Note 152 — Chapter I · THE ORGANIZATION OF THE POST-OFFICE.

The staff of the largest provincial offices usually consists of clerks, sorters, stampers, messengers, letter-carriers, and rural post-messengers. The clerks are now principally engaged on clerical duties, attending to the public on money-order business, &c. or in connexion with registered letters or unpaid-letter accounts. In offices where the staff is smaller, the clerks also engage in sorting and despatching letters. In many small country towns females are employed as clerks. The sorters are principally engaged in sorting duties. Stampers and messengers do duties such as their designations denote. Letter-carriers—the familiar "postmen" of every household—are almost exclusively engaged in delivering letters, &c. from door to door. Auxiliary letter-carriers are those only partially so employed, principally on the largest, or early morning delivery. Rural post-messengers is the official name for "country postmen," who make daily journeys among the villages and hamlets surrounding each town, delivering and taking up letters on their way.