Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1885 — A GREAT POSTOFFICE. [ARTICLE]

A GREAT POSTOFFICE.

What a “Smash" la, and Howlt la Handled. While the rush of New York's outgoing mail is' at its height, and men are working tooth and nail to make some progress against the inundating flood that comes in from the business houses, the rumble of heavy wagons comes faintly in through the open doorways at the northern end of the building and a growl of pardonable profanity passes around among the hard-worked men as they think of over 100,000 extra pieces suddenly to be dumped upon their hands. This is a ‘‘smash" in the vernacular of the postofiice. It is break in the levee to the inhabitants ot a Mississippi town, and can be conquered only by the most herculean efforts. It differs from the western flood chiefly in the frequency of its coming. It is at such times as this that the splendid efficiency of the New York postoffice is shown to perfection. The magnificent spectacle of a regiment of trained men working together with the precision of clock work, and a keen intensity which causes great mountains of paper to dwindle away into a thousand receptacles, is worth going a great ways to see. But few are privileged to see it. The postoffice is a hard nut to crack. It is a nut with two shells. All can penetrate the outer husk, but when it comes to cracking the inner shell, the penetralia of this hive of industry, one must have uncommon good luck to make a success of it. Exactly how big ai “smash” it would take to overwhelm the office is one of those problems that have never yet been solved, for the reason that the office has always come out triumphant from the severest trials. Considering that the daily average of pieces handled is two and a quarter millions, and that the run of mail matter is always more or less irregular, the working force At the disposition of Postmaster Pearson must of necessity be large and flexible —that is to say, some must be qualified to move from one place to another whenever stress comes upon a particular department. But when, on the contrary, the constant pressure of the regular work is brought into consideration one cannot help wondering that the office should be capable of performing one of the tremendous spurts which so frequently is recorded by it. It is safe to say that there is no busier spot on earth than this clearing house of Uncle Sam’s. No one can spend a couple of hours within the great rotunda and wonder that so many of the employes are cultivating shortness of sight and open spaces on the tops of their fiends. The ceaseless pulse of labor which beats there clay and night, week day and holiday, year in and year out, is enough to make the mere spectator dizzy. The bi postoffice is always busy. The first thing which happens to a piece of mail matter when it enters the office at either end, is the stamping of the day and hour upon it. This recoi'd is never omitted. It is the department’s badge of honor, for one can always see with what celerity his mail reaches its destination after it has once been branded withjtbe familiar “P. O. N. Y.” Next comes the distribution, so divided up into “large” and “close” assortments that the utmost speed is attained by several handlings. In the case of mails coming into town, as much assortment as possible has alread taken place. The bank letters, for instance, have been placed together, and they are always bundled first. This one department is no child’s play, for the Mew York banks receive from 2,00 J to 4,000 letters apiece every day. Then comes the separation of box letters from carrier letters, by distributing clerks of the highest degree of expertness, and then the more “close” distribution, either into the boxes of the different carriers or of the box tenants. If it be near the carrier hour of departure the clerks are concentrated upon their mail while the box delivery fills up the chinks of time between whiles. These are somewhat familiar processes, however, and do not need enlarging upon. —New York Herald.