The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-05-10

What A MAIL BAG
Said TO WHALLEY
Its Graphic Little'StoryM Means
Big Moneysto Him
Now. -.
U.S.TO ADOPT INVENTION
Repairers of Battered Sacks Discov-
cred 1t Was Time to Discard
Leather Bottoms.
U.STO ADOPT INVENTION
Nv EARLE r. DORSEY.

II the mail bags of the United States
could talk, they could tell you about
George Whalley.
II is altogether likely that the govern
ment will adopt a bail bag which Whai'
lev invented some time ago. But the tale
goes further than that.
For twenty-seven years Whalley has
bent over invalid mail bags with cold
chisel hammer, and Eiveter. and in those
,Uenty-seyen years he has heard the
COMPLAINTS of many a mai. bag. That
how he came to invent one; for the inali
hays that find their way to the big gov
eminent repair shop at First and X
streets northeast, in Washington, nave
a story to tell if you WI only listen.
Heard Many Plants.
Since whaIley took job in the repair
sbop twcnty-seven years ago, he mas
dome little else but listen to the plant OF
the canvas and leathe- receptacles that
Uncle Sam uses to carry his mail from
PASSPORT. Me. to Everett. Wash, and
way stations. Even a heaphy man bag
meets with all sorts of accidents. ana
these accidents have been telling things
to whalley for years.
Just one example:
Number :, southbound from New York
to Florida, is late. Number Z cleared
Washington four minutes late, after TAX
ing on thirty-two sacks of mail out
across the long bridge that connects
Washington with Virginia, she" thun-
ders, and picking up speed on the other
side of the bridge, begins smoothly and
irresistably to bore a hole in the Nir-
ginia night.
Manassas, for Instance.
At Manassas. a few dozen miles south
of Washington, a tired station Ssent
waited for the mail that No. I would
whirl onto his platform as 1t flashed
past at ffty-five miles an hour.
1t had been raining earlier in the even
ing and No g. northbound. had kicked
of 4 bag for Manassas, but the clerk
had been careless and the bag had
missed the platform and dropped in
big mud puddle The mail wasn't hurt,
for the bag was waterproofed; but the
canvas and leather combination bag had
been soaked on the outside, particularly
Its leather bottom.
In making up his southbound dispatch
for No :. the postmaster had used the
bag that No. dropped in the mud
puddle, but when the station agent car
ried it down to the mail crane for No.
I to snatch as it flashed by, he thought
nothing at all of the wet leather bot
tom.
No. : flashed down from the north
that night roaring through Manassas at
sixty miles an hour. The man in the
cab. anxiously scanning his time card.
was still shy two Of the four minutes
he had lost at Washington. and mail
bags were the least of his troubles.
Bag Is Missed.
Back in one of the postal cars. a mail
clerk scanned the flying darkness for
I'D no hP1
blasts from ahead. blowing for the
Manassas station, he swung out the
steel arm beside the car door, until ii
stood at right angles to the side Of the
car.
The lights of the station flashed in his
face. and the mail clerk heard the
familiar thud OF the arm striking the
mail bag on the crane.
The steel arm on the car crashed back
against the steel guard and the clerk ,
grabbed for the mail bag. which should
have been wrapped around the arm by !
the impact and held long enough for the !
clerk to grab il.
But something was wrong at Manassas. |
The arm struck the mail bag, but il !
struck the bag to high. The bag chung |
for an instant. but one end hung free !
of the arm and the weight or this end !
pulled the bag from it before the clerk |
could clutch the bag.
Missed a bag" shouted the clerk to !
his superior. Number never paused in ,
its steady plunge through the night to-
ward Fredericksburg.
The next morning the Manassas station |
agent found the bag ripped open and the !
mail strewn along the tracks.
Sears Tell story.
Eventually. the bag found its way to !
the mail bag repair shop and George !
Whalley laid it out on a table and lis |
tened to its story. great rip across |
the canvas showed where a car wheel |
had cut through. and the leather bottom
was stiff and out of shape. To WhalIey. |
the mail bag told its story by the scars