3S8
��The Railway Mail Service.
��outstrips his lagging seniors and associ- ates in grade. As the train approaches a junction, preparations are made to " close out" that part of the mail to be delivered at that point, the sacks are tied, the tags or labels having been attached before starting. The clerks at the letter-case are rapidly taking the letters from the boxes tying them into packages, and separating them into piles, which are dropped into their proper pouches and locked, and so on until all is ready. Let us examine these packages of letters and at the same time describe the slip system. On the outside of each package for redistribu- tion, and also inside each direct pack- age, that is, containing mail for a single post-office, is placed a brown paper slip, or label, about the size of an ordinary envelope, bearing its address or destination, which may be that of a post-office, a group of post-offices sup- plied therefrom, and labelled "dis." (the abbreviation of distribution), or for a railway post-office ; this slip also bears the imprint of the name of the clerk who sorted into the package and is re- sponsible for its correctness, the post- mark with date, and a letter, as " N." for north, or " W." for west, indicating the direction the train is moving at the time. A similar slip is also placed loose in each pouch and sack.
The errors discovered in the packages of letters, or among the loose pieces in the pouches and sacks, are endorsed on the proper slip, signed and postmarked by the clerk in the railway post-office receiving it. These errors may be the result of carelessness, igno- rance, or misinformation : in the latter case, had the clerk been properly informed, perhaps a delay of half an hour or less might have been avoided if sent by some other route. These
��error-slips are sent each day enclosed in a trip report to the division superm- tendent ; if approved, the record is made, and the clerk in receiving the error-slip at the end of the month is informed of his mistake, and k is need- less to add that the error, if one of ignorance or misinformation, will not be repeated. This forms a part of the record of the clerk upon which to a degree his future advancement depends. The beneficial effect of this system as an incentive to study, care in distribu- tion, and a commendable rivahy, is indisputable.
The postmarks on the letters in the package in our hands show that they joined the current at a junction but a few miles past, and if the location of one of them is sought on the map, it is found to be an obscure hamlet on a remote stage route, by which it reaches the railroad, over which a single clerk in an office seven feet square, or less, per- forms local service, and which line makes connection with the through mail- train on the main road. The letters described are tied in a package with others, and a label slip placed thereon addressed to some railway post-office, perhaps hundreds of miles distant, which is reached unbroken through a many-linked chain of connections ; with this package are others for large cities which will be passed along intact to destination, and also letters labeled to railway post-office lines making con- nections in their turn. The pouches and sacks into which the packages of letters and papers are deposited will be received at the next junction into a railway post- office car, sorted and forwarded in the manner described. In many cases a mail is sent across by a stage route to connect a parallel line, and thereby feeding a new section.
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