propagate the spirit of inquiry, making remote parts of the nation
homogeneous in tastes, knowledge, and a common interest in all matters
of national advancement.

If a map of the United States with every railway that crosses and
recrosses its broad surface were laid before us, it would appear that a
regulated system for an expeditious transmission of the mails in such an
intricate confusion of lines, apparently going nowhere yet everywhere,
would be an impossibility; but by study and untiring energy this has
been accomplished.

The machinery of the Post-Office Department is a system of cog-fitting
wheels, in all its component parts; and were it not so, in the
necessarily limited period and space allotted, the work in postal-cars
could not be successfully accomplished.

The interior dimensions of postal-cars vary, from whole cars sixty feet
in length, to apartments five feet five inches in length by two feet six
inches in width. The most comprehensive conception of the practical
working of the postal-car system, can be formed in a railway post-office
from forty to sixty feet in length; with this in view, we will make a
trip in one. A permit to ride in the car, signed by the superintendent
of the division of the service, is necessary to allow us the privilege;
and it is also required of clerks belonging to other lines. This rule is
necessary, in order that the clerks may perform their work
uninterruptedly and correctly; and also to exclude unauthorized persons
from mail apartments. After a hasty exchange of salutations with the
four clerks, the "clerk in charge" notes our names on his "trip report,"
and we are assigned a spot in the contracted space, where, we are
assured, we will be undisturbed, at least for a while. The trip report