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Almost everybody has seen the gray-uniformed messenger boys employed by the United States Post Office Department. Although it is not generally known, they are beset by the same trials and tribulations regarding wages, which vex those holding similar positions with business corporations. Thirty dollars a month is all one of Uncle Sam's special delivery boys can earn, and this he must accumulate at the rate of eight cents for each letter delivered. Take, for instance, the Chicago post office. In that office the ages of the boys range from 14 to 19 years, the average being about 16. No examination is required to enter the service beyond the usual questions pertaining to character, etc. After a boy reaches the age of 18 he is permitted to take the examination for clerk, and scores of them are now filling such positions after having passed through the special delivery service. About 15 per cent of the boys employed at present are colored. They are governed by a military sounding set of rules, and it is expected of them that while on duty their conduct and manners shall be above reproach. The suspension system is employed for cases of derelictions, which are not serious enough to call for discharge. The training is considered excellent, especially by business men, by whom many of the boys are employed after they serve their apprenticeship with the government. Several former messenger boys are now holding responsible positions in banks, others still are working for the government in more lucrative positions, while a great many special delivery boys are to be found in most of the large wholesale and retail houses of the downtown district. The opportunity for making valuable friends is great, and where a boy takes advantage of it he is apt to profit. Forty-five thousand special delivery letters are distributed over 190 square miles of Chicago territory every month. Twenty-five thousand of these go through the stations and substations located in different parts of the city, and the remaining 20,000 are sent out direct from the postoffice. The rapid distribution of this bulk of important mail rests largely with 144 boys, who wear the caps and uniforms of the special delivery department. The work of these messengers makes it possible for the government to deliver a specially stamped letter to an address four miles from the postoffice within forty minutes after it has been received, and they are responsible in a large measure for the success of the department. The government arranges that no messenger shall work more than his allotted amount. Thus a sufficient number of boys is employed to keep the aggregate returns from the special delivery service adequately distributed. These messengers work in shifts from 7 a. m. to 11 p. m. One shift is on duty until 3 o'clock and another handles the letters until the hour of closing at night. Whenever it is convenient or there is any chance of saving time, special delivery letters are sent out to substations, to be conveyed to their destinations from that point. At 4 o'clock the last dispatch to outlying stations is sent out. At 5 o'clock another leaves the postoffice for more centrally located points. Then between 5 and 6 o'clock the entire city is covered by messengers. After 6 o'clock the delivery boys cover seventy-five square miles, and at 9 o'clock the aggregate territory is reduced to twelve square miles. Between 6 and 11 p. m. there are but thirty-five messengers on duty, and on an ordinary night they handle 350 letters. On Saturday night the number is increased to about 500. It makes no difference what the condition of the weather may be, these youngsters must deliver letters to any address as late as 11 o'clock. Within a radius of ten miles they are expected to use bicycles for transportation purposes, one of the requirements for entering the service being that a boy shall own a bicycle in good condition and a full uniform, costing $12. With more than 1,000 letters a day bearing special delivery stamps coming into the postoffice, it would be impossible to handle them if each boy were given but one on a trip. The result is that when a boy starts out he may have two, three or half a dozen letters to deliver and may make, as much as 50 cents by traveling but a few blocks. But the aim of those in charge of the department is to make the earning capacity of one boy no greater than that of another, and they endeavor to regulate distances as best they can. Most special delivery letters are carried on bicycles, but in cases of extremely severe or unpleasant weather the boys are furnished with money for car fare on lines which do not recognize the government's messengers to the extent of giving them free transportation privileges. Thus in an average day's work a boy will ride many miles on his bicycle, and also take several lengthy jaunts on steam or street cars. The "first in first out," system is followed in the postoffice in sending out messengers. Each boy is supplied with a paddle bearing his number. When he comes in from a trip be surrenders this to the man in charge, and it is placed on the bottom of a pile representing the boys who are in ahead of him. As soon as there is a letter to deliver the clerk takes a paddle from the top and calls the number printed on it. In this way the trips are kept straight and no one boy has an advantage over another. BATHING FOR HEALTH AND BEAUTY Hardly anything is more beneficial to the human body than the right kind of a bath at the right time. There are at least a dozen different kinds of baths, and there are conditions of the body when eleven of them may be either of doubtful benefit or positive injury. Many persons who are physically strong and of regular habits go through life healthfully, taking just two kinds of baths—the hot bath at night for cleanliness and the cold morning plunge for a tonic. Such persons need no advice about bathing. In the case of children and the majority of adults the other eight or ten varieties of bath should be thoroughly understood. There is hardly any remedial agent so speedy and favorable in its action as the cold, tepid, warm, hot, plunge, shower, sponge, pack, foot, or sitz bath intelligently applied. It is mainly a question of temperature—temperature of the body and temperature of the bath. When the temperature of the body is normal and the general health is good, one may safely suit his fancy in the matter of baths, provided he keeps his skin clean and the pores unclogged. Most people know that a cold plunge is injurious only when it overtaxes the resisting power of the bather so that exhilarating reaction does not follow the otherwise beneficial shock. Anyone, however, healthy and strong, may remain in cold water so long that fatigue and even severe prostration result. Respecting the shower bath, the douche and other baths in which the nude body is exposed to currents of water, there seems to be much popular misinformation. All these baths are exaggerations of the cold plunge and should be used with caution. The warm bath is relaxing, as there is no reaction. If prolonged it is enervating, and the same is true of the hot bath. A bath of a temperature above 110 degrees can be borne only a short time without injuriously exciting the heart. Systematic cold bathing is frequently beneficial to children who have a sluggish circulation, with a poor appetite and feeble digestion and who are addicted to colds, but these baths should not be showers or douches except when prescribed in specific instances by a physician. There will be sufficient shock and tonic effect if the child is sponged with cool water in a warm room for not more than five minutes at a time and then dried and gently rubbed. For children warm baths are valuable to bring blood to the surface when there are spasms, colic or congestion of some inner organ. If there is congestion in the brain, indicated by headache, warm or hot bathing of the extremities of the body will tend to relieve the pain and promote sleep. When the temperature of the body is normal, hot or cold baths will neither heighten nor lower it. But when the temperature is abnormally high—when there is fever—it may be brought back toward the normal point by cold bathing. In the absence of medical advice, however, such treatment should be limited to a sponging of the entire body in water whose temperature is not lower than 70 degrees. The cold pack is more efficacious in cases of fever than cold sponging, but unless ordered by a physician it should be used seldom, and then with caution. A folded sheet is dipped in water not colder than 85 degrees, and in this the body is wrapped from armpits to ankles, with a blanket for outer covering, and then left undisturbed for ten minutes. Then the patient is taken out of the wet sheet and enveloped in a blanket and allowed to remain quiet. In bathing children no mistake is made in using the tepid bath, of about 95 degrees, which, after the child has been placed in it, may be cooled down to 90 or 85 degrees. On being taken from the bath the child should not be dressed at once, but wrapped in a bath blanket and left there for twenty minutes. This will prevent chilling. Proper bathing, according to the condition of the body, is almost a fine art, and its value is so great as to make that art well worth intelligent study. OUR SCHOOLBOY SOLDIERS The American boy may or may not be a born soldier, but it is certainly true that he is being made into one on a large scale. Most of our privately endowed schools for boys throughout the United States include more or less of military life and discipline in their daily routine, and the system is steadily growing. At present there are about 60 public and chartered military schools in this country, and more than 100 private institutions of this kind. Some of the school military corps have actually become miniature armies, proficient in the tactics of every branch of the service. Their headquarters are military posts, where the stars and stripes are raised at the boom of the sunrise gun. From the day when be dons his uniform until the final inspection at graduation time, the boy who goes to a military school leads a life of soldierly discipline. He learns the vocabulary of the army. He has his quarters in the barracks. He eats in a "mess-hall." The drum-beat displaces the morning bell, and "reveille" is the rising signal. "Tattoo" warns him to prepare for the night, and at "taps" the day's routine is officially closed. The cadet's first lesson is how to carry himself, and he spends many hours in the awkward squad before he stands "toes out," "head up" and "eyes front" to the satisfaction of the drill corporal. His fatigue and dress suits are made to fit without a wrinkle, and he must wear them so. His cap must be cocked at a right angle. His room is regularly inspected, and any untidiness means a demerit mark in his superior's report. Taught how to stand, how to walk and how to wear his clothing, he goes into another awkward squad to learn the manual of arms. Then, after he has got a number he is ready for real work. He is then required to spend two hours each day in drilling. HEALTH AND MUSCLE |