The Columbia evening Missourian., 1922-02-07
MAIL CAR IS
A TRIUMPHOF
U.S.. INGENUITY
J. r. Williams, Veteran Mail
Clerk, Tells How Mail Is
Sorted and Directed
on These Cars.
COLUMBIA NOT ON ROUTE
Clerks Develop Great Skill in
Tossing Parcels Into
Respective Boxes
and Bags.

NO railway mail cars run 10 Colun
bia,' says Postmaster P. S. Woods. w
put all our mail into pouches and sack
and express it to Centrslis and McBain
where it is put into the railway ma
cars"
For one who has never been inside
railway mail car. il would seem as
everything is confusion. Sacks Of mai
lie everywhere. However. every bit o
space is utilized. These pouches con
.ain first class mail made up Of letters
registered and special delivery mail, whil'
the large sacks have paper and parce
post mail" explained J. r. Williams
who has been in the railway mail service
for twenty years. "The pouches are
handled by clerk who is generally in
charge Of the car. and who is respon.
sible for every piece Of mail after it has
once been put into the car. Sacks mark.
ed No. and No. are distributed frs,
as they are for towns and connections
along the line that We will soon reach.
Those marked No. 3 are for more distant
points and are distributed later"
QUICK DISTRIBUTION PROVIDED
The distribution tables are full to over
flowing with papers and packages. "All
first class mail is handled in the railway
posioffice at the front Of the car" con-
tinued Williams, 'and is distributed in
the little pigeonholes before the clerk.
each one containing mail for some train
or postoffice. The thirty-foot mail cars
have from 300 to $50 such boxes. the long
siNiy-foot or full-leng,h cars have 700
boxes, while some Of the mail cars on
the through mail trains have such dis.
,ribution boxes all around them. Every
detail has been worked out for the quick
distribution Of letters. papers and parcel
post mail.
The table in front Of the clerk in
charge is full of neatly tied packages of |
letters he pointed out. Each is labeled |
with the train from which il comes and /
contains the name Of the clerk in charge
OF mail on that train. The packages con-
tain from two to about a hundred letters. I
The clerk must know the fastest routes by
which these letters can reach their desti.
nation. When the boxes get full the let.
tiers are taken out, tied into neat packag.
es and are thrown into sacks hanging
behind the clerks. "The openings in the
sacks, through which the mail is thrown,
are about ten inches wide. II is a real
art TO throw papers and packages into
these sacks ten or twenty feet from where
the clerk stands. The accuracy Of the
clerks in throwing mail is amazing. but
when they miss the right sack. they Just
stop their work, hunt out the mis-thrown !,
parcels, and put them into the correct
sack"
'On Saturday nights and Sunday. the
mail clerks have the Sunday editions Of
Inc daily papers 10 handle. They arc
wrapped in large packages, each securely
led, and labeled outside This means ,
hat they are not to be pun into sacks and
'ent through the postoffices. but are to
De thrown off at the proper stations so the
PAPER boys can get them at the train and i
leliver them"
Mr.. Williams said that 'racking out q
lime comes when the train nesrs its termi-
'al. Every sack must be taken out.
abcled and piled in the proper place to v
20 TO The terminal postoffice or make the &
roper connections with other trains. The
1crtc han- =. |