Evening star., 1934-03-15

To he Editor Of The Star:
In these DAYS, when Government
bureaus are housed in large and mag
nificent buildings, and when every
facility for doing good and efficient
work is provided. wonder how many
In Washington-even in the postal
service-remember the Post Office Of
near so years ago. or realize what 1t
meant to be postal clerk" at that
period? Perhaps in this respect a
little ancient history may be interest
ing to your readers.
NY first Government work was in
the Post Office here G886-89), when
Frank B. Conger was postmaster, in
the Mailing Division, then under the
direction of H. P. Springer.
The old "Seaton House" facing
Louisiana avenue and reaching back
to C street, was then the Post Office
for the City of Washington! In
order to place this building in the
minds of the present generation I
will say that it was later known as
the Union Mission. This building
was in no way fitted for use as a
post Office, and it is a wonder that it
was selected for the purpose or toler-
ated by the people of the city.
The Mailing Division was, of course,
on the ground floor, the platform for
receiving and loading the mail facing
out on c street. AS l remember, our
room had no doors on that side, the
only protection from the weather in
Winter being curtains of old mail
bags hung over the openings. We
had one big set of wooden racks for
throwing off" the package mail and
one iron rack for the letter pouches.
Canceling the stamps-both on let
ters and packages-was all done by
hand, and was one of the jobs a new
clerk" might be given. On our side
a new man served his apprenticeship
dragging bags of mail until he found
out where to put them and learned a
scheme" so he might be trusted to
stick" letters in case or work in
side the rack. There were three
ClC"S, Mig C1silG ilOdl SoNAi, eA1S
night crew coming on at IL pm.
every night, the others alternating
each week the runs am. to 3 pm.
and pm. to IL pm. About the
time a fellow got used to one shift,
and worked 16 hours on Sunday ne
had to change over to the other. And
it was work We were in a run every
moment on duty, and then seldom
kept the floor clear of incoming de-
partmental mail. What we could not
handle was stacked during the week
and worked up in the little 16-hour
Cor more) stretch on Sunday
both crews ordered on for the job.
We we're rough-and-t tumble lot,
and had to be to stand up to what
was demanded. Constant study was
required to learn the various schemes
for distribution and keep up with
continual changes which each day
appeared on the blackboard 'for that
day only" Aside from mental quail
fcations, a fellow had to have physi-
cal stamina as well to handle the
heavy bags, and everyone who came
into that beautiful office did not
stand the strain. Often when a new
"clerk" came for me to break in"
when told to get busy and move few
wagon-loads of mail from the plat
form, asked: rs this what I've got
to do? I passed an examination for
clerk" When assured that for some
time this would be his job he threw
up the sponge-and quit. was sorry
for one little chap. I told him to tail
on to some sacks of documents and
get them inside. He took hold of the
cord of one and began to pull, but it
did not bulge. Then he walked over
to it to see If it was not caught on
nail or anchored In some way.
When he tackles it again he managed