The nimble-fingered and nimble-witted young men who stand within the
"revolving-ring" feed the packages from it into these last conveyors. To
each individual package is affixed a duplicate portion of the leaf of
the salesbook. On it the salesclerk has written, or printed, the address
to which the merchandise is to go, the cost, whether or not it is
collect on delivery (known hereafter in this telling as C. O. D.) and
other essential information. It is the addresses, however, which attract
the eyes of the genii of the "revolving-ring." In their minds these fall
into four great categories: City, meaning those portions of Manhattan
Island south of Seventy-second Street on the east side and Ninety-ninth
Street on the west; Harlem and the Bronx, the incorporated city of New
York north of those two streets; Brooklyn and New
Jersey--self-explanatory; and Suburban: all the rest of the territory
within the far-flung limits of Macy's own generously wide delivery
service. While for those points that are unfortunate enough to lie just
outside of it--Boston or Philadelphia or Kamchatka or Manila (There
hardly is an address to stagger the Macy delivery department)--the
packages go direct to the shipping room, in its own corner of the
basement.
Here these last are checked and wrapped for long-distance shipment. They
are checked against the payment or the non-payment of transportation
charges; the store has very definite rules of its own. A paid purchase
of but $2.50 is entitled to free delivery within any of the Eastern
States, of $5 and over to any of the Middle States as well, of $10 and
over to any corner of the whole United States. Freight and express
prepayments are arranged upon a somewhat similar basis. The majority of
the long-distance shipments go by parcel post, however. Still, in the
course of a twelvemonth, there are enough to go both by express and
freight to make a pretty considerable transportation bill in themselves.
Again we have neglected that precious package of milady's. It may be
only an extra pair of corset-laces--in which case the saleswoman must
have suggested that madam herself transport it to her habitat--or it may
be an eight or ten-yard piece of heavy silk for her new evening gown, or
the evening gown itself. In any case it receives the same care and
attention. We have already seen how it is packed, sent through the
conveyor-chute down into the basement and then upon the "revolving-ring"
before the nimble eyes of the men with nimble hands and wits as well.
Milady lives in West One Hundred and Fourth Street. The sorter's eyes
catch that much from the address slip, torn originally from the
salesclerk's book and pasted upon the package's outer wrappings.
"Harlem" his mind reports back to his eyes. Into the chute-entrance
labeled "Harlem and The Bronx" goes the package.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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