The postal-clerk must know the various mail routes as familiarly
as he does the faces of his best friends. His car, with its tier
over tier of pigeon-holes, and its ranks of yawning mail-bags,
is to him no labyrinth of mysteries. His eyes are in his
fingers, and the skilful musician’s touch is not more accurate
than the aim of this wizard of the mail-car. The department
rules are exacting, and if an occasional error results from
the hurried manner in which the mail is thrown, in course of
distribution, it is sure to be detected by the next clerk into
whose hands the stray piece of mail falls, and a report of it
is at once sent to the division superintendent to be charged
against the clerk making the error. During a given year the
number of letters and other pieces of mail matter distributed
was 5,329,521,475. The number of errors made in handling this
vast quantity of matter was only 1,260,443. The number of pieces
handled for each error committed were 4,228, thus making the
percentage of correct distribution 99.98. All employees are
required to attest their skill by frequent examinations, and
for this purpose much of the leisure time of each is devoted to
studying the mail schemes of the various States attaching to
the division in which he is employed--JOHN M. BISHOP,
_Magazine of American History_.
(315)