misinformation; in the latter case, had the clerk been properly
informed, perhaps a delay of half an hour or less might have been
avoided if sent by some other route. These error-slips are sent each day
enclosed in a trip report to the division superintendent; if approved,
the record is made, and the clerk in receiving the error-slip at the end
of the month is informed of his mistake, and it is needless to add that
the error, if one of ignorance or misinformation, will not be repeated.
This forms a part of the record of the clerk upon which to a degree his
future advancement depends. The beneficial effect of this system as an
incentive to study, care in distribution, and a commendable rivalry, is
indisputable.

The postmarks on the letters in the package in our hands show that they
joined the current at a junction but a few miles past, and if the
location of one of them is sought on the map, it is found to be an
obscure hamlet on a remote stage route, by which it reaches the
railroad, over which a single clerk in an office seven feet square, or
less, performs local service, and which line makes connection with the
through mail-train on the main road. The letters described are tied in a
package with others, and a label slip placed thereon addressed to some
railway post-office, perhaps hundreds of miles distant, which is reached
unbroken through a many-linked chain of connections; with this package
are others for large cities which will be passed along intact to
destination, and also letters labeled to railway post-office lines
making connections in their turn. The pouches and sacks into which the
packages of letters and papers are deposited will be received at the
next junction into a railway post-office car, sorted and forwarded in
the manner described. In many cases a mail is sent across by a stage
route to connect a parallel line, and thereby feeding a new section.