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EXVETSR IS

““Sledmere,”’ Dorset, Vermont

The Post Office,

A History of the World’s Postal Service, with Interesting
Accounts of Ancient Methods of Carrying the Mails ; Early
Postal Service in the United States, including the Rates
and Methods of a Hundred Years Ago; A Complete
History of the Postage Stamps of all Nations, and a
Statement of the High Prices Paid for Collections ;
Particulars of the Railway Mail Service ; Thri-
ling Account of the Lightning Trip with the
Furst Overland Mail; A Description of the
Washington Headquarters, Dead Letter
Office, Growth of the New York Post
Office, Inside Workings of the Boston
Post Office, Post Office Savings
Banks, Queer Errors, Laughable
Mishaps, etc., etc.

“The growth of the Post Office means the increase of a spirit of
-education, the development of trade and commerce, and the knitting
more closely together of all classes of communities in the bonds of
civilization.”

SMtHSONIAR

ROY — 8 1994

WELLS, RICHARDSON & CO.,
PUBLISHERS,
BURLINGTON, VT.

LIBRARIES

COPYRIGHT, 1889,
BY

WELLS, RICHARDSON & CO.

THE STORY COP THE POST-OFFICE:

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE WORLD’S POSTAL SERVICE.

The Prime Factor of. Civilization.—A Glance Two Thousand
Years Backward.—How Julius Ceesar’s Letters were Mailed.
—The Star Routes of the Incas.—Postal Systems in the
Middle Ages.—France and England copy Persia and Rome.
—Why it Became a Government Monopoly.— Foreign Cor-
respondence Discouraged.—The First Postal System for the
General Public.—A Man who Knew Nothing About the
Post-Office Reformed the Whole System.---Modern History
of the Postal Service.

THE PRIME FACTOR OF CIVILIZATION.

There is a debt of gratitude due the postal service
which but few people appreciate. It is one of the
prime factors of our boasted civilization. A country
without postal facilities is out of the world. It
might as well be located in the moon, for all the
benefitit is to mankind. One of the first things a
nation must establish before it can successfully enter
the race in commerce, in science and in the arts, is a
means by which its people can communicate quickly
and easily amongst themselves and with other
nations.

What would the manufacturer or merchant do if,
when he came to his office he found no batch of orders
from the mails? Imagine, if you are able, the effect
which the stoppage of the postal service for one
month would have upon the commerce of the coun-
try. Hosts of undertakings, employing thousands of
men, would be obliged to suspend operations. The
snow blockade of 1887 gives a faint idea of the reli-

4 THE STORY OF

ance placed upon the mails. Clerks sat around in
offices, and merchants twirled their thumbs, just
because Uncle Sam’s mail had to stop work on ac-
count of the snow storm. The cry of the world for
increased facilities of mail communication is based
upon sound principles. Perhaps a brief survey of
the ancient postal systems may make us realize that
in this particular, at least, we are far better off than
they were in days of old.
A GLANCE TWO THOUSAND YEARS BACKWARD.

The birth of postal communication, like that of so
many of our greatest blessings, is lost in obscurity.

In 2nd Chronicles we read, “ The posts went with
the letters from the King and his Princes throughout
all Israel.”

Job says, “Now my days are swifter than the
post; they flee away.”

The Assyrian and Persian monarchs established
stations at a day’s journey apart, where they kept
saddled horses all ready for the courier to leap on to
a fresh one and so carry with great speed the orders
of his monarch. The Roman Empire, however, was
probably the first to organize a postal service. This
was not established for commerce or for the needs of
the people, but solely for military and administrative
purposes. Old Rome in her palmiest days was much
inferior to the smallest town in the United States, as
far as postal communication was concerned. She
ruled the whole civilized world, but she didn’t have
a decent post-office. Poor Rome! Her enterprise,
however, has left us one word which is incorporated
in every postal system. The word “post” originated

THE POST-OFFICE. 5

in the fact. that Roman couriers were stationed at
posts certain distances apart, where they awaited the
dispatches that were to be carried forward.

HOW JULIUS C/ESAR’S LETTERS WERE MAILED.

Julius Czsar’s writing materials were not ten cent
a pound paper, square envelopes, violet ink, and a
scratchy pen. He probably wrote upon thin tablets
of wood, covered over with wax, and formed the
letters with a stylus. As these tablets had no con-
venient gummed flap, they were bound together with
a linen thread, and where the strings fastened, were
sealed with wax and stamped with his signet ring.
This ensured their safe and speedy delivery. Per-
haps this was the origin of the franking system. The
letter was then delivered to a courier who bore it
rapidly to the nearest relay station, or post, where it
was transferred to another courier and so on until it
finally reached its destination.

THE STAR ROUTES OF THE INCAS.

When the Spanish conquerors reached Peru, they
found that the Peruvian monarchs had a well estab-
lished system to forward the dispatches of govern-
ment. All along their postal routes small buildings
were erected, at a distance of less than five miles
apart, in each of which a number of couriers were sta-
tioned. These men were dressed in a peculiar livery,
were all carefully trained to the work, and selected
for their speed and fidelity. As the distance each
had to cover was small, and as there was ample time
to rest at the stations, they ran over the ground with
great swiftness, and messages were carried through

6 THE STORY OF

the whole extent of the long routes at the rate of
150 miles a day.

POSTAL SYSTEMS IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

In the Middle Ages there were a number of these
so-called systems. They were all founded, like those
of Rome and the Incas, for special purposes, not for
the needs of the general public. In truth, it seems
that in ancient times the needs and conveniences of
the general public were but little thought of If
in those days Jay Gould had uttered his famous sen- .
timent, ‘The public be—,” he would have been
called a radical reformer, or perhaps anarchist, for
the lower classes, which of course constituted ‘ the
public,” were not of sufficient importance to be even
spoken of in such an emphatic manner. When the
world was growing more enlightened in the middle
ages, cities established postal systems for the purpose
of commerce, universities to enable students and
their relatives at home to exchange communications,
and different orders of knights as a means of extend-
ing their influence. Soon these improved conven-
iences were thrown open to the use of any one who
could afford to pay the high rates charged.
Cheap postage was not then thought of.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND COPY PERSIA AND ROME.

It is quite improbable that France and England,
when in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they
established systems of mounted posts, knew that they
were simply copying the Persians and Romans. But
theirsystems were almost exactly the same, and, too;
were solely for the transmission of government dis-

THE POST-OFFIOCE. mo:

patches. There isa vast difference between then
and now. Zhen governments were the only ones
who had a right to use the postal service. Vow the
government’s mail is almost lost sight of in the im-
mense correspondence of the people.

The development of postal service is so nearly
alike in all countries that it is unnecessary to treat
separately of their ancient history. First, there was
the establishment by the government of post reutes
for the transmission of official dispatches. This sys-
tem was afterwards thrown open to the uses of the
public. Then private individuals, seeing the profit
of this business, started rival systems, to be swallowed
up in the monopolization of all postal business by
the government. :

WHY IT BECAME A GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY.

During the infancy of the postal service, when
letters were carried by both private individuals and
the government, it soon became plain that competi-
tion, though the life of trade, was not the proper
thing in carrying the mails, and so in the majority of
countries the government monopolized this business.
England, in 1637, established such a monopoly, and.
this has been adhered to in all her subsequent regu-
lations of the post-office. A few years afterwards, in
1649, London, which always liked to have a finger in
any pie which contained gold, attempted to set up a
rival business, but the House of Commons would not
allow this presumptuous city to cut rates, and sup-
pressed the audacious competitor. In 1685, a Mr.
Robert Murray of London, thought he could earn an
honest penny by carrying letters and parcels between

8 THE STORY OF a

different parts of London and its suburbs. Just as
business was beginning to boom, and a dividend was
about to be declared, the Duke of York, on whom the
post-office revenues of England had been settled,
complained of Mr. Murray’s enterprise as an infringe-
ment upon his rights. The Court of King’s Bench
upheld the Duke, and this London post-office was_
annexed to the government, although it was con-
ducted as a separate department of the general post-
office until 1854. As private individuals seemed to
find little honor and less profit in the post-office
business, England has since had no further competi-
tion within her own borders.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE DISCOURAGED.

It was not until 1833 that John Bull had a daily
mail to Paris, while with other parts of the Contin-
ent he had but two mails a week. By this time he
had come to the conclusion that it was a good thing
for his subjects to send letters amongst themselves.
But his rates of postage to foreign countries showed
that he wished to be exclusive and not interchange
very many letters with people on the continent.
This policy is indicated by the rates charged, for a
letter could be sent from London toa Dover address
for eight pence, but if it was to be forwarded to France
it would cost one shilling and twopence to take this
letter from London to Dover, while for other coun-
tries the rates of postage were so excessive as to be
almost prohibitory. England was not alone in dis-
couraging foreign correspondence, for the postal ser-
vice of all countries was conducted upon the same
policy. But with the growth of commerce and the

THE POST-OFFICE. 9

great increase of emigration there came a demand
upon the governments for lower rates of postage to
the outside world. In 1834 the English government
charged nearly one dollar to deliver a letter to a ship
going to the United States. The lovelorn maiden
whose John was seeking fame and fortune in the home
of the free, could not send many letters at this price,
for the postage on one would be almost, if not quite,
a week’s wages. The rates had to be lowered, and
to do it the different countries of the world made
many postal treaties with each other, finally culmin-
ating in the universal postal system described upon
a following page.

THE FIRST POSTAL SYSTEM FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

The earliest postal system for the accommodation
of the general public was established in 1516, be-
tween Berlin and Vienna, by Franz von Thurn and
Taxis. Afterwards this was extended over a greater
part of Germany and Italy. Fortune favored the
brave, for it really was a brave undertaking to estab-
lish a postal system in those days, and the Counts
of Thurn and Taxis were given a postal monopoly,
which they retained until the dissolution of the Ger-
man Empire in 1806.

Previous to 1524 the French postal department
had labored under the delusion that it owed no duty
to the people, but belonged wholly to the king and
nobles. But liberal ideas were growing, and from
that year any one who had the money to pay post-
age was allowed to use the royal post-office. England
in 1635 astonished the world when it established a

10 THE STORY OF

running post between London and eae to go

and come in six days.

A MAN WHO KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THE POST-OFFICE
REFORMED THE WHOLE SYSTEM.

It seems strange that a man not a post-office
official, and one who had no practical experience in
the business, should have been the greatest reformer
of the service, and in fact, made possible the postal
service of to-day. This was one .instance at least
where “the outsider knew it all” proved true. In
1837, Sir Rowland Hill published the pamphlet that
has made him famous. At that period rates of post-
age were based upon the distance the letter was to
be carried, as well as upon its weight and the num-
ber of sheets. This original man succeeded in satis-
fying himself, and, what was more important, the
world, that the principal expense of letter carriage
was in distributing and collecting, and that the cost
of carrying differed so little with the distance that a
uniform rate, regardless of distance, was the fairest
to allconcerned. He also recommended that post-
age be prepaid by the means of postagestamps. Of
course at first this change in the rates would cause a
deficiency, but he felt sure that the increased corres-
pondence which would naturally result, as well as the
savings gained by his improved methods, would more
than counterbalance this. The effects bore out his
theory. In one year after the adoption of his sys-
tem, the number of letters carried in the United
Kingdom was almost doubled. His services were
rewarded with the honor of knighthood and a pen-
sion.

THE POST-OFFICE. 11

MODERN HISTORY OF THE POSTAL SERVICE.

The history of the postal service in the last hundred
years is best told in descriptions of the workings of
the different postal systems to which, after steam,
the world is chiefly indebted for its marvelous
material and intellectual progress. ‘‘ We know now
that by the supply of a cheap, rapid, and trustworthy
means of communication not only have civilized
people, high and low, enjoyed continuous intercourse
and fellowship with absent friends, not only have
works of charity been facilitated, schools enlarged,
and united national feeling promoted, but in addition
an incalculable stimulus has been given to trade and
industry.”

CHAPTER II.
EARLY POSTAL SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES.

Every Citizen a Letter Carrier.—The First Established System.
—Virginia’s Unique Method.—The First Regular Mail.—
Thirty Years Later.—It was High Rates and Poor Service.—
The British Government Takes a Hand.—Honest Ben puts
the Postal Service on a Business Basis.—Small Beginnings
Make Great Endings.—Padlocks were not Used on the Mail
Bags.—The Poor Newspaper had a Hard Time.—Franklin’s
Successors.—The Post Office a Socialistic Institution.—
aap oe Postage Fifty Years Ago.—What they Asked for
in 1851.

EARLY POSTAL SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES.—EVERY
CITIZEN A LETTER CARRIER.

Prior to 1639 there was no established postal ser-
vice in America, although there were a great many
letter carriers. Every inhabitant, excluding the
noble red man, was appointed by his neighbors and
townspeople to carry letters and parcels when going
upon a journey. Parton’s Life of Franklin gives the

12 THE STORY OF

following interesting account of postal facilities at
this early time. “ Letters arriving from beyond the
sea were usually delivered on board the ship into
the hands of the persons to whom they were ad-
dressed, every family sending a member on board for
the purpose of receiving letters. Letters not called
for were taken by the captain to a coffee-house near
the wharf, where they were spread out on a table
waiting the coming of their owners. Persons from
adjacent settlements called at the coffee-house and
carried away not only their own letters, but all letters
belonging to the people in the neighborhood, which
they either delivered in person, or deposited at the
house of the minister or magistrate, or some relative
of the individual to whom the letter was addressed.
Hence the custom grew of depositing at the ship
coffee-house letters written in the town and destined
to a place in the interior, as well as letters brought
from the country and directed to an inhabitant of
the town. <As the settlements grew in number and
magnitude, it became usual to leave letters directed
to one of them, at the inn most frequented by the in-
habitants of that settlement. Thus, several years
before there was a post office or a post-rider in the
colonies, a rude, slow, unsafe, but neighborly system
of letter delivery had sprung up; and long after the
establishment of a post office this neighborly method
continued to be the main dependence of the people
for the transportation of letters for short distances.”
THE FIRST ESTABLISHED SYSTEM.

In 1639 Massachusetts established a legal system

by the following decree: ‘It is ordered that notice -

THE POST-OFFICE. 13

be given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in
Boston, is the place appointed for all letters which
are brought from beyond the seas or are to be
brought thither to be left with him, and he 1s to take
care that they are to be delivered or sent according
to the directions, and he is allowed for every letter a
penny, and he must answer all miscarriages through
his own neglect in this kind.” This was cheap post-
age, and probably mighty cheap service.

VIRGINIA’S UNIQUE METHOD.

Virginia appears to have been the next colony to
pass laws in regard to a postal system. Her arrange-
ment was very unique, and if the penalty was en-
forced, it ought to have at least ensured the delivery
of letters within her borders, for the law required
every planter to convey the dispatches as they ar-
rived, to the next plantation on pain of forfeiting a
hogshead of tobacco.

THE FIRST REGULAR MAIL.

A little over two hundred years ago was established
the first regular mail in the colonies, the government
of New York advertising a monthly mail to Boston
as follows: “ Those that be disposed to send letters
are to bring them to the secretary’s office, where, in
a locked box, they shall be preserved till the messen-
ger calls for them, all persons paying post before the
bag be sealed up.” It may be well to notice that
there was now established cheap postage, Mr. Richard
Fairbanks of Boston getting a penny for every letter,
and, according to this New York advertising, prepay-
ment was also in vogue. Unfortunately these two
wise regulations came into disuse, and about 100

14 THE STORY OF

years afterwards were among the reforms which were
so clamorously demanded.
THIRTY YEARS LATER.

The next thirty years must have seen an immense
increase in the mail business of the colonies, for in
1702 the Boston News-Letter published the follow-
ing order, showing that the monthly mail referred to
before was to be changed to a fortnightly one: ‘“ By
order of the Postmaster General of North America.
These are to give notice that on Monday night, the
6th of December, the western post between Boston
and New York sets out once a fortnight.” Probably
some of the good old people of Massachusetts thought
that this innovation could not be kept up, for there
surely would not be enough letters to pay the ex-
pense of the messengers going with the mails, who
received three pence a mile.

IT WAS HIGH RATES AND POOR SERVICE.

In 1683 there was a weekly mail from Philadelphia
to Maryland, the postage being six pence for each
letter. As the worthy people who were settling this
new country began to have more time for letter
writing, other postal routes and postal systems were
soon established. The New Hampshire colony estab-
lished one in 1693, and the other colonies soon
adopted regulations for postal service. Before 1760
mail was forwarded east of Portsmouth, N. H., only
when a sufficient number of letters had been received
to pay expenses—a sort of “go as you please”
service.

THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT TAKES A HAND.
In 1660 the British government sought to regulate, .

THE POST-OFFICE. 15

by an act of parliament, postal communication in the
colonies, but these efforts seemed to have had but
little effect until 1692, when Virginia accepted for
herself the appointment of Thomas Neale to take
charge of the postal business of the colonies. Thomas
could not have been a very energetic sort of person,
for no post-office was established in that colony un-
til forty years after his appointment. Great Britain
was not getting rich out of the postal revenue she
derived from the colonies, as she received no profit
from that business until 1753, In addition to the
high rates of postage and irregularity of the mails,
the post riders and postmasters of early times were
rather untrustworthy. They evidently ran the mails
to suit themselves, for Andrew Bradford, who was
postmaster of Philadelphia, kept Benjamin Franklin’s
paper, “ The Philadelphia Gazette,” out of the mails
in order that his own paper, “The Mercury,” might
obtain the most business. If Andrew had published
a paper in New York City, A. D. 1889, he would un-
doubtedly have had “the biggest circulation in
America.” = *

HONEST BEN PUTS THE POSTAL SERVICE ON A BUSINESS
BASIS.

Benjamin Franklin seems to have differed from the
average “ Jack of all trades,” for he was master ofall
that he undertook. In 1737 he was appointed post-
master of Philadelphia. He managed this office so
well that in 1753 the Crown appointed him Deputy
Postmaster General of the colonies. He changed
the hit or miss style of the postal service to one or
ganized upon business ideas, and ran the post-oflice

16 THE STORY OF

department in sucha way as to makea profit for
Great Britain. But honest Ben was too patriotic to
hold such a prominent position in the service of His
Majesty at that period, and soon made himself ob-
noxious on account of his connection with a petition —
for the removal of the governor of Massachusetts,
and for this reason was dismissed from the service
January 31, 1774. The people of the colonies
thought that they could manage their postal business
themselves, and combined in making arrangements
for carrying their own mail without the assistance of
Great Britain. They accordingly appointed Frank-
lin post-master general in 1775 with a salary of one |
thousand dollars per year.
‘‘ SMALL BEGINNINGS MAKE GREAT ENDINGS.”

One almost needs a microscope to find the postal
department in the days of the Revolution. Massa-
chusetts had fourteen post-offices, New Hampshire
one, and a few offices were scattered among the other
colonies. Then the average day’s journey of a letter
was between thirty and fifty miles, and it was not
until 1792 that the idea of sending a letter at the
marvelous speed of one hundred miles a day was
thought of.

In 1791 there were but six post-offices in New
Jersey, which state by the way, could hardly be con-
sidered one of the United States, for it levied a tax
upon all passengers and mails carried across its bor-
ders going to and from Philadelphia and New York.
The gross receipts from these six post offices for one
year were $530.00. Such were the small beginnings
of our postal service.

THE POST-OFFICE. 17

Our ancestors had every reason to be badly fright-
ened at the national debt caused by the Revolution ;
but each year we now expend nearly as large a sum
in carrying our letters and newspapers. From such
a small start our postal system has grown to its
present immense proportions, and the end is not
yet.

In New York city alone more letters are delivered
each day than were distributed in the whole United
States in one year at the time of Franklin’s adminis-
tration.

When the British decided that it was best for them
to leave New York, there were three mails a week to
Boston in the summer time and two in the winter ;
and it was rarely that a pair.of saddle bags was not
large enough to hold one of these tri-weekly mails.

The number of post-offices in 1776 was 28; now, in
1889, there are nearly 60,000. The postage upon a
letter from New York to Savannah was exactly eigh-
teen times as much as will now send one far beyond
the Rocky Mountains into regions that were one
vast wilderness a hundred years ago, and of which
our ancestors had never even heard.

PADLOCKS WERE NOT USED ON THE MAIL BAGS.

The post riders of the eighteenth century had a free
and easy way of taking care of the mails. Some of
them made their long rides seem short by knitting
mittens and stockings while they jogged slowly along,
and others found pleasant company in the thoughts
and writings contained in the letters and packages

~entrusted to their care. Many government officials
_and business men found it necessary to use a cipher

18 THE STORY OF

in their correspondence. Madison in a letter to Jef-
ferson, dated October 17, 1784, wrote, ““My two
letters, neither of which were in cipher, were written,
as will be all future ones, under the same conditions,
in the expectation of their being read by the post-
master.” |

THE POOR NEWSPAPER HAD A HARD TIME.

In framing the early postal laws no one seemed to
think that the newspaper was entitled to any con-
sideration, for no provision was made for postage
upon these pieces of printed paper, which now form
such an important element in our life.

The postmaster’s powers then equalled those of the
Czar of all the Russias, as far as mailing newspapers
was concerned; for they could either send papers
through the mails free of postage, or decline to take
them upon any terms, just as they chose. It was
quite natural that many of these worthy gentlemen
saw that here was a grand chance to turn an honest
penny, and the publication of newspapers became
almost an exclusive right of postmasters. When the
postmaster was removed his paper naturally fell into
one of two conditions, neither of which benefitted
him particularly, —it was either sold to the new post-
master, or else died a natural death.

In 1790, Postmaster General Samuel Osgood, with
true New England thrift, reported to Congress that
“‘ Newspapers which hitherto passed free of postage
circulated extensively through the post-offices, and
one or two cents on them would probably amount to
as much as the expense of transporting the mails.”
This report led to the following law: ‘“ Newspapers

a a SEE aay So

THE POST-OFFICE. 19

shall be carried in a separate bag from letters, and
charged one cent for 100 miles—one and one-half
cent for greater distances.” From that time on
newspapers seem to have been a considerable cause
of trouble to the post office department, judging from
the frequent changes in rates of postage, and the
large space devoted to them in the postal laws and
rulings.
FRANKLIN'S SUCCESSORS.

When Franklin was appointed postmaster general
his brain could do better service for his country
than to manage the few post offices and look after
the handful of employees, and in November, 1776:
his son-in-law was appointed as his successor. He
was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard, who held the
office until the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
in 1789. ‘his constitution conferred upon Congress
the exclusive control of the postal matter for all the
states, and as soon as it was adopted, Congress pro-
ceeded to organize the post-office department.

| RATES OF POSTAGE FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Previous to 1854 the sender of a letter must have
counted well the cost before finally entrusting it to
the hands of the mail carrier. Postage on a single
letter for 30 miles was 64 cents. Over 30 and under
80, 10 cents ; over 80 and under 150, 121 cents; over
150 and under 400, 182 cents, and over 400, 25 cents,
Every extra enclosure doubled these rates, while if a
letter weighed over an ounce the rates were multiplied
by four. Previous to the reduction of rates in 1845-
postage on a very large proportion of the letters sent
from seaboard cities as far west as Indiana, was a

20 THE STORY OF

dollar and over. When in that year the rates were
reduced about 50 per cent., the birds of evil omen,
who were always seeking some chance of prophesying
disaster, predicted that this measure would bankrupt
the country. That in less than forty years a small
green stamp, which cost but two cents, would carry
a letter weighing an ounce across this continent,
shows most clearly that this reduction was just what
was needed. It is an accepted truth that decreasing
the price of anything increases its use, and this is
well proven by comparison of our present postal
system and that of fifty years ago.

WHAT THEY ASKED FOR IN 1851.

Now when the cry is for penny postage, it is inter-
esting to look back forty years, and see what
reformers of those days asked for, and, too, how far
their demands have been met. A forcible writer of
that day, in advocating postal reform, in an article in

Harper’s magazine, asked for seven improvements

and changes, as follows :

1. “ Letter postage should be reduced toa uniform
rate of two cents prepaid.” Then the rates were
three, five, six, and ten cents, according to distance,
with optional prepayment of postage.

2. “ Ocean postage is enormous and burdensome,
and should be reduced to alow rate. The greater
portion of the letters are from persons in poor cir-
cumstances, and to tax them 24 or 29 cents fora

single letter is cruel. To send a letter and receive an |

answer will cost a servant girl half a week’s wages,
and a poor man in the country will have to work a

THE POST-OFFICE. 21

day to earn the value of the postage of a letter to
and from: his friends in Europe.”

3. “Next in reduction to inland and ocean postage
is the free delivery of mailed letters in all large towns
and cities. They are now conveyed to the post-office
free of charge and the next step necessary is to cause
them to be delivered without any addition to the
postage.”

4. “The franking privilege should be wholly
abolished.”

5. “ What is most complained of by the people is
the complicated and burdensome tax on newspapers
and other printed matter. The rates are so compli-
cated that not one postmaster in twenty can tell what
postage should be charged upon newspapers. Again,
the rates are enormous. The Journal of Commerce is
charged to San Francisco, if not prepaid, thirty
cents.”

6. “ Another reform which should be made is the
payment of postage entirely by stamps.”

7. “There is one more improvement which I would
recommend, and that is the establishment of a money
order office.”

Of these seven recommendations, all but that in
regard to franking have been adopted, and an enor-
mous increase in business and efficiency has been the
result. It is to be hoped that the writer of that arti-
ele calling so vigorously for postal reform, lived to
see the carrying out of his recommendations. Had

he prophesied that they would come, it might well

be said that he was blessed with a look into the fu-
ture. At any rate, he knew what was wanted, worked

to obtain it, and, better yet, succeeded.

nida

22 . THE STORY OF

THE POST OFFICE A SOCIALISTIC INSTITUTION.

Justice Schwab, and his band of anarchists, will
probably laugh at the idea that the post-office system
of the United States is purely a Socialistic Institution,
but this is true in one sense, at least. The post-office
is not, and ought not to be, run for the purpose of
making money. No short haul or long haul confu-
sion has made it necessary to appoint a commission
to see that the rich man gets lower postage rates
than his poorer neighbor, Any one who has enough
coin of the country to buy a two centstamp can send
a letter as quickly and cheaply as the money king
whose bills for correspondence may run up in the
thousands each year.

The idea which has always dominated the postal
regulations of the United States is,that the post-office
revenue should not exceed its expenditures ; and
that this department of the government should not
be a money-making concern. It is established for
the benefit of the people, and the people are to pay
for it solely according to the use which they make of
it.

CHAPTER ITT.

PAST AND PRESENT OF THE POSTAGE STAMP.

Who made the first Postage Stamp—Spain goes into the Postage
Stamp Business—Sardinia was next—The First General Use
of Postage Stamps.—The Introduction of Postal Cards.—
The Grand Procession.— Why Brazil Used Tobacco Stamps.
—The Russian Bear Begins to use Postage Stamps.—Postage
Stamps in the United States.—Postmaster’s, Stamps.—The
Largest Postage Stamp in the World.—The Beautiful
Stamps of France.—Here and There among the Stamps.—
Fortunes Paid for Postage Stamps.

WHO MADE THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMP.
Like many other things of daily use which once

THE POST-OFFICE. 23

were not and now are, postage stamps have become
such a familiar object that but few people ask,
whence? But the history of their origin is very in-
teresting.

Inthe reign of Louis14th of France, M. De Velayer,
who did letter carrying for a consideration, placed
boxes at the corners of the streets for the reception
of letters wrapped in envelopes, with slips of paper
tied around them, bearing the inscription, “ Postpaid
the day of——_—1653.” These slips were sold
for a small sum at the palace, at the turn tables of
convents, and by the porters of colleges. M. De
Velayer would have been called a “hustler” had his
birth been delayed some three hundred years; for
he soon extended his business to the printing of
letter sheets with blank forms applicable to ordinary
business among the inhabitants of large towns, leay-

ing spaces to be filled in with such special matter as
might best suit the writer’s object. He evidently was
ahead of his age, for these slips and forms were not
largely used, and his business soon died out.

In 1758 M. De Chamouset established a post sys-
tem in Paris, the charge for postage being prepaid
by stamps similar to those nowin use. The govern-
ment, however, seeing that there was money in it re-

leased him from the care of this business, although
it compensated him for the loss of income with an
annual pension of twenty thousand francs. But
when the post came into the hands of the govern-
ment, as the use of stamps did not necessitate enough
red tape to keep the officials busy, the stamps soon
fell into “innocuous desuetude,” and were forgotten.

24 THE STORY OF

SPAIN GOES INTO THE POSTAGE STAMP BUSINESS.

After France, Spain was the next country to use
postage stamps, their use being authorized by a royal
decree of December 7,1716. This allowed the sec-
retaries to the Crown Prince, etc., etc, to have the
privilege of impressing in ink upon letters addressed
to other authorities a seal bearing the royal arms
of Castile and Leon, which would pass their letters
free. It is probable that some of the secretaries to
the Crown, etc., etc., used this official stamp to save
postage on letters to their sweethearts and friends;
for about eighty years later notice was given that the
stamps mentioned in the decree of 1716 were to be
used only for letters concerning public business.
These official stamps remained in use until the be-
ginning of the present century.

SARDINIA WAS NEXT.

November 7, 1818, Sardinia issued some postal pa-_

per of three values, which could be procured at post-
offices and from tobacco dealers who received a com-
mission upon their sales. This paper was but little
used, and was withdrawn in 1836. One very prob-
able reason why it did not find more favor with the
people of Titian and the great masters was its lack
of beauty. A boy, whose only clothing was a tin
horn, riding upon a fiery mustang, did not make a
very artistic postage stamp.
THE FIRST GENERAL USE OF POSTAGE STAMPS.

To Sir Rowland Hill are we indebted for the pre-
payment of letters by means of postage stamps:
Among his other reforms he advocated most strenu-

ously the prepayment of postage, and suggested that

PONE See
ete

THE POST-OFFICE. 25

the difficulties attending this might be obviated by
using a bit of paper just long enough to bear the
stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous

_ wash, which by applying a little moisture might be

attached to the back of the letter. Of course, his
suggestion was opposed. Happily a stream of peti-
tions poured into parliament, urging this reform, and
May 6, 1840, it was adopted.

As soon as postage stamps were decided upon the
government offered a prize of five hundred pounds
for the best design and plan for thé stamp, stating
that the requirements were simplicity and facility in
working, in combination with such precautions as
should prove effectual against forgery. Thousands
of people wanted the five hundred pounds, but Heath
of London took the prize with a small but handsome
design which was used until quite recently, the only
change for years being in the color. There was also
a prize offered for the best design for a stamped en-
velope. This was won by Mulready, R. A., with a
peculiar allegorical design, representing England
sending out her winged letter angels, and thus draw-
ing the commerce of the world. By the side of the
stamped envelopes and postage stamps of to-day this
looks like a work of antediluvian days. “Honor to
whom honor is due,” and to England and Sir Row-
land Hill should be given the honor of creating the
postage stamp, which is now used by all civilized
countries. The stamps of Great Britain are printed
at Somerset House, London.

THE INTRODUCTION OF POSTAL CARDS.
In 1870 postal cards were introduced into England.

26 THE STORY OF

The design was very handsome, consisting of the
Queen’s head in a circle with ornaments, ete., and a
broad label in the lower margin inscribed, “half pen-
ny,” the whole forming arectangle. The main inscrip-
tion which occupied the principal portion of the card
to the left of the same was, ‘‘Post Card. The address
only to be written on this side. To——-———.”

These cards were 4 and 1-4 inches long by 3 and 1-2 |

inches broad.
THE GRAND PROCESSION.

England stands at the head of the column of na-
tions, in the adoption of postage stamps. She was
followed by some of the Swiss Cantons in 1843, Bra-
zilin 1848, Russia in 1845, United States in 1847,
France in 1848, Schleswig Holstein in 1848, Tuscany
in 1849, Belgium in 1849, and Spain in 1850, until
the use of the postage stamp became general through-
out the world. |

WHY BRAZIL USED TOBACCO STAMPS.

Brazil, though separated from England by the
Atlantic Ocean, was the second to follow her example
in the adoption of postage stamps, and a decree of
November 29, 1842, ordered their creation. It was
the design of the head of the postal department to
reproduce, as in England, the features of the sovereign,
but the director of the mint had a very highly de-
veloped bump of reverence, and the idea of repro-
ducing his emperor’s features upon a common post-
age stamp shocked him so much that he made
representations to that effect in a letter dated Feb-
ruary 13,1843. His delicate sensibilities were re-
spected, and the first stamps of Brazil closely re-

: J

roel ee
as ae
yi A iey © 9 Pe

THE POST-OFFICE. 27

sembled parts of our tobacco stamps, having a large
figure upon an oval of intricate engraving. Time
conquers everything, even reverence for kings, and at
present the portrait of his Brazilian majesty beams
upon his subjects from beautiful stamps printed in
two colors.

THE RUSSIAN BEAR BEGINS TO USE POSTAGE STAMPS.

Russia introduced the use of postal envelopes in
1845. These bore the imperial arms in a circle, and
were of four values only. Adhesive postage stamps
were first used in Russia in 1857, and have passed
through several series. ‘The issue of 1864 was very
beautiful, combining elegance and simplicity in a
marvelousmanner. The Russian provinces of Finland,
Livonia and Poland, by royal favor, were permitted
to issue stamps, but they were much inferior in
elaborate execution to those of the empire. The
Polish stamps are now obsolete, having been super-
seded by those of Russia proper.

POSTAGE STAMPS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Congress, in 1845, authorized the use of postage
stamps, but it was not until 1847 that the payment
of postage in cash, sometimes by the sender and
sometimes by the receiver of the letter, was super-
seded by postage stamps. Third Assistant Post-
master General Hazen gives this short history of the
use of postage stamps in the United States :

‘In 1847 the first stamps were issued. They were
of the denominations of five and ten cents. The five-
cent stamp had a picture of Ben Franklin and the
ten-cent stamp the head of Washington as the
principal figure in the design. Those heads have

28 THE STORY OF

continued to adorn the postage stamps of our coun-
try from that day to this. The stamps first issued
were a little larger than those now in use. In 1851
the carrier system was introduced in all large cities,
and stamps of a peculiar design, costing one cent
each and known as carriers’ stamps, were issued for
the purpose of providing prepaid delivery. In that
year the letter postage was reduced to three cents,
and the old brick dust red three-cent stamp came in.
At the same time the issue was enlarged to eight
stamps, the largest denomination being ninety cents.
The portrait of Jefferson was introduced on the five-
cent stamp, but the other seven bore the heads of
Washington and Franklin in different designs. These
stamps were the most popular ever issued by the
department. They remained in use for ten years.
“The new three-cent stamp issued in 1861 was of
alightred. It was almost as popular as its prede-
cessor. At thattime the three-cent stamp was the
popular stamp or the one most in use, and not the
two-cent stamp as now. The lght red three-cent
stamp remained in use until 1869, when there was a
decided innovation in the designs of the entire issue.
The new stamps were square instead of oblong, and
many of them were printed in two colors, the central
design being in one tone and the border in another.
The principal figure in each design was in almost
every instance a representation of some mode of car-
rying the mails instead of the head of some departed
statesman. The three-cent stamp was printed in blue,
and the principal figure in the design was a locomo-
tive. That issue of stamps lasted ten months, The

PS ~

f
ee a

THE POST-OFFICE. 29

people clamored so against them that in 1870 a re-
turn was made to the old designs, which were printed,
however, in different colors. The three-cent stamp
was then made green with the head of Washington in
the center of the design. That stamp is of such recent
date that its design is familiar to every one. A great
many of them were stored away in old cash boxes
and stamp boxes, and occasionally now, we find them
on letters received at this office.”

The green three-cent stamp which was adopted in
1870 continued in use longer than any of its prede-
cessors. It was used until October 1, 1883, and it
might have continued in vogue much longer had not
Congress reduced the rate of letter postage to two —
cents. Under the new law a brown two-cent stamp
was issued. It continued in use until 1887, when
its color was changed to the objectionable green.

POSTMASTERS STAMPS.

Among the rarest American stamps are some which
were not issued by the government. When Congress,
in 1845, authorized the use of stamps, it neglected to
make such provision as warranted the postal author-
ities in their estimation in the issue of stamps. Dur-
ing the period of two years preceding the issue of
government stamps the principal cities of the United
States issued what were known as postmasters’
stamps. They were intended for the convenience of
business men who desired to mail letters after the
closing of the post-oflfice,for the post-office did not re-
main in operation all night in the primitive days of the
postal service. These stamps were issued by postmas-
ters at New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Bal-

30 THE STORY OF

timore, St. Louis, Providence, Alexandria and a great
many other places. Some of these stamps were
merely slips of paper bearing the signatures of the
postmasters. Collectors value the Baltimore stamp
which is of this character, at $200. A stamp which
was issued by the postmaster of New Haven is worth
on an original-used envelope $300 and more. A
postage stamp issued by the Milbury postmaster,
which was of elaborate design for those days, and
bore the head of Washington, brings easily $300 to
$900.
THE LARGEST POSTAGE STAMP IN THE WORLD.

While the United States has received the congra-
tulations of several foreign governments upon the
beauty of workmanship of her stamps, they being
prominent in delicacy of engraving and elegance of
design and general beauty, she has also the honor of
having used the largest stamps for postal purposes
- in the world. These were the periodical stamps,
which were used for newspapers carried outside the
mails. They differed from the other stamps in being
surface printed from steel plates, and not fine line
engravings. The three values, five, ten and twenty-
five cents, bore respectively, portraits of Washington,
Franklin and Lincoln. Though large they had but a
short life, being issued October 6, 1865, and with-
drawn in February, 1869. They were used only in
Chicago and Milwaukee.

THE BEAUTIFUL STAMPS OF FRANCE.

The postage stamps of France naturally followed
her political changes. Their first permanent intro-
duction in that country was in 1848, when the re- —

THE POST-OFFICE. 31

public issued a series which bore the impress of the
French love of the beautiful. The central device of
this stamp was ahead of the Goddess of Liberty.
Soon after, in the presidency, the stamps bore the
profile of Louis Napoleon, which shows that worthy
to.have been a most consummate politician, for his
elegant features upon the postage stamp did much
to prepare the people for his later appearance as an
emperor. In following years under the Empire, new
stamps were issued representing his imperial majesty
crowned with the laurel of the Czsars. When
France tired of the magnificence of the emperors and
overthrew the throne a new set of stamps was issued
very similar to those of the republic of 1848. During
the siege of Paris they were issued from the provi-
sional capital of Bordeaux.

The postage stamps now used in France must have
the same effect upon Anthony Comstock, Secretary
of the Society for the Prevention of Vice, as a red
rag waved before a bull; and it seems strange that
he has not taken steps to prevent letters from France
coming into this country.

All the stamps of France, as well as those of her
colonies, and Greece, are made at the Hotel Des
Monaies, or Mint. The sheets upon which they are
printed are subjected to four successive operations,
rendering them proof against forgery by the trans-
ferring process. After printing, gumming, and per-
forating, the stamps are carefully inspected by gov-
ernment officials who destroy all imperfect ones, and
_ forward the balance to the post-office department.

32 THE STORY OF

HERE AND THERE AMONG THE STAMPS.
It would take a volume to describe all the postage
stamps of the world, for there have been thousands

of different stamps issued by hundreds of different -

countries ; but brief mention of the distinctive char-
acter of some of the more interesting stamps cannot
fail to be interesting,

After the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine
were annexed to Prussia that government instead of
forcing the people to use Prussian stamps, issued a
series specially for these provinces. They were
printed upon tinted paper with a simple design, con-
sisting of a numeral value, with the inscription
“ Postes Centime.”

Belgium introduced postage stamps in July, 1849,
and familiarized the people with the features of the
king by using his bust as the principal part of the
design. All the succeeding issues of Belgium stamps
bore either the national arms or a portrait of the
sovereign. |

Postage stamps were introduced into Spain in
1850, and were sold by tobacco dealers, who received
a commission of 3 per cent. upon their sales. The
design was usually a portrait of the reigning sovereign,
and judging by the portraits, the empress certainly
was not beautiful.

Mexico, with all her revolutions, was the first
country in Central America to use postage stamps.
One series bore the portrait of Hidalgo, the first hero
of the independence ; another, the Mexican eagle and
cactus; another, the portrait of Emperor Maximilian,
The present issue is quite similar to the early stamps

THE POST-OFFICE. 33

of Brazil, being a large numeral upon an elaborately
engraved background.

The stamps of Nevis in the West Indian Islands
are a pleasing deviation from the general practice of
printing the portraits of sovereigns or the imperial
arms. The stamps bear an emblematical device, rep-
resenting the Goddess of Health, Hygeia, giving
the water of a mineral spring to a sick person. Here
is a valuable hint to some enterprising proprietary
medicine house in this country. Just think of the
amount of good that would be done if every United
States stamp bore this device, “To strengthen the
nerves use Paine’s Celery Compound,” or, ‘In the
spring take Kidney- Wort.”

British Guiana, which adopted postage stamps in
1850, used a handsome design of a full rigged ship
for the principal device. The stamps of Chili are the
only ones bearing the portrait of Columbus.

Cashmere, Turkey and Japan furnish stamps that
to an American strongly resemble the complex de-
sign traced by a fly in his wanderings after a bath in
an ink well. As the old lady said, ‘The strongest
evidence of the intelligence of these people is that
they can read their own language.”

Asiatic and African nations are well represented in
the postage stamp collections of to-day. The Cape
of Good Hope isthe only country which thought
something better than the square or rectangular shape
could be found. Her early issues were triangular and
bore as a device an emblematic figure of Hope.

The stamps of Egypt with pictures of pyramids
and sphinxes, those of Nicarauga and Salvador with

34 THE STORY OF

their volcanoes, of Mauritius with their emblematic
figure of commerce, and those of West Australia with
the swan, lend the charm of variety and novelty to
the postage stamps of the world. ;

Canada introduced postage stamps in 1851, Nova
Scotia in 1856, New Brunswick in 1856, Newfound-
land in 1859, Prince Edward Island in 1861, British
Columbia in 1860. Most of the early issues of these
provinces were printed in the United States. In
1867, Her Majesty’s Proclamation announced the
formation of the Dominion of Canada, and the post-
office department passed into the hands of one offi-
cial, with a single set of postage stamps prepared by ~
the British American Bank Note Company of
Montreal.

When the Confederate States of America were insti-
tuted they found themselves without postage stamps,
except those of the United States, which were scat-
tered throughout the different post-offices in the
South, and as these, of course, would not carry a
letter under that government, and no regular series
had yet been devised,the postmasters of New Orleans,
Nashville, Baton Rouge, Mobile, Memphis, and other
southern states, issued stamps on their own respon-
sibility. These and the stamps afterwards author-
ized by the confederate government have become
historical, although as works of art they were lament-
able failures. The first series of three values, two,
five and ten cents, were made in Richmond, and were
furnished until 1863, when they were replaced by a
five cent stamp prepared in England, and by two,
ten and twenty cent stamps made in Columbia, 8. O.

LY "s
eC EN ai ie inal

Peoeie| ses!

THE POST-OFFICE. 35

Postage stamps have almost an infinite variety of
designs, and their collection is a captivating amuse-
ment with boys, and a pleasing recreation among
older persons. They have surely done as much in
uniting closer together the bond of human brother-
hood, as any one thing, and not only the postal offi-
cials who have found them a great convenience in
facilitating the work of their department, but the
whole world, owes the-little postage stamp a debt of
gratitude.

FORTUNES PAID FOR OLD POSTAGE STAMPS.

As a contribution to the history of human folly,
the prices which a parcel of old postage stamps has
just realized at a London auction are not unworthy
of notice. The collection consisted of 286 “lots,”
the most valuable being a set of rare British Guiana
labels, and for these the bids ran to figures which
must seem to any one not bitten with the mania, little
less than monstrous. A “blue four cent” of 1856
excited eager competition, and was finally knocked
down to a dealer for $180. This specimen, however,
had been used, so that when a stamp “much finer,”
and without the defacing marks of the sorter on its
surface, was put up, there was nothing left but for the

buyer of the $180 specimen to acquire it at $65 ad-
vance. After this a strip of four one cent magentas;
issued in 1851, on the original envelope, from the
same colony, at $35; four of the one cent 1853 issue
at $5 each, and a pair of four cent magentas, thirty
three years old, at $60, are barely worth notice,
though their prices are so much in advance of what
the first owner paid for them oyer the post-office

36 THE STORY OF

counter in Georgetown. Yet a book of 4,000 old
issues of English stamps—postage, revenue, law, bill,
railway, and receipt,—brought less than $40, and a
thousand Mexican ones only $30, while a collection,
of 380 Russian local stamps seem to the uninitiated,
to be simply given away at $20. We may, however,
take it that this collection, large as it is, did not, even
if genuine, contain any of the rarer ones. For, as
the student of M. Koprowski’s volume must be aware,
some Russian stamps are so scarce as to cause the
most ardent collector many a heartache in his futile
endeavors to obtain a specimen which will pass the
narrow scrutiny of the expert. These and all other
high priced stamps are forged wholesale, and with
such ingenuity that only the experienced connoisseur _
can detect the knaveries. The presence of such im-
postors in the company of honest specimens is the
reason why the amateur at sales finds, to his amaze-
ment, a wretched square inch of gummed paper going
for a thousand times its weight in gold, while he can
secure an album containing it, and a host of similar
rarities, almost at his own terms. The collection of
M. Philippe de Ferrari is said to contain a quarter
of a million specimens, and to be worth almost as
many half eagles. Mr. Philbrick is understood to
have sold this wealthy. Parisian virtuoso one collec-
tion for $50,000, while Sir Daniel Cooper, an Austra-
lian collector, wisely transferred to the same gentle-
man the fruits of sixteen years’, hoarding for $15,000.
Mr. Burnett's albums are currently reported to have
brought something like $100,000, and it is nothing
uncommon to dispose of a respectable, but by no

THE POST-OFFICE. 34

means remarkable, set of stamps for $2,000, $3,000 or
$0,000. The collection made by the late Duchess de
Galliera is affirmed to have cost, up to the year 1883,
in acquisition and arrangement not less than $250,
000, and the value of the 3,000 volumes in which it
was contained has since that date been put at $60
000 more. Yet itis believed that both in England
and on the Continent there are public and private
hoards very little inferior to it in interest and value.
At the Paris Mint there is a remarkable collection,.
and that of the Admiralty is famous throughout the
world, while the Rothschild collection in Paris is so
costly that the owner, with the true jealousy of the
collector, reserves the pages containing his rarest
specimens for the delectation of special friends.

The prices given at the recent sale are said to be
the highest ever paid for single stamps. We doubt
whether this is correct. The15 and 30cent Reunion
stamps bring $500; the New Brunswick 5 cent stamp,
with the head of O’Connell, is rarely parted with un-
der $150. The set of four 1852 Hawaiian stamps are
valued at $1,500, and the four British Guiana of 1850
are worth $375. Then there is the 1847 Mauritius
stamp, printed from a wood block—in two issues—
one worth a penny and the other twopence, when
first issued, and these are so seldom met with nowa-
days that we believe $500 has been paid for one of
them. But the rarest of all literature of this sort is
the Mulready wrapper on India paper, issued in 1840.
Of these there are said to be only six or seven in ex-
istence, although $125,000 worth were issued, and the
last which changed hands brought, if our memory is

not at fault, the ridiculous price of $400.

38 THE STORY OF

CHAPTER IV.

THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

The First Travelling Post Office.—A Gigantic Machine.—Its
Birth.—The First Railway Post Office.—Its Rapid Growth.
—Palace Postal Cars.—A Sample Run.—Duties of the
Clerks.—The Paper Jerker and the Fakir.—The Catcher.—
The Fast Mail Express.—The Dangers of a Railway Postal
Clerk’s Life.—Importance of Permanency.—Trouble with.
the Railroads.—The General Superintendents.

THE FIRST TRAVELLING POST OFFICE.

The first we hear of a travelling post-office, which
is a name now often given postal cars, was in a me-
morial address to congress in November, 1776, by
Ebenezer Hazard, Postmaster General, where he
mentioned that on account of the many and almost
constant removals of the Continental army, he had to
undergo great expense and fatigues, and that “ havy-
ing to pay an exorbitant price for every necessary of
life, and having been obliged, for want of a horse,
which could not be procured, to follow the army on
foot.” |

A GIGANTIC MACHINE.

Although Ex-Postmaster General Thomas L.
James has written an admirable article on the Rail-
way Mail Service, which was published in one of our
leading magazines, and other writers have given the
public similar articles, there is still a certain mystery
about this valuable department of our postal service
which seems to make those who do their postal work
upon the rail a little more than ordinary men. Nor
is this to be wondered at. An express train rushes
into the depot; the postal car with its barred windows
and heavy doors looks like a traveling bank, but the
words, “United States Railway Post Office,” painted

THE POST-OFFICE. 39

in large letters on the side show what it is; inside
areseen coatless men working for dear life, with piles
of mail bags and pouches, heaps of letters and papers,
and racks of pigeon holes ; a stop of a few minutes ;
mail bags hastily thrown off; others taken in; a few
short, quick puffs of the locomotive and the express
train rushes out with the railway postal clerks work-

ing harder than ever. Even the post-office clerks

know but little more than this about that branch of
the service which is of the greatest advantage to every
man, woman and child in the United States. William
Lewins aptly says of the railway mailsystem, “It is
like a gigantic machine, one part dependent upon
another, and all alike dependent upon the motive
power of the different contracting parties.”

ITS BIRTH.

England, with her small extent of thickly settled
country, was able to first put in operation a railway
postal service, and the experiment was made in
January, 1838, between London and Birmingham.
This was so successful that one person made the
remark, “By means of the extra railway facilities
letters now pass along this line (London and Birm-
ingham), in a space of time so inconceivably quick
that some time must elapse before our ideas become
accustomed to such a rapid mode of intercourse.”

lt was some two score years after its adoption in
England before the United States postal department
took any steps to avail itself of this great improve-
ment. In 1860 an arrangement was made with the
railroads to run a mail train from New York to
Boston by the way of Hartford and Springfield, so

40 p THE STORY OF

that the southern mails should be immediately trans-
ferred from New York instead of laying over until
the following day, as they had done heretofore. This
may be regarded as the birth of the postal railway
service of this country. A few like arrangements
were made with other railroads, so that mail trains
were run between New York and Washington,
although, of course, the only advantage of these mail
trains was the quick transfer of mail matter from one
place to another. The travelling post-office, where
mails are assorted when going at the rate of fifty
miles an hour, had not yet come.

THE FIRST RAILWAY POST OFFICE.

Mr. W. A. Davis, one of the St. Joseph, Missouri,
post-office force, has the honor of making the first
distribution and assortment of mails while they were
in transit. In 1862 the thought occurred to him thatif
the mail could be assorted on the cars between Quincy
and St. Joseph it would save the overland mail con-
siderable valuable time. The department allowed
him to carry out this idea, paying him for the work
which he did. But to Col. George B. Armstrong,
who was afterwards the first General Superintendent
of the Railway Mail Service, is due the honor of es-
tablishing the postal cars. The first car sent out
upon his suggestion left Chicago for Clinton, lowa,
August 28, 1864. At that time Col. Armstrong was
Assistant Postmaster at Chicago, and his plan of
running the post-office cars on the principal railroads,
with a force of clerks to make up the mails for offices
at the end of and along the routes, was tested in this
trip under the following order from Postmaster

THE POST-OFFICE. 41

General Blair. “Test by actual experiment upon
such railroad route or routes as you may select at
Chicago, the plans proposed by you for simplifying
the mailservice.” Although Mr. Davis was undoubt-
edly the person who first suggested the idea of rail-
way post-offices, yet to Col. Armstrong belongs the
gratitude and credit of establishing this important
branch, which, starting in such a humble way but a
quarter of a century ago, now employs over five thou-
sand men, extends to every part of the country, con-
trols the contracting for mail service upon 140,000
miles of railroad and 6,000 miles of steamboat routes,
and expends about $20,000,000 annually.
ITS RAPID GROWTH.
In 1864 a special agent of the department visited
the presidents of the several railroads, whichrun bet-
ween Washington and New York, to find out what
‘ explanation they could give of the irregular mail
service between those points. The officers evinced
_ both a ready willingness to admit the existence of
good cause for complaint, and the desirability of rem-
edying the trouble, and also expressed themselves
as desirous of doing whatever was in their power to
secure more correct and rapid mail service. Postal
cars were accordingly tried on the road between New
York and Washington, and were so successful that
within a few months similar cars were run between
Chicago and Davenport, Chicago and Burlington, and
Galesburg and Quincy. It was not longafter the in-
auguration of this service before post-office cars were
placed upon all the principal lines leading out of
Chicago and between New York, Albany and Buffalo.

Beery oy A ean BY.

42 THE STORY OF

PALACE POSTAL CARS.

The first travelling post-office which run between
Chicago and Clinton was built by the railroad com-
pany under the supervision of Mr. Zevely, who was |
Col. Armstrong’s right hand man in instituting this
service. The interrior arrangement was elaborate
and elegant for that age, but in comparison with the
postal cars of the present day it was crude and prim-
itive. Although railroad companies build and own
the cars, the post office department controls them.
Different railroads have vied with each other in get-
ting out elegant and convenient cars, some being —
almost equal in their fittings to the drawing room
cars of the vestibule trains. On the western roads
especially, no expense is spared to gain all the con-
veniences. The cars for long routes in addition to
their ingeniously contrived work rooms, contain bed
room, parlor and dining room. But the majority of
the cars are not like “my lady’s boudoir.” They are
built for hard and constant work, and the wear and
tear of railroad speed soon leaves the marks of the
service they have done for their country.

A SAMPLE RUN.

While the mail trains of the great trunk lines have
several postal cars carrying between fourteen and fif-
teen hundred packages of letters, a hundred ina pack-
age, to say nothing of the sacks of newspapers, and
employ a large crew of men, a better understanding
of the work of the mail clerk can be gained from tak-
ing a trip on a train having but one postal car. The
general plan on the larger trains is the same as that
on the trip we are about taking. We will find the

THE POST-OFFICE. 43

crew, which usually consists of a head clerk, with
two assistants, waiting in the room which is set apart
for their use at the city post-office. It is nearly time
for the train to start; the head clerk has receipted
to the register clerk of the post-office for the regis-
tered letters and packages going to points upon his
route and connecting lines beyond, and put them
under lock and key in his register pouch; the cry of
the mail despatcher—* All aboard,” is heard, and
the clerks with their traps, consisting of postal guides,
railway maps, tags and labels for pouches, distribu-
tion sacks, working clothes, lunch baskets, etc., etc.,
leap into the mail wagon, which is filled to overflow-
ing with brass bound leather bags, and are driven
rapidly away to the depot; their travelling post-office
is waiting, and the mail wagon is backed up to the
door, the bags, pouches and boxes are quickly thrown
in; now for hard work, expert, rapid and efficient.
DUTIES OF THE CLERKS.

The through mail bags and pouches which con-
tain mail going to the end of the route are piled up
in the through mail room, while those containing
matter which is to be distributed along the road are
piled up in the working room in the forward and

-middle part of the car. The head clerk, who dis-

tributes the through letter mail, unlocks and empties
upon the floor, “dumps up,” in front of a letter case,
containing several hundred pigeon holes, the six or
seven thousand letters which a pouch holds. These
letters are all tied up in packages of about one hun-
dred each. Picking up an armful of the packages
and placing them on the shelf in front of the letter

44 THE STORY OF

case he rapidly cuts the strings and places the letters
in their proper pigeon holes, with amazing dexterity.
While the head clerk is distributing the through let-
ter mail, one of his assistants is taking care of the
way mail, which is to be delivered at different points
along the route, in a similarmanner. As each of the
large post offices is a distributing office for adjacent
small ones, the railway clerks not only make up di-
rect packages for the different post-offices on their
routes, but also packages for lines which connect
with their route at the large offices. The third clerk,
who in the practical language of the postal car is
called a paper jerker, distributes the newspaper mail
in another part of the car. He throws his bulky
packages at and into. labeled boxes in front of him.
‘It is rarely that he jerks a paper into a wrong place.
THE PAPER JERKER AND THE FAKIR.

The postal clerks acquire a marvellous accuracy of
aim which sometimes serves them well outside of
their business. The following tells how a paper
jerker increased his salary one day:

On a side lot near the Forepaugh grounds on
North Broad street there was a fakir yesterday, says
a Philadelphia paper, whose outfit consisted of the
stake and ring game. The simple and enticing
amusement is played as follows: The stake is placed
in the ground at a certain angle, which leads the un-
initiated to believe that it is easy to throw the five-
inch rings over it, whereas the feat is almost impos-
sible. The fakir had a crowd around him and was
raking in the dimes—three “tries” for ten cents—
when a black-mustached, middle-sized man walked

THE POST-OFFICE. 45

up and said he’d bet a dollar he could put three rings
out of five over the stake.

The fakir winked at the crowd and took the man
up. The black-mustached stranger threw five rings
rapidly one after another, and, as three of them went
over the stake, the thrower was in 80 cents. They
doubled bets, and the stranger won again. Then ~
they bet $10 even that nine out of the first ten thrown
could not-be put over the stake. The whole ten set-
tled safely, and the fakir, as he handed $10 in silver
over, said : |

“T’m broke; what’s your business ?”

“T’m a ‘paper jerker’ on a postal car,” said the
ring thrower. ‘I don’t do anything but fling papers
all day long into the mouths of fifty sacks.”

THE CATCHER.

The head clerk and his assistant have their mail
nearly distributed and put into different pigeon holes
for delivery at the proper station, when a bang on
the door announces the arrival of the train at a large
town, and in comes more mail matter, which will keep
them out of mischief. On, on, rushes the train. It
stops a few minutes at the larger towns and hurries
past the small places, delivering and catching mail
matter as the train glides by. Our car has a catcher
attached for taking on mail bags at small stations
where the train does not stop. This catcher, which
is called ‘“ Ward’s catcher,” is a most ingenious, sim-
ple and effective device. The pouch the local post-
master wishes to deliver to the postal car is sus-
pended from a crane by the side of the track, shortly
before train time, and is easily taken off by the

46 THE STORY OF

catcher, no matter how great the speed of the train.
It is a large iron fork with two prongs or arms, one
considerably longer than the other. The shorter arm
is fastened to the outside of the car near the door in
such a way that when the catcher is not in use both
arms are placed vertically against the side of the car.
- When the mail clerk wishes to use it he turns the
short arm with a lever, causing the longer arm to
project from the side of the car at an acute angle,
the opening between the two being in the direction
which the train is going. As soon as the crane is
reached and the suspended pouch is caught, the
lever is turned and the pouch taken in by the clerk.
Sometimes on dark and stormy nights the catcher
gets too much. Being turned too soon, it tries to
bring in telegraph poles and switch lights. In spite
of these little inconveniences it is far ahead of the
old English arrangement, which consisted of a net
attached to the side of the car. This net was sup-
posed to open and catch mail matter, but it often
“muffed” the mail bag, and catchers like Ward’s
have been adopted in that country. The American
system has also been introduced into India and Aus-
tralia.
THE FAST MAIL EXPRESS.

Col. Bangs, who reorganized the railway mail
service, and gave it new life and strength, in his re-
port of 1874 recommended that a fast mail train be
established between New York and Chicago, and
suggested, ‘“ This train be under the control of the
department so far as it is necessary for the purposes
designed, and to run the distance in twenty-four

THE POST-OFFICE, 47

hours. It is stated by railway officials that this can
be done. The importance of a run like this cannot
be over-estimated. It would reduce the actual time
of mail between the East and West from twelve to
twenty-four hours.” -Postmaster General Jewell ap-
proved the idea and ordered Col. Bangs to make fur-
ther investigations. The plan was entered into with
the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad
and the Lake Shore Railroad, whereby they con-
structed special postal cars for this service, and run
them for ten months, between Chicago and New
York, always on time. Congress, however, with its
“penny wise and pound foolish” policy reduced the
compensation for train mail cars, and as®a conse-
quence the fast mail trains were discontinued for
want of money to pay the cost of running. The ex-
periment had, however, been so successful, that ap-
propriations were soon made for this purpose, after
a hard struggle by friends of the service, and fast
mail trains have been extended so that they now reach
nearly every part of the country.
THE DANGERS OF A RAILWAY POSTAL CLERK’S LIFE.

In the year ending June, 1888, there were 248 ac-
cidents to trains upon which postal clerks were em-
ployed, resulting in the killing of four clerks, and
serious wounding of sixty-three, while forty-five re-
ceived slight injuries. Although the postal cars are
fitted up with every device that American inventive
genius has yet conceived for lessening the dangers
attendant upon wrecks, such as axes, hammers, saws,
and crowbars, with safety bars overhead in the cars,
to which the clerks can cling when the cars roll off

ee \ te F
MO aes tee hs ee es ey

48 THE STORY OF

an embankment, there are few more dangerous pur-
suits in life than this. Wherever any cars are wrecked
upon mail trains, the postal car is sure to be among
the number. In addition to dangers from railroad
accidents, the trains are liable to be “held up”
by mail robbers, who often handle their pistols rather
carelessly. For the hardships they are obliged to
undergo, the dangers to which their life is liable, and
the expert work they render the government, the sal-
aries of these men seem altogether too small, ranging
as they do from $900 to $1300 per year.

IMPORTANCE OF PERMANENCY.

The greatest drawback to the improvement of the
railway post-office is the fact that it is sometimes
made a political machine. If the clerks and higher
officials are to be changed with every change of the
administration, their chairs will hardly be warm be-
fore they are removed and a green set of employees
taken on. How can it be expected that men com-
petent to discharge the duties of this difficult calling
will devote themselves to it when they know that
their hold upon office is to last but a short time ?
Ignorance and carelessness in this service can cause
the public more inconvenience and greater loss than
in any other department, and it is a good thing for
the country that the railway mail service positions
bid fair to be taken out of those offices which are
considered the “spoils of war.” Some of the men
who obtain their positions through influence are as
well qualified to fill them as the summer boarder
who asked the farmer, ‘‘ What’s that yellow stuff you
are feeding the chickens ?

et
eo. gs SER ey eae

THE POST-OFFICE. 49

‘That's corn, mister.”

“What is thisin this bin?” ~

“ That’s wheat.”

“‘ What are these other things ?”

“Rye, oats, barley,—say, mister, what’s your
business when at home in Chicago?” “TI am a grain
speculator.” And as all grain speculators ought to
know what grain looks like. so postal clerks ought to
be able to read writing. A new man was appointed
to one of the eastern runs, and the head clerk assigned
him to the distribution of the paper mail. It was
soon noticed that he distributed some of the papers
and let the others go by, not seeming to know what
to do with them, and the head clerk upon investiga-
tion found that this specimen of “ influence” did not
know how to read writing, and of course could only
distribute papers with printed addresses. It is need-
less to add that at the next stop an assistant who
could read writing was telegraphed for.

TROUBLE WITH THE RAILROADS.

Another need of the railway mail service is larger
appropriations by Congress, which would enable the
service to obtain railroad facilities atfair rates. Hver
since the introduction of this service there has been
more or less clashing with the railroads, and the fault
has not all been upon one side. Every little while a
bill would be introduced in Congress requiring the
railroads to carry the mail at certain fixed rates,
which oftentimes were less than the cost of the train
service, with large penalties for refusal or neglect on
the part of the railroads. It is to be hoped that the

50 THE STORY OF

government will be liberal in future with this branch
of the service.
THE GENERAL SUPERINTENDENTS.

During the first years of the Railway Mail Service,
George B. Armstrong had charge of the western divis-
ion, and Harrison Park of the eastern. In 1869
Col. Armstrong was called to Washington and given
entire control of the railway post-office service,
and made the first General Superintendent. He
served but two years in the position, but grand addi-
tions were made during that time, for the Union
Pacific Railroad was added to the service, and lines
were established as far as New Brunswick and _bet-
ween Washington and Indianapolis, and Milwaukee
and St. Paul. Owing to failing health he resigned,
and was succeeded by Geo. 8. Bangs, May 3, 1871.
Mr. Bangs reorganized the service. Among his im-
portant improvements were the separation of the
mail by states, establishment of eight new lines, and
a division of the service. His improvements made it
practically what it is to-day. He also saw the fast
mail experiment of 1875 and 1876 through to its dis-
continuance. Upon his recommendation, February
3, 1876, T. N. Vail was appointed his successor.
During his administration there was a special com-
mission on railway transportation which was unable
to agree upon areport. He was succeeded by Wil-
liam B. Thompson, who was promoted from the
Superintendency of the ninth division. During his.
term of office the railway mail service was reorgan-
ized by an act of congress. Upon the last day of
1884 Thompson was promoted to Second Assistant

THE POST-OFFICE. 51

Post-master General, and John Jameson was pro-
moted to General Superintendent. He held the office
until 1885, being succeeded by Thos. E. Nash. June 1,
1888, William L. Bancroft assumed the duties of
General Superintendent, being the seventh who has
held that office.

CHAPTER V.

THE SPECIAL AGENT SYSTEM.
What it is.—Murder Will Out.
WHAT IT IS.

The idea of a special agent or post-office inspector
did not originate in this country, but it started, as
did many other postal ideas, in England, where these
agents were called post-office surveyors. The system
was first organized in this country in 1840 and has
proved a very useful branch of the department. It
ferrets out frauds on the government and the public,
keeps an eye onthe general administration of the
service, investigates complaints that relate to depre-
dations, watches suspected people, arrests those who
use the mails for illegal purposes, detects and arrests
post-office employees who rob the mail, and in fact
embraces a much wider range of action than any
mere detective service. The members of this force
must be courageous and shrewd, as well as possessing
a great deal of tact, combined with a thorough knowl-
edge of human nature. It is not the province of this
work to tell detective stories, as that has already been
done in books written by post-office inspectors.

52 THE STORY OF

MURDER WILL OUT.

It is an interesting study to watch how the im-
proved schemes of crime are always equalled by
ereater ingenuity displayed in their discovery. The
reverse of this is also true, for as new and more com-
plicated bank locks are invented, more powerful
tools and new ways of reaching the hidden treasure
are also found. But it is true that, “murder will
out,” with very few exceptions. The post-office in-
spectors sometimes find themselves at fault in tracing
mail robbers, but other means outside of the depart-
ment get upon the right track and the criminal is hunt-
ed down. The true story of the capture of some
mail robbers, told in Harper’s Magazine, well illus-
trates this. Merchants and others in Philadelphia
who had dealings with Boston found their most val-
uable and important letters constantly miscarried.
They disappeared without a clue, and the corres-
pondents soon complained at the post-office depart-
ment, which upon fullinformation applied itself with
its most skillful detective force to the discovery of
the thieves, but without success. Similar detective
skill differently employed struck the clue. The de-
tective agency of an Express Company was busily
engaged in the search for a valuable package that
had been stolen, and some of the agents who had
been shadowing two suspicious persons, followed
them from a house in Prince street to the office of
the American Express Company, at the corner of
Broadway and Fourth street. The suspicious per-
sons here left two packages addressed to Canada.
When they left, the detectives entered the office, and

THE POST-OFFICE. , 53

told the agents of the company their suspicions that
the packages contained stolen goods. The packages
were at once opened. One was found to contain a
mail bag and the other a traveling bag or satchel, in
which were the stamps of a mail route agent’s outfit.
This discovery was at once made known at the post-
office, and its agent carefully examined the contents
of two bags. The mail bag contained mutilated let-
ters which had been mailed at York, Pa., and the
satchel the working tools of a route agent upon the
Pennsylvania Railroad. Here was a long sought
clue, and the post-office and the express detectives
followed it closely to the end. The satchel had been
stolen from the mail wagon while -going from the
New York post-office to Jersey City. One of the
drivers was arrested, and his capture led to that of
the apparent leader of the gang, a woman with whom
he lived and other confederates. The woman’s house
was searched, and in a trunk claimed by her were
found letters mailed a few days since in Philadelphia,
containing checks payable in Boston. Other letters
were found from which the enclosures had been
taken, and it appeared that money had been paid
upon forged endorsements of signatures obtained in
this way. The last man arrested was a mail driver,
who allowed the bags to be taken from the wagon.
When the bags had been thoroughly rifled they were
carefully done up in packages and sent by express to
various distant cities, addressed to fictitious names.
All trace of the bags thus disappeared. It was a
clever scheme, but not clever enough. As Fielding
is fond of saying: “It hath been remarked by some

54 THE STORY OF

wise philosopher, that the ingenuity which is devoted
to knavery if turned to honest industry would not
only suffice to carry the world far upward toward
virtue, but would make the knaves prosperous and
respectable citizens.”

CHAPTER VI.

AT WASHINGTON.

The Home of the Post-office Department.—Duties of the Chief
Officers.—The First Assistant Postmaster General.—The
Second ‘Assistant Postmaster General.—How the Star
Routes are awarded.—The Third Assistant Postmaster Gen-
eral.—How Dead Letters are Resurrected.—Even Post-
masters are Liable to Error.—Broken down Clergymen in
Demand.—-Honesty the Best Policy.—The Government Old
Paper Business.—The Imps in the Dead Letter Office.—
Millions of Dollars Found in Dead Letters.—Curious Arti-
cles without Number.—How to Keep Letters out of the
Dead Letter Office.

THE HOME OF THE POST—OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

A whole block is given to the beautiful Corinthian
building in Washington, which is the home of the
post-office department. It is bounded by Seventh,
Kighth, E and F Streets, and is 300 feet long by 204
feet wide. It contains 85 departments. The inner
offices look upon a grassy courtyard enclosed by the
building. The greater part was designed by F. A.
Walter, but other architects have had charge of the
extensions which have been added from time to time
The main entrance is on 7th Street, where there is a
rich and ornate vestibule whose marble ceiling is
supported by four marble columns. Walls, niches,
floors, all are marble. The other entrances are also
elegantly decorated, and are marvels of the designer’s
art.

THE POST-OFFICE, — 55

DUTIES OF THE CHIEF OFFICERS.

Prior to 1829 the Postmaster General was not a
member of the Cabinet, but General Jackson’s in-
vitation to his Postmaster General to take a seat in
his cabinet was a precedent followed by all succeed-
ing presidents. The head of the post-office depart-
ment, which is second only to the treasury in import-
ance, receives a salary of eight thousand dollars per
year, while his three assistant-postmaster generals
each draw four thousand dollars a year from the na~
tional government. He also has a chief clerk ata
salary of $2,200, a stenographer at $1,800, and a
dozen or more special employees. He has gen-
eral supervision of the whole department.

The First Assistant Postmaster General’s duties
consist of the management of five divisions, appoint-
ment, bond, salary and allowance, free delivery and
blank agency. All questions relating to establish-
ment and discontinuance of post-offices, changes in
location and name, appointment and removal of
postmasters and agents, are referred to this depart-
ment, which also has charge of the general mail, and
the foreign and international postal arrangements,
and furnishes the greater part of the department sup-
plies. Rubber stamps, letter balances, official blanks,
etc., etc., come from the First Assistant Postmaster
General, whose work is done by about 100 clerks.

The Second Assistant Postmaster General has
charge of the contract office, the inspection division,
and the mail equipment division, and employs more
than 100 people. The contract office has charge of
the arrangement of all mail routes in the United

56 THE STORY OF

States, advertises for proposals for carrying the mails,
receives the bids and awards the contracts to the
lowest bidders. The time tables and schedules of
the arrival and departure of mails, their frequency,
manner of carrying, and the routes which they shall
take are decided upon in this department.

The Star routes, numbering about 8,000, which go
to places not yet invaded by the whistle of the loco-
motive and the toot of the steamboat, are made in
this department. The system followed in awarding
the contracts is interesting and exact. The country
is divided into four postal sections, and contracts
are made in one section each year, so that new con-
tracts are made all over the country every four years.
The law says, “The contract must be awarded to
the lowest bidder,’ and upon the last day for re-
ceiving bids, three officers of the department, with
assistants, assort the bids by states, open them, and
pass them through a printing press which affixes the
seal of the department and the date of opening. From
here they go to the chief clerk of the contract office,
and are examined to see if they are made out in pro-
per form. All thatare correct are assorted according
to reutes and recorded in the proper route books.
Then the chief clerk goes through these books and
selects the lowest bidder for each route, who must,
when the contract is awarded to him, sign an accept-
ance blank that he will faithfully carry out the terms
of his bid.

The Third Assistant Postmaster-General has ©
charge of the official business of the department.
The issuing of postage stamps. and stamped envel-

THE POST-OFFICE. 57

_ opes, the registered letter accounts, and the dead let-
ter division. He might be called the cashier of the
department, as he issues drafts in payment of the
amounts due the mail contractors, collects the postal
revenues, and has general superintendence of the
accounts.

_ HOW DEAD LETTERS ARE RESURRECTED.

There is no department in Washington, unless it
be the treasury, where new money is made and the
old destroyed, that is of more general interest than
the dead letter office. It occupies a large room,
well lighted by a glass roof and many large windows,
in the F street portion of the post-office building.
It is surrounded by a wide gallery, connected with
the lower part by an iron stair-case. The lady
clerks occupy this gallery, while the men work on
the floor below. Bags upon bags of dead letters
and other matter from all over the world come to
this room every day. The chief clerk and his as-
sistants first look through their daily mail of 15,000
dead letters to see if any have come that cannot
properly be termed “dead.” Postmasters and postal
clerks are human and liable to err, and about 5,000
letters which have gone astray through their care-
lessness reach the dead letter office every year. The
clerk may send to a place in Illinois, a letter plainly
addressed to a place in Maine, and the postmaster
will keep it the usual time, and then forward it to
the dead letter office. After the chief clerk and his
assistants have examined the letters, they are sent
to men who, sitting at long tables, quickly cut open
the envelopes with sharp knives and examine the

58 THE STORY OF

contents to see if there is anything of value. These
men who open the letters are all elderly and present
a venerable appearance. Quite a number of them
are broken down clergymen, who are given the pref-
erence in appointments in this department, for the
department thinks that those who have reached old
age and seen that “ honesty is the best policy” will
be less liable to yield to the temptation which an
outsider would think must be ever present at the
opener’s table. It would be so easy to slip a bank
note or some valuable article into one’s pocket,
while opening a letter, and detection would be well
nigh impossible ; but as one of the clerks remarked,
“We soon forget that the money we find in the let-
ters is money. It does not seem anything more
than printed paper.” Hach opener makes a record
of what money and articles he finds and puts the let-
ter containing these articles one side for future dis-
position. Letters containing nothing of value are
sent by a messenger to the lady employees who look
them through to find, if possible, an address to
which they can be returned. If none can be found
the letters are reduced to paper pulp and sold.
This old paper business of the dead letter depart-
ment brings the government several thousand dol-
lars a year.

The lady clerks sometimes find letters written by
friends of theirs without other signature than initials
or the first name, which they return to the sender.
This occasionally gives rise to the thought that the
dead letter office must be blessed with second sight,
for if not, how could the clerks return a letter with

ae Ate ease

THE POST-OFFICE. 59

no name or town upon it, or no further clue than
simply “that Bob has the measles,” or “ Ellen is to
be married next week.” As a usual thing, how-
ever, the clerks have little time to read the interest-
ing letters that were never intended for more than
one person’s eyes, and that person not a clerk in the
dead letter office. They have their little jokes as
well as any one, and some times cannot resist the
temptation to add a word or two to the letters they
send back. In one love letter received at this office
some years ago the sender wrote, “I do hope, my
dear, that none of the imps in the dead letter office
will get hold of this letter,” and the clerk in return-
ing it added, “I am very sorry, but the imps did get
it.” It must have made the young man blush when
the letter was returned to him.

Immense quantities of money are found in dead
letters, the bank notes, checks, drafts, money orders,
etc., found yearly amounting to several millions of
dollars. If no address is given where this money can
be returned it is deposited in the treasury subject to
application of the owner. A careful record is made
of all letters containing valuable articles, and a most
minute history is kept of their travels amongst the

dead letter clerks. We have seen that the opener
makes a record whenever he finds a letter containing
money, and each morning these records of the pre-
vious day are recorded by the head of the opening
table, and then the letters are taken from the safe
through assistants, recounted and the record verified.
From the head of the opening table they go to the
money branch and are divided among different clerks

a

60 THE STORY OF

to be forwarded to the writer of the letter. Each
clerk receipts for every letter that he receives from
the opening table, and again records them in his de-
partment. When returned to the sender each letter
is accompanied by a receipt blank, which must be
filled out, signed and returned to the office. When
it reaches the dead letter office it is examined by two
clerks and compared with the record to see if all is
correct.

In the dead letter office there is a show case
crammed full of articles whose owner’s address could
not be found. These are kept for six months, and
then sold at auction. A careful record is made of
the sales, and the amount received can be recovered
by the owner if applied for within four years. There
is here amore varied assortment than any pawn
broker’s store or second hand shop can show. Comedy
and tragedy are closely mingled on the shelves.
Precious keep-sakes, the loss of which has caused
many a tear, are here waiting for the ‘ Going, going,
gone,” of the auctioneer. In this collection are
found articles which only a very original person
would have thought of sending by mail,—a horned
toad from Texas, a crocodile from Florida, patchwork
quilts that some fond mother with misty eyes has
pieced for John in his city home, hats and bonnets
which will never reach the heads they were intended
for, baby clothes and dainty undergarments which
may be bought by some enterprising second hand
dealer, jewelry which was to have made “my girl”
_happy, and photographs almost without number,

“
- BX
wi a aga tk a a

oe ng ett gl, ile ea

THE POST-OFFICE. 61

nearly 40,000 being received every year at the dead
letter office. .

These letters and parcels do not become dead on
account of the inefficiency of the postal service. Far
from it. No branch of the government is conducted
in a more businesslike way and with fewer errors than
this. The poison which kills these letters is in almost
every instance the carelessness of the senders. Nearly
10,000 letters reach the dead letter office every year
with no address whatever on the envelope. A set of
rules like the following may seem foolish, but if they
were followed many a clerk in the dead letter office
would be out of work :

1—Put the letter in an envelope. Do not mail
letter and envelope separately.

2—Have the envelope addressed, for postal clerks
are not as a class blessed with the clairvoyant ability
of reading sealed letters.

3—-Write the address so that it can be read.

4—In the left hand upper corner of the envelope
put, “If not called forin... return to ....... AOE
it sometimes happens that letters are wrongly ad-
dressed, or the person written to has moved away.

5—In addition to signing the letter, “‘ Your affec-
tionate John” add your full address, with the street
and number, city and state where you live, so that
if any of the previous rules have been disregarded
and your letter has reached the dead letter office,
the clerks can return it to you without trouble, and
without being obliged to read the letter through in
search for some clue to the address,

62 THE STORY OF

CHAPTER VII.
POST—OFFICES, POSTMASTERS AND CLERKS.

Early History of the New York Post-office.—Postmasters and
Clerks of a Hundred Years Ago.—The Post-office Family
in 1889.—In the Early Part of the 19th Century.—It Goes
Through War and Yellow Fever.—The Club House of the
City.—The City Grew Bigger.—The Father of the Mug-
wumps.—The New York Post-office in a Church.—Then
and Now.—A Novel Feature of the New York Office.—The
Chicago Post-office.—The Work Day of a City Post-office.
A Solid Building in Boston.—The Distribution Center
for Over Half a Million People.—A Wilderness of Pigeon
Holes.—Stamps Cancelled by Machinery.—Interesting Facts
About Letter Carriers.—Left to Plod Along on Foot.—The
City Delivery.—How the Money is Handled.—Newspapers,
Cashier’s Department and Inquiry Office.—A Glance at
Post-office Work in Chicago.—Post-office Names.—Odd
Cognomens Bestowed Upon Some Offices.—A Democratic
Postmaster’s Good-By.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK POST—OFFICE.

When an enterprising boomer lays out the town
lots of a future metropolis, his first act is to ask for
the establishment of a post-office; but those who
founded New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other
eastern cities, let the post office take care of itself,
relying, as we have seen, upon the coffee house de-
livery. The history of the growth of a post-office in
any one of these cities will do for all, if the reader
makes a few changes in dates, names of postmasters
and locations of buildings. Let us follow the devel-
opment of the New York post-office. The New
York Gazette for the first week of May, 1732, contains
the following advertisement: “The New York post-
office will be removed to-morrow to the uppermost
of the two houses on Broadway, opposite Beaver
Street, Richard Nicholl, Esq., P.M.” It was, how-
ever, a long time before the people would give up
the coffee house delivery, which had this advantage

THE POST-OFFICE. 63

over the government office, that there was no charge
for postage. In 1775, those citizens of New York who
wanted to dissolve business relations with the mother
country, set up what they called a constitutional
post-office to distinguish it from what they considered
the unconstitutional one of the British Government.
This was kept at Holt’s printing office on Water
Street, near the coffee house. Upon the evacuation
of New York by the British, a post-office was set up
at.38 Smith Street.

POSfMASTER AND CLERKS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

‘Sebastian Bauman, who was the first postmaster
under the Federal Government, kept the office in his
grocery store. The official notice of his appointment
differed slightly from those sent out by the depart-
ment in-1889. It read as follows :

New York, October 3d, 1789.

S1r,—It gives me pleasure to inform you that Ihave it in my
power to make the offer of an office to you which I hope may
not be unacceptable. It is that of Deputy Postmaster for the
city of New York. Your friends have given you a character
so agreeable to me that I have no doubt we shall perfectly har-
monize in our operations.

If it is agreeable to you to accept of the same you will be kind
enough to inform me, and from the time of your acceptance
you may consider yourself in office. I am, sir, with great
esteem, your most obedient servant,

SAMUEL OSGOOD.

SEBASTIAN BAUMAN, ESQ.

The condition of the clerks, as regards their hours
of work, and their relations to the postmaster, seems
strange to us of the latter part of the 19th century.
They lived in the house with the postmaster’s family,
after the same fashion as in England at that date,
where in some cases now the banking clerks live with
their employers. The office was opened at 7 a. m.

64 THE STORY OF

every day except Sunday, and at 8 o’clock the clerks
breakfasted with the postmaster. They would then
be compelled to work very steadily until the dinner
hour. Tea was served at 5 in the afternoon, when
the office was closed for the day. The postmaster
furnished the clerks with their food gratis, and on
New Year’s day it was a custom with Colonel Bau-
man to present each of his assistants with a new suit
of clothes. He was wealthy and very liberal toward
his clerks, who, however, were well paid by the govy-
ernment, their salaries amounting to much more in
proportion to the cost of living than the salaries paid
the clerks of the New York office at this day. 7

THE POST-—OFFICE FAMILY IN 1889.
Although the clerks in the New York office to-day
do not live with the postmaster’s family, yet very
harmonious relations exist between the postmaster
and his employees, as is evidenced by the following
memorial presented to Postmaster Van Cott by the
letter carriers and clerks of the New York post-office,

July 4th, 1889, which read as follows: ‘‘ Honorable
Cornelius Van Cott: As a means of expressing the
sentiment of esteem and loyalty they feel towards
you, their honored chief, the Clerks and Carriers As-
sociations of the New York post-office, adopt this
address ; and in selecting the memorial day of In-
dependence to commemorate this event more auspi-
ciously, we trust that this token of our esteem will be
regarded in that golden sunlight of honor to whom
honor is.due.

On assuming the duties of postmaster, you prom-
ised to remedy existing evils, to examine and hear
charges yourself, that the humblest employee can
always expect justice, and that employees can in
the future, depend on the assistance and co-opera-

THE POST-OFFICE. 65

tion of the postmaster himself, and that the welfare
of your subordinates will be considered your own.
In the brief space of time you have been postmaster,
you have given sufficient evidence of interest in the
workings of the postal service, by personally inspect-
ing the different departments, thus directly acquaint-
ing yourself, and not depending upon indirect in-
formation, thereby affiliating more closely with your
subordinates.

That the relations between us in the future will be
amicable, we have abundant evidence in your past
record, which shines forth resplendent after many
years service of the people with your long and varied
experience.

We, the Clerks and Carriers Associations of the
New York post-office, will do everything in our
power to promote a spirit of unanimity and loyalty
in your post-office, and when called, will not be
found wanting. ,

We thank you for your kind endeavors of good
will, and will endeavor to reciprocate.”

IN THE EARLY PART OF THE LOTH CENTURY.

As the efficiency of the postal system increased,
and the government passed stringent laws to make
the people use its facilities, the business of the New
York office was augmented, and as a consequence,
removal to other quarters was necessitated. It was
beginning to outgrow its knee pants. In 1804, Gen-
eral Bailey, who was then postmaster, removed the
post-office from Broadway to his house, corner of
William and Garden streets. General Bailey was a
man of progress, and in one of the windows of the
new office, built a case containing 144 small letter
boxes, which were rented to those who could afford
such a luxury. He probably had two ends in view
when he decided to live with his family in the upper

66 THE STORY OF

part of the house containing the post-office, for his
official eye could always be upon the office, and this
plan would also give him a low rent. The office was
closed between twelve and one o’clock for dinner,
and any persons who called at that hour, looked |
through the mail themselves, and if they found any
letters belonging to them, left the money for postage
on a table in the center of the room.

IT GOES THROUGH WAR AND YELLOW FEVER.

The war of 1812 reduced the postal force of the
New York office just one-third, for it so diminished
the amount of mail delivered that two clerks were
able to do all the work, and one of the original three
was dismissed. 3

During the yellow fever epidemic of 1822, the
post-office was removed to Greenwich, to be outside
the infected district. With the return of cold
weather, the office resumed business at the old
stand.

In 1825 the business had grown to such immense
proportions, that eight clerks were employed, and
larger quarters were obtained at the Academy build-
ing on Garden, now Exchange street. The rack of
144 letter boxes was multiplied by six, and to the
surprise of the citizens, these letter boxes were all
rented by business houses within a short time.

THE CLUB HOUSE OF THE CITY.

The post-office was the social club house of those
days, and its frequenters were always overflowing
with wit and wisdom. Many a practical joke of old
postal times is told to-day by the oldest inhabitant,

THE POST-OFFICE. 67

who rubs his hands in glee when he thinks how
smart men were when he was a boy. In the war of
1812, one of the junior clerks was drafted, but hired
a substitute who was killed. This gave rise to many
discussions in the post-office, as to whether this clerk
whose substitute was killed, ought not to get a pen-
‘gion for his heirs, and at the same time receive pay
for the work he was then doing at the post-office.
This question was argued pro and con by the emin-
ent lawyers and editors who found amusement and
social chat at the place where they got their mail.

THE CITY GREW BIGGER.

In 1827, when New York was beginning to assume
the airs of a metropolis, she became ashamed of the
humble post-office in Garden street, and thought
that the growing importance of the city demanded
more pretentious quarters for this branch of the
public service. Accordingly the Federal govern-
ment leased the basement of the new Exchange
building, and the post-office was established there
with two delivery windows, 3,000 delivery boxes, 22
clerks, and 22 carriers.

In the disastrous fire of December 16th, 1835, the
Exchange huilding, with its basement post-ofiice,
was burned to the ground, but owing to the exertions
of the clerks, none of the mail was lost. The next
day after the fire, the office was open for business in
a couple of stores on Pine street, but these stores
were not adapted to its needs, and it was removed
to the rotunda in City Hall park. This new location
was so far from the business center, that a letter de-

68 THE STORY OF

livery was established where the custom house now
stands.
THE FATHER OF THE MUGWUMPS.

Jonathan J. Coddington, who was appointed Post-
master in 1836, may be regarded as the ancestor of
the mugwumps. He certainly was no politician, for
when the chairman of the ward committee asked
him for an assessment of $50, Mr. Coddington, draw-
ing himself up to his full height, said, “I refuse to
pay any such assessment as this you speak of. Td
have you understand that Iam postmaster of New
York City and not postmaster of a ward committee.”
Mr, Coddington was afterwards removed.

THE NEW YORK POST-OFFICE IN A CHURCH.

In 1844, the Federal government, in answer to the
demand to remove the post-office down town, pur-
chased the Middle Dutch Church, and tried to make
it over, so as to answer the needs of a post-office,
but its beautiful steeple and the Dutch inscription
on the walls inside that ‘“ My House shall be a
stouse of Prayer,” proved that such a task was im-
possible. In June, 1869, the foundations of the
present post-office were laid in City Hall Park, and
when the office was removed to this new building in
August, 1875, church and state were once more
separate.

THEN AND NOW. .

A brief comparison between the then of a 100
years ago, and the now of 1889, in the New York
post-office, is interesting. There were no letter car-
riers in those days, and every one who expected a

THE POST-OFFICE. 69

letter, paper or parcel through the mail, went to the
post-office to get it. All mail matter had to be in
the office one-half hour before the time set for the
closing of the bags, and if not deposited within that
limit it was left over until the next mail, two or three
days later.

The income of the New York office for one year,
1786, was $2,789.84. To-day the expense of con-
ducting the office is 100 times greater than it was
100 years ago, pay rolls alone amounting to about
$200,000 per month. There are over 1,100 carriers
who receive from $600 to $1,000 a year, and 1,200
clerks with salaries ranging from $480 to $1,380 a
year. In the last three fiscal years, the receipts have
shown an increase of $1,040,000.

Appointment and promotion are now governed by
ability and conduct to a greater extent than in the
earlier days. At one time, a ward politician obtain-
ed a position in the post-office to “ kill postage
stamps,” that is, cancel the stamps on the letters.
One morning’s work was enough for him, and at
noon he left his table, went to the postmaster, and
complainingly said, “Look here, I wanted an ap-
pointment, not hard work, and if this is the best
thing you can do for me, I'll quit.”

A NOVEL FEATURE OF THE NEW YORK OFFICE.

There is one novelty in the New York post-office
which might be adopted to advantage in other lines of
business. During Postmaster James’ administra-
tion, he introduced the employment of deaf mutes,
and the noisy men were kept quiet by putting a
dummy between them.

70 THE STORY OF

THE CHICAGO POST-OFFIOE.

Assistant Postmaster John M. Hubbard of the
Chicago office, in speaking of the needed increase of
employees in that office, recently said: ‘The Chi-
cago post-office is the second largest in the country.
Its net surplus last year amounted to $1,800,000.
The New York office has1,200 carriers, while Chicago,
with a vastly greater area, has but 490.

The expense of running the Chicago office
amounted to 34 per cent of the gross receipts ;
those of the New York office 36, and of Philadelphia
45 per cent. <A great advantage, too, which the
Philadelphia office has over ours is in the adoption
of the ‘ van system.’ The carriers are taken in large
vans and conveyed to their routes, effecting a great
saving of time. Ours are obliged to furnish their own
transportation, in street cars or buggies, and much
time is necessarily lost. This is shown by the length
of time it takes to send a letter from one division of
the city to another. Hach carrier in Clucago handles
yearly the enormous sum of 704,000 pieces as against
463,000 in New York, 457,000 in Boston, 634,000 in,
Philadelphia, and only 280,000 in Brooklyn.

The distributors, who go on duty at 5:30 at night
work until 6:30 the next morning, and each one
handles about forty thousand pieces of mail. Thir-
teen hours a day is too much work for a man.”

THE WORK DAY OF A CITY POST-OFFICE.

Having traced the early history of the New York
post-office, let us take a glance at the inside work-
ings of the Boston office. A trip through this office
will give us an excellent idea of the way in which the

THE POST-OFFICE. 71

business of the large post-offices of the United States,
each handling millions of dollars, and billions of
pieces of mail matter yearly, is conducted. A Boston
Herald reporter wandered through this granite bee-
hive of postal workers to a good purpose, as is shown
in the following condensed account of his report.
The building is, in its general character, very like
the government buildings in other cities in the
United States. In this respect the impartial ob-
server might say that it is very like frozen pudding
that has been run into a mould and set up to be ad-—
mired before using. Those who have travelled over
the country have noticed, perhaps, that the general
style of the government buildings in the different
large cities has little variation. The enormous pile
in Washington that houses the state, war and navy
departments, seems either to have served as a model
for post-offices and custom houses and United States
court houses in other cities, or to have been mod-
elled upon them. It seems to have been built
strongly enough to last till the crack of doom
Everyone will remember how, in its unfinished state,
it resisted the progress of the great fire of Novem-
ber, 1872, and for that reason, everybody must have
a feeling of gratitude. Here is one of the chief sta-
tions of the public service. It cost almost $6,000,-
000 to build, and it was, altogether, 16 years in
building. Patience ever has its reward, and Bos-
ton’s patience has been rewarded by a government
building admirably suited to the varied business for
which it is intended. Here is the largest post-office
in the New England States; here is the chief pen-

72 THE STORY OF

sion office in New England; here are the United
States courts and the sub-treasury, the internal rey-
enue department and the bankruptcy office; here is
the station of the signal service.

The Boston post-office is the distributing centre
of the mails for about 540,000 people. Not many of
these 540,000 people have ever peeped behind the
strong partitions that separate the public from the
working force engaged in the postal service, In the
long corridors are the lock boxes, the stamp offices,
the apertures for depositing the mail; but who, hav-
ing deposited his letter in one of these apertures
knows what becomes of it and how it happens to
reach its destination. It is a very simple matter so
far as you are personally concerned, this addressing
a letter and stamping it and dropping it in a little
slit in the wall and letting it go off to Jerusalem,
Madagascar or East Boston, without any further in-
tervention on your part. But howisit done? Let
us see.

Behind the lock boxes and stamp offices, and the
other places with which the public comes into di-
rect contact, is a hall, large, very large indeed, high
and light, with a gallery running around it. It is
the great working centre of the post-office. Here
letters are received from, and sent away to, all quar-
ters of the earth. From any one of the galleries the
onlooker beholds a briglit and lively spectacle. He
looks down upon a wilderness of pigeon holes, called
sorting cases, delivery cases and the like, and before
each of these stands a man busily putting letters in,
or busily taking letters out, as the case may be.

THE POST-OFFICE. "3

Here every day many tons of mail matter are han-
dled, and handled with an amazing accuracy and
an almost miraculous speed.

Over against the partition on the Devonshire
street side, back of the apertures which, fronting on
the corridor, are labelled “city letters,” and so on, is
a wide wooden table upon which the letters fall in
great heaps as they are dropped by the senders. At
the rear edge of this table stand 10 men, each manag-
ing a cancelling machine. These cancelling ma-
chines are very ingenious devices indeed, and remark-
able Jabor savers. Each one of them does work equal
to that of four of the quickest men in the department.
It is their business to cancel the stamps of the letters
as they are received. And thereby hangs a tale
The Boston office is the only post-officein the United
States that has the cancelling machine. These in-
genious appliances were invented and perfected some
three or four years ago, and they were placed in the.
post-office for the purpose of demonstrating their
practicability and their powers as labor savers. As
has been said before, each of these machines does
the work of four men, and, consequently, a great
saving is effected for the public service. Letters and
postal cards, as they fall upon the table aforesaid —
Niagaras of them are continually streaming through
the apertures—are taken by the men and “ faced”
directly into the hopper of the machine where
they are automatically adjusted, stamped, packed
and propelled toward the sorting cases, ready
for distribution to outgoing mails, all by one contin-
uous mechanical operation. These machines are

>
74 THE STORY OF —

speeded to run a little faster than the fastest operator
can “ face” letters into them, the average speed being
from 100 to 150 letters per minute. The machines,
of course, save all the time and space necessary for
stamping by the old hand processes. The post-office
department has accepted the 10 machines in the
Boston office at a yearly rental of $300 each, includ-
ing care, repairs and renewal. Ten more machines
are about to be placed in position, and 2500 more
will probably be required to supply all the large post-
offices in the country. Strange as it may seem, the
post-office, although of the greatest importance to the
public, is, perhaps, the last field in which labor-saving
machinery has been adopted. It may be well to say
that these cancelling machines were invented by a
Bostonian, Mr. Etheridge, and that they are owned
by Boston parties. The machines have now become
absolutely indispensable, and the 10 now in operation
save the labor and salaries of forty men.
Their operation is amazingly quick, and they will
cancel 1000 letters in the time it takes to write this
paragraph. -

The letters, after the stamps have been cancelled,
are sorted into their respective cases, where they are
arranged for transportation or immediate distribution.
If they are for the city delivery they go to the city
delivery cases, from which they are put later into the
carriers’ cases, or into the lock boxes. If they are
for out of town delivery they are put into the out of
town cases. They are then done up in little pack-
ages, each bearing the mark of the post-office to
which it is to be sent, and are then placed in the

THE POST-OFFICE. 05

mail bags. Letters arriving in the mail bags for
delivery through the Boston office come in similar
little packages, and are at once undone and distrib-
uted. This sorting into the cases requires great
dexterity and a prodigious memory. Take the city
delivery alone as an example. There are at this
main office about 3000 lock boxes. There are also
104 carriers, each with a specified route. Now, it is
indispensable for the sorting clerks to remember
whether a given letter should goto thelock boxes or to
one of the 104 carriers, and also to which box or
which carrier. For each box there may be a number
of names, the average, possibly, being 10. Messrs.
John Blank & Co. have lock box No. so and so, and
there may be 10 peoplein the employ of this concern
whose individual letters go to that box. It will easily
be seen that sorting all these letters is a task requir-
ing special qualifications. Dexterity and memory
have to play important parts in this work. It is in-
dispensable that each sorter should remember the
streets on the route of each carrier, and the numbers
on these streets where the carrier’s route ends. This
is no small task in itself, and yet, great as are the de-
mands made upon the men whose duty itis to sort the
mail, there are remarkably few errors. In this con-
nection, itis well to state that, in one of. the recent
months, the Boston post-office handled over 17,000,000
pieces of first class mail matter, and over 13,000,000
pieces of second, third and fourth class matter; that
the office dispatched over 35,000 pouches of mail
and over 52,000 sacks; that it received over 34,000

76 THE STORY OF

pouches and about 50,000 sacks, and that there was

only one error to every 19,234 pieces handled.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CARRIERS AND LOCAL LET-
TERS.

The city delivery division is one of the most in-
teresting departments of the post-office. It is, and
has been for years, in the direct charge of Supt.
Edward T. Barker, who has brought it to a high
pitch of perfection. What is called the city deliv-
ery embraces, not only the central post-office, but
also 22 stations in Boston and adjacent towns. The
main office employs 104 carriers to deliver the mails
and 88 to collect them. The 22 stations employ 191

carriers. There are 106 clerks in the city delivery

division of the main post-office and 66 clerks at the
branch offices. There are 57 substitute carriers and
56 special messenger boys, 36 at the main office, mak-
ing a total of 598 people employed in the direct

service of the city delivery department. The carriers -

of the main office make from four to six trips a day.
They report for duty about 6:45 o’clock in the morn-
ing, and all of them have finished by 6.30 at night.
Twenty of the carriers at the outlying stations are
furnished with horses and carriages to assist them in
quickly covering their wide-spread districts.

The city delivery division in the main post-office
is all day long a scene of activity. Each of the 104
carriers has a box, in which his letters are placed by
the clerks, and before every trip each carrier re-
moves these letters, takes them to his desk, which is
very ingeniously arranged for the purpose, and sorts
them for distribution over his route. When this

THE POST-OFFICE. U7

process of sorting is completed—a specified time
being allowed for it between each trip—a_ bell is
sounded as a signal for the men to start on their de-
livery routes, and they all march to the Water
street door, from which point they proceed over
their devious courses. A large omnibus, or barge,
conveys a dozen or more of the men to distant
points of the Back bay district, where each man is
dropped at the beginning of his route and left to
plod along on foot. Of course, some of the carriers’
routes are desirable, while others are not particular-
ly so. The Back bay and Beacon hill districts are
highly esteemed by them, but some of the poorer
localities of the city are not at all promising. — In the
business sections of the city the routes, so far as ter-
ritory is concerned, are the smallest, but the mails
are the largest. In some cases one side of a street
may constitute an entire route, the other side being
taken by another carrier. Pemberton square was a
route of itself, until so many buildings were torn
down to make room for the Suffolk county court
house. In localities where there are great office
buildings, like the Equitable, the New York and
New England insurance, the Mason and the Hos-
pital Life buildings, the routes are considerably
shortened, but there are just as many recipients of
letters, and the volume of mail is greater than in
other parts of the town. A count is made of every
piece of mail received and delivered by the post-
office.

Lhe mails for city delivery, when they arrive, are
sorted in three ways. Some letters are sorted for

78 THE STORY OF

the lock boxes, and those that are addressed to
streets and numbers go to the carriers, while letters
that are addressed neither to box holders nor to
streets and numbers go to the general delivery, or
poste restante. “The poste restante,” says the Dial
Postal Guide, “is primarily designed for the delivery
of the mail matter for transient residents and casual
visitors. All mail matter bearing no street or box
address (and the proper addresses for which are not
known and cannot be found in the directory ), and
all mail matter found undeliverable at its street ad-
dress, is placed in the poste restante to await call. If
bearing the name and address of the sender, with a
request to return within a specified time, it is, if un-
called for, returned at the expiration of that time ; if
no particular time is named in the request, or if it
bears the name and address of the sender only, with-
out request to return, it is returned at the expiration
of 30 days.” ‘There is a special window at the poste
— restante called the women’s window, from which all
all letters addressed to women and intended for de-
livery on call are delivered. No mail matter ad-
dressed to a woman will be delivered to a man, un-
less he presents her written order, and the same rule
applies where women apply for men’s letters.

The special delivery system is a branch of the
postal system that is steadily growing in importance.
Boston, it is said, makes a better use of the special
delivery system than ‘any other city in the country.

Here the special delivery has become almost, if not’

absolutely, indispensable. It provides for the im-
mediate delivery of any letter or package bearing a

THE POST-OFFICE. 79

10 cent special delivery stamp, in addition to the
regular postage, within the carrier limits of a free
delivery office, between the hours of 7 A. M. and 11
P. M.,and within a radius of one mile of all other
post-offices between 7 A. M. and9 P.M. An organ-
ized force of messenger boys is employed to do the
work. ‘These boys are paid a specified sum for every
letter they deliver, and those at the Boston office
earn, on the average, about $30 a month. These
special deliveries are made every day in the week,
Sunday included. As soon as the mail clerks find a
special delivery letter or package, it is sent by a
travelling basket across the office to the messenger’s
section in the gallery, from which point it is at once
delivered. Within afew seconds after it has reached
the office it has left for its destination in the hands
of the messenger.

There is forwarded to the main Boston office every
morning a complete record of the work of every em-
ployee at the 22 stations, so that it is possible to
know at a glance just when every clerk and carrier
reported for duty, and to keep otherwise posted on
affairs relating to the discipline enforced by the post-
master.

There are over 800 street letter boxes from which
collections are made by the Boston office and its
sub-stations. To people who reside within this
postal district it is well known that some of these
boxes are painted red and others green. The red
boxes are the most important ones, and they are
visited every hour by the carriers. The others are
visited four or five times a day, and on Sundays

80 THE STORY OF

twice. All boxes in the city proper and all that are
located on what are called the central office collec-
tion routes in the station districts are collected at
midnight.

HANDLING MONEY.—TWO IMPORTANT BRANCHES AND

THEIR WORK DESCRIBED.

For the utmost perfection of system the registry
division is to be commended. It is in the charge of
Supt. A. B. Weston. This office employs 23 clerks,
receives for registration about 150,000 letters a year,
and delivers at its window in the post-office square
corridor about 200,000 registered letters a year, and
by carrier and otherwise over 100,000 pieces of reg-
istered mail. Beside all this, it is constantly hand-
ling pouches which pass through here for transmis-
sion to other offices. Now, it must be remembered
that every identical letter or parcel that is registered
is carefully accounted for from the time it is received
at the office until the time it is delivered to the person
whose address it bears. The registered letter division
is that portion of the mail service by which the gov-
ernment ensures security to the senders of valuable
matter. Any article of the first, third or fourth class
of mail matter may be registered by the payment of
a 10 cent fee in addition to the usual postage. Every
letter intended for registration must be fully and
plainly addressed and securely sealed, and it must
have on the outside the name and address of the
sender, either in writing or in print, and all this must
be done by the sender, as the post-office employees
are forbidden by the government to do this for the
public. This is quite natural, as the employees of the

THE POST-OFFICE. 81

registered letter division have enough responsibility,
in all conscience, without gratuitously taking upon
themselves any more. Every transaction of the reg-
ister department is designed to secure safety to the
letter or package entrusted to its care. Of every
identical piece of mail there is an accurate written
record, and for every transfer of it from one person
to another there is a recorded signature. The work of
the registered letter department may be briefly de-
scribed as being divided into five sections, the receiv-
ing, mailing, pouching, opening and delivering sec-
tions, A letter when received is registered in a man-
ifold book, from which a receiptis given to the sender,
and a slip recording the transaction is torn off and
forwarded to the office of destination. At the time
of record the “ manifold” made a copy that is retained
by the Boston office. All this is done at one opera-
tion. The letter is then passed from the receiving
clerk toa mailing clerk, and the latter gives the
former a receipt for it. After the cancelling and of-
fice stamps have been impressed upon the letter, a
serial number having been affixed to it, the letter is
put in an envelope with other registered mail, all of
which is numbered, and this registered envelope is
put in one of the pouches belonging to the register
department. But before passing from any one divi-
sion of the office to any other, a full written receipt
is given by the receiving section to the delivering sec-
tion. The registered pouches are quite distinct in
appearance from those belonging to the ordinary
mail. They are of strong canvas, marked, for pur-
poses of distinction, with red stripes. They are

82 THE STORY OF

locked by an ingenious rotary lock, operating a dial,
which registers the number of the pouch. This lock
cannot be tampered with in any way without chang-
ing the registered number on the dial. The registered
pouches never leave the care of their especial depart-
ment either in preparation or in transmission. They
are put upon the mail wagons by employees of the
register division, and these men accompany them
until they are delivered to some other properly
authorized officials of the register department of the
post-office. They are thus as carefully guarded and
watched as they are carefully prepared. The system
of handling and registering provides not only for an
accurate record of the work of the department, but
it insures the surest possible checks upon all persons
who have handled the registered mail either in piece
or in bulk. The Boston registry division exchanges
pouches with 42 other offices. It ranks fifth in the
service in the amount of business transacted. Some
idea of the value and security of the general register
department of the United States postal service may
be arrived at when itis stated that the United States
treasurer alone sendsannually through the registered
mail over $800,000,000. The total value of the mat-
ter handled by the registry division is something
almost fabulous. Every employe of this division is
saddled with serious responsibility. He or she can-
- not receive or dispose of a single item of the mail

without giving his or her signature forthe transaction. -

If, by any accident or design, a registered package
is lost, the responsibility falls upon the employe
who cannot account satisfactorily for the article after

THE POST-OFFICE. 83

having signed for it. The lady who delivers the reg-
istered mail at the registry delivery window at the
post-office in Boston, handles, as has been stated, at
least 200,000 registered pieces per annum. It is her
duty to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity
of every person into whose hands she delivers a letter
or package. Failing to do this, and in the event of her
delivering to the wrong party, the responsibility rests
with her, and she has to bear the loss if claim is put
in to the department.

The most assiduous care is taken by the register
division to prevent any error or fraud. So admira-
ble, indeed, is its system of checks that a registered
letter can be traced all over the country into the
very hands through which it has passed, and to the
very hour when it was in the keeping of any of the
employees of the service. Mistakes almost never
happen, and a phenomenal accuracy of operation
prevails. There is a very interesting record book
kept here at the Boston office, in which the particu-
lars of every parcel of registered mail,—first the let-
ter’s “serial number,” then its office of origin, then
its address, and other particulars in their proper
columns—so that it is possible to see ata glance
just when the letter was received, who delivered it,
by what department it was delivered and when it
was delivered. Every night before closing, the reg-
istry division has to take an account of stock and
strike a balance, as it were. It has to go over the
transactions of the day and ascertain, with the ut-
most correctness, just how matters stand. This

84 THE STORY OF

division is one of the most interesting in the entire
postal service.

The money order division, however, shied with
the registry department a large measure of public
interest. Here again is a complete system of checks
and careful accountantship. Here every year many
millions are paid out and millions are received for
transmission.

NEWSPAPERS, CASHIER'S DEPARTMENT AND INQUIRY

OFFICE.

In the basement on the Post-office square side is
the department devoted to the newspaper mail, un-
der the charge of Mr. HE. A. Reed. About 2000 sacks
of papers are sent away from here every day. They
say that the Americans are the greatest newspaper
readers on the face of the earth. One would think
so after a visit to the post-office. The papers (and
packages of merchandise as well) come down to the
basement by means of a shoot from the floor above.
Into this shoot the mail matter is poured in great
quantities, dropping in great heaps upon the tables,
from which it is taken and sorted. Sorting news-
papers is, to the stranger’s eye, even a more inter-
esting task than sorting letters, whether they are
sorted into “bag racks” or “ovens.” An “oven,”
by the way, is a great, circular structure, divided
into pigeon holes of all sizes, each one labelled with
the name of a post-office. The “oven” is a dozen
or 15 feet high, and inside it the sorters stand and
throw their papers into the respective boxes, of
which there are 200 or 300. These sorters are the
sharpshooters of the post-office. They are as adept

THE POST-OFFICE. 85

in shooting newspaper into pigeon holes as Capt.
Bogardus and Buffalo Bill are adept in shooting
glass balls when riding at full speed on horseback.
These men throw the papers by a quick twist of the
wrist to points two and three times as high as their
heads, and they do so, apparently, with the slightest
exertion, and certainly with the perfection of ac-
curacy. Why an oven is called an oven, unless be-
cause it is a very hot place to work in, it is difficult
to say. The work at the bag racks is pleasanter
than in the ovens, for the sorters are not cooped up
as in prison cells. One, two or three hundred bags,
as the case may be, are suspended in a semi-circle,
or a series of semi-circles, on iron racks, each bag
hung before an appropriate label designating its
destination, and into these bags the sorting clerks
throw the papers.

About 1,000,000 pounds a month of this sort of
mail matter is handled in this department. Since
the post-office went into competition with the ex-
press companies, and began the transportation of
packages as merchandise, the business of the de-
partment has increased immensely, and the work of
the employees has become in mary cases more bur-
densome than ever before. Every description of
package goes through this mailing department in the
basement. Merchandise in thick wrappings of paper,
and merchandise not wrapped at all—boots, trousers,
hoopskirts, rubber overshoes, bunches of keys, pa-
pers of pins, books, pamphlets—come down the
shoot in helter skelter jumbles.

A passageway, running under the building and ex-

86 THE STORY OF

tending from Water street to Milk street, opens into
a wide, subterranean area, where the mail wagons
come to load and unload. There are dozens of these
wagons, and they are constantly coming and going
between the post-office and the different railway sta-
tions. They bring the mails to the building and take
them away. There is also a printing office in the
basement for the use of the various departments of
the post-office. Immense quantities of printed forms
of one sort or another are used in the service, and
the little office down stairs is kept busy in supplying
them. |
In the gallery, on the Water street side, is the
cashier’s department, in the charge of Mr. Henry 8.
Adams, who has been in the United States postal
service ever since he was a boy, having served in
other post-offices before he came to Boston. Mr.
Adams, as cashier, has charge of the revenues of the
post-office, and of the stocks of stamps and stamped
envelopes. The sale of stamps, etc., in 1860 was
about $10,000 per month ; it is now about $150,000
per month. In 1853, when Mr. Adams came to the
Boston office, there were only 30 mail carriers and
60 clerks, and the pay-roll of the establishment was
$9,000 per month. It is now about $80,000 per
month. In the cashier's department a stock of
stamps of all denominations, and of stamped envel-
opes, amounting in value from $250,000 to $300,000,
is always kept on hand, These are stored in a great
fire-proof room (but then, of course, the post-office
itself is a fire-proof structure), and they are sold to
the stamp departments down stairs as wanted. The

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" +3 + ahS said co
0 2A eee, ep Sno Dee le sees le eee

THE POST-OFFICE. 87

stamps are kept in a great safe capable of holding
many millions of them, and they range in denomina-
tion all the way from one cent to $60.

At the other end of the Water street gallery is the
inquiry office, of which Mr. W. E. B. Ryder is the
superintendent. This place might properly be called
the puzzle department of the post-oflice. To Mr.
Ryder is sent all the unmailable matter that comes
to the office, and he and his five clerks do their best
(and their best is quite wonderful when you come to
investigate it ) to set right the blunders and the ig-
norant mistakes and the careless omissions of the
general public. The letters, newspapers, packages,
postal cards that come with wrong addresses, illegible
addresses and no addresses at all, are sent up here
to the puzzle department. Mr. Ryder is constantly
in receipt of packages of merchandise and of dainty
little packets of presents that-come all very nicely
done up, but are all innocent of addresses. If, by
opening them, any clew can be found to the senders,
or the persons for whom they are designed, measures
are taken accordingly ; if no clew can be discovered,
the things, of course, are never delivered. The gross
carelessness of humanity is pretty well illustrated by
the amount of work that is put upon the inquiry di-
vision of the post-office. Hundreds of letters come
without addresses, and hundreds of letters with ad-
dresses come without stamps. Letters come very
neatly and very distinctly addressed, say, to “John
Smith, Massachusetis;” to ‘Peter Robinson, 114
Blank street, Chicago, Maryland.” and so on. These
are evidences of absent mindedness more than of

88 THE STORY OF |

ignorance. It is a common thing to find letters ad-
dressed to such and such a number, Boston, or such
and such a street in such and such a State. Misdi-
rected letters are among the common things of life.
Illegibly addressed letters are amazingly numerous.
The inquiry office is fitted out with a complete set of
directories of almost every place under the sun, and
it is really astonishing how quickly clerks will un-
ravel the conundrums that come to them on the en-
velopes, sometimes at the rate of 1,000 or 1,500 a
day. Writing that puzzles all the other members of
the force is deciphered by the clerks of the inquiry
division instanter, and if they cannot decipher it Mr.
Ryder can. If people could only realize how much
better they would serve themselves by carefully ad-
dressing their letters, the work of the inquiry divi-
sion would be materially lessened, and hundreds of
thousands of letters would every year more quickly
reach their destination.

The general delivery window, where foreign letters
are handed to people who call for them, is often the -
scene of amusing episodes. The department will
not, for reasons best known to itself, engage an in-
terpreter, and so when a man comes along unable to
make himself understood in English, all that the
clerk can do is to hand him a fistful of letters and
ask him to pick out the one intended for himself.
Half the time it is almost impossible to read the
direction on these foreign letters, and it seems as if
there must be a good deal of chance in their deliv-

ery:

Re ‘ a

THE POST-OFFICE. 89

A GLANCE AT THE CHICAGO POST-OFFICE.

The letters and postal cards are assorted, and the
stamps cancelled on the first floor, but the post-oflice
building, which occupies a whole block, has under-
neath it a large basement, where the most important
workings of the post-office can be seen. In the west-
ern side of the building are two large chutes or slides
for the reception of the mail; one for newspapers
and regular publications, and the other for books,
papers, and packages of merchandise. Every week |
about 400 tons of mail matter slide down the chutes.
This is taken care of by a force of 69 men, 10 of
whom are constantly at work cancelling the stamps.
When a load is dumped into the 2nd. class chute,
which takes newspapers sent by publishers, it glides
down the boards, and lands upon large scales, where
the weight is recorded. Men load this upon trucks,
and cart it to the clerks who separate the mail. The
newspapers and merchandise packages, after they
come down the chute, are stacked up inthe stamping
room. ‘This room contains a number of large tables,
and is separated from the rest of the basement by a
heavy wire grating. As the stamps are cancelled,
the mail is dropped into bags, which when filled, are
taken into the distributing department.

One can scarcely conceive the great diversity of
this merchandise mail. Everything imaginable, from
a piece of an old door key toa base drum, is handled
in this department. Old door hinges, pieces of stoves ,
grates, screws, banjos, overcoats, old socks, pieces of
sewing machines, pictures frames, and feather pillows,

are afew of the articles which are daily handled.

90 THE STORY OF

One firm sends every day a two-horse wagon-load of
catalogues and general merchandise, most of which
goes to towns where there is no post-office. A
woman once purchased a seal skin cloak, and wished
it sent to a small town out west. As there was no
express office in the town, and freight transportation
is not a safe way of forwarding seal skin cloaks, it
was sent to a seamstress, who ripped the back seam,
and made the cloak into two packages, each weighing
about 3 pounds, and these packages were mailed. A
large bicycle was recently taken apart, and sent in
pieces through the mail, with the exception of the two
heaviest bars which weighed a little more than four
pounds.

On the floor of the basement are distributing cases
arranged in convenient order. These cases are about
18 feet square, and are made of one inch gas pipe.
Each case is divided into 3 or 4 sections containing
18 mail bags apiece, hung mouth upward in their res-
pective places upon four small hooks. The distributor
stands upon a platform in front of the case, and takes
from his helper the mail which he has arranged with
the addresses all one way. One sees a regular shower
of mail as each piece travels through the air from the
hand of the distributor to its respective bag. One
old man, who has been in the employ of the postal

service for over 38 years, is Mr. J.G. Kerr. He has .

charge of the most difficult distributing case in the
office; that for Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Ken-
tucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Maryland and the District
of Columbia. He must remember the names of 13,-
000 offices, and the quickest and most direct route
over which each piece can be sent.

Lg gi cr

THE POST-OFFICE. 91
POST-OFFICE NAMES.—ODD COGNOMENS BESTOWED UPON
SOME OFFICES.

Naming a post-office, says the Washington Post,
is like naming a child— there is no accounting for
the taste displayed in the name selected. Usually
the post-office is named after the town, and when
the town is started some enterprising citizen gets in
his deadly work and the town is named after him.
Others take their names from surroundings and
often from incidents which happened when the site
was first selected. Some are good, others bad; some
long and some short, but there seems to be a gen-
eral disregard of the proprieties in the selection of
names. For instance, Happy Camp is the name of
a newly created post-office in California, and the
probabilities are that the inhabitants are constantly
fighting, and the only person who is happy is the
undertaker, who is growing wealthy. Mountain
View is more than likely to be the name of a village
at the bottom of a 200-foot hill than to be near a
mountain, while Marble Cliff is very remote from a
marble quarry. |

Passing events also help decide the names of
places, and with the Johnstown horror fresh in the
public mind, many smaller towns will select that
name to emphasize the establishment of the place.

Peace and Cain are two villages where post-offices
have been established in Alabama, while Rat, Rye,
and Urbanity have been discontinued. Sassafras is
the name of a spicy Arkansas village, while people
who desire to go to a new postal station in Alaska
will have to have their letters addressed to Bel-

92 THE STORY OF

kofsky. California has a choice collection of new
names. Bitter Water, Calabasa, Orosi, and Simiop-
lis, make a splendid quartet. Tourtelotte and
Bovina are Colorado offices. Dakota, as becomes a
newly admitted State, is selecting names for its new
offices from among those who advocated its admis-
sion, and is getting rid of its old territorial names,
reminiscent as they were with the names bestowed
by cow-punchers, whose idea of the ridiculous was
very keen.

The warm climate of Georgia boasts of an Arctic
town, while Sinker is the name of a village in Idaho.

The people of Illinois were so glad to get new
postal facilities that they did not stop to complete
the names, and sent them out as Lis and Mac. Nail
and Cheek are two villages in the Indian Territory.
Fritz, Snider, and McBrayer represent the ruling
population in three Kentucky places. China is

located in Michigan, and Minnesota boasts of its.

short Line Park. Missouri contains Last and Clio.
Raten is in Nebraska, while Redstone takes its name
from the granite hills of New Hampshire. New
York is provided with a Best, an Echo, and a Jay-
ville. Stem and Wharf are the names of two post-
offices in North Carolina, and Scrub, Ego, and Twin
have Ohio written after them on envelopes.

Ale and Joy, while both are in Oregon, are not in
the same county, and there is no connection be-
tween the two. Peach Tree, Early, Orphan’s Home,
and Venus are in Texas. Exit and Joe are in the
neighboring State of Virginia, and Washington Ter-
ritory has a newly created small post-office called

a

THE POST-OFFICE. 93
Nickle, while Fossil and Shell complete the list for

- Wyoming.

A DEMOCRATIC POSTMASTER’S GOOD BY.—AN ILLINOIS
EDITORS VIEW OF POLITICS EXPRESSED IN A
LETTER OF RESIGNATION.

The following document has been received from
the editor-postmaster at Mount Carmel, [linois.

MOUNT CARMEL, ILL., June 7, 1889.
To Hon. B. Harrison, President, ete.

Str—By the grace of God and Grover Cleveland I am post-
master at Mount Carmel. My official term will expire January
20, 1890. In addition to editing the mails of this city I am also
the editor of the Mount Carmel Register, a live, local, demo-
cratic newspaper, established in 1839, and published at $1.25 a
year, cash in advance; a discount of 20 per cent to ministers
and presidents.

While the office has agreed with me, and I have in the main
agreed with the office, and while I might reasonably entertain
the hope of holding on for eight months longer, yet I feel it my
duty to tender you my resignation.

Being a democrat, I have preached that ‘‘to the victors be-
long the spoils.” I feel disposed to practice that which I
preach.

Your immediate predecessor hoped to build up his party by
keeping the opposition in office. You are probably aware, if
you are at all familiar with the vocabulary of true and trite
sayings, that his name is Dennis.

Iam moved further to tender you my resignation because of
the anxiety of a barnyard full of patriots to succeed me. I be-
lieve that a tariff is a tax. They do not. Therefore they are
of your own kith and kindred, and he who provides not for his
own household is worse than an infidel. I amtoldthat you are
not built that way.

But to resume the thread of my discourse: The boys who
are anxious to be my successor are very hungry; they have been
feeding on shucks and icicles for four long, weary years; the
official calf is fat, and they yearn to taste its tender joints.
They fought (among themselves), bled (at the nose), and are
willing to die for the g. 0. p. When I asserted that you were
the Chinaman’s candidate and ate rat-tail soup with chopsticks
they swore by Dudley and Foster that it was a campaign can-
ard and threatened to detail blocks of five to fry the fat out of
me. Fortunately for me their threats were never carried into
execution. They carried torches, drank with the coons, sang
“‘Grandpa’s hat will just fit Benny,” and did divers and many
foolish things, none of which would they have been guilty of
doing had they not scented an aroma of post-office on the crisp

94 _ THE STORY OF

morning air. And the pzeans of praise which they sounded
when it became evident that you ‘‘had got there, Eli,” will
never be a Sahara in my memory.

For these and other reasons, unnecessary to mention, I tender
you my resignation, with the hope that my successor will be
animated by a similar spirit in 1893. If he is, your democratic
successor will be spared the painful necessity of ‘‘turning the
rascal out.”

I am respectfully yours,

FRANK W. HAvILL, P. M.
te B. —I would rather be right than be postmaster.

CHAPTER VIII.

A CHAPTER OF ERRORS.

Queer Mistakes Made by an Army of Letter Writers.—The Odd
Address on Mr. Smith’s Letter.—Mr. Muggefeldt Calls His
Brother a Fool.—An Interview with a Chicago Official.—
Bankers and Business Men Make the Most Mistakes.—_How
Their Errors are Rectified.--The Chineseare Poor Penmen.
—What ‘‘ Nidibbonavegna” Meant. —Sometimes an Inter-
preter is Called In.

Just imagine, Mr. Smith, receiving a letter ad-
dressed on the envelope in bold, plain writing, in the
following manner :

MR. JOHN H. SMITH.
Druggist and Stationer.

1785. Clark street,

Chicago, U.S. A. 1.
Prescriptions carefully made up.
Fine Cigars,
All Periodicals and Newspapers.
Telephone No. 6782.

wrote a Chicago Herald reporter. You will notice
that every inch of space has been utilized, and that
every detail of trade which you desire to specially
impress on a forgetful public has been unfailingly
copied on the address. The letter-carrier in deliver-
ing the missive smiles. You, too, have to smile. You

THE POST-OFFICE. 95

see from the postage stamp and the post-office imprint
that the letter comes from Ireland. The address is
the exact copy of one of your business cards, which
you some time ago, in order to insure a correct ad-
dress, sent to an old and unsophisticated uncle in
County Wicklow. And you see that the old uncle
has been as careful as he could in addressing you.
Mr. Smith’s next door neighbor, Wilhelm H. A.
Muggefeldt, simultaneously receives a letter from his
brother in Germany. The envelope bears the follow-
ing inscription :

FAA CR sie! “Old Reliable.”

Mr. Wilhelm H. A. Muggefeldt, Esq.

: Fine Liquors, Wines und Bier. ‘

: Imported und Domestique. {

| Family Trade solicited. ‘

: Cigars und Tobackos. }

Orders promptly attended to. :

: ‘The Sharp Corner.”

' Live und 1787 Clark St.,

Let Live. Chickago, Amerika,

This, as you will perceive, is an exact copy, with
some orthographical changes, of another business
card. Like his neighbor, Mr. Muggefeldt smiles a
ghastly smile, and five minutes later he may be heard
saying to his wife :

‘“‘Katreena, mine vife, dot is doo funny mit dose

ledders. Mine brudder in Tchermany ish one phool.”

“ Yaw, dot ish so, Wilhelm.”

If Mr. Muggefeldt could, however, see the a of
foreign letters daily arriving in Chicago with ad-
dresses the exact counterpart of the above, he might
hold a little better opinion of his brother. The
good souls over there on the wrong side of the At-
lantic merely go to the other extreme—they are too

96 THE STORY OF

careful in addressing letters ; while over here people,
as a whole, are too careless in doing so.

No better illustration of this fact can be found
than by interviewing E. J. Rook, at the Chicago post-
office. That gentleman is foreman of the city dis-
tribution and also chief of the directory department,
with four clerks to attend to nothing but rectifying
careless letter-writers’ mistakes and oversights and
in disciphering illegible chirography. What a big
job that is no one has any idea who has not taken
pains to find out. The daily average number of let-
ters which get into the hands of this small corps of
clerks because of having been misdirected is alone
about 1,000. The most frequent mistake is made in
writing the wrong city down on the address. Instead
of Milwaukee, New York, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pitts-
burg, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Paul, ete., the letter
bears the word ‘ Chicago,” and often, too, the re-
verse mistake is made. Just from one day’s mail
the writer picked out at random the following mis-

directed ones:

Wilson Godfrey, Wall street, city, instead of New York.
Written by Greenlee Bros. & Co., Chicago.

Mathews, Blum & Vaughn, 85 Leonard street,. Chicago,
instead of New York. Written by Union National Bank,
LaCrosse, Wis.

Jones, McDuffe & Stanton, corner Federal and Franklin,
Chicago, instead of Boston, Mass. Written by Kirby, Carpen-
ter & Co., Menominee, Mich.

Montgomery & Co., 104 Fulton street, city, instead of New
York. Written by Keene Bros., 167 South Clark street, Chi-
cago.
; L. E. Johnson, Cincinnati Enquirer office, Chicago, instead
of ae Written by Whitaker & Jordan, Washington,
Dek

“T suppose a great many of these people who so
frequently misdirect letters raise the old Nick when
they find there is a botch, and blame the postal offi-

eres uP eae aoe

- THE POST-OFFICE. 97

cials for delay or miscarriage,” said Mr. Rook, hur-
rying the huge pile of letters, whose addresses had
just been rectified, off on their intended destination.
“The public is always blaming the post-office and
everybody is always willing to lift up his good right
hand to the azure dome and swear by the great
hornspoon that he never made a mistake in address-
ing a letter, and is not liable to do so at any time.
Yet we here can tell a different tale. As a general
thing I must say that mistakes of business houses
are more frequent and Jess excusable than by poor
and badly educated people. And that is true, even
taking into consideration the difference in propor-
tion to the bulk of mail from each. Business houses
and business men of all kinds are awfully.careless in
addressing letters. Why the other day a St. Louis
bank sent us a letter to Chicégo, intended for a firm
but five doors distant from the bank itself, and the
very next day a big printing house in the same city
made an even worse error. And such mistakes occur
by the hundreds every day. Yesterday, for instance,
a lawyer named Baxter Foster sent us five letters,
all of them directed ‘Chicago,’ and all of them in-
tended for some outside city. The banks, though,
are the worst of all. They will pick up printed en-
velopes with ‘Chicago’ on them and then address
them to the Chase National Bank (which happens to
be in New York) or to the Flour National Bank (in
Rochester), or to the Second National Bank of St.
Louis, for instance. When the mistake is discovered
before the mail leaves Chicago, there is no trouble.

98 THE STORY OF

We have to carry the register of all the principal
banks of the country in our heads.”

“And how are the misdirections on other letters
rectified ?” |

“By means of the street guide first, which is fur-
nished us by the Department, and which contains
the name and location of every street in every city
in the United States. Then, after tracing the street,
we take the directory of the city in question and find
the name and correct address and forward it there.
If we find the same street names in several cities, we
hunt through the various directories until the right
city with the right address is found. We have for
our use the latest directories of some thirty-five cities
in the Union, comprising every town of about 100,-
000 or over. Then, another mistake we have to con-
stantly correct is that people persist in addressing a
party living at Fifty-ninth and State, for instance, as
living in Chicago. Now, the city delivery only ex-
tends up to Fifty-sixth on the South Side, and all
of those letters marked ‘City’ and running up to
One Hundredth street have to be addressed anew,
and ‘ Englewood, etc., put on them. We have the
same trouble with letters meant for the extreme ends
of the West and North Sides. The last street we
deliver on the West Side is Crawford avenue, or
Fortieth street, and yet people constantly mark let-
ters for Forty-second and Harrison or Forty-eighth
and Madison, ‘ City, so that we mark them afresh
with ‘ Central Park,’ ‘ Moreland,’ etc., and they have
to go there by mail. It’s the same with Gross: Park
and other suburbs on the North Side, which get

THE POST-OFFICE. 99

their mail by railroad, as other outside towns. Still
another trouble we have to contend with are the
abbreviations which many people, too lazy to put
the name of the addressee on, indulge in. Commis-
sion houses are the worst of all in this respect.
What could you make of such an address as this, for
instance?” And Mr. Rook showed one couched in
these mystic signs:

Which meant, strange to say, P. B. Weare & Co.
Another one reading :

Which stood for G. Lasher & Son.

“We have to know all these firms and then guess
which one it is meant for. They use stencils, and
the stencil puts merely the initials and the stencil
number on. All sorts of other firms are addressed in |
a similar way, many only by initials, like “ R., M. &
F.,” which is ‘short-hand’ for Reid, Murdoch &
Fischer. All these, and many other things, we have
to guess, and we couldn’t do it if we didn’t have oa
years’ practice at it.”

“ How about the difficulty of illegible hand-writ-
ings ?”

“Well, that is, generally speaking, not as bad as
might be expected, especially in a cosmopolitan city
liké Chicago, which can boast of all sorts of national
handwritings. Long practice has skilled our eyesight

100 THE STORY OF

and gift of distinction so that we but rarely have dif-
ficulty in deciphering any style of writing. In my
twenty years’ experience I think I remember only
two or three occasions where I was unable to make
the writing out. Judged by nationalities the Chinese
are by all odds the worst penmen—that is, of our
style of writing. You'd die laughing if you could
see sometimes the chirography some of these almond-
eyed gentlemen indulgein. The Italians come nextas
illegible writers, and then some of the Scandinavians
and a few of the Germans who affect German script,
and get off some very bold figures with the pen. The
Americans are, that goes without saying, the plainest
and most distinct writers. But even among them
there are a good many who affect such peculiarities
of hand writing as puzzle us not a little. Especially —
what’s called the ‘backhanded’ ones—it may look -
pretty enough, but the characters all run into each
other and make the effect of blurring the whole. It
takes study to decipher this style of writing, and you
often have to twist the letter and turn it sideways
and upside down to get any sense to it.”

“And don’t the foreign letters give your depart-
ment much trouble ?” |

“Well, yes—some. But we get a great deal of fun
out of some of those letters, too. The Italians, for
instance, will often write down for their correspond-
ents in Italy the names of streets, such as they sound
to them, and, of course, they do not know the correct
spelling. Thus, a fruit peddler recently got a letter
addressed :

THE POST-OFFICE. 101

MARISI PASQUALE.

Quinzi.

: Nidibbonavegna. :
Which meant :

OP ARCAE MARIGL cae A ee re

!

'

‘ Kinzie near
Dearborn avenue.

“ Still, we don’t have so much trouble with Italian
letters, for the majority of them are wise enough to
get them sent in a bunch to one place on Clark, bet-
ween Polk and Taylor streets, a sort of Italian Bank,
and everybody who knows enough to put Italian
Bank, Chicago, on the envelope, is sure to have the
letter delivered all right. Then, too, they don’t write .
or receive many letters. We sometimes have to
wrestle with Chinese letters, but we get an inter-
preter for that.”

CHAPTER XIX.

POST—OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS, LIFE INSURANCE AND
TELEGRAPHY.

The Benefits of Post-office Savings Banks.—Thought of in 1807.
—The System of to-day in Great Britain.—Effect upon the
Old Banks.—Advantages offered the Opulent Depositor.—
Opposition from Banks.—In other Countries.—The United
States has talked about them.—Post-oftice Life Insurance
and Annuities.—Annuity Business.—Life Insurance Busi-
ness.—The Postal Telegraph.—Why the United States
should own Telegraph Lines.

THE BENEFITS OF POST-OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS.
Post-office Savings Banks have been such a great
success wherever introduced, that it is a matter for
surprise that they have not been adopted in the Unit-
ed States. It is a system of banking established

+

102 “THE STORY OF

by the government for the simple purpose of benefit-
ing people with small incomes, affording them the
utmost facility for depositing and withdrawing money,
with the fullest security which government credit can
give. There are now nearly 9,000 of these post-office
savings banks in the United Kingdom, and they have
undoubtedly done much to promote habits of thrift
and economy among the British working people.
Many communities are far removed from private
savings banks, and before the deposit can be made,
the sum of money intended for deposit, has gone
some other road, and there is no snug penny put by
for a rainy day. Where banks are numerous and
accessible, there is too often the glaring fault of poor
management and dishonest officers, ending in a dis-
aster which sweeps away sums representing the labor
and struggles of a life time. These two readily ad-
mitted facts can leave no doubt in any mind of the
need of a system of post-office savings banks in every
civilized country.
THOUGHT OF IN 1807.

_ Great Britain was not only the first in adopting the
postage stamp, but it is to her sound minded govern-
ment officials that millions of people owe the bene-
fits derived from post-office savings banks. A Mr.
Whitbread suggested, in a parliamentary speech in
1807, that the machinery of the post-office could be
admirably adapted for receiving the savings of the
-people, but it took more than fifty years for this
skeleton thought to clothe itself with flesh. Mr.
Chetwynd, an official in the money order department
of the post-office in 1860, proposed to the postmas-

THE POST-OFFICE. 103

ter general that “‘Hvery money order office should
receive and pay money on account of the Central
Government savings bank, the depositor being fur-
nished with a pass book for entries to be made at the
office, and that receipts for deposits should be sent
direct from the central office to the depositor.” Be-
fore the act under which the bank was constituted,
was passed, in 1861, Mr. Chetwynd’s scheme was
changed in various ways.
THE SYSTEM OF TO-DAY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

From the first, the post-office savings banks have
been entirely self-supporting. The rate of interest
upon deposits has never been over 2 1-2 per cent a
year, and the difference between this rate and that
upon investments made through the commissioner
for the reduction of the national debt, has not only
paid all expenses, but given a considerable surplus.
It is plain to see, that notwithstanding the greater
facilities and security afforded depositors, itis possi-
ble to transact the business at a less expense than in
regularly established savings banks, because the
doors are always open for mailing purposes, and the
chief expense is borne by the carrying department
of the post-office. The most important of the regu-
lations under which deposits are received, are as fol-
lows: Deposts from 1 shilling up to £30 are re-
ceived, not to exceed £150 in a single year. The
total amount to the credit of any one person, includ-
ing interest, must not exceed £200. Minors and
women may be depositors as wellas men. Friendly
societies, bank companies, etc., are also admitted to

the benefits of this plan. Every depositor is re-

104 THE STORY OF

quired to make a declaration that he is not directly
or indirectly entitled to any deposit in any other
savings bank, nor in any other account in the post-
office savings bank. Deposit books are supplied free
of charge, and all the letters addressed to the Sav-
ines Bank department are carried free of postage.
When a deposit is made in a post-office savings
bank, the depositor must have it properly entered in
his deposit book, and will receive by mail within
four days after making the deposit, a receipt from
the Savings Bank department. All books are to be
sent yearly to the postmaster general for the entry
of interest. When a depositor wishes to withdraw
any sum, he can obtain from any post-office savings
bank, a form of notice of withdrawal, which he is to
fill up, and forward by mail free of charge to the
above department, in return for which he will receive
an order payable at any post-office savings bank
named by him. In this way every possible conven-
‘jience for withdrawing money is afforded to the de-
positor. All post-office employees are bound to sec-
recy as to the depositor’s account, which has led
many working men to avail themselves of these
banks, who otherwise would not have saved money
for fear that their employers might find out that it
did not take all their wages to pay for the necessaries
of life. Interest is only paid on deposits of a pound
and multiples of a pound. Another feature of this
plan which has done much to increase its popularity,
is the issuing of blank sheets, which, when filled up
with one shilling’s worth of unused postage stamps,
are received as deposits. This practically does

THE POST-OFFICE. 105

away with the regulation that the smallest deposit
shall be one shilling, and a child who has a half
penny can buy a stamp and start his sheet, and thus
have a bank account. This idea has been adopted
in some of the Children’s Aid associations in the
United States with very satisfactory results. The
following table shows that post-office savings banks
have been a success in Great Britain: Total de-
posits including interest: 1863, £3,376,818 ; 1866,
£6,626,400; 1871, £17,025,404; 1876, £26,796,550 ;
1881, £36,194,495 ; 1886, £50,874,334.
EFFECT UPON THE OLD BANKS.

The old savings banks could not retain their pop-
ularity in the face of the improved facilities and
greater security offered by the post-office savings
banks, and in less than ten years after the passage
of the act establishing this new system, the old-
fashioned banks had decreased in numbers from 638
to 496; in depositors, from 1,586,000 to 1,385,000;
and in capital, from 41,000,000 sterling to 38,000,000,
while the post-office savings banks had grown from
nothing to 4082 in number, with 1,183,000 depos-
itors. Since 1870, the business of the post-office
savings banks has grown rapidly, as shown in the
foregoing table, while the old banks have just about
held their own on account of paying a little higher
rate of interest.

ADVANTAGES OFFERED THE OPULENT DEPOSITOR.

In order that no poor boy might be deterred from
‘obtaining a sheet for his half-penny, for fear that
when his deposit amounted to £200 he could get no

106 THE STORY OF

interest upon it, arrangements were made for the in-
vestment of sums in government stocks through the
post-office banks. A depositor can now invest any
sum not less than £10 in any of the British govern-
ment stocks without any further trouble than to for-
ward an application through a bank, accompanying
this with his deposit book. The investment will
then be made for him at the following charge for
brokerage: On stock not exceeding £25, 9 pence;
£25 to £50, 1 shilling 3 pence; £50 to £75, 1 shil-
ling 9 pence; £75 to £100, 2 shillings 3 pence. The
investment is made at the current price of the day
on which the application is received at the head
office, and a certificate for the stock is sent at once
by mail to the depositor. The stock will stand in
his name on the books of the post-office savings
bank department, and the dividends will be credited
to his account as they become due. The amount in-
vested in this manner in any one year must not ex-
ceed £100, and the whole amount to the credit of
any one depositor must not exceed £300. The com-
mission on the sale of stock is the same as that
charged for the purchase. If any one wishes to con-
trol the interest himself instead of having it credited
on his post-office savings bank book, he can apply
to the central office for a bank certificate with div-
idend coupons attached, and then be able to draw
the interest himself.
OPPOSITION FROM BANKS.

When the postmaster-general proposed to raise
the limit of deposits, a great outcry went out from
the banks of the United Kingdom, and well-founded

THE POST-OFFIOE. 107

charges that it was not policy for the government to
dabble in trade banking, caused the abandonment
of this idea. If the limit had been raised, undoubt-
edly a different class of depositors would have used
these banks, and at times of great speculation, there
would be considerable danger of the department
being called upon to pay immense sums of money
which would be liable to cause the government quite
aloss. It is generally conceded that the post-office
savings banks, under the present regulations, do not
interfere to any great extent with regular banking
institutions, for they draw a class of business which,
if it went to regular banks, could not be taken at a
profit; and it is undoubtedly true that they have
done great things in the encouragement of habits of
thrift among the poorer people.
IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

The English colonies and most of the European
countries, seeing the great benefits resulting from.
this system, made similar provisions, although many
pay higher rates of interest, and allow larger depos-
its. In Canada they were established in 1868, and
the deposits in.1880 amounted to $3,946,000; in
1884, to $13,245,900 with 66,682 depositors. Ac-
counts are kept at the head office in Ottawa, where
daily reports are received from each postmaster.
Among the depositors in 1884 were 10,500 single
women with deposits of over $1,000,000. In Italy
postal savings banks were established February
29, 1876, and at present, all post-offices in that
country, receive and pay out as banks. The French
system went into operation December 31, 1883,

108 THE STORY OF

and bids fair to make the greatest success of any.
The Austrian government opened post-office savings
banks January 12, 1883, while Belgium, the Neth-
erlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway soon fol-
lowed the lead of their neighbors in taking care of
the surplus earnings of their people.

THE UNITED STATES HAS TALKED ABOUT THEM.

Many efforts have been made in this country to
establish post-office savings banks, but thus far
without success. Mr. Creswell, while postmaster
general, in 1871, recommended their adoption, and
in his annual report of two years later, gave the
matter further attention. Ex-Postmaster General
Thomas L. James thought highly of this plan, as is
evidenced by the following: ‘It is my earnest con-
viction that a system of this description, if adopted,
would do more than almost any other measure of
public improvement for the benefit of the working
people of the United States.” Many bills have been
brought before Congress to procure the necessary
legislation for this purpose. A bill introduced by
Mr. Lacy, which was strongly recommended and en-
dorsed by the advocates of this measure, provided
that “None but money order offices should receive
deposits, that no single deposit should be less than
10 cents or more than $100, that no one person
should deposit more than $100 within 30 days, or
have at any time more than $500 to his credit, and
that interest at 2 per cent should be paid on all
sums over $3, beginning the first of the month fol-
lowing the deposit, and stopping the last of the

THE POST-OFFICE. 109

month preceding the withdrawal.” Though as yet
all efforts have been unavailing, post-office savings
banks will undoubtedly be established in the United
States in the near future.

POST-OFFICE LIFE INSURANCE AND ANNUITIES.

In this country, post-office savings banks and the
postal telegraph have been discussed so much, that
they are comparatively familiar words, though little
has been said about another branch of the British
post-office—life insurance and annuity. There are
very few aside from those who have made a specialty
of postal reforms, who know that the British post-
office department not only carries letters, papers, and
express parcels, and offers facilities for saving surplus
earnings, but also does a fair life insurance and an-
nuity business. This started in 1865, with the same
object as the post-office savings banks ; that is, the
promotion of thrift. Life insurance was offered to
the people in sums not to exceed £100, and annuities
not exceeding £50. This branch of the department,
however, has not been such a complete success as
the savings banks, but the following tables show a
fair business :

| ANNUITY BUSINESS:

Number of annuities granted in 1887, 1002; an-
nual amount of same in 1887, £20,927 ; cash received |
in purchase of same £243,895. Number of annuities
in force, 10,913 ; annual amount of same £194,829.

LIFE INSURANCE BUSINESS.

Number of new policies in 1887, 585; amount of
new insurance in 1887, £36,168. Number of policies

110 THE STORY OF

in force, 5,859; amount of insurance in force,

£447,310.
THE POSTAL TELEGRAPH.

In 1867 the English government decided upon the
bold and socialistic step of gaining possession of all
lines of telegraph in the kingdom, and combining
this means of communication with the other branches
of the post-office business. In 1880, for the first
time since the acquirement of the telegraph, have the
receipts been sufficient to pay the interest on the
capital, and leave a surplus.

Previous to the transfer of the telegraph to the
British government, its use was considerably restrict-
ed, owing to high charges and inaccuracy; besides, the
companies showed no desire whatever to improve the
system. The government has developed the telegraph
bnsiness in a wonderful manner, and now nearly
7,000,000 messages are sent each year through about
6,000 offices.

The idea of employing women in the postal tele-
graph service was fora time an experiment and a
riddle, but the experiment has been successful, and
the riddle completely solved. At the close of 1880,
there were nearly a thousand female telegraphers in
London, Edinburgh and Dublin, and as many more
in other parts of the country, while in the different
branches of the department, female clerks had be-
come a settled fact.

WHY THE UNITED STATES SHOULD OWN TELEGRAPH
LINES.

In an article in the Worth American Review, Prof.
Richard T. Ely, of John Hopkins university, argues

THE POST-OFFICE. 111

strongly in favor of government control of the tele-
graph system, and says: ‘I believe no assertion is
safer than the prediction that the purchase of tele-
eraph lines would improve our civil service imme-
diately, and soon lead to measures which would
diminish the ‘patronage’ of elected office holders, such
as senators, representatives, president. I think also
that the wire-pullers appreciate this. There is not
one of the worst class of ‘spoils’ politicians who does
not oppose an extension of the business of govern-
ment. The shrewdest of them must see that to
make government an important business agency will
mean death to ‘practical politics.’ In conclusion,
we must ask the testimony of experience, and this in
all countries where a government telegraph has been
tried,is unanimous in favor of public telegraph service. °
In none of these countries would the people even con-
sider the subject of replacing public telegraphs by
private telegraphs, and everywhere the experience of
the United States is regarded as a warning against
private telegraph companies. England’s experience
is instructive. Private companies were there tried
until they proved to be intolerable; then they were
purchased. Elsewhere in Europe the telegraph was
from the start a public institution, and this is the
result ; while the estimated cost of telegraphs in all
other states in Europe is 282,000,000 francs, the es-
timated cost to England of her telegraphs is 272,000-
000 francs ; in other words, owing to unsuccessful at-
tempts to secure a good private telegraph system,
England paid nearly as much for her telegraphs as
all the other countries in Europe put together.”

112 THE STORY OF

CHATER X.

ACROSS THE CONTINENT WITH THE U. 8. MAIL.
(In the Spring of 1860.)

A Thrilling Account of. Uncle Dud’s Overland Trip, as told by
Himself.—A Brave Man’s Dangerous Trip.—‘‘ He is the
man I want.”—The Overland Mail Company’s Oath.—Colt’s
Pistols and-a Sharp’s Rifle for Traveling Companions.—The
Rough and Tumble of California Traveling.—Rearing
Kicking, Plunging, Wild Mustangs for Coach Horses.—
An Indian Expedition.—Shooting Buffaloes.—Once more
in Civilization.—The End of a Twenty-three Days’ Trip,
Covering nearly Four Thousand miles.

You ask me why I, a merchant of Boston, was in
California, and how I came to make this dangerous
and fearful trip. I will tell you: ;

In the Fall of 09 I was selling goods to a favorite
customer—now put yourself in my place and you
shall have it—while with this gentleman I heard the.
steps of one of Boston’s great “I am’s” (if money
makes one great) behind me.

I went to him and he asked me if I was well, and if
my family was well, and if he should say to me, that
he wished to use my brains for six months to a year
thousands of miles away if I would serve him; I told
him if [ was competent to do so, I would go. “ Very
well,” he said, “there is a hack at the side-door ;
get all your private matters and papers arranged, bid
your family good-bye, and meet me within an hour
at the President’s office of the Boston & Albany BR.
R. Take no baggage, as you will have letters of
credit and power to get all you need.” I went to the
office, and after receiving my instructions, took my

*The writer of this chapter, who is well known to the literary world
under his nom de plume of ** Uncle Dud,’’ is still living in Boston. This
is the first account ever printed of his thrilling and dangerous trip
with the ‘‘ Overland Mail.”

OM MENT MEt nt RR ee he
7. GY or ak ln) RS ae ae

THE POST-OFFICE. 113

seat in the train bound for New York. At two the
next day a gun fired on board the Steamer Baltic in
the New York Harbor, and I was on board, bound
for Aspinwall, via Panama R. R. to Panama on the
Pacific ocean, to San Francisco, California.

After arriving in San Francisco I presented my-
self and letters as directed. My business in this
country is too long to tell, and would be of no in-
terest to you.

My last trip from San Francisco, found me up the
head waters of the Sacramento river. I made up
my mind one night while camping with a party of
surveyors, that the best thing to do, was to return to
Boston as soon as I could do so; I was lying in my
blankets on mother earth at the time, one end of my
lariat was around my pony’s neck and the other was
around my ankle. My guide’s mule was picketed
near by. I called Tom (my guide) and said—“I
want to be in the saddle ready to start at day-break.
I am going to leave this valley.”

I was glad when we got to Forbestown, you bet.
We rode down through Oraville and Marysville to
Sacramento City, and on my arrival there I learned
that there had been some delay about the steamers
at San Francisco, and it was quite uncertain when a
steamer would leave there.

I took steamboat to San Francisco. Arriving
there in the morning, I went directly to the Interna-
tional Hotel on Jackson Street, and in conversation
with the landlord. said, “If I could find the right
kind of a man to go with, I would go home ‘ Over-
land’ by the Butterfield route.” The agent of the

114 THE STORY OF

“Overland Mail Company” was in the office at the
time, and heard my remarks. After I went out, he
inquired of the landlord who I was, and he told him.
He said, “he is the man I want.”

The next morning quite early, as I was crossing
the “ Plaza” I heard my name called with that pecu-
liar Western prefix—‘ Ho.” I turned and walking
towards him, found it was the mail agent. He said
he had heard my conversation the night before and
and asked me if I meant what I then said. I told
him ‘ Yes.” We then went to the office of the
“ Overland Mail Company” where I was required to
take the following oath :—“ You solemnly swear, that
you cross the Indian countries at your own risk, and
will in no way hold the mail contractors responsible
for your safety.” I read the rules of the company —
and signed them, and was told to be on hand the
next morning at eight o’clock.

Having done this I called on my friends and told
them of my decision. They said I did not know what
I was undertaking, and had I consulted with anyone
who had made the trip, would have decided differ-
ently. But it was too late to back out if I had
wanted to do so—which I had no wish to do. I was
in for it, and was bound to go, let the result be what
it might. When I told them of my intention to go
through without laying over (I had the right to stop
over at way-stations three days if I chose to do so),
and meant to go through or die, they thought I was
a fool, but kindly refrained from putting their thoughts.
into plain words.

Iwas on hand the next morning at the required

THE POST-OFFICE. 115

hour, and my friends were there to give me a good
send off. I put on my two Colt’s navy pistols with
belt, and cartridges, and with a Sharp’s rifle in hand,
was ready for the start. At the door was a Concord
coach with six splendid gray horses. I chose my
position, and now we were ready for a start. Are
you ready ? then “ Git.” Crack went the whip, round
went the wheels and we were off. One of the require-
ments of the driver was that his horses and mules
should go from station to station at their highest rate
of speed.

The morning was lovely and we dashed on our
way to Thorpe’s Station, and on to Redwood and San
Jose, where we left our fine Concord coach and still
finer horses, and were dumped into a mud wagon
(called a thoroughbrace) with our mail bags. Imagine,
if youcan, what a come down this was for us, both in
style and comfort, but this is one of many changes,
before the end of our trip.

We were now beginning the rough and tumble of
life. We had descended the magnificent valley lying
between the foot hills of the Sierras, and the coast
range of the Pacific ocean. We drove between five
and six hundred miles down south, before steering
south-east, through the countries of Santa Clara,
Santa Barbara, and San Diego to Los Angeles, which
promises to be the vineyard of the world.

In passing through some of these valleys, flowers
of every hue meet the eye, and one regrets having to
leave them all behind. At some points the rivers
are fordable, but where the water is too deep for
this, the wagon horses are driven on to the flat boats

116 THE STORY OF

and ferried across. In one of these passes we
crossed a small stream ninety-four times ; this may
seem like a Californian story, but it is true. The
stream takes a zigzag course, winding its way along.

The San Fernando Pass is but little wider than
the wagon, the bluffs on either side rising from
eighty to one hundred and sixty feet. There isa
mission at this place, established in 1774 by Span-
iards. Oranges grow here as common as apples at
home ; we also saw great numbers of horses, sheep
and cattle in these valleys, apparently without
herders.

We now left the foot of the San Phillipe Mountains
to cross the great Mojava Desert, which is one vast
plain of sand, surrounded on the east and west by
mountains ; not a green thing to be seen for miles.

As we approached Fort Yuma on the Colorado
river, we encountered a severe sand storm, which
almost hid our horses from sight. We were now on
the banks of the Gila in God forsaken Arizona. The
whole territory seemed a barren waste, and one could
not help wondering why our Government should wish

for its possession, enough to pay such an enormous —

sum for it.

We followed this river on the south bank two hun-
dred and fifty odd miles, where we saw some twenty
men digging for gold. One side of this river is a
level barren country. Near by, all of the houses were
adobe, of the old Spanish style.

Now we were in the home of the Apaches, the
worst of all bad Indians ; here the wagon and mails
were lowered down over the bluff, the horses were

THE POST-OFFICE. 117

led down a winding path of over two miles, we fol-
lowing to where the wagon was landed, then off we
started over the Oatman Flats. Here are the graves
of the Oatman family ; the details of the massacre
are familiar to all.

One hundred miles back, we had been told that
when we arrived at the Pinto Change, we should see
lots of fun, as here we changed and took wild horses
fora while. We drove up to the corral without
sounding as usual the bugle, and found four white
wild mustangs waiting for us. They had to be lassoed
and thrown in order to be collared and bridled. I
took my seat with the driver, the pole horses were
brought and placed in position, the reins given to
the driver, a man holding the head of each pony;
two leaders were then brought, and the driver took
the reins. During this time they were blindfolded,
the word to start was given, the blinders taken from
their eyes, and the fun commenced. Such rearing,
kicking and plunging, until they kicked themselves
into the traces. They had a run of twenty-two miles
over a road of flint-bedstone; all we could do was to
hang on for dear life, and see them go—the wheels
struck fire at every turn ; it was an exciting ride.

We passed an emigrant family with women
and children; they had been on the road for months ;
a hard looking set, but happy and in good health.
Here we are at Maricopa Wells ; from three to four
thousand Indians are here, who take their name from
these wells. Farther on, we met a party of volun-
teers, from an Indian expedition, sent out by the
« Overland Mail Company;” they had thirteen scalps

118 THE STORY OF

and five prisoners. One fine looking boy of eleven
years, they offered to sell for fifty dollars. He told
his captors if they would send him back to his home,
he would show them mountains of just such stuff as
they bought their hay with. These Indians have
always been friendly with the whites, and are an in-
dustrious people, owning large ranches. The “‘ Over-
land Mail Company” bought twelve hundred dollars
worth of hay and barley from them in ’59. They
are a tall, athletic race, and intelligent looking.

Now, they told us there is trouble ahead. The
Mexicans had driven the Americans out, and at
Mesilla they had had a massacre, and five men and
one woman were shot. We were delayed here, and
stood guard at an adobe house until the U. 8. troops
arrived from a fort about seven miles distant.

After leaving Hl Paso, in Chihauhau, we crossed
the Brazos river into Texas. We now steered north-
east, and were to run through this State about nine
hundred miles; through the Comanche country and
the Indian Territory, through the tribes of the Sioux,
Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokee, Fox, Ute and
Pinte Indians, to Fort Smith, Arkansas. [am a
little ahead with my story. At Camp Stockton we met
Captain Carpenter with body guard after some
greasers, who had stolen a mule team the day before.
The Comanches had also been troublesome all the
season ; they had shot four men from their wagons
between this place and the ‘“ Overland Mail Com-
pany’s” station. .

At Phantom Hill, we had an exciting adventure.
It was Sunday morning and misty. I was awakened

—
e

THE POST-OFFICE. 119

by the driver’s voice and a call for rifles; in two
minutes I was on the run, shooting right and left as
fast as I could. We had come upona herd of buffaloes
and succeeded in shooting three and wounding three
or four others.

We are now about coming into a civilized country ;
arrived at Fort Smith, then over the Boston Moun-

tains to Tipton, then the Western terminus of the

railroad from the East. My route then was from
Tipton to St. Louis by rail to Chicago and New
York.

I have been told that the U. 8S. Government paid
the mail contractors $600,000 to carry the mail one
year, but they failed to do it; and the government,
rather than make a new contract with any other
party, agreed to give them one million dollars. The
contract then not being a paying thing, was aban-
doned. The government imported camels to carry
the mail across the desert, and that scheme failed.
The pony express was a lightning thing, but short-
lived.

Well, I have finished, and can truthfully say that
to the best of my knowledge, I have traveled behind
more horses and mules, in a given number of days,
and distance, than any other man living. Having
traveled some three thousand eight hundred miles
in twenty-three days, without taking my shirt off my
back, or my feet out of my boots, and employing
from seven to eight hundred horses and mules,
eighty-five drivers and conductors, and nearly a
hundred wagons.

120 THE STORY OF

CHAPTER XI.
THE POST-OFFICE IN OTHER LANDS.

In the United Kingdom.—tThe British Dead Letter Office.--The
Postmaster General Objects to Dead Rats.—-Price of English
Postal Notes or Postal Orders.--Short History of the English
Money Order System.—Cost of Postage in England.—The
English Parcel Post.—Postal Business in China.—The Cen-
sorin Russia.--In the English Colonies.--The French Method
—Statistics of the Postal Service in Other Countries.—The

International Postal Union.--Different Countries, Different _

Laws.
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

Appointments are all made through open competi-
tion. The number of letters delivered yearly amounts
to nearly 2,000,000,000, while postal cards, packages
of books, circulars, newspapers, etc., are carried to
the extent of another billion every year. The death
rate is very low among the employees of the post-
offices, not averaging over five in a thousand yearly.

The pressure of Christmas business is tremendous,
and the poor postal clerks work overtime, and hardly
find a chance to sleep or eat. Christmas week brings
willions of letters and packages over and above or-
dinary correspondence. One year there was about
15 tons of this extra business to dispose of.

The dead letter office of the United Kingdom, like
that of the United States, is one where the clerks
are obliged to work, over five million letters reach-
ing that department every year, to say nothing of the
millions of postal cards, packages and newspapers.
The English people seem to be made out of the same
common clay as those on this side of the water, and
are no less liable to carelessness, for about 30,000

letters are mailed each year without any address

ee 4k ae
De ol ae

able

THE POST-OFFICE. 121

whatever. Then, too, they do not use sufficient care
in wrapping their packages. About 30,000 articles
reach the dead letter office each year, on account of

_ the fragile covers in which they are enclosed. The

postmaster general, in his report of a few years since,
says: “It is necessary to appeal to the public to
abandon the practice of sending animal matter
through the mails : fish, sausages, birds to be stuffed,
cream, fruit, salads, live kittens and dead rats, are
injurious to the health of the officers of the depart-
ment,and the mails with which they are transmitted,
and it is to be hoped that such articles will no longer
be mailed.”

The British postal system, on account of the
proximity of the towns, and the frequent trains run-
ning upon the railroads, is better able than most
countries to take care of any unusual amount of mail
matter. At Hull, nearly 300,000 circulars, weighing
20 tons, which were issued by a single company, and
represented £2380 worth of postage, were taken care
of by the department without confusion or delay, in
48 hours.

Under the provisions of the postal orders of 1880,
a new system was introduced Jan. 1, providing an
inexpensive and easy way of sending small sums of
money to different parts of the United Kingdom; and
postal orders can now be bought for different
amounts, any where from 1 shilling to 20 shiilings,
at a commission of. from 4 pence up to a few shil-
lings. — :

The postal system is not only self-sustaining, but

122 THE STORY OF

gives a surplus, the gross revenue being nearly £10,-
000,000.

The post-office force of Great Britain now num-
bers about 100,000.

The money order department of the British post-
office started as a part of this branch of the govern-
ment in 1838, although for about 40 years it had
been run by three clerks who worked in the London
post-office, as a private enterprise. As soon as the
government assumed the charge of this business, and
reduced the rates, business picked up, and the
money order department assumed large proportions.
In 1871, the rates were reduced to 1 penny for or-
ders of 10 shillings and under; but as it was esti-
mated that every money order, issued and paid, cost
the department 3 pence, this reduzed rate brought a
loss, and the rates were raised. The public, how-
ever, demanded that they should have service at the
old rates, and as money orders could not be issued at
the old rate, a system of postal notes was devised.
These were afterwards called postal orders. To-day
these postal orders are being sold at the rate of
£30,000,000 a year. They are an advance over those
used in this country, for the postal notes of the
United States, while a great convenience, are really
no safeguard against loss. The postal orders of
England must have the name of the person to whom
they are payable inserted by the purchaser, and the
person to whom they are payable, must insert the
name of the money order office at which he wishes
it to be cashed. In addition to this, the purchaser
may, if he chooses, cross the order so as to invest it

THE POST-OFFICE. 123

with all the safeguards of a check. These oruers of
course diminished the amount of the money order
business, but that department still does about £25,-
000,000 business a year.

The postage stamps, which were also used for
revenue, are + penny, 14 pence, 2 pence, 24 pence, 3
pence, 4 pence, 5 pence, 6 pence, 9 pence, 1 shilling,
2, shillings 6 pence, 5 shillings, 10 shillings, 1 pound.
There are special envelopes for registered letters,
and four kinds of postal cards. The telegraph tariff |
is the same for all telegrams in the United Kingdom,
no matter what the distance; six pence for twelve
words, the address and signer’s name to be paid for
as words. Hach additional word over twelve words
costs penny. They are paid for the same as let-
ters, by sticking postage stamps on the blanks which
the English call the “ Form.”

The parcel post in England is more nearly a sepa-
rate department than in the United States. It was
introduced there August 1, 1883, although it had
been thoroughly discussed and agitated for many
years. The total number of parcels posted during
the year amounts to over 26,000,000. Postage is
never less than 8 pence, and increases at the rate of
14 pence per pound to 1 shilling 6 pence. The
largest amount of a single package allowed to be
sent by mail, is 11 pounds. This system is, as one
might say, an express business.

! » POSTAL BUSINESS IN CHINA.

Each city has a certain number of licensed com-
panies who make a business of receiving and sending
letters and small parcels, at charges dependent upon

124 THE STORY OF . \

weight and distance. As the different companies are
either joined in partnership, or have very close finan- —
cial relations with each other, the communication
between the different cities is of a most efficient
character, considering the materials. So much re-
liance is placed by the public upon the certainty and
safety of this postal system, which goes from one
end of China to the other, that large sums of money
in paper are freely consigned to the charge of the
companies. Instances are rare of this trust being
violated. Speed is less of a consideration among
the Chinese than in countries where railroads and
telegraph make the news of to-day the ancient his-
tory of the next week. However, when it is impor-
tant to get a message quickly between two points,
the companies use carrier pigeons, which traverse
the distance very quickly.

In Russia, at the beginning of 1886, the number of
postal éstablishments was about 5,000. Most of
these offices had one or more mails each day, but
there were several hundred with but four a week,
about a thousand with only two a week, while two on
the East Siberian coast received mail but once a year.
The Russian postal department has a very large free
list, carrying all the correspondence of the govern-
ment, and that of many public offices and private
institutions without charge. The weight of this free
mail matter amounts to almost one-half that of the
domestic correspondence. The Censor holds an im-
portant place in the Russian postal service, and no
book or paper is allowed to come into the Empire
until it has been thoroughly scanned by his eagle eye,

3 i gt ee :
A nee eS Oe ae a

THE POST-OFFICE. 125

which watches over the morals, both political and
domestic, of the inhabitants of Russia. The only way
a paper published outside of Russia can reach a
Russian post-office, is by having twelve copies go.
through the mails, for the Censor does not think it
worth his while to read through one paper for the
seditious matter, and will not allow any paper to
pass unless there are twelve of the same date.

In Australia and New Zealand, with about 5,000
post-oftices, there are about 200,000,000 letters and
postal cards, with nearly 100,000,000 packages and
newspapers mailed each year. Canada’s correspon-
dence amounts to about 75,000,000 letters, 15,000,-
000 postal cards, and 3,000,000 registered letters
each year. She issues something over 500,000
money orders, and has about 7,000 post-offices. The
6,000 post-offices of India take care of 150,000,000
letters, 35,000,000 postal cards, nearly 25,000,000
newspapers, parcels, etc., each year.

The French post-office undertakes not only to de-
liver to the inhabitants of every city and town, but
to every house, cottage, mill, and factory, where let-
ters are addressed. All letters reaching the great
Paris post-office, are brought into a large, well-lighted
room, and tossed upon long tables. On one side of
these tables are a long row of men, whose sole duty,
which does not require any great amount of brain
effort, is to arrange the letters so that they all face
the same way. When this has been done, the letters
are handed to clerks on the opposite side of the
tables, who divide them into two classes, one for
Paris and the other for the balance of the world.

126 THE STORY OF

They are then stamped by a force of cancelling clerks,
and those for Paris are taken to aroom on the ground
floor, while the others go up stairs. A large force of
men assort the letters for the carriers, who deliver
them to their different addresses in the city. The
letters which are going to other parts of France and
the outside world, are assorted on the second floor,
and when enough letters are found for any one dis-
trict or district route, to make a square parcel about two
feet long by eighteen inches wide and deep, they are
wrapped up in brown paper and secured by a strong
string wound twenty or thirty times around the par-
cel. These parcels are sealed by a very ingenious
method. A large pot of -hard sealing wax is made
fluid by heating over an alcohol lamp, the flame of
which can be increased or diminished at will. At
right angles to the stick which holds the seal, is
affixed a stick which the sealer dips into the liquid
wax, and as soon as he has transfered a sufficient
quantity of the wax to the paper and string, the seal
is imprinted by simply turning his wrist.

STATISTICS OF THE POSTAL SERVICE OF OTHER COUNTRIES.

In France the number of letters carried each year
is about three quarters of a billion. The gross reve-
nue nearly $35,000,000, and the net revenue about
$5,000,000. This is taken care of by about 7,000
post-offices.

The gross revenue of the Australian postal depart- _
ment is about $10,000,000 per year, which pays for.
carrying over 300,000,000 letters and a large number
of parcels, newspapers, ete.

THE POST-OFFICE. 127

The postal revenue of Hungary is nearly $5,000,-

- 000, and the department carries over 100,000,000 let-

ters. In Germany the net revenue each year is over
$5,000,000. Italy’s postal department carries about
300,000,000 letters and postal cards each year.

THE INTERNATIONAL POSTAL UNION.

In June, 1863, delegates from the United States,
France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Italy, Spain,
Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Switzerland, Denmark,
the Hanseatic towns, and Costa Rica, met in congress,
with M. Vandal then Postmaster General of France,
as President, to discuss the question of a Postal Union
between the different nations of the world. They rec-
ommended the optional prepayment of foreign
letters, the readjustment of the regulations concern-
ing the international weighing and tax of letters, the
reduction of the transit tariff, and important regula-
tions as to changes of routes, and matters relating to
the International Money Order system. This laid
the foundation for the treaties of 1874 and 1878, and
was the first step towards the simplifying of the laws
governing postal communications between the nations.

In 1874, at Berne, representatives of 22 nations,
whose united population was 350,000,000, met in
congress. Many matters were effected, such as a
half ounce unit of weight for ordinary letters. The
uniform charge of 5 cents for a letter from any one
country within the union to any other. Uniform
rates for newspapers, etc., and the regulation that,
‘Hach post-oftice shall retain its own collection, and
the bills due for transit shall be estimated only from
accounts taken twice in each year.” An International

128 THE STORY OF

_ Board was also created which has been supported by
contributions from the different countries of the
Union. The proceedings of this board are reported
in L’Union Postale, which is printed in three lan-
guages, English, French and German, and appears
monthly. At the next convention in Paris, in June,
1878, there were 33 states represented, which had a
population of 653,000,000. The last meeting was
held in Lisbon in 1885.

DIFFERENT COUNTRIES—DIFFERENT LAWS.

In Great Britain the ownership of a letter while in
transit lies in the Queen, as represented by her Post-
master General or Secretary of State, and only on the
order of the Secretary of State can a letter be with-
drawn. In the United States, however, the sender
owns a letter until delivered, and may recall it under
proper regulations. India, Belgium, Austria, Hun-
gary, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, and other states,
possess the same regulations; but Canada, Italy,
Spain, and Greece, rule that a letter belongs to the
party to whom it is addressed as soon as it is posted.
The Netherlands and France have no fixed law in re-
gard to this, yet a sender may claim its return prior
to actual postal dispatch. The different countries
differ just as widely in their other laws relating to
the postal department.

THE POST-OFFICE. 129

CHAPTER XII.

HERE AND THERE IN THE POSTAL WORLD.

Before the Use of Postage Stamps.—A Bright New York Boy
Tests Uncle Sam’s Mail.—The Smallest Post-office in the
World.—The Postage Stamp Collection of Germany.—Post-
office Statistics of the United States.—What He Wanted.—
A Financial Transaction.—Rough on the Chaplain.—Cos-
tumes of Mail Carriers in India, Egypt, China, Natal, Etc.—
The Fifty Years of Queen Victoria’s Reign.—The Pigeon as
a Mail Carrier.—They May Send a Letter Free.—The First
Carrier Delivery in the United States.—Oxen as Post Horses.
—Sending Cows and Servants by Mail.—A ‘‘ Soft Snap.”—
The Slow Going Post Boy and the Rapid Mail Coach.—
Postal Order of Over Three Hundred Years Ago.—Romance
in Old Letters.—Two Old Time Love Letters.—Only Harm,
Never Good, can come from Keeping Letters.—‘‘ Six Days
Shalt Thou Labor.”—The Wily Messenger.—The Face at
the Window.—Mail Carrier, Katie Reimer.—A Mean Man.
—The Mail in Mississippi.—A Floating Post-office.—Some
Foolish People.-—German Red Tape.—The Poste Restante.
—The Commission Came too Late.—A Good Sentiment.—
A Boom in Registered Letters.

BEFORE THE USE OF POSTAGE STAMPS.

In England, before the introduction of postage
stamps, when cheap prepaid postage was adopted,
people rushed to pay postage as they now crowd
around the ticket wagon of a circus. Soon after the
adoption of cheap prepaid postage, a writer in the
Westminster Review gives the following description
of a rush to prepay letters: ‘The great hall was
filled full of spectators marshalled in a line by the
police to watch the crowds pressing, scuffling and
fighting to get first to the window. The president
of the inland office with praiseworthy zeal was in all
quarters directing the energy of his officers where
the pressure was greatest. Formerly one, window
sufficed to receive letters, but on this evening six
windows with two receivers at each were bombarded

130 THE STORY OF

by applicants, and as the last quarter of an hour
approached and the crowd still thickened, a seventh
window was opened, and that none might be turned
away, Mr. Bokenham made some other opening and
took in letters and money himself. On this evening
upwards of three thousand letters had been posted
in St. Martins Le Grand between five and six. A
witness present on the first night of the penny post
described to us a similar scene. When the windows
were closed, the mob, delighted at the energy dis-
played by the officers, gave one cheer for the post-
office, and another for Rowland Hill.”

A BRIGHT NEW YORK BOY TESTS UNCLE SAM’S MAIL.

In 1887, little Charlie Murtha, an eight-year old
school boy, who had his doubts in regard to the
trustworthiness of Uncle Sam’s mail service, tested
it in a curious way. As he told the story to the
reporter of the New York Sun, it makes quite inter-
esting reading :

“Papa told me one day when I saw him get a
letter, that if a letter was properly directed the mail
would carry it to the person to whom it was addressed,
no matter where he was on the earth. I had written
a letter to myself and put it in the lamp-post box,
and the letter carrier gave it to me the next day.
But that wasn’t much, because any of the fellows
could have told the letter carrier who I was. But to
get a letter from away off, that would be something.
So papa told me to get my geography and pick out |
a place. I looked over the map and found the little
island of Tristan d’Acunha, and papa read in a book
about a man on that island named Peter W. Green,

ane tan

THE POST-OFFICE. 131

who had served as a pilot to the British ship Chal-
lenger, when she was making deep sea soundings in
the South Atlantic. That was many years ago, but
papa thought that even if Mr. Green wasn’t alive,
some of his family would be, and that they would
open the letter and send me an answer to it. Sol

wrote this letter :
SEPT. 17, 1887.

‘< Mr. Peter eneee Island Tristan d@Acunha, South Atlantic
Ocean, via Cape of Good Hope.

‘* DEAR SiR:—I learned your name by reading an account of
a visit to your island by the ship Challenger, and I write to you
to ask if you would give me some particulars of your lonely
home in the southern ocean.

“Tf this letter should reach you, and you will kindly consent
to answer it, so that I will know that the mail can reach you, I
will in return send you some photographs of the various places
of interest in our part of the globe. Yours respectfully,

CHARLES E, MURTHA.

“Well, papa,” the boy continued, “ put that in an
envelope addressed to Mr. Green, and put in this
an envelope addressed to me, Charles E. Murtha,
Public School No. 17, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y. I
posted the letter the next day, and last Monday,
Sept. 10, just one year lacking one week, I got the
envelope back, with a letter in it from Mr. Peter W.
Green.”

THE SMALLEST POST—OFFICE IN THE WORLD.

The smallest post-office in the world, and the one
which is conducted with the least expense, is located
on the uninhabitable rocks of Terre del Fuego. The
post-office building is simply a cask on the end of a
pole, and passing ships send a boat off to this cask
to get letters going their way, and leave there the
letters which they may wish sent in an opposite

direction.

182 THE STORY OF

THE POSTAGE STAMP COLLECTION OF GERMANY.

The Imperial German postal department has insti-
tuted at Berlin, a postal museum which contains a
very complete collection of all articles relating to the
postal service of different countries. The collection
of postage stamps is undoubtedly one of the finestin
the world. The catalogue alone is a volume of 338
pages, large octavo size. There are some 7,000 post-
age stamps, about 1,500 stamped envelopes and
wrappers, and 1,200 postal cards. This collection is
made possible by the provisions of the Universal
Postal Union. All the members of the Union ex-
change any new postage stamps they may issue, so
that by this means, as well as by considerable care
and research in collecting obsolete issues, the postal
department of Germany has brought together this
large and valuable collection of postage stamps.
THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

The last report of the postmaster general, dated
July 1st, 1888, shows that the number of post-offices
at that time, was over 57,000, and for the last three
years they have increased at the rate of 2,000 a year.
The money order division, which also includes the
business done in postal notes, transmitted nearly
$143,000,000. Revenues have increased to $52,700,-
000, an increase of about $30,000,000in twenty years,
despite the reductions in postage rates. The care-
fully prepared statistics of this report, show that the
rate of expenditure has been lessened. Every branch
has been increased in efficiency, fraud and crime have
decreased, and the number of complaints has been
less than ever before.

THE POST-OFFICE. 133

WHAT HE WANTED.

In some of the post-offices, the clerks sleep in a
room over the office. This was the case with a clerk
at a small Vermont village, who had worked for
Uncle Sam some years. He found that the people
regarded him as the “ people’s servant,” and had no
hesitancy in asking him to do up their mail packages
and lick the postage stamps. All this was done wil-
lingly, but “the last straw which broke the camel’s
back” was a night experience. When every one was
sleeping calmly, and the village was so quiet that the
dropping of an ordinary pin would have sounded like
a thunderbolt, he was rudely awakened by a pound-
ing at the office door below. Thoughts of mail rob-
bers entered his mind, but he put on his courage and
his pantaloons, and went down stairs, opened the
door a crack, and in a shivering whisper, said:
« What’s wanted?” “Got any mail for Jem Smith’s
folks ?”” was the reply from a farmer who thought, as
he was driving through the town to catch an early
train, he might as well “kill two birds with one
stone.”

A FINANCIAL TRANSACTION.

There was a long line of waiting buyers in front of
a stamp window of a city post-office one day. A per-
son at the window handedin a roll of pennies,saying:
«A dollar’s worth of one’s.” The clerk pushed the
roll back to him with the remark that pennies were
not received in payment for such a large amount.
The purchaser opened the end of the roll, took outa
cent, and said, “A one cent stamp, please.” When

134 THE STORY OF

he got the stamp, he pushed another penny forward
with a request for another stamp. The clerk saw
that the pennies were bound to come in, and so
thought it best to break the rules.
ROUGH ON THE CHAPLAIN.

During the “late unpleasantness” the chaplain of
a certain regiment had to look after the mail. He
was annoyed exceedingly by a great number of peo-
ple who were constantly running to him, and inquir-
ing aboutthe arrival and departure of the mails. One
day when his patience was exhausted, he posted a
notice outside the tent, which read: ‘The chaplain
does not know when the mail willgo.” He thought that
this would put an end to his trouble, but it was sim-
ply the beginning ; for one day, when he was absent
from the camp, some of the boys played a practical
joke upon him. On his return, the reverend post-
master was horrified to see conspicuously written
underneath his notice an addition which appeared to
be in his own handwriting, so that the notice, as
posted, read: ‘The chaplain does not know when
the mail will go. Neither does he care a damn.”

COSTUMES OF MAIL CARRIERS IN INDIA, EGYPT, CHINA,
NATAL, ETC.

In the Himalayas letters are carried in the end of
a cleft stick by swift runners. By the use of the
stick the letters can be carried for days and be kept
as clean as when started.

The common type of Indian post runner, or “ tap-
pal wallah,” wears a long white coat, blue turban
and tight trousers. He now has a bag slung over
his shoulder, in which the mail is carried. The car-

THE POST-OFFICE. 135

riers in tropical countries have a long staff, with iron
head, that can be used as a weapon of defense. Lit-
tle bells are hung on the staff, they frightening away
animals and reptiles, and giving notice of the post’s
approach. The camel mounted messengers in some
parts of India and Egypt are among the most pic-
turesque of all carriers. A red uniform is worn, with
a large green turban richly embroidered with gold
thread. A curved saber in red sheath is hung from
the waist. The camels are adorned with gay trap-
pings, and a string of bells notifies people of their
coming. A mail bag is carried on each side, with a
seat behind the driver for a passenger. The camels
are driven at a high rate of speed, eighty miles a
day being usually accomplished.

Japan has a well-perfected service. It was not
until 1871 that any regular system of posts in charge
of the government was established. In less than ten
years so much had been accomplished that post-
offices of other nations kept up at all open ports
were abolished as unnecessary. J apan has now
nearly 40,000 miles of mail routes, about 4,000 post-
offices, and approaching 10,000 employees. In China,
affairs are quite the reverse, the people seeming sat-
isfied to go along in a stagnant kind of way without
any government service. The placid Celestials dis-
dain to hurry, and are content with carriers on foot,
or paddling along in boats, the pace rarely exceed-
ing twelve miles in twenty-four hours.

Different countries make use of different methods
to facilitate the post-carrier’s labors. In Natal a
light four-horse cart is used. It is not much of a

136 THE STORY OF

vehicle for show, but is a prime one for getting along
over bad roads. In the mountainous districts of
Brazil a two-wheeled wagon drawn by oxen is used
. for a post-cart. As the roads are terrible trials the
wheels are made solid. In Russia some sections
have buffalos harnessed to two-wheeled carts, other
places have horses abreast, and still other sections
use sledges drawn by reindeers or dogs. The latter
are used in some parts of Canada, the mail service in
the winter between Lake Winnipeg and Selkirk be-
ing carried on by dog teams.

THE FIFTY YEARS OF QUEEN VICTORIA’S REIGN.

“The highly improved modeinthe means of corres-
pondence during the reign can be summarized in a
few sentences. At the beginning, the number of let-
ters were some 80,000,000, now the number of postal
cards alone is 172,000,000, while of letters there are
1,403,000,000. In addition the number of telegraphic
dispatches exceeds 59,000,000. There are half as
many messages forwarded by telegraph now as there
were letters fifty years ago, and more than twice as
many postal cards. Ifan equal distribution be made
among the population of the respective dates it
might be said that whereas at the earlier epoch each
person sent three letters and received three, now each
sends forty and receives forty, while in addition
there is one telegram transmitted per head; yet not-
withstanding this the net revenue drawn from the
post-office has risen from 1,500,000 pounds in 1837
to nearly 3,000,000 pounds in the present year.”

THE POST-OFFICE. 1387

THE PIGEON AS A MAIL CARRIER.

In the Franco-Prussian war, during the siege of
Paris, the pigeon service was the only way by which
those within the walls gained news from the outer
world. The dispatches were in the first instance
photograghed on a reduced scale, on thin sheets of
paper, the original writing being preserved ; but soon
an improved system was adopted. The communica-
tions were printed in ordinary type and micro-pho-
tographed on two thin films of collodion, each pelli-
cle measuring less than two inches by one, and the
reproduction of sixteen folio pages of type contain-
ed above 3,000 private letters. These pellicles were
so light that 50,000 dispatches, weighing less than
one gram, were regarded as the weight for one
pigeon. In order to insure their safety during tran-
sit the films were rolled up tightly and placed in a
small quill which was tied longitudinally to one of
the tail feathers of the bird. On their arrival in
Paris they were thrown by means of an electric lan-
tern on to a screen, copied by clerks, and dispatched
to their destination. This method was afterwards
improved upon, sensitive paper being substituted
for the screen so that the letters were printed at once
and distributed. The postage on the pellicles car-
ried by one pigeon amounted to about $50,000.00.
At the present time all the important fortresses in
France and Germany have their staff of pigeons.

In Egypt, a postal system was early arranged. In
addition to the courier and the horse, messages were
transmitted, as they have been in many other coun-
tries, by carrier pigeons, a system which the Sultan

138 THE STORY OF

brought to great perfection. In the 12th century,
the number of pigeons kept in readiness was about
2,000. So highly esteemed was this branch of the
public business, that the Sultan alone had the right
of taking messages from the pigeons when they ar-
rived.

In the Feejee Islands, where there are no telegraph
lines, pigeons are to this day the sole means of letter
communication.

THEY MAY SEND LETTERS FREE.

‘There are but four persons in the United States.
other than those holding public office, who are allowed
to receive and send mail matter free of postage.
These four persons are the widows of the late Presi-
dents Polk, Tyler, Garfield, and Grant. An act of
Congress is required to grant this privilege to any
one, and it has been so granted to the widows of
Presidents since 1836, when the first act was passed
conferring the distinction upon Mrs. Dolly P.
Madison. 2

According to the United States Postal Laws and
Regulations,which is a compilation of the rules, pub-
lished for the information and guidance of post-
masters and other officials, Mrs. Tyler is not entitled
to the benefits of franking mail matter, and it is true
that no law has ever been passed in her case. She
is, in a sense, a victim of one of those peculiar over-
sights of Congress which are of frequent occurrence.
The Post-office Department, however, appreciating
the fact that Mrs. Tyler is in equity entitled to the
same privilege which has by law been granted to Mrs.
Polk, Mrs. Garfield, and Mrs. Grant, accepts her

<“

ah ie

THE POST-OFFICE. 139

frank in lieu of postage and collects nothing upon
matter mailed to her address.

There is a rather peculiar fact connected with the
case of Mrs. Polk, also. The act granting her the
privilege of free postage was passed in 1850. Since
that date all laws conferring the franking privilege
have been once or twice repealed; the last time in
1873, and no act has since been passed in favor of
Mrs. Polk. There is no law on the statute books to-
day, therefore, entitling her to the benefit of free
postage, but it is allowed her arbitrarily by the de-
partment, and the Postal Laws and Regulations
name her as one of the persons legally entitled to Jas

benefits of the franking law.

It is not generally known that the law extending
the franking privilege to these ladies also provides

- explicitly that mail matter, including letters, news-

papers, and packages addressed to them is exempt
from the payment of postage. The only explanation
of this somewhat peculiar provision of law is that
when Congress passed the first of these private acts
it failed to notice that free postage to the senders of
mail conferred no sort of benefit upon the persons
addressed. Mrs. Polk, for instance, is not benefitted
in the slightest degree because some person who
wishes to write her a letter is not required to affix a
stamp to it. Yet when the laws in favor of all the
President’s widows who came after Mrs. Polk were
passed, the same language was used and stands upon
the statute books to-day.

_A sort of fatality in the direction of making mis-

takes seems to have followed the course of law making

140 THE STORY OF

on the subject of the franking privilege, and the most
stupendous blunder of all that Congress made in the
first general act passed has never yet been corrected.
This is the failure to provide a penalty for a violation
of the law. Although there have been as many as
fifty franking-privilege acts passed by Congresssince
1879, not one of them provides any penalty for their
infringement or evasion. This very singular oversight
is a cause of much inconvenience and annoyance to
the postal officials, and because of it very few arrests
have ever been made, although the use of franks by
unauthorized persons and on unfrankable matter is of
very frequent occurrence. It would be useless to
make arrests, the officials say, when no punishment
would follow a conviction.
THE FIRST CARRIER DELIVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Free delivery by carriers in the United States was
not established until March 3, 1863, although pre-
vious to that time, most of the large cities had car-
riers who made a delivery of letters and collected a
voluntary fee of one or two cents on each piece of
mail matter delivered. .

OXEN AS POST HORSES.

In the reign of Henry VIII. of England, the King
appointed a master of the post, Sir Brian Tuke, who
made great efforts to bring order out of the hitherto
chaotic confusion of the so-called postal system of
Great Britain. He had a hard time of it, for the
supply of horses was so poor, that post boys had to
use oxen and other beasts to reach places of which
they had never heard of, by roads they had never
traveled before.

THE POST-OFFICE. 141

SENDING COWS AND SERVANTS BY MAIL.

It is doubtful whether the treasury warrant, which
granted the right of sending official correspondence
free, ever contemplated sending the bulky personal
packages which the officers of the crown sent as
official correspondence.

Some of the items which are recorded in the
agent’s book of the beginning of the last century, are
good evidence of the elasticity of the mails, and also
the queer shapes which the official correspondence
of that day, assumed. For instance: ‘15 couple
of hounds, 2 head servants.” ‘“ Dr. Crichton carrying
with him a cow and divers necessaries.” “2 bales of
stockings for the use of the Ambassador of the
crown of Portugal.”

A “SOFT SNAP.”

In 1720, Mr. Ralph Allen, of Bath, made a plan of
his own for improving the system of cross posts,which
was the name designating cross roads, going from
the more unimportant towns, and connecting the
principal routes. At that time these roads were in a
fearful condition, and if the messenger was not
robbed, murdered, or lostin the snow-drifts, he stood
a good chance of breaking his neck before reaching
the end of his route. Mr. Allen obtained a lease of
the cross roads for life, keeping the entire revenue,
and paying to the government an annual rental of
$6,000. This was what our expressive slang of the
present day would call a “soft snap,” for the records

left at his death showed that he made a clean profit
of several million dollars from this cross road .
scheme.

142 THE STORY OF

THE SLOW GOING POST BOY AND THE RAPID MAIL _

COACH.

No trace could be found of the government’s mak-
ing any effort to improve upon the old custom of
sending letters by mounted messengers until the
commencement of the present century. Long after
stage coaches had come into use, the mails were still
carried by post boys upon horse-back at the rapid
rate of three and four miles an hour. The theory of |
the government was, that the postal system must
not only be self-supporting, but also pay a
revenue; and the postmaster general, in
carrying out this idea, often declined to
send letters by the most direct route, for as the
rates were charged by distance, the longer the route
the more money the government received. Boys of
fourteen years of age wore the ridiculous garb of the
post-boy, the hat with a cockade, scarlet coat, blue
knee breeches, and white stockings. Hach boy car-
ried two capacious letter bags, and he and _ his mails
were mounted on any kind of a beast, the only nec-
essary qualification for entering the government ser-
vice as post boy’s horse being cheapness. Further
efforts proved that the more quickly they could be
sent the larger the mails would become. When the
boys went three or four miles an hour, the corres-
pondence entrusted to them was. very small, but
when Allen’s mail coaches were put on, which went
at six miles an hour, the mail matter increased per-
ceptibly, and when the speed of the coaches was in-
creased to eight and even nine miles an hour, the
amount of mail was at once increased. This rapid

THE POST-OFFICE. 143

speed though, did not agree with the passengers. Lord
Chancellor Campbell says, that he was warned against
traveling in mail coaches on account “of the fear-
ful pace at which they flew, and of an instance re-
corded to him of a person who had died suddenly of
appoplexy on account of the rapidity of the motion.”

A POSTAL ORDER OF OVER THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

In July, 1556, the lords of the seal, ordered that
«‘“Postes betweene this and the northe should eache
of them keepe a booke and make entrye of every let-
ter that he shall receive, the tyme of the deliverie
thereof unto his hands with the parties names that
shall bring it unto him.”

ROMANCE IN OLD LETTERS—THEY SOMETIMES, TOO, THROW
LIGHT ON SUPPOSED MISTAKES OF THE PAST.

In these busy days how many people ever find time
to rummage out a package of timestained old letters
and then yield themselves up to the spell of quietly
reading them? inquiresa writer in the Boston Herald.
No; evenif going away to the sea shore or the moun-
tains they preferably stow away a novel or two in the
valise and trust to these to supply them with all need-
ful romance. And yet there is more romance to be
got out of one package of old letters from intimate
associates of one’s youth than out of half a circulat-
ing library of novels. With most men and women
of forty or fifty the unstirred memory of the early
days of life has erown utterly vague and shadowy.

-Allforgotten with them is how they used to exult and
weep and hope and despair—all forgotten how rap-
turous the wine of youth was, how bitter its dregs

144 THE STORY OF

and lees. But now comes the package of old letters
to the rescue. Under its enchanting wand the sen-
sations become positively startling as the diorama
of the past begins to unroll, and scene after scene
breaks in with its old, vivid associations.

The first to be opened is, perhaps, a letter from the
long dead, dear old mother. It was written when her
boy first left for the boarding school, or to seek his
fortune in the world, and, with the rereading of it
across the abyss of time, how the heart beats again
with the old fears and hopes, the old clinging em-
brace, the old boyish resolve never to bring grief or
shame on such devotion. Next comes a letter from
a Damon or Pythias of afar-away schoolmate. “ Poor
Tom!” the heart sighs before one begins to read, as
one recalls how sad a fate in life the unhappy fellow
had. But no trace of foreboding in the letter. Tom
is the old young Tom cf fourteen years. He has just
been to a dancing party, where he had a cotillion and
the Virginia reel with airy, fairy Mary Phelps. She
- looked like an angel—Tom’s affidavit for it. Her eyes
danced with joy, and Tom thought he knew the rea-
son why. Then follows a college letter. It was from
the reader’s dear, proud sister. She has heard all
about her brother’s class-day oration. Susan Alcott
had written her that it was pronounced a combina-
tion of the charm of Cicero, the fire of Demosthenes
and the Ganges volume of Burke. Yes, the rejuven-
ated fellow remembers this was just what he once be-
lieved of it himself, and was sure of, when his class-
mates flocked round him and nearly shook his arms
off. ‘Take a novel to the seashore for food of rom-

THE POST-OFFICE. 145

ance!” cries the fairly fascinated reader. ‘ Why in
this old package of letters there are more starts and
surprises, more themes for pathetic reflection, more
bursts of golden sunshine and glooms of lowering
clouds, than Balzac or Victor Hugo ever packed into
the most world famous romance. At least the tears
and exultations came closer home to me.” And here
he hits it! Closer home to him! Here lies the spell
of the package of old letters. It reveals one human
life at least as a unity of endless variety. It gives
the past the distinctness of the present, filling up and
making solid ground of the abyss that divided them,
The dear, familiar faces, how they crowd round! A
meed of gratitude, of congratulation, of sympathy, of
pity, for each! Human life, after all, the heart now
feels is not the barren thing one is so apt to think it.
when surrendered to a single monotonous mood.

Of course there are plenty of shallow people ready
to say thatit makes them simply sad to read old let-
ters. A great mistake this. Perpetually one lights
on subjects of felicitation. Now he is so glad he
failed to win the heart of a certain delectable Mary,
though once it nearly killed him ; now so glad his
speech was hissed or his article refused, and so he
was put to his trumps to do better. Half his worsé
failures he sees, in the light of these old letters, to
have been his most signal triumphs. Hard at the
time these failures; but now, as he looks back at
them, they become to him

Like mountain ranges overpassed,
In purple distance fair.

146 THE STORY OF

Ah! the glamour of beauty, he reflects, time and
distance throw over steep and ragged experiences.
Why may not heaven at last turn out to be just such
a “reading of old letters ?”

TWO OLD-TIME LOVE LETTERS.

In an old book, dated 1820, there is the following
very curious love epistle. It affords an admirable
play upon words:

‘*MADAME—Most worthy of admiration! After long con-
sideration and much meditation on the great reputation you
possess in the nation, I have a strong inclination to become
your relation. On your approbation of the declaration, I shall
make preparation to remove my situation to a more convenient
station, to profess my admiration, and if such oblation is worthy
of observation and can obtain commiseration, it will be an
agegrandization beyond all calculation of the joy and exultation
of yours, ‘SANS DISSIMULATION.”

The following is the still more curious answer :

‘¢ Srr—I perused your oration with much deliberation at the
great infatuation of your imagination to show such veneration
on so slight a foundation. But after examination and much
serious contemplation I supposed your animation was the fruit
of recreation or had sprung from ostentation to display your
education by an odd enumeration, or rather multiplication, of
words of the same termination, though of great variation in
each respective signification. Now, without disputation, your
laborious application in so tedious an occupation deserves com-
mendation, and thinking imitation a sufficient gratification, I

am, without hesitation, yours,
‘“ MARY MODERATION.”

ONLY HARM, NEVER GOOD, CAN COME FROM KEEPING
LETTERS.

Itis trouble, not good, that arises from old letters.
A package has fallen into my care to be disposed of
as thought best. It contains letters, bills, receipts,
some papers of value, and others worthless. In or-
der to sort the chaff from the wheat, they must be
carefully examined. Ah, what unthought-of secrets
they disclose—family troubles of which the world ©

THE POST-OFFICE. 147

never dreamed ; bitter heartaches where we thought
all was serene; love letters, sacred for their time
and place, ridiculous now; a whispered suspicion of
slander upon a name we thought was pure as snow,
and we are left to wonder whether it is true or false.
Old letters. What can they be good for? Their
mission is ended.

“T may like to read them while recovering from
an illness,” says some one.

Pshaw! as if these would be tonic you néeded at
sucha time! Better far a breath of pure air. We
are all prone to brood too much at such times, and .
need no such help in that direction. Let this plea
for the burning of letters be a strong one. Business
letters should be filed and labeled. Have a blank
book into which to copy such dates or extracts as
may be of value in the future for references. This
can be done when letters are answered. Then burn
them and see the ashes. Itis the sorrows instead
of the joys, that most letters contain. They are the
safety-valve for deep feeling from friend to friend,
good in their time, but sometimes worse than use-
less in the future. Every day brings new experi-
ences. We are constantly changing, and in many
cases would be ashamed of our own letters written
ten years ago. :

Garfield said: “ When you pitch your tent let it
be among the living, not among the dead.”

‘gTx DAYS SHALT THOU LABOR.”

The American Sabbath Union is working hard to
prevent Sunday work in the postal department of the

148 THE STORY OF

United States, as well as in the military service, in
inter-state commerce, and in the District of Colum-
bia and territories where the laws are enforced by the
United States government. The leading religious
bodies of the country have endorsed the work of the
union, and the movement is attracting considerable
attention. Postmaster General Wanamaker is deeply
interested in the proposed bill to forbid Sunday work
in the mail service, and is doing all that he can to
promote the reduction of Sunday work by postal em-
ployees. No two offices seem to have the same rules
in regard to the observance of the Sabbath. Most
of the larger offices close during the hours of morn-
ing church service, and few of them do more than
keep the general delivery open for an hour or two on
the Sabbath. Societies have been formed in many of
the States, and the organization is pushing this work
rapidly. Chicago, the great convention city, will
hold a convention of the American Sabbath Union
some time in November of 1889. Following are the
orders which they believe the postal department

ought to make for regulating Sunday work :

1. No post-office to be opened at the usual hours of worship.

2. No postal employees required to be on duty at hours that
would take from them the opportunity to attend church.

3. Stamp clerks to be entirely free from Sunday work.

4, Mail bearing special delivery stamp to be uniformly held
in the office as other mail, unless personally called for.

5. No mail matter except letters to be stamped or sorted on
the Sabbath.

6. Any post-office to be wholly closed on the Sabbath where
a majority of the people of legal age petition for such closing.

ADVANTAGE OF THE SPECIAL DELIVERY.
Gentleman (to boy in Madison Square )—Are you
the messenger boy who took my note some fifteen
minutes ago?

THE POST-OFFICE. . 149

“Yes sir.”

“Did you deliver it?”

“No, sir.”

‘Where is the quarter I gave you?”

“Bought a special delivery stamp and a package
of cigarettes ; it'll get there quicker, Mister.” —[ Life.
“THE FACE AT THE WINDOW.’

“This letter is to my husband,” she said as she
licked on a stamp at the window in the corridor of
the post-office.

“Yes’m.”

“ Will it go out to-day?”

““Yes’m.”

«By first mail?”

«Yes’m.”

“He ought to get it day after to-morrow?”

“Yes’m.”

“ And I ought to have his letter by Saturday?”

“Yes’m.”

“Tt isn’t over weight?”

‘Nom.

“And if he gets it, and if I get his answer by Sat-
urday, I can write——”

“Please don’t obstruct the window, ma’am ; there’s
forty people waiting.”

“Oh! there are! That’s always the way ofit. I
can’t get a word of information out of this post-office,
try as I will. Good day, sir! Tl go across to Can-
ada after this!”—[ Detroit Free Press.

MAIL CARRIER KATIE REIMER.

Little Katie Reimer of Scio now carries the mail

from Atwood to Selden three times each week The

150 THE STORY OF

distance is about forty miles, and the trip is made in
a buckboard drawn by one pony. Instances of Kan-
sas women farming with oxen, with mules, with all
kinds of teams are many, but we venture that Miss
Katie is the only girl carrying mail in the State.

A MEAN MAN.

A Bath man has hit upon a new method of adding
to the trials and tribulations of the post-office clerk.
He recently mailed a letter with two 1-cent stamps
upon it, one in one corner and the other in the other,
necessitating two cancelling strokes. Alas! the in-
humanity of man.

THE MAIL IN MISSISSIPPI.

“Good mawnin, Boss,” said Uncle John Dixon,
walking up to the general delivery window of the
post-office in a Mississippi village and taking off his
hat. “Say, Boss, has you got any mail fur me?”

After looking through about forty-five letters the
postmaster answers in the negative.

One-half hour later.

U. J. D.—“Say! Boss! has you got any mail fu
me ?” .

(No mail has arrived yet.)

P. M.—* No—no mail for you.” -

“U. J. D.—*“ You did’n’ look!”

P. M. —“ Been no mail in yet.”

U. J. D.—“ Why don’ you look, how does you
know dere ain’t nuthin’?”

P. M.—* You were here a half hour ago and no
mail has arrived since.”

a a

THE POST-OFFICE. 151

— U. J. D—“Moughty quar you cawn’t look; you
never looks fur cullud folks.”

P. M.—‘“Go on, now; when I say there is no mail,
there is none.”

U. J. D.—* Dis is de pos’ office, ain’t it—ain’t at ?”

P. M.—“ Yes.”

U. J. D—*“ Well, I’se got a right to cum an’ ask
fur my mail, I has.”

P. M.—*“ Mail won’t be in for an hour.”

U. J. D.—“ You oughter look.”

(One hour later.)

Uncle John Dixon looms up before the window.

P. M.—‘<‘ Nothing for you on this mail.”

U. J. D.—“You didn’ look. Pears to me you
mought look.”

P. M.—(Looks through the Q’s to appease him)—
“ Nothing!”

U. J. D.—“ Sure dere’s nuthin? Moughty quare!
There oughter be a postal card here. Got nuthin’
fur Liza Dixon? Mebbe it was sent to hur.”

‘P. M.—<* No; there’s nothing for Dixon.”

U. J. D.—* You didn’ look. How does you know
there’s nuthin’ fur "Liza. You oughter look.”—De-
troit Tree Press.

A FLOATING POST-OFFICE.

A novel post-office is that established on a steam-
boat running on the Clyde, which carries a large
number of passengers. All postal work except the
money order branch is carried on in this floating
post-office, the telegraph messages received being
despatched at each place where the boat stops.

152 THE STORY OF

SOME FOOLISH PEOPLE.

In England, it was at first the practice to register
every letter supposed to contain articles of value.
The increase of business led of course to the aban-
donment of this most worthy plan. Soon numerous
complaints of theft arose, and the post-office author-
ities resumed the practice of registering, diminishing
however the amount of such work by charging for
the extra trouble. The rate started with one shilling,
but was reduced to 6 pence, and afterwards to 4 pence
and then to 2 pence. The number of registered letters
in one year in the United Kingdom is over 11,000,-
000, and the people resort to curious devices to save
a few pence charged for registering; and they not
only take an immense amount of trouble, but risk the
loss of valuable articles. A Bank of England note
for £20 was once found pinned tothe page of a book,
addressed to the initials of a lady. A half penny
wrapper contained, besides a letter, a bill of sale, and
four bank notes.

GERMAN RED TAPE.

Red tape in most of the post-offices on the conti-
nent, is carried to an extreme. In Germany, if an
American traveller wishes to mail a package, it some-
times takes several days or a week to induce the post-
office officials to accept it. A lady, who was seeing
the sights of Dresden a year or two ago, wished to
return a book which her sisterin America had mailed
to her. She had heard that the post-office clerks
were very strict in regard to the manner in which
mail packages were done up, and so to be sure that
everything was all right, she wrapped the book in the

THE POST-OFFICE. 153

same piece of paper in which it had come from the
United States, and carried it to the general post-
office. Here the clerk took it, asked how much it
weighed, what it was, who it was from, where it was
going, what it was for, and a few other questions;
after which, he returned it to her with the remark
that it must be wrapped in impermeable paper, as
the Government would not receive such a valuable
book in the mails without it was more securely done
up. (She had told him, that as it was second hand,
she did not care to put any money value upon it.)
She then bought her impermeable paper, carefully
wrapped it around the book, and went again to the
general post-office. After she had been questioned
thoroughly, and the clerk had given the book a care-
ful analysis, he told her that in addition to the im-
permeable paper, the corners must be protected, and
that she must wrap them in stiff cloth. She accord-
ingly bought a crash towel, and wound it around the
book so as to protect the corners, and as she could
not write the address on the towel very well, she
pasted a piece of paper upon the package, having
the proper address. Now she thought success was
sure, but, “ Thereis many aslip betwixt the cup and
the lip,” especially when one is dealing with a Ger-
man government official. There was a little more red
tape to be gone through with before this much
wrapped parcel could reach the United States. The
' package must be sealed with three seals, and the
lady must write the same address upon an envelope
as that upon the book, and seal the envelope
with three seals, exactly like those she had im-

_

154 THE STORY OF -

pressed upon the package. With her envelope in
three seals, and book wrapped in impermeable paper
and crash towel, she went to the general office for
the fourth time, and interviewed the clerk. The
clerk was very sorry, but the package could not go
in that shape. The paper with the address which
she had pasted upon the towel, must be taken off, as
_ it was against the regulations to send a package with
any address pasted on. The address was picked off,
and written on the towel, and the book again handed
to the clerk. This work had been done in the vesti-
bule of the general office. The clerk took the pack-
age, looked in the official guide, and said, ‘‘There is
no such place in the United States as Burlington,
Vermont, and consequently we cannot accept this
package.” Unfortunately in writing “ Burlington ”
upon the crash towel, the ink not flowing freely,
she had left a space between the “g” and “t” so
that our intelligent German clerk thought the place
was Burling-ton, but this was easily fixed with a lit-
tle ink, and the package was finally accepted by the
representative of the German government. So much
time had been spent in the office, that it was then
past six o’clock, and the great outer doors were
closed and locked. Our American friend was not
sufficiently ethereal to flit through the key hole, and
the German system was such that the doors could
not be opened. Finally, after much urging and talk-
ng, the clerks permitted her to go through the work-
ing department of the office, and let her out through
their own entrance door. As she had been so suc-
cessful in mailing her package, and knew just how

THE POST-OFFICE. 155

to do it, a friend asked her to mail a package for
him, addressed to a place in Russia; but this must
have been addressed in the same way as Burling-ton;,
for the postal clerk told her, that although it was
wrapped properly, and was accompanied by the en-
velope with the three seals which corresponded with
the three seals upon the package, and she had given
him the fullest information in regard to the name of
the sender, etec., etc., as there was no such place in
his guide book for Russia, the government could not
accept it.

POSTE—RESTANTE.

In most countries on the Continent and also
in Great Britain, it is nearly as much trouble for
a stranger to get his mail, as it would be for an
unknown man to get a check cashed in a bank in the
United States. The Poste-Restante, as the depart-
ment is called where the travellers’ letters are sent,
is open at certain hours of the day, and letters are
not given out unless a request is accompanied by a
passport or evidence of other identity.

THE COMMISSION CAME TOO LATE.

It is not very often that the appointment clerk
works so slowly that the man appointed dies before
his commission reaches him, but the commission for
the Postmaster at Haughville, Ind., arrived too late
to be of any use, as he had been dead for over two
months.

A GOOD SENTIMENT.

Postmaster General Wanamaker, in an interview

published in the Philadelphia Record, says, “ I want

156 THE STORY OF

to keep the mail bag open to the latest possible
minute, then get it to its destination in the quickest
possible time, then get each separate piece of mail
to the person for whom it is meant in the quickest
possible way.”

A BOOM IN REGISTERED LETTERS. ©

Senator Quay at one time received more registered
letters than any other single individual in Washing-
ton. These letters were nearly all applications for
office, and were registered for two reasons—to prevent
loss in the mails and to secure a receipt showing that
they were safely delivered. An application for office
that comes in an unregistered letter is thrown aside
by some people as soon as it is received. If the
sender is seen by the person to whom the letter is
addressed he can, by stretching the truth, be told that
his application was never received. The shrewd of-
fice-seeker has learned the method, and the letter is
registered to prevent the possibility of such an excuse,

One day Senator Quay received only fifty registered
letters, but for each one his name was affixed to as
many pieces of pasteboard which the senders carried
for months in their inside pockets with the hope of
ultimately receiving what they requested.

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