Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, October 04, 1903, EDITORIAL SHEET, Page 18, Image 18
r 18 THE OMAITA DAILY BEE: SUNDAY, OCTOTJETt 4, 1003. ." K. v .y ?K '"N '"V. .v ."V .V v V ."v .v .V .y .v ."s. ."V S CN "ZS t"Vs 'N. S. . 'S. .V V ."v .v ;v .""V ."v 2V 22 . fTlrj sr y Jf v ' 40? j? 'nS 'jr .r ij? X Aro Cordially Invited to Inspect Iho Greatest Brewery In the West and tho Homo of tho Famous rORZ BLUE BBON R ft" as AY (is (is (is t (is (is The Beer Brewed by STORZ BREWING CO. la famed for its absolute purity, strengthening quali ties and exquisite flavorl Unexcelled by any other beer stands Storz (is A (is (is Blue ft THE & HT Th T? IS V TELEPHONES METHODS OF MOVING. MAIL Erery Knows Means Employed to Faoili tat Prompt Dispatch and Deliyery. TRACING THE LETTERS AS THEY GO 4alelc Bands, Sharp Ern, Trained Minda avnd Aatomatle Machlnerjr Im. Itrtaaoii Action Th Old avnd tha New Ways. Perhaps It la about t.BO when Mr. Brown mergea from hla ofHc. on tha fourteenth f.oor of the blc ikyacraper In lower Broad way, write. Earl Mayo In tha Outlook. U.ually be leavea an hour or more earlier than this, but today he has delayed to pen an Important personal message to a busi ness associate In Ban Francisco. Finding the quiet of the ofllc. conducive to thla ex ercise, he has continued It by writing to his : brother, who live, on the old home farm among the Chautauqua hills of western New York, and to the proprietor of a little hotel up In the Adirondack wilderness ar ranging for hla aummer outing. As h. steps Into th. corridor h. drop, the three letter. Into the glass-fronted chute that lead, from top to bottom of the big building, and they .Up swiftly out of sight. tHla part In the Important matter of com- isnunlcatlng with three widely separated actions of the country I. completed, and J be give, no thought to the effort that will be expended and the many activities that (Will be called Into nlav In rarrvtnir nut tha remainder ef the undertaking. ' Before the elevator ha. had time to re-1 i .pond to the waiting man'. Impatient ring ith. three letter, are reposing In a big steel jnall box In the lower hallway of the build ing. Five or perhaps ten minute, later the box la emptied by a perspiring postman, whose leather pouch Is already overflowing iand who la forced to find room In hi. I pocket, for some of the mall that he take. out. In thla part of the city there are ! twenty-seven mall collection, between 7 In the morning and 11 at night. During the rush hours at the close of the business day I these collection, are made at Intervals of fifteen and twenty minutes, and even then it la difficult for the carrier, to handle all the mall. By 8:40, while Mr. Brown I. journeying homeward on the elevated train, hla letters re dumped upon a long table in the big gray poatofflce building on the south aide of Printing House square, forming part of a white avalanche that ha. been pouring In from the drop., the carrier, and the spoclul messengers from the big offices for three hours, and that threaten, momentarily to engulf the crowd of clerk, who are working desperately to reduce It. proportions. Canceling- the Stamps. Bom. of these clerk, are rapidly gathering up the envelope, that lie before them In an Indiscriminate heap, and arranging them In order, all standing on their .Idea and all facing the aame wayt Then they are carried to the receiving table of a busy little con trivance that huma like a sewing machine while It I. In operation and la aomewhat like ne in .Is. and shape. This 1. the automatic canceling machine. The letter, are fed Into It from the receiv ing board by swiftly revolving rubber wheels. They pass through one at a time, but with such swiftness that the eye can not follow them, and In the process each tamp I. canceled and the postmark Is tamped upon each envelope. In mora primitive day. all letter, were postmarked and all stamps canceled by hand .tamping machines, a. ts .till done Jo rural office. Thl. required two distinct operation, (or each tatter, and th limit Ribbon EVER INCREASING SALBS, U7JJC1 ONE MILLION Brewery, 171; Bottling Dept., 1260. of accomplishment for a rapid clerk wa. from 1,600 to 1,800 letter, per hour. The canceling machine, which la operated by electricity and require, a single clerk to attend It, eat. up 80,000 letter, or 40,000 postal. In an hour, and there are no un canceled .tamp, or Indistinct postmark, on the letter, after they have passed through It. There are fourteen of these machine. In the main pout office In New York, and dur ing the closing hour, of th business day they are worked to their full capacity to cope with the flood of mall that is pouring In from all directions. During thla rush period these machine, are handling the mall at tha rate of over 250,000 piece, an hour. Routine; the Letter.. From the canceling machine, th letter, are carried to what la called th primary separation table, wher th first step In the process of sorting out the different letter, and .tartlng them properly on their various journey, take, place. Th primary aeparatlon table, ar. faced by pigeonhole cases made up of compart ment, about a foot square. Space la left between the table and the case for th clerk, to move about. Beneath each com partment Is pasted a printed slip bearing the name of aome city, state or group of state.. The classification is made accord ing to the amount of business, so that while Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago have each a box, and New Tork .tat ha. two, there are groupa of a half-dosen dis tant state, which have only one. The clerks take up the letter. In armful, and run hastily through them, glancing at the lower line of the address on each. and pitch them rapidly Into the proper com partments. 'The lettera fly through th air like th flakes of an April .nowstorm, and It seem. Impossible that .tha clerks can read the Inscriptions on tha envelopes, so swiftly do they work. Every few minutes, while this Is In prog ress, other, clerks come and empty these compartments, bearing the content, away to other table, for a more complete dis tribution. For Instance, one clerk gathers up all th letter. Intended for point. In the state of New Tork and carrle. them to the New York separation case; another takes those for Pennsylvania; another those for the division known aa "south and west." A large part of the .pace on the ground and basement floors of the New York postofflce Is given up to these separa tion cases, which are crowded together a. cloBely as possible, so that they form perfect labyrinth and leave .carcely room for the employes to move about. Each of these separation cases 1. like the one first described, except that the compart ments ar .mailer and far more numerous. There 1. a pigeonhole for each Important postofflce In each division, while those less Important are grouped under th route, by which they are served What Clerk. Mast Know. What It mean, to be an efficient .epara' tlon clerk may be Imagined when It is said that there are 6,500 offices In th state of Pennsylvania, and the clerk. In this sec tion; must know th location of all these offices and the routes by which they are reached, gome of th division, are larger even than this. Until recently the "South aud West" case, the largest In the New York postofflce. Included 12. St different of flees. It waa found that this division wa. too large and that the clerk, were not equal to the mental .train of carrying thl. tremendou. number of names and locations In their mlnda. The caa has been sub divided, and the largest of the present divisions Includes about 7,500 offices. At their work the separation clerks stand a few feet back from th. case, and throw In th. letter, a. fast as they can read the addreasea, Ktr an experienced clerk the average la from fifty to fifty-fir letter. SftJ a 5 . K BEST PfiOOF OP R F WT distributed per minute. This 1. rapid work and la the rat maintained during rush hours. Three or four clerk, work at each of th larger cases, and as they walk back and forth, flipping each envelope to Its proper compartment whllo .carcely looking up from the pile In their arms, the air is full of flying missive, and the scene 1. on of seemingly hopeless confusion. The men soon acquire an unerring aim, and It Is seldom that a letter goes into the wrong pigeonhole or overshoots It. mark, although clerk, constantly patrol the spaces before and behind the case, to pick up any that may fall on th floor. As the New York postofflce handle, dally about 3,0)0,003 piece of mall matter, and aa each of these piece must be properly separated by the method described. It will be aeen that this 1 no mall task. Tracing the Lettera. The three letters which we have traced thus far part company In the process of separation. Th. one directed to Ban Fran cisco goe. directly to the compartment at the primary Reparation table devoted to that city. Tha others are taken forward to one of the secondary cases and then distributed to two of th railroad postofflce routes. A. th. clock moves on the clerks work more and mora rapidly. At length the heap, on the receiving tables ceuse to grow; then they diminish, and finally the tables are swept clear of envelopes, which now are all In th separation case, or on their way outward bound. The first mail train by which our three letter, can leave tho city depart, from th Orand Central station at 8:14 p. m. It Is now 7:50, and time to begin "tylng out" the mall for this train. In tying out th clerks place on top of each bundle a "facing .Up," marked with the name of the route to which It Is assigned, and wrap It about with cord. All the bumlles going by a certain route are then thrown Into a big basket together and are trundled away to th' pouching canes, where they are put lifto pouchea and loaded upon one of the big mall wagons waiting to convey them to the train. In this particular case, however, our letters have a more rapid mean, of transit than the lumbering mall wagon. Conse quently It 1. possible to wait about twenty minute, longer for any further letters that may come In. Then, at S:0, the final tie- out occurs. All th letter, that are to go by thl. particular train ar wheeled in baskets to another part of the basement, where i. the terminus ot the pneumatic tube which leada underground to Station H, one block from the Grand Central station and three and one-half miles uptown. The pneumatic tube system Is one of the modern appliance, for facilitating the movement of the malls. The main line In New York consists of two parallel pip passages eight Inches In diameter, through which shells not unlike those used In an eight-Inch gun ar shot. Th shells hold about a half bushel of letter, each, are tightly sealed by screwing on a metal cap and are made to fit closely In the tubaa by band, of aolid rubber encircling each end. They are driven by compres el air and re fed Into th tubes by an automatic apparatus which regulates their departure at Intervals of fifteen seconds. The tube rairle. mall at th rat of thirty mile, an hour, and In seven minutes our letters are at Station II, having covered a distance that would have required forty minutes by the old system ef wagon trans portation. At Station II the mall received through the tube I. pouched that la, the letters are put In baga. each marked with the route to which It 1. ..signed. Wagon, hurry it around to th. railway station, and a few minute, after I o'clock It la loaded upon th. TJTB GOUDKBSS TP? 1? I JTAVJB NOW OVERREACHED THE ENORMOUS FIGURES OB BOTTLES PER MONTH train which 1. to bear It on th next .tag of Its Journey. . The first of the three letter, repose. In the San Francisco pouch. It will speed across the continent a. fa.t as .team can turn the wheels, and will never leave the mall bag until tha last stage of Its Journey, when the Ogden & San Francisco railway postofflce will make a further subdivision of the mail Intended for different section, of the latter city. ' It 1. mailed In New York on Monday evening, and complete, it. 3,000-mile Journey In almost exactly four days, an average rate of travel of a little more than thirty mile, an hour for the whole distance, not allowing for atop, and transfers. It I. sent direct to th station from which It 1. to be delivered, wher It 1. .tamped with th receiving postmark, assigned to the proper carrier, route, and goe. out In the first delivery on Saturday morning, or. If It bear, a special delivery tamp, by messenger on Friday evening. Work la Postal Cards. The second letter I. In a pouch consigned to the New York and Chicago railway poat offlce. A. soon a. tha train pull, out of tha station tha railway mall clerk, begin open ing the different pouches, taking them In order, those for the nearest station, and Junction point, betng assorted first. Th work I. very much Ilk that of tha clerk, we have previously watched In tha New York postofflce. Everything move. Ilk clockwork.' Pouch after pouch I. emptied upon the table.. The letter, ar sorted out, tied up Into bundle., and put Into other pouchea. At every stop on or more of these la thrown off and other, taken on, the content, of which must be Immediately sorted, because aome of their letter, may be Intended for the next stopping point. It menns lively work sometimes, and there Is constant. Intent, hard work through all the first part of the trip. Later on the tension will slacken somewhat, and aome of th clerk, may even be able to anatch a half hour', sleep. At many station, where no stop Is made a bag Is thrown out a. tha train thunder, past th station, th. Iron hook known as tha mall catcher 1. brought Into play, and a pouch come, .winging Into the car while the traveling postofflce goes rushing on with no slackening of It. fifty miles an hour. The letter In which we are particularly Interested goe. through the same treatment a. the others. After the last stop before Buffalo Is passed, and It Is certain that there is no more mall for Its particular route, It I. tied with two or three fellow. In a package bearing a .Up with the nam of a certain Chautauqua town, and placed In a pouch tagged for a railway Una ex tending out of Buffalo. Arrived in that city It I. hurried across the station to another train, on board which It 1. again removed from the pouch and put Into another one, which is presently thrown out upon a station platform, carried away by a waiting messenger to th local post office, .tamped, given over to th car of a young man, who placea It with many other. In a light wagon, and drive, away to the home of Farmer Brown, five mile, out In the country, where It 1. delivered at 1 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. It has traveled a distance of 476 mile. In about lxteen hours, which Is a rat of speed al most equal to that of the transcontinental letter. These example, fairly Illustrate the oper ation, of the postofflce, the method, by which It. ordinary routine I. performed, and th varying facilities for reaching dif ferent points In its system. The poetofftce Is a great business institution, and is con ducted on business principle. That ia to say, It affords the best service where there Is th most business, the most demand. But it aise affords an efficient service where the demand is alight, and where th return, from mail operation, do not begin to pay the cost. In thl. respect It la administered aa a public utility, and does work which It AJVD POPHLARITy OP 7R? 7R D) A7 7R would not do If conducted by private capi tal. Extent ot the Business. Some Idea of the extent of the business transacted by the United State, postofflce may be gained from the fact that last year lta recelpta amounted to over 1121,000,000, while It. expenditure, were about 13,000,000 greater. Of second-class matter alone the postofflce handled last year nearly 250,000 tons. A. the result of some observation, mad about flv year, ago, it wa. esti mated that the average dlstanca traveled by each piece of mall matter waa 828 miles. To carry a letter over 300 mile, to any point In tha country for t cents, and to transact a business of over 1120,000,000 with a net loa. of only 2V4 per cent. Implies a highly effective organization. The efficiency of th postofflce depend, largely upon th rapidity with which. It. work 1. done. It 1. natural that In thl. respect ther ha. been a steady advanco keeping pace with th Improvement In the railway facilities of the country. Th most Important phase of thl. Improvement. 1. apparent only from a careful study ot the schedules In th various division head quarters, and 1. quit unnoticed by th general public Wa marvel when it Is an nounced that five or ten or fifteen minute, has been cut off the transcontinental trip, but what Is of mora real importance 1. th. saving of fifteen or thirty mlnv.tes In the time required by the average letter In traversing It. average course of 300 miles. It 1. in thl. direction that the most Im portant recent Improvement, have been made. Th actual movement of mall, between Important business centers Is not likely to be made more rapid in th. immediate future. Many practical railway men be lieve that their line.. In the keen rivalry for business and for the advertising It brings, have overdone tha fast mall train business. They hold that the heavy ex pense of operating chess fast trains, the Interference with freight traffic and the los. through tha frequent imposition of government fines for failure to com up to schedule requirement, make the operation of these contract, a positive source of loss to the roads In times of great freight con gestion like the present. There is a move ment on foot among aome of the western railway manager, to decrease the speed of some of th fast mall trains, and, whilo thl. Is not likely to be done, ther prob ably will be na Increase in the immediate future. The chief delay. In the transmission of mall at the present time arise through It. lying In the mall box awaiting collec tion, through It. lying in the postofflce awaiting the departure of trains, through its lying at Junction points awaiting train connections, through Its lying at terminal point, awaiting delivery. In other words, while th mall 1. actually In transit, whether by carrier, pneumatic tube, trolley, train or free delivery wagon. It moves at the highest practicable rate of speed. The room for greatest improvement ilea in clos ing up th gap. Indicated above, In provid ing for moi frequent and rapid collections and deliveries, more rapid movement In the short haula and the substitution of me chanical device, for hand labor whenever possible In handling th mall. Trolley a. a Factor. One Important factor In the Improvement of mall transportation Is the trolley. It gives quick and .regular service between the big cities and suburban town, not ao easily reached by the .team roads. It saves time In transferring malls between offices and railway stations and between Junction points. For Instance, between Council Bluffs and Omaha, on opposite side, of the Missouri river, where much through a well a. local mall Is transported, the use of electric lines ha. resulted In a, gain of from fifteen to twenty minute. In getting STORZ BREWING CO, Own twenty-four Refriger- ator Cars which are con stantly distributing their product to all parts of the West. Wherever you go you find torz Blue Ribbon Take Sherman Avenue Cars letter. Into the hand, of th persons to whom they are addressed. In many other place, a similar saving I. effected and there are now over 300 electric car mall route. In operation. It seems likely that In time the electric lines will do away very largely with the comparatively slow wagon service and will take a large part of the short-haul business from tha steam roads. They have the advantage of greater economy, for the cost of trolley carriage per mile 1. Just about one-half that of the regular railway servloe. In the perfection of mechanical devices for tha handling of malls there Is a field for the. Inventor to which considerable at tention Is coming to be paid. For example, a work that requires several clerks In the New York postofflce Is the arranging of letters so that all shall face In one direction ready for the. canceling machine. A de vice has Just been perfected which, while Intended for us In business offices rather than In tha postofflce, will do away with this part of the work. This Is an auto matic sealer, Into which unsealed letter, are fed a. In the manner of the canceling machine. The apparatus moisten, tha flap., seals them down and delivers the letter. arranged In order ao that they may be tied together and taken In this shape to th office, thus saving one step In th work performed there. Another automatic device which the Postofflce department Is now testing Is a box for special delivery letter. In which one may drop a letter by Inserting a dime In a slot in lieu of a special delivery stamp. Collections are made from these boxes by special messengers at frequent Intervals, thus saving considerable time. Testing Improvements. For ome tlm past the' government lias been testing a machine intended for use in tha offices of business concerns that send out a large amount of mail. This machine seals the letters as already described, and also stamps and postmarks them so that when delivered to the postofflce It will hit necessary only to go through th operation of sorting them before they are forwarded. The machine keeps an exact record of the number of letters passing through It, and if adopted the plun would ba for th users to make a regular accounting to th post office authorities at dally or weekly Inter vals for the auma due In postage. Such a contrivance, of course, would be used only by Arms sending letters in large quantities. It Is possible that the general adoption of the machine described above and the ex tension of the pneumatic tube service may make possible the delivery of mail from the big office buildings and from sub-stations convenient to the general puCllc direct to the postofflce. already postmarked and can celed and ready for the separation clerks. There Is no branch of the publio service mor efficient or more arduous in Its re quirement, than the work of the postofflce. Th carrier, make their round, bearing heavy loads and exposed to all kinds of weather. The employes in the railway branch of the service pursue their work at Irregular and broken hour, and under con stant pressure. They have not even the assurance that if, as has happened in many cases, they lose their lives In the course of duty, provision will be made for their fami lies. The office clerks work at high pres sure and with the necessity of having ail their faculties alert at all times, often, es pecially In the older offices, under condi tions that are unsanitary and that make the efficient performance of their duties al most impossible. Chamberlain's tolls, cholera ad Diarrhoea Remedy, Th uniform success ef thl. preparation In th relief and cur of bowel complaint, ha. brought It Into almost universal use. It never fall, and when reduced with water and aweetenad 1. pleasant to take. It U equally valuable for children and adult. VI? 7P 7F? 1? Direct to Brewery. OCT OF THE ORDINARY. The surplus of the Western Union Tele graph company ha. risen, as shown by the report Just Issued, to (13,619,000. Out of the 13,500,000 people In Mexico less than 2,000,000 can read, though the first printing pres. in the world wa. set up In Mexico. An economio census of the town of York, England, showed that 23.000 out of the 70.000 inhabitants live habitually below the starvation line. Morgan and the Standard Oil alliances control no less than 1205.000,000 of the $451, Oou, u of the banking capital Invested In the city of New York. Exploration of the Yenisei and Obi rlvera of Siberia, which empty into the Antarctic ocean near Nova Zembla, has shown them to be navigable to ocean steamers for a distance of nearly 1,000 miles. The army is to have an entirely new MJ.ntLof nel1 "una and "l"e guna, which will be of a pattern different from any weapons hitherto employed in the service They will be of the quick-fire kind and will shoot twenty times as fast as the guns now in use. They can throw twenty ex ploelve shells In a minute. The Brooklyn firm that recently pur chased Shamrock I, the first of Sir Thomas Upton a challengers for America', cup, announce their intention to convert it Into a, schooner for trading purposes. After being remodeled it will run between. New York and South American ports, carrying sci apiron rather degrading work for a boat that one tried to lift th Interna- wonai cup. The recording of a deed In Charles Mix county, South Dakota, has brought to light two unique Indian names. The deed wa. executed by Orover Cleveland Surrounded and hi. wife, Julia Wauhdi wanyaghlnwln, member, af what Is known as the Yankton tribe of Sioux Indians, who under a recent act of congress were permitted to sell some or the land which had been allotted to them and their relatives year, ago by the government. Harry Warner of Aurora, 111., wa. con victed in the federal court at St. Joseph, Mo., of using the malls to operate a game of fraud, lie Is known over the country as the "egg man." His specialty is to se cure consignment, of eggs from farmer, and decamp with the proceeds of the salo. lie was sentenced to four month. In Jail and to pay the costs, wnich will amount to KM). The profits of the Minnesota state fair this year were more than I71.IMJ. The total receipt, were :W,000 more than last year. The report of the board of managers at the fair grounds showed that the total receipts were U11.43C.85, and the disburse ments IM0.fnt. i;st year the total receipts . were $tS0,9o.06. Total paid admissions this your nmounttd to 182.tMi, making an in creased attendance over last year of 13.000. In the matter of complimentary tickets the board cut them down 9.fi0 under last year. Still, more than 63,000 people saw tha fair free of charge. MILWAUKEE. The cost of production bas always been a seoondaty consklivatlon. The rsrr choicest of every component part of the Blatz brews Is the Invariable rule. Expert Judges of barley and bops are engaged In coutractlnic months In advance of the demands, and only the bout of Mother Earth's crop Is ever considered. Alwayi Ih sumegood old Dla'.t BLATZ MALT-VIVINB (Ne Intox) TONIC VAL. BLATZ BREWING CO., Ullwiokei Omaha Branch 1412 Douglas Bt. Tel. 1081 Kb