POSTAL FACILITIES, RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN. 



685 



tion in 1860, In October, 1864, a post-office car 

 was used between New York and the National 

 capital. During November, the Chicago-Dav- 

 enport, la., and the Chicago-Dunleith, 111., lines 

 were equipped. On Jan. 17, 1865, the Chica- 

 go-Burlington, and Galesburg-Quincy lines 

 were established. On May 22, the Philadelphia- 

 Pittsburg was established. During the summer 

 all the principal railway lines leading out of 

 Chicago were fitted with post-offices on wheels. 

 The New York Central came next, and ran 

 postal-cars between New York, Albany, and 

 Buffalo. Aside from the two routes above 

 specified, no new lines were established in the 

 eastern part of the country for two years. 

 The growth of the project was at the West, and 

 it is on the Western lines that the railway post- 

 office is to be fouivd in its completest form. 

 The United States postal-car is divided into 

 sections, and pigeon-holed and pouched and 

 labeled to its fullest extent. The car has a 

 head clerk and a corps of assistants, each one 

 with specific duties. Skilled workers only are 

 employed, and accuracy of eye and hand, and 

 steady nerves are all-important. Stops are not 

 made at way-stations, but as the express goes 

 by, and a pouch containing the mail for that 

 station is hurled out with force enough to carry 

 it beyond the suck of the whirlwind created by 

 the speeding train, a "catcher" is let down, 

 and a sack of mail, hanging like an hour-glass 

 from the arm of the gibbet-like mail-crane 

 near the track, is deftly caught and whirled 

 within the door, and the assorting of the new 

 lot of matter received is added to the work al- 

 ready in progress. The catcher in use on the 

 railways is known as " Ward's Catcher." It 

 consists simply of a large V-shaped iron, fast- 

 ened securely to the inner part of the car, and 

 controlled by a strong handle fitted at right 

 angles near the apex. One arm of the V is 

 longer than the other, and when not in use, 

 the V hangs close against the side of the car- 

 door. The mail-pouch to be secured is tied in 

 hour-glass form and hung on a light " mail- 

 crane " built near the track, and so adjusted as 

 to be readily removed. An approach to a hang- 

 ing pouch is signalled to the postal-car by the 

 engineer with a peculiar whistle, when the at- 

 tendant seizes the lever, the short arm of the 

 catcher is turned in its bearings, the long arm 

 projects from the side of the car at an acute 

 angle, and the pouch is caught with a jerk 

 around the middle, the lever turned, and the 

 pouch secured. The catcher was first used on 

 the Baltimore- Washington line in 1865, and 

 worked satisfactorily from the outset. In the 

 British postal-cars a net is attached to the side, 

 which, by some complicated mechanism, is 

 supposed to open out and secure the pouches, 

 but it misses frequently. 



Prior to July 1, 1879, there was no separate 

 appropriation for railway post-office cars, the 

 cost for that branch of the service being in- 

 cluded with the cost of transportation ; but so 

 great and rapid was its growth, that appro- 



priations for steadily increasing amounts were 

 annually made, until $1,924,793 was required 

 in 1886. The great benefit that has accrued 

 from the introduction of the railway postal 

 service is shown by the fact that at the close of 

 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, there were 

 871 railway post-office lines, 4,512 railway 

 clerks, 435 whole cars, and 1,769 apartment 

 cars. During the year the total number of 

 letters and pieces of ordinary mail matter 

 handled amounted to 5,329,521,475 pieces. To 

 this must be added 15,525,998 registered pack- 

 ages, and 798,571 through registered pouches, 

 making a total of 5,345,846,044 pieces, large 

 ing small, handled while the trains were mov- 

 and at high speed. 



Distributing Post-Offices. In the days of stage- 

 coach and steamer traffic, the necessity for 

 prominent points where the mail for given 

 geographical areas could be reasserted, was 

 obvious. Central cities were selected, and all 

 mail for a given section was sent to the main 

 office, where the reasserting was done. For 

 all mail thus handled and passing through the 

 office, a commission of 5 per cent, (afterward 

 increased to 7 per cent., and then to 12$) was 

 paid to the postmaster. The system led to 

 great abuses. For instance, a peckage of 100 

 letters, on which the postage amounted to $3, 

 sent from towns in Ohio and destined for New 

 England, was first sent to Pittsburg for distri- 

 bution. They were subject to the commission 

 of 12 per cent., as well as delay, and when 

 the package reached New York, it was subject 

 to a second commission and delay, and when 

 it reached Boston, to a third, thus costing in 

 the way of commission alone, the sum of $2.25 

 out of the original $3. With the advent of the 

 railway post-office a remedy was found, and 

 the legend " D. P. 0." was officially superseded 

 by another legend, "Dis.," when distributing 

 post-offices disappeared, Jan. 26, 1880. 



Distribution. In order to facilitate the distri- 

 bution of large quantities of mail-matter, es- 

 pecially that intended for distant points, Gen- 

 eral Superintendent George S. Bangs, in 1871 V 

 devised the method of distributing the mail by 

 "States." In the accomplishment of this de- 

 sirable object, the mail for each entire State is 

 made up by itself, and dispatched direct to the 

 railway post-office line that can dispose of it 

 en route. For example, the mail for West Vir- 

 ginia would be distributed in the New York- 

 Washington railway post-office car ; the mail 

 for Mississippi in the Cairo-New Orleans rail- 

 way post-office car. So convenient had this 

 system proved that in 1872 Mr. Bangs sent a 

 special agent to the principal New York pub- 

 lishers and sought their co-operation in the 

 handling of newspaper mail. This was cheer- 

 fully given in the majority of instances, though 

 it frequently caused the inconvenience of an 

 entire change in the system of bookkeeping. 

 The enormous newspaper mail is now made up 

 in the publishers' offices, special bags being 

 provided, and the mail weighed in bulk. 



