Evening star., 1938-12-11
Network of Mail Service
Speeds Holiday Business
Machine.like Precision Gives
Prompt Deliveries From
Atlantic to Pacific

where men cancel them by hand
with rubber stamp.
Immediately after cancelling, the
mail gets its first sorting as to ad-
dress. In washington this primary
sorting is: Local, Virginia, West
Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland,
Delaware. Pennsylvania. New Jersey,
New York, North, South, West, for
eign, New York City, Philadelphia,
Wilmington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh,
Chicago and Richmond.
One of your cards Is going to
Aunt Matilda in Los Angeles, so
1t goes into the West case. Every
four or five minutes this case is
emptied Cat Christmas time), and
the West sorter gets your card into
the "California-South" case This
sorter knows when all trains for the
West leave, so half an hour before
train time he empties his case, plac-
ing the mail in sacks already labled
The sacks are now locked, placed
on an electric truck and wheeled
out to the adjoining station plat
form, where they are placed in the
mail cars. Your particular sack
will be placed on the bottom of the
pile, for it will not be touched until
it reaches Chicago Cor st. Louis or
New Orleans). At Chicago this sack
goes into a California bound train,
again at the bottom of the pile.
Reaching its destination, the sack
is opened, sorted to carriers. The
individual carriers then sort their
own mail in whatever way is most
convenient for delivery.
Now let's check back and see when
your card has to be mailed in Wash
ington If it is to be delivered on time
in Los Angeles.
Christmas falling on Sunday, your
card must arrive in Los Angeles
Saturday morning. Being Christ
mas time, there will be Saturday
afternoon delivery, so the LOS
Angeles Limited" arriving there at
$3.50 am, will do. That train leaves
Chicago Wednesday night. The last
train out of Washington to make
connections is the B. & Os Fort
Pitt Limited" leaving Union Station
Lookup for that train is at 11:20
pm. and it takes about half an
hour to clear letter through the
post Office. To be- on the safe side,
you'd better give them an hour.
Now unless you know where on
the collection route your corner mail
box is located land you have no
way of knowing) allow two full hours
from the time of pickup indicated
on your box for your mail to reach
the post Office. Tsree hours from
11:20 gives us 800 pm, which is
the latest your card can be picked
up and still reach its destination on
time. If your box is not emptied
before that time, be sure to do your
mailing to catch the next previous
pickup. That is. if you have a
pickup at 615 and another at $3.50,
you'd better catch the 6:15 on Tues.
day night.
Timetables being yours for the
asking, 1t Is easy enough to figure
out your mailing time for any place
IN the United States. Letter mail
arriving in any city before $40
O'Clock in the morning, will be de-
livered that morning Mail arriving
before 8 am. will be delivered that
afternoon. Mail arriving after that
hour will most likely have to wait
until next day.
We've given you an easy one to
figure on Los Angeles, for the Sec
ondary sorting here gets your Letter
into sack that will carry 1t to tso
city Of destination. To show you
how the railroad post offices work,
let us suppose that card is going
this time to Painted Post, N. Y.
The primary sorting gets 1t into
the New York case, and the New
York sorter knows that this little
town is on the Erie, between Elmiria
and Rochester, so he puts the card
in the r. p. O. case so marked. All
the mail in this case will be tied into
neat bundle, with slip with the
same marking on top. This bundle
will be placed In sack marked
"Penna. Wmspt. to Elmira," and the
sack placed In a mail car on the
Pennsylvania Railroad train to
Elmira.
Between Williamsport and Elmirs
the sack will be worked by the Rail-
way Mail Service men in that car.
At Baltimore. York, Harrisburg, Sum-
bury and Williamsport. and at the
towns between, other bundles so
labled will be received, and these
will all go into a sack that will be
marked for working on the Erie
Railroad north of Elmira. BY the
time the Erie train Is under way,
that sack win be dumped on q table
IN the car and worked; and in the
few minutes that it takes the train
to reach Painted Post all mail for
that town will be ready.
Parcel post packages take longer
to reach their destination than does
letter mail, not because they, are
neglected, but because they are
harder to handle. In all cases two
full days should be allowed to make
up for this difficulty in handling.
The greatest time saver in han
ding flrst-class mail is the sorting
en- route on the cars. But the space
IN these cars is too limited to per-
init handling packages, which must
be sorted at terminals. Thus q
package going to Painted Post would
be worked here, be unloaded from
the train at Elmira, and worked
again, thus missing the connection
there entirely. A package going tp
Los Angeles would DO placed In 4
(See MAIL, Page C-5J ~