier, about $1,000 was withdrawn
during the past few days. Most of
this was in small amounts, ranging
from fifty cents to s12. One de-
positor drew $3.50, but said he was
going to his home in Poland for the
holidays.
Where the Rush Is Heaviest.
The busiest part of the federal
building is at the stamp windows and
In the corridors. The clerks +
greatly hampered by the lack of
room. but are making the most of the
u~nfavorable circumstances.
Truckers are kept on the jump
transferring the packages and letters
from the special boxes and tables in
the corridors to the sorting room in
the rear. The amount of stamps sold
was too heavy TO be estimated with
any degree Of precision.
The delivery Of postal cards ha8
been delayed until the more impor-
tant mail is cleared up.