Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-18
Enfntttg Gfrat

This food distribution is going
to entail endless labor upon the
| postal employees" said Postmaster
Frank c. Sites to-day, land l beg
of the public to be as kind and con-
siderate of them as the circum-
stances warrant"
Take the mail carrier, for ex-
ample" he continued. THE blanks
will be distributed by him Tuesday
TO any person desiring them. Then
he must collect them, at the same
| time taking the money to the exact
amount on the slip. No checks will
! be allowed. That means everybody
should have the exact change ready,
for the carrier will have no fund
with which to make change if un-
| even amounts are offered. In order
to be sure that he is not receiving
less money than the amount OF the
bill he must add up the columns, see
that the total tallies with the cash
iE hand and then mako the return
to the local offices. He must be
very accurate for any shortage that
occurs he must make up.
That part being done and the
orders all on file. they must be
checked again by the clerical force
in the office and the cash and the
orders forwarded to Philadelphia.
And then the real fun will begin,
for our comparatively small force
here, already crowded to the wall,
must take over the stupendous labor
of distributing the innumerable big
and little packages when they begin
to arrive. This would not mean so
much if it were not in addition to
our own regular business, which Is
keeping everybody on the hump.
|
Few people know the extent of
the Harrisburg postoffice business.
For example, there was shipped here
for redistribution last spring tweu-
ty-two carloads of catalogs. or
course not all or nearly all of these
were distributed in Harrisburg, but
all the bags had to be checked over
here and sent to the other towns in
this district to which they were as
signed. Then there is the matter of
automobile tags, considerably over
100000 for the present year to date
and still going strong. The postage
stamp and supply sales for the Har-
risburg postoffice were larger in
amounts for the first five days of
August this year than for the same
period last year, notwithstanding
that both stamps and postcards are
q cent each lower than they were
then. The business here is grow
ing rapidly. 1 just saw an incident
that not only illustrates the growth
of the business but also how mail
matter often is delayed in ways the
public could prevent. A clerk from
a nearby store came to Third and
Walnut streets, where there is n
mail box for the accommodation of
street car passengers who alight
there in large numbers, and dumped
= into it a whole armful of mail that
might have gotten out of Harrisburg
two hours sooner if the clerk had
carried it across the street to the
postoffice."
IT have been all over the United
States" said Warren r. Jackson,
secretary of the Harrisburg Chamber
of Commerce." and l never saw a
l cross dog sign in front of a house
2 until l came to Pennsylvania.
= have often wondered whether these
signs are mere bluffs to frighten
= off peddlers and tramps or whether
l they breed in this State a particular
r ly savage variety of canine"
l II wish" said f. Fred Rowe, of
the Mt. Pleasant Printery the other
/. day." that the Government would in
t clude salt pork in it's list of grocery
specials for sale through the post
OlllSG. 6CI dDSOluISly Huh6ES lOl
5 salt pork and there isn't a butcher
: or grocer in the city who keeps it.
} Odd, too, when you think of the
: number of Harrisburg people who
: once lived in the New England
= States, where a plate of beans and
slab of salt pork constitute one
of the staples of life. One day /
S asked a grocer il he ever ordered
:, it and he said yes, he did have an
S eight pound piece in stock one time
! but he sold only two pounds and
f the remainder spoiled. But 1 think
D that salt pork might be made very
e saleable product with a little edu-
9 cation"
II think you are right" spoke up
= another man in the party. 1T wasn't
so many years ago since we looked
= down upon bacon-'f1itch we called
S it in those times-as food fit only
=. for the very poor and when we
= wanted to give anybody a particu-
larly degrading name we called him
i a fitch eater" than which there
e was nothing lower. And now our
S people complain bitterly because the
4 price is up out of sight and the army
D supply in the fire houses is brought
e up before anything else offered. It's
8 all a matter of taste and education,
] and maybe we will come to look
r upon salt pork by and by just as
we do now of bacon"