The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-07-16
WOMAN. STAMP
COUNTER HAS A
GREAT RECORD
She SuperWSeS Shipping OF
25,O00,000 Stamp a Day
without Error.

WASHINGTON, July 15.-Twelve
billion stamps! That is the size Of
last years stamp business handled by
the bureau of engraving and printing
1t was the largest ever.
Yet perhaps still more amazing is
this; The entire work of drawing the
stamps, balancing the separate or
ders and shipping them was carried
on under the supervision Of a woman
and, thanks to her efficiency, without
a single discrepancy.
Miss Margaret Kerfoot, chief Of the
division which fills and ships the or
ders to the $4,000 postofIices through
out this country, has been working in
the bureau for thirty-two years, and
her record for lack Of error is a mat
ter OF pride, not only to herself, but
also to Director Ralph.
In a large shippng-room, full OF
workers and with a warehouse atmos-
phere, Miss Kerfoot told Of great
shipment of stamps, numbering 1Ol,-
100000 for San Francisco whore the
fair crowd swelled the mails with
postcards and letters to the folk at
home.
"Our latest order" said Miss Kerr
foot, ~ls worth $1,93S,4O5. 1t will be
distributed among $50 postofEices'
How Orders Are Filled.
Orders come to us every day and
we pack a daily average of 25,OOO,OOO
stamps, though we have been known
TO pack as many as 2O5 100000 in a
single day. These numbers include
coil stamps for the slot machines,
books Of stamps, as we'll as the regu-
lar sheets Of different denominations.
1--WE attend simply to that end OF
the system which has charge OF filling
orders for postage stamps and send
ing them to the Dostofiices to be de-
livered over the country.
"The orders themselves come to the
office Of the third assistant postmast-
er general, where they arc assembled
and sent down to me. Then l go over
the entire order, subdivide It into
states and individual postofiices, and
draw from the deposit vault the stamps
required.
zone OF my expert counters then
counts out enough stamps for those |
have drawn to fill each separate or
der. An expert verifer verifes the
count. In this way after all Of the
individual orders are filed, | have one
way Of knowing that my accounts are
correct, for il the supply is accurate
" drawn each order will be exactly
filled and no extra stamps will be left
over.
Guarding against Theft.
an order to guard against theft
while the stamps are en- route to
their destination we take precautions
in packing them, which make it i'm
possible to modest single stamp
without detection. We stitch the
sheets together and staple them on
the edges. so that no sheet may be
torn away without leaving perfor-
ated border Of damaging evidence be-
hind it. This is a safeguard for the
bureau, because the evidence would
show that the theft had been made
after the order left our department.
"These stitched sheets are bound
together and tied into packages, that
are wrapped and stamped on the out
side with the address they are being
sent to- Packages vary in size. The
largest that may be sent separately
contains 100000 stamps. All above
this number in any individual orders
are sent in additional packages.
"Then the packages are put in the
trucks and sent 10 the city postoftice
where they are registered. All the
stamps are delivered as registered
mail, and pouched for shipment di-
rectly to the individual postmasters.
and fork.
watermelon cabarets will stay In
the southwest so long as the melon
supply holds out. And the best Of it
all is that physicians approve the dis
14-aItnA