ly conveyed, our letter
proves a mere trifle. It is nothing to the hieroglyphics which
sometimes come under the observation of the blind officers. One of
these officers gazes at it shrewdly for a few seconds. "William Stiggs,
I think," he says, appealing to a comrade. "Yes," replies the comrade,
"number six little lady--no--aly--oh, Little Alley, Bring--Bringing--ah,
Birmingham!"

Just so--the thing is made out almost as quickly as though it had been
written in copperplate, and the letter, redirected in red ink, finds its
way into the Birmingham mail-bag.

So far so good, but there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, and
other elements were more successful than bad writing in preventing Mr
William Stiggs from receiving that letter.

When the mail-bag containing it was put into the Travelling Post-Office
van, Mr Bright passed in after it. Our energetic sorter was in charge
of the van that night, and went to work at once. The letters to be
dropped at the early stages of the journey had to be commenced even
before the starting of the train. The letter did not turn up at first.
The officials, of whom there were six in the van, had littered their
sorting-table and arranged many of the letters, and the limited mail was
flying north at full speed before the Bones epistle found its
appropriate pigeon-hole--for it must be understood that the vans of the
Travelling Post-Office--the T.P.O., as it is familiarly called by its
friends--are fitted up on one side with a long narrow table, above which
are numerous pigeon-holes, arranged somewhat like those of the
sorting-tables in the non-travelling Post-Offices. There is a
suggestive difference, however, in the former. Their edges are padded
to prevent the sorters' knuckles and noses from being damaged in the
event of violent jolting. The sides and ends of the vans are padded all
round to minimise their injuries in the event of an accident. Beyond
this padding, however, there are no luxuries--no couches or chairs; only
a few things like bicycle saddles attached to the tables, astride which
the sorters sit in front of their respective pigeon-holes. On the other
side of the van are the pegs on which to hang the mail-bags, a lamp and
wax for sealing the same, and the apparatus for lowering and lifting the
net which catches the bags.

Everything connected with railways must needs be uncommonly strong, as
the weight of materials, coupled with high speed, subjects all