Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1924-04-10
MIDNIGHT Mail
HITS DIZZY SPEED


mail between Chicago and Mime
apoIis on the Chicago & Northwest
ern railway via GAINESVILLE.
In the first place that train, "The
Fiery Streak Of the Midnight Hour" "
is one of the fastest in the middle
west. 1t makes the trip from Chi
cago to Minneapolis in 10 hours flat.
leaving the windy city at 10:40 p M.
and reaching it's destination at $3.50
a. m. The fastest,de luxe passenger
makes the same trip in II hours
and a half an average of eight miles
an hour slower.
At times, the speed Of the flyer
reaches 80 miles an hour. Beyond
Madison, it takes curves with such a
tremendous Roadway that the last
cars swing from side to side until
the uninitfated could swear they mad
left the rails.
Makes Six Stops
Usually there are about 10 cars
to the train, two 60-foot steel sorting
cars, two or three storage cars and
the balance express cars. Leaving
Chicago, the distributor cars carry
better than a hundred thousand
pieces of mail and more is picked
up at each of the six stops-Har-
ward, GAINESVILLE, Madison, Baraboo,
Elroy, and Eau Claire.
Seven clerks have the job of hand
ling this vast stack of letters ana
newspapers for Uncle Sans two cent
delivery system. Inside the sorting
cars are hundreds of pigeon holes
representing certain cities. The mail
comes jammed in large, heavy pouch
es that are piled in one part Of the
car. 1t is the duty of the mail clerks
to open these pouches and put the
mail in the proper boxes.
Sorting the Mail
To sort more than a hundred thou
sand letters-and somtlmes this num-
Der may be multiplied-in 10 hours
is a problem that would stagger sew
en- laymen were they not to be put
at it without any previous study
But these mail clerks, by years OF
the hardest kind of study, knew where
almost every postoffice is in the
United States and what railroad will
take a letter there in the most direct
route.
Sorting letters in a post office is
a routine matter when a clerk knows
how to bundle or pouch them. Pigeon
holing them properly on a train that
is cutting through the darkness OF
night faster than express train speed
is another thing.
1t is a hard enough task to throw
mali on an ordinary railroad mail
run. When the train is swaying Dc
cause Of roaring speed and when it
is Jerking while taking curves at 90
miles an hour or better, the clerk
is lucky to hold to his feet, not to say
put the letters in the right place. 1t
nights before he learns. how to balance
himself by setting his muscles to
overcome the movements Of the car
and learns how to prop himself
against the cases in order to work
with the least interference.
Mail Is Valuable
Some Of the mail for this train
comes already done up in packages
of, approximately 200 letters and
needs only to be thrown into the
right pouch. Other bundles must be
cut and distributed. In the usual run
of things, the seven men manage to
clean up all their work before they
get into Minneapolis. In others, where
the main is extremely heavy, they
complete as much as they can and
turn the balance over to the Minnea-
polls postoffice to complete.
A considerable amount Of this mail
is so valuable than delay would mean
the loss Of business for the concerns
that send it. Much of it is registered.
A large part of it is sent special de-
livery. When the bandit scare was
startling the country two years ago
each car and each door on this train
was carefully guarded by armed man.
While the working arrangements
for the men on the train vary, the
average is two round trips on and
seven days off-Janesville Gazette.
* 81 -
F. H. Horstman of Baraboo has
charge of a car on this train and
David Owen was on the run for seven
years.