The work performed in a railway post-office on a night-train differs
somewhat from that on a day-train, yet maintaining the same general
principle of distribution. The methods differ, governed by the
connections, and a clerk suddenly transferred from a day-train to a
night-train on the same route, unless thoroughly informed of the train
schedules, of close and remote connections, the time of the dispatch of
direct closed pouches from many post-offices, stage route schedules,
etc.,--which knowledge, even approximating correctness, would be
extraordinary,--would be almost as much at a loss as if transferred to
another route, excepting his knowledge of the location of the
post-offices on his own line. In all cases if a delay occurs, causing a
connection to be missed, it is the duty of the clerk to know at once the
next most expeditious route by which the mail can be forwarded.

The hardship incurred by a night-clerk is greater in many respects than
that of the day-clerk; while in the latter case a continual active
strain is required in the performance of local work and its multiplicity
of detail, yet this is more than offset by the handling of bulky and
heavy through mail and the unnatural necessity of sleeping in the
daytime, which at most affords but a partial rest. On many night-lines
the clerks commence work in mid-afternoon, accomplishing considerable
before the train starts, and as the train plunges through darkness into
the gray dawn and early morning, they sturdily empty pouches and sacks,
and the incessant flow of letters and papers is only interrupted when
approaching some important junction where mail is delivered and received
from connecting lines or post-offices. Everything presents a weird
aspect in a railway-station at midnight,--men flit about in a dazed way
with satchels, the bright light bursting through the doorway of the car
gives a ghastly look to the face of the man who throws in the pouches
and sacks, and all appear like ghosts that will vanish with the approach