return mail is left for the railway post-office that left Boston at five
o'clock that morning; into this mail the letter for Leeds is placed, as
the clerks in the latter-named railway post-office deliver at Westfield
a pouch for Leeds, which place is reached 10.07 that morning, on train
in charge of baggage-master. This illustration is comparatively a simple
one. Many instances could be given where a detour of many miles is made
to gain a few minutes in time. By the old system the letter would, in
all probability, have gone to Albany post-office for distribution,
thence either to New Haven, Connecticut, or Westfield, Massachusetts,
for the same purpose, losing trains at each place waiting to be
distributed, and consuming fully, or more, than sixty-four instead of
sixteen hours. By the old method delays became almost interminable as
the connections became intricate, more so than on a continuous line. The
advantage of the "catcher" system described elsewhere, which enabled
towns to communicate with one another in a few minutes, instead of by
the direct closed pouch system through a distributing office miles away,
consuming hours, is not inconsiderable.

The gain by the present method is incomparable. Intersecting at Albany,
New York, with the line from Vanceborough, Maine, to San Francisco, just
described, or perhaps what may be called the vertebral column of the
system, is the New York and Chicago railway post-office line, known also
as the "Fast Mail" or the "White Mail," as the mail-cars on this line
were originally painted white. A mail-train consisting of four mail-cars
and express-cars leaves New York City at 8.50 P.M., making the through
connection to Chicago. There are two similar trains, leaving New York at
4.35 A.M., and at 10.30 A.M., with a less number of cars; and three
moving in the opposite direction. There are twenty mail-cars on this
line, each interior is sixty feet in length, and the exterior, as
already mentioned, painted white, and bearing the coat-of-arms of some