Norwich bulletin., 1915-11-04
woNpERFuL RECORD
 BY GOVERNMENT CLERK.
uncir sann's Postage Stamps Are
 shippsd Without an Error.

s.~<4e
 Twelve billion stamps. That is the
 size of last years stamp biisiness
 handled by the bureau of engraving |
 and printing. It was the largest ever. Yet perhaps stiii more amazing Is
 this: The entire work of drawing the
 stamps. balaneing the separate orders
 and shipping them was carried on uu-
 der the supervision of q woman and.
 thanks Co her efficiency. without a sin
 gle discrepancy.
 Miss Margaret Kerfoot, chief of the
 division which fills and ships orders to
 the es,09e postofi1ces throughout this country, has been working in the bu- rean for 22 yearss and her record for lack ofNerror is matter of pride not only to herself but also to Director h q large shipping room full of workers and with a warehouse at
 nfosphere. Miss Kerfoot told of great
 shipment of stamps, numbering 101.-
 00o,000, for San Francisco. where the
 fair crowds are swelling the mails with postcards and letters to the folks at
 home. "our latest order,r said Miss Kerr foot, ''is worth $1,s38,465. It will be
 distributed among 750 postoffices. Orders come to us every day, and we pack a daily average of 25, 5,000, 900. stamps, though we have been knowh to. pack as many as 205, DOG, 600 in single day. These numbers include coll stamps for the slot machines. books of stamps, as well as the regular sheets of different denominations. sssWe attend simply to. that end Of tho system which has charge of filling orders for postage stamps and sending
 over the country.
 i '.The orders themselves come to the nf1ce pf the third assistant postmaster general. where they are assembled and scnt down to me. Then I go over the l entire order. subdivide it into states and individual postoffices, and draw from the deposit vault the stamps re- 1 quired.
 "ope of my expert counters thee counts out enough stamps from those
 I have drawn to i'll each separate orr 1 der An expert verifier verifies the count. In this way, after all of the in- 1 dividuai orders are filled. have one way Of knowing that my accounts are corr rect, for if the supply is accurately drawn each order will be exactly filled | and To extra stamps will be left over. "In opder to guard against theft while the stamps are en route to their 1 destination. we take precautions in | packing them which makes 1t impos- sfble te. fnolest a single stamp without detection. We stitch the sheets to- gether and staple them on the edges. 90 that no sheet may be torn away | without leaving perforated border of l. | | safeguard for the bureau, because the evidence would show that the theft had been made after the order left our department.
 These stitcfer sheets are bound to- gstheT and tied into packages which are wrapped and stamped on the out. side with the address they are being tsent to. Packages vary in size. The | largest that may be sent separately contains 100000 stamps. All above this number in any individual order ara sent in additional packages.
 | Then the packages are put in trucks and sent to the city postoffice, where they are registered. All the stamps are delivered as registered mail
 and pouched for shipment directly to the individual postmasters."
 l Miss Kerfoot is of that type of Amei ican woman which represents the new element in 10th century civiiiza- 1 tion-efficient feminity. She Is .all t business and has the energetic man | nor of one who works hard and yet manages to have good time out of it I To see her in her. department, she I seems to be lone of the feiiers." But l her merry eye may be deepended upcrl for cheer, and her countenance Is ever I lighted with enthusiasm.
 I She has grown up with the depart I ment and has seen the stamp output more than doubled Her first work was that of an apprentices assistant l and she has held nearly all of the po- sitions over which she now has super I vision