Post Haste Part 20

"I don't see them," interrupted Miss Lillycrop.

"There, that's a northern division boy who has just backed against you, ma'am."

The boy referred to turned, apologised, and gathering the letters for the northern division from the sorter at their elbow, moved on to gather more from others.

"The division letters," continued Bright, "are then conveyed to other sorters, who subdivide them into roads, and then the final sorting takes place for the various towns. We have a staff of about a thousand sorters, a.s.sistant sorters, and boy-sorters in this (Inland) office alone, who have been, or are being, carefully trained for the work.

Some are smart, and some of course are slow. They are tested occasionally. When a sorter is tested he is given a pack of five hundred cards--dummies--to represent letters. A good man will sort these in thirteen or fifteen minutes. There are always sure to be a few mis-sorts, even in _our_ well-regulated family--that is, letters sorted to the wrong sections or divisions. Forty mis-sorts in the five hundred is considered very bad work."

"But what if a sorter does not happen to know the division to which any particular letter belongs?" asked Miss Lillycrop.

"He ought to know," replied her guide, "because all the sorters have to undergo a strict examination once a year as to their knowledge of towns and villages throughout England."

"Indeed! but," persisted Miss Lillycrop, "what does he do with a letter if he chances to forget?"

"Why, he must get other sorters to help him."

"And what happens if he finds a letter so badly addressed that he cannot read it?"

"Sends it to the blind division; we shall come to that presently," said Mr Bright. "Meanwhile we shall visit the hospital I need scarcely explain to you that the hospital is the place to which wounded letters and packages are taken to be healed. Here it is."

The party now stood beside a table, at which several clerks--we might almost say surgeons--were at work, busy with sealing-wax and string.

The patients were a wondrous lot, and told eloquently of human carelessness. Here were found letters containing articles that no envelope of mere paper could be expected to hold--such as bunches of heavy keys, articles of jewellery, etcetera, which had already more than half escaped from their covers. There were also frail cardboard boxes, so squeezed and burst that their contents were protruding, and parcels containing worsted and articles of wearing apparel, which had been so carelessly put up as to have come undone in the mail-bags. All these things were being re-tied, re-folded, patched up here and there with sealing-wax, or put into new covers, by the postal surgeons, and done with as much care, too, as though the damage had been caused by the Post-Office rather than by carelessness in the public.

But among these invalided articles were a few whose condition accidentally revealed attempts to contravene the postal laws. One letter which had burst completely open revealed a pill-box inside, with "Dinner Pills" on the outside. On examination, the pills turned out to be two sixpences wrapped up in a sc.r.a.p of paper, on which was written--"Thought you had no money to get a stamp with, so sent you some." It is contrary to regulations to send coin by post without registering the letter. The unfortunate receiver would have to pay eightpence, as a registration fee, for this shilling!

While the party was looking at the hospital work another case was discovered. A book-packet came open and revealed a letter inside. But still further, the letter was found to contain sixpence in silver, sent to defray postage when the book should be returned. Here was a double sin! No letter, or writing of the nature of a letter, is allowed to go by book post, and coin may not be sent unregistered. In this case the book would be forwarded at letter-rate, and the 8 pence registration fee would be charged for the coin--the whole amounting to 6 shillings, 6 pence.

"If the public would only attend," observed Mr Bright, in commenting on these facts, "to the regulations laid down for their guidance by the Post-Office--as detailed in our Directories and Postal Guides--such errors would seldom occur, for I believe that things of this sort are the result of ignorance rather than dishonesty."

"Now, ma'am," he continued, "we come to the blind officers."

There were several of those gentlemen, whose t.i.tle, we presume, was satirically expressive of the extraordinary sharpness of their eyes and intellects. They were seated at a table, engaged in examining addresses so illegible, so crabbed, so incomplete, and so ineffably ridiculous, that no man of ordinary mental capacity could make head or tail of them.

All the princ.i.p.al London and Provincial Directories, Guides, and Gazetteers were ranged in front of the blind officers, to a.s.sist them in their arduous labours, and by the aid of these, and their own extensive knowledge of men and places, they managed to dispose of letters for which a stranger would think it impossible to find owners.

"What would you make of that address, now?" said Mr Bright, presenting a letter to Miss Lillycrop for inspection.

"It looks like Cop--Cup--no--it begins with a C at all events.--What think you of it, May?" said the puzzled lady.

"It seems to me something like Captain Troller of Rittler Bunch," said May, laughing. "It is quite illegible."

"Not _quite_," said one of the blind officers, with a smile. "It is-- Comptroller of the Returned Letter Branch. Some one making inquiries, no doubt, after a lost letter addressed as badly as this one."

Having looked at a few more of the letters that were then pa.s.sing under examination, Mr Bright showed them a book in which were copied facsimiles of addresses which had pa.s.sed through the post. Some of these were pictorial--embracing quaint devices and caricatures, most of them in ink, and some in colours, all of which had been traced by a gentleman in the office with great skill. One that struck May as being very original was the representation of an artist painting the portrait of the Queen. Her Majesty was depicted as sitting for her portrait, and the canvas on the easel before which the artist stood was made the exact size of the postage-stamp.

While the ladies were examining this book of literary curiosities, Mr Bright took occasion to comment with pardonable pride on the working of the Post-Office.

"You see, ma'am," he said, "we do our best for the public--though many of 'em have no idea of it. We don't send letters to the Returned Letter Branch till we've tried, as you see, to get the correct addresses, and until two separate letter-carriers have attempted to deliver them.

After leaving the letter-carriers' hands, the address of every undelivered letter, and the indors.e.m.e.nt it bears, are carefully examined by a superior officer, who is held responsible for discovering any wrong treatment it may have undergone, and for having recourse to any further available means of finding the owner. It is considered better that the sender of a letter should know as soon as possible of its non-delivery, than that it should travel about with little prospect of its owner being found. We therefore send it to the Returned Branch without further delay, where it is carefully examined by a superior officer, to see that it has actually been presented as addressed, and that the reasons a.s.signed for its non-delivery are sufficient. In doubtful cases the Directories and other books of reference in the branch are consulted, and should it be found that there has been any oversight or neglect, the letter is immediately re-issued. After all has been done that can be to deliver such letters, they are opened, and returned the same day to the senders. If valuables are enclosed, the address and contents are recorded in case of inquiry. When senders fail to give their addresses, sometimes these are discovered by bills of exchange, cheques, or money-orders, which happen to be enclosed. When addresses of senders can be discovered by information on the outside of covers, the letters are returned without pa.s.sing through the Returned Letter Branch, and are not opened. When all efforts have failed, and the letters do not contain property, they are not preserved."

"Do many letters come into the Returned Letter Offices in this way?"

asked Miss Lillycrop.

"Ay; over the whole kingdom, including the letters sent direct to the senders last year, there were above four millions eight hundred thousand, and of these we managed to return nine-tenths to the writers, or re-issued them to corrected addresses."

"Oh, indeed!" said Miss Lillycrop, utterly bewildered.

"A large proportion of the letters pa.s.sing through this office," said Mr Bright, "consists of circulars. An account of these was once taken, and the number was found to be nearly twenty millions a year, and of these circulars it was ascertained that--"

"Stop! pray, sir, stop!" exclaimed Miss Lillycrop, pressing her hand to her forehead; "I am lost in admiration of your amazing memory, but I--I have no head for figures. Indeed, what I have already heard and seen in this place has produced such confusion in my poor brain that I cannot perceive any difference whatever between millions, billions, and trillions!"

"Well, come, we will continue our round," said Mr Bright, laughing.

Now, while all this was going on in the hall, there was a restive creature inside of a box which did not relish its confinement. This was Mr Fred Blurt's snake.

That sagacious animal discovered that there was a knot in the side of his pine-wood box. Now, knots are sometimes loose. Whether the snake found this out, and wrought at the knot intentionally, or forced it out accidentally during its struggles, we cannot tell, but certain it is that it got it out somehow, made its escape, and glided away into the darkest corner it could find.

Meanwhile its box was treated after the manner of parcels, and put safely into one of the mail-bags.

As the ma.s.s of letters began to diminish in bulk the snake began to feel uncomfortably exposed. At the same time Miss Lillycrop, with that wicked delight in evil prophecy which is peculiar to mankind, began to feel comfortably exultant.

"You see I was right!" she said to her guide, glancing at the clock, which now indicated ten minutes to eight; "the confusion is almost as great as ever."

"We shall see," replied Mr Bright, quietly, as he led the way back to the gallery.

From this point it could be seen, even by unpractised eyes, that, although the confusion of letters all over the place was still considerable, there were huge gaps on the sorting-tables everywhere, while the facing-tables were of course empty. There was a push and energy also which had not prevailed at first. Men seemed as though they really were in considerable haste. Letters were being bundled up and tied with string and thrust into bags, and the bags sealed with a degree of celerity that transfixed Miss Lillycrop and silenced her. A few minutes more and the tables were cleared. Another minute, and the bags were being carried out. Thirty red vans outside gaped to receive them.

Eight o'clock struck, whips cracked, wheels rattled, the eight o'clock mail was gone, and there was not a single letter left in the great sorting-room of St. Martin's-le-Grand!

"I was right, you see," said Mr Bright.

"You were right," responded Miss Lillycrop.

They descended and crossed the now unenc.u.mbered floor. The snake took it into its mottled head at that moment to do the same. Miss Lillycrop saw it, shrieked, sprang to get out of its way, fell, and sprained her ankle!

There was a rush of sorters, letter-carriers, boy-sorters, and messengers; the snake was captured, and Miss Lillycrop was tenderly borne from the General Post-Office in a state of mental amazement and physical collapse.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

FORMATION OF THE PEGAWAY LITERARY a.s.sOCIATION AND OTHER MATTERS.

Close to the residence of Solomon Flint there was a small outhouse or shed, which formed part of the letter-carrier's domain, but was too small to be sub-let as a dwelling, and too inconveniently situated in a back court to be used as an apartment. It was therefore devoted to the reception of lumber. But Solomon, not being a rich man, did not possess much lumber. The shed was therefore comparatively empty.

When Philip Maylands came to reside with Solomon, he was allowed to use this shed as a workroom.

Phil was by nature a universal genius--a Jack-of-all-trades--and formed an exception to that rule about being master of none, which is a.s.serted, though not proved, by the proverb, for he became master of more than one trade in the course of his career. Solomon owned a few tools, so that carpentry was naturally his first attempt, and he very soon became proficient in that. Then, having discovered an old clock among the lumber of the shed, he took to examining and cleaning its interior of an evening after his work at the Post-Office was done. As his mechanical powers developed, his genius for invention expanded, and soon he left the beaten tracks of knowledge and wandered into the less trodden regions of fancy.