observe that each sorter has a
compartment or frame before him, with separate divisions in it for the
great towns only, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Brighton,
etcetera. Now, you know"--here he stopped and assumed an impressive
explanatory tone--"you couldn't expect any single man to sort the
letters for every town and village in the kingdom--could you, ma'am?"

Miss Lillycrop admitted that she could not indulge such an expectation,
and further expressed her belief that any man who could must be little
better than a lunatic.

"But every man you see here," continued Mr Bright, "has batch after
batch of letters put before him, which may contain letters from anywhere
to everywhere. So, you see, we subdivide the work. The sorters you are
now looking at sort the letters for the large towns into separate
sections, and all the rest into divisions representing the various parts
of the country, such as northern, southern, etcetera. The letters are
then collected by the boys you see going up and down the hall."

"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, assistant 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 Lil