Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1916-11-16
HANDLING OF MAIL
INTRICATE WORK
Each Letter Passes Through
Many Hands Before 1t
Reaches Destination.
SEPARATION IS BIGGEST JOB
Assortment Is Made First by Large
Districts and Then by States and
Cities to Which Missives
Are Addressed.

Uncle Sans mail service is a great
hopper into which millions pour their
sorrows, joys and achievements In the
form of letters and postals. In order
to dispatch these promptly to their
various destinations they must first be
separated. In the larger post offices
of the country, owing to the practice
Of business houses mailing the bulk of
their mail at the close of the day,
great congestion would occur in the
mailing division in handling the vast
quantity of mail were not some Sys-
tematic method of separation in opera
ton. Experts of the post Office de-
partment are now and have been for
some time engaged in revising the sep
aration schemes at the larger offices,
with view to lessening the handling
of the mail and bringing into use all
the latest and most up-to-date meth
DDS. The banker has coin-separating
device which mechanically sorts the
coins according to denomination the
| fruit grower has a device for separat-
ing his fruit according to size, but up
to date the postal service must depend
on human hands to separate the mails.
Letter Starts or Way.
Deposit letter in box in any east
ern city for dispatch to a western city
for example, Seattle, Wash. The
mail collector on foot takes 1t with
other letters from the box to a central
storage collection box in which other
foot collectors deposit their mail.
An automobile collector on regu-
lar schedule and circuit takes the full
bags from the storage collection box,
leaves empty bags in their place, and
proceeds to the central post office,
where the mail Is transported by
mechanical conveyor from the mail
platform to the "facing" tables, upon
which 1t is dumped in great heaps and
then 'faced'-that is the addresses
and stamps are placed in the same
relative position In order properly to
feed them through mechanical can
ceiling device at the rate of some 500
q minute.
From the canceling tables the let
tiers are conveyed in trays over a me-
chanical conveyor, similar to those
used in any modern department store,
to what are known as the primary
separation" cases; usually each case
has from twenty to thirty separators,
which, as the name indicates, is the
first separation given to the letters.
Letters for Seattle are thrown into
box labeled western states"
Separated Again.
From the primary separation"
cases the letters are again conveyed
mechanically to the final separation
cases, where a much larger force of
clerks gives the letters their final sep
aration for dispatch. Seattle letters
go to the western states" cases,
where mail for that section of the
country is separated and tied in pack
ages; packages for the larger cities
being made up separately. AS fast
as the Seattle box of each clerk work
ing the western states" cases is filed
1t is emptied and the letters tied in
bundles bearing a slip showing the
dispatching officer, date, hour of mail
ing, and the name and number of dis
patching clerk. If any letter for city
other than Seattle is found in the
package when 1t reaches its destina-
ton, the error is recorded on the slip
and is eventually charged against the
dispatching clerks record.
Bundles of letters for Seattle, If
sufficient In number, are placed in a
locked pouch and labeled direct to
Seattle, otherwise they are placed with
other bundles of letters for cities in
that state or locality in a pouch Ia
beled to the proper railway post Of
fice-another term for mail cars-for
another separation. Letters for the
smaller post offices in the state of
Washington are tied in packages la
beled washington state" and all such
packages Of letters are distributed on
the railway cars en- route, running
west and northwest from Chicago, and
dispatched to the proper connecting
mail trains for final delivery. Postal
clerks on mail trains, or railway post
offices, entering large cities just prior
or during delivery hours must be IA
| mlllar with the delivery systems OF
these large cities, so that all letters
may be distributed to insure prompt
delivery upon reaching the city post
Office.
Separated at Destination.
Undistributed packages of letters
for any city, on reaching the post Of
fee, are mechanically conveyed to the
city primary separation cases, where
not only these letters, but those
mailed for local delivery receive their
first city separation to station dis
tricts prior to the final separation by
other clerks to the various letter car
rier routes and general delivery box
sections of the office. The letters are
then distributed by the pOstman in
his pouch, and when he departs the
letters are arranged SO that the first