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LI  B  RARY 

OF   THL 

UNIVLRSITY 

Of    ILLINOIS 


383 

L85m 
cop .  3 


111.    Hist.    3ur 


Mail  by  Rail 


The  Story  of  the  Postal  Transportation  Service 


BRYANT  ALDEN  LONG 

Associate  Editor  Transit  Postmark 

with 

WILLIAM  JEFFERSON  DENNIS 

Author  of  The  Traveling  Post  Office 


SIMMONS-BOARDMAN   PUBLISHING  CORPORATION 

New  York 


First  Printing 
Copyright  1951,  by  Simmons-Boardman  Publishing  Corporation 


Design  and  Typography  by  Elaine  C.  Farrar 
Manufactured  in  the  United  States  of  America 


^ 


To  my  dear  wife 


:i 


CONTENTS 

FOREWORD    viii 

1.  STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN 1 

2.  A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY 14 

3.  "TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  50 

4.  FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN 47 

5.  VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  ...  81 

6.  TRANSIT  MAIL:  FROM  STAGE  TO  TRAIN 95 

7.  AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE 103 

8.  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE 118 

9.  PERILOUS  DAYS:  THE  ASSOCIATION  AND 

THE  BROTHERHOOD  137 

10.  AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL 169 

11.  THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL 205 

12.  R.P.O.S  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL 231 

13.  CANCELS  AND  CAR  PHOTOS:  THE  R.P.O.  HOBBY  254 

14.  ON  FAR  HORIZONS: 

I-THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.S 268 

15.  ON  FAR  HORIZONS: 

II-FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT 297 

16.  TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  324 

THE  MAIL  CLERK'S  WIFE  (A  TRIBUTE)  568 

TECHNICAL  NOTES  570 

APPENDIX: 
I.    CURRENT  R.P.O.S  OF  THE  U.  S.,  CANADA, 

AND  BRITAIN   386 

II.    BIBLIOGRAPHY     406 

INDEX    409 

vi 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Making  the  catch  at  Shohola,  Pennsylvania 

How  men  sort  mail  at  a  mile  a  minute 

Cross-section  of  an  R.P.O.  interior 

Unloading  the  Albuquerque  S:  Los  Angeles  Railway  Post  Office 

A  catch  out  west,  on  the  Santa  Fe's  Chief 

A  tiny  former  two-foot  gauge  railway  post  office  car 

A  typical  local  short-line  railway  post  office 

A  Postal  Transportation  Service  "terminal" 

Owney,  famed  traveling  dog  of  the  mail  cars 

New  York  World's  Fair  Railway  Post  Office 

Replica  of  the  original  Hannibal-St.  Joe  mail  car 

The  long  and  short  of  it 

Former  interurban  trolley  railway  post  office 

An  electric-car  railway  post  office 

Old-time  city  street  railway  post  office 

A  British  railway  post  office 

Clerks  at  work  on  a  British  Travelling  Post  Office 

A  Canadian  railway  post  office  train 

Railway  post  office  car  in  Germany 

The  flying  post  office 

Modern  highway  post  office 

A  famed  postal  streamliner 

The  ultimate  in  modern  postal  cars 

The  late  Smith  W.  Purdum:  beloved  ex-head  of  the  Service 

A  typical  steam  railway  post  office  train 


vn 


FOREWORD 


The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  tell  the  story  of  the  Postal 
Transportation  (Railway  Mail)  Service,  past  and  present. 
In  particular,  it  is  the  story  of  the  unsung  and  highly  trained 
men  who  expertly  sort  your  mail  and  mine  on  speeding 
trains,  day  and  night.  The  author  and  his  collaborator,  both 
of  whom  have  worked  in  this  Service,  are  eager  to  portray 
it  so  that  it  will  interest  everyone  who  mails  a  letter— as  well 
as  the  railfan,  the  R.P.O.-HP.O.  enthusiast  or  philatelic 
collector,  and  the  postal  transportation  clerk  himself.  Above 
all,  we  hope  thereby  to  improve  working  conditions  within 
the  Service  and  contribute  to  its  personnel's  welfare,  as  well 
as  to  more  efficient  postal  services  in  the  public  interest. 

As  the  first  general  descriptive  book  on  our  railway  postal 
services  to  appear  in  over  thirty-four  years,  this  work  is  based 
partly  on  its  small  predecessor  of  1916,  Professor  Dennis's 
The  Travelling  Post  Office;  but  it  has  become  a  completely 
new  and  vastly  expanded  volume,  covering  everything  from 
the  mighty  streamlined  Fast  Mail  trains  and  Highway  Post 
Offices  of  today  to  the  ghostly  white  street-car  R.P.O.s  of 
yesteryear,  even  though  maps  had  to  be  omitted. 

Young  men  interested  in  entering  the  P.T.S.,  new  substi- 
tutes, and  railway  mail  researchers  should  review  carefully 
the  Technical  Notes  and  Appendices  at  the  back.  The  great- 
est care  has  been  taken  to  insure  the  book's  accuracy;  but 
despite  intense  research  in  the  field,  libraries,  and  by  corre- 
spondence and  re-checking  of  data,  minor  factual  errors  and 
inadvertent  omissions  of  certain  facts  or  proper  credits  are 
all  too  likely  to  creep  in.  The  author  makes  no  pretense  of 
infallibility  and  will  appreciate  all  such  points  being  called 
to  his  attention  for  rectification  in  future  editions  and,  if 
warranted,  by  notice  in  appropriate  journals. 

A  major  share  of  recognition  for  outstanding  contributions 
in  the  preparation  of  this  book  is  due  to  the  following  mail 
clerks  and  officials  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  British 
Commonwealth:  Mr.  Clinton  C.  Aydelott,  Rock  Island  &  St. 
Louis  Railway  Post  Office;  Mr.  John  Brooks  Batten,  South 

viii 


West  Travelling  Post  Office;  Mr.  C.  E.  Burdick,  New  York 
&  Salamanca  Railway  Post  Office;  Mr.  LeRoy  Clark,  Office  of 
General  Superintendent  P.T.S.,  Omaha  1,  Nebr.;  Mr.  Owen 
D.  Clark,  New  York  &  Washington  Railway  Post  Office; 
Mr.  John  J.  Bowling,  St.  Louis  &  Omaha  Railway  Post  Office; 
Mr.  Frank  Goldman,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  Terminal, 
P.T.S.;  Mr.  Charles  Hatch,  St.  Louis,  Eldon  &  Kansas  City 
Railway  Post  Office;  Mr.  G.  Herring,  Director  of  Communi- 
cations, R.M.S.,  Post  Office  Dept.,  Ottawa,  Ont.;  Mr.  Dan 
Moschenross,  Toledo  &  St.  Louis  Railway  Post  Office;  Mr. 
James  Murdock,  North  Bay  &  Toronto  Railway  Post  Office; 
Mr.  Nilkanth  D.  Purandare,  Inspector  R.M.S.,  Retired, 
Poona  City,  India;  Mr.  Hershel  E.  Rankin,  Editor  Transit 
Postmark,  Memphis  'k  New  Orleans  R.P.O.;  Mr.  L.  Beau- 
mont Reed,  New  York  &  Pittsburgh  R.P.O.,  Retired;  Mr. 
J.  L.  Reilly,  Editor  Postal  Transport  Journal,  ex-New  York 
&  Chicago  R.P.O.;  Mr.  Ronald  Smith,  Editor  The  Traveller, 
Down/Up  Special  Travelling  Post  Office;  Mr.  Donald  M. 
Steffee,  New  York  &:  Chicago  Railway  Post  Office;  and  Mr. 
William  D.  Taylor,  North  West  Travelling  Post  Office. 

Equally  outstanding  credit  is  due  to  the  following,  not 
connected  with  the  Service:  Mr.  LeRoy  P.  Ackerman,  Presi- 
dent, AMERPO,  East  Orange,  N.  J.;  Mr.  W.  Lee  Fergus, 
Glen  Ellyn  Philatelic  Club,  Glen  Ellyn.  111.;  Mr.  Robert  S. 
Gordon,  Northfield,  Vt.;  Mr.  Norman  Hill,  President, 
T.P.O.  &  Seapost  Society,  Rotherham,  England;  Mrs. 
Dorothy  Jane  Long,  Verona,  N.  J.;  Mr.  Earl  D.  Moore, 
President,  Streetcar  Cancel  Society,  Chicago,  111.;  and  Mr. 
Stephen  G.  Rich,  Publisher,  Verona,  N.  J. 

Additional  credit  is  due  to  such  institutions  and  publica- 
tions as  the  Bureau  of  Transportation,  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment, Washington,  and  its  officials;  the  National  Postal 
Transport  Association,  the  Postal  Transport  Journal,  the 
Panama  Canal  office,  the  Department  of  the  Army  and  its 
officers,  the  Post  Office  Department's  Post  Haste,  its  former 
office  of  Air  Postal  Transport,  and  numerous  embassies  and 
legations,  particularly  the  Mexican,  Polish,  and  Spanish,  all 
at  Washington,  D.  C;  Railroad  Magazine,  This  Week,  New 
York  Central  System,  and  the  Collectors'  Club,  all  at  New 
York,  N.  Y.;  the  Go-Back  Pouch,  Oakland  2,  Calif.,  for  many 
excerpts;  The  Traveller,  London;  T.P.O. ,  Rotherham,  York- 
shire; Postal  Markings,  Verona,  N.  J.;  Linn's  Weekly,  Sidney, 
Ohio;    Transit    Postmark,    Raleigh,    Tenn.;    the    Philatelic. 

ix 


Literature  Review,  Canajoharie,  N.  Y.;  and  to  Clarence 
Votaw's  book  Jasper  Hunnicut.  Special  help  was  gratefully 
received  from  Assistant  Executive  Director  George  E.  Miller 
of  the  first-named  Bureau  above,  from  his  predecessor  Mr. 
John  D.  Hardy,  and  from  publisher  A.  C.  Kalmbach  and 
Trains.  We  thank  espescially  the  many  present  and  former 
railway  mail  clerks  and  officials  of  this  country  and  the  British 
Commonwealth  who  contributed,  including: 

F.  E.  C.  Allen,  L.  M.  Allen,  G.  E.  Anderson.  S.  C.  Arnold,  E. 
Avery,  D.  W.  Baker,  Harry  Barnes,  J.  F.  Barron,  A.  A.  Bell- 
mar,  J.  F.  Bennett,  C.  G.  Berry,  A.  N.  Bice,  F.  J.  Billingham, 

C.  S.  Blakeley,  San  Bias,  Supt.  B.  B.  Bordelon,  W.  H.  Bower, 
Chas.  Brassell,  G.  E.  Brown,  T.  F.  Brown,  H.  C.  Browning, 

D.  D.  Bonewitz,  Amos  Brubaker,  G.  W.  Bruere,  C.  P.  Buckley, 

E.  C.  Bull,  D.  O.  Brewster,  S.  J.  Buckman,  J.  L.  Buckmaster, 
L.  W.  Buckmaster,  Leon  Burchardt,  B.  B.  Callicott,  Wm. 
Carmody.  B.  F.  Carle  and  M.  B.  A.,  W.  V.  Carter,  C.  W. 
Caswell,  Arthur  Carucci,  T.  L.  Chittick,  Harry  Christensen, 
Ex-Gen.  Supt.  S.  A.  Cisler,  C.  G.  Cissna,  H.  A.  Clarke  and 

D.  R.  M.  C.  Fed.,  Wm.  Cole,  R.  T.  Confer,  J.  P.  Connolly, 
H.  W.  Cook,  J.  F.  Cooper,  Sam  Cope,  W.  E.  Cocanower, 
L.  C.  Cox,  H.  C.  Craig,  W.  C.  Crater,  S.  J.  Curasi,  Geo.  Cutler, 
Leon  Cushman,  J.  C.  Davis,  L.  E.  Davis,  Wilson  Davenport, 
J.  F.  Daeger,  O.  T.  Dean  and  Ry.  Mail  Clerk,  Mike  Del- 
gado,  W.  M.  De  Soucy,  Supt.  R.  W.  Dobbins,  A.  B.  Dodge, 

E.  F.  Dodson,  N.  E.  Donath,  J.  F.  Donnelly,  G.  E.  Doran, 
Barney  Duckman,  W.  Dunn,  E.  Ellsworth,  Ruben  Ericson, 
Ray  Exler,  H.  A.  Farley,  P.  V.  Farnsworth,  Supt.  F.  G.  Fielder, 
T.J.  Flannagan,  W.  H.  Flowers,  C.  W.  Gage,  F.  C.  Gardiner, 
R.  E.  Garner,  Supt.  L.  J.  Garvin,  Roger  Gaver,  A.  R.  Geving, 
Sid  Goodman,  Jack  Gordan,  G.  H.  Gorham,  F.  R.  Gossman, 
G.  K.  Greer,  C.  R.  Groff,  Isidore  Gross,  J.  H.  Grubbs,  J.  R. 
Goodrich,  Hugh  Gordon,  F.  W.  Gruhn,  L.  S.  Hahn,  B.  F. 
Harkins,  R.  A.  Harter,  H.  Hammerman,  C.  M.  Harvey,  G.  E. 
Herron,  C.  C.  Hennessy.  S.  H.  Hill,  J.  A.  Hoctor,  John  Hoff- 
man, Earle  Hoyer,  J.  H.  Huber,  F.  A.  Huether,  Wilburn 
Humphries,  Al  Humpleby,  P.  T.  Jacoby,  B.  V.  James,  H.  L. 
Jeffers,  R.  G.  Johnson,  Supt.  F.  J.  Jones,  R.  E.  Jones,  Harry 
Kapigian,  Jack  Kelleher,  Supt.  E.  J.  Kelly,  L.  C  W.  Kettring, 
W.  F.  Kilman,  C.  M.  Kite.  Supt.  V.  A.  Klein,  J.  D.  Knight. 
Keith  Koons,  C.  E.  Kramer,  Wm.  Kuhnle,  John  Landis, 
Supt.  A.  D.  Lawrence,  T.  R.  Lehman,  C.  A.  Leuschner, 
Supt.  J.  C.  Livingston,  Geo.  Lonquist,  E.  R.  Love,  Supt.  E.  L. 


Loving,  D.  J.  Lucas,  F.  Luchesi,  J.  J.  J.  Lundcen,  H.  J.  IMc- 
Carty,  Jerauld  McDerniott,  W.  R.  McDonald,  J.  G.  Mc- 
Elhinny,  O.  R.  McGahey,  W.  R.  McDonald,  D.  C.  Mcintosh, 
R.  V.  McPherson,  Supt.  R.  H.  McNabb,  L.  C.  Maconiber, 
Jas.  Maher,  R.  A.  March,  Supt.  Roy  Martin,  E.  M.  Martin- 
dale,  E.  A.  Maska,  G.  S.  Mereweather,  Earl  Miller,  J.  L. 
Miller,  W.  R.  Miller,  W.  A.  Mills,  VV.  H.  Morgan,  Russell 
Moore,  J.  H.  Morton,  Claude  Moyer,  J.  VV.  Mullen,  J.  F. 
Mullins,  C.  E.  Natter,  E.  L.  Newton,  A.  T.  Nichols,  R.  A. 
Norris,  O.  H.  Ohlinger,  O.  A.  Olson,  F.  E.  Page,  J.  A.  Parsons, 
M.  H.  Peckham,  F.  E.  Perry,  E.  Pierce,  Arthur  Piper,  VV.  S. 
Pinkney,  J.  F.  Plummer,  J.  C.  Presgraves,  VVni.  Poole,  H.  F. 
Potter,  M.  A.  Priestley,  E.  W.  Purcell,  A.  R.  Querhammer, 
F.  L.  Ray,  Paul  Redpath,  C.  E.  Rench,  VV.  R.  S.  Reynolds, 
R.  H.  Rex,  R.  A.  Rice,  H.  B.  Richardson,  J.  F.  Roberson, 
Melvin  Robertson,  VV.  L.  Robinson,  Supt.  VV.  G.  Ross,  H. 
Rothe,  J.  F.  Rowland,  E.  C.  Rumpf,  Silas  Rutherford,  F.  J. 
Schneider,  B.  F.  Schreffler,  Dr.  E.  A.  Shaffer,  S.  O.  Shapiro, 
Louis  Shimek,  Harry  Shulder,  H.  VV.  Shuster,  f.  L.  Simpson, 
R.  L.  Simpson,  E.  H.  Slayton,  D.  O.  VV.  Smith,  H.  G.  Springer, 
Alex  Steinbach,  Ben  Steigler,  E.  E.  Stuart,  C.  F.  Swerman,  L. 
H.  Thompson,  A.  C.  Threadgill,  Chas.  Tobolsky,  G.  E.  Tyler, 
E.  F.  Upham,  L.  N.  Vandivier,  Wm.  Van  Vliet,  X.  C.  Vickrey, 
P.  C.  Vincent,  Anton  Vlcek,  VVm.  I.  Votaw,  L.  Wagner,  Frank 
Waldhelm,  J.  A.  Washington,  H.  E.  Waterbury,  C.  J. 
Waterston,  F.  M.  Weigand,  C.  J.  Wentz,  H.  C.  Welsh,  VV.  H. 
Werntz,  G.  L.  Wester,  Willis  Wildrick,  B.  O.  VVilks,  L.  A. 
VVilsey,  Supt.  R.  C.  Young,  L.  R.  Zarr,  and  L.  E.  Zimmerman. 

The  following  persons,  not  connected  with  the  P.T.S.,  are 
due  equal  credit: 

John  D.  Alden,  Lieut.  L.  W.  Amy,  Vernon  L.  Ardiff,  VV. 
H.  Auden  and  G.P.O.  at  London,  Donald  Ashton  and  Bur- 
linton  Lines,  Chas.  L  Ball,  Paul  D.  Barrett,  Postmaster  Bauer 
(Munich,  Germany) ,  Gordon  Berry,  Phil  Bolger,  VVm.  G. 
Bolt  and  Miami  P.O.,  Carl  D.  Bibo,  C.  D.  Brenner,  L.  R. 
Brown,  John  H.  Brinckmann,  A.  M.  Bruner,  Richard  O. 
Bush,  Secretary,  Amerpo,  Mrs.  VV.  H.  Buxton,  Dep.  Asst. 
P.M.G.  Tom  C.  Cargill,  Dr.  Carroll  Chase,  Chief  de  Centre 
de  Tri  (Mulhouse,  France),  Geo.  Kenneth  Clough,  Richard 
S.  Clover,  Sylvester  Colby,  C.  A.  Colvin,  Eric  G.  Colwell,  H. 
T.  Crittenden,  Mrs.  John  R.  Cummings,  Edward  [.  Curtis, 
Stephen  P.  Davidson,  Louis  Edward  Dequine,  L.  W.  Dewitt, 
Heliger  De  Winde,  Frank  P.  Donovan,  Jr.,  Eugene  Dubois 

xi 


and  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  Carl  Dudley,  Henry  Doherty, 
Chas.  A.  Elston,  Mrs.  M.  Engdahl,  John  F.  Field,  Bruce  M. 
Fowler,  Edward  A.  Fuller,  Joseph  Galloway,  Robert  Gear, 
G.  L.  Geilfuss,  D.  S.  Gates  and  the  I.C.S.,  Margaret  Ankers 
Gilkey,  Philippine  R.M.S.  Supt.  Vincente  Gonzales,  Ex-P.M. 
Ernest  Green,  Arthur  G.  Hall,  R.  L.  Hardy,  Althea  Harvey, 
A.  C.  Hahn,  Richard  A.  Hazen,  E.  W.  Heckenbach,  Glenn 
Heuberger,  R.  F.  Higgins,  Elliott  B.  Holton,  Stephen  G. 
Hulse,  Sistem  M.  Ida,  Lieut.  Wm.  C.  Jannsen,  Alan  A. 
Jackson,  Michael  Jarosak,  Albert  L.  V.  Jenkins,  Mrs.  Irl  M. 
Johnson,  Eileen  Keelln,  Harry  M.  Konwiser,  Fred  Langford, 
Merwin  A.  Leet,  Sven  E.  Lindberg  (railway  mail  clerk, 
Sweden),  Geo.  W.  Linn,  Carleton  M.  Long,  Dorothy  M.  Long, 
L.  L  McDougale,  Kyle  McGrady,  C.  M.  Mark,  Lieut.  Marquez 
(Spanish  Embassy),  Dr.  W.  L  Mitchell,  Howard  T.  Moulton, 
Barney  Neuberger,  Allan  Nicholson,  Scott  Nixon,  H.  R. 
Odell,  Harry  Oswald,  L.  B.  Parker,  Dave  H.  Parsons,  G.  E. 
Payne,  Postmasters  at  Bills  Place  (Pa.)  Frankfurt-am  Main 
(Germany)  and  Skaneateles  (N.Y.),  W.  C.  Peterman,  W.  J. 
Pfeiffer,  Alden  L.  Randall,  E.  H.  Redstone  and  Boston  Public 
Library,  Bob  Richardson,  R.  W.  Richardson,  Mike  Runey, 
Rev.  D.  B.  Russell,  Gideon  G.  Ryder,  Arlene  R.  Sayre,  Edwin 
Schell,  Don  E.  Shaw,  T.  J.  Sinclair  and  Association  of  Ameri- 
can Railroads,  James  C.  Smith,  Jessica  Smith,  John  Gibb 
Smith,  W.  R.  Smith  and  Fairchild  Aircraft,  Clarence  E.  Snell, 
Gunter  Stetza,  Mrs.  H.  W.  Strickland,  Walter  L.  Thayer,  J. 
G.  Thomas,  Gerald  F.  Todd,  Robert  A.  Truax,  Jas.  H. 
Tierney,  H.  T.  Vaughn,  C.  W.  Ward,  W.  S.  Wells,  Robert 
West,  Mrs.  John  S.  Wegener,  and  Wilkins,  photographer 
(Brooklyn). 

B.  A,  L. 
January  1,  1951. 


Xll 


MAIL  BY  RAIL 


Chapter  1 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN 


The  Railway  Maill    Ah,  how  my  mind  goes  ranging  o'er 

the  years 
When,  in  old  Number  31,  the  mail  piled  to  my  ears, 
I  showed  the  world,  along  with  all  the  others  in  the  crew. 
Just  what  a  bunch  of  mail  clerks  in  their  fighting  clothes 

could  do  .  .  . 

—  Earl  L.  Newton 


—  Courtesy  Postal  Markings 


Framed  tensely  in  a  door- 
way on  a  speeding  train,  roar- 
ing through  the  night  past  a 
tiny  village  on  a  curve,  he 
stands  alert— a  postal  transpor- 
tation clerk.  His  eyes  are  fixed 
upon  a  tiny  light  on  a  track- 
side  crane;  his  hands  grip  a 
strange,  huge  hook  on  a  cross- 
bar; his  faded  denims  flutter  in  the  wind,  held  to  his  waist 
by  a  big  belt  carrying  a  grim  six-shooter  and  a  long  key  chain. 
He  has  just  stepped  away  from  a  "blind"  mail  case  into 
which  he  had  been  flipping  letters  for  several  thousand  post 
offices  to  the  exact  proper  routes— without  even  a  mark  on  any 
of  his  150  pigeonholes  to  guide  him! 

As  average  Americans,  we  know  about  as  little  concerning 
this  grizzled  mail-key  railroader  and  his  amazing,  vitally  im- 
portant job  as  anyone  could  deem  possible.  These  expert 
superpostmen  of  the  rails,  who  sort  America's  mails  in  transit 
at  mile-a-minute  speeds  to  save  precious  hours  and  days  in 

1 


2  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

delivery,  are  seldom  heard  of  or  even  noticed.  Except,  per- 
haps, by  their  co-workers  of  the  railroad  and  post  offices;  by 
occasional  bystanders  at  stations  'who  suddenly  notice  their 
car  marked  "United  States  Mail— Railway  Post  Office"  and 
peer  through  the  barred  windows,  fascinated,  to  watch  them  at 
work;  or  by  the  small-town  resident  to  whom  the  flying  tackle 
by  which  our  veteran  clerk  soon  hooks  a  pouch  from  that 
trackside  crane  is  an  old  story,  and  to  whom  he's  known  as 
a  "railway  mail  clerk. "^ 

Weird  are  the  misconceptions  as  to  who  this  man  might 
be!   For  example: 

"You  just  take  on  and  unload  the  mail,  don't  you?" 
"What  railroad  company  do  you  work  for?" 
"How  long  have  you  been  with  the  Railway  Express?" 
Such  are  the  never-ending  questions  that  in  time  may  irk 
even  the  best-natured  clerk.    Many  persons  still  believe  the 
mail  clerk  starts  out  with  a  pouch  ready-locked  for  each  sta- 
tion.   Others   remark,  enviously,   "Those  chaps  only  work 
every  other  week;  the  rest  of  the  time  they  loaf.   And  they 
ride  all  over  the  country  free,  seeing  the  sights.    I  know— I 
read  the  Civil  Service  school  ads." 

Far  from  that,  America's  thirty  thousand  postal  transpor- 
tation clerks  are  trained  experts  employed  solely  by  the 
United  States  Government.  Their  richly  earned  time  off  is 
spent  largely  in  required  studies,  label  preparations,  and 
scheme  correcting.  With  their  officials,  they  constitute  our 
nation-wide  Postal  Transportation  Service— known  as  the 
Railway  Mail  Service  until  late  in  1949— and  handle  93  per 
cent  of  all  non-local  mail  matter.  It  is  small  wonder  that  the 
Postal  Transportation  Service  is  famed  as  "the  backbone  of 
the  postal  establishment"  or  "the  Arteries  of  the  Postal 
Service." 

And  these  "arteries"  are  indeed  manned  by  red-blooded, 
keen-minded  men  of  good  physique  and  uncanny  intellect. 
Aged  eighteen  to  seventy,  they  work  night  and  day  in  con- 


^The  railroads  still  officially  designate  P.T.C.'s  as  "railway  mail  clerks,"  and 
this  popular  terra  will  be  frequently  used  here, 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN  S 

necting  mail  trains,  called  Raihvay  Post  Offices  (R.P.O.s), 
from  Halifax  to  Los  Angeles.  Still  other  railway  mail  clerks— 
to  give  them  their  popular  title— work  in  terminals,  highway 
post  offices,  boat  "R.P.O.s,"  airfields,  transfer  and  field  offices, 
and  even   (experimentally)  in  airplanes. 

With  the  gruff  self-deprecation  so  characteristic  of  these 
clerks,  we  can  well  imasjine  some  veteran  of  the  rails  at  this 
point  as  he  snorts  and  emits  the  classic  remark: 

"There  luere  days  when  we  used  to  have  wooden  cars  and 
iron  men.  Now  we  have  steel  cars  and  ..."  And  his  voice 
trails  off  into  mumble  of  good-natured  exasperation. 

But  we  who  have  really  come  to  know  these  men,  as  they 
are  today,  hold  to  the  conviction  that  we  must  say  "steel  cars 
and  iron  men"— for  it  is  still  true,  as  Postmaster  General 
Jones  said  in  1888: 

"There  is  no  position  more  exacting  .  .  .  He  must  not  only 
be  sound  in  mind  and  limb,  but  possessed  of  above-ordinary 
intelligence  and  a  retentive  memory  .  .  .  He  must  know  no 
night  or  day.  He  must  be  impervious  to  heat  or  cold.  Rush- 
ing along  at  the  rate  of  [now,  60  to  90]  miles  per  hour,  in 
charge  of  that  ^vhich  is  sacred— the  correspondence  of  the 
people— catching  his  meals  as  he  may;  at  home  only  semi- 
occasional  ly,  the  wonder  is  that  men  competent  [for]  so  high 
a  calling  can  be  found." 

The  whole  purpose  of  the  P.T.S.  is  to  speed  our  mails  by 
sorting  them  iji  transit  instead  of  while  lying  in  a  post  office. 
In  the  1850's  a  typical  letter  mailed  to  Florida  from  a  town  in 
Maine  would  require  one  to  two  weeks  for  delivery,  because 
it  had  to  wait  its  turn  for  sorting  and  resorting  at  Boston, 
New  York,  Washington,  and  so  on. 

Today  five  speedy  R.P.O.  lines  carry  the  letter  continuous- 
ly southward,  while  all  necessary  sorting  is  done  en  route.  A 
clerk  on  the  Bangor  k  Boston  R.  P.  O.  (MeC-BRrM)-,  running 
through  our  Maine  town,  receives  the  letter  and  probably 
puts  it  in  a  "South  States"  letter  package  in  his  case.  Tied 
with  string,  the  package  is  addressed  by  means  of  a  slip  to 


•Maine  Central  and  Boston  &  Maine  R.R.'s.   Similar  standard  or  easily-recog- 
pized  railroad  abbreviations  will  be  used  following  all  R.P.O.  titles  as  needed, 


4  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

the  next  R.P.O.  connection,  the  Boston  &:  N.Y.  (NYNHScH). 
That  line  will  probably  make  up  a  "Florida  State"  package, 
and  the  next  clerk,  on  the  N.  Y.  R:  Washington  (PRR),  will 
probably  put  it  in  a  pouch  of  Florida  "working"  packages 
made  up  for  the  Wash,  k  Florence  R.P.O.  rRFR:P-ACU. 
A  clerk  on  that  line  will  make  up  a  "Flor.  R:  Jacksonville— 
Fla."  package,  containing  our  letter,  for  this  next  line.  If  the 
Florida  village  is  directly  on  the  Flor.  R:  Jack.  (ACL)  ,  the 
clerk  on  that  line  makes  a  direct  package  for  the  to^vn  and 
puts  it  off  there  in  a  pouch;  if  destined  for  a  connecting  line, 
the  letter  will  go  into  a  package  pouched  to  that  route  in- 
stead.   Within  two  days  after  mailing,  it  can  be  delivered. 

This  ingenious  work  is  done  in  over  three  thousand 
R.P.O.  cars  (on  passenger  trains)  and  highway  post  offices, 
operated  on  over  eight  hundred  separate  routes  covering 
over  205,000,000  miles  annually.  Routes  are  usually  named 
from  their  terminals— such  as  the  "N.Y.  R:  Chicago  R.P.O.," 
famed  as  the  New  York  Central's  "Fast  Mail"  route.  Postal  cars 
are  usually  sixty  to  seventy  feet  long;  but  in  all  cars,  except 
the  "full  R.P.O.s"  used  on  the  trunk  lines,  clerks  and  mails 
are  restricted  to  a  fifteen-  or  thirty-foot  "apartment."  ^Tain- 
line  R.P.O.  trains  containing  two  or  three  sixty-foot  cars  with 
twelve  or  fifteen  clerks  in  each  are  a  sharp  contrast  to  the 
tiny  one-man  branch-line  and  suburban  facilities. 

In  addition  to  the  lettering  mentioned,  most  R.P.O.  cars 
may  be  recognized  by  their  low,  continuous  windows  contain- 
ing prison-like  vertical  or  horizontal  wooden  rods,  and  by  a 
catcher  hook  or  a  safety  bar  in  each  sliding  door.  Inside,  the 
busy  clerks  work  in  strictly  utilitarian  surroundings,  usually 
finished  in  drab  brown  paint  and  plain  varnish,  except  for 
the  newest  cars,  which  feature  green-enameled  cases  and 
walls;  ceilings  are  white.  If  a  typical  car  is  entered  through 
its  "end  door"  from  the  car  ahead,  we  find  first  of  all  a  small 
closet  into  which  the  clothes  and  wraps  of  a  full  crew  can 
barely  be  jammed.  Doors,  usually  nine  to  18  inches  wide,  as 
well  as  closets,  are  wnder  in  newer  cars.  Front  hooks,  soon 
completely  covered  for  easy  pocket  access,  are  a  particular 
bane  to  those  due  to  arrive  later. 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN  i 

There  follow  in  quick,  succession  a  tiny  lavatory  opposite, 
steel-pole  stalls  or  bins  ("stanchions"  out  West)  for  stacking 
bag  mails,  sliding  doors,  a  water  cooler,  pigeonhole  cases  for 
sorting  letters,  tray  tables  and  steel  racks  in  which  pouches 
(for  letters)  and  sacks  (for  newspapers)  are  hung,  and  then 
more  sliding  doors  and  storage  bins.  Letter  cases,  which  in 
some  cars  are  at  the  center  instead,  are  built  fiat  asrainst  the 
walls,  with  a  ledge  and  drawers  underneath.  Each  "letter 
man"  handles  a  case  section  eleven  or  twelve  holes  his:h  and 
four  to  sixteen  columns  wide;  case  holes  are  just  four  and 
one-half  or  four  and  one-quarter  inches  wide.  The  canvas, 
leather-strapped  pouches  are  hung  squarely  open  in  their  col- 
lapsible steel-pipe  rack;  pouch  clerks  are  busily  flinging  letter 
packages  and  first-class  packets  {slugs)  in  front,  behind  them, 
and  above  into  auxiliary  overhead  boxes  with  sliding  gates. 
The  "paper  man"  does  exactly  the  same  thing  with  his  news- 
papers and  occasional  parcels;  his  sacks,  loosely  hung  with 
dangling  cord  fasteners,  are  usually  at  the  rear  of  the  big 
sixty-five  ton  car.  Each  car  costs  the  railroad  up  to  $85,000— 
and  Uncle  Sam  up  to  fifty-four  cents  per  mile  for  its  use. 

Working  at  a  mad  pace  in  his  speeding,  swaying  train  for 
nightly  nine-  to  sixteen-hour  stretches,  the  railway  mail  clerk 
is  a  fascinating  study  in  human  psychology.  His  steadfast 
attention  to  duty,  superior  intellect  and  memory,  stamina, 
and  sterling  honesty  are  all  proverbial.  Less  known  is  his 
typical,  good-natured  deprecation  of  himself  and  his  job;  he's 
loath  to  admit  that  he  does  have  a  quiet,  hidden  determina- 
tion to  speed  the  mails  home— to  never  "go  stuck"  (leave 
mails  incompletely  sorted).  He  usually  detests  that  hackneyed 
saying  "The  mails  must  go  through,"  and  few  clerks  will 
admit,  as  M.  E.  Peebles  did  recently  in  The  Postal  Transport 
Journal,''  that  "1  personally  believe  we  have  one  of  the  finest 
jobs  in  the  country."  And  yet,  should  their  expert  teamwork 
cease  for  only  twenty-four  hours,  national  chaos  would  result 
and  business  and  commerce  grind  practically  to  a  standstill. 

But  in  their  personal  ideals  and  special  interests  mail-car 


*Then  the  Railway  Post  Office. 


6  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

men  are  as  startlingly  different  as  they  are  otherwise  alike. 
They  run  the  whole  gamut  from  stag-party-and-hot-swing 
devotees  to  poetic  symphony  lovers,  from  avid  horse-race  fans 
to  musicians  or  creative  artists,  and  from  fervent  Gospel- 
declarers  to  revelers  in  wine,  women,  and  song!  Nearly  all 
clerks,  however,  like  hunting  and  card  games. 

A  surprising  number  of  college  men  enter  the  Service, 
including  scores  of  former  underpaid  male  teachers.  Seventy 
out  of  150  typical  new  substitutes  were  found  to  be  college 
graduates,  and  many  are  likely  to  rise  to  the  top— as  did  one 
clerk,  a  Princeton  man  named  John  D.  Hardy,  who  became 
the  highest  official  of  the  service. 

Occasionally,  however,  a  somewhat  unlettered  youth  who 
nevertheless  makes  excellent  examination  grades  is  appoint- 
ed. Clark  Carr  tells  how  enraged  one  Civil  Service  commis- 
sioner was  when  former  General  Superintendent  Bangs  of 
the  old  "R.M.S."  showed  him  an  atrociously  ungrammatical 
and  misspelled  letter  received  from  such  a  clerk— until  Bangs 
revealed  that  that  clerk  was  the  best  in  the  United  States  at 
that  time,  making  faster  time,  fewer  errors,  and  better  test 
grades  than  any  other  employee! 

To  let  off  steam  amid  their  trying  working  conditions,  most 
clerks  indulge  in  a  good  bit  of  healthy  "griping"  against  "the 
office"  and  against  their  own  fraternal  union,  the  National 
Postal  Transport  Association  (RMA);  actually,  their  loyalty 
to  both  ranks  close  to  perfect.  A  second  "escape"  is  provided 
by  their  universal  sense  of  humor. 

The  typical  clerk  is  a  clean-cut,  healthy  chap  with  few  dis- 
tinguishing features  when  in  street  clothes,  unless  he  is  going 
to  or  from  his  train,  carrying  his  "little  grip"  and  heavy  key 
chain.  But  in  his  head  he  has  retained  the  exact  names  and 
routes  of  from  three  thousand  to  ten  thousand  different  post 
offices,  and,  often,  the  exact  train  connections  for  most  of 
them.  Some  P.T.S.  men  have  a  keen  natural  interest  in  the 
geographical  routing  of  addresses  and  rather  enjoy  their  stud- 
ies and  duties,  and  some  have  yielded  to  a  seldom-admitted 
lure  for  serving  on  speeding  trains.  But  our  typical  railway 
mail  clerk  just  regards  it  all  as  part  of  a  grind— a  job  he  carries 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN  7 

on  faithfully,  unknown  and  unsung.  What  matters  it  that  in 
his  most  important  periodic  "exams,"  passing  is  97  per  cent, 
and  in  all  others,  85  per  cent— far  higher  than  the  best  uni- 
versity requirements! 

Postal  transportation  clerks  and  their  predecessors  (route 
agents)  have  been  publicly  cited  for  their  honesty  and  loyalty 
for  over  one  hundred  years.  With  no  officials  to  observe  them 
at  work,  clerks  handle  billions  of  dollars  on  their  honor- 
ranging  from  an  occasional  unwrapped  silver  coin  or  bank 
note  labeled  to  destination  with  stamp  affixed  (or  even  a  letter 
with  a  nickel  sewed  on  for  postage)  to  whole  cases  and  bags  of 
currency,  bonds,  or  coin  which  they  must  keep  protected  at 
gun  point.  All  are  promptly  delivered  in  safety,  while  the 
smallest  loose  coin  or  the  largest  bill  is  scrupulously  turned 
in.   Statistically,  the  P.T.S.  is  99.87  per  cent  honest! 

Many  a  loyal  clerk  thinks  nothing  of  paying  out  of  his 
pocket  for  costly  geographical  lists,  keved  city-distribution 
case  labels,  special  stationery,  knives  and  thumbstalls,  and 
other  supplies,  none  of  which  is  required  equipment  for 
doing  his  job  according  to  minimum  standards.  He  purchases 
them  voluntarily— solely  in  order  to  sort  mail  more  quickly 
and  accurately.  Even  when  ill  he  sometimes  makes  his  run, 
if  no  substitutes  are  available,  rather  than  default  the  job. 
But  there  are  more  dramatic  examples  of  loyalty  too.  .  .  . 

Before  Beardstown,  Illinois,  built  its  sea  wall,  the  Illinois 
River  often  flooded  the  entire  vicinity  of  the  Burlington  sta- 
tion. One  night  as  Rock  Island  k  St.  Louis  (CBR:Q)  R.P.O. 
Train  51  was  ready  to  leave  over  the  flooded  track,  a  man  in 
hip  boots  came  rushing  up  to  the  door  with  a  revolver  and  a 
bag  of  mail.  It  seems  that  a  long  stretch  of  track  over  which 
a  connecting  train  was  due  to  come  in  had  completely  washed 
out,  and  this  man— Clerk  R.  E.  Glenn,  off  duty— had  hired  a 
rowboat  and  brought  the  mail  over  miles  of  rough  Avater  in 
the  dark  to  make  a  last-minute  connection,  preventing  the 
delay  of  thousands  of  letters.  Oddlv  enough,  the  risky  deed 
was  not  officially  approved  at  the  time. 

Similar  floods  often  maroon  R.P.O.  trains  in  isolated  places 
or  force  them  to  detour  many  miles,  thus  requiring  clerks  to 


8  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

work  sometimes  twenty  or  thirty  hours  without  a  break.  In 
some  cases  the  mail  is  soon  worked  up  and  the  weary  men 
can  doze  or  rest  during  tlie  extra  time;  but,  like  as  not,  de- 
layed or  unexpected  extra  mail  connections  will  be  received 
in  the  train  from  all  directions.  Schedules  and  routings  for 
best  dispatch  change  sharply  with  the  unexpected  lapse  of 
time,  adding  to  the  complication  and  often  requiring  rework- 
ing of  mail.  Lunches  are  fast  exhausted,  and  any  bits  of  eat- 
ables cherished  by  the  crew  members  begin  skyrocketing  in 
value— at  least  so  the  stories  have  it— as  the  hungry  men  bar- 
gain for  them.  (Actually,  clerks  are  usually  generous  sharers; 
a  new  "sub"  without  lunch  is  often  quickly  provided  for.) 

Such  major  emergencies  as  train  robberies  and  serious 
wrecks  are  pretty  rare  in  these  days  of  safety  devices,  eagle- 
eyed  inspectors,  and  armed  clerks.  Rut  when  they  do  occur, 
today's  "mail-key  railroaders"  still  live  up  to  their  proverbial 
devotion,  alertness,  and  courage.  They  yet  have  a  share  in  all 
the  tasks  and  traditions,  the  risks  and  romance,  that  float 
upon  the  smoky  breath  of  the  "high  iron."  (See  Chap.  11.) 

There  ^vere,  for  example.  Clerks  Karl  Boothman  and  Guy 
O'Hearn,  who  beat  off  desperate  bandits  (in  open  gunplay) 
who  had  attacked  Chic.  R:  Carbondale  (IC)  Train  .81  at 
Onarga,  Illinois,  in  1939;  badly  wounded,  they  saved  a  556,000 
pavroll,  shot  a  bandit  to  enable  his  capture,  later  received 
official  commendations  and  $1,000  each  from  the  insurance 
company.  Years  before.  Clerk  Alvin  S.  Page  planned  a  suc- 
cessful trap  for  the  desperadoes  of  "Indian  Charlie,"  whom 
he'd  heard  were  to  hold  up  his  Texas  R.P.O.  train  and  seize 
$300,000;  Page  risked  his  life  defending  the  mails  as  G-men 
closed  in,  and  later  refused  any  of  a  $5,000  reward  offered 
him  by  Postmaster  General  Hayes. 

Fate  struck  twice  in  quite  a  different  way,  recently,  to  call 
forth  two  magnificent  examples  of  quick  thinking  courage 
on  the  one-man  "Harry  R:  Frank"  R.P.O.  —  a  P.R.R.  run 
from  Harrington,  Delaware,  to  Franklin  City,  Virginia, 
just  discontinued.  Clerk  C.  E.  Adkins,  incapacitated  bv  a 
sudden  stroke  when  on  duty  southboimd.  refused  medical 
aid  until  the  conductor  could  secure  a  replacement  for  him, 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN  9 

meanwhile  trying  to  work  his  mail  left-handed  on  his  hands 
and  knees  clear  to  Franklin  City  and  back  to  Snow  Hill, 
Maryland.  There  he  was  relieved  by  an  off-duty  clerk,  called 
through  the  quick  co-operation  of  Mrs.  Adkins.  Shortly  after- 
wards (March  1946)  Clerk  C.  R.  Thorsten  saved  the  lives  of 
seven  passengers  on  the  same  train  at  the  same  spot  (Snow 
Hill)  when  a  gasoline  truck  hit  the  mail  train— creating  a 
blazing  inferno  from  which  he  barely  escaped  alive! 

As  recently  as  March  20,  1950,  a  clerk  paid  the  supreme 
sacrifice  through  a  train  accident— Ira  J.  Donald  of  Terre 
Haute,  Indiana,  fatally  injured  making  a  dangerous  "catch" 
February  1  at  Caledonia,  Ohio,  on  the  Cleveland  &:  St.  Louis 
(Big  Four);  and  three  years  before,  six  clerks  were  killed  in 
a  terrible  Pennsy  tragedy.  But  such  mass  fatalities  are  now 
extremely  rare;  it  had  been  thirty-seven  years  since  a  worse 
tragedy  had  occurred— the  snow  avalanche  which  crashed  into 
Spokane  8;  Seat.,  now  Williston  &  Seattle  (ON)  Trains  27 
and  25,  February  22,  1910,  at  Wellington,  Washington, 
killing  101  riders  and  8  clerks  (including  Clerk-in-Charge 
J.  D.  Fox),  when  the  snowbound  trains  plunged  three  hundred 
feet  into  a  canyon.  (Just  three  years  before,  a  train  of  the 
same  R.P.O.  had  been  marooned  very  close  by  in  a  snowshed 
for  ten  days,  with  no  harm  done.*)  In  most  recent  years  only 
one  or  two  clerks  have  been  killed. 

What  is  a  wreck  usually  like?  Ask  retired  clerk  Theodore 
Wheelock,  whose  mail  car  on  the  Tucumcari  Sc  El  Paso 
(SP's  Golden  State  Limited)  plowed  into  the  far  bank  of 
Brazorita  Canyon  in  New  Mexico  as  the  rest  of  the  train 
plunged  through  a  trestle.  The  only  head-end  survivor,  he 
dug  out  and  waded  through  water  up  to  his  chin,  with  a 
broken  shoulder,  until  he  secured  help  for  the  trapped  pas- 
sengers from  a  ranch  house,  and  protection  for  his  mails.  Or 
ask  Dan  Moschenross  of  the  Toledo  &  St.  Louis  (Wabash), 
who  recalls  ^^•ith  grim  humor: 

"  A  wreck  is  usually  caused  by  one  train  trying  to  meet  or 


^Railroad  Magazine,  March  1940— "10  Days  in  a  Snowshed,"  by  Clerk  Fred 
Wightman. 


10  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

pass  another  on  the  same  track.  It  has  never  been  done  suc- 
cessfully .  .  .  but  the  railroads  keep  right  on  trying.  Some- 
times a  train  will  get  ofT  the  track  and  run  along  on  the 
ground.  1  hat  has  never  worked  very  well  either  .  .  . 

"Only  two  people  ever  get  to  a  wreck  ahead  of  the  mail 
clerks:  .  .  .  the  engineer  and  fireman.  Next  comes  the  bag- 
gageman, then  the  passengers— and  then  the  ambulance 
drivers. 

"When  you  are  in  a  mail  car  and  suddenly  see  all  the 
letters  flying  around  like  pigeons,  and  there  are  ties  and 
broken  rails  going  past  the  windows,  you  can  be  sure  there's 
going  to  be  a  wreck  on  your  line.  And,  that  you  will  be  in  it." 

In  one  such  wreck,  nine  pouches  of  loose  letters  Avere  gath- 
ered up  from  the  resulting  jumble  of  mail,  equipment,  and 
broken  fixtures.  And  while  the  engineer  and  fireman  do 
"get  to  a  wreck"  first,  they  can  often  see  danger  in  time  to 
jump;  but  the  clerks  have  no  way  of  knowing  what  lies  ahead. 

There  are  other  evidences  of  the  typical  clerk's  innate 
loyalty,  less  spectacular,  but  just  as  remarkable.  On  a  simple 
letter  case  for  a  distant  state  where  he  is  required  only  to  pick 
out  letters  for  the  largest  towns,  he  often  voluntarily  learns 
the  proper  R.P.O.  routing  tor  its  many  offices  and  rearranges 
his  case  accordingly.  Transferred  to  a  new,  unfamiliar  assign- 
ment, he  pitches  in,  with  the  aid  of  a  standpoint  list  perhaps, 
to  "work"  the  new  State  with  amazing  accuracy  until  he 
qualifies  on  its  examination;  many  a  clerk  has  become  expert 
on  an  assignment  by  "picking  it  up"  without  ever  taking  a 
test  on  it.  A  good  clerk  watches  those  about  him,  and  hastens 
to  render  assistance  where  needed  without  being  told.  And 
instead  of  hoping  for  the  train  to  speed  up,  so  he  can  get  off 
duty  early,  he  usually  breathes  a  petition  for  a  few  slow-downs 
so  he  can  complete  distribution  in  A-1  style. 

What  character  sketches  could  be  drawn  of  many  a  loyal, 
respected  veteran  of  the  mail  car!  Who  could  ever  forget 
popular  "Cappie,"  for  example— a  pleasant,  tall,  curly-headed 
clerk  on  an  Eastern  line— who  for  years  wore  t^vo  guns  on 
duty  (P.T.S.  revoher  and  a  big  "horse  pistol")  and  always  a 
brace  of  pencils  as  wide  as  his  broad  smile,  and  who  eats  huge 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN  11 

DagAvood  sandwiches?  Or  a  certain  efficient  clerk-in-chargc 
who  demands  that  all  "toe  the  mark"  in  no  faint  tones,  but 
who  goes  hunting  and  treats  his  crew— down  to  the  newest 
sub— to  roast  venison?    More  power  to  them. 

And  speaking  of  sandwiches  and  game,  our  mail-train  men 
are  champion  eaters  indeed.  Many  take  three  or  four  big 
sandwiches  or  a  whole  pie  for  lunch,  while  others,  who  eat 
lightly  on  duty,  may  be  true  trenchermen  at  other  times,  espe- 
cially at  the  popular  banquets  and  celebrations  staged  bv  the 
N.P.T.A.  With  pheasant  and  deer  hunting  rated  as  the  clerks' 
top  field  sports,  at  least  one  branch  holds  an  annual  pheasant 
feed  famed  for  its  food  consumption;  perhaps  it  was  here  that 
a  clerk  named  "Paradise"  was  reported  in  the  old  R.P.O.  to 
have  eaten  seven  helpings  of  barbecue  and  seven  ears  of  corn  I 
Despite  claims  of  one  official  to  the  contrary,  there  are 
quite  a  few  fat  fellows  in  the  Service,  as  one  would  expect 
after  hearing  of  such  astoimding  gustatory  records.  We  read 
of  colossal  "eating  contests,"  a  clerk  Avhose  byword  was  "Don't 
throw  anything  out!"  and  embarassing  incidents  of  clerks 
missing  their  trains  by  lingering  too  long  at  a  way  station 
beanery  (one  of  them  had  to  catch  it  at  the  next  station, 
hiring  a  taxi!). 

Few  champions  have  arisen  to  give  railway  mail  clerks  a 
bit  of  deserved  recognition,  as  did  one  New  England  congress- 
man who  was  invited  to  watch  a  tvpical  clerk  at  work.  He  ex- 
claimed, "You  fellows  earn  your  salary  by  your  physical  labor 
alone!"  then,  on  learning  of  the  stringent  study  requirements, 
"You  earn  your  pay  through  your  mental  work  alone!"  More- 
over, big  mail-order  firms  and  magazines  like  Time  and  Life 
buy  full-page  advertising  space  in  the  Postal  Transport 
Joiirnal  to  express  gratitude  for  the  excellent  service  rendered 
by  postal  transportation  clerks.  "We  express  our  appreciation 
of  the  splendid  co-operation  which  makes  this  service  possi- 
ble," advertised  the  Reader's  Digest  one  Christmas. 

In  Union,  South  Carolina,  a  businessman  does  his  part  in 
remedying  this  lack  of  recognition— taken  for  granted  by  the 
average  clerk— by  sending  a  Christmas  message  to  all  clerks 
through  the  medium  of  those  running  through  his  town  on 


12  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

the  Aslie.  8:  Columbia  (Sou).  Published  afterwards  in  the 
clerks'  Journal,  a  typical  recent  message  of  Mr.  Nicholson's, 
sent  despite  illness,  read  thus: 

Happy  Christmas  greetings  to  you,  my  friends  of  the 
Railway  Mail  Service:  To  your  steadfast  devotion  to 
duty,  regardless  of  physical  feelings  and  exhaustion;  to 
your  quickness  of  thought  and  hand  .  .  .  which  brings 
pleasure  .  .  .  help  .  .  .  and  hope  with  the  Christmas  greet- 
ings and  packages,  I  pay  highest  tribute.  Without  your 
untiring  efforts  . . .  the  world,  in  a  sense,  would  stand  still. 

Thank  you  .  .  .  for  what  you  have  done  for  me  the 
past  twelve  months,  and  many  years;  .  .  .  and  I  add  a 
most  fervent  God  bless  you,  this  . . .  season,  and  every  day. 

Your  friend, 
Allan  Nicholson 

Similarly,  clerks  on  San  Fran.  Sc  Barstow  (Santa  Fe)  Train 
23  were  pleased  to  receive  the  following  card  one  day  in 
April  1947: 

...  I  want  to  pat  you  guys  on  the  back.  That  niece  of 
ours,  Dolores,  received  letter  April  3,  mailed  April  2  .  .  . 
addressed  "Hinkl,  Calif."  You  fellows  are  artists.  I've 
read  some  bad  ones,  being  a  telegrapher,  but  this  one  got 

L.  B.  Parker,  Hinkley,  California 

And  Uncle  Sam's  engravers  once  paid  tribute  to  the  R.P.O. 
clerk  by  picturing  a  train  and  mail  crane  on  the  old  five-cent 
red  parcel-post  stamp,  as  well  as  a  clerk  on  duty,  shown  on 
another  stamp  of  this  long-forgotten  series. 

Such  men  are  the  men— known  officially  as  "railway  postal 
clerks"  before  1950— who  speed  your  mail  and  mine  home  in 
doid)Ie-quick  time.  Small  wonder  it  is  said  that  "It  requires 
as  much  mental,  and  more  physical,  labor  to  become  a  first- 
class  postal  clerk  than  it  does  to  become  proficient  in  any 
other  .  .  .  profession."  They  almost  never  know  regular  day- 
light hours;  holidays  often  mean  just  another  workday;  they 
are  always  subject  to  emergency  call. 

Yet  at  Chicago,  nerve  center  of  our  mail-train  operations, 
these  postal  experts  connect  95  per  cent  of  all  transit  mails. 


STEEL  CARS  AND  IRON  MEN  IS 

from  individual  letters  to  whole  through  storage  cars  (super- 
vised by  P.T.S.  transfer  clerks),  direct  to  the  proper  outgoing 
train  without  involving  the  post  office  there.  And  so  speeds 
onward  the  vital  correspondence  of  a  great  nation,  come  dark- 
ness, deluge,  or  disaster. 


Chafitr  2 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY 


That  Texas  case  is  all  gummed  up,  and  so  is  the  Rackensac; 
The  Daily  Sun  put  out  a  ton  ot  single  wraps,  by  heck— 
If  we  can't  get  through  with  that  "Old  Missoo"^  the 
Chief  will  tramp  my  neck.  .  .  . 

—Robert  L.  Simpson 


On  the  train  platform  of  a  great  East- 
ern railway  terminal  a  group  of  neatly 
dressed  men  are  carrying  bags  and  appar- 
ently waiting  for  a  train  like  any  other 
bunch  of  travelers.  But  what  a  rail  jour- 
ney these  men  are  destined  to  make— in 
the  R.  P.  O.  car  of  a  great  express  train, 
manning  a  strenuous  trunk-line  mail  run 
of  hundreds  of  miles!  And  they  well  earn  their  hardly  lucra- 
tive pay— it's  really  a  "run  for  their  money." 

From  all  directions  and  distances  they  have  come— some  on 
foot,  from  lodgings  hard  by  the  station;  some  by  trolley,  bus, 
or  auto  from  city  and  suburbs;  some  of  them  on  commuters' 
trains,  and  particularly  on  incoming  trains  of  their  own  line. 
From  town  or  farm  residences  all  along  this  route  clerks  can 
deadhead  to  work  free  on  their  travel  commissions,  some 
from  points  over  one  hundred  miles  away.  (These  passes  are 
restricted  to  business  travel  on  this  one  line.)  Other  clerks 
in  the  group  will  hail  from  the  line's  other  end,  or  from 
far-distant  midway  points— the  latter  circumstances  often  re- 
stricting home  life  to  layoffs. 


'Missouri  letters. 

14 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  15 

Because  they  must  prepare  their  cars  and  sort  the  mails 
already  accumulated  locally,  clerks  put  in  several  hours' 
advance  work  while  their  car  is  still  in  the  station.  A  different 
(but  fixed)  reporting  time  is  set  by  the  District  Superintend- 
ent for  each  run  out  of  that  station;  it  may  be  morning, 
evening,  or  night.  If  it  is  a  heavy  run,  there  may  be  two  or 
three  full  R.P.O.  cars  with  a  storage  car  between  them  and 
usually  others  attached.  (There  are  only  606  of  these  full 
R.P.O.  cars— but  nearly  2,600  cars  with  R.P.O.  apartments.) 

Sooner  or  later  a  puffing  switch  engine  backs  the  R.P.O. 
unit  into  the  particular  track  where  the  crew  awaits  it.  If 
it  is  late,  there  may  be  a  bull  session  until  it  comes,  and  at  no 
loss  of  pay— but  the  clerks  may  have  to  work  twice  as  hard 
later  to  catch  up.  They  clamber  into  the  car  over  the  short 
door  ladders,  and  one  clerk  quickly  turns  on  the  lights.  In 
some  cars  he  must  fish  around  in  a  dark  fuse  box  to  do  it,  and 
let's  hope  he  can  distinguish  between  the  switch  handle  and 
the  shiny  copper  bars  adjacent! 

At  about  the  same  time  arrives  the  grip  man,  who  is  not  a 
cable-car  motorman,  but  a  baggage  porter  or  elevator  man 
hired  by  the  clerks  to  bring  down  their  "big  grips"  of  heavier 
supplies  to  the  train,  at  five  cents  per  grip  each  way.  It  saves 
wearily  lugging  these  via  stairs,  ramps,  or  elevators  from  a 
distant  grip  room  in  the  station  or  post  office. 

Inside,  each  man  throws  both  handbag  and  grip  on  the 
case  ledge  and  flings  them  open.  Out  of  the  bag  comes  a 
wicked-looking  revolver  and  holster,  a  lunch,  schemes  of  dis- 
tribution (showing  the  mail  route  for  each  office  in  a  given 
state),  mail  train  schedules,  various  personal  belongings, 
stamped  slips  and  labels  or  slides  (furnished  by  the  Depart- 
ment, printed  for  that  train)  used  for  identifying  packages  and 
bags  of  outgoing  mail,  and  perhaps  his  clerk's  name  dater 
with  pad  and  rubber  type  to  fit.  pencils,  and  so  forth.  Pouch 
and  sack  labels,  cut  or  torn  from  ribbons  or  strips  of  five  labels 
each,  look  like  this: 


16 


MAIL  BY  RAIL 


(Actual  size,  on 
buff  cardboard  "slides") 


ALLENTOWN  &  PHILA  Tr  40 
Pennsylvania  Newspapers 
Fr  N  Y  Geneva  &  Buff  Tr  7 


His  slips  are   printed   on   paper   like   newsprint,   like  this 
(dis  means  "mails  distributed  from"): 


(Printed) 

Size  3 14"  X  4" 

(Rubber-stamped) 


BALTIMORE  MD  DIS 
Maryland  A  to  D 
Fr  Buff  &  Wash   Tr 


BUFF  &  WASH  RPO 

Tr  554  -  Jun  30,  1950 

JOHN  D.  DOE 


The  big  grip  is  usually  a  large,  sturdy  metal  or  vulcanized- 
fiber  suitcase  (leather  and  its  substitutes  seldom  stand  the 
gaff).  It  contains  a  weird  assortment  of  extra  schemes  (book- 
lets about  41/^  X  81/2  inches),  labels,  blank  slips,  official  forms, 
a  "Black  Book"  of  Postal  Laws  and  Regulations,  work  clothes, 
soap  and  towels,  coffee  cup,  headers  (cardboard  letter-case 
labels),  knife,  registry  supplies,  and  so  on. 

Instantly  the  mail  slingers  disrobe  and  don  work  clothes 
and  shoes,  guns,  badges,  and  small  caps  in  a  quite  literal 
"overall  transformation"— although  many  prefer  denims  or 
aprons  to  overalls.  Some  gay  whimsies  are  tossed  about  as 
multicolored  BVD's  are  momentarily  exposed;  then  guns  are 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  17 

loaded  and  all  hands  proceed  to  han^  pouches  and  sacks  in 
the  racks  after  unfolding  them  from  the  wall.  Space  is  limited 
in  most  R.P.O.s;  eight  to  ten  pouches  may  be  squeezed  into 
each  rack  row  (normally  divided  for  five),  although  seven  arc 
usually  hung.  Extra  pouches  or  sacks  may  be  hung  in  aisles 
and  under  tables  until  even  the  thinnest  clerk  can  barely 
crawl  "down  the  alley,"  and  dragging  a  big  sack  or  shin-peeler 
down  the  aisle  becomes  a  nightmare  of  barked  ankles  and 
frayed  nerves.  Still  more  mail  bags  may  be  crammed  in  little 
"pony"  racks  called  crabs  or  jacks. 

Letter  clerks  hasten  to  their  cases  to  insert  their  headers 
(or  face  up  the  proper  case  label  on  the  revolving  stick  in 
each  hole).  Potich  clerks  place  their  labels  in  neat  visible 
holders  fastened  inside  each  pouch's  back  edge,  while  "paper 
men"  place  most  of  theirs  in  special  holders  on  the  rack 
frame— unless  a  "blind-case  expert,"  who  places  all  labels  in 
the  hidden  sack  holders  instead,  is  at  the  rack,  to  the  exaspera- 
tion of  any  perplexed  assistant  assigned  to  help  him! 

Pigeonholes,  pouches,  and  sacks  are  seemingly  arranged  in 
a  confused  helter-skelter  order,  which  is  almost  never  alpha- 
betical; but  there  is  method  in  this  madness— the  heaviest 
separations  are  closest  at  hand  (see  Technical  Note  1).  There 
is  at  least  one  letter  case  for  each  state  distributed  on  the 
train,  and  headers  show  much  colorful  variation— from  those 
neatly  printed  at  clerk's  expense  to  hand-lettered  Gothic,  and 
from  penciled  scrawls  to  colored  cutout  letters  and  advertise- 
ment headings.  Oddly  enough,  the  top  pigeonhole  in  each 
row  will  not  hold  a  header,  and  the  one  below  it  must  do 
double  duty,  divided  into  two  parts— although  most  cars  have 
many  a  title  scribbled  on  walls  above  the  top  holes  by  less 
painstaking  clerks!  All  other  headers  are  placed  over  the 
box  designated,  as  new  substitutes  have  discovered  to  their 
chagrin  after  working  considerable  mail  according  to  the 
headers  beloiu— much  to  the  rage  of  the  case's  owner.  Skip- 
ping each  header  designating  a  single  post  office  (called  a 
direct),  the  letter  clerk  inserts  his  stamped  slips  within  the 
remaining  line  and  dis  boxes  {Note  2),  and  meanwhile  the 
rack  clerks  set  up  their  tray  tables  between  the  rack  edges  and 


18  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Stretcher  bars  (supported  by  pedestals).  The  "grip  man"  will 
poke  his  head  in  the  door  about  this  time,  and  the  pile  of 
nickels  near  by  will  be  counted. 

"Who's  light  on  the  grips?"  the  clerk-in-charge  will  bellow. 

One  or  two  absent-minded  culprits  will  hasten  up  with 
their  nickels,  and  the  "poor  old  grip"  man  departs.  One  clerk 
will  be  sent  out  as  an  armed  convoy  for  the  first  incoming 
load  of  "mail  of  value"  from  the  post  office  and  is  jokingly 
ordered  to  bring  back  "a  small  load."  If  he  returns,  as  he 
usually  must,  with  an  overflowing  truckful,  his  innocent  ears 
will  ring  to  echoes  of  "Oh!  heartless  son  of  a  gun!"  and  "We'll 
never  sf  nd  you  again!"  Such  repartee,  not  always  printable, 
continues  all  the  way  "down  the  road."  A  little  bag  of  locks 
and  twine  is  opened  and  the  balls  of  string  distributed;  it  is 
a  rather  weak,  linty  jute,  but  many  clerks  insist  on  it,  so  they 
can  snap  it  with  the  fingers— despite  the  irritating  fuzz  which 
fills  the  air.  Other  clerks  use  a  twine  knife,  worn  like  a  ring, 
to  cut  the  twine  after  tying  knots;  it  also  cuts  open  working 
packages.  Every  clerk  has  a  knife  of  some  sort,  from  ornate 
carved  hunting  blades  on  down;  many  get  sharpened  to  a 
curved  remnant. 

A  brief  bull  session  may  await  the  first  mail,  or  it  may  come 
flooding  in  with  the  grips.  Direct  bags  for  large  towns  on  and 
beyond  the  line  are  often  loaded  in  a  separate  storage  car, 
supervised  by  a  certain  clerk  among  other  duties;  he  must 
sometimes  load  and  unload  it.  And  going  through  a  dark, 
bouncing  vestibule  on  a  freezing  night  into  a  storage  car  a 
dozen  times  is  no  fun,  especially  since  its  big  sliding  doors 
usually  stick  like  sin. 

But  there  are  mountains  of  mail  coming  into  the  R.P.O. 
car,  too;  and  to  the  cry  of  "On  the  belt!"  or  "Battle  stations, 
men!"  the  clerks  line  up  to  pass  working  pouches  to  the  tables 
in  fast  bucket-brigade  style.  Storage  mail  for  smaller  stops  is 
separated  into  bins  at  the  ends,  while  working  newspaper 
sacks  are  piled  at  the  paper  table;  excess  working  mails  may 
be  piled  on  and  under  the  tables  and  even  in  aisles  and  bins. 

In  a  colorful  ceremony,  working  pouches  are  recorded  by 
the  clerk-in-charge  and  his  "pouch  caller,"  whose  opening 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  19 

cry  is  "On  the  hanger!"  (the  official  check  list  often  being 
hung  up).  Incoming  pouches  are  checked  on  this  clip-board 
list  or  checkboard  by  means  of  an  amazing  gibberish: 

"From  the  Madhouse  with  a  two— Tom  Cat— Rockin'  Chair 
Line— Pennsy  from  the  Doghouse— Win  an'  Bridge  with  a  one 
—West  Working  Holy  Smoke— City  of  the  Dead  3-X— Chat 
438  Directs— Working  on  it— Forty-six— the  other  Chat— Em- 
pire State  with  a  six,  Gyp— Ohio  Working  from  the  Grand— 
the  Far  Rock"— and  other  strange  nicknames  and  numbers, 
until  the  welcome  words  "Hang  it  up!"  indicate  a  temporary 
lull.    {Note  3.) 

Huge  piles  of  mail  are  dumped  up  at  both  tables,  especially 
at  the  pouch  rack,  where  the  key  man  or  dumper  is  lifting, 
unlocking,  emptying,  and  setting  up  the  mail— a  most  strenu- 
ous job,  usually  done  by  a  junior  clerk  or  substitute.  The 
large  and  small  letter  packages  {bales  and  skins)  and  slugs  or 
fiats  must  be  all  set  on  edge  facing  the  same  way,  so  that 
pouch  clerks  can  instantly  fling  them  to  the  proper  separa- 
tion. Each  pouch  and  sack  must  be  thrown  open  and  exam- 
ined for  stray  mail  after  emptying,  and  then  bagged  (in  the 
same  fashion  in  which  the  original  "empties"  were  received) 
or  piled  for  hand  access;  they  are  used  to  replace  full  pouches 
later  locked  out.   Labels  are  removed  and  placed  in  a  box. 

"Working  packages"  of  letters  for  local  offices  and  nearby 
states  are  thrown  directly  (or  via  temporary  pouches  or  boxes) 
to  the  letter  cases  for  sorting,  instead  of  into  the  outgoing 
pouches  which  are  labeled  to  the  towns  along  and  beyond 
the  line  and  to  connecting  R.P.O.s.  Similarly,  packages  tied 
out  from  the  cases  are  tossed  on  the  pouch  table  to  be  thrown 
off  like  the  "made-up"  packages.  The  head  pouch  clerk  must 
have  a  general  knowledge  of  the  routing  for  ten  thousand  or 
more  post  offices  in  the  distribution  area  and  beyond— and 
usually  without  a  single  chart  or  list  to  guide  him! 

Mail  is  now  flying  in  all  directions.  Newspapers  just  pub- 
lished are  rushed  to  the  train  w'xxh.  wrapper  paste  still  wet, 
and  they  are,  of  course,  speedily  handled  exactly  like  the 
pouch-rack  mail.  Some  publishers  include  a  complimentary 
copy  addressed  to  the  clerk-in-charge,  but  there's  no  time  to 


20  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

glance  at  it  now.  There  is  often  so  much  mail  that  separate 
paper  racks  (and,  rarely,  pouch  racks)  are  maintained  for  each 
state  handled.  Meanwhile,  incoming  and  locked-out  pouches 
and  sacks  are  constantly  being  passed  along  to  the  tune  of 
"Up  the  alley!"  "Down  the  alley!"  or  "Alley  Oop!"  Mail  then 
sent  the  other  way  is  heralded  as  "Return  Movement!"  (offi- 
cially, a  reverse  space  shipment). 

When  extra  or  delayed  connections  not  ordinarily  due  are 
received  by  our  train,  the  whole  car  becomes  a  madhouse  on 
wheels  as  frantic  clerks  try  to  get  "up"  (finish  sorting  all  mail 
at  hand).  Conversely,  it  may  be  that  some  connections  due 
our  train  are  missed  due  to  late  running,  and  the  pleasant 
prospect  of  a  light,  little-to-do  trip  looms  forth— despite  the 
tinge  of  regret  at  the  resulting  delay  to  the  mail.  Tense  is  the 
excitement  as  leaving  time  nears,  when  a  connection  is  often 
made  or  missed  by  a  split  second. 

The  pouch-table  "key  man"  and  the  paper-rack  "end  man" 
have  the  most  thankless  tasks.  The  pouch  dumper  must  con- 
tend with  insecurely  tied  letter  packages  which  break  and 
shower  the  table  and  mail  with  loose  letters  which  he  must 
stop  and  separate,  face  together,  and  tie,  watched  by  the 
impatient  pouch  clerk;  and  must  stop  and  lock  out  pouches, 
many  ^vedged  behind  piles  of  under-table  mail,  just  as  an- 
other heavy  connection  comes  pouring  in.  The  end  man, 
besides  his  usual  heavy  distribution  and  tie-out,  mtist  usually 
drag  and  pile  all  mail  coming  down  the  alley,  on  the  high- 
stacked  storage  bins;  and  must  unload,  load,  and  often  pile 
all  mail  passing  his  door  at  every  stop. 

Serenely  presiding  over  the  car,  the  genial  clerk-in-charge, 
or  chief,  usually  works  a  letter  case  just  inside  the  first  door, 
which  keeps  him  busy  when  not  supervising.  The  other 
"letter  men"  are  busily  flipping  letters  all  over  the  eight  or 
ten  other  cases  at  high  speed.  It  is  no  easy  job,  although  they 
are  often  dubbed  cose  admirals,  especially  if  any  are  canvas- 
sliy  or  afflicted  with  sackolifis  (i.e.,  averse  to  locking  out 
pouches  and  sacks).  As  each  pigeonhole  fills  up  it  is  quickly 
tied  out,  using  a  special  knot  requiring  a  real  knack  to  tie. 

Throughout  the  car  the  weird  jargon  of  the  Service  re- 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  21 

verberates,  and  while  many  terms  have  been  or  Avill  be  ex- 
plained esle^vhere  in  our  story,  the  follouing  are  typical 
general  or  regional  slang  terms  often  used  in  the  P.T.S. 

A-C— Actual  count  of  mail  worked. 

Angel— Extra,  label  found  in  bag  of  mail   (not  supposed 

to  be  taken  credit  foi). 
Appleknockers,  knuckleheads,  the  boys— Crew  going  up 

road  as  we  go  do^vn. 
Balloon— Huge  sack  or  pouch  of  mail,  expanding  vastly 

when  dimiped. 
5^r7o— Prohibitory  order   ("There  shall  be  no"). 
Bladders  (German  "blatter")— Ne^vspapers. 
Braiyis-Chart  or  list  of  mail  routes. 
Bridge-rack,  crab,  jack— A  small  "pony"  rack. 
Butterfly— Wingnut  used  by  railroader  to  set  up  pedestals 

in  car. 
Buttons—Snap-on  mail  locks. 
Catch— hocal  exchange;  the  mail  caught. 
Civil-service— To  thumb  through  a  package  of  letters, 

seeking  errors,  et  cetera. 
C/7/6— Correspondence  file  on  mishandled  mail. 
Cripple  or  tr;???— Damaged  pouch  or  sack. 
D's,  hickies,  sinkers,  mopics,  miniLS  points,  brownies— 

Demerits. 
Dress  a  rack— Hang  pouches  therein. 
English— New  England    (States). 
Fly-paper,  ivind-mail-Air  mail. 
Hash  or  house  mrt//— Miscellaneous  bag  mails. 
Hards— hetters  whose  route  is  unknown. 
High-xvheeler,  hy po— Highway  post  ofHce. 
Hitting  mail,  virgin,  one  for  the  knocker— hetter  to  be 

postmarked. 
Jumbo— To  put  mail  in  a  jumbo  pouch  for  reworking 

down  the  road. 
Jack-pot,  swamp— A  jumbo  pouch. 
LA  /oc/{— Snap-on  lock  or  "Lock,  Andrus"    (from  name 

of  inventor). 
Miid—^la\\  matter. 

Nixie— An  unsortable,  misaddressed  letter. 
Pilot— Mail  piler    (i.e.,   "pile-it"). 


22  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Prill  a  rock— To  remove  and  lock  all  pouches. 
Red    (from   abbreviation   "reg.",  or  from  former  red- 
striped  pouches)— A  registered  piece. 
Red  man,  money  ma??— Register  clerk. 
Rob  a  6ox— Collect  from  station  letter  box. 
Sleeper— Vnoliserved  letter  left  in  car. 
Stringer— Vouch   (sack)  hung  on  rail. 
Sxuindle  sheet— Trip  report;  balance  sheet  on  registers. 
Trunk,  Jog— An  exceedingly  heavy  parcel. 
Wnrt—An  extra  trip. 
Way  clerk— 'Loc^A  clerk   (who  makes  catches). 

By  this  time  the  switch  engine  shifts  our  car  to  the  regular 
train  consist.  There  is  usually  at  least  one  new  clerk  on 
board,  and  some  wag  is  sure  to  holler,  as  we  move,  "We're  off! 
Missed  everything!"  (i.e.,  all  connections  due).  But  the 
greenhorn's  visions  of  an  easy  trip  are  sharply  shattered  as 
the  car  backs  in  again  to  receive  mountains  of  connecting 
mail  as  well  as  more  from  the  city  post  office.  The  engineer 
is  jerking  the  car  fearfully,  and  someone  yells  "Why  doncha 
go  back  to  school  and  learn  how  to  drive  an  engine!" 

"Seventy-six  in  the  house!"  yells  the  pouch  caller,  and  the 
chief  checks  off  a  score  of  pouches  from  Train  76  as  they  are 
called  "—with  a  one  .  .  .  Avith  a  two  ...  a  three-X"  as  before 
(serial  numbers  indicating  the  first,  second,  and  last  of  three 
identical  pouches).  Work  continues  feverishly;  a  big  road 
engine  is  now  coupled  on  ("We've  got  a  horse!"),  and  leaving 
time  is  almost  here.  Sometimes  the  clerks'  hours  of  duty  are 
by  now  nearly  half  over.  The  local  city  dis  pouch,  containing 
what  little  mail  was  missent  to  our  train,  is  flung  out,  and  an 
air  of  tense  expectancy  pervades  the  whole  car. 

"Throw  the  bums  out!"  comes  the  cry,  and  startled  by- 
standers, expecting  to  see  some  tramps  ejected  from  the  car, 
are  unaware  that  bums  are  only  the  sacks  of  empties  often 
thrown  off  before  leaving.  Then  comes  the  conductor's  wel- 
come cry  "O.K.  on  the  mail!"  and  his  two  short  whistle  blasts. 

"We're  off!"  It's  the  real  thing  this  time,  and  we  pull  out 
and  gather  speed  as  the  red  man  on  his  stool  yells  for  a  helper. 
We  are  fast  approaching  the  first  station  at  which  mail  is  de- 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  23 

livered,  and  letter,  pouch,  and  paper  clerks  must  have  all  the 
"No.  I  mail"  (tiiat  for  first  section  of  the  line)  worked  up  by 
then  to  keep  from  "carrying  by"  a  letter  or  a  paper. 

At  the  engineer's  signal,  the  letter  man  on  tlie  local  state 
case  ties  out  the  package  for  this  station  from  his  row  of 
"locals"  and  throws  it  in  the  pouch  with  its  other  mail;  the 
local  clerk  locks  it  and  rushes  to  the  door.  If  it  is  a  non-stop 
exchange,  he  quickly  throws  the  pouch  in  the  designated  area 
and  catches  the  incoming  pouch  off  the  crane  with  his  hook. 

This  pouch  must  be  completely  distribiued  before  reach- 
ing the  next  station,  so  that  the  local  letter  package  and 
pieces  from  the  first  office  to  the  second  one  can  be  gotten 
into  the  next  pouch  (along  with  the  letter  man's  tie-out) 
before  it  is  locked  out.  Arms  work  like  pistons,  and  the  job 
is  done  just  in  time.  This  ingenious  process  is  repeated  all 
down  the  road,  while  mails  for  far-distant  states  are  simul- 
taneously being  sorted  out  to  the  finest  degree. 

Anything  can  happen  on  an  R.P.O.  run.  Lights  may  fade 
out,  necessitating  tying  out  all  cases  and  working  the  pouch 
mail  by  the  feeble  glow  of  candle  lamps.  The  car's  under- 
pinning may  go  haywire,  requiring  it  to  be  "shopped"  for 
repairs— with  every  letter  package,  pouch,  and  sack  to  be  tied 
out,  unloaded,  transferred,  and  installed  in  a  new  car  amid 
much  delay. 

Most  prominent  stations  along  the  line,  as  well  as  leading 
distant  points,  will  be  identified  by  special  nicknames.  Thus, 
on  the  N.Y.  &  Washington  R.P.O.  (PRR),  New  Brunswick, 
New  Jersey,  is  "Once-a-week"  (from  porters'  abbreviation 
"  'Runsweek");  North  Philadelphia  is  "Longest  Straight 
Street  in  the  World"  (Broad  Street,  crossing  the  P.R.R.); 
Perryville,  Maryland,  on  the  wide  Susquehanna  is  "The 
River";  and  Middle  River,  Maryland,  of  Martin  Bomber 
fame  is  "The  Airplanes."  Down  South,  Savannah,  is  "Yam- 
a-craw"  and  Miami,  "My-oh-my";  while  Boston  is  sometimes 
"Boss-town"  and  Chicago  "She  don'-go." 

Somewhere  along  here  comes  the  welcome  lull  of  "coffee 
time,"  the  clerks'  brief  fifteen-  or  twenty-minute  lunch  peri- 
od; on  long  runs,  two  or  more  may  be  allowed.    A  typical 


24  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

mail-car  "coffee  man"  (see  Chapter  10)  provides  a  fragrant 
brew  to  accompany  the  lunches  brought  in  bags,  or  occasion- 
ally purchased  at  way-station  restaurants  (i.e.,  at  a  Harvey 
House  out  West),  or  bought  from  the  coffee  man  or  some 
other  clerk  who  may  operate  a  "commissary"  of  sandwich 
ingredients,  pie,  and  sometimes  even  hot  dishes. 

On  heavy-mail  trips,  conscientious  clerks  olten  eat  with  one 
hand  and  stick  mail  with  the  other,  or  simply  postpone  lunch 
until  the  end  of  the  trip.  Lunch  time  has  its  pranks,  too, 
when  jokesters  substitute  raw  eggs  for  someone's  hard-boiled 
ones,  or  dust  crullers  with  plaster-of-Paris  "sugar."  But  road 
life  is  usually  at  its  best  at  lunch  time— clerks  relax  comfort- 
ably on  ledges,  tables,  or  mailbags  and  eat  amid  a  friendly 
chat  or  while  reading  a  paper  or  viewing  passing  scenes  on  a 
daylight  run.  Some  clerk,  celebrating  a  family  addition  or 
promotion,  may  treat  all  to  refreshments  or  cigars;  a  real  party 
may  be  thrown.  During  World  War  II  most  R.M.S.  coffee  and 
commissary  men  had  their  R.P.O.  units  listed  as  "institutions" 
to  secure  necessary  rations. 

Through  tunnels,  over  great  trestles,  and  aroimd  sweeping 
curves  the  train  roars  on.  As  it  approaches  each  junction  sta- 
tion where  other  R.P.O.s  intersect,  letter  men  quickly  tie  out 
all  packages  due  to  be  dispatched  there  and  toss  them  in  the 
proper  pouches,  which  are  locked  out  and  unloaded  as  soon 
as  the  train  grinds  to  a  stop  "in  the  house,"  the  door  clerk 
calling  the  pouches  to  the  chief  in  his  usual  jargon.  A  few 
mail-car  Romeos  meanwhile  eye  the  station-platform  girls 
through  the  Avindows  with  a  fond  and  delighted  gaze,  whist- 
ling to  their  companions  "Boy!  Will  you  look  at  that!"  But 
mountains  of  mail  are  being  loaded,  and  soon  the  station, 
luscious  blondes  and  all,  is  speedily  left  behind.  Occasional 
unscheduled  operating  stops  or  delays  sometimes  bring  forth 
the  accusing  remark,  "Never  stopped  here  before!" 

The  stacks  of  working  pouches  surrounding  the  pouch 
table  gradually  disappear,  and  the  exhausted  key  man  is  likely 
to  give  a  pleasurable  sigh  as  he  anticipates  a  well-earned 
breathing  spell.  He  dumps  the  last  pouch  and  waits.  But 
all  too  often  the  head  pouch  clerk  then  calls: 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  25 

"Send  down  that  next  bin  now!"  Then  the  disillusioned 
dumper  discovers  that  stacks  of  reserve  pouches  were  stored 
in  the  end  of  the  car  for  lack  of  room!  Only  after  countless 
miles  of  toil  will  the  pouch  men  finally  get  "up";  then  all 
full  pouches  must  be  locked  out  before  a  few  minutes  of 
relaxation  can  be  enjoyed— unless,  as  often  happens,  there  are 
other  assignments  then  requiring  assistance.  Clerks  who  are 
"up"  are  usually  needed  to  tie  out  cases  or  run  out  directs  of 
letters  on  the  pouch  table. 

There  are  more  catches  "on  the  fly"  which  the  local  clerk 
dare  not  miss,  for  any  pouch  not  caught  nets  him  five  de- 
merits. Some  "hot  runs"  have  less  than  a  minute  between 
certain  catcher  stations,  such  as  between  Berwyn  and  Branch- 
ville,  Maryland— two  adjacent  Washington  suburbs  on  the 
N.Y.,  Bait.  R:  W^ash.  (BR;0);  the  cranes  are  just  four  blocks 
apart,  with  long  stretches  of  other  suburbs  on  both  sides.  A 
pouch  clerk  must  work  like  lightning  to  serve  two  such  towns 
in  time  for  them  to  exchange  mails. 

Clerks  are  given  lists  of  landmarks  by  which  to  recognize 
their  approach  to  each  mail  crane.  But  at  night  these  arc 
invisible,  whistle  signals  are  obscure,  and  a  veteran  clerk 
must  go  by  the  sound  or  "feel"  of  the  tracks  as  he  passes  over 
switch  points,  trestles,  and  other  structures.  At  station  after 
station  he  promptly  delivers  "mail  for  the  local  inhabitants, 
whose  day  would  be  ruined  if  you  carried  it  by  .  .  .  going 
through  tOAvns  when  everybody  is  still  in  bed,  the  farmers' 
lights  beginning  to  show  up  as  you  get  down  the  road  .  .  . 
moonlight  across  the  fields,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing  .  .  .  even 
getting  whiffs  of  what  you  think  is  ham  and  eggs  cooking," 
as  one  clerk  writes  us. 

Some  clerk  is  sure  to  liven  up  the  journey  by  suddenly 
staring  out  a  window  and  crying,  "Oh,  see  the  big  wreck!" 
"Wow,  cars  strewn  all  over  the  track!"  "Whew,  what  a  fire!" 
or  something  equally  startling.  New  men  present  hastily 
crane  necks  trying  to  see,  only  to  bob  back  and  forth  in  con- 
fusion at  the  howls  of  "Other  side!  No,  other  side!"  until 
they  catch  on  to  the  trick  in  considerable  embarrassment, 
after  beholding  nothing  unusual  whatever. 


26  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Now  we  are  approaching  the  end  of  the  trail.  "Every  turn 
of  the  wheel,  now!"  we  hear.  There  is  often  a  shirttail  finish, 
trying  to  get  "up"  on  the  heaviest  case  or  rack.  Perhaps  the 
red  man  has  gotten  "up"  a  bit  early  and  is  busy  balancing 
his  records— his  ninety-mile  balance  sheet,  someone  will  slyly 
call  it,  with  the  joking  insinuation  that  he  tries  to  keep  occu- 
pied thereon  (on  his  handy  little  stool),  while  other  clerks 
are  locking  out  racks  and  hoping  for  help,  during  the  last 
ninety  miles  of  the  trip!    But  he  has  a  tough,  responsible  job. 

Tiie  "grand  tie  out"  is  now  under  way,  and  the  letter  men 
leave  only  a  few  main  pigeonholes  in,  for  handling  mail 
from  the  last  few  stations.  Identical  separations  in  adjacent 
cases  are  massed  out  on  each  other  (combined),  and  very  light 
directs  are  massed  into  the  proper  R.P.O.  boxes.  (Last- 
minute  mails  may  be  sorted  flat  on  a  table.)  Then  the  pack- 
ages are  handed  to  helpers  to  tie;  the  big  tie-out  spreads  to 
the  pouch  rack  as  the  letter  packages  are  thrown  in,  and  the 
pouch  man  cries  "Come  on,  you  case  lizards!"  to  letter  men 
hesitating  to  assist.  Overhead  boxes  are  emptied  into  the 
proper  type  bag,  and  all  pouches  closed  with  the  standard 
lock  ^vhich  snaps  shut  under  simple  pressure.  Only  a  few 
pouches  for  last-minute  mails  are  left  in  the  rack.  The  end 
man,  his  papers  tied  out  earlier,  drags  and  piles  the  pouches 
in  the  proper  bins;  tray  tables  are  detached,  iron  pedestals 
knocked  down  by  stretcher  bars,  racks  are  folded  back,  and 
bag  mail  piled  in  their  places. 

Now  the  last  station  has  been  served  and  the  last  pouch 
locked  out  and  piled  by  the  weary  end  man,  who  sinks  into 
a  stupor  on  a  pile  of  bag  mail.  Wastepaper  and  twine  must 
be  bagged  in  a  special  sack  and  sent  to  the  terminal  office;  all 
outgoing  pouches  are  checked.  Some  clerk,  with  gay  cries  of 
"Geronimo!"  (battle  cry  of  World  War  II  paratroopers),  may 
threaten  to  "parachute";  i.e.,  jump  off  at  one  of  the  last  few 
stations— especially  if  near  his  home— without  doing  any  un- 
loading. But  this  is  forbidden  except  in  special  emergencies, 
and  persistent  "paratroopers"  really  get  into  trouble. 

Then  comes  washing-up  time,  and  the  grimy  mail  slingers 
await   their   turn  by  the  collapsible,   potbellied  washbasin 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  27 

{Note  4).  Most  clerks-in-charge  try  to  allow  the  last  twenty 
or  thirty  minutes  or  so  of  each  trip  for  wash-up  and  for 
counting  slips  from  mail  worked  (for  the  trip  report),  chang- 
ing clothes,  and  relaxing  a  bit.  There  may  even  be  time  for 
a  friendly  little  game,  seated  in  a  circle  on  the  handy  wooden 
boxes  used  for  receiving  case  mail  from  the  pouch  table. 
Other  clerks  may  read  a  paper,  stamp  slips,  chat,  or  even  doze 
a  bit  (mailbags  make  a  dandy  couch).  Pranksters  play  their 
usual  tricks,  like  nailing  down  someone's  shoes  or  filling  his 
"little  grip"  full  of  locks. 

But  if  it  has  been  a  really  hectic  trip,  with  the  car  choked 
with  extra  mails,  there's  no  time  for  such  as  that!  To  keep 
from  going  stuck,  many  a  crew  has  worked  right  into  its 
terminal  and  locked  out  afterward.  If  it  is  still  impossible 
to  get  "up"  even  then,  the  crew  must  reluctantly  go  stuck  on 
its  heaviest  distribution,  anyway.  Then  the  unworked  (or 
uncooked)  mail  must  be  placed  in  "emergency  pouches"  and 
sent  to  the  local  terminal,  P.T.S.,  for  sorting.  (If  some  of 
the  unworked  mail  is  in  residue  packages  from  which  the 
directs  only  have  been  picked  out,  they  are  marked  with 
kisses— X  X  X—  to  indicate  it.) 

Now  our  train  is  in  the  yards— it  pulls  up  to  the  platform— 
and  watches  are  compared  as  we  hear  the  welcome  words 
"We're  in!"  Usually  we  arrive  on  the  button,  but  in  case  of 
late  running  (sometimes  paid  for  as  overtime),  a  tiny  fraction 
of  a  minute  may  spell  the  gain  or  loss  of  an  extra  item  of 
travel  allowance— an  additional  $1.50  for  each  clerk! 

The  clerks  quickly  unload  all  mail  onto  the  hand  trucks 
brought  up  by  the  station  porters,  while  the  clerk-in-charge 
lingers  to  the  last  as  he  fills  out  his  many  reports.  Valuable 
mails  are  convoyed  to  the  post  office  (or  another  train)  by  an 
armed  clerk.  One  clerk  is  assigned  as  X-man  to  examine  all 
parts  of  the  car  for  stray  sleepers,  and  following  him,  a  trans- 
fer clerk  double-checks  every  case  and  box.  Last  to  be  un- 
loaded is  the  dog  load  of  sacked  empties  (bums)  and  coffee 
outfit  or  pie  box. 

it  is  usually  in  the  gray  hours  of  dawn  that  the  weary 
clerks  finally  stumble  towards  the  "Railroad  Y,"  dormitory. 


28  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

or  small  hotel  where  they  customarily  secure  their  sleep—  or 
toward  some  all-night  restaurant,  first,  for  a  bite.  Some  clerks, 
living  at  this  end  of  the  run,  will  make  for  home  as  best  they 
can  via  owl  car  or  auto.  Most  large  cities  and  important  rail- 
road towns  have  a  Railroad  Y.M.C.A.  operating  twenty-four 
hours  a  day  and  located  upstairs  in  the  principal  station; 
dormitories  containing  several  beds  each,  plus  washrooms 
and  recreational  facilities,  are  available  there  for  all  railroad 
men.  In  New  York,  Pittsburgh,  Chicagro,  Boston,  and  other 
cities  there  are  special  dormitories  operated  by  and  for  rail- 
way mail  clerks  only— such  as  the  Railway  Mail  Club  in  New 
York's  Hotel  Statler;  and  spacious  facilities,  formerly  in  the 
Fort  Pitt  Hotel,  in  the  Smoky  City. 

Even  if  a  quick  turn-around  permits  only  five  or  six  hours' 
sleep,  most  clerks  still  insist  on  time  out  for  a  good  meal  and 
often  for  a  pool  game  or  other  recreation  as  well.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  long  layover  will  permit  several  hours  of  movie 
going,  visiting,  or  sight-seeing  in  the  terminal  city  before 
reporting  for  duty.  However,  quite  a  few  clerks  have  run 
into  a  certain  city  for  decades  without  ever  bothering  to  look 
it  over.  One  man  may  visit  relatives,  another  do  some  shop- 
ping, a  third  make  for  a  tavern,  a  fourth  ride  streetcars  or 
what  not,  until  time  to  go  to  work. 

Their  grips,  meanwhile,  have  been  stacked  on  shelves  in 
the  station  or  post-office  grip  room.  Strange  things  can  hap- 
pen in  grip  rooms;  in  one  case  a  suitcase  of  valuables  was 
stamped,  labeled,  and  sent  as  air  mail  by  a  postal  patron,  only 
to  lose  Its  label  when  in  an  R.P.O.  car,  get  unloaded  along 
with  grips  and  mail  at  the  end  of  the  run,  and  be  deposited 
on  the  grip-room  shelves  to  gather  dust  for  years  (as  do  many 
old  grips,  full  or  empty,  left  there  by  retired  or  deceased 
clerks).  It  wzs  discovered  long  after  the  patron  had  been  re- 
imbursed for  his  loss  after  a  fruitless  search!  Another  clerk, 
whose  grip  was  always  being  moved  to  an  obscure  corner  by 
a  second  clerk  (who  coveted  its  proper  spot),  finally  nailed  the 
offender's  grip  securely  to  the  shelf— and  eventually  took  it 
with  him  and  threw  it  off  a  bridge  when  the  practice  con- 
tinued! A  mail  thief,  prowling  in  a  post-office  basement,  once 


A  RUN  FOR  THEIR  MONEY  29 

Stole  a  valuable  ladies*  suitcase  en  route  to  Asbury  Park,  New 
Jersey,  carefully  removing  the  tell  tale  tag  bearing  stamps  and 
address;  to  avoid  detection,  he  retied  the  latter  to  an  old  piece 
of  luggage  on  a  truck  near  by.  It  happened  to  be  a  truck  of 
mail  clerks'  grips,  and  the  tag  ^vas  placed  on  that  of  Roger 
Gaver  of  the  N.Y.  &:  Wash.  (PRR).  This  piece  of  "mail" 
was  soon  discovered  and  promptly  dispatched  to  Asbury  Park 
—to  the  mutual  ire  of  the  lady  addressee  and  of  Gaver,  wno 
had  no  supplies  for  his  runs  until  he  got  his  grip  back  six 
months  later! 

When  several  men  sleep  in  one  dormitory  room  there  is 
often  at  least  one  first-class  snorer.  In  one  Railroad  "Y" 
several  regular  patrons  who  are  thus  unfortunately  afflicted 
voluntarily  (and  most  considerately)  segregate  themsehes  in 
a  special  "snorer's  room"  furnished  to  them.  There  are  many 
snorer  stories,  but  the  best  probably  comes  from  Washington, 
D.  C.,  where  a  very  loud-snoring  clerk  always  registered  for 
a  certain  dormitory  at  the  "Y"  in  Union  Station.  A  clerk  on 
the  opposite  crew,  who  usually  used  the  same  room  on  alter- 
nate nig;hts,  was  once  assigned  to  run  extra  on  a  Christmas 
trip  Avith  the  first  man,  and  crew  members  warned  him  of  the 
snorer.  The  extra  clerk  promptly  reserved  all  four  beds 
(they  were  only  twenty-five  cents,  then)  in  that  room.  But 
the  snorer  was  tipped  off  about  this  effort  to  exclude  him, 
so  he  used  one  of  the  beds  anyhow,  slept  free,  and  made  the 
rafters  grroan  with  his  noise  while  the  harassed  extra  man 
tried  to  sleep!  Such  is  life  at  the  outer  terminal;  then  comes 
the  busy  return  trip,  with  new  duties  for  all. 


Chapter  3 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST 


While  I  am  taking  hours  of  rest  in  my  big  white  bed  each  day, 
My  thoughts,  they  get  to  wandering,  and  wander  miles  away  .  .  . 
To  the  grand  old  gang  on  Tour  1,  at  the  "Cleve  Term"  R.P.O.; 
At  times  it  seems  but  yesterday,  but  'twas  long,  long  years  ago. . . . 

—  Guy  Streby 


—  Courtesy  Postal  Markings 


Like  a  gigantic  spidenveb 
sprawled  across  the  living  map 
of  tliese  United  States,  a  net- 
work of  over  seven  hundred 
busy  Railway  Post  OfTice  lines 
on  165,000  miles  of  route  is 
speeding  our  mails  in  all  directions  twenty-four  hours  a  day. 
For  example,  there's  the  famed  transcontinental  "Fast  Mail" 
route  which  includes  the  New  York  Central's  great  20fh 
Century  Limited  (a  train  of  the  N.Y.  R:  Chicago  R.P.O.V  the 
C&N  W's  Chic.  Sc  Omaha,  the  Union  Pacific's  Omaha  Sc  Ogden 
and  Ogden  R:  Los  Angeles,  and  the  SP's  storied  Ogden  &  San 
Fran,  or  "Overland"  route. 

They  are  typical  of  the  7,666  mail  trains  operated  daily 
by  our  vast  railway  mail  system  and  involving  600,000  miles 
of  daily  travel.  These  railways  rush  well  over  forty  billion 
pieces  of  mail  each  year  to  our  41,500  post  offices  and  their 
branches— ranging  in  size,  with  the  same  impartial  type  of 
designation,  from  New  York,  New  York  (population  7,84  L- 
000)  to  Huntley,  Virginia  (population  3)! 

Fewer  persons  are  employed  in  the  Postal  Transportation 
Service  than  in  the  New  York  City  Post  Office— yet  the  P.T.S. 
sorts  or  transports  the  vast  bulk  of  all  our  mail  matter  with 

30 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  SI 

amazing  efficiency.  It  is  truly  the  lifeblood  of  the  "world's 
biggest  business"  (the  U.S. P.O.  Department;  annual  turnover, 
$16,000,000,000).  Its  living  flow  of  transit-sorted  mails  are 
expertly  handled  by  only  71/9  per  cent  of  our  400,000  postal 
employees;  distributing  far  more  mail  per  man-hour  than  the 
average  post-office  clerk,  railway  mail  clerks  put  in  over  four 
billion  miles  of  travel  annually  to  sort  the  staggering  total  of 
twenty-one  billion  pieces  of  mail  each  year  in  2,620  R.P.O. 
trains!    {Note  ^.) 

R.P.O.  trains  range  from  the  famed  streamliners  like  the 
Century  down  to  tiny  branch-line  or  suburban  locals,  mixed 
trains,  or  "Galloping  Goose"  diesels— even  suburban  electric- 
car  trains.  Some  major  roads  have  exclusive  all-mail,  non- 
passenger  trains,  such  as  Boston  &  New  York  Train  180  (see 
Chapter  10),  N.Y.  &:  Chicago  (NY  Cent)  Train  14,  or  Chic.  & 
&  Omaha  (C&NW)  Train  5.  Most  R.P.O.  lines  are  named 
directly  from  the  terminal  towns,  but  there  are  about  one 
hundred  of  them  in  which  actual  R.P.O.  trains  do  not  reach 
one  or  both  termini— usually  because  former  R.P.O.  service 
has  been  partially  replaced  by  closed-pouch  train  or  truck  ser- 
vice reaching  to  the  former  terminus.  If  two  or  more  R.P.O.s 
terminate  at  the  same  cities,  the  name  of  an  important  inter- 
mediate town  is  inserted;  thus,  the  N.Y.,  Scranton  &:  Buff. 
(DL&W)  and  N.Y.,  Geneva  &  Buff.  (LV)  both  connect  New 
York  and  Buffalo.  The  only  lines  not  named  from  two  or 
more  towns  are  apparently  the  Boston  S:  Cape  Cod  (NYNHScH) 
in  Massachusetts  and  two  R.P.O.-equipped  New  Hampshire 
lake  boats.  R.P.O.s  are  normally  named  from  north  to  south 
and  east  to  west,  regardless  of  the  relative  importance  of  the 
termini.   Current  lines  are  listed  in  Appendix  I. 

In  most  large  cities  the  main  post  office  (or  an  important 
annex)  is  adjacent  to  the  principal  railway  station,  with  con- 
veyor-belt or  hand-truck  connection  direct  to  the  train  plat- 
forms. In  Los  Angeles  mail  porters  unload  sacks  from  stor- 
age cars  onto  the  belts  at  such  a  frenzied  pace  that  alternate 
fifteen-minute  shifts  are  required.  Special  facilities,  such  as 
rooms  for  accommodation  of  clerks  and  their  baggage  (grip 
rooms)    separating  platforms  with  overhead  signs  for  bulk 


52  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

mails,  and  train-mail  boxes,  are  installed  at  most  large  sta- 
tions; and  the  P.T.S.  Transfer  Office  is  usually  there  also. 

Chicago,  birthplace  of  the  P.T.S.,  is  the  biggest  hub  of 
R.P.O.  operations  in  America  and  probably  in  the  world. 
Nearly  forty  different  R.P.O.  lines,  most  of  them  carrying 
from  four  to  fifteen  daily  mail-sorting  trains,  converge  there 
from  all  directions;  the  huge  Chicago  Terminal,  P.T.S.  (con- 
solidating many  earlier  ones),  six  transfer  offices,  an  airfield, 
one  division  and  nine  district  offices,  and  large  railway  mail 
dormitories,  orsfanizations,  and  national  memorials  are  all 
centered  there.  New  York,  although  boasting  the  largest 
P.T.S.  terminals,  does  not  even  rank  a  poor  second  in  the 
number  of  R.P.O.  routes  centering  there— twenty-three,  to 
be  exact;  Kansas  City  and  St.  Louis  have  as  many  or  more. 
Philadelphia  has  but  fifteen;  Washington,  sixteen. 

Perhaps  the  typical  "railroad  town"— a  small  city  or  village 
which  is  nevertheless  an  important  railroad  (and  R.P.O.)  di- 
vision point  or  junction— plays  an  even  more  vital  part  in  the 
life  of  the  railway  mail  clerk;  its  streets,  small  hotels,  and 
"beaneries"  are  often  alive  with  P.T.C.'s.  In  Martinsburg, 
West  Virginia,  on  the  Wash.  Sc  Chicago— Wash.  &:  Grafton 
(BR:0)  and  Harris.  S:  Win.  H.P.O.,  clerks'  wives  often  meet  the 
train  with  forgotten  work-pants,  baked  goodies,  hot  lunches, 
or  what  not;  Crestline,  Ohio,  with  its  famous  Pennsy  shops 
(on  Pitts.  Sc  Chicago  R.P.O.),  even  has  its  own  district  office 
and  N.P.T.A.  branch. 

Miles  City,  Montana,  on  the  St.  Paul  &  Miles  City  (NP) 
and  other  R.P.O.s,  is  famed  for  its  "Tool  House"  Restaurant 
run  by  "an  ageless  Chinaman  named  Toy  Ling"  who  has 
been  host  to  the  clerks  for  over  thirty-five  years.  Adrian  C. 
Austin  relates  that  nearly  seventy  clerks  from  four  trunk-line 
R.P.O.s  "lay  over"  there,  but  no  clerks  live  there.  He  de- 
scribes a  typical  Christmas  morning  at  three-thirty,  the  town 
swarming  with  doubled-up  cre^vs,  when  fifty  clerks  were  eat- 
mg  at  one  lunchroom  "half  of  them  tired  but  glad  the  trip  was 
over,  and  the  other  half  grouchy  and  bleary-eyed  at  having 
to  get  up  to  go  to  work."  Ashfork,  Arizona  (on  the  Santa  Fe's 
Albuquerque  &  Los  Angeles),  writes  T.  M.  Bragg,  is  merely 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  85 

"a  small  unincorporated  village  perched  atop  a  malpais  rock 
formation,  where  drinking  Avater  is  brought  in  in  tank  cars" 
but  with  comfortable  Harvey  House  lodgings. 

Most  of  our  great  trunk-line  R.P.O.s  have  a  fascinating  his- 
torical background.  The  two  big  routes  from  New  York  to 
Boston;  the  PRR's  vitally  important  electrified  N.Y.  &  ^Vash- 
ington  (connecting  America's  metropolis  and  capital);  the 
great  New  York  &  Chicago  on  the  Central;  and  the  Pennsy's 
"Pitts"  (N.Y.  &  Pittsburgh)  could  all  tell  stories  of  great  in- 
terest to  the  researcher  or  postmark  collector.  The  evolution 
of  these  lines  has  been  summarized  in  the  Technical  Notes 
(Notes  6—8);  but  Western  lines  like  the  Santa  Fe's  famed 
"Ashfork"  (Albuq.  &  Los  Angeles  R.P.O.),  traversing  the  vast 
desert  country  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  as  a  southern 
trunk  route  to  Los  Angeles,  are  just  as  worthy  of  historical 
study.  Most  such  lines  carry  six  to  twenty  or  more  daily 
R.P.O.  trains! 

There  are  great  chains  of  R.P.O.  trunk  lines  along  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  through  the  Southern  states,  too,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  transcontinental  and  Atlantic  Coast  link-ups 
already  described— as  this  Florida-Washington  state  itinerary 
reveals: 

THROUGH  THE  SOUTH 

Atlanta  8c  Jacksonville  (Sou)  in  Georgia  and  Florida. 
Atlanta  R:  Montgomery  (A&WP,  Western  Ry.  of  Alabama), 

Georgia-Alabama 
Montgomery  k  New  Orleans  (L&N),  Alabama  to 

Louisiana 
New  Orleans  8:  Houston,  (TexRrNO),  Louisiana-Texas 
Houston  R:  San  Antonio  (TexR:NO),  in  Texas 
San  Antonio  R:  El  Paso  (TexR;NO),  also  in  Texas 
El  Paso  8c  Los  Angeles  (SouPac),  Texas  to  California. 

AND  UP  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

Los  Angeles  k  San  Diego  (Santa  Fe),  extreme  south  end 
of  route  in  California 


54  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

San  Francisco  Sc  Los  Angeles   (^  valley  route),  in 

California 
Portland  R:  San  Francisco  (SouPac),  in  Oregon  and 

California 
Seattle  &  Portland  (NP),  in  Washington  and  Oregon 
Blaine  Sc  Seattle  (ON),  in  Washington  State  (through 

trains  to  Vancouver,  B.  C.) 

In  common  speech,  clerks  usually  refer  to  trunk  R.P.O. 
routes  by  single-syllable  abbreviations,  such  as  "The  Chic" 
(N.Y.  Sc  Chicago-NYCent),  "The  Ham"  (Washington  R:  Ham- 
let, North  Carolina,  on  the  Seaboard),  "The  Pitts"  (N.Y.  & 
Pittsburgh-Pitts.  &:  St.  L.-Pitts.  R:  Chi.  on  the  PRR,  also  BR:0's 
Wash,  k  Chic),  "The  Wash"  (N.Y.  Sc  Wash.-PRR),  etc. 
The  latter  R.P.O.  is  likewise  also  dubbed  "The  Wash-Line," 
much  to  the  embarrassment  of  a  staid  young  substitute  who 
once  told  his  girl  that  he  worked  thereon,  whereupon  she  de- 
cided he  must  be  employed  in  a  laundry!  (Other  abbrevia- 
tions and  nicknames  will  be  found  scattered  throughout  the 
book,  as  well  as  following  R.P.O.  Titles  in  our  Appendix  I; 
while  nicknames  in  particular  are  dealt  with  in  Chapter  10.) 

Supplementing  the  R.P.O.  trains  are  many  "closed  pouch" 
or  "C.P."  trains  on  routes  not  having  R.P.O.  service;  for 
example,  there  was  the  picturesque  Ridgcway  R:  Durango  C.P. 
(RGSou)  on  the  famed  narrow-gauge  lines  of  the  Colorado 
Rockies.  According  to  V.  A.  Klein  and  Eldon  Roark,  this 
route  used  old  Packard  or  Pierce-Arrow  autos  fitted  with 
flange  wheels  and  sawed-off  cabs,  which  sped  their  way  pre- 
cariously across  creaky  wood  trestles  spanning  gaping  can- 
yons; dubbed  "The  Galloping  Goose,"  each  was  manned  by  a 
nonchalant  flagman-brakeman-conductor-operator  who  wired 
the  throttle  wide  open  for  the  whole  trip— even  if  hauling  a 
boxcar  of  mail,  freight,  and  express!  Another  roughhewn 
Western  route  is  the  old  Tonopah  Sc  Mojave  CP  (SP)  and  star 
route,  called  "The  Jawbone"  and  formerly  an  R.P.O.;  it 
begins  in  the  old  Tonopah  (Nev.)  gold  fields  and  winds  up 
in  a  thinly  settled  part  of  California,  and  now  uses  railroad 
trucks  to  haul  mails  via  highway  instead  of  over  the  old  rails. 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  35 

A  typical  longer  route  is  the  current  Buffalo  Sc  Cleveland 
C.P.,  184  miles  (Nickel  Plate). 

At  the  other  extreme  are  many  small  C.P.s  on  busy  subur- 
ban railways  too  short  for  R.P.O.  service,  in  our  big  metro- 
politan areas,  with  as  many  as  fifty  mail-carrying  trips  daily 
—often  using  electrified  service,  like  the  Jamaica  R:  Brooklyn 
C.P.  (LIRR)  in  New  York  City;  but  no  C.P.  lines  carry 
clerks.  Many  C.P.s  are  trolley  lines.  New  metal  storage  con- 
tainers (with  special  cars  to  accommodate  them)  are  now  being 
introduced  to  handle  bulk  mails  in  C.P.  service.  Thousands  of 
"star  routes"  or  mail-truck  lines  connect  outlying  post  offices 
with  offices  or  junctions  on  the  R.P.O.s,  and  the  latter  often 
"pouch  on"  each  office  on  the  route.  (See  Chapter  Ifi  for 
H.P.O.  and  air  lines.)   Most  R.P.O.s  have  C.P.  trains  also. 

Second  only  in  importance  to  our  R.P.O.  net^vork  are  the 
sixty-odd  terminals,  P.T.S.  (formerly  terminal  R.P.O.s), 
usually  located  in  important  large  post-office  buildings  or 
railway  stations;  but  local  postmasters  have  no  jurisdiction 
over  them.  Terminals,  P.T.S.,  have  two  important  func- 
tions: to  sort  the  vast  majority  of  all  not-so-urgent  bulk  mails 
(magazines,  parcel  post,  circulars)  which  would  otherwise 
congest  the  R.P.O.  lines  intolerably;  and  secondly,  in  many 
cases,  to  "advance"  letters  and  newspapers  for  heavv  suburban 
R.P.O.s  or  other  R.P.O.s  converging  at  points  of  congested 
mail  traffic  like  Harrisburg  or  Atlanta,  sorting  out  letters 
between  trains  into  direct  separations  for  all  sizable  post 
offices  on  these  lines.  Only  when  an  outgoing  R.P.O.  train 
is  directly  connected  are  incoming  mails  for  such  lines  sent 
to  the  train  instead  of  to  the  terminal  first— which  may  also 
handle  all  mails  for  some  areas  without  R.P.O.  service. 

Terminal  clerks  work  an  eight-hour  day,  five  days  a  week, 
and  are  often  dubbed  "termites"  in  fun.  In  each  terminal 
there  are  cases  for  circulars  (and  letters,  if  worked),  parcel 
racks,  and  paper  racks  (handling  magazines),  for  all  states 
assigned  to  be  distributed.  The  unit  for  each  state  is  divided 
into  a  primary  (city  and  large  town),  secondary  (small  town), 
and  residue  (R.P.O.  line  and  dis)  case,  with  individual  boxes 
or  sacks  for  every  town  of  any  size.   By  first  "straining"  their 


S6  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

mail  through  the  primary  and  secondary  separations  in  order, 
then  sorting  mails  for  the  tiny  hamlets  into  packages  or  sacks 
for  R.P.O.  lines  (or  distributing  offices)  at  the  residue  case, 
the  terminals  accomplish  an  amazing  amount  of  distribution 
in  a  very  short  time.  A  terminal  railway  mail  clerk  sorts  up 
to  ten  thousand  circulars,  or  other  mail  in  proportion,  daily. 
If  a  terminal  advances  letters  for  particular  R.P.O.  routes, 
there  is  often  a  case  for  each  line  in  addition  to  general 
primary  cases;  then  packages  addressed  to  some  particular 
suburban  R.P.O.  are  at  once  diverted  to  the  proper  terminal 
case  whenever  there  is  sufficient  time  between  trains.  Such 
terminals  usually  pouch  on  most  towns  involved  via  all 
available  C.P.  trains  and  star  routes  as  well. 

In  nearly  all  terminals  clerks  work  in  three  shifts:  Totir 
1  (late  night  or  "graveyard"  shift),  Tour  2  (daytime),  and 
Tour  3  (evening),  with  night  work  paying  10  per  cent  extra. 
There  is  usually  a  raised  and  railed  (or  enclosed)  platform 
for  the  clerk-in-charge's  desk,  dubbed  the  bidl  peyi;  a  time 
clock  for  recording  arrival  and  departure  of  the  clerks;  a 
desk  with  a  well-filled  "order  book,"  and  a  clerks'  mail  case 
to  accommodate  time  slips  and  official  mail,  all  located  to- 
gether. Out  on  the  floor  are  wheeled  canvas  baskets,  officially 
listed  as  gurneys  but  always  called  "tubs,"  for  conveying 
mails  from  primary  to  secondary,  residue,  or  other  racks; 
small  hand  trucks  (or  nulling  trucks,  derived  from  a  manu- 
facturer's name)  for  conveying  bag  mails;  and  large  four- 
wheelers  with  wagon  tongues,  in  terminals  without  belts, 
which  require  them  to  receive  and  dispatch  bag  mails  to 
and  from  the  trains.  Overhead  there  may  be  inconspicuous- 
slits  at  the  tops  of  certain  walls,  tiny  "peepholes,"  looking 
out  from  secret  passageways  used  by  postal  inspectors  to 
detect  the  very  rare  postal  clerk  who  is  tempted  to  lift  some- 
thing; from  the  mail;  but  there  is  seldom  need  to  use  them. 
Outside  of  the  terminal  workroom  are  locker,  "swing" 
(lunch),  and  wash  rooms. 

The  largest  railway  mail  distributing  unit  in  the  country 
happens  to  be  one  of  these  terminals— the  huge  Penn  Ter- 
minal in  the  G.P.O.  Building,  New  York,  with  over  eleven 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  87 

hundred  clerks.  It  not  only  "advances"  Florida  and  Texas 
letter  mails  but  also  works  ordinary  bulk  mails  for  most 
New  England  states,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and 
for  other  states— but  noL  for  New  York  State  (except  Long 
Island).  Similarly,  the  Washington,  D.  C,  Terminal  works 
bulk  mails  for  Pennsylvania  and  nearly  all  Southern  states 
from  Virginia  on  down,  but  not  for  the  adjacent  state  of 
Maryland;  each  terminal  is  arbitrarily  assigned  certain  states 
only.  Important  Eastern  terminals  advancing  letters  for 
suburban  R.P.O.s  include  those  at  Camden,  Hoboken,  and 
\Veehawken,  New  Jersey;  the  Central  and  Erie  terminals  at 
Jersey  City,  New  Jersey;  and  the  Reading  Terminal  in  Phila- 
delphia. Westward,  the  Chicago  and  Los  Angeles  terminals 
and  others  do  likewise. 

The  Philadelphia  Terminal  or  "Dog-House,"  in  the 
G.P.O.  Building  opposite  Thirtieth  Street  Station  there,  is 
one  of  the  most  modern  in  the  country,  with  its  conveyor 
belts  and  floor-level  trap  doors  for  dispatches  direct  to  trauis; 
no  piling  or  trucking  of  mail  by  clerks  and  porters  is  neces- 
sary. The  great  Chicago  and  Cleveland  terminals  are  both 
in  the  Main  Post  Office  buildings;  the  Pittsburgh,  I-os  An- 
geles, Atlanta,  Boston,  Portland  (Maine),  Detroit,  and  Omaha 
terminals  are  other  large  ones.  Metropolitan  New  York  alone 
has  seven. 

The  first  "Terminal  R.P.O."  was  the  old  Jersey  City  (New 
Jersey)  Register  Terminal,  established  in  1903  by  Super- 
intendent V.  J.  Bradley.  A  clerk  from  Courtland,  Illinois, 
named  W.  H.  Riddell,  was  appointed  a  chief  clerk  about 
1907,  with  the  duty  of  organizing  the  Union  and  other  rail- 
way station  terminals  at  Chicago,  and  a  Union  Terminal 
R.P.O.  later  appeared  at  Omaha.  However,  regular  termi- 
nals first  appeared  throughout  the  country  in  1913-14,  as 
explained  later,  and  by  late  1914  nearly  one  hundred  ter- 
minals had  been  hurriedly  set  up  wherever  there  seemed  to 
be  the  slightest  justification. 

Since  then  there  has  been  a  steady  reduction  of  over  30 
per  cent  in  the  number  of  terminals,  with  much  of  the  mail 
assigned  thereto  being  restored  to  the  R.P.O.  lines,  until  the 


38  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

last  few  years.  The  number  was  down  to  eighty-eight  by  1915, 
and  to  seventy-one  by  1942— and  of  these,  nearly  twenty  were 
(and  are)  small  part-time  units  in  transfer  oflTices,  without  any 
employees  and  seldom  a  postmark  of  their  own.  Historic  term- 
inals which  have  folded  up  in  the  meantime  include  the  old 
Grand  Central  Terminal  R.P.O.,  New  York;  the  Broad  Street 
and  Sears  Terminals,  Philadelphia;  the  Columbus  (Ohio) 
Register  Terminal;  the  La  Salle  and  other  railway-station 
terminals  at  Chicago;  and  those  at  Long  Island  City,  Toledo, 
San  Francisco,  and  Sacramento.  Our  newest  terminals  are 
those  at  Jamaica,  N.  Y.;  Indianapolis;  Toledo  (just  re-estab- 
lished); Greensboro,  North  Carolina  (previously  existing, 
however,  as  a  part-time  T.C. -manned  unit  as  in  the  Indian- 
apolis case);  and  Los  Angeles  (Sears  Terminal,  1949)— both 
the  latter  necessitated  by  mail-order  expansions.  There  were 
about  fifty  of  these  full-sized  units  when  they  became 
terminals,  P.T.S.,  on  November  1,  1949.  Two  new  terminals 
are  planned  (at  New  Haven  and  at  a  northern  New  Jersey 
location). 

Most  substitutes  begin  their  careers  in  the  terminals, 
and  some  decide  to  stay.  Mimeographed  "bid  sheets,"  listing 
assignments,  and  periodic  "reorganizations,"  as  on  the  lines, 
offer  all  a  choice  of  jobs  according  to  seniority.  Men  who 
tire  of  "the  road,"  with  its  strenuous  and  irregular  away-from- 
home  duties,  often  transfer  to  a  lower-paid  terminal  job, 
especially  if  nearing  retirement.  Occasionally  a  clerk,  unable 
to  perform  exacting  road  duties,  is  thus  transferred  arbi- 
trarily. But  more  often  a  terminal  clerk  literally  lives  for  the 
day  when  his  seniority  will  permit  him  to  succumb  to  the 
lure  of  the  trains  and  transfer  to  them. 

Colorful  and  humorous  sidelights  of  terminal  life  are  hard 
to  dig  out.  But  from  the  Los  Angeles  Terminal— whose  out- 
side U.P.  parcel-separating  table  is  called  the  "pneumonia- 
platform"— clear  to  the  Washington,  D.  C,  Terminal,  where 
the  boys  voted  to  present  roller  skates  to  the  clerk-in-charge, 
"with  which  to  cover  the  terminal  in  a  hurry"  (after  a  nice 
speech  he  gave  them  to  his  son!),  one  can  unearth  a  few  tales 
and  tidbits.   At  Penn  Terminal,  New  York,  Arthur  Carucci 


•'TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  89 

tells  how  a  young  lieutenant  tumbled  into  the  terminal 
on  an  incoming  belt,  mixed  with  pouches  from  the  LIRR 
trains;  he  couldn't  find  the  train-platform  exit,  chose 
the  belt  as  a  last  resort!  At  the  same  terminal  one  super- 
visor would  ask  each  new  clerk  his  educational  qualifications; 
then  bellow,  "Well,  you  lawyers,  dump  the  parcel  sacks;  the 
college  grads  push  the  tubs  around;  you  teachers  lock  out  the 
full  sacks  .  .  ."  and  on  on. 

At  another  Eastern  terminal,  old  "Tony"  was  the  butt 
of  all  jokes.  One  day  a  few  fun-loving  co-workers,  who  were 
(unkno^vn  to  Tony)  in  league  Avith  his  principal  tormentors, 
offered  to  help  Tony  to  get  even  with  the  latter. 

"At  lunch  hour,  get  inside  this  big  No.  1  sack  and  let  us 
lock  it  up,"  they  proposed,  "and  we'll  label  it  and  put  it  on 
those  guys'  parcel  table  with  their  other  working  mail.  Then 
when  they  come  back  to  work  and  unlock  the  sack,  you  jump 
oiu  and  scare  them!" 

The  naive  old  chap  agreed,  and  sure  enough  was  locked 
in  the  sack  and  placed  on  the  right  ^vorktable.  But  when 
his  tormentors  returned  and  one  started  to  unlock  the  sack, 
the  other  cried  out: 

"Hey!— watch  that  label— it's  a  direct  sack  for  ChicaG:o. 
And  we've  only  got  ten  minutes  to  make  Train  43  with  it!" 
And  poor  old  Tony  was  quickly  trucked  to  the  elevator  and 
down  to  the  train  platform,  despite  his  ragings,  before  they 
let  him  out. 

W^ishington  Terminal  is  famed  for  its  daily  "Florida  War 
Cry"  on  some  occasions,  announcing  completion  of  distri- 
bution on  the  Florida  letter  case,  its  only  regular  first-class 
mail  assignment.  Long  led  by  veteran  ex-navy  clerk  Frank 
Fccles,  it  was  designed  to  call  a  mail  handler  to  truck  away 
the  locked-out  pouches,  but  sounds  more  like  a  combined 
fire  siren  and  Hopi  battle  veil  ! 

The  historic  old  San  Francisco  Terminal  could  perhaps 
tell  the  grandest  stories  of  all,  prior  to  its  discontinuance,  as 
noted  above.  The  Go-Back  Pouch  tells  how  it  was  one  of  the 
very  first  terminals,  located  directly  over  the  water  of  the 
bay  between  the  ferry  slips.  Wide  cracks  and  holes  in  the  floor 


40  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

inevitably  invited  the  installation  of  fishing  lines  while  clerks 
were  at  work  at  the  letter  cases  directly  overhead.  Sometimes, 
dining  a  feverish  tie-out  to  make  connections,  a  clerk  would 
vainly  eye  his  line  jerking  with  a  couple  of  fish  on  its  hooks 
and  nearly  getting  loose!  Crab  nets  were  also  hung  on  the  end 
of  the  ferry  slip  and  brought  in  many  rich  hauls— except  when 
the  ferry  captain  discovered  them  first  with  his  searchlight. 
Another  poor  old  clerk  in  this  terminal  would  plod  on  board 
the  ferry  to  go  home,  not  knowing  that  pranksters  had  tied 
the  end  of  a  ball  of  twine  to  his  coattail— to  watch  it  unwind 
and  trail  liim  clear  over  the  pier  and  halfway  across  San 
Francisco  Bay!  The  faithful  old  distributor  never  objected; 
devoted  to  his  work  to  the  very  last,  his  heart  gave  out  one 
day  as  he  leaned  against  his  case,  his  last  package  of  letters 
in  his  hand. 

There  are  lesser  incidents  galore:  The  district  superin- 
tendent at  one  ne-^v  terminal  who  tried  out  its  spiral  chute  in 
small-boy  fashion;  the  wags  ^vho  string  "circ"  cases  witii  twine 
running  behind  the  mail  in  each  vertical  row  in  such  a  way 
that  a  sly  tug  from  behind  sends  two  hours'  work  flying  into 
the  aisle;  the  unorthodox  and  inconvenient  places  in  which 
mail  locks  can  be  attached,  in  letter  cases  or  on  paper  sacks, 
to  the  great  annoyance  of  anyone  trying  to  sort  mail  or  to  tie 
out  sacks.  (Locks  are  always  plentiful;  they  are  used  in  such 
huge  quantities  in  some  terminals  that  they  are  literally 
sho\eled  out  of  tubs  like  coal.) 

Terminal  men  are  definitely  "railway  mail  clerks"  and  are 
usually  proud  of  it.  Steeped  in  the  traditions  of  the  iron 
road,  they  refer  to  the  daily  time  record  (showing  amoimt 
of  mail  worked)  as  the  "trip  report";  each  day's  work  is  a 
"run,"  which  is  "exchanged"  (using  road-service  forms)  or 
"defaulted"  just  as  on  the  trains,  and  there  is  often  a  race 
agninst  time  to  dispatch  to  some  outgoing  R.P.O.  Highly 
train-conscious,  they  must  separate  direct  sacks  and  sort 
residue  mails  out  to  definite  R.P.O.  trains;  and  they  must 
take  examinations  from  the  same  schemes  as  road  clerks  do. 

Some  very  strict  sets  of  Terminals  Rules  and  Regulations 
have  been  issued  in  past  years;  some  have  included  rules 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  41 

forbidding  clerks  to  wash  up,  change  clothes,  or  even 
approach  the  time  clock  before  closing  signal,  or  to  so  much 
as  step  inside  the  terminal  to  speak  to  a  clerk  wh(  n  off  duty. 
Hon'ever,  the  more  humane  terminal  heads  have  endeavored 
to  have  such  rules  relaxed  as  much  as  possible  in  recent  years; 
until  the  privilege  was  unfortunately  withdrawn,  officials 
even  allowed  clothes  changing  and  eating  lunch  on  duty  for 
a  considerable  recent  period,  permitting  a  true  eight-hour  day. 

Terminal  cases  and  racks  are  permanently  labeled  with 
printed  headers  according  to  official  diagrams,  mostly  al- 
phabetically. (Header  holders  provide  storage  space  for  extra 
strip  labels.  Although  the  practice  is  frowned  upon,  most 
headers  become  helpfully  annotated  with  the  names  of  small 
dis  offices  which  are  included  in  certain  separations,  for  dis- 
patch from  a  larger  post  office).  Low  tables  or  moving  belts 
with  high  rims  are  used  for  dumping  up  the  parcels  and  papers 
to  be  sorted  or  "thro^vn  off,"  and  small  bags  of  locks  are 
hung  at  one  end  (or  on  the  rack)  (Note  9).  Clerks  must  turn 
in  a  "count"  of  mails  worked  (represented  by  the  slips  and 
labels  ttirned  in)  ^vhich  is  at  least  up  to  the  daily  average 
requirements  of  the  terminal— and  they  are  supposed  to 
dutifully  discard  any  angels  or  spurious  extra  labels  found 
enclosed  inside  the  sacks  by  sympathetic  clerks  at  the  point 
of  origin.  Since  a  "skin"  sack  containing  only  a  couple  of  maga- 
zines counts  just  as  much  as  a  huge  "balloon"  sack  crammed 
with  tiny  hard-to-'work  papers  {squealers)  or  samples,  some 
laughable  scrambles  for  the  more  desirable  sacks  often  occur. 
Some  "balloon"  sacks,  strangely  enough,  seem  to  remain 
around  for  the  next  tour! 

And  we  must  not  forget  the  transfer  clerks— postal  trans- 
portation clerks  assigned  to  the  important  duty  of  supervis- 
ing connecting  mails  between  trains,  among  many  other  re- 
sponsibilities. They  are  stationed  at  about  two  hundred 
transfer  offices  at  important  railway  stations  or  junction 
points  all  over  the  country;  and  large  cities  may  have  several. 
The  office  is  usually  in  some  nondescript,  smoke-begrimed 
alcove  of  the  depot,  containing  a  desk  for  the  clerk-in-charge, 
tables,  files,  and  usually  order  books  and  an  official-mail  case 


42  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

for  road  clerks.  In  one  corner  is  a  box  of  the  long  strip- 
metal  "seals"  used  to  close  storage  car  doors.  Transfer  clerks 
must  meet  all  incoming  trains  and  see  off  all  outgoing  ones, 
in  all  kinds  of  weather,  often  scrambling  across  a  dozen  tracks 
from  train  to  train  at  considerable  risk;  and  must  keep  a 
detailed  statistical  record  of  the  mails  carried  and  other  facts 
regarding  each.  They  must  keep  informed  as  to  mail  dis- 
patciies  and  authorizations  on  all  outbound  trains,  be  famil- 
iar with  all  hours  of  arrival  and  departure,  issue  complex 
requests  for  additional  space,  notify  the  office  of  schedule 
changes,  furnish  substitutes  for  emergency  runs,  take  sup- 
plies out  to  R.P.O.  trains,  and  must  often  distribute  connec- 
tion mails  between  trains  or  for  offices  on  C.P.  or  star  routes 
by  means  of  a  small  case  and  rack.  They  are  required  to  col- 
lect mail  from  station  mailboxes  before  departure  of  train 
and  sort  it— at  some  stations  it's  done  in  a  little  case  inside 
the  mailbox  door.  Letters  are  usually  taken  direct  to  the 
proper  train,  but  sometimes  to  the  transfer  office,  for  cancella- 
tion. Transfer  clerks  must  take  special  case  examinations 
from  standpoint  schemes;  and  while  on  duty,  must  carry  a 
notebook  and  pencil  at  all  times  to  record  statistical  data  for 
transfer  to  their  report  sheets.  The  Register  Transfer  Office, 
Kansas  City,  Missouri  (for  registers)  is  the  only  one  of  its  kind. 

Transfer  clerks  are  much  maligned  because  of  their  sup- 
posed "soft  snap"  of  a  job.  "My  father  doesn't  have  to  work; 
he's  a  transfer  clerk  at  Union  Station!"  They  are  pictured  as 
sitting  around  with  nothing  to  do  except  meet  occasional 
trains:  but  we  have  already  shown  the  unjustness  of  any  such 
concept  of  their  duties.  Transfer  clerks  must  busily  dash 
across  tracks  to  record  data  of  four  or  five  trains  all  arriving 
at  once;  messy  "bad-order"  parcels  must  be  written  up  in 
trij)Hcate  on  complex  forms,  through  storage  cars  carefully 
locked  or  sealed,  car-floor  diagrams  drawn  up  and  supervised, 
sorting  done  in  the  small  part-time  terminals  often  housed  in 
the  transfer  office,  and  what  not. 

In  one  case  transfer  clerks  were  instrumental  in  appre- 
hending a  mail  thief  stealing  from  numerous  pouches, 
resulting  in  great  benefit  to  the  reputation  and  financial 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  4S 

Standing  of  the  Postal  Service.  In  another,  a  new  one-man 
transfer  office  was  established  at  the  suggestion  of  clerks  them- 
selves, resulting  in  savings  equivalent  to  three  transfer  clerks' 
salaries  in  view  of  the  "padded"  railroaders'  mail-count  re- 
ports thus  unmasked.  William  Koelln,  one  of  our  leading 
P.T.S.  historians  and  authorities,  was  a  transfer  clerk  at 
Penn  Station  T.O.,  New  York;  so  was  the  late  Lillian  V. 
Woods,  the  only  female  transfer  clerk  in  the  Service,  capable 
and  efficient.  Yes,  transfer  clerks  earn  their  salt! 

Supervising  the  whole  P.T.S.  setup  is  the  Assistant  Execu- 
tive Director,  Bureau  of  Transportation  at  Washington- 
better  known  by  his  long-time  popular  title  (until  1946) 
of  "General  Superintendent,  R.M.S."  He,  and  sometimes  the 
Assistant  P.M.G.  (Transportation)  himself,  is  nearly  always 
a  former  P.T.C.  who  has  worked  his  -way  up  through  the 
ranks.  At  this  writing,  capable  and  respected  ex-clerk  George 
Miller  holds  the  office,  which  places  him  in  charge  of  most 
mail  transportation  and  all  distribution  of  transit  mails  (ex- 
cept international  mail  transportation).  In  a  handsome  office 
at  the  new  Post  Office  Department  Building  in  Washington, 
he  holds  forth  at  a  big  flat-topped  desk,  surrounded  by  green- 
upholstered  chairs  and  by  famous  paintings  or  photos  of  great 
mail  trains  and  planes.  Interested  visitors— or  clerks— are 
warmly  Avelcomed  to  the  offices.  Fifteen  big  loose-leaf  books, 
giving  details  of  current  operations  in  each  division,  lie  on 
a  table  in  one  room  for  instant  reference;  while  a  long  row 
of  file  cabinets  contains  an  individual  folder  for  each  R.P.O. 
or  H.P.O.  line.  A  library  of  schemes  of  all  forty-eight  states, 
books  on  the  Service  (such  few  as  there  are),  and  much  related 
material  is  on  hand.  Just  down  the  hall  is  the  office  of 
"Charley"  Dietz,  sympathetic  head  personnel  man.  whose 
glad-hand  of  help  to  any  clerk  with  a  real  grievance  is  pro- 
verbial everywhere.  The  offices  are  designated  as  the  Bureau 
of  Transportation. 

Outside,  the  south  side  of  the  building  contains  a  circular 
sculptured  frieze  featuring  notable  dates  in  our  postal  his- 
tory, including  "RAILWAY  MAIL  SERVICE,  1862."  It 
overlooks  the  great  Mall  which  is  only  two  blocks  north  of 


44  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

the  PRR-RFRrP  tracks  carrying  five  great  trunk-line  R.P.O.s 
to  the  Souih;  and  trolleys  which  later  carry  P.T.S.  "C.P." 
service  pass  the  front  entrance  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue.^ 

The  country  is  apportioned  among  fifteen  divisions,  each 
with  its  own  general  superintendent. ^  Assistant  general  super- 
intendents and  a  faithful  staff  of  office-assigned  railway  mail 
clerks  are  assigned  to  the  various  "sections"  at  each  head- 
quarters. Each  division  is  composed  of  several  districts,  with 
headquarters  at  key  cities,  which  directly  supervise  from  one 
to  a  dozen  R.P.O.  lines  and  terminals  each.  A  district  super- 
intendent ("chief  clerk"  until  1946)  heads  each  district,  with 
a  few  office  clerks  and  others  to  help  him  (including  an  assist- 
ant district  superintendent).  P.T.S.  offices  are  located  in  large 
post-office  buildings  but  are,  of  course,  independent. 

The  division  general  superintendents  have  great  authori- 
ty; they  not  only  supervise  the  operation  of  the  P.T.S.  and 
clerks  assigned  to  their  divisions,  but  also  prepare  the  general 
schemes  and  instructions  which  all  first-  and  second-class  post 
offices  are  required  to  follow  in  sorting  their  own  mails.  The 
district  superintendent  must  carry  out  all  the  multitudinous 
duties  of  direct  supervision  of  each  of  his  lines  and  the  clerks 
thereon,  including  the  reporting  of  all  observed  cases  of 
"insubordination,  inefficiency,  and  lax  morality"  among 
clerks.  Division  and  district  superintendents  are  promoted 
exclusively  from  the  ranks,  although  clerks  allege  that  some 


>The  Wash.  X:  Suburban  CP.   (CTCo)  to  Cabin  John.  Md. 

•Numbered  and  located  as  follows:  1— P.O.  Bldg.,  Boston  9  (N.  Ens^l.  States); 
2-G.P.O.  Bldg.,  New  York  1  (N.  Y.,  north  N.  J.);  3-City  P.O.  Bg.,  Washington 
25  (Md-DC-Va-NC-WVa);  4-Fed.  Annex,  Atlanta  4  (Ala-Fla-Ga-SC-Tenn- 
PR);  5-P.O.  Annex,  Cincinnati  35  (Ohio-Ind-Ky);  6-Main  P.O.  Bg.,  Chicago 
7  (Ill-la);  7-P.O.  Eg.,  St.  Louis  3  (Mo-Kans);  8-P.O.  Bg.,  San  Francisco  1 
(Calif-Ariz-Nev-Utah);  9-P.O.  Bldg.,  Cleveland  1  f^firh.;  Cleveland.  Ohio; 
N.  Y.  Cent,  main  line  area);  10-P.O.  Bg.,  St.  Paul  1  (Minn-ND-SD  Wise.. 
N.P.  of  Mich.);  II-P.O.  Eg.,  Fort  Worth  1  (Tex-Okla-NMex);  12-Fed.  Ofc.  Eg., 
New  Orleans  6  (La-Ark-Miss  and  Memphis,  Tenn);  13— P.O.  Eg.,  Seattle  11 
(Wash-Ore-Ida-Ala.ska);  14-P.O.  Eg.,  Omaha  1  (Neb-Colo-^Vyo);  15-Fed. 
B?.,  Pittslnirgh  19  (Pa-Del,  .south  NJ,  E.  Shore  Md-Va,  PRR  main  line  area). 
Address  ''Div.  Genl.  Supt...  P.T.S." 

Important  District  offices  are  located  at  Philadelphia  4,  Pa.  (309a  G.P.O. 
Bg.);  Detroit  33,  Mich.  (329  Roosev.  Park  Annex);  Los  Angeles  52,  Calif.  (226 
Term.  P.O.  Annex);  Denver  1,  Colo.  (410  P.O.  Bldg.)  and  at  many  other  points. 


"TRAINED  LETTERS"  FROM  COAST  TO  COAST  45 

"pull"  is  usually  needed.  Clarence  E.  Votaw  describes  in 
humorous  fashion  a  typical  day  of  a  district  superintendent 
in  his  book:  "Seventy  letters  to  answer  .  .  .  Transfer  clerk 
wants  man  to  fill  run  in  fifteen  minutes  .  .  .  Four  clerks  want 
their  study  scope  revised  .  .  .  Extra  clerks  wanted  to  work 
ninety-five  sacks  of  "stuck"  train  mail,  at  once  .  .  .  Clerk-in- 
charge  running  too  late  to  return  on  his  proper  train;  what 
to  do?"  and  so  on.  Daily  visitors  include:  "An  old  patron 
of  a  tiny  post  office  insisting  on  two  daily  deliveries  from  the 
R.P.O.;  a  superintendent  of  mails  on  a  big  newspaper,  with 
new  problems;  a  'distinguished  visitor'  who  turns  out  to  be 
a  magazine  salesman;  a  railway  superintendent  desiring  a 
conference  on  mail  handling;  a  patron  whose  mail  arrived 
late,  to  bau'l  him  out;  a  messenger  from  the  general  super- 
intendent, who  wants  a  list  of  all  stations  on  all  lines  .  .  ." 
and  so  on.   His  is  no  bed  of  roses! 

In  normal  times  mails  are  distributed  in  transit  not  only 
on  land  but  on  the  high  seas  as  well— by  the  Seapost  service, 
in  United  States  and  foreign  vessels.  This  colorful  service  is 
closely  linked  with  the  P.T.S.,  which  has  itself  operated  or 
reorganized  the  Seapost  on  three  different  occasions  and 
which  supplies  most  of  its  personnel.  But,  alas,  space  require- 
ments forbid  discussion  (Note  10). 

And  our  general  survey  of  America's  vast  railway  mail  net- 
work remains  incomplete  without  mention  of  the  unusual 
private  "R.R.M.,"  or  "railroad  mail,"  system,  by  which  rail- 
roads carry  their  own  company  mails  over  their  own  connect- 
ing lines— completely  apart  from  the  United  States  mails  and 
the  R.P.O.  facilities.  It  is  our  only  sizable  arrangement  for 
handling  of  mails  outside  of  the  government's  monopoly  on 
letter  carrying  provided  by  the  strict  Private  Express  Statutes. 

Only  a  few  other  exceptions  (other  transport-company 
mails,  special-messenger  facilities,  employee  distribution  of 
bills,  and  so  on)  are  thereby  permitted  to  the  Post  Office  De- 
partment's exclusive  right  to  transport  "letters  for  others  by 
regular  trips  at  stated  intervals  over  all  post  routes."  The 
statutes  do  permit  the  carrying  of  "railway  letters"  for  the 
public  by  conductors  (if  regulation  postage  is  affixed),  just  as 


46  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

is  done  on  a  large  scale  in  England  and  elsewhere;  but  the 
practice  has  never  become  popular  here,  probably  because  of 
the  excellent  R.P.O.  facilities. 

The  companies*  own  "railroad  mail"  is  usually  handled  in 
large-sized  brown  envelopes  franked  with  the  letters  "R.R.S." 
or  "R.R.B."  (railroad  service;  business)  in  the  corner;  it  is 
sorted  in  private  station  mail  rooms  and  in  small  cases  (with 
large  boxes)  in  baggage  cars.  In  small  quantities,  it  is  usually 
carried  by  the  conductor.  But  for  the  general  public  our  vast 
R.P.O.  system— which  in  areas  like  the  Chicago  and  Duluth 
regions  and  North  Dakota  includes  a  network  of  main  and 
branch  lines  unequalled  anywhere— provides  the  finest  and 
most  extensive  facilities  in  the  world  for  speedy  transit-sorting 
and  delivery  of  our  ordinary  mails. 


Chapter  4 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN 


It's  "Hang  up  those  pouches"  or  "Pull  down  that  rack," 

It's  "Tie  out  these  boxes"  or  "Hand  me  a  sack." 

It's  "Sandy,  get  busy,  don't  go  to  sleep  yet, 

Here,  sack  up  these  empties  before  you  forget." 

It's  "Hustle  up,  Sandy,  what  makes  you  so  slow?"  .  .  . 

The  shacki  takes  the  blame,  on  a  full  R.P.O. 

—  Earl  L.  Newton 


In  many  varied  ways,  young  "hopefuls" 
over  the  country  first  hear  of  the  P.T.S. 
and  dream  of  being  a  clerk  on  the  trains. 
Perhaps  they've  watched  one  at  work  on 
the  local  at  the  depot,  seen  the  flying  ex- 
press make  its  "catch,"  read  about  the 
Service  or  heard  of  it  from  employed 
friends  or  kin  or  from  Civil  Service 
announcements.  Many,  however,  are  first  attracted  by  the 
lurid  "Travel  Free  for  Uncle  Sam"  ads  of  the  private 
civil  service  schools  (non-go\ernment  connected);  and  there 
are  quite  a  few  "Franklin  grads"  and  "I.C.S.  men"  in  the 
P.T.S. ,  though  definitely  a  minority.  Advertisements  no 
longer  show  a  clerk  in  natty  uniform  leisurely  leaning  out 
the  car  door  to  greet  his  girl;  but  they  do  emphasize  the 
travel,  layoff,  and  salary  (not  the  lack  of  sight-seeing  opportu- 
nities and  the  arduous  dtities,  conditions,  and  home  recpiire- 
ments!).  One  is  reminded  of  the  uninformed  friend  in 
Votaw's  Jasper  Hunnicutt  who  told  an  applicant,  "The  R.M.S. 
would  suit  you.  It  is  such  nice  clean  Avork  (!),  sorting  letters 
as  you  fly  along  and  tossing  out  bags  as  you  go.  There  is  really 
no  labor  about  it!" 


*All-around  "sub." 


47 


48  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

The  young  examinee  must  make  a  sworn  application  on 
a  long  form  secured  from  the  nearest  office  of  the  Civil  Service 
Commission,  which  recruits  nearly  all  government  employees 
through  non-political  competitive  examinations.  He  does 
not  need  to  take  a  civil-service  course,  though  some  are  help- 
ful; he  can  practice  up  on  the  sample  questions  in  the  exam 
announcement.  But  he  must  meet  stringent  physical  require- 
ments: a  minimum  height  and  weight,  freedom  from  all  dis- 
abling disease  or  defects,  and  an  aptitude  for  "arduous 
exertion,"  all  confirmed  by  two  medical  examinations.  Final- 
ly he  receives  his  official-looking  "IMPORTANT  ADMIS- 
SION CARD,"  announcing  the  exact  time  and  place  of  the 
next  exam  for  Substitute  Postal  Transportation  Clerk;  he 
must  paste  an  identification  photo  thereon.  At  the  examina- 
tion, which  is  held  at  intervals  of  several  years  at  about  six 
hundred  cities,  the  applicant  sees  the  examiner  solemnly  open 
and  distribute  the  sealed  examination  papers,  which  include 
a  General  Test  (on  mental  alertness,  geography,  arithmetic, 
and  so  on)  in  multiple-choice  form,  and  three  Mail  Tests  on 
following  instructions,  sorting,  and  routing.  The  latter  is 
done  by  studying  sets  of  imaginary  post-oflice  names,  route 
symbols,  train  numbers,  and  related  data,  and  by  checking  off 
the  routes  on  a  long  list. 

Few  applicants  are  able  to  "finish  everything"  in  any  part 
of  the  stringent  four-hour  test  (not  realizing  that  this  is  sel- 
dom expected).  Passing  is  70  per  cent,  but  our  examinee  is 
in  a  fortunate  minority  if  his  grade  is  high  enough  to  insure 
appointment— usually  about  90  per  cent.  In  this  case  he  is 
finally  notified  of  his  grade  on  a  form  outlining  the  strenuous 
duties  of  the  position  and  the  system  of  "registers"  of  eligibles 
by  state  of  residence.  Occasionally  a  few  clerks  are  accepted 
by  transfer  from  other  government  units  under  very  exacting 
requirements,  the  P.T.S.  enjoying  so  high  a  reputation  that 
senior  clerks  with  ideal  hours  in  a  post  office  Avill  sacrifice 
their  pay  and  comforts  for  a  chance  to  become  a  lowly  railway 
mail  "sub"  under  the  most  trying  conditions. 

After  a  wait  of  months  or  years,  possibly  broken  by  a  little 
temporary  government  employment,  a  P.T.S.  vacancy  may 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  49 

occur.  The  Commission  reports  the  three  highest  names  on 
the  appropriate  state  register  to  the  proper  division  officials, 
who  will  select  one  or  more  names  as  needed  and  mail  out 
inquiries  to  "advise  if  you  will  accept"  a  vacancy— with  the 
cautious  notation:  "This  is  not  an  ofier  of  appointment."  But, 
barring  irregularities,  our  ne-^v  man  is  eventually  given  his 
final  physical,  his  oath  of  office.  Black  Book  (Book  of  Instruc- 
tions condensed  from  Postal  Laws  &  Regulations,  hence,  The 
PL&R)  a  scheme  of  his  first  study-assigned  state  (with  map), 
and  a  Schedule  of  Mail  Routes  (timetables  of  all  R.P.O. 
trains  and- other  routes  in  the  division).  He  may  also  receive 
a  mail  key  and  revolver.  The  new  substitute's  starting  salary 
is  now  $1.41  i/C  per  hour. 

Most  substitutes  are  first  assigned  regularly  to  some  termi- 
nal, P.T.S.,  on  a  straight  five-day  week  when  mails  are  normal 
(classed  either  as  "acting  additional"  or  "vice"— in  place  of— 
clerks  on  leave).  In  some  cases  a  self-confident  new  "clerk" 
has  entered  a  terminal  the  first  day,  asking: 

"And  ^vhere  is  my  desk,  sir?" 

"Right  here,"  the  clerk-in-charge  wall  usually  reply,  escort- 
ing him  to  some  big  parcel-dumping  platform  where  per- 
spiring men  are  violently  shaking  mail  out  of  huge  sacks! 
The  disillusioned  neophyte  then  has  to  "dump  up"  parcels 
the  rest  of  the  day  for  the  convenience  of  the  others. 

"A  doQfSfone  baboon  could  do  this  work!"  has  been  the 
sentiments  of  more  than  one  sub  after  weeks  of  such  back- 
breaking  labor  requiring  almost  no  thinking.  Most  terminal 
clerks  are  helpful  and  sympathetic;  but  there  have  been  ex- 
ceptions, as  witness  the  plaint  of  one  newcomer: 

.  .  .  They  guided  me  through  a  maze  of  racks,  trucks, 
mail  sacks,  and  chutes  ...  It  was  a  strange  and  alien 
world  ...  no  friends  about  and  few  smiles  ...  A  job: 
"Here's  something  you  can  do.  Anybody,  even  a  grade- 
school  boy  can  do  it."  It  was  working  circulars  in  a 
secondary  case  .  .  .  But  what  a  welcome!  They  looked  me 
over  like  I  was  some  strange  species  of  animal  ...  By  my 
side  was  a  young  sub  who  was  as  quiet  as  I.  We  discovered 
one  another  .  .  .  We  "picked  to  pieces"  the  Mail  Service 


50 


MAIL  BY  RAIL 


in  our  room  after  a  hard  clay's  work  .  .  .  There  was  no 
explanation  as  to  why  a  certain  job  is  performed  .  .  . 
Kindlier  relations  ...  a  pat  on  the  shoulder,  and  a  friend- 
ly smile  would  be  life-savers  to  a  new  sub  .  .  . 

From  1946  to  1950  a  new  official,  the  counselor-instructor, 
was  assigned  to  each  division  to  see  that  new  subs  got  a  friend- 
lier sort  of  welcome  as  well  as  organized  instruction  in  job 
fundamentals,  often  including  classroom  talks,  demonstra- 
tions, and  instruction  trips;  this  program  is  now  operated  by 
other  officials.  The  new  man  must  secure  a  rubber  stamp 
showing  his  name,  date,  line  or  terminal,  and  train  or  tour 
number  (with  necessary  type  and  inkpad).  Plain  straight-line 
stamps  are  furnished  free  on  request  after  considerable  delay, 
but  most  clerks  prefer  to  buy  theirs  from  postal  or  rubber- 
stamp  supply  houses,  who  design  them  to  order  in  myriad 
styles.  Clerks  have  used  them  since  well  before  1890  for 
stamping  slips  and  labels  (in  lieu  of  postmarking)  and  occa- 
sional records  or  pieces  of  mail  (that  foimd  without  contents 
or  consisting  of  fluff —soh,  easily  damaged  packets).  Some 
early  and  current  styles  are  shown  herewith  (operating  lines 
are  listed  in  Appendix  I: 


Balto  &  Cln.  R  P  0 

Tr.  43"~  Kay  30  Sth 

1890 

Prederlclc  B.   Hoffinan 


Soon  the  sub  is  acclimated  and  wearing  his  long  key  chain 
like  a  veteran,  fearful  only  that  it  might  be  mistaken  for  a 
zoot-suiter's  watch  chain.   He  learns  to  "tie  out"  packages  of 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  51 

letters  or  circulars  with  the  quick,  special,  hard  knot— on 
back  of  the  bundle,  to  leave  addresses  unobstructed,  and  with 
short  letters  tied  both  ways  and  long  ones  sticking  out  below, 
tied  singly.  He  gradually  catches  an  unspoken  spirit  of  quiet 
determination. 

His  strenuous  work  may  include,  if  there  is  a  shortage  of 
mail  handlers,  heaving  whole  piles  of  sack  mail  up  onto 
outgoing  trucks  or  separating  incoming  sack  mail,  and  at 
heavy-mail  periods  twelve-  to  eighteen-hours  stints  and 
more  are  common.  Al  Humpleby,  now  of  the  N.Y.  &:  Wash. 
(PRR),  reports  having  had  thirty-six  hours*  continuous 
duty  in  two  North  Jersey  terminals  years  ago,  except  for  inter- 
terminal  commuting;  then  the  "sub  shortage"  that  caused  this 
changed  to  a  surplus,  and  he  received  only  one  day's  work  for 
a  month.  Assigned  that  day  to  the  Wilkes-Barre  (Pennsyl- 
vania) T.O.,  where  no  mail  was  distributed,  he  received  a 
check  for  nine  dollars  for  the  month  (including  allowances 
and  held-back  pay)— plus  ten  demerits,  levied  despite  protests, 
for  not  checking  any  mail-distribution  errors  that  month! 

Other  new  subs  are  assigned  direct  to  the  trains,  filling  in 
for  various  trips  irregularly;  and  the  "first  trip"  is  usually  a 
nightmare  (see  next  chapter).  A  bewildered  new  man  is  often 
assigned  to  stack  incoming  bag  mail  in  the  bins,  much  per- 
plexed by  the  absence  of  any  signs  or  other  indications  of 
which  is  which— a  sympathetic  paper  smoke  (newspaper  clerk) 
may  enlighten  him.  After  dumping  up  the  paper  man's  mail 
and  helping  at  the  pouch  table  the  whole  trip,  he's  very  sure 
he  has  handled  every  one  of  the  1,600,000  pouches  and 
14,000,000  sacks  in  the  Postal  Service. 

Stories  about  new  subs'  inexperience  make  laughable 
reading.  There  are  many  versions  of  the  tale  in  which  the 
newcomer  is  told  to  stack  numerous  important  bags  of  mail 
in  a  storage  car  or  bin  "with  the  labels  out"  (for  quick  perusal 
from  the  aisle);  the  sub  reports  to  his  chief  with  a  whole 
pocketful  of  labels,  necessitating  opening  and  examining 
every  pouch.  Another  classic:  A  sub  is  given  a  row  of  labels 
in  proper  order  and  asked  to  "put  them  in"  a  row  of  pouches 
to  be  locked  out;  not  knowing  about  label  holders,  the  young 


52  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

innocent  drops  them  inside  each  pouch,  locks  the  unlabeled 
pouches,  and  usually  has  them  all  in  a  heap  just  as  the  first 
throw-off  point  is  reached!  Then  there  was  the  sub  instructed 
to  "take  down"  a  row  of  overhead  boxes  of  mail,  being  given 
an  empty  pouch  for  the  first  box's  contents  as  an  example. 
Of  course  he  puts  the  mails  from  every  box  into  the  one  pouch, 
necessitating  a  frenzied  reworking  of  the  contents:  Subs  have 
sometimes  made  up  a  "junction  box"  for  letters  for  all  points 
which  are  R.P.O.  junctions,  just  as  they  are  required  to  do 
with  junction  cards  on  their  examination  practice  case. 

Harassed  substitutes  are  sent  from  one  clerk  to  another,  in 
search  of  a  sack  stretcher,  case  scraper,  or  similar  weird  arti- 
cle, or  are  put  to  work  counting  locks  when  they've  nothing 
else  to  do.  But  such  jokes  can  backfire.  When  Boundary  Line 
&  Glenwood  (MStP&SSteM)  clerks  used  to  run  through  to 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  on  Train  110,  the  second  clerk  would  set  a 
green  sub  to  sandpapering  the  rust  off  locks  as  they  ran  into 
Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  giving  the  observant  transfer  clerks 
at  both  places  a  good  laugh.  But  one  day  the  district  super- 
intendent greeted  the  train  on  arrival  and  asked  the  sub  what 
he  was  doing.  Answered,  he  remarked,  "Do  a  good  job  of  it," 
and  walked  in  for  a  quiet  word  with  the  clerk-in-charge.  There 
were  precious  few  locks  sandpapered  on  that  line  after  that. 

One  gag  was  to  require  a  new  sub  to  get  off  the  train  at 
each  stop  to  announce  its  arrival  in  loud  tones.  W.  F.  Kilman 
tells  how,  on  a  MoPac  train  stopping  at  Poplar  Bluff, 
Arkansas,  he  dutifully  leaped  to  the  crowded  platform  to  cry 
out,  "OH  YES,  OH  YES,  ST.  LOUIS  &  LITTLE  ROCK 
TRAIN  7  HAS  NOW  ARRIVED."  On  the  same  trip  he 
learned  that  all  sacks  were  to  be  "thoroughly  washed  and 
sacked  twenty  to  the  bundle  with  each  layer  sprinkled  with 
talcum"  before  arrival  at  Little  Rock.  Fortunately  for  him, 
the  basin  and  talcum  could  not  be  located. 

Hazing  new  clerks  has  declined  considerably  following 
such  tricks  as  that  once  played  on  the  Rock  Island  Sc  Kansas 
City  (Rock  Island)  years  ago,  when  a  sub,  awed  at  the  huge 
piles  of  working  mail,  asked  what  would  happen  if  it  was  not 
sorted  in  time.  An  old  clerk  cracked,  "Oh,  if  we  have  a  few 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  55 

left  at  the  Mississippi,  we  just  heave  'em  overboard"— and  a 
few  mornings  later,  when  the  sub  went  stuck  on  an  "East 
States"  sack,  he  did  just  that!  It  was  rescued  by  a  fisherman, 
and  the  old  clerk  guarded  his  joking  after  that.  (When  the 
writer-  asked  the  same  question  as  a  sub,  the  old  "head  clerk" 
just  straightened  up  and  announced  with  set  jaw,  "Young 
inan,  this  crew  never  goes  stuck!") 

On  the  old  Davenport  &  Kansas  City  (CM&StP),  in  the  days 
of  "sack  time"  when  clerks  could  sleep  on  duty,  a  clerk-in- 
charge  asked  a  sub  to  awaken  him  at  Dawn  (a  small  Missouri 
town)  to  finish  his  reports— and,  of  course,  was  not  awakened 
until  daylight,  at  the  very  end  of  the  run.  Jokes  about  subs 
and  others  distributing  mail  "nice  and  evenly"  among  all 
sacks  in  a  rack,  withcfut  regard  to  destination,  date  back  to 
the  pre— R.M.S.  "route  agent"  days;  in  the  1850s,  W.  H. 
"Hoss"  Eddy  (CB&Q  agent,  Chicago-Burlington)  boasted  of 
"the  fairest  distribution  of  mail  ever  made.  As  it  came  into 
the  car  I  piled  it  all  on  a  big  table;  when  the  engine  whistled 
for  a  station,  I  looked  ...  to  see  how  big  the  town  was,  and 
poked  into  a  mailbag  what  I  thought  was  the  town's  share 
and  put  it  off." 

F.  C.  Gardiner  tells  of  a  soft-spoken  Dixie  sub  trying  to 
snitch  a  ride  to  New  York  on  his  commission,  accompanying 
some  Northern  clerks  on  official  travel  to  Jersey  City,  who 
was  abruptly  rejected  by  the  conductor  when  he  couldn't 
growl  "Jarsey!"  on  displaying  his  pass,  as  they  did.  And 
Thomas  Chittick  tells  of  a  sub  on  the  run  just  mentioned  in 
our  sandpapering  incident,  who  was  assigned  as  a  mail  weigh- 
er there  back  in  1904  and  not  required  to  assist  with  distri- 
bution, although  he  did.  When  they  reached  the  Boundary 
Line  one  trip  badly  "stuck"  the  Canadian  clerks  who  took 
over  at  that  point  to  run  on  to  Winnipeg  were  greeted  by 
the  crow  of  a  rooster  in  the  baggage  car  and  the  sub's  joking 
remark,  "There  he  goes  again— I  couldn't  sleep  all  night  on 
account  of  him."  The  Canucks,  feeling  much  imposed  upon, 
reported  the  incident;  and  the  regular  clerk  had  a  lot  of 


•Professor  Dennis,  here. 


W  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

explaining  to  do.  Also  there  are  other  tales  of  a  sub  out- 
smarting a  regular/ 

In  his  first  few  months  of  service  the  sub  must  correct  his 
schedules,  scheme,  and  Black  Book  to  date;  study  them  at 
length;  and  take  one  examination  each  on  the  last  two.  The 
scheme  or  case  exam  consists  of  memorizing  all  post  offices, 
and  their  routes,  in  a  given  state  or  section  thereof  by  means 
of  miniature  practice  cards  representing  letters  (there  are  also 
"city"  exams— see  Chapter  10).  Unless  he  is  a  rare  genius  at 
memorizing,  the  sub  must  buy  (or  write)  a  set  of  from  three 
hundred  to  eleven  hundred  separate  cards  for  the  state  in 
question;  they  are  the  size  of  business  cards.  Practically  all 
printed  P.T.S.  cards,  and  many  cases  and  supplies,  are  fur- 
nished by  a  widely  known  specialized  printing  house  in  Am- 
sterdam, New  York,  established  by  former  railway  mail  clerks. 
(Another  ex-clerk  established  a  large  postal-supply  house  in 
Chicago,  now  a  flourishing  business.) 

His  scheme  contains  all  the  state's  post  offices,  arranged  by 
counties,  with  the  R.P.O.  or  other  mail  routes  serving  each; 
and  after  intensive  home  practice  the  new  clerk  is  ready  to 
pitch  or  throiu  his  exam  (Note  11).  The  examiner  furnishes 
him  cards  for  the  test— minus  the  routes  on  the  back  by 
which  he  checks  himself  at  home— and  a  practice  case  (the 
sweat  box)  which,  like  his  own,  looks  like  an  egg  crate  set  on 
edge  with  its  tiny  pigeonholes.    Many  P.T.C.'s  dread  exams 


•One  of  the  best,  "Lunching  on  the  Santa  Fe,"  is  told  by  Professor  Dennis 
on  page  110  of  The  Travelling  Post  Office.   (Still  in  print;  see  Bibl.) 


SPECIMEN  PAGE  OF  A  STATE  SCHEME  ^->- 

Indicating  routes  for  Yonkers,  New  Rochelle,  et  cetera,  in  New  York's 
famous  Westchester  County.  Post  offices  are  listed  in  the  first  column,  and 
R.P.O.s  or  other  mail  supplies  in  the  second.  Reference  letters  after  individual 
offices  refer  to  train  numbers  or  other  information  in  the  second  column; 
many  offices  (like  Purchase  and  Fort  Slocum)  are  not  on  the  railroad,  so  mail 
is  put  off  at  station  indicated  for  the  inland  town.  If  no  letter  follows  an 
office  name,  then  all  trains  dispatch  mail  there.  The  asterisk  (*)  means  an 
R.P.O.  junction  or  its  dis  (see  Chapter  2,  also  Notes  1,  2);  the  triangle,  or 
delta  (^)  indicates  a  recently  discontinued  post  office.  "Stamford  to  N.Y.", 
et  cetera,  indicates  division  of  RJ*.0.  line. 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN 


55 


Fig.  1 


193 


WESTCHESTER 


WESTCHESTER  COUNTY  (A) 


Castle »    

(Sta.  New  Ro- 
chelle). 
Fort  Slocum  &  . 
(Ind.  Br.  New 
Rochelle). 
Harrison  b 


Bos.  Spgf.  &  N.  Y. 

Stamford,   Conn,   to  New  York, 
a  New    Rochelle. 

b  Trs.  263,  266,  283,  292,  296,  362,  379. 
c  Trs.  263,  266,  283;,  292,  362. 

-         ---    292,  296,  362,  379/. 


Tarr-V,mf.r,tc  i       d  Trs.   263,   266,  283,  292,  296,  362,  379; 

Larctimontc   ^  rj,^^    55    7j    gg^  263,  266,  283,  292.  296 

Mamaroneck  d    362,  374,  379. 

New  Rochelle  «    '      ^  Tr^^^_263.  266,  283,  292,  296,  362.  379. 

Port  Chester  f   \ 

Purchase  e 

Rye  b    


Amawalk     

Ardsley    

Chauncey  »   

■^Croton  Lakeb  .  .  .  . 

Eastview    

Granite   Springs    . 

Kitchawan    

Millwood    

Yorkto^vn  Heights 

Pelham    

(Br.  New  York) 


Brewster  &  N.  Y. 

a  Tr.   101. 

b  Yorktown  Heights. 


•New  York   (New  York  Co.). 
Brewster  &  N.  Y. 


Elmsford   I  N.  Y.  &  Chi. 


Nepera  Park  » 
Yonkers   


via  M.  M.  from  Tarrytown  R.  R.  Sta. 
Trs.    14;',    32r,   39t. 

Bos.,  Spgf.  &  N.  Y. 

Mount  Vernon  via  M.  V.  S. 
Lv.  12  noon  (;') ;  arr.  45  min. 

Chat.  Sc  N.  Y. 

Via  M.  V.  S.  from  Mt.  Vernon  R.R.  Sta. 
Tr.  438;". 

N.  Y.  &  Chi. 

New  York  to  Peekskill. 
Trs.    14,  26fc,   32,   38,   SO/,   S6,    103,   112. 
154,  156,  161,  199,  207,  216,  235,  237. 
238. 
a  Yonkers   (only  supply). 


Abbreviations: 

Br.— Branch    P.O. 
Ind. — Independent. 

j,r,t,    et    cetera,    after    train    numbers — 
Letters  indicating  frequency  of  service. 
M.M. — Via  mail  messenger. 


M.V.S. — Via    motor-vehicle    service. 

Sta. — Postal   station. 

Tr..  Trs. — Train  or  Trains  (Train  Num- 
bers). 

(R.P.O.  line  abbreviations — See  General 
Index). 


66  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Fig.  2  (a) 


Larchmont 


New  York 


(b) 


Westchester  County 

Bos,  Spgf  &  N  Y 


(c) 

ELMSFORD 

New 

York 

FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN 

(d) 


57 


Westchester  County 


Brewster  &  N  Y  |X 
N  Y  &  Chic 


TYPICAL  PRACTICE  CARDS 

(Based  on  Scheme  illustration  in  Fig.  1,  showing  two  of  the  same  post  offices 
and  corresponding  routes.)  Fronts  of  cards  are  lettered  a  and  c,  and  backs  of 
the  same  cards  are  lettered  b  and  d  respectively  (printed  or  homemade).  Routes 
on  cards  are  printed  exactly  like  routes  shown  in  large  type  in  scheme,  with  all 
detailed  data  omitted.  The  clerk  must  throw  Larchmont,  by  memory,  in  his 
"Bos.  Spgf.  &  N.Y."  pigeonhole  only;  he  can  throw  the  Elmsford  card  in  either 
the  "Brewster  &  N.Y."  or  the  "N.Y.  &:  Chic."  box  without  being  marked  wrong 
by  the  examiner,  but  he  is  advised  to  indicate  the  preferred  route  from  his 
standpoint  by  a  check  mark  as  shown,  and  hence  should  throw  it  to  that  box 
only.  Any  post  office  at  which  two  or  more  R.P.O.  lines*  connect  mails  is  called 
a  junction  and  is  marked  (•)  in  the  scheme  and  on  back  of  card;  and  in  gen- 
eral, the  cards  for  each  post  office  must  be  correctly  thrown  to  either  a  certain 
R.P.O.  line  or  to  one  of  these  junctions  or  dis  (distributing)  offices.  Schedules, 
crammed  with  complex  symbols  and  data,  must  be  used  to  determine  preferred 
route. 


'Important  offices  reached  by  only  one  R.P.O.  but  served  by  other  leading  air- 
mail or  closed-pouch  routes  may  sometimes  be  arbitrarily  schemed  as  junctions, 
and  thus  designated. 


as  much  as  the  poor  clerk   (in  Carl  Lucas's  verses  in  the  Go- 
Back  Pouch)  whom  Satan  turns  a-^vay,  saying: 

.  . .  "You  go  to  the  gates  with  gold  agleam 
And  learn  new  things  from  Heaven's  scheme." 
The  poor  gink  turned  a  ghastly  shade. 
And  reeling,  this  reply  he  made: 
"If  another  scheme  I've  got  to  learn 
I'd  rather  stay  right  here  and  burn!" 


68  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Grades  are  determined  from  secret  symbols  on  the  exami- 
ner's card  backs,  and  passing  is  97  per  cent;  higher  grades 
bring  the  clerk  up  to  fifty  merits  on  his  record.  Clerks  must 
average  sixteen  cards  per  minute,  and  most  of  them  are  two 
or  three  times  that  fast  and  make  at  least  99  per  cent;  because 
of  "case  errors,"  100-percenters  or  pats  are  not  too  common. 
All  R.P.O.s  supplying  each  junction  office  must  also  be 
named  from  memory  at  this  time.  (See  Chapter  10  for  infor- 
mation on  outstanding  examination  records  and  on  memor- 
izing systems.) 

After  two  beginners'  tests  of  comparatively  few  simple 
questions  on  the  Black  Book,  clerks  must  take  annual  exams 
involving  knowledge  of  exactly  284  complex  questions  and 
answers  from  the  same  volume;  some  single  answers  have 
twelve  to  fifteen  parts!  A  few  sample  questions  and  answers 
will  be  most  revealing: 

Q.  What  are  the  conditions  governing  the  acceptance  of 
special-permit  matter  without  stamps  affixed? 

A.  A  small  number  of  pieces  of  metered  first-class  matter 
may  be  accepted  by  postal-transportation  clerks  or  transfer 
clerks  direct  from  a  permit  holder,  who  has  been  authorized 
to  mail  such  matter  in  R.P.O.  trains,  but  only  upon  the  pre- 
sentation by  the  permit  holder  of  a  statement  on  a  form  pre- 
pared by  him  showing  his  name,  his  meter  permit  number, 
that  the  pieces  offered  at  the  train  conform  to  the  conditions 
governing  the  acceptance  of  metered  mail,  and  that  the  num- 
ber of  pieces,  or  value  of  the  impressions  thereon,  will  be 
endorsed  on  the  regular  statement  of  mails,  Form  3602-A, 
furnished  the  postmaster  in  accordance  with  regulations. 

(Some  are  much  longer.   But  just  listen  to  this  one:) 

Q.  What  insects,  fowl,  and  live  animals  may  be  accepted 
for  mailing? 

A.  Honeybees,  day-old  ducks,  day-old  geese,  day-old  guinea 
fowl,  day-old  turkeys,  day-old  chicks,  and  harmless  live  animals 
having  no  offensive  odor  and  not  likely  to  become  offensive 
in  transit,  which  do  not  require  food  or  water  in  transit.  All 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  59 

must  be  properly  crated;  the  day-old  fowl  can  be  sent  only 
to  points  to  which  they  may  be  delivered  within  seventy-two 
hours  from  time  of  hatching,  and  animals  only  within  a 
reasonable  distance. 

Another  annual  exam  is  that  on  space  regulations  (under 
which  the  railroads  are  paid  for  carrying  mail)— also  a  com- 
plex set  of  queries,  but  totaling  only  forty-five.  Passing  is  85 
per  cent  in  both  examinations,  but  merits  are  awarded  only 
for  one  hundred  per  cent  grades. 

After  one  year  a  substitute's  probation  is  up.  His  clerk-in- 
charge  will  grade  him,  subject  to  checking  by  officials,  on 
some  twenty-three  points  of  ability  and  behavior  dealing  with 
his  eyesight,  memory,  speed,  industry,  neatness,  carefulness, 
obedience,  personal  habits,  sole  attention  to  the  Service,  and 
so  on.  If  all  is  well,  his  appointment  now  becomes  perma- 
nent. Although  quite  proficient  by  now,  recognition  of  his 
ability  is  sometimes  begrudged  by  old-timers,  as  in  the  case  of 
one  sub  who  wrote  that  after  finishing  his  own  work  he 
"tied  out  the  C.-in-C.'s  letter  case  and  helped  the  second  man 
rack  out  his  papers— yet  the  C.-in-C.  reported  we  went  stuck 
due  to  'inexperienced  substitute'!" 

Gradually  our  new  man  nears  the  head  of  his  state  substi- 
tute seniority  list  and,  if  in  a  terminal,  begins  to  get  a  pre- 
ferred tour  and  a  Saturday-Sunday  layoff.  The  top  man  is 
called  the  king  sub.  As  vacancies  occur,  senior  subs  are  gradu- 
ally appointed  "regular"  to  lines  of  their  choice  at  from 
$2,870  to  $3,870  a  year,  depending  on  their  length-of-service 
grade;  but  in  a  terminal  the  highest  automatic  salary  is 
$3,670  (Note  12). 

The  newly  appointed  "regular"  may  be  assigned  to  any 
imaginable  type  of  R.P.O.  It  might  be  a  local  mixed  train 
in  the  mountains  of  Washington  State,  like  the  Oroville  & 
Wenatchee  (GN),  crawling  up  to  the  border  of  British  Colum- 
bia ...  or  a  pair  of  all-night  trunk-line  trains,  like  N.Y.  &  Sala- 
manca (Erie)  Trains  5  &  10,"  where  they  kid  him  about  being 
on  "the  Woolworth  train"  ...  or  temporarily,  a  busy  inter- 


^Service  just  now  on  Trains  5  and  8. 


60  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

State  local,  like  the  "Ma  &  Pa"— the  York  &  Baltimore  (Md& 
PaRR),  a  scenic  rural  run,  usually  reserved  for  senior  clerks. 
Usually  the  new  "regular"  must  return  to  undesirable  hours. 

He  knows,  at  least,  that  he'll  not  get  one  of  the  few  remain- 
ing small,  rural  branch-line  runs  with  ideal  hours  and  not 
much  to  do.  They  are  fast  disappearing  into  oblivion,  as  has 
(for  example),  the  sleepy  little  abandoned  Tuckerton  &  Phila. 
(TucktnRR-PRR)  in  New  Jersey.  Its  lone  train  stopped  at 
each  crossroad  to  flag  the  autos,  and  if  the  clerk  missed  a 
catch,  it  would  back  up  for  him  I  On  the  old  Bowie  &  Popes 
Creek  (PRR)  in  southern  Maryland,  whose  daily  mixed  trains 
became  so  slow  that  all  mail  service  was  pulled  off,  one 
clerk  was  due  to  get  on  daily  at  Bel  Alton— but  often  didn't. 
The  other  clerk  would  shut  the  door  on  him,  knowing  he 
could  easily  run  ahead  and  catch  the  train  at  the  next  station 
(the  irritated  short-stop  clerk  eventually  refused  to  do  it,  and 
this  train  had  to  back  up  too!).  But  some  branch  lines  are 
still  found  in  most  states— in  New  York,  for  example,  the 
NYC-West  Shore's  104-mile  Kingston  &  Oneonta  or  "K.&O." 
Some,  like  the  Franklin  &  Cornelia  (TalFlsRR,N.C.-Ga.), 
are  now  freight  lines  only— the  R.P.O.  is  sandwiched  between 
express  and  box  cars.  In  sharp  contrast  are  many  feverishly 
busy  suburban  runs   (see  Chapter  12). 

Assignment  to  one  of  the  heavier  one-man  runs  is  an  inter- 
esting possibility  for  a  new  regular  clerk,  but  it  is  an  unusu- 
ally responsible  job  and  sometimes  a  tough  one.  The  lone 
worker  is  clerk-in-charge,  red  man,  letter  clerk,  paper  man, 
and  pouch  clerk,  all  rolled  into  one.  Perhaps  the  all-time 
record  for  holding  down  such  a  run  goes  to  Roy  "Kit" 
Carson,  an  authority  on  Arizona  lore,  who  went  on  the  Santa 
Fe's  Ashfork  &  Phoenix  there  in  1912  and  just  retired  from  it 
—a  relative  of  his  famous  namesake  of  1863,  he  personally 
coaxed  the  government  into  creating  the  Carson  National 
Monument.  E.  M.  Martindale  (later  an  examiner  at  Des 
Moines,  and  now,  at  eighty-one,  in  retirement  there)  tells  of 
his  old  one-man  run,  the  Newton  k  Rockwell  City  (NewtSc 
NW),  in  Iowa,  which  lasted  just  about  four  years  (1905—09); 
long  abandoned,  large  trees  now  grow  in  the  right  of  way. 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  61 

The  best  one-man  runs  are  those  within  one  state  (usually 
requiring  exams  on  no  other  state)  and  with  good  hours  and 
layoff.  The  hours  often  permit  a  clerk  to  be  home  each  night 
—a  privilege  impossible  on  the  long  lines— even  though  layoffs 
may  be  confined  to  only  every  fourth  or  sixth  week.  On  a 
typical  run  the  clerk  first  calls  for  his  registered  mail;  then 
he  consults  the  "order  book"  of  latest  district  regulations,  and 
reports  to  the  car  with  his  usual  work  clothes  and  supplies. 
Changing  clothes,  he  records  the  reds  in  his  manifold-bill 
book,  checks  his  arriving  pouches,  and  hangs  his  small  pouch- 
and-paper  rack. 

If  his  mail  has  been  well  made  up,  and  most  mail  is,  the 
clerk  should  have  a  good  trip.  Mail  for  the  first  town  or  two 
is,  or  should  have  been,  made  up  direct  as  "holdouts"  (as  is 
the  mail  for  any  large  towns);  and  the  remaining  working 
mail  is  largely  in  line-division  packages  marked  No.  1,  No.  2, 
and  so  on.  (One  village  postmaster  labeled  his  No.  1-2-3  sepa- 
rations for  an  eastbound  R.P.O.  as  "East,"  "Further  East," 

and  "Way  the  h on  East!")  Only  the  No.  1  and  unmarked 

packages  require  immediate  attention,  and  by  the  first  throw- 
off  whistle  that  town's  mail  will  be  ready  for  dispatch  and, 
normally,  all  the  No.  1  mail  worked  up.  Soon  all  the  original 
mail  is  distributed,  and  only  the  light  incoming  local  mail 
needs  attention  thenceforth.  The  clerk  then  has  things  fairly 
easy— especially,  of  course,  on  the  lightest  branch  lines,  which 
are  held  down  by  older  clerks  rich  in  seniority.  But  there  will 
be  some  days  when  local  newspaper  printings  or  week-end  ac- 
cumulations mean  really  heavy  trips,  and  very  fast  work  may 
be  required  if  the  next-to-last  stop  is  a  heavy  office,  since  all 
mail  must  be  worked  and  locked  out  at  the  terminus.  Before 
leaving,  the  clerk  rehangs  his  rack  and  "labels  up"  for  the  re- 
turn trip,  also  making  out  his  trip  report  (giving  data  such  as 
statistics  of  mails  worked);  then  he  takes  his  reds  to  the  post 
office. 

A  clerk  on  one  such  side  line  used  to  fill  out  his  trip  report 
before  beginning  work  (since  the  mail  was  always  about  the 
same),  and  mail  it  in  afterwards.  One  day  he  forgot,  and 
mailed  it  before  beginning  the  run.   Alarmed,  he  then  real- 


62  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ized  it  would  reach  the  office  before  his  run  was  over.  The 
alert  clerk  quickly  wired  for  annual  leave  for  the  following 
trip,  adding,  "And  please  return  sample  trip  report  I  pre- 
pared for  sub  who  is  to  run  for  me."  It  worked!  Years  ago 
\V.  F.  Kilman  was  due  for  a  one-man  run  in  Bald  Knob  & 
Memphis  (MoPac)  Train  204,  in  Arkansas,  after  very  little 
sleep.  Oversleeping,  he  was  roused  by  phone  and  reached  the 
station  just  before  his  train  pulled  out,  still  but  half  awake- 
then  he  discovered,  horrified,  that  he  had  made  his  mad  dash 
through  the  streets  of  Bald  Knob  minus  both  his  pants  and 
attached  key!  Now  the  first  stop  was  rapidly  approaching, 
and  he  could  not  even  unlock  his  pouches  of  mail;  he  frantic- 
ally wired  postmasters  along  the  line  (at  his  expense)  to  lend 
him  a  key,  but  to  no  avail.  Helpless,  he  could  only  take  in 
more  mail  at  each  stop  and  work  none  of  it;  and,  finishing  at 
Memphis,  he  had  to  skip  his  meals  and  work  his  mail  up  in 
Memphis  post  office  until  2  A.M.  next  morning.  His  wife 
had  rushed  him  the  key  by  then— but  he  was  docked  a  day's 
pay  anyhow! 

On  another  occasion  the  same  clerk  was  accosted  at  a  way 
station  by  a  patched-up  hillbilly  who  had  just  heard  that  men 
were  needed  in  the  postal  service— and  would  Kilman  put 
him  to  work?  Kilman,  badly  "stuck,"  would  have  welcomed 
even  such  help  as  that,  but  of  course  could  not  accept  the 
offer.  But,  wanting  a  little  fun,  he  quizzed  the  applicant  on 
his  church  affiliations,  temperate  habits,  and  so  on,  and  re- 
ceived most  reassuring  answers.  "Then  come  to  the  station 
at  this  exact  time  tomorrow,  and  I'll  hire  you,"  finished 
Kilman.  Since  the  run  was  long  enough  to  require  two-day 
trips,  of  couse  it  was  the  blissfully  innocent  clerk  running 
opposite  Kilman  who  was  insistently  waylaid! 

The  exasperating  annoyances  and  difficulties  confronting 
the  new  clerk  would  soon  make  him  resign  were  it  not  for 
the  compensations.  After  working  all  night  on  a  quick  turn 
around  run,  he  may  get  only  four  or  five  hours'  sleep  before 
he  has  to  report  for  the  return  trip— perhaps  involving  hours 
of  strenuous  advance  work  on  a  heavy  paper  rack,  in  a  torrid 
non-air-conditioned  car  with  unopenable  windows.    Twine 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  68 

lint  and  sack  dust  fill  the  air,  blackening  skin  and  clothing 
and  torturing  those  with  colds  or  sinus  troubles.  Starting  a 
week  of  duty,  he  usually  has  to  work  all  night  after  being  up 
all  day,  then  try  to  sleep  in  daylight  amid  myriad  noises. 
Hands  get  red  and  raw  from  tying,  locking  out,  and  piling 
mail  for  hours— especially  if  there's  a  rackful  of  nice  brand 
new  pouches  with  their  stiff,  unlockable  straps.  He  learns 
his  mail  one  way  by  scheme,  only  to  find  it  routed  differently 
in  practice  at  times;  must  accept  all  mail  brought  to  the  doors 
after  leaving  time,  if  train  has  not  left;  and  must  strugrale 
with  oversize  greeting  cards  that  won't  fit  his  case,  and  with 
insufficient  heat  or  light  when  utilities  go  haywire. 

Clerks  are  granted  only  fifteen  days'  annual  and  ten  days' 
sick  leave  at  the  best,  and  road  clerks  get  even  less  (about  ten 
and  seven  respectively)  in  actual  days,  due  to  layoff  credits. 
Clerks  must  sort  papers  and  circs  which  publishers  seem  to 
deligrht  in  having;  bulk-mailed  with  alternate  addresses  turned 
backward  or  upside  down,  or  with  excess  paste  sticking  them 
all  together.  Dispatch  deadlines  must  be  met  just  when  ex- 
cess mails  come  flooding  in;  delays  and  diversions  require 
complex  rerouting  of  mail.  They  must  contend  with  contra- 
dictions in  schemes— half  of  Maryland  is  schemed  differently 
(in  minor  details)  in  3rd  and  15th  Division  schemes.  Late 
running  may  require  even  a  turn-around  to  "work  back"  with 
no  sleep  at  all.  Looking  forward  to  a  layoff,  a  clerk  often  finds 
himself  too  exhausted  to  do  more  than  sit  around  for  two  or 
three  days;  then  he  may  have  to  make  new  case  headers  or 
draw  up  a  whole  list  of  labels  to  order,  study  an  exam  or 
answer  P.T.S.  mail,  or  get  called  by  the  sub-chaser  (officer 
detailing  substitutes  and  extra  men)  for  an  extra  trip— all  in 
addition  to  his  usual  home  requirements! 

"It's  enough  to  make  a  preacher  cuss,"  the  average  clerk 
exclaims;  and  truly,  the  general  run  of  language  in  an  R.P.O. 
car  is  not  exactly  mild,  although  there  are  a  few  clerks  who 
never  use  profanity.  It  is  a  wonder,  indeed,  that  the  average 
clerk  retains  his  proverbial  courtesy  to  the  public  and  his 
usual  gentlemanly  consideration  for  other  clerks,  especially 
newer  ones.   By  kindly  acts  and  hearty  good  humor  many  a 


64  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

clerk  wins  the  esteem  of  all  his  fellows— oft  expressed,  to  be 
sure,  in  the  form  of  the  good-natured  insults  so  typical  of 
R.P.O.  repartee.  But  when  a  tired  clerk  in  a  lurching,  torrid 
car  is  set  to  sticking  hundreds  of  long  letters  in  a  short-holed 
case  (covering  all  his  headers),  and  is  then  brusquely  trans- 
ferred to  an  overflo\ving  paper  rack  to  dump  up  and  throw 
off  huge  sacks  of  tiny  country  papers  or  squealers  (one  called 
Comjort  was  formerly  abhorred)  mixed  like  jackstraws,  then 
tie  out  the  balky  full  sacks  (often  wedged  in  the  back  row 
behind  the  other  sacks),  bruising  his  knuckles  and  maybe  find- 
ing his  sack  has  no  tie  string— better  hold  your  ears! 

Fearsome  is  the  scene  when  bad  weather  has  "grounded" 
the  planes  at  one  or  more  of  the  area's  airports  and  huge 
stacks  of  air  mail  are  turned  over  to  the  faithful  old  R.P.O.s 
which  run  in  the  fiercest  weather.  Most  of  the  flood  of 
pouches  are  addressed  to  distant  airfields,  but  that  makes  no 
difference;  all  must  be  opened  and  distributed  at  once  and 
all  other  sorting  suspended.  Mail  is  stacked  in  every  spot, 
clear  to  the  roof,  perhaps;  and  someone  cries  in  mock 
delight,  "Oh,  look  at  the  pretty  colors!"  as  the  bales  of  red- 
white-and-blue  letters  are  dumped  up.  The  wind-mail  must 
be  worked  to  air  outlets  as  well  as  by  scheme.  Pests  who 
formerly  riled  clerks  but  are  gTadually  disappearing  include 
the  rhymester  who  addresses  mail  in  verse  and  the  "wise- 
cracking" addresser  who  makes  Wyandotte,  Michigan,  read 

"Y  &   •,"  or  Lineville  into  " ville,"  or  who  addresses 

letters  to  celebrities  with  "clever"  symbols  and  drawings 
(and  minus  words).  Distribution  is  badly  slowed  by  such 
cranks,  and  the  fact  that  such  mail  is  usually  delivered  is  a 
tribute  to  P.T.S.  ingenuity  but  no  excuse  for  the  mailer.  (A 
letter  with  nothing  but  "O.O."  on  it  was  promptly  delivered 
to  O.  O.  Mclntyre,  New  York.) 

The  clerk  must  know  that  the  foreigner  using  native  spell- 
ing who  addresses  a  letter  to  Zizazo  or  Jajago,  or  to  "Oukcet, 
Noumchire,"  intends  it  to  go  to  Chicago  or  to  Hooksett, 
New  Hampshire,  respectively— and  that  the  cultured  Boston- 
ian  who  sends  mail  back  home  to  "J.  P."  or  "NUF,"  Massa- 
chusetts, means  Jamaica  Plains  or  Newton  Upper  Falls.  Mis- 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  65 

takenly  thinking  they  are  helping  the  postal  clerks,  many 
firms  as  well  as  other  mailers  often  reverse  the  address  on 
their  mail  to  show  the  city  and  state  in  top  line  (perhaps  in 
large  letters),  to  the  confusion  of  the  clerk,  who  is  trained 
to  scan  only  the  last  lines,  constantly.  All  states  seem  to  have 
at  least  one  pair  of  identically  named  communities,  al- 
though under  postal  regulations  only  one  can  be  an  inde- 
pendent post  office.  Ardmore,  Brookline,  Oakmont,  and 
Overbrook,  Pennsylvania,  are  suburbs  of  both  Philadelphia 
and  Pittsburgh!  Clerks  must  contend  with  much  mail  im- 
properly addressed  to  such  points,  as  well  as  mail  for  towns 
where  the  post  office  and  railroad  station  have  different  names 
(sometimes  it's  unavoidable— the  railroad  has  named  its  sta- 
tion for  an  off-line  post  office;  then  the  station  gets  a  post 
office  later!).  And  clerks  must  know,  for  example,  that  mail 
for  South  Norfolk,  Virginia,  can  be  included  with  Norfolk, 
but  that  South  Boston,  Virginia,  is  hundreds  of  miles  away 
from  Boston,  Virginia.  Illegible  scrawls  are  a  headache  too, 
not  to  mention  letters  for  no-post-office  points. 

Clerks  are  frequently  called  to  sort  letters  under  an  un- 
familiar set  of  headers  (perhaps  largely  obsolete)  which  they 
cannot  or  dare  not  rearrange,  or  may  be  required  to  work 
them  on  a  table  with  no  headers  at  all.  Train  sickness  and 
foot  weariness  beset  the  new  clerk;  as  a  shack,  he  is  sent 
"jackassing"  from  one  job  to  another,  with  no  time  to  finish 
any  one  of  them.  Porters  pour  incoming  mail  in  two  or  three 
doors  at  once,  twice  as  fast  as  clerks  can  pile  it.  Tough- 
rimmed  hardhead  (repaired)  pouches,  hung  and  unhung  with 
greatest  difficulty,  hound  clerks  on  lines  out  of  Washington 
especially.  When  setting  up  pouch  tables,  their  underslung 
hooks  are  a  nuisance  (a  hooked  one  flies  off  as  soon  as  the 
second  one  is  hooked  on),  while  if  overslung  hooks  are  substi- 
tuted, it  is  almost  impossible  to  detach  them,  as  they  fly  back 
into  place  similarly.  And  when  a  tied  parcel  is  pushed  down 
into  a  sack,  its  strings  catch  annoyingly  on  the  rack-hooks. 

Letter-packages,  even  though  addressed  plainly  to  a  con- 
necting R.P.O.,  often  cannot  be  dispatched  in  the  pouch  for 
that  line  at  all;  the  particular  train  may  not  serve  the  local 


66  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

offices  contained,  or  it  may  not  be  the  proper  section  of  the 
line,  or  the  package  may  consist  of  mixed  mail  turned  over  by 
an  incoming  train  of  that  line  to  ours  without  re-labeling, 
or  of  mail  due  to  be  advanced  by  special  dispatches!  Special- 
delivery  parcels  come  pouring  into  the  car,  especially  around 
holidays,  and  half  of  them  are  too  big  to  be  squeezed 
into  the  closely  jammed  sacks,  the  way  they  are  hung.  Big 
blocks  or  large  bundles  of  newspapers  cause  the  same  trouble; 
the  rack  must  be  half  taken  apart  to  get  the  packages  in, 
unless  the  harassed  clerk  gives  up  and  sorts  his  parcels  and 
blocks  in  piles  on  the  floor  !  Especially  in  terminals,  sacks  of 
parcels  "fill  up  all  wrong,"  and  big  ones  won't  fit  in  unless 
the  whole  contents  is  rearranged;  the  clerk  dares  not  do  too 
much  of  this,  either,  or  he'll  be  accused  of  wasting  time 
bricklaying.  Connections  vary,  even  between  days  of  the  week. 

Rain,  cinders,  or  snow  may  come  beating  in  the  car  venti- 
lators persistently,  until  a  sack  is  rigged  up  beneath  them  as 
a  canopy.  Doors  on  old  cars  are  sometimes  the  obsolete  type 
with  ordinary  handles,  and,  as  the  clerk  who  piles  mail  there- 
in discovers  to  his  great  annoyance,  they  always  open  inward. 
Even  with  standard  sliding  doors,  mail  must  often  be  moved 
and  replied  when  trains  come  into  a  station  on  the  "wrong 
side."  Perishable  meats  and  cheeses  in  parcels  will  decay,  giv- 
ing off  a  frightful  aroma— as  will  deceased  baby  chicks. 

Antiquated  equipment  can  work  havoc;  in  a  recent  holiday 
season,  clerks  on  one  North  Dakota  run  worked  in  cars  with- 
our  water,  heat,  or  lights.  One  car  had  an  old  Baker  heater 
which  was  finally  lit,  but  it  succeeded  in  "making  smoked 
hams"  of  the  crew  while  they  all  worked  by  candlelight. 
Wash  water  can  drain  out,  necessitating  washing  with  ice 
water  in  midwinter.  Overhead  boxes  with  their  sharp  under- 
slung  hooks  will  not  only  give  a  nasty  dig  in  the  head  to  any 
clerk  unbending  so  as  to  contact  them;  they  have  sliding  gates, 
too,  which  will  descend  to  crack  one's  knuckles  violently 
when  being  emptied.  Stall  poles,  supposedly  removable  with  a 
twist  of  the  wrist,  often  stick  like  the  mischief;  mails  are 
passed  through  the  alley  both  ways  at  once,  or  a  "bottleneck" 
results  from  some   other  cause;   and   trying   to  figure  out 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  \^TERAN  67 

"space"   requirements  under   the   complex  regulations   in- 
volved drives  clerks  to  despair.   As  Dan  Moschenross  puts  it: 

"During  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Flagellants  considered  self- 
torture  as  the  only  means  of  attaining  Divine  favor  .  .  .  they 
beat  one  another  .  .  .  with  whips  and  scourges. 

"Today  their  modern  successors  bury  one  another  under 
great  piles  of  heavy  sacks  and  call  it  Space  System." 

Although  much  is  being  done  to  remedy  such  conditions, 
C.  D.  Sherwin  writes  that  a  postal  transportation  clerk  must 
often  work  "on  a  shaking  platform,  under  lights  [fifty-watt] 
that  do  not  meet  I.E.S.  standards,  eat  ...  in  the  same  room 
with  exposed  toilets,  and  handle  dirty  sacks  used  all  over  the 
world  twenty  years  without  cleaning."  In  an  antique,  non- 
ventilatable  car  he  "is  expected  to  .  .  .  correctly  case  some 
t^venty-five  letters  per  minute.  Try  balancing  yourself  on  the 
rear  bumper  of  a  moving  auto  some  dark  night  and  read  your 
mail  by  the  taillight.  It'll  give  you  an  idea  .  .  ."  Small  fifty- 
foot  1901  wooden  mail  cars  are  still  run  in  some  seventy-mile- 
per-hour  trains,  some  clerks  claim. 

Unless  assigned  alone,  the  new  man  must  learn  to  be  a 
cono^enial  asset  to  his  R.P.O.  crew.  Thrown  into  constant 
contact  with  the  same  men  for  years  or  decades,  he  usually 
develops  a  friendly  tolerance  for  the  peculiarities  and  failings 
of  others,  faults  that  we  all  have.  Only  occasionally  do  we 
find  the  clerk  who  is  morose  or  mean  towards  those  whose 
personality  he  does  not  find  congenial.  Time  passes  rapidly 
amid  the  tempo  of  a  heavy  run,  and  soon  a  clerk  finds  him- 
self living  from  layoff  to  layoff  until  months  and  years  have 
slipped  away  as  if  by  magic.  Before  he  realizes  it  a  clerk  may 
have  spent  his  entire  Service  life  in  one  locality  (or  even  on 
one  line).  Others,  with  wanderlust,  transfer  all  over  the 
United  States. 

There  is  a  sense  of  rhythm  felt  throughout  the  crew. 
There  is  the  synchronized,  clocklike  motion  of  a  multiple 
human  machine  at  work.  There  is  the  steady,  even  click  of 
the  -wheels.  There  are  the  pulsating  notes  of  barbershop 
harmony  indulged  in  for  many  a  mile,  ranging  from  the 
classics  to  jive,  from  grand  old  hymns  to  ribald  ballads,  de- 


68  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

pending  on  the  men  and  the  mood.  And  each  letter  clerk  has 
his  own  varying,  personal  mail-flipping  rhythm;  some  prance 
or  sway  in  time  with  their  sticking,  while  others  tap  letters 
regluarly  against  bundles  or  fingers. 

The  recording  and  receipting  for  valuable  mails  enclosed 
in  "rotary-locked"  pouches  give  an  interesting  insight  into 
some  clerks'  different  characteristics.  To  save  a  record  in 
handling,  small  pouches  for  our  line  or  for  local  points  are 
often  enclosed  in  one  large  pouch;  and  when  a  red  man  opens 
one  and  discovers  all  the  little  ones,  he  may  growl  expressively 
that  the  "pouch  has  pups"— only  to  find,  perhaps,  that  some 
of  the  smaller  bags  have  "pups"  in  turn.  He  calls  off  the  lock 
numbers  from  each  opener  or  liner  (working  pouch),  such 
as  L-I2345  or  B-6789,  followed  by  the  numbers  of  the  articles, 
and  a  helper  checks  all  this  on  the  bill  enclosed.  To  avoid 
confusion,  words  are  called  to  replace  the  lock  letters— thus, 
Lucy  12345  and  Baby  6789— and  one  can  pretty  well  "size  up" 
some  clerks  by  noticing  what  words  they  choose.  For  example, 
"L"  is  commonly  heard  expressed  as  Lucky,  Lucy,  Lady, 
Lousy,  Louis,  and  Liquor!    (Note  14-) 

One  colorful  personality,  an  old-timer  once  of  the  Toledo 
&  St.  Louis  (a  Wabash  route,  famed  in  the  song  "Wabash 
Cannonball"),  evidently  used  worse  words  than  the  above  for 
"L"  and  the  rest  of  the  alphabet  too.  Although  he  claimed 
he  was  once  an  evangelist  or  preacher  of  sorts,  he  was  notori- 
ous for  his  vitriolic  language.  He  became  famous  throughout 
the  area,  especially  after  some  extra  trips  were  clamped  on  to 
his  assignment;  he  referred  to  them  disgustedly  as  warts,  and 
this  term  has  meant  extra  trips  in  the  Midwest  ever  since. 

There  will  often  be  a  left-handed  chap  in  the  crew  who 
works  his  mail  "backward,"  and  since  the  larger  letters  slant 
the  wrong  way,  no  one  else  can  work  his  case.  Another  may 
be  a  "string  saver,"  tying  up  all  discarded  twine  for  re-use,  or 
a  tier  of  fancy  knots  (the  work  of  some  clerks  can  be  recognized 
thus).  Some  clerks  use  privately-printed,  name-on  facing  slips 
rather  than  the  free  government  ones;  others  hang  extra  sacks 
galore  on  all  the  aisle  hooks  or  gills  on  both  sides,  until  no 
one  can  squeeze  past.   Others,  perpetual  kidders,  threaten  to 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  69 

push  senior  men  (with  a  desirable  assignment)  out  the  door 
when  crossing  bridges;  cry,  "What's  the  number  of  that  job?" 
when  a  clerk  is  "up"  and  taking  it  easy;  or  annoy  mail  mes- 
sengers by  calling  mail  for  the  local  stop  as  "Dogtown"  or 
"Bird  Center."  One  such  clerk,  called  by  phone  for  unwanted 
extra  trips,  always  sneezed  violently  while  listening,  then 
repeated,  "What  did  you  say?"  until  the  "office"  gave  upl 

There  is  a  more  grim  form  of  humor  too— the  grins  and 
facetious  wisecracks  indulged  in  when  men  grab  the  long 
safety  rods  overhead  in  case  of  any  sudden  application  of 
brakes.  They  know  chances  of  wreck  are  almost  nil,  but  they 
are  prepared  for  anything,  as  tight  hand  holds  reveal. 

Our  new  crew  member  often  discovers  odd  practices 
peculiar  to  that  area.  On  Atlantic  coastal  lines,  for  example, 
mails  for  Pensacola,  Florida,  are  always  included  with  those 
for  Georgia  State— because  Pensacola  is  the  only  locality  not 
routed  to  the  regular  Florida  connection,  the  Florence  &: 
Jack.  R.P.O.  (ACL).  At  certain  stops  on  a  line  an  outgoing 
mail  separation  may  be  called  as  hot  stuff  (a  close  connection), 
snake  mail  (for  West  Virginia),  or  good  and  bad  (as  for  Cle 
Elum,  Wash.,  and  dis). 

A  good  crew  member  soon  learns  what  not  to  do.  He  tries 
not  to  drop  twine  under  his  neighbor's  feet,  haul  large  objects 
through  a  crowded  aisle  (they  are  best  carried  high,  to  the 
cry  of  "Low  ceiling!"),  or  "have  a  chair"  (frequent  the  district 
superintendent's  office)  every  time  he  feels  mistreated.  He 
doesn't  pile  mail  in  bins  in  a  slovenly,  falling-down,  old- 
wheat-shock  stack,  or  come  to  work  with  out-of-date  or  un- 
prepared slips,  or  keep  his  things,  and  change  clothes,  in  the 
aisle.  He  admits  responsibility  when  wrong,  helps  at  doors 
or  busy  cases  without  being  asked,  and  keeps  discarded  mis- 
cellany off  the  floor  and  the  case  ledges.  He  avoids  imitating 
the  occasional  chap  who  shows  contempt  for  his  clerk-in- 
charge,  who  partakes  of  hidden  stimulants,  or  who  stops  nec- 
essary sorting  to  pour  out  windy  chatter  or  soiled  barroom 
tales  which  distract  and  perhaps  annoy  his  co-workers.  He 
knows  that  only  a  pest  "keeps  his  cup  under  the  water  spigot, 
buys  stamps  from  his  clerk-in-charge,  whistles  the  same  tune 


70  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

all  day  long,  and  yells  'Shut  up!'  at  baby  chicks."  (Most  of 
these  traits  were  listed  by  D.  D.  Bonewits  in  the  Railway 
Post  Office.) 

Our  new  clerk  will  develop  varied  interests.  Besides 
hunting  and  card  playing,  as  noted,  most  clerks  like  fishing, 
ball  games,  and  horse  races.  Terminal  clerks  are  often  adept 
at  chess.  Some  are  religious  workers  or  even  ministers,  like 
Reverend  Lawrence  L.  Fuqua  of  Cleveland  (Ohio)  Terminal. 
Some  clerks  even  do  farming  in  their  free  time;  others  are 
enthusiastic  musicians,  stamp  fiends,  or  railroad  "fans,"  and  a 
few  are  dreamy  Shakespearean  scholars,  writers,  trolley  fans, 
or  even  R.P.O.  enthusiasts  (to  their  co-workers'  utter  amaze- 
ment—See Chapter  13).  Possibly  the  strangest  hobby  is  that 
of  George  E.  Travis  and  his  wife,  who  built  a  much-public- 
ized "Shaker  House"  in  Fort  Worth,  Texas,  containing  the 
largest  saltcellar  collection  known. 

Since  1921  clerks  have  had  to  carry  revolvers,  usually  a  Colt 
.38,  with  belt  and  bullets;  it  must  be  kept  cleaned  and  pol- 
ished, and  unloaded  when  not  on  duty.  Such  a  requirement 
is  most  essential,  as  Clerk  J.  B.  Williams  of  Washington,  D.C., 
discovered  to  his  sorrow  when  his  ten-year-old  son  was  seri- 
ously injured  while  playing  with  his  pistol.  Official  target 
instruction  is  not  given,  but  many  clerks  can  "pull  a  mean 
trigger"  and  keep  up  practice  in  voluntary  groups  such  as  the 
2nd  Division  P.T.S.  Pistol  Club.  A  congressional  investiga- 
tion, deploring  the  lack  of  firearms  training  and  the  extra 
responsibility  forced  upon  clerks,  has  urged  that  armed 
guards  be  substituted. 

Federal  law  requires  recognition  of  postal  gun  permits  in 
all  places,  but  some  localities  have  refused  to  honor  them. 
In  North  Carolina  one  clerk  was  fined  sixty-five  dollars  for 
carrying  his  gun  on  duty,  deprived  of  his  twenty-five  dollar 
weapon,  and  warned  that  other  armed  clerks  would  be 
arrested  on  sight— because  he  had  no  local  permit!  Don 
Steffee,  the  railway  author  (see  Chapter  16),  tells  of  laying 
over  for  three  hours  in  Saratoga  Springs,  New  York,  when 
subbing  on  the  Rouses  Point  &  Albany  (D&H),  and  of  spend- 
ing his  time  exploring  the  town  or  resting  in  the  park— his 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  71 

gun  in  a  back  pocket.  One  day  he  was  gruffly  accosted  by  a 
cop,  disarmed,  loaded  into  a  patrol  car  while  onlookers 
gawked,  whisked  to  the  station  house,  and  released  only  after 
examination  of  his  papers.  He  carried  no  guns  in  Saratoga 
after  that!  And  even  with  guns  put  away,  clerks  who  go  and 
come  in  the  witching  hours  before  dawn  often  run  afoul  of 
the  law  anyhow.  A  judge  in  New  York  City,  not  knowing  of 
the  P.T.S.,  has  even  ruled  that  "the  only  people  one  can 
expect  to  meet  at  3  A.M.  are  those  who  might  be  lawless." 
Picked  up  as  "suspicious  characters"  for  such  reasons  as  grow- 
ing a  luxurious  beard,  attending  a  criminal  trial,  or  dashing 
up  the  street,  recently,  were  Bob  Lareau  of  the  Kan.  City  & 
Albuquerque  (Santa  Fe);  a  Bos.  &  Newport  (NYNH&H) 
clerk,  in  Rhode  Island;  and  Ben  Spurgeon  and  Fred  McCand- 
lish  of  the  Toledo  k  Charleston  (NYCent,Ohio— W.Va.),  re- 
spectively. This  writer  has  himself  been  stopped  and  grilled 
at  about  2:30  A.M.  by  the  alert  constabulary  of  two  different 
New  Jersey  towns  near  his  home! 

From  time  to  time,  speaking  of  guns,  P.T.S.  officials  or 
inspectors  ride  the  R.P.C).  lines  or  inspect  other  functions  of 
the  Service,  and  one  superintendent  discovered  a  fault  in 
Clerk  Al  Gunn's  trip  report  on  the  Portland  &  San  Francisco 
(SouPac),  proposing  to  give  him  five  demerits  for  it;  and 
when  the  clerk  replied  (on  the  form)  "Shoot.— A.  Gunn,"  he 
was  "shot"  twenty-five  more  sinkers  for  disrespect  in  official 
correspondence.  Retired  District  Superintendent  J.  P.  Fitz- 
patrick,  inspecting  the  same  line,  used  to  help  sort  the  letters, 
and  one  day  found  a  private  note  in  a  package  of  letters  re- 
ceived via  "go-back  pouch"  from  the  opposite  train,  reading, 
"I  carried  Dixon  by.  No  report."  The  official  added  a  letter, 
making  it  read,  "Now  report,"  and  returned  it  to  the  clerk 
who  wrote  it  and  who  had  missed  the  exchange  at  Dixon, 
California!  On  an  Eastern  line  one  official  tried  to  catch  red- 
handed  a  clerk  suspected  of  imbibing  on  duty,  contrary  to 
regulations.  He  watched  the  suspect  throw  newspapers  for 
the  whole  two  hundred-odd  miles,  was  amazed  to  see  the  clerk 
become  steadily  woozier  until  he  was  completely  "out"  at  the 
end  of  the  trip,  and  gave  up  the  quest  in  despair.  Only  after- 


72  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ward  did  the  clerk  admit  to  his  fellows  that  his  flask  was 
hung  inside  a  paper  sack  in  his  rack,  from  which  he  took  a 
swig  every  time  he  leaned  over  to  rearrange  or  push  down  the 
mail   therein  1 

Another  superintendent,  inspecting  a  terminal,  proposed 
a  charge  of  five  demerits  to  a  clerk  merrily  whistling,  contrary 
to  his  regulations,  but  canceled  them  when  he  received  the 
reply  ".  .  .  Sorry;  little  did  I  dream  I  was  disturbing  those  fine 
men  with  whom  I  worked  ...  I  was  merely  trying  to  knock 
off  the  rough  edges  of  fatigue."  Sometimes,  however,  a  P.T.S. 
official  himself  is  inspected.  A  postal  inspector  interviewed  a 
former  chief  clerk,  whose  office  included  the  Great  Northern's 
Fast  Mail  (St.  Paul  &  Williston),  to  demand  why  a  large 
second-class  office  on  its  route  was  not  supplied  by  that  train 
when  it  was  the  only  one  which  could  afford  a  morning 
delivery.  Told  that  they  couldn't  fool  around  with  a  little 
local  stop  like  that  when  mailbags  thrown  in  at  Minneapolis 
were  still  in  the  way  and  being  stacked,  the  inspector  replied, 
"All  right— we  will  report  to  the  Department  that  the  car 
doors  are  blocked  for  fifty  miles  after  leaving.  In  case  of 
wreck  the  clerks  could  not  get  out.  The  Chief  Clerk  knows 
this,  and  has  taken  no  steps  to  correct  it."  The  local  office 
supply  was  established. 

Meanwhile  our  typical  clerk  has  been  gradually  climbing 
up  the  various  salary  grades  and  later  longevity  levels,  each  of 
which  brings  a  one  hundred  dollar  increase.  Usually  he  has 
his  eye  on  some  "dream  job"  on  his  own  or  another  line, 
which  he  takes  when  seniority  permits.  He  may  be  nearing 
middle  age  by  then;  and,  having  reached  his  goal,  he  will  stay 
there  unless  he  aspires  to  be  a  clerk-in-charge  or  an  official. 
Promotions  to  such  positions,  at  a  very  substantial  salary 
increase,  are  made  to  qualified  clerks  who  are  willing  to 
accept  and  who  are  in  the  highest  automatic  grade  and  with 
top  seniority,  a  clerk-in-chargeship,  of  course,  usually  preced- 
ing any  higher  promotion.  Many  clerks  do  become  C.-in-C.s, 
especially  on  the  short  one-man  lines  where  every  clerk  is  one; 
few  aspire  to  higher  offices,  because  of  the  influence  allegedly 
needed. 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  78 

As  the  busy  chief  of  a  trunk-line  crew,  a  clerk-in-charge 
well  earns  his  Grade  16  or  17  pay  and  wears  the  saber,  as  they 
say  (or  the  burlap  tights),  with  distinction.  Typing  check 
sheets  and  handling  correspondence  consumes  much  of  his 
layoff,  and  on  the  job  he  usually  must  work  letters  as  well  as 
supervise,  check  pouches,  write  trip  reports  and  records, 
handle  train  space,  and  what  not.  He  is  accountable  for  all 
property  in  the  car,  must  see  that  clerks  obey  orders  and  work 
properly  all  mail  received,  if  possible,  and  that  mails  are 
properly  dispatched.  He  must  collect  the  "count"  of  each 
clerk  (amount  of  mail  worked)  in  a  pigeonhole  labeled 
"OFFICE"  before  he  can  make  out  his  trip  report. 

A  wise  and  friendly  clerk-in-charge  conducts  himself  like 
any  other  clerk;  he  is  equally  considerate  and  respectful,  wears 
the  same  work  clothes,  works  just  as  hard,  and  gives  "orders," 
if  necessary,  in  the  form  of  pleasant  suggestions.  (It  seldom  is 
necessary  in  the  ideal  crew,  where  each  man  knows  his  duties 
in  detail.)  On  his  responsible  job,  as  one  writer  says,  he  must 
have  the  "patience  of  Job,  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  sometimes 
as  hard-boiled  as  a  top  sergeant,  but  as  diplomatic  as  Franco 
would  like  to  be;  wide-awake  and  alert,  yet  at  times  blind 
and  dumb— meek  as  a  lamb  .  .  .  He  is  custodian  of  what  other 
clerks  are  not  to  be  bothered  with:  Special  orders,  post- 
marker,  'Missent'  and  other  stamps,  canceling  pad  and  ink, 
postage  stamps,  trip-report  book,  postal  guide,  extra  registry 
supplies,  clip  boards,  wire  clips,  rubber  bands,  flashlights, 
batteries,  car  keys,  space  books,  special-delivery  and  check 
sheets,  and  a  thousand  and  one  blank  forms  .  .  ." 

Two-grip  man  he  is  rightly  called,  for  he  seldom  gets  all 
this  material  into  one  case.  His  extra  grip  or  box,  as  well  as 
his  regular  one,  must  be  bought  and  handled  at  his  own 
expense  even  though  used  for  government  property  only. 
A  C.-in-C.  who  tried  using  a  mail  sack  for  this  purpose  was 
severely  reprimanded. 

Scattered  among  the  P.T.S.'s  legion  of  kindly  and  capable 
clerks-in-charsre  there  are,  of  course,  a  few  of  the  Simon 
Legree  type  too.  One  clerk  said  in  the  Railway  Post  Office: 
"They  cannot  give  an  order  in  a  respectful  manner,  and  oft- 


74  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

times  use  profane  language  in  emphasizing  same  ...  a  direct 
violation  of  P.L.RrR."  In  the  same  magazine  (now  Postal 
Transport  Journal)  D.  D.  Bonewits  lists  a  few  other  com- 
plaints toward  such,  including,  "He  uses  all  the  drawers  and 
boxes  for  his  shoes,  hat,  parcels,  and  personal  collection  .  .  . 
Waits  until  the  engineer  whistles,  then  hurriedly  ties  out  his 
local  package  and  charges  you  with  a  pouch-exchange  failure 
when  you  can't  get  to  the  door  in  time  .  .  .  Asserts  his  author- 
ity—officious and  arrogant  in  giving  orders  .  .  .  Lets  some 
favorite  mollycoddle  assign  the  distribution  for  the  crew  .  .  . 
Is  a  superman  on  supervision,  pygmy  on  effort  .  .  .  Never  has 
time  to  listen  to  suggestions  .  .  .  Arranges  for  valet  service— 
someone  to  wait  on  him,  no  matter  how  busy  .  .  .  Fallaciously 
thinks  the  hard  way  is  the  best  way  to  get  the  most  out  of 
his  crew  .  .  .  Never  gives  partner  a  lift  when  a  ten-minute 
breather  would  have  saved  carrying  mail  by  .  .  .  Careless 
about  orders  from  his  superiors— thinks  they  are  meant  for 
.  .  .  the  crew,"  and  so  on. 

It  must  again  be  emphasized  that  such  clerks-in-charge  are 
much  in  the  minority,  and  that  the  chief  himself  has  to  con- 
tend with  the  annoying  crew-member  habits  quoted  from 
Mr.  Bonewits  earlier,  not  to  mention  many  others.  And 
of  course  there  are  anecdotes  galore  about  clerks-in-charge. 
A  C.-in-C.  on  the  old  Chicago  &  Hannibal  (IC-Wabash),  says 
F.  C.  Gardiner,  discovered  a  sleeper  in  his  Decatur  box  just 
after  all  mail  was  unloaded  at  Decatur.  The  conscientious 
chief  took  the  letter  in  his  teeth,  jumped  off,  snatched  a  pouch 
off  the  truck,  unlocked  it,  threw  the  lock  in  the  pouch,  and 
closed  it  up,  yelling,  "Gimme  a  lock!  Gimme  a  lock!"  until 
the  second  clerk  tossed  him  one  just  as  the  train  started  up. 
When  he  jumped  back  inside,  his  teeth  still  held  the  letter 
tightly  clenched! 

Old  "Rocky,"  in  charge  on  a  Western  run,  would  fuss  at 
his  men  whenever  he  got  caught  up  on  his  work;  so  to  occupy 
him  they  would  slip  a  penny  under  his  letters— keeping  him 
busy  for  half  on  hour  digging  into  his  grips,  sprawled  amid 
patent  medicines  and  junk,  hunting  for  a  "matter-found- 
loose-in-the-mails"  form  and  writing  it  up.  Years  ago,  Owen 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  76 

D.  Clark  gasped  when,  while  he  was  throwing  mail  as  a  sub 
on  a  branch  line  in  the  East,  a  sudden  shot  rang  out  in  the 
car.  His  clerk-in-charge  was  standing  there  with  a  smoking 
.45  in  his  hand.  But  he  hadn't  gone  berserk;  his  old-style 
gun  had  a  secret  shell  compartment,  which  he  had  forgotten 
about  when  he  dumped  the  bullets  out  before  hammering  a 
loose  nail  with  the  butt.  Before  putting  them  back,  he  had 
decided  to  give  the  trigger  a  couple  of  test  clicks! 

On  the  Atchison  &  Downs  (MoPac)  in  Kansas  an  elderly 
bachelor  clerk-in-charge  had  a  crush  on  a  little  postmistress 
out  on  the  line.  The  romance  progressed  nicely  during  the 
train's  two-minute  stops  there  as  the  little  lady  met  the  train, 
until  the  old  chap  stayed  home  sick  one  day  and  a  sub  (who 
resembled  him  enough  to  pass  for  a  son)  was  sent  oiu  amply 
coached  by  the  crew.  He  answered  the  postmistress's  inquiry: 

"Yeah,  Pop's  rheumatism  has  got  him  again."  Then,  notic- 
ing a  pendant  she  wore,  "Say!  Where  d'ye  get  Ma's  locket- 
did  Pop  give  it  to  you?" 

The  old  gent  could  never  understand  why  she  stopped 
meetinsr  the  train. 

Clerks-in-charge  have  run  up  enviable  records  in  super- 
vising the  same  crew  for  many  decades.  Before  1900,  it  was 
reported,  J.  C.  Beck  of  the  N.  Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent)  had  held 
such  a  record  for  nearly  thirty-five  years.  Palmer  C.  Vincent 
of  the  Chatham  &  N.  Y.  (NYCent),  supervised  one  crew  from 
1906  to  1943. 

Then  there  was  J.  F.  "Cat"  Caterlin  of  the  K.C.  &  Denison 
(M-K-T),  who  perhaps  typifies  the  ideal  clerk-in-charge,  with 
forty  years'  total  service  on  the  line.  One  could  not  find,  says 

E.  E.  Stuart,  a  more  beloved  or  capable  chief;  he  was  a  charter 
member  of  the  R.M.A.  and  a  division  secretary,  and  a  regular 
"steam  engine"  on  his  Texas  letters  in  the  mail  car.  He 
"would  slash  a  double  row  five  feet  long,  jab  his  right  arm 
like  a  piston,  and  never  slacken  until  the  last  letter  was  in 
.  .  .  'Old  Cat  can  sure  hide  it,'  they  said.  It  was  his  best,  his 
whole  best,  nothing  but  the  best  .  .  .  Competent  in  action, 
superlative  in  judgment."  He  was  sometimes  brusque,  but 
never  showed  a  temper;  kindly  to  his  men,  with  a  sound 


76  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

philosophy  and  keen  sense  of  humor. 

Other  clerks,  too,  have  run  up  some  amazing  service 
records.  The  longest  and  most  distinguished  of  all  is  said  to 
be  that  of  Christopher  A.  McCabe,  of  the  St.  Paul  &  Willis- 
ton  (GN),  who  became  district  superintendent  at  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  to  round  out  fifty-seven  years  of  continuous  ser- 
vice since  his  appointment  in  1889  at  $800  a  year.  A  dele- 
gate to  R.M.A.  conventions  as  far  apart  as  1892  and  1949, 
he  retired  in  1946  as  "the  best-loved  and  admired  man  in  the 
10th  Division."  He  was  "fired"  twice  during  the  hectic  early 
days,  felt  a  gun  in  his  ribs  during  a  train  robbery  in  1894, 
and  is  still  rallying  against  any  curtailment  in  the  P.T.S. 

Longest  career  on  one  line  was  probably  that  of  William 
H.  Meyers,  of  the  S.P.'s  former  Placerville  &:  Sacramento 
(California),  or  of  Fred  Sheldon  of  the  N.  Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent), 
just  retired— both  fifty  years.  Other  high  P.T.S.  service  records 
were  those  of  "Dean"  John  H.  Pitney,  Boston  &  Alb.  (B&rA), 
over  fifty-five  years  (see  Chapter  16);  12th  Division  Super- 
intendent John  Morris,  Memphis  Gren.  &  New  Orleans 
(IC),  fifty-five  years;  7th  Division  Superintendent  Joseph  A. 
Muldoon,  St.  Louis  &  Monett  (StL-SF),  fifty-four  years;  and 
so  on  down. 

A  clerk  can  retire  optionally  at  fifty-five  or  over,  but  in 
any  case  not  later  than  seventy.  Formerly,  railway  mail  clerks 
were  arbitrarily  retired  at  sixty-two— much  to  the  displeasure 
of  clerks  still  strong  and  capable  at  that  age  who  had  children 
to  put  through  college  or  homes  to  pay  for.  On  the  other 
hand,  most  younger  clerks— eager  for  the  promotions  that 
retirements  bring  them— are  anxious  to  restore  a  compulsory 
retirement  of  sixty-five,  sixty,  or  fifty-five.  They  argue  that 
the  old-timers  need  a  few  years  of  well-earned  leisure  and 
that  too  many  have  slowed  up  and  must  be  "carried"  by  the 
young  clerks.  The  argument  goes  merrily  on,  but  it  would 
certainly  seem  obvious  that  if  a  clerk  is  healthy,  interested 
in  his  work,  and  truly  efficient,  he  should  be  permitted  to 
stay  to  seventy  if  he  needs  the  money. 

Reactions  to  the  final  departmental  "order  of  discontinu- 
ance" at  the  end  of  the  month  in  which  a  birthday  occurs 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  77 

are  mixed.  Many  vigorous  old-timers  definitely  hate  to  leave 
the  job  and  the  co-workers  they  like  so  much  and  snort  at 
the  idea  of  some  sub  abruptly  relieving  them  in  the  middle 
of  a  trip  when  the  fatal  day  arrives.  Others  eagerly  await  it, 
as  an  emancipation  from  a  lifelong  grind,  perhaps  flinging 
the  old  road  grip  into  a  river  on  the  last  run. 

Many  outstanding  clerks  are  honored  with  a  dinner  and 
gifts  on  their  retirement,  especially  if  they  have  become 
officials;  but  some  were  still  on  the  road,  like  J.  H.  Lucitt  of 
the  N.Y.  &  Pt.  Pleasant  (CRR-NJ),  to  whom  seventy  clerks 
gave  a  banquet,  autograph  book,  and  diamond  ring.  An- 
other unusual  retirement  was  that  of  Joseph  McElvin  of  the 
Kan.  City  &  Denison  (M-K-T),  whose  father  was  still  on  the 
retirement  rolls  himself.  And  when  Lum  Andrews,  of  the 
Chic.  &  Council  Bluffs  (CB&Q),  retired  in  1919,  his  son  Carl 
had  been  on  the  line  fourteen  years— and  is  still  on  it,  a 
family  record  of  77  years'  service  on  one  line!  (Note  22.) 

The  low  retirement  annuity,  averaging  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred dollars  annually  for  those  retired  before  1949,  is  a 
great  hardship  to  many  clerks.  (Clerks  retired  now  fare  only 
a  little  better.)  A  mere  fraction  of  active  salary,  it  is 
unlike  army,  navy,  and  similar  pensions  in  being  subject  to 
income  tax  too!  Railroad  employees  retire  at  much  better 
pay  after  paying  less  in  deductions  (6  per  cent  in  the  P.T.S.); 
their  pensions  are  tax-exempt  by  law;  and  they  often  receive 
passes  good  for  rides  on  most  railroads  for  themselves  and 
their  family.  On  the  other  hand,  the  retired  clerk's  com- 
mission--restricted  to  single-route  business  trips  as  it  was— is 
returned  to  him  canceled  as  a  souvenir!  The  P.T.S.,  though 
obviously  eligible,  has  not  been  included  in  recent  legisla- 
tion authorizing  a  liberally  paid  retirement  after  twenty 
years'  service  in  "hazardous  and  arduous"  government  jobs. 

Some  retired  clerks  secure  part-time  employment,  others 
make  for  a  quiet  fishing  retreat  or  chicken  farm  in  the  coun- 
try—still chatting  with  old  pals  down  at  the  depot,  and  some- 
times continuing  active  in  the  N.P.T.A.  and  in  retired  clerks' 
groups.  Some  of  the  latter  are  the  National  Retired  N.P.T.A. 
Clan   (California);  the  Veteran  R.P.C.s  of  New  England,  in 


78  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Boston;  the  Seattle  Retired  Clerks'  Club;  the  Old  Timers 
Club,  Syracuse,  New  York;  the  Twin  City  Retired  Clerks* 
Clan'  in  Minnesota;  and  others  in  San  Francisco  and  Fort 
Worth,  Texas. 

Some  clerks  have  doubtless  reached  the  century  mark,  but 
the  longest-lived  clerks  of  whom  we  have  records  include 
the  late  John  W.  Masury  of  the  Boston  &  N.Y.  (NYNH&H) 
and  Royal  S.  Dale  of  the  Eland  &  Merrillan  (CStPM&O- 
C&NW)  in  Wisconsin,  both  of  whom  lived  to  be  ninety-seven. 
Mr.  Masury  was  a  world  traveler  during  his  twenty-nine-year 
retirement  and  was  an  active  guest  in  the  Odd  Fellows  Home, 
Worcester,  Massachusetts,  with  his  letter  writing  and  Bible 
reading,  until  his  death  at  almost  ninety-eight  late  in  1949; 
Mr.  Dale  hailed  from  Romulus,  New  York,  and  was  retired 
twenty  years.  Close  seconds  at  ninety-six  were  Charles  H. 
Hooton  of  the  Wash.  &  Grafton  (B&O),  who  just  passed  away, 
and  William  J.  Cook  of  LeRoy,  New  York,  who  ran  just 
four  years  on  the  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent)  before  becoming  a 
Collector  of  Internal  Revenue.  Hooton  was  born  in  a  log 
cabin,  had  lunches  with  President  Grant,  and  was  active  in 
Baltimore  N.P.T.A.  affairs. 

Oldest  living  ex-clerk  at  this  writing  is  Joseph  M.  Kurtz, 
ninety-seven,  of  the  Mount  St.  Joseph  Home,  Kansas  City, 
Kansas,  who  ran  on  the  old  Leavenworth  &:  Miltonvale 
(KCLeav&W)  and  is  active  and  in  good  health.  Feted  at  his 
last  birthday  in  a  big  celebration,  he  is  a  general  favorite  at 
the  home  and  active  in  the  religious  services  and  singing;  he 
reads  and  tells  stories  with  gusto,  and  his  clever  humor  is 
proverbial.  Right  behind  him  at  last  report  were  Charles 
J.  Bohnstead  of  the  old  Mich.  City,  Monon  &  Indpls.  (CI&L) 
in  Indiana,  and  Robert  C.  Whaling  of  the  former  Roch.  & 
Pittsburgh  (BR&P-BR:0),  who  lives  in  Rochester,  New  York 
—both  aged  ninety-four.  A.  F.  Coller,  off  the  St.  Paul  &  Miles 
City  (NP),  is  ninety-three.  Many  other  old-timers  still  keep 
hale  and  hearty  through  interesting  activities.  At  last  report 
these  included  former  Chief  Clerk  A.  T.  Nichols,  ninety- 


•Branch  of  National  N.P.T.A.  Clan. 


FROM  WOULD-BE  "SUB"  TO  VETERAN  79 

two,  (who  knew  such  diverse  characters  as  Jesse  James  and 
President  Lincoln),  of  St.  Joseph,  Mo.;  C.  J.  Cissna, 
ninety-one,  ex-Kan.  City  &  ^Iemphis  (StL-SF);  and  W.  F. 
Doolittle,  ex-chief  clerk,  Boston,  ninety-one.  To  conclude 
our  Honor  Roll  of  old-timers  still  living,  as  far  as  we  know, 
we  salute  the  following  (nominated  by  our  correspondents), 
plus  others  mentioned  later: 

J.  E.  Reid,  89,  Kansas  City  &  Denver  (UP) 
James  L.  Stice,  88,  P.T.S.  author   (see  Chapter  16) 
Charles  M.  Brown,  86,  Cairo  &:  New  Orleans  (IC);  lives 

in  Memphis,  Tenn. 
Felley  M.  Miller,  86,  Omaha  &  Ogden  (UP);  active  in 

N.P.T.A.,  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa 
Thomas  B.  Robertson,  86,  St.  Loais  &  Monett  (StL-SF) 
August  Kraft,  85,  St.  Louis  &  Kansas  City  (MoPac) 
Morgan  Jenkins,  80,  Pittsburgh  ^  Kenova  (B&O);  active 

in  Huntington,  West  Virginia. 

Some  very  distinguished  long-lived  clerks  have  now  passed 
on.  Clarence  E.  Votaw  of  Fountain  City,  Indiana,  lived  to  be 
ninety-five  (1949);  he  was  a  prominent  former  assistant  super- 
intendent and  author,  as  described  in  Chapter  16.  Andrew  J. 
Baer,  reputedly  of  the  PRR's  N.Y.  8:  Pitts.,  closely  resembled 
John  Wilkes  Booth  and  had  a  hair-raising  escape  from  cap- 
ture following  his  Civil  War  military  career  and  Lincoln's 
assassination;  he  helped  save  lives  at  the  Johnsto-wn  flood  and 
finally  retired  to  live  in  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  to  the  ripe 
age  of  ninety-three.  Richard  G.  Whiting,  of  Hyattsville, 
Maryland,  passed  on  at  ninety-two  after  many  years  on  the 
N.Y.  &  Wash.  (PRR);  like  Mr.  Hooton,  he  was  a  friend  of 
President  Grant,  while  his  father  Avas  a  close  associate  of 
Grant's  famed  opponent,  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  when  a 
Mexican  War  colonel!  (Mr.  Whiting  lived  in  the  home  town 
of  the  late  Second  Assistant  P.M.G.  Smith  \V.  Purdum,  an 
ex-clerk;  likewise  that  of  this  writer  and  other  clerks.) 
William  I.  Woodruff,  of  the  old  Sioux  City  &  O'Neill  (CBS:Q) 
in  Nebraska,  had  a  famous  photographic  memory  and  could 
quote  R.M.S.  journals  by  the  page;  he  lived  to  be  ninety-one. 


80  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

One  and  all,  such  men  have  "fought  the  good  fight,  and 
kept  faith"  with  the  great  Railway  Mail  Service  which  they 
knew.  Well  did  they  deserve  a  ripe  old  age  of  constructive 
leisure  to  round  out  their  days  in  this,  the  new  and  modern 
age  of  the  Postal  Transportation  Service. 


Chapter  5 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL 


...  Of  Needham's  old  tin  suitcase  and  his  tin-can  drinking  cup; 
He  swore  the  boys  who  slit  them  just  wasn't  on  the  up  .  .  . 
Of  sweet  potato  leavin's  on  the  doorknob  which  were  placed, 
While  through  the  train  the  big  Chief  Clerk  so  busily  he  paced; 
He  came  upon  said  doorknob  and  he  grasped  it  good  and  strong— 
With  a  loud  and  angry  bellow  he  announced  something  was  wrong. 

—  Selected  (from  The  R.P.O.) 


The  sorting  of  mail  on  trains  makes  a 
deep  impression  on  those  to  whom  it  has 
not  become  just  a  part  of  the  day's  work, 
and  humorous,  dramatic,  and  even  tragic 
happenings  accentuate  it.  Perhaps  a  sub- 
stitute's memorable  "first  trip"  is  often 
the  most  interesting  of  such  incidents  to 
the  reader,  and  Clarence  Votaw  describes 
his  own  hectic  initial  run  in  Jasper  Hunnicutt  thus: 

I  followed  11  other  clerks,  who  climbed  hastily  into 
the  mail  cars.  Everyone  but  me  knew  exactly  what  to 
do  and  did  it  with  celerity.  First,  a  dozen  valises  opened 
and  numerous  books,  schemes,  schedules,  and  other  arti- 
cles were  produced  .  . .  Our  journey  to  Pittsburgh  began: 
"Don't  try  to  unlock  the  sacks  of  papers— only  the 
pouches  are  locked.  You  face  up."  Pouch  clerks,  taking 
them  by  armfuls,  threw  the  bundles  with  precision  .  .  . 
"Poor  fellow,  he's  stuck!"  sighed  the  clerk-in-charge,  very 
audibly  .  .  . 

81 


82  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

A  classic  of  such  tales^  is  told  by  E.  M.  Martindale,  men- 
tioned in  the  previous  chapter,  and  long  of  the  Chic.  &  Omaha 
(C&NW).  Watching  the  mail  trains  as  a  boy,  he  built  a  glam- 
orous picture  of  himself  seeing  the  world  from  the  car  door. 
Appointed  a  substitute,  he  describes  his  first  trip  thus: 

"My  fust  duty  was  to  take  into  the  car  some  tons  of  Kansas 
paper  mail.  ...  I  had  less  than  five  minutes;  but  I  did  it 
somehow,  though  every  nerve  was  quivering  and  my  breath 
seemed  gone  forever.  Just  as  I  finished:  'Here,  feller,'  said  a 
superior  clerk,  'face  this  mail  up  in  station  order.'  I  didn't 
know  the  order  of  stations;  but  believing  that  hesitancy 
would  be  punished  as  mutiny,  I  tackled  those  huge  stalls  .  .  . 
A  lurch  of  the  car  threw  me  off  my  feet  and  an  enormous 
sack  pinned  me  down.  I  was  rescued  by  the  superior  clerk, 
thoroughly  disgusted:— 'Guess  embroidery  work  would  suit 
you  better!'  But  he  turned  in  and  helped;  for  we  were  ap- 
proaching Mount  Pleasant  and  there  were  still  scores  of  sacks 
to  be  sorted.  (This  was  on  the  CB&Q's  Chic.  &  Council  Bluffs.) 

"These  preliminaries  finished,  I  was  ushered  back  into  the 
second  car,  where  my  patriotism  was  put  to  the  test  of  drag- 
ging mail  to  the  opposite  end,  lifting  it  to  the  tables,  'setting 
it  up'  piece  by  piece  for  the  convenience  of  the  swiftly  throw- 
ing distributor.  Before  we  reached  Ottumwa,  the  glamour 
and  glory  of  my  dreams  had  departed,  in  company  with  the 
spotlessness  of  my  shirt  sleeves  and  bosom.  I  was  dizzy  and 
faint;  the  cars  were  dark  with  smoke  and  dust,  and  the  whole 
scene  inside  seemed  an  endless  tangle  of  pouches,  sacks,  and 
pigeon  holes,  these  presided  over  by  perspiring  demons  whose 
flying  hands  kept  the  air  alive  with  packages  and  bundles, 
the  while  mumbling  a  jargon,  concerning  routes  and  connec- 
tions, which  was  all  Fiji  to  me.  Other  demons  rushed  up  and 
down  the  aisles,  dragging  behind  them  bags  which  anon  they 
hurled  from  the  train  and  snatched  others  as  though  by 
magic  from  the  winds  without. 

"The  noise  was  deafening,  myriad  switches  crashed  alarm- 
ingly beneath  the  wheels,  trains  on  other  tracks  suddenly  and 


^See  Chapter  12  for  some  hectic  first  trips  on  fast  electric  suburban  R.P.O.s. 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  83 

ominously  rushed  past,  throwing  me  into  a  state  of  panic. 
Then  the  roll  of  the  train,  rounding  sharp  curves,  taxed  my 
strength  and  nerve,  and  levied  toll  upon  the  breakfast  which 
I  had  eaten  in  such  repose  and  anticipation. 

"The  next  hours  dragged,  naturally,  but  at  length  we  ap- 
proached Murray,  and  having  begged  the  boon  of  a  moment's 
time,  I  drew  myself  together,  opened  a  door,  and  prepared  to 
receive  the  homage  of  a  conqueror.  I  couldn't  see  a  soull— 
Yes,  there  was  a  boy,  my  brother,  and  he  cheered  me  loyally. 
And  over  in  the  'News'  office  door  my  father  gave  a  sort  of 
military  salute,  and  the  ovation  was  at  an  end.  I  had  tears 
and  was  prepared  to  shed  them,  but  I  didn't;  I  just  sank 
down  in  utter  weakness  on  a  detested  sack. 

"A  new  field  of  endeavor  aAvaited  me,  however.  By  ukase 
of  the  clerk-in-charge  I  was  to  try  the  catcher,  a  performance 
which  in  my  nervous  state  I  mentally  compared  with  powder 
making  or  bronco-breaking.  I  urged  my  inexperience  and 
said  I  was  ill,  but  to  no  purpose.  'Got  to  learn— as  well  now 
as  any  time,'  he  replied.  'Get  ready.  When  she  whistles,  spot 
the  crane.  Just  before  you  reach  it,  throw  out  your  pouch 
hard,  and  raise  the  catcher;  the  rest'll  come  to  you.' 

"I  glanced  ahead,  unable  to  spot  any  crane,  only  switch 
targets,  telegraph  poles,  and  semaphores  in  spindling  abun- 
d^-ice,  but  I  knew  it  must  be  there  somewhere  so  decided  to 
raise  the  catcher  in  good  time  and  wait  for  the  'rest  to  come 
to  me.'  It  came— even  sooner  than  I  expected,  and  with  such 
violence  that  the  catcher  was  torn  from  my  grasp,  wrenched 
from  its  socket,  and  disappeared  entirely,  leaving  me  dumb 
and  paralyzed.  I  had  caught  a  semaphore  post  instead  of  the 
mail  pouch.  Grasping  the  situation  instantly  from  the  crash, 
fellow  clerks  yelled,  'throw  it  out,'  meaning  the  outgoing 
pouch  which  I  held  stupidly  in  one  hand.  I  quickly  obeyed, 
and  another  tremendous  crash  and  clatter  followed  its  exit. 
A  glance  back  showed  that  my  pouch  had  crashed  through 
the  station's  bay  window.  In  mute  horror,  I  thought  the  clerk- 
in-charge  would  revile  me  and  report  me  and  I  should  be 
ignominiously  discharged  and  held  for  damages  by  the  com- 
pany.   Imagine  my  surprise  when  I  saw  him  double  over  a 


84  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

pouch  rack,  howling  with  amusement,  while  the  other  clerks 
made  pandemonium  with  merriment. 

"It  was  several  days  before  they  could  look  at  me  without 
whooping,  and  much  longer  before  I  could  be  induced  to 
touch  one  of  those  pesky  catchers." 

Experiences  like  this  could  be  duplicated  many  times; 
but,  tough  as  they  seemed,  they  were  not  so  soul-racking  as 
those  of  lone  substitutes  taking  over  one-man  runs  for  the 
first  time.  Not  only  aching  muscles  and  frayed  nerves  are 
the  lot  of  this  kind  of  novice;  he  works  under  a  tense,  lone- 
some helplessness  not  experienced  by  the  beginner  accom- 
panying experienced  clerks.  The  writer^  well  remembers 
his  first  one-man  run,  where  he  worked  under  such  tension 
that  he  carried  lighted  lamps  the  whole  trip,  so  as  to  utilize 
the  few  moments  lost  traversing  dark  bridges  or  tunnels. 

Russel  Danniel  thus  describes  his  first  trip  on  the  old 
Momence  &  Terre  Haute  (C&EI): 

"It  was  awful!  I  could  handle  the  local  mail  all  right,  but 
when  the  other  began  to  pile  up  I  didn't  know  what  to  do 
with  it.  I  imagined  that  if  I  missent  a  letter— the  'pen'  for 
me.  So  when  I  got  down  to  Terre  Haute  I  'massed'  the 
whole  pile  on  the  post  office.  I  soon  received  a  note  from  the 
clerks  there,  asking  why  in  blazes  I  didn't  at  least  take  out 
the  Chicago  city  mail.  When  I  got  back  to  my  room  that 
evening,  I  wrote  to  my  chief  clerk,  for  God's  sake,  to  send 
someone  who  could  handle  that  run." 

More  than  one  disillusioned  sub  has  attempted  to  quit  at 
once,  although  most  are  persuaded  to  remain  by  a  bit  of 
kindly  official  remonstrance  and  conniving.  But  one  young 
man  simply  went  back  home  the  next  day,  after  having  some 
cards  printed  to  forestall  embarrassing  questions,  thus: 

Q._What  are  you  doing  here? 

A.— I  have  quit  the  mail  service. 

Q.— Don't  you  like  it? 

A.-No. 

Q.— Was  the  work  hard? 

A.-Yes. 


•Professor  Dennia. 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  85 

Q.— What  was  it? 

A.— Lifting  and  unlocking  two  hundred  pouches,  shaking 
out  contents,  arranging  same,  removing  pouches,  locking 
same,  carrying  same  away,  jumping  and  stomping  on  mail 
matter,  rearranging  sacks,  then  going  over  same  work,  con- 
tinuing same  seventeen  hours  without  rest,  with  trains  flying 
around  curves  and  slinging  you  against  everything  that  is  not 
slung  against  you. 

The  clerks'  sense  of  humor  runs  largely  to  practical  jokes. 
When  a  dignified  middle-aged  new  sub  showed  up  for  duty 
on  a  St.  Paul  Sc  Williston  (GN)  train,  the  second  clerk  coached 
him  in  just  what  to  say  to  the  clerk-in-charge,  who  arrived 
later.  The  head  man  arrived,  and  the  distinguished-looking 
stranger  was  introduced  to  him  as  the  new  division  superin- 
tendent, just  appointed  at  St.  Paul,  whom  the  clerks  had 
never  met.  The  "superintendent"  made  an  impressive  inspec- 
tion, with  the  C.-in-C.  deferentially  answering  his  questions, 
and  continued  his  investigative,  official  demeanor  throughout 
the  trip— at  the  end  of  which  he  revealed  his  identityl 

From  several  exchanges  of  tricks  by  two  Chicago  &  Omaha 
(C&NW)  clerks,  whom  we  shall  call  Turner  and  Jones,  the 
following  prank  is  taken.  There  are  no  women  clerks  in 
postal  cars,  but  there  are  in  post  offices.  On  a  certain  trip 
Turner  received  a  note  on  the  back  of  a  Vermilion,  Illinois, 
facing  slip,  inquiring,  "Why  in  h don't  you  spell  Ver- 
milion right?"  and  the  slip  was  stamped  "Postmaster,  Vermil- 
ion." The  angry  Turner,  on  his  next  delivery  to  that  office, 
made  a  profane  rejoinder  on  his  facing  slip  to  the  effect  that 
no  blinkety-blankety  postmaster  was  telling  him  how  to  spell. 
A  few  days  later  he  got  an  order  to  report  to  his  chief  clerk 
in  Chicago.  There  he  was  handed  a  facing  slip  with  the 
epithets  he  had  called  the  Vermilion  postmaster.  "Did  you 
write  that?"  asked  the  chief. 

"Yes,  sir;  he  got  funny  with  me  and  I " 

"But,"  interposed  the  chief,  "the  postmaster  at  Vermilion 
is  a  woman." 

Turner  was  stunned,  but  only  for  a  minute,  "Oh,  I  know. 


88  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

It's  another  trick  of  that  blinkety-blankety  Jones.  I'll  get 
even  with  him." 

Railway  mail  clerks  have  seldom  been  required  to  wear  full 
uniform  clothing.  At  times  a  blouse  was  required,  and  for 
several  years  a  special  cap  and  always  a  badge.  During  the 
period  that  both  badge  and  cap  were  required  this  incident 
occurred  on  the  former  Chadron  &  Lander  (C&NW),  later 
Chadron  &  Caspar.  It  was  a  local  and  used  to  stop  out  at  a 
small  lake  on  the  prairie,  where  the  crew  went  swimming 
if  there  were  no  women  passengers.  One  day  the  engineer 
sneaked  back  and  started  the  train,  causing  all  to  make  a  mad 
rush  to  get  aboard.  It  was  but  a  short  run  to  the  next  station, 
so  the  mail  clerk  locked  out  his  pouch  instead  of  putting  on 
his  trousers.  Imagine  his  surprise  when,  instead  of  the  usual 
agent,  the  agent's  wife  came  to  throw  in  his  pouch.  Horrified 
and  insulted,  she  reported  the  trouserless  clerk.  When  he 
got  the  correspondence  he  defended  himself  in  a  strong  letter 
to  the  office,  asserting  that  he  was  wearing  his  cap  and  badge, 
which  was  all  the  uniform  prescribed  by  regulations.  Tech- 
nically right,  he  got  off  with  an  admonition  always  to  wear 
his  pants  at  stations. 

Charles  Hatch,  of  the  St.  Louis,  Eldon  &  Kansas  City 
(Rock  I.),  relates  an  incident  in  which  the  main  actor  was 
William  Davenport,  retired  secretary  of  the  7th  Division, 
R.M.A.  He  was  on  the  St.  Louis  &  Little  Rock  (MoPac),  a 
few  miles  from  St.  Louis,  when  the  train  came  to  a  stop.  A 
hyena  had  broken  out  from  its  crate  and  was  standing  in  the 
door  of  the  baggage  car,  uncertain  when  to  leap  out.  The 
crew,  fearing  the  animal  might  injure  people  in  the  city, 
had  stopped  outside  to  ponder  the  problem.  Davenport  went 
forward  and,  seeing  the  beast,  drew  his  revolver.  But  the 
hyena  didn't  look  very  tough,  so  he  bolstered  his  gun  and, 
picking  up  a  chunk  of  coal  from  the  right  of  way,  made  a 
strike  on  the  nose  of  the  astonished  animal.  Dazed,  it  slunk 
back  toward  its  cage  and  the  car  door  ^vas  closed.  The  train 
proceeded  on  to  St.  Louis,  where  the  beast  was  crated.  A 
clerk  certainly  gets  in  on  the  "goings-on"  in  railroading. 

The  writer  (B.A.L.)  was  on  duty  in  a  N.  Y.  &  Wash.  (PRR) 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  87 

Storage  car  when  a  half-grown  alligator,  destined  as  a  pet  for 
someone,  crawled  out  of  its  crate  and  explored  several  stalls 
of  mail.  With  some  difficulty  and  cautious  handling,  he  was 
coaxed  back  into  his  crate  and  the  plank  secured  thereon. 

F.  C.  Gardner,  Ret.,  of  the  Washington  and  Bristol  R.P.O. 
(Southern)  tells  of  a  towerman  at  a  crossing  on  the  Toledo  & 
St.  Louis  (Wabash)  who  was  ordered  to  observe  Train  4  from 
the  ground  one  day  and  report.  On  that  day  Train  4  had 
picked  up  a  shipment  of  baby  chicks  mailed  at  St.  Louis  in 
very  hot  weather;  many  had  died  and  were  "overripe."  The 
third  clerk,  ordered  to  open  the  boxes  and  count  and  throw 
out  the  "ripe"  ones,  did  so— flinging  137  of  them  out  the  door 
at  once.  One  can  imagine  the  dispatcher's  consternation 
when  he  received  this  report:  "I  was  on  the  ground  to  observe 
Train  4  as  ordered  and  the  *!$.*!34&:%!!  postal  clerk  dumped 
a  carload  of  rotten  chicks  on  me!"  Grown  chickens,  too  have 
caused  consternation— as  when  one  clerk  volunteered  to  help 
an  expressman  catch  an  escaped  hen,  only  to  find  an  inspector 
in  the  car  demanding  the  cause  of  his  absence  when  he  re- 
turned after  a  merry  chase  around  the  depot. 

As  for  other  animal  tales:  A  monkey  escaped  from  a  bag- 
gage car  into  one  R.P.O.,  amused  the  crew  awhile,  then 
smashed  the  C.-in-C.'s  watch!  A  "religious"  dos:  at  North 
Germantown,  New  York,  would  regularly  catch  the  pouch 
thrown  from  N.  Y.  8:  Chic.  (NYCent)  trains— except  on  Sun- 
days. Other  clever  pets— dogs,  deer,  and  what  not— regularly 
meet  various  R.P.O.s  today.  Puppies  and  mice  are  enclosed 
by  jokesters  in  fake  pouches  for  other  R.P.O.  trains. 

When  a  Philadelphia  transfer  clerk  opened  a  "restless"  sack 
from  New  Haven,  a  huge  black  cat  jumped  out  and  high- 
tailed it  northward.  And  the  Newark  Air  Mail  Field's  cat 
once  got  pouched— and  flown— to  Pittsburgh.  Likewise,  the 
Spokane,  Washington  Terminal's  pet  kitten  jumped  in  a  sack, 
was  dispatched  three  hundred  miles,  and  safely  returned  after 
a  frantic  telegram;  and  another  kitten  jumped  out  of  a  pouch 
opened  on  a  New  England  R.P.O.  F.  C.  Gardiner  tells  of  a 
tenderhearted  Wash.  &:  Charlotte  (Sou)  clerk  whose  mother 
cat  had  kittens  he  had  to  dispose  of— so  he  hid  them  in  a  box 


88  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

under  his  car's  case  ledge,  knowing  the  car  went  on  through 
to  Atlanta.  But  his  co-worker,  a  prankster,  sought  out  the 
Charl.  Sc  Atlanta  clerks  privately  and  recovered  the  kittens; 
he  took  them  back  to  Washington  on  the  early  train  he  ran 
on  northbound  and  let  them  out  in  their  yard  to  greet  their 
owner  laterl 

Tales  of  "catching  on  the  fly"  are  legion.  A.  D.  Bunger, 
of  the  Oelwein  k  Kan.  City  (CGW),  had  a  series  of  failures  to 
catch  at  Peru,  Barney,  and  Lorimer,  Iowa.  Although  the 
headlight  daily  revealed  each  pouch  handing  in  its  place,  he'd 
swing  out  his  hook  and  catch  nothing— the  pouch  would  be 
nowhere,  not  even  on  the  ground.  His  correspondence  on 
the  matter  piled  up,  but  when  an  inspector  visited,  the  catch 
was  normal.  Next  trip  it  happened  again  at  Peru  and  Barney, 
but  at  Lorimer  the  train  stopped  for  passengers  and  the 
station  agent  threw  in  the  Lorimer  pouch  and  the  Peru  and 
Barney  pouches  also.  The  fireman  had  brought  up  the  other 
two,  explaining  that  he'd  found  them  on  the  end  of  his  rake, 
which  he'd  left  protruding  across  the  end  of  the  tender.  The 
rake  had  acted  as  a  catcher,  holding  each  pouch  for  miles. 

One  clerk  used  to  depend  partly  on  a  white  horse  in  a 
certain  field  as  a  landmark  for  one  catch— and  missed  it  when 
the  horse  was  moved  to  another  lot.  When  Bert  Bemis,  now 
a  well-known  writer,  was  a  clerk  on  the  Omaha  R:  Denver 
(CBScQ)  he  made  a  nearly  fatal  exchange  near  Lincoln,  Ne- 
braska. His  key  chain  became  entangled  with  the  cords  of  a 
pile  of  sacks  he  was  dumping  out  and  they  pulled  him  out 
to  hang  in  space  from  the  safety  rod  until  pulled  in  by  other 
clerks.  One  clerk  on  another  run  caught  a  small  trunk  off  a 
truck  instead  of  the  intended  pouch. 

When  a  Texarkana  &  Port  Arthur  (KCS)  train  once 
stopped  in  Leesville,  Louisiana,  a  young  lad  jumped  up  and 
hung  onto  the  catcher  arm,  seeking  to  "bum"  a  ride  that  way. 
When  the  clerk  opened  the  door  to  make  the  catch  at  the 
next  town  he  saw  the  boy  in  the  nick  of  time,  for  it  would 
have  been  fatal  if  the  prongs  of  the  oncoming  crane  had  hit 
him.  Dragging  the  frightened  youngster  inside,  the  clerk 
undoubtedly  saved  his  life. 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  89 

A  classic  catching  story  tells  about  a  substitute  who  missed 
the  first  catch,  which  made  his  station  list  one  behind,  and 
he  later  put  off  each  local  pouch  one  station  ahead  and  was 
reported  by  thirty-two  postmasters  for  missending  their  mail. 
And  legend  has  it  that  on  reaching  the  terminal  of  the  run 
he  had  up  his  catcher  arm,  since  he  thought  one  more  town 
was  due  to  be  caught. 

Several  authentic  cases  have  been  found  like  that  of  Fred 
Harmon  on  the  Duluth  Sc  Thief  River  Falls  (MStP  k  SSteM). 
He  forgot  to  change  his  catcher  to  face  the  direction  in  which 
the  train  was  moving.  Thinking  fast,  he  decided  to  pull  up 
the  catcher  in  reverse,  which,  while  not  hooking  in  the  pouch, 
did  knock  it  down  from  the  crane.  The  demerits  for  a  fail- 
ure in  catching  were  less  than  those  for  being  reported  as 
leaving  the  pouch  hanging  on  the  crane.  But  Harmon's 
pouch  momentarily  whipped  around  the  reversed  hook  and 
paused  on  the  small  end  loop  long  enough  for  him  to  reach 
out  and  grab  it,  saving  himself  from  any  failure  or  demerits; 
then  he  changed  his  catcher. 

Some  accidents  and  a  few  deaths  have  occurred  in  making 
catches.  Defective  arms  or  cranes  sometimes  bring  injury. 
Sometimes  a  spot  designated  for  delivery  is  not  kept  clear, 
and  L.  E.  Clerk  reports  a  whole  row  of  cream  cans  bowled 
over  like  tenpins  on  an  icy  platform.  Pouches  have  been 
sucked  under  the  wheels  of  the  car.  Working  hard  on  an  all- 
night  run  recently,  Otis  M.  Cropp,  of  the  Chic,  k  Council 
Bluffs  (CBRrQ),  lost  his  footing  in  the  door  making  a  catch  at 
Wyanet,  Illinois,  at  seventy  mph— and  lost  his  life.  The  year 
before,  a  clerk  fell  from  a  Pitts.  &  St.  Lou.  (PRR)  car  the 
same  way.  Clerk  Taylor  of  the  former  Detroit  &:  Mansfield 
(PRR)  tried  to  catchTiro,  Ohio,  with  a  loose  catcher  and  was 
pulled  out  the  door  to  grasp  the  grab  irons  for  dear  life. 
Signboards  and  a  busy  highway  interfered  with  the  non-stop 
deliveries  on  this  line,  too,  often  scattering  newspapers  to  the 
four  winds.   (See  Chap.  1  re  1950  fatality.) 

A  clerk  who'd  leisurely  wait  until  the  last  minute  to  lock 
out  and  throw  off  his  pouches  was  cured  of  that  habit  when 
the  crew  substituted  a  defective  strapless  one  in  his  row  of 


90  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

"locals"!  One  confident  district  superintendent,  demonstrat- 
ing "proper  catching"  procedure,  caught  a  steel  bridge  and 
floored  himself.  Other  clerks  have  thrown  off  currency- 
pouches  which  burst,  scattering  bills  everywhere  (at  Dunlap, 
Iowa,  and  from  Cobre,  Nevada,  to  Valley  Pass);  similarly, 
letters  were  scattered  along  the  B&O  from  Brentwood  to 
Hyattsville,  Maryland,  when  a  N.Y.,  Bait.  &  Wash,  local  clerk 
did  the  same.  J.  L.  Buckmaster  tells  of  a  nervous  sub  who 
bit  the  stem  off  three  three  dollar  pipes  making  the  first  catch 
on  his  first  three  trips.  James  L.  Stice  (Chapter  16)  missed 
all  cranes  on  the  left-hand  side  of  a  single-track  run  while 
faithfully  watching  the  right  side,  as  when  on  double  rail. 
Another  clerk  on  the  Reading  caught  the  hose  from  a  water 
tower  alongside  the  Shamokin  &  Phila.,  a  line  known  for 
its  "extension  cranes"  which  reach  to  catch  from  an  inside 
track,  A  young  clerk,  assessed  demerits  for  dispatching  be- 
yond the  proper  spot  because  the  mail  messenger  always 
stood  there,  hit  a  bull's-eye  next  trip  and  sent  messenger  and 
mailbags  rolling  over  together. 

One  clerk,  teasing  a  sub  after  teaching  him  to  catch,  ex- 
pressed deep  concern  one  Sunday  when  the  sub  could  catch 
no  pouches  at  the  first  two  stops  (they  were  not  due  that  day). 
Stating  that  this  would  never  do  and  he'd  better  catch  the 
other  offices  himself,  the  clerk  missed  the  next  pouch  (Rock- 
ford,  Minnesota),  the  only  one  due!  Another  found  his  train 
moving  too  slowly  and  the  hanging  pouch  too  empty  to  be 
caught  properly,  and  sighed  in  relief  when  the  brakeman 
dashed  out  and  retrieved  the  dropped  pouch  for  him.  Later 
he  discovered  that  his  outgoing  pouch  was  still  in  his  hand! 
In  days  of  "sack  time"  one  sleepy  clerk  was  aroused  too  early 
for  an  exchange  and  caught  a  coal-chute  which  broke  off  the 
catcher;  he  installed  a  new  one  just  in  time.  On  Tol.  &  St. 
Lou.  (Wabash)  Train  2  a  knocked-down  inbound  pouch 
bounced  from  the  ground  up  onto  the  rear  hook. 

A  district  superintendent  inspecting  the  Chic,  Ft.  Madison 
&  Kansas  City  (Santa  Fe)  was  watching  a  catch  about  to  be 
made  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  door  was  stuck.  Both 
the  clerk.  Bill  Poole,  and  the  official  hit  on  the  idea  of  using 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  91 

a  catcher  in  the  car  ahead;  and  they  raced  forward,  with  Bill 
seemingly  in  hot  pursuit  of  the  latter  and  yelling,  "Get  that 

son  of  a !"  referring,  of  course,  to  the  pouch.   Men  leaped 

for  tables  and  cases  to  avoid  the  raging  fight  which  they 
expected. 

The  whole  spirit  of  "serving  the  local"  was  well  summed 
up  by  L.  E.  Davis,  in  the  old  Railway  Post  Office,  who  wrote, 
"The  train  was  Kans,  City  &  Memphis  105,  the  Frisco's 
crack  Florida  Special  .  .  .  through  the  Ozark  hills.  The  night 
was  coal  black,  and  it  was  awkward  holding  onto  the  mail 
sack  with  one  hand,  the  other  on  the  crossbar  .  .  .  watching 
for  the  faint  glow  of  the  light  on  the  crane  .  .  .  The  wind 
tried  to  steal  your  breath  away  .  ,  .  There  was  both  relief 
and  satisfaction  when  I  heard  the  'whing'  of  the  pouch  as 
it  was  snatched.  And  on  through  the  night  the  train  rushed 
from  station  to  station,  like  the  song  'Blues  in  the  Night.' 
From  Thayer  to  Hoxie;  from  Hoxie  to  Jonesboro;  from 
Jonesboro  to  Memphis  .  .  .  The  progressive  stages  of  life 
awakening:  A  few  early  risers  in  this  town  with  a  sprinkling 
of  lights,  and  half  the  town  awake  at  the  next  station  .  .  . 
Darkies  filing  out  to  the  cotton  fields  ...  As  the  grand  finale, 
the  Missisippi,  muddy  and  turbulent." 

To  insure  accuracy  in  distribution,  the  system  of  checking 
"errors"  was  devised  as  explained  elsewhere;  by  it,  one  takes 
the  slip  from  mail  received  from  another  and  checks  on  the 
back  any  errors  in  sorting  perceived.  These  affect  a  clerk's 
record,  and  naturally  he  resents  being  "checked"  too  zeal- 
ously. Theoretically,  clerks  are  required  to  check  all  errors 
noted,  but  in  the  press  of  urgent  distribution  it  is  often 
impracticable.  "It  is  only  human  nature  to  try  to  catch  an 
error  on  someone  who  always  checks  you;  while  if  a  line  is 
broad-minded  about  checking  yours,  you  go  easy  with  them." 
Some  conscientious  clerks,  trying  to  check  all  errors,  have 
been  hounded  out  of  the  Service  by  their  fellows,  or  at  least 
ordered  privately  to  desist. 

One  sub,  helping  on  a  short  run,  lacked  hours  and  was 
assigned  to  work  a  couple  of  hours  in  a  car  in  the  yards  after 
his  run.   It  happened  to  be  a  train  for  which  he  made  sacks 


92  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

of  papers,  and  one  day  he  opened  a  sack  in  this  yard  car, 
hastily  checked  some  newspaper  errors,  and  sent  the  slips  in 
without  a  glance.  He  had  checked  himself!  A  nortiiern  clerk 
named  Ulysses  S.  Grant  had  to  watch  his  distribution  for 
southern  trains  like  a  lynx— the  famous  name  he  bore  was 
none  too  popular  in  Dixie  as  yet. 

Pranksters  in  the  Service  sometimes  get  back  at  overzeal- 
ous  superiors.  A  certain  division  superintendent  used  to  issue 
harsh  orders  on  minor  irregularities,  and  finally  the  clerks 
got  up  a  fake  "General  Order"  printed  like  the  genuine  and 
gave  it  out.   It  contained  such  notices  as: 

Section  1.  General.  It  is  hereby  ordered  that  all  clerks  in 
this  division  make  up  Shanghai  Dis,  regardless  of  quantity, 
to  contain  all  offices  on  the  Fook  Lang  Shang  Hop  San  R.P.O. 
as  far  west  as  Tai  Po  Sing. 

Considerable  complaint  is  made  that  mail  for  the  late 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll  is  being  sent  to  New  Jerusalem.  Extreme 
care  should  be  taken  to  dispatch  mail  for  this  party  accord- 
ing to  Mark  16:16. 

Section  2.  Suspensions.  A  clerk  of  Class  5,  this  Division, 
thirty-five  days  without  pay  for  failing  to  cross  two  "t's" 
and  dot  an  "i"  in  his  trip  report;  also,  one  day  without  pay 
for  purloining  a  registered  letter. 

When  Oscar  Johnson  was  "tending  local"  on  San  Fran., 
San  Jose  &  L.  A.  (SP)  Train  71  years  ago,  he  exchanged  the 
usual  small  pouch  with  Surf,  California,  and  was  horrified 
after  leaving  there  to  find  that  a  huge  "2X"  pouch  for  the 
same  town  had  been  "carried  by"— little  knowing  that  the 
San  Francisco  letter  clerk  had  relabeled  a  big  pouch  of  "city" 
with  that  name,  behind  his  back,  as  a  practical  joke.  At  San 
Luis  Obispo  the  city  clerk,  "up"  on  all  his  pouches  except 
that  one,  missed  it  and  yelled  at  Johnson  to  find  the  "Surf" 
pouch  for  him,  relates  J.  Goodrich. 

"I  got  rid  of  it,"  assured  Johnson:  "just  put  it  out,  to  go 
back  on  Train  71!"  And  the  dumbfounded  Frisco  clerk  had 
to  dash  out  in  the  rain,  have  Train  71  held  and  hunt  through 


VIVID  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  93 

a  truckful  of  pouches  before  he  returned,  drenched,  with 
his  mail. 

F.  C.  Gardiner  relates  a  gay  tale  of  the  Wash.  8:  Bristol 
(Sou)  in  Virginia.  One  of  the  clerks,  prevented  from  smok- 
ing at  home,  started  each  run  with  a  cigar  always  in  his 
mouth;— no  one  could  understand  a  word  he  said,  and  when- 
ever the  clerk-in-charge  heard  grunts  from  him  at  any  station, 
he  assumed  it  was  pouches  being  called.  A  water  tank  had 
developed  a  leak  which,  it  developed,  had  not  been  fixed  as 
supposed;  and  when  the  water  boy  filled  it  again  at  Roanoke, 
water  flooded  the  floor,  causing  the  disptaching  clerk  to  yell: 

"CUDDEWADDEROFF!"  The  clerk-in-charge,  in  the 
other  end  of  the  car,  grabbed  his  pouch  record  and  yelled, 
"That's  one." 

"CUDDEWADDEROFF!"  again  cried  the  cigar-mouth- 
ing clerk. 

"That's  two,"  yelled  the  C.-in-C,  knowing  three  pouches 
were  due  off  there. 

"CUDDEWADDEROFF!"  the  dispatcher  bawled,  louder, 
to  the  railroad  men. 

"That's  all!"  cried  the  chief,  and  dropped  his  check  list. 

"CUDDEWADDEROFF!  CUDDEWADDEROFF!  CUD- 
DEWADDEROFF!" screamed  the  clerk,  jumping  up  and 
down  like  a  jumping  jack.  The  head  man  turned,  looked 
over  his  spectacles,  and  remarked,  "Well,  boys,  I  gues  it's 
time  to  call  them  to  take  him  to  the  bughouse." 

A  clerk  on  the  afore-mentioned  "Boundary  Line"  run 
missed  his  train  (a  one-man  run),  told  the  dispatcher  the 
railroad  could  not  be  paid  for  the  unoccupied  car,  and  got 
him  to  hold  it  until  he  caught  up  to  it  from  the  next 
train!  Similarly,  a  clerk  who  forgot  to  put  off  a  local  pouch 
until  he  was  half  a  mile  out  of  town  pulled  the  stop  cord 
and  asked  that  the  train  be  backed  up.  The  request  was 
refused  "with  definite  references  to  animals  and  ancestry," 
but  he  coaxed  a  farmer  driving  some  bulls  to  town  to  take 
his  pouch  on  in. 

And  that  brings  us  to  the  most  famous  of  all  railway  mail 
animal  stories.    Owney,   the  famous   traveling   dog  of  the 


04  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

R.P.O.s,  attached  himself  to  the  Albany,  New  York,  post 
office  in  1888,  and  the  clerks  made  a  collar  identifying  him 
therewith.  Taken  out  for  one  trip  in  a  mail  car,  he  became 
an  inveterate  traveler.  To  his  collar  were  attached  checks, 
medals,  verses,  and  postmarks  by  men  in  most  states  of  the 
Union,  plus  a  dollar  from  Old  Mexico.  Postmaster  General 
Wanamaker  made  him  a  harness  to  carry  the  tags  and  medals, 
with  memo  book  attached,  but  the  accumulation  became 
too  heavy  and  it  was  sent  to  Albany  for  display. 

Owney  was  shut  up  in  Montreal  for  nonpayment  of  board, 
which  the  Albany  clerks  had  to  foot;  and  seapost  clerks  later 
took  him  across  the  ocean— even  to  Japan,  for  a  tag  bestowed 
by  the  Emperor,  and  thence  around  the  world  (in  132  days). 
He  was  exhibited  with  his  medals  in  halls  and  dog  shows  as 
"The  greatest  dog  traveler  in  the  world,"  and  was  right  in 
his  element  at  postal  clerks'  conventions.  He  stole  the  show 
at  the  1897  National  Association  of  Railway  Postal  Clerks 
(now  N.P.T.A.)  Convention  by  wagging  his  stumpy  tail  in 
a  run  down  the  aisle,  to  thunderous  cheers,  to  mount  the 
stage.  He  looked  all  around  in  glee,  and  it  was  fifteen  minutes 
before  order  was  restored. 

It  was  Owney's  last  triumph.  He  was  a  very  ordinary-look- 
ing dog,  almost  ugly;  and  when  he  was  in  Toledo  that 
August  the  postmaster  did  not  know  who  he  was  and  ordered 
him  shot.  The  body  was  eventually  mounted  and  sent  to  the 
old  Post  Office  Department  Museum  in  Washington,  thence 
to  several  Worlds'  Fairs,  ending  with  the  Chicago  Century 
of  Progress  (1933),  always  attracting  great  attention.  Today, 
resting  in  storage  at  the  Washington  City  Post  Office,  is  all 
that  remains  of  the  faithful  "clerks'  best  friend"  who  had 
traveled  143,000  miles  and  received  1,017  medals. 

And  as  a  final  sequel,  it  seems  that  Owney  has  an  inanimate 
successor  of  today  which  is  traveling  in  R.P.O.  pouches  all 
over  the  United  States  and  Canada— an  old  gray  hat  from 
California  named  "Dapper  Dan!"  Plastered  with  postmarks 
and  tags  inside  and  out,  an  album  was  finally  attached  to 
hold  photos  and  data,  and  it  was  last  heard  of  near  Quebec 
about   1948. 


Chaptkr  6 


TRANSIT  MAIL:  FROM  STAGE  TO  TRAIN 


Louder  rolls  the  mighty  thunder,  louder  changs  the  tireless  bell, 
Wilder  shrieks  the  warning  whistle;  each  the  startling  story  tell. 
Pouring  out  the  canvas  pouches  on  each  platform  without  fail- 
Like  a  hunted  deer,  still  flying,  speeds  the  early  morning  mail . .  . 

—  A.  M.  Bruner 


In  the  early  days  of  our  republic  the  evolu- 
tion of  mail  transportation  from  horse,  sulky, 
and  stage  to  steamboat  and  railroad  was  a  steady 
and   dramatic    development.     (Deputy    Post- 
master Hazard,  who  followed  the  Continental 
Army  around  1776  with  letters  in  his  knap- 
— Courtesy  Pojia/  sack,  has  been  humorously  dubbed  "the  earli- 
Markings       est  traveling  post  office.")  The  germ  of  transit 
mail  service  was  planted  in  1810,  when  a  law 
was  passed  establishing  thirty-five  "Distributing  Post  Offices" 
—important  post  offices  in  centers  of  areas,  counties,  or  states 
to  which  all  mail  was  sent  for  redistribution  in  that  area,  and 
on  to  destination.    The  number  of  these  offices,  known  as 
D.P.O.s,  increased  to  fifty  by  1859,  then  the  number  gradually 
fell  and  their  function  was  absorbed  by  the  railway  mail  cars 
after  1864. 

The  distinction  between  the  through  mail  for  Distributing 
Post  Offices,  often  called  the  "great  mails,"  and  local  way- 
station  mail  was  long  maintained;  iron  locks  were  provided 
for  the  way  mail  and  brass  ones  for  the  D.P.O.  bags.  D.P.O. 
postmasters  received  a  commission  for  each  letter  redistrib- 
uted. Postage  stamps  had  not  been  introduced,  and  post- 
masters entered  each  letter,  and  the  postage  due  on  it,  on  a 

95 


96  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

waybill  which  was  tied  up  with  letters  going  to  a  D.P.O.  in 
brown  paper.  Its  record  was  entered  on  the  wrapper,  and 
the  packets,  so  wrapped,  were  referred  to  as  "mails." 

Mails  were  first  carried  by  railroad  in  England  in  1830  on 
the  Liverpool  &  Manchester  Railway.  The  same  year  our 
first  steam  passenger  road  was  opened  by  the  BScO  from 
Baltimore  to  EUicott  City,  Maryland  (May  24,  1830),  and 
soon  Peter  Cooper  ran  his  famous  race  of  thirteen  miles  be- 
tween his  Tom  Thumb  engine  and  a  powerful  gray  horse  of 
Stockton  &  Stokes'  mail  stage.  The  slipping  of  a  blower 
belt  on  the  engine  gave  the  race  to  the  horse  and  the  mail 
contract  once  more  to  the  stage,  but  the  iron  horse  was  soon 
to  prevail.  The  earliest  record  of  mail  being  carried  by  rail- 
road is  January  15,  1831,  when  some  was  hauled  unofficially 
on  the  South  Carolina  Railroad,  now  mostly  the  Columbia  & 
Charleston  (Sou)  R.P.O.  The  locomotive  used  was  the  Best 
Friend,  first  American-built  engine,  and  it  went  to  Bamberg, 
South  Carolina. 

The  above  date  is  disputed  and  held  by  some  to  be  1834, 
which,  if  true,  would  change  the  "firsts,"  because  in  1831  and 
1832  contracts  were  let  to  other  operators,  extra  pay  being 
granted  for  carrying  the  mail  by  rail  as  far  as  West  Chester, 
Pennsylvania  (over  what  is  now  the  PRR's  electric  Phila.  & 
West  Chester  R.P.O.),  starting  December  5,  1832,  by  Slay- 
maker  &  Tomlinson  stages— perhaps  the  first  authorized  "mail 
by  rail."  It  is  hard  to  verify  "firsts,"  for  the  contractors 
quickly  transferred  mails  from  stage  or  sulky  to  rails  over 
portions  of  their  routes  as  soon  as  possible.  During  1832,  and 
perhaps  earlier  in  the  year,  mails  were  also  carried  over  the 
B&O  out  of  Baltimore,  on  the  Saratoga  k  Schenectady  Rail- 
road in  New  York— unofficial  partial  transfers  from  stage 
routes  to  the  rails— and  on  what  was  probably  the  first  com- 
plete mail-by-rail  route  authorized  officially,  New  Jersey's 
Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad,  contracted  by  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral Barry;  it  later  became  the  PRR's  New  York  &:  Phila. 
R.P.O.,  still  referred  to  as  "The  Amboy."  The  BXcO  route 
used  later  became  the  old  Bait,  k  Point  of  Rocks  R.P.O. , 
on  tracks  no  longer  carrying  mail;  it  first  hauled  mail  officially 


TRANSIT  MAIL:  FROM  STAGE  TO  TRAIN  97 

on  this  route  in  November  1834,  to  Frederick,  Maryland, 
which  is  usually  quoted  as  the  first  mail-carrying  by  rail.  On 
August  25,  1835,  the  BR:0  was  formally  opened  between 
Washington  and  Baltimore,  and  the  following  month  con- 
tracts were  let  (still  to  the  stage  company)  providing  for  mail 
to  be  carried  partially  by  rail.  The  first  orders,  September 
ninth,  provided  for  the  exchange  of  mails  once  a  day  by  day- 
light by  rail.  All  night  mail  on  that  line  was  to  go  by  stage, 
and  coaches  were  held  ready  to  receive  any  mail  not  arriving 
at  the  depot  in  time  for  the  train.  A  direct  contract  was  let 
January  1,  1838.  Before  that  date,  which  is  important  in 
railroad  mail  history,  advance  had  been  made,  although  the 
report  of  1837  showed  but  one  contract  with  a  railroad:  it 
was  on  the  Reading,  from  Philadelphia  to  Mauch  Chunk, 
Pennsylvania,  with  branches  to  Reading  and  Port  Carbon, 
117  miles. 

It  was  in  the  shift  from  stage  to  rails  that  a  new  job  or 
profession  appeared— that  of  the  route  agent,  forerunner  of 
the  postal  transportation  clerk.  On  the  old  stage  lines  a  local 
postmaster,  who  usually  had  his  office  in  the  tavern,  took  the 
mail  portmanteau  and  opened  it,  exchanging  "mails"  while 
the  stage  driver  changed  horses.  On  the  railroads  this  could 
not  be  done,  except  in  a  few  instances  where  post  offices  were 
moved  to  depots;  and  soon  a  man  was  assigned  to  accompany 
the  mail  on  the  train,  a  separate  apartment  being  set  aside 
for  the  mails  in  some  cases  in  1835.  This  agent  usually  rode 
in  the  baggage  cars,  however,  and  was  at  first  the  baggage- 
man or  other  employee  of  the  stage  company  or  railroad. 

In  May  1837  the  Post  Office  Department  began  appointing 
"route  agents"  of  its  own  on  some  lines,  the  first  recorded 
being  John  E,  Kendall,  who  ran  from  Philadelphia  to  Wash- 
ington, beginning  at  that  time.  Others  followed,  and  were 
equipped  with  postmarking  stamps  to  use  on  the  local  letters 
received  along  the  way.  The  earliest  known  postmark  is  an 
Old  English  "Railroad"  stamped  by  a  route  agent  on  the 
Mohawk  &:  Hudson  R.R,  in  New  York  State  on  November 
7,  1837.  (If  anybody  has  a  cancellation  earlier  than  this  date, 
he  has  something  valuable.) 


98  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

With  rapid  appearance  of  railroads,  Congress,  on  July  7, 
1838,  declared  all  railroads  to  be  post  roads  and  provided  for 
making  direct  contracts  for  mail  by  rail  wherever  the  cost 
would  not  exceed  by  25  per  cent  the  cost  by  stage.  It  was 
really  accepting  and  legalizing  the  iron  age  for  mail,  be- 
cause the  Niles  Register,  May  18,  1838,  describes  the  "progress 
and  perfection"  of  route  agent  service  then  as  follows: 

Mail  cars  constructed  under  the  direction  of  the  Post 
Office  Department  are  now  running  on  the  railroads  be- 
tween Washington  and  Philadelphia  [now  the  N.Y.  & 
Wash.  R.P.O.  (PRR)].  They  contain  two  apartments: 
one  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  great  mails,  and  the 
other  to  the  way  mails;  and  a  post-office  agent.  The  latter 
apartment  is  fitted  up  with  boxes,  labeled  with  names  of 
all  the  small  offices  on  or  near  the  railroad  lines.  It  has 
also  a  letter  box  in  front,  into  which  letters  may  be  put 
up  to  the  moment  of  starting  the  cars,  and  anywhere  on 
the  road.  The  agent  of  the  Post  Office  Department  at- 
tends the  mail  from  the  post  offices  at  the  ends  of  the 
route,  and  sees  it  safely  deposited  in  his  car.  As  soon  as 
the  cars  start,  he  opens  the  letter  box  and  takes  out  all  the 
letters,  marking  them  so  as  to  designate  the  place  where 
they  are  put.  He  then  opens  the  way-mail  bag  and  distri- 
butes its  contents  into  the  several  boxes.  As  the  cars  ap- 
proach a  post  office,  the  agent  takes  out  the  contents  of 
the  proper  box  and  puts  them  into  a  pouch.  The  engi- 
neer slackens  the  speed  of  the  train,  and  the  agent  hands 
the  pouch  to  a  postmaster  or  a  carrier,  who  stands  be- 
side the  track  to  take  it,  receiving  from  him  at  the  same 
time  another  pouch  with  the  matter  to  be  sent  from  that 
office.  This  the  agent  immediately  opens  and  distributes 
its  contents  into  the  proper  boxes.  Having  supplied  thus 
all  the  way  offices,  the  agent,  when  arrived  at  the  end  of 
the  route,  sees  the  mail  safely  delivered  into  the  post 
office. 

In  conclusion,  the  writer  become  eloquent  over  this  service. 
He  actually  calls  it  a  "traveling  post  office,"  and  asserts  that 
"well  executed,  the  plan  must  be  almost  the  perfection  of 


TRANSIT  MAIL:  FROM  STAGE  TO  TRAIN  99 

mail  arrangements.  It  is  intended  ...  to  extend  a  similar 
arrangement  through  to  New  York." 

In  view  of  this  little-known  auspicious  start  in  transit- 
sorting  of  mail,  it  may  seem  strange  that  transit-mail  distri- 
bution progressed  so  slowly  and  that  the  coming  of  the  mod- 
ern Railway  Post  Office  was  delayed  until  1864.  "Assorting," 
of  course,  meant  the  sorting  of  packets  of  local  letters 
(wrapped)  and  of  letters  brought  to  the  train  for  mailing  or 
from  the  post  office  after  closing  of  pouches.  The  equipment 
and  service  described  above  were  rather  exceptional,  and  not 
foimd  on  many  routes.  But  the  existence  and  importance  of 
these  agents,  who  were  "assorting"  transit  mails  en  route  for 
twenty-seven  years  before  true  R.P.O.s  appeared,  have  now 
been  likewise  attested  from  numerous  other  documented 
definitions  or  descriptions  of  their  duties. 

A  typical  pre-R.M.S.  route-agent  apartment,  later  in  use 
by  Agent  J.  E.  White  (a  future  general  superintendent)  was 
"a  7-by-l 0-foot  apartment  partitioned  from  the  smoker" 
with  sliding  doors  in  both  sides  for  exchanges,  one  opening 
across  a  gangway.  The  small  letter  case,  table,  and  large 
packet  boxes  were  illumined  by  a  "wretched  light  .  .  .  dingy 
oil  lamps— as  much  light  as  a  tallow  dip  of  the  third  magni- 
tude." His  simple  distribution  was  purely  local,  and  the  mail 
received  "made  up." 

Also  in  1838,  the  Postmaster  General  had  a  special  presi- 
dential message  carried  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York  by 
railroad  mail  in  five  hours  (one  hour  faster  than  by  stage)  on 
December  twelfth;  and  a  month  later  definite  authorization 
for  railroad  mail  pay  at  $300  per  mile  annually  was  made. 
Meanwhile  mail  agents  were  appointed  to  the  B8:0  Railroad. 
The  earliest  cancellation  known  on  the  B&O  was  dated 
August  17,  1838,  and  read  "BALTO  R.R."  For  many  years 
routine  instructions  on  duties  of  route  agents  were: 

1st.  To  receive  letters  written  after  the  mail  is  closed, 
also  way  letters  unpaid  or  prepaid,  accounting  to  the 
deputy  postmaster  at  the  end  of  the  route  for  all  prepaid 
postage  received,  and  to  hand  over  said  letters  to  the 


100  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

proper  office  for  delivery  of  mailing,  reporting  a  list  of  all 
such  letters  to  the  Auditor  of  the  Department. 

2nd.  To  assort  the  mails  for  the  several  offices,  being 
intrusted  with  the  key  to  the  iron  lock  for  that  purpose. 

3rd.  To  attend  to  the  delivery  and  reception  of  mail 
bags. 

4th.  To  report  all  irregularities  of  service  on  the  route. 

The  duties  of  a  route  aj^ent  included  accompanying;  the 
mail  bags  and  pouches  to  the  train  and  receiving  them  in  his 
compartment  or  part  of  bap^cjage  car.  Tlien,  as  the  train 
pulled  out,  he  opened  the  letter  box  on  the  car  platform  and 
took  out  late-mailed  letters.  Before  1847,  when  stamps  were 
introduced,  he  made  out  waybills  for  collection  at  delivery 
point  on  all  late  letters.  In  a  car  sometimes  equipped  with 
pigeonholes,  he  would  distribute  the  way  mail  taken  from 
the  letter  box,  any  way  mail  handed  him,  and  that  which  he 
took  from  the  iron-locked  pouch  given  him  on  starting  his 
run.  He  canceled  letters  brought  to  his  car.  Before  reaching 
the  station,  he  would  take  from  its  box  that  town's  mail, 
mostly  "mails"  or  wrapped  packets  and  papers,  and  put  them 
in  a  pouch  for  the  local  station.  Mail  or  "mails"  received  at 
each  station  were  treated  the  same  as  his  initial  mail,  only 
local  letters  being  dispatched  en  route,  no  connecting  lines 
being  dispatched  until  1849.  Mail  for  every  office  beyond  the 
terminal  of  his  run  was  made  into  sacks  and  packages  for  the 
terminal  office  or  nearest  D.P.O. 

The  compartment,  boxes,  and  other  equipment  for  route 
agents  varied  from  the  unfurnished  end  of  a  baggage  car  to 
compartments  provided  with  boxes,  a  table,  chair  and  pigeon- 
holes. Agents  were  highly  praised  for  their  intelligence, 
honesty,  fidelity,  and  hard  work.  They  were  early  armed, 
and  their  compartment  bore  a  sign  of  "No  Admission."  Fre- 
quently inspectors,  and,  on  one  exception,  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral Hall,  tried  to  enter  the  compartment  incognito;  they 
invariably  found  it  next  to  impossible.  The  railroads  com- 
plained, however,  that  too  many  inspectors  and  postal  agents 
were  riding  free  on  their  various  passes,  and  this  was  often 


TRANSIT  MAIL:  FROM  STAGE  TO  TRAIN  101 

cited  in  mail-pay  squabbles  when  officials  tried  to  reduce  the 
cost  of  mail  transportation  (averaging  $50  to  $300  a  mile  in 
1845).  Some  railways  canceled  all  mail  shipments,  where- 
upon the  Department  used  agents  who  (as  passengers)  carried 
mail  in  trunks.  Hence  service  did  not  expand  as  fast  as  it 
should  have,  but  all  main  lines  soon  had  route  agents. 

Route  agents  were  provided  between  Boston  and  Spring- 
field and  between  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  and  Norwich, 
Connecticut,  in  1840;  from  Philadelphia  on,  agents  were  ex- 
tended to  New  York  in  1848,  and  between  Boston  and  Albany 
by  1850.  Numerous  other  routes  were  established  as  railroad 
building  extended  westward.  It  was  soon  seen  that  the  weak 
spot  in  the  system  was  the  Distributing  Post  Office  at  junction 
points  and  termini,  where  the  "mails"  had  to  be  redistributed 
—■missing,  of  course,  all  close  connections.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  remedy  this  in  1857  by  establishing  mail  "express 
agents"  who  continued  from  a  line  on  to  a  connecting  line 
with  through  mail.  Express  agents  went  over  the  Erie  and 
on,  by  connecting  lines,  to  Chicago,  which  somewhat  speeded 
up  the  mail  westward.  In  1860  through  routes  with  express 
agents  were  established  from  Boston  to  New  York  and  on  to 
Washington.  (An  early  type  of  express  agent  appeared  about 
1842— route  agents  carrying  outside  express  packages.) 

Express  agents  facilitated  the  through  dispatches  greatly 
but  did  nothing  for  other  lines  and  connections  at  junctions. 
It  is  believed  that  in  the  1850s  some  route  agents,  on  their 
own  initiative,  made  up  some  pouches  for  other  agents  at 
junctions.  In  Old  Postbags,  Holbrook  states  with  regard  to 
the  Boston-Springfield  and  Norwich-Worcester  runs  (the 
latter  the  first  route  to  build  a  car  just  to  carry  the  mails) 
that  it  is  his  opinion  that  there  must  have  been  "some  sorting 
of  through  mail"  on  these  two  particular  runs.  And  in  1857 
a  proposal  of  the  Postmaster  General  that  "agents  take 
receipt"  for  pouches  from  other  route  agents,  as  well  as  from 
postmasters  and  messengers,  indicates  there  was  some  junc- 
tion exchange  of  pouches,  thus  by-passing  the  D.P.O.  at  that 
date.  Unfortunately,  the  proposal  was  not  carried  out,  or 
we  would  have  copies  of  pouch  lists  of  the  time,  clearing  up 


102  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

this  point.  Additional  weight  to  this  theory  is  given  by 
certain  postmarks,  but  they  could  not  be  conclusive  without 
data  as  to  the  time  of  arrival  of  the  envelope  postmarked  on 
a  certain  date,  proving  that  letter  hadn't  time  enough  to  pass 
through  its  usual  D.P.O. 

In  all,  the  route-agent  epoch  of  the  mail  service  was  a  spec- 
tacular one.  The  route  usually,  but  not  always,  coincided 
with  the  corporate  name  of  the  railroad.  Detailed  lists  of 
such  route  postmarks  have  appeared  in  Konwiser's  Stampless 
Cover  Catalog  and  in  Norona's  Cyclopedia  of  U.  S.  Postmarks 
and  Postal  History  (in  New  England,  by  Hall).  Dr.  Carroll 
Chase  has  listed  161  different  route  markings  of  agents,  the 
collecting  of  which  has  become  an  important  branch  of 
philately.  Solely  on  the  basis  of  such  postmarks,  researchers 
like  B.  B.  Adams  and  Seymour  Dunbar  have  declared  the 
Boston  Sc  Albany  route  (1852)  or  the  Phila.— Washington 
"Potomac  Postal  Cars"  (1862,  before  Davis's  run),  respective- 
ly, to  have  been  "our  first  R.P.O.";  but  all  evidence  indicates 
that  only  ordinary  agent  service  was  involved. 

The  number  of  agents  jumped  from  47  in  1847  to  295  in 
1855,  and  to  862  by  1873— for  agents  were  used  on  branch 
lines  well  after  the  advent  of  the  R.M.S,  (until  1882,  though 
cancels  are  known  up  to  1888),  and,  conversely,  thirteen  of 
the  D.P.O.s  were  discontinued  by  1859.  Some  of  the  D.P.O. 
clerks  were  detailed  to  the  agent  runs  to  make  proper  separa- 
tion for  connecting  roads  for  immediate  dispatch  at  termini. 
Official  observers  sent  in  1840  and  1848  to  report  on  the 
British  Traveling  Post  Office  returned  with  adverse  recom- 
mendations thereon,  pleading  excuses  such  as  "our  rougher 
trains";  but  the  idea  was  catching  hold,  for  even  Eastern 
offices  were  by-passing  D.P.O.s  to  pouch  on  Midwestern 
routes  like  the  Logansport  &  Peoria  Agent  and  the  Dayton  & 
Michigan  Agent  in  late  pre-R.M.S.  days.  With  letters  lying 
in  the  Chicago  D.P.O.  untouched  for  two  weeks,  and  with 
other  delays  "causing  untold  evils,  bankruptcy,  estrange- 
ments, crimes  .  .  .,"  there  was  a  crying  need  for  reform. 


Chapter  7 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE 


The  guests  do  ride  serene  inside  the  air-conditioned  train; 
It  matters  not  if  cold  or  hot,  if  sunshine,  snow,  or  rain; 
The  mail  clerks  sweat  and  fume  and  fret,  their  eyes  all 

full  of  grime. 
Their  backs  do  ache,  their  muscles  quake,  but  mails  go 

thro'  on  time. 
When  maiden  fair  with  flaxen  hair  receives  her  billet  doux. 
She  little  knows  how  much  she  owes  to  men  who  brought 

it  through  .  .  . 

— S.  C.  Arnold 


The  difficulties  derived  from  the  Dis- 
tributing Post  Office  and  the  wrapping  and 
post-billing  of  letters  vanished  in  a  rela- 
tively few  years  after  the  establishment  of 
Railway  Post  Offices  in  the  1860s.  Oddly 
enough,  a  mooted  question  later  arose  over 
—  Courtesy  A.  G.  •^vho  was  the  founder  or  father  of  the  Rail- 
Hall,   and   S.P.A.     ^y^y  jyj^-j  ^^^  ^j^^j.  ^^^^  ^^^  f^j.gj.  "Raii^vay 

Post  Office."  Twenty  years  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  service  which  is  noAv  the  P.T.S.,  and  ten  years 
after  the  death  of  the  principal  actors  in  the  drama,  heirs  of 
one  of  them  raised  the  question  of  recognition  or  credit.  An 
attempt  was  made  by  the  Post  Office  Department  then  to 
ascertain  the  facts.  The  result  was  a  so-called  "official  history," 
now  known  as  Executive  Document  No.  20  of  the  48th  Con- 
gress, 2nd  Session,  or  as  Maynard's  History  of  the  Railway 
Mail  Service.  This  research  was  not  conclusive,  owing  to  the 
loss  of  records  by  fire  and  to  the  failure  of  the  investigators  to 

lO.'i 


104  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

define  the  terms  "First  Railway  Post  Office"  and  "Railvay 
Mail  Service."  Many  of  the  men  questioned  could  not  re- 
member clearly  what  had  passed  and,  of  course,  each  wished 
to  give  all  credit  possible  to  his  friends. 

Recent  research  has  brought  to  light  some  significant  new 
source  material,  and  it  is  now  easier  to  trace  the  evolution  of 
route-agent  service  to  railway  postal  service.  A  glance  at  the 
route-agent  system  in  1860  shows  that  it  was  increasing 
rapidly  with  the  constant  building  of  railroad  lines.  On  June 
30,  1864,  there  were  6,085  mail  routes.  Of  these  the  mileage 
was:  steamboat,  7,278;  railroads,  22,666;  stage  and  sulky, 
109,278  miles.  While  less  numerous  in  mileage  than  the 
"star"  routes  of  "certainty,  celerity,  and  security,"  as  the 
horse  routes  were  dubbed,^  railroad  transportation  of  mails 
was  more  important  because  it  and  the  boat  lines  were  the 
bis:  arteries  which  fed  the  horse  routes.  These  railroad  routes 
at  first  formed  an  unorganized  and  unattached  service  loosely 
related  to  the  Post  Office  Department,  to  local  congressmen, 
and  to  the  terminal  distributing  post  offices.  Technically 
they  were  given  some  supervision  by  the  nearest  large  dis- 
tributing post  office,  in  addition  to  some  general  instructions 
from  Washington.  And  the  D.P.O.'s  at  fast-growing  cities 
like  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  and  Chicago  were  still  railway 
mail's  worst  problem  when  the  War  between  the  States  burst 
on  the  scene. 

Congestion  of  army  mail  now  posed  an  especially  difficult 
problem  at  Cairo,  Illinois,  where  both  land  and  naval  forces 
were  assembling.  Cairo  was  made  a  "Distributing  Post 
Office,"  and  special  agents  and  extra  clerks  were  rushed  there 
to  attack  the  mountains  of  mail  piling  up  around  station  and 
post  office.  Among  the  special  agents  who  came  was  George 
B.  Armstrong,  Assistant  Postmaster  at  Chicago,  in  charge  of 
its  distributing  post  office.  In  lieu  of  a  formal  organization  in 
transit  mail  service,  the  men  in  charge  of  large  "Dis"  offices, 
such  as  Clark  of  New  York,  Wheeler  of  Cleveland,  and  Arm- 
strong of  Chicago,  were  conceded  technical  authority  in  a 


^The  three  words  were  indicated  as  •♦•  in  old  ofiQcial  records. 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  105 

large  radius  from  their  offices.  So  it  was  that  Armstrong 
assumed  charge  of  the  mail  situation  at  Cairo.  There,  with 
the  co-operation  of  the  Cairo  postmaster,  of  General  Grant, 
and  of  naval  officers,  by  early  1862  the  mail  was  received  and 
dispatched  with  surprising  order  and  speed.  In  recognition 
of  this  initiative,  the  clerks  at  Cairo  presented  Mr.  Armstrong 
with  a  gold  watch  for  his  wife,  and  the  contacts  he  made  with 
General  Grant  and  other  officials  were  a  great  aid  in  his  later 
plans  for  reorganizing  railway  mail,  which  as  early  as  1854 
had  included  the  statement,  "We  should  put  the  post  office 
on  wheels." 

Unfortunately,  we  do  not  have  a  good  record  of  the  exact 
special  services  that  were  performed  at  Cairo  in  this  terminal 
emergency.  Since  special  agents  carried  keys  to  the  brass- 
locked  pouches  for  their  inspectorial  duties,  it  is  most  prob- 
able that  they  opened  and  took  out,  in  this  war  emergency, 
through  mail  for  points  beyond  Cairo.  If  they  didn't  have 
the  "Dis"  mail  for  Cairo  sorted  before  that  point  Avas  reached, 
our  information  that  "mail  for  Commodore  Porter  was  de- 
livered as  soon  as  a  passenger  could  have  made  the  trip"  is 
an  exaggeration.  However,  if  proof  is  found  that  Armstrong 
did  have  this  advanced  opening  of  the  "Dis"  mails  per- 
formed on  the  Illinois  Central  in  May  of  1862,  that  would 
not  constitute  the  first  "railway  post  office"— as  we  shall  see 
when  we  examine  "mail  reform"  later— but  it  would  antedate 
considerably  the  experiment  on  the  "Hannibal  &  St.  Joe 
R.R."   (now  CB&:Q)  now  to  be  considered. 

This  celebrated  variant  of  the  route-agent  system  was  au- 
thorized on  the  Hannibal  &:  St.  Joseph  R.R.,  July  7,  1862, 
to  meet  an  emergency  caused  by  a  close  connection  at  St. 
Joseph,  Missouri,  with  the  pony  express  established  two  years 
before.  The  road  completed  in  1859  bade  fair  to  become  the 
main  mail  artery  westward,  after  a  remarkable  run  by  a 
famous  wood-burning  engine,  the  brass-trimmed  Missouri, 
which  ran  the  206  miles  in  four  hours.  The  overland  mail 
was  delayed  in  the  St.  Joseph  Distributing  Post  Office,  and 
William  A.  Davis  conceived  the  idea  of  deadheading  east, 
boarding  the  westbound  trains  and   taking  out  from   the 


106  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

D.P.O.  pouches  those  packets  bearing  the  heavy  pony  express 
charges  for  California.  When  Davis— local  assistant  post- 
master and  once  postmaster  at  Richmond,  Virginia— received 
necessary  permission,  the  pony  express  was  discontinued;  but 
there  was  still  a  need  for  the  experiment.  There  had  been 
a  route  agent  on  the  line,  but  in  1861  guerrillas  had  burned 
the  bridge  over  the  Platte  River,  wrecking  the  train  and 
killing  the  agent,  Martin  Fields,  who  wasn't  replaced. 

The  railroad  company  furnished  a  baggage  car,  altered  as 
requested  by  Davis,  which  was  similar  to  a  route  agent's  car; 
it  was  provided  with  a  table  and  a  case  of  sixty-five  pigeon- 
holes, but  had  no  pouch  rack.  Davis  deadheaded  east  and  on 
July  26,  1862,  boarded  the  westbound  train  at  Palmyra, 
Missouri,  with  "authority  to  open  the  brass-lock  sacks  and 
the  St.  Joseph  distributing  post  office  packages,  taking  there- 
from all  the  California  letters,  going  by  the  overland  stage 
route.  These  letters  were  made  up  precisely  as  they  would 
have  been  at  our  office."  This  was  the  description  made  by 
a  later  assistant  postmaster  there— Barton— who,  along  with  a 
special  agent  (A.  B.  Waller),  made  the  trip  starting  this  serv- 
ice. For  a  time  Barton  and  Waller,  together  with  Fred 
Harvey,  ran  as  clerks  in  alternate  directions.  They  were  said 
to  have  had  a  postmarker,  but  no  cancellation  by  it  is  now 
known.    Davis  was  paid  at  the  rate  of  $100  per  month. 

The  route  was  harassed  by  guerrillas  and  lack  of  mainte- 
nance, resulting  in  several  suspensions  in  1862  and  abandon- 
ment of  the  work  on  January  19,  1863  (or  1865).  After  the 
war  a  railway  post  office  was  established  on  the  line— the 
present  Chicago  &  Kansas  City  R.P.O.  (CB&Q),  which  is 
called  "The  Hannibal"  to  this  day.  Historically  this  was  an 
interesting  service,  and  high  authorities  say  that  the  Fred 
Harvey  involved  was  the  one  who  later  founded  the  great 
restaurant  chain  of  that  name,  although  one  investigation  cast 
doubt  on  this.  With  regard  to  evaluation  of  the  Hannibal  &: 
St.  Joe's  significance  a  bit  later,  it  is  interesting  to  note  part 
of  Davis's  orders  from  Washington: 

"It  is  desired  that  the  work  be  done  as  part  of  the  business 
of  your  office;  the  car  for  this  purpose  to  be  considered  a 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  107 

room  in  the  office,  the  bills  to  be  made  out  and  accounts  to 
be  kept  as  at  present  in  the  name  of  the  office  .  .  .  and  the 
monthly  returns  made  to  this  office  of  letters  and  papers  sent 
and  received  .  .  ." 

According  to  the  Burlington,  Davis  used  a  local  case 
for  sorting  of  way  mails  also,  and  his  car  was  lettered 
"U.  S.  MAIL— NO.  1"  and  had  one  side  door  in  the  center 
of  its  vertical-clapboard  sides,  a  tiny  window  on  each,  open 
platforms,  and  raised  roof. 

Some  have  asserted  that  our  service  was  patterned  after 
England's;  but  while  there  were  parallel  developments,  there 
was  no  known  copying.  We  received  no  specific  suggested  im- 
provements from  the  two  missions  sent  over  there.  What  we 
did  receive  from  England,  however,  was  a  definite  stimulus 
for  progressive  service. 

Connected  with  the  Post  Office  Department  in  Washington 
were  several  men  who  caught  this  reform  spirit.  H.  A.  Burr 
and  A.  N.  Zevely  were  among  them.  George  Buchannan 
Armstrong  was  likewise  a  former  employee  in  Washington. 
His  mother  was  a  Buchannan,  and  it  was  her  relationship  to 
Senator  Buchanan,  the  future  President,  that  caused  her  to 
immigrate  to  America  and  her  son  later  to  secure  a  position 
as  a  clerk  in  the  Contract  Office  of  the  Post  Office  Department. 
For  this  deep  interest  in  the  technical  side  of  mail  handling, 
he  was  recommended  by  his  superiors  to  go  to  Chicago  in 
1854  for  a  mail  emergency  there,  when  that  city  was  suffering 
growing  pains.  It  was  while  there  that  he  became  unofficial 
supervisor  of  route  agents  in  a  large  radius  and  went  to  Cairo 
for  the  emergency  of  early  1862. 

Later,  when  the  "official  history"  was  being  written,  a 
department  employee,  H.  J.  Johnson,  claimed  that  the  top- 
ographer, H.  A.  Burr,  had  first  suggested  to  Armstrong  the 
putting  of  mail  distribution  "on  wheels."  Without  detract- 
ing from  the  contribution  of  Burr,  who  had  developed 
schemes  of  distribution  for  D.P.O.  clerks,  it  may  be  said  that 
neither  Burr  nor  Armstrong  himself,  had  thought  out  yet  the 
plans  adopted  by  Armstrong  in  1864.  Armstrong's  first  pros- 
pectus in  early  spring  of  1864,  even,  underwent  much  change 


108  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

before  it  evolved  into  his  railway  post  office  by  August  twenty- 
eighth.  Reports  of  Canada's  "T.P.O.  cars,"  sorting  mails  at 
less  cost  than  our  closed  cars,  may  have  hastened  the  idea.* 

No^v  the  war  emergency  drove  Armstrong,  Zevely,  Clark, 
and  Wheeler  into  a  consideration  of  the  complete  problem  of 
transit  mail,  a  real  study  of  "mail  reform."  Of  all  of  these, 
the  writing  of  only  one,  Armstrong,  shows  that  he  got  to  the 
bottom  of  the  problem.  In  the  eastern  part  of  the  country 
the  problem  was  different  and  the  demand  for  reform  was 
different.  The  cause  of  most  of  the  trouble  was  not  delay  of 
mails  going  through  the  "Dis,"  but  rather  delay  in  separating 
from  the  "Dis"  letters  arriving  at  New  York,  Washington,  and 
Philadelphia  for  local  delivery.  In  early  1864,  Mr.  Zevely 
took  some  clerks  from  the  New  York  Post  Office  and  made  a 
few  experimental  trips  in  one  direction;  i.e.,  running  into 
New  York.  This  was  no  doubt  the  first  experiment  with 
working  "city"  mail  on  the  cars;  i.e.,  separating,  on  the  train, 
mail  for  the  city  into  substations  and  carriers  for  immediate 
delivery  upon  arrival.  A  meeting  of  postal  officials  was  held 
in  Cleveland  the  previous  year,  which  emphasized  the  need 
of  "postal  reform"  and  gave  the  severest  castigation  that  is 
on  the  record  to  the  delays  and  abuses  in  the  Distributing 
Post  Offices,  explaining  how  letters  were  sent  by  circuitous 
routings  in  order  that  more  "Dis"  offices  would  get  com- 
missions for  redistribution. 

Letters  were  subjected  to  so  many  distributions  as  entirely 
to  absorb  the  postage  charged  upon  them,  and  in  some  cases 
the  distribution  commission  of  a  postmaster  largely  exceeded 
the  whole  proceeds  of  his  office.  Even  when  no  abuse  was 
practiced,  a  large  portion  of  the  correspondence  of  the  coun- 
try paid  an  unnecessary  tax  of  25  per  cent,  besides  the  regular 
commission  of  40,  50,  or  60  per  cent  to  which  the  mailing 
office  was  entitled.  For  instance,  a  hundred  letters,  on  which 
the  postage  was  three  dollars,  originating  in  small  offices  in 
Ohio  and  west  of  Pittsburgh,  and  destined  for  New  England, 
were  sent  to  Pittsburgh  for  distribution  and  there  subjected 


"Postmaster  General's  Report,  Washington,  1859. 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  109 

to  a  commission  of  121/9  per  cent;  from  Pittsburgh  they  were 
sent  to  New  York  or  Boston,  and  there  chargjed  with  a  second 
commission  of  12 1/4  per  cent,  and  then  forwarded  to  destina- 
tion. Assuming  the  average  commission  taken  at  the  mailing 
to  be  50  per  cent,  this  three  dollars'  worth  of  letters  paid  a  tax 
of  75  per  cent  in  the  shape  of  commissions  while  passing 
through  the  mail,  or  $2.25  out  of  $3.  The  delay  was  costly 
and  annoying. 

One  amusing  story  of  how  Armstrong  originated  our  R.P.O. 
states  that  one  winter  in  1856  the  postmaster  at  Ontonagon, 
Michigan,  opened  a  long-delayed  mail  pouch  from  Chicago- 
only  to  find  a  lively  family  of  mice  ensconced  in  the  mail:  the 
parents  and  four  offspring!  (Another  version  says  it  was  two 
rats,  sent  in  a  parcel,  which  mutiplied.)  The  indignant  post- 
master is  said  to  have  reported  the  facts  to  Armstrong,  who 
agreed  that  such  appalling  delays  must  be  eliminated  and  the 
mails  speeded  sufficiently  to  prevent  mice  breeding  in  transit. 
But,  as  we  know,  he  had  suggested  R.P.O.s  two  years  before. 

A.  N.  Zevely  was  chosen  to  have  charge  of  experiments 
with  postal  "reformx."  He  wrote  various  railroad  officials  in 
the  spring  of  1864,  asking  that  special  cars  be  prepared  for 
experiments  with  "traveling  post  offices."  Except  for  appar- 
ently wanting  distribution  on  the  cars,  he  seemed  to  have 
hazy  ideas  as  to  the  technical  improvements  wanted.  But  he 
gave  a  sympathetic  hearing  to  Armstrong,  who  made  several 
trips  to  Washington  to  talk  up  general  "reforms."  The  re- 
sult was  that  Zevely  asked  Armstrong  to  put  his  plan  in  writ- 
ing and  submit  it  to  Washington.  This  was  done  in  three 
letters,  the  first  dated  May  tenth. 

Armstrong  proposed  three  basic  changes.  First,  he  wanted 
all  possible  direct  mailing  to  "Dis"  offices  discontinued;  this 
meant  no  more  wrapping  up  of  letters.  Second,  he  proposed 
the  reclassification  of  all  post  offices  to  show  which  were  ter- 
minals, which  star  routes,  and  so  on.  The  third  was  a  system 
of  Traveling  Post  Offices,  which,  while  most  important  of  the 
three,  would  be  useless  ivithout  the  other  two  reforms. 

In  short,  Armstrong,  after  classifying  offices  and  dispensing 
with  the  wrappers  which  often  had  errors  within,  would  have 


110  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

all  letters  for  the  same  office  or  connection  tied  up  in  a  pack- 
age. If  they  were  all  for  the  same  office,  he  would  have  a  plain- 
ly addressed  letter  on  the  top  of  the  package,  a  modern  direct 
package.  Since  all  letters  were  not  yet  postage  prepayed  with 
stamps,  he  provided  for  continuation  of  the  post-billing,  but 
simplified  the  system,  hi  fine,  his  plan  called  for  a  melting 
down  of  the  old  system  to  mold  anew  the  dispatching  of  mail 
via  the  railroads,  which  were  building  a  network  around  Chi- 
cago and  extending  all  over  the  Midwest.  The  traveling  post 
office,  he  thought,  would  be  the  climax  of  it  all.  He  said: 

But  the  main  feature  of  the  plan,  which,  after  its  in- 
troduction and  final  adoption  to  the  service,  would  un- 
doubtedly lead  to  the  most  important  results,  is  the  sys- 
tem of  railway  distribution.  To  carry  out  the  true  theor)' 
of  postal  service,  there  should  be  no  interruption  in  the 
transit  of  letters  in  the  mail,  and,  therefore,  as  little  com- 
plication in  the  necessary  internal  machinery  of  a  postal 
system  as  possible,  to  the  end  that  letters  deposited  in  the 
post  office  at  the  last  moment  of  the  departure  of  the 
mails  from  the  office  for  near  or  distant  places  should 
travel  with  the  same  uninterrupted  speed  as  passengers 
to  their  places  of  destination  as  often  as  contracts  with 
the  Department  for  the  transportation  of  the  mails  per- 
mit. It  is  well  known  to  the  public  that  passengers,  travel- 
ing over  railroad  routes,  generally  reach  a  given  point 
in  advance  of  letters;  when  to  that  given  point  letters 
must  pass,  under  the  present  system,  through  a  distribut- 
ing office,  as  is  largely  the  case  now,  the  tardiness  of  a 
letter's  progress  toward  its  place  of  destination  is  pro- 
portionately increased.  But  a  general  system  of  railway 
distribution  obviates  this  difficulty.  The  work  being 
done  while  the  cars  are  in  action,  and  transfers  of  mail 
made  from  route  to  route,  and  for  local  deliveries  on  the 
way  as  they  are  reached,  letters  gain  the  same  celerity  in 
transit  as  persons  making  direct  connections. 

Soon  after  sending  in  his  letters  on  postal  reform,  Arm- 
strong had  them  published  in  pamphlet  form  for  distribution 
to  all  who  would  read  them.  A  meeting  of  experts  was  called 
at  Washington  in  June,  and  there  the  consensus  was  to  put 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFriCE  111 

some  kind  of  traveling  post  office  in  operation  in  spite  of  the 
indifference  of  Congress,  opposition  of  the  Contract  Office, 
and  the  ridicule  of  businessmen.  With  the  exception  of  Arm- 
strong, nobody  seemed  to  have  a  definite  idea  of  what  they 
were  going  to  do;  but  he  was  trusted  completely  by  A.  N. 
Zevely,  Third  Assistant,  who  got  permission  from  Postmaster 
General  Montgomery  Blair  for  Armstrong  to  try  out  his  ideas. 
On  July  first  the  following  was  sent  to  Armstrong: 

Sir: 

You  are  authorized  to  test  by  actual  experience,  upon 
such  railroad  route  or  routes  as  you  may  select  at  Chicago, 
the  plans  proposed  by  you  for  simplifying  the  mail  ser- 
vice. You  will  arrange  with  the  railroad  companies  to 
furnish  suitable  cars  for  traveling  post  offices;  designate 
"head  offices"  with  their  dependent  offices;  prepare  forms 
of  blanks  and  instructions  for  all  such  offices,  and  those 
on  the  railroad  not  "head  offices";  also  for  the  clerks  of 
traveling  post  offices  .  .  .  To  aid  you  in  this  work,  you 
may  select  some  suitable  route  agent,  whose  place  can  be 
supplied  by  a  substitute,  at  the  expense  of  the  Depart- 
ment. When  your  arrangements  are  complete  you  will 
report  them  in  full. 

George  B.  Armstrong 

Chicago,  Illinois 

M.  Blair 
Postmaster  General 

The  Department  also  acted  upon  the  essentials  of  the  other 
parts  of  the  Armstrong  plan.  Orders  Avere  sent  for  reclassify- 
ing offices,  discontinuing  wrapping  packets,  and  simplify- 
ing post-billing.  Post  offices  were  asked  to  make  up  letters  in 
packages  addressed  to  the  post  office  on  wheels  with  the  near- 
est offices  on  the  line  marked  No.  1,  the  next  few  offices 
No.  2,  and  farther  ones  No.  3,  so  that  mail  clerks  could  do 
first  things  first.  Correspondence  between  Zevely  and  Arm- 
strong on  August  sixteenth  indicated  preparations  Avere  about 
completed  and,  incidentally,  revealed  the  naming  of  the  new 
service.  Zevely  said,  "I  also  have  to  say  that  I  have  ignored 
the  name   'traveling  post  office'   and   have  adopted   'U.   S. 


112  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Railway  Post  Office.'  This  term  was  adopted;  and,  with  the 
addition  of  the  word  "Mail"  after  "United  States,"  is  still 
in  use  today.  Just  before  this  Zevely  had  asked  the  Camden 
&  Amboy  to  prepare  for  R.P.O.  service. 

Armstrong  arranged  with  General  Superintendent  G.  L. 
Dunlap,  of  the  C&NW  R.R.,  to  remodel  a  route  agent's 
car.  Letter  cases  with  seventy-seven  boxes  each  were  bor- 
rowed from  the  Chicago  D.F.O.  and  installed  at  angles.  The 
car  was  about  forty  feet  long,  with  two  windows,  upper  deck 
lights,  oil  lamps,  and  no  end  doors.  Armstrong  arranged 
with  the  Chicago  Times  for  publicity  on  his  experiment, 
giving  them  the  date  when  he  would  start  the  service  from 
Chicago  to  Clinton,  Iowa.  He  secured  Harrison  Parks,  a 
route  agent  on  the  run  to  Centralia,  and  two  Chicago  D.P.O. 
clerks,  Percy  A.  Leonard  and  James  Converse,  for  the  letter 
end  of  his  car,  and  Asa  F.  Bradley  to  assort  papers  in  a  crude 
case  of  big  10x12  inch  boxes.  Leonard  and  Bradley  were 
East  States  experts. 

And  so,  on  August  28,  1864,  this  "United  States  Railway 
Post  Office"  left  Chicago  with  its  crew  and  some  business 
and  newspaper  men  who  went  as  far  as  Dixon,  Illinois. 
Among  the  visitors  were  editor  James  Medill,  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  and  Captain  James  E.  White,  later  long-time  gen- 
eral superintendent  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service.  A  canceler, 
probably  reading  simply  "Chicago  to  Clinton,"  was  used. 
The  route  was  but  slightly  different  from  that  of  today's 
Chicago  &  Omaha  R.P.O. ;  it  was  the  old  "Dixon  Air  Line," 
originally  the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad  (Chicago's 
first)  which  made  a  wide  circuit  through  Danby  (Glen  Ellyn) 
and  then  veered  westward  toward  the  Mississippi  River.  A 
little  No.  1  mail  was  carried  by,  owing  to  strangeness  of  the 
case,  but  mail  was  worked  on  the  trip  with  surprising  ease 
and  efficiency.  The  trip  was  rather  rough,  according  to  Mr. 
Medill,  who  was  at  first  skeptical.  When  asked  for  an  opin- 
ion, he  said,  "Why,  Mr.  Armstrong,  your  plan  is  the  craziest 
idea  I  ever  heard  of  in  regard  to  mail  distribution.  If  it  were 
to  be  generally  accepted  by  the  Post  Office  Department,  the 
government  would  have  to  employ  a  regiment  of  soldiers  to 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  115 

follow  the  cars  and  pick  up  the  letters  that  would  blow  out 
of  the  train."  Later  he  became  an  enthusiastic  backer  of  the 
new  service.  The  clerks  sorted  through  mails  direct  to  con- 
necting services  in  addition  to  local  exchanges. 

Very  soon,  other  lines  were  started  and  a  form  of  national 
organization  developed.  The  first  plan,  December  1864,  was 
to  divide  the  nation  at  the  Indiana  border  and  place  Arm- 
strong in  charge  of  the  territory  west  of  the  line  and  Wheeler 
east.  The  country  was  divided  into  divisions  and  the  service 
placed  under  a  General  Superintendent  of  the  Railway  Mail 
Service,  George  B.  Armstrong  becoming  the  first  incumbent. 
Wheeler  resigned  on  December  20;  and  Parks— the  pioneer 
R.P.O.  clerk— succeeded  him. 

Mr.  Armstrong  lived  to  see  his  ideas  developed  fully,  re- 
signed in  May  1871,  and  died  a  few  days  later.  In  Chicago  a 
large  school  building  bears  his  name,  and  in  the  Adams  Street 
entrance  to  the  old  Chicago  Post  Office  there  was  placed  a 
monument  and  bust.    It  bears  the  following  inscription: 

To  The  Memory 

of 

GEORGE  BUCHANNAN  ARMSTRONG 

Founder 

of  the 

RAILWAY  MAIL  SERVICE 

in  the 

UNITED  STATES 

Born  in  Armach,  Ireland 

Oct.  27,  1822 

Erected 

By  the  clerks 

IN  THE  SERVICE 

1881 

A  duplicate  is  in  P.T.S.  headquarters  in  Washington. 

In  addition,  a  bronze  plaque  in  honor  of  Armstrong  was 
installed  by  President  Hughitt  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern 


114  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Railroad  in  November  1914  in  their  station  at  Chicago  to 
commemorate  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Service.  It 
shows  a  bas-relief  of  the  first  R.P.O.  cars,  and  a  duplicate 
is  on  Armstrong's  grave  in  Rosehill  Cemetery  there. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Armstrong,  the  heirs  of  William 
Davis,  who  had  died  in  1875,  put  in  a  claim  to  the  Post  Office 
Department  for  priority  for  their  father  as  the  initiator  of 
the  Railway  Mail  Service.  Davis  himself,  after  his  three 
months'  service  deadheading  east  to  take  from  westbound 
trains  California  letters  for  close  connection  with  the  stage 
at  St.  Joseph,  had  returned  to  his  duties  as  assistant  post- 
master there  and  never  claimed  any  recognition  for  his 
services  on  the  railway.  The  Maynard  investigation  turned 
up  some  interesting  data  and  many  erroneous  statements. 
Few  knew  how  to  interpret  the  documents,  and  the  net  result 
was  more  confusion.  The  Armstrong  family  later  published 
for  private  circulation  a  volume  claiming  exclusive  credit  to 
George  B.  Armstrong  as  the  father  of  the  Raihvay  Mail 
Service.  Since  then  this  mooted  question  has  become  a 
perennial  for  postal  writers,  and  especially  for  the  rapidly 
growing  philatelic  journals.  In  addition  to  the  Armstrong 
and  Davis  schools  of  interpretation  there  promises  to  be  a 
new  one,  that  of  the  Chicago  &  Cairo  claimants,  not  to  men- 
tion the  Boston  &  Albany  and  Potomac  Postal  Cars  claims 
already  refuted. 

A  brief  statement  of  these  schools  of  interpretation  is  now 
in  order,  so  that  the  reader  may  take  his  choice. 

To  Armstrong  is  conceded  the  founding  of  the  "first 
permanent,  complete,  and  official  Railway  Mail  Service," 
through  his  postal-reform  letters  and  his  run  from  Chicago 
to  Clinton,  August  28,  1864.  The  Davis  school  claims  that 
Davis's  run  from  Palmyra  to  St.  Joseph  back  in  1862  consti- 
tuted the  first  experimental  railway  post  office  because  he  was 
the  first  to  open,  officially,  brass-locked  sacks  and  take  out 
mail  in  transit  to  be  advanced  past  a  distributing  post  office. 
The  Armstrong  school  says  if  this  constituted  "sorting  mail 
in  transit,"  route  agents  had  sorted  in  transit  for  years,  be- 
sides performing  local  delivery  and  reception  of  way  mail. 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  115 

The  Davis  school  of  historians  rests  its  case  by  asserting  that 
unless  and  until  record  is  found  of  earlier  authorization  for 
opening  brass-locked  sacks  and  taking  out  letters  for  beyond 
a  D.P.O.,  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joe  service  constitutes  the 
"first  experimental  railway  post  office."  Journalistic  writers 
of  this  school  make  broader  claims,  as  we  shall  see.  The 
Armstrong  adherents  deny  to  Davis  any  invention,  and  cer- 
tainly not  the  foundation  of  a  service,  because  Davis  was  only 
■'a  special  agent"  and  took  out  only  California  letters.  They 
cite  records  of  route  agents  pouching  to  other  route  agents 
beyond  a  terminal  and  a  D.P.O.  via  the  express  route  agents; 
they  say  that  the  service  of  Davis  was  only  a  special  service 
such  as  Armstrong  had  performed  at  Cairo,  and  the  fact  that 
it  was  soon  discontinued  eliminated  him  from  being  the 
founder  of  any  railway  mail  service.  They  say  Davis,  as  a 
special  agent,  sought  to  aid  in  an  emergency  in  his  distrib- 
uting post  office,  while  Armstrong  sought  to  and  did  destroy 
all  distributing  post  offices  in  order  to  initiate  the  Railway 
Mail  Service. 

Davis  writers  in  popular  and  philatelic  journals  have  made 
far  wider  claims  than  Davis  historians.  Articles  have  ap- 
peared, based  on  the  Maynard  document,  headed  "U.  S. 
Mail  First  Sorted  in  Transit  in  1862,"  'Tirst  R.P.O.  Line  in 
History  was  between  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph,"  "Wm.  Davis 
W^as  the  Father  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service,"  etcetera.  In 
1905  the  legislature  of  Missouri  appropriated  seven  hundred 
dollars  for  a  tablet  in  the  St.  Joseph  Post  Office  in  memory 
of  Davis,  and  a  number  of  biographical  sketches  give  him 
credit  for  founding  the  Railway  Mail  Service. 

As  for  the  Chicago  and  Cairo  theory,  it  will  be  recalled 
that  before  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joe  work  by  Davis,  a  situa- 
tion at  Cairo,  Illinois,  has  resulted  in  a  special  service 
being  performed  there.  Special  agents  worked  into  Cairo 
and  undoubtedly  took  out  mail  from  the  newly  established 
Cairo  Distributing  Post  Office  for  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee. 
No  record  has  been  found  of  orders  to  special  agents  to  open 
brass-locked  pouches  which  route  agents  carried,  perhaps 
because  the  Chicago  fire  destroyed  the  route-agent  records 


116  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

of  that  region.  But  it  is  possible  that  such  may  be  found,  in 
which  case  the  course  of  the  "firsts"  discussion  would  be 
radically  changed. 

The  following  is  taken  from  the  Post  Office  Department 
Information  Service  Bulletin  for  January  1950;  it  may  help 
close  the  chapter,  but  not  the  argument: 

A  BRIEF  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
POSTAL  SERVICE 

Up  until  1862  all  mail  carried  on  trains  was  distributed 
in  post  offices.  In  that  year  the  postmaster  at  St.  Joseph, 
Missouri,  tried  out  a  method  of  sorting  and  distributing 
mail  on  a  moving  train  between  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph. 
This  was  done  in  an  attempt  to  avoid  delays  in  mail  de- 
partures for  the  West.  The  experiment  was  successful. 
In  1864  the  first  officially  sponsored  test  of  a  railway  post 
office  car  was  made  on  August  28  between  Chicago, 
Illinois,  and  Clinton,  Iowa.  On  December  22  of  that 
year  the  Post  Office  Department  appointed  a  deputy  in 
charge  of  railway  post  offices  and  railway  mails.  This 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service. 

As  a  final  summation  of  the  two  viewpoints,  we  might  add 
that  Davis  supporters  base  their  claims  on  his  service  having 
apparently  been  (1)  the  first  line  to  distribute  raw,  unsorted 
mails  for  a  state  at  a  great  distance— California;  (2)  the  first 
distributing  route  to  be  authorized  by  special  order  from 
Washington  as  a  new  departure  from  route-agent  service, 
although  local  exchanges  were  performed  as  on  modern 
R.P.O.s;  and  (3)  so  far  as  is  known,  the  first  line  officially 
authorized  to  open  brass-locked  pouches  for  distribution 
purposes.  They  further  point  out  that  the  Post  Office  De- 
partment decided  after  recent  studies  that  the  Davis  experi- 
ment was  the  beginning  of  R.P.O.  service,  as  witness  the 
carved  date  on  the  new  Department  building  (Chapter  3);  that 
the  History  of  R.M.S.  states  that  no  earlier  example  of  transit 
distribution  of  the  through  mails  has  been  revealed  after 
a  "thorough  search"  of  records;  and  that  Railway  Mail  Asso- 
ciation (N.P.T.A.)  members  at  Chicago  officially  concluded 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  117 

that  this  line  was  the  first  R.P.O.  and  said  so  in  a  plaque 
which  they  installed  in  the  Burlington's  replica.  Some  of 
Davis's  more  rabid  early  supporters  even  claimed  that  eras- 
ures and  changes  were  made  before  publishing  the  History 
of  the  R.M.S.,  to  throw  major  credit  to  Armstrong.  Refuting 
claims  that  Topographer  Burr  had  suggested  the  idea  to 
W'^aller  and  Davis,  one  points  out  that  Zevely  himself  stated 
it  was  Davis's  own  idea. 

In  rebuttal,  Armstrong  supporters  point  out  that  only  on 
the  Chicago  &:  Clinton  car  were  the  full  functions  of  a  rail- 
way post  office  carried  out.  Pouches  and  sacks  had  been  made 
up  and  addressed  to  the  line  (not  done  in  Davis's  case);  its 
clerks  had  opened  them  to  cut  and  work  up  the  packages 
of  individual  letters  for  local  dispatch  and  had  made  up 
mails  for  crossing  star  routes  and  points  beyond  termini. 
They  were  ready  to  make  up  mails  for  other  R.P.O.s  as  soon 
as  established,  and  probably  did  it  for  agent  connections  from 
the  first  day.  Armstrong  adherents  deny  claims  that  Davis 
ever  sorted  individual  letters— despite  public  mailboxes 
shown  on  the  car  replica— stating  that  his  distribution  con- 
sisted of  packet  sorting,  or  possibly  of  opening  packets  of 
"St.  Joseph  Dis"  but  merely  separating  California  points  into 
new  packets  to  be  rebilled  while  seated  at  the  table;  they 
conclude  that  his  operations  in  no  way  resembled  those  of 
an  R.  P.  O.  letter  clerk.  And  so  rests  the  case  of  a  controversy 
unique  in  postal  history,  still  going  merrily  on. 


Chapter  8 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE 


In  a  country  wild  and  Western,  red  with  many  a  crimson  stain, 
There's  a  city,  name  of  Carson,  'twixt  the  foothills  and  the  plain. 
And  the  treasured  lore  of  Carson  holds  a  legendary  tale 
That  deals  with  Baldy  Baker  and  the  "Dwight  &  Carson"  mail. 
Baldy  Baker  was  a  mail  clerk  on  the  Dwight  &  Carson  then, 
Tall,  straight  and  strong  and  fearless,  weighing  14  stone  and  10  .  .- 

—  Earl  L.  Newton 


The  impact  of  the  first  Rail- 
way Post  Office  upon  the  post- 
al service  and  the  national 
economy  was  but  a  small  one 
at  the  time,  subject  to  discour- 
aging counterblo^vs;  but  Arm- 
strong and  Zevely  went  deter- 
-Courtesy  Postal  Markings      minedly     ahead.     Before     its 

birth-year  had  expired,  the 
N.Y.  &  Wash.  R.P.O.  (now  PRR)  was  begun;  leading  post 
offices  were  instructed  to  dispense  with  ■^s'rappings,  post  bills, 
and  letter  packets,  and  tie  letters  with  twine  for  quick  R.P.O. 
handling;  and  thirteen  more  of  the  country's  thirty-seven  re- 
maining D.P.O.s  were  discontinued. 

The  first  full  year  of  the  infant  R.M.S.  (1865)  saw  the  old 
N.Y.  &  Dunkirk  (Erie)  and  Phila.  &  Pittsburgh  (PRR)  R.P.O.s 
established  in  the  East  (now  the  N.Y.  &  Sala.  and  N.Y.  Sc 
Pitts.);  but  eastern  postmasters,  with  their  fat  redistributing 
commissions,  opposed  any  further  expansion,  and  no  more 
lines  were  added  for  a  long  time.  But  in  the  west  the  R.P.O.s 
grew  both  in  numbers  and  facilities;  first  came  the  Chic.  & 
Davenport  (Rock  I.),  then  the  Chic.  &  Quincy  (CB&:Q), 
Chic.  &  St.  Lou.  (Alton),  Chic.  &  Centralia  (IC),  Clinton  & 
Boone  (C&NW)  in  Iowa,  and  the  Chicago  k  Cairo  (IC)  on 
the  route  of  the  controversial  service  mentioned. 

118 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  119 

The  earliest  R.P.O.s  had  the  crudest  of  equipment.  News- 
papers, if  handled  at  all,  were  sorted  into  large  wooden  boxes 
either  on  the  floor  or  stacked  case-like.  Later  some  cars  had 
a  wooden  rack  of  boxes  opening  at  the  bottom,  the  contents 
being  gathered  from  below  into  sacks  when  full,  with  great 
difficulty.  Mail  sacks  had  no  label  holders,  but  rather  tiny 
wooden  paddles  called  whittlers;  on  these  destinations  were 
written,  then  shaved  off  for  re-use  until  too  thin.  (Clerks 
unsure  of  routings  were  inclined  to  whittle  off  the  ^rom  line 
right  away!)  Wooden  racks  to  hold  paper  sacks  were  not 
invented  by  White  until  1874;  the  iron  Harrison  rack  for 
papers  and  pouches  (invented  by  C.  H.  Harrison  of  the 
R.M.S.)  followed  about  1879,  and  then  the  similar  collapsible 
steel-pipe  rack  now  in  use. 

Pioneers  of  the  scattered,  radically  new  Service  had  to 
contend  with  an  unwieldly  mass  of  distributing  offices  still 
wrapping  and  post-billing  ordinary  letters,  but  were  harassed 
most  of  all  by  the  frightful  messes  of  loose  papers,  untied 
letters,  and  heavily  wrapped  packets  dumped  onto  them  in 
"mixed"  sacks  by  connecting  agent  runs.  It  often  took  five 
times  as  long  to  separate  and  face  up  the  mail  as  it  did  to 
sort  it,  and  drastic  corrective  orders  were  issued  to  all  agents, 
including  a  simple  faced-out  tie-up  of  direct  letter  packages. 

"Catching"  of  mail  on  the  fly  by  non-stop  trains  was  prac- 
ticed on  the  N.Y.  &  Wash,  as  early  as  1865,  but  in  the  absence 
of  cranes  and  catchers,  most  early  R.P.O.  trains  merely  slowed 
up  for  the  clerk  to  catch  the  pouch  with  his  arm  from  the 
station  agent.  This  proved  dangerous  to  both  men  and  after 
trying  modified  train-order  sticks,  crude  wooden  F-shaped 
mail  cranes  were  substituted.  Soon  afterward  the  present 
simple  steel  hook  and  crane  were  adopted. 

To  co-ordinate  the  Vv'ork  of  post  offices  with  the  new 
R.P.O.s,  R.M.S.  officials  were  early  authorized  to  supervise 
the  make-up  of  outgoing  mails  in  all  large  post  offices,  and 
naturally  many  experienced  clerks  later  became  post-office 
superintendents  of  mails.  The  arrangement  is  still  in  effect. 

Expansion  in  the  progressive  Midwest  continued,  with 
Armstrong  and  post-office  men  working  in  harmony.    Before 


120  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

1866  arrived,  the  Wisconsin  legislature  was  petitioning  Con- 
gress for  R.P.O.s;  and  Harrison,  the  future  rack  inventor, 
planned  the  first  cars  to  be  constructed  especially  for  R.P.O. 
service  (aided  by  a  Route  Agent  Johnson),  for  the  first  route 
there  (on  the  C&NW  to  Green  Bay).  On  September  6,  1866, 
transit  distribution  was  restored  to  the  historic  Hannibal  & 
St.  Joe  route,  which  then  became  the  Quincy  &  St.  Joseph,  a 
true  R.P.O.  The  next  year  saw  the  first  "full  R.P.O."  cars, 
forty  feet  long,  installed  on  the  pioneer  Chic.  &  Clinton 
(C&NW^)  and  on  the  Overland  run  continuing  to  Boone  and 
Council  Bluffs;  they  were  designed  by  Armstrong,  with  Cap- 
tain James  E.  White  (later  General  Superintendent)  labeling 
the  letter  and  paper  cases.  "Chief  head  clerks,"  now  known 
as  clerks-in-charge,  were  also  first  designated  in  1867,  and 
their  duties  specified. 

But  in  the  East  the  continued  antagonism  snowballed  into 
forces  that  threatened  extinction  of  the  whole  Service.  When 
Harrison  Parks  took  over  the  three  struggling  lines  there,  he 
found  no  local  service  being  performed  and  almost  no  quali- 
fied clerks;  the  Department  was  threatening  to  abandon  the 
three.  Bitterest  opposition  was  in  New  England,  around  the 
just-established  Boston  &  N.Y.  (NYNH&H).  The  smoldering 
resentment  of  politically  powerful  postmasters  and  news- 
papers, notably  in  Boston,  broke  into  raging  flame  in  January 
1874  with  an  attack  on  the  whole  R.M.S.  system  by  the 
Boston  Morning  Journal.  Backed  by  the  postmaster,  it  pro- 
posed an  immediate  return  to  D.P.O.s  and  route  agents,  de- 
cried the  "extravagance"  of  clerks  working  only  "half  the 
time,"  and  accused  the  Department  of  holding  all  westbound 
mails  for  the  two  daily  R.P.O.  trains  to  New  York  and  of  not 
providing  southward  connections  for  these  two.  Captain 
White  of  the  R.M.S.,  in  a  masterful  defense,  published  a 
stinging  rebuttal— publicly  informing  the  Boston  postmaster 
of  his  duty  to  pouch  on  New  York  City  and  points  beyond  by 
means  of  a  dozen  closed-pouch  trains  a  day;  the  necessity  of 
needed  rest  periods  and  the  studies  currently  arranging  bet- 
ter connections  were  noted. 

At  the  height  of  the  trouble  the  vexed  postmaster  had  a 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  121 

bell  installed  in  the  office  of  the  Division  Superintendent, 
R.M.S.,  located  in  his  building,  and  thereupon  would  sum- 
mon him  as  he  would  a  messenger  boy.  The  superintendent 
calmly  aware  of  his  responsibilities  and  his  independence  of 
the  post  office,  ignored  the  bell;  and  when  the  enraged  post- 
master sent  a  messenger  after  him,  he  sent  back  the  message 
that  the  post-office  head  would  have  to  call  on  him— "The 
bell  is  on  the  wrong  end  of  the  wire."  By  such  firm  tactics, 
and  by  steady  improvements  everywhere,  the  R.M.S.  slowly 
established  its  position  of  authority  and  respected  necessity 
in  the  East.  It  began  to  expand  rapidly,  until  its  lines  con- 
nected with  those  of  the  Midwest.  On  the  N.Y.  &  Chic,  local 
runs  alone,  mail  once  requiring  the  exchange  of  forty-seven 
pouches  from  the  New  York  G.P.O.  was  now  dispatched  in 
one  pouch  to  the  postal  car. 

In  1868  some  sweeping,  essential  innovations  were  begun. 
First  there  appeared  schemes  of  distribution  (sorting  lists), 
the  first  being  one  designed  by  Captain  White— the  Civil  War 
officer  slated  to  become  a  prominent  R.M.S.  leader— as  a 
scheme  for  all  lines  out  of  Chicago.  The  first  state  scheme 
(1872)  was  that  of  Wisconsin,  and  the  first  Eastern  one  was 
for  New  York  State;  most  were  alphabetical  "standpoint- 
exception"  lists  (still  used  by  Western  Union)  on  large  sheets 
of  paper,  reading  (for  example,  the  Massachuetts  scheme) 
thus: 

MASSACHUSETTS: -To  Boston  D.P.O. 

Except: 

Berkshire,  Franklin,  Hampshire,"!  o,  ait,        t?  p  n 

and  Worcester  counties /        '  ^ 

Thus  were  clerks  gradually  relieved  from  "doping  out"  routes 
from  maps  and  inquiries. 

The  second  new  reform,  the  facing  slip  with  its  "error- 
checking"  procedure,  is  said  to  date  back  to  an  inspection 
trip  between  Mattoon  and  Centralia,  Illinois,  to  check  accur- 


122  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

acy  of  sorting  on  the  connecting  Chic.  Sc  Cairo  (IC);  the  in- 
vestigator discovered  many  errors  in  dispatch,  resulting  in 
inauguration  of  stamped  facing  slips  in  1868  or  1869  and  the 
issuance  of  orders  to  check  errors  thereon  by  1871.  Other 
reports,  however,  state  that  the  two  lines  involved  were  the 
Lafayette-Quincy  run  and  the  Chic.  R:  Centralia  (IC);  and 
still  others  say  the  clerks  themselves  originated  the  error- 
checking  idea  informally  to  help  each  other  learn  best  dis- 
patch, or  that  George  S.  Bangs  originated  it.  (Facing  slips 
were  used  in  some  post  offices  in  1864.) 

On  July  1,  1869,  the  Railway  Mail  Service  was  first  organ- 
ized in  six  divisions  under  a  single  general  superintendent; 
Armstrong,  who  had  planned  the  setup,  was  himself  appoint- 
ed to  the  top  position.  All  closed-pouch  and  route-agent  runs 
were  placed  under  R.M.S.  jurisdiction.  Resigning  after  only 
three  years  in  top  place,  the  great  "Father  of  the  R.M.S." 
died  just  a  few  days  later  in  1873.  He  had  just  put  his  whole 
life  and  heart  into  the  great  new  field  that  was  his.  George 
S.  Bangs  succeeded  him,  but  not  before  Armstrong  had  intro- 
duced the  first  standard  mail  cranes  (1869)  and  the  first 
extensive  night  R.P.O.  trains.  Giving  overnight  delivery  to 
most  mails  within  hundreds  of  miles,  they  were  introduced 
over  the  protests  of  the  railroads;  they  were  needed  particu- 
larly to  transfer  outbound  local  mails  to  an  inbound  morning 
local  train  at  outer  termini  for  early  deliveries,  and  for 
keeping  express  mails  in  continuous  movement.  Armed 
guards  were  often  assigned  at  night. 

With  1870  came  the  practice  case  and  scheme  examina- 
tions, another  invention  of  Captain  White.  Designing  the 
former,  he  had  UP  Master  Carbuilder  Stevens  build  the  first 
one  in  Omaha,  and  he  commenced  the  examinations  in  Chi- 
cago in  1872.  He  introduced  a  probationary  period  the  same 
year,  weeding  out  hundreds  of  incompetent  politically-ap- 
pointed clerks.  Bangs  soon  authorized  him  to  order  the  sepa- 
ration of  R.P.O. -bound  mails  from  the  post  offices  by  States, 
and  in  New  York  City  the  "stating"  of  large  periodicals  direct 
by  publishers  was  then  begun  under  R.M.S.  supervision.  It  is 
still  done  today,  and  sometimes  symbols  are  supplied  to  en- 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  123 

able  dispatch  to  routes.   Most  of  such  mailbags  noAV  go  direct 
to  R.P.O.s. 

Final  fundamental  step  in  R.M.S.  innovations  was  the 
Schedule  of  Mail  Trains,  another  White  invention,  first 
printed  in  the  Chicago  Postal  Record,  as  was  the  pioneer 
Wisconsin  scheme,  in  the  issue  of  March  1872.  It  listed  only 
the  trains  serving  each  junction,  but  it  gradually  evolved  into 
today's  schedules. 

The  Service  Rating  System  of  merits  and  demerits,  based 
on  the  Brown  system  on  the  railroads  (whence  Brownies), 
also  had  its  first  beginnings  in  1872.  In  the  same  year  ap- 
peared a  set  of  Instructions  to  R.P.C.s.  Among  interesting 
requirements  therein  were  that  post  bills  were  still  to  be 
made  out  for  unpaid  letters,  that  direct  packages  were  to  be 
faced  out  minus  slips,  and  errors  in  direction  or  address 
were  to  be  corrected  by  clerks— all  of  which  instructions  have 
now  been  directly  reversed. 

By  1873,  when  Bangs  came  into  office,  there  were  just  752 
railway  postal  clerks  in  the  United  States.  The  same  year, 
we  might  note,  the  American  Bible  Society  was  placing  Bibles 
in  mail  cars  and  others  on  the  Bait.  &  Cumberland  R.P.O. 
(WMd)  and  B&O  lines  in  Maryland.  Next  year  Bangs  issued 
his  first  R.M.S.  Annual  Report,  later  a  large  and  important 
volume,  but  now  absorbed  in  the  small  Annual  Report  of  the 
P.M.G.   By  now  there  were  eight  divisions— the  8th  out  W^est. 

To  Bangs  also  is  credited  the  establishment  of  the  first 
famous  'Tast  Mail,"  on  September  16,  1875.  Previous  to  this 
time  there  had  been  fast  service  on  short  and  separate  lines, 
but  their  time  value  was  lost  at  connecting  points.  Bangs 
therefore  included  in  his  report  a  recommendation  for  a 
through  exclusive  train  over  the  various  independent  lines 
then  connecting  New  York  and  Chicago,  saving  twelve  to 
twenty-four  hours  in  transit  time.  The  service  was  organized 
and  arrangements  made  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the 
railroads  involved;  it  was  designated,  as  now,  the  N.Y.  &: 
Chicago  R.P.O.  It  traversed  the  N.  Y.  Central  S:  Hudson 
River  and  Lake  Shore  &  Mich.  Southern  Railways. 

The  initial  trip,  made  with  great  ceremony,  was  the  most 


124  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

publicized  event  in  R.M.S.  history  and  a  significant  milestone 
of  progress  in  the  entire  Postal  Service.  General  Superin- 
tendent Bangs  himself  was  in  charge  at  the  old  Grand  Central 
Station,  New  York.  Such  prominent  guests  as  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent, the  Honorable  Henry  Wilson  of  New  York,  the  report- 
ers from  all  sizable  Eastern  newspapers,  mayors,  postmasters, 
and  top  railroad  officials  accompanied  him  at  the  ceremonies 
and  on  the  trip.  The  train  was  composed  of  four  postal  cars 
with  William  B.  Thompson  in  charge,  and  one  drawing-room 
coach  accommodating  one  hundred  distinguished  officials  and 
visitors.  The  "letter"  cars  were  fifty  feet  long,  the  "paper" 
cars  sixty  feet.  All  were  painted  white,  trimmed  in  cream, 
and  ornamented  with  gilt;  each  car  was  named  after  the 
governor  of  a  state,  the  R.P.O.  cars  being  designated  the 
Tilden,  Dix,  Allen,  and  Todd.  The  name  of  the  car  and  the 
words  "United  States  Post  Office"  were  included  within  large 
gilt  ovals,  while  "The  Fast  Mail"  and  the  railroad  name  were 
lettered  on  sides  and  ends.  Painted  landscape  scenes  and 
medallions  in  relief  of  both  sides  of  the  Great  Seal  of  the 
United  States  (as  shown  on  back  of  today's  dollar  bills)  com- 
pleted the  decorations. 

In  the  rainy  dawn,  mail  wagons  clattered  from  the  old 
downtown  New  York  Post  Office  up  to  Grand  Central  with 
their  loads  for  the  new  train,  simultaneously  with  others 
destined  for  the  Cortlandt  Street  piers  and  the  first  trip  of  the 
Pennsylvania's  own  competitive  Limited  Mail.  A  picked  crew 
of  clerks  received  the  mail— 43  pouches  of  letters,  663  sacks  of 
ordinary  papers,  and  bundles  of  newspapers  numbering 
50,000  pieces,  a  total  of  33  tons.  Red  bags  were  provided  for 
the  New  York-to-Poughkeepsie  mail,  so  the  local  clerks  would 
be  sure  to  sort  it  first— only  to  have  the  dyers'  bill  for  the 
bags  later  disallowed  by  a  Post  Office  Department  clerk,  un- 
familiar with  the  exacting  conditions  on  the  trains,  as  a  silly 
extravagance!  Perhaps  it  was;  no  more  were  dyed. 

The  train  pulled  out  and  thundered  on  its  way  northward. 
At  Albany  1 50  more  bags  were  received  from  the  Boston  con- 
nections, while  local  catches  continued  apace.  Crews  were 
changed  several  times  in  the  nine  hundred-mile  trip,  with 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  125 

Bangs  watching  the  Indiana  crew  while  sitting  on  some 
pouches,  watch  in  hand.  At  suburban  Englewood,  Illinois, 
a  sudden  lurch  dazed  the  engineer  with  a  blow  to  the  head; 
but  still  the  "hogger"  brought  his  train  into  Chicago  one 
minute  early.  He  had  made  the  run  in  twenty-six  hours 
(or  thirty— sources  differ),  or  about  half  the  former  time. 
Then,  exhausted,  he  fainted  dead  away. 

The  successful  performance  was  greeted  with  great  satis- 
faction, and  both  England  and  France  requested  diagrams  of 
the  cars.  But  next  year  Congress  reduced  all  railroad  mail 
pay  by  10  per  cent,  and  the  irate  companies  (who  had  invested 
$4,000  per  car  in  the  Fast  Mail)  withdrew  the  service  July  22, 
1876,  ten  days  after  that  act.  In  spite  of  public  protests,  the 
Fast  Mail  was  not  restored  until  1881  (or  possibly  1877,  one 
source  says),  when  the  freshly  painted  train  began  rolling 
again— in  two  sections.  The  "Fast  Mail"  designation  was 
dropped  sometime  after  1883,  but  regulation  fast-mail  trains 
on  "The  Chic,"  such  as  the  Century,  still  keep  up  the  pace. 

The  Pennsy's  competing  Limited  Mail  route  to  Chicago 
and  St.  Louis  (N.Y.  k  Pitts.-Pitts.  &  Chic-Pitts.  R:  St.  Lou. 
R.P.O.s)  began  operating  officially  at  the  same  time  as  the 
more  famed  Central's  setup;  in  fact,  non-mail-carrying  runs 
began  three  days  before  (4:50  A.M.,  September  thirteenth). 
Built  in  record  time  at  Altoona,  the  cars  were  hauled  by 
Engine  699,  with  Sam  Knowles  as  conductor  and  Al  Herbert 
as  engineer  (data  which  is  sadly  lacking  for  the  Fast  Mail 
run).  The  Limited  Mail  was  withdrawn  and  restored  to- 
gether with  its  competitor.  By  beating  the  New  York  Central 
in  speed,  the  Pennsy  eventually  secured  many  of  the  desirable 
mail  contracts.  Its  "Limited"  was  gradually  succeeded  by  the 
famed  Broadway  Limited  of  today. 

Other  "Fast  Mails"  followed  in  quick  succession— on  the 
IC's  Chic.  &  Cairo,  the  PRR's  N.Y.  &  Wash,  (about  1883),  the 
CM&StP's  Chic.  &  Minn,  (about  1898).  But  most  famous  of  all 
others  was  the  storied  Overland  transcontinental  line  which 
extended  the  New  York  &  Chicago  service  on  west  to  San 
Francisco.  The  Burlington's  "Fast  Mail,"  which  made  its  first 
run  on  the  Chic.  &  Council  Bluffs  (adjacent  to  Omaha)  at 


126  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

3  A.M.,  March  11,  1884,  claims  to  have  been  the  first  link  in 
the  chain;  the  train  was  prepared  on  one  day's  notice  from 
the  P.M.G.  after  a  conference.  Despite  a  greatly  speeded-up 
timecard,  it  hit  every  stop  on  schedule  on  the  499-mile 
route,  whereupon  the  Department  at  once  shortened  the 
schedule— and  has  done  so  a  dozen  times  since,  each  increased- 
speed  demand  being  promptly  met  without  failure.  On  Feb. 
17,  1899,  its  Fast  Mail  (Train  15)  made  the  run  in  9  hours,  14 
minutes.  This  line,  the  C.  Sc  N.  W.,  and  the  Rock  Island  all 
competed  fiercely  for  the  westbound  mail  contract,  engaging 
in  some  stirring  races.  Gradually  the  C&rNW's  Chic,  k  Omaha 
secured  a  plurality  of  the  total  R.P.O.  service  and  is  today 
usually  considered  the  Midwest's  transcontinental  link;  this 
route  was  a  leader  in  the  cutting  of  running  time  through 
the  years. 

Following  consultations,  Captain  White  then  succeeded  in 
contracting  with  the  Union  Pacific  at  Omaha  for  a  connecting 
Fast  Mail  on  their  Omaha  k  Ogden  route  and,  at  a  second 
conference  with  South  Pacific  and  Central  Pacific  heads  in 
San  Francisco,  secured  promise  of  their  own  fastest  trains  to 
carry  on  the  Fast  Mail  from  Ogden  to  the  coast  on  the  Ogden 
k  San  Fran.  R.P.O. 

The  first  transcontinental  Fast  Mail  from  Omaha  to  the 
Pacific  pulled  out  on  November  15,  1889,  at  7  P.M.,  forty-five 
minutes  late— with  Captain  White,  high  postal  and  railroad 
officials,  and  newspaper  correspondents  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco  on  board  as  guests.  Thirteen  tons  of  mail  were 
taken  on,  mostly  from  the  East  via  the  N.Y.  &  Chic— Chic.  &: 
Counc.  Bluffs  Fast  Mail  connection.  The  first  lap,  over  the 
slowly  ascending  grades,  prairies,  and  mountains  to  Cheyenne, 
Wyoming,  was  done  in  record  time,  the  forty-five  minutes 
being  made  up  easily  in  these  five  hundred  miles.  Changing 
crews,  the  train  pulled  thirty  miles  farther  to  Sherman,  the 
Continental  Divide;  then  down  through  Laramie  to  Green 
River,  Wyoming.  This  was  the  junction  for  the  connecting 
fast  mail  to  the  Northwest  (the  UP's  Green  River  k  Portland), 
and  twenty-three  minutes  were  lost  here— the  car  of  officials 
and  guests  had  been  accidentally  switched  to  the  wrong  con- 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OE  AGE  127 

sist.  The  Fast  Mail  had  to  back  up  to  reach  it,  and  fifteen 
more  minutes  were  lost.  With  powerful  head  wind  and  a 
grade  of  211  feet  per  mile  to  overcome,  it  seemed  the  time 
could  never  be  made  up  by  Ogden. 

But  they  reckoned  without  "Wild  Bill"  Downing,  a  famous, 
reckless  engineer  who  came  on  at  Evanston,  Wyoming.  Sub- 
stituting a  more  po^verful  engine,  he  gave  them  such  a  hair- 
raising  ride  through  the  mountains  and  down  Echo  and 
Weber  canyons  as  had  never  been  dreamed  of;  with  savage 
energy  he  sent  the  train  rocking  wildly  as  sparks  and  ballast 
flew  from  under  the  wheels.  "Three  miles  in  two  minutes!" 
gasped  Captain  White  at  Devils  Gate;  and  when  their  car 
careened  until  one  set  of  wheels  was  off  the  rails,  even 
General  Manager  Dickenson  tried  to  have  the  train  stopped. 
But  the  time  was  made  up  by  Ogden;  a  speed  record  deemed 
"impossible"  had  been  made  through  the  daring  of  Railway 
Mail  and  Union  Pacific  personnel.  The  U.P.  had  been  inter- 
ested in  good  R.P.O.  service  since  its  construction  days, 
when  even  the  track-laying  train  had  its  "Union  Pacific 
R.P.O." 

From  Ogden  the  epoch-making  train  proceeded  as  the 
Os:den  &  San  Francisco,  the  famous  "Overland"  route.  Hold- 
ing  to  its  schedule,  the  Fast  Mail  continued  through  the 
ru^ijed  terrain  while  clerks  distributed  both  California  and 
San  Francisco  City  mail;  with  mails  ready  for  dispatch,  it 
pulled  into  Oakland  Pier  depot  right  on  the  dot.  Total  tran- 
sit time  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  was  108  hours,  45 
minutes— mighty  good  time  in  those  days. 

Steady  improvements  in  the  Fast  Mails  continued.  The 
CB&Q's  Chic.  &  C.  Bluffs  Fast  Mail  even  elicited  a  dramatic 
description  of  its  passage  from  the  great  evangelist  Bily  Sun- 
day, who  had  considerable  sentiment  for  it;  it  now  carried  six 
cars   (150  tons)  of  mail. 

General  Superintendent  Bangs  was  succeeded  in  1875  by 
Theordore  N.  Vail,  the  first  railway  postal  clerk  to  be  pro- 
moted on  merit  to  the  top  R.M.S.  position  (see  Chapter  16). 
Then  came  General  Superintendent  William  B.  Thompson 
in  1878,  under  whom  the  Railway  Mail  Service  established 


128  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

its  Daily  Bulletin— which  evolved  into  the  familiar  Postal 
Bulletin  of  today-on  March  4,  1880.  On  July  1,  1882,  all 
remaining  route  agents  and  "head  clerks"  were  officially  re- 
assigned under  the  universal  title  "railway  postal  clerks,"  and 
remaining  agent  runs  became  "R.P.O.s." 

On  December  31,  1888,  under  another  general  superin- 
tendent (Nash),  President  Cleveland  ordered  the  entire 
R.M.S.  placed  under  the  federal  Civil  Service.  That  meant 
that  all  appointments  and  promotions  after  May  first  were  to 
be  on  merit  alone— eliminating  the  political  influences  caus- 
ing discharge  of  hundreds  of  losing-party  clerks  at  every  new 
administration  change,  which  had  governed  even  such  things 
as  choice  of  runs  and  had  permitted  many  incompetent 
appointments. 

The  Gay  Nineties,  a  typical  period  in  the  younger  days  of 
the  R.M.S.,  were  launched  by  the  appointment  of  none  other 
than  Captain  White  as  general  superintendent,  October  4, 
1890,  succeeding  J.  Lowrie  Bell  and  others.  Life  on  the  mail 
trains  in  this  era  was  colorful  and  interesting,  but  certainly 
no  picnic.  Some  of  the  conditions  of  the  period,  or  of  opera- 
tions shortly  before  or  afterward,  are  reflected  in  a  few  de- 
scriptions such  as  this  one  by  Votaw: 

"...  A  dilapidated  car,  vintage  of  1860,  which  had  not  felt 
a  paint  brush  for  years  .  .  .  track  visible  through  the  broken 
floor  .  .  .  dingy  from  years  of  smoke  from  a  single  oil  lamp 
which  dripped  gently  on  the  floor.  Old  boxes  like  hens'  nests 
served  as  a  paper  case;  ...  a  rusty  barrel  stove  on  one  side." 

Later  the  potbellied  stove  was  often  replaced  by  a  cranky 
Baker  (hot-water)  heater;  then  came  the  first  engine-heated 
steampipes  (still  used),  but  with  no  steam  during  advance 
hours.  Men  not  near  the  little  auxiliary  stove  froze,  and  had 
to  blow  the  steampipes  twice  an  hour  during  the  trip.  Sack 
carpets  and  heavy  overshoes  were  needed  to  prevent  freezing, 
for  temperatures  went  below  zero  despite  the  stove.  When 
one  antiquated  heater,  unused  for  twenty-seven  years,  was  lit 
in  a  recent  car  shortage  it  still  "made  smoked  hams  of  the 
crew!" 

The  dirty,  leaky  coal-oil  lamps  were  often  drained  to  fill 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  129 

those  in  "more  important"  cars,  and  candles  substituted. 
Acetylene  and  Pintsch-gas  lights— which  still  had  to  be  lit 
from  stepladders  in  inky  darkness,  and  which  were  tapped  for 
gas  when  a  connecting  line  ran  out,  and  candles  furnished 
again— some  from  Germany,  gradually  appeared.  At  least 
clerks  no  longer  wore  sacks  to  ward  off  dripping  oil! 

Cars  themselves  were,  of  flimsy  wood  construction,  often 
rebuilt  from  other  coaches  scrapped  as  too  old;  whole  chunks 
of  rotten  wood  were  pulled  from  some  cars.  One  crew  could 
never  report  their  car's  length  as  required,  because  it  was 
inches  longer  going  uphill  than  when  level.  Some  compart- 
ments for  clerks  were  as  tiny  as  3  x  7  feet,  while  clerks  on 
the  Lawrenceville  &  Carbondale  (Lawr&W)  in  Illinois  held 
forth  in  the  caboose.  Windows  were  far  dirtier  than  at  pres- 
ent—even "slimy."  Western  trains  operated  over  light  rails 
on  loose-laid  ties  in  black  muck,  hauled  by  old-style  light- 
weight Baldwin  or  Rogers  engines;  one  clerk  was  thrown  in 
the  same  ditch  three  times. 

As  for  equipment,  clumsy  tie-on  tags  had  now  replaced  the 
whittlers  on  mailbags;  letter  pouches  were  mostly  leather  ones 
with  awkward  multistaple  fastenings— heavy,  strapped  hull- 
heads  and  light,  strapless  suckermouths.  Some  cars  even  had 
a  "metallic  forest"  of  wire  ropes  and  rods  to  hold  mailbags 
suspended  open,  instead  of  the  usual  racks. 

Salaries  and  working  conditions  would  have  seemed  in- 
credible today.  General  Superintendent  White  drew  less,  in 
dollars,  than  the  average  clerk  at  present.  Remembering  that 
money  had  a  much  higher  purchasing  value  then,  we  note 
that  pay  for  the  starting  grade  (Class  I)  was  usually  $800— 
sometimes  as  low  as  $610— a  year.  New  subs  were  paid  at  this 
rate  only  for  time  worked,  direct  by  the  regular  clerk  for 
whom  they  ran,  and  often  several  days  late;  they  received 
about  $2.18  for  each  "day"  worked,  which  might  be  a  trip  of 
more  than  twenty-four  hours. 

There  was  no  travel  allowance,  no  overtime  pay,  no  sick 
or  annual  leave,  no  study-allowance  time.  Nevertheless  the 
new  clerk  was  given  a  handsomely  embellished  certificate  of 
appointment,  printed  in  crimson  or  purple  from  engraved 


ISO  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

script  type!  In  contrast,  old  clerks  who  had  slowed  down  were 
often  summarily  dismissed  without  pension— there  was  no 
retirement  pay. 

Clerks  had  to  sign  an  arrival-and-departure  book  before 
and  after  each  trip  and  carry  a  photographic  pass  bearing 
their  picture  instead  of  the  signed  travel  commission  of  today. 
Vivid  memories  of  his  old  photo  commission  are  recalled  by 
Earl  Newton,  who  growls  in  contempt  at  the  old  photo  the 
office  had  used;  but— 

Tildy  Ann  looked  at  the  picture,  then  put 

Her  arms  round  my  neck,  and  she  said; 
"Don't  you  know,  John,  that  picture  looks  just  as  you  did 

The  summer  before  we  were  wed? 
I  remember  you  sent  me  a  photo  like  that; 

I'm  sure  you  don't  wholly  forget— 
It  looked  pretty  comely  to  both  of  us  then. 

It  looks  pretty  good  to  me  yet  .  .  ." 

There  were  no  terminals,  P.T.S.,  for  the  lines  to  dump 
"stuck"  mails  into;  clerks  not  only  had  to  sort  all  circulars, 
magazines,  and  parcels  received  into  the  train  (as  well  as 
letters),  but  had  to  remain  in  the  car  at  the  terminus  to  finish 
sorting  any  undistributed  mails— without  pay.  Even  when 
terminals  first  appeared,  road  clerks  were  often  forced  to 
work  long  hours  therein  after  completing  a  lengthy  run  of 
their  own;  if  the  train  was  late,  they  sometimes  had  to  omit 
all  sleep,  do  their  stint  of  terminal  duty,  and  report  for  the 
return  journey  with  no  rest  whatever.  They  were  also  called 
into  post  offices  to  relieve  mail  congestion,  especially  at  the 
turn  of  the  century.  Endless  stacks  of  "blue-tag"  paper  mail 
was  sorted,  for  example,  both  on  the  Pitts.  &  St.  Lou.  Limited 
Mail  (PRR)  itself— where  clerks  worked  clear  through  be- 
tween terminals  after  much  advance  work  at  Pittsburgh— and 
in  the  St.  Louis  depot  for  additional  hours  after  arrival.  Still 
longer  continuous  runs  existed  in  the  Far  West. 

The  heavy  mails  brought  many  complaints,  not  all  of 
which  were  justified.  White  once  learned  of  one  clerk  who 
said  he  was  swamped  with  far  more  mail  on  his  run  on  the 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  181 

Omaha  &  Ogden  (UP)  than  could  possibly  be  distributed  be- 
fore reaching  Ogden.  White  accompanied  him  on  the  next 
trip,  asking  only  that  the  clerk  set  up  and  tie  out  for  his 
chief;  and  White  himself  "sorted  out"  the  whole  pile  by 
North  Platte,  Nebraska,  only  one  quarter  of  the  way  out  of 
Omaha.   The  clerk  never  complained  again. 

However,  White  was  keenly  aware  of  the  genuine  hard- 
ships which  were  nevertheless  suffered  by  clerks  throughout 
the  Service,  and  he  favored  and  predicted  retirement  annui- 
ties, increased  salaries,  travel  allowances,  longer  layoffs,  and 
high-speed  trains  many  years  before  they  came  about.  There 
were  pettv  restrictions,  too:  a  rule  was  issued  requiring  clerks 
to  turn  each  bag  inside  out  after  emptying,  to  be  sure  no  mail 
was  left  therein.  Since  this  would  consume  hours  of  valuable 
time,  clerks  commenced  iisins;  the  bags  inside  out  too— and 
the  order  was  soon  rescinded.  There  was  an  economy  drive 
on  the  use  of  twine,  requiring  receipts  for  each  ball  by  each 
clerk  too;  cut  twine  was  ordered  knotted  together  and  re-used. 
Clerks  on  the  old  Detroit  R:  Albany  (not  a  Michigan-to-New 
York  State  run,  but  an  SP  branch  in  Oregon)  dispatched  a 
two-foot-ball  of  saved  twine  to  the  division  superintendent, 
labeled  'Tirst  Annual  Ball  for  Benefit  of  Baled-Hay  Widows 
and  Unidentified  Orphans,"  which  was  displayed  at  head- 
quarters and  the  clerks  highlv  commended. 

Registered  mail  was  another  headache;  it  was  dispatched 
in  regularly  scheduled  striped  pouches  (stripes)  and  inner 
sacks,  checked  like  other  pouches;  there  were  no  facilities  for 
quantitv  billing  to  terminal  offices  or  unauthorized  destina- 
tions. John  Fisher  tells  of  the  registered  packages  of  gold 
and  -^vhat  not  that  poured  east  from  California,  eight  hun- 
dred per  trip,  requiring  four  clerks  to  write  them  on  the 
Albuq.  Sc  El  Paso  (Santa  Fe)  alone;  one  clerk  went  through 
to  Kansas  City  to  catch  up.  Other  registered  parcels,  several 
hundreds,  were  found  buried  under  storage  mail. 

The  bearded,  adventurous  clerks  of  that  day  included  some 
picturesque  characters— "Cheyenne  Pete"  of  the  Ogden  8: 
S.  F.  (SP),  a  legendary  superman  famed  in  verse,  and  many 
others.    Clerks  wore  an  indigo-dyed  uniform  with  double- 


1S2  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

breasted  coat  and  vest,  and  regulation  silk-corded  navy  cap. 
For  rough  work,  indigo  rolled-collar  flannel  shirts  and  tent- 
duck  overalls  with  "stomach  protectors."  When  uniforms 
disappeared,  a  standard  cap  was  prescribed  with  the  letters 
"R.M.S.,"  richly  gold-braided.  But  Northern  clerks  com- 
plained of  freezing  ears,  and  portly  ones  of  "unbecomingness" 
to  their  broad,  side-whiskered  faces;  so  it  too,  gave  way  to  the 
official  badge  of  today. 

Coffee  and  lunches  were  prepared  under  difficulties,  but 
often  with  a  humorous  or  nostalgic  note.  The  train  box  con- 
tained a  frying  pan  and  other  cooking  ware  as  well  as  a  coffee 
pot,  and  old-time  hot  meals  were  cooked  on  the  flat-topped 
stove— steaks,  pork  chops,  ham  and  eggs,  and  fried  potatoes, 
instead  of  today's  cold  sandwiches  or  "insipid  canned  goods 
warmed  on  the  steam  pot."  Some  railways  allowed  clerks  to 
wash  up,  change,  and  eat  in  the  diner  at  half  price,  or  even 
had  trays  brought  to  the  car  door  at  bargain  fees.  Western 
ranch  stops  provided  fresh  eggs  and  fruit  at  country  prices; 
and  on  leisurely  branch  lines  the  train  would  stop  while  the 
whole  engine  and  mail  crew  shot  ducks,  geese,  or  pheasant 
for  a  game  dinner  to  follow  at  home. 

But  crews  without  stove  heat  did  cooking  with  great  diffi- 
culty, perhaps  over  kerosene-soaked  twine  balls.  One  type  of 
car  had  gas  lights  so  arranged  that  coffee  could  be  heated 
thereon,  but  globes  broke  if  any  coffee  boiled  over.  One 
N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent)  clerk  heated  his  coffee  in  this  manner 
just  after  a  rule  against  the  practice  had  been  issued,  and 
just  as  he  was  serving  coffee  at  Albany  he  was  greeted  by  the 
chief  clerk  entering  the  car. 

"Well,  Louis,  how  did  you  get  your  coffee  heated  so 
nicely?"  he  asked. 

"Oh,  I  got  off  at  Schenectady  and  tied  the  pot  to  the  brake 
beam  where  it  would  rub  the  wheels  a  little  ...  it  warmed 
it  just  right,"  Louis  assured  him.  The  official,  who  of  course 
knew  better,  just  grinned  and  walked  away. 

Trunk-line  runs  were  so  long  and  exhausting  then  that  a 
few  hours'  sleep  had  to  be  allowed  en  route.  Most  clerks 
carried  a  "bed  sack"— a  worn-out  sack  stuffed  with  discarded 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  ISS 

blankets,  an  old  pillow,  and  work  clothes,  and  handled  at 
terminals  by  the  grip  man.  Some  cars  had  collapsible  bunks 
which  lay  on  racks  or  stall  cleats  and  folded  up;  others  used 
laced-paper-sack  hammocks.  Some  long  runs  were  three  and 
four  full  days  one  way,  and  sleeping  regulations  required 
that  any  of  the  men  could  sleep  one  at  a  time  if  the  mail 
was  in  good  shape.  Exhausted  clerks  sometimes  slept  more 
time  than  allotted,  and  one  was  removed  from  the  Service 
for  "sleeping  on  duty  and  giving  as  reason  for  failure  to 
make  catch,  'Did  not  hear  the  whistle.'  "  On  shorter  lines, 
rough  cots  were  provided  on  top  floors  of  large  post-office 
buildings  at  termini  of  runs. 

A  final  sidelight  of  the  period  was  the  famed  "car  permit," 
issued  theoretically  as  an  admit  card  to  various  postal  cars 
and  stamped  in  bright  red  "Not  good  for  transportation." 
Actually  they  were  furnished  to  clerks  as  passes  for  rides  over 
lines  other  than  their  own,  even  by  officials  of  the  Service, 
and  all  clerks-in-charge  were  expected  to  honor  them  for  pas- 
sage in  spite  of  regulations.  As  related  by  C.  E.  Parsons,  they 
were  used  for  many  years  until  1893,  when  they  were  quickly 
withdrawn  after  clerks  from  all  over  the  nation  were  noticed 
in  Washington,  D.  C,  attending  the  presidential  inaugura- 
tion on  their  permits.  Despite  howls  of  protest,  no  such 
passes  were  ever  restored. 

Most  trainmen  also  honored  the  permits,  but  some  ob- 
served the  regulations  to  the  letter.  One  clerk  riding  on  a 
permit  in  a  B&O  storage  car  next  to  the  engine  was  killed 
in  a  wreck,  and  his  family  won  an  expensive  suit  against  the 
road.  Provoked  B&O  officials  condemned  the  permits,  saying 
the  clerk  should  have  been  given  a  pass  to  ride  the  coaches, 
where  no  one  had  been  hurt.  Another  permit-riding  clerk 
was  permanently  "blackballed"  from  riding  any  part  of  the 
Missouri  Pacific  when  he  talked  back  to  a  conductor  question- 
ing him  as  he  reclined  in  a  chair  in  the  mail-car  doorway. 
On  being  requested  to  pay  fare  as  a  result,  he  angrily  re- 
marked, "If  I  do  pay,  I  doubt  if  the  Company  will  get  it." 
Rench  himself,  riding  by  permit  over  the  old  St.  Louis,  La.  & 
K.City  (C&A),  found  himself  in  the  car  with  a  nervous  new 


154  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

clerk  instead  of  the  one  he  knew— and  to  keep  him  from 
going  stuck,  Rench  had  to  help  him  all  night  without  pay, 
on  a  detour! 

There  are  many  other  vivid  incidents  of  the  old  days. 
When  no  one  on  Albuq.  &  L.A.  (Santa  Fe)  Train  3  had  a 
match  to  light  the  Pintsch-gas  lamps  one  evening,  one  clerk 
merely  pulled  the  cord  and  borrowed  one  from  the  wrathful 
conductor.  Then  there  was  that  notorious  huge  sack  of  mail 
labeled  "Snowsheds  D&D"  (i.e.,  mail  for  "delivery  and  distri- 
bution") which  a  storage-car  helper  brought  back  to  the  old 
Ogden  (Utah)  Temporary  Terminal,  which  had  just  made  it 
up  for  dispatch,  asking  what  the  clerks  wanted  done  with  it- 
there  was  no  such  place  as  Snowsheds.  The  exhausted  Ogden 
helpers,  all  detailed  there  twelve  hours  a  day  at  $75  a  month 
because  of  washouts  on  their  line,  all  denied  having  made 
up  the  sack  despite  the  label's  evidence.  The  reason  ^vas  quite 
evident  when  the  sack  Avas  opened— it  was  crammed  ^vith  tiny 
salve  cans,  the  size  of  quarters,  addressed  practically  every- 
where! The  force,  composed,  by  the  way,  "mostly  of  future 
R.M.S.  officials,"  never  distributed  that  noxious  sack;  it  was 
allegedly  relabeled  once  more  to  some  imsuspecting  line  or 
post  office  in  California. 

The  postmaster  at  Letts,  Iowa,  once  reported  a  crew  on  the 
old  Davenport  R:  Atchison  (Rock  I.?— traversing  his  town)  for 
throwing  mail  off  the  train  into  piles  of  cow  manure.  It  had 
not  been  done  intentionally  thus  far,  but  the  provoked  clerks 
now  began  to  improve  their  marksmanship  until  they  became 
pretty  expert,  says  Rench.  Appearance  of  a  paper  addressed 
to  Letts  on  connecting  lines  from  then  on  was  sure  to  elicit 
bantering  remarks,  not  all  printable.  When  "Old  Nathan," 
a  clerk  of  that  era,  was  discovered  embroiled  in  a  raging 
scuffle,  yelling  for  help,  in  the  end  of  the  car  where  he  was 
supposed  to  be  sleeping  one  night,  would-be  rescuers  crept 
in  with  drawn  guns.  They  discovered,  says  Earl  Newton  in 
verse  form,  that  he  had  a  mouse  in  his  pajamas! 

A  booklet  of  1902  by  Superintendent  V.  J.  Bradley  (2nd 
Division)  well  reveals  the  scope  of  the  Service  at  the  time. 
There  were  then  179,902  miles  of  R.P.O.  routes  and  8,794 


THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  COMES  OF  AGE  155 

clerks,  handling  272,714,017  ton-miles  of  mail  annually;  there 
were  eleven  divisions.  Despite  the  76,000  post  offices  then 
existing,  efficient  R.M.S.  distribution  had  enabled  the  great 
New  York  G.P.O.  to  cut  its  outgoing  mail  separations  to  less 
than  1,300  and  the  Philadelphia  post  office's  to  only  1,000. 
Bradley,  admitting  some  clerks  still  got  only  $800,  also 
pointed  out  how  little  of  their  layoff  was  actual  free  time. 
Clerks  were  averaging  98.74  per  cent  in  exams,  as  against 
only  90.24  in  1890,  and  sorted  thirteen  billion  pieces  of  mail 
a  year.  At  about  this  time  modern  pouch  records  had  just 
appeared. 

In  the  1880s  (and  up  to  1916)  mail  pay  to  the  railroads  was 
based  on  a  quadrennial  weighing  of  all  mails  during  a  fixed 
period  of  some  105  days;  the  country  was  divided  into  four 
sections,  and  one  section  was  covered  each  period,  with  special 
clerks  assisting.  There  were  always  weighings  going  on. 

Clerks  of  the  era  were  particularly  loyal  to  Postmaster 
General  John  Wanamaker,  the  great  merchant-philanthro- 
pist, who  took  much  interest  in  the  R.M.S.  (see  Chapter  10  for 
his  gold-medal  awards).  By  1902  they  were  running  on  1,278 
steam,  23  trolley,  and  49  boat-line  R.P.O.s.  By  1907  there 
were  14,000  clerks,  and  their  accuracy  in  distribution  was  up 
to  only  one  error  in  every  11,822  pieces  handled  (it  was  one 
in  2,824  in  1890). 

The  railways  continued  to  build  up  right  and  left,  and  the 
R.P.O.  system  was  overexpanded  as  railway  post  offices  were 
hastily  installed  on  practically  every  piece  of  trackage  longer 
than  a  spur.  There  was  even  one  on  the  private  track  of  the 
Nevada  Consolidated  Copper  Company— the  old  Cobre  &: 
Ely  (NevNthn),  serving  Kimberly  and  other  famous  towns 
until  scrapped  (1941). 

An  ill-dated  experiment  in  shipping  bulk  mail  to  various 
distributing  points  in  freight  cars  was  commenced  under  the 
Hitchcock  economy  regime  in  1909,  causing  great  delay  to 
thousands  of  magazines  and  catalogs  and  great  confusion 
among  clerks  at  distributing  points,  especially  concerning 
weighings.  (It  was  this  mail  which  required  the  blue  tags 
mentioned   earlier,   attached   in   a   futile   effort  to  keep   it 


1S«  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Straight.)  Protests  from  publishers  finally  secured  a  curtail- 
ment of  the  practice  in  1912.  By  1915  the  force  totaled  over 
20,000  clerks;  they  were  distributing  nearly  fourteen  billion 
pieces  of  mail  annually,  99.98  per  cent  correct,  in  914  full  and 
3,040  apartment  cars,  and  mail-carrying  trackage  had  reached 
the  staggering  total  of  216,000  miles. 

Note:  The  period  covered  by  this  chapter  would  chrono- 
logically include  the  Spanish-American  War  and  other  special 
events  (the  Chicago  fire,  the  "Gold  Trains,"  etcetera)  in- 
volving the  R.M.S.,  but  these  are  covered  more  appropriately 
in  Chapter  11.  Similarly,  it  would  normally  include  the 
founding  of  the  association  which  is  now  the  N.P.T.A.  (also 
the  M.B.A.),  but  this  will  be  better  discussed  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter,  along  with  the  significant  events  between  1910 
and  1940,  which  all  seem  inextricably  linked  with  the  railway 
mail  labor  movement.  Most  new  developments  since  1940  are 
in  Chapter  16. 


Chapter  9 


PERILOUS  DAYS:  THE  "ASSOCIATION"  AND 
THE  "BROTHERHOOD" 


There's  a  great  jubilation  about  us, 

And,  hailing  from  far  and  from  near. 
From  the  shadowy  vales  to  the  hilltops. 

The  sounds  of  rejoicing  we  hear; 
The  goddess  of  fortune  is  smiling. 

Prosperity's  coming  our  way— 
They've  made  us  a  travel  allowance 

Of  six  shining  coppers  a  day!  .  .  . 

—  Earl  L.  Newton 


Thrilling,  sometimes  horrifying,  al- 
most incredible,  is  the  saga  of  the  railway 
mail  clerk's  successful  fight  for  safer  and 
better  working  conditions,  for  a  closer 
approach  to  fair  salaries,  for  the  right  to 
petition  Congress,  and  for  true  labor 
unionism  in  its  finest  existing  form. 
Until  today  the  story  never  could  be 
fully  told;  but  now  that  tempers  have  cooled  and  many  key 
figures  in  the  bitter  struggle  have  passed  from  the  scene,  many 
a  cherished  secret  has  been  revealed  to  the  researcher  for  the 
first  time.  One  salient  fact  stands  out— that  it  was  America's 
railway  mail  clerks  who  initiated  and  spearheaded  the  suc- 
cessful restoration  of  basic  constitutional  rights  to  all  govern- 
ment employees  in  1912  and  after. 

Postal  employees  cannot  ask  for  a  raise  from  the  superin- 
tendent or  postmaster;  they  cannot  form  a  union  which 
threatens  to  strike;  their  salaries  are  set  by  law.    They  will 

137 


158  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

receive  pay  commensurate  with  the  cost  of  living,  and  other 
needed  benefits,  only  when  the  public  is  enough  aroused  to 
demand  such  through  its  representatives  in  Congress. 

Before  1900,  clerks,  and  officials  as  well,  were  very  poorly 
paid.  Many  of  these  officials  were  naturally  unfair  in  making 
appointments  and  promotions  (with  an  eye  to  political  ap- 
proval), were  bitterly  opposed  to  imionism,  obtained  privi- 
leges or  railroad  passes  through  political  influence,  and  lived 
only  for  a  chance  to  quit  and  grab  a  better  job— preferably  as 
a  supervisor  of  mails  for  a  railroad.  (Some  officials,  of  course, 
were  of  high  character  and  entirely  different.)  Many  clerks 
were  removed  from  the  Service  merely  because  of  politics 
or  grudges— a  white  envelope  meant  one  was  fired. 

But  clerks  evidenced  even  more  dissatisfaction  with  regard 
to  the  dangerous,  poorly  constructed  and  serviced  postal  cars 
in  which  they  worked;  clerks  were  being  killed  and  injured 
in  wTecks  everywhere.  Railroad  Avork  has  always  been  dan- 
gerous, but  working  in  the  postal  cars  of  that  day  was  almost 
like  working  in  a  powder  mill.  Before  the  advent  of  double 
tracks,  automatic  block  systems,  heavy  rail  and  ballast,  the 
air  brake,  the  automatic  coupler,  and  legal  control  of  rail- 
roadmen's working  hours,  wrecks  occurred  with  dreadful 
frequency.  The  postal  clerk  was  in  the  greatest  danger;  his 
car  was  generally  the  weakest  in  the  train  (often  an  old,  re- 
modeled baggage  car),  was  spotted  at  the  head  end,  and  hence 
received  the  brunt  of  any  impact  or  followed  the  engine  in 
case  of  derailment. 

Determined  at  least  to  provide  a  little  financial  security  for 
the  maimed  clerks  and  bereaved  families  involved,  a  group  of 
the  employees  met  in  Chicago  on  November  18,  1874,  and 
organized  the  Railway  Mail  Mutual  Benefit  Association,  the 
first  national  organization  ever  formed  among  railway  postal 
clerks— the  first  in  the  Postal  Service,  it  is  claimed.  A.  B. 
Hulse  was  made  president.  The  association  was  to  provide 
straight  life  insurance  at  low  rates,  since  old-line  companies 
would  not  consider  such  risky  fields  of  occupation;  each  mem- 
ber was  assessed  $1.10  upon  the  death  of  any  other  member, 
and  $2,000  was  paid  to  the  latter's  beneficiary.    Lodges  were 


PERILOUS  DAYS  159 

formed  throughout  the  country.  The  "M.B.A."  has  con- 
tinued to  function  throughout  the  years.  Its  newsy  little 
magazine,  the  M.B.A.  Reminder,  was  founded  in  October 
1921,  and  in  1942  the  present  national  secretary— Benjamin 
F.  Carle,  former  10th  Division  Assistant  General  Superintend- 
ent—took over  the  reins.  A  recent  sharp  increase  in  rates 
induced  a  drop  in  membership  from  a  high  of  13,285  to  but 
7,459  in  1947;  but  the  association  is  again  expanding  and  it 
still  sends  out  $2,000  checks  to  beneficiaries  from  its  Chicago 
headquarters.  Active  lodges  are  found  at  Boston,  Cincinnati, 
Atlanta,  Omaha,  and  elsewhere. 

But  the  M.B.A.  of  1874  also  endeavored  to  secure  legisla- 
tion for  better  wage  and  working  conditions,  and  it  began 
this  -^vork  years  before  the  post-office  clerks'  and  carriers' 
national  groups  were  even  founded.  Considerable  publicity 
was  given  to  the  hazardous  nature  of  the  work,  and  by  1879 
legislation  -was  enacted  by  Congress  to  provide  ninety  days' 
full  salary  during  incapacitation  because  of  injuries  on  duty. 

And  there  was  plenty  of  need  for  such  legislation.  The 
report  of  the  Postmaster  General  for  1883  contained  eleven 
printed  pages  of  wrecks,  and  the  1884  report,  fourteen  pages. 
They  were  crammed  with  phrases  like  "Mail  car  was  com- 
pletely destroyed";  ".  .  .  was  fatally  injured  and  died  the 
next  morning";  ".  .  .  was  precipitated  .  .  .  and  badly  injured, 
and  died  on  December  2";  ".  .  .  neck  was  broken,  killing 
instantly";  ".  .  .  was  caught  in  wreck  and  burned  to  death"; 
".  .  .  so  badly  crushed  as  to  be  unrecognizable,"  and  so  on. 
From  1877  to  1884  25  clerks  were  killed  and  147  seriously 
injured  out  of  only  3,153  employed;  in  1885-92  the  figures 
jumped  to  43  and  463. 

In  1883,  furthermore.  Congress  arbitrarily  reduced  the  pay 
of  clerks  in  the  two  top  classes  by  $50  to  $100,  making  it  only 
$1,150  and  $1,300  per  annum.  This  blow,  coupled  with  un- 
fair political  discriminations,  led  to  the  hasty  organization 
of  a  "Brotherhood  of  Railway  Mail  Postal  Clerks,"  in  1886, 
to  protect  the  interests  of  clerks  involved;  but  it  was  admit- 
tedly a  Republican  partisan  group.  It  originated  in  the  old 
5th  Division  and  was  denounced  by  General  Superintendent 


140  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Jamison  and  fellow  o^cials  (apparently  including  Captain 
White,  who  reports  the  incident)  as  "an  association  .  .  . 
inimical  to  private  and  public  interests,  because  its  purpose 
was  intimidation  and  retaliation." 

That  started  the  fireworks.  The  Department  itself  retali- 
ated, with  eighty  immediate  dimissals.  The  B.R.M.P.C.  was 
completely  crushed,  and  the  M.B.A.  took  care  not  to  emulate 
its  tactics.  Next  year  (1887)  the  injury-on-duty  salary  benefit 
was  extended  to  a  one-year  maximum— a  benefit  claimed  as 
an  M.B.A.  credit. 

By  1888  the  first  railway  mail  journal  had  appeared— the 
R.M.S.  Bugle,  published  by  Abraham  E.  Winrott  at  Chicago. 
The  next  year  Representative  Hopkins  introduced  a  bill  to 
increase  postal  clerks'  salaries,  supported  by  both  the  M.B.A. 
and  General  Superintendent  J.  L.  Bell.  Bell  organized  his 
own  lobby  of  railway  mail  clerks  to  come  to  Washington  and 
plead  for  the  increase;  provided  with  free  transportation, 
they  were  ordered  to  team  up  and  visit  congressmen.  Enough 
votes  were  mustered,  but  filibusters  killed  the  bill;  and  the 
delegates  returned,  anxious  for  an  independent  group. 

From  this  beginning,  in  part,  sprang  the  great  National 
Postal  Transport  Association  of  today.  After  a  three-year 
discussion  in  the  Bugle— 2iT\<\  by  correspondence  between  the 
editor,  James  Elliott,  of  Minneapolis,  and  Harry  First,  of 
Cincinnati— the  journal  published  a  call  for  representatives 
of  all  eleven  divisions  to  convene  in  Cincinnati  in  1891.  On 
July  fifteenth,  nineteen  clerks  met  in  the  post-office  read- 
ing room  there,  with  First  acting  as  chairman;  and  on  July 
17,  1891,  they  formally  organized  the  National  Association 
of  Railway  Postal  Clerks,  now  the  N.P.T.A.  The  first  actual 
convention  was  held  in  Detroit  in  August;  M.  C.  Hadley,  of 
Waltham,  Massachusetts,  was  elected  president,  and  M.  H. 
Brown,  of  Atlanta,  secretary. 

Its  constitution  provided  that  the  N.A.R.P.C.  was  to  be  a 
fraternal  beneficiary  association  providing  for  closer  social 
relations,  perfection  of  any  movements  of  benefit  to  the  clerks 
or  the  Service,  and  planning  benefits  to  its  membership  in 
case  of  accidental  death  or  disability.  With  the  exception  of 


PERILOUS  DAYS  .  141 

added  labor-union  functions,  these  provisions  still  hold  true. 
Local  branches,  and  later  divisional  associations,  soon  sprang 
up.  The  headquarters  was  considered  to  be  at  Hadley's  home. 

In  1898  an  efficient  Beneficiary  Department  was  founded 
at  Omaha,  offering  insurance  to  the  extent  of  $4,000  for 
accidental  death  and  $18  weekly  for  disability.  Organized 
by  D.  E.  Barnes,  of  Wichita;  August  Bindeman,  of  Elyria, 
Ohio;  N.  L.  Harrison,  of  Hornell,  New  York;  and  several 
others,  it  issued  certificates  numbered  largely  to  correspond 
with  division  numbers  to  the  charter  members.  It  selected 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  for  its  Home  Office  and  George 
A.  Wood  as  secretary.  William  H.  "Bill"  Fry  was  appointed 
an  enthusiastic  National  Organizer  to  solicit  memberships, 
riding  everywhere  on  his  car  permit;  he  also  was  the  first  to 
suggest  the  Women's  Auxiliary.  "Bill  Fry"  still  adorns  the 
N.P.T.A.  membership  card,  but  a  town  in  Minnesota  named 
after  him  ended  up  as  "Bull  Frog." 

The  N.  A.  R.  P.  C.  soon  received  special  favors.  Its  ac- 
tivities were  announced  in  the  General  Orders,  and  free  leaves 
and  transportation  to  National  Conventions  were  given  by 
the  government.  The  R.M.S.  Bugle  became  the  official 
journal,  but  in  September  1896  it  was  reorganized,  with  an 
eye  to  independent  control,  as  the  Railway  Mail,  edited  by 
Elliott  at  St.  Paul,  Minnesota.  In  August  1899  he  relin- 
quished it  to  outside  control  (it  continued  until  1918)  and 
organized  the  Railway  Post  Office,  now  the  Postal  Transport 
Journal,  as  the  N.A.R.P.C.'s  official  organ  from  then  on. 
He  was  later  succeeded  as  editor  by  Secretary  George  A. 
Wood,  holding  both  offices  concurrently. 

Meanwhile  the  wreck  situation  became  intolerable.  On 
the  old  Switz  City  &  Effingham^  (IllRcIndS)  alone  there  were 
thirty-eight  wrecks  within  three  years.  There  were  5,000  acci- 
dents during  the  1890s;  14  deaths  in  1897  and  75  for  the 
period,  despite  new,  stronger  mail-car  specifications  drawn  up 
by  Captain  White.  By  1899,  4,500  of  the  8,388  clerks  were 
N.A.R.P.Cs. 


'Famed  in  early  lore  as  "The  Pumpkin  Vine"  or  "The  Abe  Martin. 


142  MAIL  BY  R.\II. 

About  1900,  through  the  efforts  of  the  N.A.R.P.C.  and 
Honorable  J.  A.  Tawney,  the  clerks'  first  effective  pleader  in 
Congress,  the  previous  maximum  salaries  were  restored— fol- 
lowing an  impassioned  speech  in  which  Ta^vney  appealed  for 
"Equality  and  Justice"  and  pointed  out  that  R.P.C.s  were 
subject  to  more  continuous  labor,  stricter  rules  and  discipline, 
and  less  of  home  and  family  comforts  than  any  other  govern- 
ment employees.  (He  described  the  travel  allowances  received 
by  foreign  railway  mail  clerks  even  then.) 

But  discipline  became  even  more  severe,  and  in  1902 
(a  year  of  9  wreck-deaths  and  390  injuries)  came  the  crown- 
ing bloAv.  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  issued  a  startling 
proclamation.  Civil  Service  Order  No.  12,  better  known  as 
the  infamous  Gag  Rule.  Issued  in  November,  it  read: 

All  officers  and  employees  of  the  United  States  .  .  . 
are  hereby  forbidden  either  directly  or  indirectly,  indi- 
vidually or  through  associations,  to  solicit  an  increase 
in  pay  or  influence  in  their  own  interest  any  other  legis- 
lation whatever,  either  before  Congress  or  in  its  commit- 
tees, or  in  any  way,  save  through  the  department  .  .  . 
in  or  under  which  they  serve,  under  penalty  of  dismissal 
from  the  Government  service. 

Three  years  later,  when  Roosevelt  tried  to  fire  a  govern- 
ment printer  who  had  disputed  (on  his  bicycle)  the  Presi- 
dent's right  of  Avay,  he  found  that  legislative  safeguards  pre- 
vented it;  therefore  he  issued  a  folloAv-up  W^hite  House  order 
authorizing  the  instant  dismissal,  without  reasons  or  appeal, 
of  any  government  employee. 

From  then  on  these  two  closely  related  Executive  Orders 
were  rigidly  enforced  by  postal  officials.  Barred  effective 
protests,  employees'  conditions  became  intolerable.  Soon 
N.A.R.P.C.  President  J.  A.  Kidwell,  departing  from  the 
Association's  usual  conciliatory  tactics,  made  a  speech  at  Chi- 
cago criticizing  conditions,  and  was  fired  from  the  R.M.S. 
Wreck  fatalities  doubled  in  1903;  strong  car  specifications 
were  drafted  in  1904,  but  older  cars  still  became  more  and 
more  dangerous.  Unclean  water  and  filthy  toilets  were  daily 
complaints,  despite  honest  efforts  by  General  Superintendent 


PERILOUS  DAYS  143 

White,  the  N.A.R.P.C.,  and  others  to  improve  conditions. 

In  1904  the  N.A.R.P.C.  became  the  "Railway  Mail  Asso- 
ciation," and  kept  that  name  for  45  years.  In  1907  a  $100-a- 
year  salary  increase,  credited  to  R.M.A.  efforts,  was  secured, 
but  in  that  year,  also,  White  was  succeeded  by  Alexander 
Grant  as  General  Superintendent,  with  a  marked  change  of 
policy  for  the  worse.  A  stricter  merit-and-demerit  system, 
with  "teeth,"  was  first  adopted;  and  its  "plus  and  minus 
points"  filled  hearts  with  fear.  A  clerks'  petition  to  Congress 
via  approved  departmental  channels,  demanding  I.C.C.  safety 
rules,  was  returned  unapproved  as  "unhappily  worded." 

By  now  210  clerks  had  been  killed  since  1875  and  there 
had  been  9,400  R.P.O.  wrecks;  there  were  only  twenty-six 
steel  R.P.O.  cars  anywhere.  Worse  yet,  in  1908  Taft  was 
elected  President  and  revamped  the  Gag  Rule  in  emphatic 
terms  (instead  of  rescinding  it,  as  expected),  and  appointed 
Amos  Hitchcock,  a  strict  and  economy-crazed  politician,  as 
the  successor  to  Postmaster  General  Meyer.  At  the  same  time 
the  first  movement  for  retirement  annuities  had  been  begun 
in  the  10th  (Wisconsin-Minnesota-Dakota)  Division,  with 
R.M.A.  groups  banqueting  officials;  but  rugged  individualists 
among  the  clerks  squelched  it.  However,  legislation  was 
passed  granting  SI, 000  death  benefits  for  clerks  killed  on 
duty— claimed  by  the  R.M.A.  as  its  accomplishment. 

In  1909,  however,  the  seething  cauldron  of  resentment 
boiled  over.  Urban  A.  Walter,  a  clerk  on  the  N.Y.  &  Chic. 
(NYCent),  had  just  transferred  to  the  Albuq.  &  Los  Angeles 
(Santa  Fe)  for  his  health  and  was  living  in  Phoenix,  Arizona, 
on  sick  leave  Avithout  pay.  Appalled  at  service  conditions  and 
determined  to  quit  anyhow,  he  launched  in  June  "the  most 
remarkable  publication  since  the  time  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison"  (who  -was  quoted  freely  therein)— the  Harpoon,  a 
vivid,  red-and-yellow-bound,  6x8  inch,  32-page  magazine. 

A  huge  red  harpoon  and  the  words  "A  Magazine  That 
Hurts— For  Postal  Clerks"  were  on  the  front  co\er,  and  a 
memorial  tombstone  to  three  clerks  burned  to  death  in  a 
wreck  was  the  frontispiece.  "Strike?— No!  Publicity?— Yes!" 
was  its  opening  headline.   Articles  in  tense,  compelling  style 


144  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

outlined  its  purpose  "to  let  the  public,  especially  the  busi- 
ness public,  knoiu  .  .  .  the  abuses  .  .  ."  The  horrible  details 
of  insanitary  water  and  bedbug-infested  lodgings  were  ex- 
posed. "The  Gag  Is  Nailed!"  cried  Walter,  pleading  for 
support  and  decrying  the  customary  fawning  and  cringing 
before  the  officials.  The  first  edition  of  15,000— produced 
under  heroic  conditions,  a  saga  in  itself— was  sent  to  every 
senator  and  congressman,  every  big  postal  official,  every 
worth-while  newspaper,  and  thousands  of  R.P.C.s  and  P.O. 
clerks.  Its  articles  were  sensational  yet  positive,  captivating 
the  reader's  interest  in  Walter's  unorthodox,  startling  man- 
ner. He  printed  and  circulated  the  paper  at  his  own  ex- 
pense for  months,  throwing  a  bombshell  into  government 
labor  affairs,  after  a  narrow  escape  from  total  failure. 

Gradually  subscriptions  and  extra  money  came  in;  a  car- 
toonist was  hired  and  the  N.E.A.  syndicated  the  cover  design. 
The  second  issue  printed  glowing  tributes  from  many,  bitter 
notes  from  officials,  and  startling  articles  on  the  unflushable 
"tank  and  can"  in  many  cars,  delay  to  mails  through  disgrace- 
ful personnel  management  at  depots,  rotten-wood  cars,  and 
"iced  rat  soup"  (the  rat  was  found  inside  the  drinking  water). 
It  made  newspaper  headline  everywhere. 

The  leviathan  of  officialdom  quivered  with  rage  at  the 
Harpoon's  biting  barbs.  Both  Urban  and  Beatty,  the  Ama- 
rillo  &  Pecos  (Santa  Fe)  clerk  who  had  sent  in  the  dead  rat, 
were  promptly  fired;  officials  threatened  all  supporters  of  the 
infamous  magazine  with  dismissal;  the  Second  Assistant 
Postmaster  General  decried  the  "flagrantly  false  representa- 
tions of  the  R.M.S."  in  it.  The  Railway  Mail  Association, 
with  the  exception  of  its  fighting  Publicity  Committee,  also 
threw  up  its  hands  in  horror  at  these  disloyal  tactics.  Under 
President  J.  T.  Canfield,  R.M.A.  leaders  honestly  felt  that 
their  policy  of  respectful  conciliation  toward  the  Department 
was  the  best  way  of  securing  benefits  for  all  clerks,  and  they 
doubtless  thought  they  were  saving  at  least  one  clerk's  job 
by  dismissing  their  militant  Publicity  Committee  at  the  next 
convention  (its  chairman,  E.  H.  Roberts,  had  been  threatened 
with  discharge). 


PERILOUS  DAYS  145 

Walter  moved  the  Harpoon  to  Denver,  changed  it  to  news- 
paper format,  and  backed  up  his  campaign  with  hundreds  of 
letters  and  telegrams  to  Congress,  securing  over  two  hundred 
pledges  of  support.  The  Department,  a  bit  on  guard  by 
then,  began  to  order  wooden  mail  cars  kept  away  from  en- 
gines in  the  train  consist;  sanitation  was  improved  a  bit,  a 
few  more  steel  cars  added,  and  up  to  thirty  days'  sick  leave 
(evidently  without  pay)  granted  the  clerks.  Simultaneously, 
two  law  students  among  the  clerks  started  a  campaign  for 
travel  allowances,  convinced  by  a  study  of  the  P.  L.  &  R.  that 
they  were  due.  Others  including  the  R.M.A.,  but  especially 
the  Harpoon,  took  up  the  fight;  and  legislation  the  following 
year  (1911)  granted  the  first  pittance  of  twenty-five  cents  per 
day— although  seventy-five  cents  was  authorized— to  clerks  for 
travel  expenses. 

But  conditions  were  still  intolerable.  Clerks  reporting 
filthy  or  unsafe  cars  were  told  to  stop  being  so  fussy.  The  Ser- 
vice Rating  System  was  again  expanded  into  a  fearful  weapon 
of  discipline,  with  new  penalties  being  added  without  notice 
to  the  clerks  and  harshly  applied,  to  their  complete  surprise. 
Walter,  raging  against  these  and  other  practices,  was  sued 
three  times  for  libel  by  the  government,  but  without  success. 
Lines  were  badly  understaffed,  but  on  top  of  this  Hitchcock 
issued  orders  to  "take  up  the  slack"  by  reducing  layoffs  and 
lengthening  hours.  Men  who  "never  went  stuck"  now  cared 
little  if  they  didn't  get  "up."  Morale  was  at  its  lowest  in  the 
winter  of  1910-1911;  not  even  the  customary  Christmas  help 
was  allowed,  and  tons  of  Christmas  mail  remained  unworked 
for  days  amid  a  chaos  of  sidetracked  cars  with  men  called  in 
from  layoffs,  back-and-forth  hauls  until  mail  could  be  worked 
out,  and  quadrennial  weighings  where  this  shuttling  became  a 
four-year  expense.  The  wreck  situation  was  climaxed  by 
a  Christmas  Eve  crash  killing  four  clerks— in  a  wooden  car 
just  passed  at  inspection  despite  new  "safe-and-sound  con- 
struction" specifications  issued  July  first.  When  a  catcher 
arm  was  pulled  out  of  the  rotten  wood  in  another  accident, 
the  event  was  reported— and  three  years  later  the  rotten  wood 
had  still  not  been  replaced. 


Ho  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

The  press,  which  had  been  backing  the  Administration, 
now  swung  around  to  skepticism  of  Hitchcock's  policies  and 
pubhshed  vivid  accounts  of  dissatisfaction  in  the  railway  mail 
and  post-office  services,  as  well  as  photos  of  huge  piles  of 
"stuck"  Christmas  mail  and  broadsides  against  the  Postmaster 
General.  One  striking  photo  was  obtained  by  Walter  at 
Denver,  despite  temporary  arrest,  of  stacks  of  bag-mail. 

In  January  1911  came  the  crisis:  Clerks  on  the  225-mile 
Tracy  &  Pierre  (C&NW)  went  on  "strike."  This  line,  now 
"The  Elroy"  (Elroy  &  Rapid  City),  was  a  twice-daily  service 
from  Minnesota  into  South  Dakota's  state  capital,  employing 
thirteen  to  sixteen  clerks  on  a  six-day-on,  six-off  basis. 
(Another  source  says  two  weeks  on,  one  off.)  Its  borrowed 
sixty-foot  car  was  choked  with  working  mails  for  four  states 
as  "green"  helpers  arrived  just  at  leaving  time,  leaving  it  still 
badly  undermanned.  The  clerk-in-charge  had  to  do  almost 
half  the  letter  sorting  besides  his  heavy  record  work;  over 
one  hundred  new  clerks  assigned  to  the  line  at  some  time  had 
quit  it,  and  the  helper  runs  were  going  stuck  five  days  weekly 
as  early  as  1899.  In  1910  alone,  sixteen  dissatisfied  clerks  had 
resigned  or   transferred. 

Eight  clerks  "ran  through,"  Avhile  at  least  three  (two  at  a 
time)  were  helpers  between  Tracy  and  Huron,  South  Dakota, 
leaving  only  two  "through"  men  in  each  crew.  Soon,  how- 
ever, certain  through  clerks  were  ordered  to  run  west  only  as 
far  as  Bltmt,  South  Dakota,  since  through-running  of  all 
clerks  would  necessitate  a  higher  salary  classification  for  the 
line.  And  there  were  no  sleeping  accommodations  at  Blunt, 
so  these  men  had  to  run  through  to  Pierre  anyway,  helping 
without  pay. 

And  now,  in  "taking  up  the  slack,"  Superintendent  Nor- 
man Perkins  at  St.  Paul  (who  had  profanely  denounced 
the  Harpoon)  issued  an  order  through  Chief  Clerk  Denison 
at  Aberdeen  that  all  regular  clerks  on  the  Tracy  &  Pierre 
report  on  their  layoffs  without  pay  to  keep  up  a  vacancy  on 
one  of  the  helper  runs  out  of  Huron  (its  occupant  had  re- 
signed—the position  was  abolished).  At  least  half  the  regular 
clerks  lived  in  either  Tracy  or  Pierre  and  would  have  to 


PERILOUS  DAYS  147 

deadhead  to  Huron  twelve  hours  before  leaving  time,  taking 
three  nights  of  their  layoff  for  the  unpaid  trip.  A  protest  to 
Denison,  signed  by  Fred  C.  Ohman,  Claire  W.  Holcomb,  and 
other  clerks,  was  fruitless.  Thereupon  all  thirteen  clerks, 
with  one  exception,  declined  to  cover  the  extra  runs  and,  as 
they  came  due,  did  not  report.  Some  inspectors  backed  up  the 
clerks  at  first,  and  even  secured  the  discharge  of  one  official 
involved;  but  that  only  outraged  those  higher  up. 

All  twelve  of  the  "strikers"  were  suspended  for  insubordi- 
nation and  failure  to  protect  runs;  five  were  later  discharged, 
the  others  reduced.  It  was  a  startling  situation— virtual 
mutiny,  yet  justified  on  the  ground  of  unjust,  physically  un- 
endurable conditions.  Mail  piled  up  in  appalling  congestion; 
desperately,  officials  tried  to  get  the  line  into  working  order. 
To  assist  Forsburg,  the  one  "loyal"  clerk  (he  was  commended 
and  promoted),  two  others  were  hastily  transferred  from  near- 
by units;  scores  of  substitutes  were  rushed  to  the  line,  and 
utter  chaos  reigned  for  two  months  as  "strikebreakers"  totally 
imfamiliar  with  the  distribution  were  brought  in  from  all 
nearby  divisions.  Even  Chief  Clerk  Wolfe  had  to  take  the 
run  once,  in  addition  to  helping  sort  1,100  sacks  of  unworked 
papers  on  the  station  platform  at  Phillips,  South  Dakota. 
Mail  rode  up  and  down  the  line  undelivered  for  a  week  or 
more;  a  letter  from  Miller  to  Huron,  almost  the  next  station, 
took  several  weeks  to  get  there. 

The  news  spread  like  wildfire,  making  the  Department 
apprehensive  of  new  strikes.  It  was  reported  that  a  similar 
strike  had  occurred  on  the  connecting  Oakes  &  Hawarden 
(C&rNW),  but  investigation  has  indicated  that  it  did  not. 
Still,  clerks  every^vhere  followed  developments  with  consum- 
ing interest;  the  Harpoon  took  up  the  cause  with  vigor,  and 
contributions  to  assist  the  strikers  poured  in.  "What's  the 
latest  on  the  T.&P.?"  was  heard  everywhere.  Clerks  and  sub- 
stitutes called  for  runs  on  the  line,  overwhelmingly  sympa- 
thetic with  the  cause,  found  every  conceivable  excuse  for 
staying  home  or  reporting  sick.  Forsburg  and  his  regular 
assistant  were  treated  with  utter  scorn,  and  their  line  was 
swamped  with  sacks  of  squealers  and  nixies.   Over  two  hun- 


148  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

dred  resignations  were  written  out  by  clerks  near  by,  ready 
to  hand  in  if  things  didn't  improve. 

One  month  after  the  strike  began,  indignation  crystallized 
in  the  organization  of  the  Brotiierhood  of  Railway  Postal 
Clerks  at  Harpoon  headquarters  in  February  1911.  (A  local 
group  of  the  same  name  had  been  organized  in  Los  Angeles 
in  1907  but  was  crushed  by  the  Department.)  For  six  years 
the  B.R.P.C.,  while  never  the  size  of  the  R.M.A.,  was  destined 
to  be  the  most  influential  national  group  of  railway  mail 
clerks  ever  known  thus  far.  It  openly  advocated  affiliation 
with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor;  introduced  a  secret 
grip,  ritual,  and  password;  and  organized  active  lodges  at 
Denver,  Chicago,  Washington,  San  Francisco,  Minneapolis, 
and  a  dozen  other  cities.  Its  colorful  red-and-black  union 
card  was  decorated  with  green  and  orange  stamps  certifying 
to  dues  payment  ($1  and  $2)— rare,  attractive  adhesives  of 
which  only  a  few  specimens  exist  today.  The  initiation  ritual 
was  grimly  humorous,  the  blindfolded  candidate,  as  a  "new 
sub,"  was  put  through  a  third  degree  of  questioning  by  a 
Class  2  clerk,  assessed  "demerits"  for  his  answers,  and  put 
through  an  appalling  simulated  wreck. 

Thus  was  literally  fulfilled  an  announced  purpose  of  the 
Harpoon  in  its  first  issue:  "To  cement  the  .  .  .  clerks  into  one 
vast,  vital,  pulsating  Brotherhood."  Walter,  elected  secretary- 
treasurer,  introduced  for  the  first  time  among  postal  groups 
the  direct  election  of  national  officers  by  mail  ballot,  the 
monthly  published  and  open  audit  of  funds,  and  the  public 
handling  of  all  routine  business  through  its  official  journal— 
naturally,  the  Harpoon. 

Meanwhile  the  Department  tried  both  appeasement  and 
oppression  on  the  "struck"  line.  Overdue  promotions  were 
handed  out;  even  the  strikers,  before  suspension,  were  offered 
clerk-in-chargeships  (promptly  refused).  Then,  suspended, 
they  were  spied  upon  or  harassed  until  their  discharge  or 
reduction;  substitutes  were  given  demerits  for  not  taking  the 
run.  Apparently  none  of  the  discharged  clerks  was  ever 
reinstated;  many  went  into  business  successfully,  and  Ohman 
(discharged,  with  Holcomb)  later  entered  the  legislature.   Of 


PERILOUS  DAYS  149 

those  reinstated,  one— Ed  Bicek— is  still  running  on  the  Elroy 
&  Rapid  City  today.  By  now  the  public  was  thoroughly 
aroused;  it  did  not  know  the  merits  of  the  case,  but  it  did  want 
its  mail,  and  without  delay.  Telegrams  poured  into  Washing- 
ton, Pierre,  St.  Paul,  any  seat  of  authority  offering  possible 
relief;  both  state  assemblies  petitioned  Congress;  newspapers 
reprinted  Harpoon  blasts. 

It  worked.  Within  tAvo  months  the  line  had  been  raised  to 
its  proper  class  (salaries  $100  higher),  the  objectionable  Blunt 
runs  were  extended  to  Pierre,  and  the  reduced  clerks  rein- 
stated in  grade.  Other  clerks  were  induced  to  transfer  to  the 
line  by  salary  increases,  and  a  semblance  of  order  was  re- 
stored. It  has  been  claimed  that  "the  boys  lost  their  fight," 
but  the  record  indicates  otherwise.  And  the  Department, 
alarmed,  did  not  stop  there;  "Walter's  pitiless  exposes  of  tragic 
wooden-car  wrecks  crushing  clerks  like  matchboxes  and  of 
other  abuses  certainly  helped  secure  corrective  action.  Con- 
gress, in  particular,  stepped  in  to  pass  the  first  "steel  car  law" 
on  March  4,  1911  (the  end  of  the  strike)— providing  that  full 
R.P.O.  cars  had  to  be  constructed  under  rigid  safety  speci- 
fications and  built  of  equal  strength  to  all  other  cars  of  the 
train,  which  meant  "steel"  on  all  principal  railroads.  July  1, 
1916,  was  set  as  the  deadline  for  withdrawal  of  all  main-line 
wooden  cars;  travel  allowance  was  also  increased  to  $1  a  day, 
and  thirty  days'  annual  leave  with  pay  was  granted  to  certain 
six-days-a-week  clerks  (later  voided). 

The  Railway  Mail  Association  claimed  credit  for  all  such 
benefits  obtained,  of  course,  and  doubtless  their  influence 
did  help.  At  their  1911  Convention  in  June  at  Syracuse, 
Peter  J.  Schardt,  of  Saukville,  Wisconsin  (later  a  high  South- 
ern Railway  official,  just  deceased),  was  elected  president  to 
succeed  J,  T.  Canfield— on  a  "progressive"  platform.  Vice 
president  at  the  time,  he  had  been  an  aggressive  worker  for 
better  conditions  in  the  strike-famed  10th  Division  (Wiscon- 
sin-Minnesota-Dakota) and  later  its  R.M.A.  president,  in 
contrast  to  the  association's  general  appeasement  policy. 
However,  instead  of  threatening  a  great  strike,  as  expected, 
the  new  president  counseled  moderation— an  action  which, 


150  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

like  others  of  his,  is  staunchly  defended  by  many  N.P.T.A. 
leaders  even  today  on  the  ground  that  such  measures  would 
have  been  ruinous;  the  "time  was  not  ripe  for  unionism." 
The  upshot  was,  however,  that  the  R.M.A.  could  do  little  to 
help  the  situation;  and  it  opposed  strongly,  of  course,  both 
the  T.&P.  strike  and  the  Brotherhood  itself. 

There  was  still  the  Gag  Rule,  and  discontent  and  rebellion 
seethed  everywhere.  New  groups  of  indignant  clerks  were 
organized  in  the  Midwest  and  East,  some  later  absorbed  by 
the  Brotherhood  but  others  consisting  of  progressive  R.M.A. 
units— notably  in  the  1st  (New  England)  and  10th  divisions. 
Ringleaders  in  all  these  fields  were  fired  for  their  pro-labor 
activitites:  Charles  Quackenbush  at  Boston,  C.  P.  Rodman 
in  Omaha,  John  Albert  "Whalen  in  Des  Moines  (the  clerk 
who  sent  in  the  famous  samples  of  rotten  car  wood),  and 
many  others.  Whalen,  allowed  no  defense  (despite  Second 
Assistant  P. M.G. -published  announcements  of  advance  notice 
and  defense  facilities  for  all  accused  clerks),  published  his 
whole  story  in  a  challenging  booklet  (see  Bibliography).  New 
England  clerks,  -wroth  at  Quackenbush's  discharge,  elected 
him  R.M.A.  division  president  over  the  bitter  opposition  of 
its  favor-currying  incumbent  officers;  Quackenbush  had  to 
have  his  predecessor  legally  ousted  from  the  hall.  But  mem- 
bers rallied  to  support  him,  and  finally  even  got  him  rein- 
stated; the  government  ordered  the  voluminous  procedings 
recorded  in  a  "pamphlet,"  which  turned  out  to  be  a  265-page 
clothbound  book— one  of  our  few  all-R.M.S.  volumes.! 

Postal  inspectors  spied  on  meetings  of  all  progressive 
groups,  took  names  of  those  advocating  unions  or  affiliation, 
and  cited  many  for  discipline  or  removal;  in  the  T.O., 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  spying  inspectors  were  put  on  letter  cases. 
Five  hundred  clerks  declared  they  would  resign  in  a  body  if 
General  Superintendent  Stephens  of  the  R.M.S.  were  not 
removed.  They  asked  instant  relief  from  unpaid  overtime, 
undermanned  runs,  unreasonable  hours,  dangerous  cars,  and 
payless  retirements.  Secretary  Frank  Morrison  of  the  A.F.  of 
L.  took  up  the  clerks*  cause,  and  the  Department  extorted 
pledges  from  clerks  to  repudiate  any  group  advocating  affilia- 


PERILOUS  DAYS  151 

tion  therewith.  Brotherhood  members  refusing  to  sign  were 
reduced  or  fired  on  insignificant  charges  or  for  "pernicious 
activity." 

The  very  next  year  the  tide  turned.  President  Gompers 
of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  declared  boldly  for  full  constitutional  rights 
for  clerks;  then  progressive  Senator  Robert  M.  La  Follette, 
backed  by  Senator  Lloyd,  introduced  a  sweeping  measure 
calling  for  complete  abolition  of  the  Gag  Rule  and  summary 
dismissals.  The  bill  was  the  direct  culmination  of  pleas  from 
the  Brotherhood,  the  Harpoon,  a  few  bold  R.M.A.  workers, 
and  the  public  as  evidenced  in  thousands  of  letters  and  news- 
paper pleas— many  of  the  letters  being  replies  to  an  inquiry 
sent  by  La  Follette  to  every  clerk  in  the  Service  under 
promise  of  anonymity. 

In  May,  President  Schardt  addressed  the  R.M.A.  in  con- 
vention at  New  Orleans.  He  was  expected  to  support  the  bill 
vigourously,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  giowing  pro- 
gressive element;  there  was  hope  for  its  endorsement  in  a 
a  body  by  the  delegates.  But  Schardt,  after  long  conferences 
with  Second  Assistant  P.M.G.  Stewart  (General  Superintend- 
ent Stephens's  superior),  finally  reported  to  the  delegates: 

"I  argued  for  hours  with  Stewart  for  the  right  of  direct 
petition  .  .  .  but  finally  grasped  the  significance  of  their  posi- 
tion. I  Avould  have  been  a  base  poltroon  and  a  traitor  to  the 
cause  if  I  had  done  otherwise  [than  agree  to  oppose  such 
legislation]  .  .  ." 

With  the  "old  guard"  all  too  eager  to  follow  the  suggestion 
that  voting  for  such  an  officially-disfavored  bill  would  dan- 
gerously antagonize  the  Department,  the  convention— after 
t^s'ice  denying  Urban  Walter  the  floor— "ruthlessly  slaught- 
ered" the  resolution  favoring  the  Lloyd-La  Follette  bill  by  a 
vote  of  44  to  20. 

Fortunately  the  bill  was  enacted  anyhow  on  August  24, 
1912,  amid  great  rejoicing  by  the  Brotherhood,  which  had 
fought  for  it.  The  R.ALA,  later  took  credit  for  securing  the 
act's  passage;  but  the  record,  alas,  must  stand.  The  laiv.  Sec- 
tion 12  of  the  Post  Office  Bill,  is  still  in  force  and  reads  essen- 
tially as  follows: 


152  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

That  no  person  in  the  classified  civil  service  .  .  .  shall 
be  removed  therefrom,  except  for  such  cause  as  will  pro- 
mote the  efficiency  of  said  service  and  for  reasons  given  in 
writing;  .  .  .  [he]  shall  have  notice  of  the  same  and  of  any 
charges  preferred  against  him  and  be  furnished  with  a 
copy  thereof,  also  be  allowed  a  reasonable  time  for  per- 
sonally answering  same  in  writing,  and  affidavits  in 
support  thereof  .  .  . 

Membership  in  any  society,  association,  club,  or  other 
organization  of  postal  employees,  not  affiliated  with  any 
outside  organization  imposing  an  obligation  or  duty 
upon  them  to  engage  in  any  strike  .  .  .  against  the  United 
States,  having  for  its  objects,  among  other  things,  im- 
provements in  the  condition  of  labor  of  its  members, 
including  hours  of  labor  and  compensation  therefor  and 
leaves  of  absence,  ...  or  the  presenting  by  any  such 
person  or  groups  of  persons  of  any  grievance  ...  to  the 
Congress  or  any  member  thereof,  shall  not  constitute  or 
be  cause  for  reduction  in  rank  or  compensation  or  re- 
moval of  such  person  or  gioups  of  persons  from  said 
service. 

The  right  of  persons  employed  in  the  civil  service  of 
the  United  States,  either  individually  or  collectively  to 
petition  Congress,  or  any  member  thereof,  or  to  furnish 
information  .  .  .  shall  not  be  denied  or  interfered  with. 

And  Congress  did  not  stop  there;  it  also  granted  automatic 
progressive  promotions  to  clerks  after  a  year's  satisfactory 
service  in  the  next  lower  grade,  granted  up  to  one  and  one- 
half  years'  pay  to  any  clerk  incapacitated  by  injury  while  on 
duty,  and  provided  for  each  eight  hours  of  work  of  non-road 
clerks  to  be  within  not  over  a  ten-hour  spread. 

Such  advances,  for  which  the  R.M.A.  took  credit,  were  all 
a  great  step  forward;  but  the  fight  was  not  yet  Avon.  The  De- 
partment found  ways  of  circumventing  the  law  to  continue 
unjust  dismissals,  and  in  the  same  year  efficiency  ratings  were 
introduced  and  often  imfairly  applied.  Regular  parcel  post 
was  introduced  for  the  first  time  January  1,  1913  (Hitchcock 
mailed  the  first  one),  flooding  the  unprepared  lines  and  creat- 
ing new  resentment. 


PERILOUS  DAYS  153 

In  1913  the  Cincinnati  R.M.A.  Convention  again  rode 
roughshod  over  its  progressive  element,  with  hundreds  of 
members  deserting;  but  progress  was  made  too.  Direct  mail- 
ballot  election  of  national  officers  (as  in  the  Brotherhood) 
was  decided  upon,  and  even  the  Harpoon  applauded  the 
move.  The  R.M.A.  announced  the  securing  of  an  optional 
thirty  days'  leave  (payless)  per  year.  And  having  discovered 
serious  irregularities  in  the  records  and  services  of  Secretary 
Wood,  the  association  dismissed  him  and  elected  Rufus  E. 
Ross,  a  progressive;  but  conservative  August  Bindeman 
(charter  member)  was  elected  editor  of  the  Railway  Post 
Office  to  succeed  J.  A.  Kidwell,  who  as  president  had  once 
defied  the  Department. 

The  progressive  element  was  headed  largely  by  Carl  Van 
Dyke  of  the  10th  Division,  his  division  president  William 
M.  Collins,  and  Edward  J.  Ryan  of  Massachusetts  (represent- 
ing the  Quackenbush  unionists).  Van  Dyke,  a  capable  clerk 
on  the  old  St.  Paul  &  Devils  Lake  (C&:NW),  hailed  from 
Alexandria,  Minnesota;  he  was  soon  disciplined  by  the  De- 
partment for  "subversive  activity"  as  a  Brotherhood  charter 
member  and  organizer,  being  demoted  to  a  low-grade  job  in 
the  St.  Louis  post  office.  Refusing  to  accept  it  he  was  fired. 
Still  an  R.M.A.  member,  he  was  elected  division  president  by 
his  outraged  supporters  and  offered  the  equivalent  of  his 
R.M.S.  salary  to  fight  for  the  cause  full  time.  He  continued 
his  effective  trips  to  Washington,  helped  to  secure  a  salary 
increase  for  certain  clerks,  and  after  much  frustration  finally 
organized  a  "Brotherhood  of  R.P.C.'s  Grand  Lodge"  (inde- 
pendent) to  assist  the  division  R.M.A.  in  raising  money  for 
the  cause.  Charles  J.  Wentz,  still  active  in  retirement,  was 
his  secretary,  and  credits  him  with  most  of  the  responsibility 
for  passage  of  the  Anti-Gag  Act.  (The  St.  Paul  Branch 
N.P.T.A.  still  owns  its  spread-eagle  official  seal.) 

Then  Van  Dyke  ran  for  Congress— on  the  Democratic 
ticket  in  a  Republican  district— and  won,  in  1914,  through 
support  of  postal  men  and  thousands  of  friends.  The  first 
congressman  to  specialize  in  openly  championing  the  railway 
mail  clerks'  cause,  he  secured  them  many  legislative  benefits. 


154  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

He  prominently  publicized  some  three  hundreds  clerks'  resig- 
nations he  had  on  file,  to  be  handed  in  if  thino^s  didn't  im- 
prove. He  pleaded  for  true  unionism  in  the  R.M.A.;  but 
meanwhile  President  Schardt  had  been  appointed  a  chief 
clerk  in  January  1914,  to  be  succeeded  by  a  typical  rigid 
conservative  from  Topeka,  Kansas— George  H.  Fair. 

On  May  1,  1914,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  chart- 
ered the  B.R.P.C,  as  a  full-fledged  affiliated  union,  with 
Clarence  A.  Locke  as  president.  They  still  had  plenty  of  in- 
justices to  fight  against,  as  their  Harpoon  files  reveal— intimi- 
dation against  Brotherhood  membership  direct  from  avowed 
anti-unionist  General  Superintendent  Stephens;  a  nerve-rack- 
ing, demerit-backed  "speed  test"  introduced  on  all  trains  to 
hound  any  efficient  clerk  who  was  nervous  under  observation 
or  just  a  bit  slower  than  average  (some  were  fired);  withheld 
promotions  for  those  in  official  disfavor;  rail  passes  for  poli- 
ticians and  rigidly  restricted  commissions  for  clerks;  con- 
tinued fatal  wrecks;  diversion  of  letters  and  newspapers  to 
the  new  terminal  R.P.O.s  (set  up  to  take  over  parcels  and 
circulars),  delayed  in  sacks  "held  until  full";  new  mountains 
of  "stuck"  mail,  due  to  insufficient  force  and  poor  handling; 
and  recruiting  of  "bums  off  the  streets"  for  substitutes,  as 
portrayed  in  a  vivid,  "libelous"  Harpoon  cartoon  showing 
Hitchcock  beckoning  to  them  from  the  window  of  a  house 
of  ill  fame  labeled  "Postal  Service." 

And  in  December,  Postmaster  General  Burleson  (who  had 
succeeded  Hitchcock)  actually  expanded  his  predecessor's 
stern  policies  in  a  vindictive  proposal  to  Congress  to  abolish 
the  Postal  Service's  eight-hour  day,  the  one  day's  rest  in 
seven,  the  eleven  thousand  promotions  due  to  be  made  in 
1915;  to  cut  substitute's  salaries  to  thirty  cents  an  hour,  and 
put  all  terminals  in  the  lowest  pay  classification.  He  pointed 
with  pride  to  this  $22,000,000  economy  saving  to  be  taken 
from  the  government's  most  underpaid  employees.  Yet  the 
Raihvay  Post  Office,  although  publishing  articles  by  progres- 
sives decrying  the  bill  and  even  praising  Urban  Walter's  good 
work  (June  1913),  went  the  conservative  limit  editorially- 
stating  it  could  not  criticize  a  single  point  of  this  program! 


PERILOUS  DAYS  155 

But  the  outraged  protests  of  the  B.R.P.C.  and  R.M.A.  pro- 
gressives brought  immediate  defeat  to  the  measure,  as  pub- 
Hcly  admitted  by  Congress. 

While  the  B.R.P.C.  expanded  its  lodges,  Senator  William 
E.  Borah  was  now  persuaded  to  draft  a  bill  to  eliminate  the 
speed  test,  and  hundreds  of  clerks  signed  a  petition  in  sup- 
port thereof.  Stephens  promptly  announced  that  he  would 
"remove  for  lying"  every  clerk  signing  it,  adding,  "I  have 
the  power,  authority,  and  inclination  to"  do  so.  Borah  then 
openly  attacked  Stephens  in  Congress,  revealing  the  scores  of 
letters  he  had  recei\ed  from  clerks  intimidated  into  writing 
him  to  "remove  my  name  from  the  petition;"  and  accused 
him  of  violating  the  Act  of  1912.  Every  Civil  Service  publi- 
cation except  the  Railway  Post  Office  ("That  worse  than  vile 
journal"— Walter)  joined  in  denouncing  the  Stephens  threat, 
as  did  the  new  Congressman  Van  Dyke. 

The  crisis  came  in  1915.  Yielding  to  the  agitation,  the 
Department  abruptly  demoted  Stephens  to  a  division  super- 
intendent and  replaced  him  by  J.  P.  Johnson.  And,  tired  of 
appeasement  tactics,  R.M.A.  members  were  crying,  "Beat  the 
Old  Gang!"  to  unseat  Fair  and  Bindeman  in  their  elections— 
which  they  did,  selecting  Ryan  (the  fighting  progressive  from 
Roslindale,  Massachusetts)  as  president  and  Collins  to  a  new 
position  of  industrial  secretary,  to  fight  for  good  legislation 
and  better  conditions.  Collins,  a  Chic.  &  Minn.  (CMStP&P) 
clerk  from  \'^erona,  W^isconsin,  was  installed  at  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Convention  in  June  together  with  Ryan,  and  in  August 
the  association  succeeded  in  unseating  Bindeman  and  elect- 
ing another  progressive,  Henry  G.  Strickland,  of  Kansas  City, 
as  Railway  Post  Office  editor. 

Backed  by  most  R.M.A.  members  and  the  Brotherhood, 
as  well  as  by  the  Harpoon's  nine  thousand  to  twenty-four 
thousand  subscribers  (reports  vary),  the  anti-speed-test  law 
was  passed.  Representative  T.  L.  Reilly,  Senator  Simmons, 
and  others  joined  Borah  and  Van  Dyke  in  sponsoring  good 
postal  legislation;  Reilly  even  got  a  B.R.P.C.  worker  ap- 
pointed as  a  chief  clerk  at  Richmond,  Virginia.  But  the 
department  had  not  given  up  the  fight,  as  evidenced  by  Sec- 


156  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ond  Assistant  Stewart's  heated  objections  to  that  appoint- 
ment. It  chose  R.M.A.  President  Edward  J.  Ryan  as  its 
immediate  target,  since  he  had  just  issued  a  plainly  worded 
(but  respectful)  protest  against  some  increases  in  working 
hours  at  lower  pay  and  against  unusual  hardships  and  mail 
delays  already  mentioned. 

As  a  direct  result,  President  Ryan  and  two  other  leaders 
were  discharged  from  the  R. M.S.— for  "circulating  false  and 
misleading  information  and  fomenting  discontent"  among 
the  clerks  (cleverly  circumventing  the  Anti-Gag  Act  in  the 
wording).  Ryan  presented  a  masterful  defense,  proving  that 
he  had  circulated  only  true  facts  and  that  the  only  "fomented 
discontent"  in  the  R.M.S.  was  because  of  conditions  he  was 
trying  to  correct.  Stewart,  however,  not  only  upheld  the 
dismissal  but  canceled  from  thence  forth  all  R.M.A.  extended 
leaves  and  travel  privileges  and  ordered  all  remaining  asso- 
ciation officers  back  to  their  jobs  as  clerks. 

Strickland  and  Ross  immediately  resigned  from  the  Service, 
and  all  three  national  officers  were  promptly  voted  full-time 
salaries  by  the  Association— an  unprecedented  step.  By  1916, 
R.M.A.  officers  were  actively  co-operating  with  Legislative 
Representative  Yeates  of  the  B.R.P.C.  in  backing  Van  Dyke's 
bills  in  Congress  for  fifteen-day  paid  vacations,  limited  hours, 
and  better  conditions  in  general— although  three  old-guard 
division  presidents,  and  apparently  General  Superintendent 
Johnson,  actually  opposed  the  bills.  The  bills  were  passed, 
including  one  which  restored  reduced  layoffs  and  the  termi- 
nal straight  eight-hour  day  which  had  been  eliminated  by 
Stephens;  others  provided  full  time  for  deadheading  under 
orders  and  gave  holiday  and  promotion  benefits.  But  the 
Department  still  refused  to  compromise  on  the  labor  affilia- 
tion; inspectors  opened  clerks'  letters  or  hid  in  doorways  to 
spot  labor-minded  R.M.A.  officers  attending  meetings.  A 
clerk  could  still  get  fired  by  stating  facts  the  "office"  didn't 
like. 

The  B.R.P.C.  was  still  determined  to  eradicate  these  con- 
ditions and  others;  but  its  principal  battles  having  been  won, 
and  not  havinor  much  over  two  thousand  members,  the  idea 


PERILOUS  DAYS  157 

of  merging  with  a  stronger  union  came  up  when  Walter 
decided  to  resign  as  secretary-treasurer  and  editor.  When 
the  R.M.A.  refused  to  consider  the  Brotherhood's  offer  to 
merge  with  them  (June  1915),  provided  that  an  A.  F.  of  L- 
affiliation  referendum  be  held,  Carl  Freeman  (Walter's  suc- 
cessor) proposed  the  affiliated  National  Federation  of  Post 
Office  Clerks  as  a  substitute. 

The  B.R.P.C.  voted  to  approve;  and  first  of  all,  the  famed 
Harpoon  ended  its  eight-year  career  in  February  1917,  when 
it  was  absorbed  as  the  "Harpoon  Section"  of  the  Federation's 
Union  Postal  Clerk.  The  Brotherhood  itself  came  to  the  end 
of  the  road  on  April  25,  1917,  when  it  amalgamated— at  least 
in  theory— with  the  N.F.P.O.C.  But  immediate  new  develop- 
ments altered  the  situation. 

The  now  largely  pro-labor  R.M.A. ,  in  convention  at 
Cleveland,  directed  its  Executive  Committee  to  take  a  refer- 
endum vote  of  its  existing  members— exclusive  of  any  B.R.P.C. 
influx— on  the  controversial  affiliation  question;  it  also  au- 
thorized the  establishment  of  permanent  association  head- 
quarters in  Washington.  Two  future  national  presidents 
(Collins  and  J.  F.  Bennett,  a  clerk  from  Alleghany,  New  York, 
on  the  Erie's  N.Y.  Sc  Salamanca)  and  a  future  division  super- 
intendent were  on  the  Affiliation  Committee,  which  was  eager 
to  reverse  traditional  policies  entirely  and  take  over  the 
Brotherhood's  coveted  A.F.  of  L.  charter. 

They  won— 6,000  votes  for  affiliation,  2,072  against;  and 
the  R.M.A. 's  A.F.  of  L.  charter  was  issued  December  22,  1917. 
On  either  January  1  or  February  5,  1918,  the  association's 
new  offices  were  opened  in  Washington's  Bond  Building— to 
be  moved  to  the  A.F.  of  L.  Building  in  1920.  Aside  from  its 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire  Beneficiary  Headquarters,  oc- 
cupied since  1902,  this  was  the  R.M.A.'s  first  real  home-the 
headquarters  having  been  divided  between  various  presi- 
dent's homes,  editorial  offices  in  Kansas  City,  and  temporary 
rooms  in  Washington's  Continental  Hotel. 

A  large  number  of  B.R.P.C.  members  now  enrolled  in  the 
R.  M.  A.  directly,  while  the  others— temporarily  under  the 
N.F.  P.O.C.'s  wing— were  retransferred  to  the  association  by 


158  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

agreement  with  the  latter  federation.  (Hence  the  common 
report  that  the  Brotherhood  and  the  R.M.A.  "amalgamated" 
in  1917.)  The  real  fight  was  over  at  last,  and  the  one  thou- 
sand clerks  in  three  areas  who  had  written  out  resignations 
could  now  tear  them  up.  The  danger  of  gross  injustice  and 
summary  dismissal  Avas  over,  for  the  power  of  millions  in  the 
ranks  of  organized  labor  was  behind  the  R.M.A. 

Legislative  benefits  secured  by  the  R.M.A.  in  1917  included 
travel  allowances  of  $1.20  daily  and  a  prohibition  of  salary 
reductions  in  reorganizations.  The  Association  had  redeemed 
itself  as  an  undominated  fraternal  labor  union  ready  to  fight 
for  its  members;  and  Walter,  his  work  in  this  field  done, 
turned  to  other  fields— editing  a  militant  journal  (Playfair) 
for  World  War  I  servicemen  until  his  death  about  1919.  He 
was  a  fearless  genius,  "sympathetic,  square,  and  upright." 

The  united  Association  forged  ahead,  helping  to  secure  a 
.$200  salary  increase,  $2  travel  allowances,  and  other  benefits. 
But  there  was  one  more  serious  hurdle  to  mount:  "When 
R.  M.  A.  officers  asked  for  a  departmental  conference  on  non- 
legislative  problems,  Burleson  and  his  cohorts  refused  to  see 
or  even  recognize  them.  "They  are  not  railway  postal  clerks," 
they  claimed.  Thereupon  most  of  the  division  R.M.A.  presi- 
dents (active  clerks  constituting  the  Executive  Committee, 
now  Board  of  Directors)  decided  to  meet  with  the  Depart- 
ment without  their  national  officers;  but  two,  the  much- 
maligned  Benton  of  the  8th  Division,  and  Botkin  of  the  6th, 
stayed  away  and  held  out  for  100  per  cent  recognition.  Their 
firm  stand  was  instrumental  (after  two  fruitless  conferences 
by  the  others)  in  securing  the  R.M.A. 's  complete  acceptance 
as  the  clerks'  official  representatives  in  1920.  Another  help 
was  the  fact  that  Burleson  had  just  been  replaced  by  Post- 
master General  AVill  Hayes,  an  understanding  man  deter- 
mined to  "humanize  the  postal  service"  (he  had  an  inch  cut 
off  the  huge  No.  1  pouches— called  humanizers  to  this  day!). 

Early  in  1921  the  first  collective-bargaining  agreement  ever 
made  between  the  government  and  a  federal  union,  the 
R.M.A.,  was  signed  by  both  sides.  Samuel  Gompers  held  it 
up  as  a  model  to  other  A.F.  of  L.  groups.    Meanwhile  the 


PERILOUS  DAYS  159 

affiliated  groups  had  secured  passage  of  the  first  retirement 
law  in  1920  (annuities  began  at  $180  to  $720  annually);  over- 
time at  straight  time  was  secured,  sick  leave  with  pay  restored, 
and  a  standard  seniority  system  drawn  up  by  the  R.M.A.  and 
adopted  by  the  Department.  All  later  amendments  thereto 
were  made  by  the  R.M.A. 

Aside  from  certain  retrogressions  in  1932—33  (pay  cuts, 
especially)  and  in  the  late  1940s,  steady  progress  has  been 
made  by  the  Association  ever  since.  Many  new  friends  in 
Congress  arose:  Senators  James  M.  Mead,  Thomas  A.  Burch, 
G.  H.  Moses,  and  William  Langer;  Representatives  Clyde 
Kelly,  John  H.  Tolan,  and  many  others.  The  N.P.T.A.  has 
secured  hundreds  of  benefits  since  1920  which  we  cannot 
possibly  list  here,  but  outstanding  among  them  are  (1)  pro- 
gressive salary  increases  culminating  in  a  $300  annual  war 
time  bonus  in  1943  (made  permanent  at  $400  in  1945), 
another  $400  increase  in  1945,  one  of  $450  in  1948,  and  one 
of  $120  on  November  1,  1949;  (2)  steady  increases  in  travel 
allowances,  formerly  $3  per  day,  on  up  to  $6  by  1948;  (3) 
longevity  payment  for  current  service  beginning  in  1945, 
amended  to  include  past  service  in  1949;  (4)  increased  com- 
pensation for  night  work  and  for  travel  on  high-speed  trains; 
(5)  a  five  and  one-half,  then  a  five-day  week,  in  1935;  and  (6) 
liberalized  annual  and  sick  leave  and  promotions.  By  ad- 
ministrative bargaining,  the  Service  Rating  System  was  hu- 
manized and  its  provisions  published;  fairly  strict  sanitary 
standards  were  put  in  force;  trains  were  made  safer,  with  few 
or  no  fatalities  in  most  recent  years;  other  abuses  were 
rectified. 

In  1947  the  straight  eight-hour  day  (with  lunch,  wash-up, 
and  clothes-changing  while  on  duty)  was  restored  to  the 
terminals,  P.T.S.,  thirty  years  after  its  abolition  by  Stephens; 
but  within  a  year  the  whole  setup  was  abruptly  withdrawn. 
Similarly,  after  enjoying  standard  pay-grade  status  for  years 
after  Stephens's  day,  the  terminals  were  cut  to  the  lower 
salary  grade  in  1933  and  still  remain  there;  and  the  high- 
speed train  differential  was  abolished  in  1950.  Remembering 
also  that  all  the  above  salary  increases  fall  far  below   the 


160  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

current  rise  in  cost  of  living,  it  can  be  seen  that  much  remains 
to  be  done,  as  outlined  later  in  Chapter  16. 

Meanwhile  Collins  had  succeeded  Ryan  in  the  R.M.A. 
presidency  in  1921,  with  Strickland  becoming  industrial  sec- 
retary as  well  as  editor.  CoUins's  outstanding  work  was  cut 
short  by  his  death  in  1936,  and  impressive  memorials  were 
later  erected  to  both  him  and  Van  Dyke.  Bennett  succeeded 
him,  supervising  the  completion  of  a  new  Home  Office  in 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  the  next  year.  At  that  office. 
Secretary  J.  J.  Kennedy  of  Boston  succeeded  Ross  in  1936, 
retiring  in  1949  to  give  way  to  Jerauld  McDermott  of  Indi- 
anapolis. The  presidential  chair  has  seen  hectic  days  since 
1941,  when  Bennett  was  succeeded  by  Chester  M.  Harvey  of 
St.  Paul.  Harvey  was  considered  too  conservative  by  oppon- 
ents who  defeated  him  in  1947;  Robert  Rice  of  the  Chic. 
&:  Minn.  (CMStP&P),  an  aggressive  union  worker  and  branch 
president,  won  the  office.  Then  Rice,  embroiled  in  differences 
with  National  Vice-President  Ole  Twait,  was  unseated— along 
with  Twait— and  replaced  by  President  William  M.  Thomas, 
a  Houston  &  Corpus  Christi  (T&NO)  clerk  from  Royce  City, 
Texas,  and  former  division  president,  in  1949;  he  now  heads 
the  association  and  has  won  its  undivided  loyalty. 

In  December  1949  the  R.M.A.  was  officially  renamed  the 
National  Postal  Transport  Association,  as  directed  by  its 
Omaha  Convention,  to  conform  to  the  new  name  of  the 
Service;  and  in  January  1950  the  Railway  Post  Office  became 
the  Postal  Transport  Journal.  It  is  edited  by  Industrial  Sec- 
retary John  L.  Reilly  (ex-N.Y.  &  Chic— NYCent),  who  suc- 
ceeded Bennett  (the  only  man  ever  to  have  held  three  nation- 
al offices)  as  editor  in  1945;  Bennett  had  taken  over  upon 
Strickland's  untimely  death  in  1943.  In  the  official  world 
George  E.  Miller  (previously  mentioned)  succeeded  Deputy 
Assistant  P.M.G.  John  D.  Hardy,  a  popular  holder  of  the 
position,  in  1948;  while  Hardy,  known  as  "General  Superin- 
tendent" when  appointed,  had  followed  Steve  Cisler  in  1938. 
This  top  position  is  now  designated  by  the  title  "Assistant 
Executive  Director  of  Transportation." 

In  general  the  N.P.T.A.  has  held  steadfastly  to  its  status 


PERILOUS  DAYS  161 

as  a  strong,  independent  fraternal  union  as  attained  in  1917. 
Strictly  "open-shop,"  however,  it  has  never  coerced  any  clerk 
to  join  it,  and  its  dues  are  unbelievably  low— $1.75  to  $2 
monthly,  including  insurance  premiums  and  local  dues 
(initiations  are  only  $5)!  Every  postal  transportation  clerk, 
despite  universal  benefits  obtained  by  the  N.P.T.A.,  is  free 
to  exercise  his  traditional  "right  to  work"  and  to  join  it  or 
decline  to  join.  And  this  policy  has  paid  off— the  N.P.T.A., 
including  nearly  every  eligible  clerk  in  its  membership  of 
twenty-eight  thousands,  has  probably  the  finest  record  of  or- 
ganizational loyalty  within  the  industry  of  any  voluntary 
labor  union  in  the  world. 

Even  its  most  labor-minded  leaders  believe  in  friendliness 
and  respect  toward  P.T.S.  officials  whenever  possible,  and 
such  is  nearly  always  the  case.  But,  when  felt  necessary,  there 
is  plenty  of  frank  criticism  expressed.  Throughout  the  years 
since  1917  the  N.P.T.A.'s  official  journal  has  printed  state- 
ments that  it  would  have  abhorred  as  traitorous  before  that 
date,  as  witness  a  fairly  recent  item: 

.  .  .  The  extent  to  which  the  present  General  Super- 
intendent has  gone  ...  is  a  matter  of  common  kno^vledge. 
Legally  he  may  have  had  the  authority  to  do  things  which 
at  the  same  time  are  morally  wrong  and  repugnant  to 
a  sense  of  fairness  and  equity. 

This  excerpt  (which  does  not  refer  to  any  present  P.T.S. 
official)  was  written  by  an  ordinary  mail  clerk  without  any 
hesitation,  although  in  an  earlier  day  he  would  have  soon 
lost  his  job  thereby.  And  yet  the  N.P.T.A.  is  so  proud  of 
high  P.T.S.  work  standards  that  it  firmly  opposes  any  "easing" 
of  clerks'  distribution  and  "exam"  requirements. 

The  N.P.T.A.'s  national  president  (salary  now  $9,500— 
originally  $3,000),  vice  president,  and  industrial  secretary- 
editor  hold  forth  in  a  comfortably  furnished  suite  of  four 
huge,  high-ceilinged  rooms  comprising  the  third  floor  of  the 
noted  Ashburton  Mansion  (1525  H  Street)  in  Washington. 
Nicely  refurnished  as  an  office  annex  of  the  A.F.  of  L.,  this 
handsome  and  historic  building  has  provided  a  separate  room 


162  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

for  each  officer  since  they  moved  from  the  A.F.  of  L.  Building 
in  1948.  The  fourth  room,  with  an  annex,  is  for  the  secre- 
tarial staff.  Fireplaces,  ranging  from  polished  red  marble  to 
rich  wood  finish,  grace  each  office;  the  editorial  sanctum  also 
houses  the  N.P.T.A.  library  of  books  on  P.T.S.,  postal,  labor, 
and  government  matters  as  well  as  bound  volumes  of  the 
Postal  Trayisport  Journal.  Attractive  divans  and  other  fur- 
nishings greet  the  ever-welcome  visitor. 

The  Beneficiary  Department,  still  managed  from  the  Ports- 
mouth, New  Hampshire,  office,  handles  all  membership  work 
and  issuance  of  accident  certificates;  it  pays  $24.50  to  $31.50 
weekly  for  accidental  disability  (and  $4,000  for  accidental 
death)  from  any  external  cause  on  or  off  duty.  An  attractive 
building  is  occupied  exclusively  by  this  office.  Its  work  has 
been  highly  commended  by  state  insurance  commissioners 
and  other  experts.  One  of  its  big  headaches  is  in  convincing 
claimants  that  reporting  all  details  of  a  ride  and  a  picnic 
which  was  followed  by  an  accident,  or  writing  simply,  "Was 
mowing  lawn  when  accident  happened,"  does  not  constitute 
a  report  of  the  accident  itself. 

Besides  a  beneficiary  certificate  (unless  a  mere  "social 
member)"  and  membership  card,  members  receive  a  round 
gold  pin  bearing  the  Association's  name,  the  A.F.  of  L.  hand- 
clasp, and  the  new  lock-shaped  N.P.T.A.  shield  (showing 
train,  plane,  H.P.O.  and  terminal).  The  older  pin,  in  old- 
time  mail-lock  shape  and  reading  "R.M.A.— A.F.L.,"  is  still 
by  far  the  most  commonly  used,  however.  It  corresponds  to 
the  stinger  of  the  railroad  brotherhoods;  although  the  Asso- 
ciation is,  of  course,  pledged  not  to  strike.  The  membership, 
in  15  division  associations,  corresponding  to  the  P.T.S.  divis- 
ions, is  subdivided  into  local  branches  found  in  every  large 
city  or  railroad  center.  Division  and  national  conventions 
are  held  every  two  years. 

N.P.T.A.  elections  and  conventions  are  strictly  big-time 
affairs,  with  plenty  of  pungency,  publicity,  and  politics.  Lead- 
ing candidates  for  the  $8,000-and-up  national  offices  buy  space 
lavishly  for  full-page  ads  in  the  Postal  Transport  Journal,  and 
words  wax  hot  amid  proclamations  of  ideal  ability,  charges  of 


PERILOUS  DAYS  16S 

Utter  unfitness,  and  countercharges  of  departure  from  the 
truth.  "WARNING!"-"A  Rank  Fraud  Exposed!"-"Fault- 
finders!"  are  typical  headlines  over  candidates'  statements 
or  comments  thereon.  In  the  best  political  tradition,  the 
aspirant's  most  flattering  photo  usually  accompanies  his 
"committee's"  broadside.  The  pre-convention  ballot  is  held 
by  mail.  Finally  about  one  hundred  elected  delegates  join 
with  hundreds  of  visitors  at  the  official  hotel  in  the  conven- 
tion city,  and  a  colorful  week-long  assembly  begins.  There 
are  sight-seeing  trips,  banquets,  and  special  celebrations 
scheduled,  but  the  busy  delegates  have  to  leave  such  pleasures 
mostly  to  the  ladies  and  visitors;  they  are  too  tied  up  in  com- 
mittee meetings  and  sessions  of  the  Board  of  Directors.  Na- 
tional magazines  and  business  associations  are  represented; 
the  Asst.  Executive  Director  of  Transportation  (ex-Gen.  Supt. 
R.M.S.),  the  Postmaster  General  or  other  high  postal  officials, 
senators,  the  city's  mayor  and  postmaster,  and  other  promi- 
nent leaders  invariably  address  the  delegates  by  invitation  at 
the  start.  Then  comes  the  installation  of  officers;  an  inspiring 
memorial  service;  reports  of  the  various  committees,  with 
hundreds  of  resolutions  to  be  passed;  necessary  new  business; 
and  probab'-  an  adjournment  in  the  Avitching  hours  before 
dawn.   An  N.P.T.A.  convention  is  no  pleasure  junket. 

Since  P.T.S.  officials  have  always  been  promoted  from  the 
ranks,  a  policy  has  arisen  of  expecting  them  to  retain  N.P.T.A. 
membership  but  not  to  continue  as  officers  thereof  (for  such 
division  and  national  N.P.T.A.  officers  are  most  likely  to  be 
appointed  officials).  AVith  few  exceptions,  these  promoted 
union  leaders  usually  remember  their  clerking  days  well  and 
become  wise  and  understanding  P.T.S.  officials.  Retired 
Deputy  Assistant  Hardy  is  still  a  member  of  the  Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania,  branch. 

While  some  benefits  and  improvements  for  P.T.S.  person- 
nel have,  of  course,  originated  from  humane  officials  honestly 
seekins;  the  welfare  of  the  clerks,  the  record  seems  clear  that 
most  beneficial  legislation  and  departmental  rulings  have 
originated  otherwise— as  a  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  N.P.T.A. 
and  its  affiliated  postal  unions.   Any  skeptic  who  doubts  the 


164  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

power  of  the  National  Postal  Transport  Association  in  better- 
ing conditions  among  the  clerks  is  referred  to  some  simple 
examples: 

An  oft-repeafed  N.P.T.A.  resolution: 

"We  favor  the  Department  ordering  District  Superin- 
tendents to  call  in  a  committee  of  clerks  whenever  a  re- 
organization [of  a  line]  is  contemplated  .  .  ." 

The  Department's  reply: 

.  .  .  Proposed  change  would  be  impracticable. 

A  second  resolution: 

"We  request  tabulations  on  pay  checks  as  to  salary, 
night  differential,  travel  allowance,  and  deductions." 
(Also,  "leave-request  slips  showing  amount  of  annual 
leave  remaining.") 

Reply: 

Unnecessary  and  impracticable.  Such  information 
may  be  obtained  by  any  employe  on  request. 

A  third  resolution: 

"We  favor  facilities  for  distribution  on  aircraft  where 
length  of  route  and  volume  of  mail  justifies,  such  distri- 
bution to  be  done  by  railway  postal  clerks." 

Reply  {in  effect): 

This  is  impracticable  and  not  necessary. 

THE  FINAL  RESULT: 

After  continual  urging  by  the  Association,  every  sug- 
gested proposal  was  adopted  by  the  Department  within 
a  few  years  at  most.  (The  Flying  Post  Offices,  still  in 
experimental  stages,  were  definitely  dubbed  "successful.") 

The  Seniority  Rules,  administered  by  the  Department  for 
the  N.P.T.A.  as  stated,  consist  of  many  highly  complex  regu- 
lations; but  the  newest  rules  (put  in  effect  July  2,  1950)  are 
based  on  the  principle  that  seniority  is  determined  by  date 
of  appointment  to  the  organization  or  line  to  which  assigned. 


PERILOUS  DAYS  165 

Nation-wide  seniority  as  existing  on  railroad  systems  is  un- 
known, and  a  clerk  transferring  to  another  line  must  start  at 
the  bottom  of  the  list  again  in  most  respects.  A  senior  clerk 
"surplused"  from  a  discontinued  line  is  often  transferred  to  a 
new  one  where  he  is  junior  to  clerks  much  younger  in  the  Ser- 
vice than  he.  Although  the  membership  once  voted  for  a  cer- 
tain type  of  straight  service  seniority,  the  Department  object- 
ed to  it  as  impracticable. 

The  heart  of  the  N.P.T.A.  is  in  its  local  branches.  The 
largest  three,  with  about  one  thousand  clerks  each,  are  the 
New  York  (2nd  Division)  Branch,  the  Illinois  (Gth  Division) 
Branch  at  Chicago,  and  the  Kansas  City  Branch;  New  York 
is  tops  just  now  with  1,243.  Others  have  from  a  dozen  or  two 
members  up  to  hundreds.  Activities  and  characteristics  of 
the  various  branches  provide  some  remarkable  contrasts. 
Practically  all  of  them  go  in  for  big  feeds  and  social  good 
times  of  all  sorts;  but  the  latter  range  from  the  very  enjoyable 
parties  and  picnics  of  the  Washington,  D.  C,  Branch  where 
nothins:  stronsrer  than  lemonade  has  been  served  to  the  riot- 
ous  stag  smokers  of  a  branch  not  too  far  away,  featuring 
powerful  liquid  refreshment  and  very  questionable  entertain- 
ment!   Many  branches  and  most  divisions  issue  newssheets. 

The  hu2:e  New  York  Branch,  though  a  storm  center  of  con- 
troversy,  has  had  a  tremendous  impact  upon  N.P.T.A.  affairs 
in  the  last  five  years— largely  through  its  aggressive  journal, 
the  Opeti  Pouch,  which  has  been  a  printed,  nationally  circu- 
lated newspaper  since  1945.  At  that  time  the  branch  launched 
a  powerful  campaign  for  the  correction  of  Service  abuses— 
simultaneously  accusing  incumbent  national  R.M.A.  leaders 
of  incompetence,  subservience  to  the  Department,  discrimi- 
nation against  Negro  clerks  (then  constitutionally  barred 
from  the  entire  association),  alleged  censorship,  and  failure 
to  editorialize  against  wrecks  and  bad  conditions  on  the  part 
of  the  Railway  Post  Office,  and  deserting  the  principles  of 
union  labor. 

In  rebuttal,  the  national  officers  stated  that  the  branch  was 
a  leftist  group  dominated  by  Communists;  that  the  R.M.A. 
was  holding  to  its  true  ideals,  free  of  departmental  domina- 


166  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

don;  that  the  association  was  not  a  union,  but  a  fraternity 
in  wliich  dangerous  social  problems  would  result  if  discrimi- 
nation were  ended;  that  the  Railway  Post  Office  considered 
its  frank  reports  and  photographs  of  wrecks,  with  its  sympa- 
thies to  the  bereaved,  as  qute  sufficient  editorializing— and 
that  no  censorship  existed.  The  branch  and  its  sympathizers 
(mostly  in  the  2nd  or  N.  Y.— N.  J.  Division)  were  ostracized, 
and  they  were  unable  to  elect  a  single  division  officer  or 
National  Convention  delegate  that  year  (1945).  In  two  short 
years,  however,  they  were  able  to  elect  fighting  Open  Pouch 
editor  George  Cutler  as  division  president,  plus  nearly  half 
the  area's  national  delegates— and  they  repeated  this  in  1949. 
They  were  active  in  the  1947  unseating  of  National  President 
Harvey,  although  they  later  also  repudiated  his  "pro-labor" 
successor  they  supported.  When  New  York  State  and  others 
passed  Fair  Employment  laws  forbidding  union  discrimina- 
tion the  branch  backed  them  and  applied  for  legal  authority 
to  admit  negroes.  The  National  R.M.A.,  at  high  cost,  fought 
the  proposal  in  the  courts  but  eventually  lost  when  the 
Supreme  Court  declared  the  association  to  be  a  true  labor 
union;  it  had  to  amend  its  constitution,  and  now  admits 
clerks  regardless  of  race  to  branches  in  states  and  cities  hav- 
ing anti-discrimination  laws.  The  general  constitutional  bar 
still  remains,  but  at  each  successive  recent  National  Conven- 
tion a  larger  percentage  of  delegates  voted  for  a  change  (now 
50  per  cent). 

It  is  still  early  to  attempt  an  evaluation  of  merits  in  such 
a  recent  controversy,  in  which  tempers  have  flared  and  some 
unwise  utterances  and  misstatements  of  facts  have  been 
made  on  both  sides.  Probably  the  New  York  Branch's  poli- 
cies and  tactics  were  too  extreme,  and  it  may  contain  some 
individual  radicals  or  leftists;  but  it  must  be  admitted 
that  (1)  it  has  had  a  largely  stimulating  and  wholesome  in- 
fluence in  reawakening  the  N.P.T.A.  to  its  status  as  a  non- 
dominated  union  and  to  its  obligations  to  improve  some 
crying  abuses  that  are  still  rampant;  that  (2)  careful  inside 
observation  has  revealed  no  evidence  of  Communist  leanings 
on  the  part  of  the  branch's  top  officers,  despite  the  suspension 


PERILOUS  DAYS  167 

of  one  active  member  on  allegedly  trumped-up  "subversive 
activity"  charges  (shades  of  Carl  Van  Dyke!)  in  1949— its  own 
Open  Pouch  has  declared  against  Communism;  and  (3)  that 
despite  some  unfortunate  methods  it  has  courageously  fought 
for  true  democracy  in  action  (not  social  intimacy)  in  N.P.T.A, 
race  relations— conforming  to  the  fair  policies  of  the  P.T.S. 
itself,  in  which  white  and  colored  clerks  work  together  in 
equality  and  harmony.  Even  some  Tennessee  and  Alabama 
N.P.T.A.  officers  have  backed  N.  Y.  Branch  policy.  (Most 
colored  clerks  belong  to  the  National  Alliance  of  Postal 
Employees.) 

The  N.P.T.A.  can  well  be  proud  of  its  Postal  Transport 
Journal,  one  of  the  finest  magazines  in  the  field,  despite  this 
group's  objection  to  it.  During  his  long  editorship,  Henry 
Strickland  had  built  up  the  Railway  Post  Office  into  a  com- 
prehensive and  interesting  journal,  edited  with  his  prov- 
erbial friendly  tolerance.  Editor  Bennett  first  introduced 
colorful  covers  and  modern  layouts,  and  the  present  editor, 
popular  John  L.  Reilly,  has  continued  improving  it  with 
special  new  features,  photographic  department  headings,  a 
"Contents,"  and  other  innovations.  With  very  few  excep- 
tions, it  prints  all  material  submitted,  unless  the  Board  of 
Directors  rejects  an  article  as  defamatory  or  scurrilous.  Presi- 
dential and  Secretarial  Reports,  in  each  monthly  issue,  are 
followed  by  the  voluminous  Branch  Notes,  reporting  meet- 
ings and  personal  doings  every^^'here;  a  story  in  themselves, 
they  vary  from  the  dry  or  commonplace  to  talented  and  witty 
reports  of  wide  interest.  Some  have  even  been  in  concealed- 
rhyme  poetry  (by  S.  J.  Brian,  Jr.),  while  Leon  Cushman  pub- 
lished a  clever  satire  of  one  from  the  "Fallen  Arch,  Idaho" 
Branch.  General  articles,  followed  by  editorials,  are  inserted 
between  the  two  reports. 

There  is  an  active  national  Women's  Auxiliary  to  the 
N.P.T.A.,  founded  at  Indianapolis,  June  7,  1899,  at  Organ- 
izer Bill  Fry's  suggestion.  Auxiliary  women  have  plenty  in 
common,  for  their  husband's  occupation  is  a  trying  one  from 
their  standpoint— daytime  sleeping,  coming  and  going  at  all 
hours,  horribly  soiled  work  clothes  to  wash,  a  husband  either 


168  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

gone  for  days  or  underfoot  for  a  week,  schemes  and  cards 
to  look  for  and  perhaps  correct  or  assist  with.  Auxiliary 
branches  feature  meetings  with  book  reviews,  lectures,  clerk 
welfare  discussions,  sewing.  As  with  N.P.T.A.  branches, 
their  tastes  vary  from  cultural  meetings  opened  with  prayer 
or  Scripture,  to  the  wild  beer-and-cigarette  parties  of  other 
units!  The  National  Auxiliary  furnishes  scholarship  loans 
to  talented  children  of  clerks  and  holds  its  convention  along 
with  the  N.P.T.A.'s. 

There  are  other  interesting  railway  mail  clerks'  organiza- 
tions. Besides  the  M.B.A.,  as  mentioned,  there  are  other  in- 
surance groups,  such  as  the  national  Postal  Transport  Hos- 
pital Association  of  Kansas  City,  and  many  "Immediate 
Relief"  groups,  such  as  the  National  Immediate  Relief  Asso- 
ciation at  Washington.  In  New  England  the  "Spring  Line 
Association"  and  "Shore  Line  Association"  of  clerks  running 
on  the  New  Haven  (the  Bos.,  Spg.  k  N.Y.  and  Bos.  R:  N.Y., 
respectively)  are  famous  for  their  clambakes  and  social  affairs. 
A  unique  St.  Louis  &  Texarkana  Last  Man's  Club  has  been 
active  since  veterans  of  that  former  MoPac  Line  started  it 
in  1940.  There  is  a  South  Carolina  Railway  Mail  Club,  with 
its  own  clubhouse  at  Folly  Beach;  a  Railway  Postal  Club  at 
Lexington,  Kentucky;  an  N.P.T.A.  Social  Club  at  Denison, 
Texas;  two  Railway  Mail  clubs  (with  dormitories)  at  New 
York  and  Boston;  various  P.T.S.  Bowling  Leagues,  and  other 
sports  groups.  The  Postal  Transport  Hospital  Assn.  is  now 
affiliated  with  the  N.P.T.A.  One  and  all,  they  help  perpetu- 
ate the  spirit  of  fraternity  and  mutual  benefit  that  postal 
clerks  have  always  cherished. 


Chapter  10 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL 


Have  you  heard  about  the  White  Mail  that  wended  thru  the  hills. 
And  days  when  all  the  slow  train  boys  stepped  off  for  daffodils; 
Of  a  Narrow  Gauge's  engineer  who  stopped  his  train  so  still 
While  the  fireman  kissed  his  sweetheart  who  lived  upon  the  hill? 
Of  Evans  on  the  Kill.  Sc  Trin.  who  hunted  hill  and  vale 
While  the  train  crew  coaled  the  engine  from  that  funny  crank- 
up  pail? 

—  Tudor  Francis  Brown 


Shortly  after  4  p.m.  each  week- 
day, a  group  of  multiple-unit  elec- 
tric cars— Train  2068— pulls  out  of 
Penn  Station,  New  York  City,  east- 
bound  into  the  Long  Island  Rail 
Road  tunnel;  one  passenger  car 
-Courtesy  Postal  Markings    has   a    tiny    R.P.O.    compartment, 

containing  a  lone  postal  clerk  bus- 
ily at  work.  Yet  its  destination  is  not  some  distant  town,  but 
merely  the  Far  Rockaway  section  of  New  York  City,  out  in 
Queens— and  every  morning,  Train  2010  does  the  same  thing. 
This  R.P.O.  serves  several  independent  post  offices  both  out- 
side and  within  the  city  (of  which  Far  Rockaway  is  one);  yet, 
when  operated  on  its  normal  loop  route,  it  never  once  leaves 
the  city  on  its  return  trip  (or  morning  outgoing  trip)— the 
only  loop  R.P.O.,  and  the  only  wholly  intra-city  outboinid 
or  inbound  R.P.O.  run  anywhere  in  America!  At  this  writ- 
ing, the  latter  service  has  been  suspended  since  May  8,  1950, 
due  to  a  Jamaica  Bay  trestle  fire;  but  its  unique  terminal 
points  are  still  within  the  same  city.  No  other  R.P.O.  boasts 
that  distinction;  although  one  California  H.P.O.  does    (Los 

169 


170  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Angeles  &  San  Pedro,  the  later  being  part  of  Los  Angeles.) 
Before  the  fire  the  afternoon  run,  Train  1072-1073,  always 
operated  clockwise  about  the  loop,  while  a  morning  train  ran 
around  the  other  way.  (The  present  morning  run  is  now  ex- 
tended to  Rockaway  Point.)  And  the  postal  clerk,  with  only 
two  2-hour  round  trips  and  a  little  advance  work,  must  work 
out  his  allotted  time  between  trains  in  the  Penn  Terminal, 
P.T.S.,  upstairs,  in  order  to  obtain  a  suitable  layoff. 

Such  is  the  amazing  New  York  &  Far  Rockaway  R.P.O. 
(LIRR),  long-famed  as  one  of  the  most  utterly  incredible 
operations  of  the  P.T.S.  The  existence  of  R.P.O.  service  on 
this  23-mile  electric  line  is  largely  explained  by  the  unusual 
nature  of  the  postal  facilities  of  New  York  City— which, 
uniquely  enough  is  served  by  seven  independent  post  offices 
instead  of  one:  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Staten  Island,  Jamaica, 
Flushing,  Long  Island  City,  and  Far  Rockaway.  The  last 
four,  with  large  branch  offices  for  each  community  center  in 
Queens,  provide  that  Borough  with  all  its  mail  service;  and 
it  is  quite  possible  for  mails  from  one  Queens  office  to  be 
sorted  on  an  R.P.O.  and  dispatched  to  another,  both  being 
within  New  York  City.  The  N.Y.  &  Far  Rockaway,  an  im- 
portant link  in  this  service,  connects  New  York  P.O.  (Man- 
hattan Borough)  with  Far  Rockaway  P.O.  (Queens  Borough). 
Dozens  of  additional  commuter  trains,  many  with  C.P.  mails, 
ply  over  this  third-rail  line  daily. 

Hefty  loads  of  mail  are  received  at  Penn  Station,  and  an 
assistant  helps  the  lone  regular  clerk  until  leaving  time.  An 
old  hand  at  the  game,  he  makes  up  only  a  dozen  or  so 
separations  on  a  "blind"  letter  case.  But  he  has  a  busy  run. 
with  plenty  of  "hot  local"  to  manage  as  he  emerges  from  the 
tunnel,  skirting  the  busy  industries  of  Long  Island  City,  past 
the  nondescript  frame  houses  and  business  center  of  Wood- 
side,  and  hard  by  vacant  lots,  row-houses,  and  apartments 
into  fashionable  Forest  Hills.  After  serving  busy  Jamaica, 
he  crosses  City  Line  into  Laurelton  and  Valley  Stream; 
swinging  south  through  open  suburban  country  past  various 
"manor"  stations,  he  serves  Lawrence  and  Hewlett  in  Nassau 
County    before    recrossing    the    city    limits    into    Inwood 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  R.\ILWAY  MAIL  171 

(Queens)  and  Far  Rockaway,  As  we  write,  it  is  necessary  to 
make  the  return  journey  exactly  the  same  way.  But  normally 
the  train  (having  changed  its  number  at  Valley  Stream)  stops 
only  momentarily  and  continues  straight  ahead,  soon  turning 
north  over  the  trestle  to  Ozone  Park,  Woodhaven,  Wood- 
side,  all  within  New  York  City,  and  back  to  Manhattan;  the 
clerk  hangs  return-trip  pouches  long  before  reaching  Far 
Rockaway,  working  both  outbound  and  inbound  mail.  The 
unique  line's  future  is,  as  yet,  unsettled;  but  part  of  it  may 
be  absorbed  by  the  city  sub-way  system. 

Equally  incredible  are  the  "records"  held  by  some  other 
lines.  Our  oldest  R.P.O,  has  operated  continuously  for  86 
years— the  C&iNW's  historic  Chic.  Sc  Omaha,  as  we  know  from 
Chapter  7.  Our  newest  railway  post  office  seems  to  be  the 
Alpena  Sc  Durand  (D&:M-GTW)  in  Michigan,  established 
February  5,  1950;  its  53-mile  Bay  City-Durand  segment  had 
not  had  R.P.O.  service  for  years  (the  rest,  old  Cheboygan  &: 
Bay  City  R.P.O.,  was  closed  pouch  Cheb-Alpena). 

The  longest  R.P.O.  in  the  United  States  is  the  Williston 
&  Seattle  (GN),  1168.9  miles  from  North  Dakota  to  Washing- 
ton State!  HoAvever,  the  route  is  in  three  divisions,  with 
clerks  changed  at  each  point;  and  the  longest  clerks'  run  for 
individual  clerks  seems  to  be  from  Elkhart,  Ind.,  to  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  570.8  miles,  on  the  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent).  But  the 
longest  run  of  a  crew  is  apparently  the  East  Div.,  Kansas  City 
&  Albuquerque  R.P.O.  (Santa  Fe),  terminating  at  La  Junta, 
Colo.— 569  miles  on  its  longest  route.  (The  longest  R.P.O. 
on  record,  however,  as  well  as  the  longest  run,  used  to  be  the 
old  Deming  Sc  San  Francisco  R.P.O.  (SP),  New  Mexico  to 
California,  1198  miles.) 

The  shortest  rail-operated  R.P.O.  is  the  Carbondale  & 
Scranton,  on  the  D.  &  H.,  in  the  Pennsylvania  coal  region— a 
16-mile  branch  line.  The  lone  clerk  makes  one  daily  round 
trip,  with  considerable  advance  -work  at  Scranton;  he  makes 
up  20  pouches  dispatched  to  distant  points  on  star  routes 
even  before  leaving;  and  then  has  just  40  minutes  for  his 
actual  run  via  Dickson  City  and  Ohphant.  {Note  22).  Un- 
til 1949,  however,  the  far  shorter  10y2-mile  Thurmond  &:  Mt. 


172  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Hope  (C&:0-formerly  ihe  Thur.  &  Price  Hill,  11 1^  miles) 
had  always  held  the  record;  it,  too,  was  in  a  mining  region, 
winding  through  a  picturesque  West  Virginia  canyon.  Run- 
ning engine-backwards,  southbound,  this  busy  peewee  line 
was  cut  out  on  September  17,  1949.  However,  the  shortest 
line  designated  as  an  R.P.O.,  a  tiny  lake-boat  run  mentioned 
later,  is  only  9.5  miles  long. 

The  fastest  R.P.O.  between  its  termini  is  North  Platte  &: 
Denver  (UP)  Train  112,  averaging  nearly  70  mph;  but  from 
Kankakee  to  Rantoul  Chic.  Sc  Memphis  1  (IC),  the  City  of  New 
Orleans,  claims  the  title.  Fastest  local  train  is  N.Y.  k  Wash. 
(PRR-electric)  Train  255.  What  was  once  claimed  as  the  fast- 
est run  on  record  was  made  by  Pitts.  &  Chic.  Train  29,  the 
PRR's  Broadway  Limited,  at  Ada,  Ohio,  June  12,  1905  (al- 
legedly, three  miles  in  eighty-five  seconds);  and  the  fastest  sus- 
tained long  run  may  have  been  that  of  Engineer  Bob 
Butterfield  from  Albany  to  New  York  on  the  N.  Y.  Central's 
Century,  N.Y.  &  Chic.  R.P.O. ,  on  October  13,  1904,  with 
future  R.M.A.  President  Canfield  as  C.-in-C,  which  made  up 
all  but  seven  minutes  after  leaving  Albany  one  hour  and  ten 
minutes  late— allegedly  reaching  a  105-mph  speed.  (Both 
speed  figures  are  seriously  questioned  today.)  The  Omaha 
&  Denver  (CBRrQ)  is  said  to  make  up  to  100  mph  at  times. 

One  amazing:  R.P.O.  runs  over  six  different  railroads  and 
also  makes  a  unique  "catch"  at  Greggton,  Texas,  by  slowing 
down  while  incoming  mail  is  thrown  into  a  storage-car  door— 
the  Little  Rock  R:  Fort  Worth  (MoPac-Tex&:P-CRI&P-FtW& 
DC-GC&SF-BurlRI).  Another  has  a  train  number  almost 
longer  than  its  line— the  tiny  thirty-three-mile  Dott  &:  Poca- 
hontas (N&W-W.Va.-Va.),  on  which  Train  No.  28-51-129- 
130-51-131-72-51-72-51-68-51  darts  into  numerous  side-tracks, 
changing  its  number  each  time. 

The  largest  R.P.O.  train  in  the  coimtry  is  now  N.Y.  k 
Chicago  (NYCent)  West  Division  Train  14,  carrying  three 
full  R.P.O.  cars  and  over  twenty-five  clerks  from  Chicago  to 
Cleveland.  The  N.Y.  &  Chic,  is  also  the  largest  route  in  per- 
sonnel, with  over  one  thousand  clerks  on  all  trains  (all 
divisions);  and  furthermore  operates  the  largest  R.P.O.  cars 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  17S 

anywhere  (80  ft.;  20-ft.  storage).  Until  1949,  Train  180  of 
the  New  Haven's  Bos.  &  New  York,  a  solid  mail  train,  held 
the  record— it  had  more  clerks,  the  same  number  of  cars,  and 
furthermore  covered  the  whole  run.  (It  now  has  two  full, 
and  one  thirty-foot,  R.P.O.  cars;  plus  many  storage  cars,  as 
does  N.Y.  &  Chic.  14.) 

Nearly  incredible  is  the  fact  that  there  is  still  a  rural, 
single-track  branch-line  R.P.O.  operating  right  into  New 
York  City.  Dubbed  "The  Put,"  it  is  the  little  one-man,  51.8- 
mile  Bre^vster  &  New  York;  running  over  the  N.Y.  Central's 
out-of-the-way  Putnam  Division  through  suburbs  and  typical 
country  scenes,  it  provides  little  mail  service  for  either 
Brewster  or  New  York!  Mails  for  Brewster  are  routed  almost 
entirely  via  the  busy  suburban  Chat.  &  N.Y.  run  (NYCent), 
while  the  "Put"  terminates  in  the  big  town  at  Highbridge 
(Bronx),  many  miles  from  Grand  Central  and  the  G.P.O. 
But  the  clerk,  busy  with  his  local  mails  for  Yorktown  Heights, 
Briarcliff  Manor,  and  Elmsford,  has  plenty  to  do  on  his  daily 
round  trip  (three  hours  one  way),  leaving  at  7:44  A.M.  over 
the  little  track  hidden  in  Van  Cortland  and  Yonkers  parks 
(its  other  suburban  trains  carry  no  R.P.O.).  Equally  unique, 
in  sharp  contrast,  was  the  former  Clearmont  &:  Buffalo 
(WyoRy)  in  Wyoming,  a  line  with  no  clerk  on  it  at  all!  A 
"joint  employee"  (mail  and  express  messenger)  rode  it  to  sort 
mail  for  the  Clearmont  post  office  until  World  War  II,  tying 
it  in  rolls  to  be  slung  into  troughs  erected  by  the  ranchers 
along  a  parallel  R.F.D.  route. 

Another  amazing  R.P.O.  is  the  DL8:W's  N.Y.  k  Branch- 
ville  R.P.O.,  which  is  actually  two  totally  different  routes: 
(1)  a  heavy-duty  main  and  suburban  run,  electrified  from 
Hoboken  (opposite  New  York)  to  Newark,  Morristown,  and 
Dover,  N.  J.,  with  some  trains  continuing  to  Branchville, 
New  Jersey;  and  (2)  a  steam  line  from  Hoboken  to  Paterson, 
Boonton,  Dover,  and  Washington,  New  Jersey,  sharing  only 
a  few  short  miles  of  route  (out  of  Dover)  with  the  main  line. 
Furthermore,  the  trunk-line  trains  of  the  N.Y.,  Scranton  & 
Buffalo  R.P.O.  (DL&:W)  operate  over  most  of  both  routes 
several  times  daily!    It  is  no  wonder  that  perplexed  postal 


174  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

clerks  often  send  mail  to  the  wrong  route— a  situation  which 
could  be  avoided  by  redesignating  the  Boonton  branch  as  the 
"N.Y.,  Paterson  &  Wash.  R.P.O."  Incidentally,  "The  Branch" 
(as  it's  called)  serves  at  least  six  New  Jersey  towns  bearing 
the  same  names  as  do  offices  in  Virginia  supplied  by  the 
Wash.  Sc  Charlotte  (Sou)— Orange,  Chatham,  Roseland,  Madi- 
son, Stephensburg,  and  Washington. 

Numerous  other  interesting  examples  of  two  lines  desig- 
nated as  one  are  found  everywhere,  such  as  the  PRR's  unique 
N.Y.  &  Philadelphia  R.P.O.  This  is  not  the  busy  main  line 
between  those  two  cities  (the  N.Y.  &  Wash.),  but  rather  the 
"old  back  road"  track  of  the  historic  Camden  &  Amboy  R.R., 
one  of  the  first  in  America.  Today  not  a  single  train  runs  the 
whole  length  of  "The  Amboy;"  the  northern  segment  diverges 
from  a  busy  suburban  route  at  South  Amboy  (which  in  turn 
veers  off  the  main  line  at  Rahway),  and  continues  southwest 
to  Spottswood,  Jamesburg,  and  Monmouth  Junction— rejoin- 
ing the  main  line  into  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  Multiple-unit 
electric  cars  furnish  the  service— except  on  week-ends,  when 
an  electric  locomotive  takes  over.  The  original  "Amboy" 
track  misses  Trenton,  however,  and  continues  southward 
from  Jamesburg  and  Bordentown  as  a  double-tracked  steam 
line  used  by  the  N.Y.  &  Phila.'s  soutJiern  segment— a  totally 
distinct  R.P.O.— from  Trenton  via  a  Bordentown  cut-off  and 
Burlington  to  Camden,  New  Jersey  (opposite  Philadelphia). 
The  single  north-end  train  makes  no  connection  with  the 
various  south-end  trains,  and  vice  versa;  packages  labeled 
simply  "N.Y.  &  Phila."  of  course  can  not  be  properly  handled 
by  either  segment  and  must  be  worked  out  on  the  main  line 
first.  But  the  railroad  considers  the  southern  segment  an  ex- 
tension of  its  "Bel-Del"  (Phillips.  &  Trenton)  route— and 
sometimes  runs  mail  trains  over  both  stretches  with  the  same 
number  (R.P.O.  crews  and  title  being  changed  at  Trenton)! 

The  Spokane,  Pasco  &  Portland  (SP&S)  even  includes  a 
long  branch  at  right  angles,  on  a  different  railway!^    Then 


'Wishram  &  Bend  branch  (Wash. -Ore.,  Ore.  Trunk  Ry.).  Newest  such  branch, 
one  off  the  Rous.  Pt.  &  Alb.  (D&H),  just  commenced  operation  to  Lake  George, 
N.  Y.  on  Oct.  2,  1950.  The  Port.  &  Boston  (B&M)  comprises  two  totally  different 
routes— one  out  of  Portland,  Me.,  one  out  of  Intervale,  N.  H. 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  17.5 

there  was  an  old  R.P.O.  once  due  to  "catch"  its  own  terminal 
station— exchange  mails  by  crane  with  its  end-of-run  post 
office.  This  ^vas  the  famed  old  Rumsey  &  Elmira  (SP)  or 
"Rum  &  Gum"  in  California;  the  Rumsey  post  office  was 
reached  half  a  mile  before  arrival  at  the  station,  the  catch 
made  from  a  crane  in  the  postmaster's  yard,  and  the  pouch 
leisurely  distributed  during  the  layover.  (The  clerk  was  said 
to  be  the  only  one  in  the  U.S.  alloAved  to  certify  to  his  own 
"Arrival  &  Departure  Book"  signatures,  since  the  book  had 
to  be  kept  in  the  car,  not  the  P.O.)  Two  other  odd  catches 
(with  two  cranes  and  two  catchers)  are  still  made  daily  by 
Memphis,  Grenada  R:  New  Orleans  Trains  2  and  3  at  each 
of  two  successive  stations,  due  to  heavy  first-class  mails,  from 
its  unusual  forty-foot  R.P.O.  apartments.  The  longest  dis- 
tance between  catches  or  other  mail  exchanges  on  any  line  is 
from  El  Paso,  Texas,  to  Columbus,  New  Mexico,  on  the  SP's 
El  Paso  &  Los  Angeles  R.P.O.,  74.7  miles. 

The  unique  Royal  Train  R.P.O.  (PRR-NYC-D&rH)  made 
only  one  trip— in  1939— as  described  in  Chapter  13.  On  the 
continuous  St.  Joseph  k  Grand  I.  (UP)— Omaha  &  Denv. 
(CB&Q)  route  in  Nebraska  there  is  an  eactly  alphabetical 
series  of  stations  from  A  to  K  (Alexandria— Kenesaw)  Avhich 
is  a  boon  to  clerks'  studies  there.  The  ninety-six-mile  St. 
johnsbury  R:  Cambridge  Jet.  (St}R:LakeCh)  in  Vermont  must 
contend  with  a  record  number  of  94  grade  crossings  and  966 
bridges  and  culverts  (twice  the  per-mile  number  of  its  nearest 
competitor,  out  west).  The  old  Nyando  &  Tupper  Lake 
(NY&rOtt),  in  New  York  State's  Adirondacks,  was  often  ex- 
pected to  run  without  benefit  of  postal  cars;  Clerk  Roy  V. 
McPherson  was  forced  to  borrow  abandoned  post-office  letter 
cases,  sort  paper  mail  into  milk  cans,  and  nail  his  bags  to  the 
wall  when  the  railway  gave  forth  with  only  a  caboose  or 
baggage  car  for  his  use.  (Clerk  W.  H.  Miller,  of  Atchison, 
Kansas,  reports  using  the  same  milk-can  technique  on  a  snow- 
bound branch  line.) 

Most  picturesque  of  all,  perhaps,  are— or  were— our  mean- 
dering little  narrow-gage  R.P.O.s.  There  is  only  one  left  now 
in  tJie  United  States— and  even  there,  the  railroad  has  applied 


176  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

to  abandon  service;  but  four  are  flourishing  in  nearby  New- 
foundland (see  Canada,  Chapter  15).  On  the  "toughest  two 
hundred  miles  of  rail  in  the  world,"  the  little  San  Juan,  a 
three-foot-gage  train  of  the  DRrRGW's  Alamosa  k  Durango 
R.P.O.  still  chugs  out  of  Alamosa,  Colorado,  daily  at  7  A.M., 
dips  briefly  into  New  Mexico  via  Chama,  returns  to  Colorado 
about  noon,  and  spends  the  afternoon  climbing  Cumbres  Pass 
to  Durango.  So  crooked  is  its  horseshoe-curved  mountain 
trackage  that  "the  A.  &  D."  passes  the  same  section  house  three 
times!  The  thirty-foot  apartment  has  its  back  rack  cut  to  one 
row  to  save  space,  and  even  then  only  a  slim  clerk  can  barely 
squeeze  through  the  aisle.  The  train  was  badly  wrecked  by 
an  avalanche  in  1948. 

The  other  famed  narrow  gauges  of  the  Colorado  mountains 
are  all  gone.  We  must  skip,  alas,  the  vivid  stories  of  the 
picturesque  Salida  &  Montrose  (highest  elevation  of  any 
R.P.O.)  and  the  unique  Antonito  Sc  Santa  Fe  or  "Chili  Line" 
into  New  Mexico  (both  D&RGW),  recently  discontinued. 
Tales  of  the  Tennessee  Tweetsie,  the  ET8:WNC's  Boone  R.- 
Johnson City,  featured  in  a  movie  short  of  that  name  (North 
Carolina  to  Tennessee),  and  Ohio's  "Bend,  Zigzag  &  Crooked" 
(the  BZRcC-OR&W's  Bellaire  &  Zanesville)  must  wait— even 
though  the  Tweetsie  was  the  last  slim-gauge  R.P.O.  in  the 
East,  lasting  until  September  30,  1940.  In  quick  retrospect  we 
recall  the  cleverly  nick-named  "Slow  &  Low"  (the  PC's  San 
Luis  Obispo  R:  Los  Olivos— note  initials)  in  California,  a  typi- 
cal old-time  light  "pension  run"  whose  six-foot-six  clerk  de- 
veloped a  permanent  stoop  .  .  .  the  old,  slim  Wells  &:  Brad. 
(Erie?),  of  which  only  a  couple  of  little  rails  still  remain  em- 
bedded in  a  Bradford,  Pennsylvania,  street  ,  .  .  "The  Narrow 
Gauge"  of  Illinois,  which  was  the  Galesburg  &  Havana  .  .  .  and 
scores  of  others  elsewhere  in  Oregon,  Virginia  and  so  on. 

But  most  incredible  of  the  narrow  gauges  were  the  tiny 
two-foot-wide  R.P.O.  tracks  of  Maine.  A  typical  flea-gauge 
route  was  the  WW&F's  Albion  &  Wiscasset,  43.5  miles,  oper- 
ating the  smallest-known  (7x7  feet)  R.P.O.  apartment  any- 
where. The  one  tiny  mixed  train  left  Albion  daily  at  5:30 
A.M.,  its  speed  cut  from  60  mph  to  20,  doubtless  dreaming 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  177 

of  the  four  hundred  mile  slim-gauge  network  its  promoters 
planned  to  extend  to  Quebec,  Province  of  Quebec.  Its  last 
new  postmarker  was  celebrated  by  a  cacheted  collectors'  cover 
March  8,  1933— a  wreck  the  following  June  8th  "finished" 
the  railway  for  good.  On  the  "Sandy  River"  (SR&:RL),  two 
two-foot  R.P.O.s  operated  until  1918— the  Farmington  & 
Rangely  and  Farm.  &:  Kingford;  the  twenty-one-mile  Harrison 
&  Bridgeton  on  the  B&SR  (later  B&H)  also  discontinued  its 
R.P.O.  then,  but  ran  other  trains  until  late  in  the  1930s.  Only 
the  forty-six-mile  Sandy  River  runs  had  the  typical  mail-car 
letter  slot,  catcher,  and  so  on;  most  cars  did  not  even  have  the 
standard  lettering  on  them.  Some  of  the  equipment  now  runs 
on  the  Edaville  Railroad,  South  Carver,  Massachusetts. 

Still  another  type  of  amazing  "railway  post  office"  is  fol- 
lowing the  vanishing  narrow-gauges  into  near  extinction.  A 
paradox  in  name,  these  are  the  boat-line  R.P.O.s  which  sort 
mail  for  lakeside  or  bayside  points  in  transit.  (The  term 
"R.P.O."  was  assigned  to  them  when  that  was  the  only  kind 
of  transit-sorting  unit  known.)  The  whole  tempo  and  atmos- 
phere of  life  on  the  mail  boats  is  startlingly  different  from 
that  in  an  R.P.O.  car;  but  although  four  daily  boat  R.P.O.s 
still  operate  part  of  each  year,  only  one  actual  postal  trans- 
portation clerk  still  enjoys  his  work  in  the  calm,  quiet,  and 
unhurried  surroundings  of  a  secluded  lake  or  bay!  Not  for 
him  are  the  roars,  jerkings,  and  dangers  of  fast  mail  trains  or 
hypos,  the  strain  of  night  work,  the  hectic  life  of  metropolitan 
maelstroms,  the  frantic  scurry  to  dispatch  connections.  Alas, 
even  he  must  restrict  his  idyllic  existence  to  summers;  the  rest 
of  the  year  he  must  take  other  assignments  instead  of  his  serene 
"banker's  hours."  And  the  joint  employees  on  the  other  three 
boat  runs  do  other  boat  jobs  as  well. 

Route  agents,  and  later  R.P.O.  clerks,  were  placed  on  in- 
land boat  lines  at  a  very  early  date;  postmarks  apparently 
applied  on  Lake  Erie  (Buffalo)  and  Erie  Canal  boats  go  back 
to  as  early  as  1857.  By  the  1890s  the  famed  river  packets  and 
steamers  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  usually  carried  mail 
units— R.P.O.s  such  as  the  old  Cairo  &  Memphis  and  the 
Vicksburg  &  New  Orleans;  dozens  of  lakes  and  harbors  boast- 


178  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ed  the  service.  Eighty-two  clerks  were  serving  on  forty-nine 
boat  routes  by  1902.  Nearly  250  different  postmarks  of  boat 
routes  are  known,  although  many  are  mere  renamings,  cur- 
tailments, or  extensions.  Later  the  number  fell  sharply.  Postal 
regulations  for  the  service  require  safe  boats,  a  suitable  mail 
room,  and  first-class  board  for  the  mail  clerk  without  charge; 
night  boats  must  have  a  sleeping  compartment  for  the  clerk's 
"exclusive  use."  Since  there  are  no  train  numbers,  the  boat's 
postmarker  may  show  only  the  date  or  may  show  directions  as 
"NORTH"  or  "SOUTH,"  or  as  "Tr  1"  or  "Tr  3"  {trip 
numbers)  in  standard  fashion. 

The  one  boat  R.P.O.  served  by  a  regular  clerk  is  the  Inlet 
&  Old  Forge  (Leon  E.  Burnap  Boat  Line),  eighteen-mile 
New  York  State  route  on  the  Fulton  Chain  of  Lakes  in  the 
Adirondacks.  The  most  startling  fact  about  the  line,  how- 
ever, is  that  it  serves  only  two  post  offices  and  that  its  distri- 
bution consists  of  sorting  patrons'  mail  for  the  Old  Forge 
office— delivering  it  direct  to  private  docks,  as  would  an 
R.F.D.  carrier  (similar  to  the  old  Clear.  &  Buff,  joint-employee 
R.P.O.).  But  the  outgoing  mails  are  sorted  to  proper  P.T.S. 
connections,  via  Old  Forge;  and  the  Malone  &:  Utica  R.P.O. 
(NYCent),  its  rail  outlet,  also  pouches  on  the  boat  via 
Thendara  and  Inlet.  A  June-through-August  operation,  the 
boat  makes  two  daily  loop-shaped  round  trips,  serving  125 
resort  hotels  and  camps  around  the  lake;  the  first  trip  leaves 
Old  Forge,  8:30  A.M. 

And  this  is  America's  only  R.P.O.  where  a  lovely  swim- 
suited  bathing  beauty,  instead  of  the  usual  glum  mail  mes- 
senger, is  likely  to  be  on  hand  to  make  the  on-the-fly  ex- 
changes with  the  fortunate  clerk— at  present,  any  available 
substitute  is  assisfned.  Exchanges  are  made  hand-to-hand 
while  the  boat  is  in  motion,  the  skipper  (W.  Donald  Burnap) 
merely  slowing  up  a  bit.  Small  cloth  satchels  are  used  for 
patrons'  exchanges  (they  must  return  one  each  time), 
but  regulation  pouches  must  be  used  for  authorized  dis- 
patches to  the  two  post  offices  and  the  connecting  rail  R.P.O. 
The  forty-foot,  motor-powered  R.P.O.  boat  Miss  Ussma 
also  accommodates  up  to  twenty-six  passengers  as  well  as  the 


-C.   E.  Hurdick   (Wilkins  of  Brooklyn,  Photographer) 


MAKING  THE  CATCH  AT  SHOHOLA,  PENNSYLVANIA— Thousands  of  non-stop  local 
exchanges  like  this  one,  made  on  the  Erie's  New  York  &  Salamanca  Railway  Post 
OfRce  in  1939,  are  still  performed  daily  in  the  United  States. 


^^  1  -mm 


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J^S^^i^&pps,.., 


■ — Postal  Transport  Journal 


HOW  MEN  SORT  MAIL  AT  A  MILE  A  MINUTE-This  Is  a  typical  close-up  of  clerks  at 
work,  snapped  in  the  Southern  Railway's  Washington  &  Charlotte  Railway  Post  Office 
on  Train  34  which  operates  from  North  Carolina  to  the  nation's  capital. 


-  -Xew  York  Central   System 

CROSS-SECTION  OF  AN  R.P.O.  INTERIOR— This  remarkable  scale  drawing  by  New 
York  Central  engineers  was  used  in  national  magazine  advertisements  during 
World  War  II  and  shows  the  interior  of  the  noted  "Twentieth  Century  Limited"  (New 
York  &  Chicago  Railway  Post  Office).  The  interior  details  of  such  a  car  will  be  found 
identified  and  described  on  Pages  4,  5,  and  17fF. 


UNLOADING  THE  ALBUQUERQUE  &  LOS  ANGELES  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE-Mail  is 
being  unloaded  from  the  storage  end  of  this  typical  Santa  Fe  combination  car  (R.P.O. 
apartment  at  left)  direct  onto  post  office-bound  moving  belts  at  Los  Angeles  Union 
Station. 

Si'.i:,;    Im     Railway 


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o  •= 


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A  TINY  FORMER  TWO-FOOT  GAUGE  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  CAR-This  view  of  the 
Harrison  &  Bridgeton  Railway  Post  Office,  a  tiny  train  of  the  Bridgeton  &  Sandy 
River  Railway  shown  leaving  Hiram,  Maine,  in  1934,  is  but  an  echo  of  the  departed 
past.  The  toy-like  two-foot  railways  are  all  gone  today,  and  only  one  narrow-gage 
R.P.O.   remains   in  the   United   States. 


A  TYPICAL  LOCAL 
SHORT-LINE  RAIL- 
WAY POST  OFFICE 
OF  TODAY  -  The 
postal  apartment  is 
at  the  extreme  rear 
(right)  of  this  York  & 
Baltimore  motor  train 
on  the  picturesque 
"Ma  &  Pa,"  the  Mary- 
land &  Pennsylvania 
Railroad. 

— L.    E.    Dequine 


A  POSTAL  TRANS- 
PORTATION SERVICE 
"TERMINAL"  -  This 
viev\/  of  the  old  Wee- 
hawken  (New  Jersey) 
Terminal  Railway 
Post  Office,  snapped 
at  the  West  Shore 
Railroad  station  in 
1932,  is  still  typical  of 
terminal    interiors. 


-\V.   J.    Dennis 

OWNEY,  FAMED  TRAVELING  DOG  OF  THE  MAIL  CARS— This  bemedalled  mascot  of 
the  old  Railway  Mail  Service  is  described  on  Pages  93  and  94.  Stuffed,  he  is  now 
in  storage  at  the  Washington  City  Post  Office  after  many  exhibitions. 


IT 


^^t^^^^ 


—Beit  Swilling  and  B.A.L. 
NEW  YORK  WORLD'S  FAIR  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE— Regularly  established  as  a 
temporary  unit  with  the  above  title,  in  full  operation  except  for  remaining  stationary, 
this  New  York  Central  exhibit  car  is  shown  here  on  Railway  Mail  Service  Day  at 
the  Fair  in  September,  1940,  with  author  (B.A.L.)  about  to  make  the  catch. 


- — Burlington  Lines 


— Burlington  Lines 
REPLICA  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  HANNIBAL-ST.  JOE  MAIL  CAR-These  two  views  show 
the  exterior  (top)  and  interior  of  this  controversial  experimental  railway  post  office, 
operated  just  before  the  Railway  Mail  Service  was  founded,  as  described  on  Pages 
105  to  107. 


f_^     -—-"-'■ 


-Walter  Thayer 


-Harold  Laniljcn 


THE  LONG  AND  THE  SHORT  OF  IT— Shown  at  the  top  at  Whitefish,  Montana,  we 
have  the  Great  Northern's  "Oriental  Limited,"  Train  4  of  the  Williston  &  Seattle, 
longest  railway  post  office  route  in  America  (1169  miles)— and,  in  sharp  contrast, 
the  interior  of  the  Thurmond  &  Mount  Hope  Railway  Post  Office  (C&O)  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, shortest  in  the  country  until  1949  (lO'i  miles),  with  Clerk  Esker  W.  Davis 
shown  on  duty,  at  the  bottom.  (Chapter  10) 


— William  C.  Janssen 
FORMER  INTERURBAN  TROLLEY  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE-This  beautiful  old  Texas 
Electric  car  carried  the  Denison  &  Dallas  run  in  Texas,  now  a  highway  post  office 
route,  until  December  31,   1948.   (Chapter  12) 


AN  ELECTRIC-CAR  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  OF  TODAY-This  apartment  car  of  the 
Summit  &  Gladstone  (Lackawanna  Railroad)  in  New  Jersey  is  operated  by  a  motor- 
man  at  left  end. 


— J.ilm    Cil.l.   Smith 

OLD-TIME  CITY  STREET  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE-This  spruce  new  car,  built  in  1915 
as  No.  M-1  of  the  Philadelphia  Rapid  Transit  Company,  was  used  on  several  routes 
in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania.  The  exterior  view  is  at  top,  interior  at  bottom.  Further 
details,  as  well  as  the  car's  final  disposition,  are  In  Chap.   12. 


-John   Gibb   Smith 


HAIL 


-  -I'.riti-h     R;nl. 


A  BRITISH  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE-This  is  the  Down  Up  Special  Travelling  Post  Office 
(Midland  and  Scottish  Regions,  British  Railways)  operating  from  London  to  Aberdeen, 
Scotland;  see  Chapter  14. 


— British  Railways 


Courtesy  of   Postmaster  General.   London 


CLERKS  AT  WORK  ON  A  BRITISH  TRAVELLING  POST  OFFICE-At  the  left  we  see  a 
sorter  prepared  to  make  the  "catch"  by  the  automatic  apparatus  shown  on  car 
in  top  picture;  despatching  arm  holds  outgoing  pouch  (bottom  left)  ready  to  be 
sheared  off.    At  right,  clerks  are  busy  at  the  "sorting  frame  " 


Donald  M 


A  CANADIAN  RAILWAY  POST  OFFICE  TRAIN-This  is  a  train  of  the  Gaspe  &  Camp- 
bellton  (Canadian  National)  snapped  at  Matapedia,  New  Brunswick;  the  postal  car 
(behind  engine)  closely  resembles  United   States  cars. 


-  -Guntev  Stetza 

RAILWAY    POST    OFFICE    CAR    IN    GERMANY-This    is    a   typical    "Bahnpost"   sorting 
coach  of  the  Deutsches  Post  (German  State  Railways). 


THE  FLYING  POST  OF- 
FICE— This  simple  cross- 
section  of  the  center 
fuselage  of  the  Fairchild 
Air-mail  Packet  shows 
the  sorting  case,  over- 
head boxes,  and  pouch 
racks  of  the  clerk's  com- 
partment where  moil 
was  sorted  in  transit 
aloft  on  several  routes  in 
1946. 

■ — Fairchild  Aircraft 


MODERN  HIGHWAY 
POST  OFFICE-This  sleek 
mail-sorting  bus  oper- 
ates on  the  Pikeville  & 
Bristol  (Kentucky-Vir- 
ginia) and  Welch  & 
Bristol  (W.  \/a.-\/a.) 
routes.  The  exterior  of 
No.  79  is  shown  at 
center,  interior  at  bot- 
tom. Rack  at  right  folds 
down   to   hold   pouches. 

— White    Motor   Company 


rrrc 

rrrrrrrrf' 

rrrrrrff     rr- 

rrrrr[[[(mrrrr  rr 


1  1 1« 


1 1 


I  I 


III 


■'  ^^^^i^^?<!^:? ■* 


1  Ilk  Cential  System 
A  FAMED  POSTAL  STREAMLINER  OF  TODAY-The  noted  "Twentieth  Century  Limited" 
is  shown  here  carrying  the  New  York  &  Chicago  Railway  Post  Office,  of  which  an 
interior  diagram  has  been  shown  earlier. 


— Burlington  Lines 
THE  ULTIMATE  IN  MODERN  POSTAL  CARS-With  the  modern  refinements  described 
in  Chapter  16,  this  handsome  car  "Silver  Post"  Is  used  by  the  Burlington's  Chicago  & 
Council   Bluffs  Railway  Post  Office. 


-Postal    Transport    Journal 


THE  LATE  SMITH  W.  PURDUM:  BELOVED  EX-HEAD 
OF  THE  SERVICE— Starting  out  as  a  mail  clerk  on 
the  PRR's  New  York  &  Washington  Railway  Post 
Office,  Mr.  Purdom  climbed  to  the  highest  ranks 
of  the  Service  on  merit,  finally  becoming  Second 
Assistant  Postmaster  General  and  heading  the 
entire  Railv/ay  Mail  Service  (now  the  Postal 
Transportation  Service).  Hailing  from  Hyattsville, 
Maryland,  he  earned  the  respect  and  affection  of 
practically  all  who  knew  him. 


<    c 


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Q.      0 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  179 

8  X  12-foot  mail  apartment.  The  clerk  must  handle  money 
orders,  registers,  C.O.D.s,  stamps,  etc.,  for  patrons  (including 
boat  riders)  just  like  an  R.F.D.  carrier  or  post-office  window 
clerk.  The  scenic  trip  is  not  always  made  without  adventure; 
an  excited  new  camper  may  miss  the  "catch"  and  have  to  fish 
for  a  wet  bag  of  mail,  a  terrific  windstorm  may  come  up  (one, 
blowing  80  mph,  smashed  the  windshield),  or  an  emergency 
landing  made  to  deliver  Girl  Scout  trunks  by  parcel  post.  In 
a  double  L-shaped  sorting  case,  the  substitute  clerk  works 
his  mail;  outgoing  letters  must  first  be  postmarked,  while 
incoming  mail— addressed  via  Old  Forge  post  office  to  either 
the  R.P.O.  or  name  of  camp— is  sorted  to  patrons'  boxes  and 
placed  in  the  satchels.  Main  hotel  bags  are  hung  on  hooks 
on  the  side  wall,  in  English  fashion. 

The  unique  service  was  established  either  in  the  1890s  or 
on  July  24,  1901  (accounts  vary),  through  influence  of  Cabi- 
net members  and  other  prominent  camp  owners,  by  contract 
with  the  Fulton  Navigation  Company.  During  the  years  just 
one  clerk  lost  his  life— though  a  good  swimmer,  he  never  came 
up  when  a  safety  chain  broke  and  he  fell  overboard. 

Our  other  three  R.P.O.  boat  lines  are  similarly  oper- 
ated during  simimer  only  over  connecting  lakes  in  New 
Hampshire;  all  are  managed  by  joint-employed  private 
contractors.  These  are  (1)  the  tiny  Asquam  Lake  R.P.O. 
(Squam  Livery),  9.5  miles  from  Holderness  to  Sandwich 
Point  (no  P.O.),  New  Hampshire,  which  is  our  shortest 
designated  R.P.O.  and  the  only  one  manned  by  a  woman 
clerk  (Contractor  Kathryn  O'Neill)  whose  boat  Oriole  covers 
most  of  Squam  Lake  and  connects  with  the  Woodsville  & 
Boston  (B{i-M)  via  Ashland,  New  Hampshire;  (2)  the  Alton 
Bay  k  Merrymount  (L.  P.  Beck  Boat  Line),  27.8  miles  via 
Wolfeboro  on  southern  Lake  Winnepesaukee,  connecting 
with  the  Portland  R:  Boston  (BR:M)  via  Alton  Bay  and  Dover; 
and  (3)  the  strange  21.5-mile  Lake  W^innipesaukee  R.P.O.  on 
the  north  end  of  that  lake,  operating  from  Lakeport  (station 
of  Laconia)  via  The  Weirs  to  Bear  Island,  New  Hampshire. 
A  post-oflice  clerk  is  detailed  from  the  Laconia  post  office  to 
sort  mail  for  its  contractor  on  E.  J.  Lavallee's  steamer  Uncle 


180  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Sam,  which  now  uses  the  only  machine  canceller  on  any  oper- 
ating R.P.O.  It  exchanges  mails  between  its  three  post  offices 
as  well  as  delivering  that  for  patrons  (addressed  via  the  head 
oflice,  Lakeport,  as  on  the  other  lines).  Dubbed  as  "a  combi- 
nation of  star  route,  R.F.D.,  R.P.O.,  and  branch  of  Laconia 
P.O.,"  the  "Lake  Winnie"  was  denied  recognition  as  an 
R.P.O.  for  several  years  recently  when  it  was  officially  rele- 
gated to  rural  route  status  and  stricken  from  R.M.S.  records 
(although  the  clerk  innocently  continued  using  the  R.P.O. 
postmarker).  Restored  to  P.T.S.  listing  now,  it  connects  with 
the  Woods.  R:  Boston  (B&M)  at  Lakeport;  established  by  Act 
of  Congress  in  1919,  its  contractor-carrier  must  be  appointed 
on  recommendation  of  New  Hampshire  senators  or  congress- 
men—its clerk  compensation  is  specially  fixed  by  the  PL&R! 
A  few  rail  R.P.O.s  have  a  steamer  connection  to  complete 
the  journey,  too,  on  which  sortation  of  mails  is  continued. 
The  Phila.  k  Norfolk  (PRR)  uses  the  steamers  Maryland  and 
Elisha  Lee,  containing  large  mail  rooms  with  cases  and  racks, 
to  carry  mails  and  clerks  across  Chesapeake  Bay  from  Cape 
Charles,  Virginia,  to  Norfolk  (once  the  independent  Cape 
Charles  &  Norf.  R.P.O.).  And  the  Mackinaw  City  8:  Calumet 
(DSS&A)  in  Michigan  has  its  entire  R.P.O.  train  carried  over 
the  water  intact  on  the  car-ferry  steamers  Chief  Watawam  or 
Sainte  Marie  across  8.7-mile  Mackinack  Strait.  A  very  color- 
ful part-boat  run  of  bygone  days  was  the  old  Truckee  &  Lake 
Tahoe  (SP)  in  California,  on  which  the  historic  boat 
Marion  B.  served  the  water-bound  80  per  cent  of  the  route 
until  it  suddenly  blew  up  in  1941,  killing  the  clerk.  Some 
recently  discontinued  all-boat  runs,  too,  were  most  unusual- 
such  as  the  old  Claremont  Sc  Hopewell  (Haynie  Boat  Line) 
on  Virginia's  James  River,  serving  tiny  plantation  villages  of 
a  bygone  era  and  sorting  mail  in  one  direction  only  (toward 
Hopewell;  hence  the  R.P.O.  was  omitted  as  a  service  for 
Claremont  in  the  Virginia  scheme!).  It  quit  about  1944.  An- 
other was  the  all-year-round  Bellingham  &:  Anacortes 
(BTransCo),  earlier  the  picturesquely-titled  Bell.  &  Friday 
Harbor,  serving  numerous  post  offices  on  islands  off  the  Wash- 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  181 

ington  State  coast,  using  the  M/S  Osage;  it  lasted  until  June 
30,  1950. 

There  are  acually  six  or  eight  other  boat  lines— not  R.P.O.s 
and  not  under  the  P.T.S.— which  definitely  sort  some  mail  in 
transit;  they  range  from  the  Skaneateles  Lake  Powerboat 
Route  (ex-R.P.O.),  out  of  Skaneateles,  New  York,  on  which 
an  R.F.D.  carrier  distributes  mail  en  route  for  625  cottages 
about  the  lake,  to  the  famed  ninety-seven-mile  River  Route 
R.F.D.  in  isolated  Hell's  Canyon  (Idaho),  deepest  gorge  in 
America,  \vhere  almost  no  mail  is  actually  sorted  on  Kyle 
Grady's  mucli-publicized  boats,  Idaho  and  Florence.  Mail  on 
some  lines  is  informally  pen-canceled.  Until  June  SO,  1948,  the 
unique  Detroit  River  Station  of  the  Detroit,  Michigan,  post 
office  was  located  on  board  the  sixty-five-foot  steel  motor  craft 
George  F.  Becker  to  sort  and  deliver  mail  to  officers  and  sea- 
men of  some  ninety  Great  Lakes  ships  there.  The  service, 
only  one  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States,  was  begun  June  17, 
1895;  mail  was  placed  in  buckets  slung  over  the  side  of  each 
ship,  amid  many  hazards.  There  were  many  other  historic 
boat  runs  (see  Note  15). 

But  to  return  once  more  to  the  true  railway  post  offices. 
The  colorful  or  paradoxical  titles  and  unusual  nicknames 
used  for  them  are  amazing  in  themselves.  Actually  used 
officially  are  such  romantic  or  weird  titles  as  the  "George.  &: 
Grace."  (LR:N)  in  Alabama,  witli  its  closed-pouch  extension  to 
Graceville,  Florida;  and  the  "Pad.  R;  Hick."  (NCfcStL),  from 
Paducah  to  Hickman,  Kentucky.  But  the  prize  one  of  all 
was  doubtless  the  officially  titled  "Thief.  &:  Crook."  from 
Thief  River  Falls  to  Crookston,  Minnesota  (GN),  now  dis- 
continued. The  Cincinnati  &:  St.  Louis  (B&O)  is,  of  course, 
dubbed  the  "Sin  &  Saint"  and  the  N.Y.  &:  Mauch  Chunk 
(CNJ)  "The  Chunk"  or  "The  Much  Junk."  There  was  a 
Welch  R:  Jenkinjones  (N&W)  in  W^est  Virginia. 

Some  interesting  coincidences  exist,  or  have  existed,  in  rail- 
road names;  thus  the  Boston  &:  Albany  (BR:A)  has  exactly  the 
same  name  as  the  railway  carrying  it— as  did  the  old  Louisville 
&  Nashville  (L8cN).   Until  recently  there  was  both  a  Colum- 


182  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

bus  k  Norfolk  R.P.O.  (Nk\V)  from  Ohio  to  Virginia,  and  a 
Norfolk  R:  Columbus  (UP)  in  Nebraska;  and  also  a  Spring- 
field R:  Indianapolis  (CCC&StL)  out  of  Springfield,  Ohio,  and 
an  Indianapolis  k  Springf.  (BRrO)  running  into  Springfield, 
Illinois.  All  four,  except  the  Cols.  8:  Norfolk,  which  was 
named  in  reverse  order  because  consolidated  after  the  Norf.  & 
Cols,  began,  have  been  discontinued. 

The  most  fantastic  R.P.O.  title  of  all  time  Avas  of  a  line 
which,  in  the  literal  sense,  never  existed— the  "Greaterville  8: 
Total  Wreck"  in  Arizona.  Its  "record"  was  excitedly  uncov- 
ered by  a  correspondent  for  the  Go-Back  Pouch,  8th  Division 
newssheet,  a  few  years  ago;  he  sent  in  an  item  from  an  old 
General  Order  of  1887  reading  "Greaterville  and  Total 
Wreck  .  .  .  discontinue  pouching  on  .  .  ."  and  so  on.  It  -was 
noted  that  the  two  names  in  the  title  were  those  of  two  tiny 
mining  towns— doubtless  once  connected  by  a  long-aband- 
oned short  railway.  The  news  was  written  up  in  the  Raihvay 
Post  Office  and  in  philatelic  journals;  collectors  wanted  its 
postmark;  inquiries  poured  in.  But  when  officials  searched 
their  dusty  files,  no  record  of  it  was  found.  Finally  a  studi- 
ous clerk  on  the  nearby  El  Paso  R:  L.A.  (SP)  revealed  that 
there  never  cotild  have  been  such  an  R.P.O.;  the  two  Arizona 
towns  (Total  Wreck  is  now  discontinued)  were  only  fourteen 
miles  apart,  with  a  huge  mountain  range  in  between.  He 
showed  that  the  original  item  had  not  been  quoted  in  full; 
it  referred  to  the  post  offices  at  Greaterville  and  at  Total 
Wreck,  the  correspondent  having  failed  to  copy  the  state 
name  (Arizona).  But  in  railway  mail  lore  the  famed  old 
R.P.O,  has  already  become  a  permanent  tradition.  As  Editor 
Monroe  Williams  stated  in  the  Go-Back  Pouch: 

The  Greaterville  &  Total  Wreck  R.P.O.  has  been  estab- 
lished and  can  never  be  discontinued.  It  will  forever 
steam  out  of  Greaterville  on  a  roadbed  that  never  knew 
rails.  It  will  climb  the  rough  edges  of  the  Whetstone 
Mountains.  It  may  pass  the  Lemonade  Springs  and  the 
Cigarette  Trees  in  the  Great  Rock  Candy  Mountains  but 
certainly  it  will  run  on  and  on  until  it  finally  comes  into 
its  terminal— a  Total  Wreck. 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  18S 

But  there  have  been  real  R.P.O.s,  too,  with  no  trains 
entering  either  named  terminal— it's  true  of  the  Wash.  & 
Bluemont  today  (see  Chapter  12),  even  as  it  was  toward 
close  of  service  on  the  old  Spring  Valley  &  N.Y.  (NJ&NY) 
when  trains  operated  only  from  Montvale  to  Jersey  City,  both 
in  New  Jersey— yet  the  named  termini  were  both  in  New  York 
State!  Dubbed  "The  Virginia  Creeper,"  the  Wash.  8:  Blue. 
(W&:OD),  furthermore,  is  the  only  R.P.O.  officially  classed  as 
"electric"  (it  no  longer  is,  though  several  suburban  M.U. 
R.P.O.s  are);  and  is  the  only  R.P.O.  traversing  the  heart  of 
Arlington,  Virginia,  Washington's  suburban  metropolis— a 
city  served  by  none  of  the  seven  R.P.O.  and  H.P.O.  routes 
crossing  its  borders!  And  we  are  reminded  of  the  DR:RGW's 
former  Salt  Lake  City  &  Kanab  (now  S.L.Cy.  &:  Richfield 
H.P.O.)  famed  as  "The  Polygamy  Special"  or  "The  Marys- 
vale,"  whose  125-mile  star-route  extension  from  Marysvale  to 
Kanab  was  longer  than  the  R.P.O.  run.  And  today's  Reno  & 
Las  Vegas  (SP)  in  Nevada  is  also  over  60%  star  route— largely, 
as  on  "The  Kanab,"  over  paths  which  never  knew  rails! 

But  getting  back  to  the  subject  of  striking  nicknames,  who 
but  postal  clerks  could  ever  have  conjured  up  "The  Dream- 
liner"  (Det.  &  Or. Rap.),  "The  Galloping  Goose"  (Spok,  & 
C.C),  "The  Horny  Toad"  (Alb.  k  El  P.),  "The  Leaky  Roof" 
(K.C.  R:  Mem.),  "The  Little  Windy"  (L.Rock  k  Ft.W.),  "The 
Macaroni"  (Hou.  R:  C.C),  "The  Monkey  Wrench"  (Pul.  & 
Mt.A.),  "The  Old  Man's  Darling"  (Ak.  &'Del.)  and  "The  Ox 
Cart"  (Knox.  Cart.  8:  At.)?  Or,  "The  Pow  Wow"  (Fug.  & 
C.B.),  "The  Preacher"  (St.L.  k  Parsons),  "The  Puddle 
Jumper"  (Port,  k  Sea.),  "The  Pumpkinvine"  (Roa.  k  Win- 
ston-Salem), "The  Poor  Boy"  (Jack,  k  Tam.),  "The  Raging 
Sioux"  (Chi.  R:  SuCy.),  "The  Rickety  Bang"  (Gr.Jct.  k  Og.), 
"The  Scissorbill"  (St.  L.  k  Mem.),  "The  Pickle  Vat"  (Tex- 
arkana.  Ark.  Term.),  "The  Moimtain  Goat"  or  "Belvidere" 
(Phill.  R:  Tr.),  "The  Pedro"  (Og.  R:  L.A.),  and  to  cap  it  all, 
"The  Wooden  Axle"  (Harri.  k  Nash.)?  [See  Appendix  I 
for  complete  data  on  each  line.) 

There  are  at  least  six  stories  as  to  why  the  MoPac's  Kan. 
City  &:  Pueblo  is  called  "The  Doghouse"  (and  so  are  the 


184  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Philn(lclj:)liia  and  Ilanishurg,  Pennsylvania,  Terminals); 
uhilc  the  NT's  Duluili  R;  iMpls.  is  siill  "The  Scally"  because 
ol  ilie  Swcilish  liunberman  who  once  rode  it  saying  "I  tink 
skall  I  go  down  lo  St,  Paul"  and  so  on.  Farthest  apart  of 
identical  nicknames  are  our  two  "Coast  Lines"— the  Wash.  & 
Flor.-Flor.  R:  jack  and  San  F.,  San  ).  R;  L.A.  {see  Afjpx.  J). 

But  utterly  fantastic  were  some  nicknames  of  discontinued 
lines!  Besides  ones  we'\e  named,  ^\■e  recall  Itlaho's  Ketcluun 
R;  Shoshone  (UP)— "The  Ketch  &:  Show,"  of  course;  the  one- 
time Klkton  R:  Bridgewater  (NR-\V),  formerly  CWRy  (Va.)  and 
thus  "Crooked  R;  Weedy"— now  a  C.P.;  the  horrifying  "Fish  &: 
Dirty  Feet"  (the  CR:P's  old  Salmon  R:  Blackfoot,  Ida.);  the 
"Tin  Can"  (Waco  R:  Stamford,  Texas- M-K-T);  the  "Under- 
brush Limited"  in  Michigan  (Frankf.  R:  Toledo,  AARy) 
and  "The  Two  Brothers"  (Harry.  R;  Frank.— see  Chapter 
I).  Then  there  were  "The  Sowbelly,"  an  old  Kansas  City 
roiuing;  and  "7^he  Kite,"  a  loop-like,  kite-shaped  former 
local  run  on  the  Albuquerque  R:  Los. A,  (Santa  Fe)— the  name 
still  clings  to  the  remaining  part.  At  least  nine  lines  out  of 
New  York,  St.  Louis,  Council  BlufTs,  San  Francisco,  and 
elsewhere  are  called  "The  Valley";  these,  togeiiier  with  lum- 
dreds  of  other  nicknames  (many  explained  elsewhere  in  the 
book),  are  all  listed  in  Appendix  L 

One  of  the  most  unbelievable  P.T.S.  operations  is  the 
ingenious  process  of  sorting  out  mails  for  an  individual  city 
to  separate  postal  stations,  or  even  to  carriers,  on  a  speeding 
train  hundreds  of  miles  away!  Confined  mostly  to  night 
trains,  it  permits  instant  delivery  of  city  letters  by  the  first 
carrier— mail  that  ^\•oldd  olher\\'ise  be  delayed  loin"  to  t\venty- 
four  hours.  1  hus  the  N.Y.  R:  Chic.  (NYCent)  works  city  mails 
for  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Buffalo,  Chicago,  Cleveland, 
Rochester,  Syracuse,  Toledo,  and  Detroit!  "City  clerks"  even 
make  up  direct  letter  packages  for  important  firms,  buildings, 
and  individuals  to  be  delivered  direct  to  addressee.  Such  clerks 
must  usually  memorize  the  proper  postal  station  serving  each 
street,  as  \vell  as  the  exact  house-number  breaks  if  the  street 
is  in  more  than  one  zone;  their  case-examination  cards  show 
every  street,  or  part  street  with  house  niunbers,  of  any  im- 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  185 

portance  in  the  city.  Most  clerks  personally  pay  for  and  use 
special  letter-case  headers  with  printed  house-number  breaks; 
but  others  can  work  a  "city"  well  under  plain  headers  or 
even,  with  some  experts,  "blind"— a  miraculous  feat  when 
the  complex  data  to  be  memorized  is  considered.  Clerks  run- 
ning into  Los  Angeles  sometimes  make  direct  bundles  of  fan 
mail  for  movie  stars. 

Large-city  stations  have  zone  numbers,  and  zoned  mail  is 
instantly  sorted  by  substitutes  using  simple  numbered  head- 
ers (the  numbers  racket,  as  the  process  is  dubbed).  But  regu- 
lar "city  men"  must  know  the  exact  route  of  any  unzoned 
letter  instantly.  A  huge  amount  of  such  mail  is  distributed; 
thus  one  Omaha  &  Denver  (CB&;Q)  train  dispatches  twenty- 
five  pouches  of  ^vorked  Denver  City  mail  daily.  (Much  Mil- 
waukee and  Dallas  city  mail  is  now  distributed  by  a  simple 
alphabetical  system.) 

The  story  is  told  of  one  Chicago  City  clerk  on  the  Chic.  & 
Council  Bluffs  (CBSjQ)  who  was  plugging  away  at  his  case 
dead  to  the  world,  and  particularly,  to  some  commotion  back 
in  the  car.  A  clerk  had  just  collapsed,  seriously  ill,  and  was 
being  asked  where  he  lived.  Hardly  had  the  victim  gasped 
his  city  address  than  the  preoccupied  Chicago  clerk  barked 
out  "Carrier  145,  2nd  morning  delivery;  if  it's  special,  pouch 
it  to  the  Main  .  .  ."  (See  Note  16.) 

Other  amazing  facts  of  the  Service  involve  the  clerks  them- 
selves. Their  dexterity  in  sortation  from  memory  has  been 
publicized  by  Dr.  Irving  Cutter  as  "an  amazing  exhibition  of 
both  physical  and  mental  skill,"  and  these  complex  duties 
must  be  carried  out  under  a  set  of  stringent  and  rather  inter- 
esting regulations.  For  example,  a  clerk  sorting  mail  for  his 
own  state  or  city  is  not  allowed  to  take  out  or  open  a  letter 
addressed  to  himself,  no  matter  how  urgent;  every  letter  must 
go  on  through  exactly  as  addressed.  And  if  he  accepts  a  letter 
from  a  patron  and  postmarks  it,  he  can  under  no  circum- 
stances return  it  for  correction  or  withdrawal— not  even  the 
very  next  minute. 

Clerks  have  run  up  some  remarkable  personal  records. 
J.  W.  Bloom,  of  the  old  Wmspt.  &  Mahaffee  (NYCent),  was 


186  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

recently  banqueted  and  given  a  plaque  by  the  Williamport, 
Pennsylvania,  Branch  N.P.T.A.  for  ha\ing  been  their  secre- 
tary lor  fifly-oue  years.  Retired  clerk  Al  Glasser  boasts  a  rec- 
ord of  twenty-four  years'  perfect  attendance  at  New  York 
(2nd  Division)  Branch  meetings;  they  also  gave  him  a  plaque, 
but  Bob  Ripley  rejected  his  record  with  "I  don't  believe  it." 
Ripley,  however,  did  feature  two  other  clerks  in  his  nation- 
wide cartoon:  (1)  Bowman  M.  Peterson,  "The  Ground  Hog 
Man"  of  the  Knobel  8:  Memphis  (MoPac),  whose  grandfather, 
father,  and  he  were  all  born  on  February  2;  and  (2)  A.  E. 
Igou,  of  the  Chatt.  &  Meridian  (AGS,  Tenn.— Miss.),  the 
famous  "\'owel  Man."  Peterson's  line,  by  the  way,  is  called 
"The  Pete,"  and  is  very  unusual  because  of  its  train  splitting 
to  go  in  two  or  three  directions. 

Speaking  of  names,  we  have  mentioned  Clerk  Ulysses  S. 
Grant  but  not  a  well-known  district  superintendent,  Mr. 
Orange  Lemon.  Clerk  C.  H.  Miller,  of  Memphis,  is  "The 
Thirteen  Man"— everything  in  his  life  is  based  on  the  number 
thirteen;  and,  similarly,  Clerk  Jimmie  Mayer  of  the  old 
McCall  R;  Nampa  (UP)  in  Idaho  was  in  a  wreck  involving  that 
number  throughout.  Clerk-in-Charge  J.  J.  Ferris  made  a 
round  trip  on  the  Chatham  R:  N.Y.  (NYCent)  on  his  eightieth 
birthday  in  1920;  while  on  the  Watertow^n  k  Aberdeen 
(MR:StL)  in  South  Dakota,  it  was  always  either  a  Sonday  or  a 
Holliday  on  that  line  for  years  (the  two  alternating  clerks). 
Wartrace,  Tennessee,  by  the  way,  claims  to  have  produced 
more  railway  mail  clerks  for  its  size  than  any  other  United 
States  town  or  city— 31  out  of  a  population  of  700.  The  Chic. 
&  Minn.  (CMStPRrP)  is  loaded  with  "Mutch  Mohr  Ham  and 
B.  Loney"  among  other  clerks! 

When  Clerk  Charles  W.  Houghton  of  Charlestown,  New 
Hampshire,  dropped  his  good  jackknife  somewhere  in  his 
pouch  rack,  as  he  discovered  later,  he  hastily  wrote  notes  to 
all  fourteen  of  the  postmasters  he  pouched  on.  Fourteen 
knives  were  mailed  back  to  him— none  of  them  his!  (Return- 
ing them,  he  received  his  own  two  days  later.)  W.  F.  Kilman 
once  dumped  up  a  silk  dress  and  "scrambled  eggs"  from  the 
same  sack  (taken  on  via  catcher)  and  later  received  a  pouch 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  R.4.ILWAY  MAIL  187 

containing  a  live  racoon  and  a  large  package  of  butter  lying 
next  to  a  skunk  hide!  In  Kansas,  recently,  a  pouch  of  letters 
was  cut  up  under  the  wheels  of  an  R.P.O.  train— and  postal 
officials  patched  up  each  tattered  letter  so  well  that  one  man 
received  (the  second  time)  a  letter  he'd  read,  torn  up,  and 
thrown  away  while  waiting  for  the  train! 

Recently  B.  O.  Wilks,  of  the  Monett  &  Okla.  City  (StL-SF), 
received  no  receipts  for  five  registers  he  sent  to  Vinita,  Okla- 
homa, until  he  coaxed  a  "duplicate"  out  of  them.  Then  he 
was  suddenly  called  in,  later,  by  an  inspector  at  Tulsa  who 
showed  him  his  original  receipt  amid  a  big  file  of  papers 
dealing  with  a  startling  irregularity— the  receipt  was  from  the 
island  of  Okinawa,  where  the  reds  had  been  found  by  a 
World  War  II  army  postal  clerk  in  a  sack  of  ordinary  parcels. 
And  the  inspectors  declared  there  was  no  connection  with  the 
incredible  fact  that  the  soldier  himself  hailed  from  Vinita, 
Oklahoma!  Less  serious  was  the  discovery  of  a  registered  case, 
competely  unaddressed,  on  one  Eastern  line— the  label  was 
located  just  in  time  on  the  pants  seat  of  a  clerk  who  had 
been  sitting  on  it. 

Clerk-in-Charge  L.  Beaumont  Reed,  of  the  N.Y.  &:  Pitts. 
(PRR),  ran  in  his  mile-a-minute  train  for  sixteen  miles  with- 
out an  enfrineer- he  had  been  knocked  senseless,  leanins:  out  at 
Atglen,  Pennsylvania,  by  the  mail  crane.  Reed  also  caught  on 
the  fly  "mail,  female,  and  bluefish"  as  he  says.  A  young  lady 
at  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  ran  excitedly  to  the  mail-car  door, 
trying  to  board  the  moving  train,  and  he  had  to  catch  her  by 
the  waist  and  pull  her  inside  to  prevent  an  injury;  and  again, 
on  the  Montauk  &  N.Y.  (LIRR),  he  caught  a  pouch  contain- 
ing both  the  mail  and  a  fresh  bluefish  that  a  mutual  friend  of 
Reed  and  postmaster  wanted  to  send  him! 

The  records  made  by  some  clerks  on  case  examinations 
are  "incredible,"  as  some  expert  observers  have  exclaimed 
after  investigation.  Brilliant  case-exam  records  were  formerly 
recognized  by  gold-medal  awards,  especially  by  Postmaster 
General  Wanamaker  around  1890;  and  later  all  100  per  cent 
exams  were  listed  in  General  Orders.  (Unfortunately,  both 
practices  have  been  discontinued;  but  a  welcome  innovation 


188  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

now  provides  50-merit  awards  for  continued  high  grades 
made  at  30  cards  per  minute.)  Tlie  over-all  high  score  in 
the  main  Gold  Medal  competition  was  said  to  have  been  won 
by  C.  H.  Oler,  of  the  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent)-his  exact  rec- 
ord seems  unavailable.  The  highest  divisional  record  went 
to  the  3rd,  taken  by  Hardy  T.  Gregory,  as  listed  below. 
Superintendent  White's  grand-prize  medal,  the  next  year, 
was  won  by  J.  F.  Phelps;  while  the  best  all-time  record  is  said 
to  have  been  Abe  Singer's  (N.Y.  &  Chic,  also),  who  made  100 
per  cent  on  every  exam  taken.  He  later  founded  the  Amster- 
dam (practice  card)  Printing  Company. 

Today  the  finest  record  of  continuous  case-exam  accuracy 
in  all  America  is  held  by  genial  Joseph  A.  Hoctor,  of  the 
N.Y.  &  Wash.  (PRR).  A  friendly,  lifelong  West  Philadelphia 
resident  (and  a  good-looking  bachelor!),  he  has  made  100  per 
cent  on  every  examination— case  or  otherwise— in  the  past 
seventeen  years;  that  is,  for  thirty-four  consecutive  case  exam- 
inations! He  throws  his  cards  at  an  average  of  thirty-four  per 
minute;  they  are  mostly  for  the  states  of  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas,  and  taken  under  the  ex- 
aminer at  Philadelphia.  He  studies  by  "association":  con- 
necting the  offices  on  the  Wash.  &  Charlotte  (Sou)  with  the 
idea  of  "charred,"  for  example.  An  excellent  worker  in  the 
car,  he  has  received  special  letters  of  commendation  from  the 
Department;  nevertheless  he  prefers  to  use  headers  helpfully 
annotated  with  office-lists  on  his  North  Carolina  letter  case. 

The  best  speed  record  is  evidently  held  by  William  M. 
Manion,  of  the  Des  Moines  &  Kan.  City  (Rock  I.)— 101  cards 
per  minute!  This  was  made  on  Section  B  of  Missouri  re- 
cently, under  Examiner  Meikel  of  Kansas  City,  and  nearly 
99.9  per  cent  correct.  Close  behind  comes  Clerk  Patzke  of 
the  Minneapolis  &:  Des.  M.  (Rock  I.),  99  cpm.  Other  high 
recent  records  were  made  by  John  E.  Joyce  (88),  John  F. 
Mullins  (81),  Sub.  Charles  Giebel  (76),  Frank  J.  Graczyk 
(70)  and  Charles  Thuston  (58). 

Getting  back  to  accuracy,  perhaps  the  best  existing  record 
of  total  perfect  exams  (62  out  of  70)  goes  to  Fred  J.  Billing- 
ham  of  Chicago,  as  shown   in   Table  I;   but  at  least  one 


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190  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

younger  clerk  has  made  100  per  cent  in  every  examination 
thus  tar— Kenneth  D.  Nowling  (appointed  1947)  of  the 
Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  Terminal.  He  has  made  100s  on  six 
examinations,  3,519  cards,  on  California  and  nearby  states. 
E.  J.  Bay  less  and  Harry  Fried,  also  in  Table  I,  have  nearly 
equaled  Billingham's  amazing  percentage.  This  table  (page 
189)  includes  all  names  of  living  clerks  known  to  us  who 
have  made  100  per  cent  in  two-thirds  or  more  of  all  exams 
over  a  sizable  period  of  years— beginning  in  each  case  at 
(or  within  a  few  years  of)  the  time  of  appointment,  and 
terminated  as  of  1950.  Intensive  research  failed  to  bring  out 
other  similar  records  which  doubtless  exist. 

Next  to  Abe  Singer's  unconfirmed  record,  Billingham's 
is  the  highest  in  sheer  numbers  of  cards  thrown  at  100  per 
cent— or  some  58,000;  his  grand  total,  G5,432  cards  at  99.99 
per  cent,  defies  all  known  records  past  and  present.  The 
late  District  Superintendent  Reese  Porter  (Table  II)  actually 
threw  more  consecutive  perfect  cards  than  Joe  Hoctor;  but 
in  number  of  consecutive  exams,  Hoctor  is  probably  tops  for 
all  time  (Porter  threw  thirty-one  of  his  last  thirty-two  exams 
pat—?d\  but  the  final  one;  on  Louisiana,  largely).  And  E.  J. 
Bayless  threw  28,949  cards  at  an  average  of  99.9  per  cent, 
with  twenty-eight  100-percenters.  The  list  below  includes 
those  of  the  above  records  for  which  we  had  appropriate  data 
(consecutive  100s)  as  well  as  the  notable  one  of  the  late  James 
E.  Thompson,  who  was  retired  with  high  honors  after  taking, 
at  one  sitting,  a  demonstration  test— throwing  all  six  New 
England  states,  Boston  City,  and  Michigan  at  100  per  cent, 
the  highest  known  record  of  several  perfect  exams  taken  at 
once.  The  following  list  is  of  typical,  all-time  records  known 
to  us  of  consecutive  100s;  many  in  Table  I,  and  others,  would 
be  eliirible,  but  records  are  missinsj. 

Space  forbids,  alas,  a  similar  listing  of  all-time  records  of 
near-perfect,  high-volume  total  cards  throws  such  as  those  of 
Bayless  and  many  others.  Like  him,  11th  Division  Medalist 
C.  H.  Field  of  the  Denver  R:  Ft.  Worth  (CJIS)  had  a  99.99  per 
cent  average,  back  in  1890.  (The  4th  Division  Medalist,  at 
99.98,  was  the  aged  H.  M.  Robinson  listed  in  Chapter  4.) 


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192  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Credit  is  due,  however,  to  many  others  for  generally  out- 
standing examination  records.-  (See  Note  22.) 

In  particular,  we  recall  the  unavailable  record  of  A.  J. 
Quinn,  a  former  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent)  clerk,  who  was  said 
to  have  made  100  per  cent  on  "exam  after  exam"— he  got  so 
irritated  at  the  kidding  about  his  pats  that  he  finally  with- 
drew a  card  after  an  exam  and  stuck  it  in  a  "wrong"  box; 
but  it  had  been  wrong  in  the  first  place,  the  story  goes,  and 
by  coincidence  he  stuck  it  right  and  kept  his  record! 

Ingenious  system  of  memorizing  have  been  devised  by 
many  clerks  to  assist  them  in  improving  grades  and  speed. 
Some  imagine  themselves  running  a  train  over  each  railway 
on  their  postal-route  map;  others  learn  each  county  or  each 
line  separately,  devise  poetic  jingles  or  catch  sentences,  or 
just  grimly  master  card  after  card.  Although  others  had  been 
using  the  general  idea  long  before,  one  of  the  first  system  of 
weaving  post-office  names  into  written  "stories"  was  devised 
by  Haig  Kapigian  of  Camden,  New  Jersey,  in  1931.  Another 
clerk  in  Maryland,  in  his  first  substitute  year,  conceived  in- 
dependently a  similar  method,  but  with  a  ncAV,  original  sys- 
tem of  notation  and  procedure,  in  1939;  called  the  Supply 


"Including  J.  R.  Goodrich,  Eureka  &:  S.F.  (NWP),  Retired;  Substitute  O.  A. 
Jensen,  11th  (Texas)  Division:  E.  S.  Williams,  Graf.  &  Cincinnati  (B&O); 
Substitute  R.  A.  James,  District  7,  Houston,  Texas;  Thomas  McCart,  Mpls.  k 
Sioux  City  (CStPN'&:0)— thirty-nine  100-percenters;  R.  E.  Rex,  Louisville, 
Kentucky;  J.  C.  Shields,  Mpls.  &  Des  M.  (Rock.  I.);  Substitute  E.  C.  Bull, 
Philadelphia.  Pa.,  Terminal;  \V.  W.  Allen,  Jr.,  NY.  &  Chic.  (NYCent),  Re- 
tired; H.  B.  Richardson,  Cleve.  SL-  St.L.  (CCC&:StL),  who  threw  more  cards 
(82,406  at  99.89  per  cent)  than  anyone  else  has  reported;  E.  E.  Evans,  Pitts. 
&  St.  Lou.  (PRR),  with  five  100s  in  a  month;  J.  S.  Wegener,  Ash.  &:  Milw. 
(C&rNW);  Harry  Swift,  Greenport  X:  N.Y.  (LIRR),  Retired;  Substitute  W. 
Adams,  District  4,  Portland,  Oregon;  F.  E.  Ely,  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent);  W. 
O.  Hare,  St.  Lou.  &  Texark.  (MoPac),  Retired;  Justin  E.  Smith,  Kan.sas  City 
&:  Albuquerque  (Santa  Fe);  Peter  Koefer,  Chic.  S:  Burl.  (CB&Q),  1893  medalist, 
who  made  lOO's  on  nearly  all  exams;  H.  W.  Schuster,  Columbus  (Ohio)  Termi- 
nal: E.  J.  Eraser,  Detroit  8;  Chic.  (NYC-MC).  declared  "most  accurate"  in  1890; 
C-in-C  A.  B.  Clark,  Gr.  Rap.  R:  Chic.  (C&O),  Retired;  and  several  veteran 
"steady  lOOpercenter"  clerks  on  the  McMester  &  Amarillo  (CRL'IP),  referred 
to  us  l)y  Substitute  William  Mullen  (also  with  a  good  record),  whose  names 
were  unavailalile.  First  clerks  to  become  eligil)le  for  the  new  50-merit  awards 
were  William  Shultz  of  the  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent)  and  S.  K.  Dinkins  of  the 
Pitts.  &  St.  Lou.   (PRR),  in  1950. 


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194  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Narrative  System,  it  is  sold  regularly  by  a  small  New  Jersey 
partnership.  A  second  regularly  advertised  method  was  the 
Case  Examination  Study  System,  written  by  Clerk  F.  A. 
Reynolds  of  Roanoke,  Virginia,  based  on  home-drawn  map 
diagrams  and  charts  and  marked  cards.  Other  methods  and 
devices,  including  cardboard  "cell  liners"  and  an  aluminum 
"Drudge  Eliminator"  for  handling  cards  (by  J.  G.  Mcllhen- 
ny),  are  well-known, 

A  railway  mail  clerk  covers  an  incredible  amount  of  mile- 
age in  his  lifetime.  Some  say  the  most  outstanding  record  of 
all  was  made  by  Keith  Koons,  retired  off  the  Albuq.  k  Los 
Angeles  (Santa  Fe),  who  traveled  the  astounding  total  of  over 
2,905,775  miles  in  the  R.M.S.  inclusive  of  the  United  States 
Seapost,  which  was  part  of  it  for  much  of  his  career;  2,750,2vS3 
miles  was  while  actually  on  duty,  and  the  remainder  was 
official  "deadheading."  But  the  highest  rail  mileage  is  the 
generally  accepted  standard  for  sucii  records,  and  the  greatest 
figure  recorded  for  any  known  clerk  by  the  writers  (after 
much  publicity  and  research)  was  run  up  by  Arthur  Piper 
as  indicated  above.  The  late  John  S.  Wegener,  a  close 
runner-up,  was  said  to  have  done  "nearly  3,000,000"  miles, 
but  a  check  revealed  the  figure  above  as  accurate.  (Both  he 
and  Richardson,  in  this  list,  had  splendid  exam  records;  see 
last  footnote.)  The  preceding  list  shows  the  highest  total 
rail  mileages  known  to  us;  it  doubtless  omits  many  unknown, 
equally  good  records. 

Of  the  above  clerks,  believed  now  all  retired,  more  is  told 
of  Reed,  Rench,  Kilman,  and  Davenport  elsewhere;  see 
Chapters  5,   13,  and    IG. 

Then  there  is  the  P.T.S,  "coffee  man,"  one  of  the  most 
picturesque  characters  in  American  railroading!  He  is  a 
clerk  who  has  been  coaxed  (or  coerced!)  into  supplying  all 
his  co-\vorkers  with  hot  coffee  daily  at  fi\e  cents  to  eight 
cents  a  cup.  His  big  wooden  box,  loaded  into  the  car  with 
the  grips,  contains  all  his  supplies.  Long  before  lunch  he 
preheats  the  pot  of  water  on  the  steam  cooker  (if  any),  then 
lights  his  alcohol  burner  and  puts  on  the  brew  to  percolate, 
using  an  iron  stand  or  hanging  it  by  a  chain— unless  there  is 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  195 

an  electric  hot  plate.  (Some  coffee  men  cover  the  pot  with 
an  empty  sack,  "preferably  well  seasoned,"  giving  the  brew 
a  rich  flavor  of  wet  canvas— ignoring  the  juicy  dirt  drippings 
which  are  all  too  likely  to  fall  in!)  The  pot  may  or  may  not 
contain  the  actual  coffee;  some  men  boil  water  only,  supply- 
ing jars  of  instant  coffee,  cocoa,  and  tea  balls  for  self-prepara- 
tion by  the  customers  as  desired.   Others  brew  tea  also. 

At  the  crucial  moment  the  coffee  man  spreads  out  the 
materials— coffee,  a  can  of  evaporated  milk  for  cream, 
another  can  of  sugar  (usually  containing  a  bent  spoon  for 
serving  it),  and  several  stirring  spoons  in  a  glass.  Then  he 
cries,  "That  stuff  is  ready!"  or  some  similar  phrase,  or  per- 
haps rings  the  "lunch  bell"  by  tapping  the  resonant  light 
globes  with  a  knife.  The  tin  cups  are  filled  one  by  one  as 
the  "nectar  birds"  or  coffee-lovers  step  forward,  often  hurling 
many  a  gay  insult  in  his  direction— with  particular  reference 
to  the  various  horrible  things  he  is  alleged  to  have  brewed 
the  liquid  from.  It  was  such  tradition  that  brought  forth 
Dan  Moschenross's  popular,  slyly  phrased  Road  Coffee 
Recipe: 

In  the  caldron  boil  and  bake 

Filet  of  a  fenny  snake. 

Eye  of  newt  and  toe  of  frog. 

Wool  of  bat  and  tongue  of  dog; 

Adder's  fork  and  blind  worm's  sting. 

Lizard's  leg  and  owlet's  wing. 

Tiun  the  steam  do^vn  very  low 

Then  'round  the  caldron  dancing  go. 

The  coffee  man  is  constantly  "accused"  of  reaping  fabulous 
profits  from  his  "concession,"  especially  if  caught  sporting  a 
new  car;  while  he  himself  as  stoutly  maintains  that  he  is 
losing  money  and  doing  it  "as  a  favor  for  the  boys!"  Prob- 
ably the  truth  of  the  matter  is  somewhere  in  between.  Most 
P.T.S.  coffee  men  turn  out  a  fine  cup  of  the  brew  indeed, 
and  the  wise  clerk  will  give  him  an  occasional  word  of  ap- 
preciation along  with  his  ribbing. 

There  is  always  the  chronic  complainant  who  declares 
that  tlie  brew  doesn't  taste  right  and  should  be  thrown  out 


196  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

the  door— usually  eliciting  the  rejoinder  that  it  didn't  taste 
right  "because  I  decided  to  wasii  the  pot  today  for  tiie  first 
time  in  ten  montlis";  other  coffee  men  make  less  printable 
replies.  Still  another  source  of  irritation  is  the  old  "free 
coffee  trick"  by  which  the  crew  persuades  one  of  the  newer 
clerks  that  "this  is  free  coffee  nioht;  the  coffee  man's  cele- 
brating  his  birthday"  or  something  like  that. 

"just  walk  right  up  and  fill  your  cup,  and  thank  him  as 
you  go  by,"  the  new  man  is  told.  He  does.  The  harassed 
coffee  maker,  not  in  on  the  trick,  sharply  demands  his  nickel; 
and  both  parties  to  the  heated  argument  following  are  soon 
enlightened  by  the  amused  merriment  of  all  those  looking  on. 

The  coffee  man  has  other  trials  too.  Very  likely  he  in- 
herited the  job  involuntarily  to  begin  with,  having  discov- 
ered that  it  "went  with"  the  assignment— he  may  despise  the 
stuff  himself.  With  the  total  lack  of  food-heating  devices  on 
many  older  cars  (even  on  a  key  line  like  the  PRR's  N.Y.  & 
Washington)  and  with  use  of  electric  appliances  often  for- 
bidden, he  has  a  trying  time  brewing  the  amber  fluid.  His 
little  stove  is  usually  homemade  from  a  cup  or  can  with  im- 
provised wick.  And,  if  there  is  steam,  he  may  have  trouble 
getting  it.  Needing  some  one  day,  a  certain  coffee  man  sent 
a  sub  outside  at  the  next  stop  to  ask  the  engineer  to  turn  it 
on.  When  the  sub  jumped  back  inside  he  reported  that  he 
couldn't  find  which  end  the  engine  was  on,  and  all  the  con- 
ductor would  tell  him,  in  response  to  his  frantic  inquiries, 
was,  "The  front  end,  of  course!" 

Another  man  "inherited"  a  coffee  job  and  rather  liked  it— 
which  was  more  than  the  crew  could  say  for  his  brew.  Finally, 
one  evening,  the  hefty  pouch  clerk  walked  up  to  him  and  said, 
'Trom  now  on,  I'm  coffee  man!"  The  chap  responsible  for 
the  insipid  fluid  looked  him  over,  and  meekly  surrendered 
his  box! 

There  wms  the  coffee  man,  too,  ^vho  moved  from  Kansas 
to  two  other  states  in  succession,  and  his  family  left  his  big 
pot  behind  each  time.  It  finally  caught  up  with  him  at  the 
start  of  a  run,  and  he  shoved  it  in  a  corner  of  the  postal 
car  to  take  home.   He  couldn't  find  it  at  the  end  of  the  run; 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  197 

it  had  been  accidentally  unloaded  as  a  piece  of  mail  and 
sent  back  to  his  old  address  labeled  on  the  box. 

Then  there  are  the  furiously  hectic  days  of  the  pre- 
Christmas  period.  Extra  cars  and  clerks  (largely  temporary 
ones)  are  added  to  practically  all  lines;  regular  clerks  are 
given  extra  trips,  or  overtime  in  their  terminals;  and  these 
terminals,  P.T.S.  are  flooded  with  tons  of  excess  letter  mail 
(mostly  Christmas  cards)  as  well  as  gift  parcels  as  train  after 
train,  swamped  at  every  stop,  must  turn  over  huge  pouches 
unworked.  Half  the  cards  are  too  \vide  for  train  pigeonholes, 
as  noted,  and  can  be  forced  into  them  only  amid  great  delay 
and  frayed  tempers.  Terminal  letter  cases,  often  in  storage 
the  rest  of  the  year,  have  wider  boxes  and  are  worked  largely 
by  uomen  or  youths  called  in  as  non-certified  clerks.  Addi- 
tional "Temporary  Terminals,  P.T.S."  are  set  up  at  places 
like  New  Haven,  Connecticut;  Pocatello,  Idaho;  Toledo, 
Oliio  (all  three  consisting  of  cars  set  on  sidings,  at  last  re- 
port); Detroit,  Michigan  (Convention  Hall);  Seattle,  and 
Midwestern  points  like  Fargo  and  Aberdeen,  South  Dako- 
ta. Late  running  (even  to  transferring  to  one's  inbound  train 
before  destination)  and  long  continuous  hours— up  to  forty- 
eight  hours  at  once— are  common;  road  clerks  seldom  get 
any  extra  pay,  due  to  "deficiencies." 

Most  interesting,  hoAvever,  are  the  temporary  Christmas 
R.P.O.  lines  set  up  over  new  routes.  At  last  report  the 
strangely  named  Walla  Walla  Sc  Wallula  (UP)  was  the  only 
complete  one  still  operated,  and  not  even  this  one  is  set  up 
unless  schedules  and  conditions  warrant.  It  connects  with  a 
second  Christmas  route,  an  extension  of  the  regular  Mosco\v  &: 
Haas  (UP)  to  Wallula;  both  are  in  W'ashington  State, 
although  the  Moscow  &  Haas  is  out  of  Moscow,  Idaho. 
The  W^W.  k  Wallula  is  a  one-man  branch-line  run  set 
up  Avhen  warranted  in  December  and  operated  until  the 
twenty-fourth.  No  special  postmarker  is  furnished  the  line; 
it  has  used  the  former  Spokane  R:  Moscow's  (SCd'ARrP)  can- 
celler, and  later  an  old  Wallula  Transfer  Office  "knocker." 
For  a  period  this  Santa  Claus  line  was  absorbed  by  the  sup- 
posedly permanent  Walla  Walla  &:  Pendleton  (UP),  a  short- 


198  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

lived  route  (only  a  few  years  old)  now  part  of  the  Pend.  & 
Yakima.  There  was  formerly  a  Wallula  &  Yakima  (UP) 
Christmas  R.P.O.  along  this  route.  The  t\vo  "current"  routes, 
now  seldom  set  up,  were  operated  annually  until  recently. 

Favorite  Christmas  stories  include  the  one  about  the 
Toledo  R:  St.L.  (Wabash)  "non-cert"  who  was  given  a  big 
holiday  sack  to  "throw  under  the  wheel,"  meaning  in  the 
car's  xuJieel  bin  ^vhere  the  brake  wheel  was;  he  asked  in 
amazement,  "You  mean  throw  it  under  the  train?"  And 
Dan  Moschenross  penned  a  classic  "letter  to  Santa  Claus," 
published  in  the  Railway  Post  Office,  now  the  Postal  Trans- 
port Journal: 

Dear  Santa  Claws: 

When  you  come  around  agin  pleez  bring  us  pore  postal 
clurks  sum  .  .  .  zippers  fur  our  pouches  and  sacks.  They 
dunt  cost  much  and  we  wud  save  enuf  time  to  pay  for 
them  quik.  When  there  aint  nobuddy  lookin,  paint 
our  leter  boxes  black  inside  .  .  .  instead  of  the  same  color 
as  post  cards  .  .  .  Bring  all  the  postmasters  what  hang  up 
kctcher  pouches  a  supply  of  tuff  envelopes  with  return 
to  put  leters  with  muney  in.  This  aint  as  much  as  sum 
folks  ask  for. 

Yours  trooly  .  .  . 

Some  of  the  stran2:e  facts  involved  in  the  routins^  and 
"schemins: '  of  mail  in  the  P.T.S.  seem  unbelivable.  Since 
the  P.T.S.  headquarters  furnishes  no  alphabetical  schemes 
and  no  official  lists  of  no-ofhce  communities  to  any  clerk,  they 
may  either  "nixie"  mail  for  such  points  (send  to  dead-letter 
ofiice)  or  voluntarily  learn  the  proper  dispatch— which  thou- 
sands do.  Two  thirds  of  all  United  States  communities  have 
no  post  offices,  authorities  say,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  one 
clerk's  hand  made  "nixie  scheme"  for  New  Jersey,  thrice  as 
long  as  the  postal  scheme. 

Regular  scliemes  contain  some  startling  paradoxes.  Im- 
portant offices  located  directly  upon  an  R.P.O. —like  sub- 
urban Pel  ham,  New  York,  on  the  Boston,  Spring,  k  N.Y. 
(NYNH&H)— may  be  "schemed"  and  dispatched  entirely  dif- 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  199 

ferently  (in  this  case,  as  a  branch  of  the  New  York  G.P.O.), 
altlioiigh  the  R.P.O.  is  the  main  service  for  the  towns  on 
both  sides.  The  N.Y.  R:  Wash.  (PRR)  goes  right  through— 
or  under— the  cities  and  towns  of  Weehawken,  Union  City, 
Secaucus,  and  Harrison,  New  Jersey,  without  stopping  or 
supplying  a  single  one  of  them.  As  "The  Wash"  continues 
through  New  Jersey,  in  the  heaviest-populated  area  along 
our  busiest  railroad,  it  nevertheless  passes  two  tiny  way-station 
towns  without  post  offices— Adams  (P.O.  Franklin  Park).  New 
Jersey,  and  Edgely  (P.O.  Bristol),  Pennsylvania.  And,  in 
Maryland,  the  line  traverses  a  dozen  towns  served  by  closed- 
pouch  trains  only— as  well  as  still  another,  Cheverly,  which  is 
served  only  from  Hyattsville  on  the  B&O's  N.Y.,  Bait.  &  Wash. 
R.P.O.  miles  away! 

There  are  special  reasons,  desirable  locally,  for  all  of  these 
strange  postal  practices.  As  for  others:  For  years,  pouches 
made  for  old  Phila.  8:  Norf.  Train  449  (PRR,  with  R.P.O. 
clerks  on  boat  portion  only)  could  contain  no  mails  for 
points  local  to  that  R.P.O.  (except  Fort  Monroe,  Virginia); 
the  actual  train  ^vas  closed-pouch.  Judging  by  titles,  one 
would  expect  New  York  to  dispatch  mails  for  Philadelphia  to 
the  N.Y.  k  Phila.  R.P.O.  (PRR)  and  for  Albany  to  the 
Albany,  King.  &;  N.Y.  (NYC-WS)  and  so  on;  but  that  is  never 
done— fast  trunk-line  trains  on  other  routes  reach  the  same 
points  quicker  and  more  often.  For  years  Cape  May,  New 
Jersey,  was  never  "good"  to  the  recently  discontinued  Phila. 
&:  Cape  May  (P-RSL)  which  once  went  there;  and  even  today, 
Mackinaw  City,  Michigan,  is  "no  good"  to  the  Mack.  City  &: 
Cin.  (PRR).  Some  northbound  East  Coast  trains  connect 
three  different  R.P.O.s  serving  Buffalo,  New  York,  as  titles 
indicate  (Buff.  R:  Wash.-PRR,  N.Y.,  Geneva  Sc  Buff.-LV,  and 
N.Y.,  Scrant.  R:  Buff.— DLR:\V^)  yet  cannot  properly  dispatch 
Buffalo  mail  to  any,  because  their  direct  N.Y.  R:  Chic.  (NY 
Cent)  connection  to  that  city  is  quicker! 

Many  R.P.O.  trains  actually  dispatch  mails  to  a  distant  train 
leaving  their  far  terminus  before  they  arrive— by  "advancing" 
pouches  over  an  earlier  C.P.  train  during  their  distribution 
before  leaving.   Other  trains  must  distribute  mail  for  a  dis- 


200  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

tant  state  before  that  for  a  smaller  nearby  one,  because  di- 
verging lines  fan  out  at  an  earlier  station  to  cover  the  faraway 
state.  Mails  may  be  diverted  hundreds  of  miles  from  a  direct 
route  to  secure  earlier  delivery  by  fast  trains;  at  certain  times 
of  day  Richmond,  V'irginia,  dispatches  mail  for  ofhces  in  that 
state  on  the  Phila.  Sc  Norfolk  (PRR)  clear  to  Washington  and 
Philadelphia  to  connect  that  line.  Mail  is  often  sent  pur- 
posely in  just  the  wrong  direction  for  miles,  so  as  to  connect 
a  returning  R.P.O.  train  at  an  earlier  stage  in  its  journey 
to  allow  more  time  for  distribution  (when  faster  dispatch 
is  unavailable,  or  to  connect  an  inboimd  local,  as  we  have 
noted).  Mail  for  a  given  city,  for  which  an  R.P.O.  makes  a 
direct  pouch,  is  often  xvilhlicld  from  that  pouch  for  hours- 
it  is  better  "advanced"  by  some  earlier  connection. 

Clerks  must  know  the  exact  proper  connection  for  mails 
to  a  given  R.P.O.— often  best  via  the  distant  end,  not  via  the 
point  of  direct  connection.  Mails  between  offices  actually  in 
sight  of  each  other  (as  Perth  Amboy,  New  jersey,  and  Totten- 
ville,  Ne"\v  York)  must  often  travel  over  a  circuitous  50-to- 
350-mile  route— to  save  expense  of  a  direct  transfer  by  using 
existing  facilities;  but  in  such  a  case  clerks  must  see  that  over- 
night delixery  is  ahvays  effected.  A  letter  posted  at  Iron- 
wood,  Michigan,  about  5  P.M.,  for  one-mile-distant  Hurley, 
Wisconsin,  is  a  touchy  example— it  must  be  connected  via 
Ash.  k  Milw.  (C^-NW)  Trains  212  and  211  over  a  .S46-mile 
journey!  Mails  from  the  New  York  area  to  Atlantic  Citv,  N.  J., 
must  cross  the  entire  state  of  New  Jersev  fivice—v\3.  the  N.Y.  8: 
Wash.  R.P.O.  and  Phila.  k  Atl.  City  C.P.   (both  PRR). 

A  pouch  must  be  made  up  when  due,  usually  daily,  by  all 
R.P.O.s  for  each  office  or  line  listed  to  receive  its  dispatches 
—even  if  empty— in  order  to  keep  records  straight  without 
using  time-consuming  written  reports.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  heavy  mails  addressed  to  mail-order  houses  and  other 
firms  often  necessitate  authorized  pouches  for  such  compan- 
ies; thus  trains  distributing  Philadelphia  City  actually 
"pouch  on"  Sears,  Roebuck  R:  Company  and  put  it  off  at  the 
nearest  station.  Worked  mails  for  suburban  postal  stations 
may  be  similarly  put  off  at  outlying  points.   The  volume  of 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  IL\ILWAY  MAIL  201 

mail  received  for  offices  pouched  on,  by  the  way,  is  often  in 
complete  disproportion  to  population.  On  one  Eastern 
line  most  trains  need  to  pouch  on  Schenectady,  New  York, 
but  not  Albany  (which  is  larger,  closer  by,  and  the  state 
capital!);  some  make  newspaper-sacks  for  West  Point  and 
Mt.  Vernon,  but  not  Syracuse  or  Buffalo,  New  York.  Clay- 
mont,  Delaware  (its  second  most  populous  city)  is  not  even 
made  up  on  the  state's  primary  racks  in  P.T.S.  terminals,  its 
mail  is  so  lis:ht. 

P.T.S.  state  schemes  reveal  some  other  hard-to-believe 
facts:  That  Clayton  Lakes,  Maine,  is  not  served  by  any 
United  States  mail  route  (only  via  Lac  Frontiere,  P.Q.,  on  the 
QC's  Lac  Front.,  Vallee  Jet.  &  Quebec  R.P.O.  in  Canada).^ 
That  only  two  R.P.O.s  directly  serve  Rhode  Island  .  .  .  that 
there  are  no  R.P.O.s  wholly  in  that  state,  Maryland,  or  Dela- 
ware .  .  .  that  towns  once  of  topmost  postal  prominence  as 
"junctions"  of  R.P.O.s  have  later  lost  both  their  R.P.O.s, 
their  post  office,  and  sometimes  even  their  identity  in  gazet- 
teers (Red  Bank,  Pennsylvania;  Araby,  Maryland;  and  many 
others)  .  .  .  that  Weehawken,  New  Jersey,  is  not  served  by 
either  R.P.O.  terminating  there  (Alb.,  K.  &  N.Y.-Ros.  & 
N.Y.;  see  Appx.  I)  and,  from  most  standpoints,  not  even  by 
its  ozvn  P.T.S.  Terminal  .  .  .  that  strange  P.T.S.  sym- 
bols and  terms  can  arouse  even  a  G-man's  suspicions  as 
Clerk  J.  F.  Cooper's  wife  discovered  to  her  dismay.  (She  rent- 
ed practice  cards  to  clerks  and  mailed  little  correction  slips  to 
customers  reading  ".  .  .  Change  Walnut  Creek  R:  La  Fayette 
(C.C.County)  to  Baypoint  k  S.F.  .  .  .  Your  ALO.  rec'd  O.K. 
.  .  ."  and  so  on,  and  was  summoned  by  the  FBI  for  investi- 
gation!) 

Few  people  know  that  they  can  walk  up  to  any  R.P.O. 
car  (or  H.P.O.)  door  and  buy  a  stamp;  clerks-in-charge  are 
required  to  keep  ones  and  threes  on  sale.  Others,  hastily 
addressing  a  letter  to  some  prominent  newspaper,  firm,  build- 
ing, or  street  followed  only  by  a  state  name,  would  be  amazed 


•The  Maine  General  Scheme  shows  supply  only  as  "Lac  Frontiere,  P.O.", 
followed  by  names  of  U.S.  R.P.O. 's  connecting  thereto  such  as  the  St.  Albans 
k  Boston   (CV-B8dM). 


202  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

to  see  the  clerk  on  an  R.P.O.  state  case  quickly  recognize 
the  city  for  which  intended  (or  rapidly  thumb  through  letters 
in  his  large-city  boxes  and  often  finding  another  missive 
properly  addressed  to  the  same  destination,  permitting  in- 
stant dispatch).  One  substitute  even  successfully  dispatched 
a  letter  addressed  by  some  half-wit  to  "My  Father,  Atchison 
Co.,  Mo.";  he  sent  it  to  the  county  seat,  as  per  the  P.L.R:R.— 
where  the  family  and  the  son's  habits  were  known. 

Which  clerk  has  served  on  the  greatest  number  of  R.P.O.s? 
The  most  amazing  record  seems  to  be  that  of  Earl  S.  Levitan, 
of  the  PRR's  N.Y.  R:  Wash.— thirty-three  R.P.O.  lines,  term- 
inals, and  transfer  offices.  Close  behind  him  we  find  Fred  A. 
Perry,  N.Y.  8:  Salamanaca  (Erie),  Retired,  thirty;  j.M.  "Doc" 
LeConey,  Pitts.  Sc  St.  Lou.  (PRR),  Retired,  twenty-seven; 
Al  Humpleby,  also  N.Y.  k  Wash.,  twenty-four;  and  many 
others.  Certain  cities,  too,  boast  innumerable  R.P.O.  con- 
nections; five  different  R.P.O.s  over  the  same  track  connect 
Washington,  D.  C.  and  Alexandria,  Va.,  while  until  recently 
there  were  six  R.P.O.s  over  five  different  tracks  between 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  Virginia.  And  one  route,  recently  dis- 
continued, did  not  even  provide  a  postal  car  for  its  clerk- the 
Fond  du  Lac  Sc  Janesville  (CR:NW,  in  Wisconsin),  where 
engines  were  removed  from  part  of  a  locomotive  unit  to  pro- 
vide a  space. 

Unique  among  all  United  States  communities  is  a  colony 
of  retired  postal  clerks  founded  at  Clermont,  Florida,  by 
Railway  Mail  Clerk  Ernest  Denslow  of  Ashtabula,  Ohio,  in 
1923.  The  Postal  Colony  Company  there  has  erected  hun- 
dreds of  homes  for  the  old-timers  there  and  has  laid  out 
many  acres  of  rich  orange  groves,  providing  both  investments 
and  an  avocation  for  active  and  retired  clerks.  It  has  its 
own  N.P.T.A.  branch— the  only  one  composed  wholly  of 
retired  clerks,  and  the  only  one  not  at  a  railway  division 
point  or  junction.  Distinguished  departmental,  Senate,  and 
N.P.T.A.   leaders  visit  it. 

Such,  indeed,  is  this  amazing  Postal  Transportation  Service 
of  ours.  From  the  New  York  G.P.O.  Building  employees'  en- 
trance (where  P.T.C.s  are  instantly  ushered  past  by  respectful 


AMAZING  FACTS  OF  THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  205 

guards,  while  P.O.  men  must  obey  seven  signs  demanding 
badges  and  package  inspections)  clear  out  West  to  those  vast, 
lengthy  R.P.O.  runs  (like  the  SP's  San  Fran.  R:  Los  A.)  where 
clerks  are  off  duty  22  days  each  month  (making  just  4i/^  round 
trips),  the  service  presents  a  panorama  of  the  unbelievable. 
Even  its  N.P.T.A.  has  one  incredible  distinction— that  of  be- 
ing America's  only  national  fraternity  which  did  not  lose  a 
cent  on  investments  or  securities  during  the  great  1929-39  de- 
pression, and  the  Amsterdam  Printing  Company's  official 
P.L.&R.  Qricstions  &  Answers  contained  until  1950  a  startling 
baby-talk  boner  "Engineer  or  motorman  of  R.P.O.  train  shall 
give  timely  notice,  by  Avhistle  ^vhistle  or  otherAvise  .  .  ."  But 
many  a  clerk  would  agree  that  most  paradoxical  of^anything 
in  the  entire  Postal  Service  are  those  prominent  post  office 
lobby  posters  imploring  mailers  not  to  post  tiny,  undersized 
letters  and  greetings  that  might  get  lost— but  saying  nary  a 
word  about  those  awful,  unsortable,  super-sized  holiday  cards 
that  torment  every  railway  mail  man. 

As  we  go  to  press,  however,  we  are  faced  with  such  an 
incredible  (and  disheartening)  chain  of  recent  events  that 
other  things  pale  into  insignificance— namely,  the  actual  or 
threatened  abandonment  of  more  than  nijie  of  our  most 
interesting  and  unique  P.T.S.  operations,  all  within  the  year 
1930'  We  note  particularly  (1)  Suspension  of  our  last  intra- 
city  and  last  loop  R.P.O.  running,  as  told  at  start  of  chapter; 
(2)  Abandonment  of  our  last  trolley  R.P.O.  (S.  Berdo.  R:  L.A., 
May  6th— see  Chapter  12);  (3)  Discontinuance  of  our  only 
electric  interurban  Terminal,  P.T.S.  (same  chapter);  (4)  Im- 
minently-threatened abandonment  of  our  last  U,  S.  narrow- 
gage  R.P.O.,  Ala.  &  Durango,  as  just  disctissed;  (5)  Discon- 
tinuance of  our  last  P.T.S. -operated  R.P.O.  outside  the  48 
states,  and  of  our  only  other  narrow  gage  line— the  San  |.  Sc 
Ponce,  P.R.,  June  30  (Chapter  15);  (6)  The  end  of  all  Alaskan 
R.P.O.  service,  including  the  Fair.  R:  Seward  (May  22)  and 
Nenana  Sc  St.  Michael— see  Chapter  15;  (7)  The  demise  of  our 
most  spectacular  and  unique  C.P.  line  (Ridge.  R:  Durango, 
Chapter  3)  on  March  31;  (8)  Last  run  of  the  historic  Reno  & 
Minden,   famed  VR;TRR  ex-narrow-gage  mining  road,  on 


204  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

May  31  as  told  in  Chapter  13;  and  (9)  Abandonment  of  our 
only  all-year-round  boat  route,  Bell.  &  Anacortes,  as  men- 
tioned in  this  chapter.  Never  in  all  our  history  has  the 
proverbial  axe  fallen  on  so  many  fascinating  P.T.S.  opera- 
tions at  once— and  may  we  earnestly  hope  that  its  blows  are 
now  done  with;  that  unique  new  installations  will  arise  to 
take  their  places;  and  that  those  amazing  and  fascinating 
phases  of  the  P.T.S.  which  still  remain  may  be  preserved  in  the 
public  interest  as  tokens  of  a  vital  national  service  which 
should  always  intrigue  us. 


Chapter  1  1 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL 


It  may  be  north,  south,  east  or  west— the  mail  must  hurry  through; 
The  postal  clerk  may  take  no  rest,  with  all  these  things  to  do. 
He  does  not  see  what  waits  ahead,  nor  care  what  lies  behind; 
The  hungry  mail  sacks  must  be  fed.    To  all  else  he  is  blind  .  .  . 

—  Earl  L.  Newton 


The  Postal  Transportation  Service 
has  met,  with  flying  colors,  the  chal- 
lenge of  every  emergency  which  has  test- 
ed its  mettle.  The  most  striking  and  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service  (as  it  was  designated 
throughout  the  period  this  chapter 
covers)  have  perhaps  been  the  high 
standards  of  ability  and  citizenship  and 
the  almost  military  degree  of  discipHne  required  of  its  per- 
sonnel. A  swiftly  moving  train  is  no  place  for  a  sluggard  or 
weaklins:,  and  the  Civil  Service  examination  for  admission  is 
another  incentive  toward  high  standards.  Discipline  has  been 
paramount  since  the  days  of  the  first  railway  mail  clerks  (large- 
ly Civil  War  veterans)  and  is  reflected  even  today  in  the 
written  orders,  the  "Black  Book,"  and  in  the  district  and  divi- 
sional ranks  of  P.T.S.  officialdom. 

The  great  Chicago  fire  of  1871  was  the  R.IM.S.'s  first  big 
challenge.  Although  its  division  headquarters  was  destroyed 
when  the  Post  Office  Building  burned  to  the  ground.  Super- 
intendent Bangs  promptly  stationed  postal  cars  at  various 

205 


206  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

points  about  the  city,  called  in  the  clerks  who  were  on  layoff, 
and  took  care  of  all  outgoing  mail.  Mail  connecting  via 
Chicago  was  detoured,  and  prompt  and  efTicient  local  mail 
scr\ice  was  soon  under  way.  Oddly,  enough,  the  post-ofTice 
and  R.M.S.  quarters  were  twice  again  destroyed  in  later 
smaller  fires,  requiring  the  R.P.O.  cars  to  be  spotted  about 
the  city  again  as  before. 

The  R.M.S.  had  the  key  job  of  opening  the  first  post  offices 
and  mail  routes  in  Oklahoma,  durins:  the  breakneck  land 
rush  of  1889;  a  railway  mail  clerk  opened  the  first  Guthrie 
post  office.  But  most  pitiful  of  the  emergencies  to  which  the 
Service  lent  its  valiant  hand  was  the  great  Jacksonville, 
F-orida  yellow-fever  epidemic  of  1888.  Little  dreaming  that 
Walter  Reed  would  reveal  just  eleven  years  later  that  only 
mosquitoes  carried  the  yellow  death,  R.M.S.  officials  ordered 
all  mail  originating  at  Jacksonville  fumigated  in  a  boxcar  at 
La  Villa  Junction  near  Waycross,  Georgia.  Busy  railway  mail 
clerks  carried  out  this  magnificent  but  futile  endeavor  by 
perforating  the  "deadly"  letter  bundles  and  newspapers  in  this 
car  (a  total  of  three  million  pieces)  and  smoking  them  with 
fnmigant  for  six  hours.  They  suffered  many  miseries  at 
"Camp  Destitution,"  as  they  dubbed  their  restricted  outpost. 

A  more  pleasant  occasion  was  in  July  1892,  when  a  num- 
ber of  clerks  from  the  East  were  surprised  by  a  courteous 
"invitation"  to  come  to  Omaha  on  July  twenty-ninth  and 
take  a  trip  to  San  Francisco;  it  was  explained  that  the  De- 
partment wanted  to  reward  their  good  services  and  that  West 
Coast  clerks  wotild  be  benefited  by  their  coming.  Three  divi- 
sion superintendents  and  thirty-six  clerks  made  the  enjovable 
trip,  and  doubtless  California  clerks  were  much  edified  by 
the  visit.  But  when  the  time  of  return  arrived  (August 
fourth),  the  men  were  taken  to  two  postal  cars  (one  CBR:Q, 
one  LSJl-MS)  and  issued  Springfield  rifles  with  two  thousand 
cartridges  plus  Colt  .45s  with  one  thousand  rounds  to  fit.  It 
was  explained  that  the  real  purpose  of  the  trip  was  to  effect 
in  secrecy  the  transfer  (by  registered  mail)  of  $2,000,000  from 
the  San  Francisco  Subtreasury  to  the  one  at  New  York,  to 
bolster  lowered  reserves  there.    The  armed  clerks  first  con- 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  207 

voyed  the  transfer  of  five  hundred  boxes  of  gold  direct  from 
the  subtreasury  to  the  train;  R.M.S.  officials,  in  charge  of 
General  Superintendent  White  himself,  receipted  for  them. 

Then  the  journey  of  the  first  famous  postal  "Gold  Train" 
began.  Actually  officially  described  as  a  "Silk  Train" 
throughout,  the  secrecy  and  deception  of  the  arrangements 
were  perfect;  and  it  was  well  they  were,  what  with  the  gold- 
hungry  train  robbers  then  abroad.  As  related  by  Superin- 
tendent White,  all  went  well;  but  there  were  some  thrills 
and  narrow  escapes.  Flagmen  and  would-be  hobo  passengers 
were  alike  frightened  out  of  their  wits  to  find  the  train 
suddenly  bristling  with  guns  like  a  porcupine's  quills  when 
the  doors  flew  open.  A  letter  addressed  to  one  desperate  out- 
law was  handed  in  by  a  clerk  at  San  Francisco  even  before 
leaving;  after  leaving  the  SP's  "Overland"  Ogden  Sc  S.F. 
route,  an  engineer  at  Rawlings,  Wyo.,  refused  to  take  the 
train  because  bandits  had  twice  waylaid  his  that  day;  broken 
draws  caused  several  delays.    But  the  gold  went  through! 

Later  "gold  trains"  were  many  times  as  richly  laden,  how- 
ever, although  the  million-dollar  train  of  1914  was  an  ex- 
ception. Supervised  by  Division  Superintendent  James  L. 
Stice  of  Pittsburgh,  this  train  took  on  fifty  pouches  of  gold 
via  twenty-five  armed  R.P.C.s  (ordered  to  shoot  to  kill  on 
interference)  from  the  Philadelphia  mint  for  the  New  York 
Subtreasury.  Only  Stice  and  four  inspectors  made  the  actual 
trip,  after  a  missing  pouch  at  Philadelphia  was  finally  located 
back  at  the  mint.  Stice  collapsed  from  a  heart  attack  after- 
ward, but  recovered  and  is  living  today.  Then  there  was  a 
$3,200,000  "Silver  Train"  operated  by  the  8th  Division 
R.M.S.  from  San  Francisco  to  Chicago,  loaded  entirely  with 
coins.  But  by  far  the  biggest  such  train  on  record  (actually 
a  series  of  trains)  was  operated  by  the  Service  in  the  1930s 
to  carry  fifteen  billion  dollars  in  gold  to  the  undergroimd 
vault  at  Fort  Knox,  Kentucky— only  to  carry  most  of  it  back 
out  again  later. 

The  next  most  important  civilian  emergency  was  the  San 
Francisco  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906.  The  8th  Division's 
new  headquarters  building  at  Seventh  and  Market  was  swept 


208  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

by  interior  fires,  partially  extinguished  by  heroic  Clerk 
George  E.  Lawton,  who  happened  to  be  inside.  Postally, 
special  letter-sorting  facilities  were  set  up  in  the  Oakland 
Pier  Transfer  Office,  R.M.S.,  instead  of  in  R.P.O.  cars.  Al- 
though much  mail  missed  connection,  all  R.P.O.  trains  oper- 
ated in  and  out  of  the  city  on  schedule  regardless  of  danger; 
most  clerks  managed  to  get  to  work  despite  paralyzed  transit. 
People  wrote  desperate  notes  on  cuffs,  shingles,  cardboard- 
all  Avere  transmitted  post-free,  though  paper  mails  had  to 
wait  two  weeks. 

And  in  one  recent  domestic  crisis  the  R.M.S.  proved  its 
Avorth  on  a  national  scale— the  huge  railroad  strike  of  May 
24-26,  1946.  In  the  earlier  big  strikes  of  1888  and  1894, 
none  of  them  nation-wide,  most  R.P.O.  trains  continued  to 
be  operated  under  edicts  forbidding  interference  with  any 
United  States  mail  train.  But  on  this  occasion  no  such  re- 
straint was  attempted;  practically  every  railway  in  the  nation 
shut  down  at  5  P.M.  on  May  24,  1946  (postponed  from  4 
P.M.,  May  eighteenth,  when  earlier  delays  to  many  trains 
ensued).  R.M.S.  offices,  geared  for  action,  had  previously  ar- 
ranged for  R.P.O.  cars  to  be  operated  on  most  of  the  few  pas- 
senger trains  which  railroad  managements  were  able  to  force 
through.  Operated  by  railroad  officials  in  business  suits,  such 
trains  carried  clerks  giimly  struggling  with  mountains  of 
mail  for  which  they  had  no  outgoing  connections,  carrying 
on  fearlessly  despite  violence  and  sabotage  attempted  by  strik- 
ers. Other  clerks  crowded  into  transfer  offices  or  stayed  home 
to  await  orders,  while  many  others  were  assigned  to  terminal 
R.P.O.s. 

Emergency  truck  routes  were  set  up  to  handle  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  mails,  which  had  to  be  sorted  at  post  offices  amid 
considerable  loss  of  time;  but  mails  were  delivered  daily,  and 
delays  cut  to  a  remarkable  minimum.  At  least  one  full- 
fledged  temporary  Iligh^vay  Post  Office  was  set  up— on  the 
Salisbury  R:  Knoxville  (Sou)  in  North  Carolina— Tennessee, 
where  C.-in-C.  Pat  Knowland  hung  pouches  inside  a  big 
moving  van  carrying  his  mail  and  sorted  it  on  the  floor. 
General  Superintendent  Carey  of  tlie  2nd  Division  reported 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  209 

the  "equivalent  of  H.P.O.  service"  having  been  set  up  there 
too,  and  advised  his  clerks  that  "in  meeting  this  crisis,  you 
exceeded  all  expectations!  You  are  deserving  of  the  highest 
commendation."  Some  crews  were  stranded  in  cars  at  out-of- 
the-way  places  at  the  strike  deadline;  many  were  short  of 
funds,  food,  or  overnight  facilities  (one  clerk  had  to  sleep  in 
his  car,  inside  of  a  big  No.  1  sack,  both  nights).  Clerk  Bob 
Chilton,  of  the  Houston,  Texas,  area,  stranded  at  his  outer 
terminus,  pitched  in  at  the  post  office  there  and  had  the 
pouches  normally  made  for  his  line  "killed";  then  he  made 
up  the  mails  into  direct  pouches  for  dispatch  over  Missouri 
Pacific  bus  lines  and  argued  the  bus  company  into  accepting 
and  handling  them! 

Other  strikes  have  hounded  R.P.O.  operations  since,  par- 
ticularly coal  strikes  in  nearly  every  year  from  1946  on^vard 
(as  well  as  a  threatened  railway  strike  in  1948,  when  long- 
distance truck  routes  were  again  planned  for  in  detail).  Each 
coal  strike  forces  the  suspension  of  many  R.P.O.  branch  lines 
(some  of  which  are  never  restored)  on  every  coal-burning 
railroad,  and  three-day-a-week  service  on  others,  playing  the 
utmost  havoc  with  schedules  and  mail  deliveries.  A  trainmen's 
strike  in  1950  created  chaos  in  several  areas. 

Of  major  interest,  however,  are  the  brilliant  performances 
of  the  R.M.S.  in  each  of  the  three  major  wars  since  its  in- 
ception. When  Spanish-American  war  troops  were  assem- 
bled in  the  South  in  1898  prior  to  Cuba's  occupation,  a  flood 
of  mail  swamped  the  post  offices  near  the  camps.  Large 
postal  cars  were  immediately  stationed  wherever  needed,  par- 
ticularly on  sidings  near  Tampa,  Florida,  and  Camp  Chica- 
mauga,  Georgia.  Crews  with  a  wide  knowledge  of  territory 
were  assigned  to  work  up  mail  for  the  armies  to  separate 
companies,  regiments,  batteries,  and  ships— and  mail  from 
the  soldiers,  of  course,  to  regular  connections.  After  depart- 
ure of  the  transports,  all  mail  for  enlisted  men  whose  desti- 
nation was  unknown  was  dispatched  to  Key  West,  Florida, 
and  thence  to  Santiago,  Cuba. 

Postal  assents  saw  that  the  mails  followed  the  flas:  as  our 
armies  landed  on  each  island.  Officers  and  men  of  the  R.M.S. 


210  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

were  placed  in  charge  of  setting  up  temporary  organizations, 
and  regular  mail  service  followed  promptly  despite  crude 
equipment.  At  Ponce,  Puerto  Rico,  army  carpenters  made 
worktables;  and  at  Manila,  Superintendent  Vaille  of  the 
R.iM.S.  took  over  the  post  office  and  native  clerks  with  little 
trouble.  The  Spanish  clerks  struck  at  first,  but  soon  the 
Spanish  merchants  persuaded  the  more  desirable  workers  to 
resume  work  so  they  could  get  their  mail.  Of  course,  as  con- 
ditions became  settled,  directors  of  posts  were  appointed  in 
each  territory  and  permanent  organizations  set  up  by  the 
Department  as  R.M.S.  forces  were  withdrawn.  During  the 
8th  Army  Corps  campaigns  in  Luzon  a  Spanish  R.P.O.  on 
the  Dagupan— Manila  Railroad  w^is  taken  over  by  the  army 
postal  men,  who  put  it  into  operation  as  the  Dacupan  & 
Manila  Military  R.P.O. ;  the  corps  exchanged  mails  daily 
with  its  mail  clerk  and  retained  control  at  least  until  1901. 
Civilian  R.P.O.s  were  later  established  on  such  routes  in  all 
three  territories  (see  Chapter  15). 

Far  more  dramatic  was  the  impact  of  World  War  I  upon 
the  R.M.S. —which  took  complete  charge  of  all  mails  for  the 
armed  forces  overseas.  The  German  juggernaut,  rolling  into 
Belgium  and  France  in  1914  and  years  following,  thoroughly 
disrupted  normal  postal  service;  but,  with  Teutonic  effici- 
ency, military  R.P.O.s,  or  Bahnposts,  were  set  up  in  the  con- 
quered territory  (such  as  the  Bruxelles— Lille  Bahnpost  from 
Belgium  into  France,  carrying  German  soldier  mail  free.) 

At  home  in  America  living  costs  soared,  especially  upon 
entry  of  this  country  into  the  war  in  April  1917;  railway 
mail  clerks,  because  of  the  vital  military  mails  they  handled, 
were  exempted  from  the  draft.  But  thousands  of  them  en- 
listed anyway;  the  undermanned  R.P.O.s  became  choked 
with  a  deluge  of  mail  for  army  camps  and  overseas,  and  the 
lines  were  soon  turning  over  dozens  of  unworked  pouches  to 
terminal  R.P.O.s  each  trip.  Special  legislation  protected  the 
jobs  of  those  who  enlisted,  while  other  acts  provided  a  slight 
salary  increase.    Veteran  clerks  pleaded  for  reinstatement. 

In  France  was  created,  mostly  by  R.M.S.  personnel  detailed 
to  die  A.E.F.  Postal  Administration,  the  largest  network  of 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  211 

military  R.P.O.  lines  and  terminals  ever  set  up  by  Americans 
at  any  time.  (The  British,  too,  set  up  military  R. P. O.s— par- 
ticularly the  "B.E.F.  Main  Line  T.P.O."  from  Boulogne  to 
Cologne,  operated  January  1919  to  the  end  of  occupation. 
Six  trains,  manned  by  ten  crews  in  British  "T.P.O."  coaches, 
operated— usually  with  very  primitive  lights  and  heat.)  By 
1918  eighteen  American  R.P.O.s  and  six  additional  closed- 
pouch  lines  had  been  activated  on  the  French  railways— plus 
the  new  Bordeaux  Terminal  R.P.O.,  which  received  United 
States-bound  mail  from  the  lines  and  sorted  84  per  cent  of  it 
out  to  direct  packages  for  American  cities,  towns,  or  R.P.O. 
routes.  Main-line  military  R.P.O.s  were  from  Paris  north  to 
Boulogne  (A.P.O.^  No.  751);  south  to  Orleans  (797),  Cha- 
teauroux  (738),  and  beyond;  Paris  west  to  Le  Mans  (762); 
Le  Mans  to  Rennes  (940),  and  also  to  Tours  (717),  on  the 
Le  Mans  Sc  Tours  R.P.O.,  whose  postmarks  are  the  most  com- 
monly found.  Other  lines  to  Bordeaux,  Nancy  (915),  Dijon 
(721),  and  so  on,  were  similarly  named;  postmarks  read 
"NORTH"  or  "SOUTH"  in  lieu  of  train  numbers,  plus  the 
letters  "M.P.E.S." 

These  letters  referred  to  the  "Military  Postal  Express 
Service,"  an  A.E.F.P.A.  subsidiary,  which  was  organized  by 
veteran  R.P.C.  Marcus  H.  Dunn  (later  general  superintend- 
ent). The  Bordeaux  Terminal  was  efficiently  managed  by 
Superintendent  James  Cruickshank,  another  R.INLS.  veteran 
(later  Superintendent  of  Air  Mail  Service).  Officials  and  dis- 
tributors there  included  such  R.M.A.  leaders  as  Peter  Schardt 
(during  periods  of  absences  from  his  post  as  Superintendent, 
2nd  Division),  Chester  A.  Harvey,  L.  C.  Macomber  (all 
future  national  or  division  presidents),  and  many  others. 
The  terminal  distributed  up  to  44,555,000  letters  a  month 
(582  tons  of  mail),  dispatched  in  sealed  pouches.  When  ships 
were  due  to  sail,  no  hours  were  too  long  and  no  conditions 
too  forbidding  to  prevent  a  speedy  all-out  dispatch.  Robert 
Bend,  Macomber,  and  others  have  vividly  described  life  at 
Bordeaux  Terminal  in  the  Railway  Post  Office,  particularly 


'Army  Post  Office. 


212  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

one  huge  Thanksgiving  feast  and  their  Christmas  tour  of  the 
city  after  services  at  historic  Sacre  Coeur  Church. 

United  States  postal  detachments  manned  by  R.M.S.  per- 
sonnel were  set  up  in  other  parts  of  the  world— at  Vera  Cruz, 
Mexico,  and  even  as  far  away  as  Siberia.  A  leading  member 
of  that  far-flung  unit  was  the  late  Joseph  P.  Cleland,  of  the 
Omaha  &:  Denver  (CB&:Q),  who  was  renowned  as  a  three- 
times-round-the-world  traveler. 

At  home  there  was  the  great  wartime  Chelsea  Terminal 
R.P.O.  in  New  York  City.  Here  all  distribution  of  out- 
bound mails  for  soldiers  overseas  was  performed  in  a  huge 
hall  running  the  length  of  Pier  86  at  West  Forty-Sixth  Street, 
occupying  the  entire  second  floor;  all  classes  of  overseas  mail 
were  worked  out  to  the  smallest  military  units.  Clerk-in- 
Charge  Bill  Sterling  and  Chief  Clerk  Fred  Hance  had  the 
terminal  as  their  sole  responsibility.  This  huge  overseas  mail 
center  had  originated  as  a  small  unit  (upstairs  in  the  old 
Grand  Central  R.P.O.)  established  by  William  I.  Votaw. 

AH  army  overseas  mail  was  ordered  diverted  there,  and 
half-frozen  clerks  struggled  with  it  in  overcoats  until  the 
"world's  largest  one-room  heating  plant"  was  installed.  Hap- 
hazard overseas  addresses  used  by  the  public  (as,  "110  Engi- 
neers, France")  gradually  were  standardized  in  the  general 
form: 

(Name  of  soldier  and  unit) 
A.E.F.,  A. P.O.  123  (or  whatever  it  was) 
FRANCE. 

Hundreds  of  patriotic  "dollar-a-year"  volunteers  worked 
alongside  the  paid  men  and  women  clerks  in  the  terminal, 
with  steady  efficiency,  including  such  notables  as  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  Jr.  At  Christmas  the  Army  furnished  the 
public  standard-sized  cartons  for  doughboys*  gifts— easily  dis- 
tributed due  to  their  uniformity.  Before  the  Chelsea  Term- 
inal closed  it  featured  a  large  redistributing  center  at  one 
end,  manned  by  army  clerks  who  redirected  parcels  addressed 
to  men  leaving  France  to  the  proper  United  States  separa- 
tion center.  Incidentally,  "Railway  Mail  Posts"  of  the 
American  Legion  sprang  up  at  New  York  and  elsewhere. 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  213 

World  War  II,  hou'cver,  provided  the  most  climactic  chal- 
lenge of  all  to  the  Raihvay  Mail  Service.  Even  from  the  very 
first  of  United  States  peacetime  conscription  following  the 
start  of  the  holocaust  in  Europe  in  1939,  no  deferments  for 
raihvay  postal  clerks  were  announced.  Expertly  trained  dis- 
tributors, handling  increasing  loads  of  vital  military  corre- 
spondence, were  drafted  into  the  Army  by  the  hundreds; 
living  costs  mushroomed,  and  trains  again  went  hopelessly 
"stuck."  And  yet  in  1940,  with  mail  volume  up  6  per  cent 
and  with  32,000  fewer  total  postal  employees  than  in  1913, 
railway  mail  clerks  handled  their  entire  additional  load 
without  extra  cost  to  the  Department— "an  astonishing  in- 
crease in  productivity." 

Then  came  the  blow  of  Pearl  Harbor.  John  E.  Painter, 
R.M.A.  secretary  at  San  Francisco  at  the  time,  describes  it  as: 

December  7,  1941— the  stab  in  the  back!  .  .  .  Mingled 
feelings  .  .  .  Alerts  .  .  .  R.P.O.  car  windows  blacked  out. 
Local  non-stops  missed.  Poor  lights.  Why  not  curtains 
instead  of  black  paint?  .  .  .  Clerks  sign  up  for  civilian 
defense.  Clerks  offer  their  services  in  any  capacity  .  .  . 
Clerks  buy  War  Stamps  and  Bonds  .  .  .  Clerks  enlist. 
Clerks  are  drafted  .  .  .  Christmas  trains  run  late— move- 
ment of  troop  and  supply  trains  .  .  .  Clerks  buy  War 
Stamps  and  Bonds  . . .  Submarine  off  the  coast . . .  Guards 
placed  over  bridges';  listening  posts  .  .  .  Mails  go  through, 
but  late  .  .  .  Schedules  revamped  overnight  .  .  .  Fewer 
trains  . .  .  New  Year's  Eve  just  another  night.  Neon  lights 
stay  dark.  Clerks  stay  home  .  .  .  Retired  clerks  advise 
Department  they  are  ready  for  service  .  .  .  More  trains 
canceled  . .  .  R.M.S.  offices  put  on  nine-hour  day,  six  days 
a  week  .  .  .  R.ALA.  arranges  meetings  during  blackouts 
.  .  .  Wives  say,  "Remember,  purl  harder,"  and  knitting 
goes  on  .  .  .  Shortage  of  rubber,  clerks  begin  to  walk  .  .  . 
Shortage  of  sugar,  wives  retain  natural  sweetness  .  .  . 
Clerks  buy  Stamps  and  Bonds  .  .  .  Life  goes  on;  not  as 
usual,  but  in  the  American  way,  to  save  the  American 
day. 

Following  abolition  of  the  official  forty-hour  week  on  De- 
cember  22,    1941,   clerks   worked   a   minimum   forty-eight- 


214  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

hour,  but  often  as  much  as  a  sixty-  or  seventy-hour,  week  or 
more.  Road  clerks  had  numerous  extra  trips,  paid  at  "time 
and  a  half"  for  the  first  time  in  history  (actually  much  less, 
through  technicalities).  Thousands  of  temporary  wartime 
"subs"  were  hired,  but  many  were  quickly  drafted  or  quit 
to  take  high-paying  war-plant  jobs  (as  did  some  regular 
clerks).  Emergency  plans  were  laid  for  rerouting  R.P.O.s 
disabled  by  bombings  or  invasions.  Mails  increased  to  all- 
time  record  heights.  Delayed  R.P.O.s  were  sidetracked  as  the 
mains  (troop  trains)  rushed  past. 

A  vast  proportion  of  the  mail  was  for  army  camps  and 
other  military  separations  not  yet  made  up  on  racks  and  cases, 
causing  much  inconvenience  until  new  case  diagrams  could 
be  drawn  up  and  new  pouches  established.  Pouches  had  to 
be  hung  in  aisles  and  odd  corners— there  was  no  room  in  the 
racks.  The  haphazard  addresses  on  domestic  military  mail 
were  appalling;  hundreds  of  new  military  posts  with  complex 
lonsf  names  were  inserted  into  the  Postal  Guide  and  schemes, 

O 

while  the  military  addresses  furnished  soldiers  often  varied 
considerably  therefrom.  The  shortage  of  trained  distributors 
to  handle  these  vital  army  mails  became  acute.  But  not  until 
the  summer  of  1942,  when  two  thousand  railway  mail  clerks 
were  in  the  forces,  were  limited  deferments  finally  granted 
to  key  residue  clerks  doing  scheme  distribution  and  to  essen- 
tial officials.  Then  in  November  came  President  Roosevelt's 
sweeping  directive  which  began:  "I  am  anxious  to  make  sure 
that  no  man  should  be  deferred  from  military  service  by 
reason  of  his  employment  in  any  Federal  Department  or 
agency  ...  in  Washington  or  any  other  place"! 

Again  postal  clerks  ^vere  indiscriminately  drafted,  much  to 
the  despair  of  field  officials  and  of  R.M.A.  branches  at  New 
Orleans  and  elscAvhere,  who  had  passed  numerous  resolutions 
requesting  deferment  of  expert  distributors.  Much  pleased, 
however,  was  the  big  New  York  (2nd  Division)  Branch,  which 
had  passed  an  opposing  resolution  just  one  month  before, 
demanding  no  occupational  deferments  for  clerks  whatever. 

By  December  of  1944,  3,952  clerks  were  in  the  forces.  Of 
these,  twenty-five  had  laid  down  their  lives,  mostly  terminal 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  215 

clerks— five  of  them  from  Perm  Terminal,  New  York,  alone. 
Half  of  the  letter  mail  was  being  worked  in  these  same  term- 
inals as  nearly  every  train  went  hopelessly  stuck;  pouches 
for  a  single  state  "up  to  25X"  were  turned  over  to  them  im- 
worked  by  the  score.  Not  until  1945,  the  last  year  of  the  war, 
were  clerks  over  thirty  finally  deferred,  and  then  it  was  too 
late  to  make  much  difference.  Five  thousand  clerks  eventu- 
ally went  into  the  forces. 

Of  special  interest  during  those  days  of  womens'  auxil- 
iaries (the  WAC,  WAVES,  and  so  on)  were  the  famotis 
"TWERPS"— Temporary  Women  Employees,  Railway  Post- 
al Service.  Women  clerks  in  the  terminals,  numbering  only 
a  handful  in  the  1920—40  period,  were  greeted  by  hundreds 
of  new  sister  workers  as  high-school  bobby-soxers,  house- 
wives, and  grandmothers  were  added  to  the  ranks  of  the  \var- 
time  subs  along  with  teen-age  boys  and  older  men.  Harassed 
clerks-in-charge  racked  their  brains  over  problems  of  extra 
washrooms,  special  rest  facilities,  and  budding  romances 
across  the  letter  cases.  Alone  among  practically  all  fields  of 
labor,  only  the  R.P.O.  trains  themselves  still  remained  closed 
to  women  workers.  The  Los  Angeles  Terminal  was  especially 
proud  of  its  one  hundred  girls,  one  of  whom  would  bring 
around  fresh  coffee  and  rolls  each  Sunday  morning.  A  special 
farewell  party  was  held  for  them  after  the  war  in  view  of 
their  "job  truly  well  done,"  with  coffee,  doughnuts,  and  kisses 
from  the  C.-in-C!    Women  loaded  bag-mail  at  train  stops. 

Photostated  "V-Mail"  letters,  with  tiny,  nearly  illegible 
addresses,  made  letter  distribution  a  real  headache,  and  the 
well-deserved  granting  of  free  postage  to  military  personnel 
caused  the  volume  of  soldier  and  naval  mail  to  soar  to  un- 
precedented heights.  R.P.O.s  everywhere  ran  out  of  standard 
pouch  and  sack  equipment,  as  this  was  channeled  overseas.  No. 
2  sacks,  awkwardly  tagged  in  green  with  the  words  "FIRST 
CLASS  MAIL,"  were  declared  to  be  letter  pouches  for  the 
duration— much  to  the  confusion  of  pouch  clerks  and  railroad 
porters.  To  augment  thinning  stocks  of  the  standard  large 
No.  1  sack,  coarse  burlap  bags  were  commandered,  many  of 
them  still  bearing  the  names  of  some  kind  of  sugar  or  feed 


216  MAIL  BT  RAIL 

printed  on  them.  (Easily  worn  through,  they  were  supplied 
with  loose  collar  fasteners  that  always  got  lost,  until  some- 
one thought  to  have  them  fastened  on.)  With  such  make- 
shift equipment  and  with  mail  stacked  ceiling  high,  condi- 
tions were  much  as  Transfer  Clerk  Ruben  Ericson  of  Port- 
land, Oregon,  described  them:  "The  boys  don't  sing  at  their 
work  any  more;  the  coffeepot  rusts  in  the  pie  box.  The  day 
when  a  clerk  just  did  an  honest  day's  work  has  gone  with 
the  wind  ...  he  does  the  work  of  a  horse  .  .  .  Tired  and  sore 
.  .  .  you  never  get  down  to  the  [last]  sack." 

In  1944  the  Postal  Service  handled  over  1,482,000,000 
pieces  of  mail  for  army  personnel— most  of  it  through  R.M.S. 
hands.  Retired  clerks  were  reinstated  not  only  in  the 
terminal  R.P.O.s  but  even  at  Selective  Service  headquarters 
itself,  where  their  sorting  skill  proved  most  valuable.  Par- 
ticipation in  buying  war  bonds  and  stamps  was  100  per  cent 
in  three  R.M.S.  divisions,  99  per  cent  in  the  other  twelve; 
clerks  gave  gallons  of  blood  for  plasma,  and  one  branch  gave 
$700  to  purchase  a  Red  Cross  ambulance.  They  organized 
R.M.S.  Buddy  Clubs  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  St.  Louis, 
Indianapolis,  and  elsewhere,  which  sent  steady  streams  of 
letters  and  gifts  to  fellow  clerks  in  camp  or  overseas.  Newsy 
bulletins  published  especially  for  them  were  sent  over  too— 
the  Broadcaster,  from  Washington  clerks;  the  Kansas  City 
Service  News  or  Buddy  News;  St.  Louis's  Buddy  Club  News; 
and  t\vo  Trip  Reports  (from  New  York  and  Indianapolis). 

Even  in  the  prosaic  "calling"  of  rotary  lock  numbers  the 
usual  "V— Vinegar"  quickly  became  "V  for  Victory"!  Vital 
registered  military  shipments  were  carried  over  key  routes, 
guarded  by  an  armed  soldier  or  marine  for  whom  sympa- 
thetic clerks  made  up  beds  of  sacks  in  the  end  of  the  car. 
Clerks  even  read  of  one  of  their  number,  a  prisoner  of  war 
in  Germany,  sending  back  to  his  buddies  through  neutral 
channels  for  R.M.S.  schemes  and  schedules  to  studyl  Not 
until  V-)  Day  did  the  pressure  let  up;  the  five-day  week  was 
restored  in  October  1945,  and  drafted  clerks  were  reinstated 
in  the  R.M.S.  as  fast  as  they  were  released.  Deprived  of  their 
R.M.A.  membership  under  New  Hampshire  insurance  regu- 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  217 

lations,  special  rules  had  to  be  made  to  permit  their  rejoin- 
ing without  a  second  initiation  fee  (some  unfortunate  veter- 
ans had  already  paid  it).  Wartime  subs  were  quickly  re- 
leased, the  last  ones  leaving  on  March  31,  1946. 

But  what  of  the  overseas  picture  this  time?  Instead  of 
calling  in  the  R.M.S.,  the  entire  job  of  distributing  incoming 
and  outgoing  military  mails  was  handled  by  the  Army  Postal 
Service  and  the  navy  mail  clerks.  There  is  no  denying  the 
fact  that  they  did  a  splendid,  heroic  job  of  it,  under  the  most 
trying  difficulties  and  dangers.  And  yet  the  record  seems 
clear  that  had  the  Railway  Mail  Service  been  permitted  to 
take  over  the  whole  setup  as  before,  a  still  better  and  an 
amazingly  efficient  job  could  have  been  done  ^vhich  would 
have  eliminated  most  of  the  constant  complaints  of  six-month 
delays,  misunderstandings,  lost  mails,  and  what  not  with 
which  postal  officials  were  swamped  (from  both  civilian  and 
army  patrons)  the  whole  time. 

And  much  credit  for  the  splendid  accomplishments  that 
did  transpire  must  go  to  the  many  R.M.S.  officials  and  clerks 
who  were  placed  in  the  Army  Postal  Service  after  their  en- 
listment or  induction,  many  becoming  instructors.  The  vast 
majority  of  all  outbound  army  mail  was  again  addressed  to 
Army  Post  Offices,  but  the  standard  form  of  address  was  now: 

(Name  of  soldier  and  unit) 
A.P.O.  No.  — 
c/o  Postmaster,  New  York,  N.  Y.^ 

These  mails  were  sorted  by  a  huge  Embarkation  Army  Post 
Office,  later  the  Postal  Concentration  Center  at  Long  Island 
City,  New  York,  and  by  other  smaller  army  units. 

Furthermore,  no  military  R.P.O.s  were  operated  on  the 
European  continent  by  United  States  forces  in  this  war, 
either.  Air  mail  constituted  the  bulk  of  the  traffic;  intensive 
bombing  had  left  almost  no  usable  track  or  railway  cars;  and 
the  army  postal  men  knew  little  about  transit-sorted  mail 
and  its  advantages.  Mails  from  New  York  to  France  were 
routed  from  the  port  of  entry  (after  mails  for  nearby  units 


*Or  San  Francisco,  or  other  embarkation  point. 


218  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

were  taken  out)  in  solid  railroad  cars  for  Paris,  where  a  Base 
Post  Office  broke  it  up  and  scattered  Postal  Regulating  Sec- 
tions did  the  final  sorting.  A  few  special  trains  were  oper- 
ated (one  called  the  Toule  de  Suite  Express)  to  haul  closed- 
pouch  mails  only.  The  A.P.S.  did  sort  mail  in  at  least  one 
stationery  French-type  R.P.O.  car  (spoorzuagon)  in  Holland. 

However,  some  important  military  R.P.O.s  zvere  operated 
—in  Germany  and  Holland,  by  the  British,  and  outside  of 
Europe,  by  United  States  forces.  The  first  R.P.O.  of  the 
British  Army  of  the  Rhine  began  operating  September  30, 
194G,  from  Herford  to  Hamburg;  operations  were  later  ex- 
tended to  Dusseldorf  and  the  Hook  of  Holland,  ihis  last 
service  continuing  to  June  4,  1949.  Four  crews  of  four 
soldiers  each  manned  standard  German  R.P.O.  cars,  using 
'TIELD  POST  OFFICE"  cancels. 

Best-known  U.  S.  Army  R.P.O.  was  in  Iran  (Persia),  from 
Bandar  Shapur  on  the  Gulf  to  Teheran,  the  capital,  on  the 
Iranian  State  Railways.  Operated  largely  by  the  711th  and 
730th  (later  791st)  Railway  Operating  Battalions  of  the  Mili- 
tary Railway  Service,  Persian  Gulf  Command,  it  traversed  a 
single-track,  standard-gauge  route  through  miles  of  desert  via 
Arak  and  Ahwaz.  The  two  daily  trains  handled  military 
letters  for  the  occupying  forces  and  for  Russia,  the  latter 
being  turned  over  to  the  connecting  Soviet-operated  line 
from  Teheran  to  Tobruk  and  the  U.S.S.R.  In  three  separate 
four-wheeled  German  R.P.O.  cars,  clerks  of  the  American 
and  British  armie.=,  as  well  as  civilian  Iranian  R.P.O.  clerks, 
distributed  mail  for  their  respective  personnel.  With  no 
official  title  or  postmark  known  to  us,  this  railway  post  office 
operated  until  July  1,  1945. 

In  China  we  operated  the  Tientsin  &  Chinguantoo  R.P.O., 
a  150-mile  route  serving  Marine  outfits  guarding  the  railway 
and  manned  by  Marine  clerks— probably  the  only  line  so 
staffed.  Clerk  T.  V.  Atwell  (on  military  leave  from  the 
R.M.S.)  reported  that  the  train  once  returned  to  Tientsin 
minus  its  mail  car— which  was  finally  located  in  a  train  mak- 
ing tracks  for  Manchuria  miles  away.  Atwell,  the  other  mail 
clerk,  and  three  generals  pleaded  with  railway  personnel  in 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  219 

vain— none  could  understand  English— as  they  were  shifted 
around;  with  only  two  days'  rations  on  board,  it  took  them 
five  days  to  be  returned  to  Tientsin. 

The  Tokyo-Sapporo  Military  R.M.S.  route  on  the  Japan 
State  Railways  was  operated  by  the  Army,  using  an  R.P.O. 
car  with  small  square  windows  and  the  lettering  "U.S.  MAIL 
CAR"  and  "AOMORI-SAPPORO"  in  English  and  Japanese. 
Though  it  carried  all  the  first-class  mail  for  northern  army 
units,  only  registered  matter  was  sorted  in  transit;  this  alone 
kept  two  six-man  cre\vs  busy.  They  had  a  sixty-two-mile  car 
ferry. 

There  was  a  still  better-known  Military  R.M.S.  route  in 
North  Africa,  but  despite  contrariwise  reports,  it  did  not 
actually  sort  mail  in  transit.  This  train  from  Casablanca  to 
Oran,  however,  did  carry  a  mail  clerk;  he  received,  separated, 
and  dispatched  closed  bags  of  mail  over  his  five  hundred-mile 
run  in  green-painted,  ten-ton  cars  lettered  "M. R.M.S."  He 
had  a  bunk  to  sleep  in  during  his  twenty-four-hour  trip,  but 
no  case  or  racks.  It  was  projected  to  go  on  to  Algiers  and 
connect  with  two  smaller  M. R.M.S.  routes  operating  there, 
and  was  in  charge  of  M. R.M.S.  Director  Carl  Gray  with  a 
daily  ten-car  mail  train  for  nearly  a  year.  One  Algiers  route 
was  given  a  ceremonious  'Tirst  trip"— with  the  mail  car  left 
behind,  as  embarrassed  brass-hats  discovered! 

Highly  publicized  in  the  military  news  of  the  day  was 
"the  first  time  in  history  that  clerks  sorted  mails  in  planes," 
also  over  North  Africa,  in  April,  1943.  Actually,  no  pieces 
of  mail  were  sorted— nor  was  it  the  first  time  clerks  had  been 
assigned  to  mail  planes  (done  in  the  1920s— see  Chapter  16). 
Clerks  detailed  from  A.P.O.'s  loere  assigned  to  planes,  but 
only  to  separate  bags  for  dispatch  as  before.  A  "mobile  post 
office"  was  also  operated  in  an  army  truck  to  serve  Allied 
forces:  it  had  a  postmark,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  it 
sorted  mail  in  transit  or  carried  clerks  on  duty  when  travel- 
ling. By  far  the  largest  proportion  of  distribution  in  transit 
in  World  War  II,  however,  was  done  in  the  Navy  Post  Offices 
on  our  ships,  which  carried  out  detailed  and  comprehensive 
transit-sorting  of  mails  from   home  ports  clear   to  Pacific 


220  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

theaters  of  action— many  navy  mail  clerks  being  former 
R.P.C.s,  who  were  publicly  commended  by  the  Navy  for  their 
magnificent  performance  as  a  class. 

Railway  mail  clerks  in  general  invariably  distinguished 
themselves  in  both  courage  and  ability,  and  in  both  postal 
and  combat  units,  in  every  part  of  the  forces  to  which  as- 
signed; most  became  officers  of  considerable  rank,  but  some 
met  a  heroic  death.  No  one  could  have  gi\en  more  of  a 
"last  full  measure  of  devotion,"  perhaps,  than  young  Substi- 
tute Joseph  Rozeman  of  an  Atlanta,  Georgia,  district.  He 
subscribed  fifty  dollars  monthly  in  war  bonds  out  of  his  small 
wages  as  soon  as  Pearl  Harbor  was  attacked;  solicitous 
oflicials  protested  to  no  avail.  Failing  in  attempts  to  enlist  in 
the  Marines,  he  \vas  drafted  in  the  infantry  instead;  he  was 
detailed  to  a  permanent  United  States  installation  but  de- 
manded (and  was  given)  combat  service  in  the  Pacific— then 
was  w'ounded  on  Leyte,  finally  killed  on  Luzon.  Railway 
mail  officials  were  sent  to  several  occupied  and  other  coun- 
tries after  the  war  to  rehabilitate  civilian  postal  service,  par- 
ticularly in  Germany;  hers  was  placed  in  charge  of  former 
R.M.S.  General  Superintendent  Steve  A.  Cisler  and  ex- 
R.M.A.  President  Pete  Schardt— former  R.M.S.  Division 
Superintendent,  A.E.F.  postal  head,  and  Southern  Railway 
official.  Even  today  ex-clerk  Archie  Imus  is  top  postal  officer 
for  Germany's  United  States  Zone.  (See  Chap.  15  re  Turkey.) 

When  war  broke  out  anew  in  1950  in  Korea,  again  involv- 
ing this  country,  the  P.T.S.  quickly  girded  for  action.  Once 
more,  military  mails  gained  priority  and  were  handled  as  in 
World  War  IL 

But  even  in  the  absence  of  war's  alarms  there  are  still 
floods,  wrecks,  fires,  and  sometimes  train  robberies  to  chal- 
lenge the  mettle  of  the  railway  mail  clerk.  Over  seventy-five 
R.P.O.  lines  have  had  to  suspend  service  at  once  because  of 
floods,  as  in  the  widespread  ones  of  March  1936  from  Maine 
to  Ohio.  As  in  the  Beardstown  deluge  (Chapter  1),  the  appal- 
ling Johnstown,  Pennsylvania,  Flood  of  1889  was  taken  in 
stride  by  clerks  on  the  N.Y.  Sc  Pittsburgh,  the  Pennsy's  main 
line.  They  found  dieir  train  stalled  at  the  edge  of  the  flood; 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  221 

water  was  rising  at  a  dangerous  rate.  But  one  clerk  quickly 
jumped  out,  ran  up  a  side  street,  and  returned  with  a  wagon 
and  four  horses  into  which  all  mail  was  loaded.  They  drove 
to  Altoona  and  sorted  it  there  at  the  post  office. 

There  are  dramatic  stories  of  other  floods.  The  de  luxe 
Ambassador,  Train  332  of  the  CentVt-B&;M's  St.  Albans  & 
Boston  R.P.O.  out  of  Montreal,  Quebec,  was  stalled  bet-\v'een 
two  track  washouts  in  a  vast  waste  of  water  at  Roxbury, 
Vermont,  for  nearly  a  week  without  any  contact  from  the 
outside  world;  Clerk  Harold  Kimball  had  to  walk  fourteen 
miles  to  get  his  mail  out.  That  was  in  the  'twenties;  but 
earlier,  in  1905,  St.  Lou.  k  Little  Rock  (MoPac)  Train  ,6  ran 
smack  into  a  fifteen-foot  wall  of  water  at  Piedmont,  Mis- 
souri; the  engine  crew  jumped  back  into  the  R.P.O.  car  as 
their  head  end  was  hurled  into  the  torrent,  and  Clerk 
Wilson  Davenport  finally  swam  fifty  yards  of  raging  water 
to  high  ground  to  secure  help,  saving  a  drowning  tramp  on 
the  way.  Floods  invade  even  postal  cars,  necessitating  piling 
all  mail  on  top  of  racks  and  working  knee-deep  in  water; 
Clerks  Harry  Stone  and  j.  G.  Mcllhenny  did  that  for  hours 
in  a  Kansas  City  R;  Albuquerque  (Santa  Fe)  mail  car  in 
Kansas  City,  and  when  relieved  could  get  home  only  by 
walking  over  car  tops  and  yard  fences.  Ogden  R:  San  Fran- 
cisco (SP)  Train  9  was  twice  involved  in  huge  floods  on  the 
"Overland"  route.  In  1911,  says  the  Go-Back  Pouch,  the 
train  left  Ogden  on  February  tenth  and  didn't  get  back  to 
its  terminus  until  after  eleven  days  and  a  2,300-mile  detour. 
Rabins:  streams  and  washed-out  trestles  and  tracks  confronted 
it  everywhere;  food,  water,  and  necessities  ran  out,  the  SP 
dining-car  department  finally  furnishing  rations;  the  hungry 
and  unwashed  clerks  were  shuttled  in  slow  stages  to  Winne- 
mucca,  San  Francisco,  Sparks,  Reno,  Sacramento,  Portland, 
and  back  to  Ogden!  The  other  (1921)  flood  involved  a  fierce 
storm  on  the  Utah  salt  flats,  with  tOAvering  waves  of  brine 
from  the  Great  Salt  Lake  crashing  the  train  as  clerks  swept 
water  out. 

This  same  train  was  the  victim  of  one  of  the  most  spectacu- 
lar wrecks  in  R.M.S.  history.  On  September  12,  1932,  Train 


222  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

9  left  the  rails  near  Emigrant  Gap  in  the  Sierras,  and  the 
R.P.O.  car  tumbled  six  Jnuidred  jeet  down  a  mountainside 
without  a  single  fatality!  All  four  clerks  were  badly  injured, 
yet  they  convoyed  their  registers  by  truck  to  Sacramento, 
checked  out  each  pouch  after  hours  of  guarding  the  mails, 
and  completed  their  trip  report  in  full  detail. 

In  typical  contrast  was  the  most  recent  of  our  major 
R.M.S.  wrecks,  mentioned  with  a  few  others  in  our  first 
chapter.  When  the  Pennsy's  Red  Arroiu,  N.Y.  Sc  Pittsburgh 
Train  68,  reached  Bennington  Curve  at  Gallitzin,  Pennsyl- 
vania (near  Altoona),  a  sudden  derailment  brought  death  to 
six  Pennsylvania  clerks  in  February  1947— H.  E.  Bohner  of 
Lemoyne,  H.  L.  Bowman  of  Bowmansdale,  W.  E.  Moore  of 
Pittsburgh,  P.  J.  Leiden  of  Altoona,  B.  M.  jakeman  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  G.  C.  Bowman  of  Tyrone,  who  was  suspended 
eight  hours  by  his  feet  before  being  cut  loose,  dictating  his 
will  in  the  meantime.    Others  were  badly  hurt. 

The  news  shocked  the  nation,  for  scarcelv  even  one  or  two 
clerks  per  year  had  been  killed  in  wrecks  for  decades— none 
at  all  in  1944,  1941,  1939,  and  other  recent  years.  But  the 
employment  of  untrained  wartime  railway  workers  and  lack 
of  equipment  upkeep  were  beginning  to  show;  three  more 
men  were  killed  that  year,  or  a  total  of  33  for  the  twelve 
years  1936—47  inclusive.  The  wrecks  record  is  again  im- 
proving, but  much  needs  to  be  done  in  pushing  a  vigorous 
safety  program. 

W^e  can  only  skim  through  some  of  the  other  vivid  or  tragic 
wreck  scenes  of  the  past.  We  see  the  New  York  Central's 
Wolverine,  N.Y.  k  Chicago  Train  8,  running  off  a  curve  at 
Rochester  in  1945,  killing  Clerk  Al  Van  Camp;  another 
N.Y.  R:  Chic,  train  piling  up  at  Canastota,  New  York,  two 
years  later,  when  another  Al  became  a  hero  by  saving  the 
lives  of  scores  amid  scalding  water  and  steam  (Al  Novak, 
flagging  a  second  train  just  in  time);  the  Fourth-of-Tuly  crack- 
up  in  1944  of  the  Santa  Fe's  Chief,  when  clerks  sloshed 
around  in  hot  oil,  saving  pouch  mail,  to  be  greeted  and  as- 
sisted by  General  Superintendent  John  Hardy,  who  was 
riding  the  same  train;   the  Chic.  Sc  Omaha  (C&NW)  train 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  223 

which  broke  in  two  just  after  a  clerk  threw  off  the  Vail,  Iowa, 
pouch,  injuring  a  passenger,  because  the  pouch  hit  a  switch 
standard  opening  the  points;  the  two  widely  separated  clerks 
killed  in  the  same  month  (July  1937)  at  grade  crossings,  each 
by  an  R.P.O.  train  on  which  he  had  once  worked:  one  on  the 
New  Haven's  Boston  &  N.Y.  at  Warwick,  Rhode  Island,  the 
other  at  Hoopeston,  Illinois,  on  the  Chic.  &  Evansville 
(C&EI);  and  many  others,  which  pass  in  a  crashing  panorama 
before  our  eyes.  Only  yesterday,  heroic  clerks  on  Chi.,  Ft. 
Madison  &:  K.C.  (SFe)  Tr.  22,  in  the  shock  of  a  frightful  wreck 
(July  5,  1950),  did  practically  all  the  rescuing  of  injured  pas- 
sengers. (No  clerks  were  seriously  hurt  in  the  crash  of  the 
PRR's  Spirit  of  St.  Louis,  Pitts.  &  St.  Lou.  Tr.  31,  on  Sept. 
11,  1950,  into  a  troop  train,  killing  many  soldiers.) 

The  most  historic  of  all  mail-train  crack-ups  was  doubtless 
the  song-famed  "VV'reck  of  the  Old  97."  The  engine  and  four 
cars  of  Washington  k  Charlotte  (Southern)  Train  97  simply 
crashed  down  over  the  broken  side  of  a  seventy-five-foot 
trestle  at  Gretna,  near  Danville,  Virginia,  on  September  27, 
1903.  Eleven  mail  clerks  were  killed,  but  three  other  clerks 
of  that  crew  have  survived  to  this  day,  still  in  the  Service  or 
recently  retired.  Two  of  them,  J.  H.  Thompson  and  Jennings 
Dunlap,  stayed  on  the  same  line  until  then.  Thompson  re- 
tired in  1941  to  his  home  at  Lexington,  Virginia,  after  com- 
piling a  huge  scrapbook  of  "Old  97"  clippings  and  meeting 
every  President  since  McKinley.  He  was  a  good  friend  of 
David  G.  George,  author  of  the  famous  song,  who  was  the 
telegrapher  at  Gretna  and  had  a  premonition  of  the  wreck; 
he  often  told  Thompson  how  he  watched  Old  97  race  "down 
grade  at  ninety  miles  an  hour"  to  the  fatal  curve,  an  hour 
late,  with  two  firemen  keeping  up  a  full  head  of  steam. 
Thompson  reveals  that  George  lost  an  entire  fortune  defend- 
ing his  song  rights. 

Some  remarkable  "series"  of  wrecks  on  the  same  line,  or 
involving  the  same  clerk  or  other  strange  coincidences,  have 
occurred.  Besides  the  thirty-eight  afore-mentioned  wrecks  on 
the  old  Indianapolis  &  Effingham,  we  recall  that  James  L. 
Stice  (see  Chapters  10  and  16)  was  in  eleven  smashes  and 


'^^4  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

injured  in  four,  and  that  seven  consecutive  wrecks  on  the 
Omaha  &  Kansas  City  (MoPac)  years  ago  invariably  involved 
one  particular  clerk— it  caused  so  much  superstition  among 
trainmen  that  railroad  officials  demanded  his  transfer.  Roy 
V.  McPherson,  of  the  Utica,  New  York  Terminal,  has  pub- 
lished accounts  of  four  amazing  hairbreadth  escapes  from 
death;  in  one  case  he  would  have  been  decapitated  at  Moira, 
New  York,  when  the  engine  smashed  its  cab  in  sideswiping  a 
boxcar,  had  he  not  jumped  back  from  the  mail-car  door  just 
in  time.  Again,  running  on  the  old  N.Y.  &  O.  R.R.,  his  train 
was  derailed  at  an  open  switch  at  Kildare,  New  York,  just  a 
few  feet  behind  a  standing  boxcar  of  dynamite.  And  finally, 
in  addition  to  nearly  drowning  on  a  cruise  on  his  layover,  he 
tells  of  Slopping  his  Nyando  &  Tupper  Lake  (NY&O)  R.P.O. 
train  upon  a  trestle  near  Madawaska,  New  York,  to  have  a 
derailed  truck  of  the  tender  fixed— only  to  fall  off  the  trestle 
and  get  sucked  into  a  quagmire  in  tlie  creek  below,  barely 
getting  out! 

In  1948  the  two  opposite  R.P.O.  trains  on  the  same  run 
were  both  wrecked  when  they  met  head  on— Newport  &: 
Springfield  (BR:M-CVt-CP)  Trains  78  and  79,  near  Newbury. 
Vermont.  Train  crews  on  both  crack  Boston-Montreal  fiyers 
were  killed,  but  the  clerks  escaped  ^vith  injuries;  they  care- 
fully salvaged  the  mail  from  the  crumpled  steel  R.P.O.  cars, 
one  having  to  be  cut  up  by  torches  for  junk.  It  was  the  worst 
wreck  in  all  New  England  in  a  forty-five-year  period.  And 
on  the  C.  R:  N.W.  the  same  train  was  wrecked  three  times 
in  1942— Chic.  &  Omaha  Train  5;  while  in  a  1945  smashup, 
day-old  chicks,  turkeys,  and  white  mice  escaped  the  mails 
when  Buffalo  Sc  Wash.  (PRR)  Train  575  was  wrecked,  its 
mail  car  jumping  over  the  engine! 

An  astounding  thing  happened  on  the  old  Hutchinson  &: 
Kinsley  R.P.O.,  a  Santa  Fe  cutoff  route  in  Kansas,  because 
of  a  wreck  not  involving  any  mail  train!  On  delivering  the 
first  pouch  en  route  one  trip  (Partridge,  Kansas),  the  puzzled 
local  clerk  remarked  that  the  depot  had  been  moved  across 
the  track,  even  though  it  still  bore  the  same  name.  Making 
the  next  throwoff,  Abbeyville,  tliey  noticed  tire  train  cross- 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  225 

ing  another  railway.  "They've  built  a  new  railroad  here 
since  we  were  out  last  week,  John,"  remarked  the  local  man. 
This  station,  also  on  the  wrong  side,  flew  by  before  they 
could  check  its  name;  but  on  viewing  the  "scenery,"  it  ap- 
peared as  familiar  as  ever.  But  when  the  third  station 
whizzed  by  on  the  wrong  side,  the  alarmed  clerks  called  the 
train  porter  and  asked  where  they  were.  They  were  at 
Ellenwood,  on  the  Santa  Fe's  main  line  twenty  miles  north 
or  Zenith,  the  cutoff  stop  where  they  thought  they  were! 
The  conductor,  familiar  with  both  routes,  had  nesrlected  to 
notify  the  clerks  of  a  sudden  detour  necessitated  by  a  wreck 
on  the  cutoff.  The  disarming  similarity  of  the  two  routes, 
even  to  parallel  competing  raihvays  on  the  left  for  miles  out 
of  Hutchinson  and  identical  blind  sidings  and  chutes,  had 
been  responsible. 

The  specter  of  fire  is  ever-present.  A  Diesel  locomotive 
blaze  on  Albuq.  &  Los  Angeles  (Santa  Fe)  Train  18  at  Fon- 
tana,  California,  cracked  all  window  glass  on  the  R.P.O. 
car  recently  and  set  its  vestibule  fabrics  afire;  clerks  assisted 
in  quenching  it  with  extinguishers,  one  being  injured.  A  far 
worse  fire  in  Detroit  R:  Cincinnati  (BR:0)  Train  57  at  Weston, 
Ohio,  not  long;  aQ;o  consumed  all  mail  in  the  letter  cases  and 
all  clerks'  belongings  and  grips;  yet  the  men  managed  to 
save  all  registers  and  escape  uninjured.  The  Rock  Island's 
Rocket,  Train  7  of  the  Omaha  R:  Colorado  Springs  hit  a  huge 
oil  truck  at  Dellvale,  Kansas,  in  1947,  and  flaming  oil  \vas 
showered  into  the  R.P.O.  car  from  all  openings;  pouches 
of  mail  caught  fire,  exits  and  creep  doors  were  stuck  or 
blocked,  and  clerks  barely  escaped.  At  least  four  clerks  have 
been  killed  in  other  fiery  wrecks— Paul  Crysler  and  John  Gall, 
in  that  of  a  Chicago  8:  Streator^  (CBRrQ)  gasoline  car  at 
Oswego,  Illinois  (194.S);  and  two  others  on  the  Atlanta,  Val- 
dosta  R:  Jacksonville  (Sou-GCR:F,  near  Valdosta,  Georgia,  in 
a  burning-trestle  collapse)  and  on  a  Childress  R:  Lubbock 
(F\V'R:DC)  gas  rail  car  near  Casey,  Texas— both  in  1942.  A 
Norf.  R:  Winner  (CR;NW)  R.P.O.  car  was  derailed  at  Spencer, 


'Now  Chi.  &  Zearing. 


226  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Nebraska,  rolled  over,  and  burned  with  its  mail  (the  clerk 
escaped)  just  recently  in   1950. 

There  may  be  smoke  where  there  is  no  fire,  as  Clerk-in- 
Charge  L.  Beaumont  Reed  of  the  N.Y.  &  Pitts.  (PRR)  fortu- 
nately discovered  one  day  at  Monmouth  Junction,  New  Jer- 
sey; he  scented  a  hotbox  there  and  notified  the  baggageman 
that  it  was  a  certain  engine  ponywheel.  In  spite  of  a  cautious 
crawl  from  there  on  (to  pick  up  a  new  locomotive  at  Tren- 
ton), the  hot  wheel  and  its  mate  sheered  off  at  Princeton 
Junction,  New  Jersey,  and  the  pony  frame  dropped  to  the 
tracks.  No  one  was  hurt  as  the  train  ground  to  a  stop.  Reed 
little  dreamed  that  the  Pennsy's  famed  Congressional  would 
be  wrecked  from  that  same  cause  on  the  same  tracks  a  few 
years  later,  somewhat  farther  south,  at  Frankford  Junction 
in  Philadelphia,  to  become  the  most  appallingly  fatal  rail 
wreck  of  modern  times.  (Neither  did  the  two  clerks  on  the 
N.Y.  &  Wash,  multiple-unit  local  just  ahead  of  the  Congres- 
sional suspect  anything,  even  though  one  of  them— this  writer 
—had  personally  observed  Frankford  Junction  as  a  check  mark 
for  his  C.-in-C.  just  a  half  hour  before!)  Reed's  valiant  feat 
was  credited  by  all  with  saving  himdreds  of  lives  (see  Chap.  16 
re  broadcast). 

Many  daring  train  robberies  occurred,  too,  in  addition  to 
the  few  mentioned  previously— especially  on  lines  out  of  San 
Francisco.  (Mail-train  robbers  were  once  given  the  death 
penalty.)  The  most  spectacular  was  undoubtedlv  the  De 
Autremont  brothers'  bombing  of  a  Portland  R:  San  Fran.  fSP) 
R.P.O.  train  near  Siskiyou,  Oregon,  on  October  11,  1923. 
They  ruthlessly  halted  the  train  with  a  dynamite  trap,  killed 
every  trainman  and  postal  clerk  (only  one  or  two  R.P.C.'s 
were  on  duty),  and  stole  thousands  of  dollars.  Postal  inspec- 
tors, with  only  a  coat  and  some  tools  as  evidence,  spent 
$500,000  carrying  out  the  world's  biggest  man  hunt  for  three 
and  one-half  years;  all  three  brothers  were  eventually  cap- 
tured and  jailed.  The  gutted  R.P.O.  car,  rebuilt,  was  event- 
ually wrecked  again  at  Lowell,  Oregon,  in  1946;  again  re- 
built, it  is  still  in  use. 

A  second  Port.  &  San  Fran,  mail  robbery,  a  $40,000  unde- 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  227 

tected  rifling  of  a  registry  convoy  in  San  Francisco,  remained 
a  mystery  from  1937  to  1946,  when  a  post-office  registry  clerk 
was  arrested  as  the  culprit.  Four  bandits  held  up  the  old 
Deming  &:  San  Fran.  (SP)  just  out  of  Deming,  New  Mexico 
in  1883  by  spreading  the  rails,  killing  the  engineer,  and  fir- 
ing into  the  mail  car;  they  got  only  ^1,000  out  of  the  mail 
in  lieu  of  an  expected  $100,000  pay  roll,  and  the  clerks  were 
instrumental  in  the  bandits'  later  capture  through  their  de- 
scriptions. And  on  the  Ogden  &  San  Fran.  (SP),  in  1900  two 
"hoboes"  on  Train  10  pulled  out  .45s  at  Suisun  City,  Cali- 
fornia, and  halted  the  train.  By  threat  of  dynamiting  they 
forced  the  clerks  to  admit  them,  then  they  seized  the  regis- 
tered pouches  and  fled  with  them  in  the  uncoupled  engine! 

The  notorious  Roy  Gardner,  too,  held  up  his  first  big  mail 
train  on  the  Ogden  R:  S.F.  About  1918  he  boarded  a  storage 
car  at  Roseville,  California,  robbed  the  pouches  therein  as 
well  as  a  clerk  deadheading  in  the  car,  and  finally  leaped 
from  the  train.  Already  sought  by  posses,  Gardner  was  now 
vigilantly  searched  for  in  several  states;  hut  in  1920  he  boldly 
climbed  into  the  closet  of  a  Phoenix  k  Parker  (Santa  Fe) 
R.P.O.  car  as  it  left  Phoenix,  Arizona,  attempting  to  hold  up 
burly  Clerk  Herman  Inderlied  by  surprise.  Inderlied  "saw 
red"  at  that;  he  simply  knocked  the  robber  down,  seized 
his  club  as  it  was  poised  over  his  head,  grabbed  Gardner's 
gun,  sat  on  him,  and  called  for  help!  A  railroad  cop  took 
him  prisoner,  and  was  given  half  of  Inderlied's  $5,000  rcAvard 
from  the  Postmaster  General. 

Clerk  Z.  E.  Strong  was  killed  in  a  most  imusual  robbery 
of  St.  Paul  Sc  Miles  City  Train  2,  the  NP's  North  Const 
Limited.  A  young  supposed  new  substitute,  with  forged  cre- 
dentials, held  up  the  crew^  with  a  sudden  gunshot.  Strong 
was  shot  as  soon  as  he  made  a  slight  nervous  move;  the  other 
clerks  were  disarmed  and  tied  or  locked  in  closets,  and 
$50,000  in  currency  taken.  Near  Minneapolis,  Clerk  H.  M. 
Christensen  broke  open  the  closet  door  with  his  shoulder, 
noticed  the  bandit  still  in  the  car,  and  dashed  the  other  way 
into  the  express  car.  With  the  express  messenger,  rearmed, 
he  nearly  captured  the  impostor  as  the  latter  hastily  jumped 


228  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Tvlicn  the  train  slowed  down.  He  was  captured  a  month  later. 

But  the  greatest  mail-train  robbery  in  all  history  netted 
from  $2,000,000  to  $3,000,000  in  an  insidious  holdup  of 
Chic,  k  Minneapolis  (CMStP&P)  Train  57  at  Roundout, 
Illinois,  on  Friday,  the  thirteenth  of  June,  1924.  The  band- 
its hid  in  the  engine  cab,  held  up  the  locomotive  crew,  and 
made  them  stop  the  train  and  flash  a  headlight  signal.  Ac- 
complices in  an  auto  then  shot  out  a  mail-car  window, 
forced  out  the  eighteen  clerks  with  gas  bombs,  and  drove  off 
with  sixty-four  registered  pouches.  The  best  available  postal 
inspectors  were  assigned  to  the  resulting  investigation,  head- 
ed by  Inspector  William  J.  Fahy  who  was  considered  the 
"ace  of  them  all."  Finally  a  certain  detective  got  an  incredi- 
ble "tip"  by  phone  from  an  underworld  character;  in  a  daze, 
he  decided  to  risk  his  whole  career  and  bring  his  shady 
woman  informer  before  Chief  Inspector  Rush  D.  Simmons. 
She  told  the  chief  postal  sleuth  a  gruesome  story. 

Her  husband  was  in  jail  for  another  postal  theft  of  which 
she  claimed  he  ^v•as  innocent.  She  had  flirted  with  the  officer 
who'd  arrested  him  in  efforts  to  secure  his  release;  the  officer 
in  question  had  "fallen"  for  her,  and  now  her  retribution  was 
at  hand— she  had  coaxed  out  of  him  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
head  of  the  Rondout  robbers'  gang.  "Name  the  manl" 
snapped  Simmons. 

"Postal  Inspector  William  Fahy!" 

It  was  true;  another  renegade  postal  employee— but  not 
an  R.M.S.  man— was  responsible,  having  connived  with  the 
gangsters.  He  and  his  five  accomplices  were  caught  and  jailed 
for  long  terms,  and  all  the  stolen  money  recovered.* 

In  die  P.T.S.  itself  dishonesty  is  so  rare  that  only  once  in 
a  great  Avhile  does  some  clerk  succumb  to  temptation,  to  the 
great  chagrin  and  anger  of  all  others  on  the  line  thus  dis- 
honored. Quickly  and  quietly,  postal  inspectors  will  trap 
such  a  cul])rit  (usually  by  many  test  mailings),  enter  his  car 
or  terminal,  and  escort  him  out  of  the  Service  forever.   The 


'See  Professor  Dennis'  The  Travelling  Post  Offire  (still  availahle-see  Rihliog- 
rapliy)  for  three  reniarkalily  humorous  or  interesting  train-robbery  stories  on 
pages  91,  109,  and  111  thereof. 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  UNUSUAL  229 

few  cases  quickly  reviewed  here  are  almost  the  only  ones  on 
record  for  several  years.  These  included  (1)  a  clerk  on  a 
C&NVV  route  who  fingered  over  his  mail  for  money-laden 
letters  when  traversing  a  dark  tunnel,  later  caught  pocketing 
some  of  them  when  another  clerk  lit  a  cigarette  just  then; 
(2)  an  Eastern  terminal  clerk,  lacking  funds  for  his  girl 
friends,  who  found  the  quarters  in  those  little  cloth  fdm  mail- 
ers sticking  to  his  fingers  (quickly  detected  from  secret-gallery 
peepholes);  (3)  an  unfortunate  clerk  on  a  PRR  run  caught 
with  letters,  money,  and  bills  scattered  over  his  dormitory 
bed  wiiere  he  was  lying  in  a  stupor,  finally  arrested  in  his  car 
by  a  clever  ruse;  (4)  two  clerks  on  different  lines  who  em- 
ployed the  idea  of  slipping  valuable  letters  into  ofiicial  or 
stamped  envelopes  addressed  to  themselves  or  to  a  fake  firm, 
so  as  to  never  get  caught  taking  mail  from  the  car— they  were 
apprehended  just  the  same;  (5)  a  tobacco-chewing  clerk  con- 
victed of  stealing  money  out  of  letters  (later  resealed)  by 
James  Stice,  after  he  became  an  inspector,  through  the  to- 
bacco flecks  on  envelope  flaps;  and  (6)  a  Kansas  City  clerk 
convicted  in  1915  of  participating  in  a  $25,000  theft  of 
money  from  a  Chicago  bank  pouch  which  later  arrived 
stuffed  with  waste  paper.  Actually,  in  any  five-year  period, 
only  about  seven  or  eight  such  cases  ever  occur  among  all 
thirty  thousand  railway  mail  clerks— a  top  record  in  indus- 
trial honesty! 

There  are,  of  course,  some  unusual,  not  easily  classifiable 
situations  that  challenge  clerks'  ingenuity.  One  was  when 
Mpls.  R:  Miles  City  (CMStPR:P,  now  St.  Paul  k  Aberdeen) 
Train  15  was  pulling  out  of  Minneapolis  after  the  disheart- 
ened crew  had  noticed  the  Minneapolis  Dis  pouch  (due  for 
dispatch  there)  still  nestled  in  the  rack.  But  as  the  train 
backed  into  its  wye  a  few  blocks  farther  on.  Clerk  Hyatt 
noticed  a  Minneapolis  post-oflice  truck  waiting  at  the  cross- 
ing. With  a  yell,  he  jumped  out  and  thrust  the  pouch  into 
the  startled  dri\er's  lap  with  a  hurried  explanation,  regain- 
ing his  train  just  as  it  was  starting  up.  In  Illinois,  R.M.S. 
officials  had  to  order  the  CM.  Sc  O.  R.R.  to  slow  down  its 
overnight  Chicago,  Springfield  and  St,  Lou.  mail  train  at 


230  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Lockport— where  its  80-mph  speed  caused  mails  to  be  shred- 
ded to  bits  in  the  local  pouch  thrown  off  there,  the  post- 
master having  to  paste  letters  back  together  after  finding  the 
pouch  about  6  A.M.I 

Of  course  there  are  the  particularly  odd  or  unusual  post 
offices,  not  to  mention  the  great  amount  of  mail  received  for 
long-discontinued  ones,  that  challenge  the  ingenuity  of  our 
railway  mail  clerks;  but  in  general  the  fascinating  stories  of 
these  situations  are  not  within  our  scope  here.  Large  suburbs 
without  post  offices,  cities  and  towns  straddling  state  lines 
(with  one  or  two  post  offices),  and  the  post  offices  named 
exactly  like  other  large  localities  within  the  state,  all  call  for 
more-than-usual  genius  in  distribution.  Clerks  are  supposed 
to  know  the  routes  of  all  discontinued  post  offices,  even  if 
long-forgotten  at  the  time  of  their  entering  the  Service,  for 
which  mail  is  still  received.  Hundreds  of  tiny  rural  post 
offices  are  discontinued  annually,  as  has  been  the  practice  for 
decades,  because  of  extension  of  rural  routes  providing  direct 
box  service  to  residents  of  each  small  hamlet. 

In  the  P.T.S.  general  scheme  of  the  state  involved,  the 
little  Greek  letter  delta  (A)  is  prefixed  to  the  name  of  each 
doomed  office  immediately  upon  its  closure— a  symbol  that 
perhaps  incorporates  more  pathos,  more  poignant  sentiment, 
than  any  other  used  in  the  Service;  it  is  unknown  outside 
of  it.  Three  years  later  the  forgotten  hamlet,  symbol  and  all, 
is  stricken  out  of  the  scheme;  the  rural  route  serving  it  bears 
only  a  prosaic  number  instead  of  perpetuating  its  name. 
The  village  still  sleeps  on,  even  if  only  a  tiny  crossroads  in 
the  wooded  farmlands;  but  all  have  now  forgotten  it.  All, 
that  is,  but  the  veteran  clerks  who  have  given  their  lives  to 
the  Railway  Mail  Service  and  the  P.T.S. —to  meeting  the 
challenge  of  seeing  that  the  tiny-hamlet  mails  are  still  sent 
home,  as  well  as  the  "challenge  of  the  unusual"  in  the  great 
events  of  national  history. 


Chapter  12 


R.P.O.S  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL 


Over  a  glitter  of  blue-burnished  steel 
Singing  a  song  of  the  flange  of  the  wheel  .  .  . 
Down  in  the  street.   The  milkman  stays, 
Halting  his  team  for  a  moment  to  gaze; 
He  looks,  he  sees,  and  hears  the  ring 
Of  the  onward  rush  of  the  "Green.  &  Spring." 

—  Phil  Boi.ger 


The  6th  day  of  May,  1950, 
marked  the  end  of  an  era  in 
transit  mail  distribution  so 
remarkable,  so  unique,  that 
no  other  country  even  ap- 
proaclied  the  incredible  stage 
of  development  which  it 
reached  in  America.  At  7:50 
P.M.  that  day  the  last  true 
trolley-car  R.P.O.^  in  America  completed  its  final  run  into 
Los  Ang^eles,  California;  a  big  red  steel  interurban  car  with 
a  twenty-foot  postal  apartment,  it  had  just  rolled  into  the 
Pacific  Electric  terminal  from  San  Bernardino,  57.7  miles 
eastward.  The  epic  history  of  the  American  trolley  R.P.O. 
service,  begun  in  St.  Louis  late  in  1892,  had  come  to  its  close 
—fifty-seven  and  one  half  years  later. 


R.P.O. 


—Courtesy  Postal  Markings 


'See  Chapter  15  for  trolley  R.P.O.s  still  operated  in  France  and  Swilzeiland 
(there  mn\  he  others);  also  see  Austria,  Canada,  Germany,  Japan,  Netherlands, 
Spain,  Sweden  (same  chapter).  Trams  in  Leeds,  England,  carry  public  mailing 
boxes. 

231 


232  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Yes,  an  era  has  ended— unless,  that  is,  one  considers  the 
electric  suburban  R.P.O.s  of  the  Eastern  states,  with  multiple- 
unit  electric  cars,  to  be  in  the  same  class.  Or  unless,  by  chance, 
the  P.T.S.  should  once  more  authorize  electric-car  R.P.O. 
apartment  service  on  one  of  several  modernized  interurban 
trolley  routes  which  still  operate  in  Illinois,  Iowa,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  else^vhere. 

Trolleys  still  play  an  important  part  in  P.T.S.  operations, 
for  there  are  still  numerous  trolley-operated  closed-pouch 
routes— the  Wilkes-Barre  R:  Scranton  (LRrWV)  and  Phila.  & 
Media  (PST)  C.P.'s  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Carlinville  R:  St. 
Louis  C.P.  (ITS)  in  Illinois,  and  others.  And  until  1948  there 
were  still  three  true  trolley  R.P.O.s  operating;  but  while  the 
other  two  were  actual  holdovers  of  traction-era  mail-car  op- 
erations, the  San  Bernardino  R:  Los  Angeles  was  then  a  brand- 
ne^v  route!  Operated  for  only  tAvo  and  one-half  years,  it  tra- 
versed the  longest  route  of  the  still-operating  Pacific  Electric 
system,  once  the  world's  largest  interurban  net^v'ork,  via 
Covina,  San  Dimas,  and  Fontana.  At  first  the  San  Bernardino 
k  Los  Anoeles  also  connected  with  the  abandoned  L.  A.  &: 
San  Pedro  trolley  R.P.O.,  to  be  described  a  bit  later. 

The  unsung  final  trip  of  the  San  Bernardino  service,  re- 
placed immediately  by  an  identically  named  H.P.O.,  was 
marked  only  by  the  cancellation  of  collectors'  covers  for  this 
never-to-be-repcated  event.  But,  in  contrast,  the  line  was  first 
inaugurated  with  impressive  ceremonies  on  September  1, 
1947.  Car  No.  HOG,  cleaned  and  shiny,  had  just  been  com- 
mandeered from  the  much  shorter  L.A.  Sc  Redondo  Beach 
(PE)  run,  which  ceased  operation  the  previous  day;  and  8th 
Division  General  Superintendent  T.  L.  Wagenbach  was  in 
charge  of  the  special  observances  at  the  Sixth  R:  Main  Streets 
Depot.  Pullman-built,  the  big  trolley  contained  express  and 
baggage  sections,  as  well  as  the  mail  unit,  and  was  fifty-five 
feet  long.  It  operated  separately  from  passenger  and  freight 
units  on  its  three-hour  run— the  majority  of  its  route  furnish- 
ing no  passenger  service.  Earlier  the  route  had  been  a  busy 
passenger  line  whose  express  cars  exceeded  even  the  present 
railroad  streamliners  in  speed  between  the  same  two  points. 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  233 

and  with  C.P.  mail  service.  The  new  route  greatly  improved 
the  handling  oE  local  mails,  formerly  delayed  by  dispatch  to 
Los  Angeles  and  back,  and  expedited  through  mails  by  direct 
connection  to  main-line  R.P.O.s  at  both  termini.  The  same 
service  is  now  furnished  by  the  new  H.P.O.,  which  -^vas  placed 
in  operation  at  departmental  option  as  an  "economy"  meas- 
ure after  P.E.  had  announced  long-range  plans  to  convert  the 
route  to  Diesel  freight  operation  if  granted  permission. 

The  Postal  Transportation  Service,  to  be  sine,  still  lists 
one  existing  R.P.O.  in  the  same  "Electric"  category  as  the 
Los  Angeles  lines  mentioned.  This  is  the  Washington  & 
Bluemont  (WR;OD)  in  Virginia— which,  however,  has  oper- 
ated gas-electric  and  Diesel  units  exclusively  for  years  now. 
Long  a  busy  interurban  trolley  line  with  big  green-and-gold 
cars,  it  was  in  its  very  earliest  days  a  steam  road  starting  from 
Alexandria  (the  Alex.,  Loudon  R;  Hamp.  R.R.)  which  became 
the  Alex.  &  Round  Hill  R.P.O.  Its  termini  were  later  shifted 
a  few  miles  (to  Washington  and  Bluemont)  upon  electrifica- 
tion in  1912.  It  now  operates  only  for  the  44.6  miles  from 
Rosslyn,  Virginia  (station  of  Arlington,  opposite  Washing- 
ton), to  Purcellville,  due  to  a  seven-mile  track  abandonment. 
Its  last  trolley-operated  R.P.O.  service  was  gradually  replaced 
by  Diesel  operations  about  1942,  during  a  two-year  suspen- 
sion of  all  passenger  service.  Two  roimd  trips  of  R.P.O. 
operations  are  furnished  daily  in  fifteen-foot  apartment 
facilities  inside  streamlined  gas-electric  and  Diesel  units;  it 
is  a  busy  one-man  rim,  and  nimierous  collectors  seek  its  post- 
mark.   {Other  details  in  Chapter  10.) 

But  the  East  also  boasts  several  other  busy  suburban 
R.P.O.s  operated  by  electric  cars  coupled  to  form  trains. 
Although  these  cars  do  not  travel  singly,  the  head  car  is 
operated  by  a  regular  motorman  despite  the  fact  that  the 
track  is  part  of  a  regular  railroad  system  on  which  the  trolley 
wire  is  contacted  by  "pantagraphs"  instead  of  trollev  poles. 
In  fact,  two  of  these  lines  vie  for  the  title  of  "second  shortest" 
R.P.O.  in  the  United  States. 

One  is  the  picturesque  twenty-two-mile  Summit  &r  Glad- 
stone (DL&W)  in  New  Jersey.   Its  "multiple-unit"  strings  of 


234  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

cars  connect  at  Summit  with  main-line  electric  commuter 
trains  to  Newark  and  New  York.  Our  second-shortest  inde- 
pendent R.P.O.,  its  scenic  single  track  winds  through  attrac- 
tive towns  and  luxurious  suburban  estates.  The  forty  minute 
R. P.O. -passenger  run  is  but  one  of  numerous  busy  daily  com- 
muter trains  and  has  a  fifteen-foot  mail  apartment  and  motor- 
man's  booth  at  the  front  end.  Nicknamed  "The  P.  8:  D." 
(Passaic  &  Delaware  branch),  its  clerk  has  to  round  out  his 
working  time  in  Hoboken  Terminal  or  on  the  connecting 
N.Y.  &  Branchville  (DL&:\V).  Don  Steffee  tells  of  the  time 
Substitute  Leslie  Sheridan  drew  this  combination  assisrnment 
one  hot  summer  day;  he  had  all  the  doors  open  and  got  the 
motorman  to  call  out  the  stations.  Near  one,  Sheridan  quick- 
ly locked  out  its  light  skin  pouch  and  threw  it  down  to  the 
end  of  the  car— whereupon  the  breeze  through  both  doors 
quickly  Avhipped  it  outside!  Fortunately  the  motorman  oblig- 
ingly backed  up  to  retrive  it,  amid  shouted  explanations  to 
the  deafish  but  schedule-conscious  conductor,  to  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  passengers  and  to  Sheridan's  embarrassment. 

The  Summit  &  Glad.,  like  the  N.Y.  &  Far  Rock.  (Chapter 
10),  is  a  true  electric-car  R.P.O.— a//  passenger  and  mail 
service  is  by  M.U.  electrics.  But  a  perplexing  borderline  case 
is  the  so-called  Phila.  &  Paoli  (PRR)  in  Pennsylvania,  which, 
if  truly  a  separate  R.P.O.,  is  the  second  shortest  of  them  all 
(twenty  miles).  This  is  the  famed  Paoli  Local  of  Philadel- 
phia's fashionable  "Main  Line"  suburbs.  In  fact,  it  actually 
does  traverse  the  Main  Line  of  the  PRR,  being  simply  a  short 
run  of  the  N.Y.  &  Pittsburgh  R.P.O.  thereon;  it  uses  clerks 
and  postmarkers  of  the  latter  line  and  is  not  even  separately 
listed  in  P.T.S.  schemes  or  schedules.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  uses  its  own  tracks  exclusively  (alongside  the  others)  and  is 
named  independently  in  the  List  of  Official  R.P.O.  Titles! 
A  hot  run,  it  is  about  the  busiest  of  all  multiple-unit  locals, 
perhaps,  with  its  three  daily  fifty-minute  trips  each  day. 
Mountains  of  mail,  including  that  of  colleges  at  Haverford 
and  Bryn  Mawr,  must  be  sorted  by  only  one  or  two  clerks 
in  a  fifteen-foot  apartment.  And  "The  Paoli"  has  no  terminal 
to  do  its  advance  distribution!    A  similar  case  is  the  M.U.- 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  235 

electric  W.  Trent.  &  Phila.  (Rdg.,  N.  J. -Pa.),  with  steam  trains 
of  the  N.Y.,  Bak.  &  Wash,  using  its  route. 

There  is  at  least  one  other  true  all-electric-car  R.P.O., 
however— the  PRR's  nearby  Phila.  &:  West  Chester.  Formerly 
the  Phila.  &:  Perry,  (with  a  long  steam-operated  segment  to 
Perryville,  Maryland),  it  serves  Lansdowne,  Swarthmore, 
Media,  and  other  busy  suburbs  on  a  27.5-mile  run.  The 
R.P.O.  includes  within  its  organization  a  more  direct  nine- 
teen-mile closed-pouch  run  on  real  interurban  trolley  cars  of 
the  Philadelphia  Suburban  Transportation  Company,  be- 
tween pretty  much  the  same  two  termini  (its  Philadelphia 
end  is  at  suburban  Upper  Darby);  but  no  clerks  serve  on 
these  streamlined  trolleys.  Two  clerks  work  in  the  apartment 
car  on  the  actual  multiple-unit  R.P.O.  run  on  the  PRR,  ex- 
cept on  holidays— as  Paul  Wisman  discovered  to  his  dismay 
when  he  was  ordered  to  make  the  first  road  trip  of  his  life 
thereon  one  Christmas.  It  was  almost  leaving  time  when  he 
arrived,  mail  was  stacked  high  in  the  doorway,  and  his  helper 
left  the  car  as  the  train  pulled  out.  W^isman  could  not  even 
secure  a  time  table  until  the  third  station,  and  knew  nothing 
of  the  line;  with  a  station  flashing  by  every  fifty  seconds  on 
the  one-hour  run,  he  could  work  nothing  but  a  few  registers. 
Duly  putting  off  empty  pouches  at  each  station,  to  keep  rec- 
ords straight,  he  "carried  by"  two  full  storage  pouches  for 
local  points.  At  West  Chester,  trying  to  get  receipts  for  his 
reds,  he  found  the  post-office  registry  clerk  in  Christmas 
services  at  church.  On  the  equally  hectic  return  trip  all  the 
unsorted  outbound  and  inbound  mail  had  to  be  hastily  baled 
into  six  pouches  for  'Thiladelphia  GPO  Dis." 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  local  runs  on  the  electri- 
fied N.Y.  8:  Washington  (PRR),  a  route  also  shared  by 
main-line  trains.  On  one  of  its  Philadelphia-Trenton  M.U.- 
car  locals,  one  harassed  substitute  found  himself  in  the  same 
predicament  as  Wisman,  It  was  his  first  run  and  he  had  no 
idea  of  the  requirements;  taking  no  chances,  he  locked  all 
doors  and  sat  on  the  mail  to  ride  both  ways  of  the  whole  trip 
—disregarding  all  frantic  poundings  on  the  door.  Investi- 
gating officials  finally  decided  they  could  not  penalize  him 


236  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

when  he  pointed  out  he  had  followed  orders  to  "stick  right 
with  the  train,  even  if  you  can't  do  anything  else."  There 
are  many  other  suburban  electric  runs  on  main-line  railways 
out  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  and  perhaps  elsewhere, 
but  they  share  the  tracks  with  steam  or  Diesel  through  trains 
(except  for  the  northern  electric  segment  of  the  PRR's  N.Y. 
&  Phila.-see  Chapter  10).  The  N.Y.  k  Wash.  (PRR)  is  evi- 
dently the  only  main-line  R.P.O.  electrified  from  end  to  end, 
although  others  use  electric  engines  in  mountain  areas  only 
(in  Virginia  and  the  Far  West). 

But  to  return  to  the  true  trolley-car  R.P.O.s,  most  people 
are  amazed  today  to  learn  that  such  service  was  operated  on 
city  streetcar  lines  for  nearly  forty  years.  These  cars  sorted 
mail  in  transit  between  the  main  city  post  office  and  its 
stations,  "pouching"  on  each  other  just  as  the  steam  R.P.O.s 
did;  extensive  night  "circuits"  were  developed  to  cover  a 
wide  area  in  loop  fashion.  This  unique  service  utilized  at 
least  a  hundred  ornate  white-and-gold  "ghost  cars"  (as  they 
were  known)  on  city  streets  alone,  on  which  letters  were 
neatly  machine-canceled  or  hand-stamped  as  well  as  sorted. 
In  1895  all  street  railways  were  made  post  routes  by  Act  of 
Congress,  and  by  1898  there  were  forty  street  R.P.O.  lines 
operating  over  379  miles  of  route,  on  which  1 12  clerks  sorted 
1,889,090  pieces  of  mail  daily.  The  trundling  little  cars  put  in 
some  1,745,000  miles  of  travel  annually  and  usually  carried 
a  boy  to  reset  wire-jumping  trolley  poles  and  fix  switches. 

As  early  as  1862  a  patent  was  taken  out  for  collecting  and 
conveying  mails  to  city  post  offices  by  "street  railway  cars" 
(horsecars),  but  no  action  was  taken  on  the  idea  until  about 
1890,  when  closed-pouch  mails  were  first  handled  by  trolley 
(on  Minneapolis— St.  Paul  intercity  lines,  now  Twin  Cities 
Rapid  Transit,  and  on  the  little  Dunkirk  k  Fredonia  Railway 
in  New  York  State).  In  Germany  trolleys  reputedly  carried 
pouch  mail  at  Berlin  as  early  as  1881. 

But  in  June  1891,  Major  J.  B.  Harlow-postmaster  at  St. 
Louis,  Missouri— made  a  more  detailed  proposal:  to  use 
streetcars  for  delivery  and  collection  of  mails  to  and  from 
postal  stations,  stores,  offices,  and  carriers.  The  first  trial  runs 


R.P.O.'»  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  237 

of  this  closed-pouch  route  were  made  in  cars  of  the  Lindell 
Avenue  Electric  Railway  in  either  August  or  September, 
1891;  it  carried  a  motored  car  and  trailer  that  was  preceded 
by  a  bell-ringing  passenger  car  to  warn  postal  stations  to  pre- 
pare their  mails. 

On  March  twenty-third,  orthodox  R.P.O.  service  had  been 
authorized  on  the  steam  West  End  Narrow  Gauge  branch  of 
the  St.  Louis  Cable  &;  Western  Railroad  (later  St.  Louis  Sub- 
urban Railway)  out  to  suburban  Florissant,  Missouri.  Called 
the  St.  Louis  &  Florissant  R.P.O.,  this  route  was  gradually 
electrified  to  become  a  trolley  line  (as  the  city  grew  rapidly 
in  that  direction)  between  October  and  December,  189L 
And  in  one  month  or  the  other— sources  vary— the  first  trolley 
R.P.O.  in  America  came  into  existence,  making  its  inaugural 
run  of  two  daily  round  trips  under  the  same  title  as  its  steam 
predecessor,  but  serving  the  suburban  post  offices  only.  The 
18.1 -mile  route  averaged  eighty-one  miles'  service  daily  event- 
ually; its  first  R.P.O.  compartment  occupied  half  of  a  thirty- 
four-foot,  open-platform  mail-express-milk  car  (St.  Louis  Car 
Company),  with  four  windows  and  a  long  door  on  each  side. 
It  contained  a  canceling  table,  pouch  rack,  and  letter  case. 

AlthouQ;h  some  have  denied  that  true  mail  distribution 
was  performed  on  the  line  at  this  time,  records  show  that 
some  new  twenty-eight-foot  R.P.O.  cars  were  introduced  on 
December  5,  1892,  and  the  round  trips  increased  to  three 
daily,  arrangements  being  made  to  serve  substations  and  com- 
mence "city"  sorting.  No  cancels  of  the  steam  line  are  known. 

On  February  3.  1893,  the  St.  Louis  &  Florissant  R.P.O.  was 
established  as  our  first  real  city  "Street  R.P.O.,"  it  is  true; 
for  not  until  that  date  did  clerks  begin  canceling,  sorting,  and 
exchanging  city  mails  between  stations  en  route.  Most  ex- 
perts agree  that  it  was  this  line  which  first  used  the  cancel 
"ST.  LOUIS,  MO.,  STREET  R.P.O.  No.  1"  and  a  simi- 
larly worded  flag;  the  oldest  existing  example  of  the  postmark 
is  dated  }uly  4,  1893,  and  o\vned  by  John  Snow.  The  new 
cars  carried  a  daily  average  of  1,000  pounds  of  mail  as  com- 
pared with  but  150  on  the  old  steam  route;  the  cars  were 
mounted  on  huge  diamond-truck  wheels. 


238  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

In  a  dramatic  test,  mail  from  one  substation  was  posted, 
sorted,  transmitted,  and  delivered  to  a  typical  addressee  with- 
in less  than  one  hour— service  such  as  intracity  mailers  can 
look  for  in  vain  today.  A  dozen  other  successful  St.  Louis 
routes  were  established  soon  afterward  on  many  lines,  which 
long  outlived  the  Florissant  route;  the  latter  succumbed  to 
closed-pouch  service  as  early  as  1904  and  eventually  became 
the  St.  Louis  Public  Service's  Piodiant— Ferguson  car  line  (on 
which  buses  were  just  recently  substituted). 

The  second  route  was  the  14-mi.  Grand  Avenue  Circuit, 
established  May  16,  1896,  and  operated  (after  consolidation 
of  the  smaller  companies)  by  the  United  Railways;  and  by 
the  end  of  the  year  forty-seven  R.P.O.  and  C.P.  routes  had 
been  set  up.  Clerks  collected  mail  from  288  special  white- 
painted  street  boxes,  served  practically  all  city  stations  and 
eight  suburban  offices,  and  even  exchanged  mails  with  sixty- 
three  carrier  routes— permitting  the  carriers  to  use  part  of 
their  letter  cases  to  arrange  their  mail  for  delivery  while  the 
postmen  rode  out  on  the  cars.  Both  carriers  and  clerks  made 
up  bags  or  pouches  for  many  other  street  R.P.O.s  and  carrier 
routes,  whether  they  were  intersecting  or  not.  The  govern- 
ment paid  the  Railways  four  dollars  per  day  per  car, 
including  the  wages  of  the  motorman  and  his  conductor  or 
trolley  boy.  A  reporter  from  the  St.  Louis  Republic,  riding 
an  inauguaral  trip,  noted  that  "the  denizens  of  North  St. 
Louis  are  much  more  given  to  letter  writing"  than  those  in 
the  South  End,  and  that  "it  may  be  that  the  good  people  of 
Carondelet  .  .  .  have  not  yet  awakened  to  the  fact  that  the  .  .  . 
mail-collecting  system  [here]  is  the  best  in  the  world."  The 
St.  Louis  lines  were  taken  over  by  the  R.M.S.  shortly  after 
the  beginning,  but  were  turned  over  to  the  local  post  office 
again  in  1899,  as  were  the  routes  in  all  other  cities;  most  of 
the  best-known  St.  Louis  lines  were  established  later,  in  1904. 
But  on  November  15,  1915,  the  advent  of  motor  mail  trucks 
caused  the  scrapping  of  all  that  city's  services;  one  car  re- 
mained in  use  until  very  recently  as  a  St.  Louis  P.S.  rail- 
grinder,  and  is  no  preserved  in  the  St.  Louis  Electric  Railway 
Historical  Society's  outdoor  museum. 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  239 

Brooklyn— the  second  city  to  have  streetcar  R.P.O.s— had 
five  routes  on  the  Brooklyn  City  Railway  and  the  Atlantic 
Avenue  Railway;  the  first,  ceremoniously  opened  August  8, 
1894,  was  the  Brooklyn  &:  Coney  Island  R.P.O.  Cars  No.  1, 
5,  and  others  served  such  longforgotten  communities  as  West 
Brooklyn,  Lessers  Park,  and  Unionville,  all  long  since  ab- 
sorbed by  the  city.  A  combination  R.P.O. -smoker,  No.  101, 
went  via  Adams  Street  to  Thirty-Sixth  Street  on  Atlantic 
Avenue  Railway  tracks.  All  routes  quit  in  1914,  including 
the  main  12-mile  Brooklyn  Circuit  R.P.O. 

Boston  was  next  to  install  mail  clerks  on  streetcars;  five 
lines  were  introduced  May  1,  1895,  on  the  W^est  End  Street 
Railway  (later  Boston  Elevated);  two  other  routes  followed. 
Steam  R.P.O.  lines  were  connected  at  all  raihvay  stations, 
and  up  to  forty-fi\  e  thousand  letters  were  made  up  for  carri- 
ers daily  on  one  route.  Six  lines  were  day  runs;  but  the 
longest,  the  Boston  Circuit  R.P.O.,  was  a  night  rvm  serving 
twenty-one  stations  on  three  round  trips  and  covering  most 
of  the  short-line  routes.  As  it  w-as  the  only  line  with  sufficient 
time  to  cancel  much  mail,  postmarks  of  the  other  routes- 
such  as  the  6.4-mile  Boston  &  North  Cambridge— are  exceed- 
ingly rare. 

Fourth  in  line  Avas  Philadelphia,  which  opened  its  tw^elve- 
mile  "H  Sc  P  R.P.O."  on  the  Peoples  Passenger  Railway  on 
June  1,  1885,  connecting  Stations  H  and  P;  it  was  soon  ex- 
tended to  form  the  Phila.  R:  Germantown  R.P.O.,  Inter  the 
Phila.  R:  Chestnut  Hill.  The  old  G.P.O.  at  Ninth  R:  Market 
Streets  installed  special  spur  tracks  for  cars  of  the  various 
street  railway  R.P.O.s,  which  soon  increased  to  six  or  seven 
in  number;  one,  the  5-mi.  Phila.  R:  Darby,  reached  that  suburb 
over  one  of  the  three  streetcar  routes  contacting  it.  The  three 
original  Philadelphia  cars  were  full  R.P.O.s,  -^vith  storage 
stalls  in  one  end  and  a  240-box  letter  case  around  all  three 
sides  of  the  other;  a  rack  in  the  middle  held  twelve  pouches. 
and  a  stamping  table  w^as  opposite.  Some  routes  operated 
over  the  Peoples'  Traction  (which  used  trailers).  Union  Trac- 
tion, and  similar  early  systems;  but  all  were  soon  consolidated 
as  the  Philadelphia  Rapid  Transit  Company,  the  present 


240  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

"P.T.C."    In  1015  tills  company  built  a  handsome  new  car 
for  the  Ser\  ice,  as  ilhistrated  herewith;  dubbed  ihe  M-1,  it 
was  noted  for  its  smooth  lines  and  spacious  interior.    The 
appalHng  disappointment  of  the  P.R.T.  can  well  be  imagined 
when,    just    two    months    later,    on    October    eleventh,    the 
United  States  mail  contract  which  expired  on  that  date  was 
not  renewed.    All  R.P.O.  service  had  to  be  discontinued  on 
that  date,  and  the  proud  M-1  was  rebuilt  as  salt  car  L-12, 
which  at  last  report  still  operates  over  P.T.C.  tracks  today. 
New  York  City,  the  fifth  to  install  street  railway  post  offices, 
oddly  enough  had  only  one  route  (unless  the  Brooklyn  lines 
arc  included).    This  was  the  very  extensive,  cable-operated 
Third  Avenue  R.P.O.  (3rdAvRy),  which  began  operation  of 
its  1 2.1 -mile  route  with  great  fanfare  on  either  September  27 
or  28,  1895,  in  the  presence  of  high  officials,  reporters,  and  a 
huge  crowd;  the  former  \vere  treated  to  refreshments  at  the 
Colonial  Hotel  on  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-Fifth  Street. 
The   new   route   eliminated    handling   of   951    daily   direct 
pouches  over  the  steam  elevated  railway.    Little  white  Brill 
cable  trailers  were  used— the  twenty-foot,  single-truck,  open- 
platform  tvpe  with  three  windows  on  each  side  and  the  letter- 
ing "UNITED  STATES  MAIL"  vying  for  attention  with 
two  huge  decorative  circles.    Later  designated  as  the  "Third 
Ave.  Distributing  Car,"  the  route  ran  from  the  old  main  post 
office  on  Park  Roav  via  the  Bowery  and  Third  Avenue  to 
serve  old  Stations  D,  F,  H,  Y,  L,  |-  and  others  up  to  Wash- 
ington Bridge,  reaching  the  latter  via  125th  Street  and  Am- 
sterdam Avenue,  to  190tli  Street.   Its  eight  cars  were  lettered 
"A,"  "B,"  "C,"  and  so  on,  and  were  designed  in  Third  Avenue 
Railway  shops  from  a  fidl-size  partial  model  by  J.  H.  Robert- 
son; they  were  loaded  on  sidings  on  Mail  Street  and  pulled 
by  horses  to  the  cable  tracks.    With  380  letter-case  boxes  in 
each  end,  the  little  cars  pouched  on  steam  R.P.O.s  and  ad- 
vanced mails  to  the  depots  by  t\vo  hours  and  more;  twenty-six 
clerks  were  used.    Outmoded  by  the  new  pneumatic  tubes 


•Now  known  as  Cooper  fZone  $),  Murray  Hill  (Ifi).  Grand  Central  (17-22), 
Lenox  Hill  (21).  Triborough  (35),  and  Manhattanville  (27)  sutions, 
respectively. 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  241 

and  the  electrified  "el,"  the  route  gave  up  on  September  28 
or  30,  1900. 

The  sixth  permanent  system,  one  of  the  very  largest  and 
most  interesting,  was  that  of  Chicago.  The  city  had  just  trebled 
in  size  by  absorbing  suburban  Lake  View,  Jefferson,  Hyde 
Park,  and  Lake,  Illinois  (who  remembers  them?),  with  their 
factories  and  mail-order  houses;  and  by  1895,  Postmaster 
Washington  Hessing  had  persuaded  Gth  Division  Superin- 
tendent Lewis  L.  Troy,  R.M.S.,  to  experiment  with  specially 
built  postal  street  cars  on  Madison  Street  as  early  as  May 
twenty-fifth  (before  New  York's  first  line).  Aldermen  tried 
to  block  the  new  scheme  as  one  forbidding  traction  men  to 
strike,  but  Mayor  Swift  issued  special  permits  for  each  car. 
A  Pullman  Palace  cable  trailer.  No.  I,  made  the  first  run, 
leaving  Madison  and  Rockwell  Streets  via  the  West  Chicago 
Street  Railroad  amid  much  ceremony  and  speechmaking: 
"The  poor  man  will  be  able  to  have  his  letter  go  .  .  .  and  be 
delivered  as  quickly  as  by  special  messenger!"  But  no  mail 
was  carried,  clerks  handled  dummy  pouches  only  in  the  cable 
train  loaded  with  notables.  Two  other  routes  were  "begun" 
simultaneously,  but  it  was  some  days  before  even  closed 
pouches  were  carried. 

Declared  successful,  the  three  runs  were  put  into  regular 
operation  and  mail  sorting  begun  on  November  11,  1895: 
postmarkers  and  official  titles  were  supplied.  Car  No.  1, 
used  on  the  Chicago  R:  Madison  Street  R.P.O.  (five  miles), 
was  one  of  the  most  unusual  in  the  country.  It  was  a  mail- 
passenger  combination  with  a  skylight  in  the  fifteen-foot 
R.P.O.  apartment,  which  contained  a  176-box  letter  case. 
Later  cars,  of  the  overhead-trolley  type,  were  full  R.P.O. 
cars  carrying  up  to  three  clerks;  two  were  named  the  Wash- 
ington  Hessing  and  John  H.  Hubbard,  after  the  postmaster 
and  his  assistant;  the  white  cars  were  richly  decorated  in  gold. 
During  strikes  the  postal  cars  were  respectfully  exempted 
from  molestation,  and  traction  companies  began  painting 
cars  to  match  until  postal  heads  stopped  it.  The  two  other 
pioneer  routes  were  the  Clark  Street— Lincoln  Avenue  (later 
Chicago  &  North  Clark  Street)  R.P.O.  on  tlie  North  Chicago 


242  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Street  Railroad  (3.8  miles),  and  the  Chicago  Sc  Milwaukee 
Avenue  (8.8  miles).  The  cable  lines  were  mostly  electrified 
in  1889  and  all  routes  taken  over  by  the  United  Traction 
Company.  (The  "Chic.  &"  was  later  dropped  from  titles  or 
changed  to  "Chic.  111.") 

There  were  eventually  six  lines,  mostly  of  great  length; 
one  reached  Evanston  and  another  the  American  Corre- 
spondence School— which  sometimes  "stuck"  some  luckless 
trolley  R.P.O.  crew  with  seventy-five  pouches  of  letters.  A 
circuit  R.P.O.  setup,  without  special  postmark,  was  started  in 
1909  to  serve  fifteen  stations,  eleven  of  them  directly,  on  an 
eventual  twenty-five  mile  run.  By  that  time  postal  cars  were 
being  barred  from  the  city  center  because  of  traffic  congestion, 
but  until  then  all  daytime  R.P.O.  cars  met  regularly  in  the 
Loop  to  exchange  pouches,  beginning  at  5:30  A.M.  daily  and 
making  sixteen  hourly  round  trips.  At  least  eight  cars  and 
thirty  clerks  were  employed,  as  well  as  collectors  and  face-up 
men  with  carts  to  collect  from  boxes  or  deliver  bulk  mail  to 
firms.  From  60  to  420  pouches  of  mail  were  sorted  in  one 
day  or  night  on  some  lines;  one  line  handled  3,260  pouches 
(hauled  or  distributed)  in  one  day  in  1909.  Clerks  canceled 
and  sorted  the  mail,  then  pouched  (1)  on  all  stations  en  route 
both  ways,  (2)  on  the  opposite  car  of  their  route,  (3)  on  the 
G.P.O.,  and  (4)  on  steam  R.P.O.  lines  at  depots.  But  pneu- 
matic tubes  and  motor  trucks  doomed  the  s)stem;  it  folded, 
completely,  on  November  21,  1915. 

Chicago,  however,  saw  the  revival  of  one  of  its  streetcar 
R.P.O.s  tor  one  glorious  day  of  renewed  operations  thirty-one 
years  later,  on  August  23,  1946.  It  was  to  help  celebrate  the 
Diamond  Jubilee  of  the  American  Philatelic  Society,  which 
includes  some  R.P.O.-postmark  collectors.  The  Chicago  Sur- 
face Lines  brought  out  its  one  well-preserved  R.P.O.  car, 
renovated  to  its  original  condition  at  a  cost  of  $10,000  (tor 
the  subway-opening  transit  parade  in  1943),  and  operated  it 
once  more  from  the  Hamilton  Hotel  to  the  post  office, 
manned  with  mail  clerks.  Bereft  of  modern  motors,  it  was 
hauled    by    another    car,    and    its    special    postmark    of 


R.P.O.'8  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  245 

"CHICAGO.  ILL./STREET  CAR  R.P.O."  was  given  to 
thousands  of  addressed  "covers." 

Cincinnati  was  the  next  city  to  have  a  trolley  postal  system, 
but  only  on  one  line:  the  7.6-mile  Walnut  Hills  &  Brighton 
(CinStRy),  begun  November  11,1895.  This  R.P.O.  was  later 
retitled  the  "BRIGHTON  CAR,"  using  standard  city  flag 
cancels  with  that  phrase  in  the  "killer";  it  served  Brighton 
and  other  suburbs,  operating  a  handsome  four-wheel,  open- 
platform  car  until  1915. 

The  nation's  capital  then  joined  the  parade  with  its  4.86- 
mile  Pennsylvania  Avenue  R.P.O.  (CTCo);  a  sixteen-foot  ex- 
horsecar  trailer  was  rebuilt  for  the  first  trip  on  December  23, 
1895,  from  the  Georgetown  carhouse  to  the  Navy  Yard.  No 
"token"  service,  the  initial  run  was  swamped  with  huge  bags 
of  Christmas  mail,  which  "were  quickly  sorted."  Cars 
pouched  on  Georgetown,  Central,  and  other  stations  as  well 
as  steam  R.P.O.  trains.  This,  too,  was  a  cable  line;  and  when 
its  powerhouse  burned,  the  company  operated  our  only 
known  horsccar  R.P.O.  from  September  30,  1897,  to  April 
1898.  The  R.M.S.  chief  clerk,  G.  Car,  selected  A.  B.  Carter 
and  D.  J.  Bartello  as  the  first  trolley  R.P.O.  clerks  there,  and 
their  names,  together  with  that  of  J.  P.  Connolly  of  New 
York's  Third  Avenue  R.P.O.  (later  a  writer),  are  alone  en- 
shrined in  our  public  records  of  known  clerks  who  pioneered 
in  this  remarkable  field.  Permanent  cars  numbered  1  and  2, 
and  lettered  "UNITED  STATES  RAILWAY  MAIL  SERV- 
ICE" in  red  and  gold,  were  introduced  later;  they  sorted  an 
average  of  162  letter  packages,  22  sacks,  and  128  pouches 
daily.  The  route,  as  well  as  two  short-lived  lines  begun  later, 
was  converted  to  conduit  trolley  operation  long  before  final 
discontinuance  in  1913.  At  last  report  one  car  was  still  used 
by  Capital  Transit  as  a  yard  tool  shed. 

San  Francisco  fell  in  line  in  1896,  with  three  lines  begun 
simuhancously  on  September  tTventy-eio;hth;  the  main  one, 
a  cable  route,  beinir  the  four-mile  Market  Street  or  Market 
Street  k  San  Francisco  R.P.O.  (MktStRy),  operating  from  the 
Ferry  Station  to  Stanyan  Street.  Service  on  all  lines  quit 
September  4,  1905,  but  cars  continued  in  closed-pouch  serv- 


244  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ice,  and  one  was  caught  in  the  street  by  the  1906  earthquake 
and  fire.  Rochester,  New  York,  installed  its  East  Side  and 
West  Side  R.P.O.s  (Rochester  Electric  Railway)  in  1896  over 
15.3  miles  of  route;  later  they  were  retitled  "Car  Collection 
Service  B"  and  "C,"  and  cars  lettered  accordingly,  and  quit 
about  1908.  The  Baltimore  system  was  to  follow  next. 

In  1898,  Pittsburgh's  lone  route  was  added  to  the  list  of 
street  R.P.O.'s;  its  12.4-mile  Fifth  k  Penn  Avenue  Circuit 
R.P.O.  (PghRys)  began  operating  that  year  on  Valentine's 
Day.  It  was  discontinued  in  1917,  after  being  retitled  simply 
as  the  "Street  Car"  or  "Street"  R.P.O. ;  a  Duquesne  Traction 
Company  route  to  the  East  End,  likewise  planned  to  carry 
clerks,  remained  a  C.P.  No  more  cities  were  equipped  until 
Seattle  inaugurated  its  oddly  titled  Seattle  k  Seattle  R.P.O. 
(SMuRy);  this  loop  used  Car  "A"  mostly,  and  quit  in  1913. 
The  next  to  last  city  to  install  street  R.P.O.s  was  Cleveland; 
its  Cleveland  Circuit  R.P.O.  (CERy)  was  introduced  on  Car 
0204  on  an  experimental  basis  March  1,  1908.  Placed  in 
regular  service  April  third,  it  operated  until  about  1920.  Last 
of  all  was  Omaha,  introducing  five  lines  (July  1,  1910-March 
10,  1921)  using  "white  tram  cars,"  including  the  5-mile  Omaha 
&  Benson  and  the  Union  Depot  &  Stockyards  R.P.O.s 
(ORrCBStRy).  Cancels  are  very  rare.  In  contracting  for  ser- 
vice, the  government  cautioned  that  its  clerk  could  not  be 
compelled  to  act  as  trolley  boy,  as  the  company  had  hoped! 

Most  remarkable,  however,  was  the  splendid  set-up  used  in 
Baltimore,  a  highly-efficient  example  of  a  city-distribution  sys- 
tem never  yet  quite  duplicated  by  modern  methods.  Its  three 
main  lines  were  opened  May  29,  1897,  using  sixteen-foot, 
single-truck  rebuilt  passenger  cars— the  Towson  &  Catonsville, 
Arlington  8:  South  Baltimore  (to  Fairfield),  and  Roland  Park  & 
St.  Helena  R.P.O.s  (City&Sub-BaltTrac).  The  white  cars  had 
blue  and  gold  decorations  and  circular  dark-glass  monograms 
reading  "U.S.M."  In  the  light-oak-finished  interiors  busy 
clerks  sorted  an  average  120  pouches  and  56  sacks  of  mail 
daily,  at  a  cost  of  about  $34,000  annually.  A  photo  of  Car  220 
shows  a  wire  cowcatcher  in  front  of  the  open-front  platform, 
and  the  proud  lettering  "UNITED  STATES  RAILWAY 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  245 

POST  OFFICE"  (different  from  Washington's)  on  the  side. 
The  traction  companies  consolidated  as  tiie  United  Railway 
&  Electric  (now  Baltimore  Transit),  which  built  six  new  cars 
to  Post  OfRce  Department  specifications  in  1903— twenty-six 
feet  long  and  weighing  18,691  pounds.  At  least  fifteen  clerks 
were  employed,  up  to  three  on  each  car;  eleven  carrier  sta- 
tions and  twenty-four  substations  were  pouched  on,  as  well 
as  steam  R.P.O.s  at  depots  as  elsewhere. 

Not  only  were  both  local  and  express  R.P.O.  cars  (with 
appropriate  signs)  operated— the  Baltimore  cars  even  made 
"catches  on  the  fly"!  It  was  done  by  the  clerk  leaping  out  as 
the  car  slo^ved,  emptying  the  collection  box,  and  catching  up 
to  his  R.P.O.  "with  lightning  rapidity."  In  1910  the  Arl. 
&  S.  Bait,  was  renamed  the  Bait,  k  Arlington,  and  the 
Roland  Park  &:  St.  Helena,  no  longer  reaching  that  suburb 
near  Dundalk,  was  curtailed  as  the  Rol.  Park  R:  Highland- 
to^vn.  But  the  ToAvson  8:  Catonsville  tapped  far  suburbs  at 
both  ends,  even  reaching  Ellicott  City,  miles  beyond  Caton- 
ville  (possibly  by  closed-pouch  extension).  Cars  converged 
upon  the  main  post  office  daily  at  5  A.M.,  where  the  clerks 
would  unlock  them  and  begin  runs  lasting  until  midnight. 
The  lines  became  a  Baltimore  institution;  residents  timed 
their  sleep  by  the  cars'  passage,  and  tourists  gaped  at  the 
only  such  installation  in  America  after  World  War  I.  But 
by  the  late  1920s  s^varming  traffic  had  sleeved  the  little  old 
cars  intolerably;  speedy  motor  trucks  offered  ser\'ice  so  fast 
as  to  overcome  both  the  advantages  of  distribution  in  transit 
and  the  lightninglike  collections  while  traveling. 

Thus  it  was  that  on  November  5,  1929,  Second  Assistant 
Postmaster  General  Smith  Purdtim— himself  a  veteran  Mary- 
land R.M.S.  man— regretfullv  signed  an  order  terminating 
the  last  street-railway  post  offices  in  the  United  States.  And 
on  November  ninth,  just  twenty  short  years  ago,  the  final 
trip  of  all  was  made  over  ihe  old  "Tows.  R:  Catons."  Before 
the  end  of  the  month  the  cars  had  been  broken  up  for  scrap. 
Todav  Baltimore  Transit's  speedy  streamlined  passenq;er 
trolleys  still  ply  over  the  tracks  from  Towson  to  Catonsville, 
but  they  arrived   too    late   for   restoration  of   the   unique 


246  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

R.P.O.  to  be  considered,  though  the  once-speedy  mail  trucks 
which  doomed  it  are  in  turn  often  slowed  in  today's  choked 
traffic. 

Although  the  doom  of  the  city  lines  had  been  foreshad- 
owed as  early  as  1899  (General  Superintendent  White,  though 
very  hopeful  for  them,  pointed  out  how  the  shortness  of 
routes  and  many  petty  disruptions  prevented  efficient  or 
complete  distribution)  there  Avere  numerous  other  suburban 
and  interurban  trolley  R.P.O.  routes  which  survived  far 
longer.  All  have  now  been  discontinued— largely  because  the 
entire  interurban  line  quit;  but  on  the  other  hand,  city 
streetcars  still  carry  passengers  (and  in  some  cases  pouch 
mail)  over  quite  a  few  of  the  former  city  R.P.O.  routes. 

Two  of  our  most  picturesque  interurban  R.P.O.s  were 
on  the  Indiana  Railroad,  a  farflimg  traction  system  consoli- 
dating most  of  the  earlier  long-distance  trolley  companies  of 
Indiana.  One  route,  the  seventy-six-mile  Peru  S:  Indianapo- 
lis, operated  for  only  three  years  (September  2,  1935— Sep- 
tember 10,  1938);  like  its  companion  route,  it  was  part  of  the 
vast  interurban  trolley  network  of  yesterday  by  which  one 
could  travel  on  connecting  cars  from  central  New  York  State 
clear  to  the  heart  of  Wisconsin  or  down  into  Kentucky. 
This  R.P.O.  operated  a  fifteen-foot  mail  apartment  in  one 
passenger  car  on  daily  round  trips.  Its  service,  extended  to 
South  Bend,  was  revived  in  H.P.O.  form  in  1941  (Chap.  16). 
The  other  route,  the  eighty-six  mile  Fort  Wayne  k  New 
Castle  (IRR),  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  trolley 
R.P.O.  runs.  It  served  fifteen  post  offices  directly,  and  many 
others  through  these;  a  one-man  run  (two  weeks  on  and  one 
off),  it  was  supplied  by  substitutes  the  third  week.  It  began 
operation  on  September  2,  1935,  as  the  Waterloo  &  Dunreith, 
to  replace  R.P.O.  runs  which  competing  steam  roads  had 
given  up;  its  route  had  been  consolidated  from  four  connect- 
ing trolley  systems  (the  FtWRrNW,  FtWR:N,  UTI,  and 
THR-E).  The  extensions  to  Waterloo  and  to  Dunreith  were 
dropped  in  1937.  It  used  a  fifty-ton  car  even  longer  than  a 
coach  (sixty-one  feet),  although  separated  by  bulkheads  into 
passenger,  motorman's,  and  R.P.O.    (fifteen-foot)  compart- 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  247 

ments,  connected  by  two-foot  creep  doors.  Bob  Richardson 
has  given  a  tlirilling  account  of  a  typical  winter  run  of  this 
R.P.O.  which  sliould  be  perused  by  every  reader  of  these 
words^— he  describes  the  dark  bulk  of  Car  376  looming  beside 
Fort  Wayne's  "one  bright  spot"  (the  interurban  station)  at  5 
A.M.  .  .  .  the  huge  pile  of  pouches  loaded  into  the  R.P.O. 
.  .  .  the  screeching  of  wheels  on  frozen  s\vitches  .  .  .  tearing  at 
65  mph  through  snow-covered  helds  .  .  .  breakneck  exchanges 
with  mail  messengers  at  way  stops  .  .  .  freezing  canceling  ink 
.  .  .  througli  Bluffton  and  iMuncie,  America's  book-renowned 
"Middletown"  .  .  .  the  clerk,  in  crushed  hat  and  sweater- 
overalls  combination,  scooting  through  the  "doghouse  door" 
to  chin  with  the  conductor  .  .  .  coasting  downgrade  into  New 
Castle  to  the  courthouse  at  8  A.AL 

So  heavy  was  the  R.P.O.'s  "business"  that  even  the  vesti- 
bules and  passenger  seats  had  to  be  filled  with  overflow  mail- 
bags.  But  the  bus-minded  Indiana  Railroad  was  determined 
to  scrap  all  of  its  safe  and  commodious  trolley  service,  even 
knowing  the  new  buses  could  never  equal  its  speed.  And  on 
January  18,  1941,  the  faithful  R.P.O.  made  its  last  run— north 
out  of  New  Castle,  ^^•ith  little  publicity;  only  seven  hundred 
collectors'  covers  were  handled,  the  motorman  getting  the 
last  one  (at  Fort  Wayne).  People  came  to  watch  the  car  at 
every  crossroads,  and  village  postmasters  brought  their  last 
pouches  to  the  car  ^\'ilh  unashamed  tears  in  their  eyes.  Sold 
to  Chicago's  South  Shore  Line,  Car  376  was  rebuilt  as  their 
present  Line  Car  1101.  The  new  Fort  Wayne  Sc  Indianapolis 
H.P.O.  restored  service  to  the  route  January  17,  1949. 

Two  famous  old  routes  were  begun  about  1910  on  the 
Great  Northern's  "Inland  Empire"  interurban  division— the 
ninety-mile  Spokane  R:  Moscow  (from  Washington  State  to 
Idaho's  "Psychiana"  headquarters)  and  the  thirty-two-mile 
Coeurd'AleneR:  Spokane  (Ida.-Wash.;  both  SCd'A&P).  The 
heavy,  exclusively  mail-express-baggage  interurbans  were 
given  up  in  April  1939,  on  the  Moscow  route  and  on  the 
other  by  the  next  year  or  so.   Called  "The  Greenacres,"  this 


•"Indiana's  Trolley  Car  P.O.,"  Linn's  Weekly,  Sidney,  Ohio,  March  9,  1940. 


248  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

run  to  Coeur  d'Alene  (the  only  R.P.O.  with  an  apostrophied 
title)  was  one  of  two  known  trolley  R.P.O.s  to  have  inspired 
poetic  publication!  Substittite  Adrian  B.  Dodge  describes  its 
story  in  the  Raihuay  Post  Office,  soon  alter  discontinuance; 
proud  of  his  little  office  "fifteen  feet  troin  stem  to  stern,"  he 
nevertheless  recalls  one  startling  crash  when  the  trolley  pole 
got  caught  and  jammed  into  the  root: 

...  It  gives  the  clerk  a  might  queer  feeling 

As  it  pokes  its  way  through  the  express-car  ccilingi 

The  other  trolley  R.P.O.  to  have  brought  forth  published 
verses  in  its  memory  was  the  grand  old  Greenfield  &  Spring- 
field (Northhampton  St.  Ry.— Conn.  Val.)  in  Massachusetts. 
In  the  absence  of  an  early-morning  steam  train  for  upvalley 
points,  this  service  was  begun  at  the  insistence  of  Postmaster 
Cambell  of  Northampton  and  leading  newspapers.  It  used 
Car  500,  a  forty-one-foot  Watson  Car  Works  model  with 
ornate  gilt  striping  and  lettering,  two  large  sliding  doors, 
and  mail  slots.  Officials  riding  the  inaugural  run  in  August 
1901  pronounced  it  a  great  success;  the  forty-three-mile  route 
served  Northampton  and  Holyoke  en  route,  with  alternate 
runs  via  West  Springfield  and  via  Chicopee  Falls.  Robert  T. 
Simpson  was  the  one-man  run's  first  clerk;  and,  probably 
alone  of  all  interurban  R.P.O.s,  it  worked  Springfield  and 
Northampton  city  mail.  Cars  delivered  newspapers  direct  to 
newsdealers  and  exchanged  pouches  by  "matching  doors"  at 
sidings.  The  clerk  must  have  changed  cars  at  Northampton, 
for  No.  150  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  Street  Railway  (mail- 
passenger  combination)  was  used  north  of  there.  Pouches  for 
Hatfield,  Massachusetts,  were  flung  directly  on  the  doorstep 
of  the  house  containing  the  post  office,  reported  Clerk 
William  B.  Quilty,  at  night— until  he  was  finally  furnished 
with  a  key  to  "steal  inside  with  it  like  a  burglar." 

Tearing  along  at  50  to  60  mph,  the  cars  were  scheduled 
an  hour  faster  than  passenger  runs— and  were  known  to  pitch 
ne\v  subs  headfirst  into  some  open  mail  sack  in  the  rack. 
Others  suffered  acutely  from  car  sickness;  but  not  even  the 
worst  blizzard  ever  stopped  the  service.  Cars  connected  with 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  249 

the  old  Williamsburg  &:  Northampton  R.P.O.  (North. St. Ry), 
which  began  operating  much  earlier  on  July  5,  1895;  this 
branch  to  "Burghy"  used  a  small,  boxlike  full  R.P.O.  car, 
No.  38.  The  poem  which  immortalized  the  line,  Phil  Bolger's 
Flight  of  the  Green  &  Spring,  was  published  in  a  leading 
Springfield  newspaper— an  excerpt  from  it  is  at  the  head  of 
this  chapter.  The  route  folded  up  in  1924. 

Also  in  New  England  was  the  Camden  R:  Rockland  in 
Maine,  on  the  Knox  County  Electric  (or  RT8:C).  Contro- 
versy still  rages  as  to  whether  this  short  roadside  line  was  a 
streetcar  or  interurban  R.P.O.;  it  operated  for  eight  miles 
out  from  the  M.C.  station  in  Rockland  until  the  early  1930s, 
thus  being  claimed  by  the  pro-streetcar  group  as  being  really 
our  last  street-R.P.O.  route  (instead  of  the  Towson  R:  Caton- 
ville).  But  the  line  seemed  truly  "interurban"  in  character- 
defined  as  connecting  two  sizable  towns  separated  by  open 
country— and  is  so  classed  by  this  writer  and  other  collectors. 
Its  car,  No.   18,  began  operation  about   1893. 

A  similar  borderline  case  was  at  the  nation's  other  extreme. 
The  old  Haywards  &  Oakland  traversed  14.9  miles  of  built- 
up  territory,  largely  street  trackage,  ever  the  Alameda  Coun- 
ty Electric  (OSLJIH)  via  Oakland  streets  to  Fruitvale,  San 
Leandro,  and  Haywards,  California,  in  three  daily  1 14-hour 
trips.  Operated  from  January  1,  1902,  to  March  31,  1920,  it 
was  part  of  a  co-ordinated  mail  and  express  system  including 
a  C.P.  branch  to  San  Lorenzo  and  dubbed  the  "f^ay  R:  Oak." 

A  most  interesting  run  was  the  old  thirty-mile  Doylestown 
&  Easton  (Phila.  R:  Easton  Elec.)  in  Pennsylvania,  which  oper- 
ated two  deck-roofed,  double-truck,  mail-passenger  cars  with 
"ELECTRIC  POST  OFFICE"  stenciled  on  the  R.P.O. 
apartment.  This  short-lived,  mistitled  run  (for  Easton  is 
north  of  Doylestown)  ran  only  from  1904  to  April  1,  1908. 
The  two  hour  run  connected  at  Doylestown  with  two  laps  of 
C.P.  trolley  service  to  Willow  Grove  and  Olney,  Philadelphia, 
where  city  streetcar  R.P.O.s  provided  connection  to  the 
G.P.O.  Oddly  enough,  only  the  short  Willow  Grove— Phila- 
delphia segment  of  this  trolley  route  is  still  operating;  Avhile 
practically  all  of  the  much  longer  Philadelphia— Norristown 


250  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

— Allentown— Easton  route  of  Lehigh  Valley  Transit  was  still 
running  passenger  trolleys  in  1950.  Both  lines  carried  C.P. 
mails  until  very  recently. 

A  unique  combination  trolley-and-boat  run  operated  in 
California  until  1938— the  Calistoga  &  San  Francisco  R.P.O. 
(SFRrNV),  or  "Cal  &:  Val,"  it  having  operated  only  to  Vallejo 
Junction  for  a  period.  A  steel  mail-apartment  car  was  used 
on  its  forty-one-mile  route  from  Calistoga  to  North  Vallejo 
(or  South  Vallejo),  with  connecting  service  via  the  ferry  El 
Capifan*  the  rest  of  the  way,  most  of  the  sorting  being  done 
thereon.  The  Go-Back  Pouch  tells  of  an  old-time  clerk-in- 
charge  who  was  once  suspended  for  one  day  without  pay 
on  this  run,  for  some  minor  infraction  of  rules.  By  mistake 
the  office  suspended  him  on  a  day  he  was  due  to  work,  in- 
stead of  withdrawing  pay  for  a  layoff  day  (as  was  customary 
on  one-man  runs);  he  took  to  the  hills  for  a  vacation  and 
could  not  be  found,  so  mails  piled  up  in  the  trolley  and  boat 
all  that  day  with  no  clerk  to  work  them!  (The  same  thing 
once  happened  on  the  Phila.  8:  Norfolk  (PRR),  another 
part-boat  run,  when  the  whole  crew  missed  their  train  when 
swimming  on  a  layover.)  In  Michigan  the  Pt.  Huron,  Ma- 
rine City  8:  Det.  (DURy)  connected  at  least  one  independent 
boat  R.P.O.  similarly. 

Best  known  of  all  interurban  trolley  R.P.O. s  were  prob- 
ably the  two  recently  discontinued  ones  which  survived  until 
1948.  Most  unique  of  all  '^vas  the  Los  Angeles  R:  San  Pedro 
(PE),  a  trolley  loop  route  with  botJi  terminal  points  inside  the 
same  city's  limits— Los  Angeles,  which  includes  the  independ- 
ent post  office  of  San  Pedro  (exactly  as  in  the  'Tar  Rockaway" 
case).  Service  was  by  the  big  red  cars  mentioned  earlier, 
operating  up  to  three  Ss^-hour  trips  each  weekday  in  both 
directions  around  the  29.6-mile  route.  This  strange  R.P.O. 
hauled  vast  quantities  of  mail  to  the  Los  Angeles  Harbor  at 
San  Pedro— one  load  brought  down  to  the  S.S.  President  was 
the  largest  ever  shipped  out  over  the  Pacific.  It  operated  from 
July  1,  1922,  to  June  22,  1948,  over  the  spruce  four-tracked, 


♦Ferry  link  discontinued  Sept.  12,  1937. 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  251 

rapid-transit  right-of-way  south  to  Watts  and  around  the 
double-tracked  loop  via  Long  Beach,  Gardena,  and  other  sub- 
urbs outside  the  city;  two  H.P.O.s,  one  of  the  same  name,  took 
over  upon  discontinuance.  The  trolleys  still  operate  as  the 
L.A.  R:  San  Pedro  C.P. 

The  other  route,  our  second  most  recently  discontinued 
one,  was  the  interesting  Denison  Sc  Dallas  on  a  long  Texas 
Electric  interurban  route,  76.4  miles.  Three  handsome  big, 
arch-windowed  "Bluebonnet"  cars  contained  the  ten-  and 
fifteen-foot  R.P.O.  apartments  used  on  this  northeast  Texas 
run.  Most  cars  used  only  the  lettering  "R.P.O."  not  spelled 
out;  two  daily  three-hour,  one-man  trips  were  operated.  Its 
end  hastened  by  a  collision  between  two  cars  (injuring  a 
transfer  clerk),  the  entire  Texas  Electric  system  was  discon- 
tinued December  31,  1948;  some  months  later  the  Denison 
&  Dallas  H.P.O.  took  over  the  resulting  star-route  service. 
In  contrast  to  this  railroad-enforced  discontinuance  of  serv- 
ice, the  L.  A.  Sc  San  Pedro  was  taken  off  strictly  at  depart- 
mental option;  frequent  passenger  and  freight  service  con- 
tinues over  its  main  routes  to  the  beach  area. 

The  second  of  the  two  "Beach  Lines"  was  the  compan- 
ion loop  route  of  the  L.A.  k  San  Pedro— the  Los  Angeles  & 
Redondo  Beach  (PE),  It  measured  19.3  miles  via  Beverly 
Hills,  at  which  place  it  dispatched  many  movie  stars*  mail, 
and  14.8  miles  via  Culver  City.  From  1941  to  1947,  when  it 
was  discontinued,  the  R.P.O.'s  outer  terminus  was  at  Venice, 
(within  the  Los  Angeles  limits),  thus  constituting  still  a  third 
electric  R.P.O.  with  both  termini  inside  one  city;  it  operated 
largely  over  tracks  without  passenger  service.  Another 
unusual  route  was  Ohio's  Toledo  &:  Pioneer  (T&W),  with 
daily  service  on  R.P.O.  Car  52;  it  returned  halfway,  each  day, 
as  far  as  Aliens  junction  to  connect  a  closed-pouch  trolley 
for  Adrian,  Michigan,  and  then  went  back  to  Pioneer  to  pick 
up  the  evening  mail  for  way  points  and  Toledo.  There  were 
dozens  of  other  similar  long-abandoned  interurban  R.P.O.s; 
some,  however,  like  the  Baltimore  Sc  Annapolis  (\VBR:A)  in 
Maryland,  carried  busy  passenger  and  C.P.  mail  service  for 
decades  after  the  R.P.O.  ceased  (about  1910).   Operated  well 


252  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

into  1950  as  ihe  B.  X:  A.  electric,  the  latter  carried  all  mail 
for  Annapolis  and  points  south  until  1948,  and  much  there- 
after. The  New  Bed,  R;  Providence  (UnionSt.Ry,  Mass. -R.I.) 
used  No.  34,  a  unique  ex-horsecar  with  one  electric  truck,  on 
a  run  once  reaching  Onset;  the  car  is  still  preserved  on  a 
"rail-fan"  line. 

Besides  the  closed-pouch  lines,  we  must  mention  the  drop- 
letter  mailboxes  which  were  carried  on  Buffalo,  Knoxville, 
and  Grand  Rapids  trolleys  (as  well  as  in  Des  Moines  and 
Burlington,  Iowa,  and  elsewhere).  In  1930  mail  was  being 
carried  on  seven  thousand  miles  of  route  by  220  traction  com- 
panies at  a  cost  of  $028,000,  and  even  in  1948  there  were  still 
1,297  miles  of  such  route  being  operated  by  forty-two  com- 
panies. In  both  Canada  and  the  United  States,  R.P.O.  clerks 
have  been  assigned  to  ride  trolley  C.P.  routes  to  guard  the 
mails,  as  on  the  old  Coytesville  &  Hoboken  C.P.  (PSRy)  in 
New  jersey. 

In  closing,  we  can  but  barely  mention  such  long-aband- 
oned trolley  R.P.O.s  as  the  Annapolis  Jet.  &  Annapolis,  Md. 
(VVB&A);  the  Beaver  Fls.  k  Rochester  (or  Vanport— BVT)  and 
Bristol  &  Doylestown  (BCElec)  at  opposite  ends  of  Pennsyl- 
vania; lines  from  Cleveland  to  Garrettsville,  Middlefield, 
Painesville  (Fairport),  and  Wellington,  Ohio;  Dallas  &:  Cor- 
sicana,  Tex.  (TE);  Exeter  &:  Amesbury,  N.H.-Mass.  (EH&A); 
Ft.  Dodge  R:  Des  Moines,  Iowa  (FtDDMJlS,  still  CP  elec); 
Georgetown  (Hammerville)  &  Cincinnati,  Ohio  (GPRrC); 
Herk.  R:  Oneonta,  N.Y.  (SNYRy),  now  HPO;  numerous  lines 
out  of  Los  Angeles  on  the  P.E.;  Pen  Van  Sc  Branchport,  N.  Y. 
(PYR;LS);  Peoria,  Line.  &:  Springf.,  III.  (ITS,  now  elec.  CP); 
Phila.,  Newf.  &  Atl.  City,  N.J.  (WJRrSS);  Portland  &:  Corvallis, 
Ore.  (PERrP-SP  or  OE),  now  H.P.O.,  plus  lines  to  Cazadero 
and  Whiteson;  Providence  k  Fall  River,  R.I. -Mass.  (NBSR- 
USiRy);  Wareham  R;  Fall  River,  Mass.  (FRR:NB?),  and  the 
York  Beach  R:  Portsmouth,  R.I. -Mass.   (SERy). 

Regarding  the  Los  Angeles  lines,  at  least  four  or  five  of 
them  (or  their  connections)  are  still  operated  as  busy  trolley 
C.P.  routes;  and  until  May  28,  1950,  most  of  them  centered 
at  a  unique  interurban  electric  terminal,  the  only  one  of  its 


R.P.O.'s  ON  THE  TROLLEY  TRAIL  253 

kind— the  Pacific  Electric  Terminal,  P.T.S.,  in  the  traction 
depot  at  Sixth  and  Main.  It  pouched  on  nearly  100  subur- 
ban offices  by  trolley  and  on  all  outgoing  R.P.O.s  including 
the  electric  ones;  but  its  work  was  taken  over  by  the  Term- 
inal Annex,  Los  Angeles  P.O.,  on  May  twenty-ninth.  Hence 
even  today,  Los  Angeles— the  motors  of  whose  last  trolley 
R.P.O.  are  hardly  yet  cool— most  nearly  symbolizes  the  his- 
toric "age  that  is  past"  of  our  forgotten  railway  mail  traction 
lines,  with  its  white-and-gold  city  streetcars  which  only  this 
great  metropolis  (and  Detroit)  never  had. 


Chapter  13 


CANCELS  AND  CAR  PHOTOS:  THE 
"R.P.O.  HOBBY" 


I  really  like  that  run  I'm  on,  it's  usually  just  "tops"; 

But  when   the  train-mail  bags  come  down,  it's  "Slim,  come  hit 

these  'drops'." 
And  scores  of  jumbled  letters  in  each  frequent,  bulging  pouch 
Must  needs  be  canceled  clear  and  clean,  as  o'er  the  pile  I  crouch; 
For  bids  with  "date  illegible"  may  bring  us  legal  woes— 
And  smudgy  markings  mean  we've  R.P.O.  "fans"  as  our  foes! 

-  B.A.L. 


—Courtesy  Postal 
Markings 


Railway  Post  Ofiice  operations,  long  a 
topic  of  mystery  or  fascination  to  many, 
have  in  one  short  decade  become  the 
subject  matter  of  a  popular  new  hobby 
now  sweeping  over  the  English-speaking 
world.  For  many  years  before,  there  had 
been  a  scattered  few  such  hobbyists 
(mostly  philatelists  who  liked  postal 
markings  or  history  as  much  as  stamps); 
but  now  himdreds  of  other  collectors,  rail 
fans,  and  even  railway  mail  clerks  themselves  are  joining  in 
the  fun.  Collectors  long  ago  became  curious  about  those  odd 
postmarks,  with  no  hint  of  a  state  name,  reading  "FLAX.  & 
WHITE./R.P.O."  (a  MStPR.SSteM  short  line  into  Montana) 
and  so  on.  They  soon  ferreted  oiu  lists  of  such  lines  and 
learned  that  by  mailing  a  self-addressed  stamped  envelope 
inside  a  larger  cover  addressed,  for  example,  "Clerk-in- 
Charge  on  Duty,   Flax.  &  Whitetail   R.P.O. ,  via   Flaxton, 

254 


THE  "R.P.O.  HOBBY"  255 

N.  Dak.,"  one  could  obtain  most  current  R.P.O.  postmarks. 
(The  title  of  the  nearest  R.P.O.  or  H.P.O.  serving  any  to^vn 
can  be  obtained  from  the  post  office,  or  proper  Division  office- 
see  Chapter  3,  footnote.) 

A  few  ran  into  trouble  with  overzealous  inspectors,  who 
questioned  the  right  of  clerks  to  cancel  such  covers  (in 
Canada  they  cannot);  but  careful  study  of  the  P.  L.  Sc  R. 
passages  covering  that  subject  reveals  that  only  the  placing 
of  extra  marks  or  endorsements  thereon,  by  the  clerk,  is  pro- 
hibited. As  leading  collectors  expanded  their  researches, 
many  wrote  articles  dealing  with  the  more  unusual  R.P.O. 
routes— operations  as  well  as  postmarks— which  were  pub- 
lished in  philatelic  journals  along  with  check  lists  of  lines. 

About  1928,  when  such  literature  was  becoming  increas- 
ingly noticeable  in  stamp  journals,  a  Glasgow  collector  named 
James  H.  Tierney  ^vas  \valking  through  the  Central  Railway 
Station  there  one  evening— but,  like  most  Scottish  collectors, 
he  then  knew  nothing  of  railway  post  offices.  Noticing  a 
train  with  the  wording  "ROYAL  MAIL"  and  a  red  letter 
box  on  the  side,  he  stopped  to  investigate.  He  learned  that 
letters  could  be  posted  therein  if  prepaid  with  an  extra  half- 
penny stamp,  and  that  they  would  be  handled  in  the 
"traveling  post  office"  which  occupied  the  car.  He  dropped 
in  an  envelope  addressed  to  himself  and  eagerly  awaited  the 
postman  next  morning— who  duly  brought  him  his  first  Brit- 
ish R.P.O.  postmark.  That  not  only  started  Tierney's  inten- 
sive interest  in  collecting  railway  mail  cancels,  photos,  and 
information  (to  the  extent  of  eight  albums)— it  also  provided 
the  impetus  for  establishing  the  first  and  only  general  society 
of  R.P.O.  "fans"  anywhere,  even  todayl 

Tierney  contacted  several  like-minded  philatelists  during 
the  next  ten  years  and  wrote  many  articles  on  the  "T.P.O.s"; 
and  on  January  6,  1938,  he  and  they  organized  the  "Trav- 
elling Post  Office  Society"  in  commemoration  of  the  British 
railway  mail  services,  then  exactly  one  hundred  years  old. 
Norman  Hill,  an  English  school  instructor  in  Rotherham, 
was  chosen  secretary,  and  they  soon  began  to  circulate  by 
mail,  scrapbook  "bulletins"   of  news   clippings,  postmarks, 


256  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

and  general  information  among  all  members.  Scores  of  mem- 
bers, from  tiie  United  States  and  elsewhere  as  well  as  in 
Britain,  were  gradually  admitted  under  the  very  high  re- 
quirements for  eligibility.  But  the  membership  consisted 
entirely  of  R. P.O. -minded  philatelists  and  included  no  British 
railway  mail  clerks. 

While  Britain  is  thus  credited  with  organizing  the  new 
hobby's  first  society,  America  brought  forth  its  first  journal. 
This  was  Transit  Postmark,  founded  at  Jackson  Heights, 
New  York  City,  in  July  1942,  and  now  published  at  Ral- 
eigh, Tennessee.'  Its  founder,  railway  mail  clerk  William 
Koelln,  had  a  herculean  task  on  his  hands,  for  not  even  a 
list  of  R.P.O.  fans  was  in  existence  at  the  time.  Nevertheless, 
his  first  issue  was  in  sixteen  pages  of  neat  offset  printing.  It 
featured  the  first  installment  of  Koelln's  pet  project:  a  col- 
lossal  proposed  list  of  all  the  R.P.O.  titles  and  variations  ever 
used.  Primarily  philatelic.  Transit  Postmark  nevertheless 
featured  articles  on  unusual  R.P.O.  operations,  history,  and 
service  changes  from  the  start.  Publicity  in  other  stamp  jour- 
nals printing  occasional  R.P.O.  articles  or  columns— such  as 
Cancellations,  Linn's  Weekly,  and  others— helped  to  get  sub- 
scribers. Some  interested  railway  mail  clerks  also  joined  in 
supporting  and  subscribing  to  the  project,  with  L.  N.  Van- 
divier,  of  the  Indpls.  &  Louisville  (PRR) ,  becoming  assist- 
ant editor  and  taking  over  the  Koelln  list  project. 

Ben  L.  Cash,  retired  from  the  Omaha  &  Kan.  City 
(MoPac),  and  a  leading  R.P.O.  collector  and  writer  for  years, 
pitched  in  to  help,  as  did  many  others.  In  1941  and  1942 
attempts  to  organize  an  R.P.O.  society  were  made  by  Dick 
Bush  of  Schenectady,  New  York,  L.  E.  Dequine  of  Long 
Branch,  New  Jersey,  and  others.  But  Koelln  persuaded  most 
enthusiasts  to  join  the  Postal  Cancellations  Society  (then  the 
"I.P.S.S.")  instead.  Both  the  Rnilumy  Post  Office  and  Linn's 
published  articles  in  praise  of  Transit  Postmark's  appear- 
ance and  of  its  contents,  however,  the  former  describing  it 
as  "a  publication  of  value  and  interest."    Both  journals  re- 


'Edited  by  H.  E.  Rankin,  Box  152,  Raleigh,  Tenn.;  $1  a  year. 


THE  "R.P.O.  HOBBY"  257 

printed  a  paragraph  from  it  which  advocated  collecting 
R.P.O.  cancellations  as  "a  hobby  in  reach  of  all;  if  time  is 
limited,  collect  only  certain  states,  a  division  .  .  .  if  cash,  col- 
lect only  current  markings  .  .  .  had  for  next  to  nothing." 

Koelln,  a  clerk  in  the  Penn  Station  Transfer  Office  in 
New  York,  accomplished  some  of  the  most  intensive  railway 
mail  research  work  on  record  in  his  insatiable  quest  for  facts 
and  data  on  every  R.P.O.  run  in  history.  He  soon  published 
the  first  complete  list  of  all  operating  R.P.O.s  (Department- 
al lists  consist  of  abbreviations  only,  and  omit  some  runs). 
And  yet  he  found  time  to  be  an  active  R.M.A.  and  M.B.A. 
officer,  attending  many  conventions,  and  meanwhile  writing 
for  other  publications  and  building  up  his  huge  collection 
of  covers,  schedules,  and  R.P.O.  miscellany.  Victimized  by 
a  dread  disease,  he  had  to  give  up  Transit  Postmark  after 
issuing  its  delayed  February  1944  number;  mourned  by  all 
who  kncAV  him,  he  passed  a^vay  in  March  1945.  (His  untimely 
death  followed  shortly  that  of  his  warm  supporter,  Rnilway 
Post  Office  Editor  Henry  Strickland,  and  just  preceded  that 
of  Carroll  Frost,  an  ardent  R.P.O.  collector  and  contributor, 
of  the  N.Y.  Sc  Wash.— a  triple  blow  to  the  hobby.) 

Suspended  for  two  years.  Transit  Postmark  was  revived  in 
January  1946  by  Stephen  Hulse  of  Glenshaw,  Pennsylvania, 
R.P.O.  column  editor  of  Linn's  and  Cancellations,  assisted  by 
Vandivier  and  this  writer.  R.P.O. -minded  rail  fans  were  re- 
cruited from  the  ranks  of  railroad  hobbyists  for  the  first 
time.  In  November  1947  another  mail  clerk  —  Hershel 
Rankin  of  the  Memphis  k  New  Orleans  (IC)— took  over  as 
editor  and  has  issued  it  since  then.  Some  printed  pages, 
photographs,  and  specialized  lists  have  been  added  to  the 
publication,  now  supported  by  more  R.P.O.  fans  than  ever. 

In  direct  contrast  to  the  situation  in  America,  the  R.P.O. 
hobbyists  of  Britain  (although  long  in  touch  with  United 
States  "fans")  were  completely  out  of  touch  with  the  actual 
sorting  clerks  on  British  lines  until  December  1946.  In  that 
year  the  British  sorters'  union  corresponding  to  our  N.P.T.A. 
began  to  issue  its  small  clerks'  journal  called  the  Traveller. 
Through   contacts  made   with  a   United   States  clerk  who 


258  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

served  in  our  Army  in  England,  copies  were  exchanged  with 
the  New  York  Branch's  Open  Pouch,  and  this  fact  was  men- 
tioned later  in  the  Raihuny  Post  Office.  Transit  Postmark's 
newest  associate  editor,  another  railway  mail  clerk,  saw  the 
notice  and  undertook  to  bring  the  two  English  groups  into 
contact  in  his  capacity  as  a  United  States  member  of  the 
T.P.O.  R:  Seapost  Society  (as  it  had  now  become).  Subscrib- 
ing to  the  Traveller,  he  was  able  to  insert  a  notice  about  the 
society  therein— and  British  clerks  learned  for  the  first  time 
that  some  Englishmen  had  railway  mail  operations  for  their 
hobby!  Several  interested  British  sorters  joined  at  once,  con- 
tacting United  States  clerks  and  hobbyists  also  in  the  process. 
As  Secretary  Hill  of  the  society  learned  of  the  "T.P.O. 
sorters'  "  union  and  journal  for  the  first  time,  he  immediately 
contacted  Editor  Ron  Smith  of  the  Traveller  (who  had  just 
joined  the  society);  and  many  enthusiasts  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic  subscribed  to  the  little  joinnal.  So  ended  a 
"double  surprise"  in  which  news  of  each  development  had  to 
cross  the  Atlantic  twice! 

During  the  very  next  month  (January  1947)  the  T.P.O. 
&  Seapost  Society  issued  the  first  copy  of  its  own  ne^v  bi- 
monthly journal,  T.P.O.,  featuring  a  pictorial  cut  (by  courtesy 
of  the  Traveller.)  This  interesting  little  journal  contains  ex- 
cellently reproduced  postmark  illustrations  and  photos  of 
R.P.O.  equipment  and  operations  as  well— for  the  society 
now  welcomes  non-philatelic  R.P.O.  fans  in  addition  to  col- 
lectors. Society  membership  doubled  within  little  over  a 
year,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  a  new  American  R.P.O. 
Section  of  the  group  late  in  October  1948,  which  was  formal- 
ly organized  in  January  1949  to  cater  to  the  many  new  United 
States  members.  Eventually,  on  July  first,  it  became  techni- 
cally an  independent  affiliate  of  the  parent  body. 

Popularly  known  as  "AMERPO"  for  short,  the  American 
Section  and  the  Headquarters  Section  in  Britain  are  still 
closely  linked  in  a  fraternal  sense  to  form  one  international 
brotherhood  of  R.P.O.  and  H.P.O.  enthusiasts— the  Travel- 
ing Post  Office  and  Seapost  Society,  still  the  only  such  group 
in  the  world.  Dick  Bush,  of  whom  we  have  heard,  was  elected 


THE  "R.P.O.  HOBBY"  259 

secretary,^  and  L.  O.  Ackerman,  president.  In  1950  the  Na- 
tional H.P.O.  Society  was  organized  (for  H.P.O.  postmark 
collectors  only)  by  V.  J.  Geary,  J.  S.  Bath,  and  H.  E.  High- 
tower;  it  publishes  a  monthly,  H.P.O.  Notes.'  (Note  22.) 

Spearheaded  now  by  both  "AMERPO"  and  Tramit  Post- 
mark, the  hobby  is  at  present  gaining  headway  in  America 
with  increasing  momentum.  The  Section  Supplement, 
AMERPO's  own  newssheet,  appeared  in  July  1949,  and  at- 
tractive membership  cards  are  furnished,  while  the  journal 
T.P.O.  is  duplicated  and  mailed  both  in  Britain  and  America. 
A  printed  journal,  the  R.P.O.-H.P.O.  Magazine,  is  planned 
for  1951  by  Michael  Jarosak,  former  managing  editor  of 
Transit  Postmark  (Note  22).  The  rise  of  the  hobby  has  been 
a  source  of  particular  amazement. to  the  average  railway  mail 
clerk,  who  considers  that  his  occupation  is  just  one  more  little- 
known  job  and  nothing  to  get  excited  about. 

The  collection  of  R. P.O. -canceled  covers,  and  sometimes 
of  photos  of  the  trains  or  cars  invoked,  is  still  the  backbone 
of  the  hobby's  activities.  Both  can  be  mounted  in  albums, 
and  the  photos  usually  are;  but  the  largest  cover  collections 
can  be  filed  only  in  boxes  or  drawers.  As  we  know,  Koelln 
and  Cash  had  two  of  the  largest  cover  collections;  leading 
collectors  of  today  include  Hulse,  Vandivier,  Rankin,  jaro- 
sak, Dequine  (all  mentioned  earlier)  and  many  others- 
such  as  Elliott  B.  Holton  of  Irvington,  New  Jersey  (author 
of  the  former  column  "Our  Vanishing  R.P.O.s"  and  other 
philatelic  writings),  and  X.  C.  Vickrey  of  Chicago,  not  to  men- 
tion eminent  specialists  spoken  of  later.  Postal  Markings, 
an  offset-printed  periodical,  featured  hundreds  of  R.P.O. 
articles  and  postmark  illustrations  while  edited  by  W.  Stew- 
art of  Chicago  and  by  Stephen  G.  Rich  of  Verona.  N.  J., 
himself  an  authority  on  many  R.P.O.  markings,  and  hence 
has  been  one  of  the  most  helpful  publications  for  all  rail- 
road-cover collectors. 


*The  secretary  is  located  at  Brandywine  Box  96,  Schenectady  4,  New  York; 
membership  is  presently  fifty  cents  per  year  for  accepted  applicants. 

"Address  Secretary,  Box  342,  Dayton  I,  Ohio;  about  $1.50  a  year. 


260  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Thus,  Richard  S.  Clover,  a  leading  collector  and  writer, 
once  listed  four  distinct  variations  of  our  single  current 
standard  R.P.O.  postmark  in  that  publication.  In  general, 
hou'ever,  this  standardized  cancel  applied  on  R.P.O.  trains 
consists  of  a  single  circle  about  I'/^q  inches  in  diameter 
(variations  from  28  to  31  millimeters),  containing  the  word- 
ings, plus  an  elliptical  or  lens-sect  bar-killer  for  canceling  the 
stamp.  The  killers  of  all  postmarkers  made  before  November 
1,  1949,  contain  the  letters  "RMS"  (in  new  ones  made  since, 
"PTS").  Three  removable  slug  lines  are  provided  for  train 
number,  month  and  day,  and  year;  the  letters  "R.P.O."  are  at 
the  bottom.  All  steam  and  electric  R.P.O.s,  as  well  as  some 
boat  lines,  use  this  type  cancel. 

Standard  (not  First  Day)  Highway  Post  Office  cancels  are 
identical,  except  that  "H.P.O."  is  substituted  for  "R.P.O." 
and  the  letters  "RMS"  in  the  killer  omitted  (from  the  very 
start— in  anticipation  of  a  future  title  change);  periods  are 
also  often  omitted  from  abbreviated  H.P.O.  names,  and 
^vhen  not  abbreviated  the  state  or  states  of  its  location  are 
often  included.  For  example:  (1)  "BALT  R:  WASH/HPO" 
and  (2)  "WASHINGTON,  D.  C,  R:  HARRISONBURG, 
VA. /H.P.O."    New  H.P.O.  killers,  however,  read  "PTS." 

R.P.O.  line  titles  change  frequently  as  runs  are  shortened, 
lengthened,  or  rerouted;  the  old  Reforin  k  Mobile  (ATRrN) 
in  Alabama  was  once  designated,  at  least  in  part,  by  nine 
different  earlier  titles.  Therefore  there  are  thousands  of  old 
titles  to  collect,  as  well  as  numerous  "varieties"  of  wording 
and  design— official  abbreviations  are  seldom  used.  Some  col- 
lectors specialize  in  narrow-gauge  and  old  boat  routes  or  vari- 
ous nineteenth-century  markings. 

True  R.P.O.  markings  of  the  past  century  reveal  a  rich 
variety  of  sizes  and  types.  From  1875  to  1905  many  extra 
wordings,  such  as  "FAST  MAIL,"  "LIMITED  MAIL"  (with 
handsome  target-style  killer),  "BALTO.MD.,"  are  found  in- 
serted in  R.P.O.  cancels,  as  well  as  the  clerk's  name  in  some 
cases.  The  most  recent  known  example  of  the  latter  was  the 
postmarker  used  by  Wilson  Davenport  of  the  St.  Lou.  & 
Little  Rock  (MoPac);  he  had  a  private  elliptical  killer  at- 


THE  "R.P.O.   HOBBY"  261 

tached  to  it,  tipped  vertically  to  contain  his  name  and  a  star 
in  the  center,  and  his  postmark  impressions  are  collectors' 
items  today.  (Davenport,  mentioned  earlier,  has  been  a 
N.P.T.A.  officer  or  national  delegate  since  1904  and  is  still 
active  in  "retirement"  with  his  St.  Louis  postal-supply  busi- 
ness). Train  numbers  (and  even  year  dates)  were  often 
omitted  on  such  early  cancels;  the  words,  DAY,  NIGHT, 
NORTH,  SOUTH,  and  so  on,  were  usually  substituted— or 
even  TAW  (for  "Train  A,  W^est").  The  earliest  true  R.P.O. 
cancel,  of  course,  was  the  rare  "CHICAGO  TO  CLINTON" 
used  on  Armstrong's  first  1864  run;  specimens  are  said  to 
exist,  but  no  collector  seems  to  know  who  has  them  (the 
same  thing  applies  to  the  e\en  rarer  postmark  of  the  1862 
"Hannibal  R:  St.  Joe"  route).  One  of  the  earliest  R.P.O.  can- 
cels in  collections  is  "CHICAGO  TO  DAVENPORT"  (1868). 

Of  remarkable  interest  are  the  errors  and  oddities  in  word- 
ing that  appear  in  some  cancels.  Two  are  (1)  the  "WAY-(-  & 
LAKELAND"  (now  the  ACL's  Waycross  &  Montgomery, 
east  end)  shown  at  the  head  of  this  chapter— note  "-]-"  for 
"cross"-and  (2)  a  N.Y.  &  Wash.  (PRR)  error  reading  "N.Y. 
7  WASH./R.P.O.,"  still  in  use  today  (the  clerk  ordering  two 
current  postmarkers  neglected  to  press  a  shift  key  in  typing 
"&"!).  Other  fascinating  errors  will  be  found  in  Transit 
Postmark's  files.  A  rare  "EMERGENCY  STAMP/R.P.O." 
was  used  on  the  St.  Albans  &:  Boston  (CV-B8:M)  in  March 
1902,  for  some  reason;  and  some  cancels  were  once  surround- 
ed by  a  second  circle  reading  "MAIL  DELAYED— TRAIN 
LATE"    (detachable). 

Pre-R.P.O.  railroad  cancels,  now  extremely  scarce,  are  a 
fascinating  study;  but  only  those  which  are  route  agents' 
postmarks  were  actually  applied  on  trains.  The  word 
"AGENT"  need  not  appear;  the  oldest-known  railroad 
agent  marking  of  all  reads  simply  "RAIL  ROAD"  in  Old 
English  type,  applied  on  the  Mohawk  k  Hudson  Railroad 
in  New  York  State  on  November  7,  1837— now  in  the  Harry 
Dunsmoor  collection.  Since  many  station  agents  and  post- 
masters housed  in  small  depots  used  cancelers  or  ticket  stamps 
containing  railroad  names,  it  takes  an  expert  to  distinguish 


262  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

true  route-agent  cancels.  Some  authorities,  notably  O.  A. 
Olson  and  Professor  Dennis,  assert  that  the  earliest  cancels 
were  applied  by  conductors  or  baggagemen  and  should  be 
classed  as  "railroad"  as  distinct  from  "asrent"  markins^s.  But 
Hall  and  other  point  out  that  such  postmarking  by  railroad- 
ers and  other  outsiders  was  prohibited.  Some  post  offices 
stamped  mail  with  railroad  marks  to  indicate  routing,  too, 
further  complicating  the  matter. 

Some  of  the  best-known  agent  cancels  were  those  of 
the  Phikidelphia— Washington  route  and  those  reading 
HARRISBG.  &:  LANG.  RR.,  both  now  PRR  (N.Y.  &:  Wash.- 
N.Y.  k  Pitts.  R.P.O.s);  others  were  BOSTON  k  ALBANY 
R.R.,  MIC.CENT.R.R.,  and  so  on.  A  "MAIL  LINE"  cancel 
was  used  on  the  Louisville  &  Cincinnati  Railroad  in  1851. 
The  word  "ACT"  did  not  begin  to  appear  until  the  1850s 
and  1860s,  as  a  rule.  Some  early  agent  cancels  are  in  pen  and 
ink  or  even  pencil;  others  are  stamped  in  red,  blue,  and 
green  as  well  as  black,  and  some  contain  agent's  names. 
Harry  Konwiser  of  New  York  and  Arthur  Hall  of  Cranford, 
New  Jersey,  both  noted  philatelic  writers,  are  two  of  our  lead- 
ing authorities  on  the  earliest  railroad  (route  agent)  and 
R.P.O.  covers.  Hall's  collection  of  agent  markings  is  prob- 
ably tops,  although  that  of  O.  A.  Olson  of  Chicago  is  very 
large.  Konwiser's  U.  S.  Stampless  Cover  Catalog,  the  stand- 
ard text  on  the  subject,  lists  all  kno^vn  pre-stamp-era  agent 
marks,  and  Delf  Norona's  Cyclopedia  of  postmarks  lists 
others.  Some  remarkable  displays  of  agent  and  early  R.P.O. 
covers  have  been  exhibited  at  leading  stamp  shows  by  Olson, 
Hall,  and  others;  some  won  prizes.  One  controversial  agent 
cover,  "U.S.  EXPRESS  MAIL,"  is  now  know  to  refer  to  the 
through  express-agent  runs  (Chapter  6). 

Regulations  require  that  all  R.P.O.  postmarks  now  be 
struck  in  black,  but  in  emergencies  red  and  other  colors  have 
been  used— notably  on  the  temporary  Wallula  R:  Yakima  (UP) 
Christmas  R.P.O.  (see  Chapter  10)  in  1942,  where  the  clerk 
was  supplied  only  with  a  red  pad.  Air-mail  fields  and  other 
units,  including  our  one  unique  Register  Transfer  Office, 
are  authorized  to  postmark  facing  slips  in  red. 


THE  "R.P.O.  HOBBY"  26S 

Collectors  particularly  cherish  the  colorful  covers  with 
cachets— piciorid.\  or  colored  worded  devices  on  left  half  of 
envelope— sponsored  to  mark  anniversaries,  World's  Fairs, 
"First  Trips,"  and  what  not.  With  possibly  a  special-occasion 
R.P.O.  postmark  and  usually  a  commemorative  stamp,  such 
an  envelope  is  a  prized  addition  to  any  collection.  The  o^overn- 
ment  recognizes  the  R.P.O.  hobby  by  applying  colorful  pic- 
torial cachets  (showing  an  H.P.O.  bus)  and  a  special,  spelled- 
out  postmark  with  "FIRST  TRIP"  in  a  long  four-line 
killer  on  new  H.P.O.  runs;  by  special  exhibition  R.P.O.  post- 
marks; and  (rarely)  by  special  postmarks  with  similar  killer 
on  historic  final  R.P.O.  runs.  A  recent  example  was  the  last 
trip  of  the  famous  Reno  R:  Minden  (V&:T)  in  Nevada,  old-time 
western  route,  May  31,  1950.  Stamp  clubs,  too,  issue  cachets; 
the  one  at  Glen  Ellyn,  Illinois,  sponsored  four  for  the  Eight- 
ieth Anniversary  of  our  first  permanent  R.P.O.  (the  Chicago 
k  Clinton,  via  Glen  Ellyn),  postmarked— 2,500  copies— on 
the  same  line,  now  the  CR:NW's  Chic.  &  Omaha,  August  28, 
1944.  Vivid  pictorial  designs  in  colors  featured  the  first 
R.P.O.  and  contemporary  scenes.  The  same  club  sponsored 
similar  cachets  on  one  New  York  Central  "Fast  Mail"  Anni- 
versary. 

Practically  every  World's  Fair  has  featured  an  R.P.O.  ex- 
hibit, usually  a  car  designated  as  a  specially  titled  R.P.O.  for 
its  duration.  The  earliest  similar  exposition  cancel  was 
apparently  the  "ATLANTA  EXPO./R.P.O.,"  used  in  1885, 
the  only  postmark  applied  at  the  regional  Cotton  States  Ex- 
position, Atlanta,  Georgia.  The  "W^orld's  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion at  Chicago's  "White  City"  in  1893  likewise  had  a  duly 
constituted  Railway  Post  Office,  but  it  apparently  canceled  no 
mail;  its  rare  postmark  ("R.P.O./WORLDS  COLUMBIAN/ 
EXPOSITION"  in  a  shield)  has  been  found  only  on  facing 
slips.  The  Pan  American  Exposition  (Buffalo,  1901)  had  a 
full  R.P.O.  car  (DR:H)  sorting  all  exposition  mail,  with  a  sou- 
venir booklet  The  U.  S.  Railway  Mail  Service  issued;  no  post- 
mark is  known.  The  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition,  1904, 
used  an  "EXPOSITION  R.P.O./ST.  LOUIS,  MO."  post- 
mark; while  the  St.  Louis  Centennial  featured  a  "CENTEN- 


264  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

NIAL  PARADFyR.P.O.,"  operated  only  on  October  7,  1909, 
as  a  horse-drawn  Missouri  Pacific  mail  coach  on  wagon  wheels 
(it  was  long  thought  to  have  been  a  streetcar  R.P.O.,  but  the 
streetcars  were  elsewhere  in  the  parade).  An  "R.P.O.  EX- 
HIBIT CAR,  SPG.  MASS."  was  used  at  the  Eastern  States 
Exposition  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  in  1925,  1929,  and 
perhaps  in  other  years. 

The  Chicago  Century  of  Progress  (World's  Fair)  of  19.S3- 
'34  had  "exhibit  cars",  too— the  Burlington's  "Hannibal" 
replica  and  a  modern  car.  No  "R.P.O.",  the  clerks  still  can- 
celed covers,  the  wording  reading  "U.S.  RY.  POSTAL  CAR 
EXHIBIT/CHICAGO,  ILL."  with  exposition  name  in  the 
killer.  One  prize  cachet  furnished  at  the  car  Avas  printed  on 
the  famous  original  Gutenberg  Press,  on  display  there.  The 
"NEW  YORK  WORLD'S  FAIR/R.P.O."  shown  at  that  great 
event  in  1939-40  consisted  of  a  spruce,  flag-decked  New  York 
Central  postal  car.  No.  4868.  Featuring  a  green  pillared  de- 
sign, attractive  cachets  were  supplied  along  with  the  special 
postmark  on  "Railway  Mail  Service  Day,"  September  1,  1940 
—commemorating  the  Seventy-sixth  Anniversary  of  the 
R.M.S.,  to  the  nearest  'week  end.  Five  branches  of  the  R.M.A., 
assisted  by  the  Vincent  Lopez  Stamp  Club,  sponsored  the  day 
and  the  cachets;  the  American  Legion  R.M.S.  Post's  band 
played,  and  there  were  speeches  and  music  by  Second  Assistant 
P.  M.  G.  Purdum,  President  Bennett  of  the  R.M.A.,  clerk- 
composer  Barney  Duckman,  and  others.  Nearly  one  million 
people  visited  the  car,  including  many  foreign  postal  clerks 
who  signed  a  register;  Editor  Koelln,  who  helped  plan  the  set- 
up, lent  an  attractive  exhibit  of  rare  covers.  Clerks  Pierce, 
Hedlimd,  and  others  purchased  special  immaculate  uniforms 
in  which  to  ^vork  mail  and  escort  visitors. 

The  most  recent  exhibition  R.P.O.  was  the  "CHICAGO 
RAILROAD  FAIR/R.P.O."  (Deadwood  Central),  which 
cancel  \v?s  applied  on  a  moving  train  at  that  Fair  from  July 
to  September,  1948  and  1949.  Thousands  of  covers,  many  with 
neat  cachets,  were  canceled  by  clerks  actually  on  duty  in  a 
tiny  R.P.O.  baggage  combination  car  in  the  quaint  narrow- 
gauge  train  running  the  length  of  the  grounds.    The  same 


THE  "R.P.O.  HOBBY"  265 

R.P.O.  train,  wiihout  cancel,  operated  at  the  Chicago  Fair 
of  1950.  At  the  1949  R.M.A.  Convention  at  Omaha, 
Nebraska  (at  which  it  became  the  N.P.T.A.),  exhibits  in- 
cluded the  replica  of  the  Burlington's  original  Hannibal  Sc 
St.  Joe  car  as  well  as  their  new  streamlined  Silver  Post  car  and 
an  H.P.O.;  a  cachet,  but  no  postmark,  was  provided.  (Similar- 
ly, no  clerks  or  postmark  were  supplied  on  board  a  rubber- 
tired  Missouri  Pacific  R.P.O.  car  hauled  in  the  Cornerstone- 
Laying  Parade  for  the  new  St.  Louis  post  office  in  1936,  it 
appears.) 

There  have  been  countless  colorful  private  railway  cachets 
too  numerous  to  mention.  They  include  one  dated  May  8, 
1946,  for  the  initial  run  of  the  PRR's  new  Robert  E.  Hanne- 
gan,  with  N.Y.  &  Pitts,  postmark;  one  for  the  one-hundredth 
Anniversary  of  Chicago's  first  railroad,  the  C&NW,  post- 
marked October  25,  1948,  on  the  Chi.  8:  Freeport  (sharing 
the  original  tracks  with  the  Chic.  &  Omaha  for  some  miles); 
a  new  Union  Pacific  cachet  for  the  first  trip  of  R.P.O.  service 
in  Omaha  &  Ogden  Trains  101-102,  the  streamlined  City  of 
San  Frayicisco,  October  2,  1949;  and  many  others  sponsored  by 
Scott  Nixon  of  Augusta,  Georgia,  by  AMERPO,  and  by  the 
New  Haven  (Connecticut)  Railroad  YMCA  Stamp  Club,  for 
various  special  events. 

Collectors  cherish  cancels  of  the  unusual  Royal  Train 
R.P.O.  (PRR-NYCent-DR;H),  which  ^vas  a  United  States 
route  for  just  five  days  (June  7-12,  1939),  although  operated 
in  Canada  with  a  different  postmark.  A  picked  crew  of  R.M.S. 
officials  and  clerks  worked  in  the  postal  car  of  the  pilot  train 
escorting  King  George  VI  and  Queen  Elizabeth  on  a  visit 
here  via  Niagara  Falls,  Washington,  New  York,  and  Rouses 
Point  (N.Y.);  they  canceled  318,000  covers  with  six  types  of 
postmarks,  including  a  machine  cancel  which  was  the  only  one 
used  on  any  steam  R.P.O.  train. 

Terminal  and  Transfer  Office  cancels  are  not  so  standard- 
ized as  those  of  the  iron  road,  and  there  are  numerous  \arie- 
ties  of  hand  and  machine  postmarks  that  cannot  be  classified 
here.  George  Turner  has  listed  nine  varieties  of  terminal 
cancels  alone  in  Postal  Markings;  the  newest  ones  at  this  writ- 


266  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ing  still  read,  as  a  rule,  "  (CITY),  (STATE)  TERM./R.P.O." 
with  "RMS"  in  the  killer.  Some  abbreviation  of  "Transfer 
Clerk"  or  "Transfer  OfTice"  is  found  in  the  cancels  of  nearly 
all  such  units,  except  those  of  the  unusual,  just-discontinued 
"Relay  Depot,  East  St.  Louis,  111.,"  and  the  earlier  (T.O.) 
Round  Table,  Kansas  City,  Missouri.  But  the  mark  "L.  M. 
ACT"  (local  mail  agent)  was  the  one  used  by  earlier,  pre- 
R.M.S.  units  of  this  type.  Air  Mail  Fields,  P.T.S.,  show  even 
more  variety  in  their  cancels;  some  were  designated  "R.P.O.s" 
while  killers  vary  from  "RMS"  (the  commonest)  to  "AMS," 
"PTS"  (newest),  or  no  wording  at  all.  No  cancels  have  yet 
been  applied  aloft,  but  cachets  have  (see  Chapter  16).  "PTS" 
killers  are  slated  for  our  newest  terminal  and  T.O.  marks. 

There  are  specialized  markings  applied  to  transit  mail  in 
post  ofTices,  often  referring  to  R.P.O.  trains,  which  attract 
many  collectors.  "T.P.O."  postmarks  in  Great  Britain  include 
two  attractive  large  modern  types  with  double  circles  (with 
black  block  or  center-line  fill-ins)  and  numerous  smaller 
types,  some  with  stars.  Neither  British  nor  Canadian  cancels, 
which  are  a  small  standardized  single-circle  type,  use  killers. 

Specializing  collectors  find  the  old  streetcar  R.P.O.  cancels 
of  major  interest—so  much  so  that  a  Street  Car  Cancel  Society 
was  founded  (March  31,  1946)  by  Secretary  Fred  Langford  of 
Pasadena,  California,  and  President  Earl  Moore  of  Chicago.' 
It  was  thus  the  first  R.P.O.  society  (though  not  for  all  R.P.O. 
hobbyists)  to  be  organized  in  America;  it  considers  Transit 
Postmark  its  official  jotnnal  and  has  issued  some  duplicated 
Street  R.P.O.  material.  The  largest  collection  of  American 
streetcar  R.P.O.  covers  is  owned  by  member  Robert  A.  Truax 
of  Washington,  D.  C;  while  Moore's  collection  of  car 
photos  is  probably  tops.  Street  R.P.O.  cancels  exhibited 
a  most  incredible  variety  of  types.  San  Francisco  alone  had 
both  machine  and  hand  cancels,  with  crude  cork  killers  and 
steel  R.M.S.  ones,  and  sexeral  reversals  or  variations  of  title, 
even  to  shifting  it  to  the  killer!    Flag;  cancels  were  used  in 


•The  secretary  is  at  100  East  Colorado  St.,  Pasadena  1;  membership.  $1  for  life. 


THE  "R.P.O.  HOBBY"  267 

Boston,  St.  Louis,  and  Cleveland,  also  with  route  name  in 
killer  and  with  year  dates  separated. 

While  we  have  dealt  mostly  with  the  postmark-collecting 
phase  of  the  hobby  in  this  chapter,  the  photo-collecting  angle 
and  others  are  actually  of  equal  importance.  There  are,  of 
course,  no  detailed  classifications  of  photograph  types,  but 
they  can  be  grouped  roughly  as  (1)  views  of  R.P.O.  trains, 
(2)  exterior  views  of  R.P.O.  cars,  (3)  interior  views  of  cars, 
and  (4)  miscellaneous.  The  largest  collection  of  R.P.O. 
photos  is  believed  to  be  that  of  L.  E.  Dequine. 

Other  hobbyists  avidly  collect  R.P.O.  literature,  data, 
pouch  labels,  facing  slips,  forms,  historical  information, 
schemes  and  schedules  (particularly  old-time  ones),  and  what 
not.  Closely  allied  to  the  R.P.O.  hobbyists  are  the  seapost 
and  maritime  cover  collectors,  who  are  catered  to  by  the  Mari- 
time Postmark  Society  and  Universal  Ship  Cancellation 
Society  as  well  as  the  T.P.O.  Sc  Seapost  Society;  but  their 
activities  are  beyond  our  scope  here.  Many  leading  maritime 
collectors,  however,  are  also  very  prominent  in  specialized 
R.P.O.  fields— including  Robert  S.  Gordon  of  Northfield,  Ver- 
mont (our  leading  authority  on  foreign  R.P.O.s);  Vernon  L. 
Ardiff  of  Chicago,  Illinois  (a  trolley  and  boat  R.P.O.  spe- 
cialist); and  Holton   (similarly  inclined). 

The  R.P.O.  hobbyists  are  performing  a  noteworthy  service 
in  helping  to  publicize  the  importance  of  the  Postal  Trans- 
portation Service  in  American  life  today,  and  in  the  past  they 
have  been  responsible  for  at  least  four  fifths  of  the  published 
material  dealing  with  the  Service  (excluding  the  Raihuay  Post 
Office  and  official  pamphlets)  for  the  past  thirty  years.  The 
hobby  well  deserves  Government  support  to  the  extent  of 
publicizing  impending  R.P.O.  changes  in  advance,  and  of 
selling  P.T.S.  schemes  and  schedules  to  collectors  (now  un- 
available); revenues  from  the  latter  procedure  and  from 
stamps  for  covers  Avould  soon  return  a  profit.  Such  collectors 
are  real  boosters  of  the  postal  service,  and  deserve  all 
encouragement. 


Chapter  14 


ON  FAR  HORIZONS:  I—THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.S 


Here  comes  the  Night  Mail  crossing  the  border, 
Bringing  the  chefjue  and  tlic  postal  order, 
Letters  for  the  rich,  letters  for  the  poor, 
The  shop  at  the  corner  and  the  girl  next  door  .  .  . 
Past  cotton  grass  and  moorland  hoidder, 
Shovelling  white  steam  over  her  shoulder  .  .  . 

—  W.  H.  AuDEN   (Courtesy  G.P.O.,  London) 


Just  what  is  a  typical  system  of  overseas 
R.P.O.s  like?  In  normal  times  there  is  a 
continuous  chain  of  connecting  railway 
mail  and  steamship  routes  all  aroimd  the 
world,  sorting  mails  in  transit  by  devious 
methods  often  startlingly  different  from 
ours  {Note  17).  Disregarding  technical 
duplications,  R.P.O.s  or  related  transit 
mail  routes  have  operated  in  fully  107  different  countries  or 
colonies;  and  still  do,  in  most.  Rather  than  make  tiresome  suc- 
cessive studies  of  the  R.P.O.  systems  of  each  principal  country, 
we  will  defer  brief  descriptions  of  most  of  them  to  our  next 
chapter  and  concentrate  here  on  one  typically  European  sys- 
tem located  in  a  country  in  which  we  Americans  have  a  deep 
and  natural  interest.  Since  it  differs  from  our  own  system  even 
more  than  do  Continental  net^vorks,  we  shall  find  the  story  of 
the  British  "Travelling  Post  Office"  to  be  of  consuming  in- 
terest as  we  review  the  amazing  contrasts  it  presents  to  our 
American  setup. 

Imagine,  if  you  will,  R.P.O.  cars  without  pouch  tables, 

268 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O/s  269 

newspaper  racks,  or  case  headers— but  equipped  with  uphol- 
stered leather  padding,  neat  coco-fiber  floor  mats,  and  a  huge 
net  apparatus  for  making  two-way  "catches."  Then  man  these 
cars  v/ith  raihvay  mail  clerks  who  have  never  iieard  of  gen- 
eral schemes,  mail  locks,  or  periodic  case  examinations,  and 
who  cut  twine  and  open  mailbags  only  with  "the  official  scis- 
sors." Next,  conceive  a  railway  mail  service  which  has  no  per- 
sonnel of  its  own  (it  is  in  common  with  that  of  the  post  offices), 
which  includes  a  letter  bill  with  every  primary  dispatch  of 
first-class  mail,  and  in  which  practically  every  term  of  speech 
differs  from  the  corresponding  "American"  word.  Finally, 
picture  the  great  cities  of  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  ^vhich 
no  R.P.O.  train  ever  enters;  yet,  one  leaves  Liverpool  night- 
ly—never to  return!  That's  just  a  bare  introduction  to 
Britain's  "T.P.O.s." 

Furthermore,  we  find  that  a  different  title  is  assigned  to  each 
train— no  train  numbers  are  used  to  designate  the  Traveling 
Post  Offices  as  they  speed  over  the  realm  from  the  white  cliffs 
of  Dover  clear  to  the  rugged  lands  of  the  north  Scottish  crofters 
(Helmsdale)  or  out  by  Cornwall's  famed  Land's  End.  We 
learn  that  letter  bags  are  closed  with  lead  seals  and  string  and 
that  swing-out  stools,  cushioned  to  match  the  car  padding, 
(sometimes  in  a  decorative  design)  are  often  furnished  for 
letter  clerks.  And  no  labels  are  placed  on  top  of  letter-pack- 
ages (when  used,  they're  on  the  back)!  But  before  we  poke 
fun  at  such  "quaint,"  apparently  leisurely  doings  or  start 
bragging  about  the  much  greater  amount  of  R.P.O.  mail 
sorted  per  man-hour— according  to  observers'  claims— in  the 
States,  we  can  do  well  to  remember  that  in  other  respects  the 
English  system  ranks  ahead  of  our  own.  Only  on  British 
T.P.O.  lines  do  we  find  (1)  full  facilities  for  sorting  all  types 
and  sizes  of  admissible  mails  (except  parcels)  with  ease,  in  sepa- 
rate cases;  (2)  automatic  apparatus  \vhich  simultaneously 
"catches"  and  dispatches  up  to  one  thousand,  two  hundred 
pounds  of  mail  at  once,  at  full  speed;  and  (.8)  the  ultimate  in 
safe,  comfortably  furnished  mail  cars.  The  largest  R.P.O. 
train  in  the  world  runs  in  Britain. 

A  daily  high  standard  of  performance,  and  not  breakneck 


270  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

speed,  is  the  officially  announced  aim  of  the  T.P.O.  system; 
but  even  so  the  service  normally  provides  overnight  delivery 
by  first  carrier  for  any  letter  posted  in  the  evening  at  London 
for  atiy  place  in  England  or  Wales!  Letters  mailed  on  midday 
T.P.O.  trains  can  even  be  delivered  the  same  evening.  Never- 
theless, the  British  Travelling  Post  Office  does  not  even  claim 
to  be  a  network  of  continuous,  twenty-four-hour-a-day  distri- 
buting arteries  with  a  main-line  R.P.O.  train  everv  few  hours 
or  so,  as  in  America;  the  country's  small  size  makes  it  unneces- 
sary. But  the  T.P.O.  man's  specialized  job  is  a  very  vital  one, 
and  he  is  highly  respected,  sometimes  "almost  revered,"  by 
such  few  of  the  public  as  know  he  exists.  James  Tierney  writes 
to  praise  "the  wonderful  team  spirit  of  the  workers  on  these 
trains;  I  don't  know  if  you  will  find  anywhere  else  a  staff  of 
men  working  so  keenly  together  for  the  accuracy  and  speed  of 
their  service."  The  British  clerk  is  speedy  and  efficient,  per- 
haps because  he  does  work  at  a  less  frenzied  pace  than  his 
American  colleague— in  whose  R.P.O.s  the  English  chaps  in 
turn  find  quite  a  bit  at  which  to  poke  fun.  Our  hectic  pouch 
racks,  catcher  hooks,  and  armed  clerks  always  amuse  them. 

The  difference  in  nomenclature  between  the  English  and 
American  systems  is  in  itself  a  fascinating  study.  Phrases  of 
considerable  length  and  dignity  are  often  preponderant;  thus 
a  letter  package  is  a  bundle  of  correspondence,  and  the  X-man 
is  called  the  carriage  searcher.  We  speak  of  a  crew  of  clerks, 
but  in  England  this  is  a  team  of  officers,  or,  collectively,  the 
staff.  Usually  officers  assigned  to  distribution  (sorting)  are 
naturally  dubbed  sorters,  although  their  official  titles  might  be 
those  of  postman  higJier  grade,  S.C.  &  T./  and  so  on,  or  of 
other  grades;  one's  fellow  sorters  are  often  called  the  bods. 
Pouch  dumpers  are  bag  openers;  the  R.P.O.  car  is  a  T.P.O. 
carriage  or  sorting  coach  (or  van),  but  the  whole  train  is  a 
mail.  It  would  never  do  to  apply  this  term  to  a  closed-pouch 
train,  iiowever;  if  the  latter  is  an  all-mail  affair,  like  most  of 
them,  it  is  a  bag  tender.  A  letter  case  is  usually  a  sorting  frame, 
and  the  separations  made  up  thereon,  selections.    (But  a  case 


'Sorting  clerk  &  telegraphist;  British  telegraphs  are  part  of  the  Post  OflBce. 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  271 

dia^am,  and  hence  in  many  cases  the  sorting  frame  itself,  is 
called  a  letter  plan.)  A  sorter  gets  on  top  of,  not  "up"  on,  his 
work— or  else  (in  rare  cases)  fails  or  goes  up  the  ivy  (goes 
"stuck,"  or  stucko,  as  the  English  sometimes  say).  Instead  of 
"laying  over"  a  day  at  his  outer  terminal,  a  sorter  says  he's 
resting  away;  he  catches  pouches  on  the  fly  with  the  apparatus; 
he  gets  aggregation  or  ogg,  not  overtime;  and  if  he's  a  city 
clerk,  he  is  often  called  a  postman  and  is  said  to  be  sorting  his 
mail  to  postmen's  ivalks,  not  to  carriers.  To  avoid  a  failure,  a 
sorter  may  have  to  depend  on  a  last-minute  scramble  (shirt 
tail  finish)  to  clear  his  mail.  Each  trip  is  a  journey,  newspapers 
are  simply  news,  and  surplus  clerks  (a  different  type  from 
ours)  are  redundant  sorters;  errors  are  missorts.  Other  equally 
interesting  terms  will  follow. 

Britain  has  only  about  five  hundred  T.P.O.  "officers" 
(sorters),  but  they  distribute  over  500,000,000  pieces  of  mail 
annually.  They  usually  work  in  attractive,  full-size  sixty-foot 
coaches  bearing  the  royal  crest  and  script  letters  "OR" 
(George  Rex),  as  well  as  the  letter  slot  and  "ROYAL  MAIL" 
wording  mentioned.  Also  on  the  side  of  the  car  are  four  col- 
lapsed pouch-dispatching  arms  (two  beside  each  safety-rodded 
sliding  door);  two  large  "side  lights"  for  catcher  duty;  and  a 
large  "apparatus  door,"  recessed  for  the  height  of  the  car,  con- 
taining the  huge  hinged-frame  net  catcher  folded  against  it. 
Some  cars  have  tiny,  narrow  horizontal  windows  in  a  row 
under  the  eaves.  These  cars  cost  over  $10,000  each  (prewar) 
and  travel  some  four  million  miles  yearly.  Inside  there  are 
no  racks;  one  entire  side  of  the  coach  is  devoted  to  sorting 
frames,  the  other  to  a  continuous  ro-^v  of  iron  pegs  (one  and 
one-half  inches  apart)  on  which  mailbags  are  hung  limp  by 
one  rins^  from  the  wall. 

Car-interior  paint  varies  from  green  to  a  new  "duck-egg 
blue"  (some  English  ducks  lay  bluish  eggs);  and  green  leather 
covers  the  upholstered  horsehair  padding  applied  to  all  walls 
and  projecting  edges,  case  ledges,  and  even  horizontal  rase 
partitions.  In  lieu  of  safety  rods,  it  serves  to  absorb  the  buffet- 
ings  received  by  clerks  when  rounding  sharp  curves  or  in  case 
of  wreck.   Case  pigeonholes  vary  in  size  from  those  for  short 


272  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

letters  (large  enough  for  most  greeting  cards)  to  those  for  long 
letters  and  packets  (\vide  cards  and  small  "flats")  in  some  in- 
stances, and  those  in  neius  frames,  the  largest  boxes,  used  for 
sorting  newspapers  and  large  packets;  such  cases  have  differ- 
ent-sized boxes  according  to  "position"  values.  The  wide 
horizontal  case  partitions  are  enameled  with  numbers  (in  lieu 
of  headers);  vertical  partitions  are  very  narro^v  and  recessed 
concavely  to  enable  instant  withdrawal  of  mail.  Sorting  frames 
average  about  fifty-four  (six  tiers  of  nine  each)  boxes,  but  vary 
from  forty-five  up  to  eighty-tAvo  on  riexvs  and  packet  frames. 
(Photos  show  some  clerks  standing  all  letters  in  certain  narrow 
boxes  on  edge;  but  this  is  not  standard  practice.) 

All  comforts  and  conveniences  possible  are  supplied.  The 
R.  L.  officer  (registry  clerk)  has  his  own  special  five-foot 
frame  with  a  locking  roller-shutter  closing  over  it.  Electrical- 
ly  operated  "urns,"  ovens,  or  hot  plates  are  found  in  all  cars; 
tea  can  be  boiled  in  half  an  hour,  foods  quickly  cooked  or 
warmed  by  hot  plate,  and  urns  switch  oflF  automatically  when 
contents  are  boiling  or  when  emptied;  the  largest  R.P.O.  has 
three  urns  and  several  ovens.  The  case  ledges  or  tables  are 
covered  with  green  baize,  and  the  news  desks  (cases)  have 
breast  boards  to  keep  mail  from  falling.  There  is  no  worry 
about  separating  pouches  and  sacks,  for  the  same  standard 
mailbag  is  used  for  all  postal  matter;  the  term  pouch  refers 
only  to  the  leather  containers  in  which  bags  are  packed  for 
non-stop  dispatch.  Outgoing  bags  are  hung  directly  behind 
the  proper  letter  frame,  their  large  printed  tags  mounted  on 
the  pegs  above  them— and  the  sorters,  most  conveniently, 
reach  directly  behind  to  bag  off  their  "tied-up  bundles." 
(With  few  made-up  bundles  received  and  with  cases  for  sort- 
ing all  "flats,"  there  is  little  need  for  a  pouch  table.)  There 
is  the  tisual  xunrdrobe  cupboard  (closet)  and  "combined  lava- 
tory and  wash-up." 

Of  course  vexatious  irregularities  can  play  havoc  with  the 
intended  provisions  for  comfort— broken  urns  and  carriage 
gang^vays,  eye-straining  "half  lights,"  dangerously  rough 
lurchings  from  the  engine  driver,  or  freezing  trips  following 
an  unheated  stationary  period  (advance  time)  are  all  too  well 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O/s  275 

knoAs'n.  When  the  Avindows  of  one  car  ^vere  suddenly  ^vashed 
thoroughly,  the  staff  commented,  "We  must  have  been  mis- 
taken for  first-class  coaches!"  (It  all  sounds  strangely  familiar 
to  American  clerks,  as  does  the  sometimes-disregarded  pro- 
vision that  the  T.P.O.  coach  should  be  separated  from  the 
engine  by  another  carriage  if  possible.  The  objection  is  the 
rough  riding,  rather  than  a  safety  factor,  however.) 

The  staff  consists  mostly  of  post-office  sorters  who  volunteer 
for  traveling  duties  and  are  detailed  largely  from  the  London 
G.P.O.,  although  provincial  staffs  hail  from  Birmingham, 
Glasgow,  and  so  on.  They  wear  no  badges.  (A  Civil  Service 
Commission  appoints  these  clerks  originally  by  competitive 
exams,  exactly  as  with  us.)  Most  T.P.O.  sorters  are,  or  soon 
will  be,  classed  in  two  principal  grades— Po5/777Y7n  Higher 
Grade  and  Postman— under  the  current  reallocation  of  staff; 
the  officer  in  charge,  or  O/C  (clerk-in-charge),  is  of  the  Assist- 
ant Inspector  grade  thereunder,  although  many  are  in  the 
old  grade  of  Overseer  at  this  writing.  Popularly,  the  O/C  is 
called  the  guv' nor  or  gaffer;  he  is  required  only  to  attend  to 
supervision  and  the  necessary  reports,  any  assistance  he  may 
give  to  a  sorter  being  purely  voluntary.  He  does  not,  as  per- 
sistently reported  (even  in  a  film),  occupy  a  private  office  on 
the  train;  at  least  not  in  any  modern  T.P.O.  Nor  does  he, 
as  on  United  States  lines,  sell  stamps  to  the  public. 

The  average  sorter  works  on  the  lines  only  on  a  term  basis; 
each  four  or  five  years'  road  duty  is  followed  by  a  required 
period  of  two  years  or  more  in  a  stationary  (or  static)  office. 
He  may  still  be  considered  a  reserve  officer  for  emergency 
T.P.O.  runs;  and  conversely,  during  road  terms,  any  extra 
duty  needed  to  equalize  time  must  be  done  in  post  offices- 
there  are  no  P.T.S.  terminals.  Acting  additional  clerks  are 
called  pressure  men,  but  there  are  no  substitutes.  Promotion 
is  from  the  ranks,  but  mostly  to  post-office  positions.  Sorters 
in  service  prior  to  1947  may  travel  permanently. 

While  sorters  average  only  about  $38  a  week  in  total  pay^ 


*Pre-devaluation  pound  values,  a  more  accurate  economic  picture,  arc  used 
here. 


274  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

and  allowances,  they  are  furnished  many  special  items  free- 
all  necessary  medical  attention,  protective  clothing  (work 
clothes),  free  soap  and  towels,  free  grips  {tot.  bags),  and  certain 
ration  privileges.  And,  of  course,  British  living  costs  are  low- 
er. Travel  pay  consists  of  a  duty  allowance  ($1.80-$2.10 
weekly)  to  compensate  for  the  strenuous  work,  payable  even 
when  on  leave,  and  a  subsistence  or  trip  allowance  ($1.30  to 
$2.40  per  trip)  covering  board  and  lodging.  Largely  because 
of  the  six-day  week,  British  clerks  also  have  shorter  rest  days 
or  layoffs  than  American  clerks;  but  here  again  their  days  off 
are  free  from  all  studies  and  home  duties,  and  they  have  much 
more  annual  leave— twenty-one  actual  days  yearly.  They  av- 
erage about  one  and  one-half  to  two  days  off  per  week,  depend- 
ing on  size  of  the  line;  but  if  a  five-day  week  is  introduced, 
as  the  postal  union  is  urging,  length  of  time  off  will  be  only 
slightly  under  American  standards. 

New  men,  freshly  detailed  to  a  T.P.O.  from  the  post  ofRces, 
are  given  two  weeks'  tuition  in  T.P.O.  duties  at  the  Central 
Training  School,  London,  or  at  regional  schools  elsewhere. 
Demonstrations  in  sidetracked  T.P.O.  carriages,  as  well  as 
instruction  trips,  follow;  on  short  lines  such  trips  may  be  the 
only  instruction  available.  The  London  T.P.O.  school  pro- 
vides the  only  example  of  T.P.O.  sorters  using  practice  cards; 
they  are  a  postwar  innovation  and  still  used  by  new  learners 
only,  and  are  not  sorted  to  T.P.O.'s.  Clerks  on  all  runs  termi- 
nating at  London  are  drawn  from  the  various  London  post 
offices,  while  provincial  lines  and  outlying  short  runs  [half- 
way jouryieys)  are  staffed  from  their  terminal  offices.  Round 
trips  [return  journeys)  on  the  latter  are  made  within  one  day. 

In  most  cases  a  T.P.O.  sorter  is  an  English  gentleman— and 
dresses  accordingly,  even  when  on  duty.  Business  suits  and 
spruce  white  shirts  are  not  an  uncommon  sight  in  the  mail 
car.  Clerks  on  medium-heavy  work  slip  protective  clothing 
(like  P.T.S.  officials'  "coveralls")  over  street  wear;  but  only  the 
neivs  rats  and  others  on  heaviest  assignments  have  to  change 
clothes.  Meticulous  and  rules-conscious,  they  are  required  to 
refuse  unauthorized  privileges  asked  by  the  public  (such  as 
irregular  postmark   impressions);   but  their  courteous  and 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  275 

helpful  attitude  to  all  comers,  including  collectors,  is  pro- 
verbial. The  O/C  can  even  approve  the  admittance  of  a 
visitor,  at  his  discretion.  Most  sorters  are  of  a  high  degree  of 
intelligence,  culture,  and  good  nature,  although  they  jokingly 
call  themselves  topers  in  spite  of  their  usual  temperate 
habits.  They  usually  work  on  a  five-week  cycle  but  rotate 
among  the  various  assignments  (numbered,  as  in  our  crews) 
as  listed  on  the  running  sheets  (register  of  runs).  Denied  use 
of  schemes,  most  T.P.O.  men— especially  the  R.  L.  officer,  who 
is  the  key  distributor— carry  a  tip  book  of  important  local 
routings. 

To  view  a  typical  British  T.P.O.  run,  let's  take  a  trip  on 
the  great  Down/Up  Special  of  the  Midland  and  Scottish 
Regions,  British  Railways.  We  would  call  this  route  the  Aber- 
deen Sc  London  R.P.O.;  but  the  British  apply  titles  to  each 
train  only,  the  line's  other  trains  being  designated  as  the  North 
West  T.P.O.  and  so  forth.  World's  largest  R.P.O.  train,  the 
Down/Up  Special  is  faster  than  the  line's  speediest  passenger 
train  as  it  roars  through  the  night  up  to  Scotland— yet  it  does 
not  actually  pass  througJi  a  single  large  city!  T.P.O.s  leav- 
ing London  are  Down  Mails  and  those  arriving  there  Up 
Mails  (regardless  of  direction);  so  our  train  is  really  the 
"Down  Special"  to  begin  with.  It  is  often  dubbed  "The 
Longest  and  Largest,"  "The  Night  Mail,"  or  just  the  Special; 
but  in  railway  circles  it  is  the  West  Coast  Postal  or  Postal 
Special.  It  is  one  of  two  pairs  of  non-passenger,  all-mail  trains. 

At  about  7  P.M.  the  ftfty-odd  sorters  manning  the  Special 
begin  to  converge  upon  the  Euston  Station  mail  room  from 
all  parts  of  London  and  its  suburbs,  carrying  handbags.  Most 
arrive  via  suburban  train,  bus,  underground  (subway),  or 
tram  (trolley),  but  even  those  commuting  in  by  train  over 
the  Special's  own  route  must  pay  fares;  their  official  warrants 
(commissions)  are  no  good  for  deadheading  to  work.  At  the 
mail  room,  with  its  lockers  and  bulletin  boards,  the  sorters 
pick  up  their  black  cloth  tot  bags  which  they  use  instead  of 
grips.  Their  contents  are  mostly  work  clothes,  for  the  British 
clerk  need  carry  no  headers,  schemes,  schedules,  slips,  or 
labels;  such  of  these  as  he  requires  are  sent  direct  to  the  car  in 


276  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

the  train-supplies  bag  (labeled  "T.P.O,  Stores").  Since  the 
tot  l)ags  arc  not  heavy,  there  is  no  grip  man. 

A  "rather  fussy  little  shunting  engine"  brings  in  the  long 
line  of  sixty-foot  coaches  from  the  Willesden  yard,  where  they 
are  marshaled  (made  up),  and  spots  them  at  Euston's  No.  2 
platform.  Fully  five  cars  are  sorting  carriages,  while  the  rest 
are  for  stoxuage  or  storage  mails  (one  devoted  largely  to  the 
catcher  apparatus).  By  seven  fifteen,  the  reporting  time,  the 
sorters  are  inside  the  car  and  donning  their  coveralls;  the 
handbags  containing  overnight  needs  are  stowed  on  overhead 
shelves;  all  sorters  sign  the  lick  sheet  (like  our  old  arrival-and- 
depnrture  book!),  and  the  1 14-hour  stationary  period  begins. 

All  slips,  labels,  and  letter  bills  have  been  previously  fur- 
nished, stamped,  and  run  out  by  ofiice  personnel;  and  twine 
and  sealing  materials  accompany  these  supplies  in  the  "stores" 
bag.  Three  of  the  jimior  sorters  or  mail  porters  (postmen 
under  reallocation)  thereupon  hang  some  250  to  280  bags 
on  the  pegs  in  each  R.P.O.  car,  in  limp  Christmas-stocking 
style.  Bag  labels  contain  extra  holes  for  quick  hanging  on 
pegs  or  in  surplus-label  ro^vs  overhead.  Each  sorting  coach  is 
also  equipped  with  sealing  presses,  car  keys,  reference  books 
such  as  the  Postal  Guide  and  P.O.'s  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
a  postmarker,  rubber  stamps,  various  pairs  of  official  scissors, 
and  (in  one  car)  an  "official  watch"— a  standard  timepiece 
brought  up  by  runner  from  the  G.P.O.  Inland  Section. 

In  th.?  absence  of  headers,  many  sorters  use  a  piece  of  duke 
(or  Duke  of  For/^j— chalk— to  mark  or  abbreviate  the  names 
of  the  various  selections  (boxes)  in  the  letter  frames.  Some 
prefer  a  cardboard  diagram  of  the  case  arrangement,  showing 
all  the  names,  hung  overhead.  But  the  more  expert  sorters 
often  dispense  with  both  and  pretty  much  "work  blind," 
guided  only  by  the  consecutive  numbers  from  one  to  fifty- 
four  or  so.  Newspapers  are  simply  sorted  into  the  big  pigeon- 
holes at  the  nczvs  desk,  gathered  up,  and  "bagged  off"  w'ith 
the  letters.  Most  sorters  arrange  their  cases  by  standard  letter 
plans  (diagrams)  furnished  by  the  Department,  but  do  other- 
wise if  preferred.  Separate  cases  and  plans  are  used  for  each 
postal  division  of  England  and  Scotland,  for  certain  heavy 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  277 

counties,  for  cities,  for  foreign  mails,  and  for  the  mixed  (nn- 
sorted).  Since  even  short-letter  boxes  are  five  inches  Avide  and 
the  other  cases  have  wider  ones,  there  is  no  trouble  with 
wade  greeting  cards!  Oflficial  diagrams  are  usually  alphabetical 
in  the  horizontal  plane,  except  for  heaviest  separations  (placed 
near  bottom  center,  according  to  "position  values"  deter- 
mined by  test);  most  selections  are  directs,  others  are  Forward 
or  Dist.  (dis)  boxes,  and  very  few  wdll  be  labeled  to  connect- 
ing T.P.O.s. 

The  "order  book"  is  used  in  England,  as  here,  except  that 
it  is  kept  on  the  train;  "authorized  amendments  and  correc- 
tions" to  circulation  (routing)  instructions  must  be  noted 
therefrom.  (Like  check  sheets,  extra  trips,  primary-secondary 
residue,  G.P.O.,  Postmaster  General,  this  is  one  of  the  few 
terms  ivhich  is  common  to  both  British  and  American  prac- 
tice.) The  neatly  dressed  officer-in-charge,  presiding  at  a  spare 
(unused)  letter  frame  equipped  with  a  stool,  keeps  not  only 
the  order  book  but  also  the  tick  sheet,  which  is  a  combination 
check  sheet  (pouch  record)  and  trip  report;  the  main  circula- 
tion list,  the  nearest  thing  to  an  R.P.O.  schem.e;  the  forroard 
list  (alphabetical  list  of  all  bags  made  up  and  dispatched); 
the  time  bills  (T.P.O.  train  schedules);  the  postal  volumes 
mentioned;  and  T.P.O.  rule  books  and  duty  schedules.  The 
tick  sheet  mtist  show  the  date  stamp  of  the  postmarker,  signa- 
tures of  all  on  dutv,  especially  of  the  carriage  searcher,  and  re- 
ports of  all  mail  mis-sent  or  overcarried  (carried  by). 

One  of  the  first  bags  received  in  the  coach  contains  the  daily 
orders  from  the  chief  superintendent  (of  the  T.P.O.  Section) 
for  the  train  and  official  mail  for  the  O/C.  The  "guv'nor" 
is  permitted  to  ansiver  his  official  correspondence  in  detail 
while  on  duty;  at  the  halfway  point  his  replies  (all  enveloped 
and  postmarked)  are  sent  back  to  London  via  the  transfer  bag 
(go-back  pouch).  Answers  will  be  in  the  office  by  7  A.AL  of 
the  day  following  that  when  the  letters  ^vent  out. 

Ne^\'s  reporters  enthusiastically  describe  the  Special  as  "a 
thing  of  beauty  inside  and  out,"  \vith  beams  of  lifjht  from  its 
"big  electric  bulbs  giving  a  dazzling  and  bizarre  effect."  Mails 
arrive  at  trainside  in  motor  vans  or  on  trolleys  (hand  trucks) 


278  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

and  are  quickly  separated  and  lined  up  to  the  proper  coach  by 
station  postal  employees.  A  ShefTield  newsman,  the  first  ad- 
mitted to  a  T.P.O.  (lf)31),  stated,  "The  perfect  organization 
commences  with  the  loading  .  .  .  No  rush,  just  organised 
speed."  ("Speed"  is  right— many  "Special"  clerks  sort  seventy 
letters  a  minute!)  A  sorter  called  the  clerk  "ticks  off"  both  the 
letter  bags  and  newspaper  bags  on  the  check  sheet  as  another 
officer  calls  the  labels.  All  inbound  bags  of  identical  origin 
are  in  the  same  series  regardless  of  contents,  but  instead  of 
using  serial  numbers,  the  last  bag  of  the  series  (the  "X,"  as 
we  say)  is  called  the  final,  and  any  others,  extra  bags.  (The 
final  bag  has  a  pink  tag  showing  total  number  in  series.) 

The  regular  (final)  bags  are  stacked  behind  the  bag  open- 
er's table  (part  of  the  case  ledge),  and  the  extra  bags,  usually 
containing  newspapers,  behind  the  appropriate  neu'S  desk. 
From  all  of  London  and  southern  England  the  bags  come 
flooding  in— from  the  suburbs,  from  the  London  district 
offices  (branches),  and  especially  from  the  huge  Inland  Sec- 
tion, or  "Big  House,"  which  sorts  all  the  provincial  mails  (par- 
ticularly in  daylight  hours,  when  T.P.O.s  seldom  operate). 
The  highly  graded  bag  opener  opens  up  each  bag  with  the 
official  scissors  (its  ends  curved  to  avoid  injuring  the  bag),  for 
British  mailbags  are  tied  with  string  and  lead-sealed  at  the 
ofiice  of  origin,  the  sealing  press  stamping  its  official  signet 
thereon.  Cutting  the  string  also  detaches  the  big  2x5  inch 
cardboard  label  from  each  steel-ringed  bag  (which  is  stenciled 
"GREAT  BRITAIN-POST  OFFICE"),  then  the  opener 
must  turn  each  bag  inside  out  lest  any  mail  remain  therein. 

Meanwhile  one  clerk  has  been  stationed  in  each  stowage 
brake  (non-passenger  cars  are  "brakes")  to  pile  the  storage 
mails  as  diagrammed  in  his  bag-duty  book.  As  in  the  United 
States,  bags  are  stacked  carefully  in  station  order  with  the 
first-off  ones  close  at  hand,  and  the  stowage-van  officer  is  ad- 
vised to  chalk  up  the  names  of  the  various  separations.  But 
he  must  also  lock  all  doors  with  a  key,  later  surrendering  this 
to  the  O/C,  unless  railway  employees  are  detailed  to  this. 

In  the  T.P.O.  coach  the  bog  hiimper  (dumper)  must  quick- 
ly locate  the  tied-up  entry  items  (registers  and  urgent  matter) 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  279 

with  attached  letter  bill  which  are  looked  for  in  each  final, 
or  "bill,"  bag.  The  bill,  a  postmarked  green  form  listing  all 
registered  and  special-delivery  (express)  items,  jury  sum- 
monses, mailed  telegrams,  parliamentary  notices,  and  other 
official  matter,  must  be  included  in  each  regular  bag  whether 
entry  items  are  present  or  not;  if  six  or  more  items,  they  come 
inside  a  small  enclosure  bag.  All  entry  items  and  bills  arc 
placed  in  a  nearby  tray,  checked  by  totals,  and  transferred  to 
the  R.  L.  officer  (register  clerk)  with  an  initialed  form  against 
his  receipt.  (On  British  lines  the  R.  L.  officer  may  accept 
mail  from  the  public  for  registration.) 

Most  incoming  mail  consists  of  working  bundles— quickly 
tossed  to  the  proper  sorting  frame,  perhaps  to  the  broad-ac- 
cented warning,  "Coming  ov-aaar!"  If  too  many  bundles 
come  flying  over,  the  sorter  may  cry,  "Take  it  easy,  sonny 
boy!"  or  something  similar,  whereupon  further  packages  are 
relegated  to  the  skips,  which  are  baskets  for  overflow  mail. 
Letters  to  be  worked,  cut  open  with  the  oflicial  scissors,  are 
usually  stacked  on  end  between  the  case  and  the  front  board; 
balls  of  heavy  twine  are  in  overhead  holders.  American 
twine  knives,  first  introduced  in  1949,  are  becoming  popular; 
but  most  sorters  use  the  official  scissors  to  cut  all  twine  both 
on  working  bundles  and  when  tying  iip  after  finishing.  No 
sorters  are  armed,  not  even  the  R.  L.  man;  but  registers  are 
properly  convoyed. 

As  the  R.  L.  oflicer  prepares  his  outgoing  letter  bills,  the 
short  stationary  period  nears  its  end.  By  then  he  must  have 
his  tally  sheets  (balance  sheet),  outgoing  extra-bag  record, 
transfer  sheets  (bulk-receipt  forms  for  bag  opener),  and  his 
sealing  press  all  functioning  properly.  His  registers  are  dis- 
tinctively marked  with  two  crossed  blue  lines  (+)  and  neat 
printed  labels  showing  both  registry  number  and  origin— a 
convenience  adopted  in  nearly  every  country  but  the  United 
States.  Mail  containing  coins  or  jeAvelry  is  given  compulsory 
registration,  if  detected,  at  the  addressee's  expense. 

The  last  collection  has  been  made  from  the  station's  late- 
fee  posting  box,  and  the  zero  hour  of  eight-thirty  approaches. 
Mail  trucks  with  the  final  loads  from  Euston  Square  Post 


280  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

OfTice,  and  latecomers  with  letters  to  mail,  hurry  to  the  train- 
side.  At  a  prolonged  blast  from  the  whistle  the  great  Night 
Mail  slo"\vly  pulls  out;  it  crawls  under  Ampthill  Square  and 
Ilampstead  Road  and  gathers  speed,  passing  Regent's  Park  on 
the  left  and  the  Camden  Town  section  to  the  right.  It  is  carry- 
ing at  least  three  thousand  bags  of  mail,  including  five  hun- 
dred or  more  "workers,"  containing  seventy  thousand  letters 
(about  two  thousand,  eight  hundred  packages)  and  thousands 
of  newspapers  all  to  be  sorted.  Mail  received  later  may  equal 
and  even  exceed  this  total.  The  electric  tea  urns  are  switched 
on,  and  some  men  place  soup  or  other  food  in  the  various 
handy  electric  ovens. 

The  Special  rushes  through  South  Hampstead  tunnel,  past 
Killburn  Station  and  Willesden  Junction,  then  crosses  the 
London  city  line  into  the  thickly  settled  Middlesex  suburbs; 
Wembley  (8:43)  is  first,  but  not  served  going  north.  Sorters 
are  busy  in  all  five  T.P.O.  coaches— the  two  English  cars,  the 
tTvo  for  Scottish  divisions,  and  the  Glasgow  city  car.  The  bag 
opener  is  thro"\ving  letter  bundles  in  all  directions— the 
labeled  bundles  (directs)  going  right  into  the  proper  outgoing 
bag,  of  course.  Nine  storage  cars  precede  and  follow  them! 

At  exactly  8:46  the  train  is  due  to  make  its  first  "catch"— 
the  apparatus  working  at  suburban  Harrow,  Middlesex.  All 
Harrow  letter  bundles  have  now  been  tied  out,  the  R.  L-.  man's 
billed  bundle  of  entry  items  is  ready,  and  all  mail  is  put  in 
the  bags  due  off  here;  each  bag  is  sealed  with  the  T.P.O.s  im- 
print. Then  they  are  stuffed  into  the  outgoing  leather  pouclies 
and  tightly  strapped.  The  pouches  to  be  caught  have  been 
previously  hung  on  the  lineside  apparatus  (mail  crane)  by 
Harrow's  local  apparatus  postman  (mail  messenger).  The 
gallows-shaped  structure  has  from  one  to  three  pouchfuls  of 
mailbngs  hung  on  its  high  projecting  arm.  Attached  to  the 
standard  are  suitable  lights,  plus  a  permanent  folding  receiv- 
ing net  at  the  bottom;  all  fittings  are  at  the  exact  proper  height 
to  engage  the  identical  complementary  equipment  on  the 
train.  Since  wayside  signs  erected  at  approach  points  are  hard 
to  see  at  night,  the  iron  man  or  apparatus  officer  (local  clerk) 
must  expertly  recognize  the  exact  sound  of  the  overhead 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  281 

bridges  and  so  on  which  constitute  the  fix-on  for  this  particu- 
lar catch. 

Outgoing  pouches  are  hung  on  the  "despatching  arms"  be- 
side the  regular  doors— only  one  to  each  arm,  but  with  t^venty 
such  arms  on  the  train  there  is  far  more  than  enough  equip- 
ment. With  speed  up  to  60  mph  and  more,  precision  timing 
in  working  the  iron  is  vital.  As  soon  as  the  crane  is  sighted, 
the  apparatus  officer  presses  levers  which  lower  both  the  car- 
riage net  and  despatching  arms  into  working  position;  an 
electric  bell  also  rings  continuously  to  warn  clerks  not  to  ap- 
proach the  open  center  of  the  apparatus  coach  (where  the 
big  safety  door  beside  the  net  has  also  opened  automatically). 
With  a  thunderous  roar,  the  po^verful  strap  of  the  carriage 
net  catches  the  incoming  pouches,  which  bound  into  the  car 
with  great  force;  simultaneously,  the  outgoing  pouches  are 
trapped  by  the  wayside  net,  whereupon  the  despatching  arms 
fold  back  automatically.  When  the  carriage-net  lever  is  re- 
leased, it  too  folds  back,  and  the  bell  stops.  It  is  a  ticklish  busi- 
ness to  lo'wer  the  projecting  devices  at  the  exact  proper  in- 
stant onlv,  for  they  Avoiild  quickly  engage  some  station  plat- 
form, signal,  or  other  railroad  structure  if  extended  too  quick- 
ly. Important  stations  have  several  lineside  standards  in  op- 
eration, permitting  the  exchange  of  over  half  a  ton  of  mail  at 
one  time— despite  a  sixty-pound  limit  on  each  pouch  contain- 
er. Expert  iron  men  learn  to  recognize  fix-ons  instantlv  by 
counting  wheel  clicks,  by  listening  for  the  rattle  of  points 
(switches),  and  so  on. 

The  bags  "caught"  must  be  opened  at  once,  examined  for 
damaged  items,  and  the  immediates  (No.  1  local  packages) 
separated  from  the  labeled  bundles  and  No.  2  or  No.  .8  work- 
ing bundles;  the  immediate  bundles  must  be  cut  and  sorted 
at  once,  as  mail  for  nearby  stations  mav  be  included.  The 
entire  process,  including  the  numbered  line  separations,  close- 
Iv  resembles  American  practice;  ho^ve\'er,  many  small  ^vay 
offices  are  served  only  by  indirect  conveyance. 

With  the  suburban  area  well  behind,  the  Down  Special 
speeds  through  the  darkened  countryside  with  its  mvriad 
twinkling  lights  to  work  apparatus  marks   (catches)  at  Wat- 


282  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ford,  Hemel  Hempstead,  and  Berkhamstead-Tring;  then  the 
train  enters  Buckinghamshire  to  serve  Leighton  Buzzard,  Bed- 
fordsliire  (just  over  the  county  line)  and  Bletchley.  Bucking- 
hamshire, all  non-stop.  The  bag  opener  bags  up  his  inspected 
empties  (in  one  of  the  bags,  as  we  do),  and  labels  them  to  the 
Inland  Section,  which  is  the  "bag  control  office"  for  most 
T.P.O.s,  for  forwarding  by  opposite  trains.  Of  the  many 
enclosure  bags  included  in  his  dumped-up  mails,  not  all  con- 
tain registers;  ordinary  "dis"  mails  for  close  connection  at 
some  distributing  office  are  often  placed  in  these  little  inside 
bags,  perhaps  labeled  "IMMEDIATE"  for  instant  attention. 

The  busy  sorters  make  an  exceedingly  fine  distribution  for 
all  points  in  Scotland  and  Northwest  England,  making  up 
selections  (directs)  for  practically  every  post  toivn  (independ- 
ent post  office)  in  the  territory.  (The  smallest  post  offices  all 
consist  of  sub-offices,  each  operated  as  a  rural  station  of  some 
post  town,  and  their  mails  are  included  in  the  same  bundle 
or  bag  with  the  proper  post  town's.)  Sorters  do  not  distribute 
mail  by  scheme,  for  the  routing  of  British  mails  is  based  en- 
tirely on  the  grouping  of  all  these  post  towns  into  a  number 
of  divisions  (consisting  of  one  or  several  counties),  each  with 
its  central  distributing  centre— a.t  some  large  post  office— which 
sorts  practically  all  mails  for  its  area  (for  closed-pouch  for- 
warding) during  daylight  hours. 

Each  T.P.O.  has  its  own  main  circulation  list  showing  the 
proper  dispatch  for  all  points  from  that  train;  and  clerks  are 
simply  expected  to  gradually  memorize  the  proper  routings 
from  continual  experience  therewith.  Many  smaller  "directs" 
on  the  frame  will  become  labeled  selections,  to  be  thrown  into 
a  bag  for  some  distributing-center  office.  By  this  process  all 
mails  are  delivered  in  Britain  within  twenty-four  hours— by 
closed-bag  dispatch  if  posted  early  in  the  day,  and  by  T.P.O. 
sortation  when  mailed  toward  evening. 

Now  it  is  teatime;  for  tea,  not  coffee,  is  the  T.P.O.  man's 
beverage.  Instead  of  one  volunteer  handling  the  tea,  a  formal 
tea  club  is  organized  on  each  T.P.O.  with  a  duly  elected  chair- 
man, secretary,  and  treasurer.  Members  receive  a  small  hono- 
rarium (for  the  extra  work  involved),  plus  possible  dividends 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  285 

at  the  end  of  the  year,  from  the  profits.  Customers  pay  only 
four  pence  (seven  cents)— for  six  cups— per  round  trip,  on 
the  Special.  Supplies  having  previously  been  purchased  by 
club  members  assigned  thereto,  the  brewing  is  done  by  the 
first  member  to  get  "on  top  of"  his  sorting  duties;  when  ready, 
the  huge  steaming  pots  are  carried  through  the  cars  by  two 
char  wallahs  (tea  men)  starting  from  each  end.  In  normal 
times  tea  clubs  on  the  Down/Up  furnish  a  complete  "commis- 
sary" of  chocolate,  biscuits,  cigarettes,  and  what  not— at  a 
$6,000  annual  turnover!  Official  meal  allowances  of  thirty 
minutes  in  each  four  hours  are  credited  to  each  sorter  in  his 
wages,  but  two  or  three  quick  ten-minute  snacks  each  way  are 
about  all  actuallv  taken,  and  then  only  if  mail  volume  permits. 

The  tea  clubs  themselves  date  back  at  least  to  the  1890s.  One 
tale  from  those  days  tells  of  an  officer  who  threw  out  his  old 
cracked  teacup;  it  struck  a  telegraph  pole,  crashed  into  bits, 
and  the  pieces  flew  back  to  hit  the  guard  (conductor)  in  the 
face.  The  "brains"  thundered  back  into  the  T.P.O.  coach  at 
the  next  station,  profanely  demanding  (in  \  ain)  to  knoAv  who 
had  thrown  it.  Following  such  occurrences,  T.P.O.  officials 
evolved  the  current  rule  covering  such  playful  habits,  with 
severe  penalties:  "The  throwing  of  bags,  packets,  balls  of 
string,  or  anv  kind  of  missile,  either  inside  a  Mail  or  outside 
...  is  forbidden." 

"While  most  of  the  train's  distribution  is  for  the  Scottish  Di- 
visions, English  mails  for  the  local  North  West  Division  are 
being  busily  sorted  in  two  cars.  Now  the  Night  Mail  is  ap- 
proaching Rugby,  \\^ar\\'ickshire,  its  first  actual  stop;  here,  at 
10  P.M.,  dispatches  to  nearby  Birmingham  and  much  of  "War- 
u'ickshire  are  made.  Huge  loads  of  bags  from  the  East  Anorljan 
counties  and  Lincolnshire  are  taken  in,  brought  over  by  bas 
tenders  of  the  "Peterboro  Line."  After  pulling  out,  the  "Peter- 
boro"  mails  must  be  sorted  at  top  speed;  for  it  is  only  fifteen 
minutes  to  the  very  "fast  mark"  (by  apparatus)  at  Nimeaton, 
Warwickshire,  and  the  correspov.dencc  due  off  there  must  be 
fully  separated  for  dispatch  at  this  70-mph  catcher  station.  No 
less  than  360  pounds  of  mail  (in  nine  forty-pound  pouches) 
are  exchanged  in  both  directions  at  its  three  mail  cranes. 


284  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

The  huge  receipt  at  Nuneaton  must  be  sorted  in  time  for 
connection  at  Tamworth,  Staffordshire,  the  next  stop— the 
closest  point  to  Birmingham,  and  the  line's  first  T.P.O.  junc- 
tion. Mails  for  that  city,  as  well  as  for  the  northeastern  coun- 
ties, are  received  and  dispatched  here,  a  connection  being 
made  with  the  key  cross-country  Midland  T.P.O.  (LMS— now 
Midland  Reg.)  from  Bristol  to  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  The  pro- 
portion of  English  mail  has  been  steadily  decreasing,  and  as 
the  train  passes  Stafford  (the  Up  Special's  junction  with  the 
LMS's  Crewe-Birmingham  T.P.O.),  the  two  English  divi- 
sions coaches  commence  their  gradual  conversion  into  "Glas- 
gow city"  cars.  A  second  respite  for  tea  is  enjoyed  along  here. 

At  11:42  P.M.  the  Special  reaches  Crewe,  a  Cheshire  town 
which  is  England's  Chicago— the  nation's  largest  railroad  and 
T.P.O.  junction.  In  normal  times  thirteen  T.P.O.  trains  enter 
or  leave  Crewe  station  between  11  P.M.  and  2  A.M.,  alone, 
each  night.  Several  Glasgow  toxun  sorters  get  on  here;  while 
certain  halfway  officers  (short-stop  clerks)  get  off,  to  work  back 
to  London  on  the  Up  Special.  Numerous  intersecting  T.P.O.s 
are  connected  here,  including  the  LMS's  Crewe-Birmingham 
and  Shrewsbury-York  T.P.O.s,  the  Crewe-Cardiff  (GWR), 
and  others.  Vast  loads  of  mail,  fifteen  hundred  bags  or  more, 
are  dispatched  and  received  from  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Bir- 
mingham, and  so  on.  With  only  16  minutes  here,  speedy  and 
delicate  timing  is  essential;  the  transfer  bag  is  put  off  for  the 
"Up"  (containing  some  mis-sent  items,  even  as  with  us!),  and 
outgoing  bags  for  the  three  big  cities  mentioned  (all  near- 
by) and  for  many  parts  of  Ireland,  Wales,  Cheshire,  York- 
shire, and  South  Lancashire  are  ticked  off.  As  we  pull  out,  at 
least  fifty-five  men  are  now  tackling  the  mail  on  our  train. 

Starting  at  Crewe,  the  three  Glasgow  coaches  are  redesignat- 
ed as  a  separate  unit,  the  Crewe-Glasgow  S.C.  (sorting  carriage; 
i.e.,  a  small  R.P.O.),  which  will  later  diverge  to  the  west.  The 
town  sorters  are  working  Glasgow  mail  out  to  stations,  post- 
man's walks,  and  suburban  sub-offices.  Any  out-of-course  (de- 
layed or  mis-sent)  bags  received  at  Crewe  or  elsewhere  must  be 
opened,  sorted,  and  reported  if  the  contents  can  be  properly 
advanced;  while  individual  mis-sent  letters  are  also  "written 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  285 

up"  on  a  form  in  detail  (with  name,  address,  origin,  and  so 
on),  not  merely  "checked." 

The  working  mail  is  now  all  for  Scotland  (except  a  bit  for 
northern  Ireland),  but  a  heavy  apparatus  exchange  is  made  at 
Warrington,  Lancashire,  nearest  point  to  the  big  cities  of 
Liverpool  to  the  west  and  Manchester  to  the  east.  After  a 
third  cup  of  tea  a  stop  is  made  at  Preston,  Lancashire,  where 
the  Preston-Whitehaven  T.P.O.  route  (LMS)  branches  off; 
final  receipts  from  the  two  large  cities  are  taken  on  here  in- 
stead of  at  Warrington,  and  again  the  coaches  are  loaded  to 
capacity.  For  two  hours  the  train  traverses  Lancashire,  West- 
moreland, and  Cumberland,  crossing  the  bleak  Pennines  and 
other  mountains,  and  "catching"  Lancaster,  Carnforth,  and 
Penrith.  By  now  the  sorters  are  tying  up  most  of  the  letters  in 
their  frames  and  dropping  them  in  the  limp  bags  to  the  rear. 
No  labels  are  used,  if  dispatched  in  a  direct  bag.  Preliminary 
dispatches  for  most  large  Scottish  towns  are  bagged  and  sealed, 
to  be  put  off  at  Carlisle;  like  all  other  bags  tied  out  early,  they 
are  taken  into  the  proper  "storage  brake"  and  piled.  The 
final  tie-out  of  the  bags  is  no^v  under  way,  for  Carlisle  is  the 
end  of  the  run  for  our  team  (crew);  most  officers  assist,  and 
then  comes  wash-up  time  as  the  O/C  finishes  up  his  reports. 
If  it  is,  say,  a  light  week-end  trip,  there  may  be  a  little  time 
for  a  friendly  game  (poker  or  solo  whist),  note  writing,  or  a 
chat.  Protective  clothing  is  doffed,  and  at  3  A.M.  the  tired 
London  sorters  climb  out  at  the  end  of  their  three  hundred- 
mile  run.  North-end  clerks  from  both  Carlisle  and  Aberdeen, 
as  well  as  more  Glasgow  city  men,  get  on  liere  to  take  their 
places;  meanwhile  connection  is  made  with  the  Carlisle-Ayr 
S.C.   (ScotReg),  a  short  branch  line. 

Most  sorters  sleep  at  private  lodginghouses,  but  small  hotels 
also  are  favored.  Overnight  lodgings  are  usually  dubbed  the 
digs  (although  many,  witli  \vry  humor,  refer  to  their  quarters 
as  a  doss  or  flophouse).  While  our  crew  slumbers,  the  "North 
Division"  (as  Ave  ^vould  say)  of  the  Special  thunders  across 
the  Scottish  border  to  Carstairs  Junction,  where  it  is  reas- 
sembled as  parts  of  three  R.P.O.  trains  with  separate  engines— 
the  Crewe-Glasgow  S.C,  the  Carlisle-Edinburgh  S.C.  (which 


286  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

works  Edinburgh  City  and  Midlothian  mail),  and  the  Special 
proper.  The  two  sorting  carriage  trains  soon  veer  off  to  the 
left  and  right,  and  the  much-shortened  Special,  now  manned 
by  only  three  or  four  clerks,  sweeps  northward  via  Coatbridge 
and  Perth  (making  numerous  "catches"  all  along)  into  Aber- 
deen, at  8:13  A.M.,  connecting  the  second  carrier  delivery 
there  as  well  as  an  air-mail  route  carrying  all  mail  for  the 
Orkneys.  The  Special  has  sorted  at  least  200,000  pieces  of 
mail  on  its  50-mile  journey,  and  its  last  dispatch  at  Aberdeen, 
if  the  King  is  staying  at  Balmoral  Castle,  is  a  special  one  to 
him  from  Buckingham  Palace. 

Meanwhile  the  London  sorters  are  sleeping,  usually  about 
six  or  seven  men  to  a  house,  after  recording  its  address  in  the 
mail-room  book  (for  emergency  calls).  If  a  regularly  reserved 
accommodation  is  not  used  on  some  occasion  by  a  sorter  while 
on  leave,  the  Department  allo^vs  "compensatory  payments  to 
landladies."  Arising  at  I  or  2  P.M.,  the  clerks  have  a  good 
breakfast  and  then  enjoy  such  pastimes  as  the  cinema,  walks 
about  town,  or  billiards  and  snooker  at  a  workingmen's  club 
there.  Some  may  study  at  part-time  Workers'  Education  Asso- 
ciation classes,  while  certain  dashing  Romeos  will  look  up 
their  "favourite  blondes"  or  brunettes  instead.  After  a  three- 
course  dinner  at  8  P.M.,  the  officers  then  meet  the  Up  Special 
for  the  return  journey  at  8:43. 

After  sprawling  itself  all  over  Scotland,  the  Special  has  long 
since  been  again  consolidated  into  one  train— the  Glasgow 
(R.P.O.)  and  Edinburgh  (C.P.)  sections  (with  no  independ- 
ent titles,  southbound)  having  rejoined  it  at  Law  and  Carstairs 
Junctions.  The  London  staff  quickly  boards  it  at  Carlisle, 
and  in  general  the  return  trip  to  Euston  follows  the  same  pat- 
tern as  the  Down  journey.  But  the  Up  Special  is  even  larger 
than  the  Do^vn,  for  it  has  seven  R.P.O.  cars  or  sorting  coaches; 
mail  for  all  England  and  for  London  City  is  worked,  to  the 
practical  exclusion  of  Scotch  "correspondence."  One  English 
county  division  alone  may  occupy  half  of  a  sixty-foot  coach; 
thus  the  sorting  van  nearest  the  engine  handles  Middlesex 
and  Surrey  letters  only.  Another  coach  handles  the  cross  post 
or  "local,"  plus  Hertfordshire;  there  is  an  apparatus  coach. 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  287 

used  also  for  stowing  tied-out  bags;  and  two  London  city  cars, 
one  inchidinCT  a  foreisjn  division. 

TJie  stroncT  team  spirit  of  mutual  assistance  Tvhicli  exists  on 
the  Up  Special  and  other  T.P.O.s  is  proverbial.  Contrary  to 
the  unfortunate  exceptions  often  noted  on  United  States 
trains,  the  usual  regulations  requiring  such  mutual  help  are 
observed  to  the  letter  in  England;  if  one  man  has  finished  his 
sorting,  he  immediately  volunteers  to  assist  someone  else.  Tf 
one  division  is  running  light  while  another  is  swamped,  the 
O/C  promptly  reassigns  the  former's  sorter  to  dig  out  the  man 
who  is  going  stuck.  The  comradeship  of  the  tvpical  T.P.O. 
team  is  also  reflected  in  the  gay  ditties  or  bits  of  harmonizing 
sometimes  indulged  in,  even  as  with  us.  But  such  music  may 
be  abruptly  ended  if  the  next  stop  reveals  a  huge  pile  of 
buckshee  stowage,  (or  working)  mail— i.e.,  "free"  or  not  due 
to  the  train— to  be  crammed  into  the  coaches! 

On  a  recent  journey  of  the  "Up"  it  was  revealed  that  English 
clerks  as  well  as  ours  perform  some  remarkable  feats  in  dis- 
patching misaddressed  mail.  An  unaddressed  picture  postcard 
carrying  only  a  brief  message  beginning  "Dear  Mr.  Ricards" 
turned  up,  but  one  of  the  sorters  (who  are  permitted  to  cor- 
rect poor  addresses,  in  England)  immediately  marked  it  "try 
Bushey"  and  dispatched  it  to  Bushey,  Hertfordshire,  at  Wat- 
ford. He  had  remembered  the  same  handwriting  on  a  pre- 
vious postcard,  which  on  being  located  revealed  that  the  writer 
was  "seeing  Mr.  Ricards"  in  Bushey  after  returning  there  from 
vacation! 

Some  65  men  work  on  the  Up  Special,  and  they  make  up  a 
selection  (direct  package)  for  practically  every  post  town  in 
England,  and  even  direct  bags  for  each  separate  office  in  Sur- 
rey, Middlesex,  Buckinghamshire,  and  most  of  Kent.  One 
London  car  works  letters  for  "The  City"  (London's  Eastern 
Central  District  only)  out  to  carriers  or  postman's  walks;  but 
since  most  carrier  routes  there  consist  only  of  single  short 
streets  or  of  buildings  (or  banks  and  firms)  made  up  direct, 
no  sorting  by  street-number  breaks  is  necessary.  The  Eoreign 
Division  in  the  same  car  sorts  letters  to  countries  and  divisions 
(formerly  even  to  foreign  R.P.O.  lines  in  Europe  and  Asia); 


288  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

New  York,  N.  Y.,  is  made  up.  In  the  second  London  coach, 
zoned  mail  for  all  the  rest  of  London's  12(S  numbered 
subdistricts  (zones)  is  worked  out;  thus  "S.E.  10"  in  a  Lon- 
don address  (Greenwich)  is  Zone  10  of  the  South  Eastern 
District  Office.  Almost  no  London  mail  is  received  unzoned, 
and  sorters  are  not  required  to  learn  street-and-number  dis- 
patch for  such  letters,  but  many  voluntarily  learn  and  dispatch 
a  considerable  number  of  such  items  each  trip. 

The  staff  works  busily  as  we  approach  London,  for  it  is  a 
T.P.O.  tradition  to  avoid  failing  (going  stuck)  if  at  all  pos- 
sible. After  the  tie-out,  all  waste  twine,  seals,  and  labels  are 
placed  in  a  special  red  waste  bag  (to  be  searched  later  for  stray 
mail,  as  in  the  United  States);  the  sorters  wash  up,  pack  their 
tot  bags,  and  finish  their  actual  journey  at  4  A.M.  in  London; 
then  they  unload  the  coaches. 

Station  duties  at  London  also  include  "dispatching  the 
vans"  (mail  trucks)  to  the  various  London  district  offices,  the 
Inland  and  Foreign  sections,  and  to  railway  stations  and  sub- 
urban post  offices.  The  mail  has  been  worked  up  to  such  a 
fine  degree  that  only  a  cotiple  of  residue  bags  (i.e.,  London 
G.P.O.  Dis)  are  turned  over  to  the  Inland  Section;  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  mail  goes  out  in  direct  bags  all  over  southern  Eng- 
land, although  one  or  two  day  T.P.O.s  are  also  connected. 
A  late  arrival  at  London  may  spell  considerable  excitement- 
taxis  can  be  commandeered  to  rush  valuable  mails  to  impor- 
tant railway  connections,  with  penalties  for  any  driver  refus- 
ing; and  sorters  eagerly  note  details  on  their  aggregation  sheets 
(overtime  record)  to  see  if  their  minimum  hourage  has  been 
made  up  and  any  agg  due  to  be  paid  them,  as  they  say.  At  the 
end  of  each  week  sorters  must  also  make  individual  claim  for 
their  trip  allowances  by  mailing  a  docket  to  the  office  after  the 
last  run.  Einallv  the  carriage  searcher  CX-man)  inspects  all 
the  frames  and  takes  up  the  mats,  looking  for  strav  letters, 
often  using  an  electric  extension  bulb  to  assist.  He  does  it 
diligently,  for  he  knows  that  if  railroad  men  later  find  any 
mail  therein  he  must  pay  the  finder  a  sixpence  (ten  cents)  for 
each  letter,  or  two  shillings  (forty  cents)  for  a  registerl  There 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  289 

is  often  a  weary  wait  for  transportation  home,  for  there  are 
few  vehicles  running  at  that  hour. 

All  British  T.P.O.  lines  are  now  operated  by  the  T.P.O. 
Section,  London  Postal  Region.  A  chief  superintendent  (cur- 
rently, Mr.  C.  R.  Clegg)  manages  the  setup  from  offices  in  the 
great  King  Edward  Street  Post  Office  Building  and  occasional- 
ly makes  inspection  trips  over  the  lines.  One  sorter,  pleasantly 
surprised  by  a  visit  from  former  Chief  Superintendent  Fielder, 
wrote  afterward  that  ".  .  .  he  speaks  English  just  as  we  do!"; 
but  relations  with  officialdom  were  not  always  thus.  A  morose 
chief  superintendent  of  decades  past  once  strode  into  a  T.P.O. 
coach  to  scowl  at  the  sorters  in  stony  silence,  eliciting  the  re- 
mark of  "I  beg  your  pardon,  sir?"  from  one  wag. 

"I  didn't  speak!"  was  the  grumpy  rejoinder. 

"Sorry,"  the  sorter  explained  innocently,  "I  thought  you 
said,  'Good  evening,  gentlemen'!" 

Over  seventy  T.P.O.  trains  are  operated  over  about  twenty- 
five  different  routes  in  normal  times;  a  fe-\v  prewar  lines  still 
remain  to  be  restored.  Like  American  lines,  most  of  the 
T.P.O.s  have  accumulated  nicknames.  Thus  the  Southern 
Region's  South  East  and  South  West  T.P.O.s  (London  to 
Dover  and  Dorchester,  respectively)  are  both  called  "The 
Tram-car";  the  Northwest  T.P.O.  (a  short  run  of  the  Down/ 
Up  Special  route,  to  Carlisle)  is  "The  Ten"  (or  "10  o'clock") 
or  "The  Nightmare";  the  LMS's  suspended  London  R:  f^olv- 
head  T.P.o!  (which  once  used  a  "UNITED  STATES  MAIL" 
postmark)  was,  of  course,  the  famous  "Irish  Mail";  and  the 
short  Liverpool-Huddersfield  T.P.O.  (LMS)  is  humorously 
dubbed  the  "Liver  Sc  Udders."  This  is  the  T.P.O.  which  never 
gets  back  to  Liverpool— its  team  works  back  on  different-route 
T.P.O.s  and  on  a  bag  tender  as  guards.  "The  Cale"  (Cale- 
donian) refers  to  several  Down/Up  Special  short  runs. 

The  Great  Western  T.P.O.  (GWR)  or  "Ghost  Train"  is 
an  all-mail,  no-passenger  train  operated  nightly  from  London 
to  Penzance,  Cornwall,  where  forty  sorters  work  some  one 
thousand  letter  bags  on  a  325-mile  journey,  plus  up  to  three 
thousand  registers.  Leaving  London  at  10:10  P.M.,  the  train 
sweeps  past  the  Bristol  Channel  seacoast,  the  rolling  bracken- 


290  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

covered  hills  of  Somerset,  the  lonely  and  misty  marshes  and 
rocky  hillocks  around  Dartmoor.  Eight  Penzance  clerks  get 
on  at  Plymouth  to  sort  mail  for  their  town  to  carriers,  as  well 
as  the  Cornwall  mail;  all  other  mail  (except  Devon's)  must 
be  "up"  by  Bristol.  The  Great  Western  is  famed  for  its 
"travelers'  tales"  or  anecdotes  thereof,  but  we  can  mention 
only  a  couple  here.  In  one  coach  the  regular  bag  for  Liskeard, 
Cornwall  (due  off  by  apparatus),  is  hung  beside  a  bag  of 
fragile  matter  for  that  town,  labeled  and  handled  accordingly 
—and  one  new  bag  hanger  innocently  inquired  "if  Liskeard 
Fragile  ^vere  anywhere  near  Liskeard"!  When  several  Danes 
(delegates  to  a  postal  convention)  ^vere  once  invited  to  visit 
the  G.W.,  one  overseer  "missed  reading  the  paper,  paid  extra 
attention  to  his  appearance,  and  put  on  his  best  suit  and  most 
charming  manner,  thinking  someone  had  said  dames!"  An- 
other alarmed  Great  Western  sorter,  followed  by  a  policeman 
all  the  way  home,  discovered  it  was  merely  the  one  Avho  lived 
next  door.  (One  crew  on  this  line  has  asked  for  a  "G  ?c  8"— 
eight  days  "ofT"  each  two  weeks;  but  they'll  work  19  hours 
daily  to  get  it,  if  approved!) 

The  Preston-Whitehaven  T.P.O.  (LMS),  or  "The  Truck," 
is  a  typical  short  line  along  the  northwest  coast  of  Cumber- 
land; it  has  only  three  clerks  (the  smallest  number  ever  as- 
signed to  a  T.P.O.)  and  exchanges  with  practically  every  oflRce 
on  the  line.  On  such  branch  lines  the  O/C  is  often  the  R.  L. 
officer,  as  in  the  United  States.  Some  side  lines,  temporarily 
short  of  T.P.O.  coaches,  have  used  portable  frames  installed  in 
the  I) rakes. 

Trains  work  city  mail  for  many  towns,  like  Penzance,  but 
not  for  Liverpool,  Birmingham,  and  Manchester,  three  of  the 
largest  cities!  Two  routes  from  York  to  Bristol  and  from  Lon- 
don to  Edinburgh  operate— the  second  route  in  the  latter  case 
being  the  LNER's  London-York-Edinbingh  T.P.O.^  (includ- 

■The  "LNER"  is  now  the  N.  E.  Region,  British  Rvs.;  these  familiar  railway 
abbreviations  are  still  in  nse.  The  restricted  city  sortintj  is  quickly  explained: 
All  TPO  trains  arrive  in  the  Midlands  around  midnight,  and  there  is  plenty 
of  time  for  local  sorting  at  these  three  big  cities.  Onlv  towns  at  the  extremities 
of  the  longest  rims— London,  Pen/ance,  Glasgow,  et  cetera— require  city  sorting 
in  transit  due  to  morning  arrivals. 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  291 

ing  the  N.E.  T.P.O.,  its  short  run).  Yet  many  other  parts  of 
Britain  have  no  direct  T.P.O.  service  at  all,  including  not  only 
Manchester  but  also  inland  sections  of  North  England,  most  of 
Aberdeenshire,  and  all  northwest  Scotland,  northern  Devon, 
and  so  on.  Pending  restoration  of  a  central  route,  only  coastal 
lines  serve  Wales.  The  progressive  T.P.O.  Section,  however, 
has  expansive  plans  for  the  future.  Already  two  brand-new 
extensions  of  service  have  been  opened:  ( 1 )  from  Birmingham 
to  Derby  on  the  former  Birmingham-Bristol  (LMS),  now  the 
Derby-Bristol  T.P.O.;  and  (2)  from  Haughley  out  to  Peter- 
boro  on  the  East  Anglian  T.P.O,  (LNER),  connecting  ^vith 
the  North  East  route  of  T.P.O.s,  both  in  1949.  Two  other 
runs  intersect  the  Derby-Bristol  at  Birmingham— the  LMS' 
Crewe-Birmingham  and  Midland  T.P.O.s. 

T.P.O.  sorters  encounter  a  few  vexing  problems  which  are 
a  bit  different  from  those  of  American  R.P.O.  clerks.  True, 
they  are  spared  the  rigors  of  a  Christmas  rush  on  the  road— 
because  the  entire  T.P.O.  system  shuts  down  each  year  for 
two  weeks  preceding  Christmas,  in  direct  contrast  to  the 
United  States  practice  of  expansion.  But  the  clerks,  who  are 
anxious  to  have  all-year  road  sorting  restored,  must  be 
plunged  into  imfamiliar  surroundings  to  work  mails  in  the 
Inland  Section  or  other  post  offices.  Another  headache  is  the 
fact  that  the  actual  post  office  or  sub-office  of  address,  on  a 
given  letter,  may  be  any  of  the  last  three  place  names  thereon— 
in  contrast  to  American  practice,  where  it  alwavs  is  the  next 
to  last.  The  public  often  disregards  official  urgings  to  capital- 
ize the  post-town  name,  to  alleviate  this  problem;  but  it  faith- 
fully follows  the  official  address  forms  suggested  in  the  Postal 
Guide,  which  show  sub-office  name,  post  town,  and  county 
in  the  case  of  small  hamlets,  post  town  and  countv  for  most 
post  towns,  and  office  name  only  in  the  case  of  large  cities! 

In  Britain,  despite  unarmed  sorters,  one  never  hears  of 
T.P.O.  trains  being  held  up  and  robbed;  it  just  isn't  done. 
There  was,  however,  a  series  of  mysterious  mail  thefts  on  the 
old  London-Manchester  Bag  Tender  (LMS)  which  continued 
for  ten  years  before  they  were  solved.  Finally  the  guard  in 
charge,  one  of  of  the  LMS's  most  trusted  employees,  was 


292  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

caught  slitting  open  a  mailbag;  it  seems  he  had  a  grudge 
against  the  railway  for  failing  to  transfer  him  to  the  seashore 
for  his  Avife's  health! 

Serious  wrecks,  too,  of  T.P.O.  trains  are  rare;  no  sorter  has 
been  killed  in  one  since  1927,  when  three  or  four  lost  their 
lives  in  a  crack-up  of  the  LMS's  York-Shrewsbury  T.P.O.  Few 
can  recall  any  other  fatalities,  except  when  three  sorters 
were  killed  in  a  wreck  of  the  London-Holyhead  Irish  Mail 
(LMS)  in  1916,  and  on  that  tragic  occasion  of  long  ago  when 
the  Firth  of  Tay  trestle  collapsed  in  1879;  a  postal  bag-tender 
guard  was  lost  in  the  sinking  train,  there  being  no  survivors. 
(A  few  clerks  are  assigned  to  bag  tenders  to  separate  and  load 
mails.)  Recently  the  two  most  noteworthy  T.P.O.  train  smash- 
ups  both  involved  the  Down/Up  Special.  The  Mail  crashed 
into  a  halted  passenger  train  at  Winsford,  Cheshire,  on  April 
16,  1948,  killing  many  passengers;  the  first  sorting  coach  was 
smashed  to  bits,  but  only  three  sorters  were  injured,  thanks  to 
the  strong  all-steel  construction  and  the  great  distance  from 
the  engine.  Clerks  hastened  to  assist  survivors  and  save  the 
mails,  and  Sorter  W.  }.  Carrick  was  awarded  the  Daily  Herald's 
coveted  Order  of  Industrial  Heroism.  On  the  other  occasion 
the  Special  was  rammed  from  behind  in  Scotland,  injuring 
four  sorters,  some  years  before.  When  the  East  Anglian  T.P.O. 
(LNFR,  London-Norwich)  was  wrecked  at  Gidea  Park,  Ilford, 
Essex,  in  1947,  the  scene  was  a  shambles  of  wrecked  fittings 
and  coaches,  shattered  glass,  and  scattered  letters;  but  again 
clerks  hastened  to  rescue  injured  passengers  and  forward  valu- 
able mails,  and  even  insisted  on  reporting  for  their  return  trip 
despite  severe  shake-up  and  shock.  (See  end  of  Note  18.) 

Floods  and  freeze-ups  have  worked  real  havoc  on  the 
T.P.O.s,  however.  The  great  English  blizzard  of  1940  termi- 
nated an  unbroken  record  of  fifty-five  years  of  consecutive 
nightly  trips  of  the  Down/Up  Special  (except  Christmas 
niglit);  the  two  Specials  were  both  stranded  in  huge  drifts  on 
Beattock  Summit  and  were  annulled  for  four  days.  (Soon 
after,  all  T.P.O.s  were  suspended  for  the  duration  of  World 
W^ar  II.)  The  great  ice  storm  of  March  1947  forced  complete 
suspension  of  many  T.P.O,s  and  delayed  others  up  to  fourteen 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  29S 

hours;  apparatus  working  was  abandoned.  Chief  Superin- 
tendent Fielder  immediately  ordered  special  meals  and  hot 
drinks  served  to  sorters  affected,  at  stations  en  route;  they 
were  particularly  welcomed  by  one  crew  which  worked  thirty- 
three  hours  continuously,  then  reported  for  work  again  that 
same  day.  Many  were  the  trains  which  had  to  give  second 
circulation  (rerouting)  to  their  delayed  mails;  and  on  the 
South  East  T.P.O.  (SouR),  the  Down  and  Up  trains  passed 
each  other  five  times  in  one  night  before  getting  on  the  right 
lines  for  their  destinations. 

On  the  Great  Western  (GWR),  of  course,  a  humorous 
angle  was  sure  to  develop  from  such  frightfully  beastly  weather 
and  the  severe  floods  which  followed  it.  One  of  its  badly  de- 
layed trains  had  just  pulled  into  Exeter,  Devon,  whereupon  a 
local  news  reporter  hastened  up  to  interview  the  O/C— whom 
he  caught  snatching  a  nap  beside  the  steampipes.  Aroused, 
he  sleepily  yawned  to  the  inquiring  stranger  that  "the  bad 
weather  and  our  late  arrival  can  in  no  way  be  attributed  to 
the  Labour  Government"  (which  is,  of  course,  strongly  backed 
by  postal  union  men).  The  statement  duly  appeared  in  the 
Devonshire  press  that  evening. 

There  have  been  tales  of  unorthodox  objects  caught  by  the 
apparatus,  of  course,  since  the  very  earliest  days— ranging  from 
viaducts  and  signals  to  a  wheelbarrow  filled  with  baled  rags 
(which  nearly  wrecked  the  LNER's  old  York-Newcastle  S.C. 
at  Chester-le-street,  Durham,  in  the  1890s).  A  different  sort 
of  tale  comes  from  the  North  West  T.P.O.  (LMS),  which  was 
once  honored  by  an  unexpected  visit  from  the  King  and 
Queen  (then  Duke  and  Duchess  of  York);  showing  great  in- 
terest in  everything,  they  left  after  giving  the  O/C  a  warm 
handshake.  The  thrilled  gaffer  "for  weeks  afterwards  wore 
a  glove  on  his  hand,  but  refused  to  take  the  advice  of  an 
irreverant  young  member  of  the  team  who  enquired,  'Why 
don't  you  pickle  it  in  vinegar,  guv'nor?'  "  On  the  North  East 
(LNER)  another  sorter  consistently  imposed  upon  the  team 
by  napping  on  duty;  he  was  cured,  one  night,  by  having  his 
face  liberally  daubed  from  the  ink  pad  as  he  snored.  On 
waking,  he  breezed  into  the  station  buffet  for  lunch  as  usual  I 


294  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

On  the  North  West  (LMS)  one  "guvnor"  discovered  with 
iiorror  that  his  tick  sheet  had  been  used  to  wrap  up  a  greasy 
buncli  of  fish  and  chips,  by  the  very  sorter  helping  him  hunt 
for  it. 

Tiie  American  influence  is  occasionally  felt.  During  the 
serious  economic  "dollar  shortage"  following  World  War  II, 
men  receiving  a  family  allowance  on  the  birth  of  a  new  ciiild 
were  said  to  be  "pursuing  the  official  dollar."  And  when  1947 
brought  forth  the  popular  ditty  "Open  the  Door,  Richard" 
from  New  York's  Tin  Pan  Alley,  railway  mail  men  on  both 
sides  of  tlie  Atlantic  were  soon  hounded  by  the  phrase  when- 
ever porters  brought  up  huge  loads  of  mail  to  the  car. 

Working  conditions  and  salaries  of  T.P.O.  men  are  the 
particular  concern  of  the  T.P.O.  Branch,  Union  of  Post  Work- 
ers—the union  which  corresponds  to  our  N.P.T.A.  The 
U.P.W.  and  its  predecessors  have  secured  innumerable  bene- 
fits for  the  sorters;  travel  allowances,  annual  and  sick  leave, 
and  retirement  annuities  were  obtained  for  them  long  before 
they  were  secured  by  American  clerks.  The  branch  holds 
quarterly  meetings,  with  a  mnil  representative  speaking  for 
each  T.P.O.  The  T.P.O.  "Whitley  Committee,"  a  group  of 
labor  and  management  representatives  (dubbed  the  staff  side 
and  the  official  side),  forms  the  basis  of  their  very  successful 
collective  bargaining.  Abotit  98  per  cent  of  all  sorters  belong 
to  the  U.P.W.  (all  but  the  most  distant  provincial  members 
are  in  the  T.P.O.  Branch).  Enjoyable  social  gatherings,  in- 
cluding an  annual  Iron  Road  Revels,  feature  branch  activi- 
ties. The  branch  has  also  made  admirable  proposals,  in  inter- 
national contacts,  for  temporary  exchanges  of  postal  person- 
nel between  British  and  overseas  railway  mail  routes— an  idea 
bound  to  provide  better  mail  service  and  more  international 
good  will  throughout  the  world  wherever  applied. 

Both  the  T.P.O.  Branch  and  the  British  Government  have 
done  much  in  the  way  of  publicizing  the  T.P.O.s  through  lit- 
erature, radio  programs,  and  the  cinema.  Each  month  the 
branch  issues  an  attractive  printed  journal  of  eight  to  twenty 
pages,  the  Traveller— ^n  outgrowth  of  a  mimeographed 
T.P.O.  News  Letter  (published  for  its  members  in  the  armed 


THE  BRITISH  T.P.O.'s  295 

forces  from  1941  to  1946).  Featuring  illustrated  articles  on 
R.P.O.s  of  the  world  as  well  as  union  news,  it  has  a  subscrip- 
tion list  (in  Britain,  America,  and  elsewhere)  three  times  as 
large  as  the  branch  membership!  Ron  Smith  of  the  Down/Up 
Special  is  its  editor,  and  he  is  assisted  by  William  D.  Taylor, 
formerly  active  as  branch  secretary.  The  government  pub- 
lishes numerous  booklets  of  the  T.P.O.  service,  as  listed  in  the 
Bibliography,  mostly  free  to  the  public;  one  is  a  beautiful 
volume  bound  in  transparent  plastic  and  printed  in  three 
colors  (for  the  T.P.O.  Centenary),  and  another  features  a 
map  of  all  T.P.O.s  (which  reminds  us  that  the  United  States 
Government  has  never  issued  such  a  map).  The  T.P.O. 
Branch  publishes  a  booklet  for  new  union  members  assigned 
to  road  duty;  also  numerous  magazine  and  newspaper  fea- 
ture articles  on  the  T.P.O.s  have  been  published,  as  well  as  a 
106-page  book,  English  T.P.O.'s,  by  C.  W .  Ward.  For  the 
history  of  Britain's  T.P.O.s,  we  must  refer  all  readers  to  the 
pages  of  this  excellent  volume  (Note  IS).  A  new  list  of  current 
British  T.P.O.  routes  is  in  Appendix  I. 

A  complete  short  motion  picture,  Nifi:Iif  Mail,  was  produced 
by  the  G.P.O.  Film  Unit  in  19.S6  to  picture  the  srorv  of  the 
Down/Up  Special;  it  has  been  viewed  by  many  in  both  Britain 
and  America.  Just  tt-n  years  later  (December  14.  1946)  the 
British  Broadcasting  Corporation  featured  a  special  program 
with  actual  sound  effects  and  interviews  on  board  the  same 
T.P.O.  There  is  also  a  well-known,  very  attractive  painting 
by  Golden  entitled  'T.uston  Station:  Loading  the  T.P.O." 

Since  Britain's  (and  evidently  the  Tvorld's)  first  T.P.O.  was 
first  inaugurated  on  January  6,  18.^8,  its  railway  mail  services 
have  given  1 1 2  years  of  magnificent  service  to  the  public.  Space 
forbids  consideration  here  of  such  unique  British  institutions 
as  the  famed  Post  Office  Railway  (an  automatic,  unmanned 
electric  tube  railway,  hauling  closed  mailbags  onlv,  under 
London's  streets),  and  the  popular  "railway  letter"  service  by 
which  railway  conductors  handle  specially  stamped  letters  out- 
side of  the  mails.  And  thus  we  take  leave  of  the  fascinating 
Travelling  Post  Offices  of  "tliis  realm— this  England"  with  the 


296  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

words  of  the  distinguished  poet  W.  H.  Auden,  from  whose 
epic  poem  Night  Mail  we  have  quoted  at  the  start  of  our 
chapter,  still  ringing  in  our  ears: 

Pulling  up  Beattock,  a  steady  climb— 

The  gradient's  against  her  but  she's  on  time  .  .  . 


Chapter  15 


ON  FAR  HORIZONS:  II— FROM  CANADA 
TO  THE  ORIENT 


From  the  frozen  wastes  of  Lapland 
To  the  rice-lands  of  Cathay: 

Even  there  the  mail  trains  rumble- 
Even  there  the  tired  clerks  sway  .  . 
-  B.A.L. 


—Courtesy  Postal 
Markings 


Aside  from  the  continental  United  States 
and  Great  Britain,  doubtless  the  most  sig- 
nificant countries  to  us  from  a  railway  mail 
standpoint  would  be  Canada  and  Mexico- 
plus,  of  course,  the  outlying  United  States 
territories,  where  R.P.O.  operations  differ 
markedly  from  those  in  the  States.  A  brief 
study  of  the  systems  in  each  of  these  three 
areas,  plus  a  short  review  of  that  of  India  (a  typical  Asiatic 
country),  will  follow.  Very  brief  summaries  of  other  national 
systems  will  be  tabulated  in  conclusion. 

THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA 

Canada's  modern  network  of  nearly  two  hundred  R.P.O. 
lines  is  intermediate  in  character  between  the  United  States 
and  British  systems,  but  the  American  influence  has  the  edge 
by  far,  for  Canadian  lines  are  closely  synchronized  with  ours. 
About  twelve  hundred  men,  officially  designated  as  "railway 
mail  clerks,"  man  the  coast-to-coast  layout;  but  they  are  ap- 
pointed by  promotion  from  the  post  offices,  as  in  England. 

297 


298  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

They  then,  however,  become  a  permanent  part  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service,  as  Canada  still  officially  entitles  its  opera- 
tions. The  R.M.S.  is  part  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  as 
in  the  United  States,  but  is  headed  by  a  chief  superintendent 
at  Ottawa  (in  English  fashion)— currently,  Mr.  "\V.  G.  Ross. 
Of  the  transcontinental  mail  channels,  perhaps  the  most 
important  chain  from  east  to  west  coasts  (3,770  miles)  is  com- 
posed of  the  following  R.P.O.s: 

1.  Halifax   8:   Moncton    R.P.O.    (Can.Natl.,    189   miles). 
Nova  Scotia  to  New  Brunswick. 

2.  Monc.  &  St.  John  (Can.Natl.,  89  miles),  in  New  Bruns- 
wick. 

3.  St.  John  &  Montreal  (Can.Pac,  482  miles).  New  Bruns- 
wick to  Province  of  Quebec. 

4.  Mont,  k  Toronto  (CN,  336  miles).  Province  of  Quebec 
to  Ontario. 

5.  Tor.  &:  Ft.  William  (CP,  812  miles),  in  Ontario. 

6.  Ft.  Wm.  &  Winnipeg  (CP,  419  miles),  Ontario  to  Mani- 
toba. 

7.  Winn,  k  Moose  Jaw  (CP,  398  miles),  Manitoba  to  Sas- 
katchewan. 

8.  M.   J.   &  Calgary    (CP,   434   miles),   Saskatchewan   to 
Alberta. 

9.  Cal.  k  Vancouver   (CP,  642  miles),  Alberta  to  British 
Columbia. 

Of  these,  the  3rd,  4th,  5th,  and  7th  lines  listed  are  all  long 
ones,  broken  up  into  two  or  three  divisions,  as  in  the  United 
States;  but,  in  contrast  to  our  practice,  each  division  is  named 
as  a  subsidiary  R.P.O.  The  division  titles  are  used  only  in 
schemes  and  on  slips  or  labels,  not  in  schedules  (thus  the  St. 
John  R:  Montreal  comprises  the  St.  John  &:  Lac  Megantic, 
Lac  Merantic  k  Sherbrooke,  and  Sherbrooke  k  Montreal 
clerks'  runs).  As  in  the  United  States,  all  R.P.O.  lines  were 
apportioned  long  ago  among  fifteen  administrative  areas  (now 
sixteen,  wiili  Newfoundland  added),  but  these  are  called 
postal  districts,  not  divisions— usually  designated  by  the  name 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  299 

of  the  headquarters  city.  Despite  the  fact  that  all  long-dis- 
tance ordinary  letters  have  been  carried  by  air  for  three  years 
now,  the  R.P.O.s  are  thriving. 

Canadian  R.P.O.  schemes  are  termed  distribution  lists  or 
sortation  books;  much  larger  than  ours,  they  are  sturdily 
bound  in  cloth  board.  They  are  issued  for  each  province  in 
a  convenient  and  handy  alphabetical  form  (as  in  our  earlier 
official  schemes,  now  unfortunately  obsolete).  Spaces  between 
each  line  permit  instant  insertion  of  ne^v  post  offices.  However, 
no  mail  routes  are  listed  for  the  large-city  offices,  and  the 
scheming  of  "dis"  offices,  Avithout  using  either  that  abbrevia- 
tion or  asterisks,  is  a  bit  confusing  to  our  eyes.  The  Schedules 
of  Mail  Trains,  likewise  much  larger  than  ours,  are  models 
that  we  could  •well  emulate;  timetables  are  clear  and  detailed 
(direct  lock  bags  for  nearby  points  are  bracketed  with  station 
of  dispatch),  and  the  svmbols  for  frequency  of  ser\'ice  are 
superbly  simple.  Instead  of  using  over  t^vo  hundred  complex, 
arbitrary  letter-combination  symbols  fas  does  our  P.T.S.) 
the  Canadian  R.AT.S.  numbers  each  weekday  from  1  to  6  and 
combines  them  with  "Dy.*"  (daily)  and  "Dv."  (dailv  except 
Sunday;  thus,  "daily  exc.  Sun.,  Mon.,  R:  Sat."  is  Dy.-l  6).  Clerks 
memorize  the  principle  instantly. 

Some  Canadian  R.P.O.  cars— their  seventy-two-foot  ones- 
are  almost  the  world's  longest.  Most  cars  closely  resemble  ours, 
evcent  that  they  are  usually  lettered  only  "MAIL  AND  EX- 
PRESS" or  something  equally  noncommittal.  Inside  the 
appearance  is  practically  identical,  but  the  lock  bags  hung  for 
letter  mails  differ  markedly  from  our  pouches  (a  huge,  per- 
manently attached  lock  and  bolt  is  used  to  close  the  top  in 
accordionlike  folds).  Facing  slips  are  folded,  as  in  former 
United  States  practice,  for  use  in  the  slide-in  label  holders  on 
all  bags.  Slips  are  larger  and  thicker,  and  the  same  handy 
registrv  labels  and  good  strong  tTvine  are  used  as  in  Fmjland. 
The  public  is  not  permitted  to  purchase  stamps  from  R.P.O.s. 
C.P.  routes,  designated  B.C.S.  (baggage  car  service),  some- 
times carry  registry  conx'oys. 

Canadian  R.P.O.s  usuallv  deliver  letters  overnight,  via 
first  carriers,  to  any  point  within  four  hundred  to  eight  hun- 


500  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

dred  miles.  City  sortation  on  night  trains  likewise  works 
Montreal  or  Toronto  mails  out  to  carrier  routes  for  the  first 
daily  delivery.  Now  performed  by  railway  mail  clerks,  the 
city  distribution  was  formerly  done  by  "city  sorters"  bor- 
rowed from  post  offices;  semicircular  cases  in  the  car  end  are 
often  used.  Several  terminals  exist  (at  Toronto,  Regina,  and 
so  on),  which  resemble  ours;  but  local  post  offices  run  them— 
not  the  R.M.S. 

Tea  is  the  favorite  beverage  en  route,  and  regular  hotels 
are  patronized  at  the  end  of  the  run,  where  sizable  layovers  are 
gi\en.  Layoffs  are  a  bit  shorter  than  in  the  United  States, 
however,  for  clerks  must  put  in  forty-four  weekly  hours  of 
actual  road  duty  (without  study  allowances).  Eighteen  days' 
annual  leave  is  given.  Duties  in  the  car  are  rotated  among  the 
men,  including  the  duty  of  local  exchanges  by  the  catching 
arm,  which  is  just  like  ours.  Clerks  take  regular  case  exami- 
nations, using  practice  cards  (up  to  twenty-five  hundred  per 
province)  printed  and  sold  by  the  Post  Ofiice  Department; 
passing  is  90  to  95  per  cent,  but  for  promotions,  97  per  cent. 
One  card-exam  per  year  is  required,  and  clerks  use  many 
study  methods,  varying  from  "adaptations  of  Pelmanism"  to 
just  plain  memory  work.  Five  questions  each  are  asked,  at  the 
same  examination,  on  Canada's  P.  L.  R:  R.;  on  the  instructions 
to  clerks;  and  on  specific  train  connections  for  letters  between 
given  points.  Salaries  are  considerably  less  than  those  of 
the  United  States,  but  living  costs  are  also  lower;  higher  pay 
is  being  sought. 

Canada's  interesting  types  of  R.P.O.s  include  some  unusual 
boat  and  part-boat  runs  and  some  still  more  remarkable  "in- 
ternational" routes,  for  Canadian  R.P.O.  cars  are  used  inter- 
changeably with  ours— plus  four  busy  narro'iv-gauge  R.P.O.s 
in  Newfoundland.  But  most  roiues  in  Ne'wfoundland  are 
not  only  boat  lines  but  still  retain  English  titles,  such  as  the 
Argentia  R:  N.  Sydney  T.P.O.  (.S.S.  Bar  Haven)  or  Cabot 
Strait  T.P.O. ;  its  former  boat  was  sunk  by  enemy  action 
when  on  its  run  October  14,  1942,  killing  137.  The  four 
unique  slim-gauge  R.P.O.s  in  Ne^vfoundland  include  the 
Newfoundland  Railway's  545-mile  "Express"  or  St.  Johns 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  SOI 

k  Port  aux  Basques  R.P.O.,  Avhose  three  clerks  are  often  snow- 
bound and  dug  out  by  dog  teams;  their  R.P.O.  and  others  were 
pictured  on  former  NeAvfoundland  stamps.  On  idyllic  Prince 
Edward  Island— the  province  with  no  crime,  divorce,  poverty, 
or  liquor— the  unique  Charlottetown  R:  Sackville  R.P.O.  (CN) 
makes  connection  to  the  mainland  via  railway,  the  car-ferry 
steamer  Prince  Edward  Island  (also  shown  on  a  stamp)  then 
rail  again;  two  other  rail  R.P.O.s  serve  the  island  only.  Then 
there  is  the  "Muskoka  Lakes  Steamer"  (MLNavS:HCo), 
with  clerks  running  from  Gravenhurst  to  Port  Carling 
and  Rosseau,  Ontario.  Two  similar  routes  in  British  Colum- 
bia operate:  one  is  the  Robson  8:  Arrowhead  R.P.O.  (.S.5. 
Minto),  and  the  other  is  variously  entitled  the  T.P.O.  Bur- 
rard  Inlet,  the  Indian  River  R:  Vancouver,  or  simply  as  the 
"Burrard"  or  "Burrard  Inlet,"  B.  C,  post  office  (its  present 
postmark)!  The  latter  distributes  patrons'  mail  to  docks  but 
is  operated  as  a  post  office  and  not  by  the  R. M.S. —it  consists 
of  a  mail  boat  (usually  the  5.5.  Scenic),  operated  for  twenty- 
five  years  by  Postman-Captain  Anderson,  And  the  Quebec, 
Natash.  R:  N.  Shore  (ClarkeSSCo)  on  the  St.  Lawrence  has 
three  unique  "Seapost"  and  "Poste  Fluviale"  runs  (see  Appx. 
I  for  list  of  these  and  of  all  Canadian  R.P.O.s). 

Best  known  of  the  many  international  routes  is  perhaps  the 
DRjH's  Rouses  Point  8:  Albany  (for  United  States-operated 
lines  are  named  after  points  in  this  country  only),  which  ac- 
tually runs  from  Albany  to  Montreal,  P.  Q.;  like  many  other 
such  runs,  it  uses  United  States  clerks  and  postmarkers  and 
serves  no  Canadian  local  stations.  One  such  United  States 
route  operates  entirely  in  Canada  except  for  a  mile  or  two  in 
Buffalo  and  Detroit— the  Buff.  &  Chicago,  East  Div.  (NYC- 
MC);  Canada's  Ft.  Erie  S:  St.  Thomas  R.P.O.,  on  same  tracks, 
gives  the  local  service.  Canada,  similarly,  has  many  routes 
entering  the  States,  like  the  CN's  Island  Pond  R:  Montreal  out 
of  Island  Pond,  Vermont,  or  completely  crossing  one  of  them— 
like  her  remarkable  St.  Johns  R:  Montreal  R.P.O.  (CP),  trav- 
ersing the  width  of  Maine  for  hundreds  of  miles,  exchanging 
mails  with  United  States  lines  but  not  serving:  local  offices 
(they  receive  mail  from  nearby  R.P.O.s). 


502  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

The  most  incredible  of  all  border  R.P.O.s  is  doubtless  the 
amazing  joint  operation  ot  the  P.T.S.'s  VVarroad  &  Duluth 
R.P.O.  and  Canada's  Fort  Frances  &:  Winnipeg,  comprising 
the  CN  raihvay  from  Duluth  lo  Winnipeg.  '1  he  two  R.P.O.s 
overlap  for  almost  a  hundred  miles  in  Ontario  and  Minne- 
sota. United  States  clerks  run  from  Duluth  to  International 
Falls,  Minnesota,  and  cross  into  Ontario  via  Fort  Frances 
to  Crozier,  where  they  get  off  —  after  delivering  even  the 
Canadian  local  mails,  in  international  sealed  sacks,  between 
the  Falls  and  Crozier.  Canadian  clerks  take  over  the  run  at 
that  point  and  work  west^v•ard  to  cross  the  border  again  be- 
tween Rainy  River,  Ontario,  and  Baudette,  Minnesota;  and 
they  in  turn  serve  several  United  States  to^vns  from  Baudette 
to  Warroad,  Minnesota,  inclusive!  These  offices,  "schemed" 
to  the  Warroad  Sc  Duluth,  are  actually  served  by  clerks  of  the 
Canadian  route  only,  who  use  and  deliver  regulation  United 
States  pouches  (left  by  the  United  States  crew)  for  each  town. 
The  "Canucks"  also  handle  much  mail  for  Penasse,  Minne- 
sota (via  W^arroad),  our  northernmost  United  States  post 
office,  for  which  all  mails  must  be  carried  throuo;h  Canada. 
Finally  the  train  crosses  into  Canada  again  via  South  Junction, 
Manitoba,  and  on  to  Winnipeg. 

Some  complex  and  interesting  variations  from  standard 
practice  are  necessary  on  such  routes.  Many  items  must  be 
segregated  for  customs  inspection;  direct  letter  bags  for  offices 
and  R.P.O.s  across  the  border,  in  either  direction,  must  be 
prepared  as  sealed  tie  sacks;  local  offices  are  served  by  pouch 
or  sealed  sack,  depending  on  country  traversed,  regardless  of 
which  nation's  clerks  are  on  duty;  and  periodic  counts  of  inter- 
national parcels  and  the  complex  foreign  registry  regulations 
must  be  observed  to  the  letter.  Since  United  States  lines  enter- 
ing or  nearing  Canada  "pouch  on"  many  Canadian  offices  and 
lines,  and  vice  versa,  border  lines  of  both  countries  must  carry 
scaling  presses  and  equipment  to  prepare  the  needed  sealed 
sacks.  United  States  clerks  "put  up"  Canadian  provinces,  us- 
ing sortation  books  and  cards  from  Ottawa,  exactly  as  they  do 
tiieir  on-n  examinations;  but  Canadian  clerks  do  not  learn 
United  States  states.  Each  country  must  dispatch  mails  in  its 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  SOS 

own  bags  only,  and  return  the  other's  empty;  vari-colored 
tags  are  used  to  denote  each  class  of  international  mail. 

Mail  carrying  by  rail  in  Canada  dates  back  to  183G,  when 
the  first  railway  was  built  (Laprairie  to  St.  John's,  P.Q.);  most 
railroads  began  carrying  mailbags  as  soon  as  constructed. 
Route  agents  began  sorting  local  mails  on  the  St.  Lawrence 
k  Atlantic  Railroad  (as  well  as  on  steamers)  about  1851.  The 
first  true  R.P.O.,  the  Niagara  Falls  R:  London  (Grand  Trunk), 
began  operating  in  1854;  and  by  1857  forty  clerks  were  run- 
ning on  fourteen  hundred  miles  of  route  throughout  eastern 
Canada,  although  an  1865  report  lists  only  seventeen  actual 
R.P.O.  lines.  As  late  as  1874,  however,  lines  like  the  Toronto 
&:  Windsor  (GT)  used  no  letter  cases;  letters  were  thrown 
loose  into  the  large  parcel  and  paper  boxes  (resembling  the 
ones  once  used  in  the  United  States).  The  first  R.P.O.  in 
western  Canada,  the  132-mile  Winnipeg  Sc  Brandon,  began 
operating  January  2,  1886;  on  June  28,  1886,  the  first  through 
R.P.O.  train  left  Montreal  for  the  Pacific  Coast. 

The  clerks'  union  is  the  Dominion  Railway  Mail  Clerks' 
Federation,  founded  about  1885  as  the  regional  (Eastern) 
Railway  Mail  Clerks'  Association  of  Canada  at  St.  John,  N.  B. 
In  January  1917  it  was  consolidated  with  the  Western  Rail- 
way Mail  Clerks'  Federation  (founded  1912),  at  Winnipeg,  to 
form  the  present  organization.  About  1921  it  affiliated  with 
the  Canadian  Federation  of  Postal  Employees,  and  in  1944 
with  the  Civil  Serxice  Federation;  however,  it  withdrew  from 
the  former  federation  after  an  "unfortunate"  strike  of  postal 
and  railway  mail  clerks  about  1924,  sponsored  by  the  C.F.P.E. 
Like  our  N.P.T.A.,  the  D.R.ISLC.F.  believes  in  encouraging 
the  highest  standards  of  performance  of  duty  by  each  clerk, 
expressed  in  the  words  "W^e  must  give  as  well  as  take,"  in  order 
to  deserve  and  better  secure  the  improved  conditions  for 
which  the  organization  often  successfully  bargains. 

It,  too,  is  comprised  of  divisional  associations,  one  to  each 
postal  district,  and  of  branches  at  all  important  railroad 
centers.  About  80  per  cent  of  all  clerks  are  members,  and  a 
full-time  secretary  serves  the  federation  at  Ottawa.  Here,  too, 
is  published  its  well-printed  journal,  the  Railway  Mail  Clerks 


304  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

which  is  published  in  English  and  French  editions  cleverly 
bound  together  witli  separate  covers  and  titles.  Enjoyable 
outings  are  held  jointly  by  the  D.R.M.C.F.  and  the  N.P.T.A., 
including  friendly  Toronto- Buffalo  area  family  picnics. 

Electric  rail  fans  will  be  interested  to  know  that  one  rail- 
way mail  clerk  is  assigned  to  the  trolley-operated  Port  Stanley, 
St.  Thomas  R:  London  B.C.S.  (LR;PS)  in  Ontario  to  convoy 
registered  mails  on  Train  48  from  London  to  St.  Thomas; 
and  that  until  1938,  operating  postal  cars  of  the  former 
Windsor  R:  St.  Thomas  (CN)  were  hatiled  by  trolley  locomo- 
tives, likewise,  from  London  to  St.  Thomas.  Previously,  cars 
of  other  R.P.O.'s  had  been  similar  hauled;  but  Canada  never 
had  any  true  trolley  R.P.O.s  supplying  either  local  or  city 
stations.    However,  several  C.  P.  runs  are  trolley. 

The  Dominion's  railway  mail  clerks,  dubbed  "Canada's 
Night  Riders"  by  Deputy  P.M.G.  Turnbull  in  a  recent  radio 
address,  have  to  contend  with  (as  he  pointed  otit)  cars  that 
"sway,  roar,  bounce,  lurch,  scream  around  curves,  jerk  like 
a  busting  broncho"— in  addition  to  the  lo-^v  salaries  and  long 
hours.  We  can  leave  them  Avith  no  better  parting  salute  than 
one  which  Mr.  Turnbull  quoted  as  oft  applied  to  them:  "The 
key  men  who  swiftly  dispatch  the  nation's  business  .  .  .  who 
race  against  time  and  win." 

THE  UNITED  STATES  TERRITORIES 

In  all  the  outlying  territories  of  the  United  States,  only  one 
R.P.O.  still  remains— and  even  that  is  not  a  P.T.S.  operation! 
The  Postal  Transportation  Service,  which  was  operating  fotir 
interesting  rail  and  boat  R.P.O.s  in  Alaska  and  Puerto  Rico 
in  1949,  closed  out  the  last  of  these  operations  in  1950;  and 
the  10  short  former  R.P.O.s  of  HaAvaii,  such  as  the  old  Aiea 
&  Waianae  (Oahu  RR?)  had  disappeared  long  before.  (Lines 
formerly  operated  by  the  R.M.S.  in  Cuba  and  the  Philippines, 
however,  are  still  flourishing;  as  detailed  later— but  under  in- 
dependent  governments.) 

The  transition  of  Alaskan  postal  service  to  100  per  cent 
closed-pouch  operation  with  air  routes  as  its  basis  is  now  com- 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  805 

plete;  rail  and  boat  services  carry  little  but  non-first-class 
mails,  and  operate  about  weekly  to  monthly  as  opposed  to 
daily  air  operation.  With  even  ordinary  three-cent  letters  be- 
ing carried  mostly  by  air,  and  with  official  disapproval  toward 
any  increased  frequency  of  R.P.O.  running  or  to  establish- 
ment of  H.P.O.s  as  the  fixed  policy  there,  the  death-blow  to  all 
distribution  in  transit  was  inevitable.  The  infrequent  R.P.O. 
services  were  made  to  appear  quite  useless  because  of  such 
handicaps,  in  comparison  with  the  air  lines'  overpowering 
speed  and  frequency  factors. 

Very  interesting,  however,  is  Alaska's  longest  rail-operated 
closed-pouch  route,  the  Fairbanks  R:  Seward  C.P.,  which  was 
an  R.P.O.  until  May  1950;  this  connects  the  very  center  of 
the  Territory  with  its  south  coast.  The  other  two  R.P.O.'s 
were  steamboat  runs,  with  mails  sorted  by  a  joint  employee. 
The  Juneau,  Sitka  R:  Skagway  (J.  V.  Da\is  Boat  Line),  496 
miles  through  the  coastal  bays,  served  the  present  and  former 
capitals;  it  had  weekly  service  on  each  of  two  sections  until 
its  steamer  burned  in  1947— listed  as  "Suspended"  thereafter, 
it  was  oflicially  discontinued  in  May,  1950.  The  other  boat 
line,  the  Nenana  R:  St.  Michael  R.P.O.,  operated  bi-weekly  in 
summer  until  discontinued  Oct.  15,  1949;  it  traversed  the 
famed  Yukon  for  1,028  miles  as  our  longest  boat  R.P.O.  (the 
St.  Michael  end  w^as  closed-pouch).  The  joint  employee 
served  on  two  Alaska  R.R.  steamers,  the  Alice  and  Nenana, 
using  a  postmarker  reading  "ALASKA"  at  the  bottom  in- 
stead of  the  usual  "R.P.O." 

Alaskan  R.P.O.s  had  to  contend  with  the  highly  unorthodox 
ways  in  which  Alaskan  mails  were  and  are  handled  as  com- 
pared to  operations  in  the  States— dispatches  of  mail-bags  ad- 
dressed to  no-office  points,  "catches"  made  by  the  train  from 
hand-held  train-order  hoops,  the  rigid  exclusion  of  ordinary 
parcels  and  much  printed  matter  from  mailing  to  most  areas 
in  \vinter,  special  regulations  for  mailing  gold  dust  and 
bullion,  and  mails  for  railroaders  at  section  houses  formerly 
delivered  hand-to-hand. 

Trains  on  the  Fairbanks  &:  Seward  C.P.  operate  over  the 
470-mile  Alaska  Railroad  on  probably  the  most  leisurely 


906  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

schedule  on  record.  The  R.P.O.  and  passenger  trains  used  to 
take  only  32  hours  for  the  run,  with  both  lunch  and  over- 
night stops;  but  this  breakneck  speed  was  reduced  to  a  37- 
hour  trip  well  before  the  last  day  of  R.P.O.  service— when 
Clerk  John  F.  Rowland  finished  his  final  run  on  May  22,  1950. 
Contrary  to  a  common  impression,  the  Fair.  Sc  Seward  was  a 
short-lived  R.P.O.  of  comparatively  recent  origin;  it  was  not 
established  until  May,  1936,  when  Clerk  J.  B.  Carson  inaugu- 
rated its  career  of  just  14  years  with  a  borrowed  postmarker. 
The  line  was  a  mere  newcomer  among  the  many  boat  R.P.O.'s 
Alaska  then  boasted— the  Alaska  S.S.  Co.'s  2070-mile  Seattle 
&:  Seward  (now  C.P.),  the  Seward  S:  Unalaska  on  the  S.S.  Starr, 
and  many  others  (Note  13).  Clerk  Rowland,  who  furnished 
us  much  of  this  information,  was  transferred  to  the  Seattle  R: 
Portland  R.P.O.  in  Washington  and  Oregon;  and  he  now 
runs  on  this  Union  Pacific  line. 

Today,  Fairbanks  R:  Seward  C.P.  trains  leave  Seward  north- 
bound on  Tuesdays  and  Saturdays  (the  Saturday  trip  was  the 
R.P.O.)  and  on  days  when  steamers  arrive,  at  8:30  A.M.  as 
always.  Of  the  mail  which  is  loaded  on  before  leaving,  the 
clerk  used  to  distribute  some  20  to  30  pouches  and  sacks  re- 
ceived here— including  mails  addressed  to  the  Nenana  R:  St. 
Michael,  Nenana  Dis,  and  so  on,  for  Avhich  he  did  advance 
sorting;  he  occupied  a  30-foot  compartment  with  five  racks, 
and  dispatched  nearly  all  of  his  own  outgoing  long-distance 
mail  by  air.  Fully  50  per  cent  of  the  mail  received  is  addressed 
to  no-office  localities— which,  however,  are  practically  all  listed 
in  the  second  half  of  the  very  unusual  "standpoint  scheme" 
which  is  the  only  one  issued  for  Alaska.  The  end  of  all  R.P.O. 
service  has  worked  havoc  with  this  scheme,  for  no  longer  can 
any  office  be  schemed  to  a  distributing  line;  however,  it  has 
always  listed  the  offices  alphabetically  in  Canadian  fashion 
with  summer  and  winter  services  (manv  no-office  points  were 
routed  only  to  some  R.P.O.).  The  clerk  used  a  self-compiled 
local  scheme  also. 

By  1  P.M.,  our  train  arrives  at  the  fast-growing  metropolis 
of  Anchorage;  and  it  stays  here  all  afternoon  and  all  night. 
(The  R.P.O.  stayed  there  both  Saturday  and  Sunday  nights, 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  S07 

with  the  clerk  utilizing  railroaders'  overnight  accommoda- 
tions.) Early  in  the  morning,  much  mail  is  loaded  on  from 
the  big  new  Anchorage  Post  Office;  and  again  the  train  leaves 
at  8:30.  It  passes  in  succession  magnificent  snow-capped 
mountains  .  .  .  glaciers  gleaming  in  the  sun  .  .  .  the  Matanuska 
resettlement  colony  .  .  ,  Curry,  the  lunch  stop  .  .  .  scenic 
McKinley  Park  ...  a  stop  for  supper  at  Healy  .  .  .  Nenana, 
where  the  R.P.O.  connected  the  Nenana  &:  St.  Michael  every 
other  trip  .  .  .  and  into  Fairbanks  at  10:30  P.M.  But  no  longer 
does  the  clerk  worry  about  balancing  his  registers,  which  were 
the  line's  real  mainstay  in  its  closing  years;  nor  has  a  pouch- 
rack  been  already  neatly  re-hung  for  the  return  trip  as  before. 
Until  the  close  of  R.P.O,  service,  Clerk  Rowland  would  return 
to  Anchorage  with  the  mail  train  the  following  morning 
(Tuesday)  then  lay  off  until  Friday,  when  he'd  complete  the 
trek  into  Seward;  he  was  relieved  for  occasional  extra  week.s 
by  a  part-time  clerk,  and  both  men  worked  under  a  District 
Superintendent  at  Anchorage. 

W^ith  the  present  increase  in  population  and  commerce, 
C. P. -passenger  trains  on  this  route  now  operate  daily  iu  the 
Anchorage  area  and  thrice  weekly  from  there  to  Fairbanks. 
It  is  to  be  earnestly  hoped  that  the  great  benefits  of  both  local 
and  through  transit-distributed  mail  can  be  eventually  re- 
stored to  Alaska,  by  means  of  (1)  Flying  Post  Office  service  on 
trunk  air  lines,  (2)  speeded-up  local  R.P.O.  service  every  other 
day  on  the  Fairbanks  &  Seward  (possibly  also  on  the  shorter 
daily  Palmer-Whittier  and  Skagway-Whitehorse  runs);  and 
(3)  modern  H.P.O.  service  on  the  Alcan  and  connecting  high- 
ways. Both  air  and  surface  mails  would  be  speeded  more 
than  ever  before,  that  way;  the  resulting  encouragement  to 
Alaskan  self-suffiiciency,  commerce,  and  Statehood  would  be 
well  Avorth  the  investment  in  time-saving  and  efficient  transit 
distribution  with  local  exchanges. 

Puerto  Rico  had  just  one  R.P.O.— the  unusual  narrow-gage 
171.9-mile  San  Juan  R:  Ponce  (Amer.RR.ofP.R.)  which  made 
its  last  run  on  June  30,  1950.  Here,  too,  the  extreme  slowness 
of  the  carrier's  trains  was  a  factor  in  discontinuance;  both  mail 
delay  and  costly  clerical  overtime  (up  to  10  hours!)  were  in- 


808  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

volved.  Tlie  railroad  was  planning  a  reorganization,  further- 
more, and  pulled  off  the  two  particular  daylight  trains  in 
which  the  Spanish-speaking  clerks  had  daily  traversed  two- 
thirds  of  the  island's  circumference  for  years.  They  worked 
city  mail  for  both  termini,  and  served  Areceibo,  Mayaguez, 
and  other  important  towns  on  their  9-hour  run;  and  until 
1941,  they  connected  the  N.Y.  &:  San  Juan  S.P.O.  (seapost) 
which  is  still  in  a  suspended  status  (it  tised  the  steamers 
America  and  Barinquen).  Several  C.P.  and  passenger  trains 
still  operate  on  the  ex-R.P.O.  line,  but  most  first-class  mail 
goes  by  star  route;  and  the  addition  of  an  H.P.O.  route  or  of 
speeded-up  R.P.O.  service  on  the  reorganized  railway,  or 
both,  would  provide  Puerto  Rico  with  far  faster  mail  service 
th.-*n  ever  before  and  other  benefits  also.  A  standard  general 
scheme  was  issued  for  Puerto  Rico,  with  all  post  offices  routed 
either  to  San  Juan  or  Ponce  "Dis,"  or  to  the  R.P.O. ;  the  two 
cities  were  schemed  as  "junctions,"  although  only  the  one  dis- 
tributing line  was  shown  (even  omitting  the  N.Y.  8:  S.  Juan). 
Oddly  enough,  both  of  our  last  two  narrow  gauge  R.P.O.s 
were  associated  with  this  word  "San  Juan"— the  name  of  the 
Ala.  R:  Durango's  train   (Chap.  10). 

The  one  remaining  R.P.O.  route  in  a  United  States  terri- 
tory, however,  is  in  the  Canal  Zone.  The  Panama  Canal 
R.P.O.  (Panama  RR)  is  not  controlled  by  the  P.T.S.  or  even 
by  otir  Post  Office  Department,  but  is  operated  by  the  Bureau 
of  Posts  of  "The  Panama  Canal,"  an  independent  United 
States  Government  bureau.  This  47.6-mile  international 
route,  running  "from  Coast  to  Coast  in  85  minutes,"  is 
the  only  R.P.O.  in  the  Zone  or  in  the  Republic  of  Panama, 
and  has  operated  since  canal  construction  in  1905.  From 
Panama,  R.P.,  on  the  Pacific,  the  R.P.O.  runs  northwest  via 
Balboa  Heights  (Ancon's  railroad  station),  Corozal,  Pedro 
Miguel,  and  Frijoles,  C.Z.,  to  the  joint  station  for  Cristobal, 
C.Z,,  and  adjacent  Colon,  R.P.,  on  the  Atlantic.  The  daily 
R.P.O.  train  largely  parallels  the  canal  and  is  staffed  by  "rail- 
way mail  clerks"  (official  title)  who  report  for  only  thirty 
minutes'  advance  time.  The  postmasters  at  Ancon  and  Cris- 
tobal supervise  the  R.P.O.  Since  there  are  only  about  twenty- 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  309 

four  civilian  post  offices  in  the  entire  Zone  (all  served  by  the 
R.P.O.  directly  or  otherwise),  the  official  "scheme"  is  merely 
a  section  of  the  Canal  Zone  Postal  Guide  listing  the  offices 
(and  other  localities,  as  in  Alaska)  with  the  station  through 
which  served. 

Like  the  former  Alaska  lines,  the  Panama  Canal  R.P.O.  is 
atuhorized  to  deliver  mail  for  residents  of  no-office  points,  like 
Frijoles,  to  "the  railroad  station  agent  or  anyone  accepting 
mail  for  him."  Even  registered  and  insured  mail,  if  made  up 
by  the  Ancon  or  Cristobal  post  offices  in  special  form,  can  be 
delivered  by  the  clerks  to  addressees  residing  along  the  rail- 
way. Clerks  are  required  to  pouch  daily  on  Balboa,  Balboa 
Heights,  Ancon,  and  Cristobal— plus  international  sealed 
sacks  for  Panama  and  Colon,  as  well  as  "additional  pouches 
as  necessary."  Panamanian  laborers  employed  by  the  Canal, 
formerly  "silver  employees"  (because  of  pay  scale),  are  re- 
quired to  assist  and  obey  the  clerks  during  receipt  and  delivery 
of  mail  at  the  car  door;  and  pavmasters  carrying  pav  rolls  for 
these  and  U.  S.  white-collar  workers  (formerly  "gold  employ- 
ees") can  ride  in  the  postal  car  to  safeguard  the  same.  In  nor- 
mal times  the  R.P.O.s  connection  to  the  States  is  by  the  N.Y.  Sc 
Canal  Zone  S.P.O.  out  of  Colon  (formerly  designated  as  an 
R.P.O.;  now  inoperative).  At  one  time  the  United  States  Rail- 
way Mail  Service  may  have  operated  the  rail  R.P.O.,  for  it 
uses  a  standard  canceler  with  "RMS"  in  the  killer.  Clerks  are 
authorized  to  accept  letters  ^vith  Panama  and  United  States 
stamps  on  them,  but  must  forward  them  for  canceling  and  for 
rating  with  postage  due;  all  such  mails  are  considered 
"foreis^n"  and  must  be  wavbilled  when  bagged.  CP  service, 
only,  is  operated  for  Panama  Republic  postal  movements. 

MEXICO 

Mexico's  interesting  R.P.O.  network,  like  Canada's,  is  svn- 
chronized  with  ours.  Aiming  to  attain  the  highest  modern 
standards,  the  system  operates  mostly  over  the  National  Rail- 
ways of  Mexico— which  actually  claims  to  have  R.P.O.  service 
over  all  its  trackage.  There  are  about  120  routes,  supervised 


510  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

by  a  "Chief  of  the  Transportation  Office,  General  Postal  Ad- 
ministration" assisted  by  his  regional  "Postal  Inspectors." 
Most  routes  are  called  O.P.A.s  (Officina  Postal  Ambulanle), 
but  some  are  designated  as  Servicio  Ambulantc,  and  they  are 
named  in  reverse  order  for  the  return  trip.  The  clerks  (and 
hence  the  service)  are  popularly  designated  post  Lren  and 
number  about  five  hundred;  olTicially  agentes  postal  ambu- 
lanle, they  are  exempt  from  loading  storage  mails  and  similar 
"porter  work." 

Connecting  with  United  States  lines  at  El  Paso,  for  ex- 
ample, is  the  important  "O.P.A.  Juarez  y  Torreon"  (NRM; 
i.e.,  Juarez  R:  Torreon  R. P.O.)— or,  northbound,  the  Torreon 
y  Judrez.  Its  service  continues  on  into  Mexico  via  the  O.P.A.'s 
Torreon  y  Aguascalientes  and  Aguas.  y  Mexico,  also  on  the 
National  Railways.  Other  lines  include  the  heavy  O.P.A. 
Nuevo  Laredo  y  San  Luis  Potosi  (MP-NRM),  likewise  a 
heavy  Mexico  City  connection  to  Laredo,  Texas:  and  the 
O.P.A.  Nogales  y  Navojoa  (SP).  Postmarkers  are  issued 
separately  to  each  clerk  regardless  of  the  different  lines  he 
may  run  on,  and  hence  show  no  titles;  arbitrary  numbers  are 
used.  Some  domestic  Mexican  mails  are  forwarded  in  part 
over  speedy  connecting  United  States  R.P.O.s  for  fastest  dis- 
patch to  Mexican  destinations.  Mail  receipts  are  given  for 
each  bag  of  mail   (nimibered  and  billed  to  correspond). 

Sealed  sacks  of  international  mails  are  regularly  exchanged 
by  United  States  and  Mexican  R.P.O.s.  and  American  clerks 
distribute  Mexican  mails  to  lines  by  standpoint  scheme,  the 
border-area  O.P.A.s  (like  Western  Canada  lines)  being  listed 
in  United  States  schedules.  Mexican  R.P.O.s  often  deliver 
mails  direct  to  persons  stationed  at  small  railroad  section 
posts  or  way  stations  which  have  no  post  office;  if  no  postal 
representative  is  on  hand,  letters  can  be  handed  to  addressees. 
Mexican  postal  cars,  which  much  like  ours,  have  no  tables 
fitted  to  the  newspaper  racks.  Hence  reports  have  arisen  that 
"mail  to  be  distributed  is  poured  on  the  floor";  but  Avhile  this 
was  done  on  small  lines  years  ago,  the  standard  practice  is  to 
work  papers  out  of  an  opened  sack  or  to  improvise  a  table 
from  sacks  piled  up  or  spread  on  ilie  rack.  Sack  mail  is  sealed 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  311 

before  dispatch.  Many  cars  have  no  fans  or  electric  lights,  but 
these  are  being  installed. 

The  two  to  tour  clerks  assigned  to  each  train  usually  bring 
a  small  portable  stove  for  heating  coffee  and  food  en  route, 
but  modern  food-heating  devices  are  planned.  Mexican 
clerks  are  notably  courteous,  polite,  and  loyal  to  their  govern- 
ment—though they  have  the  right  to  strike  against  it.  They 
are  naturally  paid  much  lower  salaries  than  United  States 
clerks  ($3.50  daily  in  1948),  but  here  again  the  low  cost  of 
living  helps  to  equalize  things.  Layoffs  are  not  quite  so  long 
as  ours.  Clerks  often  alternate  in  clerk-in-charge  assignments, 
in  day  and  night  runs,  and  so  on.  They  are  issued  detailed 
state  schemes  (with  much  postal-guide  data  included),  as  well 
as  one  of  Mexico  itself,  and  are  expected  to  memorize  hun- 
dreds of  routings  of  the  tiny  no-office  localities.  No  practice 
cards  are  used  except  occasional  homemade  ones.  Clerks  be- 
long to  a  general  communications  union  (the  S.N.T.S.C. 
O.P.!)  instead  of  to  a  postal  or  railway  mail  group,  and  joint 
meetings  and  banquets  have  been  held  by  this  union  and  the 
EI  Paso  Branch,  N.P.T.A.,  which  have  been  attended  by 
clerks  and  high  officials  as  well— a  laudable  boon  to  interna- 
tional friendship.  The  future  of  Mexico's  system  is  bright. 

INDIA 

(Including  Burma  and  Pakistan) 

Like  the  Canadian  and  Philippine  systems  (and  like  ours 
up  to  1949)  the  Railway  Post  Office  system  of  India  is 
designated  as  "the  Railway  Mail  Service,"  and  the  same 
types  of  divisions,  each  headed  by  a  superintendent,  are  used. 
Furthermore,  "catchers"  for  non-stop  exchanges  resemble  the 
United  States  type;  layoffs  are  much  like  ours  (clerks  often 
work  four  days,  then  are  off  three);  and,  finally,  the  R.M.S.  is 
"entrusted  with  almost  the  whole  sorting  (i.e.,  transit  distri- 
bution) of  the  Post  Office,"  exactly  as  in  this  country. 

W^orking  conditions,  efficiency  of  operation,  and  salaries 
have  all  improved  remarkably  in  recent  years.  Sorters  on  the 
more  than  450  lines  now  receive  about  45  to  120  rupees  a 


S12  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

month  (about  $36,  a  good  salary  in  India).  Cars  are  small, 
often  only  fifteen  feet  in  total  length,  and,  like  English 
T.P.O.s,  contain  no  pouch  or  sack  racks.  But  they  are  fitted 
with  electric  lights,  and  special  resthouses  have  been  provided 
by  the  government  at  "changing  stations"  and  termini  for  the 
sorters,  as  they  are  called.  An  attendant  and  necessary  uten- 
sils are  provided  there  for  cooking  meals;  hence  most  lines 
offer  only  a  low  travel  allowance  or  none  at  all. 

Runs  often  comprise  a  full  week  of  varied  dtuies,  includ- 
ing certain  hours  at  a  Mail  Office  (terminal  R.P.O.)  or  Record 
Office,  and  a  deadhead  journey  or  two  to  complete  the  cycle. 
Mail  Offices  (with  a  postmark  such  as  "POONA  R.M.S.")  also 
employ  many  regular  terminal  clerks,  who  get  only  one  day 
off  in  ten;  however,  they  usually  work  only  six  to  seven  and 
three-quarter  hours  a  day,  depending  on  whether  it  is  night 
or  day  work.  On  the  trains  "FM"  (foreign  mail)  sorters  work 
up  to  twenty-seven  hours  without  rest,  and  special  R.P.O. 
trains  for  such  mails  are  normally  operated  out  of  Bombay. 

R.P.O.s  are  called  R.M.S.  Sections^  and  a  typical  example 
is  the  Darjeeling  Mail,  which  is  officially  "Section  E-ll"  (1 1th 
run  in  "E"  Division)  on  the  Ben.  &:  A.  and  D.  H.  Rys.  Cars 
on  this  line  are  painted  "DARJEELING  MAIL"  in  large 
letters  with  a  royal  crest  underneath,  and  have  a  "late  fee"  mail 
slot;  wino-  cases,  with  boxes  twice  as  big  as  ours,  are  found 
inside.  (This  line  operates  from  Parbatipur  to  Darjeeling, 
up  in  the  Mount  Everest  foothills.)  A  typical  trunk  line,  on 
the  G.I. P.  Railway  from  Bombay  to  Delhi,  consists  of  Sections 
B-19,  F-1,  and  A-15.  Trains  are  numbered,  but  "in"  and 
"out"  designations  are  usually  used. 

The  Indian  R.M.S.  dates  from  1863,  when  the  first  sorting 
section  was  established  on  the  G.I. P.  Railway  from  Allahabad 
to  Cawnpore.  After  heated  arguments  over  railroad  mail  pay, 
the  Post  Office  was  able  to  expand  the  services  over  the  coun- 
try. Old  postmarks  reveal  that  both  the  terms  "R.P.O."  and 
"T.P.O."  were  used  at  first,  but  later  dropped  in  favor  of 
R.M.S.;  "Mail  Guards"  and  "Mail  Agents,"  each  with  their 
own  R.M.S.  cancelers,  appeared.  Today  R.P.O.  trains  use 
postmarkers  showing  simply  the  number  of  the  section,  as 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  813 

"B-2,"  and  of  the  crew  or  set  on  duty,  such  as  "SET  1 ."  Sorters 
must  turn  in  detailed  trip  reports  with  every  irregularity 
recorded.  There  is  only  one  "Schedule  of  R.P.O.  Trains"  for 
all  of  India,  and  this  is  published  as  a  fifty-page  appendix  to 
the  Postal  Guide  or  List  of  Indian  Post  Offices;  called  the  List 
of  R.M.S.  Sections,  this  appendix  includes  all  necessary  time- 
table data  (including  junction  connections)  for  every  section 
operated.  Compiled  in  tabulated  list  form,  with  section  titles 
all  in  one  left-hand  column,  it  appears  thoroughly  complicated 
to  our  eyes— in  fact,  almost  as  remarkably  complex  as  our 
P.T.S.  brochures  appear  to  Indian  R.M.S.  men!  India's 
schemes  or  sortiji^  lists  seem  to  be  even  more  hopelessly  con- 
fused; issued  separately  from  each  large  postal  center,  thev 
consist  of  non-alphabetical  regional  standpoint  schemes  with 
the  post  offices  listed  in  arbitrary  order. 

India  had  one  of  the  world's  first  planned  training  pro- 
grams for  new  R.M.S.  men.  Some  interesting  excerpts  are 
given  here  from  a  significant  report  by  Nilkanth  D.  Purandare, 
retired  R.M.S.  inspector  at  Poona  who  has  conducted  many 
such  courses  between  1928  and  1943.  Mr.  Purandare  (whose 
father  founded  the  Foreign  Mail  Sections')  thus  describes  the 
wartime  revival  of  the  classes  in  September  1943: 

Seventeen  such  classes  were  opened  at  the  Head- 
quarters stations  of  the  R.M.S.  Divisions  .  .  .  Taking  into 
consideration  the  costly  living  in  Bombay  .  .  .  the  Gov- 
ernment decided  to  pay  regular  pay  and  other  allow- 
ances to  the  twenty  trainees  to  be  deputed  to  the  R.M.S. 
Training  Center,  Bombay  G.P.O.  .  .  .  The  Sorting  Office 
of  the  Bombay  R.M.S.  is  the  biggest  in  the  whole  of 
India  ...  As  the  number  of  post  offices  to  be  learned  by 
heart  by  a  trainee  in  the  Bombay  R.M.S.  is  much  larger, 
I  got  the  period  extended  to  three  months  .  .  .  For  prac- 
tical work  they  used  to  be  deputed  for  actual  sorting  to 
the  R.M.S.  Mail  Office. 

The  number  of  post  offices  to  be  learned  by  heart  .  .  . 
was  about  four  thousand  durine  the  course  of  about 
twelve  weeks.  I  had,  therefore,  fixed  a  quota  of  three 
hundred  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  per  week,  or  about 
sixty  per  day.  I  had  about  four  or  five  copies  of  the  List 


S14  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

of  Indian  P.O.s,  and  introduced  the  system  of  dictating 
the  names  of  the  P.O.'s  in  the  class.  .  .  .  Notebooks  were 
introduced  .  .  ,  This  copying  work  in  two  places  had  a 
good  result,  as  the  trainees  had  a  good  practice  in 
spelling  .  .  . 

We  had  map  reading,  and  explaining  of  train  connec- 
tions of  the  R.M.S.  sorting  sections  in  India,  for  which 
bags  are  closed  by  the  Bombay  R.M.S.;  .  .  .  the  beats  of 
R.M.S.  sections  and  the  situation  of  postoffices  on  the 
several  railway  lines  etc.  ...  I  introduced  the  system 
of  a  written  test  ...  A  monthly  report  on  the  progress 
of  each  trainee  was  sent  to  the  Division  Superintendent 
.  .  .  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  boys  received  train- 
ing ...  It  was  a  pleasure  to  teach  others  what  you  know, 
and  be  of  use  to  the  community  at  large.  It  was  a  duty 
after  my  own  heart. 

R. P.O.s  in  Pakistan  and  Burma  closely  resemble  those  in 
India  proper.  Pakistan  has  adopted  some  new  postmarkers  for 
use  on  air  mail  and  registers  sorted  on  the  lines,  the  cancel 
indicating  one  or  both  functions.  Burma's  Rangoon-Manda- 
lay  Mail  and  Moulmein  Night  Mail  are  well  known;  newer 
postmarks,  like  that  of  the  Minhla-Thayetmo  R.P.O.,  show  the 
route  title. 

CENTRAL  AMERICA 

Costa  Rica.—K.P.O.s.  called  Ambulantes  or  Ferrocnrril, 
from  San  Jose  to  Ramal,  to  Limon,  et  cetera;  two  or  three 
routes,  one  reported  as  early  as  1907. 

C?/6<2.— About  seventy  routes,  called  Ambulates  (or  S.P.C), 
except  for  immediately  following  the  Spanish-American  W^ar. 
Then  our  R.M.S.  took  over  and  renamed  them  accordingly— 
thus  the  "Cardenas  y  Santa  Clara  Ambulate"  became  the 
"Cardenas  R:  Santa  Clara  R.P.O."  from  1899  to  1902.  A  main 
line  is  the  Habana  y  Camaguey  Ambulate  (URH-CubRR). 
Two  boat  R. P.O.s  (called  Topor) and  three  H. P.O.s  {Camioyi) 
operate,  including  the  Camion  Habana  y  Managua. 

Guatemala.— Ti\e  current  routes  operate,  with  twelve  nms 
f hereon  (numbered  in  order),  from  Guatemala  City  to  San 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  515 

Jose  and  other  points.  Clerks  postmark  and  sort  loose  letters 
handed  in,  but  otherwise  are  said  to  handle  closed  pouches 
only;  lines  are  designated  Correos  Nalionales—Ambulante, 
says  specialist  George  K.  Clough. 

Jamaica.— Two  routes,  evidently  operated  as  one,  and  called 
simply  the  "T. P.O.— Jamaica";  the  government's  narrow- 
gauge  railway,  starting  at  Kingston,  diverges  into  two  long 
branches  to  Montego  Bay  and  to  Port  Antonio.  Established 
in  1901.  (For  Puerto  Rico,  Panama,  see  "U.  S.  Territories.") 

EUROPE 

Austria.— Ahout.  seven  hundred  R.P.O.  runs,  numbered  in 
order,  on  some  forty  "first-class"  and  seventy  "second-class" 
routes.  Designated  as  Fahrendes  Postamt,  the  R.P.O.s  are 
typified  by  the  Wien-Innsbruck  (14)  and  Innsbruck-Lindau 
(61,62)  east-west  trunk  line.  Established  about  1852,  the  sys- 
tem uses  postal  cars,  each  known  as  a  postambulance.  Austria 
has,  or  did  have,  our  only  known  cable-incline  R.P.O. —the 
St.  Anton-am-Arlberg,  operated  with  special  cancel  for  a 
winter  mountain-sports  event. 

Belgium .—Ahoni  fifty  short  runs,  wdth  such  titles  as  Nord  I 
and  Nord  II  (i.e.,  North  route,  No.  1  and  2),  Brussells-Anvers; 
Midi  IV  (Namur-Brussells),  et  cetera.  First  run  was  about 
1849  (Liege-\'erviers);  supervised  by  Office  of  Travelling 
Posts.  One  seapost  to  England,  the  Oostende-Dover. 

Bulgaria.— Ahoul  one  hundred  and  fifteen  runs,  such  as  the 
Amb.  Gyveshevo-Sofia,  Varna-Sofia,  et  cetera. 

Cyprus.— This  island's  various  "R.P.O."  postmarks  actually 
originate  at  small  "railway  (i.e.,  trackside)  post  offices";  no 
postal  cars  are  operated  at  all! 

Czechoslovakia.— Ahonl  three  hundred  routes,  wdth  no  less 
than  996  runs,  all  numbered,  with  up  to  four  clerks  per  thirty- 
foot  car.  Large  boxes  for  newspapers  and  parcels,  Avell  padded, 
are  typical  of  the  sorting  cases.  "Praha-Plzen"  and  "Praha- 
Cheb"  are  two  heavy  routes.   Depots  have  terminal  R.P.O.s. 


816  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Denmark.— About  three  hundred  modern  R.P.O.s,  called 
Dansk  Bureauer,  manned  by  lour  hundred  and  fifty  clerks; 
the  first  one  was  operated  1852.  A  great  trunk  R.P.O., 
Bureauer  2085  between  Copenhagen  and  Frederikshavn  (600 
kilometers),  consists  of  an  all-postal  train  of  two  or  three 
postal  cars  with  fifteen  clerks;  it  connects  many  other  routes, 
all  designated  by  train  number  only.  R.P.O.  cars  are  divided 
by  partition  into  "ofiice"  (letter  and  newspaper)  and  "parcel" 
sections  (all  other  traffic).  Clerks,  carefully  trained,  are  select- 
ed from  the  post  ofiices  and  work  a  straight  six-day  week. 

Eire  {Ireland}.-Y)uh\in  &  Cork  T.P.O.  and  Dublin  R:  Gal- 
way  T.P.O.,  Day  and  Night,'  were  only  runs  operating  in  Eire 
at  last  report,  due  to  the  coal  shortage.  Normally,  the 
Portadown  &  Derry  and  Belfast  R:  Northern  Counties  (to 
Coleraine)  T.P.O.s  operate  in  British  North  Ireland,  and 
others  in  Eire;  but  the  two  lines  are  isolated  from  Eire's  and 
from  each  other  (the  Dublin  R;  Belfast  formerly  connected 
to  both).  Dating  from  1855,  Irish  services  are  on  the  English 
pattern;  however,  labeled  cases  and  decorative  interior  trim 
are  found.    (Carrier:  Amalgamated  Transport  of  Eire.) 

Finland.— Ahoui  thirty-three  R.P.O.s  (184  runs),  including 
Helsinki-Turku,  Vaasa-Seinajoki. 

France.SomQ  IGO  Bureaux  Ambulants  (regular  R.P.O.s), 
Courriers-Convoyeurs  (local  branch  lines),  and  Wagons- 
Postes  (Fast  Mails)  on  the  Rapides  or  express  trains  traverse 
the  country.  Main  lines,  showing  railways  traversed,  include 
the  Ambulants  Paris  a  Marseille  (Sud-Est)  and  Marseille  a 
Lyon  Rapide  (Mediterranee).  The  best  French  postal  cars 
contain  sorting  cases  Avith  holes  of  all  sizes,  \vide  case  tables 
with  drawers  and  cupboards,  and  even  nicely  cushioned  chairs 
(at  least  before  the  war).  But  other  clerks  ^vork  only  in  danger- 
ous old  Avooden  cars  or  in  tiny  compartments  in  second-class 
passenger  or  baggage  \ans.  A  fe^v  runs  operated  even  through- 
out World  War  II.  Many  brigades  (crews)  used  characteristic 
wavy-circle  postmarkers,  reports  Dr.  Carroll  Chase    (leading 


^Actual  place  names  and  postmarks  are  in  Gaelic. 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  317 

United  States  authority).  Operated  since  1844,  the  centenary 
of  the  ajnbulants  was  marked  in  1944  by  a  special  stamp,  only 
one  of  its  kind  on  record.  There  are  day  (1  °)  and  night  (2°) 
runs.  (Army  R.P.O.s:  See  Chapter  11.)  The  C. -Convoy eur 
Mulhouse-Ensisheim,  15  km.,  is  a  real  trolley  R.P.O.  on  the 
Mulhouse  Tramways, 

Germany  .—In  1937  Germany  had  over  five  thousand  BaJin- 
posts  (R.P.O.  runs)  over  probably  about  five  hundred  routes, 
and  most  have  been  restored  to  service.  Trunk  lines  include 
the  Berlin-Hannover  and  Koln-Hannover  Bahnposts  (all 
German  State  Raihvays).  Like  our  P.T.S.,  the  Bahnposts  are 
a  separate  service,  divided  into  numbered  districts,  and  clerks 
are  assigned  to  districts  only  (detailed  to  any  or  all  rims  as 
directed).  After  special  training  (case  examinations  are  not 
used),  clerks  are  assigned  to  duties  on  an  eight-hour  day  basis, 
under  supervision  of  the  Military  Governments'  commimica- 
tion  branch.  Since  1890,  Bahnpost  clerks  have  had  travel  al- 
lowances and  higher  pay  than  post-office  clerks;  night  differ- 
ential, annual  and  sick  leave  are  granted.  The  Reichpost  suc- 
ceeded in  operating  some  routes  even  throughout  World  War 
II,  though  others  were  annihilated  by  bombs.  W'hen  the  mili- 
tary governments  took  over  in  1945  some  prew^ar  cars  still  had 
skylights  and  prettily  decorated  interiors,  in  conformance 
with  Reichsfiihrer  Mitler's  "beauty  of  Tvork"  edicts;  the  new- 
est cars  are  all  steel,  aboiu  21.6  meters  long,  with  a  special 
bag-opening  compartment  in  the  center— encircled  by  extra- 
large  pigeonholes  to  accommodate  contents  (in  lieu  of  pouch 
rack).  Ingenious  dust-eliminating  devices  and  revolving  cases 
are  found.  The  Bahnposts  have  operated  since  1841,  the  vari- 
ous states  having  differing  types  at  first  (e.g.,  "K.WURTT. 
BAHNPOST"  in  Wurttemberg).  While  the  Strassenhahn- 
briefkasten  (streetcar  ^viih  letter  box)  in  Hamburg  is  not  a 
trolley  R.P.O.  as  reported,  there  may  be  electric-car  Bahnposts 
at  Frankfurt-am-Main.  There  is  an  international  line  into 
Belgium  (Herbesthal-Cologne)  which  pouches  on  offices  in 
three  countries.  Postmarks  show  "BAHNPOST,"  and  train 
number  as  "ZUG." 


S18  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Greece.— Severn]  routes,  as  Larissa-Piraeus,  and  another  in- 
to Alliens,  have  been  restored  since  the  war. 

Hungary— In  1939  there  were  over  fourteen  hundred 
R.P.O.  runs  on  297  routes,  but  by  1947  only  111  postal  cars 
had  been  salvaged  following  war  damage.  The  first  run,  to 
Vienna,  was  established  1868;  later  ones  were  Budapest-Oder- 
berg,  Pest-Kassa,  et  cetera. 

Itnly.-Ahout  250  R.P.O.s,  including  Torino-Roma  (Turin 
&  Rome),  and  (earlier)  the  Amb.  Firenze-Massa,  Bologna- 
Milan,  et  cetera.  Fifty-seven  runs  operated  by  1889.  The 
routes  traverse  the  Italian  State  Railways.   (See  Sardinia.) 

Luxemburg.— Both  ambulanls  and  Bahnposts  recorded; 
Luxemburg-Trier,  Luxembourg-Echternach,  3  other  lines. 

Netherlands.— Tw'^nty -{our  rail  and  boat  R.P.O.s  now  op- 
erated, such  as  Amsterdam-Einhoven  and  Rotterdam-Utrecht. 
Several  R.P.O.s  connected  a  Flushing-Harwich  Seapost  run 
to  England  until  1939.  Of  great  interest  are  four  steam 
tramway  R.P.O.s  (Burgh  Haamstede-Zijpe,  Rotterdam- 
Hellevoetsluis,  Rotterdam-Zuid  Beijerland,  and  Spijkenisse- 
Oostvoorne,  with  reverse  runs,  on  the  Rotterdamshe  Tramweg 
Maatschappij).  They  use  box-like  cars  with  five  small,  high 
windows  (and  a  door)  on  each  side;  five  earlier  runs  on  the 
Arnhem-Zeist  route  (NBMaat)  used  electric  tram  cars. 

Noncay.—Ahoux.  three  hundred  clerks  man  the  two  hun- 
dred-odd R.P.O.s  on  the  Norwegian  State  Railways,  the  ser- 
vice being  designated  Reisende  Posfekspedisjoncr.  Important 
lines  are  Oslo-Trondheim  and  Oslo-Kornsjo  (into  Sweden). 
Mails  are  divided  to  line  segments  and  sorted  in  small  cars. 
Clerks,  interchanged  with  those  in  post  offices,  work  a  forty- 
hour  week;  and  enjoy  excellent  single-room  layover  facilities 
(government-furnished)  plus  twenty-one  days'  annual  leave. 

Poland.— Th^TQ.  were  only  six  Poczt.  Wagonie  (R.P.O.s)  re- 
ported in  1937;  many  more  doubtless  exist  now.  Numerous 
new  postal  cars  have  been  built  in  double-quick  time  since 
1945;  full  cars  contain  large  and  small  case  boxes  and  pouch 
table;  others  use  half  of  a  passenger  coach.  Poland  had  R.P.O.s 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  319 

before  we  did,  and  by  1863  had  lines  from  Warsaw  to 
Czestochowa  (connecting  to  Vienna),  Bydgoszcz  (to  Berlin) 
and  Grodno.  Present  routes  also  include  Bielsko-Kalwaria 
(?);  but  the  heavy  line  W^arsaw- Leningrad  has  always  been  op- 
erated by  the  Russians. 

Portugal.— About  twenty-eight  Ambulantes.'  Postmarks,  at 
least  early  ones,  show  no  routes. 

Sardinia.— There  is  doubtless  R.P.O.  service  from  Caorliari 
to  the  island's  north  end,  but  available  records  of  Sardinian 
posts  deal  mostly  with  Piedmont,  its  former  mainland  prov- 
ince (now  Italy).  Turin-Genoa  Posie  Amb.  ran  there. 

Soviet  Russia  (also  Latvia,  Estonia).— Poshtovy  Vagony 
(postal  cars)  of  Russia  operate  over  a  vast  network  of  railways, 
although  no  current  information  could  be  obtained  from 
Soviet  representatives.  The  Trans-Siberian  Express  from  Mos- 
cow to  V'ladivostok,  Siberia,  carries  an  R.P.O.  route  which  is 
perhaps  the  world's  longest.  Beside  the  P.V.  Leningrad-War- 
saw (see  Poland),  other  rotites  connect  to  Moscow  and  all 
other  centers;  lines  are  designated  by  number  only,  there 
being  at  least  seventy-eight  routes.  Terminals  (depot  sorting 
units)  exist  at  many  points.  About  five  Postvaguns  operate  in 
Soviet  Estonia  (Tallin-Sadam,  Valk-Tallin),  and  several  in 
Latvia  (Ritupe-Riga,  Riga-Valka),  as  well  as  in  Lithuania  and 
the  Ukraine. 

Spain.— At  least  forty-one  Ambulante  traverse  Spain,  in- 
cluding Irun-Madrid,  Malaga-Seville,  Madrid-Vigo  (an  ex- 
press run).  Others  are  on  slow  mixed  trains,  even  showing 
"MIX."  [tren  mixto)  in  the  cancel.  (TRANVIAS/BARCE- 
LONA,  a  tramway  postmark,  is  applied  to  car-letter-box  mail; 
it  is  not  a  trolley  R.P.O.)  Postal  cars  are  about  forty  feet,  divid- 
ed into  working  and  storage  sections;  mailbags  are  hung  on  the 
walls  and  sealed  as  in  England.  The  fast  Midnight  Mail  from 
Madrid  to  France  has  three  compartments  manned  by  six  uni- 
formed clerks  (wearing  tan  smocks).  Permanently  labeled 
porcelain  headers  are  used  by  letter  clerks,  with  "dis"  ofTices 


*Or  Ambulancia. 


S20  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

printed  in  red  on  each;  while  their  mailbags  are  colorfully 
embroidered  with  embossed  letters  in  red,  yellow,  and  blue. 

Szveden.—The  Postkupe  Svenska  operates  a  highly  efficient 
network  of  some  217  P.K.P.s  (RPOs)  -which  are  designated  by 
number  (independent  of  train  number).  Huge  seventy-five 
foot,,  forty-ton  cars  are  often  used  (among  the  very  longest) 
containing  cases  with  all  sizes  of  boxes  as  well  as  pouch  racks 
like  ours,  overhead  racks  for  parcels,  and  numerous  cupboards, 
important  loutcs  are  P.R.P.  9  and  -IG  (Stockholni-BoUnas), 
81  (Goteborg  Malmo),  and  308  (Boden-Kiruna),  the  latter 
going  far  north  of  the  Arctic  Circle  and  using  electric  loco- 
motives of  the  Lapland  Railway.  The  eight  hundred  clerks 
sort  mails  much  on  the  United  States  principle,  using  a  large 
R.P.O.  schedule  (Tidtabeller  for  Jarnav.igsposterna  and 
scheme  (Forteckning),  each  covering  the  whole  of  Sweden  and 
incorporating  ingenious  maps  and  diagrams.  There  are  about 
fifteen  men  to  a  car,  carefully  trained  and  interchangeable 
with  post-office  staff;  they  receive  annual  leave  up  to  thirty-five 
days  annually  but  have  no  layoffs.  Most  lines  are  electrified 
and  are  on  the  S^vedish  State  Rys. 

Switzerlond.—K.F.O.  operations,  designated  both  as  Bahn- 
post  and  Ambulant  in  bilingual  postmarks,  include  the 
Zurich-Basel  line  and  an  express  nm  out  of  Geneva.  Most 
lines  are  electrified,  including  at  least  one  usino-  single  electric 
cars— the  Stansstad-Engelberg  segment,  Luzerne-Engleberg 
Bahnpost. 

Tinkey.—The  Turkish  "Mobile  Service"  system  has  just 
been  converted  into  a  complete  modern  R.P.O.  network  for 
the  first  time,  under  supervision  of  Virgil  Jones  (a  P.T.S. 
superintendent  from  Kansas)  and  his  United  States  Postal 
Mission;  there  are  over  one  hundred  runs.  A  scheme  and 
complete  R.P.O.  schedule  of  Turkey  were  both  issued  last 
year,  and  the  Isianbul-Adana  became  one  of  two  trunk 
R.P.O.s  out  of  Istanbul,  replacing  primitive  route-agent 
service— the  other  is  the  Istanbul-Ankara. 

Yugoslavia.— There  are  about  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
lines,  with  some  R.P.O.s  over  three  hundred  miles  long;  routes 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  321 

include  Sarajevo-Burgojno,  Tuzla-Doboj,  et  cetera.  Cars  on 
long  runs  contain  two  beds,  a  sliower,  and  an  ice-cooled  food 
cupboard;  clerks  receive  free  board  and  lodging  on  layoxers, 
as  \ve\\  as  a  "subsistence  allowance"  higher  than  that  of  travel- 
ing officials! 

AUSTRALASIA 

^w5/ro//fl.— Authorities  state  that  the  only  R.P.O.s  still  op- 
erating in  this  subcontinent  are  those  of  New  South  Wales, 
except  for  one  very  unusual  one,  operating  only  once  a  month, 
attached  to  the  Pay  Train,  Trans-Australian  Raihvay  (post- 
mark reads  just  that);  Pay  Train  1  runs  from  Port  Augusta  to 
Watson,  and  Train  2  from  Fisher  to  Kals;oorlie.  The  N.S.W. 
lines,  using  late-fee  letter  slots,  consist  of  the  SOUTH  (Sydncy- 
Junee),  WEST  (Sydney-Dubbo),  NORTHWEST  (Sydney- 
Werris  Creek-Narrabu)  and  NORTH  (Werris  Creek  junc- 
tion-Glen Innes)  "T.P.O."  runs.  However,  very  recently  re- 
ported were  a  Sydney-Brisbane  and  Sydney-Albury  run,  and  a 
Quoran-Alice  Springs  T.P.O.  (South  Australia,  1948)  in  addi- 
tion. Clerks  work  in  uniforms,  including  officer-type  caps, 
and  work  at  permanently  labeled  cases  (^vith  large  compart- 
ments for  parcels).  Cancels  read  "T.P.O.  2  NORTH/N.S.W.- 
AUST."  et  cetera.  The  first  T.P.O.s  operated  about  1870  and 
at  one  time  traversed  most  states  of  the  Commonwealth; 
but  T.P.O.s  in  Queensland,  Victoria,  and  Tasmania  quit  in 
1932.  (South  Australia  had  a  "P.O.  RAILWAY"  postmark- 
ing mail  as  early  as  1867.)  Early  T.P.O.s  used  two  compart- 
ments of  a  passenger  car  painted  "ROYAL  MAIL  VAN"  and 
used  candles;  when  letters  were  burned  by  the  latter,  kerosene 
lamps  were  put  in. 

Indonesia  (Java).— At  least  one  line,  the  North  Borneo 
R.P.O.,  operates  out  of  Batavia,  Java.  Clerks  use  large-holed 
sorting  cases  but  no  racks. 

A^ezu  Zealand.— One  main-line  R.P.O.,  only,  still  operates— 
the  "T.P.O.  MAIN  TRUNK"  (postmark  incl tides  "Auck- 
land, N.Z."),  from  Auckland  to  Wellington.  Many  shorter 
lines  once  operated,  including  branches  of  this  one  to  New 


S22  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Plymouth,  Thames,  and  Woodville;  also  from  Wellington  to 
Napier  via  Woodville.  On  the  South  Island  there  was  a  main 
line  from  Invercargill  to  Christchurch  (via  Dunedin)  and 
two  branches  out  of  Christchurch.  Long  called  Railway 
Travelling  Post  Offices,  these  services  began  in  1878.  The  re- 
maining 426-mile  main  line  uses  modern  four-truck  cars  on 
fast  trains,  with  two  senior  clerks— called  "train  agents"— as 
the  crew.  A  detailed  local  service  is  given  at  all  stations.  A 
small  restroom  equipped  with  stove  and  many 'conveniences 
is  furnished  the  clerks,  who  travel  .SOO.OOO  miles  a  year;  service 
was  suspended  in  World  War  II.  Clerks  from  post-ofTice  mail 
rooms  man  the  R.P.O.,  workino:  five  weeks  in  the  office  for 
each  one  on  the  road.  Trains  leave  at  3  P.M.  both  ways,  make 
sixteen  stops. 

Philippine  Republic— About  tw^enty-eight  railway  postal 
clerks  now  run  on  the  newly-restored  routes  in  the  Philippines 
under  direction  of  Vincente  Gonzales,  Chief,  Railway  Mail 
Service  (Bureau  of  Posts);  these  consist  of  the  Manila-San 
Fernando  and  Manila-Naga  City  R.P.O.s  (ManilaRR)  on 
Luzon,  and  the  Iloilo-Capiz  R.P.O.  (Philippine  Railway)  on 
Panay  Island.  The  378-kilometer  Manila-Naga  line  is  the 
longest,  and  carries  two  clerks  in  each  direction.  Operating 
practice,  which  was  under  the  U.  S.  Railway  Mail  Service  for 
many  years  after  1899  and  used  the  same  official  postmark 
designs,  closely  resembles  ours.  Until  the  Japanese  invasion 
in  1941,  the  Manila-Naga  Camarine  Sur  operated  in  addition 
to  the  other  R.P.O.s;  all  were  taken  over  by  the  Japanese  but 
operated  almost  entirely  as  closed-pouch  service.  Earlier  there 
were  as  many  as  ten  lines— many  of  them  organized  by  our 
military  forces  in  1898  or  by  an  R.M.S.  postal  mission  then 
(see  Chapter  1 1).  Some  Spanish  routes  operated  still  earlier, 
but  no  records  seem  available. 

SOUTH  AMERICA  -  ASIA  -  AFRICA 

We  must  apologize  to  our  good  friends  to  the  south,  as  well 
as  those  in  the  other  two  continents,  outside  of  India,  for  our 
inability  to  include  specific  information  on  their  very  interest- 


FROM  CANADA  TO  THE  ORIENT  S25 

ing  and  progressive  railway  postal  services— both  because  of  a 
lack  of  space  and  an  extreme  paucity  of  available  data  other 
than  technical  postmark  information.  Korea,  despite  its  new 
significance  in  world  affairs,  has  apparently  never  had  R.P.O.s 
according;  to  its  Consul  General. 

South  America  has  interesting  Ambulancias  in  Bolivia  and 
Chile  and  extensive  R.P.O.  services  in  Argentina,  Brazil, 
Colombia,  Peru,  British  Guiana,  and  most  other  countries. 
The  "Transvaal  T.P.O.,"  one  of  two  in  South  Africa,  is 
particularly  interesting— a  long  run  from  Johannesburg  to 
De  Aar.  Japan  has  some  twenty-eight  routes,  using  small 
compartments  in  view  of  the  passengers,  in  which  clerks  sort 
into  big-holed  cases;  many  lines  are  electrified.  China  had  sev- 
eral routes  before  its  collapse,  including  the  Pieping-Yukuan 
and  Shanghai-Nanking  R.P.O.s  and  a  Yangtze  seapost  route 
(publicity  exhibits  for  an  expansion  program  even  included 
model  R.P.O.  cars). 


Chai'ter  16 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE 


When  I've  made  my  last  trip  in  the  new  tin  train, 

And  have  tied  out  my  last  sack; 
And  have  headed  west  toward  the  land  of  rest, 

From  whence  no  once  comes  bark, 
It  would  soothe  my  dream  to  be  pulled  by  steam 

On  that  ride  down  the  Glory  track. 

—  Robert  L.  Simpson 


The  bright  future  prospects  of  the 
P.T.S.  are  closely  linked  with  the  im- 
pact made  upon  the  Service  by  today's 
innovations— and,  conversely,  with  the 
impression  made  by  the  P.T.S.  upon 
the  nation  at  lars^e,  as  revealed  in  con- 
temporary  literary  and  artistic  media 
and  in  its  contribution  thereto  of  so 
many  distinguished  professional  lead- 
ers. In  closing,  an  appraisal  of  these 
interesting  trends  is  fitting. 
The  sudden  advent  of  air  mail,  with  a  speed  factor  completely 
offsetting  the  time  saved  by  transit-sorting  when  long  distances 
are  involved,  has  presented  an  unprecedented  challenge  to 
the  future  of  mail  distribution  en  route.  From  the  very  first 
experimental  balloon-mail  fligiit  in  pre-railroad  days  (1835) 
up  to  the  inception  of  mail-plane  trials  aroimd  1911  and 
establishment  of  our  first  air-mail  route  in  1918,  an  implied 
threat  to  the  future  of  R.P.O.  service  as  we  know  it  has  existed; 
and  the  expansion  of  air  services  since  has  intensified  it.  For- 

324 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  325 

tunately,  the  Railway  Mail  Service— as  the  natural  channel  for 
transit  mail— was  very  early  assigned  the  task  of  establishing 
"air-mail  fields"  to  sort  the  air  mail;  for  it  had  to  be  kept 
separate  from  ordinary  letters,  and  post  offices  obviously  could 
not  furnish  the  facilities.  Handily  located  right  at  each  major 
airport,  the  A.ALF.s  soon  became  a  vitally  important  part  of 
the  Service. 

Today  the  Postal  Transportation  Service  operates  nearly 
forty  Air  Mail  Fields  manned  by  o\er  t^velve  hundred  clerks. 
The  complex  special  schemes  needed  for  sorting  air  mail, 
which  cannot  as  yet  be  routed  to  distributing  lines,  eventual- 
ly assumed  their  present  form  (listing  definite  dispatches  for 
each  first-  and  second-class  office,  but  massing  others  on  dis- 
tributino;  centers).  A.iNf.F.  clerks  handle  in  the  mails  manv 
rare  items  and  unusual  articles  having  vital  time  priority. 
Biologicals,  cut  flowers,  anti-borer  insects  (with  a  life  cycle 
too  short  for  sea  transport  to  Hawaii),  wasps  for  pollination, 
fresh  poultry,  bees,  ne^vs  mats,  and  urgently  needed  spare  parts 
are  quickly  rushed  by  them  to  all  corners  of  the  earth.  They 
are  expert  sorters;  at  Omaha  (Nebraska)  A.M.F.,  for  example, 
clerks  work  New  York  City  air  mail  out  to  stations  bet^veen 
planes  and  often  take  1,000-card  examinations  100  per  cent 
correct,  at  up  to  forty  cards  per  minute. 

In  spite  of  trials,  such  as  their  unreasonably  low  salary 
classification,  A.M.F.  clerks  do  yeoman  service  in  the  hours 
between  their  long  commuting  trips  (in  post-office  trucks  or 
by  such  little  public  transportation  as  exists).  Since  most  air 
mail  must  finish  its  trips  to  smaller  offices  by  land,  they  pouch 
on  all  nearby  R.P.O.  routes  and  distributing  offices.  The  "fly- 
paper fields"  are  already  developing  tales  and  traditions  of 
their  own  in  the  P.T.S.  pattern.  A  favorite  story  at  Jackson- 
ville (Florida)  A.M.F.  deals  with  former  Postmaster  General 
Hannegan's  unexpected  visit  there  while  waiting  to  change 
planes.  He  walked  in  and  greeted  Clerk  J.  B.  Glover  with 
"Fm  Bob  Hannegan,  the  Postmaster  General."  Grover,  not 
even  glancing  upward,  retorted,  "Yes,  and  Fm  President  Tru- 
man." Only  after  insistent  explanations  was  he  convinced, 
amid  many  a  hearty  laugh  at  his  confusion. 


326  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Years  ago,  however,  farsighted  railway  mail  clerks  became 
convinced  that  the  A.M.F.s  were  not  enough— that  for  maxi- 
mimi  cross-coimtry  speed  to  the  ultimate  degree  air-mail  ser- 
vice should  be  combined  with  actual  distribution  aloft  in  the 
planes.  It  is  not  known  who  first  suggested  the  idea,  but  it 
was  probably  put  forth  well  before  the  first  ne\vs  of  such  ex- 
periments (overseas)  reached  this  country  in  1928.  For  the 
world's  first  Flying  Post  Office  was  not  the  one  recently  oper- 
ated across  America  as  a  result  of  such  sugsrestions;  it  was  ac- 
tually  the  Stockholm-London  Air  Post  Office,  which  operated 
intermittently  from  June  18  to  September  6,  1928,  from 
S\veden  to  England  via  Malmo.  Actual  sortino:  of  letters  aloft 
was  performed  by  expert  clerks  from  the  Stockholm  G.P.O. 
on  ten  flights,  sponsored  by  the  Swedish  Air  Traffic  Associa- 
tion  (English  and  Swedish  postmarks). 

Here  in  America  a  planned  attempt  to  have  a  clerk  placed 
on  a  plane  (to  sort  mail  between  Forth  Worth  and  San  An- 
tonio, Texas)  was  first  put  forth  by  Superintendent  C.  J. 
Taylor  of  the  Ilth  Division,  R.M.S.,  in  the  early  1930s;  but 
Washington  disapproved  the  suggestion.  About  1935,  Walter 
W.  Mahone,  of  the  Rich.  Sc  Clif.  Forge  (CR:0)  in  Virginia, 
introduced  perhaps  the  first  R.M.A.  resolution  for  sortation 
on  planes;  and  by  1939  the  Association  was  approving  similar 
resolutions  at  each  national  convention.  That  same  year  ac- 
tual non-stop  catch-and-delivery  service  by  planes  was  intro- 
duced around  Pittsburgh  experimentally  on  May  twelfth  (the 
permanent  service  began  August  12,  1940);  All-American  Air- 
lines operated  this  rotite  to  Huntington,  West  Virginia,  and 
others  to  eastern  Pennsylvania  for  ten  years.  No  clerk  was 
carried  and  no  letters  distributed,  but  the  flight  mechanic  (or 
sky  clerk)  did  "sort"  small  pouches  of  mail  en  route  into  the 
rubber  containers  which  were  thrown  off  at  way  points;  mails 
to  be  "caught"  were  placed  in  similar  containers  hung  in  a 
ring  of  nylon  rope  which  was  hooked  up  by  a  second  rope  from 
the  plane  and  reeled  upward.  One  hundred  twenty-five  stops 
were  served,  but  service  was  discontinued  on  June  30,  1949. 

Clerks  renewed  their  efforts  to  put  clerks  aloft  as  the  result 
of  the  "pickup  service"  impetus,  but  Department  officials  re- 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  327 

jected  all  such  suggestions  as  impracticable  until  early  in  1 943. 
At  tiiat  time  Postmaster  General  Walker  broke  ^vith  tradition 
to  declare  that  studies  were  being  made  of  "distribution  of 
mail  en  route  in  transcontinental  airplanes"  and  that  railway 
postal  clerks— excellently  fitted  for  the  work— should  be  used 
therein.  Although  other  air-mail  officials  scoffed  by  saying 
that  letters  would  slide  out  of  the  case  whenever  the  plane 
banked,  plans  ^vere  steadily  perfected  and  were  publicly  an- 
nounced by  Postmaster  General  Robert  Hannegan  in  Janu- 
ary 1940;  and  on  March  thirty-first,  Fairchild  Aircraft  re- 
leased its  "Flying  Mail  Car"  plans. 

At  1  P.M.  on  September  25,  1946,  the  first  flight  of  the 
experimental  "Washington,  Dayton  R:  Chicago  Flying  Post 
Office"  (TWA)  actually  took  off  from  the  Washington  Na- 
tional Airport,  and  mails  were  sorted  aloft  for  the  first  time  in 
America.  I'he  specially  equipped  cargo  liner  had  been  on  dis- 
play since  9  A.M.,  and  elaborate  ceremonies  preceding  the 
take-off  had  involved  Postmaster  General  Hannegan,  Second 
Assistant  Postmaster  General  Gael  Sullivan,  and  Air  Mail, 
W'ar  Department,  and  T.W.A.  officials.  Mr.  Sullivan  and  the 
other  officials  on  board  the  flight  sorted  the  air  mail  (mostly 
collectors'  covers)  out  to  states  and  directs  in  the  compact  case; 
but  no  postmark  was  applied- the  mail  was  canceled  in  W^ash- 
ington,  with  special  cachets  used.  Arriving  at  Chicago  in 
three  and  one-half  hours,  the  plane  was  then  routed  to  Pitts- 
burgh and  New  York.  On  October  first,  another  F.P.O.  flight 
was  operated  clear  from  Boston  to  Los  Angeles  on  American 
Air  Lines*  Midnight  Expediter;  and  on  the  same  day  the  Fair- 
child  Packet  (Flying  Mail  Car)  got  its  chance.  United  Air 
Lines  flew  it  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  in  exactly  twelve 
hours;  and  on  October  third,  it  was  routed  to  Seattle  and  then 
back  to  New  York  the  next  day.  The  Packet's  squared  fuselage 
accommodates  a  unique  semicircular  letter  case,  two  pouch 
racks  and  a  table,  mail  chutes,  ten  overhead  boxes  ^vith  gates, 
intercom  phone,  and  a  special  cushioned  chair  for  sorting 
while  seated.  Soothing  color  schemes,  fluorescent  lighting, 
and  other  modern  devices  are  used. 

All  Flying  Post  Office  operations  were  suspended  after 


S28  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

October  4,  1946,  and  have  not  been  resumed  at  this  writing; 
but  officials  involved  declared  the  experiment  an  unqualified 
success,  and  its  permanent  establishment  has  long  been  ex- 
pected. No  definite  routes  have  yet  been  authorized,  nor  any 
mail  postmarked  aloft  (although  cachets,  only,  were  applied 
on  the  Expediter).  Carrying  up  to  twelve  thousand  pounds 
of  bag  mail  in  addition  to  that  for  sorting  (an  estimated  one- 
fourth  of  total),  the  service  could  greatly  speed  up  all  long- 
distance air  mail  in  conjunction  with  C.P.  feeder  routes.  If 
air  mail  is  ever  to  travel  as  speedily  as  (he  air-line  passenger, 
flying  post  offices  are  an  obvious  "must"  (cf.  Armstrong  ex- 
cerpt. Chap.  7). 

To  sum  things  up,  careful  studies  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
triumphal  entry  and  advance  of  modern  air-mail  facilities  rep- 
resent an  encouras;inCT  challenQ;e— not  a  threat— to  the  future 
progress  of  our  railway  post  offices  and  of  mail  sortation  in 
transit  generally.  And  this  is  said  even  with  all  due  regard  to 
the  dire  predictions  of  both  clerks  and  officials,  here  and  there, 
who  in  recent  years  have  painted  dark  pictures  of  our  R.P.O.s 
becoming  nearly  or  totally  extinct— with  "all  first-class  mails 
being  sent  by  air"  in  closed  pouches.  The  living  proof  that 
such  fears  are  groundless  is  found  in  the  postal  systems  of 
Canada,  France,  and  Norway,  where  all  long-distance  letter 
mails  have  been  sent  by  air  mail  for  years,  yet  with  almost  no 
curtailment  whatever  of  their  flourishing  R.P.O.  networks 
having  resulted!  Most  letters  travel  not  over  three  hundred  to 
five  hundred  miles  or  so,  and  over  such  distances  R.P.O.s  are 
faster  than  planes  in  elapsed  mail-transit  time— for  sorting  in 
transit,  plus  elimination  of  truck  hauls  to  airports,  overcomes 
the  speed  differential  of  air  travel.  The  advent  of  air  mail 
has  encouraged  a  corresponding  upsurge  in  the  use  of  surface 
mails;  and  furthermore,  when  air  mails  are  grounded  by  bad 
weather,  still  more  traffic  is  thrown  to  the  R.P.O.s.  And  it  is 
essential  that  R.P.O.s  be  preserved  for  such  eventualities,  as 
well  as  to  handle  newspapers  and  other  time-value  mail,  and, 
further,  to  deliver  air  mail  to  all  the  many  smaller  destinations 
that  have  no  airfields!  The  case  for  the  future  seems  self- 
evident:  A  co-ordinated  network  of  R.P.O.s,  H.P.O.s,  and 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  329 

Flying  Post  Offices  must,  and  certainly  will,  furnish  the  back- 
bone tor  the  Postal  Service  of  Tomorrow.^ 

The  second  great  modern  innovation  in  mail  transportation 
is  the  new  Highway  Post  Office— welcomed  by  all  railway  mail 
men  with  open  arms,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  coming  of  air 
mail.  True  highway-borne  R.P.O.s,  these  new  mail-sorting 
buses  are  equally  popular  Avith  the  public  and  are  operated 
under  laws  designed  to  protect  short-line  railways  from  com- 
petition. The  expansion  of  this  new  service  has  "top  priority 
in  Post  Office  Department  planning,"  with  at  least  one  hun- 
dred more  routes  projected  in  addition  to  the  similar  number 
now  operated.  Detailed  analyses  of  costs  and  operations  of 
the  hypos  or  higli-wheelers,  as  the  clerks  call  them,  have  proved 
them  to  be  a  magnificent  and  permanent  success  after  nine  and 
one-half  years  of  close  observation.  The  one  factor  of  elimi- 
nating mail-messenger  costs  and  delays  (for  the  H.P.O.  drives 
direct  to  post-office  doors)  at  stations  has  saved  the  government 
thousands  of  dollars.  It  is  planned  to  re-establish  most  dis- 
continued R.P.O.s  in  this  new  form  and  to  place  H.P.O.s  on 
many  long  star  routes. 

It  will  amaze  most  of  us  to  learn  that  America's  first  sorting 
of  mails  on  moving  highway  vehicles  occurred  in  1896!  These 
early,  horse-drawn  "H.P.O.s"  were  called  Collection  R:  Dis- 
tribution Wagons  in  the  cities  and  Lxperimental  Postal 
Wagons  in  rural  areas.  The  first  of  these  were  two  vehicles, 
each  designated  simply  as  "COLLECT'N  &:  DIST'N 
WAGON  NO.  1,"  which  began  operation  simultaneously  in 
New  York  and  in  Washington  on  October  1,  1896;  they  were 
manned  respectively  by  Clerks  J.  P.  Connolly  and  R.  N.  Jeffer- 
son, among  others.  Operated  not  by  the  R.M.S.  but  by  city 
post  offices,  these  wagons  performed  local  city  distribution 
along  with  the  streetcar  R.P.O.s,  with  which  they  were  co- 
ordinated, but  they  concentrated  on  collecting  and  sorting 


^At  present,  universal  three-cent  air  mail  for  long  distances  would  be  economi- 
cally fantastic.  Figures  from  both  the  Postal  Transport  Journal  and  Railroad 
Magazirie  reveal  that  the  air  lines  are  paid  as  much  (and  sometimes  far  more) 
for  transporting  all  air  mails  as  the  railways— unsubsidized— are  paid  for 
carrying  ten  to  eighteen  times  as  muchi 


550  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

drop  mails  en  route  to  the  post  office.  The  idea  was  borrowed 
either  from  the  R.M.S.  or  from  a  similar  service  in  Berlin, 
Germany,  the  latter  having  apparently  been  the  first  such  ser- 
vice on  record.  The  usual  letter  cases  and  pouch  racks  were 
installed,  and  wagons  pouched  on  outgoing  R.P.O.  trains 
(supposedly  relieving  post  oflices  of  up  to  50  per  cent  of  out- 
going distribution).  Actually,  business  firms  hopelessly 
swamped  the  wagons,  seeking  these  early  dispatches,  and  both 
wagons  were  soon  transferred— to  Buffalo  and  St.  Louis,  where 
tliey  were  discontinued  in  1903  or  1904  {Note  20). 

The  odd  Experimental  Postal  Wagon  Service  had  its  be- 
ginning April  3,  1899,  at  Westminster,  Maryland— the  inven- 
tion of  E.  W.  Shriver  of  that  post  office.  Its  first  eight-foot, 
two-horse  wagon  was  painted  in  blue  and  gold  ("U.  S. 
POSTAL  WAGON")  and  fitted  with  a  counter,  drawers,  and 
fifty-eight-box  case.  It  served  a  thirty-mile  rural  route  out  of 
Westminster,  delivering  mail  direct  to  patrons  in  sixty-three 
rural  hamlets  (largely  fourth-class  post  offices,  then  discon- 
tinued) and  farm  stops.  The  clerk  or  "postmaster"  not  only 
expedited  his  carrier  deliveries  by  doing  his  usual  preliminary 
sorting  while  traveling,  but  also  sold  stamps  and  money  orders, 
just  as  in  a  regular  post  office.  On  December  twentieth,  t!iis 
service  became  Route  A  as  three  additional  ones  (B,C,D) 
were  established  from  that  oflFice,  covering  Carroll  County; 
other  routes  followed  at  Frederick,  Maryland,  and  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  Missouri.  The  clerk  canceled  mail  from  patrons 
with  a  rimless  postmarker  bearing  a  straight  bar  biller.  Soon 
after  1905  the  routes  became  ordinary  R.F.D.s.  But  none  of 
these  wagon  services  sorted  mail  between  offices. 

The  first  verified,  recorded  suofOfestion  for  H.P.O.s  within 
the  Railway  Mail  Service  was  the  brain-child  of  James  F. 
Cooper  of  the  old  Tuolumne  R:  Stockton  (Sierra  Railway)  and 
the  late  Carl  E.  Allen  (Sacramento  R:  San  Francisco— SP) 
in  California;  utterly  unaware  of  any  other  alleged  like  pro- 
posals, they  hit  on  the  idea  of  H.P.O.s  during  conversations 
in  1925.  Noting  that  a  new  highway  between  Cooper's 
termini  was  ten  miles  shorter  than  his  run  and  was  siphoning 
so  mucli  traffic   (including  bag  mails)  from  the  railway  that 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  331 

abandonment  was  imminent,  they  took  action  and  began 
publicly  advocating  "bus  R.P.O."  service.  Cooper  introduced 
the  first  Division  Convention  resolution  for  H.P.O.s  at  San 
Francisco  in  1927,  following  its  approval  by  his  Sacramento 
Branch,  R.M.A.  He  wrote  letters  to  bus  companies,  clerks, 
and  officials  plugging  the  idea,  and  8th  (California)  Division 
delegates  were  finally  directed  to  support  H.P.O.s  at  the  Na- 
tion Convention.  L.  C.  Macomber  (who  claimed  to  have 
introduced  a  national  H.P.O.  resolution  in  1915— not  found 
in  the  records)  and  others,  too,  hammered  away  at  the  pro- 
posal; but  no  action  was  taken,  and  Cooper's  line  quit  in  1938. 

Meanwhile  the  first  true  highway  post  office  in  the  world 
(sorting  mail  between  offices  en  route)  is  said  to  have  been 
established  in  Germany  in  1929.  No  details  are  available,  and 
France  also  claims  to  have  been  first  to  operate  a  route,  al- 
though her  poste  automobile  riirale  (founded  September  1, 
1926)  was  much  more  like  otir  Experimental  Postal  Wagons 
and  may  not  have  even  sorted  mail  while  moving.  In  this 
country  clerks  redoubled  their  efforts,  and  in  that  same  year 
of  1929,  Walter  W.  Mahone  (the  Flying  P.O.  proposer  men- 
tioned earlier)  vigorously  proposed  the  use  of  H.P.O.s  on  star 
routes  and  else^vhere— only  to  have  his  resolution  soundly 
voted  down  at  his  Washington  (D.C.)  Branch  meeting.  The 
Department,  in  turn,  rejected  an  officially  submitted  sugges- 
tion of  Clerk  H.  E.  Weiler  for  such  service  as  "too  far  ahead  of 
the  times,  and  Congress  will  not  appropriate  money."  But 
six  years  later  the  Mahone  resolution  was  adopted  both  by  his 
branch  and  the  .3rd  Division  Convention,  and  that  same  year 
(19.35)  the  National  R.M.A.  voted  likewise. 

Then  in  July  1937  the  first  American  motor  vehicle  to  sort 
mails  en  route  began  operation,  but  not  as  an  H.P.O.  This 
surprising  and  little-known  service  was  operated  in  Miami, 
Florida,  by  the  post  office  there,  until  December  1941;  it  con- 
sisted of  a  three-ton,  thirteen-foot  Autocar  truck  manned  by 
three  clerks  who  sorted  foreign  registered  air  mail,  only,  in 
transit  between  the  Miami  A.M.F.  and  the  Pan-American  Air- 
port at  Dinner  Key  Base— using  a  thirty-six-box  letter  case. 
(The  restoration  and  expansion  of  similar  services,  on  post 


332  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

office-airport-railroad  station  circuits  operated  by  the  P.T.S., 
has  been  suggested  in  a  meritorious  proposal  publicized  by 
one  clerk  in  the  Postal  Transport  Journal.  Runs  to  distant 
airports  would  permit  a  good  bit  of  sorting,  and  both  air  and 
ordinary  mail  could  perhaps  be  expedited.) 

In  1938  an  investigating  committee  discovered  that  branch- 
line  R.P.O.  service  had  been  cut  by  twenty-two  million  miles 
annually  since  1922,  and  that  mail  circulation  was  being  stag- 
nated by  the  resulting  unwieldy  star  routes.  The  urgent  need 
and  the  economy  and  convenience  of  proposed  H.P.O.s  on 
such  lines  was  stressed;  newspapers  like  the  Greensboro 
(North  Carolina)  Neius  took  up  the  fight  for  "bus  post  offices." 
At  a  1939  congressional  hearing  it  was  shown  that  German 
H.P.O.s  were  successfully  expanding,  and  Representative 
Gillie  of  Indiana  pleaded  for  such  service  to  replace  discon- 
tinued interurban  and  other  R.P.O.s.  (Clerks  in  the  Indi- 
anapolis area  had  been  so  outspoken  in  suggesting  the  new 
service  that  one  authority  credits  their  office  there  with  origi- 
nating the  idea.)  The  route  particularly  in  question  was  the 
short-lived,  already-doomed  Peru  &  Indianapolis  R.P.O. 
(IRR)  described  in  Chapter  12. 

Through  concerted  efforts  by  the  R.M.A.,  Mr.  Gillie,  and 
others,  Congress  finally  passed  a  joint  resolution  authorizing 
an  experimental  H.P.O.  over  this  route.  But  even  though 
the  electric  line  had  already  designed  the  mail-sorting  bus  it 
planned  to  use  thereon,  President  Roosevelt  vetoed  the  bill  at 
Departmental  urging— on  the  grotmds  that  volume  of  avail- 
able mail  was  insufficient,  that  other  R.P.O.s  supplied  all  its 
larger  offices,  and  that  the  legislation  was  restrictive  (to  one 
line  only).  At  last,  in  1940,  a  second  bill  was  introduced  by 
the  Department  allowing  it  to  establish  routes  anywhere— 
and,  backed  by  clerks  and  officials  alike,  it  Avas  enacted. 

On  February  10,  1941,  the  Washington  &:  Harrisonburg 
Highway  Post  Office  —  first  in  America  —  left  the  national 
capital  on  its  inaugural  142-mile  journey  through  Virginia's 
beautiful  Shenandoah  Valley  (over  Highways  50,  15,  Va.-55, 
and  11).  Despite  Indiana's  pleas,  it  was  the  first  route  au- 
thorized; a  spruce  new  government-operated  White  bus  was 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  335 

used— a  Model  788,  with  full  R.P.O.  equipment  and  powerful 
underfloor  engine,  finished  in  shiny  red,  blue,  and  silver  with 
the  lettering  "UNITED  STATES  iMAIL  -  HIGHWAY 
POST  OFFICE."  The  route  was  set  up  to  supplement  single- 
trip  R.P.O.  service  on  the  old  Wash,  k  Lexington  (Sou)  which 
connected  the  same  two  points.  Oddly  enough,  the  first  letter 
had  been  mailed  in  the  new  H.P.O.  eleven  days  before— by 
President  Roosevelt,  on  his  birthday  (January  30),  as  it  posed 
before  the  White  House  for  photos. 

In  the  cool  darkness  of  that  early  dawn  on  February  tenth 
a  little  knot  of  postal  officials  and  an  interested  clerk  or  two 
(including  this  writer)  gathered  to  witness  the  historic  e\ent. 
Genial  John  D.  Hardy,  then  General  Superintendent  of  the 
R.M.S.  (which  was  assigned  to  operated  all  H.P.O.s),  entered 
the  vehicle  to  distribute  the  first  mail— consisting  mostly  of  col- 
lectors' covers,  over  fifty  thousand  being  mailed.  Amid  new 
fittings  exactly  like  those  of  an  R.P.O.  apartment,  Clerk-in- 
Charge  Clyde  C.  Peters,  of  Harrisonburg  (a  Washington  & 
Lexington  veteran),  worked  with  the  busy  assistance  of  Clerks 
O.  R.  Liskey,  L.  H.  Grove,  and  C.  M.  Bellinger.  Both  Mr. 
Hardy  and  his  superior,  Honorable  Smith  W.  Purdum 
(Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General),  rode  the  thirty-three- 
foot  bus  on  the  first  trip  as  the  clerks  sorted  mail  into  120 
letter-case  separations  and  three  five-foot  racks  of  pouches. 
Safety  belts,  supplied  to  all,  were  not  needed,  because  of  the 
smooth  riding  of  the  streamlined  vehicle. 

Although  the  citizenry  of  Washington  ^vas  conspicuous  by 
its  absence  on  this  much-publicized  occasion,  any  doubts  as 
to  the  people's  reception  of  the  innovation  in  Virginia  were 
soon  dispelled.  Cheering  crowds,  brass  bands,  and  special  re- 
ceptions greeted  the  colorful  bus  at  Middleburg,  Front  Royal, 
Strasburg,  Toms  Brook,  Woodstock,  and  Harrisonburg.  A 
Middleburg  restaurant  treated  crew  and  spectators  to  coffee 
and  pastries,  and  after  stirring  speeches  at  Harrisonburg,  A. 
G.  Carter  ("co^vboy  postmaster"  of  Edinburg,  also  on  the 
route)  presented  Mr.  Purdum  with  a  pistol  he  had  used  rid- 
ing the  Montana  ranges.  Arrival  at  this  terminus  was  right 
on  time  (1 1  A.M.),  with  the  return  trip  being  made  on  sched- 


534  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

iile  with  equal  punctuality.  The  H.P.O.  was  the  first  dis- 
tributing line  to  serve  the  great  suburban  metropolis  of  Arl- 
ington, Virginia  (adjoining  Washington),  although  this  par- 
ticular mail  supply  was  recently  discontinued.  The  route  it- 
self, an  outstanding  success,  continues  to  operate  every  week- 
day, supplying  superbly  efficient  service  to  the  Valley. 

The  triumphal  commencement  of  the  first  route  fired  the 
two  principal  groups  of  H.P.O.  backers  within  the  R.M.A. 
with  new  enthusiasm,  and  it  was  natural  that  the  second  and 
third  routes  should  go  to  their  areas.  By  extending  the  Peru 
&  Indianapolis  route  north  to  South  Bend,  all  objections  to 
revival  of  this  now-defunct  line  had  been  met;  and  the  152- 
mile  South  Bend,  Peru  &;  Indpls.  H.P.O.  began  operating 
May  3,  1941,  over  Highways  12-22-31.  While  the  interurban 
trolley  company  ruefully  ditched  its  blueprints  for  a  contract- 
operated  bus  (the  government  provided  the  vehicle),  the 
populace  went  wild  with  enthusiasm;  the  eight-car  official 
motorcade  was  greeted  with  receptions  everywhere  by  many 
of  the  780,000  postal  patrons  whom  it  still  benefits.  Then  came 
the  San  Francisco  &:  Pacific  Grove  (Calif.,  151  miles)  on 
August  fourth,  with  an  even  more  ceremonious  inaugination 
at  which  James  F.  Cooper  was  deservedly  the  honor  guest;  he 
was  given  a  reception  at  his  home  town  of  San  Leandro,  and  a 
specially  inscribed  souvenir  bell  (rung  at  each  stop)  for  his  na- 
tionally known  bell  collection.  Nine  officials  made  the  run, 
which  likewise  traversed  at  one  end  the  route  of  a  discontinued 
trolley  R.P.O.  (the  "Hay  k  Oak"  of  Chapter  12). 

Further  establishment  of  H.P.O.s  was  delayed  by  W^orld 
War  II  until  1946;  but  of  the  three  routes  established  that 
year,  two  are  particularly  noteworthy.  One,  the  184-mile 
Union  &  Mobile  (Gulf  Transport  Co.)  from  Mississippi  to 
Alabama,  was  the  first  postwar  and  first  interstate  R.P.O.,  the 
first  one  operated  by  contract  carrier  (as  R.P.O.s  are),  and 
the  longest  one  yet  established;  it  replaced  a  C.P.  railroad- 
truck  route  of  the  same  name,  formerly  an  R.P.O.  The  other, 
unfortunately,  was  to  become  the  first  and  only  H.P.O.  to  be 
abandoned  thus  far— the  old  Jackson  &:  Benton  Harbor,  in 
Michigan  (October  15,  1946-July  31,  1947).  It  was  terminated 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  535 

after  less  than  a  year  "because  of  excessive  costs  for  factory 
maintenance  under  private  contract,"  -with  the  expensive 
vehicle  deteriorating  to  a  very  serious  extent. 

After  1946  there  was  another  lull  until  the  ncAv  Belleville 
&  Wichita  H.P.O.  bloomed  forth  in  Kansas  in  June  1948— 
but  that  was  the  signal  for  a  steady  stream  of  new  routes  to 
appear,  without  interruption,  from  then  until  the  present  day. 
Almost  one  hundred  H.P.O.  routes  are  now  in  operation,  Avith 
new  ones  being  added  nearly  every  month.  The  longest  run 
is  the  new  Richmond  R:  Sanford  (283.6  miles)  from  Virginia 
to  North  Carolina;  while  the  shortest,  thus  far,  is  the  Los 
Angeles  R:  San  Pedro  (California,  58-61  miles).  Two  of  the 
new  H.P.O.s  traverse,  almost  exactly,  proposed  routes  sug- 
gested in  the  original  script  of  this  book.  One,  the  114-mile 
Baltimore  &  Washington  (in  Maryland)  restored  service  large- 
ly along  the  long-defunct  routes  of  the  old  Bait.  R:  Annapolis 
(WBR:A)  and  Hyattsville  &  Chesapeake  Beach  (CBRR) 
R.P.O.s,  as  well  as  serving  new  territory  around  Prince 
Frederick  and  near  Annapolis. 

The  second  of  these  two  H.P.O.s,  the  Goshen  Sc  Newrsrk 
(N.  Y.  State-New  Jersey),  is  already  adding  to  the  colorful 
traditions  of  the  P.T.S.  It  seems  that  for  a  long  time  Clerks 
C.  W.  McMickle,  "William  Norkaitis,  and  Charles  Sullo  (and 
their  driver)  had  been  slowing  down  the  H.P.O.  to  wave  to  an 
invalid  brother  and  sister  at  Butler,  New  Jersey;  and  when 
Christmas  (1949)  arrived  they  surprised  the  shut-ins  with  a  big 
Christmas  party  with  gifts  of  goodies,  books,  and  money  from 
themselves  and  others.  This  H.P.O.  was  established  as  the 
MiddletoAvn  R:  Newark  on  November  29,  1948,  only  to  be 
slightly  rerouted  into  Goshen  and  accordingly  renamed  the 
following  January  24— to  the  consternation  of  postmark  col- 
lectors who  failed  to  get  the  Middletown  standard  cancel!  It 
replaces  the  old  Wanaque  R:  N.  Y.  R.P.O.  (Erie)  and  restored 
service  to  dozens  of  towns  on  the  former  Middletown  R:  N.  Y.'s 
(NYSRrAV')  west  end— also  furnishing  it  to  the  upper-bracket 
Montclair-Caldwell  suburban  area.  "The  Gosh,"  as  it  is 
called,  has  a  companion  route  —  the  Wanaque  R:  Newark 
H.P.O.,  which  took  over  the  east  end  of  the  N.  Y.  S.  R:  W. 


333  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

(then  curtailed  as  the  Butler  8:  N.  Y.)  on  the  same  date.  The 
new  VV^anaque  run  has  established  a  real  record  for  speed  in 
delivery;  officials  report  one  letter  mailed  at  Ridgefield  Park, 
New  Jersey,  at  11  A.M.  delivered  to  the  addressee  in  North 
Bergen,  via  H.P.O.  and  special-delivery  messenger,  at  12:45 
P.M.  same  day! 

On  the  human  side,  life  on  the  H.P.O.s  differs  quite  a  bit 
from  that  on  the  mail  trains.  There  is  no  coffee  man  on  the 
H.P.O.  bus;  at  lunch  time  the  driver  merely  makes  an  un- 
official stop  at  a  roadside  restaurant  and  all  hands  partake  of 
a  good  hot  meal!  To  avoid  going  "stuck,"  clerks  on  the  Jiypos 
have  doubtless  persuaded  more  than  one  driver  to  stage  a 
slight  slowdown  or  to  linger  a  bit  while  important  connections 
are  tied  out.  Styles  in  H.P.O.  vehicles  are  already  changing— 
the  once-universal  red,  blue,  and  silver  color  scheme  is  giving 
way  to  two  shades  of  rich  maroon,  with  only  one  stripe  of  the 
patriotic  hues;  and  new  models  are  even  more  streamlined 
than  early  ones,  many  of  them  being  huge  articulated  "two- 
car"  units  which  bend  in  the  middle.  The  H.P.O.s  have  suf- 
fered only  a  few  accidents  on  the  road,  with  no  injuries. 

The  law  which  prohibits  establishment  of  H.P.O.s  so  as  to 
compete  with  or  exterminate  existing  short-line  R.P.O.s  is 
presently  interpreted  rather  liberally.  H.P.O.s  can  be  estab- 
lished- wherever  R.P.O.  service  is  "insufficient;"  and  where 
existing  R.P.O.  service  is  not  sufficiently  economical,  frequent, 
or  speedy  in  the  eyes  of  the  Department,  it  has  ruled  that 
such  facilities  are  insufficient  for  the  public  interest.  Both 
of  the  New  Jersey  H.P.O.s  mentioned,  as  well  as  most  of  those 
out  of  Los  Angeles,  were  established  to  replace  existing 
R.P.O.s  (although  railroad  service  continued  to  operate)  in 
the  interests  of  economy  and  flexibility.  Establishment  of  both 
of  our  first  two  H.P.O.s  was  later  followed  by  discontinuance 
of  R.P.O.  service  between  the  same  termini,  althougrh  routes 
differed.   Although  it  cannot  be  proven  that  the  new  service 


'Provided,  according  lo  official  policy,  that  supervision  and  garage  facilities 
are  available,  that  climate  is  satisfactory,  that  grades  do  not  exceed  6  per  cent, 
and  that  there  are  sufficient  large  post  offices  supplied  without  making  the 
route  too  long. 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  S37 

hastened  the  demise  of  either  R.P.O.,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
when  a  mail  contract  is  the  final  economic  factor  which  en- 
ables a  railroad  "short  line"  to  survive,  substitution  of 
H.P.O.s  could  be  fatal  and  affect  adversely  many  commimi- 
ties  served  in  spite  of  the  very  beneficial  mail  service  supplied. 
While  a  vast  majority  (if  not  all)  of  our  current  H.P.O.s  were 
needed  very  badly  to  provide  good  service,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  future  routes  may  be  established  more  particularly  in 
areas  having  no  R.P.O.  service  whatever.  Such  territories, 
needing  H.P.O.  service  urgently,  include  the  south  half  of 
New  Jersey  (with  only  two  short  R.P.O.s  left);  the  Southern 
Maryland-Northern  Neck  (Virginia)  area,  where  a  "Wash- 
ington &  Fredericksburg  H.P.O."  via  the  Morgantown  bridge 
(to  replace  the  huge  motor-route  networks  out  of  both  cities) 
would  do  wonders;  and  vast  portions  of  New  England,  the 
Mountain  states,  Oregon,  Washington,  and  else^vhere.  Simul- 
taneous  pouches  made  by  a  connecting  line  sho'^v  that  the 
Wash.  &  Fred,  route  (in  Maryland  alone)  would  receive  over 
twice  the  mail  handled  by  the  new  Bait.  &  Wash. 

But  to  return  to  the  true  Railway  Post  Office,  it  too  is  under- 
going a  modern  transformation.  Today  is  the  age  of  the 
streamliner,  of  the  swift  and  colorful  Diesel-electric  giants 
which  haul  our  transcontinental  expresses.  Even  America's 
earliest  streamliner  of  all,  the  Burlington's  Pioneer  Zephyr, 
was  an  R.P.O.  train  (Lincoln  &:  Kansas  City);  and  since  its 
inaugural  run  November  11,  1934,  millions  of  high-speed 
miles  have  been  run  by  P.T.C.s  on  streamliners— despite 
crack-ups  like  that  of  the  Zephyr  at  Napier,  Missouri,  in  1939. 
With  most  of  our  principal  trunk  lines  now  using  the  new- 
type  equipment,  schedules  have  been  speeded  by  several  hours 
on  many  R.P.O.s,  mails  advanced  beyond  all  previous  records, 
and  railway  mail  clerks  forced  to  work  at  a  more  frenzied  pace 
than  ever  before. 

Well-known  R.P.O.  streamliners  of  today  include  the  famed 
20th  Century  Limited  (Note  S);  the  Santa  Fe's  Chief  (Kan. 
City  &  Albuquerque-Alb.  &  Los  A.  R.P.O.s);  the  B&O's 
Capitol  Limited  (N.Y.,  Bait.  &  Wash.)  and  Continental  (Wash. 
&:  Chicago);   the  Lehigh  Valley's  Black  Diamond  and  Asa 


JW  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Packer,  which  are  New  York,  Geneva  &  Buffalo  Trains  9,  10, 
25,  and  26;  the  Broadway  Limited  (see  Chapter  3),  electric 
and  steam  semi-streamliner,  which  made  its  first  trip  on  the 
PRR's  New  York  &  Pittsburgh,  June  15,  1902;  the  Tennes- 
seean,  Trains  45  and  46  on  the  Southern,  whose  R.P.O.  cars 
on  the  Wash,  and  Bristol,  continuing  to  Memphis,  are  named 
the  Corinth  and  Grand  Junctioyi;  and  so  on. 

To  the  postal  transportation  clerk  himself  a  more  welcome 
sequel  to  the  streamliners'  advent  has  been  that  of  the  latest 
style  modern  R.P.O.  car.  Still  few  in  number,  the  new  cars 
are  styled  for  real  comfort  and  efficiency.  There  had  been 
almost  no  change  in  R.P.O.  car  design  and  furnishings  since 
the  1890s,  but  one  day  in  April  1946  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road presented  to  the  Department  its  new  "dream  car,"  the 
Robert  E.  Han7iegan— designed  jointly  by  railroad  and  postal 
authorities,  incorporating  many  clerks'  suggestions.  Built 
at  the  Altoona  Shops  under  direction  of  Dan  M.  Shaeffer,  it 
was  numbered  5239  and  named  after  the  Postmaster  General, 
to  whom  it  was  dedicated  at  Union  Station,  Chicago,  on  April 
twenty-third.  This  car  has  new  safety  features,  wider  doors, 
modernized  heating  and  lighting  systems,  a  stainless-steel 
steam  cooker,  large  enclosed  washroom  and  closet  with  auto- 
matic light,  unbarred  double  safety-glass  windows,  luggage 
compartments,  some  case  boxes  for  oversize  mail,  automatic 
platform  lights,  and  other  improvements  such  as  ball-bearing 
trucks.  It  was  put  in  service  on  the  Broadiuay  Limited  (N.Y. 
&  Pitts.-Pitts.  k  Chic.  Trs.  28  R:  29)  on  May  8,  1946  (with 
collectors'  cachet  to  celebrate),  and  has  served  on  that  route 
(sometimes  on  the  New  York  R:  Washington)  ever  since. 

Even  the  Hannegan  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  and  has  been 
often  shopped  for  repairs;  but  the  newest  cars  incorporate 
many  more  superior  features.  Specifications  for  such  cars  are 
now  drawn  up  by  the  joint  N.P.T.A.-P.T.S.  Car  Construc- 
tion Committee,  and  as  a  result  the  Milwaukee  Road  built  a 
model  of  one  new  car  type  which  is  a  postal  clerk's  dream. 
Fluorescent  lighting,  automatic  non-stop-exchange  signals, 
electric  hot  plates  that  really  boil  coffee,  electric  refrigerators, 
plastic  table  coverings,  and  three  closets  are  just  a  few  of  the 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  5S9 

ultramodern  improvements  included.  Some  of  these  refine- 
ments have  actually  appeared  in  the  newest  cars,  but  govern- 
ment experts  and  railroad  engineers  still  object  to  the  hot 
plates  and  fluorescent  lights  as  "unnecessary."  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  committee's  toned-down  current  specifications  (which 
still  permit  mere  steam  pots,  strong  electric  bulbs,  iceboxes, 
and  folding  basins)  will  be  revamped  with  enough  "teeth" 
to  insist  on  all  essential  improvements  of  the  Milwaukee  plan, 
as  well  as  at  least  two  rows  of  wide  "oversize"  boxes  (which 
need  be  but  half  as  high)  at  every  case  instead  of  at  only  the 
registry  case.  Nevertheless,  excellent  new  cars  have  been  intro- 
duced on  many  lines— the  El  Paso  &  Los  Angeles  (SP's  Golden 
State  Limited),  the  Burlington's  Chicago  8:  Council  Bluffs 
(whose  beautiful  new  car,  Silver  Post,  was  dedicated  by  high 
officials  on  March  25,  1948),  on  many  Milwaukee  Road  lines, 
on  some  Pennsy  and  ACL  routes,  and  several  others. 

Of  particular  significance  are  two  important  suggestions  for 
radical  changes  in  distributing  equipment  (in  the  cars)  which 
have  been  considered  by  the  committee.  One  of  these  inno- 
vations has  met  with  its  enthusiastic  approval,  as  well  as  that 
of  clerks  and  officials  generally— the  new  light"\veight  rack  ex- 
tension and  table  combination  invented  by  the  late  Monroe 
Williams,  a  clerk  who  became  a  leading  R.M.A.  division  presi- 
dent and  editor.  It  does  away  with  the  entire  present  setup 
of  cumbersome  pedestals,  bars,  and  heavy  tables  by  substitut- 
ing feather-light  folding-leg  tray  tables  alternated  with  "rack- 
arm"  extensions  of  the  pouch  rack  (furnishing  extra  separa- 
tions). First  tested  on  the  SP's  Ogden  &  San  Francisco  on 
April  17,  1946,  it  was  permanently  installed  thereon  on  De- 
cember thirty-first  and  has  received  hearty  approval  since  from 
nearly  all  concerned  (there  has  been  some  objection  on 
Omaha-Ogden  runs).  The  Department  has  made  the  new 
installation  optional  in  all  new-car  specifications;  and,  as  it 
is  cheaper  to  construct,  it  is  likely  that  all  railroad  companies 
will  adopt  it  for  new  car-building.  The  other  suggestion, 
disapproved  by  the  committee,  is  nevertheless  an  idea  for 
which  a  vast  number  of  clerks  have  continuously  agitated— the 
"center-case"  car,  with  pouch  rack  at  one  end  and  paper  rack 


S40  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

at  the  other,  which  eliminates  the  danger  and  loss  of  time  re- 
sulting from  so  many  clerks  having  to  stop  to  pass  bagmail  up 
and  down  the  alley.  Most  existing  cars  have  the  pouch  table 
in  the  center,  and  letter  or  paper  distribution  must  cease 
whenever  pouches  are  passed  to  or  from  the  door.  It  would 
seem  that  this  suggestion  deserves  equally  prompt  adoption. 

A  still  more  welcome  innovation  is  the  all-too-infrequent 
air-conditioned  postal  car.  Most  air-cooled  trains  carrying 
mail  cars  still  omit  the  latter  from  the  air-conditioned  setup, 
and  strenuously  working  clerks  must  swelter  in  it  all  summer. 
In  1910  the  country's  first  air-cooled  R.P.O.  cars  were  installed 
on  the  Kansas  City  Southern  Railroad  (K.  C.  R:  Siloam  Springs 
and  connecting  R.P.O.s)  by  order  of  its  president,  ex-P.T.C. 
Harvey  C.  Couch.  Air  conditioning  was  recently  introduced 
on  the  Mpls.  Sc  Miles  Cy.  (NP)  run  and  a  few  others,  and  fur- 
ther experiments  are  under  way.  Long  called  for  in  N.P.T.A. 
resolutions,  this  improvement  is  desperately  needed  in  all 
warmer  climates.  Some  officials  have  objected  that  frequent 
door  openings  make  it  impracticable,  but  buses  and  trolleys 
stopping  for  passengers  much  more  often  have  been  success- 
fully air-conditioned  in  practice. 

A  comprehensive  program  of  drastic  reorganization  and 
improvement  of  the  entire  postal  transport  organization  was 
bco;un  in  1946,  which  had  its  final  culmination  in  the  creation 
of  the  Postal  Transportation  Service  on  November  1,  1949. 
Improved  personnel  practices  were  to  be  the  first  step  in  this 
long-range  program,  and  as  a  result  the  first  stage  was  put 
into  effect  with  the  appointment  of  fifteen  new  Counselor- 
Instructors,  one  in  each  division,  on  April  16,  1946.  These 
men,  besides  assisting  new  substitutes,  were  available  to  regu- 
lar clerks  also.    (Terminated  in  1950— see  Chapter  3.) 

The  second  stage  of  the  program— national  joint  confer- 
ences between  the  Department,  the  N.P.T.A.,  and  the  car- 
riers—began just  six  days  later  (April  22,  1946).  At  Chi- 
cago all  R.M.S.  officials,  from  the  rank  of  former  chief  clerk 
on  up,  attended  their  first  big  conference  as  Association,  rail- 
road, and  air-line  officers  joined  in  the  conclaves  on  that  day. 
The  conference  laid  far-reaching  plans  for  departmental  and 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  341 

field  reorganization,  improved  distribution  facilities  every- 
wiiere,  postwar  schedule  changes,  improved  labor-manage- 
ment relations,  the  challenge  of  air  mail  to  other  mail  trans- 
portation, faster  mail-handling  techniques  and  transportation, 
and  many  similar  topics.  Many  of  the  plans  advanced  have 
since  been  carried  out,  particularly  the  establishment  of  "line 
committees"  (or  "organization  committees")  to  represent 
the  men  of  each  line— as  long  urged  by  the  R.M.A.— in  all 
reorganizations. 

The  third  phase— complete  reorganization  of  the  Second 
Assistant  Postmaster  General's  ofTice  and  all  postal  transport 
facilities— took  place  September  22,  1910.  At  this  time  the 
General  Superintendent  R.M.S.  became  the  Deputy  (2nd) 
Assistant  Postmaster  General,  Surface  Postal  Transport;  and 
the  various  division  superintendents  and  chief  clerks  v/ere 
given  the  new  titles  outlined  in  Chapter  8.  The  Bureau  of 
Railway  Mail  Service  at  Washington  became  that  of  Surface 
Postal  Transport— and  the  R.M.S.  title  was  to  survive  in  the 
field  for  only  three  more  years.  There  was  much  agitation 
for  a  change  therein  from  R.M.A.  members,  for  the  R.M.S. 
had  expanded  to  include  numerous  highAvay,  terminal,  and 
air-mail  facilities  and  ^vas  bes:innins:  to  lose  control  over  the 
latter.  But  suggestions  for  a  ne^v  name  varied  from  the 
lengthy  one  finally  adopted  to  such  simple  titles  as  "Transit 
Mail  Service"— put  forth  by  the  R.M.A.'s  largest  branch, 
by  its  big  Sixth  Division,  and  by  this  Avriter.  It  ^vas  ear- 
nestly felt  that  such  a  brief  and  apt  title  would  emphasize 
that  raihvay  mail  clerks  do  not  just  "transport"  the  mail 
but  sort  it  iji  transit,  and  that  it  Avould  be  handy  and  in- 
volve change  of  only  one  word  or  letter  (R.M.S.  to  T.M.S.). 
In  fact,  the  corresponding  title  of  "Transit  Mail  Association" 
narrowly  missed  adoption  by  the  N.P.T.A.  as  its  new  name 
at  the  same  time,  due  to  parliamentary  maneuvers.  But 
postal  officials,  pointing  out  that  clerks  handled  some  other 
mails  as  well  as  transit  mails,  effected  consolidation  of  the 
R.M.S.  with  the  semi-independent  "Air  Mail  Service"  on 
November  1,  1949,  under  the  title  of  Postal  Transportation 
Service.  Corresponding  name  changes  took  place  in  the  field, 


342  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

and  others  in  Washington;  in  1950  the  head  ofTice  became  the 
Bureau  of  Transportation,  and  the  chief  of  the  Service  again 
redesignated  as  the  Assistant  Executive  Director  thereof. 

In  1949  the  Hoover  Commission  on  Organization  of  the 
Executive  Branch  issued  a  report  recommending  a  sweeping 
reorganization  of  all  postal  services.  Many  meritorious  pro- 
posals were  included  (and  some  adopted);  but  its  short-sighted 
suggestion  to  have  the  post  offices  absorb  the  Terminals, 
P.T.S.,  was  fortunately  disapproved.  Often  falsely  accused  of 
"duplicating"  post  office  functions,  the  terminals  are  a  vital, 
co-ordinated  part  of  the  P.T.S. 

Another  major  innovation  which  has  greatly  affected  the 
P.T.S.,  though  not  a  part  of  it,  is  our  interesting  new  postal 
zone-number  system.  Its  absorbing  history  cannot  be  given 
here,  but  suffice  it  to  say  that  it  was  a  railway  mail  clerk- 
Nathan  A.  Gardner  of  the  Ogden  (Utah)  Branch,  N.P.T.A.— 
who  apparently  first  suggested  zone  numbers  for  all  large 
cities.  He  publicized  a  plan  in  the  October  1940  Raihvay  Post 
Office  calling  for  a  system  almost  identical  with  that  finally 
adopted  nationally  by  the  Department  in  122  large  cities  in 
May  1943.  Already  in  use  in  Pittsburgh  (and,  partly,  in  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts)  at  the  time,  the  plan— long  in  use  in 
European  cities— proved  popular  and  helpful  in  sorting  of 
wartime  mails  by  new  clerks  and  soon  showed  its  value  as 
a  permanent  fixture.  It  permits  instant  sorting  of  city  mail 
to  stations. 

City  clerks  in  R.P.O.  trains  were  soon  furnished  suitable 
lists  and  requested  to  add  the  zone  numbers  of  their  city  to 
the  station  case  headers  they  used;  later  all  P.T.C.s  were  asked 
to  make  separate  zoned  and  unzoned  packages  for  any  cities 
made  up  direct.  Veteran  clerks,  mostly  distrustful  of  the  Avhole 
idea,  often  snorted  and  disregarded  the  numbers  altogether; 
it  was  freely  claimed  that  patrons  usually  used  the  wrong  num- 
bers anyhow  and  that  "zoning"  was  a  menace  to  the  jobs  of 
expert  city  sorters— low-paid,  untrained  non-distributors 
would  soon  take  over.  But  other  city  clerks,  particularly  new 
ones  just  learning  their  assignment,  were  pleased  at  the  ease 
and  speed  with  which  any  zoned  letter  could  be  sorted.  Clerks 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  S4S 

on  state  cases  occasionally  began  making  up  the  unzoned  and 
zoned  separations  requested,  despite  fun-poking  from  the 
veterans,  who  still  used  the  traditional  two  boxes  for  each 
city's  "long"  and  "short"  letters  instead  (as  many  still  do). 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  tests  show  that  close  to  99  per  cent  of 
all  zone  numbers  used  are  correct,  and  that  there  will  always 
be  enough  unzoned  mail  to  require  the  usual  number  of  ex- 
pert city  clerks  on  the  lines.  The  zone  numbers  have  been  a 
godsend  to  numerous  R.P.O.s  which  formerly  went  "stuck" 
on  city  mail  regularly;  it  is  the  ideal  assignment  for  the  new 
subs  who  are  always  being  broken  in. 

According  to  the  N.P.T.A.,  the  real  threat  today  to  efficient 
city-distribution  assignments  comes  not  from  the  zone  num- 
bers but  from  the  radical  new  alphabetical  system  of  sortation 
now  ordered  used  on  trains  working  city  mail  for  Dallas  and 
Milwaukee.  Highly  praised  by  Department  officials  as  more 
economical  and  speedier  than  the  system  of  sorting  direct  to 
carrier  stations,  this  new  method  proposes  an  unbelievably 
simple  separation  of  the  mail  by  alphabetical  groups  accord- 
iuCT  to  street  names— those  besjinnins:  with  A-B-C  to  one  box, 
with  D-E-F  to  a  second,  and  so  on.  Only  a  very  few  downtown 
streets,  firms,  and  so  on  are  sorted  by  the  old  method;  the 
bulky  city  scheme  and  complex  examinations  are  cut  out. 

It  is  not  disclosed  how  the  mail  ever  reaches  its  carrier  sta- 
tions under  this  strange  system,  and  Association  officers  claim 
that  at  least  one  rehandling  of  all  mail  must  take  place  and 
that  specific  reports  of  delayed  mail  have  been  unearthed  as 
a  result.  On  the  other  hand,  postal  officials  claim  that  less 
handlings  are  involved  and  that  Texas  clerks  particularly  are 
much  pleased  with  the  innovation.  Wisconsin  clerks  have 
protested  vociferously,  however,  and  are  anxious  to  retain  the 
former  system  of  "expeditious  delivery  of  important  mails 
direct  to  patrons  ...  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  after 
arrival  .  .  ."  and  to  continue  to  study  their  city  examinations 
to  qualify  for  such  service.  If  expanded,  the  alphabetical 
method  will  at  the  very  least  constitute  a  threat  to  handy  zone- 
number  distribution,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  obvious 
advantages  of  the  zoning  system  will  prevail  in  the  end. 


844  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Another  improvement  in  the  Postal  Service,  not  primarily 
a  P.T.S.  function,  nevertheless  affects  its  clerks  markedly— 
the  Postal  Suggestion  Program.  Clerks  are  no\v  publicly  pre- 
sented with  cash  awards  or  certificates  for  approved  sugges- 
tions for  improved  postal  devices  or  operations.  Railway  mail 
men  have  been  at  the  forefront  in  submitting  Avorth-while 
proposals,  and  the  first  nine  cash  awards  to  P.T.S.  officials 
and  clerks  were  made  in  1948.  At  impressive  ceremonies  W, 
L.  Lanier  (a  clerk-in-charge  at  the  Air  Mail  Field,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.)  was  awarded  $375  for  his  suggestion  of  additional 
uses  for  an  existing  form,  eliminating  entry  of  registered 
pouches  on  a  second  form.  Second  prize  went  to  A.A.  Chiccitt, 
a  Pittsburgh  office  clerk,  for  proposed  discontinuance  of  an 
unused  space  form.  The  most  recent  award  was  one  to  Clerk- 
in-Charge  William  F.  Leutwyler  of  the  Philadelphia  Termi- 
nal, P.T.S. 

A  more  specific  recent  P.T.S.  improvement  is  a  co-operative 
safety  program  involving  the  N.P.T.A.,  service  officials,  the 
Compensation  Bureau,  and  even  Congress.  Honorable  George 
D.  Riley,  staff  director  of  the  Senate's  postal  committee,  even 
made  a  tour  of  the  country  exclusively  in  R.P.O.  cars  in  1947; 
he  had  numerous  unsafe  or  unsanitary  conditions  corrected 
on  the  spot  and  others  reported.  N.P.T.A.  officers  have  made 
special  surveys  of  many  lines  and  terminals,  too,  and  have 
provided  new  detailed  forms  for  special  reports.  Inadequate 
medical  facilities  in  terminals  are  being  publicized;  a  national 
N.P.T.A.  survey  of  all  mail  cars  was  completed  in  February, 
1950. 

Experimental  installations  of  devices  for  automatic  ex- 
changes at  "catcher"  stations  have  been  tried  out  for  years. 
One  of  these  appliances  w^as  invented  by  Albert  Hupp,  of 
Kansas  City,  and  was  tried  on  the  old  Hyattsville  k  Chesa- 
peake Beach  (CBRR)  at  the  Chesapeake  Junction  (D.C.)  sta- 
tion—attracting so  much  official  attention  to  the  ceremonies 
that  even  President  Taft  turned  up,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
history  a  United  States  president  rode  in  an  R.P.O.  car!  But 
this  experiment  of  1912,  using  six  cranes  with  special  catcher 
arms  which  engaged  a  three-pronged  device  on  the  car,  failed 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  845 

to  make  a  hit  despite  its  apparent  success.  Officials  have  often 
examined  the  ingenious  English  catcher  apparatus  but  do  not 
feel  it  is  adaptable  for  our  usual  exchange  of  one  small  pouch 
only.  Other  experiments  were  tried  even  back  in  the  Gay 
Nineties  and  earlier.  Our  newest  such  device,  at  last  report, 
was  still  being  operated— but  only  on  one  line,  the  Eastport  8c 
Spokane  (SIRy.,  Ida.-Wash.).  The  car  has  a  dispatching  arm 
which  makes  a  half  turn  as  soon  as  the  crane  shears  off  the 
pouch,  thus  causing  the  same  arm  to  hook  the  incoming 
pouch  from  the  crane.  But  if  there  is  too  much  or  too  little 
mail  in  the  pouch,  it  does  not  work,  and  the  ideal  device  is 
still  to  be  found.  Although  not  automatic,  an  ingenious  im- 
provement of  the  conventional  catcher  hook  has  been  modeled 
by  Joseph  Goodrich,  formerly  of  the  Eureka  Sc  San  Francisco 
(NWP);  it  can  be  reversed  instantly  without  removal.  Lloyd 
A.  Wilsey  of  the  Elroy  R:  Rap.  City  (C&;N\V)  has  launched  a 
new  campaign  for  automatic  or  improved  catchers  and  restora- 
tion of  catcher  and  R.P.O.  service. 

Electric  warning  devices  for  approach  to  the  crane  are  an 
improvement  needed  even  more,  and  the  first  experimental 
installation  was  probably  an  electric  bell  in  the  car,  rung  by 
the  engineer,  which  ^vas  installed  in  R.P.O.  service  on  the 
Rock  Island  in  1940.  While  this  was  succcessful,  clerks  prefer 
an  automatic  device;  and  after  many  other  experiments  such 
an  appliance  was  invented  by  the  Minneapolis-Honeywell 
Regulator  Company.  Its  earliest  model  appeared  in  1942  and 
was  later  successfully  tested  on  Milwaukee  Road  runs.  (An 
installation  on  the  rails,  near  stop  points,  actuates  an  elec- 
tronic circuit  when  train  wheels  engage  it.)  It  has  been  ap- 
proved by  the  N.P.T.A.  Board  of  Directors,  but  officials  have 
still  not  accepted  is  as  a  "satisfactory  device."  The  newest 
proposed  installation  is  one  invented  by  Ben  B.  Kirby,  a 
Kansas  City  clerk,  and  demonstrated  at  the  1949  Convention; 
it  has  a  film  tape  which  indicates  distance  between  stations, 
buzzes  automatically  a  mile  from  the  station,  and  also  indi- 
cates which  side  of  the  train  it  is  on. 

In  the  field  of  administrative  and  personnel  relations,  too, 
some  very  welcome  innovations  have  actually  take  place.   In 


346  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

1947  a  joint  R.M.A.-R.M.S.  committee  revised  the  314  com- 
plex questions  and  answers  of  the  standard  annual  P.L.  &  R. 
examination  to  eliminate  twenty-four  obsolete  or  confusing 
queries,  and  in  1949  officials  made  many  clarifying  revisions 
and  substitutions  therein  and  reduced  the  total  questions  to 
only  (!)  284.  However,  much  remains  to  be  done  in  further 
amelioration,  especially  in  connection  with  the  many  compli- 
cated registry  queries  which  affect  very  few  clerks.  The  secret 
"rating"  of  clerks  by  their  clerks-in-charge  on  forms  known 
only  to  the  office,  much  resented  by  the  rank  and  file,  has  been 
eliminated— clerks  are  advised  of  rating  now  and  permitted  to 
inspect  report  forms.  In  1947,  Senator  William  Langer  made 
a  personal  survey  of  R.M.S.  working  conditions,  pay  scales, 
and  operating  practice,  writing  letters  to  each  clerk;  welcomed 
by  all  of  them,  they  replied  in  frankness  and  in  detail,  with 
considerable  benefit  resulting. 

Efforts  to  publicize  the  Postal  Transportation  Service  to 
our  citizens  generally  have  been  redoubled  in  recent  years. 
The  radio,  particularly,  has  been  put  to  good  use.  A  series 
of  numerous  outstanding  talks  on  the  Postal  Service,  mostly 
on  the  (then)  R.M.S.,  was  given  by  Charles  A.  Kepner  (late 
6th  Division  R.M.A.  president)  in  Chicago  for  several  years 
over  WJJD,  beginning  in  1936.  Three  of  his  principal  R.M.S. 
addresses  (later  duplicated  and  broadcast  elsewhere)  were  The 
Journey  of  a  Letter  (the  detailed  handling  of  an  R.F.D.- 
mailed  letter  as  sorted  by  Chicago  city  clerks  on  the  Chicago  &: 
Carbondale— IC  Train  26);  Examinations  in  the  R.M.S.  (part- 
ly in  verse  form);  and  The  Story  of  a  Raihvay  Postal  Clerk, 
based  on  Clarence  Votaw's  book  mentioned  later.  Some  pro- 
grams took  the  form  of  short  plays  by  Clerk  C.  W.  Edwards 
and  others,  and  fan  mail  displayed  marked  interest.  In  De- 
cember 1946  a  fifteen-minute  R.M.S.  interview  was  broadcast 
to  Californians  by  office  clerk  Lyle  Lane,  of  Los  Angeles,  over 
KGER's  Civil  Service  News  program;  and  in  April  1948  the 
new  6th  Division  president— Joe  Baccarossa— revived  Kepner's 
idea  by  talking  on  the  R.M.S.  and  Postal  Service  over  WCFL. 

Of  probable  interest  to  readers  is  the  fact  that  a  program 
based  particularly  on  one  part  of  this  book  (the  saving  of  an 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  347 

express  train  from  wreck  by  Clerk  Reed— see  Chapter  1 1)  was 
broadcast  two  years  before  publication  by  the  state  of  NeA\ 
Jersey  (Department  of  Economic  W^elfare)  in  1948  over  a  series 
of  a  dozen  different  stations— W'N J R,  Newark,  and  others 
—on  "This  is  New  Jersey,"  December  20,  1948-January  31, 
1949.  On  May  19,  1949,  8th  Division  N.P.T.A.  leaders  put  on 
a  program  over  KRKD,  Los  Angeles,  which  also  proved  very 
popular.  One  commercial  program  recently  referred  humor- 
ously to  the  "college  cheer  of  the  railway  mail  clerks:  'Swing 
and  Sway  on  the  Santa  Fe'!"  But  perhaps  the  most  dramatic 
of  all  railway  mail  broadcasts  on  record  was  the  one  from  an 
actual  R.P.O.  car  in  motion,  on  New  York  &  Chicago 
(NYCent)  Train  47  at  Schenectady,  New  York,  April  12,  1938 
—the  direct  sounds  of  the  train  and  a  greeting  from  C-in-C 
Bert  R.  Decker  were  sent  over  a  national  network  via  Station 
\VGY  on  a  "Postal  Service  at  Work"  program.  Railway  mail 
clerks  have  also  made  an  outstanding  showing  in  popular 
intercity  quiz  programs;  Memphis  clerks  bested  a  team  of 
engineers  by  the  highest  score  ever  made  (23  to  3)  on 
WMC's  "It's  a  Hit"  program,  while  several  "Quiz  of  Two 
Cities"  programs  (Los  Angeles-San  Francisco  and  Dallas-Fort 
Worth)  have  featured  PTCs. 

There  have  been  several  motion-picture  films  dealing  at 
least  in  part  with  the  P.T.S.  One  of  them— Here  Comes  the 
Mail,  featuring  railway  mail  clerks  and  other  postal  men  at 
work— was  produced  in  1935  by  H.  L.  Hanson  (and  Gil  Hyatt) 
of  the  St.  Paul  post  office,  for  a  postal  employees'  joint  coun- 
cil; but  the  St.  Louis  Branch,  R.ALA.,  doubtless  made  the 
most  use  of  the  film.  It  ^vas  shown  281  times  to  over  forty 
thousand  people  between  1935  and  1947,  including  clubs, 
churches,  and  colleges  as  well  as  postal  groups;  it  drew  high 
praise  from  prominent  Americans.  Bret  Callicott  acted  as 
narrator  for  this  film,  showing  a  thirty-foot  R.P.O.  car  in  full 
operation.  A  second  film  of  this  same  title  was  planned  in 
1947  by  Carl  Dudley  Productions  at  Beverly  Hills,  California; 
but  unfortunately  the  footage  then  shot  had  to  be  scrapped. 
It  contained  a  dozen  R.P.O.  scenes  showing  a  full  Southern 
Pacific  R.P.O.  car,  with  seven  clerks  loading  and  distributing 


848  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

mail;  R.  A.  Norris,  the  C-in-C,  even  exhibited  a  "clerk-in- 
cliarge  badge"  (ink  spot  on  pants  from  sitting  on  postmark 
pad)  to  make  it  authentic!   Los  Angeles  area  clerks  were  used. 

Two  other  railroad  films  dealing  in  part  with  the  R.M.S. 
were  shot  by  Dudley  during  the  same  year  for  the  Association 
of  American  Railroads— A/o/n  Line,  U.S.A.  and  Big  Trains 
Rolling,  relating  mostly  to  trains  in  general.  However,  they 
also  produced  a  film  strip  Railroads  and  Our  Mail  (for  still 
projector)  dealing  exclusively  with  railway  mail  opera- 
tions—also in  California,  in  Technicolor,  in  1948;  it  shows 
all  phases  of  mail  handling  by  R.P.O.  trains,  with  Los 
Angeles  Branch  President  Moyes  and  three  other  clerks  fea- 
tured therein.  Two  or  three  Hollywood  feature  pictures,  in- 
cluding 7oe  and  Ethel  Tiirp  Call  on  the  President  and  Sj)ecial 
Investigator,  have  contained  fictional  sequences  based  on 
R.P.O.  operations;  also  20th  Century-Fox's  "March  of  Time" 
film,  Watch  Dogs  of  the  Mail  (1948-49),  dealt  largely  with  the 
same  subject.  The  New  York  Central  Railroad  produced  a 
film  for  its  employees  in  1948,  Within  the  Oval,  which  showed 
Clerk  Ray  Smith,  of  their  N.Y.  k  Chi.  R.P.O.,  on  duty  in  the 
Century's  postal  car;  and  Clerk  Gil  Mereweather  of  the  N.Y. 
&  Chic.  (NYC)  produced  a  complete  film.  Take  a  Letter  (1948 
—shows  all  stages  of  a  letter's  trip).  Filmosound,  Inc.,  has 
issued  The  Mail,  sho^ving  a  letter's  journey  on  a  fast  stream- 
lined R.P.O.;  and  the  Educational  Film  Service  (Battle  Creek, 
Mich.)  a  film  Post  Office— the.  "complete  story  of  mailing  a 
letter,"  with  train  scenes. 

And  the  P.T.S.  has  just  made  its  debut  over  television!  On 
October  19,  1949,  WOW-TV  at  Omaha  televised  Hugo  Palm- 
quist  and  R.  Matthews  of  the  Omaha  &;  Denver  (CBR;Q)  and 
Omaha  R:  Ogden  (UP)  working  mail  in  the  N.P.T.A.  Con- 
vention exhibit  car  (Chapter  13). 

But  in  the  field  of  literature  no  full-size  printed,  descrip- 
tive book  dealing  primarily  with  the  R.NLS.  or  P.T.S. -other 
than  this  volume— has  appeared  since  1916.  The  Saturday 
Evening  Post  for  February  1,  1947,  featured  tAvo  pages  of  full- 
color  photos  (not  too  authentic)  and  much  additional  text  in 
its    absorbing   article    "Postman    on    Wheels"    by    Ricliard 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  349 

Thriielson;  it  featured  Ed  Nemeth  on  the  N.Y.  R:  ^\^ash. 
(PRR).  Simi\:ir]y,  the  San  la  Fe  Ma  gnzine  (July  194G)  printed 
a  feature  "R.M.S."  by  Gordon  Stratclian— dealing  wiiii  their 
Albuquerque  R:  Los  Angeles  run— which  was  so  popular  that  it 
was  reprinted  and  expanded  as  a  booklet  with  many  photos. 
Considerable  other  material  on  the  Service,  including  this 
writer's  "Mail-Key  Railroaders,"  will  be  found  listed  in  the 
Bibliography  along  with  many  pamphlets  and  miscellany. 

The  government  has  issued  no  public  literature  on  the 
P.T.S.  since  the  1880s,  when  its  big  technical  book.  History 
of  the  Railway  Mail  Service,  was  prepared  by  the  Department 
as  Senate  Executive  Document  #40,'*  followed  by  a  handsome 
leatherette  pamphlet,  the  Raihvay  Mail  Service  (by  Post- 
master General  Thomas  Jones;  embossed  gold  stamping,  ex- 
cellent text  and  photos).  With  the  exception  of  bound  vol- 
umes of  government  R.M.S.  reports  and  clerks'  data,  techni- 
cal books  on  railway  mail  pay,  and  general  postal  books  with 
incidental  R.M.S.  mention,  there  have  been  only  about  five 
real  bound  \oIumes  ever  issued  on  our  subject.  They  include 
C.  E.  V'^otaw's  Jasper  Hunnicutt  of  Jimsonhorst  (a  delightful 
humorous  fiction  story,  1907);  General  Superintendent  |.  E. 
Wiiite's  Life  Sjmn  and  Reminiscences  of  the  R.M.S.,  far  more 
readable  and  interesting  than  the  History  (1910);  Professor 
W.  J.  Dennis*  The  Travelling  Post  Office  (1916);  Earl  L. 
Newton's  The  Nixie  Box,  consisting  of  R.M.S.  poetry  only, 
of  a  most  enjoyable  type  (1927);  and  possibly  S.  D.  Spero's 
Labor  Movement  in  a  Government  Industry  (nearly  half 
R.M.S.  matter,  1924).  Except  for  the  last,  all  these  \'olumes 
were  written  by  onetime  clerks  and  were  more  or  less  privately 
published— as  was  one  sizable  mimeographed  book,  \V.  F. 
Kilman's  Two  Million  Miles  on  the  Railroad  (printed  covers, 
194G);  and  a  paper-bound  printed  book  of  Postal  Service  inci- 
dents, James  L.  Stice's  Free  Enterprise  (about  one  third 
R.M.S.matter,  194r)). 

Only  two  known  published  short  stories  of  the  R.M.S.,  as 
it  then  was,  have  appeared— £.  S.  Dellinger's  entertaining  "T- 


■Forly-cighih  Congress,  2nd  Session;  by  Maynard. 


S50  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Series  Mail  Key,"  in  Railroad  for  June  1936,  and  this  writer's 
"By  Return  Mail"  (Our  Youth,  July  17,  1949).  Many  news- 
paper stories  of  the  Service  have  appeared;  on  an  inspection 
trip  on  one  R.P.O.,  Doug  Welch,  of  the  Seattle  Post-Intelli- 
gencer, relates  how  he  dared  not  touch  even  one  letter  in  th.- 
awesome  presence  of  this  heavily  armed  "relatively  small  and 
select  group  of  postal  employees"!  Within  the  P.T.S.  we  have, 
of  course,  the  Postal  Transport  Journal;  a  frequently  issued 
News  Bulletin,  likewise  published  by  the  N.P.T.A.;  the  De- 
partment's monthly  Post  Haste  and  its  divisional  General 
Orders;  and  many  N.P.T.A.  regional  periodicals,  such  as  the 
Open  Pouch  and  the  Sth  Division  News-Lettd  -th  ?  latter  in- 
cluding, until  recent  years,  a  colorful  historical  su'?plement 
founded  in  1941  by  Monroe  Williams  as  the  Go-Bi  k  Pouch 
(from  which  we've  quoted  liberally).  There  ar  •  scores  of 
others  (Note  21).  The  N.P.T.A.  also  publishes  an  ..  Kcellent 
illustrated  booklet.  The  N.P.T.A.  and  the  Postal  Transpor- 
tation Clerk  (formerly  The  R.M.A.  and  the  Railway  Postal 
Clerk);  and  there  are  the  stamp  and  R.P.O.  hobby  journals. 

Railway  mail  clerks  have  made  outstanding  records  as  dis- 
tinguished Americans.  The  late  Senator  Clyde  M.  Reed,  for- 
merly governor  of  Kansas  and  prominent  newspaper  publish- 
er (Parsons  Sun),  was  a  clerk  on  the  old  Sedalia  &:  Denison 
(M-K-T,  Mo-Texas),  appointed  in  1889  at  $800  yearW.  Later 
a  division  superintendent,  he  saved  the  lives  of  three  clerks  in 
a  safety  campaign,  saved  the  government  huge  sums  in  mail 
pay  by  exposing  railroads'  false  weight  divisors,  and  •"as  later 
elected  to  the  Senate  and  was  active  on  the  Post  Office  and 
Post  Office  Roads  Committee  (although  strictly  following 
Departmental  viewpoints  on  legislation).  Several  other  ci  ;rks 
have  attained  seats  in  Congress,  including  Carl  Van  Dyke  (as 
noted)  and,  just  recently,  A.  C.  Multer  (New  York)  and  G.  L,. 
Moser  (Pennsylvania)— who  have  assisted  in  beneficial  legis- 
lation, as  Van  Dyke  did. 

Railroad  president  Harvey  C.  Couch,  of  the  Kansas  City 
Southern,  was  appointed  as  a  clerk  on  the  St.  Louis  Sc  Tex- 
arkana  (MoPac)  in  1899;  he  organized  a  telephone  company 
in  spare  time,  resigned  from  the  Service  in  1905,  sold  out  to 


I 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  851 

Bell,  and  acquired  control  of  nearby  gas  and  electric  com- 
panies and  eventually  of  two  small  railroads.  Merging  them 
with  the  K.C.S.,  he  became  president  of  the  consolidation  in 
the  late  1920s  and  was  active  also,  as  we  know,  in  putting 
air-conditioned  R.P.O.  cars  thereon.  All  his  life  he  was  active 
in  installing  other  benefits  for  the  clerks,  riding  and  chatting 
with  them  and  entertaining  them  royally  at  his  summer  home. 

Theodore  Newton  Vail,  distinguished  former  president  of 
American  Telephone  and  Telegraph,  was  a  former  Omaha  & 
Ogden  (UP)  clerk  who  later  became  general  superintendent 
of  the  R.M.S.  In  his  telephone  career  he  originated  the 
coveted  Vail  Gold  Medal,  still  awarded  to  phone  employees 
for  outstanding  devotion  and  loyalty.  In  more  recent  times 
the  brilliant  and  checkered  career  of  Peter  J.  Schardt,  retired 
high  Southern  Railw^ay  official  was  still  making  history  up  to 
his  recent  death  (April  19,  1950).  Appointed  in  1900  from 
Sauk\ille,  Wisconsin,  to  the  C&NVV's  Ishpeming  &  Chic. 
R.P.O.,  he  soon  began  his  spectacular  rise  to  innumerable 
high  positions  as  outlined  in  Chapters  9  and  II;  he  was  chair- 
man of  the  National  A.A.R.  Committee  on  Railway  Mail 
Transportation  and  a  very  popular  speaker.  A  Brigadier 
General  when  assigned  to  Germany  in  1945,  he  was  awarded 
the  coveted  Medal  of  Freedom  for  his  "exceptionally  meri- 
torious achievement"  in  postal  work  there.  H.  C.  Forgy  and 
F.  W.  Hickson,  former  and  present  Managers  of  Mail  and 
Express  for  the  UP,  'vvere  both  ex-clerks. 

Still  in  the  Service  at  last  report  were  Frank  Cumisky, 
Olympic  gymnastic  champion,  and  James  W.  Garnett,  who 
served  as  president  of  the  world's  largest  Bible  class.  Cumisky, 
a  clerk  in  New  York's  West  Side  Terminal,  P.T.S.,  has 
been  American  gymnastic  champion  for  years  and  an  Olympic 
star  since  1932;  while  Garnett,  whose  class  met  at  the  First 
Baptist  Church  of  Kansas  City,  was  a  leader  in  the  R.M.A. 
and  M.B.A.  there  and  later  an  assistant  district  superintend- 
ent. Many  other  clerks  are  active  in  religious  ^vork,  and  quite 
a  few,  like  Reverend  C.  T.  Wilhelm  and  Reverend  Lawrence 
Fuqua,  have  become  ministers  eventually. 

A  remarkable  number  of  railway  mail  men  have  attained 


352  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

prominence  as  writers.  Karl  Baarslag,  of  Silver  Spring,  Mary- 
land, the  distinguished  Reader's  Digest  contributor  and 
author  of  four  popular  books  (one  from  Oxford  University 
Press),  such  as  Robbery  by  Mail,  was  once  a  sub  on  the  old 
Grand  Rapids  &:  Jackson  (MC)  in  Michigan.  Samuel  Bias, 
still  employed  in  the  Penn  Terminal  (New  York),  sells  first- 
rank  fiction  to  national  magazines;  his  recent  story, 
"Revenge,"  made  Collier's.  Donald  M.  StefFee,  of  Brooklyn, 
leading  United  States  authority  on  high-speed  train  operation 
and  schedules,  sells  articles  regularly  at  top  rates  to  Railroad 
Magazine  and  occasionally  to  newspapers;  long  at  West  Side 
with  Cumiskcy,  he  is  now  on  the  N.Y.  &  Chic.  (NYCent). 
Both  Steffee  and  Sidney  Goodman,  another  Penn  Terminal 
clerk,  are  chess  champions  as  well  as  Avriters;  Goodman  is  the 
author  of  the  new  book.  World  Chess  Championship,  1948, 
issued  by  Chess  Press.  Bert  Bemis,  once  of  the  Omaha  S:  Den- 
ver (CBR;Q),  writes  for  Coronet  and  similar  magazines;  while 
a  former  clerk  in  the  Washington  (D.C.)  Terminal— name 
withheld  by  request— is  now  one  of  America's  highest  paid 
naval  writers,  Roy  V.  McPherson,  just  retired  from  the  Utica 
(New  York)  Terminal,  has  sold  numerous  articles  to  Fate 
magazine  and  to  newspapers. 

Professor  W.  Jefferson  Dennis,  of  Parsons  College,  Fairfield, 
Iowa,  is  the  author  of  several  other  volumes  besides  The 
Travelling  Post  Office;  his  Tacna  and  Arica  (Yale  University 
Press  is  the  standard  text  on  the  subject.  He  was  once  a  clerk 
on  the  Des  Moines  X:  Sioux  City  (CRrNW)  in  Iowa.  Clarence 
E.  Votaw,  author  of  both  Jasper  Hunnicutt  and  Patriotism, 
was  a  clerk  on  the  PRR's  Pittsburgh  &:  St.  Louis  who 
became  an  assistant  division  superintendent;  retired  at 
Fountain  City,  Indiana,  twenty-eight  years  until  his  death  at 
ninety-five  in  1948,  he  was  an  energetic  traveler.  Christian 
worker,  woodsman,  and  contributor  to  newspapers  as  long  as 
he  lived.  His  son,  \Villiam  I.  Votaw,  left  the  Monon's  Chic, 
Monon.  R:  Cin.  R.P.O.  to  become  a  Seapost  official  and,  pres- 
ently, one  of  the  heads  of  United  States  Lines.  Thomas  J. 
Flanagan  of  the  Atlanta  &  Albany  (CGa)  is  the  author  of  books 
like  The  Road  to  Mt.  McKeithen  and  By  Pine  Knot  Torches 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  85S 

(by  Atlanta  Independent  Press),  and  of  published  poems  and 
prose  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution  and  college  journals.  The 
late  Guy  M.  Smith,  retired  from  the  Indpls.  R:  Peoria  (CCC8: 
StL),  wrote  two  hooks— Romance  of  Danville  Junction  and 
100  Years  of  Baseball  (just  published,  in  1950). 

Purely  in  connection  with  their  work  in  the  Service,  numer- 
ous clerks  have  attained  national  prominence  as  high  postal 
officials,  or  have  sacrificed  chances  of  official  promotion  to 
dedicate  their  Uves  to  fellow  clerks  as  N.P.T.A.  workers.  The 
late  Henry  \V.  Strickland,  editor  of  The  Railway  Post  Office 
for  twenty-eight  years,  was  an  outstanding  example— and  he, 
too,  was  hailed  as  an  "able  and  versatile  writer."  A  former 
Kansas  City  Star  reporter,  then  a  clerk  on  the  Rock  Island  8: 
Kansas  City  (Rock  I.),  he  became  editor  in  1915  and  indus- 
trial secretary  in  1921.  Friendly,  tolerant,  modest,  he  was 
also  a  staunch  champion  of  A.  F.  of  L.  imionism,  and  his 
sudden  death  (on  the  job,  June  14,  1943)  was  a  great  blow  to 
all  concerned— including  the  writer,  \vho  was  proud  to  have 
been  his  friend.  The  magazine  staff  could  find  no  picture 
of  their  modest  editor  for  publication  when  they  searched 
his  photo  files  that  day.  Of  strong  Christian  convictions,  he 
had  a  helping  hand  for  all,  and  he  wanted  no  profane  or  ques- 
tionable material  in  the  Railway  Post  Office. 

Long  known  as  the  "Dean  of  Railway  Mail  Clerks,"  John 
H.  Pitney,  of  the  present  Boston  8:  Troy  (BS;M),  was  appoint- 
ed a  pre-R.M.S.  route  agent  in  18G1  and  worked  on  the  mail 
trains  for  fifty-five  years;  a  song  composer  and  community 
benefactor,  he  \vas  feted  by  the  highest  officials  on  his  golden 
wedding  and  was  beloved  by  his  townspeople  in  Eagle  Bridge, 
New  York,  for  the  Memorial  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
which  he  built  in  1882,  partly  in  honor  of  the  R.M.S.  (Its 
gable  window  depicts  the  story  of  postal  transport,  showing 
an  R.P.O.  train.)*  Similarly,  David  E.  "Daddy"  Barnes  of 
Kansas  City,  \\'ho  just  passed  on,  was  called  the  "Grand  Old 
Man"  of  the  R.M.S.;  he  ^vas  a  charter  organizer  and  later 


'After  surviving  three  frightful  wrecks,  Pitney  met  an  ironic  fate  in  1920- 
fatally  injured  by  a  runaway  R.M.S.  truck,  years  after  his  retirement! 


354  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

national  president  of  the  N.A.R.P.C.  (now  N.P.T.A.).  Start- 
ing as  a  clerk  on  the  Rock  Island's  Kansas  City  &  Caldwell,  he 
Avas  noted  for  his  abstemious  habits,  conscientiousness,  inter- 
cession for  the  rights  of  fellow  clerks,  and  addiction  to  clean 
speech.  Today's  Assistant  Executive  Director  of  Transporta- 
tion (General  Supt.  R.M.S.),  George  E.  Miller,  was  a 
clerk  on  the  PRR's  New  York  &  Washington  and  an  active 
Baltimore  R.M.A.  leader;  all  his  predecessors  in  that  position, 
for  uncounted  decades,  have  been  clerks  -who  worked  their 
way  to  the  top.  And  the  late  beloved  Honorable  Smith  W. 
Purdum,  who  reached  the  still  higher  position  of  Second  As- 
sistant Postmaster  General,  was  a  clerk  on  the  same  line;  a 
long-time  resident  of  Hyattsville,  Maryland,  he  literally 
"worked  himself  to  death"  on  the  job  (foregoing  all  sick  and 
annual  leave),  living  only  three  days  after  his  retirement  in 
1945.  He  was  esteemed  alike  by  the  clerks  and  by  all  who 
knew  him.  More  R.P.O.  men,  unquestionably,  have  climbed 
to  high  Post  Office  Department  positions  than  those  of  any 
other  Postal  Service  branch— but  space  forbids  elaboration. 
Clerk  Fred  A.  Ryle  of  the  Den.  &  San  Ant.  (M-K-T-Tex)  was 
awarded  the  Carnegie  Medal  for  heroicly  rescuing  a  trapped 
railroader  amid  great  danger  in  a  wreck  and  fire  at  Comol, 
Texas  in  December,  1947. 

Other  active  clerks  have  made  outstanding  achievements  in 
fields  outside  the  Service.  William  B.  Carpenter,  of  the  Bos- 
ton &  Albany  (B&A),  is  acclaimed  by  the  New  York  Times  as 
one  of  our  leading  Shakespearean  scholars,  and  several  other 
clerks  have  qualified  as  experts  on  the  works  of  Shakespeare 
and  other  classicists.  Clerks  in  New  York  State,  Florida, 
Missouri,  the  Dakotas,  and  elsewhere  have  become  leading 
state  legislators.  And  just  at  random  we  take  note  of  such 
men  as  Judge  M.  S.  Morgan,  prominent  Texas  jurist  in  Who's 
Who  (once  with  the  R.M.S.);  Labor  Commissioner  "William 
J.  McCain  of  Arkansas  (ex-Little  Rock  and  Forth  Worth, 
MP-T&P-CRIRrP);  Brigadier  General  Thomas  C.  Dedell,  late 
army  hero  and  Utica  Public  Safety  Commissioner  (a  clerk  for 
forty  years);  Dr.  K.  J.  Foreman,  Professor  of  Philosophy  and 
Bible  at  Davidson  College   (who  subbed  under  Greensboro, 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  355 

North  Carolina,  R.M.S.  office);  John  F.  Stahl,  featured  by 
Ernie  Pyle  as  hiking  from  Panama  to  Texas  at  fifty-seven  (a 
former  clerk);  several  clerks  who  became  talented  artists  with 
pen  or  brush  while  remaining  in  the  P.T.S.,  such  as  Roger 
Gaver  (N.Y.  &  Wash.,  PRR),  Otto  Augsburg  (Superintendent 
District  3,  Chicago,  retired),  and  the  late  George  Risinger 
(Dodge  City  &  Trinidad,  Santa  Fe);  \V.  H.  Strauss,  leading 
Waynesboro,  Pennsylvania,  industrialist  (ex-N.Y.  R:  Pitts., 
PRR);  and  numerous  other  prominent  leaders  in  professional 
fields  of  every  description— not  to  forget  the  many  P.T.S. 
officials,  like  Virgil  Jones  (Chapter  15),  who  have  been  as- 
signed to  reorganize  the  postal  system  of  some  entire  foreign 
country— Turkey,  Germany,  Japan,  the  Philippines,  or  some 
other  nation. 

As  for  the  myriad  amateur  composers  and  talented  mu- 
sicians within  the  P.T.S. ,  this  topic  is  closely  linked  with  that 
of  the  few  songs  and  other  musical  pieces  which  deal  \vith  the 
Service.  Larry  G.  Cowe,  one  of  the  famed  N.B.C.  Trouba- 
dours, is  a  clerk  out  of  Pocatello,  Idaho.  Several  unpublished 
P.T.S.  compositions,  some  of  them  circulated  in  duplicated 
form,  have  been  written  by  clerks  in  New  York's  Penn  Termi- 
nal, including  "In  the  Good  Old  R.M.S."  and  "The  Boys  of 
the  R.M.S.,"  by  Barney  Duckman  (1939,  1941);  "There's  a 
Story  I  Must  Tell,"  by  Charles  Haller  of  Jamaica  (1941);  and 
"A  Day  in  Penn  Terminal,"  a  piano  solo  (1945)  by  Herman 
Hammerman  of  Brooklyn.  (Hammerman's  song,  "Land  of 
Hope,"  with  words  by  Guiterman,  was  published  by  Empire 
Music.)  Two  other  P.T.S.  songs  have  been  privately  pub- 
lished or  circulated  somewhat— "Railway  Mail,"  by  Joseph  H. 
Grubbs,  retired  from  the  Seaboard's  Washington  &:  Hamlet; 
and  "Mail  Train,"  by  this  writer.  Ladies  of  the  N.P.T.A. 
Auxiliary  have  produced  two  songs,  both  composed  by  clerks' 
wives;  and  Mrs.  Harriet  Locey's  "National  W.A.R.M.A. 
.Loyalty  Song"  (1945)  is  perhaps  the  best  Service  song  yet 
written.  It  was  preceded  as  their  official  song  by  an  earlier 
one,  "Auxiliary  Day"  (1935),  by  Mrs.  E.  J.  Mullins  and  Mrs. 
I.  L.  Johnson.  The  only  known  railway  mail  song  issued  as 
standard  sheet  music,  other  than  the  "Loyalty  Song,"  was  the 


356  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Burlington  Railroad's  number,  "The  Fast  Mail,"  by  A.  M. 
Bruner  (1897)  but  it  did  not  mention  clerks  or  mail-sorting. 
A  work  of  this  kind  should  not  close  without  mention  of 
at  least  some  of  the  more  undesirable  conditions  within  the 
P.T.S.  which  can  be  corrected,  and  which  the  N.P.T.A.,  as 
well  as  many  officials,  are  attempting  to  remedy  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  In  fact,  such  conditions  are  very  often  not  the  fault 
of  Department  heads,  but  rather  the  result  of  insufficient  con- 
gi-essional  appropriations  or  of  the  unjust  provisions  of  exist- 
ing laws.  (These  constructive  criticisms,  like  our  future 
recommendations,  represent  the  views  of  the  authors  as  private 
citizens  and  not,  necessarily,  those  of  P.T.S.  or  N.P.T.A. 
heads.)  Thus  it  is  now  illegal  to  ship  livestock  next  to  the 
engine  on  a  train,  but  still  permissible  to  spot  R.P.O.  cars 
with  human  occupants  in  this  dangerous  and  rough-riding 
position!  (The  P.  L.  R:  R.  discourages,  but  does  not  prohibit 
the  practice.)  There  are  other  unsafe  practices  still  needing 
correction,  although  one  of  the  worst— operation  of  single- 
unit  branch  trains  with  gasoline  motors  and  R.P.O.  unit 
housed  together— has  just  been  legally  prohibited;  and  the 
last  of  the  dim  and  dangerous  old  oil  lamps  formerly  used  have 
just  been  eliminated. 

The  terminals,  P.T.S.,  are  particularly  the  subject  of 
troublesome  discrimination  imder  the  law.  Terminal  clerks 
are  lower  paid,  for  the  maximum  grade  is  held  at  two  steps 
below  road  levels;  they  are  allowed  no  study  time  or  time  for 
correcting  schemes  and  schedules  (though  their  time  slips 
show  spaces  for  same);  they  have  been  recently  again  denied 
the  privilege  of  eating,  washing  up,  and  changing  work  clothes 
on  official  time,  as  is  justly  enjoyed  by  train  clerks.  The  same 
applies  to  P.T.S.  Air  Mail  Fields. 

Others— notably,  the  road  men— are  seriously  concerned 
over  such  things  as  the  recent  expansion  of  time  deficiencies  in 
assigned  working  schedules,  whereby  most  o\ertime  and  extra 
trips  bring  no  extra  pay  (due  to  cutting  of  advance  time  far 
below  that  necessary  for  clerks  to  work  the  required  forty- 
hour-week  equivalent).  And  the  advent  of  high-speed  trains 
had  previously  resulted  in  all  too  much  "deficiency"  even  be- 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  357 

fore;  clerks  do  not  work  on  a  mileaore  basis  like  railroad  men. 
And  although  a  speed  differential  (providing  extra  time 
credits  for  clerks  rtmning  on  trains  at  speeds  of  over  42 1/^ 
mph)  was  introduced  May  25,  193G,  official  investigations  de- 
clared it  to  be  technically  illegal.  On  November  28,  1949, 
the  differential  was  raised  to  50  mph  (a  decided  cut  in  bene- 
fits) and  was  then  terminated  entirely  June  30,  1950— the 
grace  period  being  granted  only  to  permit  the  N.P.T.A.  to 
initiate  mileage  legislation  in  Congress.  Such  legislation, 
planned  by  the  association  for  years,  ^vas  introduced,  using  a 
42-mph  factor  to  place  all  road  work  on  a  mileage  basis— with 
deficiency  eliminated;  but  the  government  disapproved  it, 
and  Congress  did  not  pass  the  law.  As  a  result,  clerks  now 
make  many  additional  trips  at  "no  pay." 

Then  there  are  such  matters  as  the  recent  elimination  (ex- 
cept in  heavy  road  service  and  transfer  assignments)  of 
the  standard  ^vell-dcserved  pay  differential  long  existing  be- 
tAveen  post-office  clerks  and  all  classes  of  railway  mail  clerks 
in  the  P.T.S.'s  favor;  the  "reduction"  of  many  clerks-in-charge 
through  no  fault  of  theirs;  the  petty  technical  P.  L.  K:  R.  rul- 
ings, such  as  orders  to  check  "all"  errors  and  report  all  letter 
packages  ^vithout  slips,  which  it  is  impossible  to  observe  in  a 
busy  postal  car  without  very  serious  delay;  the  over-em- 
ployment of  temporary  help  and  elimination  of  needed 
overtime  for  experienced  clerks;  the  denial  of  time  and  a  half 
to  substitutes;  the  recent  assignment  of  terminal  mail  handlers 
(laborers)  to  actual  distribution  of  primary  parcel  post  and 
similar  duties,  which  is  properly  done  much  more  efficiently 
by  clerks  who  know  the  routings— many  small  oflices  and 
localities  are  included  in  primary  "directs;"  and  the  economic 
plight  of  active  clerks,  and  particularly  of  retired  ones,  during 
periods  of  inflation.  (From  1939  to  1947  food  costs  rose  103 
per  cent,  general  living  costs  65  per  cent,  and  clerks'  incomes 
only  30  per  cent— and  latest  pay  raises  involved  only  a 
trifling  percentage  increase.)  Betterment  of  such  conditions 
is  to  be  earnestly  hoped  for;  for  the  last  two,  in  particular,  can 
result  in  serious  losses  of  efficient  clerical  personnel  in  P.T.S. 
organizations  everywhere. 


358  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Clerks  differ  as  to  the  means  which  should  be  taken  to 
solve  such  problems,  although  most  agree  that  all  efforts 
should  be  channeled  through  the  N.P.T.A.  But  some  have 
taken  matters  into  their  own  hands.  When  terminal  clerks 
were  reduced  to  their  present  relative  grade  in  the  1930s,  some 
clerks  sued  the  government  personally  for  restoration,  with 
back  pay,  and  succeeded;  but  it  at  least  one  case  alleged  re- 
prisal was  suffered  by  a  lady  terminal  clerk  who  was  reassigned 
to  an  air-mail  field  one  and  one-half  miles  from  transporta- 
tion. Other  clerks  have  personally  presented  data  to  congress- 
men; when  one  exhibited  his  entire  working  equipment 
(PL&R,  schemes,  cards,  trip  report,  space  data,  and  so  on),  the 
impressed  representative  declared  the  job  should  pay  twice 
what  it  did.  Another  clerk  (in  the  clerks'  Journal)  ad- 
vised publicizing  to  all  "the  fun  of  poking  letters  for  twelve 
hours,  of  carrying  a  one-hundred-pound  pouch  through 
crowded  aisles  on  a  60-mph  curve,  of  getting  up  at  midnight 
to  work  the  rest  of  the  night  ...  of  breathing  those  sulfur 
fumes  for  a  half  hour  after  passing  that  tunnel  .  .  .  those  dirty 
clothes  on  washday  after  a  'nice'  paper  run  in  July,"  not  to 
mention  pasting  scheme  corrections  that  don't  fit! 

The  ingenious  clerk,  like  the  one  faster  or  slower  than  aver- 
age, has  his  particular  troubles.  One  chap  on  a  one-man  run, 
on  his  day  off  around  Christmas  time,  noticed  three  truckloads 
of  working  mail  waiting  at  the  depot  for  his  R.P.O.'s  next  trip. 
Rather  than  go  stuck  then  and  delay  the  mail,  the  clerk  got 
into  his  car  (standing  near  by)  and  worked  up  all  this  mail 
on  his  own  time,  making  no  claim  for  overtime  in  his  report 
of  the  case.  He  was  severely  censured,  without  a  word  of 
praise,  and  told  not  to  do  it  again!  A  typical  "fast"  clerk  out 
W^est,  who  recently  resigned,  wrote,  "I  am  tired  of  the  dirt  and 
lousy  conditions  ...  I  hate  to  be  penalized  because  I  am  fast, 
by  having  to  'carry'  the  drunkards  and  the  brainless  idiots," 
i.e.,  slow  men  whose  "work  is  full  of  mistakes."  While  an 
extreme  case,  it  is  true  that  no  excuse  exists  for  the  clerk  who 
is  deliberately  lazy  or  intemperate;  and  a  good  clerk  resents, 
for  example,  an  insinuation  that  he  must  slow  down  or  his 
terminal's  average  "count"  will  be  raised  to  a  level  difficult 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  559 

to  maintain.  On  the  other  hand,  the  efficient  and  hard-work- 
ing clerk  whose  best  speed  is  a  little  lower  than  average  suffers 
much  undeserved  persecution  from  his  fellows.  He  is  often 
painstakingly  accurate,  except  when  he  works  himself  into  a 
nervous  frenzy  trying  to  keep  up  with  others— often  skipping 
lunch,  he  works  harder  than  the  "speed  demon"  in  actuality, 
as  one  veteran  pointed  out. 

Besides  other  current  complaints  mentioned  earlier,  there 
are  such  problems  as  the  frequent  loss  of  certain  transit-mail 
distribution  to  the  post  offices  in  cases  where  the  P.T.S.  should 
properly  work  it,  and  more  efficiently;  the  prolonged  assign- 
ment of  clerks  vice' a.  C-in-C  on  leave,  without  being  paid  ac- 
cordingly; outmoded  surroundings,  devoid  of  needed  com- 
forts and  attractive  appearance;  the  post-office  policy  of  per- 
mitting patrons  to  address  parcels  on  one  side  only  (often  de- 
laying sorting  by  having  to  turn  it  over  six  times  to  read  the 
address,  or  preventing  delivery  by  loss  of  only  label);  and  the 
current  policies  regarding  road  grips.  Not  only  must  clerks 
pay  for  both  grips  (used  for  government  property)  and  carry- 
ing charges,  but  they  also  must  contend  with  congested  grip 
rooms  and  lack  of  lockers. 

And  if  the  facts  were  known  about  the  serious  mail  delays 
due  to  broken  train  connections  resulting  from  the  "daylight 
saving  time"  fad,  the  public  would  soon  demand  its  elimina- 
tion—or its  universal,  year-round  application.  (Mothers  of  in- 
fants, at  least,  would  rally  to  the  cause!) 

A  major  problem,  however,  is  that  occasioned  by  the  whole- 
sale abandonment  of  short  R.P.O.s  on  branch  lines  and  the 
curtailment  of  distribution  on  some  through  routes— both  re- 
sulting in  slower  and  poorer  mail  service.  With  some  excep- 
tions, the  former  results  simply  from  passenger  service  aban- 
donments on  the  part  of  the  railroad;  and  while  H.P.O.s  are 
often  substituted  today,  all  too  often  a  non-distributing  star 
route  is  the  only  replacement.  While  much  of  the  distribution 
may  be  retained  in  the  P.T.S.  and  performed  on  an  adjoining 
trunk  line,  the  local-exchange  service  suffers  considerably. 
Sometimes  main-line  personnel  is  expanded  to  cover  branch 
curtailments,  but  on  the  New  York  Sc  Chicago  (NYCent)  and 


560  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Other  lines,  clerical  force  has  been  cut  instead  while  connect- 
ing side  lines  folded  up.  In  the  8th  (San  Francisco)  Division 
alone  the  number  of  R.P.O.s  declined  from  eighty-six  in  1911 
to  t^venty-eight  today,  ^vith  existing  lines  curtailed  sharply. 
The  reason  for  the  familiar  current  slowness  of  the  mails  in 
most  areas  without  rail  passenger  service  will  now  be  obvious 
to  all!   {See  Nole  22.) 

Commuter  short  lines,  particularly,  present  a  grave  prob- 
lem, because  their  principal  traffic  flow  is  in  reverse  direction 
to  R.P.O.  requirements;  and  if  service  is  curtailed  to  only 
city-bound  morning  trains  and  outbound  evening  ones,  no 
R.P.O.  service  can  properly  operate  even  though  some  passen- 
ger trains  remain.  A  vivid  example  was  on  the  old  Spring 
Valley  k  New  York  R.P.O.  (N  fR:NY-Erie),  which  until  1940 
still  had  one  outbound  morning  train  (serving  mail  to  all 
stations)  and  an  inbound  one  to  collect  all  mail  posted  dur- 
ing the  day.  When  the  two  R.P.O.  trains  were  pulled  off  it 
was  useless  to  put  an  R.P.O.  on  the  wrong-direction  commuter 
runs.  The  line's  demise  was  a  severe  loss  to  the  local  postal 
economy,  as  evidenced  (at  a  farewell  dinner  to  Clerk  David 
Gladstone)  by  the  statements  of  over  one-hundred  postmasters 
and  guests  from  along  the  line  who  testified  to  the  improved 
service  the  R.P.O.  had  brought  to  the  communities.  As  for 
main  lines,  service  on  the  SP's  Ogden  R:  San  Francisco  has 
been  cut  since  1915  from  three  to  two  through  runs  daily, 
from  five  large  city  distributions  to  two  small  ones,  and  the 
local  service  to  nothing  east  of  Sacramento. 

Still  more  alarming,  however,  has  been  a  recent  tendency 
to  discontinue  certain  important  R.P.O.  runs  when  passenger 
trains  still  operate  at  apparently  suitable  hours.  When  exist- 
ing postal  trains  ^v^ere  recently  Avithdra^vn  by  the  PRR  from 
the  Detroit  R:  Mansfield  and  the  Philadelphia  k  Atlantic  City 
R.P.O.s  (in  Michigan-Ohio  and  in  New  Jersey),  no  R.P.O. 
service  was  placed  on  any  of  the  remaining  fast  passenger 
trains,  which  still  leave  the  various  termini  at  ideal  early 
morning  hours  for  mail  distribution.  Over  a  long  period  of 
time  the  Philadelphia  R:  Cape  May  (P-RSL)  suffered  a  similar 
fate,  although  early  passenger  trains  still  run  on  this  route  to 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  561 

both  Cape  May  and  Wildwood;  now  all  these  leading  New 
Jersey  resorts— even  the  metropolis  of  Atlantic  City— are  com- 
pletely without  R.P.O.  service.  The  Reading  from  Bound 
Brook  to  Trenton  in  the  same  State  is  now  without  local  ser- 
vice, though  through  R.P.O.  and  local  passenger  trains  oper- 
ate. The  entire  service  of  the  Bay  City  R:  Detroit  R.P.O.— two 
round  trips— was  eliminated  when  all  four  local  trains  were 
pulled  off  by  the  railroad,  although  two  new  fast  expresses  now 
operate.  Possibly  the  lack  of  local  trains  ^vas  deemed  a  factor 
making  mandatory  the  discontinuance  of  most  of  the  R.P.O.s 
listed.  But  it  is  to  be  hoped,  certainly,  that  the  possibility  of 
restoring  transit  distribution  to  all  these  routes— with  catcher 
service  for  "the  local"— is  a  very  real  one;  and  there  are  num- 
erous similar  cases  elsewhere  needino:  correction. 

P.T.S.  clerks  have  publicized  some  very  worth-while  sug- 
gestions on  preventing  branch-line  curtailments  in  general. 
Many  suggest  that  the  Department  actively  advocate  or  assist 
the  survival  of  existing  short  lines  with  better  contract  offers, 
intervention  at  hearings,  and  so  on— particularly  if  a  con- 
tinued contract  might  avoid  actual  abandonment,  with  result- 
ing loss  of  railway  ratables,  higher  local  taxes,  unemployment, 
poorer  mail  service  if  H.P.O.s  are  not  put  on,  and  hardships 
to  the  public  outweighing  any  money  saved.  (On  the  contrary, 
P.T.S.  men  are  forbidden  to  testify  or  protest,  as  clerks  or  offi- 
cials, at  abandonment  proceedings.)  One  clerk  proposes  gov- 
ernment-operated H.P.O.-type,  flanged-wheel  units  on  the 
numerous  ex-R.P.O.  branch  lines  where  freight  service  still 
exists  (".  .  .  thus  saving  tire  expenses  .  .  .  traffic  jams  and 
rough  roads").  Such  plans,  plus  H.P.O.s,  would  help  out 
greatly— as  would  wide  use  of  the  new  RDC-4  rail  car. 

But  we  would  also  recommend  a  careful  study  of  existing 
passenger  schedules  of  all  railways  listing  same  in  the  Official 
Guide.  A  surprising  number  of  branch  lines  still  operate  a 
daily  trip  with  some  sort  of  unit  for  passengers,  often  at  con- 
venient early  hours  for  R.P.O.  service  and  yet  which  are  not 
thus  equipped.  Where  volume  of  mail  justifies,  possibly  con- 
siderable much-needed  R.P.O.  service  could  thus  be  begun 
or  restored  in  many  areas  needing  it. 


362  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

It  is  hard  to  believe,  but  even  today  there  are  those  who 
would  do  away  with  the  P.T.S.  and  the  R.P.O.s  entirely.  They 
include  airmail-minded  leaders  in  high  places  in  government 
and  commerce,  backed  by  political  contributions,  it  is 
claimed;  and  we  must  all  be  alert  to  protect  America's  splen- 
did Postal  Service  from  this  threat. 

Making  no  pretense  of  expert  knowledge,  we  might  venture 
to  offer  a  few  proposed  general  reforms  or  new  improvements 
of  possible  benefit  to  the  P.T.S.,  in  addition  to  those  already 
put  forth;  they  are  mostly  ideas  submitted  by  us  to  the 
Department's  suggestion  program  or  borrowed  from  the 
pages  of  the  Postal  Transport  Journal.  Some  of  these  apparent 
needs  in  employee  benefits  and  Service  improvements  include 
the  immediate  granting  of  twenty-six  days'  annual  and  fifteen 
days'  sick  leave— such  as  is  enjoyed  by  all  other  government 
employees;  the  periodical  laundering  of  sacks  and  pouches, 
as  done  by  some  other  countries  and  as  recommended  by 
many  officials;  air-conditioning,  a  "must"  in  intolerably  hot 
weather;  strong,  lintless  twine;  printed  office-and-number 
registry  labels,  as  used  in  other  nations;  and  the  substitution 
of  a  modernized  version  of  the  "weight  system"  for  the  present 
complex  and  costly  space  basis  of  railroad  mail  pay.  Accord- 
ing to  clerks'  claims  the  current  system  has  choked  needed 
distributing  space  with  storage  mails,  has  devoured  vast  sums 
in  payment  for  empty  return  movements  and  other  unused 
space  (no  other  shippers  pay  for  it),  and  has  become  a  general 
headache  to  all  clerks-in-charge  who  struggle  with  the  forms. 
One  shipper  figured  that  the  government  lost  $85  on  one  car- 
load of  light  straw  hats,  after  figuring  all  postage  paid  and 
space  costs;  on  a  weight  system,  a  profit  would  show.  How- 
ever, new  space  rules  eliminating  paid  deadhead  movements 
are  now  being  requested  by  the  Department  at  hearings. 

Legal  regulation  of  the  size  of  greeting  cards  is  a  crying 
need  within  the  P.T.S.,  for  case  boxes  in  R.P.O.  cars  are 
smaller  than  anywhere  else.  Besides  persuasive  programs  or 
extra-postage  charges,  we  need  the  definite,  statutory  prohibi- 
tion within  the  United  States  mails  of  envelopes  or  greeting 
cards  in  widths  between  four  and  one-half  and  six  and  one-half 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  363 

inches  (those  few  over  six  and  one-half  inches  can  be  tossed 
into  pouches).  Even  government  departments  often  enclose 
four-inch-wide  material  in  five-inch  envelopes  that  do  not  fit 
cases.  It  is  not  the  public's  fault;  the  greeting  card  manufac- 
turers, who  willingly  united  to  outla^v  glittering  mineral 
particles  in  the  interest  of  "safety  of  the  clerks"  (?),  simply 
have  declined  to  co-operate  here.  As  a  temporary  immediate 
step,  we  ^vould  suggest  that  posted  statements  urging  use  of 
4i/4-inch-wide  (or  smaller)  greeting  cards,  only,  be  given 
prominence  over  all  other  holiday  notices  in  post-office 
lobbies.  To  improve  both  services  and  reventies,  we  would 
also  suggest  a  4^  rate  for  all  first-class  matter  not  bearing 
proper  zone  number  (if  applicable)  or  not  conforming  to  the 
size  limits  mentioned— such  matter  to  be  rated  with  postage 
due  if  mailed  otherwise. 

While  many  clerks  ^vill  disagree,  we  feel  that  through-rim 
titles  like  "Wash.  &  St.  Louis  R.P.O.,"  Avhich  were  tried  out 
from  about  1935  to  1943  and  then  dropped,  are  far  preferable 
in  many  cases  to  the  current  short-run  titles  (^Vash.  &  Graf., 
Graf.  &  Gin.,  etc.— BScO).  Where  the  same  trains  (with  same 
numbers)  continue  over  most  of  the  through  route,  the  logical 
and  progressive  titles  then  used  shoAved  general  direction  far 
better  (with  large,  well-known  city  names),  and  simplified 
case  examinations  also. 

W^e  would  also  suggest  a  careful  revie^v  of  the  groAving  prac- 
tice of  supplying  important  suburban  and  other  post  offices 
exclusively  by  city  mail-truck  service  in  certain  cases  Avhere 
R.P.O.  trains  or  H.P.O.s  actually  traverse  the  to^vn.  AV^hile 
the  city  "supply"  is  often  needed  too,  the  distributing-line  out- 
let often  seems  neglected— as  at  Halethorpe,  Maryland,  "which 
is  supplied  only  as  a  branch  of  the  Baltimore  post  office  al- 
though it  is  literally  a  junction  of  two  railroads  (^vith  sta- 
tions) carrying  three  R.P.O.  routes.  Although  almost  none 
of  the  twenty-odd  R.P.O.  trains  passing  there  actually  stop, 
many  could  serve  it  (and  three  subsidiary  branches)  by 
"catcher."  P.T.S.  schemes,  which  are  the  primary  index  of  all 
mail  routes,  need  improvement  too.  Restoration  of  the  alpha- 
betical arrangement  should  be  considered,  and  R.  E.  Jones  has 


B64  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

proposed  a  new  type  of  scheme  with  multiple  listings,  combin- 
ing that  arrangement  with  the  scheming  of  all  "dis"  points 
under  the  supplying  office— it  deserves  a  careful  trial.  Schemes 
should  include  all  postal  contract  stations  located  in  named 
communities  centering  thereat— too  many,  like  Montclair 
Heights,  New  Jersey  (a  numbered  station  of  Montclair)  or 
Arbutus  (numbered  station  of  Baltimore,  via  Halethorpe) 
and  Cottage  City  (the  same  of  Brentwood),  Maryland,  are  not 
found  in  any  scheme  (nor  alphabetized  in  Postal  Guide)  be- 
cause they  are  not  "named"  stations;  mail  goes  astray  if  ad- 
dressed to  them  alone.  Similarly,  stations  in  communities 
consolidated  as  part  of  a  city  should  be  named  for  the  original 
communities  instead  of  being  named  arbitrarily— such  as 
"North  Station"  and  "South  Station"  in  Arlington,  Virginia, 
whereas  the  original  towns  composing  it  were  named  Claren- 
don, Ballston,  Cherrydale,  and  so  on.  Fortunately,  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  and  other  cities  have  restored  many  such  old  local 
station  names— which  makes  for  prompt  delivery  of  mail  thus 
addressed;  but  large  Buffalo  suburbs  like  Eggertsville  and 
Cheektowaga  have  just  lost  their  station  names  (and  Postal 
Guide  listing)  insteadi 

The  new  postal  zone-number  system  should  be  broadened 
to  include  these  numbers  in  every  case  where  any  slip,  label, 
postmark,  case  header,  scheme,  postal  guide,  or  other  form 
used  in  the  P.T.S.  bears  the  name  of  any  "zoned"  station  or 
branch  of  any  city;  long  practiced  in  England,  this  policy 
would  benefit  new  clerks  amazingly  and  speed  distribution. 
Clerks  and  their  families  deserve  real  railroad  passes,  in  place 
of  their  restricted  commissions,  as  much  as  railroad  men  do. 
In  the  Postal  Service  generally  these  facts  need  some  publiciz- 
ing: that  it  does  not  operate  under  a  deficit  when  the  huge 
volume  of  franked  congressional  mail,  government  penalty 
mail,  and  other  free  ser\  ices  are  figured  in;  that  many  political 
postmasterships  could  be  economically  combined  with  the 
assistant  postmaster  positions  under  Civil  Service  at  large 
offices;  and  that  enough  money  could  be  saved  in  these  cate- 
gories (if  Congress  and  the  Departments  paid  their  postage) 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  865 

to  pay  for  most  of  the  postal  improvements  and  benefits  need- 
ed within  the  P.T.S. 

To  simplify  and  standardize  the  titles  of  Service  heads,  we 
would  suggest  the  brief  and  dignified  one  of  "Chief  Superin- 
tendent, P.T.S."  for  the  present  Assistant  Executive  Director, 
Bureau  of  Transportation,  as  a  start;  similar  titles  used  in 
Canada  and  Britain  have  proven  very  satisfactory.  Other 
clerks  have  suggested  such  innovations  as  twenty-foot  and 
forty-foot  R.P.O.  apartments;  registry  cages  and  counter  in 
full  R.P.O.s;  intercom  radio  or  telephone  service  in  postal 
cars;  and  the  valuable  ideas  of  issuing  schemes  in  loose-leaf 
form  (with  new  pages  to  replace  old  ones  being  modified,  as 
has  long  been  standard  practice  with  the  telegraph  company), 
and  of  furnishing  recorded  music  while  working—an  accepted 
benefit  in  industry. 

With  a  final  look  to  the  past  and  to  the  future,  we  approach 
our  conclusion.  Some  significant  memorials,  relics,  and  pic- 
turizations  dealing  with  the  Railway  Mail  Service  of  days  gone 
by  deserve  our  attention,  and  those  of  Armstrong  and  Pitney 
have  been  already  mentioned.  The  Burlington  Route,  which 
is  credited  by  this  writer'  with  operating  the  hrst  experimental 
"railway  post  ofTice"  on  its  Hannibal-St.  Joe  route,  keeps  a 
replica  of  the  original  car  used  for  display  at  expositions  and 
conventions;  a  painting  of  it  and  a  memorial  tablet  is  in  the 
St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  post  office.  (The  R.M.A.  installed  a 
bronze  plaque,  years  ago,  in  Chicago's  Union  Station  to  com- 
memorate the  Burlington's  experiment.)  Other  art  work 
showing  R.P.O.  operations  includes  many  famed  Currier  & 
Ives  prints  depicting  postal  cars,  as  well  as  a  sadly  distorted 
post  office  mural  of  an  R.P.O.  interior  at  Hagerstown,  Mary- 
land (clerks  are  lazily  sprawled  every  which  way,  with  almost 
no  mail  in  view).  The  grave  of  General  Superintendent  Bangs 
at  Chicago  shows  the  postal  car  on  the  end  of  an  R.P.O.  train 
disappearing  in  a  tunnel,  all  in  stonework.  Some  valuable 
historical  collections  of  R.M.S.  relics  have  been  made  by  9th 
Division  Superintendent  E.  R.  Chapin  of  Cleveland,  includ- 

*Long. 


366  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

ing  rare  old  schemes  and  a  "Rogues'  Gallery"  of  old-time  crew 
pictures  in  six  volumes;  by  Irving  Cannon  (a  Detroit  clerk) 
and  }.  F.  Cooper  (San  Leandro,  California),  who  both  com- 
piled historical  scrapbooks;  by  Assistant  Superintendent  I.  L. 
Johnson  of  St,  Louis;  by  the  late  C.  A.  Kepner  (of  radio  fame) 
at  Chicago;  and  by  the  writer  of  this  book,  in  New  Jersey, 
for  an  "Eastern  Railway  Mail  Museum"  in  connection  with 
the  AMERPO  society  library. 

Looking  to  the  future,  the  day  may  come  when  the  railway 
mail  clerk  will  work  at  the  keyboard  of  a  huge  machine,  sort- 
ing twice  the  volume  of  mail  the  P.T.C.  of  today  does.  As 
early  as  1939  the  Transorma  Letter  Distributing  Machine 
(from  Holland)  was  sorting  fifty-two  letters  a  minute,  tied  by 
an  automatic  binder,  at  the  World's  Fair,  New  York.  Experi- 
ments with  sorting  mechanisms  have  taken  place  in  the  Cleve- 
land Post  Office,  and,  just  recently,  in  Chicago's— where  Assist- 
ant Superintendent  of  Mails  John  Sestak  has  perfected  a  semi- 
manual  machine  of  which  three  full-size  duplicates  have  been 
ordered  for  that  office.  The  government  has  appropriated  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  perfection  of  a  new  distributing  machine 
by  Remington  Rand,  and  such  devices  may  be  in  common  use 
someday  in  big  P.T.S.  terminals  if  not  on  the  road. 

Whoever  mails  a  letter  or  a  paper  can  do  much,  without 
effort,  to  ease  the  lot  of  the  P.T.C.  and  speed  his  own  mail  at 
the  same  time.  By  using  zone  numbers,  by  boycotting  wide 
greeting  cards,  by  addressing  mail  only  to  post-office  points, 
by  spacing  bulk  mailings  through  the  day  at  intervals, 
and  by  writing  the  actual  postal  station  or  post  office  of  de- 
livery as  the  first  word  in  the  last  line  of  address,  both  results 
can  be  assured.  For  fast  and  easy  handling  in  transit,  un- 
stamped bulk  mailings,  precancels,  and  metered  letters  should 
be  tied  in  bundles,  faced  with  addresses  turned  the  same  luay, 
and  separated  to  states  and  cities  if  in  quantity.  (And  when 
you  write  that  letter,  remember  that  the  Cleveland  Branch, 
N.P.T.A.— then  the  R.M.A.— originated  National  Letter  Writ- 
ing Week!) 

If  postal  efficiencies  are  safeguarded,  the  Postal  Transpor- 
tation Service  has  a  brilliant  future  ahead.   There  are  more 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  367 

postal  clerks  within  its  ranks  today,  sorting  more  mail  in  tran- 
sit, than  e\er  before.  It  is  fortunate  that  this  great  Service  has 
been  controlled  by  the  people,  through  Congress,  rather  than 
operated  as  a  great  corpc»ration  with  princely  official  salaries, 
miserly  pay  for  clerks,  offices  overstaffed  with  relatives  and 
people  with  pull,  and  costly  wastefulness  all  around— at  least 
so  writes  one  clerk  in  the  Journal.  We  are  thankful  that  our 
self-reliant  men  of  the  mail  trains  work  under  better  condi- 
tions than  that. 

Between  the  populous  New  England  cities,  across  the  rich 
farmins:  states  and  industrialized  Midwest,  over  the  Rockies, 
through  semi  tropical  groves,  mighty  forests,  great  canyons, 
weavinq;  their  lifelines  of  communication  and  commerce 
through  the  greatest  and  best  empire  in  the  world,  speed  the 
never-resting  R.P.O.  train  and  the  H.P.O.  bus.  Many  a 
grizzled  veteran  of  the  iron  road,  tired  of  his  years  of  grinding 
labor,  might  ponder  at  this  point  ...  Is  it  all  worth  while? 

We  who  have  looked  "beyond  the  ordinary"  can  answer 
that.  We  who  have  seen  the  dingy  industrial  drabness  of 
Gray's  Ferry,  entering  Philadelphia,  magically  transformed 
into  a  shimmering  golden  panorama  of  radiant  beauty  at  sun- 
rise, while  passengers  slept;  we  who  have  watched  daily  for 
some  Tvinsome  little  lass  who  alwavs  brought  a  sweet-scented 
note  to  the  train  to  mail  to  faraway  Maine,  then  one  day  never 
came  again;  we  who  have  thrilled  to  the  glorious  fragrance 
of  wild  Maryland  honeysuckle  as  the  train  crossed  the  Mason- 
Dixon  line,  unsensed  by  those  in  the  air-conditioned  coaches— 
we  can  respond  with  a  fervent  Yes.  This  is  our  Service,  now 
and  always,  whatever  our  occupation— an  indispensable,  in- 
genious network  of  living  and  pulsating  mail-sorting  arteries 
of  which  nearly  every  American  makes  use  ...  of  which  every 
American  shotild  be  proud. 


S68  MAIL  BY  RAIL 


THE  MAIL  CLERK'S  WIFE 
(A  closing  tribute,  from  two  sources) 

Let  me  sing  you  a  song,  just  a  wee  little  song 

Of  a  picture  that's  taken  from  life: 
Not  of  mail  clerks  so  brave  (be  they  angel  or  knave), 

But  the  song  of  the  postal  clerk's  wife. 
Oh,  her  husband,  you  know,  is  the  man  on  the  go, 

"In-and-outer"  he  is,  with  a  will! 
Of  course  mostly  he's  "out,"  don't  you  envy  the  lout— 

Don't  you  wish  you  could  travel  with  Bill? 
But  the  woman  at  home,  nary  once  does  she  roam, 

She's  the  wife  of  the  mail  clerk  so  great. 
And  it's  up  to  her  now,  just  to  whistle  somehow, 

Just  to  whistle  and  hustle  and  wait. 
Someone  phones  "Can  you  play?"   No  indeed,  not  today. 

"No  indeedy,  for  Bill's  on  the  road. 
In  some  dim  distant  day  he'll  retire,  then  I'll  play"— 

And  she  takes  up  the  twosome-made  load. 
Yes,  she  works  with  a  will,  as  she  pinch-hits  for  Bill, 

For  she  loves  him,  that  guy  on  the  train. 
So  when  singing  your  song  to  the  valiant  and  strong. 

Sing  the  "wife  of  the  mail  clerk's"  refrain. 

—  Leta  Bonifield  Foley 


The  house  must  be  still;  "Quiet,  children,  no  fun,' 
Ma  walks  on  tiptoe  her  work  to  get  done, 
For  cards  have  appeared  all  over  the  place. 
And  Pa  has  assumed  his  "pre-exam  face"  .  .  . 

—  J.  L.  Simpson 


TRANSIT  MAIL  LOOKS  TO  THE  FUTURE  869 


Listen,  folks,  and  you  shall  hear 
Not  the  midnight  ride  of  Paul  Revere 
But  rather  a  tale  so  aged  and  true 
Of  what  makes  mail  clerks'  wives  so  blue. 
On  Monday  morning  all  is  well, 
'Til  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell, 
While  dusting  off  the  mantel  case 
She  upsets  labels  all  o'er  the  place. 
The  postman  loudly  rings  the  bell 
And  brings  a  card  John's  sent  to  tell 
Her:  please  to  hunt  around  real  hard- 
He  hasn't  nary  a  register  card! 
She  bundles  them  and  sends  them  off; 
But  even  then  she  doesn't  scoff 
When  the  next  mail  brings  a  note  of  sorts: 
"Can  you  find  me  any  more  trip  reports?" 
Then  when  at  last  the  week  is  o'er 
And  John  again  comes  in  the  door. 
She's  glad  to  see  him— and  then  unlocks 
His  case  of  dirty  shirts  and  socks. 
It  seems  to  me— I've  thought  and  thought- 
It's  not  unreasonable,  indeed  it's  not. 
To  think  Saint  Peter,  watching  o'er  our  lives. 
Has  a  tender  heart  for  mail  clerks'  wives! 
—  J.  L.  Simpson 


TECHNICAL  NOTES 


Note  \.—Case  and  Rack  Separations.  Cases  consist  of  banks  of  pigeon- 
holes, built  flat  against  the  car  walls— except  where  case  sections  are 
bent  inward  at  a  45°  angle  to  enable  clerks  to  reach  distant  boxes  more 
easily.  (These  are  called  zuing  cases;  or,  if  the  second  case  in  a  small  car, 
a  bob  tail.)  Each  case  section  measures  ten  or  eleven  pigeonholes  high 
and  four  to  twelve  columns  wide;  holes  measure  three  to  four  inches 
high  and  exactly  four  and  a  half  (or  four  and  a  quarter)  inches  wide- 
far  too  narrow  to  hold  most  greeting  cards.  A  wide  ledge  runs  the  length 
of  all  the  cases,  with  drawers  underneath  for  supplies  and  excess  hats 
or  clothing.  Case  headers— when  loose  or  "false"  headers  are  used— are 
cards  about  4  by  71/9  inches  with  an  inch-wide  strip  bent  down  to  serve 
as  a  label,  the  name  of  the  separation  being  lettered  thereon.  "Perma- 
nent" headers,  used  on  smaller  lines  especially,  are  printed  on  strips 
of  paper  glued  on  various  sides  of  the  square  revolving  sticks  found  at 
the  top  front  of  every  pigeonhole.  Most  clerks  arrange  their  headers  in 
a  rough  geographical  sequence,  with  each  column  representing  an  R.P.O. 
line— the  line  package  being  made  up  at  bottom  and  the  directs  above 
it— in  station  order,  order  of  size,  or  no  order  at  all;  occasionally  a  clerk 
arranges  all  the  lighter  separations  alphabetically  in  the  vertical  sense, 
and  simple  cases  for  "directs"  used  by  subs  are  usually  alphabetical. 
But  in  all  cases  exceptions  are  made  for  the  heaviest  boxes— which  are 
concentrated  at  lower  right,  for  easy  access.  Many  P.T.S.  offices  issue 
official  case  diagrams  and  require  all  clerks  to  follow  them;  the  ad- 
vantage of  uniformity  is  obtained,  but  at  the  sacrifice  of  efficiency  from 
clerks  who  can  work  better  at  a  case  designed  to  their  personal  ideas  of 
correctness  and  in  cases  of  sudden  mail-volume  change. 

Some  clerks  economize  by  using  narrow  "half-headers,"  or  with  only 
column  of  headers  to  each  three  rows  (three  names  being  lettered  on 
each).  On  a  certain  "Washington  &  Charlotte  (Sou)  train  the  Atlanta 
City  clerk  in  one  crew  spelled  out  his  headers  with  colored  letters  cut 
from  magazines;  the  city  clerk  in  another  crew  cut  printed  trademark 
headings  from  ads  of  all  the  big  concerns  for  which  firm  mail  was  made 
up— Coca-Cola  Company,  Atlanta  Constitution,  and  pasted  them  on! 
Some  clerks  use  a  colored  pencil  or,  with  difficulty,  a  bit  of  chalk  to 
mark  up  names  on  the  square  sticks. 

370 


TECHNICAL  NOTES  371 

The  pouch  rack  consists  of  from  two  to  six  units,  usually  fourteen 
pouches  each,  evenly  divided  between  both  sides  of  the  car,  the  aisles 
and  tables  running  between  them.  Toward  the  head  of  the  car  there 
is  usually  an  extension  of  the  rack  on  the  left  side  only,  used  partly 
by  the  clerks  at  the  letter  case  immediately  opposite  and  partly  for 
restricted  purposes.  Collapsible  frames  of  steel  piping  form  the  basis 
of  the  rack  arrangement;  a  series  of  loose  hooks  holds  the  strap-locked 
canvas  pouches  with  their  rolled,  braided  edges  and  the  loose-mouthed 
sacks,  which  are  closed  by  a  cord  and  fastener  running  through  holes 
about  the  edge.  Pouches  have  a  few  similar  holes,  for  hanging.  The 
pouch  diagram  is  almost  never  alphabetical  or  in  any  other  semblance 
of  orderly  arrangement,  except  that  rough  geographical  divisions  may 
be  observed,  and  similar  pouches  are  usually  hung  adjacent.  The  one 
general  rule,  as  observed  in  the  official  pouch  diagrams  issued  by  all 
P.T.S.  offices,  is  that  the  heaviest  bag  separations  are  usually  hung  in 
the  front  row  next  to  the  aisle;  then  come  those  in  the  other  front  row, 
then  those  in  the  two  back  roAvs,  and  last  of  all  (the  lightest  pouches) 
the  separations  in  the  overhead  boxes.  Light  pouches  for  immediate 
dispatch  are  hung  in  the  aisle,  limp,  on  the  front  rail.  Sacks  are  ar- 
ranged likewise.  (No  one  but  the  greenest  sub,  in  a  mail  car,  ever  says 
bag;  all  are  either  pouches  or  sacks.) 

Sacks  used  in  the  P.T.S.  are  nearly  always  the  largest  or  No.  1  size, 
except  for  the  No.  2  sacks  used  for  papers  in  terminals;  but  a  number 
of  small  No.  3  sacks  are  usually  received  containing  mail.  Although 
twice  too  big  for  proper  hanging  in  the  car,  the  No.  1  sacks  are  the 
only  ones  big  enough  to  hold  the  huge  volume  of  papers  distributed 
therein.  All  regular  pouches  are  standardized  in  the  No.  2  size,  except 
for  the  special  flat,  heavy  "catcher"  pouch.  Sacks  and  pouches,  almost 
never  washed,  soon  become  very  gray  and  grimy  from  tlie  constant 
dragging  on  floors  and  platforms,  and  the  dust  and  dirt  is  quickly  trans- 
ferred to  hands,  clothing,  and  air. 

Note  2.— Direct,  Line,  and  "Dis"  Make-ups.  There  is  a  separate  case 
for  each  state  distributed  in  the  railway  post  office  car,  and  on  each 
one,  except  on  the  "mixed  states"  case,  there  is  one  box  for  each  large 
city  and  sizable  town  in  a  given  state.  When  full,  these  boxes  are  tied 
out  with  a  blank  stamped  slip  on  the  back  to  become  a  direct  package, 
the  address  on  the  top  letter  serving  as  that  for  the  whole  bundle. 
Names  of  small  post  offices  served  out  of  a  medium-sized  "direct"  office 
are  often  penciled  on  the  appropriate  header  and  its  letters  included 
with  the  other  mail  in  it.  The  largest  cities,  however,  have  a  great 
many  such  small  offices  supplied  therefrom,  and  their  mail  must  be 
made  up  as  separate  dis  packages,  labeled  accordingly— the  headers  read- 
ing "BALTIMORE  DIS"  or  a  similar  wording.  And,  finally,  letters 
for  all  the  state's  rural  offices  served  directly  or  indirectly  from  an  R.P.O. 
line  are  placed  in  the  line  packages  addressed  to  the  various  R.P.O.s 


372  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

serving  the  state.  Some  clerks  include  lists  of  offices  served  thereby  on 
both  their  line  and  dis  headers.  Cut  twine,  removed  from  working 
packages,  presents  a  real  disposal  problem;  newer  cars  have  little  space 
under  ledges  for  discarding  it,  and  clerks  resent  it  on  the  floor.  The 
only  alternative  is  constant  time-consuming  trips  to  the  waste  bag. 

As  illustrated  in  Chapter  2,  the  slips  placed  in  the  line  and  dis  boxes 
for  use  as  package  labels  show  the  destination  as  first  line  printed  there- 
on, the  nature  of  contents  as  the  second  line,  and  the  R.P.O.  of  origin 
as  the  third  (with  the  abbreviation  "FR"  for  "from").  The  clerk's  dated 
name-stamp  impression  appears  on  the  bottom  half  of  the  slip— or  on 
the  back  of  pouch  labels  for  similar  separations  on  the  rack,  the  labels 
being  printed  identically;  many  hundreds  of  such  slips  and  labels  must 
usually  be  stamped  and  arranged  at  home  each  layoff. 

The  pouch  rack  contains  the  same  three  classifications  of  direct,  line, 
and  dis  pouches— though  necessarily  much  fewer  in  number.  Dis  pouches 
are  made  for  only  the  very  largest  distributing  offices,  and  line  pouches 
only  where  close  connections  or  quantities  justify.  All  in  all,  at  least 
seven  categories  of  incoming  mail  matter  must  be  disposed  of  by  the 
pouch  clerk:  (1)  Mixed-states  letter  packages  (whether  or  not  labeled 
to  this  R.P.O.),  thrown  to  the  mixed  case— the  clerk  thereon  transferring 
any  mail  for  states  worked  to  other  cases;  (2)  bundles  addressed  to  local 
states,  or  to  that  section  of  them  "local"  to  this  line,  which  are  trans- 
ferred (directly  or  indirectly)  to  the  proper  state  case— any  state  distri- 
buted being  considered  "local"  in  this  sense;  (3)  distant  state  working 
packages,  labeled  to  the  state  only,  which  are  thrown  to  connecting 
R.P.O.s  distributing  same;  (4)  packages  for  other  R.P.O.s,  labeled  to  a 
specific  line  and  containing  letters  local  thereto;  if  the  line  addressed 
is  not  "pouched  on,"  it  will  be  thrown  to  a  connecting  R.P.O.  or  to  a 
dis  (or  direct)  pouch  for  a  city  which  does  pouch  it;  (5)  dis  packages, 
containing  mail  for  distribution  from  large  post  offices,  which  are 
thrown  into  a  dis  or  direct  pouch  for  the  city  named  if  made,  otherwise 
to  a  connecting  R.P.O.— many  times  such  packages  (and  packages  for 
connecting  R.P.O.s)  are  voluntarily  cut  and  reworked  to  a  finer  degree 
by  letter  clerks;  (6)  direct  packages  for  post  office  named  on  top  letter, 
thrown  to  best  dispatch  available  (direct  pouch  if  made,  otherwise  to 
R.P.O.  or  to  some  dis  pouch  according  to  scheme);  and  (7)  flats  or  slugs 
(large  single  pieces),  handled  exactly  like  direct  packages. 

Note  $.— Terms  Used  in  Calling  Pouches.  There  is  no  time  in  a  busy 
R.P.O.  to  read  off  an  entire  label  like  "New  York  Sc  Pittsburgh  Train  11, 
two,  from  Madison  Square  Station,  New  York,  N.  Y.";  so  the  caller 
simply  yells,  "From  the  Madhouse  with  a  two!"  as  indicated.  Similarly, 
all  the  other  strange  names  in  this  paragraph  (Chapter  2)  simply  indicate 
the  office  or  line  of  origin,  and  the  contents  (if  other  than  mixed  mails); 
many  other  such  nicknames  of  post  offices  and  lines  are  heard.  The 
numbers  "with  a  two,"  and  so  forth,  are  serial  numbers,  explained  later 


TECHNICAL  NOTES  873 

in  the  chapter.  To  sum  up  the  other  names  called  off  in  this  case,  "Tom 
Cat"  refers  to  a  pouch  from  the  local  transfer  clerk  or  "T.C.";  "Rockin' 
Chair  Line"  is  some  light  connecting  line,  allegedly  a  "soft  snap"; 
"The  Dog-house"  could  be  either  the  Kansas  City  &  Pueblo  R.P.O. 
(MoPac)  or  the  Philadelphia  Terminal,  P.T.S.  Next  we  have  the  Win- 
sted  k  Bridgeport  R.P.O.  (NYNH&H,  in  Connecticut);  West  States  work- 
ing mail  from  Holyoke,  Massachusetts;  a  pouch  from  some  city  that  is 
reputedly  a  "living  cemetery";  direct  packages  from  Chatham  &  New 
York  (NYCent)  Train  438;  a  working  pouch  from  the  same;  Train  46 
of  some  well-known  R.P.O.;  a  second  Chatham  &:  New  York  train;  the 
sixth  pouch  of  New  York  State  received  from  the  G.P.O.;  Ohio  working 
mail  from  Grand  Central  Station  of  New  York  Post  Office;  and  the 
New  York  &  Far  Rockaway  R.P.O.   (LIRR). 

Note  4.— A  Paradox  at  "Wash-up"  Time.  On  practically  every  two- 
car  R.P.O.  train  this  laughable  situation  is  sure  to  occur  when  clerks 
attempt  to  wash  up.  First  the  man  washing  hastens  to  bar  the  "end 
door"  from  within,  so  he  can  stand  in  the  aisle  beside  the  washbowl 
without  the  door  being  suddenly  opened  and  flung  against  him  with 
violence.  However,  some  clerk  in  the  second  car  is  sure  to  want  ad- 
mittance immediately  thereafter,  and  he  must  needs  kick  and  bang,  on 
the  door  frantically  to  attract  the  washer's  attention  above  the  train 
noise.  Finally,  after  much  delay  and  annoyance  on  both  sides,  the  door 
will  be  opened  for  the  man  to  come  through  to  the  first  carl  Amusingly 
enough,  this  is  all  avoidable  if  only  the  clerk  will  squeeze  in  front  of  the 
basin,  in  normal  position  and  completely  out  of  the  aisle. 

Note  5.— Assignments  of  Postal  Transportation  Clerks  to  Various 
Units.  About  half  of  our  32,000  railway  mail  clerks  are  assigned  to  the 
3,000-odd  R.P.O.  trains  operated  daily  in  the  United  States,  including 
electric-car  suburban  trains— 14,604  of  them  on  June  30,  1950.  (Only 
one  or  two  clerks  run  part  time  on  boat  lines,  the  other  boat  R.P.O.s 
being  served  by  joint  employees;  and  the  last  trolley-car  R.P.O.  carrying 
clerks  quit  in  May  1950.)  6,564  other  clerks  work  in  the  terminals, 
P.T.S.;  1,432  are  transfer  clerks,  and  some  445  (rapidly  increasing)  are 
on  H.P.O.s.  About  1,300  (including  officials)  are  in  field  offices,  while 
the  remaining  number  of  seven  thousand  or  so  consists  mostly  of  sub- 
stitutes, in  all  these  categories,  plus  mail  handlers  (laborers)  in  terminals. 

Note  6.— The  Boston  &  Nen'  York  and  Boston,  Springfield  ir  New 
York  R.P.O.s.  The  latter  route— the  well-known  "Spring  Line"— operates 
over  part  of  one  of  our  earliest  pre-R.P.O.  "route-agent"  runs,  the 
Springfield-Boston  line,  begun  in  1840  with  two  agents  (who  did  little 
sorting).  The  agent  runs  were  expanded  to  form  several  New  York- 
Boston  routes,  one  including  a  ferry  to  Long  Island  (from  Stonington 
to  Greenport,  thence  via  LIRR,  1845-48).    True  R.P.O.  service  on  this 


374  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

line  via  Springfield  was  first  arranged  for  in  1865,  when  four  postal 
cars  were  built  and  labeled,  clerks  appointed,  and  the  starting  date  set. 
Then  at  the  last  minute  one  of  the  railways  involved  refused  use  of 
its  tracks  unless  much  extra  compensation  was  paid.  Not  until  De- 
cember 11,  1867,  was  the  trouble  alleviated  and  the  first  Spring  Line 
train  operated  as  an  R.P.O.— then  designated  as  the  Boston  8c  New  York— 
under  the  direction  of  Chief  Clerk  W.  H.  Postley.  The  "Shore  Line" 
route  to  New  York  (the  present  Boston  &  New  York,  or  "Big  Line") 
was  added  a  few  years  later  and  became  the  Boston,  Providence  &  New 
York;  but  in  fairly  recent  years  the  present  titles  were  adopted  instead. 
It  is  the  boast  of  either  line  (both  NYNHfeH)  that  they  can  handle 
all  mails  from  the  New  York  gateway  for  any  point  throughout  New  Eng- 
land. The  Spring  Line  has  over  twenty-five  R.P.O.  trains  daily;  the 
Shore  Line,  about  seventeen. 

Note  7— The  New  York  &  WashingLon  R.P.O.  This  vitally  important 
PRR  route  is  the  only  all-electric  main-line  R.P.O.  in  America  and 
connects  the  nation's  metropolis  and  capital.  It  traces  its  origin  to  one 
of  our  earliest  railways,  the  historic  Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad  (Perth 
Amboy  to  Camden,  New  Jersey,  via  Bordentown,  with  ferries  to  New 
York  and  Philadelphia),  which  began  carrying  part  of  the  New  York- 
Washington  mails  in  1832.  Likewise— to  the  south— the  Philadelphia, 
Wilmington  &  Baltimore  Railroad  at  first  carried  mail  and  passengers 
only  from  New  Castle,  Delaware,  to  Frenchtown  (near  Perryville), 
Maryland,  with  still  longer  boat  connections  to  terminal  points;  while 
the  B&O  had  the  Baltimore-Washington  link.  But  by  1837  the  gaps 
had  been  spanned  by  rail,  and  in  May,  John  E.  Kendall— first  postal 
route  agent  in  America— was  appointed  to  run  through  from  Philadephia 
to  Washington  to  "superintendent  the  mails."  The  facilities  soon  de- 
veloped into  a  regular  "traveling  post  office,"  as  noted  in  detail  in 
Chapter  6.  By  1838  the  connecting  New  York-Philadelphia  segment  was 
carrying  two  tons  of  mail  daily,  including  five  hundred  pounds  of  letters; 
and  by  1844  the  railroad  had  assigned  their  conductors  to  act  as  mail 
agents— replaced  by  postal  route  agents  about  1848.  (The  carriers  made 
heated  objections  to  this  change,  protesting  ".  .  .  Nor  is  there  any  occa- 
sion for  such  agents.  The  conductors  .  .  .  now  perform  all  of  the  duties 
they  would  have  to  discharge.  They  receive  letters  up  to  the  point 
of  departure,  and  at  all  points  on  the  road  .  .  .  They  assort  and  mail 
them  in  the  apartments  on  the  cars.  Traveling  postmasters  can  do  no 
more."  Cf.  Chapter  6.)  The  Postmaster  General  later  complained  that 
New  York  firms  were  swamping  the  train-mail  box.  As  for  the  earliest 
known  postmark  connected  with  this  route— a  straight-line  "PHILADA 
RAIL  ROAD,"  March  28,  1844— some  authorities  claim  this  was  applied 
by  the  train's  conductor-agent,  but  the  consensus  is  that  the  New  York 
D.P.O.  applied  it. 

Despite  numerous  squabbles  over  mail  pay  both  before  and  after  the 


TECHNICAL  NOTES  .  375 

line  became  a  true  railway  post  office,  experimental  R.P.O.  trips  were 
finally  operated  in  May  and  September  1864  (both  involving  north- 
bound trips  only,  Avith  N.  Y.  City  distribution);  and  the  New  York  8c 
Washington  Railway  Post  Office  was  permanently  established  on  Octo- 
ber 15th  of  that  year.  This  eventful  occasion,  following  by  four  years 
the  introduction  of  through  express-agent  service,  saw  H.  A.  Stoneall 
and  Ed  Brennan  of  the  New  York  G.  P.O.  making  the  inaugural  trip 
in  1864.  Our  second  true  R.P.O.,  it  still  traversed  the  Camden  &  Amboy 
but  made  connection  to  Jersey  City  over  the  N.J.R.R.  &  Transportation 
Company's  tracks  (to  this  day  the  street  paralleling  the  line  in  Newark 
is  N.J.R.R.  Avenue);  years  later  the  route  was  shifted  westward  to  a 
new  main  line  via  Trenton  and  Bristol,  which  removed  it  from  "The 
Amboy"  entirely.  The  R.P.O.  train,  which  left  Washington  at  5:20  P.M. 
to  arrive  at  the  New  York  ferry  at  six  in  the  morning,  used  some  old 
red  forty-five  foot  baggage  cars  fitted  with  steep-sloping  (45°)  letter  boxes 
because  of  the  train's  swaying— but  there  was  a  handsome  lounge  in  the 
end  of  the  car,  for  use  of  both  clerks  and  visitorsi  While  letters,  only, 
were  sorted,  the  work  even  included  distributing  New  York  City  mail 
to  boxes  and  stations,  and  the  line's  first  regular  clerk  (succeeding  the 
G.P.O.  men)  was  soon  appointed— H.  G.  Pearson. 

In  1865  catchers  and  cranes  were  first  installed  below  Baltimore,  and 
in  1867  a  second  pair  of  trains  was  added  for  daytime  operation.  Quickly 
dubbed  "The  Day  Line"  at  the  time,  these  same  two  trains  (now  Num- 
bers 109  &  134)  are  still  called  that  today,  eighty-three  years  later!  Ser- 
vices rapidly  increased;  in  the  early  1900s  the  old  Jersey  City  terminal 
was  replaced  by  the  electrified  Penn  Station  in  New  York,  and  by  1935 
the  electrification— after  several  earlier  extensions— had  enveloped  the 
entire  line.  Over  three  hundred  clerks  now  serve  on  the  line's  numerous 
R.P.O.  trains— about  twenty-two  daily. 

(See  under  "N.Y.  &  Washington"  in  Appendix  I  for  many  other 
interesting  index  references  dealing  with  this  line.) 

Note  S.-New  York  6-  Chicago,  N.  Y.  6-  Pitts.— Pitts.  &  Chic.  R.P.O.S. 
First  R.P.O.  service  on  the  New  York  Central's  noted  New  York  & 
Chicago  was  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  on  July  13,  1868,  under  the 
designations  of  Albany  &  New  York  and  Albany  &  Buffalo  R.P.O.s.  It 
doubtless  succeeded  earlier  route  agent  runs,  for  the  first  clerk-in-charge 
of  the  new  R.P.O.,  R.  C.  Jackson,  was  designated  "Special  Agent." 
From  the  very  start  some  ten  different  crews  performed  duty.  Years 
later  (Chapter  8)  the  great  "Fast  Mail"  made  the  line  famous,  and  in 
May  1903  the  noted  20th  Century  Limited  was  first  launched  as  an 
R.P.O.  on  this  route,  cases  being  installed  in  the  club  car.  The  Century 
received  its  first  sixty-foot  R.P.O.  cars  in  1923  and  its  first  streamlined 
equipment  on  June  15,  1938;  specially  canceled  cachets  for  collectors 
marked  the  event.  As  Trains  25  &  26,  the  Century  of  today  indeed  rep- 
resents the  Fast  Mail's  grandest  reincarnation,  with  its  great  eighty- 


376  .  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

foot  strtanilinc'cl  R.P.O.  tars  (see  Chapter  10).  "The  Chic,"  as  we  have 
shown,  holds  the  records  for  size  of  cars,  R.P.O.  trains,  and  personnel. 
"The  Pitts,"  as  the  PRR's  corresponding  route  is  known,  began  as  the 
old  Philadelphia  &  Pittsburgh  RP.O.  on  May  21,  1865,  with  S.  S.  Talbot 
as  head  clerk  on  its  lone  train.  It  later  became  (together  with  the  present 
Pittsburgh  &  Chicago,  holder  of  R.P.O.  speed  record— Chapter  10)  part  of 
the  famous  Limited  Mail  route.  Today  the  line  includes  the  de  luxe 
Broadway  Limited  passenger-R.P.O.  streamliner,  as  well  as  the  noted 
Paoli  Local  of  Philadelphia's  fashionable  suburban  "Main  Line"  (Chap- 
ter 12).  (See  under  R.P.O.  titles,  in  Appendix  I,  for  index  to  further 
reference— all  3  lines.)  The  Broadway  Limited  made  a  special  stop  at 
Bucyrus,  Ohio,  in  1949  in  honor  of  Clerk  J.  F.  Fields  of  that  town,  who 
finished  his  42  years'  service  that  day. 

Note  9.— Operations  and  Labeling  in  P.T.S.  Terminals.  Terminal 
clerks  stamp  a  set  of  printed  slips  or  labels  for  addressing  mail,  daily, 
just  after  going  on  duty.  Direct  or  line  packages,  or  sacks,  are  tied  out 
and  dispatched  in  the  usual  way  (the  stamped  strip  labels  being  used 
on  the  latter),  but  mail  for  the  secondary  or  residue  cases  is  carried 
thence  by  hand  or  in  open  sacks  or  tubs— usually  banded  with  carriers' 
straps  in  the  case  of  circulars— and  the  appropriate  labels  transferred. 
Labels  of  incoming  sacks  are  stamped  with  the  time  and  date  and  must 
be  worked  in  order— and  before  getting  too  "old."  Partly  empty  or 
"skin"  sacks  of  circulars  are  outlawed  and  must  be  consolidated  into 
full  sacks  before  release  to  the  clerks— otherwise  a  full  day's  "count" 
might  be  worked  by  someone  in  an  hour  or  so!  Terminal  clerks 
still  perform  their  usual  duties  at  home,  including  many  hours 
of  examination  study,  at  no  extra  pay  (road  clerks  are  paid  more  yet 
work  fewer  hours).  Compensatory  time  off  is  given  for  examinations 
taken  on  duty,  and  compensatory  days  off  when  work  on  holidays  is 
required.  Weekly  days  off  are  staggered,  and  usually  only  senior  clerks 
get  Saturday-Sunday  or  Sunday-Monday  layoffs.  (Terminal  clerks,  like 
road  men,  have  a  fine  sense  of  fraternalism;  clerks  in  the  St.  Louis 
(Missouri)  Terminal  raised  one  hundred  dollars  in  just  a  few  days, 
quietly  and  unobtrusively,  to  send  a  sick  mail  handler  to  the  hospital.) 
Sack  racks  used  in  terminals  are  built  of  piping,  like  those  in  the  cars, 
but  are  far  more  commodious  and  are  in  easily  moved  sections  (holding 
Niimber  2  or  Number  1  sacks  hung  wide  open)  for  quick  tying-out.  Com- 
partments for  storing  extra  labels  are  found  behind  the  permanent 
headers  thereon,  but  many  clerks  just  let  the  ribbon  labels  dangle  in 
long  strips  from  the  holders  of  their  sacks. 

Note  10.— The  Seapost  Service.  As  of  Nov.,  1950,  this  colorful  service 
had  still  not  been  restored  after  its  World  War  II  suspension  period, 
although  funds  were  appropriated  for  this  purpose  about  1947.  Al- 
though the  British  had  a  seapost  as  early  as  1857  and  Australia  had  a 


TECHNICAL  NOTES  377 

line  reaching  San  Francisco  by  1876,  America's  first  own  route  was  the 
U.  S.-German  Seapost  which  began  operating  on  the  S.S.  Havel  (North 
German  Lloyd)  March  31,  1891.  Rapidly  expanded  with  routes  to 
Britain,  Central  and  South  America,  and  Asia,  the  Seapost  was  employ- 
ing about  fifty-five  clerks  by  1941  and  sorted  over  fifty  million  letters 
annually  on  Atlantic  runs  alone.  Suitable  mail  rooms,  equipped  with 
cases  and  racks,  are  supplied  by  each  steamship  company  for  such  ser- 
vices, and  clerks  must  be  furnished  first-class  board  and  quarters  free. 
They  have  plenty  of  time  for  visiting  in  foreign  ports  and  are  allowed 
full  salary  plus  subsistence  allowances  while  abroad;  a  diplomatic  com- 
mission is  furnished,  while  brings  instant  admission  to  the  most  exclu- 
sive and  desirable  foreign  facilities.  Clerks  must  have  a  high  degree 
of  sophistication  and  be  flawlessly  dressed  when  off  duty,  however,  or 
their  chances  of  appointment  or  retention  by  the  Seapost  are  practically 
nil.  Seapost  clerks  must  be  experts  at  geography,  at  deciphering  strange 
scripts  and  foreign  abbreviations,  and  at  preparing  complex  interna- 
tional records  and  letter  bills.  Seapost  offices  usually  sort  mail  direct 
to  foreign  R.P.O.s  eastbound  and  to  cities,  states,  and  stations  of  New 
York  City  westbound— most  residue  sorting  being  done  by  the  foreign 
clerks  on  shipboard,  in  the  first  instance,  and  by  post-office  clerks  in 
New  York's  Morgan  Station  in  the  second.  Seapost  clerks  are  noted 
for  their  fidelity  to  duty  in  face  of  great  danger;  some  have  given  their 
lives  in  tragic  shipwTecks  and  fires,  and  several  were  lost  on  the  Titanic 
after  carefully  conveying  registered  mails  to  safety.  In  their  most  recent 
special  service  they  detoured  mails  for  Czechoslovakia  in  the  nick  of 
time  to  keep  them  out  of  the  hands  of  invading  Germans.  No  seapost 
clerk  has  ever  been  convicted  of  stealing  from  (or  interfering  with) 
the  mails  anywhere.  However,  on  October  19,  1941,  the  Seapost's  sus- 
pension became  complete  as  its  last  route  (to  South  America)  closed 
down,  with  its  few  remaining  clerks  transferred  to  the  P.T.S.;  and  the 
service  has  been  sadly  missed  by  all  patrons  of  the  overseas  surface-mail 
facilities,  now  greatly  slowed.  [The  world's  largest  Seapost  service  was 
India's  former  Bombay-Aden  S.P.O.  (P&OCo),  operated  from  1868  to 
1914  with  some  hundred  and  three  clerks  on  board,  dwarfing  any  other 
S.P.O.]  Transatlantic  seapost  service  to  New  York  has  been  restored 
now,  but  by  foreign  lines  only— such  as  Sweden's  "SJP  7,  Goteborg-New 
York"  and  others. 

Note  II.— Case  Examinations  and  Schemes.  A  typical  scheme  is  mostly 
composed  of  pages  like  the  one  illustrated  in  Chapter  4,  but  it  also 
contains  an  alphabetical  index,  R.P.O.  separation  list,  and  notes.  As 
shown,  offices  in  a  county  are  included  in  the  same  brace  as  long  as  they 
have  just  the  same  mail  supply  (which  is  usually  an  R.P.O.  or  distribut- 
ing office,  but  may  be  a  terminal  or  transfer  clerk).  A  practice  card  is 
printed  for  each  office  in  the  state,  with  the  route  or  routes  shown  on 
back  of  card  exactly  as  in  scheme   (Fig.  2,  Chapter  4).    Following  this, 


378  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

the  cards  must  be  arranged  in  scheme  order  and  carefully  checked  there- 
by. Junctions  of  two  or  more  R.P.O.s  or  air-mail  routes  are  indicated 
by  asterisk  in  scheme  and  cards,  and  offices  may  be  schemed  as  dis 
to  all  such  junctions  (some  states  have  nearly  one  hundred  junctions, 
with  all  routes  on  each  to  be  memorized!).  Clerks  arrange  their  case 
labels,  like  their  car  headers,  as  they  prefer— generally  as  outlined  in 
Note  1 ;  and  these  are  later  taken  (together  with  clerk's  own  case  if  he 
prefers)  to  the  examination  room.  Cards  must  be  constantly  shuffled, 
thrown,  and  missed  ones  separated  for  restudy.  A  perfect  grade  on  cards 
and  junctions  at  the  final  test  brings  the  clerk  fifty  merits,  with  prorated 
merit  citations  for  lesser  grades  down  to  98  per  cent  (ten  merits);  special 
merits  are  given  for  consistent  grades  of  99.5  per  cent  or  over  at  at  least 
thirty  cards  per  minute.  All  government  property,  including  corrected 
scheme  and  schedules  (and  spotless  revolver)  must  be  presented  before 
examination  credit  is  given.  A  few  unfortunate  substitutes  never  make 
the  grade  on  these  exacting  tests  and  are  forced  to  resign  and  seek  other 
work.  One  such  sub,  flunked  for  having  thrown  only  175  cards  in  half 
an  hour  (seventy  of  them  wrong),  complained  he  couldn't  understand 
it— he  made  100  per  cent  at  home  and  "only  looked  at  his  map  a  few 
times"!  To  fail  any  case  exam  brings  a  serious  charge  of  twenty-five  to 
forty  demerits,  plus  a  required  recasing  with  no  extra  time  given. 

Note  \2.— Grades  and  Appointments.  Grades  of  regular  clerks,  in- 
cluding clerks-in-charge  and  clerks  in  special  assignments  over  Grade  11, 
range  from  Grade  1  at  $2,870  annually  in  regular  $100  steps  up  to 
Grade  17  at  $4,470.  On  all  main  lines  and  in  transfer  offices,  clerks 
receive  automatic  annual  promotions  up  to  Grade  11  ($3,870);  but 
for  clerks  otherwise  assigned,  the  progression  is  only  to  Grade  9  ($3,670). 
At  longer  intervals  in  later  years,  longevity  increases  are  given  to  Grades 
HA,  IIB,  or  9A,  9B,  etc.  Substitute  registers  are  drawn  up,  one  for 
each  state,  except  in  Michigan  (which  has  one  for  each  peninsula) 
and  the  District  of  Columbia  (whose  eligibles  must  choose  Maryland 
or  Virginia  rights).  In  very  populous  states,  such  as  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  substitutes  and  junior  clerks  must  often  wait  ten  or 
more  years  before  their  seniority  entitles  them  to  a  road  job;  while 
those  in  a  smaller  state  with  considerable  R.P.O.  mileage,  such  as 
Maryland,  can  secure  such  a  place  almost  immediately.  Senior  subs  are 
notified  of  possible  vacancies  on  the  usual  "This-is-not-an-offer-of- 
appointment"  form,  and  they  may  accept  or  not,  as  they  choose;  some- 
times a  king  sub  waits  for  months  before  leisurely  accepting  just  the 
ideal  job.  Final  appointment  is  made  by  Departmental  letter  of  assign- 
ment according  to  bids  on  file. 

Note  IS— Classes  of  Runs  and  Hours  Involved.  All  lighter  runs,  such 
as  one-man  branch  lines,  or  other  runs  whose  units  of  mail  worked  are 
below  a  certain  norm,  are  designated  "Class  A"  organizations— which  are 


TECHNICAL  NOTES 


379 


in  the  lower  salary  grade  along  with  terminals  and  airfields;  the  major 
lines  are  all  in  Class  B,  with  the  exception  of  short  local  runs  on  such 
routes.  On  a  basis  of  253  days  per  annum,  the  Class  A  clerk  must 
average  at  least  seven  hours  and  ten  minutes  of  daily  road  duty,  with 
fifty  minutes  credited  for  home  duties  to  make  up  his  eight-hour  day. 
Class  B  road  clerks  require  only  a  six-hour,  twenty-five-minute  daily 
average,  with  one  hour  thirty-five  minutes'  home  allowance.  Some  Class 
B  runs  are  so  long  that  the  ten  to  sixteen  hours  on  duty  at  a  stretch  en- 
titles the  clerks  to  incredibly  long  layoffs  (Chapter  10);  conversely,  many 
short  branch-line  or  suburban  runs  either  require  a  five-  or  six-day  work 
week  without  layoffs,  or  else  necessitate  a  clerk  putting  in  extra  time 
daily  in  a  terminal  (or  connecting  R.P.O.)  to  make  up  his  seven  and 
one-sixth  hours. 

Note  li.— The  Rotary-Lock  "Alphabet."    Some  of  the  popular  key 
words  for  calling  off  the  lock  letters  on  valuable  mails  are: 


Apple 

Harry,   Huckle- 

Nuts 

Uncle 

Boy,  Baby 

berry 

Oscar 

Vinegar,  Victory 

Cat,  Charley 

Johnny 

Peter 

Willy 

Dog 

King 

Queen 

X-Ray 

Eddie 

Lucky    (See 

Rats 

Yellow 

Funny 

Chapter   14) 

Sammy 

Zebra 

Goat,  Good 

Money 

Tommy 

There  are  no  "I"  locks.  Telegraph  and  telephone  companies  use  similar 
.alphabets  but  they  vary  a  good  bit. 

Note  15.— Boat  R.P.O.s  and  Related  Water  Services.  Some  interest- 
ing former  R.P.O.  boat  lines  include  the  old  Baltimore  &  Norfolk  and 
Baltimore  &:  West  Point  (Virginia),  operated  on  the  City  of  Richmond 
and  other  Chesapeake  Bay  steamers  until  the  1940s;  the  historic  44.2-mile 
Ticonderoga  &  Lake  George  R.P.O.  (Champlain  Transportation  Com- 
pany) on  Lake  Champlain  in  New  York  State;  the  storied  Sacramento 
River  R.P.O.  on  the  steamers  Apache  and  Modoc,  from  Sacramento  to 
San  Francisco,  California;  the  old  Baltimore  &  Hicks  Wharf,  terminat- 
ing at  a  little  Virginia  landing  no  longer  even  a  post  office;  the  Detroit 
&  Algonac  (White  Star)  combination  R.P.O.  and  R.F.D.  in  Michigan; 
the  unique  New  York  &  St.  George  and  the  Jersey  City  &  Brooklyn,  both 
in  New  York  Harbor  during  the  1890s;  the  Alexandria  Bay  &  Clayton 
(Thousand  Islands  Steamboat  Company,  seventeen  miles)  and  the 
Wanakena  &  Cranberry  Lake  (later  a  boat  R.F.D.),  both  in  New  York 
State.  The  New  York  &  San  Juan  and  New  York  &  Canal  Zone  Sea  Post 
Offices,  normally  connecting  to  our  Caribbean  territories,  were  long 
designated  as  boat  R.P.O.s.  Other  mail-boat  routes  which  still  operate 
and  which  are  said  to  still  sort  certain  mails  in  transit  include  the 
Chain  O'  Lakes  R.F.D.  out  of  Waupaca,  Wisconsin   (originally  R.P.O. 


380  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

from  Wisconsin  Veterans  Home,  King,  Wisconsin);  the  Bay  View-Lake 
View  route  on  Lake  Pend  Oreille,  Idaho;  one  on  Coeur  d'Alene  Lake, 
Idaho,  from  Coeur  d'Alene  to  Black  Rock  Landing;  and  one  on  Coos 
Bay,  Oregon.  Some  noted  former  part-boat  R.P.O.s  included  the  old 
Calistoga  &:  Vallejo  Junction,  described  in  Chapter  12,  and  the  Cen- 
tralia  &  Hoquiam  (NP-PS&GHTCo)  in  Washington,  1891-1942  but 
with  all  service  on  U.P.  rail  lines  in  recent  years;  also  the  Baton  Rouge 
&:  Houston  (NOTex&Mex),  which  used  a  car  ferry  across  the  Mississippi 
until  bridged  in  1947. 

Now  a  closed-pouch  route,  our  longest  boat-line  R.P.O.  of  all  was  the 
Seattle  &  Seward  (Alaska  Steamship  Company),  2070  miles,  from  Wash- 
ington State  to  Alaska;  its  suspension  in  1942  proved  permanent.  It 
served  Juneau,  Skagway,  and  Kodiak  as  well  as  no-office  points  where 
clerks  were  authorized  to  deliver  mail.  Steamers  like  the  5.S.  Alaska  and 
Baranof  had  to  navigate  the  British  Columbia  straits  in  night  fogs  solely 
by  whistle  echoes  from  the  two  shores,  and  when  the  whistle  broke.  Clerk 
O.  L.  Brooks  was  called  upon  one  night  to  fire  his  revolver  for  an  hour 
instead.  It  was  a  costly  service;  the  company  charged  four  thousand 
dollars  for  each  round  trip  of  clerk  and  mails,  and  one  boat  sank  in 
nine  minutes  with  all  mail  after  striking  a  rock  (all  hands  escaped). 
Like  the  old  Seattle  &  Skagway,  this  line  connected  with  such  other  old 
time  Alaska  boat  routes  as  the  Seward  8:  Unalaska  (S.S.  Starr),  Goodnews 
&  Unalaska  Bay  (1942),  Seattle  &  Sitka,  Cordova  &  Kodiak,  and  Valdez 
&  Udakta.  Until  recently  the  Nenana  &  Eagle  R.P.O.  operated  on  the 
eastern  Yukon,  apparently  on  the  S.5.  Yukon;  it  succeeded  the  former 
Dawson  &  Nenana  out  of  Dawson,  Y.  T.,  the  only  United  States  R.P.O. 
ever  to  be  named  from  a  foreign  terminus,  with  its  motor  launch  Kusko. 
The  Sunrise  &:  Seldovia  and  Tanana  River  R.P.O.s  are  also  reported  as 
long-abandoned  boat  lines  in  Alaska. 

Note  \6.—City  Distribution.  Despite  the  amazing  fact  that  experi- 
mental New  York  City  distribution  on  trains  was  done  as  early  as  1864 
(Note  7),  regular  sortation  of  city  mails  on  appropriate  trains  was  not 
authorized  until  1882  or  1883— and  amid  considerable  opposition  from 
postmasters.  But  later  they  enthusiastically  endorsed  the  idea,  and  at 
first  the  city  clerks  were  borrowed  from  the  appropriate  post  office  (as 
in  England).  Later  they  were  returned  to  their  home  offices  in  a  "per- 
sonnel trade"  whereby  they  were  exchanged  for  the  R.P.O.  clerks  on 
the  streetcar  routes.  By  1900  some  postmasters  were  even  insisting  on 
excessively  detailed  distribution  and  at  unseasonable  hours,  meanwhile 
changing  station  boundaries  in  complex  fashion,  and  the  service  had 
to  be  curtailed  somewhat.  But  it  is  still  done  on  a  remarkable  scale;  New 
York  City  is  sorted  on  lines  as  far  away  as  California  and  Florida. 
Oddly  enough,  R.P.O.  lines  are  no  longer  permitted  to  sort  city  mails 
for  St.  Louis,  Missouri  (reportedly  by  request  of  postmaster),  and  its 
service  suffers  accordingly.   Substitutes  must  now  carry  zone  headers. 


TECHNICAL  NOTES  381 

Note  \7 .—Transit-Mail  Routes  Around  the  World.  In  normal  times 
the  following  route  represents  one  chain  of  R.P.O.s  and  S.P.O.s  (sea- 
posts)  girdling  the  globe.  It  follows  the  largely  water-bound  path  indi- 
cated largely  because  of  absence  of  seapost  connections  out  of  Vladi- 
vostock  (there  are  continuous  connecting  R.P.O.s  across  the  Eurasian 
continent  from  that  point  west  to  Portugal).  This  route  is  based  on 
actual  postmarks  in  the  Robert  Gordon  collection: 

1-New  York  8:  Chicago  R.P.O.  (NYCent);  2-Chic.  8:  Omaha 
(C&NW):  3-Omaha  &  Ogden  (UP);  4-Ogden  Sc  San  Francisco  (SP); 
5— Nippon  Seapost  (Asama  Mam,  and  so  forth),  San  Francisco  to  Yoko- 
hama; 6— Marseille  a  Yokohama  Poste  Maritime,  Yokohoma  (Japan)  to 
Marseilles  (France);  7— Marseille  k  Paris  Ambulant  (Sud-Est  RR);  8— 
Paris  au  Havre  Ambulant  (I'Ouest  RR);  and  9— Le  Havre  a  New-York 
Poste-Maritime. 

Note  \8.~Historical  Notes,  English  T.P.O.s.  The  first  mail  was  car- 
ried by  rail  in  Britain  on  November  11,  1830,  from  Liverpool  to  Man- 
chester. (In  1837,  while  Americans  celebrated  Independence  Day^  the 
first  special  mail  trains  on  the  Grand  Junction  Railway  began  running 
and  were  soon  carrying  seven  hundred  bags  daily).  England's  first 
T. P.O.— said  to  be  the  world's  first  railway  post  office— was  the  experi- 
mental Birmingham-Liverpool  T.P.O.  (Grand  Junction  Railway), 
which  began  operation  using  a  converted  horse  boxcar  with  crude  sort- 
ing shelves  January  6,  1838;  it  was  the  suggestion  of  Frederick  Karstadt. 
(Sir  Rowland  Hill,  however,  had  suggested  sortation  in  transit  on 
stagecoaches  in  1826.)  The  original  route  is  now  part  of  the  Birmi.ng- 
ham-Crewe  and  other  T.P.O.s. 

Further  T.P.O.s  were  established  the  same  year  on  the  North  Union 
and  the  London  &  Birmingham  railways,  and  soon  there  was  a  network; 
the  first  out  of  London  was  from  Euston  Station  to  Bletchley,  extended 
to  Preston  on  October  first.  The  exchange  apparatus  was  invented  by 
G.P.O.  men  the  very  first  year;  and  the  story  was  told  soon  afterwards 
of  a  kitten,  mailed  in  a  parcel  by  a  foolish  patron,  which  was  "caught" 
by  apparatus  and  later  rescued  unharmed.  An  enthusiastic  account  of 
the  system  in  1842  describes  this  net  apparatus,  and  the  sorting  of  letters 
into  "holes  around  the  wall"  over  the  table,  while  local  mails  were  ex- 
changed in  bags  with  each  town. 

The  present  all-mail  Down/Up  Special  was  first  arranged  for  by  the 
Postmaster  General  in  1855  but  did  not  get  started  until  July  1,  1885; 
however,  all-mail  trains  from  London  as  far  as  Bristol  were  established 
in  '55,  and  the  Great  Western  (whose  first  night  T.P.O.s  operated  in 
1840)  was  speeded  up.  In  1859,  T.P.O.s  were  instructed  to  stamp  all 
letters  handled.  The  London  &  Northwest  T.P.O.  began  in  1865.  Oddly 
enough  major  British  routes  had  titles  and  date  stamps  like  our  own 
"JY  31  63"    (instead  of  31  July,  as  now)  on  the  Southeastern  R.P.O.; 


382  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

and  for  many  years,  mails  were  sorted  to  railway  divisions  (much  as  in 
America).  The  present  county-division  sorting  was  introduced  by  C.  W. 
Ward,  author  of  British  T.P.O.s.  Paid  overtime  (aggregation)  for  clerks 
began  in  1897,  and  other  benefits  soon  afterward.  Earlier  R.P.O.  desig- 
nations, such  as  "Sorting  Tender"  and  "Railway  Sorting  Carriage" 
gradually  disappeared,  with  only  the  present  "T.P.O."  and  "S.C."  re- 
maining. All  T.P.O.s  were  suspended  for  World  War  II  by  September 
21,  1940,  but  most  were  restored  beginning  in  1945.  Considerable  cele- 
bration marked  some  resumptions;  a  gay  "Pig's  Head  Supper,"  with 
outstanding  guest  talent,  was  put  on  by  T.P.O.  men  soon  after. 

[In  addition  to  the  fatal  wrecks  reported  in  Chap.  14,  the  old  Tam- 
worth-Lincoln  S.C.  (LMS)  landed  in  a  field  years  ago,  killing  one  clerk.] 

Note  19— Writers  of  the  P.T.S.  (In  addition  to  those  in  Chapter  16.) 
LaVern  R.  ZARR  of  the  Chicago  &:  Council  Bluffs  (CB&Q)  has  sold 
articles  on  the  P.T.S.  and  other  subjects  to  newspapers.  Captain  James 
E.  WHITE  (later  General  Superintendent  R.M.S.)  also  wrote  Service 
articles  for  periodicals  in  addition  to  his  book,  A  Lifespan  and  Remi- 
niscences, we've  mentioned.  Bruce  L.  BIRMINGHAM,  retired  (Illinois 
Branch  10th  Division,  N.P.T.A.),  writer  of  the  Chicago  Tribune's 
"Wake  of  the  News"  column,  also  wrote  a  poetry  book.  Beckoning 
Trails.  Samuel  M.  GAINES,  late  11th  Division  superintendent  with  a 
fifty-year  service  record,  wrote  published  poetry  of  considerable  charm 
("I  have  lived,  I  have  loved,  I  have  laughed— Life's  glorious  wine  I  have 
quaffed  .  .  .")  and  was  an  art  collector  and  air-mail  expert.  Dr.  Envin 
A.  SHAFFER  (ex-Buffalo  &  Washington,  PRR)  is  the  author  of  three 
non-P.T.S.  books  {Major  Washington,  Cavalier  Prince,  The  Pennsyl- 
vanian)  and  has  degrees  from  six  colleges.  Honorable  William  D. 
STEWART  (ex-Ninevah  &  Wilkes-Barre,  D&H-New  York  to  Penn- 
sylvania), later  a  New  York  State  legislator,  v^rote  the  book  Kanisteo 
Valley  as  well  as  magazine  articles.  Tudor  F.  BROWN,  Pittsburgh  &  St. 
Louis  (PRR),  wrote  a  poetry  book  {Beyond  the  Blue)  and  other  pub- 
pushed  verse— and  the  poetry  of  Hugh  GORDON  (ex-St.  Louis  & 
Monett,  StL-SF)  has  appeared  in  books  also.  J.  P.  CONNOLLY  of  the 
New  York  &  Washington  (PRR)  and  Third  Avenue  R.P.O.  (TARy)  sold 
two  articles  to  Railroad  Magazine.  Fred  S.  WIGHTMAN,  retired 
R.M.A.  leader  of  the  Williston  &  Seattle  (GN),  wrote  a  noteworthy 
article  for  the  same  journal— "10  Days  on  a  Train  in  the  Cascades"— and 
is  secretary  of  the  Seattle  Retired  Clerks  Club. 

Earl  L.  NEWTON,  Nixie  Box  author,  wrote  other  equally  excellent 
verse  and  is  in  retirement  at  Kalamazoo,  Michigan.  James  L.  STICE,  the 
Free  Enterprise  writer,  has  been  mentioned  frequently  herein;  he  was 
an  early  case-exam  medal  winner,  checked  nearly  seventy-five  hundred 
errors  on  other  clerks  (only  282  were  checked  on  him),  and  became  a 
division  superintendent  and  an  inspector.  Hubert  C.  WELSH  of  the 
Salisbury  &  Knoxville   (Sou)  writes  verse  of  much  merit,  including  one 


TECHNICAL  NOTES  383 

much-reprinted  poem  about  the  heavy  mails  to  Montreal  and  Ridge- 
crest,  North  Carolina,  on  his  line  in  summer.  Harold  KIMBALL,  an- 
other Railroad  Magazine  contributor,  runs  on  the  St.  Albans  8:  Boston 

(see  Chaper  II),  and  E.  Ray  LOVE  of  Tiflin,  Ohio,  writes  P.T.S.  short 
stories,  as  did  Votaw.   Leander  POOLE  of  the  Chattanooga  &  Meridian 

(AGS,  Tenn.-Miss.),  a  friend  of  Jack  London,  wrote  for  national 
magazines  under  the  name  of  Bill  Sykes.  John  E.  THWAITS  (once 
shipwrecked,  on  Alaska's  old  Sewarcl  &  LInalaska)  wrote  for  various 
magazines.     H.    H.    HAIN,   retired    from    the   New   York   &   Pittsburgh 

(PRR),  wrote  the  first  history  of  Perry  County,  Pennsylvania  (1,088 
pages).  Stan  GOULD,  another  ex-clerk,  wrote  the  book  An  American 
System  of  Self  Defense  (Eastern  Press,  Chicago).  J.  P.  CLELAND  of 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  a  clerk  for  forty  years,  was  a  lecturer  and  world 
traveled  as  well  as  a  writer.  Frank  GOLDM.AN  of  the  Philadelphia 
Terminal,  P.T.S. ,  wrote  a  prize-winning  article  for  Scribner's  Commen- 
tator (1942).  LeRoy  O.  CLARK  of  the  14th  Division  office  at  Omaha 
writes  short-short  stories.  Scores  of  other  clerks  write  articles  often  for 
the  Postal  Transport  Journal  and  doubtless  for  other  journals  also;  M. 
A.  PRIESTLY  of  the  Wash,  k  Cin.  (C&:0)  won  a  prize  with  an  H.P.O. 
article  in  the  Huntington  (W.Va.)  Herald-Advertiser,  and  Assistant 
Postmaster  General  REDDING  (over-all  head  of  the  P.T.S.)  is  a  leading 
journalist  and  author. 

Note  20.— Collection  &  Distribution  Wagons.  These  early  horse- 
drawn  "H.P.O.s"  were  painted  white  with  gold  striping,  like  the 
trolley  R.P.O.s,  and  contained  a  postmarking  ial)le  as  well  as  the  cases 
and  pouch  rack.  They  advanced  mails  to  trains  by  as  much  as  twenty- 
four  hours  in  both  New  York  and  Washington  (daily  trips  in  each  city 
were  sixteen  and  nine  respectively).  The  Washington  wagon  had  a 
door  in  the  rear  and  carried  two  pos'men  to  gather  in  the  letter-box 
mail;  clerks  postmarked  the  mail  and  distributed  it  to  states,  city  directs, 
and  local  R.P.O.s;  but  by  evening  there  was  too  much  mail  even  to 
postmark.  Postmarks  were  of  the  large  single-circle  type,  with  two 
lines  of  print  in  the  upper  arc,  and  read  "COLLECT'N  R:  DIST'N/ 
WASH'N  D.C./WAGON  No.  1,"  the  latter  figure  being  repeated  in  a 
lens-sect  bar  killer.  The  New  York  route  operated  past  the  West  Side 
stations  from  Fourteeenth  Street  to  Thirty-fourth  Street  and  beyond, 
and  had  a  hectic  special  run  one  day;  reporter  Dorothy  Dare  of  the 
World  had  been  sworn  in  as  an  auxiliary  clerk  when  that  paper  decided 
to  "cover"  this  trip  and  was  soon  proudly  postmarking  letters  so  fast 
that  only  blurs  resulted.  A  regular  clerk  had  to  stop  her,  and  she  took 
her  revenge  in  an  article  in  the  World  next  day!  The  service  there  lasted 
only  ten  months— it  was  discontinued  August  2,  1897,  when  the  new 
pneumatic-tube  service  replaced  it,  with  the  wagon  transferred  to 
Buffalo,  where  it  made  only  seven  trips  a  day.  On  June  30,  1899,  both 
wagons  were  transferred  to  St.  Louis,  where  they  ended  their  days. 


584  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

Note  2].— The  "Go-Back  Pouch"  and  Other  Regiovnl  Publications. 
Monroe  Williams,  late  editor  of  the  Go-Back  Pouch  during  its  retenily 
terminated  but  colorful  career,  outlined  its  purpose  in  that  popular 
publication's  "First  Dispatcli": 

The  "Go-Back  Pouch,"  like  charity,  covers  a  multitude  of 
sins.  We  all  know  that  what  goes  into  this  convenient  separa- 
tion is  off  the  record  and  not  meant  to  be  recalled  until  it  has 
had  time  to  be  forgotten.  Likewise,  we  know  that  in  the 
memories  of  the  old-timers  ...  in  the  files  of  their  own  personal 
go-backs,  there  is  a  wealth  of  information  on  the  early  history 
and  traditions  of  our  Service  ...  It  is  hoped  that  we  may 
provide  here  ...  a  place  where  these  recollections  may  be 
recorded,  that  the  flavor  and  essence  of  the  early  days  .  .  .  may 
not  be  forever  lost. 

N.P.T.A.  di\  ision  and  branch  publications  still  being  published  include 
the  8///  Division  Neios  Letter  (parent  medium  of  the  Go-Back  Pouch), 
Official  News  Bulletin  (3rd  Division),  12//^  Division  News,  Up  to  the 
Second  (2nd  Division),  The  First  ]Vord  (1st  Division),  and  Division 
NeuKS  Letter  (lOih  Di\ision);  and  the  following  publications  of  branches 
indicated:  Texarkana  RePerCussions,  Postal  Transit  (Kansas  City),  Tall 
Corn  Bulletin  (Des  Moines,  Iowa),  Little  Rocket  (Little  Rock, 
Arkansas),  Long  Island  Sound  (Long  Island  Branch,  Jamaica,  New 
York),  Pick-Up  (St.  Louis).  Booster  (Florida  Branch),  Nixie  News  (Cin- 
cinnati), Ptiilty  Sentinel  (Philadelphia),  two  called  The  Standpoint  (Los 
Angeles  and  Forth  Worth);  and  the  following,  all  entitled  Branch  Nexus 
preceded  by  name  of  branch  indicated:  Alabama,  Georgia,  Buffalo, 
South  Carolina,  and  Illinois. 

Note  22.-Addenda.  In  Chapter  10  (p.  171)  our  shortest  R.P.O.,  the 
Carb.  &:  Scrant.,  should  have  been  noted  as  having  been  formerly  the 
much  longer  Ninevah  fc  Wilkes-Barre  (D&:H)  starting  from  New  York 
State  (see  Note  19,  W  D.  Stewart);  and  on  p.  190,  after  Nowling's  exam 
record,  add  that  of  S.  M.  Atkinson  of  the  Cin.  &:  Nashville  (L&N)-a// 
lOO's  thus  far,  after  3  years'  service.  In  Chap.  13  on  p.  259,  British  readers 
should  make  note  that  membership  in  the  T.P.O.  fc  Seapost  Society  is 
5y_  to  accepted  applicants  (inquiries  to  N.  Hill,  Netherleigh,  Old 
Wortley  Rd.,  Rotheiham,  Yorks.);  U.  S.  readers,  note  that  The  R.P.O.- 
H.P.O.  Magazine  is  to  be  published  monthly  at  $1  annually  by  M. 
Jarosak,  62  New  York  Ave.,  Brooklyn  16.  In  Chap.  16  (p.  360).  it  should 
be  noted  that  the  substitution  of  closed-pouch  service  for  local  R.P.O.s 
in  New  Jersey  and  elsewhere  is  partiridarly  to  be  deplored  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  not  even  local  mails  can  then  be  exchanged  by  way-pouch 
in  star  route  fashion— mails  must  sometimes  cross  the  state  to  a  terminal 
for  sorting,  just  to  be  delivered  in  the  next  town. 


i 


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APPENDIX  n 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Although  only  a  short  partial  bibliography,  this  listing  includes  all 
known  bound  books  in  English  dealing  primarily  with  our  subject,  with 
the  exception  of  purely  technical  volumes  (such  as  those  on  railroad 
mail  pay,  weighings,  or  legal  questions  and  those  issued  by  the  Post  Office 
Department  or  as  Congressional  reports).  In  general,  other  material 
is  listed  only  if  referred  to  in  text;  and  if  starred  (*)  it  deals  only  in 
minor  part  with  our  subject.  It  is  hoped  to  publish  a  complete  Bibliog- 
raphy in  separate  form,  or  as  part  of  the  next  edition  of  this  book. 

DENNIS,  W.  J.  The  Travelling  Post  Office.  Des  Moines,  Iowa:  Home- 
stead Ptg.  Co.,  1916.  (50^,  from  Parsons  College,  Fairfield,  Iowa.) 

WHITE,  J.  E.  A  Life-span  and  Reminiscences  of  the  R.M.S.  Philadel- 
pliia:  Deemer  &:  Jaisohn,  1910 

NEWTON,  Earl  L.  The  Nixie  Box.  Kalamazoo:  Horton-Beimer  Press, 
1927.  (R.M.S.  poems) 

MAYNARD  (SECOND  ASST.  P.M.G.),  History  of  the  Railway  Mail 
Service  (Senate  Exec.  Document  #40,  48th  Congress,  2nd  Session). 
Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1885 

CARR,  Clark  E.  Railway  Mail  Service:  Its  Origin  and  Development. 
Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  1909 

ARMSTRONG,  Geo.  B.  Jr.  The  Beginnings  of  the  True  Railway  Mail 
Service.   Chicago:  Lakeside  Press,  1906 

,  A  History  of  the  R.M.S.  {P.  O.  &  Railway  Mail  Services).  Wash- 
ington: Columbian  Correspondence  School,   1903. 

FAMILY  OF  W.  A.  DAVIS,  The  Railway  Postal  Sewice. ;  About 

1890.  (Booklet) 

BRADLEY,  V.  J.  The  U.  S.  Railway  Mail  Service.  Buffalo:  National 
Association  of  Railway  Postal  Clerks  (N.P.T.A.),  Pan-American  Ex- 
position, 1901.   (Booklet) 

VOTAW,  C.  E.  Jasper  Hiinnicut  of  Jimsonhorst.  Chicago:  Union  Book 
&  Publishing  Co..  1907 

406 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  .  407 

KILMAN,  W.  F.  Txco  Million  Miles  on  the  Railroad.  Little  Rock, 
Arkansas:  Self-published  (mimengra plied,  printed  covers),  1946. 
$1.50  from  author.  R.D.  7  Box  578,  Little  Rock 

•SPERO,  S.  D.  Labor  Movement  in  a  Government  Industry.  New 
York:  G.  H.  Doran  S:  Co.,  1924 

McD.ANIEL,  C.  F.  Railway  Mail  Civil  Service  Course.  Cedar  Rapids, 
Iowa:  McDaniel.  1920 

POSTMASTER  GENER.AL,  Charles  H.  Quackenbush:  A  Letter  .  .  . 
Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1912    ('265-page  book) 

WASHINGTON,  J.  A.  Neio  York  &  Wn^hingfon  R.P.O.  Photo  Album. 
Washington:  Self-published,  1948.  53.50  from  author,  1236  Colum- 
bia Road  NW.,  Washington  9 

,  Fairrhild  Air  Mail  Packet.  Hagerstown,  Md.:  Fairchild  Engi- 
neering &  Aircraft.  1946. 

•HART  O^V.  A.  F.  Old  Pnstbags.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1875 
and  1928.    Pp.  303ff:  $5 

GUI  KIN,  W.  L.  U.  S.  H.PO.  History  &  Catalog.  Omaha:  Culkin 
Stamp  Co.,  Box  400,  1950.   $1.00 

•NORONA.  Delf.  Cyclopedia  of  U.  S.  Postmarks  and  Postal  Hi^fnry. 
Moundsville,  West  Virginia:  American  Philatelic  Society,  1933-35. 
Vol.  IT  from  L.  R.  Stadtmiller,  Asheville.  N.  C. 

•KONWISET^.  H.  M.  U.  S.  Sfampless  Cover  Catalog.  Portlnnd.  Mnine: 
Severn  W.  Jewett  Co.,  1947.   R.P.O.  section  by  A.  G.  Hall.   S2..50 

•STIGF,  J.  L.  Free  Enterprise.  Fayetteville.  Arkansas:  Self-published, 
1945.  About  one-'hird  RMS.  material.  $1.50  from  C.  E.  Rench, 
251 1  Broadway,  Parsons.  Kansas 

STRACH.AN.  Gordon.  P. M.S.:  Thf  S'nry  of  the  Raihoay  Mail  Service. 
Chicago:  Santa  Fe  Railway.    (Booklet)  Free 

LONG.  B.  A.  The  Supply  Narrative  System  CGard-studv  method). 
Verona.  New  Jersey:  Intermezzo  House,  1939,  1945.  50  cents. 
(Booklet) 

REYNOI  DS.  F.  A.  Case  Examination  Study  System  and  related  book- 
lets. Roanoke.  \'ireinia:  Atwood  Reynolds,  1946.  $2  each  from 
publisher.  Box  522.  Roanoke  3 

WHAI  FN.  T.  A.  Mnvpisnrur:  A  Petition.  Des  Moines,  Iowa:  Self- 
published,  1914.   fPamphlet) 

VANDIVIER.  L.  N.  Chrrk-Us't  of  R  P.O.  Routes  (AH-time).  Memphis: 
Transit  Postmark,  1949.  $1  from  publisher,  Box  152,  Raleigh, 
Tennessee.   (Booklet) 

JAMES.  Postmaster  General  Thomas  L.  The  Railway  Mail  Service. 
New  York: ,  1888  (?).  (Booklet) 


408  MAIL  BY  RAIL 

KUHNLE.  William.  History  of  the  U.  S.  Seapost  Service.    New  York: 

C/O  2nd  Division,  P.T.S.,  U.  S.  Parcel  Post  Bldg.,  1919.   (Booklet) 
LONG,  B.  A.  "Mail-Key  Railroaders,"  Trains.   Milwaukee:  April,  194L 

(Milwaukee  3,  Wise.) 
WARD,  C.  W.    English  T.P.O.s.    Croydon:  Self-published,  1949.    $4.40 

(30/6)  from  author,  14  Tavistock  Road,  Croydon,  Surrey,  England 
POSTAL  TRANSPORT  JOURNAL  (formerly  The  R.P.O.),  monthly. 

1525  H  Street.  Washington  5,  D.  C.   $1.50  year 
THE  TRAVELLER,  monihly.    45  Hamilton  Avenue,  North  Cheam, 

Surrey.  England,  50^   (3/—)  year 
THE  RAILWAY  MAIL  CLERK,  monthly.     167  Holmwood  Avenue, 

Ottawa,  Ontario.  75  cents  a  year 
TRANSIT  POSTMARK;  T.P.O.,  and  similar  journals:  See  Chapter  13 

for  addresses  and  rates,  also  Note  22. 

Note:  Numerous  other  publications  and  periodicals,  many 
with  specific  article  citations,  will  be  found  mentioned  particu- 
larly in  Chapters  1.9,  12,  13,  and  16.  Most  of  them  are  national 
magazines  whose  addresses  are  a  matter  of  public  record;  but 
where  such  is  not  the  case,  the  publication  is  out  of  print  if  no 
address  is  given.  All  N.P.T.A.  publications  mentioned  are 
issued  at  the  address  given  just  above  for  the  Postal  Transport 
Journal.  (The  address  of  Our  Youth  is  912  Belmont,  Chicago 
14.) 


INDEX 


Current  R.P.O.s  and  H.P.O.s,  as  well  as  most  railroads, 
are  indexed  in  Appendix  I 


Africa,  219.  323 

Air  conditioning,  340,  362 

Air  fields,  61,  87,  328//,  358^ 

Air  mail,  324-329;  64,  87,  211,  262,  266. 
286,  307,  314,  341,  344 

Airplane,  3,  219,  327 

Akron  &  Delphos,  Ohio   (AC&Y),  183 

Alaska,  3041} 

Alphabetical  distribution,  41,  343, 
A'o/e  I 

Alinon  &  W'iscasset,  176 

Ambulantes,  310,  314,  315,  319,  520 

Amer.  Fed.  of  Labor,  148// 

AMERl'O,  258 

Amsterdam  Printing  Co.,  54,  188,  203 

"Angel,"  21,  41 

Animals,  58,  86.  87.  224 

Arizona,  60,  143.  182,  227 

Arkansas.  52,62,  91 

Arlington,  Va.,  183,  233,  334,  364 

Armstrong.  Ceo.  B.,  104/7,  Hl/f,  HS/f, 
261.  328,  365 

Army  Post  Office  (A.P.O.),  211-2.  217-8 

Asst.  Executive  Director  of  Transpor- 
tation, 43,  160.  342  (See  General 
Supt.) 

Australia  and  Australasia,  321,  323 

Badge,  16,  86.  132,  273 
Bag,  Note  1;  5,  18,  26,  36,  51 
Baggage  cars,  46,  97,  100,  106,  138 
Baltimore  &:  Ohio  R.R.,  25,  960.  123. 

133;  see  BiO  lines,  Appx.  I 
Bait.  &  Pt.  of  Rock^,  96 
Bandits,  8,  226/7 

Bangs,  George  S..  6,  122//,  127.  205 
Belgium.  210,  315 
"Black  Book."  16,  49,  54,  58,  205   (See 

Postal  Laws  &  Reg.) 


Boat  R.P.O.,  177-181;  3,  199,  204,  250. 

260,  267.  300,  311,  305-6,  308,  314, 

Note  15 
Books.  295,  348,  349 
Bordeaux  Terminal,  211 
Boston,  see  Massachusetts 
Bowie  &  Popes  Creek,  60 
Branch  lines,  31,  60^,  .359,  360 
Brotheihood  of  Railway  Mail  Postal 

Clerks,  139,  140 
Brotherhood  of  Railway  Postal  Clerks. 

148,   151,   153-158 
Bureau  of  Transportation,  43,  342 
Burlington  Route  (R.R.).  7.  105,  365; 

see  CBiQ  lines,  Appx.  I 
Burma,  314 
Burr,  H.  A..  107.  114 

Cachets,  263//.-  177.  327,  328.  338 

Cairo,  111.,  104,  105,  115 

Cairo  &  Memphis   (l)oat),  117 

Cairo  &:  New  Orleans,  79 

California,  12.  34,  71.  92,  127,  155, 
175//,  203,  206,  222,  227.  249.  250. 
330,  334,  347,  360 

Camden  &  Amhoy  R.R.,  112,  174 

Canada,  297//,  327,  365 

Canal  Zone.  308,  309 

Cancellation  —  See  Collectors;  Post- 
marking 

Capital  Transit,  44,  243 

Car  permits,  133// 

Case,  letter,  17;  1,  3,  5,  10.  etc. 

Catches,  1.  21//,  47,  60.  83/7,  119.  133, 
145,  172/7.  186,  198.  215,  269//.  280^, 
300,  305,  311,  326.  344-5.  361.  363 

Cats.  87;  Note  IS 

Chadron  &:  Casper  (Lander),  186 

Checking  errors,  91,  121.  122,  357 


409 


410 


MAIL  BY  RAIL 


Chelsea  Terminal,  217 

Chicago.  12,  23,  32,  112,  122.  138.  140, 

185.205.2^1,338,316.  365 
Chicago  &  Clinton.  117,   120.  263 
Chief  clerk    (see   District  supt.  also). 

37,  14.  72.  78,  810.  146-7,  154,  212. 

243,  341 
Childress  S;  Lubbock,  225 
China,  92,  218,  323 
Christmas  mail,   197-8;   145,  212.  213. 

235.  213.  262,  291,  335.  358 
Cincinnati,  see  Ohio 
City  distribution,  184.  200.  287.  290 
Civil   Service.  21.   128,   142,   152.   155, 

205,  316,  364 
Civil  Service  Commission,  6,  47^,  273 
Civil  service  schools,  14.  47 
Clearmont  &  Bullalo,  173 
Clerk,  postal  transportation  (ry.  mail), 

1,  6-12,  and  throughout  book 
Clerk-in-charge     (chief),    73//;    9,    11. 

18//,  36,  38,  41,  45,  49,  51/7,  59,  60,  69, 

72//,   81//,   93,    120,    135,    146,    148, 

186-7.  201,  208.  215,  226,  250,  254, 

273,  311.  333,  344^,  357,  359,  362 
Cleveland,  see  Ohio 
Closed  pouch   (C.  P.),  31//;  42,  43,  57, 

120,   122,   171,   181,   199//,  211,  218. 

232[J,  245,  249/7,  270.  282,  286,  295, 

299//,  315,  322,  328,  334 
Cobre  &  Ely,  135 
Coffee  man,  194^;  24 
Collectors,  25AJJ;  247,  249,  327,  338 
Colorado,  34,  145^,  176 
Commissions,  travel,  14,  77,  130,  364 
Conductor.  22,  46,  53,  153,  247,  262 
Covers,  254//;  213,  327.  333 
Crane.  1,  2.  12.  23.  25.  83,  890,  119. 

122,  175,  187,  280.  283.  344 
Cuba,  209,  314 

Davis,  William  A,  105,  114-117 

Deficiency,  356 

Delaware.   8,   201 

Demerits,  71,  72,  89,  90,  123,  113,  148, 

154 
Detroit,  181;  see  Michigan 
Detroit  &  Albany,  131 
Detroit  R;  Mansfield,  89,  360 
Directs,  25,  27,  35,  40,  119//,  184,  185, 

211.271.282 


"Dis",  16.  17.  22.  35,  41.  57,  92,  272. 

299.  3U6,  '606,  364 
Disiubutmg  I'osi  OUice  (D.  P.  O.).  95, 

luoi/ 
Distiibuling  Machine,  366 
District  supcniuciKlcul  (see  also  Chief 

Clerk),  -14-15;  13,  -11.  52,  09,  71,  76, 

90,  117,  199,  229,  230,  234,  235,  355 
Divisions,  44;  43,  49,  122,  U6,  U4,  141, 

i6j,  'ZOl,  216,  Zjj,  500 
Division   gciieial   superintendent,  44; 

76,  85,  92,   121,   151,  134,   H6,   155, 

157.  206//,  Z'ZO,  TSl,  2-ll.  311.  314, 

326,  341,  55U,  ^b'l,  J65 
Dogs,  67,  93.  94 
Dumper,  19,  2U,  25,  270 
liletlric  routes,  231-253 
tmergenty  pouch,  27 
Empties,  iy,  22,  47,  282 
England,  268//;  21,  96,  102,  107,  125, 

2y5,  257,  299,  304,  aij-6,  345,  364; 

Appx.  1;  Note  IS. 
Engmeei,  98,  187,  272 
Examinations,  51//;  7,  10,  40,  42,  52#, 

122,   135,   161,   187//,  269,  300.  302. 

317,  325,  343,  346,  363,  368 
Exchanges,   local.   90.   97//,    113,    116. 

Vli;  see  also  Catches,  Cianes 
Expositions,  263 

Fairbanks  &  Seward,  203 

Fairs,  World,  263 

Fast  Mail,  4.  30,  123,  125^,  260.  263. 

316,  319,  356 
Fires,  2j5//;  205,  207,  244 
Floiida,  4,  69,  202.  2U6,  325,  331 
I' lying  Post  Othce,  326//;  219 
Food,  8,  11,  23,  24,  132,  195,  283,  294 
Fiance,  316-7;  210,  211, 217-8,  328,  331 

Gag  Rule,  142// 

General  Orders,  92.  141,  182.  187,  349 

General  Superintendent  (see  Asst. 
Exec.  Dir.  of  1  ransp.),  6,  37,  45,  99, 
112,  113,  120.  122,  127/f,  137//,  150//, 
161,  205//,  220,  222,  246,  334,  341. 
349,351,334,365 

Germany,  317;  218,  220,  355 

Grades,  58,  59,  187-193,  Note  12 

Greece,  318 

Grip  man,  15,  18,  132 

Guns,  70#;  1.  10.  15,  16.  49,  86.  134 


INDEX 


411 


Hannibal    &    St.    Joseph    R.R.,    105, 

115//,  261,  26-1,  2u5,  365 
Hardy,  John  D.,  6,  160,  163 
Harpoon,  The,  143-157 
Hanington  &  Frank.  City,  8,  184 
Harvey  House,  24,  33.  195 
Hawaii,  304;  213 
Headers,  16,  17,  41,  63,  65,  185,  188, 

269,  276,  364 
Highway   Post  Office,  329/f;  3,  4,  32. 

35.  43,  162,  169,  177,  163,  201,  208, 

232,  247,  251-259,  361,  363,  367,  305, 

308 
History,  95- 168;  205/? 
History  oj   the  R.M.S.,  103,   115-117, 

349 
Hook,  Note  2;  1,  65,  68,  89;  see  Catches 
Hold-outs,  61 
Hungary,  318 

Hyattsvihe.  Md.,  79.  90,  199,  354 
HyaLts.  dc  Chesapeake  Beach,  335,  344 

Idaho,  181,  184,  186 

Illinois,  7,  8,  74,  85,  89,  112,  121,  129, 

278 
India,  311-314 
Indiana.  84,  246,  334,  352 
Inspectors.  8,  36,  71,  72,  87,  88,   100, 

147.    150.    156.    187.   209,   226.   228. 

255,  273,  310,  313 
Iowa,  60,  82,  88,  134 
Iian,  218 
Italy.  318 

Jacksonville.  Fla..  A.M.F.,  325 
Japan. 219. 323 

Juneau,  Sitka  S:  Skagway,  305 
Junctions,  41,  52,  57,  58,  101,  123,  201, 
202,  284,  308.  313 

Kansas.  75.  78.  224,  353 

Kentucky,  207 

Key  chain,  1,  6,  50,  88 

Key  man,  1,  8,  49,  62,  100,  105,  248 

"Killer,"  243,  200,  204,  266,  309 

Korea,  220,  323 

Label,  1,  2,  G.  15/7,  28,  39,  41,  50/7,  61, 
66,  276.  282.  285.  293.  319.  361.  369 

Labor  unions,  137-168;  294-5,  303,  313, 
349,  353 


Lake    Shore    &    Michigan    Southern 

R.R.,  133 
Layolls.  14,  47,  61,  63,  67,  73,  135,  145- 

147,  156,  300,  311 
Leavenworth  i  .Miltonvale,  78 
Letter  men,  20/7,  08 
Lingo  of  service,  21,  270 
Li\erpool    &    Manchester    R.R.,    96; 

Note  IS 
"Local,"  22,  23,  84.  90/7,  89.  100,  122, 

170^,  250;  see  Exchanges 
Locks,   18,  21,  26,  27,  40,  41,  68,  95. 

100,  106.  216,  269,  299 
Lockout,  19,  20.  25,  26,  39,  51,  52,  61, 

63,  89,  234 
Lodging,  28,  29,  32,  285,  286 
Los  .-Vngeles,  31,  38,  215,  231,  250,  252. 

348 
Louisiana,  88,   151 

"Made  up,"  19,  61,  282,  288 
Magazines.   140,   141.   167,  256/7,  349, 

350 
Mail  agents,  99,  266,  312 
Mail  bags,  24,  27,  72,  129;  see  Pouches, 

Sacks 
Mail  boxes,  42,  117,231,252 
Mail  car,  10,  24,  269,  271 
Mail  handlers,  51,  357;  Note  9 
Mail  messengers,  55.  90.  247.  280,  329 
Mail  train,  14//;  1,  12 
Maine,  3,  176,201,  219,  301,  367 
Maryland,  9.  23.  25,  60,  96,  12:5,  199, 

201.  244/f,  2510,  330.  335.  337.  363/f, 

367 
Massachusetts,   31,  64,   101.   120,   121. 

150.  2^8 
"Massed."  26.  84,  325 
M.B.A.;  M.D.A.  Reminder,  136-140 
Memorizing  systems,  192,  194,  Dibl. 
Merits.  58.  59.  123.  143.  188 
Mexico.  309/7;  212 
Michigan,  109,  180,  199,  200,  360 
Mileage,  193,  194.  357 
Miller,  George  E.,  43,  160,  354 
Milwaukee    Road     (R.R.),    338;     see 

Appx.  I 
Minneapolis,  see  Minnesota 
Minnesota,  52,  46,  72,  76,  85,  90.  141, 

153,  227,  229,  302 
Missouri.  42.  53.  105.  221,  237 


412 


MAIL  BY  RAIL 


Motion  Pictures.  295.  346.  347 
Music,  355:  67.  287.  353,  365 
Mutual  Benefit  Assn.,  136-140,  168 


Omaha   (see  Nehraskn);  A.M.F.,  325 
Ol>en  Pouch,  165//,  350 
Oregon,   131,  226 
Owney.  93,  94 


Narrow  gauges,  175-177;  300,  307 

National  Federation  of  P.  O.  Clerks, 
157 

National  Postal  Transport  Assn.  (R. 
M.A.),  140- 168;  6.  11,  32.  75//.  86, 
94 ,  1 1 6,  1 36,  1 72.  1 86.  202,  203,  2 11  //, 
220.  248.  257,  261,  265.  303-4,  310-1, 
326,  331//.  339-348,  3">0-35a,  362,  365 

Naval  mails,  217.  219,  220,  267 

Nel)raska,  88,  131,  175.  325 

Ncnana  &:  St.  Michael,  305 

Netherlands,  318:  218 

Nevada,  135,  183,  203 

Newark   (sec  N.J.);  A.M.F.,  87 

Newfoundland,  300-301 

New  Hampshiie.  141,  160,  162,  175, 
179,  186 

New  Haven  R.R.,  173;  .see  Appx  I, 
lines  out  of   Boston,   Pittsfieid,  etc. 

New  Jersey,  23.  29.  37,  51,  00.  96,  173, 

174,  199^  201,  203,  223//,  335,  360-1. 
306 

New  Mexico,  9,  227 

Newspapers,  5.   18,   19,  51,  61,   119/7, 

315;  see  Paper  rack 
New    York    Branch    N.P.T.A.,    165//; 

214 
New  York  Central  R.R..  30.  172,  359; 

See  Afjpx.  /,  N.Y.  &  Chic,  Chat.  & 

N.Y..  etc.;  also  121,  133 
New  York   City.  28,  30.  35.  121,   135, 

169//.  173.  199,  217.  239,  240,  329 
New   York  State,  60,  70.  87.  97.   121, 

175.  178.    181,  201,  223.  224.  235, 
244.  253 

New  Zealand,  321,  322 

Nixies,  21,  198 

No-postofTice  points.  198,  230,  364 

North  Dakota,  46,  66 


Oakcs  el-  Hawardcn,  147 
Oclwein  X:  Kansas  City,  188,  256 
Ogden  (sec  Utah);  Term.,  134 
Ohio.  9,  32,  140.  153,  243.  244,  251 
Oklahoma.  187.  206 


Package,  letter,  3-5,  15,  18-20,  etc. 

Packets,  5,   106.  111.  117-119 

Pakistan,  314 

Panama,  see  Canal  Zone 

Paper  rack,  20,  35,  61//,  106,  120,  269. 

317   (.see  Newspapers) 
Parcel  post,  5,  12,  35,  42,  49,  66,  130, 

131.    152,    154.    179,    187.    197,   305. 

315-6,  320-1,  357,  3.59 
PennsNlvania,  28,  51,  65,  96,  97,  171. 

187,  220,  222,  232.  244.  249,  326 
Pennsylvania   R.R..  33.  98//.  338;  see 

Appx.  I,  N.Y.  &  Wash.,  N.Y.  &  Pitts.. 

Pitts.  &  Cine.  etc. 
Penn   Terminal,   P.T.S.,   36,   38,  215, 

352,  355 
Penn   Transfer  Office,  48 
Persia.  218 

Peru  Jv  lndianapoli.s,  246.  332 
Philadelpliia     (and    Term.),    32.    125, 

188,  200,  207.  235,  239.  344,  307 
Philately,  254-267:  102.  114-5,  182,232, 

212,  287;  see  Collectors 
Philippines,  210,  322.  .3.55 
Pigeonholes,  1.  5.  17,  20.  26,  34.  57,  73. 

82.  100,  106.  197,  271.  276,  317 
Pony  Express  105.  106,  118 
Postage,  45,  10 1.  303 
Postal  agent.  100 

Post-biliing.  103.  110,  111,  119,  123 
Postal  liullelin,  127 
Postal  Cancellations  Society,  256 
Postal  Guide,  73,  214,  291,  312,  313, 

364 
Postal  Laxi's  6-  Regulations,  73,   145, 

180,   202.  203.   252,   300,  346,   356/7 
(.see  Black  Book) 
Postal  Service.  2,  43.  51,  etc. 
Postal  supply  houses,  54.  261 
Postal  transportation  clerk,  see  Clerk 
Postal  Transport   Hospital  A.ssn.,   168 
Postal   Transport  Journal    (The  R.P. 

O.),  167;  3,  11,  70//,  81,  91,  141,  153, 

155,  162-5-7.  182.  189.  198.  211,  248. 

256,  267,  332.  342.  350-2.  362,  367 


INDEX 


413 


Postmarking.  50.  73.  97.  101.  106.  178^, 

197.  218.  231//.  241//,  25^-207.  306, 
309-31G  S19,  322.  326-330,  335-348, 
36^:  see  Col  lectors 

Pastmaster.  85.  94/7,  101,  105,  108-110. 
120.  121.  134.  137,  103,  175.  186.  187. 

198.  217,  236.  241,  247,  201,  338,  360 
Postmaster  General,  3,  8,  61,  89,  96, 

99/7.  108.  111.  120.  135.  139.  143.  154, 

158.  103.  227.  277,  308.  325.  327 
Post  onices,  230;   1,  2,  3,  6,  13,  15-19, 

97-99,  178-182.  309-320,  etc. 
Post    Office    Department,   31,   43,   94, 
97/7,   107.   Ill//,   121.   140.   141.  147- 

159.  161.  238.  215,  298,  300,  308,  326, 
829,  3.32.  336.  310.  356,  362 

Post  roads.  98 

Poiiclics.  \'ote  I:  5,  17;  2,  4.  10.  15,  22- 

20.  03-65.  85-93.  119-121.  etc. 
Pouch  clerk,  20,  24,  25.  00.  81 
Pouch  rack,  19.  26,  51,  270,  307.  320, 

327,  330,  339 
Pouch  record,  135.  277 
Pouch  lahlc,  19.  20,  25,  27.  51.  65.  318 
Practice  cards,  54-58,  191-194,  201,  300, 

325 
Pr.iriire  cases.  52.  54,  122 
Puhlishers,  19,  03.  122,  348^ 
Puciio  Rico,  210,  307 
Purdum.  Hon.  Smith  W..  76.  264,  354; 

2nd  plioto  sec. 

Quincy  &  St.  Joseph,  120 

Rack.s.  17/7,  35.  36.  41.  42.  47,  49.  61. 

65.  66,  119,  129,  133,  176.  186,  201, 

214.   219,   221,   237,   312,    321     (see 

Pouch   rack) 
Radio.  3-16.  .3^7.  365.  366 
Railroad  V.M.C.A.,  28.  29 
Railroad  mail— Railway  letters,  45,  46, 

295 
Rnihvay  Mail,  The,  141 
Railway    Mail    Assn.,    see    National 

Postal  Tran.sport  Assn. 
Railway  mail  cl'dw.  28,  77.  168 
Railway  mail  clerks,  see  Clerks 
Railway  postal  clerks,  see  Clerks 
Raihray   Post   Office,  see   Postal    Tr. 

Jnurnnl 
Redistribution,  3,  101.  118 


Retirement,  77,  130,  143,  150,  159 

Revolver,  see  Guns 

Rhode  Island,  71,  201 

R.M.S.  Bugle,  140,  1-11 

Routes.  1.  4,  19,  54-57,  198/7.  282 

Route  agents,  97-102;  53.  106,  107,  111. 

114-5,  119/7,  128,  177.  261,  262.  302, 

320,  353 
Rural    free    delivery     (R.F.D.),    179^, 

230.  330.  346 
Russia,  319 

St.  Louis.  237;  and  see  Afi.ssouri 
Sacks,  5,  17,  Note  1;  18-20,  23,  39.  41, 

47-51.  62  66,  91-92,  etc. 
Safety  bar,  4,  88,  271 
Salaries.  59;  49,  129,  158-9,  Nnte  12 
San    Francisco     (and    Terminal),    39. 

155.  206,  207,  213,  227,  243 
Santa  Fe  R.R.,  347,  3-19;  see  Appx  I, 

Alb.  X;  L.A.,  K.C.  &  Alb.,  etc. 
Schedules.  15,  16,  40-44,  -19,  54,  57,  81. 

123.  126.  213,  216,  257,  267,  277,  298. 

319,  320.  333.  341 
Schemes,  .54-55;  2,   15,  43.  57.  63.  64, 

81.    121-3.    180,   198,  201.  214.   216. 

230.  207-8.  277.  298/7.  306.  308.  311 
Seaposis.  Note  10;  45,  94.  194,  256,  267, 

301.  308,  352 
Seniority.   159,   164.  165 
Separations.  17.  19.  26,  41,  61.  69,  102, 

108,  122,  135.  2H,  219 
Sioux  City  8;  O'N'eill,  79 
Slang,  see  Lingo 
Slips,  3,  15.  16.  27,  58,  68.  69.  85.  91, 

121/7,  201,  262,  263,  267,  276,  298. 

299,  357,  364 
South  Carolina,  11,  96 
South  Dakota.  146/7 
Space.  .59,  07.  135.  362 
Spanish-American  ^Var,  209/7 
Special  delivery,  66.  73,  185,  279 
Special  agents,  104-100,  115 
Speed  dilTcrcntial,  159.  357 
Spokane,  Wash.,  Terminal,  87 
Stalls    (bins).  5 
Stages.  96-99,  104.  100.  114 
Stamps.  12,  58.  95,  100,  110,  179,  201, 

213,  245.  255.  309.  317,  330 
Star  routes,  35,  104;  36,  42,  117.  183, 

251,  331.  332 


414 


MAIL  BY  RAIL 


Station  agents,  86,  88,  119 

Steel  cars,  3,  149 

Storage  and  storage  cars,  5,  13,  15,  18, 

20,  42.  51 
Street-car  R.P.O.,  236  216,  219,  266 
Strikes,  \4GfJ,  208.  209,  241.  303,  311 
"Stuck",  5,  27,  45.  53,  62,  81,  130,  145. 

146,  154,  213,  242,  270,  336 
Sulistiiutes,  47-59;  5,  7.  8,  17,  19,  58, 

62.  75,  77,  81/7.  90.  91.  129.  147.  148, 

154,  179.  185.  188,  191,  192.  202.  214, 

217,  220.  227,  234-5,  246,  248.  273. 

340,  357 
Suggestion  program.  344,  362 
Superintendent  of  mails,  railroad,  45, 

119 
Sweden,  320.  326,  Note  10 
Swing  room,  36 

Television,  348 

Tennessee,  62,  186,  256.  347 

Terminals  P.T.S.,  35-41;  3,  27,  29,  43, 

49,  51.  59,  60.  70.  72.  87.  130.   134, 

154.   159.   162,   170.   189,   190,  201-2, 

208-216,  223,   229.   265  6,   273,   301, 

312,  315,  319.  342.  3.52.  355  8.  366 
Terminals,  railroad.  4,  26-31.  50,  100- 

105.  115.  122.  133.  183,  199,233,235, 

251.  253.  308.  312.  333 
Texas.  33,  70,  172.  209.  251.  354 
Thurmond   &:  Mt.   Hope    (Th.  &  Pr. 

Hill).  171 
Tie  outs.  26,  40,  50,228 
T.P.O.,  2,58 

Tracy  8:  Pierre,  146,  147,  1.50 
Transit,  in,  3.  45,  114,  181,  214,  268, 

328.  341 
Transit    mail,   95,   99,    104,    108,   231, 

266,  359 
Transit  Postmark,  256-259.  266 
Transfer  clerks  and  T.O.'s,  41-43;  27, 

32.  38,  45.  51.  .52.  58.  87.   150,  202, 

208,  216,  257,  262,  265,  266 
Traveling  Post  Office  (book),  228,  349, 

352 
Traveling  Post  Office  &  Seapost  Soc, 

258 
Traveling  post  office,  268-296;  95,  98, 

102,  108-111.  211,  255.  258,267,  300, 

301,  313.  316.  321-323 
Traveller,  The.  257.  258.  294 


Trip  report,  27.  40,  61 .  62.  73;  Note  21 
Trolley    R.P.O.s.    231-253;    203.    260, 

264//.  304,  317-319.  329,  332,  334 
Turkey.  320.  355 
Twine,  18,  299.  362 

Uniform,  47.  86.  131.  132.  321 

Unions,  see  Labor  unions 

Union  Pacific  R.R.,  127;  see  A{)px  I, 

Omaha  &:  Og.,  etc. 
"United  States  Mail,"  2,  115,  219,  240, 

244 
United  States  territories,  301-309,  315 
Utah,  134,  183,  221 

Vail,  Theodore  N.,  127,  351 

Vermont,  221,  224 

Virginia,   65,   93,    174,    180,    183,  200, 

202,  223,  233.  333.  337 
Votaw,  Clarence  E.,  45,  47,  79,  81.  128, 

346,  349.  352 

Walter.  Urban  A..  143-158 
Wanamaker,    P.M.G.   John,    94,    135, 

187.  335 
Wa.shington,  D.  C.  29.  32.  37,  39.  43. 

65.  88.  84.   107,   133,   142.   157,   161, 

202.243,327,329,341 
Washington  State.  9.  59,  180,  197 
Watertown  !l  Aberdeen.  186 
Wayl)ill.  96.  100.  269.  276.  279,  309 
Way  mail.  95,  98.  100,  107 
Weighings,  mail,  55.  135.  145.  350,  362 
West  Side  Terminal.  351.  352 
West  Virginia.  32,  69.  172 
White,  James  E.,  120-123,  127-131,  140- 

143.  i88.  246,  349 
Wisconsin.  120,   121,  200 
Wives,  clerks*,  167,  168,  .368.  369 
World  War:  1.  210/7;  IT,  213/7.  24 
Wrecks,   221-226;    8-10.  69,   72,   138^, 

148,   154,   165,   166,  186,  220,  292-3. 

354 
Woman's   Auxiliary,    141,   167-8,  215, 

355 
Wyoming,  126,  127 

Yugoslavia,  320 

Zcvely,  A.  N.,  107-109.  Ill,  112,  117, 

118 
Zone  numbers,  342-343;  185,  240.  288, 

363,  364 


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