THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE WILLIAM J. PENNIS ■4r. > f :'.!•■'>'-. /, .^ ^^ ^ftiAf i<|]h* ^M' »iiKSig{ii< D- tS'^ j^ii borrowers must regis- ter in the library to borrow [.books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and .MU»§«ie6e>##' iMn fted books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students mtist 'return all books befbre leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possible. For special pup- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the bene&t of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library HE6475 .D41 3 1924 030 137 743 olin .. THE .. TRAVELING POST OFFICE I ==1 HISTORY AND INCIDENTS OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE By William J. Dennis K 6'i)'2>^rG'l Copyright, 1916, by William J. Dennis N 0Cook'= 0Gilstrap^ Haynes ' AHendley" Hettinger (c. h.).. Leigh ".. ALloyd' 0Orange ^ Petrel*.- Pierson ^ Reeder ASchnebly" Springbutte " Stowers •= 0Weightman " Wolf Butte'' Aber. & MUes City. McLaughlin, S. Dak., to Terry, Mont, a Hettinger, b Haynes. c Lenunon, S. Dak. • d White Butte, 8. Dak. t Petrel. g Thunder Hawk, S. Dak. h Bucyrus. i 17, 18. J 16, 17, 18, (2) Specimen Page of a Scheme Book of North Dakota. Many offices are not on the railroad. Alphabetical references indi- cate at what railroad town mail for the inland town is dispatched; numerical references indicate which trains supply the town with mail. If no reference follows the name of a town all trains dispatch mail there. HISTORY OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 35 instructions, but any postal clerk will help a substitute fix his case ready for study, and the latter takes his scheme and postal laws and regulations home and either resigns at once or be- gins to study. The organization and supervision of the service is of im- mediate interest to any one who has anything to do with it. The postal clerk may learn all that is necessary from his copy of the postal laws and regulations, which is called a black book from the color of its cover. The United States is divided into fifteen divisions and subdivided into more than one hun- dred districts. The superior officer of a division is a division superintendent, and of a district is a chief clerk, who is respon- sible to the superintendent of the division in which his dis- trict is located. The division superintendent is responsible to the general superintendent at Washington, whose work is under the jurisdiction of the Second Assistant Postmaster-Gen- eral. These positions are all filled by promotion under civil service rules. All communications, to and from a clerk, pass through the office of the chief clerk. The recommendations of one of these officers to his superior is usually followed out in all detail matters and in most of the important ones. The scheme of a state and the case and card system of study and examination were invented and put into use by Cap- tain James White, who, from 1866 to 1907, served in all the stages of promotion from clerk on the road, or route agent, as it was called when he was appointed, to general superin- tendent. The scheme contains a list of all the post offices in a state, and the route or routes on which they are located. An office at the junction of two or more routes, or railway post offices, is prefixed by a star. An office located on two roads, not junctions, is called a double supply. An Iowa scheme shows Scranton on the Chicago & Omaha railway post of- fice. Boone is a junction, being on the Chicago & Omaha, the Boone & Des Moines, and the Fort Dodge & Des Moines. Woodbine is a double supply, being on the Chicago & Omaha, and Fort Dodge & Omaha, two parallel routes. The clerk pre- 36 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE pares cards to learn these facts. On one side of a card is printed the office of Scranton, and on the other The Scheme gj^j^^ Chicago & Omaha. On the back of the Boone card he places a star, meaning that it is a junction, together with the names of the three routes men- tioned above. On the back of the card for Woodbine he writes both Chicago & Omaha and Fort Dodge & Omaha. The boxes of the practice case are labeled to the. names of these railway post offices, and one large box is labeled junctions. The clerk learns to throw Scranton into the box, labeled Chicago & Omaha, without looking at its back. He may throw Wood- bine in either the box labeled Chicago & Omaha, or the one labeled Fort Dodge & Omaha, but must know both. He throws Boone into the junction box, but must know the names of the three routes on its back, for when he is examined in the chief clerk's office, the examiner will take out all the junctions and ask the names of all the routes on each. A substitute first learns in what county each office is located. He has the name of the county on the back of each card, and has a box for each county in his practice case. A substitute postal clerk corresponds in a way to an extra man in railroad service. One substitute may be kept for each eight regular clerks in a state, but the number varies some- what. Regular clerks, who work six or more days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, are given fifteen days plus Sundays vacation annually and their salaries paid. These absences, to- gether with those caused by sickness, accident, and for per- sonal reasons, give employment to these substitutes, who are paid at the rate of $900.00 a year for the time a^/ks*"*^ actually employed. Substitutes are usually given their first trips in runs with other clerks, but sometimes are sent out on one-man runs. The experiences of substitutes would make a volume, and a few are given in this volume. When a substitute goes on a trip with other clerks in a large railway post office, he can do little except carry sacks and "set-up" papers; that is, he sets the miscel- laneous papers so that the addresses are up. After some ex- HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 37 perience running with other clerks, he may be sent out on a run by himself, after having gone over the route with the man, whose place he is to take. The mere knowledge of location of offices is not sufficient to enable a clerk to work mail. There are often several trains carrying post office cars which run through a town, and it is necessary to know how to send a piece of mail, so as to con- nect, in the shortest time, with the train that connects the train which supplies the town. When a clerk is assigned to work, he is given a schedule, which is a time-table of mail trains, and a list of the dispatches of mails that each makes. A train connecting the Chicago & Council Bluffs train number fifteen at Albia, Iowa, would not give mail to that train for many little Iowa towns through which train number fifteen passes, because, being a night train, it does not supply them with mail. Mail for them is sent east on train number eight, which gives it back at Galesburg, Illinois, to train number seven, which, being a day train, supplies all the little towns. The question of whether a train supplies a town with mail is settled by the division superintendent on the recommenda- tion of the chief clerk, the wishes of the people of the towns being usually complied with. A further knowledge, not often required of substitutes, is required of regular clerks in making up mail for a railway post office. This is learned from a sep- aration list found in the back of the scheme. If a clerk had to work all the mail on his line before he came to the mail for the first towns out, he would either not get them out, or would have nothing to do the rest of the trip. For this rea- son mails are made up direct for the first town or two; i. e., already to be put off. The mail for the offices along the first part of the line beyond these towns is put in a sack or pack- age labeled No. 1 ; that for towns farther along is labeled No. 2, and that for the rest of the line in the state No. 3. Mail made up by lines entering Omaha for the Chicago, West Lib- erty & Omaha line must have that for Council Bluffs made up separate, that for all the offices to Atlantic in a sack, or if letters in packages, labeled Chicago, West Liberty & Ortiaha 38 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE (train) No. 1. Offices from Atlantic to Des Moines are called No. 2, and from Des Moines east, No. 3. Substitute clerks usually take the first regular appoint- ment offered, even if they particularly desire a certain run, and then try to secure their choice by applying for a transfer. In case of vacancy, a regular clerk, who had applied, wrould be transferred, and the substitute would be appointed to his place. Runs vary as to time, amount of work done, amount of salary, and other conditions. All main lines are arranged so that clerks have" regular runs to make, and regular periods off to equalize the time in excess of eight hours that was re- quired for the long trips. This accounts for the week-on and week-off of clerks. Some runs require two weeks on and one off w'hile, many short-line runs require six days a week. The length of a line, the amount of work required in the yards before the departure of the train, and the importance of the line determine the hours of work on a route. The fact that a clerk has a week off, does ont mean that he has nothing to do. There are two things connected with his work that he must do regularly at home, and there are other things that he must prepare for. The territory or states assigned for a clerk to learn, depends on the length and posi- tion of his run, and varies from one to six, main-line runs, requiring five or six. The five or six schemes must be cor- rected regularly from a weekly bulletin, which all clerks re- ceive from the superintendent. This shows changes in time- tables, and dispatch of trains, as well as all new orders or rules affecting the work. Each clerk must provide himself with slips for labels. These must be arranged, and, if they are for Study And sacks or pouches, they must be folded to fit Clerical the label holders, and must contain the clerk's Work name, train number, and date of run. The De- partment furnishes printed labels, but the clerks must arrange them for the run, and stamp up and fold them. Some clerks, on runs which require several hundred slips a week, find it profitable to buy their slips from supply houses, which make a business of printing and preparing slips. It is on these fac- Postal Clerk With Practice Case — Getting Ready for a Case Examination. HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 39 ing slips or labels that errors in the dispatch of mails are noted by the clerk receiving any incorrectly dispatched. The slips so checked are sent to the chief clerk and help determine the record and standing of the clerk who is in error. During his week off, a clerk is subject to call for extra duty in case of an emergency. Yet, while the time is not all his own, the week-off is one of the most attractive features of the work. Furthermore, the week-off is a physical neces- sity. The nature of the work performed during the week on the road is very tiresome during any trip, and is energy- consuming on many trips. This fact is due partly to the mo- tion of the train, and partly to the fact that the work requires the use of both mental and muscular energy. A congressman, who once had occasion to investigate for his own information, the work of a railway mail clerk, exclaimed to the clerk who had been loading, stalling, sorting, and exchanging mail, often in quantities of tons and always at a high rate of speed : "You earn your salary by your muscle work alone." On having the technical side of the work explained a little, he added: "You earn your salary by your technical knowledge alone." The week-off then is well earned, and is a necessity especially for clerks who have many states to study. Clerks, whose territory includes two or three states, are ex- amined once a year ; if five or six states, they are examined on two a year. In this way all of a clerk's territory is covered by examination in three years at least. When a regular clerk is examined by his chief clerk, or, as is usually the case, by an assistant detailed for that special work, he submits for in- spection his keys, commission (which is a pho- ^^^® . . topraph-pass, good only on his run), badge, Examinations u- u n i f ■ a ^ t. which all clerks are required to wear when on duty, and his schemes. He uses his own case, but must use the examiner's cards, which are blank on the back. The examiner takes down the time consumed by the clerk in "throwing" the cards in the case, and then examines the cards, a box at a time, to discover errors, each of which he shows to the clerk, if any are found. He then takes the 40 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE cards from the junction box and asks the names of the lines at each point, and asks how he would dispatch mail for that junc- tion if he were on a certain trip. This examination is a part of the system employed to determine the efficiency record on which a clerk's promotion is based. By the plus and minus system, which will be discussed later, a clerk receives five plus if he throws .9850+ of the cards correctly. Twenty to thirty plus may be made in answering correctly the one hundred questions asked on postal laws and regulations, which is a part of the regular examination. In the tenth division, which in- cludes Wisconsin, North Peninsula of Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, during the month of Sep- tember, 1915, 298 regular clerks were examined with an aver- age correct percentage of 99.39. This is perhaps a fair exam- ple, for this division contains both thickly and thinly settled territory as well as city and standpoint examinations. For the year ending June 30, 1914, about twenty thousand clerks were employed in the railway mail service. Over four thousand mail cars were used, one-fourth of which were full cars, or cars used exclusively for mail, and the rest were apart- ment cars, or cars an apartment of which is used for mail. The smallest apartment cars are used on one-man runs; the larger ones are assigned v^nhere two or three men are neces- sary, while the full cars are used on the main lines, where from four to eight, and even more men to a car are used. The length and importance of a line determine the size of the cars, and the number of men allowed to it. It is also often the case that apartments are used on day trains, these. being large enough to accommodate the mail received at local sta- tions, while on the night trains of the same route full cars are necessary for the distribution of the through night mails, which have been received from tributary day trains, and from the day mail from post offices. Clerks on one-man runs have for the most part very de- sirable positions, the most desirable being those, whose time on duty allows a compensatory week oflF, and those whose runs are confined' to one state, a condition which makes it neces- HISTORY OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 41 sary for them to be examined on but one state. Occasionally, the hours of work are undesirable, but usually they are such that the clerk has his nights and most of his evenings at home. Before going out on his run, a clerk calls at the post office, to receipt in person for the registered mail, which either has been left there by other lines, or has originated there. In large cities and important junction points, a man called a transfer clerk is detailed and placed at the stations, for the purpose of handling this registered mail, and for looking after all mail about the station. Before going to his car, the clerk signs a book of arrivals and departure, and looks Desirability ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^^^^ l^^^j^^ ^j^^ latter being a book in which are posted all orders and changes affect- ing the run. Upon being appointed to a run, a clerk is given a badge, mail key, and safety chain, and a commission which is a photographic pass, good only on the trains of his run. In the car the clerk dons overalls, or other clothes suitable for rough work, pins on his badge, attaches his keys with the safety chain, and lays out pencils, labels, schemes, registry book, and other tools of the trade. If no mail is at hand, he enters a description of the registered mail in his record book, anH makes out return receipt cards, to be dispatched with reg- isters. First-class mail and daily papers receive the first at- tention. The former is received in regularly scheduled locked pouches, and a record is kept of each pouch received and dis- patchd. The rest of the mail, consisting of second, third, and fourth classes, is handled in tie sacks, of which no record is kept. If his mail has been well made up, and most mail is, the clerk should have an interesting trip. The first town's mail is, or should have been, held "out," i. e., made up direct, ready to be put off, and the rest should be in separations of No. 1 and No. 2, if there is very much from any one source. So, by the time the engineer w'histles for the first town, its mail is ready to be dispatched, and most, if not all, the No. 1 is worked, while on some of the easiest lines all is worked up. By the time the second or third station is reached, all the mail 42 THE TRAVELlNa POST OFFICE started out with is worked, and the local mail received is not usually of sufficient quantity to rush one, so that the clerk has a little time between stations to be aware that he is on a train. . Of course, there is a difference in days. Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, the days when the county papers are published and exchanges are circulating, or on Monday eve- nings when, because there has been no Sunday train, the east- bound letters are heavy; on these days there is nothing much to do but work. When a clerk on a run of this kind becomes well acquainted with his mail, i. e., knows what to expect, knows his connections well, and is familiar with his territory, he has little difficulty in doing his work well and easily. Conditions vary on these runs. Sometimes fast work is required at the end of the run, owing to having received heavy mail at the last station, and to the necessity of being all worked up with letter packages tied out, and sacks out of the rack. There is always enough of the strenuous in places to prevent monotony, and there are few, if any, sinecures in the whole service. Before leaving his car in the evening, the clerk labels up for the next trip; that is, he puts facing slips in the letter boxes and labels in the sacks. And the day's work is not entirely done until he has signed the book of arrival, delivered the registers to the post office or transfer clerk, and has made out a trip report. This report contains the facts about the trip : viz., time of arrival and departure at junctions, amount of mail worked, any failures to receive regular mail, and other information called for on the blank reports with which he is furnished. The motion of the train makes the work somewhat tiresome, but the worker knows that he has a rest coming if his hours are long, and on runs where they are short, and he has to run six days a week, he looks forward to a vacation of fifteen days plus Sundays annually with pay. So a clerk in one of these small traveling post offices has a good position, better than the average, and better perhaps than he realizes. If a clerk receives an appointment on a full railway post office car, he is confronted with a different situation. His chances of working up to a better salary, together with the St. Paul & Des Moines Railway Post Office, Train 3 (Minne- apolis & St. Louis Railroad) — Crew Doing Advanced Distribution in the Railroad Yards. HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 43 certainty of having a week-ofiF period, is the chief inducement. Of course, when he was a substitute, he learned one or more states, but the distribution of mail is more complex than that on small runs. He is apt to be one of a force of several men in a crew. If his run is on a mail line local, the work will be similar to that on a one-man run, on a larger scale. On a large line, especially on a night line, the work is more special- ized. A new clerk is usually assigned to work out local mail, and always has certain states to work. He may have to work but one or two states each way, or he may work a state going one way and work mail up for city carriers on the return trip. On the largest lines one man may do nothing but handle reg- istered matter, or may tend station, either of which would keep him fully occupied. The matter of assignments is arranged with the least difficult first, graduating to the head clerk, or clerk-in-charge. This latter position is reached only after serv- ing in all the other assignments, and is a very important office. The work of this position, in actually handling mail, is con- fined to working Ijetters, and in some cases handling registered mail. The clerk-in-charge is authority in the crew on all mat- ters pertaining to its work not provided for by special orders from the chief clerk. The making out of trip and special re- ports requires considerable of his time, and altogether he earns well the salary he receives above that of other members of the crew. To say the least, life on a full railway post office is very strenuous. CHAPTER VI. , SPECIAL WORK. Every profession or calling has or soon acquires certain traditions, certain characteristics by which its men are dis- tinguished to some degree from those about them. The most striking of these qualities, peculiar to the railway mail service, are a high standard of ability, a high-class citizenship, and a discipline, almost military in efficiency, yet free from the un- desirable features of militarism. Discipline A?/rt ^^^ °"^ °^ ^^^ ^^^* qualities prominent among railway mail clerks, because the ranks were made up largely of men who had seen service in the Civil War. A high standard of ability resulted partly frbm this personnel and partly from necessity; a swiftly moving train is no place for a sluggard or a weakling. The high standard of citizen- ship was increased, and is maintained by the civil service ex- amination for admission. The w'hole organization has many military features, the most prominent of which are written orders, the Black Book, and the division system of officials ; and this efficient organiza- tion has demonstrated its ability to cope with unusual con- ditions on several occasions. In July, 1892, a number of clerks from different points of the East were sirrprised by an order, courteously called an invitation, to come to Omaha, Nebraska, on July 29th and take a trip to San Francisco. It was explained to them that the Post Office Department wished to recognize their very excellent service by sending them on this trip, and that the clerks on the coast would be benefited by their visit. These men, thirty-six clerks and three division superintend- ents, enjoyed the trip to the coast, and doubtless the coast clerks were much edified by the visit. However, when time HISTORY OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 45 came, August 4th, for the return trip, the men were taken to the cars, where, from chests brought from the armory, they were issued Springfield rifles with 2,000 rounds of cartridges, forty-five-calibre Colts revolvers, and 1,000 rounds of cart- ridges, and here they learned the cause of their trip. At this time the reserve of gold in the United States sub- treasury at New York, owing to shipments abroad and to other causes, had decreased to such an extent that the Secre- tary of the Treasury had ordered gold coin, to the amount of $2,000,000, transferred from the sub-treasury at San Francisco at once. It was decided to make the transfer by registered mail, and the Railway Mail Service, under the superintendency of Capt. Jas. White, undertook to transport the gold across the continent. To save hauling to the post office, the gold was registered at the sub-treasury, receipted for by the of- ficials of the Railway Mail Service and taken to the cars on strong trucks guarded by the thirty-six armed clerks. Here the 500 boxes of precious metal were loaded on the cars and the "Silk train" started across the continent. The gold train consisted of an observation car next to the engine, a C. B. & Q., and a L. S. & M. S. postal car, an express and a baggage car of the Union Pacific, and a dinky car for the crew. The secrecy and deception of the arrangements were perfect, and it was well that they were, for at that time there were in the West train robbers a plenty, who would have dared an attempt on a gold train. The story of the trip, as told ine uola ^y. g^p^ White in an article in a mail service publication, and in his "Reminiscences" is a long and interesting one; suffice it to say, the coin was trans- ported safely; not, however, without a few thrills and much concern on the part of the superintendents, and perhaps the clerks who had started out on a vacation trip. A flagman on the slope of the Sierras was frightened half out of his wits, by finding the train he had stopped for a repair gang, to be fairly bristling with guns. The officials were made busy be- fore the train started by a letter being turned in by a clerk, who knew* it was addressed to a famous outlaw. At Rawlins, 46 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE Wyoming, the relief engineer for the train feared to take his run out, as he had been held up twice that day. At Sherman, near the Divide, a number of knights of the road, vulgarly 'called hoboes, tried to take passage on the platforms of the train. When the doors opened and the points of guns stuck out like the quills of a porcupine, the hoboes scattered pell mell. In spite of several delays for broken draws, etc., the gold was delivered to the sub-treasury at New Yo'rk, and the equilibrium of Uncle Sam's money bags was restored. The Chicago fire of 1871 was another occasion on which the railway mail service performed unusual and useful service. The post office was destroyed by the fire, and mail service ap- peared to be paralyzed for that city. The superintendent, Mr. Bangs, had large postal cars stationed at various points in the city, called in the clerks who were on their weeks off, and took care of all outgoing mail. He also provided for the de- tour of mails for connections usually made through Chicago. In this way the people had as prompt dispatch of mail from the city as they had had before. Similar service was performed on postal cars during the Spanish-American War. When armies were assembled in the South, preparatory to the occupation of Cuba, the flood of mail which followed the soldiers, swamped the post offices near the camps. To meet this emergency, large postal cars were stationed where they were needed, and were manned by crews picked for a wide knowledge of territory. The most important work was done on side tracks near Camp Chickamauga, Georgia, and near Tampa, Florida. Mail from The Mail ^j^^ armies, of course, was worked the same rp, Tf, way as is any other unworked mail. Mail for the soldiers was worked up to companies, regiments, batteries and ships, which was quite simple work, except when these units were divided in loading transports or in special detail. After the departure of the transports, all mail for the soldiers, whose destination was unknown except to the officials of the army, was dispatched to Key West, Flor- ida, whence it was later sent to Santiago. HISTORY OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 47 When expeditions of our armies were landed in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, they were accompanied or closely followed by postal agents, who saw that the mail service followed the flag. Officers and men from the railway mail service aflfected temporary organizations in those islands, and mail service followed promptly. Often the equipment was crude, but it answered the purpose. At Ponce, army car- penters made tables, and at Manilla, Mr. Vaille succeeded in taking over the post office and native clerks without much trouble. At first the Spanish clerks struck, but when the Span- ish merchants saw that mail was being delivered without a hitch to English, French and German merchants, and that no one was being hurt but Spaniards, they induced the native clerks, such as were wanted of them, to resume work. Of course, as soon as conditions were settled in the new terri- tory, directors of posts wiere appointed and the Post Office Department made provision for permanent postal organiza- tion, and the work of the Railway Mail Service division was confined to its normal state, the transportation of mail. One of the causes for the efficiency of postal clerks may be found in the fact that their officers were and are efficient ; that they have attained their offices by promotion, and are familiar with the details of the work performed. Early in the history of the service, especially, and occasionally now, a clerk has to be impressed with the fact that his work is of a strenuous nature, and yet is not impossible of attainment. On the other hand, all human beings make mistakes, and, if a service con- dition be unfair or impossible, the officers have not so far for- gotten "the pit from which they were digged" as to refuse to make a change in orders. On one occasion a clerk on the Omaha & Ogden, who had entered the service before it was well under the rules of civil service, complained that his work was too hard. He made this complaint to his chief clerk, who happened to be at the station at Omaha when his train was about ready to start. He said it was impossible for any man to distribute the mail on that trip before reaching Ogden. The chief clerk replied that he could distribute it before they should 48 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE cross the state of Nebraska, if the clerk would dump the sacks on the table and keep the full sacks tied out of the rack. Send- ing a note to his wife, the chief started to throw mail, and at daylight at North Platte, Nebraska, finished the distribution. At various times, medals and other prizes have been of- fered by division officers, or by the Postmaster-General, for the best case examination, best check record, and other works of merit. Postmaster-General Wanamaker offered twelve gold medals, one for each division, to the clerk in A ^^ p . each who made the best showing in these con- tests for the year 1890. The prizes were awarded amid banquetting and general festivity. In one di- vision, the clerk who won the medal, threw 10,367 cards, 99.98% correct. The test took seven hours and one minute. This feat of memory seems almost impossible and was very deserving of the recognition it received. Interior Arrangement of One of the First IVIail Cars. CHAPTER VII. WORKING CONDITIONS. One of the most interesting phases of growth in the rail- way mail service is the development in the construction of postal cars and the improvement of their equipment. Some- times, in the evolution of a movement, some part of it moves much slower than other parts, and a near revolution is neces- sary to give the evolution even growth. This was the case in the matter of postal cars, and thereby hangs a tale. At first the traveling post office occupied apartments, often very small ones, in the ends of baggage cars. Pigeon holes or letter cases were made against the wall, and what papers or packages were received and distributed were sorted into boxes on the floor. As the country became more thickly set- tled, and the amount of mail increased, it was h^ariy Postal found necessary to use entire cars on the trunk lines to accommodate railway post offices. The first full railway postal cars were used in 1867. They were forty feet long, and contained in one end pigeon holes or let- ter cases, and in the other end boxes arranged against the wall in a semi-circle, for the distribution of papers and pack- ages. Later the circular paper cases were replaced by wooden racks, placed along the middle part of the cars in which open- mouth sacks were hung. The wooden racks consisted of rows of wooden bars, one foot apart and six feet long, placed on top of supporting posts or stanchions, and running length- wise of the cars. The bars contained hooks on which the sacks were hung, and they could be taken from the posts when not in use. There were four rows of sacks, and each row was four inches higher than the one in front of it, the rack being 50 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE SO elevated and the floor so raised as to accommodate the ele- vation of the rack. This left room for a table in front, and an aisle along the side of the car. Changes were made later in both letter and paper cases. Mr. W. L. Hunt, superintendent at St. Louis, Missouri, had a rack made of gas pipe instead of wooden bars. This rack was level on top instead of being ele- vated for the back rows, and was stationary. These two feat- ures were inferior to the old wooden rack, but the idea of using iron pipe was appropriated by Mr. C. R. Harrison, of Chicago, who devised the Harrison collapsible rack, which, with little or no improvement, is in use at the present time. The Harri- son racks, as seen in the pictures, accommodate two rows of racks on either side of a center aisle, are entirely of iron, and when not in use, can be folded back against the sides of the car or taken out entirely. (See Frontispiece.) There was more variation in the latter cases, depending on the size of the car. Some of the largest lines now have ex- clusive letter cars, and new full mail cars, in which both let- ter and paper mail is worked, have the letter cases placed in the center, while sections of paper racks extend toward each end. Space is left, however, in the extreme ends of these cars for piling full sacks, and stalls are provided, in order that dif- ferent kinds of mail may be kept separate. Modern These letter cases are so arranged that the Postal Cars same box may be used for more than one town or route. Some sections may be taken from the wall and turned around, and used for different separations. In other cars a section is labeled on one side for an outward trip, and on the reverse side for the return trip. Some cases are pro- vided with revolving strips in front of the rows of boxes, which can be labeled four ways and turned as desired. The other equipment of a postal car is inconspicuous, but necessary to the work. The old open stoves of early railroad days were displaced by Baker heaters, and later by steam heat from the engine. Lights were very important, owing to the difficult eye-work of mail clerks, and, soon after the begin- ning of mail distribution on the road, German student lamps HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 51 were placed in the cars. Now, good oil lamps, compressed gas, and electric lights are used, varying with ^different rail- road companies. Drawers are made under the tables for books and supplies. Coat closets and w;ash basins are provided, and in the newest cars there is apparatus for cooking either by steam or by gas. Work on railroads always has been somewhat dangerous, but working in the postal cars during the first half century of the railway post office was almost like working in a powder mill. Before the advent of double tracks, automatic block systems, heavy rails and ballast, the air brake, and state con- trol of working hours of railroad employees, anger trom -^vj-ecks occurred with awful frequency. The Wrecks , , , ■ , . postal clerk was m greatest danger m case of a wreck. His car was generally the weakest in the train, often being a remodeled baggage car, and, being at the front of the train, recei\'ed the brunt of the impact in case of a col- lision, or followed the engine in case of a derailment. The report of the postmaster-general for 1883 contained eleven printed pages of wrecks, and the report for 1884 con- tained fourteen pages. In these reports these sentences and parts of sentences occur, with grim regularity: "Mail car was completely destroyed ;" " — was severely bruised about the head and back;" " — was fatally injured and died the next morning;" " — was severely cut and bruised, and also injured about the spine;" " — jumped from his car before collision occurred;" " — was thrown upon a pile of railroad iron and sustained a compound fracture of the ankle ;" " — was thrown backward over the paper rack;" " — was precipitated from the mail car by force of the collision and badly injured, and died on the second of December;" " — was thrown from the door, and strik- ing on his head his neck was broken, killing him instantly;" " — received injuries resulting in his death the next morning;" " — Was caught in the wreck and burned to death;" " — his body was so badly crushed as to be unrecognizable," etc. From 1877 to 1884, twenty-five clerks were killed and one hundred forty-seven seriously injured out of an average num- 52 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE ber employed of 3,153. From 1885 to 1892, forty-three clerks were killed and four hundred sixty-three were seriously in- jured out of an average number of 5,329. Some of these wrecks were very remarkable. On the Salida & Grand Weak Mail Junction, the engine and mail car went through the bridge into the Gunnison River. Postal Clerk Williams escaped from his car to some floating tim- bers, and was rescued a mile and a half down the river. He received a cut on the right cheek four inches long, extend- ing across his right eye and was injured about the hips. While much improvement in other equipment was taking place, little or no improvement was made in the construction of postal cars. Railroad companies were permitted to build cars of material of the same weight and strength as was used in the construction of passenger coaches, regardless of the fact that the former wer-e assigned to a more hazardous place in trains. In 1891 steps were taken by the government, to require railroad companies to furnish stronger cars. Superin- tendent James E. White appointed a committee of three di- vision superintendents, to draw up plans and specifications for car construction. This committee, composed of Division Superintendents Troy, Burt, and Pepper, reported in Septem- ber, recommending specifications which were adopted by the government. The improvement for the most part consisted in heavier sills, supporting truss rods, and the use of iron plates on exposed parts of beams and sills. The specifications for postal car construction, adopted in 1891, undoubtedly caused an improvement over the old cars. At least they increased the average weight of mail cars al- most ten tons, and must have increased their strength very materially. The number of casualities, however, did not de- crease as fast as might be imagined. From 1890 to 1900, fifty-seven clerks were killed and three hundred eighty-five were seriously injured. The average an- nual number employed was 7,576. A comparison of the period from 1877 to 1891, with the one from 1892 to 1900,* shows that the average number killed per thousand is about the same, be- HISTOKV OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 53 ing one plus in each period. The average number injured, however, was much less in the latter period. As stated in the preceding paragraph, the framing specifi- cations called for some improvement, but in a few years they were far below the rising scale of heavy engine and car con- struction. In 1903 and 1904, the number of wrecks was un- usual. Eighteen clerks were killed each of these years, and seventy-eight were seriously injured in the former, and ninety in the latter. The department adopted stronger specifications in 1904, and division superintendents were instructed to in- spect cars during construction as well as before accepting them for service. The weight of postal cars was increased by the specifications of 1904 over fourteen tons, and safety rods were installed. Safety rods are two rods of gas pipe suspended from the roof and running the length of the car. They are about seven feet from the floor, and are used by the clerks to swing on in case of a wreck. The next year showed a noticeable decrease in the num- ber of fatalities, due partly to the better class of cars. Of course, it was impossible to compel railroad companies to sub- stitute these improved cars immediately on all lines, but their gradual introduction afiforded some relief. The men in the service never doubted the good faith of the Department in its efforts to promote their safety at this time, and they worked under unfavorable conditions without complaint. A storm was brewing, however, on postal service administration, which was soon to break with remarkable violence. The reasons why administrative trouble did not occur sooner are twofold. As stated, the clerks had full confidence in the wisdom and sincerity of their administrative officials, all of whom, ex- cepting the Postmaster-General, had risen to their respective offices from the ranks. They were particularly loyal to the General Superintendent, Capt. James E. White, who served until 1907. In the second place, the personnel of the railway mail service consisted of the most loyal, patriotic, and patient men in the country, who were naturally slow to make trouble over any condition. 54 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE The personnel of the railway mail service affords an in- teresting view socialogically. From the time of the adoption of civil service examinations for entrance, the ideas, ideals, and to a great extent, the qualifications of mail clerks, were strik- ingly similar. This similarity was due largely to the fact that all were obliged to pass the same kind of examination for en- trance, and that a majority of them came from the same oc- cupation, school teaching. The latter fact was so noticeable that a new appointee on meeting old clerks ocio ogy ^^g generally asked, much to his surprise, where he taught school. Previous habits of study and ideas of discipline, together with similar study and work after ap- pointment, and the fact that they were doing a public service in which they were oath-bound and under bond to do their duty, all tended to make railway postal clerks the most loyal, patriotic, and efficient class of men in the country. In fact, they were almost egotistical, looking upon postmasters and other political parasites with commiseration, if not with scorn. At various times local clubs or associations were organ- ized in different places, and in 1891, a number of leading clerks met at Chicago and organized the National Association of Rail- way Postal Clerks. A few years later the name was changed to the Railway Mail Association. The purpose of the organi- zation at first was only fraternal, but in 1898, a beneficiary de- partment was established. Old-line insurance companies did not offer protection at reasonable rates, owing to the hazard- ous nature of the occupation. The Association, for an assess- ment of about one dollar a month, furnished a mutual insur- ance, which provided for accident and death. The amounts in each case were increased from time to time, until unusually good payments were secured, being for death, $4,000, loss of a limb or eye, $1,000, and disability by accident, $18 a week, while unable to work. The Association, through its officers and committees, also secured many concessions, such as increased wages, better facilities, and reduced bond rates. Each division has a branch organization, similar and subordinate to the National Associa- HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 5S tion. Division conventions are held biennially in most di- visions, and the National convention is held bi- Rail'ii^ayMail ennially. The presidents of the division or- ganizations constitute the executive committee of the National Association. The conventions are devoted partly to the discussion of mail service affairs, and partly to social aflfairs. In each city where a sufficient number of clerks reside, local branches of the Association are organized, and, monthly meetings, partly business and partly social, are held. Any world would be incomplete without women, and es- pecially would the world of the postal clerks. In the meetings of branch, division, and National associations, very naturally were seen the wives of attending clerks. Consequently, the women of the mail service soon saw the need of an organiza- tion. In 1899, a national organization was formed at Indian- apolis, and called the Woman's Auxiliary to the Railway Mail Association. The organization was formed "for the promo- tion of all interests of the Railway Mail Association, and for the comfort, social enjoyment, and literary advancement of families of railway postal clerks." The Woman's Auxiliary started with eight branches, but soon it increased rapidly. The chapters or branches hold mixed meetings part of the time, and various entertainments and banquets are provided. The women of the mail service also play an active part in club affairs, the Auxiliary having been admitted to affiliated membership in the General Federa- tion of Women's Clubs in 1908. Aside from its work in club- dom, the Woman's Auxiliary is a valuable aid to the men of the service. In addition to immediate relief work for families of injured clerks, the Auxiliary stands with ready sympathy and appreciation for the fellows in their exacting and danger- ous work. This idea is well expressed by the new general secretary in 1915, in the following greetings: "We love you each and every one, and when twilight ushers in the night and across the stillness comes the shrill whistle of some Mogul, we breathe a prayer for the safety of our boys, for we are just one large family, for whose welfare the women of the Auxil- iary have pledged themselves." CHAPTER VIII. READJUSTMENT. The first decade of the new century witnessed a great ex- pansion in the West and Northwest, not so large as that which preceded the Civil War, but of sufficient proportions to affect the volume of mail in those parts as well as in the entire coun- try. There was much immigration to the Dakotas, Montana, Canada, Texas, and the Pacific slope. Railway mail service was extended on many roads, and the amount of mail increased on all lines in these territories. This was a period also of great development in railway transportation. Improvement in track construction and rolling stock, with the exception of postal cars, was marked. The conveniences and luxuries of travel now; reached a high state of perfection. In November, 1902, postal clerks were^ somewhat surprised to read in the weekly bulletin, an order issued by President Roosevelt, known as Executive Order No. XII. The cause of the order was not connected with the mail service, but the fact that it was issued is noteworthy at this point. The order is as follows : "All officers and employees of the United States of every description, serving in or under any of the executive departments or independent government establishments, and whether so serving in or out of Washington, jLiie vjag ^j.g hereby forbidden either directly or indi- Order ,,.,...,, ,, , . . rectly, mdividually, or through associations, to solicit an increase of pay or influence in their own interest any other legislation whatever, either before Congress or in its committees, or in any way save, through the department or independent government establishments in or under which they serve, on penalty of dismissal from the government serv- ice." The order, while surprising to those familiar with the HISTORY OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 57 first article of the first ten amendments to the Federal Con- stitution, did not alarm the mail clerks, for they had no occa- sion at that time for petitioning Congress. A few years later it became apparent to clerks on many lines thkt their conditions, from the standpoint of safety and sanitation, were bad, and that these might be improved if the ofiicials in charge would make the necessary efforts. The main grievances related to dangerous cars, unsanitary toilets, and unclean drinking water. When clerks bethought themselves of petitioning Congress for a redress of grievances, they found that they were not allowed that privilege, owing to the Roose- velt executive order of 1902. Instructions were issued to the effect that all matters must be taken up through the heads of the department under pain of dismissal. On one occasion a number of clerks prepared a petition to Congress, favoring the passage of a bill drafted by the Interstate Commerce Com- mission, to require railroads to adopt a block signal system. Before presenting it, they took the precaution of first sub- mitting it to the department where they were informed by the second assistant postmaster-general that they should not pre- sent the petition directly to Congress, stating that it was not "happily worded." By the summer of 1909, there was great dissatisfaction among many postal clerks. Conditions on some lines were intolerable. Representatives of the Railway Mail Association endeavored, in a polite way, to secure improve- Unsatisfac- ments in regard to sanitation, salaries, and ^^^■,.^°^ "^ other service matters, but with little success. Conditions Some enlisted the aid of their congressmen surreptitiously, but this was dangerous practice, because a post office clerk had been removed for giving information irregu- larly. It was hoped that the Taft administration would remedy the situation, but it did the opposite. Postmaster-General Hitchcock had a wonderful opportunity on entering office. A little tact and understanding of the situa- tion, together with sensible improvement of conditions in re- gard to cars, would have made matters all right. Mr. Taft was 58 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE expected to rescind the executive order of Mr. Roosevelt, now known as the Gag rule, but in spite of his extensive judicial experience, he revamped the order forbidding Maladmims- government employees to petition Congress. Mr. Hitchcock was apparently obsessed with the idea of saving some millions of the appropriation for the Post Office Department, and he gave his intentions much pub- 'licity. The two principal places of saving were supposed to be in shipping heavy publications by freight and in economical employment. The former contemplated the shipment of heavy monthly publications by freight to a place near their destina- tion from which they would be mailed. The scheme of shipping by freight was almost a failure. Of course, the publishers made strenuous objection to their papers being forwarded as box car mail when they had paid regular mail rates. In that quarter of the United States, where the quadrennial weighing of the mail was in progress, the freight mail caused dire confusion. An attempt was made to keep it straight by the use of blue tags, but there is no system of mathematics which could keep blue tag and regular mail straight in weight balances, and a special weighing was neces- sary. In response to strong protests from the publishers af- fected, Congress, in 1912, prohibited the extension of the plan. The economies effected in the reorganization and super- vision of employees was a worse blunder. Promotions were delayed, regular clerks were obliged to double up to save the hiring of substitutes when necessitated by annual vacations or sickness, substitutes were used in vacancies in place of regu- larly appointed clerks, and lines were reorganized so as to eliminate men where possible. How long this state of affairs would have lasted without open resistance on the part of the patient clerks, and what form their objection would have taken, had not a champion arisen in the shape of a free-lance paper, it is hard to tell. However, in the spring of 1909, announcements were circulated that a paper would be published from Phoenix, Arizona, that would fight postal maladministration. In June, the first number ap- Albuquerque & Los Angeles Railway Post Office — In Apache Canyon, New Mexico (Santa Fe Railroad). HISTORY OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 59 peared. It was called the Harpoon, and was edited by Urban A. Walter. As a propaganda paper, the Harpoon was the most remarkable publication since the time of William Lloyd Garrison. The cover contained a drawing of a harpoon and 1 the statement, "A magazine that hurts." At " the top of the editorial page was the announce- ment,' "Strike? No! Publicity? Yes!" Mr. Walter stated that his purpose was to turn the calcium light of public opinion on Civil Service Rule No. XH, removals without notice, unsani- tary cars, unsafe cars, and other unjust practices in postal ad- ministration. It is too early to estimate exactly the value of the part played by Urban A. Walter in the history of this period. What- ever may be said concerning his diction or methods, none can gainsay his energy and ability. Mr. Walter had been a clerk in the New York & Chicago Railway Post Ofifice, and had gone to Arizona for his health. The conditions prevalent in the serv- ice, moved him to resign and launch a paper of protest. He soon moved from' Phoenix to Denver, from which city he pushed a vigorous campaign of publicity. He denounced un- sanitary and unsafe cars in most scathing language. In this campaign he was aided and furnished with information by men in the cars. In one case, an extreme, if not an unrepresentative, one, a bottle was sent him containing the carcass of a rat taken from a water tank. This action resulted in the dismissal of the clerk who sent it, who in turn was given a position on the staff of the Harpoon. Copies were mailed to all members of Congress, and to the editors of many papers and magazines. All through the summer of 1900, the Harpoon continued to feature unsanitary cars, wrecks of wooden mail cars, the "gag" rule, and other like subjects. Mr. Walter also sent hundreds of letters and telegrams to congressmen, concerning postal measures that had been introduced by progressive members, and he secured altogether two hundred pledges from congress- men and candidates. In the fall the department began to regulate the consist of trains, so that wooden mail cars could not be run be- 60 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE tween steel baggage cars and the engine. Chief clerks were required to report the consist of trains containing steel cars. Some steel cars were being put into use with most grati- fying results. Sanitation was improved considerably, but the "gag" order remained, and, even worse, the purpose of the Postmaster-General to economize in the force of postal clerks. In spite of the fact that much dissatisfaction had been created among the clerks by unaccountable delays in promo- tions, some official advanced the idea that a saving could be made by taking up the slack;" i. e., taking up Impairing some of the weeks-off and lengthening the hours of duty on the road. This order to take up the slack, together with the curtailment of extra, regular help, discouraged the most loyal of clerks. Good, fast men, who formerly had said proudly, "We never go stuck," now admitted that they didn't care much if they didn't "clean up." The winter of 1910-11 was a dark one in the railway mail service. Besides taking up the so-called slack, the customary help for holidays was not allowed, and tons of Christmas mail remained unworked for several days. Some of it was dis- patched to cars, sidetracked at depots for that purpose, and there worked up by men called from their rest periods, while some rode back and forth on the stuck lines until it could be worked out. In the section where the quadrennial weighing was in progress, this stuck mail, riding back and forth, be- came a four-years' expense, because the pay to railroad com- panies for hauling the mail was based on the quadrennial weighing. On Christmas Eve a bad wreck occurred to the mail car on the Norfolk & Western, in which four clerks were killed. The car, a new one, was of pine construction, and the fact that it had been passed at inspection in face of a proviso to the postal law, which went into effect July 1, requiring mail cars to be "safe and sound in material and construction" was not understood by the clerks. The press of the country, although largely of the same political faith as the administration, began to be skeptical of Mr. Hitchcock's economy policy. Leading magazines and HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 61 daily Ipapers published accounts of disaffection in the railway- mail and regular post office services. At Christmas time, pho- tographs of huge piles of stuck mail were taken Opposition To i^y representatives of the press, and illustrated p ,. . newspaper broadsides were launched at the Postmaster-General. In Denver, Urban Walter was arrested by an official of a railroad station, where he was photographing trucks of stuck mail, but on communicating with local postal officials, who evidently were unwilling to back up the company, the official released him, and his pictures were carried in the Denver paper on the twenty-fifth. In January, 1911, matters came to a crisis. In taking up the slack, a crew of clerks in South Dakota refused to keep up extra runs without extra pay. The line in question ran from Tracy, Minnesota, to Pierre, South Dakota, but twelve out of the sixteen men assigned to the line lived in South Dakota. The route was two hundred twenty-five miles in length, and extended into a rapidly growing country. There The Tracy & ha.d been much dissatisfaction with condi- . , " tions on the line, so much so that the previous year sixteen men had resigned, or transferred from it. These resignations had occasioned eighty different assignments of substitutes to the line, whose inexperience made it hard on the regular men. In order to keep down a higher classification of the line, six of the men were supposed to run only to Blunt, which is about thirty miles short of Pierre. There were no accommodations at Blunt, and the men were obliged to run on through, although they were not so assigned. Some of the men, designated as helpers, ran only between Huron and Tracy. In taking up the slack, the regular clerks were ordered to keep up a vacancy on one of these helper runs. Since the runs began and ended at Huron, those clerks liv- ing at Tracy and at Pierre would have to deadhead to Huron twelve hdurs before leaving time. This extra work and dead- heading took two days and three nights out of the week- ofif periods, and, of course, there was no extra pay in it. The clerks so afifected objected to the order and refused to keep 62 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE up the extra run, but did not refuse to keep up the runs to which they regularly belonged. With the exception of one man, each clerk declined to take out his run on the extra sched- ule, and each in turn was suspended for insubordination and failure to protect runs. Here was a startling situation. It was virtual mutiny, but was justified on the ground of unjust and even physically unendurable conditions. Of course, the mail output, like time and tide, waited not for these men, and a remarkable conges- tion ensued. In addition to the one regular man, who remained on the line, one was transferred from the Elroy & Tracy line, and one from the office of the Chief Clerk at Winona. These three clerks and a score of substitutes, often six in a car, were "snowed" under. Mail rode up and down the line until some of it was a week old before it was delivered. At one place 1,100 sacks were piled on a station platform waiting assort- ment. As in case of all crises, public opinion, that unwieldy but re- sistless force, with which too many politicians of this period had not reckoned, began to rouse itself. The public did not know as to the merits of the case, but it did know that it wanted its mail, and that without delay. Telegrams poured into Washington, St. Paul and Pierre, and various other places where there was hope of securing relief. The Minnesota and South Dakota assemblies were in session, and both memorial- ized Congress for immediate action on the mail situation. In the meantime, desperate efforts were made by the Division Su- perintendent and local chief clerks to get the line back into working order. Five of the clerks in question were dismissed from the service, and eight were reduced at the time of their refusal to do the extra duty. Some clerks were induced to transfer to the line by a raise in salary, and later the reduced clerks were restored to the line, the objectionable arrangement for the ending of the helper runs at Blunt was changed so that both helpers ran through to Pierre, and the class of the line was raised one hundred dollars a year. St. Paul & Havre Railway Post Office — Great Northern Oriental Limited Crossing Arch Bridge, St. Paul. HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 63 Throughout the spring and summer following, the fight went merrily on. The average clerk, in fact every one of them, did all he could to perform good service under unfavorable conditions. Contributions were taken and sent to the Tracy & Pierre clerks, the Harpoon alone collecting and forwarding five hundred dollars. The Railway Mail Association was un- able to do much to help the situation. In the Deterrnined ^enth division, of which St. Paul is the head- Of ri k ^ quarters, the division president, Mr. Carl Van Dyke, was reduced and transferred from the road to the local post office for activity in behalf of the clerks. Organizations were formed, however, and a movement was started to affiliate them with the Federation of Labor. The Department, of course, viewed this move with apprehension. The slack order was somewhat modified, and the general sup- erintendent of the Railway ^lail Service was made the "goat." and demoted to the rank of division superintendent. The Railway Mail Association simultaneously passed through an upheaval. As a fraternal and social organization, it was well organized, and its work was satisfactory to the clerks as a whole. When opposition to Hitchcock's economy measures arose, a large and progressive element desired that the Association register a respectful, but powerful, protest. A smaller, but stronger,, element, consisting largely of associa- tion officers, prevented any resolutions of protest from being passed by the national conventions, and any strong letters being published in the Association's official organ. The Railway Post Office. The action of this element was much criticised. Some were suspected of being ambitious for promotion at the hands of the Department, which suspicion was practically groundless. Others were thought to be so abnormally loyal, as to believe that the heads of the Department could do no wrong, and too subservient to try to protect their legal rights as citizens. The feelings of a majority were unmistakable. The Division Association elections showed the drift. In some divisions, men who had been dismissed or reduced for "pernicious activity" M THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE or "for the good of the cause" were elected presidents. In the tenth, Carl Van Dyke, who had been reduced and transferred to the St. Paul post office, was employed by the clerks as their grievance secretary. A few years later Mr. Van Dyke was elected to Congress by the people of the district where he had been so summarily reduced. While a more progressive element was elected to the offices of the Railway Mail Associa- tion, a number of western clerks organized a new association, call the Brotherhood of Railway Postal Clerks with headquar- ters at Denver. The issue now appeared to be settling on the right to union- ize, government labor in the Railway Mail Service. The Post Office Department made strenuous efiforts to prevent the or- ganization and affiliation of postal clerks with the Federation of Labor. Some advocates of affiliation were dismissed for the "good of the service," "pernicious activity,'' and like excuses. These efiforts, together with the general trouble in the service, caused Congress to take a hand in the administration of postal affairs. Several congressmen introduced measures for inves- tigating the Post Office Department. Senator La FoUette, of Wisconsin, became interested in the matter and sent letters to all of the clerks in the country for information as to what extent they were being deprived of their legal rights. Scarcely less interested were many other congressmen, and soon ade- quate legislation on the subject was being considered on both floors. For various reasons many clerks did not desire to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor. They felt that the proper sphere of union labor is limited to the competitive labor market. But the fact remained that they were laboring un- der improper conditions and a strong minority were intent on securing immediate adjustment of their grievances. And had not Congress at this time, August, 1912, passed a sweeping and wise measure, it is probable that the entire service would have been unionized within a few years. HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 65 The act of 1912 is a mile-stone in the history of our Civil Service, and particularly of the Railway Mail Service. Among other things it abolished "gag" rule, or rule Congressional ^\i{(.}^ forbade freedom of speech by govern- ment employees on postal affairs, and restored to them the sacred right of petitioning Congress. A part of the text of the law is as follows : ^Sec. 6. That no person in the classified civil service of the United States shall be removed therefrom, except for such cause as will promote the efficiency of said service and for reasons given in writing, and the person whose removal is sought, shall have notice of the same, and of any charges pre- ferred against him and be furnished with a copy thereof, and also be allowed a reasonable time for personally answering the same in writing, and affidavits in support thereof; but no ex- amination of witnesses, nor any trial or hearing shall be re- quired, except in the discretion of the officer making the re- moval; and copies of charges, notice of hearing, answer, rea- sons for removal, and of the order of removal shall be made a part of the records of the proper department or office, as shall also the reasons for reduction in rank or compensation; and copies of the same shall be furnished to the person affected upon request, and the civil service commission also shall, upon request, be furnished copies of the same ; provided, however, that membership in any society, association, club, or other form of organization of postal employees, not affiliated with any outside organization imposing an obligation or duty upon them to engage in any strike, or proposing to assist them in any strike, against the United States, having for its objects, among other things, improvements in the condition of labor of its members, including hours of labor and compensation therefor and leave of absence, by any person or groups of persons in said postal service, or the presenting by any such person or groups of persons of any grievance or grievances to the Con- gress, or any member thereof shall not constitute or be cause for reduction in rank or compensation or removal of such per- son or groups of persons from said service. The right of per- sons employed in the civil service of the United States, either individually or collectively, to petition Congress, or any mem- ber thereof, or to furnish information to either House or Con- gress, or to any committee or member thereof, shall not be denied or interfered with. 'Act of Congress, Aug. 24, 1912, Chapter 389, Sec. 6; Federal St. Ann., 1914 SupL, p. 317; 37 St. at Large, p. 555. 66 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE This legislation, together w.ith other measures, providing for the gradual replacing of wooden mail cars by steel ones, and the advent of a new Postmaster-General, soon put an end to the unfortunate situation. The law of 1912 prohibits clerks from affiliating with any organization which imposes an obliga- tion to strike, but it gives them the right to petition Congress and removes them from the danger of summary dismissal at the instance of a superior officer. The forbidding of affiliation with an organization, which im- poses an obligation to strike, is really fortunate for the clerks themselves. The function of a regular labor union should be different from that of an association of government employees. The union deals with problems of workers employed by in- dividuals and corporations engaged in economic and competi- tive industries, where the labor of the employees goes to the profit of their employers. The weapons of the union, used legitimately to prohibit the invasion of their rights by their employers, for the purpose of increased profit, are the strike, the boycott, and propaganda. Postal clerks, on the other hand, are employed by the state to serve communal interests. The universal interest of the community, therefore, is to pro- mote and guarantee the welfare of the clerks, so that the com- munal interests will be better served. Congress has always provided for this branch of the government in a fair way, and the troubles have come about only in the administration of the service. When the attention of Congress was called to malad- ministration, the necessary remedial legislation was enacted. In case clerks should strike in order to obtain some congres- sional action, the damage of their striking would fall upon the community, and not on the offending officials entrusted with the administration of the service. Following the favorable legislation of 1912, and that of the followdng session, the railway mail service resumed its normal high state of efficiency, and the confidence and co-operation of the men was merited and received. This happy state of af- fairs was no more gratifying to the m'en themselves than to the officers. Particularly is this true of the division superintend- HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 67 ents. Any trouble in the ranks affects these officers directly. They have risen from the ranks, have a practical knowledge of all the complex details of the work of handling- the nation's mail, and have actual supervision of the work. It is unfor- tunate that any one official, without any previous knowledge of the highly organized and complex institution into which the postal service has grown, should be able so to demoralize that institution as to cripple its efficiency. And the experience of this epoch will doubtless be so valuable that another such readjustment will never be necessary in the mail service. CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION. Since the readjustment following the administration of President Taft and Postmaster-General Hitchcock, there have been few important changes in postal administration. The service quickly worked back to its accustomed high state of efficiency, and there has been a gradual expansion of service details to keep pace with the ever-increasing volume of mail. In the winter of 1913-14 a system of terminal distributing stations called Terminal Railway Post Offices was adopted. The germ of the idea came from the old distributing post offi- ces, and it was inoculated into the idea of lessening the amount of work required in the traveling postal cars. The purpose was to have worked up at terminals into direct sacks all mail that would not be delayed, and certain circulars and other matter which had no time value. Quarters for this work were secured in and near the depots of the most important con- verging points of postal routes. The theory of the plan was that a man can work faster in a stationary room than on a moving train and that the space was cheaper. It was also de- signed to employ many substitutes and beginners at these terminal stations, because the work of sorting mail out to direct sacks is simple. The experiment with terminal stations was only partially successful. It tended to decrease the amount of working space required in cars, but not so much as might be expected be- cause much of the car space used was necessary for first class mail and for daily and weekly papers, and when these were distributed the same rack space could be used for the mail that was worked in the terminals. The fact is, there is a duplica- tion of work in railway and terminal post offices. The most HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 69 potent objection to the system is the objection on the part of the publishers of periodicals and mailers of circulars. They object to having their mail held in terminals, and their position is quite right. Any piece of mail matter which pays postage is important because of that fact, and should be delivered on its way promptly. Some of the terminals first established were discontinued, but in 1915 fhere were eighty-eight in all, em- ploying 2,000 clerks. The expansion of this division of the mail service can be seen by a glance at its extent. The report of the Second As- sistant Postmaster-General for the year ending June 30, 1915, for the division of Railway Mail Service shows over thirty million dollars used for operating and over fifty-six million dollars for transportation. Railway post offices were in opera- tion on 216,439 miles of roads, traveling a total annual distance of 322,079,796 miles. There were employed in Th ^S M en., Oj LiDO.ft Bil.,43. Nobr. Linc.ABil^43, No.a ♦Oa.* BrT-.l.CaLl via Ogdan bAlbia bAlbia sAlbia aU.F.Transf. cTled. Oak cl^d Oak bTower 307 oOmaha aOmaha aOmaha pU. P-Trana. lOVKB] y^ |gs s ssiSK ss i I^||^l|i?ll||t1l mm S3gaflaa.33 o|SS2SS2S8 is i 8 S -Ka 8 sasS ■ .281 "ii5n iOm ADen fi, No. 1 >E[i.&Den..9,No.2 Dm Don, 9 Dcni r, Colo ^.._.4 0k..I3..Ni bm.&Ogden 13,No.2 Oin & Og , 13, Utah Oregon Slato . . . Plall^moiiih, Nebr. ![L0Bk&Nebr.City.5 Rflturo, 4 Betuin, S . . . . . IKeturn, S tatura, IB R.lfll.&I<.City,30 •8altLakoCiby,Utab "San PranelioQ. Ca). Bt«naett> lowft lUnionTerm.RJ'.O. Omaha. Neb. ..J BVllLAgt. Jog.4a . aOmaha oOmaba aOnuha lU. P Trans jU P TraOB nV P Trans aV P Trani al'ncifio Jet, cRed Oak iBurlingtoa jCrwton bMcndola cFairfieM jU. P Traba aV. P. Traaa iRedOak aOmaha cVilliica Tram 4 (Burl ASi. L. 8 •Chicago, 111 \ |Chi AC. Bluffs 8( No 1 and No. 2 ! Cbi. &K.City,4 1 via Gsiesburg ' llClamda. Iowa SC 31. 4 K. City, 20 ICreat. & Cum., 3 nCreat.A8l. Jb..3. l)ea M. A Mob.. 3 . DDeaM. A Cainea, 4 RIlileiDan. Icwa, 1 {Via Star Houltt f lllnd. A Chariton. 27 IMinn.ABlirt -■" Uelw.AKi aBurifnstoo bOttumwa aBOTlingtOB aBuriiDrton iBurliDstob' rVillbca aPacifia Jet bCrcston bCrMton Albia bOscmla bTovar SOT bCharibtn Pages from a Schedule of mail trains, Sixth Division. The list at bottom shows for what routes the trains of this line dispatch regular pouches, and at which point and how frequently. INCIDENTS OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 109 boards. There in the corner was my old suitcase covered with a thin coat of snow. Plain as day! The burglar had stopped to investigate his haul. First he had pulled out a scheme of New Hampshire, 1910; next a cancelling stamp, worth nothing for old iron; a copy of the Black Book; a scheme of Pennsylvania lay near; and in the suit-case a bundle of receipts, cards, an extra run of labels, a map of New York, a registry book, and some standpoint sheet schemes had been fumbled over and partially hauled out. But it was no use. Nothing in the grip would cash for a penny if indeed the things were any value on earth. The old case was the worse for car wear and would not bring ten cents. Stung ! I gathered up my precious "junk" and returned to the house where my wife congratulated me on belonging to a profession, the very tools of which were worth- less and unknown to even a burglar. Anon. A Yarn. "The train suddenly stopped; a rap on the car door and a few quick commands. In stepped a man with a shooting iron. 'Hands up and tell me where the registers are.' 'All right, you can have anything in the car; but listen. I have several hundred minus marks with no chances of getting any plus. I want to make them believe I did my best to protect the mails. You just put several bullet holes through my clothes.' 'Well, I guess I can,' answered the robber. 'Put one here through my left shirt sleeve. — Ping. And through my right. — Ping. Through my pants leg. — Ping. And the other. — Ping. Through my hat. — Ping. And another through my shirt on the left.' 'I have no more cartridges,' calmly answered the man. " 'Haven't you another gun?' asked the clerk. " 'No, I haven't.' " 'Well, I have, hands up.' 110 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE "The robber was captured and jailed. Needless to say the clerk received 500 plus and special appreciation from the De- partment." Theodore H.- Meyer. Rich Reading. A substitute was in an assignment where he had to work papers. One sack that he made up was addressed to a line that headed out of the same station at which the sub termi- nated his run. It was the duty of this sub to report to this second R. P. O. upon his arrival and work papers until leaving time. It so happened upon one occasion that he found a lot of daily papers in the sack he had made up in the first R. P. O. that should have had a different dispatch than the one given them. He did not turn the slip over to see who made it up, but checked a "special" upon it and passed it in to the clerk-in- charge. When, in due course of time, the "special" came to him with his name on both sides of the slip, you could have lassoed his eyes with a grapevine. That sub now always knows whose slip he is checking. — Postal Alliance. Lunching. Having worked for years in the lumber woods, I became dissatisfied with hard work, and decided to try "something easy." Accordingly I took the civil service examination and in a short time found myself appointed to the R. M. S. with- out a single idea as to what my duties were to be. But I was "game" to try anything once, and if I liked it I might try again. As soon as I had qualified as a substitute and before I had studied or learned anything about the service, I was given a INCIDENTS OF THE) RAILWAY MAIL gfiRVldfi ill thirty-day assignment to the Albuquerque and Ashfork R. P. O. to work California letters west-bound on the California Limited. We stopped at Gallup, New Mexico, a few minutes, just long enough to run into the Harvey Lunch Counter and buy a lunch to eat on the train. At that time the waitress on duty there when the train ar- rived was engaged to one of the clerks on the line and was in the habit of preparing a lunch consisting of the best the house afiforded, sufficient for the three clerks. They would give her ten cents to ring up on the register for looks. When I started this assignment I was chosen as the one who should supply 'the ten cents, and so for three succesive trips, one of the other clerks asked me if I wanted any lunch at Gallup, volunteering to purchase it for me when he got off there. He would purchase whatever I asked him to, and get the lunch Marie had ready for him free. On the fourth trip, however, they decided it had gone far enough, and so each of the others said that he did not care for any lunch, and I had to go for my own. As usual, Marie gave me the bag she had prepared, and the whole thing dawned upon me. The other clerks did not want any lunch, thinking that I would be unable to eat all that was sure to be in the bag which they always got, and would divide up, but they forgot that I was just out of a logging camp and had an enormous appetite. I sat down calmly and ate the whole amount in- tended for three men without a word, inwardly chuckling to myself, "He laughs best who laughs last." Frank E. Page. A Train Robbery. On Saturday night, September 24, 189—, the St. Paul & Helena R. P. O., Train No. 1, left St. Paul at 4.15 p. m. The mail crew was composed of Dana Todd, in charge, John A. Rafftery, second man, and Sherman R. Chamberlin, third man. The mail was about as usual for that season of the year, and the trip was without incident until we reached Glyndon, Min- nesota, which is a junction with the St. Paul & Minot R. P. O. 112 THE TRAVELING POST Oli'PlCE On leaving Glyndon for the short run to Moorhead, three "bums" got on, one on the "rear end," and two on the "head end." One of the two men on the "head end" wished no other company, and so, when we were a little way out of Glyndon, he took his partner by the seat of the pants and the nape of the neck and threw him ofif in the mud, as we afterwards learned, because this man went back to Glyndon and reported to the agent, who said he looked as though he had been rolled in the mud. The dumping incident was unknown to us R. P. C.'s at the time, but as we neared Moorhead we heard what we thought was the opening of the air-cock on our car, and the train came to a stop. I went to the "rear end" of the car to see that no mail had fallen upon and opened our air-cock, and finding everything all right, thought nothing more of the incident. As a matter of fact the man on the rear platform had cut the air, and when the train came to a stop and the conductor and brakeman came forward to investigate, they were escorted' to the engine tender, where the four, conductor, brakeman, en- gineer, and fireman were ranged in a semi-circle, looking into two guns in the hands of each of the two "bums," the man on the forward end having in the meantime climbed upon the tender and covered the engineer and fireman with a gun. An expressman, who happened to be off duty came forward to see what the matter was, but he was sufficiently urged to return to the coaches, and did so in a hurry, informnig the expressmen on duty that a hold-up was in progress. So the express car was duly barricaded, and the passengers on the train warned and all awaited the hold-up men. But the hold-up men un- coupled the mail car and started ahead with that only. We, of course, knew nothing about what was going on, on the out- side, as we had not taken the trouble to open the doors and look out. The engine and mail car had pulled forward some few miles when we heard what we thought to be a torpedo ahead, and the train came to a stop a second time. Again we thought nothing of this as we were accustomed to such things, and did INCIDENTS OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 113 not look out of the door. After standing some time. Todd, having finished his distribution and walked the floor a few times, opened the door by way of diversion. He leaned up against one side of the doorway for a while, and then he said : ''Sherm, they're running in some 'bums.' They're tying their hands behind them." While this was not a rare incident, as in the fall of the year it was often a question of whether the "bums," or the train crew would run the train, still I thought it worth my while to watch the tying-up process, and so quit my papers and leaned against the other side of the doorway. On looking out, I saw twio lanterns in the hands of the con- ductor and brakeman, respectively, as I could tell by the re- flection of the light upon their brass buttons, and saw what looked to be a "bum" having his hands tied behind him, which "bum'' as a matter of fact was the engineer having his hands wired behind him. I had been looking out but a short time when the procession, headed by the conductor, started for what we supposed was the rear of the train. We stood in a brightly lighted car looking out into the darkness, and so could not see clearly unless the object looked at stepped within the light thrown obliquely through the door by a roof chandelier. Immediately on answering the conductor's query, a man hold- ing two guns stepped into this light. He was gloved, wore a slouch hat turned down in front and a black mask, and hence all we knew was that he was over three feet and less than ten feet high. Pointing a gun at each of us, he said, "Come out herfe," in a very persuasive way. Todd answered, "Yes, sir," as cheerfully as he could and started to back out. Just then it occurred to the hold-up man that there might be someone else in the car, and so he put the question. Todd, fearing that Rafiftery might be found and shot up, told him that we had a man sleeping. The hold-up man said, "Go and wake him up," and as he had a gun on each of us, and mentioned no names, neither of us knew which was meant and we both stood still. Then he shook his gun at me and repeated his "request," which promptly complied with, touching only the high spots between the door and the rear of the car. I gave John a shake and 114 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE told him to get up, that we had a surprise party. I then hur- ried back to join my comrades, who had by this time been lined up across the railroad grade ditch with their backs to it. You must recollect that the principal product of this coun- try is the sand bur, and on sitting down, I realized this slightly. However, as our friend John came sleepily to the door, he was suddenly "brought to" on looking into two guns and thor- oughly awakened. It seems he thought there was a wreck, but he knew from the tone of my voice that whatever the trouble he had very little time to waste, and hence he appeared in full night regalia, which, of course, did not resist sand burs very well. On attempting to sit down, John rebounded about two feet, and let out a yell to correspond. The hold-up man merely said, "The first man who turns his head this way gets his nose blown off," (with appropriate French), at which John quietly nestled down among the sand burs and said no more save under his breath with which he swore at me, for the whole thing tickled me so that I was laughingly quietly. We then found there were two men, each armed with two guns, and while one guarded the line composed of the con- ductor, Patsy Corcoran, myself, Rafftery, Todd, the engineer, the fireman, and the brakeman, the other man climbed into the mail car. His first exclamation was "Where in Hel(-ena, Montana,) is the express car?" Some one informed him that he had left that several miles back in the country, at which he released a string of oaths which would have done credit to any professional, and then called for the clerk-in-charge, to which title Todd responded. He asked Todd to deliver his local registers, Todd did so, as they were lying right on the desk in front of him. Todd took advantage, however, of the distinction thus raised by the holp-up man and explained that a night train carried no local registers, save such as were picked up through inadvertence, thus accounting for his hav- ing but ten. This was the truth, as in those days night trains did not carry locals. Todd backed around the car looking at a gun until the hold-up man was convinced of the truth of INCIDENTS OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 115 his Statements, when Todd was told to rejoin the rest of us out on the sand-bur patch. The hold-up man proceeded to go through the car to his own satisfaction, dumping pouches of ordinary mail, and slitting from top to bottom the Helena pouch, which we had just locked out while the car was stand- ing there. This pouch was the only one in the rear of the car not containing registered mail, as in those days there was but one overland train a day, and we carried all of the registered mail for the North Pacific Coast and Alaska. The rear one- third of our car was piled to the roof with nothing save through registered pouches, but the hold-up man did not know enough to distinguish a registered pouch from an ordinary one, and as Todd had told him there were but ten local registers, and his own search had satisfied him that there were no more in the car, he evidently considered himself unlucky and let it go at that. The hold-up man then came out and stood at the head of the line, giving the command, "Stand up." This being the case of another command given impersonally, and all being anxious to please, we all stood up, at which the gentleman in charge swore quite copiously and asked all save the conductor to "please" be seated again (only he used various synonyms for "please"). After we, including John, were comfortably seated, the hold-up man started through Corcoran's pockets, and, as a gentle reminder, rested his gun on Corcoran's shoulder. When the hold-up man started to spill out Corcoran's tickets, Cor- coran thoughtlessly put his hand on the pocket, and when the hold-up man rubbed his gun by Corcoran's ear, he jumped a little and exclaimed, "Oh ! I beg your pardon — I'll see that it does not happen again." Having obtained twenty-five dollars from Corcoran, the hold-up man ordered him to start an advance line about ten feet ahead, where he stood while I was put through the same performance. I had on a blue jumper suit in which there was absolutely nothing but my handkerchief, wherefore the hold- up man got nothing. I then joined Corcoran ahead. These minutes seemed like a few hours to us, and, getting tired of 116 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE Standing, we asked permission to sit down, (always prefacing a request by the salutation, "boss," which term we used in making any request for change of position or anything else). All were passed through this search and advanced to the front line. When this performance was finished w'e were all told to stand up and get into the mail car. We were told to turn all the lights out save those in the front chandelier and turn those so very low that we could not distinguish each other in the car. We were admonished that the first man who showed his head at a window or door would be shot. The engineer asked if he should climb on the engine, and was answered "No ! — we'll give you the ride of your lives." Then for the first time we were all thoroughly scared, for we knew that the hold-up men had gotten very little for their pains, and we expected them to' throw open the throttle and let the engine go where it would. The headlight had been put out, and there we were, standing on the main track with no flagman in either direction and no headlight to warn, and expecting any minute to have the engine start off without an engineer. At that time there was no communication between the mail car and engine except via the ground. We huddled together in the rear of the car and scarcely breathed for what seemed an hour or so. Nothing happened, however, and finally the engineer got up courage enough to stick his head out of the door and hollow, "Hello, Boss," several times. This salutation was unanswered, and so we concluded that the hold-up men had taken this opportunity to disappear. The engineer then climbed out of the car and onto the engine and we pulled for Moorhead. By that time we were a pretty badly scared bunch, and, al- though it was my turn to sleep from Fargo to Jamesto-jvn, somehow I did not feel sleepy. Todd took a little supper, but soon parted with it. John was very busy the rest of the trip working mail and extracting sand burs. A posse was formed at Moorhead and sent back for the remainder of the train, and incidently for the hold-up men. The posse found the train all right, but the hold-up men left for parts unknown. We figured that they had not intended INCIDENTS OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 117 to hold up the mail car, and had made a mistake in not bring- ing the express car. The rest of the train occupants, consist- ing of the passengers and expressmen, were unharmed, save for the fright incident to momentarily expecting the hold-up men, who did not appear. The opened registered envelopes scattered about the car showed that the contents had been nothing save deeds, mortgages, etc., which were of no value to the hold-up men, and had been left. The money secured was twenty-five dollars from the conductor, fifteen dollars from the engineer and two dollars and fifty cents from Todd. Watches were not wanted. Train No. 1, pulled into "Jimtown" Sunday morning, sev- eral hours late, but without further incident. Later two men were arrested as suspects, and our crew was laid oflf to go to Minneapolis to identify them. But they had been so thoroughly disguised that we were simply certain that they were over three feet and less than ten feet high, and so, as we were unable to furnish the necessary identification, no one was convicted. Chamberlain. 118 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE OWNEY. The Postal Clerk's Dog. It is not an unusual thing for a dog to drift in unannounced, attach himself to some place or person, and remain a perfectly- satisfied tho' uninvited guest. A few have made their homes in post offices and there become favorites and mascots with post office clerks. Such a dog was Owney, a Scotch-Irish cur, which was adopted by the clerks in the Albany, N. Y., post office in 1888. Owney, however, took a liking to railway mail cars, and after once making a trip in a mail car became a trav- eling post office dog, a great pet of railway postal clerks and an inveterate traveler. The Albany clerks had attached a collar to the traveling dog inscribed, "Owney, Albany Post Office, Albany, N. Y.," and to it were attached checks, medals, inscriptions, verses, and post marks by postal men in nearly every state in the Union, as well as a dollar from Old Mexico. Postmaster- General Wanamaker took pity on Owney and had a harness made on which to carry the tags, medals, etc., that were at- , tached to him. At one time Owney carried a little memo- randum book in which verses were written. A Detroit clerk wrote : "Owney is a tramp, As you can plainly see, Only treat him kindly. And take him 'long wid ye." Hardacre, Minnesota, wrote: "Any one Owney, And this is he. The dog is aloney, So let him be." INCIDENTS OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 119 The tags, etc., attached to the dog became so heavy that a clerk in the Boston post office out of pity for him took off the whole outfit and sent it to Albany, where the souvenirs were placed in a glass case, along with a picture of the traveling postal dog. Once in Montreal, Canada, Owney was shut up, and the Albany clerks were sent a bill for board which was sent at once and the dog returned to the States. Owney's travels were not to be confined to Uncle Sam's domain, for after returning from Alaska in 1895, he trotted up the gangway of the N. P Co.'s "Victoria" and sailed for Japan, August 19th. When he arrived at Yokohama, October 3d, he attracted much attention among the "Japs," who were much interested in his tags, etc. At Kobi he received a medal from the Emperor. From here Owney found passage to Shanghai and Foochow, where he received more medals and returned to Kobi. Here Captain Grant, of the Port Philip, took him on board. He was taken ashore at Singapore and sailed from Port Said on November 30th, making the return trip via the Suez Canal and the Azores. After a few hours in New York the globe trotter started for Tacoma, where he arrived in five days, completing the trip around the world in 132 days. At the end of this trip the famous dog with the two hundred tags, medals, etc., which he had accumulated, was placed in a public hall and seen by thousands of people. At a Dog Show in San Francisco, Owney was given a silver medal, not for beauty, but for being the "Greatest Dog Traveler in the World." As seen from the drawing Owney was not a pretty dog; in fact he was very ordinary looking. He was very intelligent though, and showed almost human knowledge of train con- nections. On one occasion the postal dog wanted to accom- pany a clerk from Albany to Boston, but the clerk was so busy that he put him out of the car. Owney promptly took a local train to Troy, where he caught the Boston & Troy, arriving at Boston in time to greet the clerk as he was getting out of his car. One common trick of his was to crawl into his har- ness when someone would take it off. He seemed almost afraid of losing it. Owney was once lost for a while, and it 120 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE was learned that he was tied up in a lumber camp on the iNew York Central road. The president of the road was written to and he ordered a freight crew to stop and find the dog. A brakeman went to the camp, found him and set him free, to the great dehght of all the clerks, as well as of his "Dogship." Either by instinct or by the help of clerks, Owney man- aged to attend all the Postal Clerks' Conventions, where he was right in his element. The San Francisco convention of March, 1897, might have been taken as a sort of triumph for this famous dog rather than a meeting to discuss postal clerk's affairs. As the meeting was being called to order, in came Owney, wagging his stump tail in delight, and ran down the aisle amid the cheers of the audience. He mounted the stage and in apparent great glee looked about as if to say, "Now, you can proceed. I'm here." Perhaps few speakers ever re- ceived such applause as followed. The stump-tailed, shaggy dog, Owney, appealed to the sentimental nature of every mail slinger in the convention, and it was fully fifteen minutes be- fore order was restored. This was Owney's last triumph, however, for in the following August, a postmaster at Toledo, Ohio, not knowing the identity of the dog, ordered him shot. A taxidermist mounted the body and it, with all the medals, tags, harness, etc., was sent to the museum at Washington, where it still attracts much attention. Old clerks like to tell of the tricks of this canine, and it is doubtful if any other ever re- ceived better treatment from his admirers than did Owney, the Postal Clerks' Dog. W. J. D. Omaha & Ogden Railway Post Office (Union Pacific Railroad) — Going Through Weber Canyon, Utah. INCIDENTS OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 121 A Ballad of the Town. Spirit of steam and steel. Spirit of men that feel, Spirit of growing commonwealth. We stood on a swinging beam. Me and my pal Joe. He says, "That's quite a stream Of biped ants below." "Look," he says," to the west, Over the drifting smoke; That hill is lifting like a woman's breast, And a man would be some bloke If he didn't have thoughts come up in him That swell his soul — my eyes are dim." Iron to iron, the rivets crept, While through the air our hammers swept. And Joe drowned out the noise. His booming voice sang: "Boys, We are they with sweat anointed, We are they in faith appointed. With straining sinews to achieve A glory that the gods conceive; Thus to the uniform ages given. Thus by an unknown purpose driven. We ride with Death where the log-boom breaks. We breathe his breath where the furnace shakes. We finger his form where the wheels are whirled. And soon to his knotted arms we're hurled, Our bones in the eddies lost. Our bones to the ash-pit tossed." The riveting ceased, and ceased the song. And Joe looked 'round in his humorous way, And said, "I'm glad I'm here where I belong, I've landed a job and I get good pay." "Well, then," I said, "dig down in your brain, And since you must sing, get off o' this strain! I, too. Have work to do!" • But he kept on with the same refrain: — "The mice play far from the cat's cruel claws. But the purring mill extends its paws; Our children are belched from the mine's grim jaws" — He never finished; just then he rose Swinging his hammer, he toppled; — the close! — Henry Ackley (railway postal clerk, of Toledo, Ohio), in the "Survey," April 3, 1915. 122 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE A Remarkable Wreck. The writer once figured, rather conspicuously, in a wreck which as to origin and consequences probably equals anything in the history of railroad accidents. It was on the main Iowa line of the North Western, back in the '90s. No. 1, limited, crack train came into Boone one hour late. In the hope of putting her into Council Blufifs on time two great engines w'ere there coupled on. About two hours later while going like the wind we approached the little town of Vail. As it was my duty I went to the door and put off the mail for that point. Almost instantaneously with the release of the mail bags from my hands the car gave a mighty lurch sidewise, there was a muffled din behind us and the hissing of steam pipes indicated that we had broken apart from the rest of the train. But we kept on going. We did not know what, but fearing intuitively that something direful had happened. We finally came to a stop nearly a mile farther on. Getting out of the car and out- side the steam cloud surrounding it, we looked back down the track and our hearts went into our throats as we realized that the rest of that long train was lying in the ditch. For, although a mile distant, the scene was lit up by flames that shot forty feet into the air. Remembering the terrific speed at w;hich we had been trav- eling we shuddered in the conviction that back there scores of dead and mangled men, women and children were being consumed by fire. The engines had gotten out of order and could not be moved backwards, so all of us, enginemen and mail clerks, hurried afoot to the wreck. Upon our arrival there all the elements of the supposed holacaust dissolved one by one. The wreck was not afire — only ignited gas from a punctured reservoir was burning, and it was expending itself without damage. The coaches lay in rather orderly groups generally intact except as to broken roof-ends, steps, etc. Few, even, of the window panes on the THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE 123 upward sides of them were broken. Inside the coaches was a surprising lack of panic among the passengers — and the net of serious injuries was one broken limb. Just as I, like everybody else, had thrown off the burden of apprehension and was feeling in fine spirits over the outcome, the conductor invited me to go into the station with him. There he exhibited the upper portion of a swiitch standard upon the "target" of which was still impaled a heavy sack of mail. Again my heart started for my mouth. For there could be but one inference drawn from that exhibit — the train had been wrecked by a mail sack thrown off by myself. And this is the way it all happened: The impact of the sack against the target had broken off the frost-laden standard just below the lock. The switch points being thus released had set up a regular opening and shutting action that sent each coach's forward pair of trucks onto the sidetrack and its last pair onto the main line. This turned the coaches sidewise and they gradually toppled over, falling onto the rails of the two lines of sidetracks which served as skids and brought them to com- paratively gentle stops. Had there been, as was usually the case, a number of freight cars standing on the siding our first fears would have been realized and there would have been a different story to tell. E. M. M. 124 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE The Little Village Church. There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier place in the dale; No spot is so dear to my childhood, As the little brown church in the vale. A church erected by a railway postal clerk from contribu- tions solicited from clerks and railroad men is the unique edi- fice of worship wihich stands in the village of Eagle Bridge, New York. This memorial church was the result of the efforts of the veteran clerk, Mr. John H. Pitney. Mr. Pitney felt the need of a church in the village and conceived the idea of rais- ing the necessary money among the men with whom he asso- ciated in his work on the road. As a result of his solicitations and work the church was dedicated to the worship of God on October 26, 1882. Mr. August Bindeman in the "Railway Post Office" describes this memorial church to postal and rail- road men as follows : "The large window in the gable next to the street was con- tributed entirely by postmasters, post office clerks, railway postal clerks and railroad men. The design is by Mr. Pitney, and the drawing is by Conductor Isaac Sargent, of the old Fitchburg road. The dimensions of the window are six feet by seven feet six inches. In the oval top is a cross and crown with the initial letters of the church society in monogram. Directly underneath this is a carrier pigeon carrying a letter in his beak, which represents the earliest recorded manner of transporting intelligence. Underneath this on the left the post rider is represented ; on the right the third era in the march of intelligence is represented, a mail coach and four horses traversing a highway on the bank of a river, the Hud- son, on the bosom of which is seen (in the distance) Robert Fulton's first steamboat. The Scripture motto surrounding these historical scenes is the angel's proclamation to the watch- ing shepherds, 'Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all the people,' and 'May this church be indeed good tidings' and "glad tidings' and 'a source of great joy to the people.' Beneath all this is a train of cars, with a A Memorial Church, Eagle Bridge, New York — Erected by Postal Clerks and Railroad Men. INCIDENTS OF THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 125 United States postal car attached, telegraph and telephone lines with telegraph instrument, key and sounder, and a tele- phone instrument. A church and schoolhouse are seen in the landscape, twin sisters of a Christian civilization, cjust oyer the telegraph and telephone line is the Scripture motto : 'Their lines are gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.' Over the telephone instrument is the motto, 'Let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak,' and oyer the telegraph instrument this motto: 'For this is the message that ye learned from the beginning, that ye shall love one another.' The border is a representation of an ocean cable, with this motto : 'He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.' " The little Eagle Bridge church is a fitting memorial for men who perform such faithful tho' inconspicuous service, and doubtless the minds of not a few whose bodies have grown tired in long years of exacting service revert to the further stanzas of Mr. Pitts' "Little Brown Church in the Vale." "How sweet on a bright Sabbath morning, To list to the clear ringing bell; Its tones so sweetly are calling. Oh, come to the church in the vale." W. D. 126 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE Being Held All The Time Get Ready! Be Ready!! Regular Examinations are held twice each year. Write for Schedule. SPECIAL EXAMINATIONS are announced when eligibles are needed to fill va- canciea. A list of such examinations will be found with our Announcement, which will be sent free on recjueat. From it will be seen the demands that are beuig made upon the Civil Service Commission from day to day. In addition to this list, we get from the Civil Service Commission each day a list of specially announced examinations for Postmasters and Rural Carriers. Our students are notified of all these spe- cial opportunitira, are prepared in advance and are ready — whence their great advantage over others not so fortunate. OPPORTUNITIES WITH UNCLE SAM The opportunities for the employee of Uncle Sam are greater than that of any other employee. Geo. B. Corteiyou was at one time an humble clerk in the Post Office Department. He was later Postmaster- General and then Secretary of the Treasury. Now (on account of his Departmental record) he is the President of the ConsoUdated Gas Co., of NewYork City — one of the highest salaried posilions in the Unit- ed Slates. An Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (and there have been some who started as mrasengers) is the Prraident of the City Bank of New York — the biggest bank in Ike world. He would never have been thought except for his connection with the United States Gov- ernment. THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE The regular examination for the Railway Mail Serv- ice is usiuUly held but once a year. Special Ex- aminations, which occur frequently, are held as eligi- bles are needed, and they occur at any time, with but short notice. The satisfactory results from thrae "special examinations" have caused this long interval between regular examinations, \ There is not sufficient time to take a course of prepa- ration after the date has been announced and before a special examination is held, even should you hear of it. One great advantage our students have is the notifi- cation we give them of Special Examinations for which we are preparing them. Our students have nothing to worry about. We look after all the details. Thou- sands of persons are yearly prevented from taking ex- aminations because they are not posted as to the tech- nical requirements which puzzle even the proverbial "Philadelphia Lawyer." If you want a position in the Railway Mail Service, enroll with us now and take the course of preparation; then you will be ready for the examination when it is announced, whether regular or special. Your coro- petitors will not be ready, and your advantage will be just what you will need to insure your name being placed at the head of the list. A Commission of $2. 00 will he paid for the name of anyone whom we may secure as a student. National Correspondence Institute Baltic Building Washington, D. C. INCIDENTS OP THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 127 ^iiiiiii[]iiniiiiiiiit:iiiiiiiiiiiic]iiiiiiiiiiii[]iiiiiiiiiiiic]iiiiiiiiiiii[]iiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiininiiiiiiiiuii[]iiiiiiuiiiiniiiiiiiiiiii[]iin|^ ! corona! j f oTi?i*,?S Typewriter \ I "The Machine For Everybody" | I Visible Writing — Light Touch | I Aluminum Frame — Two Color Ribbon i I —Takes Full Width Paper— | c ^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^fts A c B > V i '■ ' . T 1 o ^--iS^^i^.^J o R F ■^- "^S'S^^"' tm R N ^ O N ip^wjnf^^^ ' ^^ Ma^SSj^gfia&|^^3HBi^^^r^ A ^ ^5^g|^ A I — Indispensable to the Traveler — I IT FOLDS § Can be carried in a suit case or its own i Carrying Case j WEIGHS SIX POUNDS I Write for Catalogue to I I B. F. Swanson Company I Harrison E. Russell, President I 417 Locust St. Des Moines I We also handle a complete line of rebuilt typewriters — all makes 1^ 3 iiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiQiiiiiiiiiiiiciiiiiiiiiiiiiui [Ill IIIIE3IIIII iiniiiiiiiiiiiinii iiiiiQin [| 128 THE TRAVELING POST OFFICE l^iiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiioiiiiiiiimHiMiiiiiiiiiHiiiiMiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiMniiiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiiiiiHiM ion SLIPSi I are complete in every detail. All train | I numbers, contents, junction points, -where- | I from, name and date printed complete; re- 1 I lieving you of the tiresome, non-profitable | I and irritable job of preparing slips by hand. | Chi.W.Lib.&Oma.Tr.215 ILLINOIS No 1 via Joliet From Chi. Sprg. & St, Louis Tr. 6 OUR FOLDED SLIP CLUB ON SLIPS Please note our liberal price reduction | ■when three or more clerks order together I using the same list at the same time. All | slips delivered PREPAID to your door. | SEND FOR ORDER BLANKS | "We giwe you from 1 to 15 blank slips free | with each run of slips for emergency. | The Postal Supply & Mfg. Co. I 5606 Euclid Ave. CLEVELAND, OHIO | |aiiMiiriiiMaiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[3iiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiii[]iiiiiiiiiiii[iiiiiiiiiiiii[]iiiiiiiiiiii[|^ fe". l< iffiit rf ■^ *' cv / , ^ i / y^