HOW A RAILWAY EARNS ITS PENCE 349 



the delivery sheets. On these he must carefully 

 record any charges to be paid by the consignee, 

 or, in the case of a prepaid parcel, he must 

 ascertain the distance it is to go, lest the des- 

 tination is beyond the company's free delivery 

 limits. In that case the parcel is handed over 

 to a suburban carrier, an extra charge for de- 

 livery being specified accordingly. Then the 

 parcels are given to the carmen, who, after 

 delivering them, will hand over to the cashier 

 the money they have collected. The cashier 

 will make his records in the books he keeps, and 

 the papers will pass on to the accounting clerks, 

 who will have to make up the summaries and 

 abstracts against each of the stations from 

 which the parcels in question have been con- 

 signed. 



Most people, I should imagine, would think 

 that by the time a railway company had done 

 all this — in addition, be it remembered, to carry- 

 ing the parcel — it had well earned the few pence 

 it charged. They will, also, understand more 

 readily the force of my suggestion that there is 

 but a small scope for profit for a railway com- 

 pany in this small -parcels business, however 

 willing they may be to extend it in the interests 

 of agriculture. If. again, the reader will en- 

 deavour to realize the amount of trouble in- 



