THE STORY

OUR POST OFFICE

The Greatest Government Department in all its Phases

MARSHALL GUSHING

ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER
FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY FINE ENGRAVINGS

BOSTON, flASS.

A. M. THAYER & CO., PUBLISHERS
1893

Typography and Presswork

by L. Barta & Co. ,

The Barta Press,

148 High St., Boston, Mass.

NOTE.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 1892.
DEAR MR. THAYER:

I send you the last of the copy to-day. At least, you shall not
deny that you have been favored in one respect : I have had it all
typewritten. I congratulate myself, too, that the photographs were
mostly taken by my friend here, Mr. Prince ; and both of us ought
also to feel happy that personal friends of ours had the mechanical
work, so important in any publication, in charge, Mr. Gill of the
engraving and Mr. Barta of the printing. You had a long head
when you engaged these men and it was a compliment to me.

As to the matter, it ought to speak for itself. For one, I rather
like it. At any rate, I shall not apologize for it, though that is the
fashion, it seems. I only hope that the book will be read and en-
joyed by some of the 230,000 people who are so honorably employed
in the postal service, and by some of their friends ; and even by
some of the millions who use the mails and want to have them made
quicker, safer, and more frequent. May a good number enjoy read-
ing the book as much as I have enjoyed writing it ! That is enough
to wish for.

Accept my cordial regards, and hurry the proofs ; they must be
read with the greatest care, and that takes time.

As ever, yours most truly,

MARSHALL GUSHING.

MR. A. M. THAYEE,

6 Mt. Vernon St., Boston, Mass.

224364

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT.

[HE visitor to Washington City descries the
pure, constant, beautiful monument and
the dome of the majestic Capitol as he
rides into town. He goes to his hotel, or
visits his more or less hospitable relations.
Then he begins the task of seeing the
sights. He has allotted to him so many
days in which to see such a number of
sights, and that makes it a mathematical
certainty that he must see such a number
of sights per day. He visits the vaults of
the Treasury Department, where the mil-
lions and millions of gold and silver coin
are piled in great sacks; spends an hour
or two at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where the
revenue stamps and the greenbacks are manufactured; rides to
the top of the Monument and looks down upon a city of a quarter
of a million people nestling in a hundred thousand trees and
breathing easier in the shade of three or four hundred parks, big
and little. He almost certainly wanders over to the White House,
is taken through the parlors and the East Room, and formally, and
with as much dignity and self-possession as possible, shakes the
President by the hand; or, if he knows his Member or his Senator
and appreciates his own importance to that patriotic representative
of his locality, secures a personal introduction to the Chief Execu-
tive in his library upstairs, and finds better occasion for passing
the time of day and better excuse for boasting to his neighbors
of the tremendous successes of his latest journey away from home.
The visitor no doubt spends a good part of a day at the Capitol,
gazing upon more unique and stately things and familiarizing him-

OUR POST OFFICE.

SACRED MOUNT VERNON.

self with more statesmen than he can describe in a year's time. He
looks in at the Pension Office, where, under the massive pillars
and the barn-like roof,
they dance at the great
inauguration balls. He
rides behind the lazy,
loquacious African dri-
ver, unless, of course,
his very hospitable re-
lations put their pri-
vate carriages at his
disposal, or his patriot-
ic representatives simi-
larly favor him. He
glories in the view
from Fort Myer, the

view of Washington City, lying on the bank of the sluggish
river, surrounded by woods and hills, feels the pathos of the
national burial place at Arlington, lingers by the porch of Lee
or the grave of Sheridan. He drives to the Soldiers' Home, per-
haps, and wonders whether that beautiful reach of field and lawn

or the shades of
Arlington satisfy
him most. He
surely devotes a
day to sailing
down the river,
to sit and muse
at the venerated
home of Wash-
ington and stand
reverently by
the great man's
grave.

The visitor
sometimes finds

occasion to leave this beaten track of sentiment and historic beauty
for things more present and practical. He misses quaint old News-

THE ROBERT E. LEE HOUSE AT ARLINGTON.

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT.

paper Row, misses, perhaps, the delicious fried chicken at Han-
cock's. But he studies the objects in the museums, tires himself
out in the libraries, in the Patent Office, in the Smithsonian Insti-
tution. He goes to the Navy Yard and examines the enormous
gun plant, and, if fortune favors, finds a proud, new cruiser, lying,
sleepy but relentless, in the lap of the Eastern Branch. Then, if
the visitor has time, he wants to see the Dead Letter Office in
the Post Office Depart-
ment, a thing which he
has read about, and "just
to catch a glimpse " of
the Postmaster Gen-
eral, a man whom he
has read about. The
Department and the
man are more of inter-
est than the stranger
has imagined. The De-
partment touches every
several person of all
the millions in this
whole country. It touches millions, indeed, in other countries.
The man inspirits all this boundless public service.

The building of the Post Office Department occupies a square
bounded by Seventh and Eighth, and E and F Streets, northwest;
that is, it is in the seventh square west of the Capitol, and in the
fifth one north of the reservation extending westward from the
Capitol to the Monument. The structure has a basement and two
principal stories, adorned, as an architect would say, with monolithic
columns and pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The material is
white marble from Maryland and New York. The building was
begun in 1839 from designs by Robert Mills, and it was finished
in 1855 by Thomas U. Walter. No doubt it would have cost less
than 12,150,000 if it had not been so many years in progress. Most
of the offices of the Department are quartered in this building. Five
important offices in addition, however, are required to be rented:
the Busch building, directly opposite the Department building, on
E Street, at 111,000 a year; the structure at the corner of Eighth

THE TOMB OF WASHINGTON.

4 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

and E Streets, which is occupied by the Money Order Division and
by other bureaus, at $8,000 a year; the Mail Bag Repair Shop, on
C Street, a fine, partly new brick structure opposite the rear of the
National Hotel, at $5,000 a year; the old skating rink on E Street,
between Sixth and Seventh, which is occupied by the Division of
Supplies, at $4,000 a year; and the Topographer's Office, at 418
and 420 Ninth Street, at $1,500 per year. These outside quarters
have been rented from time to time, according as particular post-
masters general have been persuasive enough, and particular Con-

AT THE SOLDIERS' HOME.

gresses have been generous and falsely economical enough, for the
forced accommodation of some of the hundreds of workers in the
departmental service. Successive Congresses have been sufficiently
importuned to enlarge the present Department building, or to pro-
vide a new building and turn the present General Post Office over
to the uses of the Interior Department, which is even more cramped
in its present quarters; or, in short, to provide in some logical,
public-spirited, and prudent way for the growth of this enormous
postal service which cannot be prevented from becoming every

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 5

year more and more enormous, simply because the country cannot be
prevented from growing. But the preference has been to pay this
$ 30, 000 per year in true hand-to-mouth fashion.

One finds most easily the duties of the Postmaster General and
his various assistants outlined in the Congressional Directory. This
prosaic but very useful publication says substantially :

The Postmaster General has the direction and management of the Post Office
Department. He appoints all officers and employes of the Department, except
the four Assistant Postmasters General, who are appointed by the President, by

NEWSPAPER EOW.

and with the advice and consent of the Senate ; appoints all postmasters whose
compensation does not exceed one thousand dollars; makes postal treaties with
foreign governments, by and with the advice and consent of the President, awards
and executes contracts, and directs the management of the domestic and foreign
mail service.

The First Assistant Postmaster General has charge of the following divisions :
Salary and Allowance Division : the duty of readjusting the salaries of post-
masters and the consideration of allowances for rent, fuel, lights, clerk hire, and
other expenditures.

Free Delivery : the duty of preparing cases for the inauguration of the system
in cities, the appointment of letter carriers, and a general supervision.

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Talbott

Division of Post Office Supplies: the duty of sending out the blanks, wrapping-

paper, twine, letter-balances, and cancelling-stamps to offices entitled to them.

Money Order Division: the supervis-
ion of the domestic money order and
postal note business, the superintend-
ence of the international money order
correspondence, and the preparation of
postal conventions for the exchange of
money orders.

Dead Letter Office : the treatment of
all unmailable and undelivered mail
matter which is sent to it for disposi-
tion; the enforcement of the prompt
sending of this matter; the duty of not-
ing and correcting errors of postmasters
connected with the delivery or with-
holding of mail matter; the examination
and forwarding or return of all letters
which have failed of delivery; the in-
spection and return to country of
origin of undelivered foreign matter;
the recording and restoration to own-
ers of letters and parcels which con-
tain valuable inclosures; and the
disposition of all money, other ne-
gotiable paper, and valuable articles

found in undelivered matter and correspondence.

Correspondence Division: the reference of all inquiries received from post-

masters concerning the discharge of their duties, of disputes regarding the

delivery of mail matter, and of inquiries relative to the construction of postal

laws and regulations.
The Second Assist-

ant Postmaster Gen-

eral has charge of the

transportation of all

mails. His office em-

braces four divisions

and two offices, viz :
Contract Division :

prepares all advertise-

ments inviting pro-

posals for star steam-

boat, and mail-messen-

ger service, receives

the proposals, pre-

pares orders for the

award of contracts,

and attends to the ex-

ecution of these.

THE WHITE HOUSE FROM THE SOUTHWEST.

WASHINGTON," NEWSBOY.

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT.

THE PEACE MONUMENT.

Division of Inspection: charged with the examination of monthly and special
reports of postmasters as to the performance of mail service by contractors and

r carriers, and the preparation of cases

and orders for deductions for the non-
performance of service, and for tire impo-
sition of fines.

Railway Adjustment Division: prepares
cases authorizing the transportation of
mails by railroads, the establishment of
railway postal-car service and changes
in existing service; prepares orders and
instructions for the weighing of mails,
and receives the returns and computes
the basis of pay.

Mail Equipment Division: charged with
the preparation of advertisements invit-
ing proposals for furnishing mail-bags,
mail locks and keys, label cases, mail-bag
cord fasteners, and mail-bag catchers;
the receipt of proposals and the prepar-
ation of contracts, the issuing of these
articles for the service, and the repair
of them.

Railway Mail Service: has charge of
the railway mail service arid the railway
post office clerks, prepares for the Second Assistant Postmaster General cases for
the appointment, removal, promotion,
and reduction of clerks, orders the mov-
ing of mails on railroad trains; has
charge of the dispatch, distribution, and
separation of mail matter in railway
post office cars and the principal post
offices, and conducts the weighing of
mails.

Foreign Mail Service: has charge of
all foreign postal arrangements (except
those relating to the money order sys-
tem), conducts correspondence with
foreign governments and private citi-
zens, and has supervision of the ocean
mail steamship service.

The Third Assistant Postmaster Gen-
eral has charge of the Finance Office,
and the Stamp Division, thus :

Division of Finance: issues drafts and
warrants in payment of balances re-
ported by the Auditor to be due to mail
contractors, and superintends the col-
lection of revenue at depository and
depositing offices.

THE CAPITOL VISTA IN WINTER.

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Division of Postage Stamps and Stamped Envelopes: issues postage stamps,
stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, and postal cards; and supplies post-
masters with envelopes for their official use.

Division of Eegistered Letters: prepares instructions for the guidance of
postmasters relative to registered letters.

Division of Files, Mails, etc. : receives, distributes, and indexes all papers com-
ing to the office; dispatches and records all papers sent, and keeps the office files.

Special Delivery System : and all business relating to the rates of postage, the
classification of mail matter, and the entry of periodicals.

The Fourth Assistant Postmaster General has charge of the Divisions of
Appointments, Bonds and Commissions, and Post Office Inspectors and Mail
Depredations:

1 -<

IN LAFAYETTE SQUARE.

Division of Appointments: prepares all cases for establishment, discontinuance,
and change of name or site of post offices, and for the appointment of all
postmasters.

Division of Bonds and Commissions: receives and records appointments; sends
out papers for postmasters and their assistants to qualify; files their bonds and
oaths, and issues commissions.

Division of Post Office Inspectors and Mail Depredations: the general super-
vision of the work of inspection, and of all complaints of losses, irregularities in
the mails, or violations of the postal laws.

Almost seventy thousand postmasters, two hundred and thirty
thousand persons connected in one way and another with the Post
Office Department, hundreds of thousands of persons using the mails
extensively, and millions having remotely to do with the Post
Office, find it of value to know what the duties of the Postmaster
General and of his assistants are. Hundreds of persons every month

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT.

From Photographs by

Abocit

Centre

Miss Frances Benjamin Johnston.

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

are sure they want to see the Postmaster General or to write to him,
who really want to see or address somebody else; and hundreds
every month are sure they want to see or address somebody else who
really want to reach still others. Thousands send letters to the
Department that have to be referred from the officers to whom they
are addressed to other officers. All this causes delay. To under-
stand the fact that the business of the Post Office Department is
almost limitless, and that it requires to transact it the efforts not

of one person, or of
ten, but of thou-
sands, is to expedite
everybody's letter.
No machinery is so
complicated as that
of the Post Office De-
partment, yet none
is so simple and reg-
ular when all of its
affairs, great and
small, take their
natural, proper, and
quick courses. One
may hear every day
of the red tape of the Government service. One may hear twice
every day of the red tape of the postal service. But rules are
necessary in every business; and surely they are necessary in
the greatest business in the world. In the Post Office Depart-
ment are some tens of thousands of persons who are trying to
do their work, with as much dispatch and reliability as possible, for
millions of persons in billions of cases. And the figures of the Dead
Letter Office show that five sixths of the causes of the miscarriage
of mail matter are due to the ignorance or carelessness of the great,
royal, complaining public; and the experience of any person em-
ployed in the postal service for no matter how short a period also
shows that the unreliability of the service is due most often to the
inability of the people themselves to do business with the public
service from their side of the transaction. And worse yet, they will
not complain to any representative of the Department, but to some
dozen persons who have nothing to do with it.

SEEN AT FOKT FOOTE.

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 11

The Blue Book, a compilation made by Dr. John G. Ames,
Superintendent of Documents of the Interior Department, gives an
idea, as much as any compilation may, of the magnitude of the
postal system. The second of the two volumes of the Blue Book is
devoted exclusively to the postal service. It contains 1,425 royal
octavo pages, and discloses the names and salaries of persons
engaged in the service in Washington City and elsewhere. The
number of postal people may be summarized as follows :

Post Office Department in Washington 681

Mail bag repair shop in Washington 231

Post Office inspectors 103

Post Office inspectors' clerks 27

Postage stamp agency 8

Stamped envelope agency 15

Postal card agency 5

Postal agency at Shanghai 5

Postmasters 67,368

Assistant postmasters 138

Chief clerks in post offices 658

Clerks in post offices (estimated) 111,875

Letter carriers 10,892

Sea post office clerks 12

Star and steamboat service :

Professional contractors 274

Local contractors 4,013

Sub-contractors 11,478

Carriers, other than contractors or sub-contractors, estimated . . 2.789

Special office carriers 2,549

Regulation wagon service:

Contractors 22

Sub-contractors 15

Carriers, other than contractors or sub-contractors, estimated . . 300
Railroad service :

Contractors 2,415

Railway postal clerks 6,440

Mail messenger service 7,122

Total 229,435

These are the bulk of the army of public servants in this country.
Of course there are regiments of the army, collectors of customs
and of internal revenue and all their deputies and clerks, and the
various officers and employees of the Departments of State, Agri-
culture, and Justice, and the officers and sailors of the Navy, and
the hundreds employed by the Pension and Land Offices and the

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

other bureaus of the Interior Department. But the officers and
employees of the postal system embrace the major part of all ; and
they always will. The increase of the army of Federal employees is
necessarily great and constant. It is a great and constantly growing
country. The increase in numbers, however, does not imply a
similar increase in expense, for by far the largest item of increase is
in the number of postmasters ; and here offices are established and
officers appointed upon the demand of new communities which

add, without appreciable outlay,
much new revenue to the Depart-
ment.

A writer for the Indianapolis
News not long ago examined the
Blue Book, greatly to the interest
of the readers of that paper. He
found that among the number of
Government employees are 2,000
people of the name of Smith; and
some 400 of them bear the name
of John Smith. There are over
11,000 Browns, 1,000 Johnsons,
and 900 Joneses. There are hun-
dreds of them who spell their
names with but three letters each,
as Box, Bee, Dew, Dox, Gee; and
IN THE AGRICULTURAL GROUNDS. some o f fa G names that go to the

other extreme are Calvacoresses, Waffenschmid, Vonbruddenbrock,
Matagonsky, Stoutenborough, Schenckenberger, Scharringhausen,
Petegomenne, Brannerstenther, and Dzierzanowaki.

Among the names are Huggs, one Hugger, one Huggins, and
twenty-five or thirty Loves. The various nationalities appear to be
pretty well represented, by names as well as by individuals, for
there are fifteen people who bear the name of English, seventy-five
with the name of French, six of the name of Irish, three of German,
and one of America. Uncle Sam's large family evidently has its
proper proportion of people able to make their way through the
world by whatever way seems most convenient, for two of them sail
under the cognomen Gall, and three of them carry off the equally
suggestive name of Cheek.

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 18

They are a patriotic lot evidently, for there is one Red, half a
dozen Blues, and Whites by the hundreds. There are several Flags
and material for more, for there are two Calicos and one Silk. And
Uncle Sam would have no difficulty in finding material to set his
table. There are six Rusks, one Bread, fifty Fishes, ten Custards,
eleven Coffees, two Teas, three Butters, one Milk, two Sourwines,
one Sourbeer, and two Apples. There are some names that would
seem to be burdensome to carry about through life. For instance,
there are three by the name of Coward, one Lie, one Awkward, one
Damschroeder, one Goldammer, and one Damall. The months of
the year are pretty well represented, one January, one February,
one August, and half a dozen of the name of March, and Mays in
still greater numbers. Scriptural names are numerous. Adam and
Adams can be counted by the hundred. To go with all of them
there is but one Eve. There are forty Cains, thirteen Abels, one
Job, seven Abrahams, four Isaacs, three Jacobs, two Matthews, four
Marks, one Luke, twelve Johns, and twenty-five Pauls. The list
contains one Doctor, two Akes, and twelve Pains.

People of the names of the various Presidents seem to be pretty
well represented. There are 40 Washingtons, of whom five are
George Washingtons; 300 Adamses, 16 Jeffersons, 325 Jacksons,
20 Munroes, 10 Madisons, 200 Harrisons, 10 Van Burens, 50 Tylers,
12 Polks, 75 Pierces, 30 Buchanans, 14 Lincolns, 1,000 Johnsons,
100 Grants, 20 Hayeses, 6 Garfields, 20 Arthurs, and 20 Clevelands.
The royal and the titled are represented, for there are 40 Kings, 3
Queens, 6 Czars, 2 Marquises, and Princes, Lords, Earls, and Dukes
in great numbers.

There is enough in the clothing line to fit out the most fastidious,
8 Coats, 2 Shirts, a pair of Shoes, 2 Stockings, 2 Socks, and 1 Boots.
The fish family is represented with 38 Fishes, 15 Pikes, 7 Salmon,
2 Shadd, 6 Trout, 8 Oysters, 1 Mackerel, 6 Rock, 2 Crabbs, 1
Pickerell, and 2 Bullfish. To catch them with are 2 Poles, 5 Lines,
and 6 Hooks. The animal family is well represented, for among
the names are 1 Lion, 1 Tiger, 10 Hoggs, 4 Coons, 50 with the
name of Wolf, 4 Deer, 7 Bears, and 4 Monkeys. The human family
is represented by 1 Boy, 1 Man, and 2 of the name of Baby; while
the provisions for their care consist of 1 Cradle and 1 Cribb.

History is slow, but a few recorded facts show how wonderfully

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 1&

big the postal service is. In the war-time there were a third as
many post offices as now, and the revenue of the Department was
but little more than a sixth of what it is to-day. Then the total
number of registered letters was insignificant. In 1866 there were
275,103 pieces of mail matter registered. Last year the Government
increased the security of the mails by registering over 15,000,000
pieces. The money order system had just been inaugurated and its
benefits had only been extended to 766 post offices, which handled
about $4,000,000 per annum. To-day there are 30,000 money
order offices, whose combined monetary transactions aggregate nearly
$140,000,000 per annum. The registry system was a farce and
accomplished anything but the object in view. To-day the regis-
tered mail is so secure that only one in every 12,227 pieces of
matter is lost. Probably there will be one hundred thousand post
offices in the year 1900, that will earn, perhaps, 100,000,000 annu-
ally. A hundred years ago the post office carried but 2,000 pieces
of mail per day. Now more than 8,000 letters and packages are
dropped into the mails every minute of the year. Then not a daily
mail existed anywhere. There were only 100 post offices in the
entire country. The length of all mail routes did not exceed 2,000
miles. The entire annual revenue of the service fell far short of
$50,000. Every working day now the mails travel a distance equal
to forty-one times the circumference of the globe, and more than one
half of all the post offices in the country are supplied with daily
mails. In 1860, 27,000 miles of railroad were used for carrying
mails, at an annual expense of little more than $3,000,000, with
only 600 employees. Now the railway mail service traverses 160, 000
miles of road, spends $21, 000, 000 a year, and employs, in 2,800 cars,
over 6,000 men; and in a year they travel 113,000,000 miles in
crews. They distribute in transit the inconceivable volume of
7,900,000,000 pieces of mail matter, besides receipting for, record-
ing, protecting, and distributing nearly 16,000,000 registered pack-
ages, and more than 1,000,000 through registered pouches. This
task is performed with such care that less than two letters in 10,000
are sent wrong. This does not mean that two letters in 10,000 are
lost, but that in distributing 10,000 an average of less than two is
made by which the transmission and delivery of those two missives
may be delayed; and every railway postal clerk must carry in his

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 17

mind the most direct route to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of post
offices, and these conditions are constantly changing with the
changes of railway schedules and the times of day at which distribu-
tions are made.

The growth of the postal service with every year is enormous,
resistless, inconceivable. The present Postmaster General called
to the Department last March some fifty of the leading post-
masters of the country for conference with him. To these men he
made a little speech. It had been exactly three years since he had
been appointed Postmaster General, and Mr. Wanamaker illustrated,
by quoting a few figures, what the growth of the postal service had
been in that short period. A few paragraphs were :

" From March 4, 1889, to March 5, 1898, we have established 10,549 new post
offices, more than one sixth of the whole number in existence. To the 2,654
presidential offices of 1889 we have added in three years 467 about 18 per
cent, of the entire number of such offices, which is now 3,121. In the matter of
revenue, the three years prior to the present administration increased postal
receipts $24,000,000, or from 130 to 154 million, being more than 18 per cent.
The three years of this administration carried the revenue from 154 to over 195
million dollars, an increase of more than 26 per cent. ; in other words, we main-
tained the $24,000,000 gained by the last administration, and added over 40 and
a half millions to it.

-"We have added in the past three years to the miles travelled with mails
exactly 54,816,192 miles, by railroad, steamboat, and star service. The rate of
pay in star and steamboat service has been decreased. There have been 2,129
new routes opened, 255 new railway post offices and compartment cars put on,
and 1,016 additional clerks employed in the railway mails, mainly on account of
new service. The increase in the annual number of miles of service by railway
postal clerks for the past three years was about 70,000,000, or a little more than
21 per cent. In the number of pieces of mail matter distributed by railway
postal clerks for the same time, there was an increase of 5,730,000,000, or nearly
33 per cent. In the number of letters separated by railway postal clerks for city
delivery, there was an increase of nearly 227,000,000, or about 54 per cent. Test
examinations to ascertain the efficiency of the permanent force of postal clerks
were made in nearly 25,000 cases, involving a handling of nearly 30,000,000
pieces, the result showing an average of correctness of more than 93 per cent.

" Free delivery has been established in the past three years at 150 offices, and
the entire service has been strengthened and extended by the addition of 2,409
carriers. The last report of the last administration showed a total of 358 letter-
carrier offices; up to date there are 551.

"An unerring indication of the increased efficiency of the service is to be
found in the records of the Dead Letter Office. The total number of pieces of
dead mail matter received at that office in 1886, was about 4,800,000. Three years
later it was about 6,200,000; and for the present year it will be- about 6,800,000.
In other words, for the three years prior to 1889, there was an increase of

18 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

1,400,000 pieces, of 29.2 per cent. ; while for the last three years the increase has
been only 600,000, or 9.6 per cent. That is to say, while there was an increase
during the three years of fully 35 per cent, in the number of pieces of mail matter
handled, the increase in the number of pieces sent to the Dead Letter Office was
less than 10 per cent., a difference of 25 per cent, in favor of increased efficiency
of service."

Not only do the actual figures, in the recent as well as the earlier
history of the postal service, illustrate its remarkable development,
but the United States may challenge, fearlessly, comparison with
any other nation. We beat the world. Neither Germany nor Great
Britain has more than 25,000 post offices, and France has less than
10,000 facts not so notable because of the limited area of these
countries, though more notable, perhaps, because the United States
has almost as many post offices as all of the countries of Europe,
Germany excepted. The rates of postage in this country are the
lowest, considering the total of miles traveled to perform the ser-
vice, in the world. England, with her compact population and
short distances, is no better off for postage rates. In length of
mail routes the United States is far ahead of any other country.
Great Britain, Germany, and France all together do not half equal
the United States in this respect; and even in the mileage of mail
service annually performed the United States is ahead of these three
foreign countries all combined. An average American sends more
letters than anybody else ; for upon the basis of the last census the
average number of pieces of mail matter to every inhabitant of the
countries named is now:

United States, pieces per capita 71

Great Britain ,,,,,, 61

Germany ,, ,, ,, . 41

France ,,,,,, 37

No, there is no doubt the American postal system is the greatest
in the world. It cannot be prevented from growing, and any
American citizen is proud to have it the greatest in the world, and
likes to see it grow. Yet this immense machine, this stupendous,
delicate, all-pervading business, is everywhere impecunious and
restive. The Post Office Department never has money enough to
work with. Not one person in a hundred insists that the postal
service should be self-sustaining. He reflects that the army and the
navy are not, and he freely pays for them because of the public

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 19

spirit which they help him to express. He rarety understands that
the real reason why the postal service is not better is because he
himself does not insist that money should be voted for it in order to
make it better. He does not realize that there is hardly a person
among the 230,000 who are employed within its branches who is not
underpaid and overworked. He does not realize that impossibilities
are expected of human beings. He does not stop to think that he

POST OFFICE BUILDINGS OF FOKKION COUNTRIES.

himself might relieve the stress somewhat by conforming without
variation to the ordinary requirements of the service. He has for-
gotten that the postal service earns back every dollar that it spends.
The fact is that the American postal service, while to-day the
greatest business in the world, is to-day the worst conducted the
best conducted under the circumstances, but the worst conducted,
under the lack of means to work with. Everywhere the post offices
are overcrowded. Everywhere, almost, the postmasters, the clerks,
the contractors, are underpaid. The Department force is crowded
and hampered almost beyond belief. Four hundred clerks have been

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

moved into, the five branch offices outside the Department building,
and yet a larger number than ever crowd the present structure. The
hallways of the Post Office building are made not only uncomfort-
able but unhealthy by the great heaps of files. 240,000 quarterly
reports are received annually from postmasters and 480,000 weekly
statements come in each year from money order and postal note
offices. Money orders and postal notes to the number of 16,000,000
have to be handled annually. These files and records are always

THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

(From the top of the Washington Loan and Trust Company's Building.)

in the way. The work of the postal service in Washington and out
of it is always in the way. It can never be caught up with until
indignant public protests, expressing themselves in the votes of Con-
gressmen, provide the means with which this vast, necessary labor
may be performed. The present Postmaster General had not studied
the service a month before he was heard to declare that, if the money
really required to run the postal service could really be granted, he
would guarantee to make $1 0,000, 000 annually with it. Nobody
at all familiar with the system doubts that this real business man
would do that; and besides, with a difference on the credit side
would come increased and improved facilities, cheapened postage
rates, and improved service again, again, and again.

THE CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT. 21

A good way to understand about the postal service, about the
intricate machinery of it, the multitude of impossible things
expected of it, the fidelity and dangers necessary to be practised or
to be encountered in connection with it, the modes by which money
is appropriated for it, the labors, satisfactory and unsatisfactory, of
the man whom the President appoints to direct it, to know what
the postal clerk, the letter carrier, and the other brave and steady
fellows on the inspector force, in the postal cars, and on the star
routes through the wildernesses perform and don't perform, to
know about all this is to study it all a little. It is impossible to
know which man and which work is most important. Every man
and every duty is essential and every duty and every man is worth
inquiring about, even if only hurriedly one sees the actors passing
to and fro from day to day, out and in among the scenes, sees the
parts played well or badly, sees the efforts and successes, and the
no less worthy failures.

THE TKANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS.

'HE Second Assistant Postmaster General's Office,
which has charge of the transportation of all the
mails, disburses annually some $25,000,000 for the
pay of railroads alone, and its total of disbursements
to all classes of contractors is over $40,000,000.
The pay of postmasters and clerks and of mail
contractors is regulated by the laws of Congress.
A dissatisfied agent of the Post Office Department, no matter
how much or how justly he may be dissatisfied, finds himself
confronted, if he visits the Department or writes to some officer
of the Department to complain, with certain laws and regulations
which cannot be overridden. In numerous cases, no doubt, these
laws and regulations work injustice, but generally they are good
and necessary. A common trouble with them is that they do not
provide enough for the employment and pay, from time to time,
of new agents. Changes in the laws and regulations that would
be wise, are repeatedly brought to the attention of Congress by
postmasters general or by members of one of the branches of
Congress; and unwise and impossible changes are much more
numerously presented to the law-making body by demagogues (who
are not unpatriotic enough to expect the measures to go forward
into actual legislation) and by unspeakable cranks and lobbyists
who know nothing about their subject, or who make it their
invisible business to grind axes for others. But the $40,000,000
annually appropriated for the transportation of mails is used by
the officers of the Department with an honesty and exactness which
is superb when it is considered how many conflicting, irreconcila-
ble special interests are involved, how much personal or political
pressure is supposed to make weight in the balance, and how
heavily the real demands of the intensely active letter- writing

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS.

people call for satisfaction out of an appropriation always
inadequate.

Look through the office of the Second Assistant Postmaster Gen-
eral. See the almost immeasurable diversity and magnitude of the
affairs with which it has to deal. Mail routes are arranged in these
classes: railroad mail routes, which extend over lines of rail-
roads ; steamboat mail routes, on which mails are carried by steam-
boat; mail messenger routes, which run from railroad stations to
post offices located but a short f^-
distance from the station (usu-
ally within two miles) but which
the railroad companies are not
required to supply ; regulation
wagon routes which is the ser-
vice performed in the larger cities
between the main post offices,
sub-offices, railroad stations, etc.,
and for which a particular style
of wagon is used; special routes,
which are not under contract,
but are established for the tem-
porary supply of new post offices
that are not on existing contract
routes ; and star routes, which
supply post offices throughout
the rural districts, that are not
on the line of railroad or steam-
boat routes, the mails being
carried by stage, horseback, or otherwise, the contract not prescrib-
ing the mode of transportation, but providing that all the mails
shall be carried with "celerity, certainty, and security," the three
words having been designated by three stars and having given rise
to the term "star service." And in addition to the above, all of
which relate to the domestic service, there are the ocean mail routes
and the foreign mail service.

A few figures illustrate this diversity and magnitude. In the
United States are about 2,300 railroad routes, aggregating 160,000
miles in length, the annual travel over which exceeds 230,000,000

MR. J. LOWRIE BELL,
Second Assistant Postmaster General.

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

miles. There are 17,000 star routes, aggregating 240,000 miles in
length and over 100,000,000 miles in annual travel; 7,000 mail
messenger routes, aggregating 6,000 miles in length and 10,000,000
miles in annual travel; 2,500 special routes, aggregating 27,000
miles in length and 5,000,000 miles annual travel; 125 steamboat
routes, 10,000 miles in length and involving 3,500,000 miles of
annual travel. In all classes of inland service there are about
30,000 mail routes, aggregating 450,000 miles in length and 350,-
000,000 miles in annual travel. To be familiar with the laws
under which all of this business is to be distributed, to provide rules

stringent enough to hold all
these contractors to the faithful
performance of their obliga-
tions, to do the labor of hand
and brain required merely for
the record of these transac-
tions, to inspect the service
with method and dispatch, to
investigate complaints, and to
have the hardihood honestly to
invite them all this faintly
suggests the work of the trans-
portation office of the Depart-
ment.

The Second Assistant himself
is Mr. J. Lowrie Bell, of Read-
ing, Pa. He has been railway
clerk, train dispatcher, super-
intendent, and general traffic
manager. He was promoted
from General Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service to be
Second Assistant. His chief clerk, Mr. George F. Stone, is a
Trumansburgh (N. Y.)boy, who entered the employ of the Lehigh
Valley Railroad as telegraph operator at eighteen, but after about
three years resigned. In the Second Assistant's office he has been
promoted from the lowest to the highest clerkship. Mr. Stone is a
remarkably clear-headed, energetic fellow, thoroughly up in his
work. He graduated from the Columbian University Law School

ME. GEO. F. STONE,
Chief Clerk, Second Assistant's Office.

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 25

in 1884, received the post graduate degree in 1885, and was
admitted to the bar of the District in 1886.

See what the Contract Division, the first of the Second Assist
ant's office, has to do. It prepares all advertisements, inviting
proposals for star, steamboat, and mail messenger service, receives
the proposals, prepares orders for the award of contracts, attends
to the execution of the contracts, receives and considers appli-
cations for the establishment of new routes or for changes in exist-
ing routes, conducts the investigation as to the necessity of the
postal service asked, determines the course of routes and the fre-
quency of trips, arranges the time schedules on which the mails shall
be carried on star and steamboat routes, receives, examines, and recog-
nizes sub-contracts to secure to sub-contractors pay for their services,
conducts all correspondence relating to these matters, prepares
statistics and reports to Congress, as required by law, and notifies
the Sixth Auditor of orders affecting the accounts of mail contractors.

But steps have to be taken in the Second Assistant's office, in
establishing and maintaining a mail route, before the route is placed
under regular contract service. When the Fourth Assistant Post-
master General, who has charge of the establishment of post offices,
creates a new post office, he notifies the Second Assistant Post-
master General of that fact, giving the name and location of it. If
it is not upon some existing route, or near enough to be supplied
from one, the postmaster is authorized to employ a "special carrier"
to carry the mails between his office and the nearest convenient post
office, as often as practicable, for a sum not exceeding two thirds of
the postmaster's salary (the rate fixed by law), which depends upon
the number of stamps cancelled at the new office. This, however,
is considered but a temporary arrangement, and as soon as the new
office shows a considerable number of people to be supplied, or a fair
cancellation of stamps or of mail matter handled, a regular star route
is provided.

Whenever a petition is received for a new star route, an investi-
gation is made to ascertain whether there is a postal necessity for
it. Sometimes the petitioners state the reasons why they think the
route should be established, which aids the Department in its work ;
or they may give very little information. But in any event corre-
spondence is opened with the postmasters on the proposed route to

26 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

ascertain its length, what frequency of supply is needed, the time
schedule upon which mails should be carried, the condition of the
roads, whether there are streams, ferries, toll-roads, or mountains to
be crossed, the number of people to be supplied, the amount of
postal business at each post office, and so forth. All are invited
to make such suggestions as they may think good, and in many
cases of importance or difficulty a special agent of the Department
is sent upon the ground.

When the papers are all in they are carefully examined. If it is
decided that the route should be established the postmasters at the
termini are instructed to post for ten days in a conspicuous place in
their offices and elsewhere, notices which are furnished to them,
inviting proposals for carrying the mails over the proposed route
from the earliest practicable date to the end of the fiscal year, June
30. A copy of this notice is also posted on a bulletin advertise-
ment in the Department. This is a temporary, or "bulletin board"
advertisement, under which the service is limited by law to one
year, and the advertisement and proposal are less formal than those
required under advertisements for longer terms. All bids received
by the postmasters are in envelopes and are forwarded to the Depart-
ment, where they are opened; and the service is awarded to the
lowest bidder, if the bid is considered a reasonable one. Contracts
are then sent out for him to execute and return, when they are
signed by the Second Assistant Postmaster General. The postmas-
ters at schedule points are notified as to the service required, and
instructed to keep reports, upon blanks furnished to them, showing
how the service is performed, which reports are sent to the Inspec-
tion Division at the close of each month, where they are carefully
examined ; and if they show that the service is performed in com-
pliance with the contract, a certificate to that effect is issued to the
Sixth Auditor at the close of the quarter, who has a copy of the
contract, and who states the contractor's account, showing the amount
due him. A warrant or draft is drawn in his favor, whichc, after pass-
ing through a number of offices under a system of checks which effect-
ually guards against mistakes or frauds, is mailed to the contractor.

After this contract has expired the service is continued under a
general or miscellaneous advertisement for longer periods. For the
purposes of the general advertisement the country is divided into

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS.

four contract sections, and all the star and steamboat routes in each
section are re-let once in four years for a term of four years, the sec-
tions being in regular order, so that there is a general letting every
year. The Second Assistant's office begins to prepare the general
advertisement nearly a year before the new contracts are to go into
effect. The advertisements are prepared in pamphlet form, one for
each state, describing in detail all the star and steamboat routes in
the state, and containing extracts from the Postal Laws and Regu-
lations applicable to that service, with full instructions to bidders,
and forms of proposals and bonds. This pamphlet advertisement
is displayed in every post office in the state for at least two
months before the letting
takes place. All propo-
sals must be sent to the
Second Assistant Post-
master General by a fixed
date.

The proposals are placed
unopened, as they are re-
ceived, in a vault until the
day for opening arrives,
when, under the supervi-
sion of a committee ap-
pointed by the Postmaster
General, they are opened
by a large force of clerks,
stamped, folded, arranged,
examined, and recorded with the utmost system. Accompanying
each proposal and as a part of it, there must be as provided by law
the oath of the bidder that he has the pecuniary ability to perform
the service, a bond executed by the bidder and at least two sureties
in a sum fixed in the advertisement, the oaths of the sureties as to
the location, description, and value of their real estate over and
above all incumbrances (which value must be at least double the
amount of the bond), and finally, a certificate from a postmaster
that, after informing himself, he believes the sureties to be good and
sufficient.

When this work is completed the result appears in great books

ON A STAR ROUTE IN THE SOUTH.

28 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

showing a complete statement of each route, the service required,
etc., with the names of all bidders for that route and the amounts
of the bids. The awards are then made to the lowest bidders whose
bids are in proper form. Then contracts are drawn and sent to be
executed by the accepted bidders. Under the annual general adver-
tisement and the annual miscellaneous advertisement there are
received about 120,000 proposals and bonds, and about 5,000 con-
tracts in duplicate are drawn. This does not include the bulletin,
or temporary advertisements, which are issued almost daily. This
is the method of letting star and steamboat routes. Contracts for
regulation wagon service are made similarly.

In the last general advertisement for proposals for mail service,
issued now almost a year ago, the number of routes in the several
states advertised for was as follows: North Carolina, 638, South
Carolina, 263, Georgia, 519, Florida, 206, Alabama, 576, Mis-
sissippi, 387, Tennessee, 719, and Kentucky, 717; or a total of 4,025
routes representing an annual travel of 22,646,694 miles. Propo-
sals were also invited in this same advertisement for performing
mail messenger, transfer, and mail station service in the chief cities
of these Southern states. For this service wagons have to be built in
accordance with plans and specifications furnished by the Department.

On the llth of last March the Second Assistant's office announced
that it was about to begin the preparation of advertisements inviting
proposals for carrying the mails on all star and steamboat routes in
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, and all postmasters and
others were invited to submit suggestions along the trend of the
following questions:

Has any post office more frequent mail supply than it needs ?

Is the service on any route unnecessary in whole or in part ?

Could any post office be better or more expeditiously supplied from some point
other than its present base of supply ?

Does any post office need more frequent mail supply ; if so, does the postal
business at that office warrant the probable increase in cost ?

Could the mail be advanced or better connections made by a change in any
existing time schedules ?

If a new route should be established, what existing service could be dispensed
with ?

The advertisements for the above contract section went to press in

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 29

August. The advertisement for the Southern contract section,
referred to as having been issued late in the fall of 1891, was again
referred to in an order of the Second Assistant Postmaster General,
dated April 4, 1892. He announced that he had awarded contracts
on four thousand star and steamboat routes, and would soon make
awards for 1,600 miscellaneous routes. This order gives certain
directions to sub-contractors, and quotes a section of the Postal
Laws and Regulations, as follows :

"No postmaster, assistant postmaster, or clerk, employed in any post office
shall be a contractor or concerned in any contract for carrying the mail. Post-
masters are also liable to dismissal from office for acting as agents of contractors
or bidders, with or without compensation, in any business, matter, or thing
relating to the mail service. They are the agents of the Department and cannot
act in both capacities."

In accordance with the spirit of the statute the order adds :

" The wife or husband of a postmaster should not become a sub-contractor;
neither should a minor child of a postmaster when such an arrangement would
result in the postmaster being pecuniarily interested."

In such and in almost numberless other ways are the Argus eyes
of the Second Assistant Postmaster General's office required to
watch the contractor and the postmaster, not so much that they need
watching, but that they might need watching if they were not
watched.

In another order of the Second Assistant Postmaster General,
issued on the day after the date of the one last mentioned, it is
directed that mails must never be dispatched in advance of the time
named. The postmasters must see that all pouches are securely
locked. Mail carriers have the right to transport merchandise out-
side the mails, but all communications relating to it must be verbal
(the carrier must not carry outside the mail any written communi-
cation relating to merchandise); and the registers of the arrivals
and departures of the mails must be actually and not mechanically
kept. The order mentions that several postmasters have recently
been removed on account of a persistent neglect to keep these regis-
ters properly reasonably enough, for the postmasters are evidently
the only check on the contractors. Now and then a mail contractor
has been found to submit offers to postmasters to secure, upon the
payment of money considerations, the services of persons to act as
sub-contractors, and though there is a postal regulation against this,

30 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

it needs frequent reiteration. It is the contractor, the "star
router," and not the sub-contractor, who usually needs the special
kind of watching. The derelictions of the contractor are usually
the things he won't do if he can help it. Those of the sub-contractor
are the things he can't do, no matter how hard he tries.

Up to a year or more ago mail contractors (many of whom are
professionals and contract for thousands of routes) were accustomed
to drop the unprofitable routes and retain the profitable if they
could. Under the old method no bidder for carrying the mails was
released from the obligation implied in his proposal, notwithstanding
a lower bidder secured the contract, until that lower bidder actually
began the performance of the service ; so that, if an accepted bidder
failed to begin the service, the Department was compelled to award
the route to the next lowest bidder. Taking advantage of this, pro-
fessional bidders who had submitted proposals with little knowledge
of the cost of operating the routes, and who found that the routes
could be sub-let only at a great loss, refused to begin the service,
hoping to have the routes re-let. To check this the Department
has refused to compromise in the re-letting of routes upon the basis
of pecuniary damages resulting from re-letting the service, taking
the ground that such pecuniary damage does not compensate for the
annoyance to the people interested in the route, and that what the
Department wanted was not damages, but a performance of all con-
tracts. To make its position clear the Department prosecuted one
contractor and secured his conviction. This resulted uniformly in
bona fide bids made by those only who intend to perform the service.

It is true that frauds are sometimes attempted by contractors, but
the Government espionage is so close and comprehensive that such
efforts are sure to result in failure and punishment. Not long since
the general manager of a Western railroad, a millionnaire and a man
of supposed character, tried to swindle the Government by sending
over his road, during the period when the mails are weighed for the
purpose of ascertaining the average amount carried by the road and
fixing compensation proportionately, a large amount of " dead "
matter, such as old newspapers. The Government would have over-
paid this road perhaps $10,000 a year, but the attempted fraud was
promptly discovered, and the millionnaire manager was duly indicted
by the grand jury.

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 31

To hold the transportation service up to the standard required and
paid for the Division of Inspection of the Second Assistant Post-
master General's office examines the performance of all classes of
domestic service. It receives and examines each month thousands
of reports from postmasters at offices at schedule points, showing the
day and hour of arrival and departure of mails, and the irregulari-
ties and failures on the part of contractors and carriers ; prepares
orders making deductions from pay of contractors for non-perform-
ance of service, or imposing fines for delinquencies of contractors or
carriers; issues certificates to the Sixth Auditor as to the perform-
ance of service, which authorize that officer to make the quarterly
settlements with contractors; authorizes the payment of railway
postal clerks; considers applications for remissions of fines and
deductions ; and conducts all correspondence relating to these mat-
ters. In an average year the gross amount of fines and deductions
from postal contractors and others is over $1, 000 a day, though from
this sum is deducted in the course of a year about $90,000 for satis-
factory explanations. The deductions from railroad service amount
to about $300,000 annually, and the deductions from the star ser-
vice to over 150,000. The remainder is distributed in small sums
among the steamboat contractors, and mail messengers, and the postal
clerks. Generally explanations are satisfactory where acts of Provi-
dence intervene to prevent a contractor from performing his work
acceptably. The Johnstown flood, for example, affected several of
the largest trunk lines of railroad. The contractors in this case used
every possible endeavor to make connections and put the mails
through as nearly on time as possible, and the Department, in pur-
suance of its liberal but just policy, accordingly remitted the usual
fines.

Mail messenger service is not performed under formal contracts.
There are, of course, the same features of advertising at the office
where the service is to be performed and competitive bidding and
awards to the lowest bidder; but there is less formality as to the
bid, and no bond and no contract. The lowest bidder is designated
for an indefinite period to perform all service that may be required.
He has the right to resign at any time upon giving thirty days'
notice, and the Department may re-advertise the service whenever
it may be thought advisable to do so.

32 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Star contracts are made for a specific number of trips per week,
by a schedule of a certain number of hours running time for each
trip, and provide that the Department may order the number of
trips increased with pro rata allowance of pay to the contractor. In
years past there was also a provision in the contracts to the effect
that if the Department ordered the trip made with greater speed,
requiring the contractor to employ additional stock and carriers, he
should be allowed additional pay, which should bear no greater pro-
portion to the original pay than the additional stock and carriers
required for the faster schedule bore to the stock and carriers
required for the original schedule. Increase in frequency of trips
was, and is, known as " increased service, " and reduction of running
time, that is, greater speed, is known as "expedited service."

It was the action of the Department under these two provisions,
and particularly under the latter, that led to the so-called star
route frauds of 1878, 1879, and 1880. A contract would be made,
say, for once a week service on a slow schedule ; after it was in opera-
tion a petition, instigated by the contractor, would be presented
asking for faster time ; the contractor would make affidavit that to
perform service on the fast schedule would require him to double
his stock and carriers. The Department, without examining into
the correctness of his affidavit, would order the faster schedule
adopted and would double the contractor's pay. Then, perhaps, an
application would be presented for twice-a-week service which, if
granted, would again double the contractor's pay, and so on. In
this way a contract which originally paid the contractor a few hun-
dred dollars could be made to yield him many thousands. Hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars were thus paid out of the Treasury.
This lead to charges of corruption, investigation, and criminal pro-
ceedings against Departmental officers, contractors, and others.
Since then no allowances are made to contractors for expedited
service. If it becomes necessary to adopt a faster schedule on a
route, and the contractor is unwilling to perform such service with-
out additional pay, his contract is terminated and the faster service
is opened to competitive bidding. Thus, any possibility of fraud is
done away with.

The Railway Adjustment Division of the Second Assistant's
office considers applications for the establishment of mail service

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 33

upon railroads, prepares orders authorizing such service and the
establishment of railway post-office car service and changes in exist-
ing service, prepares the orders and instructions for the weighing of
mails, receives the returns and computes the basis of pay, prepares
the orders adjusting the pay of railroad companies for carrying the
mails, and for postal car service, and attends to all correspondence
relating to this branch of the service. The mail service performed
by the railroad companies is not under any formal written contract.
In 1873 Congress enacted a law providing that railroad companies
should be paid for carrying the mails on the basis of the weights
carried, and fixed a scale of maximum rates that could be allowed.
These rates were reduced ten per cent, in 1876 and five per cent,
additional in 1878. Railroad companies cannot be compelled by the
Department to carry the mails, but as a general rule they gladly
avail themselves of the privilege when permitted. When a new
railroad is completed and the company makes application for the
establishment of mail service over its line, the Department makes
an investigation as to the necessity for the service. If the result is
favorable, and the amount of postal business is thought to be suffi-
cient to warrant the payment of the maximum rates allowed by law,
an order is issued authorizing the transportation of mails over the
line ; after the service is fully in operation a weighing is had of the
mail actually carried, for a period of thirty consecutive working
days, to ascertain the average weight of mail per mile that is carried
each day, and upon this weight the pay is computed. If the benefit
to the postal service to be derived from the transportation of mails
on a line will not warrant the payment of the maximum rates for
the weight carried, a rate less than the maximum is allowed by
agreement with the railroad company, or the service is not estab-
lished. The pay thus fixed continues to the end of the four years
term for the state in which it is operated. Then another weigh-
ing is had. Under this arrangement the railroad company must
carry the mails at least six times a week each way, and the De-
partment may place mails on any additional trains which the
company may run. Where the amount of mails carried makes
it necessary for the company to provide railway post-office cars
over forty feet in length, for the exclusive use of the Department
in handling the mails, additional pay is allowed for each line of

34 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

cars ordered by the Department, according to the length of
the cars.

The Post Office Department takes the view that the cooperation,
and not the antagonism, of the railroads of the country is desired in
providing mail facilities, and consequently great liberality towards
them liberality as great as possible under the laws of Congress,
and the business requirements of the service is pursued. The
interests of the Department and of the railroads are allied, for
often the Department is able to put on mails where the enterprise of
a railroad company is pushing its transportation business with faster
and more frequent trains, and sometimes a railroad company, lack-
ing by only a little enough transportation business to enable it to
put on a newer or a faster train, is enabled to do so with the assist-
ance furnished by the Department in consideration of its transporta-
tion of the mails.

The maximum rates of pay allowable to railroads at the present
time are, on routes carrying their whole length an average weight
per day of

200 pounds $42.75 2,000 pounds $128.25

500 ,, 64.12 3,500 149.62

1000 85.50 5,000 ,, 171.00

1500 106.87

And for every additional 2000 pounds $21.37.

The chief item of expense in conducting the postal service is, as
has doubtless been imagined already, the transportation of the mails,
though it is not to be forgotten that there are the items of
millions for the pay of postmasters and clerks. Almost everywhere
the earnings of the service this, too, must already have been
imagined are used again for the extension and improvement of
the service for the general improvement of it, that is to say, as
fast as the acts of Congress permit. Only ten states and one terri-
tory produce more postal revenue than is spent within their borders.
New York leads, Massachusetts is next, Illinois is third, and Penn-
sylvania is fourth. Oklahoma is the one territory. Grouping the
states in regions, the New England States produce $1,636,091.29
more than is spent for them; the Middle States produce $3,857,-
181.23 more. No state on the Pacific slope produces as much as is
required for the maintenance of its postal service. The same is true

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 35

of the Southern States. Two of the Western States and one terri-
tory supply more than they use. The Southern States use $3,888,-
973.23 more than is collected; the Western States $6,143,677,18-
more; the Pacific States $1,871,806.04 more. Without taking into
account the amounts expended last year for transportation, all the
increase of receipts (nearly half a million dollars) in the New Eng-
land States, except $107,000, went back into improved service. In
the Middle States, out of over one and a half million dollars increase
all but $10,000 went back to improve the service. In the Southern
States the increase was nearly eight hundred thousand dollars, and
all but $15,000 went back to improve the service. In the Western
States all the increased receipts and $677,591 in addition were spent
for the benefit of the service ; and in the states on the Pacific Slope
the additional receipts of $474,644, and $278,539 more, were spent
to better the postal facilities.

It is well known that many of the large city offices yield a net
revenue to the postal service. It is frequently stated that the New
York office alone receives above $4,000,000 annually more than it
costs to operate it; and while there is no sure basis for making a
calculation of this sort (inasmuch as the item of transportation of
mails to and from a place like New York cannot be charged against
that city in any definite and right proportion), it is of course true
that the New York office and many others yield millions of dollars
of net revenue to the Department. This fact has been the reason
why propositions have been numerously made to reduce the
postage on letters in large cities, (which are intended for de-
livery within the limits of those cities,) and to have pneumatic tube
service, and other new additions to the postal facilities. The reason
why these claims are somewhat illogical is that the letter writers of
the large cities pay not merely for the postage of letters intended
for delivery within their own towns, but for the privilege of sending
letters to the farthest o L uarter of the country, and receiving
answers back. It would not be maintained that no post route and
no mail facilities should be extended to localities where the service
is not expected to be self-sustaining; for in hundreds of cases it
costs fifty cents and more to send letters to their destinations, where
the charge is only the ordinary two-cent stamp. It is not simply
the postage on the letter which travels a mile that the letter writer

36 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

pays. It is the privilege of sending a letter three thousand, or even
six thousand miles, for two cents, that he pays for. Major George
L. Seybolt, Post Office Inspector in Charge at San Francisco, lately
returned from an examination of the postal service of Alaska.
Alaska is as far west of San Francisco as San Francisco is west of
the Atlantic Ocean. The remotest office belonging to the United
States is at Mitchell, far up in the interior of Alaska. The spot
is a little mining camp near where the waters of Forty Mile Creek
flow into the Yukon River. The people are not quite certain
whether the United States or Canada owns the land, for the bound-
ary line is quite near; but at any rate the United States has the
office. The mail is carried irregularly by any one who chances to
be going that way. Of course, nearly all the small merchandise

IN THE UPPER PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN.

for points in Alaska goes by mail boots, shoes, silver ware,
pictures, clothing, millinery, groceries, and in fact anything not
liquid or alive that can be made up into a four-pound package.
The Government charges are much lower than any express or
freight company could afford to make ; and hence the additional loss
on this far-away business, which is not merely the transportation of
letters.

A year or more ago numerous complaints were received from
Texas that the star service there was irregular and generally ineffi-
cient, and public attention was again drawn to the evils incident to
the sub-letting of star route contracts. It is well known that the
bulk of the star route contracting is done by professional bidders,
or "star routers," as they are called. These men make hundreds,

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 37

or even thousands, of contracts. They of course sub-let them,
sometimes at ruinously low figures, as the disposition of many a
sub-contractor to give up his work testifies. As has recently been
stated by the Department, a great diversity of opinion has existed
respecting the advisability of enacting new laws or the creation of
additional regulations, the outcome of which would be to discourage
competition, thereby largely increasing the cost of the star service
without substantial assurance that there would arise from the new
conditions a marked change in the performance of the service itself.
Two methods have been recommended by those advocating a
change; first, to prohibit sub-letting altogether; second, to require
the approval of bidders' sureties by postmasters at post offices upon
or contiguous to the routes to which the proposals relate. It has
been claimed for the first proposition that it would prevent specula-
tion in mail contracts, because no person would bid for service on a
large number of routes knowing that he could not sub-let them. In
opposition, it is asserted that while sub-letting directly would be
prevented, the contractors could still hire carriers who, after per-
forming the service, might have no means to secure their earnings
by evidences of agreements that could be recognized by the Depart-
ment. The purpose of the second change would be to exclude sub-
letting bidders and to cause contracts to be let to persons residing
upon the various routes or near to them. For it is argued that com-
petition among speculators is so great that they in turn must sub-let
at figures below which inferior equipment is necessary and good
service impossible. But under the present system pay is not
awarded unless the registers of the postmasters show that the service
has actually been performed; and an objection easy enough to be
thought of is that, under the proposed change, intending local con-
tractors might form combinations and increase prices inordinately.
The Department is rather inclined, in choosing between these
evils, to a more rigorous supervision of all the work; and this is one
of the reasons why it is more important now than ever before that
all complaints should be submitted specifically and without delay,
as cause for them arises.- An increase of ten per cent, in the cost of
the star service would necessitate an additional annual appropria-
tion by Congress of over half a million dollars for this service
alone. The Department, insisting upon a sharper supervision, and

38 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

taking advantage, too, of the closeness of competition among bidders,
has been able to prove the wisdom of its position by pointing out
that under the letting of the star service in the fourth contract sec-
tion, which took effect July 1, 1890, there was an annual saving of
over $213,000, which would be for the contract term of four years a
saving of over 8850,000 ; and that under the letting of the third
contract section, which took effect July 1, 1891, the reduction per
annum was over $100,000, or a reduction for the contract term of
four years of over $400,000. The competition was sharp enough.
The number of routes embraced in this last contract section was over
4,000, and the total number of sealed proposals almost 100,000, so
that the average number of bids per route was from twenty to
twenty-five.

Not the least significant development of Postmaster General
Wanamaker's desire to facilitate the delivery of mail in country
districts is the possibility of a large and important addition, but not
an addition at all onerous, to the duties of the mail contractor. It
is believed that if letter boxes for the collection of mail were put up
at central points in farming, lumbering, or mining communities, the
mail could be collected from them and properly disposed of by the
contractor without trouble, greatly to the accommodation of these
far-off letter writers ; and not the least of the benefits likely to be
derived from this proposed departure would be, as Congressman
Nelson Dingley of Maine has pointed out, as in the case of the
extension of the free delivery by carrier to villages and rural com-
munities, the freer interchange of letters and newspapers, and of
general intelligence, and hence a less marked tendency on the part
of country people towards life in the city.

The " regulation wagon service " is performed in some forty of
the chief cities of the country. It provides for the transportation of
mails from railroad stations to post offices, and every city dweller
has seen the lumbering red, white, and blue express wagons trudg-
ing backward and forth. Every intending contractor must per-
sonally investigate the extent of the service to be required. There
is no diminution of compensation for partial discontinuance of the
service, nor is there any increase of compensation for any increase
of service that may be required. Bidders know this, and make
allowance. The regulation wagon is expensive. It requires con-

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS.

stant care and frequent painting to make its appearance creditable,
and it is the more expensive because, after the contract term is over,
it cannot be made of service to the owner without being radically
changed; for its subsequent use is forbidden by the Government
until after the removal of all the insignia of the Government ser-
vice. In about forty cities of secondary importance the screen-
wagon service, as it is called, is provided. The ordinary mail
messenger service did not afford sufficient protection for the mails,
and in the number of cases above mentioned the messengers were
required to furnish covered wagons, protected by screens, and pro-

FOR THE REGULATION WAGON SERVICE.

vided with waterproof curtains. The regulation wagon service
costs perhaps half a million dollars annually.

The sub-contractor does not complain much of the hardships which
the professional "star router" puts upon him. He has taken the
work to do at the given figure and knows that he must perform it
or lose his pay. Nor does he complain much of the difficulties and
dangers of wind and water. He provides himself with the kind of
clothes required to protect him, and in the wilder regions, of course,
goes armed. There is nothing timid nor particularly gentle about
the mail carrier. No doubt he is provided in the first place with
ample store of brawn and courage, and he almost always feels an
additional determination not to be interfered with, especially with
his added importance as an agent of the Government.

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

One hears thrilling stories of the bravery of these hardy fellows.
In Johnson County, Wyoming, the seat of the Rustler cattle war,
Contractor Stringer had been unable during the winter to carry the
mail across the Big Horn Mountains from Buffalo to Ten Sleep.
In the belief that the summer season was sufficiently advanced to
allow the trip to be made, he started from Buffalo on a strong
saddle horse and with four mules packed with mail pouches.
Twenty-five miles of hard travelling brought him to an emer-
gency cabin with his stock completely played out. Here he
placed some mail on a toboggan, and, strapping on a pair of snow
shoes, made another start for Ten Sleep. In about fifteen miles

one of the snow
shoes was broken.
The nearest haven
was Stringer's own-
ranch, twelve miles
distant. He was
five days getting
to it. Most of the
way he crawled on
his hands and
knees. With hun-
ger and exhaustion
he was all but
dead. Resting
three days at his
ranch and making a new shoe, Stringer returned to the station for
the abandoned stock and mail, and in a week put the mail through
to Ten Sleep.

The women are self-reliant and determined also. Mrs. Clara
Carter, of West Ellsworth, Maine, drives the mail coach from that
place to Ellsworth, seven miles away. A Lewiston Journal cor-
respondent, who recently made the trip with her, saw her deliver
twelve packages and as many letters, besides several papers, along
the route, attend to errands and look after two passengers, all in an
hour and twenty minutes. This energetic woman rises early in
the morning, does the cooking for five in the family, starts at
7 for the city with the mail and numerous errands that are

THE SCREEN WAGON.

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 41

given to her without memoranda. She returns at noon, gets dinner,
goes to the blueberry fields and picks ten quarts of berries or more
in the afternoon, and in the cool of evening does the family washing
and ironing and other household tasks. This amount of work she
performs six days in the week, varying the routine in the afternoon,
out of berry season, by sewing for the family. She finds time, too, to
play on the parlor organ an hour or more in the evening, or to enter-
tain visitors.

There is a brave little woman mail carrier in Oregon. She
travels from the head of navigation on Siuslaw's River over the
Coast Range Mountains, and then follows the river through Hale's
post office within fifteen miles of Eugene City. Her route is
twenty miles long, and right in the heart of the mountains. She
carries the mail night and day, and fears nothing. She rides horse-
back and carries a revolver. Miss Westman is a plump brunette,
twenty -two years old. Her father and uncle operate a stage line.
At Hale's station the young woman meets her father and takes the
mail from Eugene City. Miss Westman has never met with a mis-
hap. On one of her trips last year she found three good-sized bears
in the road, right in front of her. The horse became frightened,
threw his rider to the ground, and ran back. Miss Westman started
after the runaway, remounted, and rode right through the savage
line, and, strange to say, she was not attacked. Some friends later
went to the place and killed the bears. On another occasion Miss
Westman met two bears, but they did not molest her.

Another brave woman carries the mails in the gold mining coun-
try of Okanogan County, Washington. A recent visitor to that
neighborhood, Mr. John F. Plummer of New York, rode in stages
and wagons, and tramped three hundred and fifty miles away from
the railroad and back, over stage routes and trails, near the Cana-
dian border line. At a station, called Malott after the first settler
in the locality, the party stopped for food, and were entertained
by Mrs. Malott, and especially by her very interesting daughter,
who carries the mail on horseback sixteen miles a day.

Not so very long ago (but it is a rare thing now) the mail carrier
had to fight the Indian. The story of Danny Redmond, the rider
on the Sunset Trail, is told by a writer for the Chicago Inter Ocean.

The Sunset Trail wound its way over the dreary plains of Kansas,

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

across the Cimmarron, and on and on into the great State of the Lone
Star. But Danny's route only extended to Crooked Creek, a.
town consisting of a grocery store. At this time the population of
Ford County could have been easily corralled on a quarter section^
and had comfortable standing-room at that. Danny was an apostle to
these lone settlers, and only one who has experienced the appalling
loneliness of existence in those thinly peopled plains, where you can

MISS MALOTT,
Who carries the mail sixteen miles a day in Northern Washington.

see your next door neighbor's shanty on clearways only, can realize
the joy with which they heralded this blue-eyed, brown-haired
bunch of turbulence.

"Two o'clock," would comment some unkempt denizen, consult-
ing the sun. "Danny' 11 be here in ten minutes."

They would look till their eyes ached afar to where the Sunset

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 43

Trail tipped over the roll of prairie at the horizon. Soon their
watching would be rewarded, and steadily and swiftly would the bay
mare Dolly bear her rider down the trail in that swinging, inde-
fatigable gallop of the mustang.

Perchance some settler coming into the post-office would jog in
the path that Danny chose. "Git out o' the way of the United
States mail ! " would come the warning, and he would prudently
"git" to the other side of the road, for Danny could and would
shoot, and, besides, didn't he have every one of those fellows down
at the office to stand at his back to the last shot?

How longingly and expectantly those eager pioneers would watch
the letters distributed! Though, perhaps they had no grounds for
expecting a letter, yet their hope did not sink until the last one was
put away.

Then the return mail would be made up and at the exact minute
Danny would vault into the big Mexican saddle almost as big as
he and Dolly and with the all-potent mail he would recommence
his long ride, never stopping as he tried a shot at some unwieldy
rattlesnake that had dragged its mottled form out on the trail to
loll in the sun, who would not be able to wiggle into the tall grass
ere the United States mail was upon him. Along the route the
settlers would come out of their shanties half bent and wave their
sombreros and cheer the buoyant rider.

Wabash was the only stop. It was of the same importance as
Crooked Creek only there were two houses instead of one, or rather
a double house ; for the owners of the claims that joined up there
occupied a shanty of two compartments, one on each claim. Some-
how or other the scamp would sit straighter in the saddle and pull
Dolly's head up higher when they approached Wabash and a pretty
little peach of a girl would come out and chat with the carrier
while her spectacled father's attention was riveted on the letter
packages. Dolly would probably think that Danny was getting
rather weighty on one side as he bent low in the saddle danger-
ously close to that pink sun bonnet. And the scoffing gopher
that sat up conveniently close to his burro would wonder for
what reason a fellow would want to bite a pretty girl like her.
But Rosie didn't seem to mind the punishment a bit. And I
fear' Danny would fain have lingered longer at the unprepos-

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

sessing post of Wabash but the United States mail must be
carried on.

Night would fall ere he crossed the dark Cimmarron and on the
auspicious nights the moon was well up in the sky when he rode
with a whoop and halloo, that stilled the howling of the coyotes,
into Fort Dodge the journey done.

One day a cowboy came into the fort with a jaded mustang and a
slash across his cheek, and reported that he had been chased by a
band of Arapahoes. Those children of nature had grown insolent
with well feeding and little work. They often became thus at
irregular intervals, and, breaking from the reservation, swept

north upon the
scattered settlers
of the plains.

Danny was pre-
paring to start
upon his route
when the news
came.

"You oughtn't
to go, Dan, " they
said, " for they'll
strike right up
the Cimmarron
like they allays
do, and more'n

likely fall afoul o' you. If you do your scalp'll dangle from some
red nigger's belt before mornun'."

"I'm not skeert," replied he, settling himself in the saddle, "and
besides, the folks at Wabash and the Crick ought to be warned.
And you know the mail has to go as long as it's anyways possible."
The spur touched Dolly's flanks more often than usual, but she
kept up bravely, and Danny clattered into Wabash, ahead of time.
Imparting the alarming intelligence to old man Beck, the post-
master, and cautioning him to get the family ready and start for the
post without further delay, he rode on toward Crooked Creek.

Danny clinched the saddle tighter and looked to his weapons ere
he mounted for the home spurt. He was not afraid. Had he been

FOB THE STAGE LINES OF THE FAR WEST.

THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. 45

a coward he would have remained safely at the fort. But an
ominous dread fell upon him as he thought of the dark Cimmarron.

He arrived at Wabash and looked in at the open door of the Beck
and Lartan households. Everything was topsy-turvey as left in the
hurry of departure.

" Well, Rosie is safe anyway, " he confided to Dolly with a sigh.

Their flying shadows grew longer and longer, and finally night
dropped on the plains. Before him loomed the Cimmarron. He
could see the misty vapor rolling up like smoke.

"If they're anywhere they'll be down there," he mused.
"They'll want to lay along the trail, and catch some of the settlers
making for Dodge. Wonder if I hadn't better cross further down ? "

It was a good idea, and he turned Dolly from the trail and
directed his course further down the river.

The reins changed from right to left as he entered the mist, and
his right fell upon the protruding butt of a revolver in his belt. A
twig cracked under the horse's feet and gave the rider a start.
Down into the Cimmarron they splashed. Dolly pulled at the rein.

"No, no, Doll; can't drink this time," he murmured.

He climbed the bank on the opposite side and rode out on the
plain, breathing easier.

"Spang!"

Dolly bolted forward and a flame of light flashed in the darkness
up the river.

"Yip-yip-yip!" It was the war-cry of the Arapahoe. With a
yell of defiance he fired at the dark mass tearing after him, and
bending low over the saddle horn spoke encouragingly to the horse :

" Dolly, if you ever run, do it now. You're faster thun any of
them. Dolly, if you'll only try look out for the gopher hills
that's a good horse. Whew! that one was close. Now you're get-
tin' down to it, Dolly. We'll beat the red devils yit. On, Doll.
Remember, we've got the mail, and it must be saved. Here's the
trail. Now see how fast you can run. Ouch! O God, I'm hit,
and hit home at that. It's all with you, Dolly! it's all with you."

And he clung to the saddle horn and gave the mustang free rein.
She ran like a frightened antelope, hardly seeming to touch the
ground, while Danny with closed eyes and clenched teeth clung to
the saddle horn with the desperation of death.

46 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

" Halt ! Who comes there ? " challenged the guard, as a horse and
rider came into the fort.

"The United States mail," came the faint reply, and Dolly
galloped up with blood in her nostrils and blood on her flanks,
quivering like an aspen.

"Dan, are you hurt?" asked the soldier, lifting him from the
saddle.

"I'm hit dead," he replied, with a moan. They carried him into
the barrack room, and the surgeon was summoned, but there was no
hope, he said. Soon the news spread to the camp, and the rough
soldiers and fugitive settlers gathered around him, watching with
breathless interest for the end to come. A girl came pushing her
way through the crowd, wringing her hands in agony. She bent
down and took the sufferer's hand.

"Rosie," he said, with a pained smile. "I'm a goner, I guess.
Good by, Rosie ; you can have Dolly, and take care of her, for
she did all she could to save me. Good by, boys, Tender's
the Cimmarron. That's a good horse, Dolly."

"Delirium," said the surgeon gravely.

" Get out of the way of the United States mail

That was the end. The mail was safe, but the carrier was dead.

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS.

HE Bureau of the Railway Mail Service, the largest
and most important in the office of the Second
Assistant Postmaster General, has charge of the
movement of mails over all railroad routes, deter-
mines what trains shall carry the mails, directs
the dispatch, distribution, and separation of mail
matter in railway post offices and the principal post
offices, conducts the weighing of mails when ordered, prepares the
orders for appointment, removal, promotion and reduction of postal
clerks, has supervision of the discipline of the employees of that
"branch of the service, and conducts the correspondence relating to
these matters. This branch of the Department has a general super-
intendent in immediate charge who, with the assistant general
superintendent, has his headquarters in the Department ; but in order
to supervise the innumerable details of such an extended service,
it is necessary to have division superintendents, each in charge
of a certain quarter of the country. At present there are
eleven division superintendents with headquarters respectively
in Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chi-
cago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Cleveland, St. Paul, and Fort
Worth; and these have chief clerks, stationed in other important
cities.

The travelling postal car, " said Postmaster General Wanamaker
mce, "though a familiar sight, has but few real acquaintances
among the people. It thunders on day and night, over every rail-
road, full of bustling clerks, taking up sacks of mail, sorting them
between stations, and laying them down at proper destinations.
Over six thousand men, full of intelligence and pluck, are on their
feet swinging to the motion of the train, exposed to danger,
deprived of their homes, making ready tons of letters and news-

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

papers for quick deliveries. The railway mail is the spinal column
of the service."

"Railway postal clerks," writes Mr. George B. Armstrong of
the Chicago Evening Post, son of the George B. Armstrong whose
persistent genius caused the railway post office system to be estab-
lished, "are the most intelligent men in the Department. Theirs
is no perfunctory labor. It is intellectual effort, if not of the
highest, then of a high order. There is no creative talent required, but
a memory whose tenacity shall equal the jaws of a sturdy bull dog."

THE PONY EXPRESS THE RELAY.

Yet the general public knows almost nothing of the railway postal
car. One sees the post office clerk, lives a neighbor to him, quar-
rels with him, perhaps, because he cannot do everything in no time.
But the railway postal clerks are travelling almost always, except
when they are sleeping. They are separated from their families,
they work at night cooped up in cars ; yet they handle everybody's
mail, expedite it hours and days with singular quickness, accuracy,
and honesty. They perform, in short, the most arduous as well as
the most important part of the postal work. The inspectors are the
eyes and ears of the service ; the railway postal clerks the deft, brain-
trained hands.

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 49

Even the largest figures that can be quoted out of the records of
the Department fail to give a notion of the magnitude of the railway
mail service. The 6,400 postal clerks traverse 160,000 miles of
railroad. They actually distribute mails on over 140,000 miles
(the service on the rest is performed by means of closed pouches,
carried by lines upon which no distributions are made). The roll-
ing stock of the railway post office lines consists of over 500 whole
cars in use and over 100 kept in reserve. 1,800 apartment cars are
in use and over 500 are kept in reserve. So that the total number
of cars under the control of the Department is almost 2,000. The
number of cars in use or in reserve increases at the rate of over a
hundred yearly. The departmental report for 1891 recorded that
nearly 8,000 miles of additional railway post office service had been
established, 1,300 miles in the Pacific Coast States, 3,500 in the
other Western States, 2,400 in the Southern States, and about 1,000
in the Northeastern States. At Chicago 145 mail trains arrived and
144 departed daily ; at Cincinnati the numbers were 70 and 73 ;
at St. Louis 65 and 72, and at St. Paul 75 and 74. The increase
in the number of pieces of mail distributed by railway postal clerks
is constant, and the decrease in the number of errors is equally
marked, as the following brief tables show :

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1890:

Number of pieces distributed 7,865,438,101

Number of errors 2,812,574

(Or one error for 2,797 correct distributions.)

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1891 :

Number of pieces distributed 8,564,252,563

Number of errors 2,042,049

(Or one error for 4,194 correct distributions.)

The fiscal year ended June 30, 1892, also showed a remarkable
improvement. The number of pieces handled was 9,245,994,775,
and the number of errors 1,691,389, or one error in 5,466 pieces
handled !

It shows how hard the men try and how well they succeed. They
are obliged to try and to succeed, for during an average year 15,000
"case examinations " are held, at which 15,000,000 cards are distrib-
uted; and the average per cent, correct is 93 or higher. And the
railway postal clerks correct the errors, supply the watchfulness and
brains, even, of the great public. For they withdraw from railway

50 THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

post offices in a year and forward to designated post offices for treat-
ment perhaps 8,000,000 pieces of matter imperfectly addressed;
and under this treatment more than 2,500,000 pieces are returned to

LOADING FOB THE FAST MAIL AT NEW YORK.

writers, and two millions and a quarter are corrected and for-
warded to addressees. This keeps out of the Dead Letter Office
almost 5,000,000 pieces of mail matter. And the number of
errors made by the public, as shown by the record, exceeds

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 51

those made by the railway post offices by over 5,000,000
annually !

At the head of the Railway Mail Service is Capt. James E. White
of Chicago, a gallant Iowa soldier, a clerk under Armstrong as early
as 1866, and for a long time division superintendent of the Rail-
way Mail Service at Chicago. The assistant general superintendent,
Mr. William P. Campbell, is also a Chicago man. He entered
the service in 1868, and was for a long time General Superintendent
Armstrong's secretary. Hardly a man in the service is more accom-
plished than he. The chief clerk of the service is Mr. Alexander Grant,
a Michigan man. He was a clerk in the service for a long time.
He is now accounted one of the most popular fellows in Washington,
as he is surely one of the most efficient of the postal officers. Cap-
tain White's room is on the second floor at the Seventh Street side
of the Department building. Mr. Campbell spends much of his
time in the very important work of examining personally the rail-
way service in various parts of the country. In the room next to
Captain White is Mr. Grant. Routine exactions keep him in
Washington most of the time.

Take a letter mailed in the post office at Exeter, New Hampshire,
and addressed to some person at Elk Lawn, Siskiyou County, Cali-
fornia. It is to go from the foot of the White Mountains to the
shadow of Mount Shasta. The mailing clerk in the post-office at
Exeter places this letter in a package marked "Western States. "
The package is enclosed in a pouch sent from the Exeter office to
the mail car running from Portland to Boston. The clerks upon
the line, upon opening this pouch, take the package in which the
letter for Elk Lawn has been placed and distribute it in what is
called the " Western Case, " which contains the separations for the
Western States and Territories. This is for the purpose of getting
together all mail for Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada.
These packages, when "tied out," are placed in a pouch at Boston,
and sent to the postal car at the Boston and Albany Railroad station.
The pouch is taken direct from one depot to another by a messenger
who contracts to transport the mails between the depots and the
post office in Boston. Sometimes the time is so short between the
arrival of one train and the departure of another that if the pouches
had to go to the post office they would miss the train and be delayed

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 53

from six to twelve hours. This is where the mail messenger ser-
vice comes in.

The package marked "Western States" has been "stated," as
they say. The clerks take these packages to a case where each box
is designated by a state, and they separate all that mail. This
separation is completed on the Boston and Albany line before the
train reaches Albany, and the mail is put in a pouch marked "No.
2 West." It is marked "No. 2," because it is the last matter that the
clerks have to handle. "No. 1" is the immediate mail to New
York and is worked first. "No. 3 West" (for sometimes they have
a "No. 3 ") would be mail for Michigan and the intermediate states.
The Boston and Albany usually has enough mail to make up one
pouch for Ohio, one for Michigan, and one for Indiana.

At Albany the Boston and Albany car is run up alongside the
postal car of the New York and Chicago line, and the mails are
transferred from one line to the other in short order by the postal
clerks and railway men. This connection at Albany is made four
times a day. After the mail train has left Albany, the clerks in the
New York and Chicago railway post office open this pouch that we
have followed, and separate the packages. California, Oregon, and
Nevada are put in different sacks, a sack for each state. There is
matter enough for that. The mail for California on this particular
line between New York and Chicago is distributed between Albany
and Syracuse. The mail for the southern part of the state, as for
Los Angeles and San Diego, is separated from that for the balance
of the state in order that it may be forwarded from Cleveland or
Toledo, by St. Louis, Kansas City, and Albuquerque. The mail
for the main portion of the State of California continues on the New
York and Chicago line and beyond to Sacramento, and our particular
letter for Elk Lawn would be put by the clerk running between
Albany and Syracuse in the package marked " Ogden and San Fran-
cisco, Cal."; and this package is not opened until it reaches the
clerks running between these two points. The mail for the southern
part of California is put up in packages as indicated above. The
mail for upper California is not handled between Syracuse and Ogden,
except as it crosses Chicago in a pouch. The pouch is transferred
at Chicago, of course, from the New York and Chicago postal car to
the Chicago and Omaha. Seven or eight two-horse loads are carted

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

across the city in this way at each transfer. The New York and
Chicago train, indeed, is made up of six postal cars, each sixty feet
long, all jammed full.

But to take up our Exeter letter again. At Ogden the pouch

POUCHING THE MAIL.

which was made up on the New York and Chicago line between
Albany and Syracuse is opened and the mail is distributed again.
The letter for Elk Lawn is placed in a package marked "Portland
and San Francisco, No. 2." The package mailed for the first sta-
tions on this line, those, say, between Sacramento and Red Bluff,
are marked "No. 1." This specialization of the work is to enable the

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS.

clerks to complete their distributions before passing the first impor-
tant stations. In making the distributions of mails (a simple sepa-
ration, such as is made of California mail between Albany-ami
Syracuse), the clerk is required to make direct packages for all cities
for which he finds sufficient mail to make it an object : for instance,

DISTRIBUTING THE MAIL BY STATES AND ROUTES.

for San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose, Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara, and San Diego; for where there are five or more
letters for one office they are tied up separately. Elk Lawn is
a very small office, and ordinarily there would not be enough
mail for it to require it to be made up separately. Consequently
our letter is put in what is called the "road package." The clerks of

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the Sacramento and Portland line put the letter to Elk Lawn in a
special package marked "Sisson Dis." and this package is put off at
Sisson station. "Dis." means distribution, and the Sisson post-
master is to dispatch, -by side or star routes, the letters embraced in
the package which he has received, to their various destinations.
He makes up the letters for Elk Lawn and puts them in a pouch

THE INTERIOR OF A POSTAL CAR.

with packages for other stations along the stage route, and sends
them out three times a week. The pouch is overhauled at every
post office on the stage route, and the letters that are left go on in
turn to their destinations. The stage drivers used to complain that
it delayed them at many of the post offices to wait for postmasters to
pick out from the general batch the letters intended for their offices,
and hence the recent order of the Department that the postmasters at
distributing points like Sisson should "tie out" the little packages
of letters intended for offices on the radiating routes.

So the Exeter letter reaches Elk Lawn. It has been handled in all
these postal cars by all these clerks, and has travelled all these three
thousand miles and more. But the time has not been so very good.
The connection is not close at Boston, nor is it possible to have it
always close at a place like Sisson. But the division superinten-
dents and the chief clerks of the Railway Mail Service, under the
direction of the General Superintendent and the Second Assistant
Postmaster General, are always studying how these connections

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS.

may be made better, and contractors in almost innumerable instances,
and railroads even, have rearranged their schedules in order that
all the boundless, intricate network of transportation lines of -all
sorts may be made a regularly, closely interwoven warp and
woof, and not mere shreds and patches. With the unvarying
increase in routes and post offices, the tasks for the railway postal
clerks to learn become harder and more numerous. But probably
more than a thousand of these sharp fellows could sit down and
recite the detailed travels of a letter, flying as if with wings from any
edge of the country to any other over dozens of different post routes.
" The New York and Chicago Fast Mail " has been passed over in
the above description with scanty notice. The finest train leaves
New York at nine at night.
" It must not be supposed, "
writes ex-Postmaster Gen-
eral James, in one of his
graphic articles in Scrib-
ner*s, "that everything has
been left until the last mo-
ment and that the mail-
matter has been tumbled
into the cars on the eve of

departure, to be handled as

best it may in the short run

to Albany; for under such

conditions the task would

be an impossibility even to

an army of trained hands.

Work has been in progress

since four o'clock in the

afternoon, and it has been

steady, hard labor every

minute of the time. The five cars have been backed down to the

tracks opposite Forty-Fifth Street, and have been so placed that they

are convenient of access to the big lumbering mail wagons which

are familiar sights in the streets of the metropolis. The crew of

nineteen men, skilled in the handling of mail matter, and thorough

experts in the geography of the country, reported to the chief clerk

CASES IN A POSTAL CAR.

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

A VERY DIFFICULT ADDKESS
KNOWN AS "A STICKER."

and took up their stations
in the various cars at the
hour named. At the same time the
wagons began arriving from the
general post office with their tons
of matter which had 'originated'
in New York, and were soon trans-
ferring their loads to the cars, where agile hands were in waiting
to receive them.

" Before we deal with the mail matter, let us look at the cars and
the men who occupy them. The train, as it leaves New York, is
made up of six, and sometimes seven cars which are placed immedi-
ately behind the engine, and are followed by express and baggage

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 59

cars and one passenger coach. The car next to the engine is devoted
entirely to letter mail, and the four following it to papers and pack-
ages. The letter car is fifty feet in length, while those for -the
newspaper mail are ten feet longer. All are uniform in width, nine
feet eight inches, and are six feet nine inches in the clear. When
newly built, before long and hard service had told on their appear-
ance, their outsides were white in color with cream tinted border-
ings and gilt ornamentations, and were highly varnished. Midway
on the outside, and below the windows of each car, is a large oval
gilt finished frame within which is painted the name of the car with
the words, l United States Post Office ' above and below. The cars
used by the New York Central are named for the governors of the
State, and the members of President Garfield's cabinet. Along the
upper edge and centre are painted in large gilt letters the words,
'The Fast Mail Train,' while on a line with these letters at the other
end, in a square, are the words in like lettering, *New York Cen-
tral ' and c Lake Shore.' The frieze and minute trimmings around
the windows are of gilt finish. The body of the car also contains
other ornamentation, including the coat-of-arms of the United
States. The running gear is of the most approved pattern. The
platforms are enclosed by swinging doors which when opened afford
a protected passage between the cars. This arrangement, no doubt,
suggested the modern improvement now known as the vestibule
train. The letter car is provided with a *mail catcher,' which is
placed at a small door through which mail pouches are snatched from
conveniently placed posts at wayside stations where stops are not
made. Each car is divided into three sections, all fitted up alike
with conveniences for the service to be performed. The letter car,
however, is somewhat differently arranged from the others, to meet
the requirements of that particular branch of the work.

" In the first section of the letter car are received the pouches
from the general post office, which when opened are found to contain
letters done up in packages of about one hundred marked for Michi-
gan, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Montana,
Dakota, and California. When this mass of matter has been
emptied out of the pouches, and, in the vernacular of the service,
4 dumped up ' preparatory to distribution, the section is clear for
the registered mail which is worked in it. Before this is accom-

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

plished, however, much work is done ; in fact, a sort of rough dis-
tribution is made. All packages which are directed to one office
are distributed into pouches, which are afterward stored away until
the towns are reached. The other packages are carried into the
letter department for distribution, where a rack, similar to those
seen in almost every post office, although space is thoroughly econ-
omized, is used for the purpose. To give a slight idea of the work

done in this section it may
be mentioned that the dis-
tribution for New York
State alone requires 325
boxes. Still there is plenty
of space, otherwise the third
section of the car would not
be used, as it is, for the dis-
tribution of Montana and
Dakota newspapers. How
closely everything is packed
and all available space util-
ized may be imagined when
it is stated that for this
newspaper mail ninety-five
pouches are hung in the sec-
tion, and that there is still
sufficient room for the
storage of pouches locked
up and ready for delivery,
and also for the sealed
registered mail. A separa-
tion of the California mail

is also made in this car, so that when it reaches Chicago the
pouches into which the matter is placed are transferred without
delay, thus saving twenty-four hours on the time to the Pacific Coast,
not by any means an unimportant accomplishment.

" There have been received in this car before it moves out of the
Grand Central station, between 1,000 and 1,500 packages of letters,
and in addition forty or fifty sacks of Dakota and Montana papers.
To handle this mass of correspondence there are six men in addition

POUCHING NEWSPAPERS FOB CALIFORNIA
IN CAR NO. 5.

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 61

to the clerk in charge. The second clerk handles letters for Ohio,
Dakota, and Montana; the third clerk takes charge of those for New
York State ; the fourth, Illinois ; the fifth opens all pouches labelled,
l New York and Chicago Railway Post Office, ' distributes their
contents, and afterward works on Dakota and Montana papers ; the
sixth, Michigan State letters, and the seventh, California letter
mail.

"The second, or 'Illinois Car,' is devoted, as are the others which
follow it, to the newspaper and periodical mail. In it are handled
papers for Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, New York, Oregon, and Wyo-
ming. Two clerks and two assistants man this car. The first assist-
ant, who 'faces up' papers ready to be distributed, draws mails
from stalls to case, and removes boxes as fast as they are filled, has
gained the soubriquet of the 'Illinois derrick,' owing to the heavy
nature of his duties. The second, who lends what aid he can in the
heav}^ work on the run between New York and Albany, has become
known on the train as the 'short stop.' The third section of the
car is used for storing the bags of assorted matter.

"The third car is used for storing through mail for San Francisco,
Omaha, and points west of Chicago. In it are also carried stamped
envelopes from the manufacturer at Hartford, Conn., to postmasters
in the West. This car is frequently fully loaded with matter from
the New York office when the journey is begun. The Michigan
paper car is the fourth. In it are handled papers for Michigan,
Iowa, and the mixed Western States. In the first section are piled
the Iowa pouches and those for points out of Utica, which have
been distributed in the centre section, and in the third section the
distribution for Michigan, Nebraska, and Minnesota, as well as for
points reached from Buffalo, is made. Two men perform the work
of the car, one of whom has already handled all registered mail and
Indiana letters in the first car.

"The fifth, or California paper car, is the last mail coach on the
train, as it is made up when leaving the Grand Central Station.
Besides the papers for the Golden State the car carries through
registered pouches to Chicago and the West, which have been made
up in New York office, and, as a usual thing, a large lot of stamped
envelopes for postmasters in the West. The California letter man
from the first car looks after the papers for the same state, and has

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

an eye to the safety of the car. On reaching Albany another car is
added to the train, making six in all from that point. This last
addition comes from Boston, brings the morning mail from Bangor,
Me., arid is manned by four men.

" The run to Chicago for post office purposes is divided into three

MAILING A LETTEB AT THE LAST MOMENT.

divisions; from New York to Syracuse, from Syracuse to Cleveland,
and from Cleveland to Chicago. Each division has its own crew,
so that the men leaving New York are relieved at Syracuse by
others, and these in turn at Cleveland. The New York crew go to
work, as has been said, at 4 P. M., and if the train is on time at
Syracuse, as it usually is, they arrive there at 5.35 A. M., after
thirteen and a half hours of as hard work as men are called upon to
do. The same evening at 8.40 they relieve the east bound crew,

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 63

and are in New York again at six o'clock on the following morning.
Half an hour later they are to be found on the top floor of the
general post office building, comfortably ensconced in bunks in a
large and airy room, provided as a dormitory for their use by the
postmaster of New York at the time of the inauguration of the fast
mail service. Each crew makes three round trips and is then laid
off for six days, but its members are all this time subject to extra
duty which they are called upon to perform with unpleasant fre-
quency, particularly in holiday times."

A Chicago Tribune man travelled to the Pacific Coast and back
not long ago in mail trains. He covered 6,110 miles in fifteen days;
and this with a stop-over of a day and a half in San Francisco, a
day in Portland, two days and a half on Puget Sound, and a ,day at
the Great Shoshone Falls. The actual time spent on the mail trains
was nine days, or, by exact calculation, 214 hours, which gives an
average run, including all stops but those mentioned, of 650 miles a
day. If Nellie Bly or Elizabeth B island had kept up such a pace
they would have made the circuit of the globe in thirty-seven days.
If they had gone as swiftly as the mail does between Chicago and
San Francisco, and Chicago and Portland, they would have made the
circuit in thirty-four days.

To make such time and make it daily, as is continually done, the
speed must be continuously high. No loss of time can be allowed
in ascending the Rockies and Sierras on the way to San Francisco
or the Rockies and Cascades to Portland. Two engines are there-
fore provided on the steeper up-grades, and the light mail trains are
carried up the long acclivities at a rate rarely under thirty miles an
hour. In descending the mountains the fastest possible time con-
sistent with safety is necessary. A mile a minute is commonplace,
and fifty-eight seconds is enough on straight stretches of track.
The mail trains between Portland and Green River, a distance of
957 miles, make better time, in spite of the mountains, than any
limited express or mail train running in or out of New York a like
distance. In travelling the immense distances covered by the trans-
continental roads delays are, of course, unavoidable on almost every
trip. But the mails must arrive at the great distributing points
along the lines in time to meet the mail trains of connecting
roads. Not to do so may make the mail of a whole state or even

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

several states
twenty-four
hours late. Such de-
lays as occur must,

accordingly, be made
up.

So passengers on the
fast mail learn what
rapid travelling is. A

delay of half an hour has been caused by a hot journal at some point
in the alkali desert of Nevada. The traveller's first sensation on
getting off at a clipping pace is one of joyous relief. In a few
minutes he finds himself holding with both hands to his seat and
longing for rest even in the midst of the biting dust of the plateau.
He learns that the time lost must be regained in the one hundred

CATCHING THE POUCH FROM THE CKANE.

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 65

miles, and unless he has the resignation of a philosopher he will
discover that his nerves are badly unstrung at the end of the run.
One remarkable run was made on the Oregon Short Line from Soda
Springs, Idaho, to Grainger, Wyoming. Owing to a freight wreck
the fast mail was fifty minutes late at Soda Springs. It was neces-
sary to make up every minute of the loss before reaching Grainger
in order to connect at Green River, fifteen miles further on, with
the east bound fast mail from San Francisco. Division Superin-
tendent Green stepped aboard at Soda Springs to see that the
engineer did his duty.

The run began at once in earnest. A winding track of 146 miles
had to be ridden over in fifty minutes less than the new schedule
time, and the new schedule time was lightning. The track lay at
first along Ham's Fork. The valley was broad, the curves moderate,
and the imposing snowy mountain scenery on either side diverted
the attention of the passengers from the speed. But the indicator
kept a register of what was going on, and the record showed that
each of the first fifteen miles was made in fifty-seven seconds. In
forty-four minutes forty-six miles had been travelled, and the
curves had kept getting sharper.

When the track struck the Black Fork and began to follow its
writhing course, the passengers realized that they were making a
phenomenal run. Not one dared move from his seat. He was
moved about in it enough. The wonderful sphinx-like buttes which
rose from the cliffs of the Black Fork, as it passed into the Green
River, the unrolled scroll of mountain tablelands in the distance,
the soft touch of the setting sun on the snow-covered peaks
scenery had no interest for the passengers. But when the train
drew up at Grainger a minute ahead of time the passengers went
forward and gave three hysterical cheers for the engineer.

A letter sometimes wanders all over this country, wanders around
the world, in fact, eagerly searching for its destination. It is some-
times maintained that the Post Office Department practises too much
care and patience in such cases. Mr. Robert J. Burdette tells a
story about a draft that he enclosed in a letter and sent to Bryn
Mawr, Penn. He himself left for California. He says :

" The letter went to Bryn Mawr, a distance of 850 miles, and found that my cor-
respondent also had gone to California on a wedding journey. The letter was

66 THE STOBY OF OTJK POST OFFICE.

forwarded to Los Angeles, 3,000 miles, on January 10. The bridegroom had left
the city of Our Lady of the Angles and drifted into the Yosemite region, and
after vainly advertising for him, the letter went, on the 19th of January, to the
Dead Letter Office in Washington, 2,879 miles. The final obsequies were deferred
by the Government coroner and the dead letter was sent to Champaign, in search
of its father, on the 26th of January, 800 miles. On the 24th of February it
winged its weary way back to the Dead Letter Office and asked for Christian
burial. But the young lady who reads all the languages that were ever written,
and a great many that can't possibly be spoken, who has a way of finding where
a letter wants to go, when the man who wrote it hasn't the remotest idea where
his correspondent lives, sent it to Brooklyn on the 13th of March, if haply it
might find me. Two hundred and twenty-eight miles for nothing; the letter
deadheaded back to Washington, same distance both ways, and again knocked at
the cemetery gate. But the fair prophetess believed there was life in the wanderer
yet, and she sent it to Bryn Mawr May 10, 148 miles. Finding no rest for the sole
of its stamp, which is usually connected with a foot, it returned into the ark of
the Dead Letter Office May 11, 148 miles again. From there it once more sped
away to Los Angeles, 2,879 miles; back again after a while, it went to the Dead
Letter Office for the fifth time. But the Department was satisfied that it could
yet call back the departed message to life, and sent it to the writer in Bryn Mawr,
where, after journeying across the continent four times and going to the Dead
Letter Office and demanding burial five times, travelling in all 14,987 miles, it was
finally delivered into my hands on the 13th of September. All this, fellow-
citizens, for two cents, two cents! For eight months this letter had been chasing
after its owner all over the United States, and never thought of getting lost."

Now and then, in spite of the regulations to the contrary, a letter
goes around the world. Some time ago a citizen of Bloomington,
111., sent a missive on this long journey, with the request written
on the outside that postmasters would please hurry it along. It got
as far as San Francisco. The postmaster there, being aware of the
prohibitory clause in the regulations, forwarded the letter to Wash-
ington. The Superintendent of Foreign Mails promptly had the
letter returned to the sender, and he informed the postmaster at San
Francisco, as he has told hundreds of others, that in conse-
quence of objections raised by the British and Hong Kong postal
departments, through whose hands this class of correspondence
would necessarily pass, it had been found necessary to intercept such
mail matter. Under the rules of the Postal Union such matter can
go around the world for one postage ; and these governments con-
cluded that the pay was not large enough for the work done to per-
mit idle experiments for the gratification of the curious.

Before this regulation was put in force, several around-the-world
letters were received at the Foreign Mails office which had made the

HOW A LETTER TRAVELS. 67

trip in eighty days. Once a Philadelphian was anxious to see how ] \/
long it would take a postal card to girdle the world and what would /
be the route taken. An international postal card was purchased,
and mailed in that city, addressed to the sender at his residence in
Philadelphia, via New York, Liverpool, Paris, Marseilles, and
Naples, with the information on the back of it that the card had
been started around the world. After an absence of exactly four
months, the missive reached the sender. Every post office through
which the card passed had its postmark stamped upon it, and it bore
evidence that every post office official throughout its entire course
who handled the card took as much interest in the affair as the
sender did. After leaving Naples, the card started across Italy to
Brindisi, thence up the Archipelago to Venice, thence across to
Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, and Suez, through the Red Sea,
Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea to Bombay, thence to Calcutta,
from there down the Bay of Bengal, up through the China Sea to
Hong Kong, over to Honolulu, and thence across to the Pacific to
San Francisco, to Denver, and to Philadelphia. The entire dis-
tance travelled by the card was between 27,000 and 28,000 miles.
The Philadelphian had many imitators, and such a number of post
cards crept into the British mails that protest was made ; and so the
practice had to be stopped.

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERYICE.

>HERE are about 6,400 railwa} r postal clerks in the
country all told. This number includes the men
who do the actual distributing in the cars, and also
men detailed at important points throughout the
country, as division clerks, etc. ' Of the total num-
ber there are 240 detailed to offices and 260 detailed
to transfer duty; and almost 5,900 are actually
employed in distributions on railway lines. The
fifty employed similarly on steamboat lines have regular quarters
and distribute mails just as on the railroad cars.

These last are peculiar in construction. A railroad company,
when it contracts to carry mails, contracts also for suitable room
with proper equipment such as letter cases, paper cases, storage
room, etc., for the proper treatment of the mails. When, however,
the Department requires an entire car the company is entitled to
additional compensation above the regular pay for transportation.
The Department pays for forty foot railway postal cars at the rate
of ^25 per mile per annum ; that is, if the line over which the car
runs is 200 miles long, the company would be entitled to $5,000 a
year. A fifty foot car is paid for at the rate of $40 per mile
per annum, and a sixty foot car at the rate of $50 per mile per
annum .

These cars are built in accordance with plans and specifica-
tions furnished by the Post Office Department, and are equipped
thoroughly to fit the needs of the service upon the lines over which
they are to run. The full cars are built with reference to special
lines. Some of the requirements demanded on a line, say from
Washington to New York, are that the car shall be fitted up with
letter cases and with cases for paper distribution. Space for hun-
dreds of separations is required. On the New York and Chicago

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 69

and other fast mail lines, the number of separations of mail run into
the thousands. For all of these cars certain requirements for the
safety of the men are necessary. The postal cars must be well built
and extra strong.

The railroad company takes care of the cars ; sees that the lamps
are lighted and the fires attended to ; in fact, the company takes the
entire charge. They supply the cleaner. They put on a lamp man
at Syracuse, for instance, who takes care of the lamps on the Central
train at the necessary time. Conductors and train men are always
entitled to access to the postal car if engaged in the performance of
their duties.

The first duty of the railway postal clerk is, of course, to dis-
tribute the mail on the cars ; and these duties naturally vary accord-
ing to the line. If the clerk has a small run, on which he has to
handle nothing but the mail for the offices on his own line, he has
that distribution to learn first; and first he has to learn where his
stations are ; how far they are apart; what mail goes off at each sta-
tion for each office, and whether it has to be sent into the country by
stage routes. He has to make himself familiar with the rules and
regulations. So far as the instructions are concerned his local dis-
tribution is in almost all cases covered during his probationary term
of six months. He is examined at intervals of thirty days during
these first six months. On the main lines in most of the divisions
the clerk is required by the end of his probationary term to dis-
tribute accurately 1,500 offices.

When the clerk is first appointed, he reports to the chief clerk of
a division superintendent; and he undergoes an examination in
reading addresses on about one hundred envelopes especially pre-
pared for that purpose. These addresses are not in any sense
obscure ; they are all fairly well written, much better written, in
fact, than the average of letters which the clerks must handle daily.
This examination gives the chief clerk or the superintendent an idea
of the new man's capacity. Ordinarily a good man will read the
addresses on one hundred envelopes in from seven to twelve minutes,
and he will probably make from five to ten errors ; that would be
considered an average record. If he takes the entire time allowed,
or if he makes more errors, he is below the average. If he reads the
addresses on one hundred envelopes within five or six minutes, he is

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

above the average. In a number of cases men have failed on the
reading test simply because they could not read ; and a man who
cannot read, and read quickly and correctly, is of no use in the
Railway Mail Service.

The new clerk, having passed his first test, has a copy of the

book of instructions handed to

him. It is a small book com-
prising that part of the postal
laws and regulations which is
especially applicable to the Rail-
way Mail Service ; and he is also
supplied with what is called a
scheme of distribution. He usu-
ally has what is called "a local
scheme " of his .line, then a
printed sheet showing the sta-
tions on his line and the offices
supplied from them; or he may
have a scheme of a state, as, for
instance, Ohio. This scheme
shows just how mail for the
state of Ohio is distributed, and
from what lines the offices are
supplied and whether they are
v*rr. ,^ * "*"*> stations on given lines or not.

General Superintendent, Railway Mail Service.

Of course, a man working in

California would not have an Ohio scheme, but a clerk on a
trunk line in Ohio needs a California scheme and has to make
three separations of mail for that state.

Before the novitiate has entered the service at all, even for trial,
he has been examined by the Civil Service Commission (and for these
purposes examinations are held in various parts of the country), has
been certified to the central office of the Railway Mail Service in
Washington as one of the three men, examined for a given locality,
who have taken the highest stand in the examination, and has been
called for by the General Superintendent, through one of his clerks,
of course, to fill a vacancy or to take an entirely new place. The
classified Railway Mail Service, according to the rules of the Civil

CAPT. JAMES E. WHITE,

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 71

Service Commission, embraces all superintendents, assistant superin-
tendents, chief clerks, railway postal clerks, transfer clerks, and other
employees of the Railway Mail Service. One general superintend-
ent, one assistant general superintendent, printers employed as such,
clerks employed exclusively as porters in handling mail matter in
bulk, in sacks, or pouches, and not otherwise, clerks employed exclu-
sively on steamboats, and transfer clerks at junction points where
not more than two such clerks are employed, are exempt from exami-
nation. All other places can be filled only by promotion, transfer,
reinstatement, or examination, as described in the civil service
rules. Superintendents of mails at classified post offices (offices at
which there are fifty or more employees) must be selected from
among the employees of the Railway Mail Service. These are the
absolute rules, and to try to get into the classified Railway Mail Ser-
vice without these examinations and these formalities, or to procure
or countenance such a thing, is to break a law.

It is worth while to explain the examinations a little. The fol-
lowing table gives the relative weights attached to the different sub-
jects upon which questions are asked in the railway mail clerks'
examination, and the time allowed for this examination is six con-
secutive hours :

RELATIVE
SUBJECTS. WEIGHTS.

First. Orthography 1

Second. Penmanship 1

Third. Copying 2

Fourth. Letter-writing 1

Fifth. Arithmetic 2

Sixth. Geography of the United States 4

Seventh. Railway and other systems of transportation in the United States 5

Eighth. Reading addresses 4

Total of weights 20

The following are samples of papers :

FIFTH SUBJECT. Arithmetic.
Question 1. Add the following, placing the total at the bottom :

742,155.74

429.39

6,873.68

397.49

1,956,374.20

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Question 2. Express in figures one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine.

Question 3. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1888, the postal clerks employed
on railroads travelled 122,031,104 miles, and those employed on steamboats 1,767,-
649 miles. How many more were travelled by railroad than by steamboat ?

Give work in full.

Question 4. If a railway mail clerk earn $800 in a year, how much will he
have left after paying his board at the rate of $16 a month ?

Give work in full.

Question 5. If a railway mail clerk spend ten cents a day for street-car fare,
how much will he spend in six months of 30 days each ?

Give work in full.

SIXTH SUBJECT. Geography.

Question 1. Name two States crossed or in part bounded by each of the fol-
lowing named rivers, and give the capital of each of the States named

River.

State.

Capital.

State.

Capital.

Connecticut

Delaware

Ohio . . .

Mississippi

Missouri.

Question 2. Name the State in which you live and the States or foreign coun-
tries or bodies of water which form the boundaries on two sides of that State.

Question 3. Name two important cities on each of the following named rivers
and lakes, and give the name of the State in which each of these cities is situated:
Hudson River, Ohio River, Mississippi River, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan.

Question 4. Name three cities on or near the Atlantic Ocean, one on or near
the Gulf of Mexico, and one on or near the Pacific Ocean.

Question 5. Name the State of the Union that extends farthest east and the
State that extends farthest west, and name the capital of each.

SEVENTH SUBJECT. Railway and other systems of transportation in the
United States.

Question 1. Name the three principal cities of your State and the principal
railway lines (three if there be that many) centering in each of them.

Question 2. Name the principal railways (not less than two) passing through or
terminating in your State, and give five of the principal connections (roads which
are crossed by them or terminate in the same city with them), made by either or
both of them.

Question 3. Name the roads which together form the most direct line from
your nearest railway station (give the name of that station) to the largest city in
any adjoining State. (Give the name of the city and of the adjoining State.)

Question 4. Name the road or roads connecting two of the most important
cities in your State and name ten of the largest cities (or important towns, if
there be not ten cities) situated on those roads.

Question 5. Name the two most important railway centres in each of the States
of your railway mail division (omitting your own State) and the road or roads or
steamboat lines connecting each of those centres with the capital of your State.

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

The eighth subject comprises reading addresses. Two samples
given in the last annual report of the Civil Service Commission are
worth observing; and a table, also given in this report, shows the
number examined for the Railway Mail Service, the number who
passed or failed (and their legal residence, average age, and educa-
tion) during the year ended June 30, 1891 :

Legal residence.

Passed.

Failed.

1
|

1
<!

Education.

| Education.

i
1

-S

i
1

1
1

Alabama
Arizona

30
1

30
51
10
28
2
15
9
42
2
168
194
1
91
162
57
21
c

20
93
73
87
32
187
j

6
20
1
194
32
9
262
2
17
132
4
23
12
67
94
11
7
66
29
16
59
14

23
24
25
24
27
24+
30
23+
26
24
23
24+
24+
21
24+
24-
24
23
26
25
24+
26
25
25
24
21+
26-
20
26+
24+
19
25
24+
28+
25+
23
24+
25-
22+
25+
27+
24
23
24+
25
25
25+
23+
23-
24

30
1

24+
33

r
l

60
2
72
69
20
38
3
26
27
124
4
217
241
1
113
185
89
37
14
29
117
93
108
65
252
4
101
2
8
33
2
247
78
11
325
3
24
176
5
73
17
125
175
13
7
109
39
24
76
15

Arkansas
California .

1
48
52

"26
66
22
5
2
11
39
21
34
8
67

6
6

{

5
8
5

(

42
18

4
10
1

18
82

49
47

24+
25+
36
23+
25
22
24+

25+
26+

ll
38

2(
33

15
17

2(
12
12
9
38
1
12

29
12
2
33
1
5
24
1
17
5
25
32
1

5
3

9
1

Colorado
Connecticut

'"2
2
18

'"2
1
16

' 6

2
1

]
5
13

Delaware
District of Columbia..
Florida

2
2
1
21
17
1
8
23
9
1
3
3
10
4
13
10
25

15
23

61
61

'23
41

Georgia

Idaho

Illinois

3
1

1
1

i
i

2
2
5

i
i

7
12

5
5

3
11

5
3
4
3
1

Indiana

Indian Territory
Iowa

13
9

1]
8

21
'"9

28
42
9
3

38
32
26

4S
2S

16
22
14

5
6

1 r

22
23
32
16

9
24
20
21
33
65
1
23

26
27

28
24+
25-
28+
25-
26
25
29
27+

Kansas

Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland

Massachusetts

$
9

Michigan . . .

Minnesota
Mississippi . . .

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire
New Jersey

'io

62
9
3
80

'"7
43
1
6
5
17
29
4
1
22
7
8
14
3

3
4
1

75
7
3
23

39
1
3
1
6
16
2

13
4
1
9
2

2
13
1
53
46
2
63
1
7
' 44
1
50
5
58
81
2

27
26
27
28
26
22
25
21
27-
25+
34
23
27+
24-
24+
24

5
3

""2

'is

New Mexico
New York
North Carolina. .

2
16

7
9
2

5
5

4
1

7
1
99
1
3
20
2
6
4
14
25
2
4
18
6
2
28
7

8
9
1
36
1
4
14

'"s

1
23
15
1
1
8
7
5
4
1

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma
Oregon

18
1

3
15

15
13

Pennsylvania.. .

Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont . .
Virginia

43
10
8
17

26+
25-
25+
25
20

21
3
6
11

4 I

1 2

"i "i

11
3

6
1
2

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming . . .

Total

2,581

24+

836

409

237

727

372

1,117

564

114

209

145

3,698

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The removals during probation for the period mentioned above
were 23, and the number dropped at the end of the probationary
six months was 65. The number of substitutes appointed during
the fiscal year above mentioned was 965, the number removed 24,
the number who resigned 10, the number who declined tendered
appointments 126, the number who died 5, and the number appointed
on the regular roll 773. The following table discloses by states
and territories the large number of those examined who failed to
pass:

STATE.

Number
of
examina-
tions.

Passed.

Failed.

Total.

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

District of Columbia

124

Florida

122

Idaho

Illinois . .

156

201

161

210

Iowa

Kansas

100

"Louisiana

Maine . . . .

Maryland

Massachusetts

114

Michigan

115

Mississippi

Missouri

270

352

Montana

Nebraska
Nevada

8
1

105
1

139
1

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

211

272

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

276

Oklahoma

Oregon . .

Pennsyl vania

122

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee
Texas

77
91

150

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Total

352

2 588

3,<06

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 75

The General Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service gives the
Civil Service Commission a " call " for a certification of eligibles
from the locality through which the line runs. The candidate is
supposed to be able more readily to become familiar with the region
nearest his home. If the man selected happens to live at some point
upon the line in question, the General Superintendent's office simply
makes up his appointment and sends it to the division superintendent
concerned, and the man is notified to report at a certain place. If,
however, he lives some distance off the line where he is needed, a
letter is sent notifying him that he has been selected for appoint-
ment to a certain line, that his salary will be $800 a year, and that
he is expected to take up his residence upon the line of the road
upon which he is to run and asking him if he will accept the place.
A candidate may decline an appointment without losing his chance
of appointment. He may wait for a run nearer home; and the prac-
tice of the bureau is to return to the first man, even though he has
refused, for the next vacancy. So it is, too, if the first man refuses
twice. A substitute holds no regular appointment, and he has no
pay except for the days actually run, which, however, yield him on
the average $2.30 a day. He may be called upon to work regularly
for six months, or he may not be called upon for thirty days.

A clerk is required to learn the scheme of the state in which he
runs, and in most cases the entire distribution of that state; and
when he has learned this thoroughly he knows in what way all the
mail for any office within the state reaches its destination. The
schemes themselves do not contain all the offices in a state. They
give a certain county, say Delaware County, Ohio, on the line run-
ning through that county that takes the most offices in it. Then
the other offices that are not on that line are entered on the scheme,
with county headings in the form of exceptions, exceptions to the
county supply; then there are possibly three or four offices that are
supplied from the line from Delaware County to Columbus, and
three or four situated on the line from Columbus to Springfield.
When a man " takes the cards " for a scheme, that is, when he goes
up for examination on the post routes and offices in the region to
which he has been applying himself, there are no cards to be thrown
for offices, the names of which are not on the scheme. The cards
used in the examinations are of the size of a lady's calling card.

t.S

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 77

They are made small to save room. On each card is written the
name of an office, and the novitiate has to throw the cards as cor-
rectly as possible into a case with two hundred or more pigeon holes
in it.

Then there are schemes called "standpoint schemes." They are
used where a small and rough distribution is made of a state. One
would call the separation of the California mail that is made on the
New York and Chicago line a separation on the standpoint scheme.
All that the clerks have to know is what mail goes into the southern
part of the state and what into the northern. The number of all
the schemes in this country would be the number of all the lines,
plus the number of states, plus the number of standpoint schemes.
About eighteen out of every hundred of these probationary men fail
on schemes. That is the only examination given when a man first re-
ports for duty ; but he is notified that he will be called for examination
on his line in thirty days. Then if the line to which he is assigned
is a one man line, that is, if there is only one man in the car, he is
told that he will be required to begin work on a certain day; to go
out and distribute the mail on a certain day. Of course, he is not
prepared to do that ; so he takes somebody with him as instructor.
He is required to pay that tutor, and the length of time the instruc-
tor remains with him depends, of course, upon himself.

In a good many cases a man whose place is taken will stay behind
and teach the novitiate, and in all the divisions there are men who
stand ready to do that kind of work. Often they are substitutes
certified by the Civil Service Commission; in other cases they are
men who have not lost their interest in the service, but who like to
go out for a trip and renew old associations. On a heavy line like
that from NCAV York to Pittsburg there are always roustabouts, as
they are called, who are beginners; and there is always enough work
of an inferior sort to keep them busy till they have learned their
distributions. So that the men assigned to the heavy lines are almost
always relieved of the necessity of employing instructors.

After the new clerk has been 011 duty a month (and at stated
times after that) he is obliged to submit to a case examination.
Cards bearing the written address of each post office in a state are
furnished to the clerk, and he is required to distribute them from
memory, in a case provided for that purpose, according to the

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

general scheme of distribution, post offices to routes, post offices to
counties; or he tries the standpoint distribution, if the division
superintendent deems best. He is then questioned as to his knowl-
edge of connections and of his printed book of instructions. He
is required to make subdivisions of routes as between junctions, and
cards of junctions must be distributed to the routes supplying them.
The time consumed in distributing cards is noted and forms a part
of the record, and a statement of the result of the examination is
given to the clerk, and information as to what the subject of his
next examination will be is noted upon the reverse side of it, unless
there are special reasons why not, in which case this is also noted.
If the clerk has taken the required standing, he will be assigned to a

THE FULL RAILWAY POST OFFICE, GOV. MCKINLEY.

new distribution and a new scheme. The probationary clerk is
usually examined four or five times during his six months trial,
and if at the end of that time he has attained the percentage
required, his record is made up at division headquarters and for-
warded to the General Superintendent's office in Washington, with
a recommendation that he be permanently appointed. If he has
fallen short, the recommendation is that he be dropped.

In the year 1890 the averages of probationers varied from 65.15
in the second division up to 97.04 in the first; and the percentages
of permanent clerks varied from 81.65 in the third division to 99.04
in the first. The average per cent, for probationers for the
whole service rose from 80.35 in 1889 to 84 in 1890, and the per-
centage for permanent clerks for the whole service was 91.57 in
1889 and 94.11 in 1890. The average per centum of correct dis-

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 79

tribu.tions for the clerks of both classes in the whole service rose
from 86.60 in 1889 to 90.24 in 1890, and to 92.39 in 1891. The
General Superintendent in his report attributed this improvement in
no small degree to the award in each division of a gold medal offered
by the Postmaster General.

The clerks are arranged in classes according to the difficulty of
the work required of them and the time necessary to perform it.
The salaries are: first class, $600 to $800 per year; second, $800 to
$900; third, $1,000 to $1,150; fourth, $1,150 to $1,350 ; fifth, $1,350
to $1,400. These men surely earn their money. Repeatedly Con-
gress has refused to reclassify the railway postal clerks and make
more equitable their stipend, and that, too, in face of the fact that
there has practically been no reorganization of the service for twenty
years. But any agitation is without avail.

There are numerous prohibitions which the railway postal clerks
must carefully observe. They are strictly prohibited from carrying
freight in postal cars or trafficking in merchandise in anyway. Nor
are they suffered to go unpunished for imparting information con-
cerning letters or other mail matter passing through their hands.
The use of intoxicating liquors by clerks on duty or while in
uniform is absolutely prohibited, and the frequent and excessive use
of liquors when off duty renders them liable to dismissal from the
service. They are expected to pay all just and honest debts, and
persistent and wilful failure to do so is deemed evidence of untrust-
worthiness sufficient for removal. Clerks are required to use the
utmost vigilance in guarding the mails under their charge. They
must not leave their cars during the run, except for meals or for
some urgent necessity of the service ; and then they must see that
the car doors are locked, unless another clerk is left in charge. As
the Government is very economical in some things, clerks are cau-
tioned to preserve all waste paper and twine.

The integrity of the mail locks is carefully guarded. Clerks on
duty must always wear the mail key attached to them by a safety
chain. If stray mail keys are found, they must be immediately for-
warded to division headquarters ; and the division superintendent
as promptly forwards them to the Department. When a clerk sur-
renders his key, he is always careful to take a receipt for it. Clerks
are forbidden to have mail keys or locks repaired, nor must they pry

80 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

into the mechanism of locks. They are especially cautioned never
to expose the key to public observation, or place it where it may be
lost or stolen. It must not be suffered to pass even for a moment
into the hands of any person not a sworn officer of the Post Office
Department. The loss of a mail key, as it may afford easy facilities

for stealing from the mails, is an
ac care iessness likely to be
%& more pernicious to the service
than almost any other which a
c lerk may do. It is therefore
considered sufficient cause for re-
moval. When a vacancy is about

fl ku<-*; ^ occur a c l ei 'k must not let any-

k we VDV"' body k now of it, nor must he take

any part in procuring appoint-
ments. The removal of news-
papers or periodicals from their

ADDRESSES FOR CANDIDATES TO READ. -

wrappers for the purpose of read-

ing them is not allowable. Clerks are forbidden to request pro-
prietors of newspapers to send copies of their papers to them free.
Besides the clerks the only persons who have a right to enter the
postal cars are post office inspectors and persons who may be author-
ized by the General Superintendent or by division superintendents.
A permit to ride in a postal car is not a free pass ; and the clerk in
charge must notify the train conductor if there is anybody in his car
from whom a fare may be collected.

Besides the prohibitions, there are a good many ordinary things
which the railway postal clerk must learn to do almost mechanically.
He must know without a second's hesitation that all mail for states
of which no distribution is made is assorted "by states," and "fa-
cing slips" used; that is, letter and circular mail for each state is
made up in packages when there are ten or more letters for a certain
state, and newspaper mail in canvas sacks, and the name of the
state marked on the slips covering the package and also on the slip
in the label holder of the sack. Mail for delivery and mail for dis-
tribution at a post office are made up in separate packages, except
where otherwise ordered by the division superintendent. When a
direct package is made, air the letters for one post office are placed

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE, 81

together, faced one way, with a plainly addressed letter on the out-
side, and a facing slip covering the back of the package. The slip
is postmarked like all the letters, and is indorsed with the name of
the clerk making the package and with the direction in which the
mail is moving.

When it is necessary to include, circular matter in a direct pack-
age, a letter is put on the outside. Letters are never placed in a
pouch loose. They are always "faced up," slipped, and tied in
packages. All official matter emanating from any of the depart-
ments of the Government is treated as first-class matter. Signal ser-
vice weather reports are dealt with in the same way. Receipts for
registered letters are found tied on top of the bundles of letters, but
the registered letters themselves are tied separately. An entry is
made in a record book every time the letter passes into new hands,
so that it may be traced without a moment's delay.

Registered packages are not tied up with the other mail. They
are put in loose, so as to be quickly discerned by the person opening
the sack. The registry book must show the number, postmark, date,
and address of every registered letter or package, as well as of the
lock and rotary numbers and labels of every registered pouch and
inner sack passing through the hands of the clerks. In all cases
they are required to obtain a receipt for registered matter from
the persons to whom it is delivered. Special delivery letters have
such attention as will insure their prompt transmission. The post
office clerks at their destinations find them placed on the top of each
package.

So the life of the postal clerk is anything but easy. It is a life
of constant physical and mental hardship. The motion of the cars
frequently gives him a sensation hardly distinguishable from that
caused by the rolling of a ship on the ocean. "Seasickness" is a
common incident of the work. Some clerks, like some sailors, have
a feeling of nausea with every trip, and others suffer little after the
first few days. At the end of each trip the clerk has a time for
sleep, sometimes long and sometimes short. In the large post
offices, or near the principal railroad stations, dormitories are
fitted up ; and in the New York post office there are scores of white-
covered iron bedsteads, ranged in rows in the rooms on the fifth
floor. Visitors passing the open doors mistake these rooms for hos-

82 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

pital wards, but in both the day and the night hours they are occu-
pied by a particularly healthy and drowsy set of mortals.

Captain White says that experience has demonstrated that a man
endowed with a phenomenal memory cannot become a desirable
postal clerk unless this faculty is supplemented by that vigor,
vitality, and resolution necessary to continuous and protracted
hours of labor, for the reason that physical strength is required to
handle the tons of mail matter which is received daily by the prin-
cipal railway post offices, and which, after being so treated, must be
distributed piece by piece, and then be handled again in bulk ; and
for the further reason that the greater portion of this work must be
performed while the trains are moving at a high rate of speed around
curves, over crossings, and past trains moving with the same
velocity in the opposite direction. The muscular exertion neces-
sary to maintain one's position at the racks so as to distribute mails
with rapidity and accuracy into the pigeon holes and sacks wich the
fewest false motions possible cannot be appreciated by strangers to
the work, nor can any who have not gone through railway accidents,
or stood for hours over the trucks of a fast moving car, or been
required to memorize the distributions and connections of a large
number of states gridironed with railroad and star routes, realize
the mental strain which the clerk suffers at all times, and the
nervous shocks to which he is so often subjected during his tours of
duty.

One of the forms of application for civil service examinations
always contains ten questions which are to be answered by the physi-
cian who certifies as to the physical condition of the applicant; but
these questions are not full enough to determine the candidate's
physical adaptability for the service. The physician is not required
to make his statement under oath, and there are abundant reasons to
believe that friendship, personal obligations, family ties, or the
desire to accommodate acquaintances, sometimes impel him to be
too merciful; if this were not true, it would be impossible for the
deformed and ruptured or those afflicted with pulmonary diseases
even to secure appointments. Captain White has recommended
that at every place where civil service examinations are held one or
more physicians of acknowledged ability and trustworthiness be
designated to make the physical examinations required, and that

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 83

they shall receive from the applicants whom they examine, a reason-
able fee for their services. It is recommended further that the
physical examinations be made upon the following lines:

1. Minimum height, 5 feet 4 inches.

2. Minimum weight, 128 pounds.

3. Condition of sight?

4. Is his hearing defective?

5. Has he any defects of speech?

6. Has he any defects of limb?

7. Is he ruptured?

8. Has he any defects in the functions of the brain?

9. Has he any defects in the functions of the nervous system?

10. Has he any defects in the functions of the muscular system?

11. State the measurement of the chest upon full expiration and inspiration.

12. Is the respiration full, free, and unobstructed in both lungs?

13. State the frequency of the heart's action; are its movements regular, or are
there indications of organic, muscular, or nervous derangements?

14. Any indications of derangement of abdominal viscera?

15. Any indication that the applicant is addicted to the excessive use of intoxi-
cants?

16. Do you believe him capable of prolonged and severe mental and physical
exertion, and equal to the demands of a very exhausting occupation?

17. Do you believe him to be free from any form of disease or disability which
unfits him at present or is likely to unfit him in the future for the performance of
the class of work described in question No. 16 ?

It maybe mentioned, perhaps, that the Civil Service Commission,
in examining candidates for the railway mail, makes no distinction
of sex. A woman may be examined just as thoroughly as a man,
and a woman has been. One was recently certified for work as a
stenographer at the Pittsburgh office. She would have been ap-
pointed but for the fact that her classification would necessarily
have been as a postal clerk, and as a postal clerk she might have
been obliged to do actual clerking on the cars. This was a practical
objection which precluded her appointment.

There is no doubt that the Railway Mail Service needs re-classifi-
cation. The organization of the present day is precisely that of
1882, yet since that time there has been an increase in railway
mileage of 60 per cent., an increase in annual postal clerk mileage
of 86 per cent., an increase in clerks of 69 per cent., and an increase
in pieces of mail handled of 148 per cent. The service has been for
five years under a terrible strain. The danger lies not in the
present, for the devotion and skill of the clerks, and the skill and

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

devotion of the chiefs as well, have kept the improvement constant.
But the growth of the volume of mail is inconceivably great, and
without a reorganization it will be next to impossible, as postal
experts freely predict, to prevent this matchless, indispensable ser-
vice from retrograding.

It has been held to be a good thing, too, to provide uniforms for
the men. It would be the insignia of an important branch of gov-
ernmental service, and
there would be a con-
sequent reluctance to
become unworthy of it.
The only way in which
a railway mail clerk is

"OWNEY," THE RAILWAY MAIL DOG.

designated at present
is by an obscure, badge
worn upon the cap.
The ocean postal clerks,
few though they are,
suffer the most in this
respect, for they are
daily brought in comparison with the dignified uniforms of the
Germans. The comparison is odious.

With all his trials, the travels of the railway postal clerk are
often made pleasant. He is observing and clever; consequently he
knows a funny or a touching thing when he sees it. The clerks on
one of the New England lines were edified sometime ago to see a
small white kitten jump out of a mail bag. The terrier " Owney "
travels from one end of the country to the other in the postal cars,
tagged through, petted, talked to, looked out for, as a brother,
almost. But sometimes, no matter what the attention, he suddenly
departs for the south, the east, or the west, and is not seen again for
months. He will defend a mail sack against all comers, except
the regular clerks. There is hardly a part of the United States or
Canada Avhich he has not visited. He will ride in nothing but a
postal car. About a year ago he suddenly disappeared for several
months. The postal clerks regretfully observed that he was probably
dead; but one day he turned up on the Boston and Albany line with
an ear gone. He had been caught in a railroad accident in Canada.

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 85

At North Germantown, N. Y., they have a dog, "Nero" (the gen-
tlest of collies, however). There are six " catch " mails at this point,
and six times a day "Nero" goes down to the track, looks gravely
in the direction of the train, jumps up and down excitedly as soon
as it appears, and when the pouch is thrown out catches it. Noth-
ing can induce him, however, to perform this valuable service on
a Sunday.

And so it goes, the sweet mixed in with the bitter. Many a pos-
tal clerk stands in the doorway of his car as the train pulls out, and
waves his hand to a group of fond ones who signal him Godspeed ;
and he cheerfully admits to his fellow, with a drop of moisture in
his eye, that they always see him off that way, and that he shouldn't
feel altogether right if they didn't. Perhaps a money package is
missing. The clerk who receives it does not know where it is, and
is not responsible in any way for its disappearance, but there is no
satisfactory explanation, and the man must go. And with the rush
and hurly-burly of railroad travel, of labor that seems never to
release its weight, it is not strange that now and then a man becomes
confused.

"I was allowed to make a trip alone," an Eastern clerk once
wrote. "It seemed as if the moment the train started my senses
left me. I was wild. Just before the train pulled out a man
came up to the door and threw about fifty letters over the floor. I
had to get down on my hands and knees and pick up those letters.
I got my hands full of splinters. After cancelling these, with about
three hundred more letters, and distributing them, I opened the
pouches. Then the trouble began. I put off the mail for the first
station at a water- tank five miles before reaching the station. I
kept putting off mail just one station ahead, and when I reached
the last station I had no mail to put off. I heard from that
trip. Every postmaster on the line reported me to the superin-
tendent."

It is thrs which causes the probationers to relent and go back to
their former duties. A Muncie man was assigned, not long ago, to
the Chicago & Cincinnati R. P. O. He never finished his first trip.
He went half way, and bought a ticket home as a plain passenger.
He was much annoyed by the questions of his friends, and had the
following card printed to show to people :

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 87

Question. What are you doing here?

Answer. Have quit the mail service.

Question. Didn't you like it?

Answer. No.

Question. Was the work hard?

Answer. Yes.

Question. What was it?

Answer. Lifting and unlocking two hundred pound pouches, shaking out con-
tents, arranging same, removing pouches, locking same, carrying same away,
jumping on and stamping on mail matter, rearranging sacks, then going over
same work, continuing same seventeen hours, without rest, with trains flying round
curves and slinging you against everything that is not slung against you.

But the actual dangers to be met, the bravery required to be
shown, these are the test and honor of the railway postal clerk.
Over and over again, as Mr. James has written, and notwithstanding
severe injuries received by the clerks, the scattered mail matter has
been collected and transferred to another train or to the nearest
post office. Several times trains in the West were held up by rob-
bers, who, after sacking the express car, visited the postal car,
introducing themselves with pistol shots. One clerk was seriously
wounded in the shoulder. An instance of self-possession reported
in Arkansas, was where the robbers, before visiting the postal car,
had secured $10,000 from the express safe. When they came to
Clerk R. P. Johnson he suggested that they had secured booty
enough, and that under the circumstances they had better let the
mail matter alone. The masked men liked him and agreed with
him. On the Wabash road once a train south bound from Omaha
was thrown wholly down an embankment. J. C. Cuff was one of
the four injured postal clerks. His hands were terribly burned
by seizing a lamp and holding it to keep it from upsetting
and firing the mail matter. These valorous examples are not
unusual.

The Postmaster General has reported that the total number of rail-
way post office car wrecks in the year 1891 was 319. In these
thirteen clerks were killed, sixty-eight severely injured, and eighty-
four slightly injured. The percentage of killed and wounded in the
railway postal service is greater than the American army suffered in
the war with Mexico. The following table gives the figures for the
last six years (and seven railway postal clerks were killed in last
September alone) :

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

Number of

Numbei

clerks.

casual ti

1887

4851

244

1888

5094

248

1889

5448

193

1890

5836

261

1891

6032

319

1892

6440

345

Number of Number seri- Number slightly
clerks killed, ously injured. injured.

4
10

4
13

63
95
41

68
60

72
45
40
53
84
112

The Department does all it can to provide for strengthened and
well-equipped ears. There are saws, axes, hammers, and crow-bars,
as usual, and safety bars extend overhead the whole length so that
the clerks may swing from them if trains leave the track. But the
position of the postal car, commonly next the tender, is unusually
dangerous, and there is no way of preventing the carnage. Legis-

THE WKECK OF TWO POSTAL CABS

On the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern R. R., at Tipton, Ohio, April 18, 1891, in which
six postal clerks lost their lives.

lation has been repeatedly asked of Congress, but there is strong
aversion to a civil pension list in this country, and no legislation
has resulted. It has been repeatedly recommended that the Post-
master General be authorized to use the fund arising from deductions
because of the failure of clerks in the Railway Mail Service to per-
form duty, and for other causes, in paying to the widow and minor
children of each permanent railway postal clerk killed while on duty
the sum of $1,000, and that in the event that there is not a sufficient
amount arising from deductions, the Postmaster General shall be
authorized to make up the deficiency from the regular appropriation

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 89

for the payment of railway postal clerks. But this has always
failed. Captain White is of opinion that the best interests of the
service, the clerks, and the -public can be secured by a law to be
known as the Railway Mail Service Superannuation Act, to provide
for the retirement of all permanent clerks on one third or half pay
who have become incapacitated for further service by reason of age,
injuries received while in the discharge of their official duties, or
other infirmities not attributable to vicious habits; the fund out of
which the clerks so retired shall be paid to be created by withhold-
ing a sum equal to one half of one per cent, per annum of the salary
paid every permanent clerk employed in the service, and one per
cent, of the annuity paid those placed upon the superannuated list.
This deduction would be slight for each individual, but would in
the aggregate amount to about $31,000 per annum, and as but little
of it would be drawn from the fund thus created during the first few
years succeeding the passage of the act, it would reach by accumu-
lation sufficient proportions to make the act effective as fast as retire-
ments became necessary. That the deduction would not work even
temporary hardship to those coming under its operations is shown by
the fact that it would amount to but fifty cents on each $100 paid
the clerks in active service and $1 on each $100 paid those placed
upon the superannuated list.

The term "nixies" embraces all mail matter not addressed to a
post office, or addressed without the name of the state being given,
or otherwise so incorrectly, illegibly, or insufficiently addressed, that
it cannot be transmitted. Matter of this kind is always withdrawn
and sent to the division superintendent. The following are the
only exceptions to this rule : mail addressed to military and naval
posts and stations of the signal and life-saving services which are
not post offices is sent to the proper post office, if known. Mail
addressed to discontinued post offices, or to offices whose names have
been changed, or to watering places and summer resorts which are
not post offices, is sent to the nearest post office known. Mail
addressed by the Department to new post offices, marked on the
envelope " new office, " is sent to its destination in the best manner
practicable. When clerks know that matter addressed to a post
office where the name of the state is not given is intended for the
principal city of that name (being, for instance, addressed to a

90 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

well-known citizen, firm, newspaper, corporation, or institution of
that principal city, or to a street and number which can be found in
it), it is sent to that city. Mail is not* treated as nixies on account
of incorrect spelling when the destination is undoubted. All nixies
sent to the division superintendent are postmarked on the back, and
are accompanied by a slip bearing the full name of the clerk sending
the same, the postmark of his line, with date, and the word "nixies "
in the upper left-hand corner.

Take the experience of any large post office with nixies. Take
Buffalo. The five thousand recognized nixies do not include the city

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE WKECK AT TIPTON.

nixies which every large post office has. Each day Postmaster Gentsch
draws off a list of Buffalo nixies, letters misdirected, or addressed
to names not in the directory or in such a way as to afford no clue
as to their destination. The carriers inspect this list and pick out
any names which they happen to know about, and so some of the
nixies are disposed of. And the errors in addresses are not confined
to hurried business men and illiterate people. One suspected to be
from such a dear lady as Mrs. Grover Cleveland herself was observed
to be addressed: "Mrs. Henry E. Perrine, 107 Delaware Avenue,
New York City." At New York it was classed among the nixies
and the word Brooklyn was written on it in red ink. At Brooklyn
it fell into the same classification, and finally reached Buffalo, as

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 91

the writer intended it should, of course. There are some twenty
different Buffalos among the post offices of the country, and some
thirty more post offices whose name is compounded from Buffalo,
like "Buffalo City," "Buffalo Mills," etc. The names of dozens
of other cities are as abundantly duplicated. Hence much of the
trouble.

And there seems to be no end of pains taken by the Department
people, and by the railway mail people also, to trace and forward
missent mail. A Nebraska paper complained vociferously in a
double-leaded, smutty-looking "editorial," that one of its numbers
dated February 12, 1892, did not reach its destination until May 9,
1892. The complaint was referred by General Superintendent
White to Division Superintendent Troy, at Chicago. Mr. Troy
referred it to the chief clerk at Omaha, who in turn referred it to
the postmaster at the town where the paper is published. The post-
master reported to the chief clerk just mentioned that the complain-
ing editor sent out, on the 7th of May, a "boom" edition; that to
make as large a showing as possible he gathered up all the old copies
of his paper to be found ; that he happened to send out one dated
February 12 (this on the 7th of May); and that there was no delay
whatever in the transmission of the paper. Then the postmaster at
the point to which the paper was addressed furnished information
that there was no delay in the delivery. The chief clerk at Omaha
sent these facts forward to the division superintendent at Chicago,
who in turn sent them to the General Superintendent at Washington.
So it is with letters and papers in thousands of cases every year.

An important recent development of the Railway Mail Service is
the more extensive and specific distribution on trains of matter for
city delivery. As Mr. W. B. Stevens has written:

If the postal clerk can carry in his mind the schedules for 12,000 or 15,000
post offices in a region of country, why cannot a local distributor fit himself to
throw the mail for routes in two or more cities ? This proposition can be made
plainer by a practical illustration. On the Wabash there are St. Louis, Lafayette,
Fort Wayne, and Toledo with carrier service. Why cannot a distributor be sent
over this route with the mail to divide it up for the different carrier routes in each
city ? When the mail for Lafayette reaches that city it will be ready for the
carriers to start out on their routes ; so at Fort Wayne and so at Toledo. On the
return trip the distributor will assort the Fort Wayne matter for Fort Wayne
carriers, the Lafayette mail for the Lafayette carriers, and then the St. Louis
mail for the St. Louis carriers. Such work as this will necessitate a knowledge

on the part of the distributor of the mail routes of each of the four cities; that is
a good deal for one man to carry in his head. But it is no more than some of the
postal clerks carry.

A travelling man finished up his work at Kansas City one afternoon, wrote out
his orders, and mailed them shortly before train time. He reached St. Louis for
breakfast and started down town. On the way he dropped into a restaurant and
got a cup of coffee. Continuing he went into the store and reported, saying:

" I mailed a lot of orders at Kansas City last night; they will reach you in a little
while."

"They are here already," said the manager, pointing to a clerk who was even
then going over the orders. The travelling man walked up to the post office to
find out how the mail could beat him. He learned what many do not know, that
local distributors travel on the route between St. Louis and Kansas City.

YET ANOTHER VIEW OF THE WRECK AT TIPTON.

The weights of mail upon which the railroads are paid for trans-
porting it are taken once in four years, except in urgent cases;
and this weighing fixes the compensation for that period. In order
to distribute the work, the United States is divided into four sec-
tions, as with the contract division. Mr. Richard C. Jackson, the
versatile division superintendent of the railway mail at New York,
has written, more entertainingly than any layman may, about these
railroad weighings. He says:

"After the receipt from the Department of an order, weigh, and the issuance
of the preliminary notices to all concerned, the first step is to ascertain exactly on
what trains mails are carried and between what points. This is simple enough
for unimportant roads, and would be even for trunk lines, if the mails carried
were only from and for stations, but mail bags often come by branch roads in

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 93

charge of train baggagemen, which reach a main line at points where they do
not pass under the observation of a postmaster, or of any employee of the Post
Office Department. These dispatches are usually well known to the superin-
tendent by his records; but as it is possible that a postmaster somewhere might
happen to start a dispatch without orders from the superintendent, it is cus-
tomary to institute extensive inquiries to make sure that none is overlooked.
When completed, a chart is prepared of the results, which serves as the basis of
all subsequent action. If the line is a small one, the weights are taken solely by
the postmasters, and no one is put on the train as specially employed. This
sometimes puzzles railway officials, who, as they see no evidence of a weighing
on the trains, or at stations, write to complain that the weights, or some of them,
are not being taken, for it is at times done far away and on other lines.

" On important roads, weighers are provided on some trains, and these weighers
must then be selected and their schedules of trips arranged which are often ex-
tensive and complicated. In the meantime scales are provided by the company
and blank weighing cards printed, one sort for the men on the trains, another
kind for postmasters, and still another for transfer clerks. Besides these, there
are many details not necessary to enumerate.

' When the work begins, the reports are checked off as soon as received, to
make sure that none is wanting or is imperfect. This is in order that a defect
may be known and investigated while the matter is freshly in mind. Sometimes
reports are called for from more than a single source, so that one will serve as a
check upon the other. When all is found to be going on smoothly these duplicate
reports can be dropped. The most troublesome difficulties are on long lines,
where there are loups, or where trains diverge, and then come together again,
and it is impracticable to take the mails out of the cars to weigh them and put
them aboard again, or to weigh them in the cars in such cases, on account of the
quantity. Frequently, too, it is necessary to weigh beyond the terminals of a
route, to avoid ' balancing back ' as it is called.

" When the tabulation is completed, and the final results are prepared, showing
the weights put on and taken off at each station, a statement of the same is for-
warded to the Department, and a copy furnished to the railway company. At
Washington, the Adjustment Division figures the weights from station to station,
and the average thus obtained is paid for at the legal rates already explained.
This, it will be noticed, produces quite a different result from the average weight
when starting from the principal terminal which is what an ordinary observer is
apt to notice. The weighing for small lines continue nominally thirty days, and
for trunk lines sixty days, but these periods are extended to enough days to give
the companies the benefit of Sunday, although the weights are averaged on the
thirty and sixty days."

Extra and unusual things are continually occurring in the Railway
Mail Service. They tax the ingenuity of the superintendent and his
assistants, tax the tired hands and brains of the clerks. There was
the census mail in 1890. Tons and tons of matter going out or
coming in crammed the postal cars as well as the large post offices
and made in reality a freight transportation business of the post.
The summer resort service, always put on for the watering places,

94 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

is notable every spring and summer, especially in New England,
whither most of the exodus is. The past summer service was estab-
lished by boat between Machiasport and Rockland, and it was the
first distribution of mail ever authorized on a steamboat in New Eng-
land. The mails went straight in consequence, and not by hook or
crook inland, as best they might. Boston mails for the White
Mountains left an hour earlier in the morning, and the northern
cities as well as the mountain resorts were benefited. Old Ply-
mouth had new service, and the postal car penetrated to Rangeley.
The New York papers reached Brattleboro three hours earlier than
ever before. The new Bar Harbor express took all the Boston

and western mail

GENEBAL OEDEE NO. 20S~FITTH PAOF along tWO flOUTS

sc earlier than for-

II. Mount Pleasant House, N. H. Will receive and send mail as .follows : Newport & Springfield, Night, due at 9.25

a.m. Return with mail t 10/25 p. m. Lancaster & Boston, due at 4.43 and 5.50 p. m. Retnrn at 7.45 a. Tv-irvnlTr A v> r] 4-~[~t a

o>..-ol>e wuh mail, the other empty. Lancaster & Montpelier, due at 1 1.50 a. m.- Retnm with, mail at 12.55 11161 IV. AllO.!!^

p. m. . Boston. Springfield & New York and Woodsville 4 Boston, due at 8.35 p. .ra. Return "the Woodsville

& Boston empty at 10.25 p. m. and the Boston, Springfield & New York euipt.y at 7.45 a.m.; properly labeled. 1 , f -1 1 , 1

Portland _4Swanton. West, dije at li.48pj,. Return ah ma^at^ p^ n^ ^Portland^* Swan^m, ^a.t. DCaUty Ol all tlllS

Return with mail Snndaya at 10.25 p. ro.. labeled "St. AIbaW& BO.IOOI South of Concord." . -, .

44. ProHle House, N. H.-Will receive and Send u:ail as follows: Newport & Springfield. Night, due at H 42 a. m IS tiiat TUSt SO

Retnrn with mail at 7.20 n. m. Lancaster A Moutitelier. dne at 11.50 a. m Return with mail st 1-2.50 li. m. *

many more mails

Lancaster & Montpelier. dne at 11.50 . m Return with mail t 12.50 p. m.

Lancaster & Boston, due at 4.35 and 6 p. in. Rt-turn nt 7 35 a..,m.. one with mail, the other empty Boston,
Springfield A Nrw York and Wmnlsville & Boston, due at 8.30 p. ra. Ueturti empty at 7.35 a., m., labeled to
the R. P. O. received from. Portland & -Swanton. West, due at 2.04 p. m. Return with mail at 3.25 p. m.
Portland A Swnnton, East, and Portland & Swanton, Short Run, due at 6 p. m. Return one with mail at 10*'
..a,., the other ercptv. Mondays. .St. Alb.n. & Boston, Night, doe at 8.42 a. *. Return empty at 7 - ftfQ WOrKC HI

. TVlD Mountain. N. H.-Will receive and send mail as follows: Newport & Springfield. Night, due

Night. due at B.27 a. m. Return with mail Sundays at IU.42 p. in..

Itf. fieneral-

patched to all points in
dozens of cases one business

Maplewood, N. H. .

ALL offices South of Concord. N. H^ger-" 1 1

offices in Vermont U> said R. P QiQ, V Q Q,Y 1 1 6 1" .
pelier, Grotoo, Grotoo P- v

BW* " Terrible floods occurred this year along the

MAILS for O- /

B. * Mississippi. The interruptions to the regular move-

ment of mails into St. Louis began with the trains of
the C. C. C. & St. Louis, Wabash East, and Chicago & Alton
lines from both Chicago and Kansas City, and the C. B. & Q.
lines east of the river first shut out from entrance into East
St. Louis, and the approach to the bridge even, and necessarily run-
ing these trains into Alton. Division Superintendent Lindsey went
to Alton and made temporary arrangements with the Eagle Packet
Company to carry the mails and the clerk accompanying them, on
their steamer, "Spread Eagle," one round trip daily, between Alton
and St. Louis. This relieved the blockade at Alton. But after
trains were unable to get in and out of St. Louis from the east side
of the river, the situation gradually grew worse until at one time
there was but one track from the east affording entrance to and from

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 95

the Eads Bridge, namely, the Ohio & Mississippi. The trains of
as many contiguous lines as practicable ran over this line from con-
venient junction points; and the Vandalia lines also accommodated
the trains of some of the neighboring roads. The movement of the
mails was provided for, as was practicable from day to day, by tele-
graphing officers of the service at Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chigago,
and elsewhere, in order to divert the mails to such lines as could
best keep it moving. A free accommodation was secured from the
Merchants Bridge terminal officers at St. Louis to use their line in
places where no mail service was regularly authorized; and for two
or three days mails were taken over the new bridge to the viaduct
crossing of the tracks of certain lines, and there these mails inward
were carried up some improvised steps, arranged for accommodating
passengers, by laborers of the railroad companies. Many of the
railway post office men were on duty all of the twenty-four hours.
A great many changes in distributions on the cars and in the St.
Louis post office were of course necessary. But the railroad officials
were alert, and the complaints very few.

The yellow fever plague at Jacksonville was a far more momentous
interruption of the mails than this. On the eighth day of August,
1888, Mr. H. W. Clark, then postmaster of Jacksonville, who had
just arrived in New York on leave of absence for a month, saw in the
morning papers the news that the yellow fever was breaking out in
Jacksonville, and a day later that it was assuming epidemic form. He
at once left New York for home. The city was terror stricken. All
had fled except those whose sense of duty caused them to remain.

The first matter which Postmaster Clark found to arrest his atten-
tion was the condition of the free delivery. The secretary of the
local board of health had instructed the superintendent of mails
to prevent the carriers from making their daily rounds, as their pas-
sage through the city would spread the disease. Proclamations had
been issued stopping services in the churches and the congregation
of people in large crowds. But about twenty mails a day were
received at Jacksonville, and the lobby of the post office was jammed
daily with an indiscriminate crowd. The postmaster's first action
was to reverse this condition. He sent the carriers out on their
routes as usual.

The next few weeks were devoted to getting the mails out of the

96 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

city. Nearly every part of Florida was quarantined against Jack-
sonville. Mr. Clark obtained permission from the Department to
establish a station at La Villa Junction for the fumigation of all
mail matter. The Jacksonville people were thus enabled to send
letters to every part of the Union ; before this few towns in Florida
would consent to receive Jacksonville letters or newspapers. Only
one clerk of the twenty-five or twenty-six in the office resigned
through fear, and though many were stricken with the sickness there
were fortunately but two deaths, Mrs. Fannie B. Hopkins, the
stamp clerk, and Capt. W. J. Merritt, who had charge of the fumi-
gating station. Thorough discipline was kept up throughout the
entire term of the epidemic of between four and five months. The
postmaster, as a member of the Sanitary Association, was chairman
of a special committee for the establishment of a baggage fumigating
station, which was erected near the other.

The fumigation at La Villa Junction was done in a box car of the
Florida Central & Peninsula Railroad, which had been loaned.
With Captain Merritt was a railway postal clerk. All of the mails
for Florida were fumigated here, and all for other states were sent
direct to another fumigating station at Waycross, Georgia, which
was in charge of Major R. E. Mansfield, then and now chief clerk
in the Railway Mail Service at Charleston. The different railroads
made arrangements by which an engine and a baggage car, under
certain precautions, were run into the city as far as the fumigating
station, and the Jacksonville mails were put off and the fumigated
mails taken on at that point.

All mail matter accumulating in the letter boxes or post office at
night was sent early in the morning to the station for perforation
and a six hours smoke. At noon another load was sent. All had
previously been made up to routes, and afterwards so arranged in
the fumigating car that as little time as possible would be lost in
re-routing it after the smoking. Notwithstanding all this, tl
bundles of The Daily Times- Union, published in Jacksonville, were
occasionally burned alongside the track at some station where they
were thrown off. But the desire for yellow fever news generally
overcame the fear of contagion and the bulk of the papers went
through. The amount of newspapers utterly refused by some of the
offices and returned to Jacksonville filled up a room originally used

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. 97

by railway postal clerks. All these refused papers were sent out
when the epidemic was declared over, and it took several days to
work them off. No ill effects were ever reported from them.

In the office proper the regular routine was followed, except that
each morning it was necessary to have an inspection of the force ;
and the work was given out as best it might be among the well. As
a preventive against the fever, the floors of the office were sprinkled
twice each day with a solution of carbolic acid, kept in a large
cask, and furnished by the board of health. Every clerk and car-
rier in the office also used medicine either externally or internally,
and generally both, as a preventive ; but liquor as a beverage in any
form was refused to all. One of the clerks had a handful of sulphur
in each shoe ; but that this did not make him proof against the fever
was evident, for Captain Merritt, in charge of the fumigating car,
who was breathing sulphur fumes for several hours each day, died
bravely at his post. The employees never complained at the known
dangers which they encountered daily, or were liable to encounter,
except once. It was when several prominent citizens vigorously
urged that the large hall in the third story over the post office be
turned into a yellow fever hospital, as more room was needed. The
postmaster interfered with this plan, arguing that it would not do to
have a hospital so near the mails that were to be sent out through
the country. For Mr. A. E. Sawyer, the superintendent of mails,
the greatest admiration was expressed on all hands. He had never
had the fever, but he served faithfully; and when the postmaster
insisted that he take a vacation, which he did, he returned promptly
to the scene of the pestilence.

Major Mansfield volunteered to take charge of the fumigating
station at Waycross. All mails from Florida had been stopped at
that point since the 8th of August. When Major Mansfield arrived
there on the 12th, some eight or ten tons of matter had accumulated,
stored in a freight car on a siding. Four postal clerks had freely
volunteered to do service as assistants. They all went to work at
once, assorting and perforating each piece separately except the
papers, until the fumigating cars, which were still in the railroad
shops at Waycross, should be ready. Two freight cars were brought
into use, each partitioned off into two air-tight compartments, in
which were constructed shelves of wire netting to spread the mail

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

on. The mail, after being perforated by means of an iron punch
designed for the purpose by the chief clerk in charge, was placed on
the wire shelves in the fumigators. An iron kettle containing five
pounds of sulphur was placed in each compartment, ignited, and
allowed to burn for four hours, when the doors were opened, and the
mail taken out, re-assorted, and tied up in packages and sacks, and
dispatched. For the first ten days Major Mansfield and his men had

nothing to work with except what they could devise themselves, and
nothing to eat except what they could buy in a sparsely settled
country ; and they often travelled miles to a farm house only to be
disappointed, for the country was swampy and poor. No provisions
could be had at any price, and as the men were not permitted to enter
Waycross on account of the quarantine established there, it began
to look rather serious for them. They had nothing but warm and
slimy surface water to drink, and nothing to sleep on except the
bags of infected mail. It was during these trying hours that the
camp was dubbed "Camp Destitution." In the midst of their woes,
however, a good Samaritan appeared in the cheery person of Dr.

THE WONDERFUL RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

F. M. Urquhart of the Marine Hospital Service, who, seeing the
deplorable condition of the men, immediately telegraphed to Wash-
ington that the Government must provide for their comfort, or
death would surely result from exposure and want, if not from
the plague. Immediately came a dispatch authorizing him to
purchase the necessary outfit for a camp, and as quickly there came
from Waycross stoves, cooking utensils, dishes, etc., and a good
supply of ice, with positive orders not to drink the swamp water
unless it should first be boiled.

By September 1 the camp was in thorough working order and
each day the trains from Jacksonville brought their deadly load and
deposited them at the camp ; and they were fumigated and sent, for-
ward within twenty-four hours. The train between Jacksonville
and Waycross was in charge of Postal Clerk W. J. Balentine, of
Waycross (who was stricken with the fever and laid up for over a
month), and Substitute Clerk J. M. Doty, of Charleston, both volun-
teers. "Camp Destitution" was established August 12, and closed
November 30, and the following table shows the amount of mail
handled during that period :

Month.

Pouches
received.

Number of
letter
packages.

Sacks of
papers
received.

Registers.

Pouches
fumigated.

Canvas
sacks
fumigated.

August . . .
September . .
October . . .
November . .

Totals . . .

564
420
235

282

13,624
12,177
11,229
11,989

1,646
1,800
1,525
1,641

3,346
3,640
4,186
4,389

894
882
809
921

6,996
6,818
6,151
8,100

1,501

49,019

6,612

15,556

3,506

28,065

The average number of letters to a package was forty and the
average number of papers to a sack one hundred and fifty; so the
total number of pieces fumigated was within a dozen of 3,000,000.

A record was kept of all registered matter passing through the
station by Clerk Allen, and not a single loss was known. A period
of one hundred and eleven consecutive days of continuous duty
night and day, standing between the yellow fever and the whole
North, and West, and South, is the record of the resolute men who
did this service. A single incident occurred to disturb the har-
mony of the little camp. A notice was received from the General

100

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service by Chief Clerk Mansfield
to the effect that: "The interests of the Railway Mail Service would
be promoted by the tender of your resignation as chief clerk at
Charleston, S. C., to take effect Sept. 1, 1888"; also at the same
time a request "to remain in charge of the station, until the need
of your presence at that station has passed, when you will be assigned
to duty on the line, vice M. A. Davis promoted"; and also, "that an
order has been issued reducing your salary as a clerk of Class 5 from
$1,400 per annum to $1,300 per annum, to take effect Sept. 1^
'88." And this for politics. After the station closed each clerk
applied for and was granted thirty days' leave of absence with pay.
This was their only recognition.

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

HE Railway Mail Service has a daily paper. It is
the Daily Bulletin, and its circulation is almost
1,100. It is printed in the basement of the Post
Office Department; and printers set over 4,000,000
ems of matter for it in a year. At this departmental
printing office work for the third division of the
railway mail is also done, like the semi-weekly
issue of the "general orders" about changes in the service of that
division, and the "facing slips," of which about 600,000 are printed
yearly. Each of the other divisions has a small printing office
of its own. The printers employed at headquarters in ten of
the divisions, and in the Department, make up 1,500 forms in a
year, set 9,000,000 ems of matter, and print over a million impres-
sions. The work consists chiefly of the facing slips, bulletins, and
small pieces of job work, as required for technical and immediate
use. For example, Division Superintendent Jackson makes his
annual report on a small circular; and Division Superintendent
Ryan, at Boston, issues eight good-sized pages or more filled with
announcements, for the beginning of the summer resort season,
that new service has been put on in perhaps a hundred places. The
printing offices, though very small, are all well equipped. Superin-
tendent Troy lately issued his annual report very tastefully in
colors.

For several years prior to the birth of the Daily Bulletin (which
occurred without mishap February 3, 1880), a synopsis of the princi-
pal orders affecting the Railway Mail Service, such as the establish-
ment, discontinuance, or change of site of post offices, the establishment
of mail routes by star, steamboat, or railway service, and such other
orders from the First and Second Assistant Postmaster General's
offices as directly affected the operations of the Railway Mail Ser-

101

DAILY BULLETIN

CXE 1

ORDERS AFFECTING THE POSTAL SERVICE.

VOL. XIII. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C M TUESDAY, AUGtJST 2, 1892. NO. 3788

<l)c postal Bulletin.

ISSUED FBO* THE OFFICE OF

ara'L SUP'T KAIL WAY MAIL 8EBVZCS
JAMES E. WHITB. Qra't BDP'T.

POST OFFICE DEPABTXEKT.
OFFICE OF POSTMASTER GENERAL,

WASHINGTON. D. C., August, 1st, 1892.

The International Bureau of the. Uni-
versal Postal Union having officially an-
nounced that by virtue of an arrangement
between tbe Postal Administrations of
Great Britain and the Cape Colony, postaJ
tarit may now be admitted to the malls
exchanged, via Great Britain, between tbe
Cape Colony and the countries and Colo-
nles embraced In tbe Universal Postal
Union. '

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED: That
United States postal cards addressed for
delivery In any Colony or Interior State of
South Africa, be hereafter admitted to tbe
malls for those countries or Colonies, de-
spatched via Great Britain, at the rate of
postage applicable to postal cards ad.
dressed for delivery within the Universal
Postal Union, viz: 2 cents for eacb single
card.

8. A. WHITFIELIJ,
Acting Postmaster General.

Samples of Liquids, etc., Unmailsble to
Any- Australasian Colony.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF FOREIGN MAILS,
WASHINGTON, D. C., August 1st, 1S82.

Referring to tbe latter part of paragraph
.'of the circular Headed "The Universal
Postal Convention of Vienna" on pages
17-19 of the Postal Guide for the month of
May, 1802, In which notice Is given that
".Samples of liquids, etc., may be sent to
the Australasian Colonies of Victoria and
Tasmania;" postmasters and others are In-
formed that tbls Department has been
officially advised that at a conference of
all of the Australasian ColonleVsald Colo.
me* decided not to allow the transmission
of tbe samples In question In the malls ex-
changed between any of said Colonies and
the other countries and Colonies embraced
In the Universal Postal Union.

Consequently, packages of samples of
liquids, ratty substances and powders are
net transmissible by mall to the Colonies
of Victoria, Tasmania, or any other Aus-
tralasian Colony, and should not be re-
ceived by United States postmasters when
addressed for delivery In any of said Colo-
nies.

By direction of the Postmaster General,

N. M. BROOKS.
Superintendent of Foreign Mall*.

POST OFFICES ESTABLISHED.
FLORIDA.

LOUISIANA.
1 ?m C S-^ p ^- t a

MONTANA.

^^nre

NBW MEXICO.

POST OFFICES ESTABLISHED

OREGON.

Aberdeen.LInn Co.. Route, 73331 , Lecomb,
4 ins. S. E.. Lebanon, 6 ms. S. W
[IS June 92

PENNSYLVANIA.

Haafsvllle, Lehign Co., special from Fogels-
ville. Route 8428, 2 ms. E. [28 June 92
SOUTH CAROLINA.
s. AbbevllleCo., Route 1

TENN

Ohurches.Hancock Co., Route 19148, Clinch
'' 1 - E " UPP8r CliDCb ' 5 m8 - W '

VIRGINIA.

Sff^f

WASHINGTON.

POST OFFICE SITE CHANGED

POST OFFICES DISCONTINUED.

Be vTrV.n?..

KENTUCKY

rgess, Lawrence Co., Route 129027 Mal
o Oeoiycs Creek. (lane IK
Stony Point, Bourbon Co., special. Mall to

SPECIAL SERVICE CHANGES.

WEST VIRGINIA.

SSFX&SffSg^

ply to Goldtown. [ July 92

SPECIAL SERVICE DISCONTINUED

elah, Ashley Co.. from Fountain 'Hill.
From July 30, 1892, office discontinued.

NEW YORK.

Gallllee, St. Lawrence Co., from Ogdens-

bhugustl3 - 18K - onKou "

5TR SERVICE ESTABLISHED

KENTUCKY

Route 29878. Jackstown to Carlisle,-? ms
and back, three times a week, by a
schedule of not to exceed 2 hours ru
ntng time eacb way. From August
1892, to June 30, 1893. (2S July 92

Route 3B879. Kenton to- Morgansvllle, 3

Rente 29880. Baker to Potter's Fork, i ms
and- back, twice a week, by a schedule o
not to exceed \y. hours running time

Route 29881. Grand Riv
BsMAaW
&&&&)

NEW YO

11. Black Lake to Hammond, f/ t
d back, twelve times a week, by a
le of ^ot to exceed 45 minutes run-

Bout* 1074. Bagleys Mills, by Lambert t
South Hill, lit ms. and back, three tim
a week, by a schedule of not t
hours running time each w

way. Fro

93. (29 July

STAR SERVICE CHANGES.

INDIAN TERRITORY

oute 61230. Hat

August 8, 189*. I

times a week. Change schedule to Tues-

day, Thursdays and Saturday, (a July 92

STAR SERVICE DISCONTINUED.

ARKANSAS.

y% 1 1u a y UmPlre - P ' 0m
INDIAN TERKITORY.

.,vttSff 1 -** Fro

NEW YORK

Route S7S2. Morrlstown to Edwardtvlile-
From August 13. 1892. [29 July 92
TENNESSEE.

. P 0. SERVICE CHANGES.

ATTALLA AND SYUACAUOA. ALA.-R.

RAILROAD SERVICE ESTABLISHED

OREGON

Ronto 173017. Baker City to McEwen Sta-
tion (n. o.), Oregon. Sampler Valley
Rwy., 26.00 ms. and back, six times a
wetk, or as much oftener as trains may
run. From August 15,4892. [aug 1 M
PENNSYLVANIA

Route 110213. Newport, by Ferguson, E)
liottsburgh. OreerT Park, Loysvllle, Bli-
ler. Centre. Cisma's Run and Anderson,
burgh, to Blaln, Penn. Newport A Sher-
man's Valle? R. R., 25.47 mSTand back.
six times a week, or as much oftene* a*
trains may run. from September 1. 189.'.

RAILROAD SERVICE CHANGES.

>te l:i70W. WllllamsbutB to Bay Vle
nicago A West Michigan Rwy., 68.79 ms.

SKS . . rd to r ,Ute J t U h y daU oTbe^n'rfl'nS
service as August 8. 1892. Instead of

emoraT'I--

Es! C., 'on this roul
and Fairfax, and
burgh Co., tj.
Senn. f 30 July

MAIL MESSENGER SERVICE DISCONTINUED.

NEBRASKA.

Route 257042. Matron, Platte Co., from

Omaha A Republican Valley Rwy Koute

157017. From July 30, 18D2. [28 luly2

PENNSYLVANIA.

oute 210MI. Grove City. Mercer Co..
from Pittsburgh Shenango A Allegheny

' "* Fr0m AUgU " S -

ffo'K- w^rTA: A

From August 6, 1892. [29 July

POSTMASTERS COMMISSIONED

Commissioned July 28, 1892
FOURTH CLASS OFFICER.

E. Orcutt ....... .................. Orcutt. Cal

Henry H. Thrcemann ........ Somes Bar, Cal

Altred Parker ------ ......... ...

ascal Craig ....................... Moner

c W. Cookson ----- ........... Kao

n A. Hrtr ............... -I.innvl

Rober

hrlstaln L. McKlnn

Edward Kleser.calboun
Him. Church. Cbarcbe.'.

H.tt,eL.La,rd. M .rU
Wm. F Eck

1)beVlU * CO - 8C

H " hl '"" >00 - V

A FAC SIMILE OF THE DAILY RAILWAY MAIL BULLETIN.

102

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

103

vice, were copied daily upon manifold sheets by a clerk named
William H. Powell, who was detailed from the office of the First
Assistant Postmaster General for the purpose. Naturally many mis-
takes were made, and a mistake once made (from fourteen to sixteen
manifold impressions were written at a time) it was almost impos-
sible to correct it ; and moreover, whatever errors crept into these
manifold sheets were, of course, repeated in the offices of the division

THE PRINTING OFFICE OF THE DAILY RAILWAY MAIL BULLETIN.

superintendents. The growth of the Railway Mail Service, too,
called for a more expeditious system of disseminating this informa-
tion; and accordingly, in February, 1880, Mr. Thomas B. Kirby,
then private secretary to Postmaster General Key, consulted with the
Postmaster General, with Mr. William B. Thompson, then General
Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service, and with General
Tyner, then First Assistant Postmaster General. All agreed that
if orders could be distributed in printed form to the division
superintendents, it would be a great convenience not only
to the Railway Mail Service, but also to nearly every branch

104

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

r of the Department, for each would know what the other was
doing.

The way was cleared and immediately the Bulletin was sought by
nearly every branch of the Department, and especially by the First
Assistant Postmaster General and the Sixth Auditor, to obtain correct
lists of new postmasters. It soon began to be used for the orders of
the Postmaster General, which it was important to have in the hands
of the leading postmasters, as well as the division superintendents,
in advance of the publication of the Monthly Guide. February 3,
1880, the printing of envelopes and mailing lists was begun, and
on March 4, 1880, the first issue of the Daily Bulletin left the press.
It was intended at first to issue it every evening, so as to catch the
10 p. M. mail out of town, but that was not found satisfactory, as
many newspaper correspondents desired to have it in the afternoon

for clipping purposes. The Bul-
letin has been of the greatest use
in emergencies ; for once the De-
partment was without the supple-
ment to the Postal Guide, and had
it not been for the Daily Bulletin,
the mail service generally would
have been wholly at a loss.

The Bulletin is put to press at
three in the afternoon. It is
ready for mailing or for distribu-
tion among the correspondents by
four or five; and probably this lit-
tle daily is more clipped from than
any other Washington publication.
Every day, of course, postmasters
are appointed or commissioned,
and orders putting on new railway
and star mail service are issued,
and these are all of local interest,
and are consequently culled by the newspaper men and telegraphed to
their papers. The Bulletin is printed only on one side of the sheet
to accommodate them the better, and so that it may be the better
posted in conspicuous places. This paper first had a circulation of

MB. JAMES S. GEAY,
Editor, the Railway Mail Bulletin.

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

105

SECOND DIVISION

COMPRISING

New York. New Jersey Pennsylvania. Delaware, and Peninsula of Maryland and Virginia

ANNUAL REPORT

(ABSTRACT o STATISTICS SHOWING PROGRESS in SECOND Division FBOM 188M TO 1892. >

NEW YORK, JULY 16th. 18954

Appendix

200 copies daily. It has now over 1,000. Of this issue 100 or
more are mailed to division superintendents, 300 to important post-
masters, 50 or more to newspaper correspondents, 200 to the differ-
ent bureaus of the Department, and 400 or more to various per-
sons throughout the country.

Mr. James S. Gray now edits the Bulletin, and Mr. A. J.
Crossfield is foreman of the Bulletin office. Mr. Gray was ap-
pointed a clerk in the Railway Mail Service in 1873, and soon
after detailed to the office of the General Superintendent. At first
one printer was em-

ployed; now there RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE
are five. When the
Bulletin was first
issued the press-
work was done by
foot power, but cir-
culation increased
so rapidly and mis-
cellaneous job work
for the Department
was necessarily put

upon the printing ^SHS^lng at, ..-

room so much, that

in April, 1887, a four horse-power engine had to be procured.
Steam is communicated from the engine room of the Department.
The machinery consists of one Gordon extra (i) medium, 11x17,
and one Universal (i) medium, 10x15 press, a Dewley paper
cutter, a proof press, a mailing machine, two imposing stones, one
cabinet of twenty-two cases, and a full assortment of type.

The topographer's office is directly attached to the office of the
Postmaster General, and is chiefly of use to the Railway Mail Service
and the other divisions of the Second Assistant's office. The topog-
rapher, Mr. Charles Roeser, of Wisconsin, occupies with his clerks
the second and third floors of a rented building on Ninth Street not
far from the Department. Mr. Roeser has graduated at engineering
from the Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and at law from the
Columbia Law School in Washington. He entered the public ser-
vice soon after his service in the war was over, under the patronage

FISCAL YEAR-JULY 1ST TO .TUNt STI

1884)

1891

(Oft

No of R.' P cierk" 8 *!."
No of R. P Clerk who actually distribute mail. .....
No of Pout Offices

M
OM

677
.7M

.is

Increase ID No of Clerk. ID yean.

106

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of Senator Sawyer. He was soon chief draughtsman of the General
Land Office, and in 1876 he prepared for the Interior Department the
centennial map and the centennial atlas, and later the annual map
of the United States which is still in use. In 1882 Postmaster

General Howe called Mr. Roeser
to the topographer's office to re-
organize it. The new officer
changed the process of reproduc-
tion to photo-lithography, made
the issues timely and uniform,
and for half the money published
four times as many maps.

The work of the topographer's
office consists of projecting and
compiling the original drawings
of post-route maps of the general
edition to replace old, worn-out,
and inaccurate maps, and of trac-
ing and lettering them for photo-
lithography, preparing special
drawings of enlarged sub-maps of
the evirons of the principal cities,
making sample diagrams of special
editions of states and territories
for the Railway Mail Service to
exhibit the different lines and their connecting side mail routes;
and testing new photo-lithographic maps received from the con-
tractors. In the preparation of the successive bi-monthly
editions of sheets of the printed maps, all the recorded orders
about the sites of post offices and their mode of supply are
transferred to the working maps, correction sheets, and sam-
ple sheets. This exhibit is also regularly transferred to the
numerous maps or diagrams required for daily reference at the
Department. Miscellaneous routine work consists of issuing copies
of printed post-route maps to the agents of the Department, pur-
chasers, Members of Congress, and others, and the correspondence
connected with all this; computing and certifying post-route dis-
tances for the settlement of questions of mileage required by public

ME. CHARLES BOESEK,
Topographer of the Department.

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

107

officers* furnishing lists of counties and lists of the distances of post-
routes between the more important points ; mounting maps in dif-
ferent forms ; keeping up to date the published editions by the map
correctors; preparing color guides, which show the frequency of
service, and county and state boundaries, for the contractors; and
entering in duplicate the es-
tablishments and changes in
post offices in books classi-
fied by states for the use of
the draughtsmen.

This bureau publishes
twenty-six maps. They are
found to be especially val-
uable for their large scale
and their accuracy without
any superfluity of detail.
They form, in reality, pic-
torial outlines setting be-
fore the eye the 'great feat-
ures of the postal service
for extended regions; and
as a knowledge of geogra-
phy and of post routes is
most easily acquired by the
study of authentic maps,
they are a most important
auxiliary for the intelligent
performance of the duties
of the postal employees.
The maps are not only in constant and urgent demand by the dif-
ferent offices of the service, but they are also in great requisition
by the other departments, and by publishers, commercial agents,
and others. The Department, of course, finds itself unable with the
limited appropriation always allowed by Congress, to supply the
post-route maps in large numbers. Each Senator or Representative
is entitled to one map per session free under the law. The number
distributed to the Post Office and the other departments is very
limited, too. Maps are disposed of to general applicants at the

EXTERIOR, TOPOGRAPHER'S OFFICE.

FAC SIMILE OF TAUT OF POST-KOUTE MAP.

108

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

109

cost of printing plus ten per cent. The Department issues a small
sheet showing what the maps are, and what their prices. These
last vary from 33 to 66 cents in sheets to $1.10 to $2 for maps
backed and mounted on rollers.

The topographer's office furnishes from 1,500 to 2,000 maps to
postmasters annually, perhaps 2,500 annually to the Railway Mail
Service, probably 1,500 annually to the offices and clerks of the

INTERIOR, TOPOGRAPHER'S OFFICE.

Post Office Department, and about 1,000 each to public officials and
institutions and to the general public; and the topographer receives
over 5,000 letters a year and writes almost 7,000.

The money appropriated for the Postal Guide is, of course, insuf-
ficient, and it is often with difficulty that publishers of responsi-
bility are induced to bid for the publication of it at all. The Annual
Guide is a book of nine hundred pages or more. It is issued each
January, and contains an alphabetical list of postmasters by states
and counties (and the county seats are indicated), information about
the registry system, lists of life-saving stations and army posts,

UNITF^

COPYRIGHTED, 1592^

ORDER No. 129. POST OFFICE DEPARTMF.N-T, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 15, 1892.

During the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30th 1893, all postmasters and railway postal clerks
will be supplied monthly by this Department with the United States Official Postal Guide, the only
Official Bulletin of the Post Office Department JOHN WANAMAKER, Postmaster- General

SECOND SERIES. I OPTHRFR 1 ftQO r PRICE,$200. Per Annum.

Vol. XIV. No. 10. J \J\s I *JDC*r\ 9 1 OCJ^. (.Including large January Guide.

CONTENTS.

Rulings.

The President's Proclamation The
Four Hundredth Anniversary of
the Discovery of America.

Treatment of Pensioners' Official
Letters.

Reward for flail Robbers.

Endorsement of Private Enterprise

by Postal Officials Forbidden.
Orders, Circulars and Statistics.

ENTERED AT THE POST OFFICE AT PHILADELPHIA PA. AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER.

FAC SIMILE, FIRST PAGE, MONTHLY POSTAL GUIDE.

110

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT. Ill

other matter for the assistance of postmasters and the public, orders
for all the postal people to follow, regulations about foreign mails,
money orders, lotteries, mail bag repairs, exchanges of mails with
Canada, and so on. Each postmaster is provided with a copy and
the publisher sells them in paper covers at $2, and in cloth
covers at $2.50. These prices include the monthly supplement.
The annual and monthly Guide are also found to be of considerable
use to business men and organizations accustomed to use the mails
profusely.

The monthly Postal Guide contains information supplementary to
that printed in the Annual Guide. The Postmaster General and his
assistants communicate to postmasters and the public rulings, orders,
parcels post or money order conventions, etc., in addition to the lists
of new post offices ; and now and then, some really original observa-
tions dare to creep in. The Department not long ago arranged
with the publisher of the Guide to supply the monthly supple-
ments at one cent a copy. The former price had been five cents
a copy. But this effort to popularize the publication met with
small success. Matter of some real interest and value was injected,
but it was out of the run of the cobwebs, and the appropriation
(which has to be specific for the Postal Guide, as for every object
in the Post Office Department, and in all the departments) was
promptly cut down. And now the old time liver-pill advertisement
has to be admitted in order to secure a publication at all.

So the efforts to make the Guide a real medium between the
Department and the people failed. It remains merely a medium
between the Department and the postmasters, and it is a poor one at
that, for postmasters, finding that it lacks interest, do not read it, or
reading it, they do not understand it all. For those who try to
improve the Guide, however, there is one small source of satisfac-
tion. The educational methods which Postmaster General Wana-
maker has so much desired to infuse into the service, the information
upon postal topics which the press has of late so generously and so
generally imparted, the invitation to all persons freely to criticise
the service, these things, supplemented a little perhaps by the
partial popularization of the Guide under the distressing circum-
stances above mentioned, have perceptibly improved the service.
For the letters that go wrong or slowly (which are the test of

DON'TS.

Don't mail any letter until you are sure
that it is completely and properly ad-
dressed.

Don't place the address so that there
will be no room for the post-mark.

Don't fail, in the hurry of business, to
write the name of the State you intend
and not your own a very common
error.

Don't fail to make certain that your man-
ner of writing the name of an office or
State may not cause it to be mistaken
for one similar in appearance. It is
often better to write the name of the
State in full.

Don't fail, if you are in doubt as to the
right name of the office for which your
letter is intended, to consult the Postal
Guide, which any postmaster will be
pleased to show you.

Don't fail to give the street and house
number of the person for whom mail
matter is intended in addressing it to
a city or large town.

Don't mail any letter until you are sure
that it is properly stamped.

Don't fail to place the stamp in the upper
right hand corner.

Don't write on the envelope " In haste,"
" Care of postmaster," etc. ; it does
no good, and tends to confusion in the
rapid handling of mail matter.

Don't fail to bear in mind that it is un-
lawful to enclose matter of a higher
class in one that is lower ; e. </. , mer-
chandise in newspapers.

Don't mail any letter unless your ad-
dress, with a request to return, is upon
the face of the envelope ; so that in
case of non-delivery it will be returned
directly to you.

Don't fail to give your correspondents
your full address, so that a new post-
man cannot fail to find you.

Don't fail to notify your postmaster of
any change in your address.

Don't trust to the fact that you are an
" old resident," " well-known citizen,"
etc., but have your letter addressed in
full.

Don't fail, if you intend to be away from
home for any length of time, to inform
your postmaster what disposition shall
be made of your mail.

Don't delay the delivery of any mail-
matter that you may take out for
another.

Don't fail to sign your letters in full, so
that if they reach the Dead Letter
Office they may be promptly returned.

Don't, when you fail to receive an ex-
pected letter, charge the postal service
with its loss, until you have learned
from your correspondent all the facts
in regard to its mailing, contents, etc.

AS TO PARCELS.

Don't mail, a parcel without previously
weighing it to ascertain proper amount
of postage.

Don't wrap a parcel in such manner that
the wrapper may become separated
from the contents.

Don't seal or wrap parcels in such man-
ner that their contents may not be
easily examined.

Don't mail parcels to foreign countries
without special inquiry concerning the
regulations governing foreign ad-
dressed mail matter.

Don't attempt to send merchandise to
foreign countries, other than Canada
and Mexico, in execution of an order
or as a gift, unless the postage is pre-
paid at five cents per half -ounce.

Don't attempt to send merchandise to
foreign countries by " Parcels Post,"
unless your postmaster be consulted
concerning the country addressed and
the manner of mailing matter thereto.

Don't fail to put the address of the
sender on each parcel before mailing.
This to facilitate a return to the sender
in the event of non-delivery.

A PAGE OF MATTER FROM THE POSTAL, GUIDE.

112

THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

113

irregular or inadequate service) have decreased in numbers so much
that the Dead Letter Office, the index of this business, has actually
cleared its desks of work; and this fact proves that it would be
actual economy, in columns of indisputable figures, if there might
be some official or semi-official countenance of these educational
methods. For the expense involved in rectifying the errors of the
public would surely be decreased; and in addition, the public would
not be inconvenienced in the meantime.

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS.

' HE Mail Equipment Division of the Second Assist-
ant's office provides the service with mail bags
of all kinds, mail locks and keys, and mail bag
catchers, and the various devices, like cord fas-
teners, label cases, etc., which pertain to these
equipments. It prepares advertisements invit-
ing proposals for furnishing these articles, re-
ceives the proposals, and prepares contracts. It
issues orders for the purchase of new materials, receives, inspects,
and accepts them, and issues them again whenever and wherever they
are needed. This division controls and cares for all these things
after they have been put in service, sees that they are economically
and properly used and are not allowed to accumulate and lie idle at
places where they are not needed, and provides that the damaged
stock shall be repaired and restored to service. There are three
funds at the disposal of the division: one of $260,000 for the pur-
chase and repair of mail bags and mail catchers; another of $35,000
for the purchase and repair of mail locks, keys, and chains ; and yet
another of $6,500 for the rent, fuel, and lighting of the mail bag
and mail lock repair shops in Washington. The Mail Equipment
Division is presided over by Maj. R. D. S. Tyler, who served in
the Rebellion with the 81st New York Infantry. He won promotion
to a captaincy and was wounded at Cold Harbor and breveted a
major for bravery. He was engaged in the publishing business in
Detroit for fifteen years before his appointment. Major Tyler is an
enthusiast in his work. The mantels, shelves, and walls of his
office are tastefully decorated with mail bags, locks, etc.

There are nine different styles or classes of mail bags in use by
the Post Office and from one to five sizes of each class. The first s
the ordinary mail pouch, made of leather, and in five sizes. They

114

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS.

115

are intended for the transmission of ordinary first-class mail matter in
vehicles of any kind. The No. 1, or largest pouch, is being with-
drawn from use. The No. 2 pouch, the largest size now,made, costs
84.95, and the smallest size, the
No. 5, costs 11.71. About five
years ago as many as 16,000 new
leather pouches were annually re-
quired, but now, notwithstanding
the tremendous increase of mails,
only about 10,000 are purchased
yearly. This reduction is due to
the excellent work performed in
the bag repair shop. It is believed
that pouches made of canvas, in-
stead of leather, will be found
more durable as well as handier and
a great deal cheaper, and it is not
improbable that before long the
leather pouches may be entirely
superseded by the canvas ones.

The second class of mail bags
comprise leather horse bags; and
they are intended for use on star
routes where it is found necessary to carry the mail on horse-
back. There are three sizes of them, and they are made so
that they may be conveniently buckled on behind a saddle.
They cost from $4.83 to $3.51, according to size; and it is
found necessary to purchase about 1,200 new ones each year.
The third class consists of jute canvas sacks. They are used only
for the transmission of second, third, and fourth class matter, not
registered. They are made in three sizes, the first two sizes of jute
canvas cloth, and costing from 43 to 50 cents each, and the third
size of cotton canvas cloth and costing about 27 cents apiece. It is
proposed to have the No. 1 and No. 2 sacks also made of cotton can-
vas instead of jute, and 1,500 of these are now on trial on trains
between New York and Chicago. All these sacks are used without
locks, and are closed by means of a cord, with a cord fastener and
label case attached to it. About 9,000 of them are needed daily for

MAJ. K. D. S. TYLEE,
Chief, Mail Equipment Division.

116

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the New York post office alone, and about 162,000 new ones of the
large size, No. 1, 20,000 of the No. 2, and 10,000 of the small size
are purchased annually.

The fourth kind of mail bag, the catcher pouch, is used on trains
in exchanging mails with stations at which the trains do not stop.
The pouch is hung upon a crane by the side of the track, and is
caught from the crane, as the train passes, by an iron arm called a

REJECTED LOCKS IN THE MAIL, EQUIPMENT DIVISION.

catcher, attached to the postal car. These pouches are of but one
size, are made of canvas strengthened by leather bindings around the
top and bottom and with a leather strap around the centre, and cost
$8.27 each. As these pouches are used only upon fast lines and for
small stations, the number in use is not large, but the wear and tear
upon them is very great; so that it is necessary to purchase about
6,000 new ones annually. About 150 damaged ones are sent to the
repair shop daily. The division superintendent of the Railway Mail
at New York has to be supplied with about 500 of these pouches
every fortnight.

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS.

11T

The fifth class of mail bag is the through register pouch. No. 2
is the size chiefly used, and there is no contract now for making the
small size, the No. 3. This is the most expensive of all the pouches.
It costs 18.43 for size No. 1 and $6.87 for No. 2. It is made of

LOCKS AND BAGS IN THE MAIL EQUIPMENT DIVISION.

canvas, but it has a leather bottom. It is used, where special
authorization is had, to convey registered matter between large cities
at the terminals of railroad routes. Formerly it was the practice to
condemn and cut up these pouches as soon as they were damaged in
the slightest respect, even by a hole big enough for a pencil ; and it
was then necessary to purchase about 2,000 of these pouches yearly.

ASS AW/ lock, for Combinations*
2 V/tati&

StdJ" ftOtt

t f I&YQ+

Street t. etttr box
patt/Q
~ttort$,

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS. 119

But now they are repaired with such care and skill that the repaired
pouch is as safe as a new one ; and in the past five years, since the
system of repairing began, only 1,000 through registered pouches
have been bought.

These bags are closed with a peculiar lock which costs $2.50.
Each lock is lettered and numbered, and has besides a rotary num-
ber which changes whenever the lock is opened. Every man who
handles a through registered pouch while it is in transit is required
to give a receipt for it under the letter and number, and also the
rotary number, of the lock with which it has been closed. It can
thus be readily traced ; and it can be ascertained in whose care it
was if at any time it should be opened.

The sixth class of mail bag is the inner register sack. This is
intended for the transmission of registered matter between offices
not situated at the terminals of railroad routes. These sacks are of
light canvas, red striped, and of four sizes, and they are always used
inside the ordinary leather mail pouches of the same numbered size.
They cost from 57 to 97 cents apiece, and about 1,000 new ones
are bought each year. No post office may exchange either through
register pouches or inner register sacks with another office until
specially authorized to do so by the Third Assistant Postmaster
General.

The seventh and eighth classes of mail bags are the foreign canvas
sacks and the foreign registered sacks, the first used for ordinary
mail and the second for mail registered to foreign countries. They
are made of light canvas, those for ordinary rriail blue striped, and
those for registered mail red striped. These sacks have no lock,
but are closed by sealing. About 1,500 new ones are required each
year. The ninth kind of mail bag is the coin sack, a very small
cotton affair, about ten by twelve inches, used by postmasters at the
smaller offices for sending their money to the larger offices for deposit.
These sacks are made in the mail bag repair shop.

The mail catcher is a heavy iron arm, which is furnished by the
Mail Equipment Division to the division superintendents of the Rail-
way Mail to be fitted to the side doors of all postal cars, and used to
catch pouches hung from cranes at stations while the train is in
motion. The catcher first used cost $15, but now it costs only $3.25,
and its durability and form have been much improved upon. From

120

THE STORY OF OTJK POST OFFICE.

three hundred to four hundred catchers are spoiled in a year. For
the past two years these damaged catchers, sent to Washington by
mail, have been repaired by the Department in a small blacksmith
shop, employing two good men, in the rear of the bag repair shop.
The utmost care has to be used in the repair, as well as in the manu-

THE BAG AND LOCK REPAIR SHOP.

facture, of these catchers, for if one should fly to pieces it would be
pretty sure to kill the railway postal clerk who happened to be
manipulating it. The cost of repairing the catchers is about
twenty-five cents, whereas formerly they were repaired by the con-
tractor at a charge of $1 each ; and he received free, into the bar-
gain, all the material of those not worth repairing.

The jute canvas sack is closed by means of a cord running through

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS. 121

a row of eyelets punched around the mouth of the sack, and the ends
of the cord are clamped together and fastened by means of a small
metal device called a cord fastener, which has a case for a label on
the back of it. The cost of the cord fastener used to be a little less
than ten cents apiece for the manufacture, and five cents apiece for
royalty. But about two years ago the owner of the patent, having
already received royalties amounting to more than $30,000, in con-
sideration of an additional order for the manufacture of 100,000
cord fasteners, assigned his patent to the Department; so that now
no royalty is paid. The 100,000 then ordered have been used, and
it has been found necessary to purchase 170,000 more, which were
obtained at the reduced cost of a little over five cents apiece. About
100,000 new cord fasteners are required annually. Some time ago
fifty new devices for cord fasteners, submitted by as many inventors,
were examined by the Department, but no improvement upon the
present device was found. These inventors asked royalties varying
from one and one half cents to seventy-five cents apiece; or they
were willing (quite as generously) to sell their patents outright for
from $5,000 to $50,000.

Before 1875 all the repairs to mail bags were made in a few of the
larger cities under direction of the postmaster, who made contracts
with private individuals. Twenty-five cents was paid for each
leather patch upon a mail pouch. It was discovered, however, that
gross frauds were perpetrated upon the Department, for patches were
put upon many sound bags that were in need of no attention at all,
and bags still serviceable, but requiring a little attention, were con-
demned and cut up. So in '75 and '76, when Marshall Jewell was
Postmaster General, the entire system was changed, and there were
established five repair shops in Washington, New York, Chicago, St.
Louis, and Indianapolis. These were situated in the post offices
and were under the immediate supervision of the postmasters. Each
shop had from six to fifteen employees who received stated salaries.
This was a great improvement. But shortly after assuming charge
of the Mail Equipment Division, Major Tyler discovered that very
large numbers of mail bags of all kinds lay idle and useless through-
out the country for the need of slight repairs, and that, indeed, there
were about 400,000 such in the post offices at New York and Wash-
ington alone. The Department accordingly discontinued the repair

122

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

shops at New York and Indianapolis, and later the one at St. Louis.
The repair shop in Chicago has twelve employees, who repair about
200,000 mail bags in a year at a cost of something less than

810,000. But only light re-
pairs are made in Chicago;
all mail bags that need heavy
repairs, or that ought to be con-
demned, are sent to the Wash-
ington shop. Formerly every
person who repaired bags was
at liberty to condemn them at
his own sweet will. There was,
of course, great waste. But
now they have inspectors, whose
duty it is to examine all bags
sent in, to condemn such as
actually ought to be condemned,
and distribute the others equi-
tably among the workmen. It
is their duty, too, to see that
the work has been properly done.
The repair shop in Washing-
ton is now very well equipped.
It has a superintendent of its
own, and is under the supervis-
ion of the Mail Equipment Division and the Second Assistant. The
superintendent is Mr. Franklin B. Kirkbride, son of the late Dr.
Thomas S. Kirkbride, for more than forty years physician-in-chief at
the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and grandson of the late
Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, who was Attorney General and
Secretary of War under Jackson and Attorney General under Van
Buren. Mr. Kirkbride was born in Philadelphia in 1867, graduated
from Haverf ord College in ' 89, and studied abroad. In August, ' 91 , he
was appointed stock-keeper of the bag shop, and in a few months he
was promoted to be superintendent of both the bag and lock shops.
These two occupy a large brick building at 479 and 481 C Street,
N. W., fifty feet wide by one hundred and forty feet deep. It was
formerly of three stories, but two new ones have just been added.

MB. FRANKLIN B. KIRKBKIDE,
Superintendent, Bag and Lock Repair Shop.

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS. 123

There are about two hundred and thirty employees in the whole
place, one hundred and twenty of whom are men. The women are
jute sewers, and patch and otherwise repair and restring the jute
canvas sacks. They receive three and one half cents apiece per
bag, and are expected to average thirty-eight bags a day. The
men are a superintendent and two assistant superintendents, leather
and canvas workers, and laborers. The leather workers are skilled
mechanics and repair the leather mail pouches, horse bags, and the
leather parts of catcher pouches and through register pouches. They
are paid 175 a month each, when they have attained the required pro-
ficiencv; and they can repair twenty to twenty -four leather pouches
each a day. The canvas workers are skilled workmen in canvas and
also receive $75 per month. They repair catcher pouches, through
register pouches, and foreign mail bags. The laborers receive $50
a month and are occupied in receiving, shaking out, handling,
packing, and reshipping the mail bags. The amount of work
required is greater than ever before and the efficiency of the shop is
proportionately greater. About 35,000 jute sacks, four hundred
leather pouches, and qne hundred catcher pouches are repaired each
day. A large amount of surplus stock besides the damaged stock is
shipped hither from all over the country, to be overhauled, packed,
and reshipped where needed. About 200,000 mail bags are received,
overhauled, and reshipped from this bag shop with every thirty days.

A few mail bags are repaired by postmasters in small country
places. When a bag containing mail in transit is received by a
postmaster in a damaged condition, and he has on hand no sound
bag to substitute for it, he is authorized to have repairs made ; and
he presents his bill to the Equipment Division for auditing. The
total annual cost of such repairs for the whole country, however, is
less than $400.

The business-like methods of the repair shop have greatly reduced
the amount .of new stock required to be purchased. During the past
two years only 23,000 leather mail pouches and 1,000 through
register pouches have been bought, while during the preceding three
years 49,500 leather pouches and 3,400 through register pouches
had to be purchased; and there were almost 25,000 fewer jute sacks
bought in the past three than in the preceding three years. About
$160,000 is spent annually for new mail bags and catchers, and

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS. 125

about 1100,000 for repairing them. If it were not for the repair
shop it is almost certain that the cost of the mail equipment would
be twice $ 260, 000. All mail bags are purchased under contract
that run for a period of four years. A contract ends on March 3,
1893, for example, and new contracts have to be advertised for; and
so on.

There are about fifty mail bag depositories scattered through the
country where more or less surplus stock is kept to supply the adja-
cent region upon orders from the Mail Equipment Division. Eleven
of these depositories are at the eleven headquarters of the division
superintendents of the Railway Mail, and it is at these principal
depositories that all the surplus equipment from the surrounding
states is turned in, and it is at these points chiefly that the new
stores are needed.

The locks used by the Post Office Department had best be divided
for purposes of description into two classes: those used for securing
mail matter while it is in transit in mail bags, and those used for
securing the safety of mail matter that has been deposited in street
letter boxes for collection. There are three kinds of locks of the
first class. One, the general mail lock, is made of iron, and is
used in locking leather mail pouches and horse bags, which contain
ordinary first-class mail. There are far more locks of this kind in
use than of any other. Probably as many as 500,000 of them are
scattered over the United States. The second, the brass lock, is
used to secure through mail in pouches passing over star routes.
Brass lock service is used over only a very small number of these
and is authorized by the Third Assistant Postmaster General where
the through registered mail is very heavy. Probably not more than
1,000 of these are continually in use.

The third kind of lock used to secure mail in transit is the
"rotary" or "through register" mail lock. This is used on every
through register pouch and inner register sack whenever exchanges
are authorized by the Third Assistant. There are probably about
12,000 of these locks in use. They are made of brass, are of a
cylindrical shape, and have upon one side a "spring-cat," which,
upon being pushed back, exposes, beneath some mica, four figures.
These figures number from to 9999 and vary consecutively,
advancing one every time a lock is opened. As pouches fastened

126

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

with these locks are receipted for under the rotary number of the
lock, it is readily ascertained if the pouch has been improperly
opened and also, as has been hinted, who is responsible.

The street letter box locks are either padlocks attached to the out-
side of the collection boxes, or else inside street letter box locks,
which are not padlocks, but are attached to the inside of the collec-
tion box. There are many different combinations of the inside
street box locks. They cost eighty cents apiece originally, and the ser-
vices of a regular
mechanic are re-
quired to put them
on and take them
off. But they are
more durable and
safer than the pad-
lock. They are
used only in a few
of the larger cities.
There are about
10,000 of them in
all.

Of the street let-
ter box padlocks

there are very many different combinations. They formerly cost
$1.25 each, but later the price was reduced to fifty cents.
There are about 25,000 of them in use. The necessity for a
good many different combinations of street letter box locks is
readily apparent. If a key should be stolen, or a lock stolen
and false keys fitted to it, the thief would have access to the
collection boxes all over the country, if there were but one combina-
tion in use. But as there are very many, the loss can be pretty
effectually stopped by changing the combination of locks in the
city in which the theft occurred. The distribution of the various
combinations of locks is kept a deep secret.

All locks and keys, like mail bags, were formerly purchased, and
the locks were formerly repaired, under contract, and it was thought
necessary to change the locks in use every ten or twelve years. The
contracts for locks were made for periods of four years, with the

THE FIRST CHEW IN THE LOCK SHOP.

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS.

127

privilege reserved to the Department of extending the contract for
four years twice. Before the termination of this twelve years, a new
lock would be introduced and a new contract made. The work of
changing the general mail lock is very expensive and laborious. If
locks were purchased by contract at prices heretofore paid, it would
cost at least 8200,000 to make the change; and it would require
much additional labor, as, besides distributing the new locks, every

THE BLACKSMITH SHOP WHERE CATCHERS ARE REPAIRED.

)ffice in the country has to be first supplied with a new key, and

key must be charged to the office by its number.
The method of providing new locks and keys has recently been
inged, however. In 1889, upon the recommendation of Major
Tyler, the Second Assistant Postmaster General obtained from Con-
gress an appropriation of $10,000 for establishing and fitting up a
mail lock shop in Washington. This shop has now $20,000 worth
of machinery and tools in it, and employs fifteen skilled mechanics
and about thirty other men and boys ; and it is stocked to furnish
all articles needed in repairing both mail locks and mail bags, a

128

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

thing which, besides its great economy, is of very great convenience
to the Department. Mail locks of all kinds are repaired here at
about one quarter of what it would cost to repair them by contract;
and this lock shop furnishes such new keys as are necessary.

In 1890 the Department thought it necessary to change the gen-
eral mail lock then in use. As already stated, such a change, if
made by purchasing a new lock by contract as heretofore, would
have cost the Department about $200,000. But there were on hand

PUNCHING EYES OUT OF SACKS.

about 200,000 old "Eagle locks " which had been in use as a general
mail lock prior to 1882, when the present iron lock was adopted.
It had been proposed, in accordance with former custom, to destroy
these 200,000 locks and sell them for old iron, in which transaction
they would have brought $135. But the Second Assistant had
these locks all sent to the lock shop, where they were altered,
repaired, and fitted with a new style of key made of steel, instead of
cast iron, as heretofore. -The cost of changing the locks was about
six cents each, and of adding the new keys about nine and one
half cents each. They were turned out at the rate of 1,500

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS.

129

daily. The saving to the Government by all this is betAveen
$125,000 and $150,000. The dies and tools for this import-
ant work, and those needed for the street letter box locks, are
all made by the men in the shop.

The iron lock is being gradually withdrawn from service ; and it
is believed that after six or eight years, when it is thought neces-
sary again to change the general
mail lock, these old iron locks
can be sent to the lock shop,
altered and fitted with a new
and different key at a compara-
tively small cost, and then re-
stored to use in place of the
Eagle lock. If so, it will not be
necessary to purchase a new lock
for twenty or thirty years. The
changes of locks are made neces-
sary by the circumstance that in
half a dozen years a stray key, or
a score, or perhaps a hundred of
them the country over, get into
the possession of persons who
try to use them dishonestly.

Locks and keys have to be
guarded with the greatest strin-
gency. Not long ago a Philadelphia carrier lost his letter box key.
He was suspended for ten days, until the lost key was found. After-
wards another carrier, who collected mail in Germantown, lost a key.
He was removed by the postmaster. It was a more serious matter than
one would think, for the key would fit any letter box in German-
town, or in Philadelphia for that matter, and hence the mails might
have been made unsafe until all the keys of the city had been
changed. Just before the Republican National Convention at
Minneapolis, the city was entirely supplied with new locks and
keys, this for protection against the mail thieves known to flock to
such large gatherings. Probably there is no lock in use by the
Department, or commonly in use anywhere, that cannot be picked,
for there are fellows who make it their business to study how to

AT THE COFFEE WINDOW.

130

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

pick locks. But the trouble that they can make for the postal ser-
vice is necessarily very little. They have no means of knowing
whether it will pay or not. Here is a letter box, say. The thief
who robs it goes to prison, if he steals nothing more than a news-
paper. With the general adoption of Mr. Wanamaker's proposi-
tion to put letter boxes on all doors in free delivery localities where
citizens desire them, not only for delivery to them, but for collec-

A STORE KOOM IN THE BAG SHOP.

tions from them, comes additional safety for two reasons : there is
smaller chance of securing plunder, and surer and quicker chance
of detection.

One of the glass cases in Major Tyler's office is filled with locks
that have been or are at the present time in use by the Department.
Another is still more numerously filled with locks that have been
offered and have been rejected, each, of course, according to the firm
impression of the inventor, because favor has been shown to some
competitor with a perfectly inferior invention. Surely one of the
prize rejected locks was sent in by a Texan. He said that he had

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS. 131

this little thing, but he didn't want to go to the trouble of making
a shield for it, and he would like it if the Mail Equipment Division
would work out successfully that part of the invention. But, tired
of the resulting delay, this inventor completed his lock and used it
to make fast his horse's neck and fore leg as a protection against
horse thieves.

The defective bags are sent in to the repair shop from all parts of
the country by mail. They are received in great lots at the front
door and carried inside. The inspectors find some mail matter,
mostly newspapers and circulars, but once in a while a letter. In
25,000 will come, perhaps, a peck of this matter. The postal people
are continually warned to be careful to shake the sacks thoroughly,
but sometimes in the tremendous hurry required to make connec-
tions a piece of mail will lodge. The letter pouch has this advan-
tage over the. jute sack, that it does not hold a circular or paper in
the bottom as often. The good bags are put in a separate pile for
storage and the wholly bad ones are cut up and the useless parts
sent to the junk dealer. The others are piled on an immense ele-
vator and lifted to the fourth floor. The foreman hands them out
as the women are ready for them, and as the bags are finished they
are collected by the foreman and the proper credit is given. It is
Hobson's choice with the bags. The women do not see them and

hence are willing to take them as they come, the hard ones with the
easy. The labor is tiresome and the pay not large, perhaps thirty
dollars, perhaps forty dollars a month. But scores, hundreds, even,
of applications are constantly on file at the Second Assistant's office
for places in the bag shop. The women talk a little and joke a
little, but they must apply themselves sedulously to the work, or
they do not -earn enough, or worse yet, lose their places. The
large room in which the women are employed has conveniences for
making a cup of coffee or tea ; and the employees may drink as
much as they please for nothing. The hundred women (who alone
repair over 2,000 bags a day) are supposed to repair thirty-eight
bags a day, or give way to others. The average earning is $38
a month. A woman once made $95 in a month, but the highest
figure now is $55.

The third floor is used by the leather workers who repair the
leather and catcher pouches and for storage. The nooks and corners

132 THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

have much the appearance of a shoemaker's, or a harness maker's, or
a trunkmaker's, or a sailmaker's shop. Indeed, most of the men who
work on the pouches have followed these occupations previously.
A man used to repair a dozen bags a day. The average now is
twenty. The workmen have been appointed mainly on the recom-
mendations of influential persons, but influence has never been
allowed to interfere with the efficiency of the room, for only a

CROCHETED BY THE BLIND GIRL.

skilled workman could be employed, and hence they alone are
recommended.

The second floor of the bag shop is mainly used for storage pur-
poses. Perhaps 20,000 bags are commonly on hand waiting to be
mended. The number has risen as high as 50,000. These are
spread out in great piles ; or, if waiting to be spread out, they have
been left in still bigger piles, bags within bags, heaped one upon
another. On the second floor most of the inspecting is done. Bags

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS. 133

not worth repairing are cut up and the pieces saved for patches or
for double bottoms. The eyes of the jute sacks are punched out by
a machine made for the purpose manned by an active boy. Worth-
less bags are stripped of cords or cord fasteners, and the cord and
the cord fasteners are separated into good and bad. Nothing is
wasted that can possibly be saved. The waste, indeed, is ninety
per cent, less than it was six years ago. On the second floor are
the sail makers, who repair the catcher and through registered
pouches and other canvas sacks. Here, too, is the office of the
superintendent, in which the visitor may see the equipment for the
beautiful little model of the modern postal car, which has been
made for the German post office. It shows exactly one sixth of the
measurement of the full postal car, and is provided with a perfect
equipment in the, minutest detail, with racks, catchers, pouches,
cords, and cord fasteners, all exactly as if they were big ones.

In the machine shop, which occupies the fifth floor, are shapers,
drills, grinders, dogs, forges, lathes, grindstones, anvils, dies, chucks,
and all that, and a very busy dozen men, making rivets, eyes, tools,
and everything, almost, that is required for use in the shop. The
value of the machinery is about 120,000. Everyman and boy in
this room is sworn. Every piece of material handed out, every
piece of finished product, must be accounted for; every spoiled piece
of work must be carefully given up. One man repairs all the
through registered locks. There in a secret little room in which
only three persons may go the Second Assistant Postmaster Gen-
eral, the chief of the Equipment Division, and the man himself who
does the work. The lock repairers, are all sworn employees of the
Government. The men know the combinations of locks, because
they put the locks together and have the keys; but everything
which they require during the day is provided for them, and when
work ceases, everything which they have been working upon, raw
material, pieces of locks, keys, etc., is turned over rigorously to the
foreman and locked up in the big safe. If a key were lost, all
the locks to which it could apply might have to be called in
immediately, and the. number might be 10,000.

Upstairs among the women is one who has sewed at the mail bags
for seventeen years, ever since the shop was organized. But the
most interesting person in the bag shop, as every other person in

134

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the bag shop cordially admits, is Miss Hattie Maddux, a girl who
has been totally blind for years. She sits during the regulation
hours every day by a great heap of mail bags which have defective
cords. With wonderful deftness she finds the knots, weak spots,
ravelled ends, and what not, in all these, makes them good again or
supplies new ones, knots the ends in the cord fasteners, and puts the
bags in another heap, as reliably equipped for use again as if Argus

A BLIND GIRL STRINGING BAGS.

himself had inspected them. Her face is happy with contentment
and intelligence. Another woman is required to do piecework of
this sort. She has both her eyes and earns $30 a month. Miss
Maddux earns $40. In the evening she works on children's cloth-
ing and makes tasteful silk stockings, rarely clocked. She won
her present place in a wonderful way. She showed Colonel
Whitfield, who was then the Second Assistant, some samples
of her crocheting one day. He engaged her instantly. If
any woman in the bag shop gets out of patience trying to

AMONG THE MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS.

135

A BEADED CHAIR MADE BY
THE BLIND GIRL,.

thread a needle, she takes it promptly to the poor, happy
blind girl.

It is believed by experts that it would be economical in every-
way if ad inspector or two could be employed under the direc-
tion of the Second Assistant to
visit post offices and search them
thoroughly for bags and sacks
that need repairing. A mail sack,
and especially a partly worn-out
one, is not an object of much
interest to the average clerk in a
post office or the average railway
postal clerk. The neglected sacks
are used for waste paper, and for
beds, of course; they are used
for aprons, window curtains, and
waste luncheons. But the in-
spector cannot be had because a
specific appropriation is required for it. The Second Assistant's
office must therefore do the best it can by issuing from time to time
in the Postal Guide directions to postmasters and others how the
mail equipment is to be taken care of. They must forward surplus
locks, keys, cord fasteners, chains, and label cases to the Second
Assistant's office each Saturday of every week, and every division
superintendent is directed to send all defective mail catchers and
rubber springs as fast as they become defective to the mail bag store-
house in Washington. Postmasters are not allowed to cut the
shackles of a lock or in any way deface it, but they may cut the bag
staple when the lock cannot be opened with the key. Postmaster.8
are especially prohibited from using pouch locks, new or old, on any
letter box inside or outside of post offices. Postmasters reclaim any
pouches or bags, locks or keys which they find in unauthorized hands
or put to an unauthorized use by anyone, and forward them to
Washington. When a pouch is received without a lock and the
postmaster has no mail lock, he locks the pouch with any safe pad-
lock which he may have and sends the key in a sealed envelope by
the mail carrier to the next postmaster, who, if he has no mail lock,
uses the same padlock on the pouch and forwards the key to the

136 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

next postmaster, in a sealed envelope, and so on. The first post-
master who happens to have a mail lock puts it on the pouch and
immediately returns the padlock and key to its owner. If a post-
master has no padlock, he purchases an inexpensive lock,* which he
sends, together with an explanation, to the Second Assistant's office.
The bill for such a lock is presented, like other accounts, in his
quarterly statement to the Auditor. All this seems very finical ; it
all seems wound up in red tape ; but it is all very necessary.

The repaired bags are mostly shipped to eastern points. They
go to eleven distributing points in the whole country, and these
distributing offices send bags, upon the orders of the Second Assist-
ant Postmaster General, to other points as they are required. The
great currents of mail run East and West, and hence almost all the
bags come in on East and West lines, though small lots of five, or
ten, or fifteen, arrive in Washington from all parts of the country.
It is the hardest to supply the distributing points of the East, in
New England, say, for the natural amounts of mail eastward are not
sufficient to counter-balance the natural amounts of mail westward
from that region. Not long ago 10,000 bags were required for
Augusta, Maine. These were mostly for second-class matter, and
there could be no compensating advantage, of course, in the receipt
of Western mail at that point.

It has appeared already that it is an economical and wise thing
for the Department to do repairing. Up to the time when repairing
was begun, orders for new supplies came in with the greatest regu-
larity, and pouches, bags, locks, keys, cord fasteners, label cases,
key chains, all seemed to go out of use on a sort of schedule. As a
consequence, the entire appropriation, no matter how large it might
bp, was never more than adequate to the demands ; all which was very
fine for the contractor.

AMEKICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA.

HE bureau of the Second Assistant Postmaster Gen-
eral's office next in importance to the Railway
Mail Service is the Bureau of Foreign Mails.
It has been of unavoidable growth, rather than
an enterprising, creative, typical branch of the
postal system. It is, because it has been obliged
to be. In the present administration, however,
the very important subsidy legislation has been
enacted, and if the development of this policy is pursued to its logi-
cal ends (and many public men think it inevitable that it shall be),
the Bureau of Foreign Mails may rise in importance to the level of the
Railway Mail Service. Many consider the beginning of the subsidy
policy the historical event of Postmaster General Wanamaker's admin-
istration. At all events the credit for the labor performed in induc-
ing American steamship owners to bid under the act is wholly his.
The Superintendent of Foreign Mails has the details of the exchange
of mails with foreign countries, of course ; he prepares postal treaties
and conventions, except money order conventions, which are prepared
in the Money Order Division of the First Assistant's office; he remits
erroneous or excessive postage, and adjusts rates for the transporta-
tion of mails through the United States to be paid by foreign coun-
tries ; he charges customs duties on mail matter, prepares a monthly
schedule of the sailings of mail steamers, and examines accounts and
recognizes payments. Now and then, the dry routine is relieved by
the announcement in the Postal Guide that packages of queen bees,
or something of that sort, may be received and forwarded by post-
masters for the Danish West Indies, or some other place, under such
and such mystic restrictions.

The post office at San Francisco has a large foreign mail business
with the countries of Asia, Australia, and Australasia. But the

137

138

AMEKICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 139

great bulk of this work is performed in New York. The post office
in that city has been called the clearing house for foreign mails.
The method of dispatching and receiving foreign mails at New York
has been well described recently by a writer in the New York Times.
Mails leaving the United States for Europe are assigned to steamers
upon a plan in vogue for years. In cases where two steamers leave
New York at about the same time, the mails are put on board the
one which, in accordance with the record of her three voyages just
preceding the assignment, delivered the mails in the shortest time
in London. The records upon which these assignments are made are
based upon the trip reports made to the American Postmaster General
by the agents of the vessels upon the termination of each voyage, in
connection with statements furnished weekly by the British post
office showing the exact time of the arrival of the mails at the Lon-
don post office.

Great Britain does not go to the same amount of trouble to insure
the most rapid dispatch of mails to the United States. The Eng-
lish Department pays a handsome subsidy to two steamship com-
panies ; and to these two lines, the Cunard and the White Star, the
London post office consigns all mail matter. Steamships of the
other lines only carry letters which are expressly addressed to go
by them. The steamships carrying mails from the United States
to Queenstown and Southampton are selected by the American
Post Office Department under a contract for a single voyage
only, for the fastest steamer which is sailing on a particular day
receives the mails quite irrespective of the company to which it
belongs.

The United States Post Office sent letters to Great Britain last
year by two hundred and sixty-six steamers, which gives an average
rate of mail dispatch of five steamers a week. Something like
three hundred and fifty steamships sailed from Queenstown or
Southampton for New York, and mails were dispatched on one hun-
dred and four of them, which left Queenstown, an average rate of
sailing of two steamers per week. Of the steamers employed in
the transportation of ocean mails, ninety-six were capable of making
less than a seven days voyage to Queenstown, and all of these
carried mails for the United States. The English post office
authorities, on the other hand, while able to select an equal number

140

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of swift steamships, forwarded their mails in but thirty-four of
them ; in sixty-two the letters were forwarded by private ship bag.

The German lines carry mails to and from London via Southamp-
ton more speedily than the Liverpool lines. Last year the most
rapid service from New York to London, as in the year preceding,
was performed by the new steamers of the Hamburg- American Com-
pany. The White Star greyhounds to Queenstown came second ;
next the Inman racers; then the fastest of the North German Lloyd's,

and last the Cunard's best steamers. The quickest trip to London
via Southampton was run by the " Furst Bismarck " of the Hamburg-
American line, in seven days, and the other ships of this company
were but a few hours behind her. Next in point of time came the
White Star ships, the "Teutonic" and the "Majestic." The mail
they carried reached London by way of Queenstown in about seven
and one half days. The two "Cities " of the Inman were but a few
minutes behind. The best time made by the North German Lloyd's
was that of the "Havel," about seven days and eighteen hours.

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 141

The " Etruria, " of the Cunarders, reached the London office scarcely
an hour later. All told, there were one hundred and thirty-six
steamers carrying American mails that delivered them at the London
post office, via Southampton ; and no less than one hundred and ten
of them flew the burgee of the North German Lloyds. On the
Queenstown route the Cunard line dispatched forty-nine steamers
with mails ; the White Star followed with forty-five sailings ; the
Inman carried the mail only seventeen times.

The American Post Office Department received for foreign postages
about $1,700,000 annually, and the outlay for this service did not

THE PACIFIC MAIL S. S. CO.'S STEAMSHIP ** NEWPOBT."

exceed $ 600, 000 per annum. In these facts was one of the
chief arguments why the foreign postage rates should be reduced
from five cents to two. It was one of the arguments also why
some of this money, at least, might reasonably be appropriated for
the encouragement of American shipping. The United States Post
Office Department depended almost wholly upon steamers flying flags
of other nations for the transportation of mails leaving this country.
It was pointed out by Postmaster General Wanamaker that dif-
ferences might unexpectedly arise with foreign steamship com-
panies that would break off all mail intercourse with Europe. It
was argued in the Fifty-First Congress, which passed the Subsidy Act,

142

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

that this country annually paid out for passenger and freight trans-
portation across the Atlantic about 125,000,000, and almost all of it
to foreign vessels owners. In other words, it took about all the

THE PACIFIC MAIL S. S. CO.'S STEAMSHIP "COLOMBIA."

surplus grain of this country to pay the foreign shipping bills of the
United States. That immense sum of money was nearly all spent
on the other side of the Atlantic and was a dead loss to the United
States. It was argued, too, that until 1815, ninety per cent, of our

THE PACIFIC MAIL S. S. CO.'S STEAMSHIP " PAKA."

foreign trade was carried under the Stars and Stripes, and as late as
1850, seventy -five per cent, of it was thus carried. Now the amount
was less than twelve per cent. According to the New York Produce
Exchange, there were, in 1883, 44,205,000 bushels of grain in New

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 143

York awaiting shipment abroad, and of the 1,190 steam vessels
which carried this product not one was of American register. Out
of the 1,190 vessels referred to, 786 of them were owned by Eng-
land, and carried away 29,441,951 bushels. Ninety-three Belgian
ships carried 5,734,018 bushels, and 170 German vessels carried
away 4,284,485 bushels.

Other arguments for the Postal Aid Law were that during thirty
years England had paid $32 a ton in subsidies to secure the construc-
tion and maintenance of her merchant marine. In 1889 her mer-
chant tonnage was estimated to be worth $1,000,000,000, and it had

THE PACIFIC MAIL 8. S. CO.'S STEAMSHIP " PERU."

been estimated that to put this inconceivable sum into ships, proba-
bly not more than ten per cent, was expended for ore and timber, the
raw materials out of which they were constructed, and that the other
$900,000,000 represented labor. Thus English labor had received
$900,000,000 in one industry alone. The shipyards of England
steadily employed 240,000 men, while to man her fleet employed in
the carrying trade required 220,000 more; and America had annu-
ally paid to English vessel owners about $100,000,000 to assist them
in constructing and maintaining their vessels.

And again and worse still. Foreign governments not only
paid increasing subsidies, but these, being chiefly for the extension

144 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of commerce, were granted for trips or tonnage, and not for letters
carried; while the basis of pay for American vessels, the sea and
inland postages, made American vessel owners suffer with successive
reductions of international postage rates, as voted by the Postal
Union ; for in this international assembly the United States had no

larger voice than any other
government, and foreign repre-
sentatives never hesitated to
make reductions which worked
no hardship to their own ves-
sel owners. Thus, while the
American Postmaster General,
under his power to make con-
tracts for carrying domestic
mails, might pay a steamboat
line, running daily from Woods
Holl to Nantucket, a trip of a
few hours, $18,000 a year, say,
he could only pay the United
States and Brazil Mail Steam-
ship Company, upon the sea and
inland postage basis and under
the reductions of the Postal
Union, $8,000, say, for twenty-
six trips a year from New York
to Rio, a voyage of twenty-
eight days. The compensation of American steamships, therefore,
was really regulated by foreigners so long as the amount of sea
and inland postage continued, under the enactment of Congress, to
be the American basis of pay.

Another source of complaint was that the foreign mail service,
which had constantly been an increasing source of revenue to the
American Post Office Department, should support at least to some
extent transportation in American ships. Mr. I. D. Rich, postmas-
ter at Liverpool, not long ago told ex-Postmaster General James " that
he, as a clerk in the British post office when a boy, put the foreign
mail on board the steamship 'Great Western,' about the year 1840,
and it amounted to two sacks ; at the present time it amounts to five

AMEBICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 145

or six truck loads." "In 1873," says Mr. James, "the English
outgoing mail was considered very large if it reached 20,000 let-
ters. At the present time over one hundred thousand foreign letters
are sent from New York every sailing day, and nearly the same
number are received." And as the mails grew, the complaints grew
that such a profitable business could not be turned to account for
Americans.

So the Fifty- First Congress passed the Postal Aid Bill. The idea
was to change the foreign mail system radically, paying American
vessels, built, owned, and manned by Americans, for the service.
Paying on the basis of sea and inland postage on mail carried was
done away with; paying according to speed, tonnage and mileage
was substituted. Four classes of vessels were provided for; the
first class to be iron or steel screw steamships capable of main-
taining at sea a speed of twenty knots an hour in ordinary weather,
and of a gross registered tonnage of not less than eight thousand
tons ; the second class to be iron or steel steamships capable of main-
taining a speed of sixteen knots an hour and of a gross tonnage of
not less than five thousand tons ; the third class to be iron or steel
steamships capable of maintaining a speed of fourteen knots an hour
and of not less than two thousand five hundred tons ; and the fourth
class to be iron, steel or wooden steamships, capable of maintaining
a speed of twelve knots and of not less than fifteen hundred tons.
None but the first class were to be contracted with for carrying the
mails between the United States and Great Britain. It was pro-
vided that all vessels of the first three classes thereafter built should
be constructed on plans agreed upon between the owners and the
Secretary of the Navy, and built with particular reference to their
economical and speedy conversion into auxiliary cruisers ; and to be
of sufficient strength and stability to carry and sustain the working
and operation of at least four effective rifled cannon of a caliber not
less than six inches, and further to be of the highest rating known
to marine commerce.

The rate of compensation fixed for carrying the mails on each of
these classes was for vessels of the first class four dollars per mile ;
of the second class, two dollars; of the third class, one dollar; and
of the fourth class, two thirds of a dollar for every mile required
to be travelled on each outward-bound voyage. It was required that

146

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the vessels should be officered by American citizens, and that during

the first two years of the contract for carrying the mail at least one

11 fourth of the crew

should be American
citizens, during the
next two years at
least one third, and
for the remainder of
the contract time
one half should be
Americans. It was
permitted to offi-
cers of the Ameri-
can Navy to accept
positions on board
such vessels ; and
it was required that
for every one thou-
sand tons of regis-
ter one American
boy should be taken
who should be edu-
cated in the duties
of seamanship and
rank as a petty of-
ficer.

There were ac-
tual months of hard
labor ahead for the
Postmaster General
and the steamship
owners; and not a
contract but en-
gaged the notice of the President. The Department issued a sched-
ule of routes required to be covered, instructions to bidders, classifica-
tions of vessels, etc., and after the advertisements had stood for two
months in two papers in each of the chief coast cities of the country
paid for out of the general advertising fund of the Department,

The following is a copy of the advertisement for service on the Pacific
Ocean as it appears in newspapers in San Francisco, Tacoma, and Port-
land, the numbers of the routes not forming a part of said advertise-
ment.

OCEAN MAIL LETTINGS.

NOTICE TO BIDDERS.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., July J5, 1891.

In accordance with the provisions of an act of Congress, approved March 3. 1891.
entitled " An act to provide for ocean mail service between the United States and
foreign ports and to promote commerce," proposals will be received at the Post-Office
Department, in the .City of Washington, until 3 o'clock p. m., on Monday, the 26tih
day of October, 1891, for conveying the mails of the Unite<i States by means of steam-
ships described in said act," between the several ports of the United States and the
several ports in foreign countries which are specifically named in the schedule of
routes published herewith.

Proposals are invited for service on said routes, under contracts for 'ten rears each,
except where otherwise particularly specified, -which shall commence within three
years from the date of the execution of the contract, and at one of the periods named
below, to wit : ,

1st. Two months from execution of contract.
2d. Fourmbnths " " " "

3d. Six months

4tb. Twelve months " ' '

5th. Eighteen months " " "
6th. Twenty-four months " " "
7th. Thirty months ' ' ,."

8th. Thirty-six months " * >f

Preference will be given, all other things being equal, to the proposal which names
the earliest date for the commencement of the service.

Under the law the right is reserved to the Postmaster-Genera] to reject all bids not,
in his opinion, reasonable for the attainment of the purposes contemplated by the
act

SCHEDULE OF ROUTES ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

No. 44 "0. M. S." From San Francisco" to Panama, touching twice each monih,
going and returning, at the following ports: San Diego, Cal.,
Mazatlan, San Bias, Manzauillo, Acapnlco, Port Angel, Salina
Crnz, Tbnala, San Benito, Ocos, Champerico, San Jos6, Aca-
jntla, La Libertad, La Union, Amapala; Corinto, San Juan, and

x Funta Arenas. i

Three times a month thirty-six trips a year, time sixteen days,
in vessels 'of the fourth class for the first three years, and
the remaining seven years, once a week, fifty-two trips per
year, time fifteen days and a -half, the increased service to be
performed in vessels of the third class, the bid to specify the/
rate for each class.

Bond required with bid, $12,000.

Same route.

Three tiroes per month, thirty-six trips per year, in vessels of
the third class for the first three years, time fourteen days,
and for the remaining seven years, once a week, fifty-two
trips per year, the additional service in vessels of the second
class, time twelve days, the bid to specify the rate for each
class.

Bond required with bid, $15,000.

No. 46" O. M. S." From San Francisco to Valparaiso, Chili, by San Diego, Cal., and
Panama, touching at Buena Ventura, United States of Colom-
bia, Guyaquil, Ecuador, Callao, Peru, and Iqnique, Chili.

Once in 2 weeks twenty-six trips per year in vessels of the
third class for the first 3 years, and for the remaining 7 years
in vessels of the second class, the bid to specify the rate for
each class.
Bond required with, bid, $20,000.

A FAC SIMILE PAGE OF OCEAN MAIL LETTINGS.

No. 45 "O.M. 8."

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 147

for, though the Subsidy Bill had provided for this advertising, it
had not appropriated any money for the purpose contracts were
made with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company dating from Febru-
ary 1, 1892, with a Galveston and La Guayra line dating from
April 26, 1893, and with the Red "D " line dating from March 1,
1892. As the law required that contracts for Great Britain should
only be made for vessels of the first class, and as there was no vessel
of that class of American build and register afloat, no bid for the
trans-Atlantic was expected. The service from San Francisco to Hong
Kong was to be shortened. For the first two years of the new
contract it was required that vessels should sail every twenty-
eight days and make the trip in sixteen days instead of eighteen,
as before. During the remaining eight years of the contract the
sailings were to be once a fortnight and the time was to be reduced
to thirteen days. To accomplish this great change the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company undertook to spend from six to seven million
dollars in building new ships in American shipyards. This fort-
nightly service displaced an English line.

But no prospect opened up for an American line across the
Atlantic. The trans- Atlantic trade had been held for so many years
by foreign vessels, and the cost of building ships of the first class
had been so great, that it was feared the amount of subsidy offered
would not tempt American citizens to make the venture. The
two fastest steel ships in the trans- Atlantic service, the " City of
Paris" and the "City of New York," were owned by American
citizens, though the vessels had been built in England. They
were under an annual subsidy of 152,000 from Great Britain, and
bound to do naval service for that country in time of war. To
change their registry was to forfeit the subsidies received from
England; but the owners finally determined to make the change, if
the United States would accept the two vessels and give them an
American register. The proposition was made to Congress that if
the " City of Paris " and the " City of New York " were accepted,
their owners would at once begin the construction, at a cost of
$8,000,000 or 110,000,000, of four new vessels in American ship-
yards that should equal these ocean racers in every respect. The
United States would at once have in return two of the largest and
fastest vessels afloat as an auxiliary addition to the American

148

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Navy and insure the speedy construction of at least four more.
Congress naturalized the Inman ships, new trans- Atlantic routes, as
well as other new ones, were advertised for, and in September the
Postmaster General had the pleasure of awarding contracts for the
transportation of American mails under the American flag to Eng-
land and the continent, to Brazil and the River Platte, and to Havana
and Tuxpan. It is very entertaining to see, at the office of the
builders, Messrs. J. and G. Thomson, Clyde Bank, Scotland, the
pictures illustrating the building of the * k City of New York " and

^^.:,

THE BRAZIL S. S. CO.'S STEAMSHIP ** FINANCE.

the "City of Paris." It will be still more so to see ocean palaces
like these building on the banks of the Delaware. The famous
Cramp shipbuilding concern of Philadelphia has received orders
for new vessels that require an addition of fifteen hundred
mechanics to their working force. Other yards have felt a similar
impetus, and the activity extends to the manufacture of all kinds of
supplies used in ship building. The London Illustrated News has
expected "a revolution in the American mercantile marine," and
has been of opinion that " its former depressed condition will soon
be a thing to be wondered at."

The following table shows the result of the Act of March 3,
1891 :

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA.

149

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International Nav

United States and

Steamship Co.
United States and

Steamship Co.

d
ci

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03

Steamship Co.
New York and

Steamship Co.

-g

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rW'

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03
03

K**

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03
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03
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1-1

T-T

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02
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r-*"j

150

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

For nearly half a century the boys of America had been practi-
cally shut out from employment on the seas except in the coasting
trade. Most of the large steam vessels were of foreign register,
officered by citizens of the country under whose flag they sailed.
American youths could not hope to secure an officer's berth on any
one of them. The few boys who could obtain appointments to
Annapolis might hope for a position in the Navy, but others were

THE BKAZIL S. S. CO.'S STEAMSHIP " SEGURANCA."

barred from any prospect of ever becoming anything more than able
seamen. The Postal Aid Law, by providing that all vessels
reaping its benefits should be officered wholly by American citizens,
and should take a certain number of American boys as cadets, opened
up once more the chance to follow the calling that Americans made
glorious in the old-time days. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company
decided to select the graduates from the school ships in the
service of the States of New York and Pennsylvania, the "St.
Mary's" and the "Saratoga." This company gives notice that it
will be glad to know of any desirable young men who wish to follow
a sailor's life. The pay is $20 per month the first year, $25 per

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 151

month the second, and $30 per month the third, when, if com-
petent, the boys will be eligible for promotion. The Red " D "
line received the applications of boys from different parts of the coun-
try. Usually those were selected who had served on state training
ships. Each of the Red "D " steamships carries three boys, one in
the engine department, and two in the deck department. Rooms
are fitted up for them apart from the sailors.

The relation of the Foreign Mails Bureau of the Post Office Depart-
ment to the Postal Union are naturally close. Usually the super-
intendent of the bureau is one of the two delegates sent by this
country to represent it. Capt. N. M. Brooks, the present superin-
tendent, and' Mr. William Potter, of Philadelphia, were the two
United States delegates to the last Postal Union at Vienna. It is
essential that one of the delegates at least should know a foreign
language or two, especially French, in which the proceedings of the
Union are carried on. The delegates from foreign countries are
treated with eager hospitality by their hosts. A large and luxurious
eating place is provided, with every personal and business con-
venience. The postal officials of the visited country spend more
time providing entertainment and recreation for their visitors than
they do in the deliberations of the Congress, and the diplomatic corps
resident in the visited city, naturally spend all their time in enter-
taining the guests from home.

The two most weighty subjects which came before the last Postal
Congress were the postal tariff and the rates of transit; that is to
say, on the one side, the charges which the post offices of the Union
levy from the public ; and, on the other, the rates which one country
pays to another for the conveyance of correspondence over alien terri-
tory, or by alien ships. But the event which most directly marked
the Congress at Vienna was the accession to the Universal Postal
Union of the Australasian colonies. These comprise, under one vote,
New South Wales, Victoria, Southern Australia, Western Australia,
Queensland, Tasmania, New Zealand, British New Guiana and the
Fiji Islands. In order to secure the adhesion of these colonies, the
Congress offered to place them in the same position as to voting
power with British India and Canada, and to postpone until the
next meeting in Washington the consideration of the important
question of reducing, or abolishing, payments for transit, and of

152

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 153

altering the letter rates of postage. The next Union is to be held
either in 1895 or 1896, as may be hereafter decided. The represen-
tatives of the postal and telegraphic authorities of almost all civi-
lized countries will form this "parliament of the world," and it
cannot fail to be an event at once of public and social interest, and
of immense business importance to the United States.

The Vienna Congress decided that every country of the Union
should in future supply the public with a reply postal card. An-
other decision agreed upon was that a postal card of one coun-
try, posted in another country, should not, in future, be suppressed or
destroyed, but should be sent to its destination, charged as an unpaid
letter. The opportunity was taken of legislating on the subject of
letters posted on board mail packets, on the high seas, or in foreign
ports. In future, postage on letters posted on board a packet at sea
should be prepayable, by means of stamps of the country to which the
packet belongs, while, for letters posted on board ship in a foreign
port, the sender should use the stamp of the country to which the
port belongs. A concession was made to the large mass of people
who use postal cards ; so that, in future, the name and address of the
sender may be either written or stamped on the address side.
Formerly they might stamp, but not write, the name. A very satis-
factory concession to commerce was the relaxation of the rule as to
the dimensions of merchandise allowed through the mails. The
increased dimensions adopted were practically equivalent to one
foot in length, eight inches in width, and four inches in thickness.

The two United States delegates agreed to urge upon Congress
legislation concerning three important questions. The first was
that of indemnity for lost registered letters. The United States of
America and two or three South American republics are the only
countries which do not, in their domestic service, recognize responsi-
bility for a lost registered letter. The second question was the
uniformity of charge for registered letters. All countries in the
Union (except the United States and two or three South American
republics, which charge the equivalent of ten cents) charge for a
registered letter the equivalent of five cents. In order to carry out
the central idea of the Postal Union, to have it universal in prac-
tice, as well as in name, the American representatives agreed to
urge this reduction. The third question was the treatment of frauds

L'UNION POSTALE

Abonnements

JOURNAL PUBLffi PAR

Avis. L* .nouiaiit <te

abunuements annuels concur
dant avec 1'aunfee astrouomique
Prii de I'abounement, portcotn-
pris.fr 3 40pourlaSui8se.fr 4
pour les autres pays Prix do
oumftro. 35 ets port compris

LE BUREAU -INTERNATIONAL

(.'UNION POSTALE UNIVERSELLE-

1'abonueu.ent doit etre tr*is-
oiis franco au Bureau inter-
national de I'Uuion postal*
umverselle a Berne, an raoyen
d'nu mandat-poste on d'une
traite a rue gar l Suisse

XVII" volume.

N8.

Bei-ne, l r aoftt 1892

Sommaire. FRANCOIS DK TAXIS. LE CREATBUR DE LA POSTB MODERNE, ET SON ravEU JEAN-BAPTISTE DE TAXIS EXTRAIT

OU RAPPORT HE GESTION OU POSTMASTER GENERAL DE L'lLE DB CE7LAN, POUR 1890 BlBLIOORAPHIE POSTALE.

Franpois de Taxis, te createur
de la poste moderne, et son
neveu Jean- Bap tiste de Taxis

1491-1541. ')
Par M le D' Joseph Rlibsani. a Ratisbonne.

Francois de Taxis, fils dc Simon
et petit-fits de Roger de Taxis, qui
entra au service de la maison de
Habsbourg sous le regue de 1 em
pereur Frederic HI et que celui-ci
Domma chambellan et premier ca-
pitaine des cbasses, etait issu d'une
famille bergumasque tres .aucienne,
qui portait dans ses armoiries an
blaireau (en italien iasso) passant.
Torquato Tasso, I'auteur de la Jeru-
salem delivree, est de la meme fa-
mille que Francois de Taxis, le
createur de la poste dans le sens
moderne du mot, ainsi que I'abbe
Pierantonio Serassi *), I'auteur qui
a etudie Tasso le plus a food, le
pronve d'accord avec Giambattista
Manso = ), marquis de Villa, 1'ami in-
time et le premier biograpbe du
poete ).

) D'apres des sources authentiques ti-
rees priocipatemenl des archives centrales
de la famille prmciere de la Tour et Taxis,
A Ratisbonne

} Serastn, La Vita di Torquato Tasso
Rome 1785. 4, p 7 s. s

') Manso, Vila, di Torquato Tasso. Home
1634. 12. p 5

) Voir entre autres L' Union postale,
16* vol., 198. observation 4. et Hopf, Atlas
historico-gtnialogique. Gotba 1858. 1. 434

Franz von Taxis, der Begrunder
der modernen Post, und sein
Neffe, Johann Baptista von Taxis.

14911541. ')
Von Herrn Dr Jos Rubsam in Regensburg.

Franz von Taxis, Sohn des Simon
und Enkel jenes Roger von Taxis,
welcher anter Kaiser Friedrich HI
in die Dienste des Hausos.Habsburg
trat und von demselben zum
Kammerer und Oberstjagermeister
ernannt wurde, entstammte einer
uralten bergamaskischen Familie,
welche in ihrem Wappenschilde einen
scbreitenden Dachs (italienisch lasso]
fiihrte. Torquato Tasso, der Scbdpfer
des befreiten Jerusalem, ist mitFrauz
von Taxis, dem Begrunder der Post
im modernen Sinne des Wortes,
gleichen Stammes, wie Abate Pier-
antonio Serassi*), der griiudlicbste
Tassoforscber, im Einklange mit
Giambattista Manso 3 ), Marchese di
Villa, dem vertrauten Freunde uud
ersten Biograpben dieses Dicbters,
darthut 4 )

') Nach authentischen vorzUglicb dem
fiirstlicb Tbnrn nnd Taxisschen Central-
archiv zu Regensbnrg entnommenen
Qnellen.

*) Serassi, la vita di Torquato Tasso,
Roma 1785. 4 S. 7 ff.

') Manso, la vita di Torquato Tasso. Roma
U634. 12 S 5.

M Vergl. n a. tfmon postale XVI, 198,
Anmerkung 4 and Hopf, bistoriscb-genea-
loffischer Atlaa Gotha 1858. I, 434

Francis von Taxis, the Founder
of the Modern Post, and Johann
Baptista von Taxis, his Nephew.

1491-1541. ')

By Dr Joseph Rubsam in Regensburg

Francis von Taxis, son of Simon,
and grandson of Roger von Taxis
who had entered the service of the
House of Habsburg during the reign
of the Emperor Frederick III, and
been appointed by him Chamberlain
aud Chief Master of the Huntsmen,
was an offspring of a very ancient
family of Bergamo whose escutcheon
displayed a badger passant (tasso
in Italian). Torquato Tasso, the author
of < Qerusalemme Liberata , bad
the same ancestors as Francis von
Taxis, the founder of the Post in
the modern sense of the word, as
is clearly shown by Abate Pier-
antonio Serassi"), the most compe-
tent student of Tasso, as well as
by Giambattista Manso 3 ), Marchese
di Villa, the intimate friend and first
biographer of the poet 4 ).

Whether Roger von Taxis, the

') According to authentic documents,
for ttxe greater part in the Archives ot the
Princes von Tburn and Taxis, Regensburg

') Serassi, La Vita di Torquato Tatto
Rome 1785. 4. pages 7 and following.

) Mauso, La Vita di Torquato Tasso
Rome 1634 12, page 5.

) See .' Union Pottale*. XVI., 198,
Remark 4, and also Hopf, < Historisch-
genealogischer Atlas Gotha 1858. I., 434.

A FIRST PAGE OF L' UNION POSTALE.

154

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 155

upon the postal revenue by fictitious or cleaned stamps. An Eng-
lish delegate gave full credit to Postmaster General Wanamaker
for laying before the Vienna Congress a definite plan for an inter-
national postage stamp, but the differences of currency, variations
of exchange, and various incidents of the money market were suffi-
cient to cause the defeat of this proposition. Am'erica goes to the
front, nevertheless, in everything.

Before the establishment of the Postal Union all mails destined
for one country that had to be transported through another were sent
to the port of the first intermediary country, and there opened and
assorted ; but the Congress provided for what is now known as the
"closed mails " system. By this system the mails intended for any
country are put up in closed pouches duly marked, and are never
opened until they reach the country of their destination, being
transported by all intermediary countries in the pouches in which
they were first enclosed; and all the intermediary countries are
required to see to their prompt and safe transit, the country dispatch-
ing the mails becoming responsible for the charges of intermediate
transportation. If, by any means, a closed pouch is delayed in
transit, the office receiving it notifies the dispatching office, and all
intermediate countries are called upon for an explanation until the
fault is fully placed.

The benefits of the registry system have also been extended so as
to make that an international affair. Under the old system, when
a letter was once placed in the mails and had started on its journey,
the writer lost all control over it, and it could not be recalled under
any circumstances. Now, in all countries except England, a letter
may be recalled by the writer at any time before delivery. It often
happens that this circumstance is of great moment, especially to
banks. A year or two ago a firm of German bankers had forwarded
a large remittance by registered letters to a bank in Philadelphia.
Before the letters reached this country news was received in Ger-
many that the American bank had failed. Application was at once
made to the postal authorities of Germany and the letters were
described so that they could be identified. The cable was brought in
use, and a request made upon the American postal authorities to stop
the delivery of the letters and return them to the postal authorities
in Germany. The letters were intercepted and returned. England,

156 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

however, holds to the doctrine that when a letter has been deposited
in the post office it no longer belongs to the writer, but is the prop-
erty of the addressee, and must be delivered to that person alone.

Another important feature of the universal postal service is the
greater effort now made to find the addressee under all circumstances
and deliver his letter promptly. By a rule of the Union, if the
addressee of a letter cannot be found after a reasonable effort, the
letter must be returned to the office of dispatch, with the cause of
failure duly endorsed on the cover. If a letter is returned by the
office of destination without the cause of its non-delivery duly noted,
it is at once sent back with a special request that a search be made
for the addressee ; and attention is called to the fact that it was
improperly returned. Another marked improvement introduced by
the Union is the rule requiring all short-paid letters to be for-
warded. If one full rate is paid on a letter it must be forwarded
to its destination ; but on its delivery double the amount of the full
postage is collected. This is in the nature of a fine to reduce to
the minimum the amount of short paying postage. Each country
being entitled to all the postage it collects, and being responsible,
too, for the transportation of all its outgoing mail, the fine is added
and collected from the addressee as it would be impossible in most
cases to discover the sender.

The organ of the International Postal Union is I? Union Postale,
a monthly publication printed, in parallel columns, in French, Ger-
man, and English. It is extremely interesting to the general reader
as well as to the postal expert, and is very generally contributed to
by all of the members of the Union of consequence except the United
States. A result of the last Postal Congress is an effort to bring
together in one publication the names of all the post offices in coun-
tries embraced within the Union. This is a development of the
special directory idea, and of the directory of all the streets in free
delivery cities in this country, as published by the Dead Letter
Office. It is to facilitate the delivery of foreign mail which has
been improperly or insufficiently addressed by the public.

The application of the railway post office system to ocean steamers
had been advocated for years, but the realization of the departure has
only lately been brought about. The proposition was simply that
travelling post offices should be established on the ocean lines, in

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 15T

charge of experienced clerks, who should, while on the trip across,
sort and distribute the mails into pouches properly marked according
to a "scheme" to be furnished; so that on the arrival of the vessel
at its destination the mails would be ready for forwarding, and if
necessary, could be taken at once to the railway post office and be
speeded on. Germany sent to this country one of her highest postal
officials to perfect the details of the plan, and Mr. Potter, whose
distinguished service in this affair caused him to be chosen one of
the American delegates to the Postal Union, made a special trip
abroad, upon the request of the Postmaster General, to conduct the
negotiations for the United States. Contracts were made with the
North German Lloyd's and the Hamburg- American steamers plying
between New York, Bremen, and Hamburg, for the transportation
of the postal clerks. Each country, it was agreed, should furnish
one postal clerk for each vessel. This arrangement admitted of
the receipt of mail destined to any foreign country, for which Ger-
many is the intermediary country, up to the last moment before the
sailing of the vessel. There was also a gain of time for mail for
forwarding, which amounted to several hours ; for it had already
been prepared; and here was an even greater advantage to those
engaged in commerce. Postmaster Van Cott of New York says :

The sea post offices westward prepare for the direct delivery to carriers at the
general post office and branch post office stations, the mail for all parts of this
city, thus securing its almost immediate delivery to addressees on the day of the
steamer's arrival, in many cases, where, under the old arrangement, from two to
fourteen hours would have elapsed between the arrival of the steamer's mail
at the general post office and its delivery to addressees. Again, in the case
of distribution for other than city delivery matter, the advantages derived are
even more decided. By the establishment of the sea post office service, trunk
line connections in this city have been secured by which from four to twenty-four
hours have been gained in the delivery of mails to addressees on the direct lines,
and from several days to a week at points served by branch railroads and star
route lines; as in the last case failure to make a trunk line connection here in-
creases the difference in time of delivery to addressees from hours to days,
according to the frequency of the special service. Business men in Chicago and
St. Louis have been enabled to send answers by the same steamers from which
they received the original communication.

There is small doubt that this system will soon be extended to the
British and French lines. The cost is small. The average number
of letters handled by the clerks on each trip is over 60,000, be-

158

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

sides from one hundred to two hundred sacks of printed and general
matter. The American clerks make one error in about 4,000 dis-
tributions and average well up with the railway postal clerks. A
secondary development of the ocean service would be the employment
of a tug to receive the inward mails from the steamers as they pass
Sandy Hook. Separations would be made on this boat for the trunk
line railways, and the mail would be delivered at the piers nearest to
the different railroad stations. Hours are sometimes consumed by
steamers waiting for. the port physician, or in docking, and some-
times 1,500 pouches arrive on a single steamer. Unquestionably

much delay is caused if the Western and Southern pouches have to
go to the city post office. But the steam tug would require a con-
gressional appropriation.

The American clerks in the ocean post offices have invariably been
appointed from the Railway Mail Service or from the body of clerks
in post offices who have been accustomed to handle foreign mails.
A smaller number of applicants than might have been expected came
forward ; but it was hard, nevertheless, for many to understand that
familiarity with the particular class of work required, as well as a
certain seaworthiness, were assumed to be indispensable qualifica-
tions. It has been reasonably suspected that some clerks have been
fortunate enough to be appointed and have made a trip or two merely
for the sea voyages. They have fallen by the wayside. The men
who have not been accustomed to the sea have grown salty and now

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA.

159

behave like real deep-water fellows. There have been several
changes in the force of ocean post office clerks, however, and
the not infrequent changes due to seasickness, or to some general
inability of the clerk to endure ocean travel, necessitates the em-
ployment of a substitute. Young t

unmarried men of good habits are
preferred for this service. Some of
the German clerks have left the
sea post offices to enter the military
service of the Kaiser. The new
German appointees are invariably
postal experts.

Improvements can be made in
the accommodations for the sea
post offices. Many of the work-
ing rooms are small. They are
waste rooms, so to speak, poorly
ventilated, and situated over the
screws, or opposite the steerage
kitchens, at some distance from
the storage rooms, and likely to
be obstructed by passengers. The
letter cases are sometimes incon-
venient, and there is insufficient room for handling the large
amount of printed matter inward ; and these defects (which
will disappear with time, no doubt) are the more to be ob-
jected to, because the ocean post office is an important feeder
of the great trunk lines. The American postal clerk is also
without a uniform, and, insomuch as his appearance is due
to his habiliments, compares unfavorably with the stalwart
German.

Mr. Chas. H. Oler, one of the ocean postal clerks, and the winner
of the Postmaster General's railway mail medal, awarded to the
.clerk of best record in the whole service, has written to the R. M. S.
Bugle about the duties of the ocean postal clerk :

" On the trip from New York to Hamburg or Bremen they are called United
States-German sea post offices, and the United States clerk is supposed to be
clerk in charge, and all mail, both letters and papers, are distributed, the distri-

MR. C. H. OLER, SEA POSTAL CLERK.

160 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

bution comprising something near twenty railway post offices and ' directs ' for
all towns and cities deserving it. On the trip from Germany to New York, the
lines are called * Deutsch-Amerik ' sea post offices, and the German clerk is in
charge. On this trip we open not only the German mails, but closed mails from
countries beyond Germany, including Sweden, Norway, Kussia, Denmark, and
Austria. But we are only required at present to State the mail, and make up the
principal cities, and work New York City into stations. The mail averages about
seventy-five thousand letters and fifty bags of papers on each trip, and had we
the facilities that are to be had in a railway post office, would only be a matter
of a day or two to distribute all of it, but as it is at present, we labor at quite a
disadvantage, owing to a lack of room. Our office for work is about ten by
twenty feet with a case in either end containing each sixty boxes. In these sixty
boxes we must make our distribution of papers as well as letters, for we are not
blessed with even the * Harrison rack.' We have now and then a hook around
the wall on which we can hang a bag.

" All the bags are brought from the storage-room by the deck hands and are
opened by the waiter, and all packages opened and placed on the table, also tied
out, and bags closed and sealed by him, so that we can get rid of most of the
laborious part of the mail service. Another important feature of this business is
that all slips are stamped by the waiter, which is usually a source of annoyance
to postal clerks unless their wives come to the rescue. Our food is of the best
and in great supply, and what is better we get it at regular hours, and only five
times a day. Twenty-seven cents a day is allowed us by the German
Government for 'sacramental' purposes. Every evening we have a concert and
dance lasting two and one half hours, and one night of each trip a regular dance
equal to the average society ball.

" On arriving at Hamburg we pay our respects to the director of the post, and
are then free until the day we return. We have seven days there and our ex-
penses are paid at a hotel, as the ship lies so far from Hamburg, that it is im-
possible to stay aboard. In New York we only have five days off. We have no
work to do during the time, neither are we dodging telegrams for fear of extra
runs.

" As to the German clerks, I can only speak of one with whom I am associated.
I find him a very able and proficient man, very careful and painstaking. He has
more than the average intelligence, having taken an eight years' course in college
preparatory to the work, besides having been in active service for five years.
They are required by their government to appear in military uniform when not on
duty, and when they sally forth with their blue coats with brass buttons and the
sword by their side, we, with our little regulation cap, sink into utter insignifi-
cance. Taking the work as a whole, I find it much easier and cleaner work than
in a railway post office. One can stand and work with perfect ease in an ordinary
sea, and during high sea the smoking-room is the best place to pass away time."

The mails have been thought a very effective way of spreading
cholera, yellow fever, and small pox. When a disease like either
of these makes its appearance in a household, it is, of course, the
bounden duty of some member of the family to write to friends in
other localities about it all. Paper, like clothing, is a fine vehicle

AMERICAN MAILS UPON THE SEA. 161

for the deadly disease germs. Health officers are quick to put up
flags on infected houses and shut off the inmates from personal con-
tact with outsiders, but they seldom take adequate precautions
against the mailing of letters. Indeed, they have themselves been
known to post such letters themselves. Of late years it has
been a common practice, at our Southern ports especially, to fumi-
gate mails received from the West Indies, or Central or South
America, at every recurrence of yellow fever. This is a very
necessary precaution ; yet never has adequate provision been made
properly to perform the work, and no post office in the whole country
is furnished with proper materials or appliances.

In England fumigation is performed by puncturing each letter or
paper with a number of holes, small enough so that they will not
destroy or make illegible the contents ; and it is next subjected to a
strong dry heat. The sacks or bags are then disinfected both by dry
heat and by sulphur fumes. In this country the usual process has
been simply to bum sulphur under the mail bags. This is a very
incomplete method. With the exception of those received by the
North German Lloyd's and the Hamburg-American lines all the for-
eign mails that reach this country come in closed pouches, and are
not opened after leaving the dispatching office until received at the
post office on this side. No one except duly authorized agents of
the postal service has any authority to open a closed mail pouch.
Hence all that health officers can do is to fumigate the pouch itself.
It is almost impossible to find any method by which such fumiga-
tion may be made complete. The mails do not belong to this coun-
try until they are officially turned over at the completion of the
voyage, and the United States authorities are therefore powerless.

It has been suggested that the Postal Union ought to provide that
in times of pestilence no mails shall be forwarded from an infected
country until they have been thoroughly disinfected, and further,
that on arrival at their destination, if quarantine has been estab-
lished, they shall be at once turned over to the postal authorities of
the port at quarantine. It is generally accepted that a high dry
heat is the only sure destruction of disease germs, and as no such
heat can be applied to mail in a closed pouch, it follows that the
pouches should be opened and the contents subjected to the fumiga-
ting process, so that each separate letter or package may receive the

162 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

application. One of the methods now employed at some of the
offices is to suspend the letters in a wire basket and burn sulphur
underneath. That method is better than none, but it is very imper-
fect; and moreover, the application of dry heat, unless great care is
exercised, is liable to injure, if not destroy, parts of the mail. A
patented method of disinfecting mails thoroughly without injury to
them is a fortune to its possessor.

Reformers delight to advocate a reduction of ocean postage to two
cents. Hon. J. Henniker Heaton, member of Parliament for Can-
terbury, is at the head of this movement on the other side. He has
visited this country in order to solicit the support of Postmaster
General Wanamaker for a reduced ocean postage rate. The Post-
master General has maintained that, while the change would be a
proper and valuable advantage to foreign-born citizens who have left
friends behind in Europe, it is a change that will come shortly and
it ought to be delayed until a one cent domestic rate is a certainty.
Mr. Heaton' s arguments are that the people have no right to
expect the post office to be self-sustaining, that greater postal
facility encourages commerce, that a cheap postage is of benefit to
all without regard to condition, and that cheaper postage rates
would promote a more brotherly feeling between England and her
colonies. *

THE PAT AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

k HE position of First Assistant Postmaster Gen-
eral has been made famous by Hon. Adlai E.
Stevenson and Hon. James S. Clarkson. But
the duties in the performance of which they
became chiefly notable are now performed by the
Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. He now
appoints the fourth class postmasters. But while
the First Assistant's office has been relieved of this
labor, it has become more important in a purely
business way. It
has long been the
idea of Postmaster
General Wanamaker that the
Post Office Department needed
a better business compactness,
regularity, and promptness.
Early in his official career he
recommended the appointment
of a comptroller, or actuary, of
the Department, who should be
a permanent officer paid 110,000
a year. His proposition was
not received with favor by Con-
gress. Mr. Wanamaker did se-
cure, however, the creation of
the office of Fourth Assistant
Postmaster General, in order
that the Divisions of Appoint-
ments, Bonds, and Inspection might be consolidated in it, and the
office of First Assistant left to deal with the important bureaus of

163

HON. ADLAI E. STEVENSON.

164

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Salaries and Allowances, of Post Office Supplies, of Free Delivery,
of Money Orders, of Dead Letters, and of Correspondence.

Col. Smith A. Whitfield, a New Hampshire boy who went to war
and became a real soldier and who was afterwards collector of internal

revenue and post-
master at Cincin-
nati, and later Sec-
ond Assistant Post-
master General, was
the First Assistant
when these changes
were brought about,
and his familiari-
ty with the service
and all its branches
was an important
factor in the rear-
rangement of the
departmental rou-
tine. The chief
clerk in the First
Assistant's office is
Mr. Edwin C. Fow-
ler. He went to
the public schools
of Baltimore and
was a bookkeeper.
In 1869 he entered
the Department. In 1876 he was "principal clerk of appoint-
ments." When the Division of Appointments was created Mr. Fow-
ler was promoted to the chief's place, and in 1889 he was appointed
chief clerk to the First Assistant. Mr. Fowler has exhibited un-
usual tact in handling the very troublesome appointment cases
incident to the changes of administration which he has seen, and
has won the friendship of scores of public men.

The division of the First Assistant's office naturally considered
first is that of Salaries and Allowances. The most important duties
assigned to this division are the annual adjustment of the salaries

HON. JAMES 8. CLAKKSON.
(From a photograph in the First Assistant's Office.)

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OBFICE CLEKKS.

165

COL. SMITH A. WHITFIELD,

Late First Assistant.

of postmasters; the consideration
of allowances for clerk hire, rent,
fuel and light, for first and second
class post offices, and for "sepa-
rating " clerk hire for the third
and fourth class post offices at
intersecting mail routes ; the allow-
ance of rent, fuel and light for
third class offices, and of miscel-
laneous incidental items, including
furniture and advertising for first
and second class offices ; the exam-
ination of the quarterly returns and
accounts of postmasters before they
are finally passed by the Sixth
Auditor; the adjustment and reg-
ulation of the salaries and duties
of clerks at first and second class
offices; the leasing of premises for

_ post offices; the establishment of

postal stations; the classification
of clerks; the adjustment of

j|pj money order clerk hire ; the super-

JM vision and regulation of box

rent rates and of deposits for
keys for lock boxes ; and the man-
k agement of the correspondence

involved in all these affairs. The
appropriations of Congress under
the charge of this division com-
prise chiefly the compensation of
postmasters and of clerks in
post offices, and amount to over
twenty-five million dollars annu-
ally. The post office appropria-
tion bill for the current fiscal
year, for example, comprises the

ME. EDWIN C. FOWLEK,
Chief Clerk to the First Assistant.

following items :

166

THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

For compensation to postmasters $15,250,000

For clerks in post offices 8,360,000

For rent, fuel and light, first and second class offices ...... 747, OOu

For rent, fuel and light, third class offices 610,000

For miscellaneous items, including furniture 110,000

For advertising (office of Postmaster General) 18,000

For canceling machines 40,000

$25,135,000

The method of making allowances for clerks in post offices varies
somewhat with local conditions. The postmasters at the first and

THE FIRST ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE.

second class offices are required by law on the 1st of July of
each year to submit rosters of their clerical force, and these rosters
are reviewed to ascertain all facts as to the number of persons
employed, their age, compensation and character of duties, and
whether the duties and compensation are in harmony with the terms
of what is known as the Classification Act passed by Congress in
1889.. For instance: The postmaster at New York has a list, or
roster of clerks, involving about sixteen hundred employees, with

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

167

salaries aggregating an annual allowance of over 11,300,000, a force
nearly three times as large as that employed in the Post Office
Department at Washington. His application for increased help
must of necessity always receive unusual consideration. So it is
with Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and all of the more important
first class offices. It is a matter of great moment to decide how the
demands for increased clerical help at offices of such importance
can be met, for hundreds of other cases are meritorious, and the
annual appropria-
tion applicable for
this purpose is, of
course, always lim-
ited.

The Department
is obliged to make
the closest exam-
ination of the ap-
plications made for
allowances, com-
paring the growth
of receipts from
year to year with
the increase of
force asked for;
and this examina-
tion sometimes in-
volves the appoint-
ment of a commis-
sion of postal ex-
perts or post office
inspectors, who
visit the office in question and go over the ground item by item with
the postmaster. The reports of these officers are properly briefed,
prepared with the latest data obtainable, and laid before the First
Assistant, or perhaps the Postmaster General himself, and acted upon
as the facts warrant. If approved, the recommendations contained
in the reports are put in operation by the fixing of allowances in the
sums agreed upon from a specific date, and the postmasters are

OLD TOM,
The First Assistant's Faithful Messenger.

168 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

advised accordingly. Sometimes, as a result of these investigations,
allowances have been reduced, as it has been found that a rearrange-
ment of the clerical force could be made to meet the requirements
of the service without additional cost.

The postmasters at presidential offices of the third class are not
required to furnish yearly rosters of clerks. Postmasters at third
and fourth class post offices at intersecting mail routes are allowed,
out of the appropriation for clerk hire, certain sums for what
is known as separating service, or service performed in separating
the mails for star routes. The making of allowances of this nature
is governed largely by the local conditions surrounding the offices,
and it is all subject to a fixed law.

For allowances for rent, fuel and light at post offices there are
two distinct appropriations made by Congress, one for offices of the
first and second classes, and the other for offices of the third class.
The Department exercises much deliberation in fixing the allow-
ances for these items also, and the applications of this nature are
generally examined by inspectors, who receive very full instructions
in the premises. Under the present methods buildings are secured
in many cases, especially at offices of the first and second classes,
under leases for terms ranging from one to five years, at fixed
annual rentals, placed in some instances at the nominal sum of one
dollar. In others the sums are much larger. At Denver the rental now
paid for the post office is at a rate of 110,000 per annum. When a
post office is moved into a Government building, the allowances for
rent, fuel and light are discontinued by the Post Office Department.

The minor articles required by postmasters at first and second class
offices in conducting the business of their offices, known as "mis-
cellaneous items," are fixtures, furniture, directories, towels, stoves,
telephones, typewriters, and so on ; and all the requisitions are care-
fully scrutinized before being passed. Items of this kind are gen-
erally estimated for each quarter in advance, and postmasters are
instructed to make their purchases accordingly. The advertising
of letter lists by postmasters, the expense of which, on account of
the limited appropriation, is allowed only to the larger first class
post offices, is also made a subject of searching review.

The Division of Salaries and Allowances is one of the busiest arms
of the whole Government service and is very widely known. The

THE PAY AND AVOKK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

169

average postmaster has not, unfortunately, a very exalted opinion of
this division, as the always limited annual appropriation, coupled
with the fact that the postal service cannot be prevented from grow-
ing, necessitates the closest scrutiny of his applications for increased
allowances. Generally his application is scaled down to what seems
to him a very unsatisfactory sum, if it is not declined altogether.
In hundreds of cases, consequently, postmasters pay salaries out of
their own resources. The Salary and Allowance Division is the
Mecca of the hustling Congressman. If he is successful in demon-
strating the merit of his postmas-
ter's case, he goes away feeling that
life is really worth living after all ;
but if the application is rejected,
he is not half so charitable as
he would be if he stopped to re-
flect that the reason why money
cannot be allowed to post offices
in the necessary proportion is
simply because it is not voted by
the Congressman himelf and his
patriotic colleagues. The appro-
priations are, in fact, always inad-
equate, and to this immovable
fact is to be attributed not only
the overwork and the under-pay
of clerks in post offices, but also
the payments of salary by post-
masters who are determined to
furnish some sort of service, Con-
gressional appropriation or no Congressional appropriation. The
Salary and Allowance Division is overwhelmed with work so
much that it cannot discharge work quickly, and doubtless hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of letters have to be written every year
saying, not that possible things have been done and impossible
not done, but rather that all sorts of things will receive con-
sideration.

The operations of this Division are tremendous. Witness a sum-
mary of them for the year ended June 30, 1892 :

MB. ALBERT H. SCOTT,
Chief, Division of Salaries and Allowances.

170 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Letters received S9,629

Letters written 58,182

Circular letters sent out 34,239

Allowances made :

Clerk hire 11,553

Kent, fuel and light 18,562

Miscellaneous items 19,459

Advertising 594

Allowances declined :

Clerk hire 4,226

Kent, fuel and light 2,671

Miscellaneous items 4,042

Advertising 586

Amounts allowed :

Compensation to postmasters , $15,249,565

Clerks in post offices 7,933,639

Rent, fuel and light 1,230,523

Miscellaneous items 120,456

Advertising 14,072

The chief of the Salary and Allowance Division since 1883 has
been Mr. Albert H. Scott. He entered the postal service nearly six
years previous to this appointment, and was rapidly advanced through
the different grades of clerk. He wag born in Ohio, of sturdy
Scotch Presbyterian stock. While yet a boy, he went with his
parents to Iowa. After the war the family were united in Wash-
ington, however. Mr. Scott earned his own education. He became
a civil engineer, and served over six years in the coast survey, win-
ning frequent approval for his work, and was a member of the expe-
dition which determined the longitude of Washington, Cambridge,
Paris and Greenwich. A year later, in 1874, he was an assistant
astronomer of the Chatham Island Transit of Venus party, and his
services here were especially commended by Admiral Davis, presi-
dent of the commission. During Mr. Scott's connection with the
postal service the revenue has increased from 27,531,585 to $70,-
930,476, or 158i percent.; the expenditures from 132,522,504 to
$76,490,734, or 136J percent.; and the appropriations under his
immediate charge from $10,825,000 to $25, 135, 000, or 132 1 per cent.
The number of presidential post offices has grown from 1,397 to
3,221, or 131 per cent., and the total number of post offices from
37,345 to 67,105 or 80 per cent.

There are about one hundred and seventy-five Government build-

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS. 171

ings in which post offices of the first, second, third, and even fourth
classes are located. The items of rent, fuel and light for offices of
the third class, or offices where the gross receipts range from $1,900
to not exceeding $8,000, and the salaries of the postmasters conse-
quently from $1,000 to $1,900 a year, are about $600,000 annually.
The maximum sum for rent is limited by law to $400 a year and the
maximum for fuel and light to $60 a year. There are about 2,300
offices of the third class. The fourth-class postmaster personally
has to pay for his quarters, his fuel and his lights; for there is no
authority in law for allowances of this kind.

Where post offices are located in Government buildings, post
office boxes are provided by the Treasury Department. At first and
second class post offices the lessor, by agreement in the lease, fre-
quently furnishes the box outfit. Patrons of post offices may provide
lock boxes or lock drawers for their own use under certain condi-
tions. In all other cases boxes must be furnished and kept in repair
by the postmaster. The fixing of box-rent rates is supervised by
the Department, but depends largely upon local conditions. Boxes
are rented for sums ranging from five cents to fifty cents per quarter
for call boxes, and from ten cents to five dollars per quarter for
lock boxes and drawers.

The introduction of the free delivery service has always increased
the revenues of the post office affected because increased facilities
always cause an increased volume of letter writing. But many
business firms want to send for their mail oftener than the carriers
can deliver it, and the deliveries of the Department cannot imme-
diately be made frequent enough entirely to accommodate them.
Postmaster General Wanamaker has therefore proposed a uniform
price for box rents, to be " fitted by the Department, at which boxes
are to be rented by the quarter to persons residing within the free
delivery district." He adds:

" Those persons living outside the free delivery district, and yet within the
delivery of the office, should be provided with boxes free of charge. At second
and third class offices, where the free delivery is in operation, there are many
unoccupied boxes all the year that could be assigned to patrons of the office at a
saving of clerk hire, for it is less labor for a postmaster to distribute mail matter
into an assigned box and deliver it from there, than to thrust it into the general
delivery, which means the separation of the letter mail of a family, under the
various alphabetical methods, into many receptacles, the regular and transient

172 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

papers into overfilled cases that for want of time are sometimes inaccurately
searched; and the result is late delivery, and sometimes none at all."

*' It would seem but simple justice that the patrons of an office who are denied
the free delivery by carriers should have extended to them the next best service
obtainable, and at the same rate, which is undoubtedly the box delivery. I am in
favor of free delivery wherever it can be put into operation; but until that is pro-
vided for by law I would meet the justifiable complaints of patrons in the rural
districts, who charge the Government with discrimination, by assigning to each
head of a family living outside of the free delivery of the office a free box ; and
this, in my opinion, will not require more than three hundred boxes as an average
for second and third class offices. At offices where there is no free delivery I
propose to abolish box rents altogether."

There is a very unbusinesslike thing which the Division of Salaries
and Allowances wastes valuable time upon, because the laws of
Congress compel it. Fixtures in many of the post offices are inade-
quate and shabby, not half fit for a country as glorious as the United
States, not suitable at all for the quick and accurate handling of
mails. The postmaster, when he is appointed, either buys new
fixtures of the manufacturer at such prices as he himself may name
(and if he is extra economical, the fixtures will be extra inadequate),
or else he buys the old fixtures of his predecessor sometimes by a pre-
arranged transaction which has affected his appointment favorably.
There is no question that it would be business economy and good ser-
vice for the Government to provide post office fixtures and furniture.
Another unbusinesslike thing is the matter of the rental of presi-
dential post offices. About fifteen per cent, of these are quartered
in premises which have to be leased. The leases run from one to
five years, and eighty per cent, occupy premises for which the rental
is renewed annually. Moreover, the hundreds- of postal stations
occupy leased quarters. In all this leasing much local contention,
and sometimes a good of local scandal, result; for political and
social, as well as illegitimate business influences are brought to bear
to change locations and hold up prices. All this irregularity, both
in leases and in furniture, would be done away with by the erecti<
of small post office buildings by the Government ; and that plan
been advocated in Congress, as well as by officers of the Departmenl
in and out of season, to no purpose.

The annual appropriation made by Congress for the advertising of
the Department was once 180,000: now it is but $18,000. This
decrease in the allowance has been found unpleasant enough

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS. 173

hundreds of newspapers in the past few years; for not only is the
Department circumscribed in its power to advertise widespread such
matters of general importance as proposals for material use by the
Department, but the local letter lists, in scores of cases, have had to be
cut down, published free, or thrown out entirely. It has been con-
tended by many that the advertised letter lists ought surely to be paid
for by Congressional appropriation, especially since the recent efforts
of the postmasters, with the help of the Dead Letter Office directories,
have greatly decreased their size ; and it would seem impossible really
to throw the matter of bidding for material open to public competition
without really advertising that the material was wanted and offering
intending bidders a chance. But the Subsidy Law provided for
some $14,000 worth of advertising, at the least calculation, without
so much as a thought of providing the money with which to do it.
So that it is perhaps not strange that the every-day advertising of the
Department is repeatedly overlooked.

"The ordinary good clerk of the Government," said Postmaster
General Wanamaker recently, "might suit perfectly well in any
other of the civil places, but for post office work he must almost
learn a trade. There ought to be a kind of apprenticeship with pro-
motions that would produce motion throughout the ranks from
lowest to highest place. The post office should be a school for the
railway mail, the railway mail for the Department, the Department
for the division chiefs, and the highest places in the service. The
qualities that make a good postal clerk are of a high order on his
memory, accuracy, integrity hang the engagements of the business
and the social world. An idle minute on the railway postal car may
be felt across a continent. The unready pouch carried past the rail-
road junction goes to the next station to be returned to await the lost
connection. That one wasted minute often means a mail ten hours
late all the way along the run of 10,000 miles. The postal service
is no place for indifferent, or sleepy, or sluggish people."

The postal clerks inside the offices, as well as on board the rail-
way postal cars, all know this. They know what hard work is.
They know what it is to be continually alert, and active, and accu-
rate. Yet thousands try for entrance into the service ; try to pass
the examination, wonder why they fail, wonder why they are not
appointed when they succeed, and finally give up all hope of secur-

174

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

175

ing places, or else secure appointments after they are little wel-
come. The tables of the Civil Service Commission show the
number of persons examined, the number that failed, and the per-
centage of failures, the number that passed, the number appointed,
and the per cent, of those that passed who were appointed, during
periods mentioned, in the Railway Mail Service, in the classified
postal service, and in the whole classified service (which includes
as well as these two branches the departmental service and the cus-
toms service) as follows :

Per cent.

appointed

Examined.

Failed.

Passed.

Appointed.

of those

failures.

that

passed.

BAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

May 1, 1889, to June 30, 1889..

2,236

434

19.4

1,802

125

6.9

July 1, 1889, to June 30, 1890..

4,463

1,334

29.8

3,129

1,400

44.7

July 1, 1890, to June 30, 1891 ..

3,706

1,118

30.2

2,588

1,062

41.0

Total

10,405

2,886

27.7

7,519

2,587

34.4

POSTAL SERVICE.

July 16, 1883, to Jan. 15, 1884..

1,941

822

42.3

1,119

372

33.2

Jan. 16, 1884, to Jan. 15, 1885 ..

3,233

971

30.0

2262

1,249

55.2

Jan. 16, 1885, to Jan. 15, 1886..

4,113

1,160

28.2

2,953

1,473

49.9

Jan. 16, 1886, to Jan. 15, 1887..
Jan. 16, 1887, to June 30, 1887 ..

| 7,467

2,245

30.1

5,222

3,254

62.3

July 1, 1887, to June 30, 1888..

6,103

2,471

40.5

3,632

1,924

53.0

July 1, 1888, to June 30, 1889..

10,702

4,087

38.2

6,615

2,938

44.4

July 1, 1889, to June 30, 1890..

11,193

4.289

38.3

6,904

2,850

41.2

July 1, 1890, to June 30, 1891 ..

8,538

2,698

31.6

5,840

2,861

48.9

Total

53,290

18,743

35.2

34,547

16,921

49.0

SUMMARY.

July 16, 1883, to Jan. 15, 1884..

3,542

1,498

42.3

2,044

489

23.9

Jan. 16, 1884, to Jan. 15, 1885 ..

6,347

2,206

34.8

4,141

1,800

43.5

Jan. 16, 1885, to Jan. 15, 1886..

7,602

2,568

33.8

5,034

1,881

37.4

Jan. 16, 1886, to Jan. 15, 1887..
Jan. 16, 1887, to June 30, 1887 ..

I 15,852

5,106

32.2

10,746

4,442

41.3

July 1, 1887, to June 30, 1888..

11,281

4,413

39.1

6,868

2,616

38.0

July 1, 1888, to June 30, 1889..

19,060

7,082

37.2

11,978

3,781

31.6

July 1, 1889, to June 30, 1890..

22,994

9,047

39.3

13,947

5,159

37.0

July 1, 1890, to June 30, 1891 ..

19,074

6,288

33.0

12,786

5,395

42.0

Total

105,752

38,208

36.0

67,544

25,563

38.0

176

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

177

The figures show, therefore, that for the Railway Mail Service
two fifths are appointed who pass, and that less than three quar-
ters pass; that for the classified postal service perhaps one half are
appointed who pass, and that 65 per cent, pass ; and that for the
whole classified service 38 per cent, are appointed who pass and
about 65 per cent. pass. In the departmental service 25 per cent,
are appointed who pass, and 62 per cent, pass; and in the customs
service 23 per cent, are appointed and not quite 60 per cent. pass.

The subjects, and the relative weight given to them, for the
clerical examination are as follows :

Subjects.

Relative

weights.

First * Orthography

Second * Penmanship

Third Copying

Fourth Letter-writing

Fifth' Arithmetic

Sixth: Geography and local delivery . . .
Seventh Readin^ addresses

5
5

Total of weights . .....

A sample examination paper, say for the fifth subject, arithmetic,
is as follows :

Question 1. Express in words the following: 990,050,006.0021.

Question 2. Express in figures the following, avoiding the use of common (or
vulgar) fractions :

One million three thousand seven hundred and one and one ten-thousandth.

Question^. Express in words the following signs and figures: 20 Ib. 8 oz. @
2c. per oz. = $6.56.

Question 4. If a railroad car runs 41% miles per hour, how far would it go in
12 days running 10j^ hours per day ?
Give work in full.

Question 5. If paper is worth 40 cents per pound, what is the cost of one sheet
of paper weighing six pounds to the ream ? (480 sheets = 1 ream.)

Give work in full.

Question 6. The following table shows, in part, the amounts appropriated for
and the amounts expended in the office of the First Assistant Postmaster General
for the year ended June 30, 1886. Required: (1) the total amount expended,
(2) the total amount appropriated, and (3) the unexpended balance.

178

THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Items.

Amounts
expended.

Amounts
Appropriated.

Postmasters' salaries

$11,348,178.17

$12 300 000 00

4,977,663.47

5,150 000.00

4,312,296.70

4,485,000.00

Wrapping paper

28 766 49

35 000 00

Totals .

Total expenses brought down
Unexpended balance . . .

Question 7. Three gross of lead pencils are divided equally among the clerks
in a post office, giving to each clerk eleven and leaving a remainder of fourteen
pencils. How many clerks are there in the office ?

Give work in full.

Question 8. Find the value of each of the following items and the total value
of the whole :

28,155 one-cent stamps $

3,200 two-cent stamps

12,200 live-cent stamps

25,500 one-cent stamped envelopes @ $11.30 per M

31,500 two-cent stamped envelopes @ $21.30 per M. ......

Total $

Question 9. An office uses 98 pounds of twine per year in tying packages.
Allowing 178 yards to the pound, how many packages are tied if each requires an
average of 1% feet ?

Give work in full.

Question 10. Multiply 693.6 by 785.09 and divide the product by 25.
Give work in full.

The messenger examination, which is also used for the examina-
tion of applicants for the position of porter, piler, stamper, or junior
clerk, is as follows :

Subjects.

Relative
weights.

First: Orthography

Second: Penmanship

Third: Copying

Fourth: Arithmetic

Total of weights

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS. 179

A sample examination paper, say for arithmetic, the fourth sub-
ject is this :

Question 1. Add the following, placing the total at the bottom:

210,286.36

188,763,129.37

490,206.57

6,433,132,873.68

8,856,764,397.49

563,097,579,084.03

3,235,603,007.70

Question 2. The area of New Hampshire is 5,955,200 acres; the area of South
Carolina, 19,564,800 acres; and the area of Pennsylvania, 28,937,600. By how
much does the area of Pennsylvania exceed the areas of New Hampshire and
South Carolina combined ?

Give work in full.

Question 3. During the year 1886 a postmaster rented a building at the rate of
$100 a month, and paid two clerks $45 each per month, and had left out of his
annual salary $200. What was his salary ?

Give work in full.

Question 4. Write in words the following numbers and abbreviations: 903,014
Ibs. and 15 oz.

Question 5. Write in figures the following number: one million twenty- three
thousand and five.

Question 6. A mail package contains 4,992 letters averaging one half ounce
each. How many pounds of mail in the package ?

Give work in full.

Question 7. The postmaster at Pittsfield, Mass., made requisition for 98 sheets
of 1-cent stamps, 54 sheets of 2-cents tamps, 32 sheets 3-cent stamps, 12 sheets
5-cent stamps, and 6 sheets 10-cent stamps. What was the total value of the
stamps required, each sheet containing 100 stamps ?

Give work in full.

Question 8. The total weight of a newspaper mail is 918 pounds. What is the
weight in ounces ?

Give work in full.

Question 9. Write in sign and figures: Eight hundred and twenty-five thousand
and twenty-five dollars and seven cents.

Question 10. A postmaster buys 5 gross of pencils at $21.60. What is the cost
of each pencil ?

Give work in full.

The following table shows the number of appointments and sepa-
rations in the classified service, the service at the post offices of
cities which have fifty employees or more, for an average year, say
the one ended June 30, 1891. It has local interest everywhere:

180

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Location of post-office.

ij
n

"3
&

Appointments.

Separations.

Original.

1
1

!
i

26
34
144
170
88
40
349
68
38
25
12
62
37
43
13
10
18
23
20
16
46
8
16
27
6
33
12
64
485
10
5
361
69
11
26
22
26
87
16
129
5
25
18
4
100
14

10
2
57
25
14
11
152
34
2
8

.2
1

4
18
18
40
11
7
114
25
23
7
1

Clerks.

18
16
103
95
64
15
83
27
22
15
8
33
27
24
9
8
11
16
10
8
19
5
11
16
5
25
8
35
160
8

gl
S S

' 6
4
4
141
21

' 8
1

' Yo

2
' 2

' 6

' 2

' 5
117

26
34
143
168
84
37
329
62
35
25
12
60
36
43
13
9
16
23
19
16
46
8
15
27
6
33
12
62
469
10
5
319
66
11
24
22
26
*82
15

124

25
16

Albany

7
11
5
27
3
31
17
7
3
7

3
3

18
7
9
7
26

' 2
1
1

4
16
39
67
16
18
104
14
13
2
3
26
6
5
2
1
5
5
9
8
20
3
2
9
1
8
4
21
182
2

i
i

2
4
3
20
6
3

' 2
1

' i

' i
' i

' 2
16

' 5
1
5

' 2
' 5

2
3
3
2
7
3
1

14
20
77
68
28
20
273
62
26
15
1

Atlanta

Baltimore

Boston

Brooklyn

Buffalo

Chicago

Cincinnati . . .

Cleveland

Columbus

Dallas

Denver

Des Moines

16
13

Detroit

1
2
4
2
3
3
4
9
1
5
3

' '5
2
19
146

' 'i

106
1
8
1
4
6
24
2
5
1
4

12
3
2
2
6
9
9
11
2
2
3
1
11
6
6
148
1

' 74
10
5
7
1
3
25
4
3
2
3
5
1
21
2

23
15

;;

15
5
6
5
11
12
13
20
3
8
8
1
17
8
25
317
1
1
195
11
13
9
5
9
54
6
8
3
7
5
2
35
3

Grand Rapids . . .

Hartford
Indianapolis ....
Jersey City

1
3
1
1

2
5

' 1
2
1
9
3
1
1
3

Kansas City ....
Los Angeles ....
Louisville

Memphis

Milwaukee . .

Minneapolis ....
Nashville

Newark . . .

New Haven

New Orleans ....
New York
Oakland

6
175

Omaha

5
219
20
5
12
9
10
12

hr
i

27
1

o
*_.

1
59

Philadelphia ....
Pittsburg .

31
16
1
1
1
9
21
3
14

5
1

' 1
2

13
3

4
2

i
'i

100
38
6
12
13
11
34
6
72

' 5

36
1
7
1
1

1
1

Portland, Me. ...

Richmond .

Rochester

St Louis

St. Paul

San Francisco . . .
Springfield, Mass .
Syracuse . .

Toledo

Troy

Washington ....
Worcester

Total

509

272

1,015

1,277

397

2,731

130

2,861

703

668 74J 1,445

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

181

A sight-seer chances to enter the mailing department of the
Chicago post office, the basis here as everywhere, of post office
work. There are, perhaps, four hundred regular employees. Of
these seventy-five give their time to the distribution of letters and a
hundred to the distribution of newspapers. There are five kinds of
mail matter handled each day, 25,000,000 pounds of paper and
periodical mail each year, and 10,000,000 of miscellaneous matter;
and all this weight represents
125,000,000 individual pieces
distributed.

"The men in this depart-
ment, " said a writer for the Chi-
cago Evening Post recently, *' are
not worked any harder than they
are in other parts of the office.
The average hours of duty are
not less than eight and generally
not more, although the clerks are
willing to work twelve, when
during the holiday season there
is an unusual use of the mails.
In one sense the boys in the
mailing department do not have
so good a time as in other branch-
es, because they are required to
undergo examination at stated
periods, much like the clerks in
the Railway Mail Service. There
are changes constantly being made in the nomenclature of the offices
and new offices are sprouting up all over the country; the distrib-
utors of letters and papers have to master this fresh knowledge all
the time. Examinations follow, so that the authorities may get a
good idea of the retentive capacity of each man's memory. It is
absolutely necessary to the efficiency of the service that only men
with good gray matter within their skulls shall be kept at this
work, and the periodical examination is the only way of determining
this fact satisfactorily.

"The mailing department is the bee hive of the office. No drones

LOUIS STEBNBERGER & WM. H. HOGAN,

The big man and the little man in the

Chicago office.

182

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

183

are permitted to draw their salaries there. So much depends upon
promptness and dispatch. The big mails that come in from the
East must be assorted in time for the fast out-going Western trains.
Delay would not be tolerated, because a letter must have the same
rapidity of transportation as is given to the passenger; all of which
is quite right from the point of view of the correspondent. When
the mail comes in the entire force is alert, and when once they bend
their energies to the work it is a deft man, indeed, who can manage
to get a word in edgeways."

One of the clerks in the New York office not long ago described
in good set terms the disadvantages and dangers, even, under which
the clerks in large post offices labor.

"The clerk is held strictly accountable," he says, "for every
moment of lost time. He has to work from ten to twelve hours per
day and every holiday and
Sunday without any extra
compensation in an at-
mosphere laden with the
most pestilential microbes
brought by the sacks con-
taining the mail matter,
besides the most intolera-
ble stenches which prevail
for want of proper and sci-

entific ventilation. Now,
after standing from ten to
twelve hours throwing off
this matter for dispatch-
ing, is it any wonder
that postal clerks are ex-
hausted? Is it any sur-
prise that germs of the
most virulent diseases are
inhaled, thus shortening
the lives of the men at
least ten years ? The men
employed at this business must pass a severe examination according
to civil service requirements, all for the munificent sum of $50 per

BIG, BUT LIGHT FINGERED.

184

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

month. From the moment one enters until he emerges from the
post office pest hole not a ray of God's luminary is seen, which is

so necessary to the quick-
ening of the natural func-
tions."

The remedy, as almost
always, is undeniably with
Congress; or rather, it is
with the people who do
not understand that the
post office clerks work in
cramped, unhealthy quar-
ters, often in basements,
without the sunlight, and
do not express their pro-
tests in the liberal votes
of their representatives.
Postmaster General Wan-
amaker has repeatedly ad-
vocated the construction
of public buildings of
fewer stories, or perhaps
of only two or three at
the most, in large cities; this, so that light might come down from
overhead and air escape that way.

The postal clerks who work inside, out of the sight of the public,
have just been discussed somewhat. Around the edges of the big
post offices are the stamp clerks, the registry clerks, the general
delivery clerks and the inquiry clerks. They meet the great, sover-
eign people, and they must possess good tempers. The stamp clerk
meets almost every day the man who wants his stamp put on for
him, the wit who thinks a stamp or two ought to be thrown in with
a dollar's worth, and the gentleman who, when he lays a hundred
copper cents down and has them refused, insists upon standing in
the way of a line of twenty people and doling his coin out copper by
copper and taking his stamps in payment one by one. There is the
hog who will never stand in line, and the hog who always insists on
waiting to stamp his letters at the very window. There is the

DISTBLBUTING LETTERS.

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLEKKS. 185

woman with no end of questions. Her letter is the lightest that
can possibly be written, and yet she wants to know how many
stamps it will take. The clerk has to weigh that letter. Then the
woman keeps the line in waiting to ask how long it will be before
her missive reaches its destination, a thing which anybody is sup-
posed to know better than a stamp clerk. It was recorded recently
in New York that a middle-aged woman, after she had purchased a
five-cent stamp with which to send a letter to Scotland, asked if five

THE BOUTING ROOM.

one-cent stamps would do as well ; and when she was informed that
they would she handed back the single stamp and took the five one-
cent stamps. Then she wanted the stamp clerk to stick them on for
her. Often the story is about a man. Not long ago (this happened
in New York also) a man waited twenty minutes in the wrong line
and at last found himself before the window.

"Well, mister," he cried, "I suppose you have got time to 'tend
to me now. I just want this postal order cashed."

When he was informed that postal orders were cashed at another
window, he called the clerk a liar and asked him to step outside.
The police removed him.

The general delivery clerk in the smaller office has quite as hard

186

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

a time of it. He cannot talk back, because the person who excites
him to righteous anger may be the leading banker, or the leading

politician, or even
the smart clergy-
man of the town;
or he may be
simply a fool.
Here the good
temper comes in
again. The gen-
eral delivery clerk
has to deal with
the family that will never
allow its mail to be de-
livered by carrier, and
with the man who brings
his family with him to the
post office two or three
times a day and inquires
for the mail for each one,
of which, of course, there
isn't any. He has to deal
with the stray African,
who has from two to six
names, all of which, in calling for let-
ters, he is sure to use; and frequently he must
read their long-expected missives for them. He has to deal, indeed,
with the sweet Irish lass who does not give her name, and when
the innocent clerk asks for it, thinks it is her lover's name he
wants, and will not tell. If he is a new man, some one tells him
every day that his predecessor was a "perfect gentleman."

A visitor to the Inquiry Division of the Boston Post Office ran
across some queer things. He found a pair of boots, and a bag of
rutabaga turnips, both unmailable, of course; and a broken box,
bearing the Queen's stamp, directed only "Boston, America," and
this could not be forwarded, for there are at least a dozen Bostons
in these United States. In another broken box an ideal hair curler,
sent from Philadelphia to a Maine girl, reposed, and it seemed to

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS.

187

have been intended for a Christmas gift. There was other unmaila-
ble stuff, and heaven does not know how it might ever be
returned to its multitudinous owner. There was a big collection of
Christmas cards, beautiful in design and tender in sentiment, but
never to reach their destinations, because the addresses were "To
Charley and Tricksey, with love from their affectionate Aunt
Lillie." A card or book in a ragged wrapper read "Julia with a
Merry Christmas to all; from Joe." "To Maud from Nellie,"
read another, and in the miscellaneous basket there was a heap
of stuff, a box of fern fronds, a book entitled "Daily Food,"
music rolls, a pair of socks, a black feather fan, a cyclopedia of
medicine, a silver perfume bottle, a silver button hook, a metal
match box, several rings and American coins, an ugly looking
razor, advertising cards, a pair of kid gloves, a package of posters
announcing " Ten Nights in a Barroom, " a box of caramels, a pack-
age of marking ink, a roll of yellow satin ribbon, a rubber rattle
for "Baby Henry."

The great, surging torrents of business for the postal clerks come
at Christmas-time. Besides the immense volumes of additional mail

of the ordinary

sort, and of bun-
dles and packages
without number of
the extraordinary
sort, there are hun-
dreds of commu-
nications to a gen-
tleman who never
wrote a letter in
his life, and who
never answers a
letter that he re-
ceives. It is San-
ta Claus. It has

3D. left for the
Sun to discover,
and what other paper should discover it? that the home of

ita Claus is in New York, despite the fact that he is constantly

THE BOSTON STAMP

.NCELLING MACHINE.

188 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

pictured driving reindeer and sledge over a snow-bound country
covered with fir trees. For this reason nearly all of his letters go
through the local post office there and are forwarded to Washing-
ton. The letters come from all over the country. Most of them
come from places outside of New York. It is interesting to look
over Santa Claus's mail. Of course one cannot open it any more
than it would be allowed to open the mail of any other private or
public citizen. The addresses are so curious, and written with
such evident pains, and the parenthetical remarks, which are often
added as a last reminder on the envelopes, so appealing, and there
is such an air of confidence and sincerity about them all, that it is
not necessary to examine the contents for entertainment.

The letters come in all sorts of envelopes, and some of them in
none at all. There are delicately tinted letters, with crests on the
back, from children who plead for a pony or a carriage. Then there
are the letters of another sort from destitute little ones, who plead for
a stockingful of candy or a rattle for the baby. Eighteen letters for
Santa Glaus were received at the New York Post Office one day in
last December. No two were directed exactly alike. The first was
the only one in which a definite address was given. It was:

MR. SANTA CLAUS,
444 CHERRY STREET,
New York.

This was written in a scrawling hand, but the numbers were quite
plain. It was probably the only one of the lot that did not go
directly to the Dead Letter Office. There was the name, a definite
number, on a definite street, in a definite city, and in the lower left-
hand corner was the regular United States two-cent postage stamp.
So the letter was given to the proper carrier, who took it to the
Cherry Street address. When it came back the legend was stamped
in red ink across the face :

REMOVED. PRESENT ADDRESS UNKNOWN.

One letter dated at Haverstraw was addressed like this on a thick,
creamy envelope :

MR. SANTA CLAUS,

NEW YORK CITY.
P. S. If not called for by Xmas please return.

THE PAY AND WOKK OF POST OFFICE CLERKS. 189

This was the only one in which Mr. Glaus was addressed
familiarly. The majority of the letters were addressed strangely.
There were numerous variations in the spelling of Glaus, and not a
few, probably Germans, wrote it with a K. Here was one :

TO DEAR SANTA GLAUS,
NEW YORK CITY.

This was dated from Stanfordville, N. Y. It was not quite so
fervent as the next:

DEAR MR. POSTMASTER.

Bring this to dear Santa Claus.

Sometimes when the envelope was carelessly sealed, or when there
was no envelope at all, the missive being held in shape merely by the
stamp, it came apart and the contents were disclosed. Under these
circumstances it was, perhaps, permissible to read them. Under any
other, there would be a manifest impropriety in prying into the con-
fidences of these youngsters. There was one such letter among the
eighteen. It came folded and turned down at one corner, and the
stamp was placed so as to hold the folded corner down. It read as

follows :

CHITENANQO, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Santa Claus: I only want a pare of skates for Christmas and if it aint
cold a sled will do My old ones bust. If they aint no snow I would like enny thing
you think of. My mama says you are poor this year.

Yours truly,

C N .

There are stamp clerks and stampers. It had been noticed in the
larger post offices that at certain hours of the day it was hard work
for the complete force of stampers to keep up with the tremendous
accumulations of mail. The Postmaster General consequently caused
stamp-cancelling machines to be examined by commissions, and a
year ago September a contract was made with the Hey & Dolphin
Company, of New York, for one hundred machines. This machine
has cancelled, post-marked, counted and stacked 5,000 postal cards in
four minutes and fifty seconds, and has performed similar work on
24,000 postal cards in an hour. In two hours and two minutes it
cancelled, post-marked, counted and stacked 46,480 letters and
postal cards, of which 21,000 were letters. An average speed of

190

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

30,000 letters and postal cards per hour is claimed for it; but with
the great variety of mail matter required to be cancelled, and with
the delays incident to a high rate of speed, this figure is probably
too high. The object of the machine is not only to relieve the stress
at the close of business hours in the large offices, but to enable the

clerks who have
been required to
do the stamping
by hand to address
themselves to oth-
er duties. Indeed,
a cut of $140,000
was made in the
clerk hire item
in the appropri-
ation bill of last
year on account
of the appropria-
tion of $40,000
made for the one
hundred cancel-
ling machines.

It was lately con-
tended for a new
electrical stamp
canceller, placed
on trial in the
Washington post
office, that it could
attain a speed of

40,000 cancellations per hour; and the machine not only noted the
year, month and day, but the hour and minute when the letter
passed through. The Postmaster General has encouraged the intro-
duction of these devices which register the exact time when mail is
deposited and dispatched, in order that the blame for all delays may
be placed just where it belongs, and the service generally quick-
ened. The Hey & Dolphin machine is compact in form, light
running, and practically noiseless. It is driven by a one-sixth

THE CONSTANTINE STAMP-CANCELLING MACHINE.

THE PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE CLEEKS. 191

horsepower electric motor. The machine embraces six different
classes of inventions a hopper, a combined feed and separator, a
printing apparatus, an inking device, a counting mechanism and a
delivery apparatus. The Boston machine, so-called, in use in sev-
eral post offices, is somewhat simpler in construction; the Constan-
tine machine, to be seen in the New York office, larger and more
complex.

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE HUNDRED.

UT to get back to the First Assistant Postmaster
General, though. One of his divisions awards
the salaries and allowances, as has been said; and
there are the great divisions of the Free Deliv-
ery, the Money Order system, and the Dead Let-
ter Office attached to his office. He also has in charge the
Division of Correspondence. The head of this, Mr. James
R.. Ash, might be called the great conundrum man of the Depart-
ment. It is easy enough to imagine that he answers all sorts
of letters that ask for information upon all sorts of points;
he uses forms for answering many of these, of course, but many
require patient search into the laws and regulations, or the usages
of the Department, and much tact to know what to say and much
skill to know how to say it. Most of the rulings of the First
Assistant Postmaster General for he, and not the Assistant Attor-
ney General for the Department, issues the rulings now, are based
upon these replies. Many are printed in the Postal Guide and
become the law and gospel of the postmasters.

A funny person recently caused to be printed somewhere a new
set of post office rules. They were :

1. Feather beds are not mailable.

2. A pair of onions will go for two scents.

3. Ink bottles must be corked when sent by mail.

4. Over three pounds of real estate are not mailable.

5. Persons are compelled to lick their own postage stamps and envelopes; the
postmaster cannot be compelled to do this.

6. An arrangement has been perfected by which letters without postage will
be immediately forwarded to the Dead Letter Office.

7. Persons are earnestly requested not to send postal cards with money orders
enclosed, as large sums are lost in that way.

8. Nitro-glycerine must be forwarded at the risk of the sender. If it should
blow up in the postmaster's hands he cannot be held responsible.

192

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE HUNDRED. 193

9. When letters are received bearing no direction, the persons for whom they
are intended will please signify the fact to the postmaster, that they may at once
be forwarded.

10. A stamp of the foot is not sufficient to carry a letter.

11. As all postmasters are expert linguists, the address may be written in
Chinese or Choctaw.

12. Spring chickens, when sent by mail, should be enclosed in iron-bound
boxes to save their tender bodies from injury.

13. It is unsafe to mail apple or fruit trees with the fruit on them, as some
clerks have a weakness for such things.

14. It is earnestly requested that lovers writing to their girls will please con-
fine their gushing rhapsodies to the inside of the envelope.

15. Ducks cannot be sent through the mail when alive. The quacking would
disturb the slumbers of the clerks on the postal cars.

16. When watches are sent through the mail, if the sender will put a notice
on the outside, the postmasters will wind and keep in running order.

17. Poems on Spring and Beautiful Snow are rigidly excluded from the mails.
(This is to catch the editorial vote.)

18. John Smith gets his mail from 674,279 post offices, hence a letter directed
to John Smith, United States, will reach him.

19. When candy is sent through the mails it is earnestly requested that both
ends of the packages be left open, so that the employees of the post office may
test its quality.

20. When you send a money order in a letter, always write full and explicit
directions in the same letter so that any person getting the letter can draw the
money.

21. Alligators over ten feet in length are not allowed to be transmitted by mail.

22. Young ladies who desire to send their Saratoga trunks by mail to
watering-places the coming summer, should notify the Postmaster General at
once. They must not be over seven feet long by thirteen feet high.

23. The placing of stamps upside down on letters is prohibited. Several
postmasters have recently been seriously injured while trying to stand on their
heads to cancel stamps placed in this manner.

But the real rulings of the Department are full of interest. These
are some of them:

It is not necessary for the sureties to take charge of the post office when the
woman who is postmaster changes her name by marriage. If the postmaster
referred to desires to remain in charge of the post office she may continue to
conduct the business under her former name until she shall have been commis-
sioned under her new name.

Every postmaster must keep his post office open for the dispatch of business
every day, except Sundays and holidays, during the usual hours in which the
principal business houses in the place are kept open, and the office should not be
closed during meal hours.

Publishers of second class matter have the right to print or write on the
wrappers requests for its return if not delivered within a given time, and post-
masters are required to comply with such requests.

194 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

A bulk package of franked articles may be sent in the mail to one person, who-
on receiving and opening the same may place addresses on the franked articles
and remail them for carriage and delivery, to the respective addresses. Each
article must, however, bear the frank of the Senator or Representative entitled
to use it.

Contractors and mail carriers have no right to refuse to carry packages of
mailable matter which, on account of size and shape, cannot be put into the mail
pouch. It is their duty to carry the mail, and every part of it.

It is not contemplated that postmasters shall make use of their cancelling and
post-marking stamps elsewhere than at their post offices; nor does the law permit
postmasters to take credit for cancellations not actually made at the post office.

Letter boxes in post offices are restricted to the use of one family, tirm, or
corporation.

Letters from the Pension Office at Washington may be delivered to the
pensioner himself, to a member of his family, or to any responsible person known
to the postmaster in whose care they may be addressed. Under no circumstances
must the letters of pensioners, sent from the Pension Office, or from any United
States Pension Agent, be delivered to any attorney, claim agent, broker, or any
other person, except as stated above.

A postmaster residing near the state line may be appointed postmaster at a
post office in the adjoining state, provided he resides within the delivery of the
post office.

When publishers of newspapers and periodicals persist in sending copies of
their publications to given addresses, after having been notified by the postmaster
at the office of address that the same are not taken out of the office, the post-
master cannot do otherwise than consign such copies to the waste-basket, after
holding them for thirty days.

Postmasters at non-classified offices, where the number of employees is less
than fifty are responsible for the acts of their assistants and clerks, and may,
therefore, select them without regard to age, provided they are capable of per-
forming the duties devolving upon them. The Department does not, however,
permit a postmaster to retain anyone in the post office who is discourteous to the
public, or is habitually careless or negligent in the performance of official duty.

All matter intended for delivery must be so arranged that when application is
made for mail, newspapers, as well as letters, may be readily and promptly
delivered to the applicant.

When a postmaster provides his office with letter boxes at his own expense, it
is understood that he does so for the accommodation of the patrons of the office,
and such boxes are recognized by the Department as the property of the post-
master, who, upon retiring from office, may either remove the same or dispose of
them to his successor upon such terms as may be agreed upon. When a private
individual, however, by permission of the postmaster, erects a box in the post
office for his individual use, the box becomes the property of the Government,
and cannot be removed or disposed of except as directed by the Department.

Telegrams deposited in a post office for delivery are subject to postage as other
written communications are.

Postmasters are forbidden to furnish lists of the persons receiving mail from
their post offices. When a request for such information is received, accompanied
by a postage stamp or stamped envelope for the prepayment of return postage,

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE HUNDRED. 195

the postmaster should return such postage stamp or stamped envelope to the
writer, under cover of a penalty envelope, at the same time politely advising him
that he is forbidden by the regulations of the Department to furnish the informa-
tion desired.

A postmaster must, in a spirit of accommodation, deliver letters from lock
boxes to the owners of them, when such owners have forgotten to bring their keys.
He is not justified, however, in delivering mail from a lock box to any person
other than the owner, unless he be presented with a written order therefor. If
the owner of a lock box desires some one else to take the mail from the box, he
should provide him with a key.

Officers in charge of the exchange at military posts are entitled to use the
penalty envelope in conducting their official correspondence. They are not
authorized, however, to send penalty envelopes or labels to merchants for the
purpose of having merchandise purchased for the exchange transmitted free of
postage.

The depositing of a letter, readdressed for forwarding, in any letter box es-
tablished by the Post Office Department within the delivery of the post office of
original address, is equivalent to its being deposited at such post office, and it is,
therefore, entitled to be forwarded, without additional postage provided at
least one full rate has already been prepaid on it.

Minor coins, such as nickels, pennies, and three-cent pieces are legal tender in
sums not exceeding twenty-five cents.

After a letter has been returned to the sender from the office of address as not
delivered, in accordance with the card request of the sender, it cannot be re-
mailed to a new address except on the payment of a new postage.

When a letter is presented at a post office for mailing after the mail pouch has
been closed, it may be sent outside of the mail pouch, by the hands of the carrier,
for mailing at the next office on his route, provided the stamp thereon has not
been cancelled.

A postmaster has no right to open a letter deposited in his office, without any
address thereon, for the purpose of ascertaining the name of the writer. It
should be sent to the Dead Letter Office.

When a person requests a postmaster to forward his letters to another office,
and to hold other classes of mail matter addressed to him until the same shall be
called for, the request must be complied with.

When a postmaster is called upon to express his opinion concerning the finan-
cial standing of a patron of his office, he must decline to do so, especially in his
official capacity.

It is not regarded by the Department as a violation of the statute for banks to
notify persons by postal card that they hold drafts against them.

Every post office of the third and fourth classes must be provided with a box

>r the posting of letters.

Postmasters are not required to receipt for any letters deposited for mailing,

ccept such as are offered for registration.

Postmasters are forbidden to deliver pension checks to merchants, either upon
written or verbal order of the pensioner.

A simple statement of account may be written upon a postal card, and sent in
mail, when the same is unaccompanied by any scurrilous, defamatory, or
threatening language.

196 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Postmasters are required to collect one-cent postage upon all letters advertised,
whether by posting or otherwise, which are subsequently delivered.

It is not the business of a postmaster to attach stamps to letters and packages
submitted for mailing. This may be more properly done by the person mailing
such letters, or packages, but where he is unable to do so, by reason of infirmity
or other cause of incapacity, the postmaster may assist him, if requested to
do so.

When letters are deposited at a post office for mailing after the mail pouch has
been locked and sent to the train, the postmaster may cancel the stamps thereon
and hand the letter to the postal clerks on the cars; but, if they are taken to the
cars by any person other than himself, or his sworn assistant, the stamps thereon
must not be cancelled by the postmaster.

Postmasters are not authorized to make use of the penalty envelope in order-
ing copies of the POSTAL GUIDE for the public. When practicable, they should
transmit several orders to the publisher at one time, but if this cannot be done,
the purchaser must pay the postage upon his order.

Postmasters are not permitted to make public any information obtained by
them in the discharge of their duties.

A clerk of a court has no authority, unless when acting under orders from the
court, to issue instructions concerning the delivery of mail not addressed to him-
self, or that over which he has no control.

Neither husband nor wife can control the delivery of letters addressed to the
other, but letters addressed to the one may be delivered to the other in the
absence of orders from either to the contrary.

No one can lawfully be appointed postmaster who has not attained full, legal
age.

Postmasters are required to forward the oaths of assistant postmasters, clerks
and other employees of their offices, to the office of the Fourth Assistant Post-
master General (Division of Bonds and Commissions), where they are examined,
and, if found to be correct, placed on file.

A duly commissioned postmaster is, by virtue of his commission, authorized to
administer the oath of office to any person, whether employed in the postal ser-
vice, or in any other department of the Government. His authority is, however,
restricted to the administration of the oath of office. He is not empowered,
under the provisions of the section referred to, to take affidavits, or acknowledg-
ments, or to perform such other duties as usually pertain to the office of the
justice of the peace or a notary public.

An assistant postmaster is not a commissioned officer of the United States, and
is therefore not authorized, by virtue of his position as such assistant, to admin-
ister the oath of office.

When persons holding boxes in post offices refuse to pay the rent thereon, their
mail must be placed in the general delivery.

Mail matter upon which an indefinite address is written or printed, such as
" The Leading Vegetable Dealer," or "Any Intelligent Farmer," is not deliver-
able.

A letter bearing the card of the sender if undelivered at the expiration of time
named in the card, must not be advertised. It must be returned to the sender
with the reason for Us non-delivery endorsed thereon.

Postmasters at money order offices must not accept from any express company,

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE HUNDRED.

19T

banking institution, or other corporation or firm, any agency for the issue and
payment of money orders, drafts, bills of exchange, or similar instruments for
the transmission of money; hence a postmaster at a money order office cannot
serve as cashier of a bank.

A post office box rented by a society or association is not available for the use
of individual members of such society or association, except the officers of it
when addressed in their official capacity.

A postmaster whose annual compensation is less than one thousand dollars is
not prohibited from accepting and holding another office under the government
of the state, territory, or municipality in which he resides, provided his duties
as postmaster suffer no interference in consequence.

Letters addressed to "A. B.," or other initials or fictitious names, in care of a
letter carrier at a free delivery office, are not deliverable and must be treated as
improperly addressed mail matter.

Postmasters at post offices of the fourth class are permitted to transact other
business in the room in which the post office is located, when the same is kept
separate and distinct from that of the post office.

When a letter intended for one person is delivered to another of the same
name and returned by him, the postmaster will reseal the letter in the
presence of the person who opened it, and request him to write upon it
the words, " opened by mistake," and sign his name. He will then replace the
letter in the post office. When an erroneously delivered letter is opened, and
dropped in the office through the receptacle for letters, and the postmaster is un-
able to ascertain who opened the same, he must, after resealing the letter, endorse
thereon the words "opened by mistake by persons unknown to the postmaster,"
and then replace the letter in the office.

A postmaster who is also a notary public may, in his notarial capacity, take
affidavits in pension cases, but he must not be concerned in the prosecution of
such cases, or any other claims against the Government.

There is nothing in the postal laws or regulations concerning the liability of a
subscriber for the subscription price to a newspaper or periodical.

Postmasters are not required to open their offices on Sunday when there is no
mail arriving after the closing of the office on Saturday, and before six o'clock p.
M., on Sunday. When a mail arrives between these hours, the office must be
kept open for one hour or more if the public convenience require it.

Matter addressed for delivery at hotels must be returned to the post office as
soon as it becomes evident that it will not be delivered.

The Post Office Department cannot authorize mail carriers to carry firearms.
Such permission can only be obtained from the local authorities.

Postmasters are prohibited from disclosing to the public the names of persons
owning or renting boxes in their offices.

It is not allowable,- under the regulations of the Department, to locate a post
office in a bar-room or in any room directly connected with one, nor to open or
deliver any mail matter in any room in which liquor is sold at retail, except the
same be sold by a druggist for medicinal purposes only, and not to be drunk on
the premises.

It is provided by law that no box at any post office shall be assigned to the use
of any person until the rent thereof has been paid for one quarter in advance.

If a postmaster has a store in connection with the post office and the same is

198

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

attached and closed for debts incurred by the postmaster, he must provide
another room for his office ; as the Department will not protect him against the
enforcement of state laws by allowing him to plead interference with the mails.

A postmaster has no right to use the boxes or the general delivery of his office
for the distribution of bills or circulars, relating to his own private business,
without prepayment of postage thereon.

The regulations of the Department require in the appointment of a married
woman, or widow, as postmaster, that she must be appointed and commissioned
under her own Christian name, and not that of her husband.

If a postmaster should cause loss to a publisher because of failure to comply
with a plain provision of law, his liability is determined in the courts and not by
the Post Office Department.

Postmasters must examine the return request upon letters not promptly
delivered, so as to comply with the request, and endorse undelivered letters with
the reason for their non-delivery. Frequent complaints are made of such
failures by postmasters, and the answer that the "time '' was overlooked is not
satisfactory.

A postmaster summoned as a witness must obey the summons and go into
court, but should refuse to testify in regard to the delivery of mail matter. He
then abides by the order of the court, as the Department will not hold a post-
master responsible for making public information obtained by him in the dis-
charge of his duty, when the same is done in obedience to an order of the
court.

A postmaster has no right to withhold the delivery of any mail matter on the
ground that the person named in the address is indebted to him.

When mail matter is delayed in transit at a post office by reason of high water,
so that it cannot be forwarded by the regular carrier, it may be delivered to a
sworn messenger sent for it by the postmaster of the office to which it is ad-
dressed.

Should a postmaster and his assistant both be subpoenaed for attendance at
court the postmaster must have a temporary assistant sworn in to take charge of
the post office during their absence.

If the owner of any copyright granted by the United States, or his authorized
representative, should file an authenticated list of publications thus protected by
law with any exchange office, requesting the postmaster to prevent the forward-
ing of any of them in the mail, the postmaster must examine imported publica-
tions, to see if any such protected list is included, and if such be the case, lie
must advise the person so interested and hold the copy or copies, for a reasonable
time to permit proceedings for confiscation.

Postmasters cannot lawfully accept postage stamps in payment of postage
remaining due on letters. The amount due must invariably be paid in cash.

A postmaster may erect a box at a railroad station for the reception of mail
matter, but he must not claim credit for stamps cancelled upon such matter,
unless said stamps are cancelled in the post office.

Distillers are not entitled to make use of penalty envelopes in transmitting the
amount of their taxes to collectors of internal revenue.

There is no provision under which postmasters or assistant postmasters are
exempt from the requirement of state laws to perform jury duty or duty on the
public highways.

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE HUNDRED. 199

The Post Office Department has no control over letters prior to their being
deposited for mailing, or after they have been delivered to the addressee or
according to his order.

There is no law or regulation requiring postmasters to attend to the business
of private individuals ; they may, however, do so as an act of courtesy, when
perfectly convenient to themselves. Private individuals, when addressing post-
masters on their own business, should enclose a postage stamp for reply.

Postmasters are expected to extend to all persons the courtesy of a respectful
reply to inquiries upon postal business, for which they may use penalty envel-
opes. They may use their own discretion about replying to letters upon the
private business of the writers.

If order cannot be maintained at a post office, the only remedy in the hands of
the Department is the discontinuance of the office.

The writer of a letter may recover the same after mailing before its delivery to
the addressee, it having been held that the ownership of a letter rests in the
writer until the delivery thereof. Application for the return of a letter should
be made to the postmaster at the mailing office.

An individual member of a firm is entitled to have the mail of his family
placed in the post office box rented by the firm. If the box will not accommodate
all the mail, the firm should rent another.

At colleges and similar institutions, where students have been placed in the
charge of the principal by their parents or guardians, and where the rules of
the institution provide that the principal shall have control of the mail matter
addressed to such students as are minors, postmasters should make the delivery
in accordance with the order of the principal. If, however, the principal has not
authority from the parent or guardian to control the mail of the pupils placed
under his care (which authority is understood by an acceptance of the rules
that being one) the Department cannot direct the delivery to be made to the
principal against the wishes of the pupil.

Postmasters must deliver mail to persons calling for the same in their order,
whether they be box-holders or not.

A mail carrier cannot receive letters to be carried outside of the mail beyond
the next post office on his route, unless the same are enclosed in Government
stamped envelopes and properly sealed and marked.

Stamps cut from Government stamped envelopes are not receivable for postage
and letters or packages bearing the same must be held.

Postmasters are not liable for the breakage or destruction of matter passing
through their offices. If a postmaster through negligence or wilful neglect
should cause loss to a patron of his office, his liability therefor is a question be-
tween the party suffering such loss and the postmaster to be decided in the
courts.

The financial condition of a candidate for appointment to the office of post-
master does not affect his eligibility to such office. He is required, however,
to furnish a good and sufficient bond, with two or more sureties, before he can
be commissioned and authorized to assume the duties of the office.

If the agent of the addressee of the latter is robbed of the same after he has
taken it from the post office, complaint should be made to the local authorities,
as the jurisdiction of the Post Office Department ceases after the letter has been
properly delivered.

200 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

It is not a violation of the postal laws to send dunning communications by
mail, when the same are sent under cover of envelopes which, themselves, do
not bear written or printed words or display objectionable to the law.

United States senators and members of the United States House of Represen-
tatives entitled to the franking privilege, have the right to exercise the privilege
until the first Monday in December, following the expiration of their term of office.

The Department does not consider the usual legal notices sent out by tax
collectors that tax is due, or about to become due, written or printed upon postal
cards, to be unmailable.

It is not the practice of the Department to reply to inquiries of a hypothetical
nature concerning the conduct of postmasters or the management of post offices,
but when complaints of a specific and definite nature are submitted, prompt
attention is given.

The hours during which clerks in post offices are required to be on duty are
regulated by the postmasters in whose offices they are employed, and not by the
Department.

A postmaster whose compensation is one thousand dollars or more per
annum, is prohibited from holding the office of alderman of his city or town.

The surety of a postmaster has the right to examine his accounts, but he has
no right to examine mail matter awaiting delivery, or passing through the office,
unless the required oath has previously been administered to him.

When a minor is not dependent on a parent for maintenance and support, and
does not reside with a parent or guardian, or with some one placed in charge by
the parent or guardian, such minor has the right to control his or her correspon-
dence.

When a letter arrives at a post office addressed to one person in the care of
another and the postmaster has received no instructions from the person to whom
it is intended, it is his duty to deliver it to the first of the two persons named in
the address who may call for it.

A postmaster cannot properly refuse to sell postage stamps to a person who
intends to mail his letters elsewhere than at the office where such stamps are
purchased.

Packages of matter mailed at less than the letter rate of postage cannot law-
fully be forwarded from the office of mailing, except upon full payment of
postage.

When anything whatever, except an addressed label, is attached to a postal
card transmitted in the mail, the same becomes subject to additional postage.

No person engaged in the prosecution of claims against the Government may
lawfully hold the office of postmaster, or be employed as assistant postmaster or
clerk in a post office.

Postmasters are expected to examine postal cards passing through their offices
only for the purpose of ascertaining if they contain any matter forbidden by the
law to circulate in the mails; and under no circumstances must they make
public any matter written or printed thereon.

When a female employee of a post office changes her name by marriage, and
remains in the employ of the office, she must take the oath anew under her new
name.

An alien who has in due form of law declared his intention to become a citizen
of the United States, is eligible to appointment as postmaster.

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE HUNDRED. 201

When a letter has been deposited in a post office for mailing, the writer may,
upon identifying the same to the satisfaction of the postmaster, withdraw it
from the post office ; but if the stamp thereon has been cancelled, it cannot be
remailed without the prepayment of postage anew thereon.

There is no provision of the Postal Laws and Regulations under which the
addressee of a newspaper or magazine is made responsible for the subscription
price of it.

One having a lien against horses for their keep cannot enforce the same in
such a manner as to stop the United States mail in a vehicle drawn by such
horses; but it is not an offence to detain the horse in the stable until the keep is
paid.

It is highly improper for the employees of post offices to importune the attaches
of travelling or local shows for tickets of admission when calling at the post office
for mail or on other business.

MONEY OKDERS AND SUPPLIES.

HE domestic money order system went into opera-
tion in 1864 in 141 post offices. 1100,000 was
appropriated from the public treasury to defray
the expense. Of this amount the sum of
$7,047.97 only was expended. The Postmaster
General was authorized by the above mentioned
Act "to establish and maintain, under such
rules and regulations as he may deem expedient,
a uniform money order system at all suitable post offices."
f He was further authorized by Act of July 27, 1868, "to con-
clude arrangements with the post departments of foreign
governments, with which postal conventions have been or may be
concluded, for the exchange, by means of postal orders, of small
sums of money at such rates of exchange and compensation to
postmasters, and under such rules and regulations as he may
deem expedient." The object of the money order system is "to
promote public convenience and to insure greater security in the
transfer of money through the mails." The Act of May 17, 1864,
provided that the Postmaster General should furnish money order
post offices with printed or engraved forms for money orders, and
that no order should be valid unless drawn upon such form;
that he should also supply money order post offices with blank
forms of application for money orders, which each applicant
a money order should fill up by entering the date, his name
address, the name and address of the payee, and the amount; and
that all such applications should be preserved by the postmaster
receiving them for such time as the Postmaster General might
prescribe.

The advantages of the money order system over any and all other
modes of transmitting money through the mails consist in its c

202

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES.

203

ness and in its almost perfect security against fraud or loss. The
cost of issuing and paying money orders for the last twenty-five
years has been the subject of thoughtful investigation; and care-
fully collected statistics have from time to time led to the adoption
of more approved methods for reducing expenses, as well as dimin-

THE MONEY ORDER BUILDING ON THE LEFT, THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT IN THE
DISTANCE, AND THE SIXTH AUDITOR'S OFFICE BEHIND THE AWNINGS.

ishing frauds, errors, and losses, to the lowest possible minimum,
and for increasing the efficiency and popularity of the service.
From the date of the organization of the system it has been the
policy of the Department to secure such a schedule of fees for the
issue of money orders as should make the system self-sustaining
under the most economical management. During this period seven
different schedules have been adopted and adhered to for terms of
two, two, four, three, eight, three, and five years respectively. The

204 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

rates of commission or fees charged for the issue of domestic orders
at present are as follows :

For sums not exceeding $5 5 cents

Over $5 and not exceeding $10 8 cents

Over $10 and not exceeding $15 10 cents

Over $15 and not exceeding $30 15 cents

Over $30 and not exceeding $40 20 cents

Over $40 and not exceeding $50 25 cents

Over $50 and not exceeding $60 30 cents

Over $60 and not exceeding $70 35 cents

Over $70 and not exceeding $80 40 cents

Over $80 and not exceeding $100 45 cents

The principal means employed to attain safety consist of an
advice or notification containing full particulars of the order its
number, date and amount, with the name and address of the remitter
and the name and address of the payee which is transmitted by
the first mail after issue by the issuing postmaster to the postmaster
at the office of payment; and the latter is thus furnished with infor-
mation which will prevent its payment to any person not entitled
to it. From the items contained in the application, and in con-
formity therewith, the issuing postmaster makes out the money order
as well as the corresponding advice. The money order, when com-
pleted, and upon payment of the sum expressed therein, and the fee
chargeable therefor, is handed to the applicant, to be by him trans-
mitted to the payee. The issuing postmaster is required to transmit
the advice, by the first mail, to the postmaster at the office drawn
upon, arid the latter is thereby, before the order itself can be
presented, placed in possession of the information necessary to insure
correct payment.

When a money order is presented for payment, the paying official,
to satisfy himself that the person presenting it is the one entitled
thereto, and that the order is correct in all respects, compares it
with the advice. If the applicant for payment is unknown to him,
he questions him as to his name, and the name and address of
the sender, and may require him to prove his identity by the testi-
mony of another person present, who may be required to wri
name and address on the back of the advice, under a statement
he knows the applicant to be the person he represents himself to be.
In case of a discrepancy between the order and the original advice,

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 205

or between the advice and the statement of the holder of the order
(unless the difference be evidently accidental and trifling), payment
will be deferred until a second advice can be obtained from the
issuing postmaster by the postmaster at the office drawn upon. A
double form termed, a " letter of inquiry and second advice " is em
ployed in cases of this kind. The postmaster or clerk at the paying
office, setting forth the nature of the discrepancy, fills out the letter
of inquiry, which occupies one side of this blank, and transmits it to
the issuing postmaster, who in response furnishes a second advice on
the other side of the same sheet after referring to the remitter's
application and causing him to amend it if necessary.

Postmasters understand that every person who applies for pay-
ment of a money order ordinarily should be required to prove his
identity, unless known to the postmaster to be the rightful owner of
the order, and that if a money order be paid to the wrong person,
through lack of necessary precaution on the part of the postmaster,
the latter will be held accountable for such payment and required to
make the amount good to the owner. The regulation provides,
however, that the remitter of a money order may, by a written
declaration across the face of his application for the issue of the
order, waive the requirement as to identification of the payee, or of
the endorsee, or attorney of the payee, and by such declaration
assume the risk; and that he, or the payee, or his endorsee, or attor-
ney, shall, in such case, be precluded from holding the postmaster
responsible in the event of wrong payment, provided the latter took
all the proper means, except identification by another person, to
satisfy himself that the one presenting the order and claiming pay-
ment was entitled to it. The remitter who desires, by such
course, to relieve his correspondent from the inconvenience of pro-
ducing at the post office of payment proof of his identity by the
testimony of another person present, may do so by writing across
the face of his application for a money order the words " Identifica-
tion of payee, endorsee, or attorney waived," and by signing the
same. In such case the issuing postmaster writes the same words
across the face of the money order, and across the face of the cor-
responding advice, and signs both statements.

Money orders are frequently presented by payees who are entire
strangers at the place of payment, and who are also remitters of the

206

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 207

same orders, having purchased them for protection against the risks
incident to travel. It is enjoined upon postmasters issuing orders
in such cases to obtain the signatures of the remitters on the advices
of the orders. Observance of this precaution, by enabling the paying
postmasters to compare signatures, affords aid in identifying payees
who are in the situation described. Cases of this kind, in which
remitters and payees are identical, serve to illustrate the utility of
the money order system as affording not only a substitute for letters
of credit to persons travelling, but a secure depository. Not only
is it a fact that itinerant actors, showmen, vendors, workmen and
others use the money order system extensively in this manner, pur-
chasing orders for the maximum amount of $100 each generally; but
cases have been known, and, it is believed, are not rare, in which
persons permanently abiding in localities where there are no
reliable banks, have, for security, invested their savings in
money orders issued upon application made by themselves in their
own favor.

Although money orders are often lost, and sometimes stolen, not
one in a hundred thousand is paid to another than the lawful owner.
One hundred and forty-one cases of alleged wrong payment investi-
gated and disposed of during a recent average year were settled as
follows : Post office inspectors recovered the amounts of twenty-one
orders, 8329.50 in all, from the persons to whom payment had been
improperly made, and paid the same over to the true payees or
owners; in fifty-two cases, involving $ 1,416. 55, it was ascertained,
upon investigation, that the claims were not well founded, the
orders having been properly paid in the first place ; in thirty-nine
cases, where the orders amounted to 951.54, the pa} T ing postmas-
ters, for failure to exercise the precaution enjoined upon them by
the regulations as to identification, were required to make good the
amounts to the owners ; in two cases, of orders drawn for $45, it was
found that the issuing postmaster was mainly at fault, and he,
therefore, was required to make the amount good; in two cases
where the amount was $10.21, the payee, being at fault, was made
to sustain the loss ; the remitter for like reason in one case where
the amount was $50 was required to bear it; and in twenty -four
cases, where the aggregate amount involved was $1,627.08, the
Department assumed the loss, the evidence not being sufficient to

208 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

fix the responsibility upon either the postmaster, the payee, or the
remitter. The number of cases in which during that year it was
ascertained that the orders had actually been paid or re-paid to the
wrong persons was eighty-nine, being in the ratio of one to every
131,212 of the payments and re-payments made within the same
period.

Whenever a money order has been lost in transmission, or other-
wise, a duplicate will be issued by the Superintendent of the Money
Order System on receipt of an application therefor from either the
remitter, payee, or endorsee of the original, bearing the certificate of
the issuing and paying postmasters that the original has not been
paid or re-paid, and will not be paid or re-paid if afterwards pre-
sented. The mere loss of a money order, therefore, never involves
a loss of the amount to the owner. Any money order which is not
presented for payment until after the expiration of one year from the
date of it is declared invalid and not pa} r able. To obtain pay-
ment of the amount of such invalid order, the owner must send the
same, through the issuing or the paying postmaster to the Superin-
tendent of the Money Order System, with an application for the
issue of a duplicate. If the duplicate be lost, a triplicate will be
issued by the Department, after application for it. During the year
ended June 30, 1892, nearly 27,000 duplicates were issued.

The payee or the remitter of a money order may, by his written
endorsement thereon, direct that it be paid to another person ; but
it is provided by law that more than one endorsement on a money
order shall render the same invalid and not payable. Hence the
postmaster, to whom a money order thus illegally endorsed is pre-
sented by a second or subsequent endorsee, must refuse payment,
and such endorsee, to obtain payment of the amount, must forward
the order to the Superintendent of the Money Order System with an
application for renewal, and with a statement, under oath or affirma-
tion, of two responsible persons, that the endorsements are genuine.
But if a money order which has been endorsed twice, or oftener, is
presented by the first endorsee, with the second or subsequent
endorsements stricken out, it may be paid to him; or if presented
by the remitter or payee, at the issuing or paying office, with all
endorsements stricken off, it may be re-paid or paid, as the case may
be. In all cases of lost or invalid money orders, the owner of the

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES.

209

order, whether remitter, payee, or endorsee, may make application
through the issuing or the paying postmaster, for a duplicate ; and
it is the duty of the postmaster to fill up and dispatch the proper
forms for it.

The maximum amount of a single money order is limited to $ 100,
and in the regulations postmasters are instructed to refuse to issue
in one day to the same remitter, in favor of the same payee, more
than three money orders payable at the same post office ; the primary
object of the money order system being, not to furnish facilities for
making remittances of large amounts, but to insure safety in the
transfer of small sums of money through the mails. On the one hand
it would not be practicable to provide at small and remote offices for
the prompt payment on presentation of money orders amounting in
the aggregate to large sums, without these restrictions ; and on the
other, the accumulation of considerable sums at such offices would
be unsafe.

The current of the international money order business with
European countries is continually in favor of those countries, the
money orders issued in the United States for payment in Europe
greatly exceeding in number and aggregate amount those issued in
Europe for payment in the United States. This is due to the well-
known fact that emigrants from those countries frequently send a
portion of their earnings to their relatives at home. The balances
arising from this excess against the United States are liquidated by
banker's bills of exchange purchased in New York, drawn to the
order of the Postmaster General of the United States, and by him
endorsed to the chief of the foreign postal administration to which
payment is to be made. The Money Order System is one of the
heaviest purchasers of foreign exchange. It bought last year bills
to the amount of about $10,000,000. Every morning in New York
the bankers send proposals to the postmaster. For example, one firm
offers a bill on Paris at a certain rate, and another firm offers a sim-
ilar amount at a less rate ; needless to add, the order goes to the
lowest bidder. In similar manner purchase is made of bills payable
in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Basle, Berlin, Stockholm, Chris-
tiania, Copenhagen and Lisbon.

The whole amount of money orders issued in this country for pay-
Lent in the United Kingdom during a recent average year was

210 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

$5,438,926.07, and the amount issued there for payment in the United
States was only 907,857.57. The amount issued in this country
for payment in Italy was $ 1,206, 972. 01, and the amount sent here
from the latter country by money orders was 163,575.06. The
amount remitted to Sweden by money orders was $1,188,008.23,
and the amount received from Sweden was $137,877.54. But in
some instances these remitters, no doubt, sent their money to be
deposited in Government savings banks abroad, there to remain until
their return to their own country.

During the year 1891 the aggregate amount of remittances by money
orders to the United States from the British West Indies, Jamaica,
the Hawaiian Islands, and the Australasian colonies of Great Britain
was much in excess of the amount of money orders issued here for
payment in those countries. For instance, the amount of money
orders issued in this country for payment in the Windward Islands
was $5,049.70 only, while the amount of the orders issued in the
Windward Islands for payment here was $98,393.35; the amount of
the orders issued in the United States for payment in Jamaica was
$3,869.16, while that colony issued for payment in the United States
money orders amounting to $43,320.54; and money orders amount-
ing to $11,743.73 were issued in this country for payment in New
South Wales, the latter country issuing for payment here money
orders amounting to $24,989.16. The excess of money orders from
the above-named countries paid in the United States is explained by
the circumstance that these money orders were sent mainly in pay-
ment for goods and miscellaneous small articles purchased in this
country, there being but very few emigrants from the countries in
question residing here.

In the international money order business between this country
and Canada the difference between the amount of orders issued in
each country for payment in the other is comparatively small ; the
amount of orders from the United States paid in Canada during
the fiscal year ended June 30, 1891, being $1,486,428.03, and
the amount of orders from Canada paid in the United States being
$1,471,737.42; a difference of $14,690.61. Although there are
numerous Canadians living in the United States who send remit-
tances to relatives in their native country, the amount of money
orders remitted to this country from Canada in payment for articles

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 211

purchased here, and of subscriptions to newspapers, periodicals, etc.,
almost counterbalanced the amount of what may be termed " family
remittances " sent home by Canadians residing here. Note, too, the
transactions in domestic issues and payments at the larger post offices.
In Chicago, for example, about 65,000 orders were sold last year, but
the payments reached the enormous number of 1,200,000. In New
York about 50,000 orders were sold, but the number paid was 30,000
in excess of the transactions at Chicago. At Chicago, where a great
number of small offices deposit funds, about 90,000 separate remit-
tances were received last year. None were of an amount less than
$20, but the aggregate reached 10,000,000 of dollars. And a
station, although the name implies an office of a subordinate
kind, is not necessarily a small office. One of the stations in
New York transacts a money order business amounting to about
1800,000 per year.

The fees charged for the issue of international money orders in
the United States are as follows :

For sums not exceeding $10 10 cents

Over $10 and not exceeding $20 20 cents

Over $20 and not exceeding $30 30 cents

Over $30 and not exceeding $40 40 cents

Over $40 and not exceeding $50 50 cents

Over $50 and not exceeding $60 60 cents

Over $60 and not exceeding $70 70 cents

Over $70 and not exceeding $80 80 cents

Over $80 and not exceeding $90 90 cents

Over $90 and not exceeding $100 1 dollar

The money order, affording an almost absolute security to those
who have occasion to remit money through the mails, fulfilled every
reasonable requirement or expectation on the part of remitter or
payee where the amount sent is considerable. But a strong demand
arose, after the withdrawal of the fractional paper currency from
circulation and the substitution of the subsidiary silver coinage, for
some device by which amounts under $5 could be remitted at less
cost and with less trouble than by money order. To satisfy this
demand the Postmaster General in his annual reports for 1881 and
1882 recommended the adoption of the postal note, which had pre-
viously been introduced in England, and there shared with the
money order the favor of the public, becoming the favorite, even for

Models Showing how Postal Notes should be issued and torn from stub.

212

MONEY OKDERS AND SUPPLIES. 213

remittances of very small sums. A bill in which Congress gave its
sanction to the trial of this device was approved by the President
March 3, 1883, and the issue and payment of postal notes there-
under, at money order offices, commenced Sept. 3, 1883. A sub-
sequent act of Congress, approved Jan. 3, 1887, authorized the
Postmaster General to designate, for the issue (though not pay-
ment) of postal notes, offices which are not money order offices, and
thus broadened the field for their use by admitting of their issue and
employment in remittances from places too small to secure the more
extensive facilities of the money order system.

A postal note may be drawn for any amount less than $5. In the
issue of a postal note, the written application and advice, so charac-
teristic of the money order, are dispensed with. There is no need
or room for these in the issue of a postal note, as the note is by law
payable to bearer at any money order office. There being no written
application, a record of the date, number and amount of each note
issued is made and kept by the issuing postmaster on a stub resem-
bling the stub of a bank check. As a safeguard against alterations
of amount, no advice being employed, coupons representing the
number of dollars for which the note is drawn are left attached
on one margin, while from two columns of figures represent-
ing dimes and cents on the opposite margin the figures expressing
the fractional portion of the amount, or ciphers if the note is for
even dollars, are removed with a punch. Should the coupons and
the punched figures in any case not agree with the amount expressed
in writing in the body of the note, payment would be refused until
the true amount could be ascertained by communicating with the
issuing postmaster.

Being payable to bearer, a postal note may be passed from hand
to hand without endorsement. It is payable at any time within
three calendar months from the last day of the month of its issue.
If not paid within that time it becomes invalid, and the holder, to-
obtain payment, must forward it to the Superintendent of the Money
Order System, through the postmaster at a money order office, with
an application for a duplicate, for the issue of which a fee of three
cents is deducted as required by law. As a postal note is by law
payable to bearer, no argument is required to show that a duplicate
cannot be issued until the original is surrendered. The fee charged

214 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

for the issue of postal notes is uniformly three cents. Last year
the holders of no less than 8,279 postal notes allowed them to
remain in their possession longer than three months from the date
of issue.

The postal note is considered safer than paper money for remit-
tances, in that it must be signed by the person who receives
payment, even if previously signed by another person ; and more con-
venient, for the reason that it may be drawn for any odd amount or
fractional part of a dollar. It is found to be of special utility in
sections of the country where silver enters largely into circulation,
and where bills of small denominations are scarce. It is believed
that instances of payment fraudulently obtained on postal notes lost
in transit through the mails are rare. Moreover reports of the loss
of postal notes often turn out to be erroneous, or the loss to be
temporary only. The notes are not unfrequently found subsequently,
having been mislaid or overlooked by the recipient, or having been
received at the Dead Letter Office in imperfectly addressed enve-
lopes, and thence forwarded to the intended addressee, or returned
to the sender.

Money order post offices are divided into two classes, first and
second. Those of the first class are depositories of the surplus
funds accumulating at offices where receipts exceed payments in the
transaction of money order business. The second class comprises all
offices not designated as depositories for such funds. The post-
master at every money order office, excepting that at New York, is
required by the regulations to transmit daily to some other post
office, designated as the depository therefor, his surplus money order
funds, comprising all money order funds in his possession in excess
of the sum of the unpaid money order advices on hand not more
than two weeks, or in excess of the fixed sum which he is authorized
to retain for the payment of orders drawn upon him, and of postal
notes, and which is termed his "reserve." Postmasters at postal
note offices (that is, offices which issue but do not pay postal notes)
are likewise required to remit daily, or as often as practicable, to
a designated post office in sums of $20 or more, the entire sum derived
from the sale of postal notes. The offices designated as depositories,
being located at paying centres, usually need more funds than they
receive from the issue of money orders and postal notes. But,

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 215

should a surplus accrue at any one of these offices from sales and
deposits in excess of payments, it is transmitted to another deposi-
tory designated to receive it ; and thus, by transfer from one post
office . to another, the actual surplus of all the offices at which the
receipts exceed the payments eventually reaches the postmaster
at New York, whose office is the central depository, and upon
whom drafts are drawn by postmasters at offices where the re-
ceipts from sales, or from deposits and sales, are less than the
amount of orders presented. The postmaster at New York has a
reserve of $125,000 to meet the requirements of business, and
deposits the residue daily with the Assistant Treasurer of the
United States in that city.

Payment of money orders and postal notes presented when the
amount thereof exceeds that of the money order funds in the posses-
sion of the postmaster drawn upon is provided for by means of trans-
fers of funds from the postage account to the money order account,
i. e., transfers, to the money order account, of funds received from
the sale of stamps and stamped envelopes, as well as by drafts
upon the postmaster at New York City. The postmaster who is
called upon to pay money orders or postal notes exceeding in amount
the funds in his hands derived from the sale of orders and notes is
required to transfer such sum as may be necessary and available from
his postage account to his money order account, or if the money
order and postage funds together are insufficient, or the postage
funds are not available for transfer in such emergency, to make
application to the Superintendent of the Money Order System for a
draft on the postmaster at New York for the requisite amount. If
the receipts of the post office ordinarily suffice for the payment of
money orders drawn thereon, the postmaster is furnished, upon such
application, with a single draft only for the occasion. But if the
current of business at any post office is such that the postmaster is
continuously or often called upon to pay orders for amounts exceed-
ing the receipts of his office, he is furnished with a book of fifteen
blank drafts, and a letter of credit foi a suitable sum, upon the
postmaster at New York, against which he may draw as occasion
requires. The postmaster's bond, if not already large enough* when
a letter of credit is granted, is increased in amount sufficient to pro-
tect the Government on account of this additional trust; and the

216 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

credit is renewed from time to time, when necessary, as is also the
supply of blank drafts.

Postmasters are required to render to the Department, weekly,
semi-monthly, or monthly, statements of all the money order busi-
ness transacted by them, entering therein the particulars of every
money order and postal note issued, paid or re-paid, and the date
and amount of each deposit of surplus money order funds made or
received during the period reported upon. These statements, after
a preliminary examination in the office of the Superintendent of the
Money Order System, are turned over to the accounting officer, the
Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department. To obtain
allowance of credit claimed in any such statement for payments
made or for remittances of surplus money order funds to his deposi-
tory, the postmaster must in all cases forward the proper vouchers,
which are the paid orders or notes, properly receipted, or the certifi-
cates of deposit. These vouchers are also compared in the Auditor's
office with the entries in the issuing postmaster's statements, and
any error of amount in the latter or any failure to account properly
for the issue of money orders or postal notes (the forms for which,
numbered consecutively in separate series for each post office, are
furnished by the Department) is thus detected.

The total revenues from all branches of the money order and postal
note business are deposited quarterly, according to law, with the
Assistant Treasurer of the United States at New York, to the credit
of the Treasurer of the United States, for the service of the Post-
Office Department. The amount thus deposited, however, must not
be regarded as net profit, but as gross revenue less the amount of
such of the expenses as were paid out of the proceeds of the busi-
ness, which expenses include the large item of commissions paid to
postmasters at third and fourth class post offices. A large portion
of the expense of conducting the system each year is paid out of
appropriations made by Congress ; but the revenues deposited in the
manner stated, for a like period, will usually balance, or nearly so,
the expenditures met by such appropriations, and the Government is
thus reimbursed. The chief items of expenditure defrayed from
appropriations are, salaries of employees in the superintendent's
office and in the money order division of the Auditor's office, print-
ing, rent and service for the money order building, and allowances

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 217

to postmasters at first and second class offices for clerk hire (over
half a million dollars a year), all of which amount to $ 850, 000 or
more annually.

The Superintendent of the Money Order Division, Dr. Charles F.
Macdonald, is a scholarly gentleman, bred in the shadow of Bun-
ker Hill, a former school teacher, the promoter and organizer of the
money order bureau at its inception in the administration of Mr.
Blair. Ask him for the record of his life and he will say: "Nee
male vixit, qui natus moriensque fefellit."

Before December, 1891, it was the practice of the Department not
to extend the postal money order system to any post office where the
compensation of the postmaster was less than $ 250 per annum, and
not then, unless application was made for the extension. But a
year ago Postmaster General Wanamaker issued an order for the
extension of money order facilities to all post offices, though appli-
cation might not be made for them, where the compensation of the
postmaster is $200 or more per annum; and it was not left optional
with the postmaster whether or not his office should be made a money
order office. There were about five thousand post offices yielding
this amount of compensation, which rapidly became money order
offices. To establish a money order office entails an expense of just
14.90. The blanks cost 86 cents; the bound registers 11.80; the
envelopes $1.27; the postal note punch 63 cents; and the dating
stamp and pad 44 cents. All these supplies are obtained under
contracts, and the competition enables the Department to procure
printing at rates very much below those paid by the general public.
More than 500 different blanks are used, and some are ordered in
quantities of 20,000,000 per year.

A postmaster whose office is designated as a money order or postal
note office is required by law, before he can be authorized to com-
mence business of that kind, to file in the Department a new bond,
with at least two sureties. This new bond is conditioned for the
faithful performance of the duties and obligations imposed upon him
by the laws relating to the postal as well as the money order busi-
ness. It therefore takes the place of his former bond and is not in
addition to it. Until lately the amount of the money order penalty
of such new bond was usually $3,000, and the amount of the postal
penalty was $1,000, making $4,000 in all. Postmasters at small

218

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

offices in some quarters of the country frequently encountered great
difficulty in furnishing a bond of this amount, so that they might
be authorized to transact money order business. Now a bond for
$2,500 in all, of which the money order penalty is $ 1,500, is deemed
sufficient in the case of newly designated money order offices, in
view of the fact that the supply of blank money orders sent at one
time to the postmaster at a small office has been reduced from one

THE DIVISION OF SUPPLIES.

hundred to twenty-five, a number which cannot be issued for a larger
sum in the aggregate than $2,500. If a larger supply of such forms
is required later, the postmaster may be called upon to give bond for
a correspondingly increased amount.

This extension of the money order system has meant a total num-
ber of offices in operation of 20,000. The amount of money trans-
mitted by money orders and postal notes is about $150,000,000
annually; and soon the total value will be at least $200,000,000.

The Division of Post Office Supplies, under charge of the First
Assistant Postmaster General (along with the Money Order System

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 219

and the Divisions of Salaries and Allowances and Dead Letters) is
charged with the duty of furnishing each post office throughout the
country with supplies, as follows : Those of the fourth class with
eight-ounce letter balances, plain facing slips (and they may procure
at their own expense printed facing slips upon application to the
contractors for furnishing the same), cancelling ink, stamping pads,
postmarking, rating and cancelling stamps, thirty-seven forms of
blanks, and, if the receipts of the office are $100 or more per annum,
with twine and wrapping paper; of the third class (in addition to
the articles above stated), with 72 forms of blanks, four-pound
scales, and, when necessary to weigh matter of the second class, 62
and 240 pound scales ; and first and second class offices are furnished
with all the above-named articles, when application is made for
them, and, in addition, with test weights, 600 pound scales or larger
when required to weigh newspaper and periodical matter, 110
forms of blanks, and 21 T articles of stationery, under the 92 con-
tract items. All facing slips, both plain and printed, are supplied
to offices of these classes at the expense of the Department. The
Department proper is furnished with blanks, blank books, labels,
records, and 235 articles of stationery, under the 117 contract items.
Blanks and books, as well as stamps, used in the transaction of the
money order business, and postal note plyer punches, are furnished
on application of the Superintendent of the Money Order System.
Blank postal notes are likewise furnished to that officer. There
is 110 fixed rule as to the quantity of money order supplies which
may be furnished, for the reason that the money order business bears
sometimes but slight relation to the salary of the postmaster and the
extent of the postal business. Each money order office is supplied
according to its special necessities.

The operations of this division are conducted in the skating rink,
half a block away from the Department, on E Street. They are
tremendous. The Department and the postal service require about
41,000 reams of manilla wrapping paper yearly, involving an
expenditure of 158,000. 14,470 reams of 20 x 29 manilla facing slip
paper, making 250,041,600 3 T 3 g x 5 slips, are furnished to the
Government facing-slip printers each year for the 800 first and
second class post offices, the printing of them paid for by the De-
partment, upon vouchers; third and fourth class offices, as has been

SUPPLY KOOM CONTAINING WRAPPING PAPER AND TWINE.

SUPPLY KOOM CONTAINING EVERY BLANK USED IN EVERY POST OFFICE.

220

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES.

221

stated, are allowed printed facing slips, from the Government facing-
slip printers, at their own expense. Every postmaster and railway
postal clerk in the United States is required to use one of these slips
on each letter or package of letters leaving his office, bearing his
postmark and name, or the number of the person putting up the
packages, an almost perfect safeguard in every way to prevent
letters from being lost or missent in transit. 9,000 reams of 20 x 29

TONS OF PAPEE.

are sent to the Railway Mail Service yearly for plain facing slips,
which are equal to 155,520,000 3 T 3 g-x5 slips, printed at its own
expense, when required. 7,000 reams of 20x29 are furnished to
the Government printer yearly to be cut into 3 T 3 g- x 5 plain facing
slips, which equal 120,960,000 slips, or about 600 reams of 20x29
every thirty days for the above purpose.

Five hundred and sixty-three reams are used every year by the
Division of Post Office Supplies in wrapping its packages; 9,000
reams of 20 x 24 and 967 reams of 26 x 40 are sent yearly to the

222

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

post offices whose gross receipts are 1100 and over, throughout the
country, for wrapping purposes; or the weight of wrapping paper
sent out and consumed by post offices equals 1,127,180 pounds, or
about 564 tons, or 56 carloads yearly. This constitutes the dif-
ferent sizes of wrapping paper issued, making the total number of
reams issued each year 41,000, or 19,680,000 sheets, or the
enormous Aveight of 1,148,432 pounds of paper; the quantity being

THE STATIONERY ROOM FOR FIRST AND SECOND CLASS OFFICES.

so great that it would require a 164-inch u Fourdrinier " machine
running night and day the year round to keep up the supply.

The division requires 1,348,000 pounds of jute, cotton, hemp,
and flax twine, or about 67 cars, yearly. The jute twine is put up
in one-half pound balls, and, in accordance with the specifications,
the inside end of the string is to be fastened on the outside of the
ball, so as to unwind from the inside. By this device employees
start unwinding the ball from that end. Formerly they began from
the other, so that each ball unwound with a tangle, and a quarter

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES. 223

of the twine, on the average, was wasted, and the loss in the aggregate
was very great. This twine costs each year $84,900, and every
sixty days 25,000 pounds of jute twine are received and issued.

It requires about 8,000 scales of the following capacities 8 oz.,
4 Ibs., 62 Ibs., 240 Ibs., 400 Ibs., 600 Ibs. and 1,000 Ibs, to supply
the 67,000 post offices yearly; and the expense is $9,506. A room
with a floor space of 7,650 square feet is required for the wrapping
papers, twines and scales, and owing to the vast amount of stock
obliged to be carried the manilla papers, twines and scales have to
be piled to a height of ten feet, in order that the room may contain
what is required to be issued from day to day.

The item of black cancelling ink for cancelling postage stamps,
post-marking and back-stamping letters amounts to about 40,000
pounds, or 5,000 gallons, or 122 barrels yearly; and the expense is
18,000. With this cancelling ink 25,000 inking pads, 4^x5, are
required, the base consisting of printers' roller composition, with a
felt cloth top to retain the ink. These pads cost 17,000 a year.
39,300 steel and rubber stamps are furnished to the service yearly
at an expense of $17,666.05. 80,000,000 blanks of various descrip-
tions and sizes, 220,798 blank books, and 5,056,380 letter heads
and envelopes are required every twelve months.

The supplies furnished exclusively to the 800 first and second-
class post offices are as follows: 13,000 gross, or 1,872,000, steel
pens, at an expense of $5,052; 20,540 dozen, or 246,480, lead pen-
cils consumed annually at an expense of $3,440; 10,500 pounds,
or 50,200 gross, of rubber bands required yearly at an expense
of $13,091.50; 1,140 dozen quarts of writing fluid and copying and
black ink required each year, or 3,420 gallons, or 83 barrels,
at an expense of $2,072; and 10,000 pounds of pins, involving an
expense of $463.63.

There are sent in a year by mail from the Supply Division 56,600
mail sacks and pouches filled with supplies; 10,350 cases of scales
and stationery; and 230,300 packages of blanks and stationery. It
requires 27,000,000 3 x 5 registry package receipts, registry return
receipts, and registry bills for the 67,000 post offices, at an annual
cost of $20,000. It has been estimated carefully that there are six
tons and more of stationery, blanks, books, twines, wrapping papers
.and scales mailed every week-day in the year. It requires ten trips

224

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

each day of large double-team mail wagons, filled to their utmost
capacity with supplies, to ship the articles necessary to conduct
the postal business. The supply division is now occupying, by
actual measurement, a floor space containing 21,384 square feet.

In 1866 three post office agencies for furnishing blanks, twine
and paper were established, one in Buffalo, one in Cincinnati, and
one in the Department Building in Washington. Mr. W. S. Davis.

msf

THE STATIONERY ROOM FOR THE DEPARTMENT PROPER.

was in charge of the Washington agency. This supplied the
Southern States; the other two agencies supplied the rest of the
country. All purchasers of supplies had to show vouchers for them,
and have them approved by the Department, in order that pay might
be had. In 186T the offices at Buffalo and Cincinnati showed
vouchers for supplies alleged to have been sent to the state of
Alabama, which was outside their territory. Mr. Davis insisted
upon a prompt investigation. It showed that the agencies in
Buffalo and Cincinnati were making false vouchers. The agent

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES.

225

at Cincinnati was arrested; the agent for Buffalo, in Europe at the

time, was arrested on his return ; they both confessed, and the United

States recovered nearly $300,000. ^ ,_, , _. ...

The result was that the three

agencies were combined, and the

blank agency, as it was called, was

established in Washington City.

The present Superintendent is
Major E. H. Shook of Michigan.
He is a member of the Grand
Army, the Union Veteran Union
and the Loyal Legion. He was
born in Dutchess County, N. Y.
He worked five years as a printer
boy. He saw thirty-one heavy en-
gagements in the war. He was
Assistant Adjutant General on
General H. G. Berry's staff, and
Assistant Inspector General of
General Byron R. Pierce's bri-
gade, of the Third Division of the
Second Corps. He was taken
prisoner in 1863, but escaped. He was wounded in the top of his
head at the battle of Mine Run, was severely wounded in the
Wilderness, and was knocked down by a shell at Sailor's Creek.
Major Shook was handling printers' supplies and stationery for a
large Detroit house up to the time of his appointment.

MAJOR E. H. SHOOK,

Chief, Division of Post Office Supplies.

THE CAEEIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY.

HE free delivery of mail matter by carriers took
effect July 1, 1863, and was put in operation at
forty-nine offices with about four hundred and fifty
carriers at an aggregate annual compensation of about
$300,000. Postmaster General Blair, in his annual
report for 1863, said:

" Our own experience and that of Europe demonstrates that
correspondence increases with every facility of its conduct, and
free delivery in the principal towns and cities has been proved
in the mother country to be a facility attended with very remarkable results.
Further time will be required to prove whether it will operate in the same way
here, but as far as ascertained, the results are highly satisfactory."

In the city of New York, for the first quarter, there were delivered
by carriers 2,069,418 letters, with 1,810,717 collected, or an increase
of about twenty-five per cent, over the preceding quarter. But the
growth of the service was slow until 1887 and 1888, when the num-
ber of offices was nearly doubled. Previous to January 3, 1887,
the requirement for free delivery was that a city should have a
population of 20,000 within the delivery of its post office. The
law of January 3, 1887, made any place eligible that had a popula-
tion of 10,000, or a revenue from its post office for the preceding
fiscal year of $10,000.

There are now over six hundred free delivery offices in the
country, and the letter carriers attached to this service deliver
and collect mail from twenty millions of people. The annual
expense is between ten and eleven millions of dollars. A law has
been repeatedly proposed to Congress to extend the service to towns
of five thousand population oi 1 of $5,000 receipts for the latest
fiscal year. This would add one hundred and seventy-five places or
more to the number served with the free delivery, and a million and

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY. 227

a half of people would be accommodated. The annual cost would be
perhaps $400,000.

When a town becomes entitled to the free delivery service, eitner
by reason of population or revenue, and it is deemed advisable
favorably to consider its claims, the postmaster is informed that
before the service can be established the sidewalks must be paved,
streets lighted, houses numbered, and names of streets placed at
intersections. When this is done, an inspector is sent to look over
the field, lay off the carriers' districts, locate the street letter boxes
and instruct the postmaster as to details. Letter carriers are
appointed by the Department, on the recommendation of the post-
master, except at civil service offices, of which there are forty-five.
At these offices they have to pass a competitive examination and
are selected from the list of eligibles in their order. At these offices
they are appointed as substitutes first, and promoted when their turn
is reached.

Carriers are entitled to a vacation of fifteen days in each year,
without loss of pay ; they cannot be removed by the postmasters, but
for serious offences may be suspended and recommended for removal
to the Department. Generally the Department obliges the postmas-
ter. A postmaster, for offences not involving removal, may suspend
a carrier for thirty days or less. Postmasters are forbidden to
to employ carriers as clerks in their offices, and if carriers work
over eight hours a day, they are to be paid proportionately for
the overtime. As it is impracticable to assign carriers to eight
hours consecutive work, they are assigned by schedule so that
the actual time of service is not more than eight hours a day.
The intervals between trips are the carriers' own. Postmasters
are required to furnish monthly to the Superintendent of Free
Delivery a report showing the number of deliveries and collec-
tions made, the total number of hours of free delivery service
rendered during the month, and the average daily hours of service
per carrier.

At cities of 75,000 or more carriers are paid $600, $800, and
$1,000. In free delivery cities having populations smaller than that,
carriers are paid $600 and $850 per year. Appointments are always
made to the class having the minimum rate of pay, and promotions
are made from the lower to the higher grades at the expiration of

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY. 229

one year's service on certificates of the postmasters of efficiency and
faithfulness. A bill is now before Congress to create an additional
class of carriers whose compensation for the fourth year shall be
$1,200. Postmasters may grant additional leaves of absence for not
exceeding thirty days in cases of sickness, disability received in the
service, or other urgent necessity. Substitute letter carriers are
appointed like the others at a compensation of one dollar per year ;
for vacation service they receive $600 per annum, and for any other
leave of absence the pro-rata pay of the carrier whose route they
serve. They are required to give bonds, as the regular carriers are,
and must be ready to respond to the postmaster's call for service
at a moment's notice. At the classified post offices substitutes are
promoted in the order of their appointment; at the non-classified
offices this is not compulsory. The substitutes are taken from
lists of eligibles who have passed the competitive civil service
examination, made by the local board of examiners, duly author-
ized by the civil service commission to make it. Their first
appointment is for a probationary term of six months. At non-
classified offices the postmaster nominates and the Postmaster Gen-
eral appoints.

Carriers must be citizens of the United States, physically fitted
for the service, and temperate ; they must be at least eighteen years
of age and not over forty, though this limitation does not apply to
honorably discharged soldiers and sailors. The carrier's bond is for
$1,000, with two sureties at least, and he has to take the oath.
Carriers are forbidden to solicit, in person or otherwise, contribu-
tions of money, gifts, or presents, to issue addresses, complimentary
cards, prints, publications, or any substitutes for them, intended
to induce the public to make gifts or presents, to sell tickets on their
routes to theatres, concerts, balls, fairs, picnics, excursions, or places
of amusement of any kind, to borrow money on their routes, or to
contract debts which they have no reasonable prospect of being able
to pay. Every carrier, before entering upon his duties, is required
to provide himself with a uniform (made of .cadet gray cloth), and
to wear it at all times when on duty. He is held strictly to account
for the keys entrusted to him, and for the loss of them he is liable
to removal. He must promptly report broken boxes or defective
locks or keys.

230

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The subjects and relative weights for the carrier examinations
made by the examiners of the civil service commission are as fol-
lows :

Subjects,

Relative
weights.

First: Orthography

Second * Penmanship

Third' Copying ....

Fourth: Arithmetic .

Fifth: Local delivery
Sixth * Reading addresses .

3
3

Total of weights

The following is a typical examination paper for the fourth sub-
ject, arithmetic:

Question 1. Express in sign and figures seventy-two millions five thousand and
eighty-two dollars, ten cents and two and one half mills.

Question 2. Express in words the following: 5,312,209.521.

Question 3. Express in words the following: 10 mi. 8 fur. 640 rd. 760 yd.
10,560 ft. 6 in.=16 mi. 6 in.

Question 4. A carrier makes 4 trips a day, carrying 64 letters and 32 papers
each trip. The letters average in weight # oz. each and the papers 2 oz. each.
How many pounds of mail does he deliver in a day ? (16 oz. to the pound).

Give work in full.

Question 5. Multiply 26.32 by 3, and to the product add 2.04.

Give work in full.

Question 6. Add the following, placing the sum at the bottom:

5,321,792.18

329,212,175.75

11,515,666.66

2,919,286,554.55

115.25

999,510.45

4,786,452,369.38

29,236,111,522.73

75,775,016.15

90,187,236,541.02

Question 7. A carrier delivers in one day 254 letters, 423 papers, and 27 pack-
ages. Each letter has on it a two-cent stamp, each paper a one-cent stamp,
and each package a four-cent stamp. How much would the Government make
or lose on this mail, supposing the whole cost of transportation and delivery to
be $11.42 ?

Give work in full.

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY. 231

Question 8. A carrier walks a distance of 20 squares on each trip, each square
being 400 feet in length. If he advance 20 inches each step, how many steps will
he take on the trip ?

Give work in full.

Question 9. A carrier who makes 1,200 trips a year rides on the street cars
twice every trip, the fare being five cents a ride. What is the cost of street-car
fare for the year ?

Give work in full.

Question 10. In an office employing 35 carriers, each carrier loses 20 minutes a
day in idle talk. Suppose the average salary of each to be $2.50 for ten hours
work, what is the cost to the Government of the lost time each day, and what
will it amount to in a year of 313 working days ?

Give work in full.

For the fifth subject, local delivery, the following is a typical
examination paper :

Question 1. Name the principal railroads (not exceeding five) which pass
through or terminate in this city, and give the location (the street or streets on.
which situated) of the principal depot or ticket office of each.

Question 2. Name four streets which pass nearest to the building in which this
examination is held, and mentipn one public building or prominent business
house on each.

Question 3. Name the principal hotels in this city (not exceeding five) and the
location (street or streets on which situated) of each.

Question 4. Name some street or streets by which one could pass from the
extreme northern to the extreme southern portion of this city, and mention five
prominent buildings, places, or parks which would be passed on the route
given.

Question 5. Name a street-car line (or connecting lines) by which one could
travel nearly or quite across this city, and name the principal streets over which
it or they pass.

The frequency of carrier service depends upon the importance of a
locality and the arrival and departure of mails, and business districts
have more frequent deliveries and collections than the resident quar-
ters. Regulations require that citizens supplied by letter carriers
shall be requested to provide receiving boxes at their houses and
places of business. This is done to a very limited extent, however,
for the reason probably that householders or occupants of business
offices understand that the mail will be delivered to them anyway,
and it is no affair of theirs, or at least only a small affair, to save the
time of letter carriers by providing a receptacle to receive mail
without delay. The plan inaugurated by Postmaster General Wana-
maker to provide for the collection from every house and business
office of mail from letter boxes, as well as the delivery of it to boxes

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY. 233

in every one of them, supplies the householder with a facility which
he really wanted and was willing to pay the price of a box for.

In the course of a year the 11,000 or more letter carriers of -the
country deliver five and one half million of registered letters, a
billion and a third of ordinary letters, perhaps two hundred and
seventy-five millions of postal cards and almost six hundred mil-
lions of newspapers. They collect in an average year three hundred
millions of local letters and three quarters of a billion of mail let-
ters. They collect also perhaps one hundred and fifteen million
local postal cards, one hundred and fifty million mail postal cards
and nearly two hundred million newspapers ; all of which is to say,
that the 11,000 letter carriers handle in a year the inconceivable
number of three and three fourths billions of pieces of mail.

The postmaster at Concord, New Hampshire, Mr. Henry Robin-
son, once wrote of the letter carrier :

" There is no discount on him; he is held up to the highest standard of excel-
lence. He eats his three hearty meals a day, walks his twenty miles, and sleeps
like a top. If you could see him lazily stretch out his legs and fill his old ' T. D.'
after he has filled out his daily report, given up his key and hung up his leather
bag that he wears hung from his shoulder when on duty, you would not imagine
that he ever felt any considerable responsibility. But his is an exacting work,
indeed. He has taken a solemn oath and is under bonds to do this important
mission quietly, diligently and perfectly in all its imperative details. Under no
circumstances is he allowed to loiter on his route. He cannot stop to converse,
except in the line of his business. Trivial talk, singing, whistling and smoking
are diversions that he cannot indulge in when in charge of the mail.

" He has to exercise the greatest care in everything that he says and does. He
is forbidden to deliver letters in the street even to the owner, unless the owner
is personally known to him and the delivery can be made without reasonable
delay. It is against the rules for him to throw mail into windows or hallways,
unless he is instructed to do so. He is to rap or to ring the bell at the door, and
wait patiently a reasonable time for an answer. Sometimes he has to go back to
make a second call at your residence or place of business, because there was no
one there at first to receive the mail and no place to put it. He is not to enter
any house while on his trip, except in the discharge of his official work, and he
cannot deliver any pieces of mail that have not first passed through the post-
office. He cannot exhibit any mail entrusted to him, or give any information in
regard to it or to any person other than those to whom it is addressed or who are
authorized to receive it"

Or again :

" He will not make any unnecessary comment upon the character of the mail
carried by him. He does not read postal cards nor interest himself in what is
entrusted to him, except so far as it becomes his official obligation to do so. He

234 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

handles so many letters of all kinds that he becomes indifferent to their contents,
except to be careful to the utmost degree of caution in the handling of every one.

" It is none of his business what your letters contain, if they are properly mail-
able, and he doesn't care if you get a hundred letters a day from the same person,
or whether you get only one letter a month, or no letters at all it is all the
same to him. He will not tell you anything about anybody's mail. He can't tell
you whether Mrs. So-and-So got a letter from Mr. So-and-So this morning, or
whether Sarah Jane's fellow in the West is still corresponding with her or not.
He carries a straight, clear, well-regulated head on him, but is as non-committal
as the Sphinx and as reticent as an Egyptian mummy on most subjects. He is
not expected to discuss religion or talk politics. He lays great claim to a civil-
tongue, and endeavors never to allow himself to be exasperated or annoyed in
the least, however great the tax put upon his unvarying civility.

" He is not allowed to put letters into his own pockets to carry them nor to
throw away even the slightest piece of mail, however valueless and unimportant
it may appear. He must return to the office everything that is undelivered, and
after every trip must bring back his satchel and his key, and make his compre-
hensive written return in detail of the number and character of all the pieces
handled by him. He keeps a considerable post office of his own, having nearly
two thousand patrons. He has a perfect directory of his route, free from blot and
as neat as wax, with the name of every letter receiver in his district, alphabeti-
cally recorded, with special instructions noted in reference to each. He has a
* case,' as it is called at the office, which is divided into convenient compart-
ments, and should you ask him there if he has a letter for you, he can find it in a
moment if there is one. Do not imagine that when the mail clerk's signal bell
strikes for him to get ready that he then jumbles all the letters into his leather
bag in a confused mass. Such is not the fact. Every piece of mail entrusted to
him has its particular place and all is arranged with a system and order very
commendable. He is forbidden under all circumstances to return to any person
whatever letters deposited by them in the street mailing boxes from which he
makes collections, but if the sender of the letter wishes it back, he must report
to the office, where may be found exclusive discretion to return it to the writer."

Said Postmaster Anderson of Cleveland, not long ago, in address-
ing his letter carriers on their semi-annual inspection day :

" There are many temptations thrown around you, not only in the office but
upon your routes. I want you to shun these as you would so many vipers. I
know you do, but I wish you could have been in my private office the other day,
and seen the mental anguish of an arrested carrier. If you could have seen his
clenched hands and tear-ridden face; if you could have seen his deep humiliation
as he acknowledged that he had betrayed the confidence reposed in him by me and
his friends, and violated the laws he had solemnly sworn to obey, and observed
how wretchedly he seemed to feel when he admitted that he had contrived a plan
to steal that would seem to exculpate him and throw the suspicion upon other
innocent and honest men, you would remember and fully appreciate the familiar
old maxim: ' Honesty is the best policy.' This man made an appeal to me for
leniency, asked that his crime should be * settled,' and appealed to my sympathies
as a husband and a father. He told me about his honest, economical wife and

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY. 235

his three little boys whom an hour or two before he had parted from with a
loving kiss. I told him I pitied his wife, but he should have thought of them
before and while he was committing the crime that brought disgrace and shame
upon the helpless and the innocent. As the responsible head of the office, as a
sworn officer of the Government, of that department which is so near the people,
to whom they entrust their money, their missives of business, society and
affection, I cannot afford to be lenient to a man who wilfully and deliberately
transgresses the law."

To look down from the long, shutter-covered balcony that extends
around the main room of a great post office, as at Chicago, is to see
big leather mail sacks, with yawning mouths kept closed by snappy-
looking padlocks, stacks of letters on a wide, roomy table, with the
force of stampers beating with monotonous regularity a double
"tump-tump " so rapidly that the ear must be acute to note that it
is not a continuous sound; busy clerks, with a steady, unceasing
movement of the hands and eyes, placing a letter here, another
there, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of one thousand with-
out a slip, working as if their lives depended on getting through
before their neighbors. Here are the men who are classifying the
mail for the carriers, and here are the carriers themselves, engaged
in "routing" the mail. Back and forth, in and out of the aisles
they come and go, like bees hovering around a hive. To the layman
all is confusion and disorder. But better harmony never existed.
A clock is not more evenly and accurately adjusted. It is a
system that has well-nigh reached perfection. There is never a
moment's hesitation. The finger tips of the carriers and clerks
seem imbued with independent minds ; the streets, the districts and
the divisions, are within a call that responds as quickly as a flash
of lightning.

In a big city like Chicago, of course, thousands and thousands of
letters are received where it is almost impossible to make out the
addresses. One of the Chicago clerks has tabulated the different
spellings of Chicago ; and he finds without much trouble that they
numbered one hundred and ninety-seven. Only a short time ago a
Finnish letter writer addressed his brother at Zizazo; and other spell-
ings in the list were : Jagjago, Hipaho, Jaji jo, Schechacho, Hizago,
and Chachicho. Then wrong addresses are given, and great diffi-
culty is found in finding the person for whom the letter or paper
was intended. Several months ago a paper was addressed to Mrs.

236 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

M. Kracky, 612 Dixon Street, but the carrier could not find her.
All the people interested were Polanders, including the carrier, and
they had a time of it. Here is the carrier's story in his own report:

Mrs. M. Kracky does not live at 612 Dixon Street. Six hundred and twelve
Dickson is a two-story house, occupied by four families, to wit: On the first floor
in front lives Mr. Pafelski, an uncle of Mrs. Kracky; with him also lives his
mother, or grandmother to Mrs. Kracky; above them lives Mr. Kiszewski. In
the rear on the top floor lives Mrs. Kilichowski, and below her lives Mrs. Pin-
kowski, a mother of Mrs. Kracky, whom the latter calls on about twice a month,
more or less. Now, when this January number came to me I am positive that I
asked three times in front of both families, and I am also positive that I opened
Mrs. Pinkowski's door at least twice and asked there, as I had to pass her door
four times in order to see Mrs. Kilichowski, who was asleep twice. The third
time she was out, the fourth time I got her at home, and each time I called out
the name loud enough for Mrs. Pinkowski to hear. The November number I
must have delivered in October, but I can't remember it. The December number
was delivered by the substitute, as I was on my annual vacation from Nov. 1 to
Nov. 16. To-day as I called there Mrs. Kracky happened to be there washing for
her mother, and I delivered her magazine. Mrs. M. Kracky, whose proper name
is Mrs. M. Krajecki, lives at 596 Holt Street. p p Q. OLONSKI 332.

Many claims for over-time service of letter carriers have been filed
with the Department. They aggregate about half a million dollars,
and many have been carried by the claimants to the Court of Claims
for adjudication. Under the statute the carrier's day is eight hours,
and work required of him beyond that period is reckoned as over-
time. Official blanks are furnished to all of the free delivery offices
for keeping the individual time of each carrier while on duty.
Where the force is limited, there is, of course, a liability that extra
time will be required of the carriers ; but when the force is sup-
posed to be competent for the service the working of over-time is
discountenanced. The position of the Department is that letter
carriers should be required to work eight hours on week days and as
many hours on Sundays as the service at the respective offices may
require, and not in excess of forty-eight hours any week of six days
where Sunday service is not required. A desired amendment to the
postal laws provides for an additional class of carriers, so that after
four years' service, carriers may, upon a certificate of their respective
postmasters that they have been especially faithful and efficient, be
promoted from $1,000 to $1,200 per annum, and that when letter
carriers become inefficient, or unfitted for active work, they shall,

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY. 23 T

upon the certificate of their respective postmasters to that effect, be
reduced to a lower grade commensurate with their service or
removed, as the equities of the case may suggest. Such an amend-
ment would not only provide a just compensation to faithful and
deserving carriers, but it would tend to enlist in the service more of
the finest young men, and stimulate all the carriers to better efforts.
It would also provide a just way of continuing in the Government
employ carriers who have rendered efficient service, but who, by
reason of infirmities or advancing years, are unable to perform the
maximum service of a carrier.

The collection service, as the First Assistant Postmaster General
has observed, requires men chiefly of physical strength. $600 per
annum, as it is held by many, would be adequate compensation.
Now all are treated alike, and promotions of collectors are made
from $600 to $800, $850, and $1,000 per annum, as with delivery
carriers. The carriers become more efficient and are able to handle
and deliver their mail with greater facility from year to year, while
the collectors can perform, as a rule, as satisfactory service the first
year as afterwards. The creation by law of a grade of collectors with
a salary of $600 per annum, and not subject to promotion, would
enable the Department to separate the deliveries and collections at
all the large offices, and thus insure better results in both branches
at a decreased cost. It has never been intended to recommend a
reduction of the salaries of old carriers who may be performing col-
lection service at the time the law might take effect, or prevent their
promotion under existing law. Provision would be made for new
men only. The proposition is a measure of tardy justice to the
overworked and poorly paid carrier. But nothing like this has a
chance to become law. Mr. Cummings of New York introduced in
the last session a bill to fix the pay of letter carriers at $600 for
the first year, $800 for the second, $1,000 for the third, and for the
fourth, and thereafter, $1,200. Neither did this measure have any
chance of passing, for it would cost per year perhaps a million and
three quarters ; and when it is an impossible task, notwithstanding
the steady and inevitable growth of the country and hence of the
postal service, to secure any additions at all to many of the items of
the postal appropriation bill, it is not strange that the item for car-
rier service should be cut down, as recently, by $300,000. This

238

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE,

MAIL, DELIVERY CART USED IX CHICAGO.

reduction, if the Senate had permitted it to be made, would have
left the service to get along as best it could during the next year
without any additional carriers, and that, too, though it had been

repeatedly stated that in Chi-
cago alone two hundred new
men were required for the act-
ual needs of the service.

In most of the large cities
the carriers going out for deliv-
eries are transported in cars,
omnibuses, or sometimes in
elevated trains, out to their
routes, in order the more
quickly to begin their distri-
butions. Collections are ex-
pedited by similar means. In
Chicago they have a unique cart system for collection. The territory
covered by the cart system is about forty-four square miles, and it
is collected from six times daily. There are forty-five men on
the cart collection force, each covering from eighteen to twenty-
two miles per day. There are sixteen districts with three men as
a rule attached to each. Two or four cart men meet at a central
point about two miles from the central office, and the mail is trans-
ferred to one of the carts and
driven to the central office.

The street letter boxes in use
by the Post Office Department
are selected after open compet-
itive bidding for a contract
term of four years; but during
that time the contractor is
obliged, if the Department sees fit to ask it, to make improvements
which seem to be of value. The box at present in use is considered
clumsy and expensive by many, but it was selected from one hun-
dred and forty designs as the best. There is no doubt that the recent
competition among some sixteen hundred designs for house letter
boxes, which was in progress under Postmaster General Wanamaker's
direction for two years to find the best collection and delivery box,

ANOTHER MAIL, DELIVERY CART USED
IN CHICAGO.

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY.

239

has drawn much attention to the defects of the street letter box.
The old letter box used to have a slot in the end. In the newirox
the mail is dropped, as is well known, through a tray which opens
down at one side of the top. But persons may be seen almost any
time looking for the old slot at the end and wondering whither it
has disappeared.

A year ago, perhaps, a clever fellow came to the Department wi th-
an estimate that the present United States mail system is responsible
for one half of all the lies that are told; for, said he, when a man
neglects to write to his dear lady, or a husband neglects to write to
his dear wife, or an impecunious young man to his dear tailor, it is
the custom for him to picture himself the pink of punctuality and
to lay all the blame upon the mails. The clever fellow declared
that a business man with a golden opportunity wanted him to
become a partner in a scheme. He wrote a letter accepting the
business man's proposition. He wrote the
letter on Tuesday morning. The man sailed
on Wednesday morning for Europe. He
should have got the letter Tuesday after-
noon, but he did not get it at all until he
returned from Europe. The man had made
arrangements in the meantime with another
partner, and they made $5,000,000 together.
The delay had been in the street letter box.
The nickel-in-the-slot machine came out
about that time, and the "check-on-liar "
machine was soon devised. It is five feet
six inches in height and two feet in diameter,
and is meant to stand without the aid of a
lamp post. There is a clock, which is guar-
anteed to keep correct time, on its face.
Back of this clock is the " check-on-liar "
device. It operates after the fashion of all
slot machines. The letter, falling in the
slot, is stamped, and one knows where the letter was posted, the
number of the box in which it was posted, the date of the month
and the time of day and the year. The box is cumbersome, is use-
less, perhaps; but it is thought by many that the time when all

CHECK-ON-LIARS
BOX.

LETTER

240 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

mail matter is dropped will yet be recorded mechanically, so that
more and more, all through the service, the exact responsibility
for delays may be laid. With the advent of the house collec-
tion box the need of the " check on liars " is practically removed,
of course.

There are funny things always coming to light with regard to the
peculiar uses to which street letter boxes are put. An Indianapolis
lover who was rejected by his sweetheart set fire to the contents of a
letter box to prevent his rival from receiving favorable attention to
a proposal. There are circumstances just as funny illustrating the
uses to which the boxes are not put. A rural visitor in New York
succeeded in causing a great stir in the neighborhood of Fourth
Avenue and Twenty-Fourth Street. He wished to open up com-
munication with home and accordingly prepared his letter. Instead,
however, of putting it in a letter box, he opened a fire alarm box.
The reply was prompt, unexpected and startling.

A common, and yet a curious thing, is to find pennies, sometimes
in large numbers, dropped in the ordinary street letter box. Very
often a person wants to mail a letter and has not a stamp at hand ;
what more simple than to drop a letter, along with a couple of pennies,
into the nearest box, taking it for granted that the good-natured post-
man will buy a stamp and go to the trouble of sticking it on. Again,
a person mails a letter and remembers afterwards that he failed to
stamp it, and, feeling a little doubtful about it, he goes back and
drops a couple of coppers in. That would be all right if there were
twice as many pennies collected as there are letters. But this is not
the case. Many forget to stamp their letters and then fail to drop
the two pennies into the box afterwards. So, the letters and money
are brought to the post office and the pennies are carefully preserved
and eventually transmitted to the Department. A Washington car-
rier once collected $6 in three months in this way.

There is more praise for the reliability of the carrier. And here
it is : A Western lady complained to her postmaster that when she
asked her carrier to take fifty cents to the post office and buy stamps
for her he refused.

" There is no law to compel the carrier to bring you stamps,
madam, " said the postmaster, " but I am sorry he was not obliging
enough to do it without being compelled."

THE CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN GRAY,

241

The incident gave the postmaster an idea. He thought: "If we
get our house door collection box, why can we not have an arrange-
ment whereby people can drop a certain kind of envelope in the box
enclosing money for stamps, which the carrier can bring back from
the office on his return trip and drop in the box like any mail
matter ? "

"What's to prevent the carrier from pocketing the money and
saying he never got it ? " was asked.

"Nothing," replied the postmaster with the idea. "But what's
to prevent the carrier from opening any letter? It is possible to go
on the theory that every man is a thief until he is proved honest,
but isn't it better to suppose every man is honest till he is proved
guilty?"

It is a feature of the house collection system that stamps may be
obtained in this convenient way.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES.

EARS ago, in one of the leading periodicals, a
highly imaginative writer depicted the Dead Let-
ter Office in the most sombre shades. The clerks
were described as performing their duties with the
solemn deliberation of a funeral director, while gloom
and silencje reigned with oppressive weight through-
out the shady domain. In the good old days "befo'
the wah," when the postal system was less than
half as large as it is now, the work per capita in this office
was doubtless less exacting. To-day the Dead Letter Office is by
no means a dead-and-alive place, but the busiest bureau of the
entire Department. Many of the clerks, notably those at the open-
ing table, are in the habit of measuring off their work by the clock,
that not a moment may be wasted. The force of the office had
not for several years been large enough to do its legitimate work
without extra effort and occasionally extra hours of service; but
now the work is always practically up to date, with no increase in
the number of clerks, the natural result of careful supervision and
a high degree of individual efficiency. Certainly no more earnest
and faithful body of employees can be found in the public service
than the one hundred and seven clerks of this office. Three have
been connected with it more than, thirty years, Mrs. A. K. Evans,
the first woman appointed in this bureau, Mr. A. F. Moulden, for
many years in charge of the inquiry branch, and " Brother" D. S.
Christie, a veritable father in Israel.

The total number of errors in the transmission of mail matter in
the United States is very small compared with the correct deliveries
(for letters alone in the ratio of about one to three hundred and
twenty-five) ; yet so long as the blundering public make voluntary
contributions daily to this office of over 20,000 letters and packages,

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 243

just so long will it be necessary for the Government to " exercise pater-
nal functions " in the correction of those blunders, nine tenths of
which are made by the people themselves. If those who use the mails
would only be careful to observe a few simple requirements, trifles
in themselves, but in the aggregate of vast importance, the work of
the Dead Letter Office would soon be greatly reduced. If all letter
writers would take the simple pains to place their names and
addresses upon the envelopes, there would be few undelivered let-
ters. Cultivation of the habit of scanning the address of the letter
after it has been written would prevent nine tenths of the mistakes
due to deficient or erroneous addresses. It is purely a matter of
business habit and the remedy is the simplest. This habit would at
least correct one absurdity, viz., the annual receipt by the Dead
Letter Office of about 33,000 letters bearing no superscription what-
ever, most of which are written by business men and contain
enclosures of business value. There is no law or regulation to
compel affectionate relatives to put their full names and addresses at
the close of every letter, but if they would do this there would be a
million and a half more letters restored to their owners every year.
It is a mistaken idea, though a natural one, that the Dead Letter
Office deals with dead letters only. All undeliverable letters fall
into two classes, unmailable and unclaimed. The former, compris-
ing about ten per cent., are not dead letters at all, but thoroughly
alive, having never left the office of mailing until sent to the Dead
Letter Office ; that is, they were not sufficiently prepaid, or were so
incorrectly, insufficiently, or illegibly addressed that their destina-
tions could not be ascertained. These unmailable, or "live," letters
are always sent to the Dead Letter Office with a list, which is care-
fully verified as it passes from one clerk to another. When possible
the addresses of misdirected letters, both foreign and domestic, are
corrected by interesting processes, to be described hereafter, and for-
warded to destinations unopened. The larger number, however, are
opened and subjected to the same treatment that dead letters receive.
In the general disposition of all opened letters, whether unmailable
or unclaimed, the first care is given to letters containing matter of
value, all of which are properly classified and carefully recorded,
with the view of supplying the necessary data with which to respond
to future inquiry. Thus, in a single year, the office receives and

244 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

disposes of letters containing money amounting to nearly $50,000,
ninety per cent, of which, without unnecessary delay, reaches the
hands of the owners. Postal notes and negotiable paper of various
kinds aggregate nearly two millions and a half annually, while the
number containing various articles of merchandise, photographs,
postage stamps and miscellaneous papers is, of course, vastly
greater.

The second class of undeliverable letters, the unclaimed, or
"dead," comprise those letters that, being properly prepaid and
legibly addressed, reach the office of destination, but are not taken out
by addressees, although thoroughly advertised for the usual period of
fifteen or thirty days, according to the size of the office. These
letters are forwarded to the Dead Letter Office with the words,
" advertised" and " unclaimed " clearly stamped upon every en-
velope. This broad distinction of unmailable and unclaimed applies
equally to packages, and in short to every form of undeliverable
matter, excepting that which bears the address of the sender with
or without special request for its return.

The Inquiry Division is admirably conducted by Mr. Ward Bur-
lingame, who was private secretary years ago to four western Gov-
ernors and two senators, and one of the prominent newspaper men in
Kansas. The general purpose of the Dead Letter Office is to deliver
to owners, as promptly as possible, all valuable letters and parcels
received ; so this division, though the smallest in clerical force, is
of the first importance to the inquiring public, for here are con-
ducted the correspondence and other business relating to missing
mail matter. All applications are classified and recorded by a
system of double entry, so to speak, one record making especially
prominent the name of the applicant, while the other record begins
with the name of the addressee, both entries giving the nature of
the missing matter and the general character of the application.
The applicant is, of course, promptly notified that his inquiry has
been received and will have the necessary attention. Fully one half
of the applications fail to give all the particulars indispensable to
an intelligent search. Dates are frequently omitted, the character
of the enclosures is imperfectly or not at all described, sometimes
even the complete address of the letter or parcel sought for is
omitted, and more frequently there is a failure to state whether the

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 245

missing letter contained anything of value or not. Accordingly, a
circular with searching questions, together with a leaflet containing
useful information, is sent to the applicant, who learns that only
letters containing valuable enclosures can be traced. All other let-
ters not forwarded are opened and returned to writer, or, where the
addresses of the writers are not given, are destroyed. Whenever it
is shown that the letter or parcel inquired for contained matter of
obvious value, and all other necessary data are furnished, search is
made in the particular division to which this matter has been prop-
erly distributed. If the missing letter or parcel has already been
treated and disposed of, this fact, with all necessary particulars, is
communicated to the applicant. When no satisfactory information
can be found, and a loss is clearly shown, the case is then referred
to the Chief Post Office Inspector for final treatment, and the appli-
cant advised to this effect. This, of course, closes the case in its
relation to the Dead Letter Office. By far the larger portion of the
extensive correspondence necessary to the transaction of this busi-
ness is conducted by means of printed circulars and notices, vari-
ously modified as conditions may demand. There are, however,
many exceptional cases, in which no printed form is found adequate,
and therefore a large number of written communications are neces-
sary. In correspondence with the postal administrations of foreign
countries, and generally with individuals residing abroad, written
communications are frequently employed.

The Opening Division, Mr. C. P. Bourne, principal clerk, has
only twenty clerks; but it receives, assorts, counts, opens ,and
otherwise disposes of an average of 18,000 letters and parcels every
day. This immense quantity of unclaimed mail from 68,000 post-
offices, in weekly or monthly returns, finds its way first to the pass-
ing table, where third and fourth class and foreign matter (and
occasional errors of careless postmasters) are rapidly separated, and
the dead letters are counted, tied up in bundles of one hundred
each, and passed to the opening table. This is a long table, sub-
divided into eight sections, each amply supplied with pigeon holes
and other conveniences, and always furnished every morning with
a formidable pile of dead letter bundles just received from the pass-
ing table. The "letter-rip" division, as it is sometimes called,
attracts much attention from visitors. Here, and at the unmailable

246

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

opening table near by, are the privileged few out of 65,000,000
American people who can legally open and search into other peo-
ple's letters; and yet this liberty is subject to certain restrictions
for absolute safety. These clerks may not be entirely dead to the
sin of undue curiosity, but the volume and exceedingly monotonous
character of the work would leave little time or inclination for culti-
vating any closer familiarity with these letters than is absolutely
necessary to the proper discharge of duty.

THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE MUSEUM.

The activity required of each clerk to open, examine, record
valuable enclosures, and otherwise dispose of over 2,000 letters in
about six hours, though not particularly obtrusive, is sufficient to
attract much interest. Most people in opening a letter hold the
envelope face down and sever the end with knife, finger, or scissors.
This slow process is discarded the first day at the opening table.
By one stroke of a keen blade the envelope is cut open lengthwise,
under the flap, and, the knife still in hand, the letter is taken
out, every fold carefully examined for possible enclosures and treated

DEAD LETTEKS AND LIVE ONES. 247

accordingly. Thus, if any enclosure of obvious value is found in a
letter, it is carefully recorded and separated from the ordinary letters
for special treatment. If money is found, the amount is endorsed
on the envelope, together with the date, name of opener, etc., and
the same sum also entered, with name of addressee, in a small
account book. The money itself, with the letter, is replaced within
the envelope and turned in to the clerk in charge, who in turn, after
having made proper record, transfers it to the Money Division for
return to owner where possible. When nothing is found of suffi-
cient value for record the envelope is placed within the sheet for
possible aid to the address, and piled up with others of like charac-
ter, to be carefully tied into a bundle labelled with the date of open-
ing, name of opener, and number of letters, which is, of course, the
original one hundred, less the eight or ten valuable letters taken
out. These bundles are sent to the Returning Division for final
treatment. Enclosures of obvious value, besides money, are money
orders, postal notes, drafts, deeds, wills, mortgages, photographs,
receipts, certificates, legal papers, postage stamps (if of the value of
more than one two-cent stamp), small articles of property, etc., all
of which are carefully recorded and returned to senders or delivered
to parties addressed, as far as practicable without application.

The general character of these enclosures remains about the same
from year to year except in what used to be a very conspicuous item,
namely, lottery tickets, the receipts of which have decreased in the
past three years from over a thousand a month to a monthly average
of fifteen. So much has been done in the past few years towards
improving the general efficiency of the postal service that as a natural
result actually less undeliverable matter was received at the Dead
Letter Office during the year ending June 30, 1892, than for the
previous year, although the volume of postal business had increased
eight per cent., and the blundering public sent in its usual increased
percentage of errors. Three years ago the increase of mail matter
received at the Dead Letter Office was five per cent., two years ago
four and three fourths per cent. Six, five and four years ago,
respectively, the increased receipts were five, eleven and sixteen
per cent.

This gratifying exhibit is largely due to a very successful campaign
of education. Two years ago a circular of suggestions to the public

248

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

was carefully prepared by the Dead Letter Office and sent to all the
postmasters, through whose personal efforts it was published generally
(and very generously) by the local press of the country. As aids
to better delivery postmasters were encouraged in the work of

compiling supple-
mentary directo-
ries. One post-
master prepared a
delivery directory
of 18,000 names
in a town where
the latest gen-
eral directory con-
tained the names
of 4,000 persons
only. About a
year ago the Dead
Letter Office is-
sued an enlarged
edition of a very
useful street di-
rectory, containing
nearly 800 pages
of valuable infor-
mation, systemati-
cally arranged,con-
cerning the names
and extent of num-
bering of all the
avenues, streets,
alleys, etc., in all
the 474 towns where the free delivery was in operation when the
book was published. Every postmaster of a free delivery office is
supplied with a copy of this work for use in correcting the addresses
of such letters and parcels as may reach his office, though evidently
intended for delivery elsewhere, and the practical utility of this
directory has been repeatedly demonstrated in the largely increased
number of the deliveries.

VALENTINES AND OTHER PRESENTS.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 249

There is something about whdt is technically known in the postal
service as a " dead " letter that impresses an observer with a sense of
duty well performed. Such a letter has been forwarded to its desti-
nation fully addressed, the postmaster has used every effort to find
the addressee, it has been properly advertised, marked " unclaimed, "
as required by the regulations, and, failing of delivery, is sent to the
Dead Letter Office ready for the knife of the opener. No such feel-
ing of resignation can surround the letters handled in the Unmaila-
ble and Property Division. Hither the carelessness of letter writers
sends thousands of letters lacking in address or postage, and before
the deadly opening knife is brought into requisition all known
devices are used to deliver them unopened to their owners.

For convenience all advertised dead letters are sent to the Open-
ing Division for disposition, and all that are not advertised at the
post offices to which they are directed, except registered letters, are
sent to the Unmailable and Property Division, Mr. Charles N.
Dalzell, principal clerk. The last-mentioned letters comprise, in
addition to " held for postage, " " foreign short paid, " " misdirected, "
" unaddressed" and " fictitious " letters, those which have been
addressed to the care of hotels, colleges, or public institutions ; and
being unclaimed by the addressees they are returned to the post
offices of origin for restoration to the senders. These so-called
hotel letters are not advertised because the unclaimed ones are
usually addressed to persons only temporarily stopping at the places
of destination and an advertisement would not, therefore, assist in
delivery. Postmasters are required to send all letters not advertised
to the Dead Letter Office, accompanied by lists giving a description
of each and the reason of its non-delivery. These lists are carefully
verified and are used as records of the contents or disposition of the
matter which is enclosed with them.

Take unadvertised letters in the order named. It is of interest
to note the many causes of failure to deliver them and the careful
treatment accorded them before an attempt is made to deliver them
to the senders. If a letter is deposited in the mails, addressed to a
post office in the United States, and no stamp has been affixed
thereto, the postmaster at the mailing office is required to stamp it
"held for postage," and to notify the person to whom it is addressed
that on receipt of the necessary stamps it will be forwarded. It is

250 THE STOKY OF OUB POST OFFICE.

then placed on file for a length of fime, limited by the regulations,
to await a reply. If no remittance is received, the letter is listed and
sent to the Department stamped "unclaimed." Many of these let-
ters are addressed to well-known business concerns that practically
refuse to receive mail matter on which postage is due, while some
persons engaged in a fraudulent business, such as the "green goods "
swindlers, resort to the practice of depositing unpaid letters, hoping

THE OLD OFFICIAL RECORD OF VALUABLES RECEIVED FROM 1*7*76 TO 1787;
MEDALS, MINIATURES AND MEDICINES.

their victims will pay the postage due. Nevertheless, there is some-
thing about a letter properly addressed, lacking only one thing
essential to its delivery a stamp which may well cause some
feeling of hesitancy before it is subjected to the knife.

It will be observed that unpaid letters, addressed for delivery in
the United States, are called "held for postage." If, however, an
unpaid letter is mailed, addressed to a foreign country embraced
in the Universal Postal Union, it is not detained, but forwarded to
the country addressed, charged with double the deficient postage.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 251

If the country addressed is not in the Postal Union, and no stamp
has been affixed, it is called a " foreign short paid " and sent-to the
Dead Letter Office at once to be opened. The exceptions to this
rule are letters directed to Canada, for, although letters addressed
to that country are assimilated generally with letters in the domestic
mails, yet if the persons addressed were notified by the postmasters
throughout the country, the reply would in most instances be accom-
panied by a foreign postage stamp, not available by the postmasters
in payment of postage. To assist in the delivery of unpaid
Canadian addressed letters the Dead Letter Office classifies them
as " foreign short paid " and notifies the addressees of their deten-
tion, an arrangement having been made with the Canadian postal
administration for the reciprocal exchange of stamps collected from
this source.

Under the title of " misdirected letters " are included all letters
upon which the postage has been paid, but which are so illegibly,
insufficiently, or incorrectly addressed as to prevent their prompt
delivery. Little does the writer know when he omits to add the
name of the state for which his letter is intended, or, naming the
state, gives the name of some hamlet or locality not honored with
that title in the Postal Guide, how much work he entails on the
postal service. Still more troublesome is the man who, in the hurry
of the moment, addresses his letter so illegibly as to require trained
experts to decipher the directions. The tired, overworked railway
postal clerk puzzles his brain with these letters before they are con-
signed to his assortment of " nixies " for division headquarters. The
" nixie " clerks at the post offices examine Postal Guides and bulle-
tins to complete what negligence has omitted, and although they
deliver many thousands of incorrectly addressed letters, nearly half
a million are sent annually to this division as undeliverable, because
" there is no such office in state named, " or they are " insufficiently
addressed " or "illegibly addressed." To be sure, they are only sent
in when trained employees have failed to ascertain their destination;
but still one more trial must be made before their contents are
examined. To this work are assigned women peculiarly fitted by
quickness of perception, education and long experience finally to
revise the work of others who have tried in vain to correct the mis-
takes of the senders. Two women in the Unmailable and Property

252

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Division secured the delivery last year of over 55,000 of these let-
ters, unopened, to the persons for whom they were intended. Con-
sider the work involved. A letter is addressed to a person in
"BeardstowD, Pennsylvania." There is no office of that name in

the state. There
is a place local-
ly named "Bairds-
town," but it is not
a post office. The
expert forwards the
letter to B lairs ville
post office, where
it is delivered, for
Blairsville is the
nearest post office to
Bairdstown, which,
in this instance was
misspelled "Beards-
town." All this
work is done to
preserve letters in-
violate and deliver
them to owners
in the condition in
which they were
mailed. The cor-
rections are not

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, BANNERS, ETC. -, i ,1

letters themselves, but the entries on the lists are corrected to corre-
spond, so that record may be had of the disposition of each letter
thus forwarded.

Over 30,000 letters are received yearly in the Unmailable and
Property Division and entered under the heading "without address."
They are not all, however, simply letters in envelopes bearing no
directions, but include packets containing money found loose in the
mails. Almost equally as careless as the man who forgets to place
any address whatever on the envelope of a letter when it is posted
is the one who puts copper, nickel, silver, or gold coins in a frail

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 253

wrapper and consigns them for dispatch in the mails. Of course
the coins cut the envelopes and drop out, some of them in the post-
offices, and others in postal cars. Then often follow accusations of
dishonesty or incompetency against employees of the service. This
loose money is received in this division accompanied by little slips
telling where and when it was found.

Of fictitious letters there is a great variety, from those received
at Christmas-time written by some sweet little believers in the good
old superstition and addressed to "Santa Glaus," to the man who
wants to meet an honest friend to tell him how to get rich at the
expense of the Government, in other words, the dealer in " green
goods," who has assumed a fictitious name for evil purposes.
There are others simply addressed to initials, without box or street
number. These cannot be delivered because the addressee cannot
be identified.

The undeliverable parcels received at the Dead Letter Office (and
they are all sent to the Unmailable and Property Division for treat-
ment except those originally registered) furnish a very fair sample
of what the postal service carries for the million at reduced rates of
postage. They embrace a most curious aggregation of almost every-
thing. Business and sentiment run side by side. The whole range
of domestic life finds full expression here : tiny little socks, deli-
cately colored and ornamented; the juvenile necktie and the
message-bearing valentine; the jewel box with its engagement ring;
wedding cake in fancy boxes ; infant's apparel again; soothing syrup ;
cholera mixture; little shrouds; coffin plates inscribed "at rest";
flowers from a grave, all come here when misdirected, unclaimed,
with postage unpaid, without address, or not prepared for mailing
in accordance with the regulations; and there are packs of playing
cards, dice, gambling devices, instructions how to swindle, bi-
chloride of gold, and pocket knives, samples of cloth, electro-
types, surgical and dental instruments, to say nothing of live toads,
snakes, beetles, or tarantulas. Here may be found the unpoetic
washboard ; the capacious travelling sack ; the hat box ; the merci-
less accordeon ; glass bottles and vials filled with every conceivable
concoction ; photographs, probably the grossest of libels ; a stuffed
alligator from the sunny South; objects given up by the sea from
the wreck of the Oregon; fire crackers; fancy work of various

254

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

descriptions, wrought with patient assiduity by the tender hands of
loved ones, perhaps long enrolled with the dead.

The employees become quite indifferent to the sentimental value
of the matter handled. The bundle of old letters tied with a ribbon
is examined for the usually present finger ring and the last note

bearing the address
of the sender and
saying, " I return
herewith your let-
ters ; all is over be-
tween us," with as
much business-like
nonchalance as the
sample of yarn or
cloth and the mes-
sage, " Will furnish
these at so and so."
The pair of woolen
socks that " dear
old mother knit for
absent John " at-
tract no particu-
lar attention ; rath-
er will the clerk
pause for a second
to tickle the horned
toad from Texas
found in the next
packet, just to see
if it is alive. Here
the "fads" of the
day may easily be recognized, the decline of the bustle in
popular favor and the advent of suspenders for womankind; the
jewelled snake as an ornament, following Bernhardt's "Cleopatra,"
only to give way to packets containing pins and rings made into
bow knots or lover's knots. In books a deluge of "Ben Hurs "
and "Robert Elsmeres " is followed by thousands of the paper-cov-
ered kind.

A CORNER IN ONE OF THE CASES.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 255

All parcels of merchandise are received in this division accom-
panied by lists giving their full address, or, if they are without
address, a brief description of their contents. The parcels and lists
are numbered to correspond after the entries are verified. These
numbers serve to identify each package with the records, as the lists
are sent to the recording clerks, where they are entered in books
indexed under the initial letter of each surname. The clerks
engaged in the treatment of merchandise are furnished with sheets
giving the number of the parcels delivered to them in numerical
order. Their duties are to examine each package to ascertain the
reason for its detention or non-delivery; to write a full description
of the contents on the sheets furnished them ; to send the proper
notice of detention either to the person addressed or to the sender
with the request for a remittance sufficient to pay postage for the
return or forwarding, and to send all parcels for which these notices
have been sent and all which are to be placed on file because no clue
to ownership can be ascertained, to the store rooms of the office to
await reclamation. The sheets, endorsed with the number of each
notice and the necessary descriptions of contents, are then delivered
to the recording clerks for proper entries opposite their correspond-
ing numbers on the records.

If the varieties of causes which render parcels undeliverable are
considered, some idea may be had of the necessity of good judgment,
intelligence, and a thorough knowledge of the postal laws and
regulations on the part of these employees. A large part of their
work consists in treating parcels which senders have attempted to
mail as gifts to friends residing abroad, without first ascertaining
the rules and regulations to which such matter is subjected by the
postal conventions. If it were generally known, that aside from
printed matter, articles sent as gifts cannot be forwarded to foreign
countries unless the postage is fully prepaid at the rate applicable to
letters addressed to the countries of destination, or that, where a
parcels post has been established with the country addressed, the
technical requirements of the convention should be fully observed
as to customs declaration, address of sender and payment of postage,
fully 20,000 fewer parcels would be received yearly at the Dead
Letter Office. Nearly ninety per cent, of these parcels contain arti-
cles not absolutely forbidden transmission in the Postal Union mails,

256

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

and the addressees are requested by circular letters sent by the
employees engaged on this work to furnish the address of the senders
in the United States or to return the communications with a remit-
tance sufficient to pay full foreign letter postage. Many of these
foreign addressed parcels, however, contain articles of jewelry or
such as are especially forbidden transmission in the mails abroad.

The addressees in
these cases are asked
to furnish the ad-
dress of the senders
to enable the office
to return the par-
cels, or, if they so
desire, to authorize
them to be for-
warded by express,
charges to be paid
on delivery. About
ten per cent, of the
parcels addressed to
other countries are
forwarded outside
the mails in re-
sponse to these re-
quests.

By careful treat-
ment over 30,000
parcels sent to this
office by postmas-
ters as un deliver-
able are annually
restored to owners. There would be no need, however, for the
labor involved, nor any necessity for filing the large number which
cannot be delivered, if each sender would take the precaution to
request by endorsement on the wrapper the return of the parcel to
him in the event of its nondelivery; for while third and fourth
class matter requires the payment of additional postage for its
return, it will be returned upon request direct to the sender at the

PICTUltES AND BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCES.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 257

expiration of the time named in such request, or, if no time be
named, at the expiration of thirty days, subject to the payment of
the necessary postage.

In addition to the addressed parcels there are received at the
"D. L. O." about 17,000 articles annually which have been found
without wrappers in the mails. If a little less negligence were used
in wrapping and tying parcels containing third and fourth class mat-
ter, there would be less cause for complaint of the loss of valuable
matter in the mails. Many of the articles received were doubtless
enclosed in wrappers properly addressed at the time of posting, but
others were evidently deposited without any effort to wrap or direct
them. A few years ago a very handsome gold watch was sent in
from a Western city, with the statement that it had been found
without a wrapper in a street letter box in the seventh ward of that
city. The postmaster stated that the finding of this watch had been
thoroughly advertised, but no clue to the owner had been ascer-
tained. The daily papers had commented on the matter, one of them
advancing the theory that a pickpocket, closely pursued by an officer,
had dropped the watch in the letter box to get rid of the evidence
of his crime. A rival paper, however, ridiculed the idea thus
advanced, saying that it was ridiculous to presume that a police
officer in that city ever closely pursued a thief; rather, knowing the
peculiarities of the residents of the seventh ward, should it be sup-
posed that some trusting wife had given her husband a letter to mail..
En route for the mailing he had encountered a friend, then another
friend, and yet still others, until, leaning heavily against a lamp
post, with a confused idea of an errand to perform for his wife, he
dropped his watch in the letter box and walked valiantly home with
the letter in his pocket!

Complaints of the loss of parcels deposited in the mails are referred
to the recording clerks, who, in addition to entering the address,
description of contents, and disposition of all articles received, are
required to ascertain from the records whether any trace can be
found of the detention of parcels for which inquiry is made. If
found, the complaint is endorsed with the letter and number of the
entry and sent to the store rooms with notices of detention which
have been returned with remittances for postage. In the store
rooms the parcels applied for are taken from the file cases and sent,

258

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

with all correspondence relating thereto, to the mailing clerk, who
restores them to the owners. A memorandum of this disposition is
then delivered to the recording clerks, who make the proper entries.
The store rooms consist of two large apartments fully provided
with suitable cases. On one side of these apartments all parcels

for which circular
letters of deten-
tion have been sent
are arranged al-
phabetically ,while
on the other side
those which fur-
nish no clew to the
proper address of
either sender or
addressee are sim-
ilarly arranged.
About 80,000 par-
cels are constant-
ly stored in these
rooms. It is nec-
essary, in appli-
cations lor any
of these packages,
that the full ad-
dress of both the
sender and the ad-
dressee be given,
together with a description of the contents and the date of mailing,
as they are recorded under the initial letter of the surname of the
person addressed and entered from day to day as they are received
at the office. The number on file is so large that without explicit
information it is impossible to identify them, and delay in restoring
them to applicants is often caused by want of sufficient data con-
tained in applications. A case occurred recently, where a resident
of a Western city applied for a missing set of false teeth. He .did
not furnish the exact date of mailing, and there were sent to the
postmaster at his office several sets of teeth found about the time

GROUPS OF REVOLVERS ; OTHER INSTRUMENTS MORE
PEACEFUL, IN CHARACTER.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 259

mentioned in his application. They were all returned to the office,
accompanied by an indignant communication from the complainant,
stating that the teeth sent to him were " just common Texas store
teeth and could not by any possibility belong to so refined a mouth
as mine." With the correct dates a further search was made and
the missing parcel was delivered to its owner.

Sometimes foreign addressees, not understanding the reason for
the detention of parcels addressed to them, are unjustly impa-
tient at the delay. A few years ago a parcel containing infant's
clothing, addressed to a woman missionary in Africa, was de-
tained, and in reply to the notice sent to her of its detention, she
wrote angrily:

" The child for whom these garments were intended has not yet been eaten by
the cannibals, but has quite outgrown them, and they may be returned to the
sender, whose address I enclose."

All addressed matter remaining in the store rooms for a period of
two years, and all matter without address on file over six months, is
sold annually. Many of the parcels contain small articles of insuffi-
cient value to be sold separately. Indeed, so great is the number to
be prepared, nearly 45,000, and the proportionate value so small, it
has been found necessary to include the contents of several parcels
as originally mailed in one package for the sale, their identity being
preserved, as required in the regulations, by recording their original
number as entered in the indexed records, when first received. The
average proceeds of each parcel at the sale are about sixty cents, and
it is attempted to include articles of at least that value in each sales
package. The original wrappers are removed from the parcels and
new ones substituted, upon which are endorsed a brief description
of the contents. This description is entered in a sales book, which
is used by the auctioneer, and from a copy of the entries in this book
the catalogues furnished to purchasers are printed. It has been
found inexpedient to expose the contents of these parcels at the time
of sale, because they consist of so many articles that, in a crowded
auction mart, they would become separated and lost, while too much
time would be consumed by the purchasers in examining them.
The description in the catalogue is therefore relied upon to furnish
sufficient information to enable a person to make an intelligent esti-
mate of the value of what he is buying. The descriptions are made

260

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

as brief and plain as possible, but the variety of articles is so great,
ranging from plasterers' tools, plumbing materials, kitchen utensils,
watchmaker's findings and jewelry, to all kinds of women's wear-
ing apparel and men's furnishings, that occasionally odd and
humorous misdescriptions are made.

After the parcels are properly prepared for sale the government
invokes the intervention of professional auctioneers, and submits its

miscellaneous col-
lection to the eager
competition of bar-
gain hunters. The
sale takes place in
December, prior to
the holidays, and
usually exhibits
many of the stir-
ring characteristics
of that interesting
season, when the
accumulation of to-
kens of good-will
and affection, and
their proper distri-
bution, engross so
large a share of
popular attenti on .
About a week is
required to dispose
of the stock, and
during this period
the auction mart is
thronged, day and

evening, with good-natured but earnest people, women usually pre-
dominating, who, apparently undismayed by previous disappoint-
ments, seem to be impressed with the conviction that articles of
great commercial value, or at least of superior artistic attractiveness,
are included in the mass of matter upon which the Department asks
them to submit their estimates. Many of the articles are confided

SKULL, HARNESS AND TRAPPINGS.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 261

to the mails in a manner contravening the law, and, it is to be
feared, with the express purpose of defrauding the postal reve-
nues. The enclosure of articles with newspapers or other printed
matter, without adequate postage, is the cause of a large number
of failures of delivery, the offence in these cases insuring its own
punishment; and in general there would be little occasion for
these sales, if the public heeded the injunctions of the postal regu-
lations.

In the Money Division, Mr. A. T. McCallum, principal clerk,
are treated all letters and parcels that, having been opened in other
divisions, have been found to contain money and papers of
monetary value, such as postal notes, money orders, checks, drafts,
deeds, etc. All of this matter is carefully verified and receipted
for as it passes from one clerk to another. These letters are
entered in index records for ready reference, the arrangement
being alphabetical as to the initial letter of the surname of
the addressee. The entry embraces a complete description of the
letter, its contents, and final disposition. When the address of the
writer is found, the letter is at once forwarded under cover to
the postmaster, who then becomes responsible for it, and upon de-
livery must return a receipt for it to the Money Division. Letters
addressed to foreign countries containing coin are unmailable, and
find their way to this division to be returned to writer with a cir-
cular explaining the reason for detention. On the failure of a post-
master to return either the letter or a receipt at the expiration of
thirty days, a circular of inquiry is sent to him. When letters
that have failed of delivery by this process are returned to the office,
they are still further examined for some possible clew, such as the
name of a person or place where further inquiry may be made ; and
perhaps another attempt is made to deliver. Letters which cannot
be restored to owners are kept on file for three months, when the
money is separated and delivered to the Third Assistant Post-
master General for deposit in the United States Treasury. The
letter is carefully filed and, with its original money contents,
may be reclaimed within four years. All money realized from
the annual sale of unclaimed articles is also received by this
division and turned over to the Third Assistant's office for deposit
in the treasury.

262

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The receipts of the Money Division are greatly increased through
the attempted fraud of persons claiming to deal in counterfeit money.
Letters addressed to these dealers in "green goods" are withheld
from delivery as soon as their fraudulent purpose is known, and
sent to the Dead Letter Office as fictitious. A peculiarity of this
class of letters is the failure of any attempt to deliver them to the
writer, although they contain a considerable amount of money, the

enclosures ranging
from five to fif-
ty dollars per let-
ter. The senders
refuse to receive
them when they
are returned to the
post offices, doubt-
less fearing crim-
inal prosecution.
This fear is in a
measure ground-
less, because at any
time before deliv-
ery the contents of
a sealed letter can-
not be used as evi-
dence against an
offender in a crim-
inal action ; but
subsequent to de-
livery, if the let-
ter, were found in
the possession of
the sender, bearing
evidences of its
having been conveyed in the mails, it might, perhaps, be used as
evidence; and the fear of some such mishap may account for the
failure of owners to reclaim such letters.

The money found loose in the mails is restored to owners usually
upon recommendations received from post office inspectors who trace

POLYGLOT SHEET, CONTAINING LORD'S PRAYER, SO-
CALLED DYNAMITE MACHINE, ETC.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 263

and identify it as belonging to letters, the loss of which has been a
subject of complaint to them. A few years ago a lady in a Western
hotel gave the bell boy a package of money to pay her bill at the
clerk's desk. In a moment of thoughtlessness he deposited it in the
mail. It was sent to the Dead Letter Office, without address, and
subsequently restored to the owner, but not until accusations of dis-
honesty had resulted in the bell boy's loss of employment, and
in serious doubts of the integrity of the clerk. The care with
which letters are handled in this division is illustrated by the
frequent delivery of this class of letters to owners who have supplied
the Chief Post Office Inspector with full particulars and data con-
cerning their loss.

The following table shows the number of letters restored to owners
during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, or in course of restora-
tion, with the character and value of contents :

DESCRIPTION. NUMBER. VALUE.

Letters containing money restored to owners 16,004 $28,144.57

Letters containing money outstanding in the hands of post-
masters for restoration to owners 1,600 4,761.66

Number of letters containing drafts, checks, notes, money-
orders, etc., restored to owners 27,190 1,138,873.10

Number of letters containing drafts, checks, notes, money-
orders, etc., outstanding in the hands of postmasters
for restoration to owners 1,347 153,882.94

Number of letters containing postal notes restored to

owners 2,987 4,443.23

Number of letters containing postal notes outstanding in

the hands of postmasters for restoration to owners . 429 676.51

The amount of revenue derived from dead mail matter during the
year and delivered to the Third Assistant Postmaster General for
deposit in the treasury is shown by the following statement :

Amount separated from dead letters that could not be restored to

owners $12,423.85

Amount realized from auction sale in December, 1890, of parcels of

merchandise which could not be restored to owners 3,498.33

Total $15,922.18

All valuable enclosures of relatively minor importance to money
and negotiable paper are referred to the Minor Division, in charge
of Miss A. R. Thurlow. This division, with its seventeen women

264

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

clerks, disposes of all letters containing postage stamps, photo-
graphs, unsigned deeds, wills, contracts, paid notes, business
papers, etc., etc., with substantially the care and system of the
Money Division.

Another important work is performed. "Hotel" and "ficti-
tious " letters, opened in the Unmailable Division, are received here,
with their accompanying lists, verified, returned when possible, or
forwarded, or destroyed. The disposition of the letter in every case
is recorded in alphabetical lists for future reference. Blank letters,
or those bearing no superscription whatever, are entered with special
care to facilitate search when application is made. Held-for-postage
letters, addressed to Canada, are numbered and recorded, and a

circular notice of
the amount of post-
age due is sent to
the addressee. If
not applied for in
thirty days, they
are listed and sent
to the Opening Di-
vision for ordinary
treatment. Other
foreign short paid
letters are either
returned to the
writer or filed, and
in the latter case if
not called for with-
in one year, they
are destroyed.

This division also
receives from post-
masters all stamps
found loose in the
mails. These "shed
stamps, " together
with the stamps
found in letters that cannot be returned, are pasted upon sheets,

THE BLOOD-STAINED MAIL POUCH ; CHRISTMAS
PRESENTS.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 265

decorated with the cancelling brush, and turned over monthly
to the stamp committee (three employees deputed to destroy
stamps) to be destroyed. Canadian stamps are sent to Canada
in regular exchanges for United States stamps that have accumu-
lated there.

All unclaimed magazines, miscellaneous publications, illustrated
papers, picture cards, etc., etc., are, by order of the Postmaster
General, regularly distributed among the inmates of the various
hospitals, asylums, and other charitable institutions in the District
of Columbia. The number and character of the matter distributed
during the year ending June 30, 1892, were: Magazines, 2,003;
pamphlets, 4,025; illustrated papers, 4,062; picture cards, etc.,
5,510; or a total of 15,600. The amount of postage stamps
received in the Dead Letter Office from the sources named, and
destroyed under proper supervision during the year ending June 30,
1892, was $1,088. 22.

The Returning Division, Miss Harriet Webber, principal clerk,
originally extended over a wider jurisdiction than at present, having
since transferred some of its functions to the Money, Unmailable,
and Minor Divisions. Notwithstanding such reductions this branch
is still the largest in the office, having on its roll, besides the chief
and her assistant, thirty clerks, most of them women, a skilled
employee to seal the letters, and two female messengers to collect
the papers, keep rooms and desks in order, and distribute to the
clerks the bundles of letters that have come directly from the open-
ing table. It will be remembered that these packages contain
ordinary letters without valuable enclosures, and often do not reach
the returning desks for several days after the opening process.
Each returning clerk is charged with the number of letters received,
and at the close of every day reports the number returned to writers
and the number of those destroyed. It is the practice to return all
letters containing legible address and signature, all notices of meet-
ings, and all wedding cards, while printed matter, business cards, and
mere advertisements are thrown into the waste basket. The clerks
are supplied with all the facilities for their work, such as the official
Guide, directories of all the large towns, foreign directories, church
annuals, lists of scientific societies, and all military and naval sta-
tions, Indian agencies, and lighthouse stations. With the utmost

266

THE STORY OF OUB POST OFFICE.

care less than forty per cent, of these letters reach the writers. The
average clerk will handle about seven hundred a day and return two
hundred and fifty. Very swift returners will dispatch over three
hundred a day, but this rate is exceptional and cannot be prolonged
without undue nervous strain. It is curious to observe the large
number of carefully written letters that bear no more definite address
than " Your loving sister, Nell ; " " Affectionately, Dick ;" " Cousin
Frank;" "Your devoted mother," etc., etc. Such letters, though
possessing much sentimental importance, must necessarily be thrown
away for the lack of proper care on the part of the writer. The in-
timate connection
between this and
the Opening Di-
vision is sometimes
a reciprocal one,
for, while the usu-
al current of work
Hows toward the
returning branch,
should the openers
by chance over-
look anything of
value hidden away
in the fold of a let-
ter, the returning
clerks are sure to
discover it and
send it back to the
opening table for
proper treatment.
This was the first
division in the
Post Office Depart-
ment ever assigned
to a woman.

About the For-
eign Division, Miss Clara M. Richter, principal clerk, compara-
tively little is known by the general public. Apart from the

STAR FISHES, SNAKES IN ALCOHOL, CONFEDERATE

MONEY AND POSTAGE STAMPS, OLD MAIL

POUCHES, CROCODILES, MINERALS, ETC.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES.

267

main office in a corner room wholly inadequate is performed
a most important work, requiring a high degree of aptness and
general information. Here are conducted all the mail exchanges
with foreign countries, the correction and forwarding of mis-
directed foreign letters, all necessary translations for the entire
office, and a complete system of record books, by which every valu-
able letter or parcel received can be quickly found and its postal
history easily traced.

All matter treated in the Foreign Division is readily divided into
two classes, foreign and domestic. The former consists of all mail
matter of foreign origin, which, failing of delivery, is, of course,
sent to the Dead Letter Office. The latter, or foreign addressed,
includes all letters and parcels sent from the United States to for-
eign countries and proving undeliverable there, are returned to this
country in accordance with existing regulations of the Universal
Postal Union. Of the former class 609,747 pieces were received
during the year ending June 30, 1892, and of the latter class,
293,608 pieces; a total of 902,995.

Observe the rapid development of this division since Miss Richter
became its chief in 1879. Then the total receipts of undelivered
matter from all sources amounted to 265,202 pieces. The countries
and colonies with which exchanges of undelivered matter were made
in 1879 numbered forty-seven; now there are eighty-six, besides
numerous small colonies and dependencies of Great Britain, France,
Portugal, and Spain, which receive their undelivered matter through
the medium of the mother country. This very great difference is
caused primarily by the reduction of postage to foreign countries
since the formation of the Universal Postal Union, the increase in
immigration, and the general development of the country. The
marked increase in registered matter for Austria since 1879 is in the
ratio of 5,877 to 46,830. The number of registered pieces sent to
Russia in 1879 was 103 ; in 1892, it is 1,823; while the ordinary let-
ters numbered 2,451 in 1879, and 53,220 in 1892. The work of this
division increased rapidly during the five years following 1879, and
since then its growth has been steady, but not so fast. Then it was
comparatively easy for one clerk, with the occasional assistance of
another, to handle the matter sent to this division for treatment.
Now it requires the constant application of five clerks to do the

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 269

work. The increase in receipts is not the only factor causing more
work, since much labor has been added in the methods of treatment,
such as the more careful examination of matter received, the greater
efforts made to supply corrections of addresses on misdirected or
insufficiently addressed matter, more elaborate records of parcels
returned to country of origin, and of applications received for miss-
ing matter, more numerous calls from other divisions for translations
of foreign addresses, improved treatment of card and request letters,
and more thorough searches for matter supposed to have been sent to
the Dead Letter Office. Records are kept of all applications for
missing matter supposed to 4 have reached the Foreign Division and
of all matter found and forwarded to applicants. During the past
year 10,224 letters and parcels were forwarded to corrected
addresses, instead of being engulfed in the mighty stream of " dead
matter. "

The correction of addresses, or "blind reading," of the Foreign
Division commands admiration because the usual perplexities are
still further complicated in the guise of foreign superscriptions.
Foreigners often adapt the sense to the sound and write such expres-
sions as "Poniprehri" for the two words Pawnee Prairie, "Sonngu-
onque " for Suncook, " Chinchichi " for Kankakee, " Provenctao " for
Provincetown, and " S. X., Pitsco," for Essex, Page County. Letters
are frequently advertised in large cities for " Vescovo, 111.," when no
suggestion of Illinois was in the mind of the writer, but a very
respectful form of address to a most reverend bishop. Another
similar address is " Eveque, Monsr. Rev." Such letters come regu-
larly to the Foreign Division for return to country of origin and are,
of course, regularly forwarded to the worthy prelates for whom they
were intended. An Italian, supposing that New York embraced
the whole country, once confidingly addressed a letter to Chicago,
New York, adding " Dove si trove " (wherever he may be found).
Foreigners frequently prefer their own version to the official names
of our post offices, and accordingly direct letters to " Daie Verte "
for Green Bay, " Suerno Verde " for Greenhorn, and " Cayo Hueso "
for Key West.

The number of ordinary foreign letters now received varies from
eight hundred to three thousand or more daily. They are counted,
carefully examined as to previous treatment, and if worn in transit,

270 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

officially sealed, distributed according to country of origin if found
to be "dead," and returned to respective postal administrations
with letters of transmittal. Third and fourth class matter is recorded
if of apparent value. Ordinary printed matter, such as newspapers,
business circulars and notices, is returned without record to all
countries except Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and
the South and Central American Republics, only the number sent
being indicated on the letter of transmittal. Registered matter,
after having been receipted for on the general registered record of
the Dead Letter Office, is then examined and carefully distributed
according to country of origin. The letters for each country are
entered in alphabetical order, together with the original register
number and the number of the Dead Letter Office record, in the books
provided for that purpose. A comparison of these two records is
made and a copy is sent with the registered letters either direct to
the postal administration of country of origin or to the New York
exchange office. The latter supplies to the Dead Letter Office all
the details of forwarding, which are kept on file in this division.
The foreign matter received from the Unmailable Division is treated
according to its character ; that is, hotel, fictitious, and lottery let-
ters are returned to country of origin, as with ordinary unclaimed
letters, while misdirected letters are subjected to the careful exami-
nation just referred to, in order to find possible owners for them on
this side of the water.

The second grand division of mail matter treated in the Foreign
Division is the "foreign addressed," or that originating in this
country and sent to foreign addresses, and failing of delivery
returns to this office. All this matter is carefully verified by the
accompanying letter of transmission and the registered portion is
handed to the clerk in charge of the register section. Letters bear-
ing upon the envelope the address of sender, with or without request
for its return, and those having " new address " in this country are
sent under cover to the postmasters of their respective destinations
for delivery to owners. All remaining letters are turned over to
the opening Division as ordinary unclaimed matter. The number
thus sent out averages 3,500 monthly, effecting considerable economy
in time as well as clerical work, since all of these letters are saved
from the opening table and possible destruction. It has proved

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES. 271

necessary to forward such letters under cover, because, when sent in
open mail, like ordinary card letters, they are frequently sent again
to first address, notwithstanding the stamp, "Return to writer,"
placed on each letter of this class. The receipt of all dispatches of
undeliverable matter returned to the Dead Letter Office is entered in
the record kept for this purpose and due acknowledgment made to
the postal administration. Dispatches of this class are received
weekly from Canada, England and France. The exchange offices
on the continent make up semi-weekly dispatches, but do not send
letters of advice with them. Italy, Portugal and Spain send at
irregular intervals. Mexico may send unclaimed matter twice a day
for a week, and then postpone further operations for a month. The
Pacific colonies send regular monthly returns, while the South
American Republics send whenever the accumulation of unclaimed
matter is sufficiently large.

Among the many notable exhibits in the national capital there is,
perhaps, no room of equal size that contains so many curious and
interesting articles as may be seen in the Dead Letter Office museum.
With the exception of two old mail pouches, carefully preserved for
their ninety years of faithful service, all of the articles in the cases
passed through the United States mails and were found to be
unmailable, misdirected, short paid, without address, or without
the name of sender. The articles have been deposited here for a
two-fold purpose, not only to interest the casual visitor, but to call
attention to the unmailable character of many things thrown into
the mails. A person mailing a piece of fancy work in a thin wrap-
per might well complain if in the same pouch were deposited a hand
saw, a bottle of alcohol containing snakes, loaded pistols, dirks,
friction matches, etc., which would either obliterate the address
or so mutilate the wrapper as to separate it from its contents. Many
of the minerals found here were addressed to foreign countries, but,
being in excess of the limit of weight prescribed, they could not be
forwarded unless the postage were paid at the rate of five cents per
half ounce. As neither the names of senders nor the deficient post-
age could be secured from the addressees, the parcels were held two
years and finally turned into the museum.

A large number of cocoons are received by the Dead Letter Office.
The owners are notified of their detention, but in many cases there

r -^ i

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES.

273

is considerable delay in responding to these notices and interesting
results follow. Not long ago one of the file cases in the store room
of the office was left open for a short time, when to the surprif^e -of
the clerks the room was soon filled with a swarm of large and
brilliant butterflies. A box of cocoons had been accidentally
exposed a few minutes to the light.

In one of the cases may be seen a large sheet containing the
Lord's prayer beautifully inscribed in fifty-four languages. Just
below is a piece of mechanism that the average guide delights in
calling a dynamite ma-
chine, though it is really
nothing but an innocent,
old-fashioned bank marker.
A tragic memento of the
Indian- question appears in
a blood-stained pouch, tell-
ing the oft-repeated story
of danger and death in
the faithful performance of
duty. A brief account of
the tragedy is affixed to
the pouch. On July 23,
1885, F. N. Petersen, mail
carrier between Crittenden
and Lochiel, Arizona, while
on his return trip to the
latter place, was killed by
the Apaches. After murdering the carrier, the Indians cut open
the pouches and entirely destroyed the mail and also two of the
pouches, leaving this one bespattered with the blood of their
victim.

There is a large skull in the collection, which was addressed
several years ago to Prof. S. D. Gross of Philadelphia and refused by
him on account of the excessive postage due, as it had been sealed
against inspection and was entitled to regular letter rates, which
amounted to more than three dollars. A specimen of Guiteau's hair
is seen with this inscription :

This contains my hair. Charles J. Guiteau.

THE ALBUM OF OLD SOLDIEKS' PICTURES.

274 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Accompanying this was a request for the modest sum of $1,000 to
aid in the compensation of his counsel. Another contribution from
his pen soliloquizes as follows :

She's my darling from this day you will surely die for the murder of James A.
Garfield on the scaffold high, my name 'tis Charles J. Guiteau, my name I will
never deny, too leave my aged parents in sorrow for to die how little did they
think while in my youthful bloom, would be taken from the scaffold to
meet my fattle doom.

The eight pistols and revolvers so artistically arranged in one
of the cases are described as having come through the mails, all
loaded and still in possession of their deadly contents, but only
one was loaded when it was deposited in the mails, and that
the lowest in the group, is an old-fashioned "pepperbox" of six
barrels. This was sent to a young lady supposed to be living in
Springfield, 111. Failing of delivery, it was forwarded to Havana,
in the same state, and thence to the Dead Letter Office. Strange to
say, in all of these changing conditions of postal treatment not a
single barrel was relieved of its contents, even in the process of
opening in the Property Division of the Dead Letter Office. Here
may be seen the official "record of all valuable letters in the Dead
Letter Office " from 1777 to 178 8, covering forty-four pages and three
hundred and sixty-five entries. Among its other curiosities is a card
showing one hundred variations in spelling the word "Chicopee,"
as received at the Boston post office, sand thrown up by the
Charleston earthquake, Confederate money and postage stamps,
crocodiles, rag babies, patent medicines, coffee pots, wash boards,
medals, musical instruments, horned toads, harnesses, hat boxes,
hoes, gripsacks, etc.

Some time ago the residence of a prominent citizen of West Rox-
bury, Mass., was entered and among the articles stolen were two
miniatures prized as family relics. Six years afterwards a daughter
visited this museum, and to her surprise found the missing minia-
tures. The records of the office showed that an envelope, without
an address, containing the miniatures, was dropped into one of
the mail boxes at Boston a night or two after the robbery, and
in ordinary course of treatment was sent to the Dead Letter Office.
The right to the property being clearly proved, it was of course
immediately delivered to the family.

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES.

275

A large portfolio in one corner of the room contains thousands of
photographs and tintypes of old soldiers taken during the war.
Many of these had accumulated, and soon after the close of the
war, by order of Third Assistant Postmaster General Zevely, they
were taken out of the store room, mounted on large cards, and
placed on exhibition in the museum in the hope that an occasional
visitor might be able to identify and restore some picture of value
to the family connections. A few years ago these cards again found
their way to the store room to be finally rescued by the Chief of the
Minor Division, through whose patriotic interest and personal efforts
the photographs were cleaned, many of them remounted, and in a
new portfolio were again placed on exhibition. Descriptive lists
have been advertised in the journals of the Grand Army of the
Republic, and in various ways many of these pictures have reached
the families for which they were originally intended.

The Superintendent of the Dead Letter Office is Capt. D. P.
Leibhardt, who was born in Milton, Ind., in November, 1844. He
enlisted for the war when he was

under seventeen ; and he served /^ ^\

four years and three months, and jjjfa ~<<&tm** ^\

came out the quartermaster of his
brigade. His business interests
have been the manufacture of farm-
ing implements. He had charge
for years of the correspondence of |
a large manufacturing firm, and j
came to be considered one of the
most expert accountants in all that \
country; and as a business corre- ||j
spondent, and in the grasp of busi-
ness forces, his abilities were clearly
of an exceptionally high order.
This peculiar training, and his orig-
inality and steady application, es-
pecially fitted him for the duties
of Superintendent of the Dead Letter Office. He is at his desk
from eight in the morning until six at night, and for a period of
three years took only two days' vacation. His work, and the work

CAPT. D. P. LIEBHAKDT,
Superintendent, Dead Letter Office.

276

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of the force under him, has never been equalled for intelligence and

push. Capt. Leibhardt is enthusiastic in the postal work, devoted

to duty, and thorough, even to
minor details, in all he under-
takes.

The Chief Clerk, Mr. Waldo G.
Perry, has had an experience of
nearly thirty years in Dead Let-
ter Office work and is thorough-
ly identified with its growth ; for
superintendents have come and
gone, but he has remained, giving
permanence to many important
reforms and contributing in no
small degree to the present stand-
ards of excellence. He entered
the office in 1865 and took charge
of the Foreign Division. He was
later in charge of the Unmailable
Division and when the office be-
came a separate bureau, Mr. Perry
was made chief clerk. He is a

Vermonter, a graduate of the Yale Law school, and a man of great

originality and information.

MB. WALDO G. PEBBY,
Chief Clerk, Dead Letter Office.

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS.

HE establishments of post offices originate in the
office of the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General,
Mr. Estes G. Rathbone. The application for the
establishment of a new office is made, in a great ma-
jority of cases, by ordinary petition. The Depart-
ment has blank petitions, which are furnished up-
on application.
These are usu-
ally called for by some one

representing the commun- \

ity in which the office is to Sk \

be located, and is signed
by those who will be pa-
trons of the office, in the

*& >-'$'*& W

event of its establishment. I .m*

No definite number of j ^A;

names is required; though \

the character of the peti- Bj|

tion often has much to do *

with its favorable consid- \ ^tjjfL

eration at the Department. /

All sorts of forms are used
by petitioners. Some ask
for the office in very few
words; others go into de-
tails and give nearly all the
points which have to be MR ' ESTES G '

Fourth Assistant Postmaster General.

known before an order is

made for the establishment. One of the first things inquired into

in connection with establishing a new office is its distance from

277

278 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

other offices already in operation.. If on a railroad, the intervening
distance is sometimes reduced to one mile, especially if there is a
station where a number of people would be benefited by an office.
In the country away from railroads a rule is in force requiring the
new location to be at least two miles away from any other office.
This rule, however, must necessarily be flexible. A natural obstruc-
tion would make a difference in this distance. For instance, a
river which is not easily fordable, or a hill, or a small mountain,
would be reason enough for disregarding the limit referred to.

Upon the receipt of an application for a new office the Department
at once furnishes the person who is proposed for postmaster with
certain blanks which are to be filled out giving definite information
upon many different questions. The section, township and range
(where a country has been surveyed), and the county, state, or terri-
tory, of course, are first given. If it is on a mail route already in
operation, that is given, together with the number of the route and the
terminal points of it. Also is given the number of times a week the
mail is then carried over this route. The question is answered whether
the new office will be directly upon the new route, and if not, how far
from it. If the office is not upon a route, and is too far from one to
make a change in it so as to have the carrier reach the new office, it is
then supplied by what is known at the Department as "special supply."

When this service is named, the office already in operation, from
which the new office will be supplied, is named and is called the
supply office. Special offices, however, are not supplied at the
expense of the Government. The postmaster has to furnish his own
supply until such time as the new office develops business enough to
warrant the Government in appropriating a sufficient amount to fur-
nish the supply. Meantime the carrier is allowed an amount equal
to two thirds of the compensation of the postmaster. This compen-
sation is regulated by cancellations. Other conditions which have to
be given are the name of the office nearest to the proposed one on
the one side and its distance. The postmaster is also to give the
same facts with reference to the office on the other side ; and he gives
the name of the most prominent river or creek, and the distance
which the proposed office will be from either.

The name of the nearest railroad is required, if the office is near
enough to be in any way affected by the railroad. If the new

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS. 279

office is on a railroad, the information must be given on which side
of the road the office will be located and how near the trackj and
also what is, or will be, the name of the railroad station. If the
office is located within eighty rods of the station, the mails are car-
ried to and from the station by the railroad company. Should the
location be more than eighty rods from the station, the office is sup-
plied by the mail messenger service, which is to be paid for by the
Department. If it is in a village, the number of inhabitants is to
be stated as nearly as possible. In any event the population to be
supplied by the new office must be given. A diagram, or a sketch
from a map, is also usually required, showing the exact location of
the office. This diagram is furnished in blank on the back of the
location paper, as it is called. These facts all have to be certified
to by the proposed postmaster, and also by the postmaster at the
nearest office already in operation. If, however, such a postmaster,
for personal or other reasons, declines to make such certificate, the
Department uses its own discretion in establishing the office.

A great many offices are asked for, especially in southern portions
of the country, which apparently have for their object a reduction of
the compensation of an office already in operation. This seems to
be for the purpose of retaliating where a man objectionable to the
community has been appointed postmaster at an old office. By an
objectionable man is meant one who may be competent, but who for
personal or political reasons is not acceptable. After the Post-
master General inaugurated the country free delivery, the number of
applications for new offices seemed to increase. This was probably
for the reason that action could not be taken promptly upon a
proposition for such service, and it awakened an interest upon the
part of the people for better facilities than they already had; and a
liberal number of offices would be the next best thing to free delivery.

After an application has been made for a new office and the loca-
tion papers returned, the Department considers all the information
which has been furnished and passes upon the advisability of estab-
lishing the office. The policy of the present administration of the
Department in the matter of new offices has been to deny very few
applications. If the office does not promise to be of much import-
ance, the petition is usually all the evidence required, both as to
the establishment and the appointment of a postmaster. In estab-

(No. 1142.)

Jg^g^to all communications to this. Department oe careful to give the name of your Office, County, and State.

Office

OFFICE OF THE FOURTH ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL,

Sir:

The POSTMASTER GENERAL has established a Post Office by the name

of ,in the County of ....... -..

and State of.. ...and appointed you POSTMASTER

thereof, in which capacity you will be authorized to act t upon complying with
the following requirements:

1st To execute the inclosed bond, and cause it to be executed by two sufficient sureties, in the
presence of suitable witnesses; the sufficiency of the sureties to be officially certified by a duly qualified
magistrate.

2d. To take nd subscribe the oath or affirmation of office inclosed, before a duly qualified magistrate,
who will certify the same; also, to appoint an assistant, who must take the usual oath, to be returned with
yours to me.

3d. To exhibit your bond and qualification, executed and certified as aforesaid, to the Postmaster
of__.__ , and then deposit them in the mail addressed to me.

A mail key will be sent from the Mail Equipment Division. Blanks will be sent by the Division
of Post Office Supplies at Washington City. D. C.

After the receipt, at this Department, of your bond and qualification, duly executed and certified,
and the approval of the same by the Postmaster General, a commission will be sent to you.

Jfyou accept tlte appointment, the bond and oath must be executed and returned without delay. If
you decline, notice thereof should be immediately given to this Office.

It will be your duty to continue in charge of the office, either personally or by an assistant, until
you are relieved from it by the consent of the Department, which will be signified by the discontinuance
of your office or by the appointment of your successor.

Very respectfully,

Fourth Assistant Postmaster General

Esq. v

Iftf ty N. B. The quarters expire on the 31st March, 30th June, 30th September, Bad 31st December AH accounts

V matt be rendered for each quarter within two days after its close.

Postmasters are not authorized to give credit for postage. Want of funds, therefore, is no excuse for failure of

_ "P" A p ogtmagter mngt uot c i, ange t h e name by which his office is designated on the books of the Department with*

tr out th order of the Postmaster General.

. ** CF" Be careful, in mailing letters and transient newspapers, to postmark each one, in all cases, with the name of

.*__ your office and State; and, iu all communications to the Department, to embrace in the date the name of your office, county,

: and State.

Q2 It stamping letters, great care should be observed to reader the impression distinct and legible.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR NEW POSTMASTERS AT NEW OFFICES.

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS. 281

lishing an office the politics of the person proposed to be appointed is
not commonly inquired into. When the Department is not entirely
satisfied with the petition and the other papers in the case, all such
papers are sent to one of a chosen corps of advisers of the Depart-
ment, called "referees," for his investigation and recommendation.
In Republican districts the members of Congress are the referees; in
Democratic districts, in states where one or both of the senators are
Republican, the cases are referred to them for recommendation.
Where there are neither members nor senators to represent a district,
the Department has referees appointed, usually men who have
either been members of Congress or candidates for Congress. Some-
times, however, other methods are resorted to to secure advice.

The referee system has been a necessary growth, and it has been
in vogue for many years and through many different administrations.
It is assumed by all parties that changes in office are to be made
when an administration changes. It is impossible, of course, for the
appointing officer to have personal knowledge of the merits of the
various candidates; he must secure advice. The best advice almost
always is that of the local leader. He has his own personal interest
and his own personal success at heart, as well as that of the Depart-
ment and the public service. Hence he may be depended upon
almost always. The process of giving advice in the matter of
appointments is a privilege and not the right of a referee ; for under
the constitution, of course, the appointing power is alone responsible
for the appointments, except where the confirmation of the Senate
in the case of certain offices is required.

But the custom of having referees has been necessary ; and experi-
enced politicians say that the trouble in making recommendations
for office is not so much in the fact that recommendations have to be
made, but that sufficient courage, promptness and discretion are not
used in recommending. Fights for post offices are allowed to go on
and drag along for months and months when they might be settled
to much better advantage, on the merits of the case, almost offhand.
The most experienced of the senators, men, for instance, like
Senators Sherman, Cullom, Allison, Aldrich and Quay, act, when
they do act, promptly and once for all.

After the case has been examined in the Fourth Assistant's office
and the establishment and appointment decided upon, the proposed

282 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

name of the post office is submitted to the Eailway Mail Service for
approval. One clerk in that service has a complete record of all the
offices in operation, so that he is able to judge whether the new
name would in any way conflict with the name of an office already
in existence. It is necessary that new names shall not be like any
others, for confusion in the distribution of mail would surely be
involved. Of course there cannot be two offices in the same state
bearing the same name. It is also objectionable to have offices of
the same name in states where the abbreviations of the names of
states are very much alike. For instance, it is objectionable to have
offices of the same name in the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania,
for the abbreviations " Va." and "Pa." would lead to great confusion.
The policy of the Department is to give short single names to new
offices. Double names are always avoided unless there are local rea-
sons to the contrary. Euphonious names are adopted wherever it is
possible; but that is made impossible sometimes because of the
equally strong desire to follow local usage. The name of a village
or railroad station is always preferable for the name of the post office.
Two years ago the President created the United States Board of
Geographic Names, and since that time a great deal of work has been
done by way of making uniform the names of rivers, bays, islands,
and, in fact, all geographic points ; but the chief good work done
is in the matter of the names of post offices. Soon after the board
referred to was created Postmaster General Wanamaker issued an
order that all branches of his Department should follow the decisions
of the board where it could be done. The result is that the names
of post offices are continually improved; the possessive form is
dropped just as rapidly as possible and is never used in connection
with new offices, double names are changed to single names where it
is practicable, and the hyphen is discarded. This makes Brown-
ville of Brownsville, Jackboro of Jacksboro, etc. The Postmaster
General rules in favor of dropping the final " h " in the termination
"burgh," of abbreviating "borough" to "boro"; of spelling the
word " center " as here given ; of the omission, wherever practicable,
of the letters "C. H." after the names of county seats; of the simpli-
fication of names consisting of more than one word by their combina-
tion into one word ; and of dropping the words " city " and " town, "
as parts of names.

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS.

283

The name of a post office in Huntingdon County, Pa., is Aitch.
There were five prosperous farmers in the portion of the county
where the post office now is, and their names were Anderson, Isen-
berg, Taylor, Crum and Henderson. Each of them wished the office
to be named after himself; but they could not come to an agreement,
and finally as a compromise the first letters of each name were put
together. And so originated Aitch.

A petition for a new office in the mountains of Virginia was
received at the Department. It was found that the name submitted

DESKS IN THE APPOINTMENT DIVISION.

was undesirable. The petitioners were so notified and requested to
make a list of names in the order of preference. The new list con-
tained no acceptable name, and the chief of the Appointment Divi-
sion directed one of his clerks to select a name himself. The clerk
walked to the map. He discovered that there was a mountain hardby
named Purgatory. The new office was presented with the name
of Purgatory. When the establishment papers were forwarded to
the petitioners, they were requested to submit a name for postmas-
ter. They returned the name of George Godbe there.

284 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Another petition received from a community further in the South
also failed to submit a proper name for the post office, and when a
request was made for a list of names the petitioners replied that
either Whitfield or Wanamaker would be acceptable ; and as if to
show impatience over the delay at agreeing to a name for the new
office, they added a nota bene, "or Toughtown." The officials of
the Department had been somewhat annoyed to have numbers of
post offices named after them ; and not desiring to encourage that
species of compliment, they selected the name "Toughtown." Dur-
ing the latter part of General Clarkson's tenure of office he found, quite
by accident one day, that there were dozens of post offices named
Clarkson. These petitioners had really wanted to compliment him;
but he grew weary of it, and fearing lest people would think he had
encouraged this, directed the officials under him not to permit any
post office to be named Clarkson after that.

There are 33 states that have post offices bearing the name of
Washington. Thirty states have post offices named Lincoln; 23
Grant; 21 Elaine; 22 Logan; 24 Sherman; 22 Sheridan; 28 Jack-
son; 17 Hancock; 14 Ouster; 25 Cleveland; 6 Hendricks; 7 Tilden;
8 Hayes; 9 Thomas; 6 Dorsey; 13 Chase; 3 Polk; 1 McClel-
lan. Alice is the name of 10 post offices; Alma, 22; Alpha, 18.
There are 22 Arcadias, 26 Ashlands, 20 Avons, 25 Belmonts,
and 26 Berlins. The shortest name in the Guide is B, in Tip-
pecanoe County, Ind. ; there is one Apple, and Bowl, Brick, Bee
and Box are in the list. In 9 states a post office is named Bliss ;
there are Blue Eyes, Blue Jackets and Blue Blankets, Blacks and
Blackbirds. Mary has 1 post office : Lucy, 2 ; Laura, 2 ; the Larks
have 4; Kate, 1, and Kathleen, 4; Jump, 2; Jumbo, 7; John, 4, and
John Day, 1 ; James, 6 ; Edith, 8 ; Edna, 4 ; Cora, 11 ; Francis, 9 ;
Frank, 7 ; Grace, 7 ; Emma, 9 ; Fannie, 2 ; Flat, 1. There are 2 High,
3 Sugar, 3 Coffee, and 1 Cream, with 2 Creameries; 1 Wig; 2 Wing;
1 Worry; 1 Pay-up; 4 Cash; 3 Cave; 3 Confidence, 1 Confusion
and 1 Confederate, and 1 Cool- Well. It has been pointed out that
the religious enthusiast may select from any of the following : Eden,
Paradise, Baptistown, Brick-Church, Canaan, Genesis, Jerusalem,
Land of Promise, New Hope, Old Hundred, Pray, Promised Land,
Old Church, Sabbath Rest, Zion, Bible Grove, Churches (three),
Stone Church, and Saints Rest. The military genius could be suited at

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS. 285

Battle Ground, Broken Sword, Cavalry, Camp Ground, Canon Store.
Encampment, Little Warrior, Headquarters, Warrior's Mark, Seven
Guns, Stewart's Draft, Tenth Legion, Union Camp, or Warrior's
Stand. The baseball maniac would be interested in Ball Play, Ball
Ton, Catchall, Two Runs, Umpire, Best Pitch, Six Runs, or Ball
Ground, and the medical profession is recalled when these towns
are named: Colon, Doctor Town, All Healing, Cureall, Healing
Spring, Medicine Lodge, Mount Healthy and Water Cure. It
has been pointed out by another that there are at least two offices in
the United States where the above Mosaics should be noted with
especial interest. They are Rat, Alabama, and Chestnut Hill, Mass.

After the name has been approved of, the case goes to the Contract
Division in the office of the Second Assistant Postmaster General for
report upon the nature of the service. Here is obtained information
whether the new office will be upon a route or whether it shall be
established as "special." If upon a route, the number of it is given.
The case is then returned to the appointment office ; all the data are
placed upon the face of the jacket, which in the case of establish-
ment is always yellow in color, and if everything is found to be
in proper form, the jacket is " initialed " by the chief of the division,
and from him it goes to the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General.
He signs the order of establishment. Then the case is returned to
the division, where a complete record is made of it; and it is then
taken to a clerk in charge of the Postmaster General's records and
is again entered there. When the Postmaster General signs this
record the order of establishment is complete. The case then goes
to the Bond Division, from which the blank bond and other blanks
are furnished to the newly appointed postmaster. Upon the return
of the bond properly executed a commission is issued. The Bond
Division notifies all the other bureaus in the Department that a new
office has been created and all necessary blanks are at once furnished
the new postmaster, who has been appointed in the order establish-
ing the office. With his commission as his authority and with the
supplies furnished to him the new postmaster begins operations.

The establishment of post offices in Oklahoma and in other regions
recently opened has often been in advance of the actual settlement.
Before the Oklahoma counties were named they were called by
the Department, A, B, C, D, E, etc. Postmasters were appointed

286

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

upon recommendations of the delegate from Oklahoma and of Sena-
tors Plumb, Paddock and Manderson. The theory of the Depart-
ment is that the establishment of an office in a new locality is often
the means of educating the people who become its patrons. Having
a post office, they are more inclined to correspond with friends and
far more liable to take newspapers. A number of western offices
have been established in the last two or three years which have
become presidential within a year from the date of establishment.
These are not necessarily "boom" towns. They rather show the
rapid, steady growth of the country.

The discontinuance of a post office is resorted to where the office
is run down so that the receipts are not enough to warrant any one
^^^ in continuing to serve as post-

master. In that event a case is

x >v

made up ordering a discontinu-
ance, giving the reasons for it,
and the date upon which the order
is to take effect. With the ex-
ception of going to the Railway
Mail Service, this case goes
through the same routine as cases
of establishment. An office is
rarely discontinued if it is possi-
ble to secure the services of any
one for postmaster. The post-
master at the office discontinued
is instructed, on the date of dis-
continuance, to take all his sup-
plies to the nearest office, which
has been previously notified of the
discontinuance and instructed to
receive the supplies. A few in-
stances have occurred where post offices were discontinued because
the patrons refused either to patronize the office or to allow the
postmaster appointed by the Department to serve. These cases
were in the South ; and in each the result was the re establishment
of the office upon the assurance that the postmaster would not be
disturbed nor the office boycotted.

MR. PIEESON H. BRISTOW,
Chief Clerk, Fourth Assistant's Office.

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS.

287

Changes of postmasters at post offices already in operation are
largely made upon the resignations or deaths of the postmasters.
A resignation is often followed by a great many letters and petitions
urging the appointment of different candidates. These papers all
go to the referee of the Department, and while his recommendation
is not always followed, it has very much influence. Thousands of
post offices in the United States yield but little or nothing to the
postmasters, but they are continued for the benefit of the community,
the postmaster being willing to perform the work for the benefit of
his neighbors. A great many removals were made at the beginning
of this administration. When General Clarkson was criticised for
appointing so many Republicans, he did not go into labored explana-
tions; his answer was that it
would be impossible to remove
Democrats, if Democrats had not
previously been appointed under
a former administration.

Mr. George G. Fenton, Chief
of the Appointment Division,
was born at Moravia, New York,
in August, 1843. Three years
after the family moved to Louis-
ville, Ky., and ten years later
found a home in Madison, Ind.,
where young Fenton received
most of his schooling. When
the war broke out he enlisted,
though only eighteen, in the
39th Indiana regiment, and served
over three years. After the war
he engaged in business, and was
deputy treasurer of Jefferson
County two years, and sheriff for two terms. In 1882 he was
appointed to a twelve hundred dollar clerkship in the Appoint-
ment Division, was promoted by Judge Gresham to $1,600, and
remained in charge of the Ohio and Indiana desks up to the time of
his latest promotion in October, 1892.

Mr. P. H. Bristow of Iowa is Chief Clerk in the office of the

MB. GEOKGE G. FENTON,
Chief, Appointment Division.

288

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. For a long time he was
city editor of the Iowa State Register, the leading Republican
paper of Iowa, formerly edited by General Clarkson. He has been
active in politics for twenty years. Mr. Clarkson and he served
several years together on the Des Moines school board. Mr. Bristow
was at one time auditor of the county in which Des Moines is
located; later he was deputy auditor of the state, and for several

years he was chief clerk in the
office of Governor Larrabee. He
was three years secretary of the
Republican State Central Com-
mittee of Iowa and was called
to Washington by General Clark-
son, though he was not a candi-
date for any position. Mr. Bris-
tow is the Post Office Department
member of the United States
Board of Geographic Names.

The clerk in charge of presi-
dential cases is Mr. Nathan A.
C. Smith, a Vermonter, who en-
tered the army from Wisconsin
and saw service in Missouri,
Kansas, Kentucky and Tennes-
see. He was elected a captain
in the Thirty-Second Wisconsin
Infantry, but did not return to the service on account of disability.
He was first appointed a clerk by Postmaster General Randall, and
almost always since that time he has had clerical supervision of the
cases for the appointment of presidential postmasters. This work
has not only familiarized him with local political affairs all over the
country, but it has brought him into close personal relations with
all the successive postmasters general. He takes great interest, in
addition, in the general progress of the Department.

It has been required for the last few months to establish post
offices at the rate of nearly one hundred a week. In but little over
a month recently the increase of 395 offices (in 42 states and terri-
tories) was chiefly as follows: Georgia, 28; North Carolina, 19;

MB. NATHAN A. C. SMITH.

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS.

289

Kentucky, 18; Pennsylvania, 15; New York, 14; California, 11;
Indiana, 12; Alabama, 20; Mississippi, 18; South Carolina, 17;
Tennessee, 15; Ohio, 13; Illinois, 12; Maryland, 12. In the terri-
tories the largest increase was in Oklahoma, where it was 21. In
the Indian Territory the number was 12. In the other states and
territories the increase in each was from one to nine.

The following table shows some interesting operations of the
Appointment Division :

States and Territories.

Number of
offices,
June 30, 1889.

Number on
Mar. 5, 1892.

Inc. or Dec.

Per cent. gain.

Population
1890.

One P. O. for each

Alabama

1 718

2 054

336

1 513 017

800 Inhabitants

Alaska

31 795

1 600

Arizona

160

175

59 620

330

Arkansas

1 393

1 539

146

1 128 179

750

California

1*283

1,416

133

1 208 130

800

Colorado

609

689

412 198

600

Connecticut. . . .

484

500

03 1 A

746 258

1 500

Delaware

149

161

168 493

1,000

230 392

Florida. ..

781

911

.04

391 422

450

Georgia

1 745

2 014

269

1 837*353

900

Idaho

227

284

.25

84 385

300

Illinois

232

2 471

119

3 826 351

1 500

Indiana
Indian Territory

1,993
245

2,100
288

107
43

.05

2,192,404

1,000 I|

Iowa
Kansas

1,736
1 815

1,801
1 805

65
10*

.04

1,911,896
1 427 096

1,100
800

Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine

2,041
788
1,066

2,404
910
1,129

363
122
63

.18
.16
06

1,858',635
1,118,587
661 086

750
1,200
600

Maryland
Massachusetts

1,011
839

1,101

865

90
26

.09
.03

1,042,390
2,238,943

950
2,600

Michigan
Minnesota

1,799
1 220

1,929
1 320

130
100

.18
08

2,093,889
1 301 826

1,100
1 000

Mississippi
Missouri

1,184
2 255

1,370
2 499

186
244

.16
11

1,289,600
2 679 184

900
1,100

Montana

303

'399

132' 159

350

Nebraska

1 070

1 127

1,058 910

950

Nevada

138

158

45 761

300

New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York

526
807
228
3 317

538
862
259
3 517

12
55
31

200

.02 %
.07
.14
.06

376,530
1,444,933
153,593
5 997 853

700
1,700
600
1,700

North Carolina
North Dakota Est
Ohio

2,352
472
2 956

2,656
518
3 188

304
46
232

.13
.10
08

1,617,947
182,719
3 672 316

600
350
1,150

Oklahoma

137

61,834

450

Oregon

593

724

131

313 767

450

Pennsylvania
Rhode Island

4,340
129

4,753
143

413

.09^
.11

5,258,014
345,506

1,100
2,750

South Carolina
South Dakota Est
Tennessee

1,037
608
2 118

1,199
674
2,413

162
66
295

.15
.11
.14

1,151,149
328,808
1,767,518

950
500
750

Texas

2 106

2 373

267

.13

2,235,523

950

Utah

'244

263

.08

207,905

800

Vermont

523

548

.05

332,422

600

2 543

2 828

285

.11

1,655,980

600

Washington

476

716

240

.50

349,390

580

West Virginia
Wisconsin

1,450
1 557

1,682
1,716

232
159

.16
.10

762,794
1,686,880

980

Wyoming . .

185

245

.32

60,705

250

Totals

58,999

65,402

62,654,045

Q-n General

Indians . .

249,273

DU Average.

62,903,318

290 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Three years ago it was recorded that the greatest increase in the
number of post offices in any of the states for the year was 215 in
Pennsylvania. In Alabama the increase in number was 175; in
Kentucky, 173 ; in Virginia, 163 ; in North Carolina, 159 ; in Ten-
nessee, 155; and in Texas, 142. The largest increase for the pre-
vious year was 121 in Pennsylvania. Two years ago the greatest
increase in the number of post offices in any of the states for the
year was 130 in Kentucky. In Pennsylvania the number was 114 ;
in North Carolina, 103; and in Texas, 101.

In each of 11 states there were upwards of 2,000 offices in opera-
tion on June 30, as follows: Pennsylvania, 4,684; New York,
3,476; Ohio, 3,156; Virginia, 2,777; North Carolina, 2,614;
Missouri, 2,475; Illinois, 2,449; Tennessee, 2,370; Texas, 2,349;
Kentucky, 2,344; Indiana, 2,090. In ten of the states there are
100 or more presidential offices as follows : New York, 256 ; Penn-
sylvania, 216; Illinois, 209; Ohio, 167; Massachusetts, 147;
Iowa, 147; Michigan, 147; Kansas, 120; Indiana, 102 and Mis-
souri, 102.

The present position of the Department with regard to the removal
of postmasters is perhaps best stated in the Postmaster General's
report of last year. He said :

" But the people generally expect, though they take no personal interest in the
matter, that the postmaster will be changed with the change of administration.
Hence, the anticipated changes, though insignificant enough, are also numerous
enough. Thousands of fourth class offices do not earn fifty dollars a year
apiece. In thousands of cases present incumbents are eager to be relieved of
their offices, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that new candidates can be
found to take them. In hundreds of cases persons of the opposite party are
appointed or reappointed by all administrations. In hundreds of cases changes
are made simply to secure more convenient locations for post offices. In hun-
dreds of cases again, it is considered politics by the members of the party which
has lately been defeated, to discourage resignations until removals are made, so
that the total of removals may appear in partisan journals as excessive.

"The Department neither asks for resignations nor authorizes any person or
persons to ask for them; for when it is clear that a change ought to be made, the
President or the Postmaster General has the power to make the required removal
without indirection. I am able to recall perhaps ten cases, however, in the six-
teen months of my incumbency, where postmasters whose habits have become
such as to disgrace the service and whose friends interfered to prevent removals,
have been notified in order that the publication of these disagreeable facts might
be avoided, that they might resign if they preferred to do so.

" It has been difficult in many cases where removals have been demanded to

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS. 291

secure for the accused postmaster the treatment which should seem entirely fair
to him. It is true that your instructions issued to this Department in March,
1889, that no postmaster should be reported upon by an inspector who did -not
also have the chance to be heard in his own defence, were never, to my knowl-
edge, disobeyed, and it is true that my additional precaution, expressed in a
letter of explicit instructions, issued in January, 1890, by the Chief Post Office
Inspector to his various inspectors in charge, was never to my knowledge dis-
obeyed, for I would not hesitate for a moment to remove an inspector, any more
than I would any other postal official or employee over whom I have jurisdiction,
who disregards your instructions or mine, especially if, as might be the fact in
this instance, he were to assume any attitude that might suggest the star
chamber. It is hard to realize, however, how difficult it is even for the experi-
enced inspector to resist the temptation to find in the insulting disloyalty
of ill-natured partisans sufficient cause for removal. I have myself been much
criticised by fair-minded persons because removals for these offences against
decency have not been made, and I realize how hard it is for an inspector not to
make mistakes. But it is a proud thing for the inspector force that in nearly
every instance where the accuracy of the inspector's report has been called in
question, this sworn official of the Government has been vindicated by the subse-
quent investigation.

" The confidential reasons which compel the Department to act must not be
disclosed; first, because communities might in some instances be involved in
strife and bitterness, and families might be subjected to disgrace and ruin. The
removed person, either unaware of the full extent of the known information
about himself, or else fully aware that no public use could in decency be made of
it. often does not hesitate to talk or write about his so-called wrongs. If the
truth were known he would be the one most to suffer; and yet, no matter how
one sided or bitter his attacks may be, the Department can do nothing except wait
for fair public scrutiny and hope for honest public treatment.

" The postmaster in a small town is a candidate for reappointment. The com-
munity in which he lives believes in civil service reform without quite knowing
all that the words mean. Good citizens demand that the public service shall not
be outraged by the appointment of any mere self-seeker or political ' striker.'
The Department knows that the candidate for reappointment has not accounted
promptly, possibly without fraudulent intent, for public money, or is a victim of
the opium habit; it will not reappoint him. A cry is raised that the public ser-
vice is prostituted to partisan ends. There are similar cases in large post offices,
in which the postmaster similarly does his duty without fear. A letter carrier in
uniform goes into a brothel, becomes intoxicated, and disgraces his wife and
daughters. He is removed. The same cry is raised that every right of citizen-
ship is outraged."

In all times and under all administrations there are humorous
things, and there are sad and terrible things, about the hunger and
the thirst for office. The mania is general in all parts of the country,
but in New England, perhaps, or at least in Massachusetts, it has
been noticed that the number of candidates for a given small post
office is small, and there are no particular candidates in many cases.

292 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

In that locality it has seemed sometimes as if it were a sign of
unthrift to want an office, and consequently the office has not been
wanted ; and in New England, also, and especially in Massachusetts,
has the custom grown among the referees of encouraging the natural
bent of the people of their party, in a town where a change is to be
made, to hold caucuses ; and the person receiving the highest poll is-
recommended to the appointing officer.

There is no way of stopping the craze for office, for the simple
reason that every free American citizen has a perfect right to be a
fool if he chooses. It is not a surprising thing that in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred the best man is selected. In rnany
cases it is a wholesome thing, this canvass, for the inevitable result
must be that the fittest only survive. Many of the most successful
postmasters, appointed under the present administration at least,
have been those who have won their places after a fight; for not
only have they had the success and pride of the Department at heart,
but they have felt the more their obligation to suit the pride of all
their patrons.

It is a sad and a terrible thing when misrepresentation and malice
come in, as they sometimes do. Some time ago there came from
a western city to Washington a formidable petition against the
appointment of a certain candidate for postmaster. It was signed
with a long list of names alleged to be those of prominent citizens.
All the names were found to be fictitious. This is a sparkling
fancy, though, compared with some of the contentions.

Jn a good-sized city on the Pacific Coast a very smooth and sancti-
monious pretender wanted the post office. He could not wait; so
he conspired to bring about the incumbent's removal. To his aid
he called a painted woman and a couple of young men who wanted
positions in the office. The woman's services were bought with
money. It was her part of the conspiracy to inveigle the postmaster
into some questionable situation. There was to be a public scandal
and the postmaster's resignation or removal from office would follow
as a matter of course. There were divers meetings of the four con-
spirators ; but the postmaster was an officer of character and refused
to fall into the pit.

A woman of respectable standing was then called into requisition.
She conceived the idea of charging the postmaster with collecting

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS. 293

.all the letters received for women of questionable reputation and
making personal deliveries for his wicked purposes. Then the can-
didate put into circulation certain reports intended to frighten the
postmaster into resigning. When there came the prospect of a
vacancy, another citizen entered the field for appointment. Old
time popularity soon gave him first place in public opinion. It now
became necessary to wreck this man's reputation, and a second con-
spiracy was formed. Immoral character was alleged. More painted
women were added to the list of conspirators. Reports were circu-
lated that the Postmaster General was about to remove the post-
master. A petition was circulated among the best citizens for the
appointment of the conspirator, and especial effort was made to
secure the signatures of all the clergymen of the city. As he had
denounced the postmaster and the leading applicant on account of
the reports in circulation affecting their moral characters, the minis-
ters attached their names to the petition. Meanwhile he met his
men and women conspirators nightly.

It took but a short time now for the case to go to the hands of the
local Congressman, who would be asked by the Postmaster General
for his advice, as the incumbent's term was out. The endorsement
of the Congressman was refused to all aspirants. But the con-
spirator conceived the notion that he would enlist the sympathies of
the Postmaster General, and he presented his recommendations.
The Postmaster General notified the Congressman, who at once said
he would visit the city in question. To keep the Congressman
away from the city where the post office excitement was running
high became absolutely necessary, so the conspirator hired a
"friend" of the Congressman to go to the latter's home and keep
him "in tow." Weeks passed and no word from the Congressman.
Finally inspectors of the Department were sent to the scene of
action. They unearthed the plot. The leading candidate, a good
man, was at once appointed.

The Department has these machinations to contend with under
any administration. All parties assume that changes in the post
offices will be made ; they are in harmony as to the necessity of mak-
ing changes. And other sneaks and cowards are the persons removed
for cause. They make all sorts of accusations to the Department
(no matter under what administration), and the Department can

294 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

make no reply. It would take too many clerks in the first place ;
and in the second, the reputations of these sneaks and cowards
would be made as black as their characters, and the happiness
of their families would be turned into misery. And certain
reformers have come to pick up the complaints of these wretched
persons as proof (curious proof ! ) of the vicious nature of the
spoils system. The spoils system is vicious enough, but it is not
so because rascals are turned out of office or are prevented from
getting office.

Sometimes when people are dissatisfied with appointments (and
they are usually dissatisfied for insufficient reasons), they boycott
post offices. They mail their letters on the postal cars; they
refuse to buy stamps at the offices; and once, not long ago, at
a small Missouri town, the postmaster had a number of his enemies
arrested for conspiracy, a foolish thing, because no case could
be made out against them in that community. The only remedy
for the Department, as has been said, is to discontinue the offend-
ing office.

Other things sometimes make the life of the fourth-class postmas-
ter a burden. Recently in a Southern town call it Santa Cruz,
the editor of the local paper described in tearful terms the killing of
the postmaster's dog by a railroad train, and he criticised the tender-
ness of the postmaster for -burying the dog in his own lot in the local
cemetery. This action, according to the editor's report, in "bury-
ing a dog in ground set apart and hallowed for the last resting place
of Christian people caused great disgust and indignation among the
residents in our beautiful suburb, which culminated last night, when
some unknown parties went to the cemetery and disinterred the
carcass and carried it with the carefully prepared box which con-
tained it, and placed it upon the porch in front of the postmaster's
store, where it was found by him in the morning."

The postmaster had himself done newspaper work and he wrote a
reply. He was surprised that the editor should write himself a
mendacious and unprincipled scribbler, and he added :

" No one but a low brute could gloat over the physical suffering of either man or
beast, or attempt to cast ridicule on the mental distress of a fellow-being. So, with
unspeakable loathing, I relegate the writer of those very * funny ' paragraphs in re-
gard to the tragical death of my little household pet to the shades of obscurity.' *

ESTABLISHING OFFICES; APPOINTMENTS. 295

And the postmaster meant fight, for he concluded :

"Like other criminals and law breakers, those 'curs of low degree' have not
had sense enough to cover up their foul tracks; and they are not (as the prime
mover and head devil of the gang fondly supposes) ' unknown.' There are
traitors always in such disreputable and rascally camps; there is really no honor
among thieves, and as soon as I can secure sufficient proof, I will see that full jus-
tice shall be meted out to those delicate and refined guardians of the reputation
of Santa Cruz."

The editor now appealed to the Department. He complained
that the postmaster had come up to him in his very sanctum. He
added :

" Without the slightest provocation he has come up and called me the vilest of
liars, a white-livered scoundrel, etc., and that he was not through with me yet,
and much more of the same sort, including a threat to ' shoot me,' accompanied
with the most insulting language. He has repeatedly refused to sell me stamps,
in the quantity for which I asked and for which I tendered pay, alleging as his
reason that ' someone else might want some, and he would not have them,' and
on different occasions he has admitted that he had one or two dollars' worth, but
would only let me have fifty or seventy-five cents' worth of them. I have on
many occasions during the last year urged him to procure a sufficient quantity of
stamps, which he has persistently neglected to do, saying that he ' could not get
on a great quantity of stamps just to accommodate one man.' I think much of
the postmaster's late conduct towards me is due to the fact that he holds me
responsible for two newspaper articles ; for he has publicly accused me of the
whole matter, the digging up of a dog and all. Of course I am innocent of the
' grave desecration ' in question, but I did write the second article referring to
the digging up of the dog as a matter of news which legitimately belonged to the
public."

There is a postscript, however, in which the editor says :

" I went into the postmaster's office this afternoon, and he said to me that if I
went in there again he would kick me out."

In every Congress, in every session, almost, are introduced bills
to raise the pay of the fourth class postmaster, to relieve him of his
troubles, and to make his appointment, if he must be appointed,
which it is sometimes hoped not, a patriotic thing. Each is a
panacea. A bill was introduced in the last Congress which provided
that the country should be divided into postal districts, in each of
which the Postmaster General should appoint a post office inspector
to act as an examiner ; that when a fourth-class postmaster is to be
appointed, this examiner shall post notices saying where the post
office is, what compensation the postmaster receives, what bond is
required, where application papers may be had, when papers must

296 THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

be returned, and giving such other information as seems proper;
that the examiner shall furnish the blank applications, etc., which
shall be filled out by the applicant himself, giving his name and
residence, when and where naturalized, if naturalized, time and
place of birth, education, physical capacity, whether employed in
the military, naval or civil service, his employment and residence
for a period of five years, whether indicted at any time, and where
the applicant would establish the post office, and whether in connec-
tion with any other business; that each candidate shall also furnish
a certificate under oath, signed by three reputable citizens of the
state or territory in which the applicant has actually resided within
one year, that the applicant is suitable for the office ; that the post
office inspector shall post a list of applicants in the given locality,
and shall then find intelligent judgment as to the qualifications of
the applicant; that a graded list of applicants shall be sent to the
Postmaster General ; that the Postmaster General shall then appoint
to the post office one of the candidates reported upon, assigning
reasons acceptable to the public why the candidate graded highest
does not happen to be appointed, if he does not happen to be ; that
no appointment shall be absolute until a year thereafter ; that the
Postmaster General shall not appoint, nor the inspector recommend
any candidate for political reason, that they shall prevent as far as
possible the presentation of any political information touching the
applicants, and finally that any fraud knowingly perpetrated shall
exclude a candidate from the eligible list and be sufficient for his
removal during the probationary period.

Evidently legislation of this sort would require great numbers of
additional inspectors, and they cannot be employed until the money
is appropriated for the purpose. As one very practical postmaster
has written :

If a practicable method of relieving Congressmen from the responsibility of
recommending the postmasters in their various districts were devised, it is
probable that it would be generally favored by them, as many leading represen-
tatives have expressed themselves as opposed to doing a work which involves
them in much controversy and annoyance at home. But, as a citizen, I do not
see how the proposed method could be satisfactory either to the patrons of the
office or to the post office department. I am told about 400 fourth class post-
masters are necessarily appointed weekly to keep up with the large number of
vacancies occurring from death, resignations and opening of new offices. These
vacancies being scattered throughout the United States, it would not be possible

ESTABLISHING OFFICES ; APPOINTMENTS. 297

for 20 inspectors, nor for 100 inspectors (which exceeds, I think, the total number of
the force at present employed) to visit 400 different places weekly, and get sufficient
information to make an intelligent recommendation as to who should be ap-
pointed postmaster. Even if enough inspectors could be provided, the principle
of allowing a stranger, on a brief visit to the place, and having no common inter-
est at stake, to decide who should be its postmaster, would be very unacceptable
to the people, and even if it were agreeable to them, the scant and imperfect
knowledge which a stranger would be very apt to get would commit the Depart-
ment to appointments which would have to be revoked and corrected upon the
representations of the people through their Congressman, bringing it back in all
contested cases to the recent system. The only cases that would not be so
brought to the attention of the Congressman would be the little offices where
there is but one applicant, so that the functions of these inspectors would be mis-
placed in many cases and unsatisfactory in many others.

" Under the present method of Congressional recommendations the Department
has about 500 responsible counsellors, without expense, scattered throughout the
country, who, if they do not know the applicants for office in their districts
personally, yet know the very best sources for information as to them, their char-
acter and their efficiency. These representatives have an interest in the recom-
mendations they make, which cannot be felt by any inspectors, and instead of
this system foisting upon the department inefficient partisans of the Congressman,
it naturally results in the selection of men who reflect credit upon their endorsers
and in making the members popular in their districts, i. e., good, honest, accept-
able men.

" It seems to me, therefore, that, while many Congressmen would like to be
free from this responsibility, the Department could by no other means secure
reliable information about candidates for office, without incurring an expense
disproportionate to the end desired, or without resorting to methods which would
be very distasteful themselves."

Another favorite cure-all is the proposition that postmasters shall
be elected by the people. Congressman Grout of Vermont has
favored this method. Mr. Sherman Hoar of Massachusetts intro-
duced a bill in the Fifty-Second Congress to effect the same purpose.
Governor Flower of New York has long been a distinguished advocate
of this policy, and General Clarkson believes in it. He said recently
in a public speech :

"I would take the post office out of national politics, and put it in neighborhood
politics. I cannot share in the opinion of the Republican and Democratic
reformers who would select at Washington by some device of a commission
nearly all the postmasters for the 70,000 postal communities of this nation, for I
would not take away, and in my judgment the American people will never allow
to be taken away from each community the right to a voice in the election of its
own postmaster. There is no reason why every postmaster should not be elected
by the people whom he is to serve. The post offices have been largely the ele-
ment of discord in national politics. They lead very often to party divisions and
party weakness. They have killed off more good Congressmen and more good

298

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

senators than all other causes combined. There are no ills in this Government
which cannot be cured by carrying them directly to the decision and the wisdom
of the plain people."

Of course an amendment to the Constitution would be involved,
and these come hard ; and while the argument would be used that
this glorious country is different from the glorious country of Wash-
ington and Jefferson because it is a hundred times as big, still a
change which would take the officers of the executive branch away
from the responsibility of the appointing power, is likely to come
but slowly.

MAKING BONDS OP 880,000,000.

1 HE first appearance of work for the Bond Divis-
ion is when the cases come in from the Division
of Appointments. Clerks prepare a circular
letter notifying the postmaster of his appoint-
ment; and they also prepare a blank bond for
him. These are transmitted to the new post-
master. Then a record of them is made in
one of the county books, as they are called,
and a record is also made of the bond in the

bond book, as it is called. The postmaster's name, the office,

Bounty and state, and the amount of the penalty of the bond are

all recorded. When the bond is

returned in the proper form the

ommission of the new postmaster

is ready for the signature of the

Postmaster General. The work

of the Bond Division has stead-

ily increased, of course, with the

growth of the service, and now

the clerks sometimes approve as

many as one hundred and fifty

bonds a day. Especially has the

work been heavy for the last
months, because of the Post-

master General's order making
money order offices of all those
where the postmaster's salary is
$200 or more. As early as three
months ago the Bond Division
had completed as many as six

COL. J.UTHER CALDWELL,
Chief, Bond Division.

299

300

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

thousand of these new bonds, and the work was performed so
expeditiously (and that without any extra detail of clerks), that
scarcely a third of the work was behind-hand.

When the salary of the postmaster is from $1 to $175, the penalty
of the bond is made $500; when the salary is from $175 to $300, the
penalty is made $1,000; when the salary is from $300 to $450 the
penalty is fixed at $1,500; when the salary is from $450 to $800,
the penalty is $3,000; and from $800 to $1,000 the penalty is
$4,000. The money order portion of the penalty of a postmaster's
official bond is determined in every instance by the Superintendent
of the Money Order System. In the case of small money order
offices it is usually placed at a sum sufficient to cover the gross
receipts of money order funds for four weeks.

The clerks in the Bond Division are very quick and sharp to
know by the very looks of a filled-out bond whether the form is
proper and the sureties good. Now and then the services of an
inspector of the Department are required to find out the exact stand-
ing of the new postmaster's bondsmen; and in all cases where the
bond amounts to $2,000 or more the inspector is called in. That
means another circular made out, in which appear the name of the
postmaster, the office, county, and state, the date of the bond, the
names of the sureties and the amounts in which they justify, and
the name of the officer before whom they justified. When the
inspector's report comes in that has to be carefully examined. If
the report is satisfactory, the bond is at once taken from the stack of
doubtful ones, and a memorandum is filed away with it to the effect
that the bond is good. If the report has not been satisfactory, a new
bond is of course required of the postmaster.

The Division of Bonds consists of fifteen clerks, a messenger and
the chief of the division. The chief is Col. Luther Caldwell of
Elmira, New York, an Ipswich, Mass., boy, of one of the oldest
families of the Bay State. He had been an editor and proprietor of
the Elmira Daily Advertiser and mayor of Elmira. He is a veteran
politician, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in
Chicago in 1860, was a delegate to the convention which nominated
General Grant in 1868 and secretary of it, and he called the roll of
states upon the nomination of Grant and still has the roll call. He has
been secretary of the New York State Republican Committee, clerk

MAKING JJONDS O^ !^8J,OJO,OJO. 301

of the New York Assembly, and secretary of the New York Consti-
tutional Convention of 1867 8. He was for years a confidential
friend of Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley. Colonel Caldwell
visited Washington in 1841 and saw slaves whipped and sold on
the Government block at the old slave mart on the south side of B
and Seventh Streets. He was present at the inauguration of Lincoln
and his regiment was the first to march through Baltimore after the

THE CHIEF ROOM OF THE BOND DIVISION.

attack on the Massachusetts Sixth. In spite of his seventy years of
useful activity Colonel Caldwell is as hale and jovial as a college
junior.

The chief has supervision of all the work of the Bond Division,
makes a daily report of the time of all clerks, and examines the
names of all newly appointed postmasters, to see that they correspond
with the names affixed to the bonds and oaths. The present chief
has changed the printed forms of bonds, ordered new money order
books for that section, and re-arranged the office so that the county
books, which are in constant use, can be more easily and readily

(No. int. BCIND DIVISION.)

To BE OBSERVED IN EXECUTING THE INCLOSED BOND AND OATH.

OFFICE OF THE FOURTH ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL,

BOND DIVISIONS

1st. The bond must be signed m INK by the postmaster, and at least two sureties, each writing his OWN
NAME IN FULL, and affixing his seal in the presence of a witness. Writing with pencil not accepted.

2d. The witness must sign his name in the proper space on the left. No person can be a witness who cannot
write his name.

3d. The NAME and post-office address of each surety must be inserted in the proper space in the body of
the bond.

4th. The certificate at the bottom of the bond, and the jurat to the oath, may be signed by a Mayor, Judge,
Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, or by any officer, civil or military, holding a commission under the United States,
who most add his official title. If signed by a Notary, a County Judge, a Probate Judge, or a Mayor, he must affix
his official seal, or produce a certificate from the County Clerk accompanied by the seal of the <5ourt

5th. The DATE must be inserted in the proper space in the body of the bond, as well as in the certificate of the

magistrate and the jurat to the oath

6th. A woman will l>e accepted as surety, provided the magistrate certifies that she is unmarried, and that she
possesses property in her own right sufficient in value to cover double the arriount of the penalty. Married women
cannot be accepted as sureties

7th. Neither the certifying officer nor a person signing as witness can become a surety.
8th. Firms and corporations are not accepted as sureties.

9th._Wheu erasures or alterations are made, the magistrate must certify that the sureties consented thereto.
10th. Before executing the bond and oath, read carefully the marginal notes printed thereon,
llth. Postmasters at Presidential and .Money-Order Offices should also observe the marginal instructions on
the second page of the bond

12th. The word " postmaster " should never be erased from the bond and the word " postmistress " substituted
therefor

13th. Make no writing on the outside of the bond.

14th. In returning the bond to the Department, let it be folded the same as when received by you.

15th. Bonds with altered figures or written with pencil are not accepted.

iyi6th. BEFORE RETURNING THE BOND AND OATH TO THE DEPARTMENT, COMPARE THEM
OAREFULLT WITH THESE INSTRUCTIONS AND WITH THE MARGINAL NOTES, IN ORDER TO DETECT
AND CORRECT ANT ERROR THAT MAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE EXECUTION THEREOF

A COMMISSION WILL NOT BE ISSUED UNTIL THE BOND AND OATH HAVE BEEN PROPERL1
EXECUTED.

fourth Ass't P M. General

A TT C U T I n U I * n a ^ y nr correspondence with the Department be oveful to write plainly the name of yonos
A I I L PI I I U N ! OFFICE, COUNTY, and STATE.

A FAC SIMILE OF KULES FOR EXECUTING BONDS.

302

MAKING BONDS OF $80,000,000. 303

consulted. The Bond Division uses some seventy different kinds
of blanks. It had its present number of clerks fifteen years ago.
At that time there were 40,000 post offices; now there are almost
70,000. Repeated efforts have been made to increase the force of
clerks in the bond division; but they have always failed.

All bonds must have two or more sureties. It is not unusual for
a bondsman to sign for $100,000, and one postmaster has a bondsman
who signs for 12,000,000. Yet another signs for $3,000,000. The
surety has to swear that he is worth the amount signed for, over and
above all debts and liabilities existing against him. The names of
all bondsmen are kept secret, except from members of Congress, offi-
cials of the Department, and the other sureties on the bond. They
are kept from the general public because many business men, in fact
almost all business men, buy on credit somewhat, and it might
affect their financial rating to their disadvantage if it were known
that they took risks of this kind; and this fact is illustrated in the
experience of the Department, as well as in all business experience,
by the fact that the Bond Division is frequently requested not to
divulge the names of bondsmen.

The postmaster is bonded for four years, and the bond is good for
that period, unless, of course, one or more of the sureties die, move
away, or withdraw. When anything of this sort happens, it is the
duty of the postmaster to report the fact to the Bond Division. A
new bond is at once furnished. The reason is evident enough why
if a surety dies a new bond should be required. A former Postmas-
ter General insisted that, if a bondsman moved away from a state
where a post office was, the postmaster must make a new bond ; but
any citizen of the United States is eligible as bondsman if he can
qualify as to amount of property. A surety may demand a release
from a bond, if he thinks his fellow-bondsmen or any one of them
is insolvent, or for any reason satisfactory to him. The postmaster
may call for a new bond himself. Every surety is responsible for
the whole bond. Frequently men will sign for $5,000, each one
stipulating that he will pay a proportionate part ; but they are all
liable for the whole amount, just the same, as the text of the bond
reads "jointly and severally."

Few cases occur in which a newly appointed postmaster finds it
difficult to secure bondsmen. In most of the cases which do occur,

(No. 1109. SERIES OF JULY, 1883.)

all commuDicationstothis Department be careful to give the name of your Office, County, and State, *=g&
FORM OF OATH

FOR ASSISTANT POSTMASTERS,
PRESCRIBED BY THE ACTS OF CONORESS APPROVED MARCH 5, 1874, AIO> MAY 13, 1884.

I, ......................... . _____ . ...................................... , being employed as Assistant Postmaster

in the post office at ............. , ............................................................................................. in the y

>; _ .4

County of .......... ........................................... . and State of ..........

o cr.

I do solemnly swear ( ............................. ) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United f

^ States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; &

o that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will g

% well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So HELP ME GOD. >

% I do further solemnly swear (. ............. ........ ) that I will faithfully perform all the duties ^

* %

g required of me, and abstain from everything forbidden by the laws in relation to the establishment of Post '

fe g

Q Offices and Post Roads within the United States; and that I will honestly and truly account for and pay >

& o

as over any money belonging to the said United States which may come into my possession or control; and i

f-4 &

j I also further swear (. ................................. ) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, j

73 v.
S4 SO HELP ME GOD.

Sworn to and subscribed before me, the subscriber, a ..................... . ......................................

B for the County of ..................................................... , this ............ day of ................. ............... , *

A. D. 189

...................... ______________________________________ t j. p.

N. B. T

certificate.

A FOKM OF OATH FOE ASSISTANT POSTMASTERS.

rt of Record
and if the

304

MAKING BONDS OF $80,000,000. 305

however, the reasons are political and affected by race reasons ; and
consequently they occur most commonly in the South. Citizens
band together to refuse to go as bondsmen ; and in these cases the
postmaster is obliged to resort to the wealthy or resourceful leaders
of his own party in his state, if there are any, and secure their assist-
ance. He seldom fails to do this. But sometimes he must suffer
the post office boycott only for a time, however, because the
Department under these circumstances discontinues the office. The
order of Postmaster General Wanamaker, which doubles the number
of money order offices, has caused many postmasters to resign; for
new bonds are required in each case, and these are larger, and con-
sequently harder, or perhaps impossible, to make. But the propor-
tion of cases like this is not large; it is perhaps five per cent.
When newly appointed postmasters fail to make their bonds, the
Bond Division notifies the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General.
If this officer thinks the reasons given by the new postmaster for not
.securing his bond are not sufficient, he is advised of that fact,
this in order to give him a second chance before another appoint-
ment to the same place is made. Resignations of postmasters are
not infrequently brought about in this necessary way.

When a postmaster is commissioned, reports go out from the Bond
Division to almost all the other offices and divisions of the Depart-
ment; one to the Sixth Auditor's office, noting all the changes in
officers that are made; one to the Stamp Division, so that it may
know that the new officer is entitled to receive supplies ; one to the
Division of Supplies itself for a similar purpose. Wherever a
change of site has been brought about by the commissioning of a
new postmaster, the Contract Division of the Second Assistant's
office is notified, so that a re-arrangement of service, or of routes,
may be had, if it is necessary. The Money Order Division is noti-
fied of the complete appointment. The Mail Equipment Division
is informed, so that useless bags and locks may be called in ; and all
of this information upon all of these points is communicated to the
Daily Railway Mail Bulletin for publication, for all of it is of use
in keeping the service accurate and prompt.

The blank commissions of postmasters are filled out in the Bond
Division by a particular clerk, called the engrossing clerk, whose
handwriting is particularly fine. He must do his work with

(No. li05.-SERifi or JOLY 1, 1887.)
In all communications to thfc Department be careful to give the name of your Office, County, and State,

FOliSt

BY THE ACTS OP CONGRESS APPROVED MARCH 5, 1874, ANT) MAY 13, 1884, TO BE TAKEN
BY ALL PERSONS EMPLOYED IN THE POSTAL SERVICE, EXCEPT POSTMASTERS.

r f f etna

g ay* tn tff fiat cMce at

en tAe vcunty e/ . .... ana ffafe ojf ..

J
1 do tc/emn/y weal. f. J tat *s ivict wSi/ictt ana* aeftnct Me

& oft/ie ^nttef/ &<fa/ej aaaintf a// enemies, feteian ana/ domestic /* Mat <ls ttt'/J ' rfeat tlue

w fict/i ana vz//eaiance to tne iame / tnat <^ taae tnu co/iaation fae/y, ivitfrcuf any

< menta/ lattvafion ct Aut/ioie c/ elation ; ana* mat <.s widf we// ana' fait/Su// aijchaiae

/ne aufiea of tne cwc0 en tunicn \s am avottt to en/el /o /tefe, me yea tjr ao

H fuit/tel, Ao/enm/y tweai f _.._^ r .^_ J tnat <Ls wt// /uitn/udfy /leA/oim a// tne

% autif) teautlea ^ 9no ana 'awtcu'n /icm evetut/u'na iwiwaaen &M tne (atfi in leiaJicn to

% t/t/i tjfaffo/tment o/Aott c/Kcet ana* Acit tcaa^ ivittiin t/te wnitec/ <j/afa / and ' tnat <J^

wt/S Stcneitfy ana* ftu/u account /& anc/ /iay cvel any money ^edonaina to te

6&netea rtatej tv/ucn may come into -my /toueMion cl cvntio/; anc/ <.s a/to
s s /

u tweal f J t/tat < w/S au/ifiotf t 'ffontti'tution o/t^e ^m'tea* <Sfta

to ana* sufocU'dect ' ^e^-lff me, trie jit&clirfel,, a

,.... t/tit e/au c/..

BTN. B. The person who takes this oath should sign his name above the magistrate's certificate.
* Insert Clerk, or other employ^, (as the case may be. )

' NOTE. This oath must be taken before a Justice of the Peace, Mayor, Judge, Notary Public, Clerk of a Court
of Record competent to administer an oath, or any officer, civil or military, holding a commission under the United States'.
od if the oath is taken before an officer having an official seal, such seal should be affixed to his certificate.

A FORM OF OATH FOR POSTAL EMPLOYEES.

306

MAKING BONDS OF $80,000,000. 307

extreme nicety, for a mistake in a name would invalidate the whole
process of appointment. If a commission is faulty in the name of
the state given, and is signed by the Postmaster General, the mis-
take, to be sure, may be corrected; but almost always a new com-
mission is made out. If a presidential commission is filled out with
the wrong name, an entire new nomination has to be made by the
President to the Senate, and the Senate has to go all over the con-
firmation again. In over seven hundred appointments sent to the
last session of the Senate one mistake was made. The commissions
are sent to the Postmaster General's office, and if he approves them,
he simply signs them in the case of fourth class offices, and they go
to the new appointees; and in the case of presidential offices the
commissions are taken to the White House, where the President
signs them, and then the Postmaster General puts his signature to
the commission also, and it goes forward similarly. The golden seal
of the Department is stamped into each commission, and pretty rib-
bons decorate it.

President Harrison has examined papers in the cases of presiden-
tial post office appointments with the greatest studiousness ; and it
is told of President Cleveland that once, when he was to leave the
Capital at the close of a session of Congress, he sent orders to the
Department that the Bond Division should prepare all commissions
required at that particular period, and the clerks were required to
work far into the night in order that no blank ones might be
signed.

The names of all presidential offices and postmasters are recorded
in the Bond Division in two books. In one of these the names of
the offices are entered by states and territories in alphabetical order.
In the other the names of the postmasters are kept in alphabetical
arrangement, according to the dates of appointment. The names of
the postmasters appointed at money order offices which do not belong
to the presidential list are entered alphabetically in a separate record,
according to dates of appointment. The names of postmasters
appointed at fourth class offices which do not belong to the money
order list are likewise entered in a separate record (being divided
into two sections in consequence of the large number of entries
required) in alphabetical order, according to the dates of appoint-
ment. There are also thirty-nine record books in which the names

308

THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of post offices of all classes are recorded by states and counties,
together with the names of the postmasters and the dates of their
appointment.

The total amount of the bonds of presidential offices is nearly
$40,000,000, and in addition nearly $ 40, 000, 000 for the money
order offices, making a total of 180,000,000 that could be reduced
safely to $ 50, 000, 000, and the bonding be done for probably $50,000
or $100,000 for the term of the postmaster. At the fourth class
offices the bonds are nearly $40,000,000, and they could be safely
reduced one half. As there are few clerks or assistants at fourth
class offices, the necessity is not so great. All these, at least, are
views of Postmaster General Wanamaker; and he thinks, too, that
in these days, when corporation security can be so easity obtained,
it is a mistake to take as sureties the bonds of thousands of men and
women unknown to the Department, the value and usefulness of
which are constantly changing with bankruptcy and death; and he
believes that the Government should accept only surety companies
as bondsmen, and that such bonds should be paid for by the Govern-
ment and not by the postmaster. He goes on :

In hundreds of cases the best men cannot take appointments, because they
cannot furnish bonds; and the man who receives the place, though rich enough to
make or get the bond, is too poor in education, habits, or disposition to attend
to all the work of a postmaster. In not a few places the citizens best entitled to
be appointed, have been prevented from getting bonds for political reasons. In
scores and probably hundreds of cases the discipline and good service of a post
office is crippled because the postmaster, to get his bond, has been compelled, as
a consideration therefor, to appoint a relative of the guarantor the deputy, or the
cashier, or certain clerks, who were not only incompetent, but who assume inde-
pendence of the rules of the office. In some cases the bondmaker becomes the
banker of the postmaster and uses the Government money.

The following table shows the total penalty, and the postal and
money order bonds, at some of the chief post offices :

City.

State.

Penalty.

Postal.

Money Order.

New York

New York.
Illinois.
Ohio.
California.
Massachusetts.
Missouri.

$500,000
400,000
325,000
300,000
250,000
225,000

$250,000
200,000
225,000
150,000
150,000
100,000

$250,000
200,000
100,000
150,000
100,000
125,000

Chicago

Cincinnati

San Francisco . .

Boston

Saint Louis .

MAKING BONDS OF $80,000,000.

309

City.

State.

Penalty.

Postal.

Money Order.

Milwaukee . . .

Wisconsin

$200,000

$100 000

Baltimore

Maryland.

200,000

150 000

50,000

Saint Paul

Minnesota.

200,000

100 000

100000

New Orleans

Louisiana.

180,000

80,000

100,000

Philadelphia

Pennsylvania.

175,000

110,000

65,000

Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania.

160,000

120,000

40,000

Buffalo

New York

130 000

100 000

30 000

Kansas City

Missouri

130 000

80000

50000

Brooklyn

New York.

125,000

90,000

35,000

Cleveland

Ohio

125 000

75 000

50 000

G-alveston .

Texas

100 000

60 000

40000

Washington

Dist of Columbia.

100 000

70 000

30000

Minneapolis

Minnesota.

75 000

45 000

30000

The postal penalty is fixed by the Finance Division of the Third
Assistant's office, and the money order penalty by the Money Order
Division of the First Assistant's, and they vary, of course, according
to amounts of business. A larger money order bond is required at
St. Paul than at Philadelphia simply because a larger money order
business is done at the former place. Similarly, at New Orleans,
where the banking facilities are not large, the money order business,
and hence the money order bond, are large. Cincinnati's postal busi-
ness requires a $225,000 penalty, while the similar penalty at New
York is only 1250,000 and at Philadelphia only $110,000; for Cin-
cinnati supplies a great number of towns in Kentucky and Ohio
with stamped paper, which they pay cash for. Thus, too, Cincin-
nati's money order bond is $100,000 and Philadelphia's only $65,-
000, because a large foreign money order business is done at the
former place. The penalties at the Washington City post office are
small, because a large proportion of the business of the office is
official and free.

THE INSPECTOKS, THE EYES AND EAES.

ORE difficult and comprehensive are the duties of
the post office inspector than those of any
."' other official of the Government. The office
was created in order that the Postmaster Gen-
eral might have ready at his call reliable
men for confidential work. This related
mostly to the character of applicants for
office and to the suppression of depreda-
tions upon the mails in and out of the postal
service. Gradually, however, other work
was put upon the force; until at the present time an inspector is
liable to be called upon to look into an irregularity in any one of
the almost innumerable branches of the Department. He may be
upon the track of a criminal and receive upon his route orders to
proceed upon the investigations of a score of things before he returns
to his headquarters or his home. This service, therefore, requires
a wide range of ability, of tact, insight, prudence, courage and
endurance. In the far western country the labors of an inspector
take him over long stretches of stage routes and upon horseback
trips in the mountains, where he must stay for weeks before he can
finish his work. An inspector is required to be, by his instructions,
constantly on duty ; that is, he is subject to call at any time and
for any length, or difficulty, or danger, of service.

The enormous extent to which labor relating to the different
branches of the postal service has been added to the tasks of the
inspectors has resulted in an utter inability of the force authorized
by Congress to keep up with the complaints made by patrons of the
post office. Many of these complaints are not based upon any short-
comings of the postal employees. Often they are made without
sufficient reflection ; for the senders of letters are, in nine tenths of

310

THE INSPECTORS, THE EYES AND EARS. 311

the cases, themselves at fault in not really mailing their letters, or
in not affixing sufficient postage ; or, indeed, in having improperly
addressed their mail. Of ten thousand complaints made annually, it is
not possible to investigate more than five thousand ; but it is small
matter, as almost five thousand of these are baseless.

The courts deal leniently, as a rule, with offenders against the
United States laws. This is due, in certain parts of the country, to
a general feeling of opposition to Federal prosecution. This is
especially true of the South, where the name of the Government is
associated with Internal Revenue prosecutions so strongly that in
many regions it is almost impossible to secure convictions in postal
cases. One court, for instance, would not for years entertain a
complaint based upon what is called a " test " letter rifling, the
ordinary method of detecting a postal thief ; and the opposition of
that court to the test letter necessitated a special enactment of Con-
gress, making the penalty for tampering with, rifling or detaining a
" test " letter equal in severity to that for depredating any other letter
or package. This indisposition to convict makes the work of the
inspectors still more difficult.

Complaints about the mails made by all persons in the United
States, made to a postmaster, to the inspector-in-charge, to the Post-
master General, finally centre upon the desk of the Chief Post
Office Inspector in Washington. Thence they are referred to the
proper clerk, who places with the complaints any papers relating to
them. These are arranged in five classes, A, B, C, D, and F,
according to the character of the matter, and when the completed
correspondence indicates that a personal investigation is needed, the
case is sent to the proper division and put in the hands of an in-
spector. Most of the complaints relate to the mis-sending, loss, or
delay of ordinary letters ; to the rifling of them, or to the tampering
with them from curiosity. Next in number are the cases of a
miscellaneous nature. They relate to complaints against postmasters
and other officials or employees of the Department, to inspections of
post offices, to money order cases, to violations of postal laws, to the
leasings and locations of post offices, and to miscellaneous cases of
all sorts. The third most numerous class relates to losses, delays
and riflings of registered letters. These are " A " cases ; the " B " cases
are ordinary ; and the " C " miscellaneous. " D " cases relate to the

312

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

robberies and burnings of post offices. F " cases relate entirely to-
foreign mails.

The proportion of registered letters rifled or miscarried is very
small, but the number of cases annually requiring investigation, is

large. It has not yet been pos-
sible to find an envelope for the
registry system which would be
secure, and at the same time easy
to fasten, and cheap. This diffi-
culty has been one of serious at-
tention on the part of postmasters
general for years. Experienced
thieves have not much difficulty
in opening and resealing any mu-
cilage envelope. But the regis-
try system of endorsements by
every person handling the article
registered, makes it very easy to
follow an envelope and note its
delays ; and so, if a thief will
steal, he will surely be detected.
Even with ordinary letters, or in
the largest offices, it is only a
question of time when a dishonest employee is caught, and with the
evidence of guilt upon him. The disposition of Americans to com-
plain of the loss, even of a social letter, or of a postal card, and
especially of business letters, makes it next to impossible for any
employee of the service to detain or steal a letter. The authorities
are notified and the thief pursued and punished. An even sharper
disposition to complain has been invited by Postmaster General
Wanamaker, who has realized that the eyes of millions are bet-
ter than the eyes merely of the thousands who work for the
Department.

Inspectors are wholly in the classified civil service now, and are
secured in three ways : by original examination by the Civil Service
Commission, by reinstatement of inspectors previously employed
within a year, and by transfer from some other branch of the classified
service. Most of the present force are old, experienced men, and

MR. M. D. WHEELER,
Chief Post Office Inspector.

THE INSPECTORS, THE EYES AND EARS.

313

most of the newer men have been selected from other branches of
the service. Very few have been appointed who have not had
experience in postal work. Of those who accept appointments
many find themselves unfitted for the severe strain of almost con-
stant travel and exertion. Others, who are appointed for a proba-
tionary term, prove to be unqualified, and are dropped at the end of
six months. A number of men have been in the service almost their
whole lifetime. An inspector is appointed for but one year ; and as
the tenure of office is not so secure as in other branches of the
service, many good men prefer to remain in the Railway Mail Ser-
vice or in the Department itself.

The present force consists of about one hundred men ; and they
are assigned to duty in geographical divisions of the country. They
are under the orders of an inspector-in-charge of the division, who
assigns work to them and directs their movements. This inspector-
in-charge reports in turn to the
chief inspector at Washington,
forwarding with his approval the
reports of the inspectors as they
are received. The average dis-
tance travelled by an inspector is
about one hundred miles a day ;
and it happens not infrequently
that he travels five thousand miles
in a month.

The great bulk of an inspec-
tor's work consists of investiga-
tions of simple irregularities in
the mail service. The fourth class
postmasters do not carefully ob-
serve the rules and regulations,
and hence much carelessness, where
there is no dishonesty, results.
Again, the rifling of registered
letters affords an immense amount
of labor, and as this is work which requires the most cautious atten-
tion, the inspector's other work accumulates. From one source and
another he has his hands full constantly. While an inspector has no

MR. JAMES MAYXARD,

Chief Clerk, Division of Mail Depredations.

314 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

legal authority to make an arrest, yet it frequently happens that, in
order to secure evidence of guilt, the inspector must himself at once
take the offender into custody. In such cases the practice is to turn
the apprehended person promptly over to the marshal of the district in
which the offence was committed, and lay the evidence before the
nearest commissioner. The inspector then makes his report of the
facts, and arranges for the proper conduct of the office, if the offender
has been a postal employee, by filling the place of the arrested, by
swearing in a suitable person ; or in rare cases, where bondsmen
desire it, he may feel compelled to take charge of the office himself.
Where thefts are committed in the larger offices, it is very difficult
to detect the offender, because of the number of clerks who have
access to the letters, and in the prosecution of such cases an inspector
must exercise the utmost diligence and caution. He may be
obliged to work night after night before he can discover the
culprit ; and a confederate may be obliged to remain with him day
after day. But here, as always, the thief goes unwhipped of justice
only for a time.

Inspectors proceed upon a well-founded theory that a thief who
has once purloined a letter will repeat the offence, and continue to
steal, until he has at length been caught in the act. New boldness
comes with each performance, until, feeling quite safe, he becomes
less prudent. He does not realize that all those around him in his
office may be fully in the confidence of the inspector who is covertly
watching him. Experienced inspectors detect many tell-tale signs
of suspicion where the superior officer himself may be deceived.
The habits, the eyes, the whole deportment of a thief, who has not
yet been discovered, are often enough to put the inspector upon
the right track at once.

So much of the work of an inspector is done away among the
stage routes, at remote distances from the railroad, where it is im-
possible for him to communicate with his division chief, that he
must rely, with the utmost confidence, upon his own judgment. He
must not be deterred from the performance of his duty by plausible
excuses. He must be free, too, from any insolence of office and from
arbitrary manners. The fact that an inspector is enabled to command
the power of the Government in the prosecution of a suspected
depredator, makes it important that no trivial prosecution should be

THE INSPECTORS, THE EYES AND EARS. 315

entered, nor one without sufficient evidence to justify a charge. The
United States courts, as has been said, are more inclined to favor_the
defendant than the prosecutor ; and, because the prosecution incurs
no individual expense, while the defence must, is another reason
why the courts discourage unimportant prosecutions. To keep
outsiders from instituting actions in the United States courts for
malicious reasons, the expenses of a prosecution, not undertaken
by a proper investigating officer, must be borne, if the defendant is
acquitted, by the person filing the information ; which leaves postal
irregularities to be considered only by inspectors and other postal
officials, and not by the patrons of the office alone. Many of the
inspectors are well read lawyers themselves, and many others are
well experienced in the rules of evidence and practice. It is almost
indispensable that they should be. Moreover, inspectors are pro-
vided with carefully formulated instructions as to their conduct in
various cases. They are expected to be perfectly familiar with all
the Postal Laws and Regulations ; and they are compelled to study
them almost constantly in order to keep posted in the latest changes
in the service of their divisions.

As a rule, inspectors do not leave their own divisions, but under
orders of the Postmaster General an inspector goes to any part of the
country. It happens almost daily that fugitives are captured in the
far West, or in Mexico or Canada, who have fled from the East. A
warrant for the arrest of a postal thief is made out in the name of
the President of the United States to a certain marshal ; and it may
be served, by the endorsement of a judge, in any part of the country,
without the delay which arises from the extradition of a state
offender who has fled to another state. As there is no bar nor
limitation in cases of felony against the United States, nor in the
case of a fugitive, the chances are much in favor of the final capture
of a man who is foolish enough to steal from the mails, no matter
where he goes. A complete system is used by which a suspected
person who is wanted in any particular division is located if he goes
to another.

The present Postmaster General has established an admirable
method of getting himself into closer conference with his inspectors
by calling an annual meeting of the division chiefs to meet at
Washington. He hears all the suggestions which they may offer as

316 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the result of their past year's work, and communicates to them his
own thoughts upon needed improvements in the service. It is
wonderful that the inspector's force does as much as it does.
There are less than one hundred men to cover the irregularities in
almost seventy thousand post offices and along hundreds of thousands
of miles of post routes, and it is remarkable that the postal service
is kept under such close and vigilant surveillance as it is. Post-
master General Wanamaker has repeatedly urged upon Congress the
need of more men for this work.

The mere moral effect of an inspector's visit to an office is
salutary. Especially is this true of the smaller offices, where the
country postmaster is sometimes found inattentive to the regulations.
It happens frequently that an inspector, visiting a cross-roads office
where the postmaster is perfectly honest, finds letters which have
been undelivered for months or even years. Many of these contain
money, many relate to business of importance. Many are ad-
dressed to offices of the same or similar name in another state. After
the visit of the inspector these derelictions are corrected.

The idea of Postmaster General Wanamaker has always been to
supervise and prevent rather than to cure ; to advise and encourage
rather than detect. This was his motive originally in proposing a
division of the country into supervisors' districts, which should be
traveled over by postal experts, the best ones in them, to confer with
postmasters, railway mail men, and any others, and actually improve
the service at all possible points, rather than wait until it was bad
in some locality or particular and then correct it.

But the safety of the mails, after all, is something wonderful.
Almost a million and a quarter of pieces of registered mail matter,
valued at almost a billion and a quarter of dollars, are received in
the mails annually for the Post Office and Treasury Departments
alone. It is not practicable to state accurately the value of the
remaining 15, 00 0,0 00 pieces of registered matter transmitted for the
public during an average year, but it may be estimated by taking as
a basis of calculation the known or supposed contents of the 2,000 or
more pieces reported to have been rifled or lost. The inclosures for
these 2,000 pieces have an average value of $12.50 per piece. If one
computes the 15,000,000 pieces at this rate, the result is $187,550,000.
This is without much doubt an underestimate. This sum added to

THE INSPECTORS, THE EYES AND EAES. 317

that of the official values given makes a total of $437,500,000. So
the net loss amounted in all to about one-thousandth of one per cent.
The following calculation appeared in one of Postmaster General
Wanamaker's recent annual reports : *

As to the ordinary mail matter, it is just as difficult to determine its value,
because there are no declared values, and it is the business of the officials not to
inquire what letters contain. It is interesting to know, however, that the average
value of the money letters opened in the Dead Letter Office was $1.65; of the
letters containing postal notes, $1.51; and of the letters containing negotiable
paper, $55.07. By taking into account all letters opened in the Dead Letter Office,
the average value per letter is found to be a little more than 25 cents (25.2). It is
estimated that there are carried in the mails 1,854,667,802 ordinary letters per
annum, these figures being based upon the general count of mail matter made for
one week in May last. At the rate of 25.2 cents per letter the value of the ordi-
nary letter mail of the United States for one year would be $467,376,286.10.

There has been no loss at all in the Department proper. The total supposed
losses of ordinary mail throughout the United States, as reported by the office of
the Chief Post Office Inspector, amounted to 51, 745 pieces. Of these 20,900, or 40
per cent., were packages, the remaining 60 per cent, being letters. The total
losses ascertained to be due to carelessness or depredation of postal employees
number 23,985, 60 per cent, of which would be 14,391. Assuming the average value
to be 25.2 cents, the total ascertained loss of ordinary letters chargeable to the
postal service would be $3,526.52, or 77/10,000 of 1 per cent.

The newspaper dispatches told some time ago about the great gold
train that rolled on east, with its millions of treasure on board, in
charge of the Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service. The
amount shipped was $20,000,000. It was packed in 500 boxes, each
of which contained $40,000 in $5 and $10 pieces. Each box was
marked as a registered mail package, and the Post Office Department
was responsible for the safe delivery of it all to the New York sub-
treasury. The shipment was all practically arranged for on the spur
of the moment. The coin was packed in bags and removed, truck
load by truck load, so quietly as to attract no attention. The gold
was principally loaded in two Union Pacific cars, constructed of
wrought steel, and supposed to be bullet and bomb proof. The
boxes containing the treasure were made of inch boards and measured
about 10 x 14 inches. They were provided with iron handles and
bore the Treasury seal. It cost $3,500 altogether to bring this
$20,000,000 across the continent. The treasure occupied 500 bags,
which had cost $2,000. Then there were the personal expenses of
Captain White's fifty-one men who went to San Francisco to bring

318

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the money east. The wagons, men and regular trains of the mail
service did the rest. The lowest bid which the Treasury Depart-
ment got from the express companies for this work was $60,000.

The post office inspector is exposed to the sensational maker of
books. A western inspector-in-charge once had a case against a
publishing firm and sent one of his men to secure information.

"HE ACCOSTED LETTER CARRIERS ON THE STREET AND DEMANDED
CERTAIN LETTERS OF THEM."

When he returned he informed the inspector-in-charge that he saw a
book over there written by him. The man was immediately sent to
buy a copy. It was based upon an actual case that occurred several
years ago ; and the publishing company employed some sensational
writer to take the newspaper accounts of the affair and weave a
romantic story about it. They called it " Leaves from the Diary of

THE INSPECTORS, THE EYES AND EARS. 319

Inspector So-and-So," misspelling his name purposely, no doubt, as a
safeguard, although the likeness of the alleged author was used as &
frontispiece. The facts were true, but disgustingly set forth. The
only thing which prevented the injured u author " from bringing
action against the company was the consideration that it would only
give the publication greater notoriety.

Now and then some idiotic knave starts out to personate a post
office inspector. This last summer, a man named Hall had a good
time at Lima, O. In some way he came into possession of a badge
which read : "Secret Service, P. O. Department, No. 3." He pinned
this to his vest ia a place where he could display it conveniently as
occasion demanded. On the street cars he showed it to the conduc-
tors, and so (oddly enough) was allowed to ride free. He accosted
letter carriers on the streets and demanded certain letters of them.
He also had cards printed bearing, in addition to the inscription on
the badge, the words: "Headquarters, Cincinnati, O." At last a
real post office inspector was put on his track. Hall was arrested,
charged with impersonating a post office inspector, arid punished.

STORIES OF INSPECTORS.

HE magic power of the inspector's commission,
the little leather-bound tablet that bears the
seal of the Department and the autograph of its
chief I

" I have been belated in the backwoods," says
one old-timer, "where neighbors do not live closer
than five or ten miles, and where strangers are
regarded with suspicion ; but the mere sight of my
commission brought from the remotest cabin the
best the owner had. The welcome that greeted me was as honest
and plain as he who gave it. The host said :

" We are homespun folks here, sir, and haven't much to offer, but
when one of Old Uncle Sam's men comes around, he takes the best
we've got'; and this, too, from one, i who had bucked agin Uncle
Sam ' for four years."

At other times the commission is not greeted so kindly, as, for
instance, when an inspector looks suddenly into a post office and
calls for an examination of the books, and the postmaster is not in
funds to meet the balance due. Then ill-concealed confusion and
nervousness come with the halting " I am glad to see you." The
symptoms of disturbance are readily observed by an inspector the
moment he makes himself known at such an office. The money
order fund is the sacred trust of the Department, and one who mis-
appropriates it must suffer as embezzlers do. So the inspector has to
listen to all sorts of reasons why the money was used for the post-
master's personal benefit. The pleas for clemency are oftentimes
filled with tears, and again, they tell of fortunes dreamed of in the
glamour of speculation. One will say that his baby died or his wife
became insane and had to be sent to an asylum. Another will tell
how he had great faith in the rise of cotton and had bought a few

320

STORIES OF INSPECTORS.

321

"WE'RE HOMESPUN FOLKS HERE, SIR."

hundred bales of futures,
but the price of the
staple had taken a down-
ward turn and his mar-
gins were wiped out.

Another condition, when
the inspector is greeted with
nervous demeanor, is when the
postmaster happens to be a woman. So anxious is she that her
office will appear as well as if it were conducted by a man, that she
becomes frightened at the sound of the word inspector. In this early
part of the era of the woman in business, she has not generally been
able to adapt herself to the methods of men in conducting affairs.
She lacks confidence from want of experience and long continued
business habits, and though her work may be as good as a man's,
or better, she imagines it is faulty.

In a small Southern town an inspector found the postmaster hard
at work with a sewing machine. " What is it ? " she chirped lightly,
when he tapped upon the door of the mail room. He responded by

322

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

announcing his position and by asking admittance. The whir of the
machine ceased; then a few moments of silence, and then a door
opened by a young woman with a face that nature had been very
mischievous in making; but it was covered with an expression of
fear and amazement that detracted much from its gentle lines. The
inspector pretended not to notice the postmaster's embarrassment ;
he was weighing its meaning. Very soon he concluded that the
possessor of such a face could not have been guilty of any serious
violation of the postal laws ; manifestation must come from other
causes. No inspector had ever visited this office before, which might
account for the excitement. News of the inspector's presence

was passed from mouth to
mouth until a number of
the citizens gathered in the
lobby. The most frequent
comment was that women
were not fit for business
anyway, and this girl
should never have been ap-
pointed. Several of the
crowd were bold enough to
ask how much the short-
age was. All this, of
course, only made the lit-
tle woman more nervous.
Finally she burst into
tears. The inspector asked
what was the matter.

"I don't know," she
said, "but there must be
something wrong, or you
would not have come here.
They say that inspectors
visit only those offices that
are not properly managed."
She was told that the examinations were of a purely routine
character ; and it was soon shown that her books were correct in
every particular, for higher excellence would be hard to find any-

UNCLE TOBE.

STOK1ES OF INSPECTORS. 323

where. Then the crowd outside insisted upon poking their hands
through the general delivery window for a congratulatory "shake."

At one of the inland Southern towns there is a mail messenger, a
venerable colored man, known as Uncle Tobe, who has carried the
mail from the post office to the railroad station for many years, and
is as proud of his position and as jealous of his rights as if he were
second assistant postmaster general. One night (the mail lying
on the depot platform, awaiting a train) an inspector noticed that
the pouch was fastened with the new style of lock. It was the first
he had seen ; so he tried his key, received a short time before, to
test its reliability. Uncle Tobe was sitting at the other end of
the platform, and, not knowing the inspector, he concluded that
a robbery of the mail was being committed. He rushed upon
the supposed robber, grabbed him by the arm, and yelled with all
his might :

" Help, help ! police ! T'ief robbin' de mail ! "

The inspector produced his commission. Uncle Tobe, still .grip-
ping the arm, took the commission to the light and examined it
closely. He could not read ; he had never seen such a document
before. But he finally saw the Department seal on the reverse of
the tablet, admitted that it was satisfactory, and remarked :

" I knowed de runnin' horse, wif de man astride of him, meant
pos' office business."

There was a case once of two registered letters that had appar-
ently passed from a railway postal clerk to a depot transfer clerk
and been duly receipted for. The letters never reached their desti-
nations. The transfer clerk was held responsible, having given the
last receipt, and he was required to pay two hundred dollars, the
amount they were alleged to contain. When the addressee of one
of the letters was informed by the Department that the twenty dol-
lars, claimed by him as sent in the letter, was recovered and would
be remitted to him on proper application, he replied that the Depart-
ment owed him nothing; that the money had been sent to him.
But he said that the letter accompanying the money, though signed
with the name of the original sender, was not in the handwriting or
the language of the first letter. This information caused a re-open-
ing of the case ; and as the other registered letter had been lost in
the same way about the same time, the two were combined into one

324

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

case upon a theory that the person who had secretly sent the twenty
dollars to this addressee had also taken the other letter containing
one hundred and eighty dollars. The inspector's work was to find
the hidden sender of the twenty dollars. He travelled two thousand
miles and visited six post offices. The papers pointed to the railway
postal clerk as the guilty person, but proof, either definite or indefi-
nite, was lacking. The letter with the envelope which had accom-
panied the twenty dollars secretly sent had been destroyed, so that
they were not available to identify the sender. The secret letter
appeared to have been registered, but at the office where it purported
to have been received for registration no trace of it could be found.
At last the inspector came across the yellow return card that served
as a postmaster's receipt from the addressee, which had been inad-
vertently held at a post office, the letter having been forwarded from
there. This card was plainly in the handwriting of the railway mail
clerk, and clearly established his guilt. He was no longer in the
service, and it required some little argument to induce him to refund
the one hundred and eighty dollars, but he finally did so, and the
amount was returned to the depot transfer clerk. The railway mail
clerk, in admitting that he had sent the forged letter, claimed that it
was done to save himself from dismissal, as he thought that would
end the investigation of the case ; but other evidence in the cases
showed that the trick had been resorted to so that he might retain
the one hundred and eighty dollars in the other letter Avithout being
suspected.

The system of theft used in this case is one to which the registry
business is susceptible if not closely watched. One person brings to
another a number of registered letters, say ten. They are counted
by the receiver. He finds ten. He then counts the number in the
receipt book. They are also ten, and he signs for them in bulk.
But had he checked each letter in hand with those listed in the
book, he would have discovered that two of them were not listed,
and that he did not have two others that were listed. The two not
listed reach their destinations and nothing more is heard of them.
The two listed, but not passed, go no further, and their loss is
reported ; the receipt book is produced and shows that they were
signed for, which makes the signer responsible for them, though in
fact they have never reached his hands.

STORIES OF INSPECTORS.

325

Other inspectors furnish the following entertaining recollections of
actual experiences :

" I make no effort to disclose methods by which good mail service
is maintained ; that would hardly be ' proper ; nor cite cases that
reflect much credit upon the keenness of the officer, because c detec-
tive ' yarns go for about what they are worth, and I think their chief
merit is the extent to which they test the credulity of the simple. I
do not mean to say that detectives do not sometimes exercise a wide
range of qualities courage, patience, skill, and insight in the
pursuit of criminals, but from a somewhat varied experience in
investigating infractions of the laws, I have been forced to admit
that the unraveling of crimes is usually not difficult ; that falsehood
of any kind is certain eventually to be exposed ; that it can with
diligence be detected and punished ; and that as a rule rogues,
instead of being deep and shrewd, are really very simple people, who
in hurried efforts to conceal their steps, like the hunted ostrich,
oftener deceive themselves than their pursuers.

u I have often been asked must an officer go armed ; or, is it dan-
gerous to arrest criminals ? Of course, if an officer wanted arms, he
would want them mighty quick,
and the rule is to have them
handy. But in the civil service
of the United States I never
knew of a case where it was
actually necessary, in any part
of the country, to use force in
arresting a criminal. Of course
we except the revenue service,
for that is very little less than
declared war between the distil-
lers and the officers.

" It is also true, as a rule,
that it is an actual relief to an
unprofessional criminal who has
long evaded justice to be taken
into custody. From that time he seems to breathe easier and be less
miserable. The constant dread of detection seems to be a strain on
the average rogue, and he generally begins to fatten up as soon as

TIME NOW -FOll REFLECTION.

326 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

he is put in jail. Finally, of a very large number of offenders whom
I have observed upon trial and in prison, the large majority of them
have been plainly of unsound and weak minds. Very few of them,
indeed, have had even moderately strong and clear intellects. A
close observer would detect this fact in their faces and personal
deportment, and to the officers it is made plain in the vain and
shambling manner in which most of them try to evade the laws.

"One of the commonest abuses of the mails, and the hardest to
detect, is the claiming to have sent, or the claiming not to have received,
articles alleged to have been mailed. This is done not only by pro-
fessional swindlers, but by and between friends and acquaintances.
For instance, at Colorado Springs complaint was received from the
postmaster at Kearney, Nebraska, that a small box, mailed shortly
before from the Springs, accompanied by a letter saying that the box
contained a gold watch, was received empty at Kearney. The sender
and addressee were cousins, and presumably no fraud was intended.

" I telegraphed to Kearney for the box, which I received the next
day. I put my own watch, an ordinary gold one, in the box, and
upon weighing the package then found it was deficient in postage,
and upon weighing the box empty found there was just postage
enough to cover its carriage in the mails. This was good evidence
that the box was mailed empty, and especially so as the package was
registered, because postmasters must use extra care to see that
registered packages are fully prepaid. There would naturally be
doubt about a man's sending a gold watch by mail, either regis-
tered or unregistered, though it is too often done. When I visited
the sender of the watch he strongly protested that he had enclosed
the watch, and his wife declared she saw him do it, and wanted
to call in several neighbors to corroborate her. They protested
so much that I knew the watch was intentionally withheld.
Then I told the man that the postage was just enough to cover the
mailing of an empty box. He replied :

" ' That may be, but some of the stamps fell off on the way. I
remember very well of putting on more stamps.'

" I asked him what amount, and he answered, after figuring
mentally a minute :

" ' Seventeen cents.'

" 'Yes,' added his wife. < I remember Charley put on seventeen

STORIES OF INSPECTORS.

327

cents, because he came home and told me that the postmaster gave
him eight cents change for a quarter. I got the quarter out ol my
bureau see, in there and I've got the eight cents now some-
where. If you want to see 'em, I'll get 'em for you.'

" ' But,' I suggested, ' was your watch a very heavy, extra thick
silver case watch like railroad men carry, or like mine ? '

u 4 Oh, thinner than yours light Swiss watch.'

" i But the box and mine would only take fourteen cents, and yours
would have taken no more postage ? '

" ' Oh, that's all right, because now I come to think of it, I had a
long talk with the
clerk and told him
to put on three
cents extra so it
would go all right.
That's the way it
was.'

" ' Well, then,
come with me and
we'll see this clerk
about it,' I said.

"He held off
awhile, but went
down. None of 1| l n[il!l
the clerks was 4 the clerk.'
While he was talking with
the postmaster, I drew up
a letter to the District
Attorney, purporting to
enclose the box and letter
as evidence for him to
prosecute the sender for
fraudulent use of the mail,
but the man held out dog-
gedly. I was engaged on
some other matters until late that evening, but when I went to
dinner 4 Charley ' was anxiously awaiting me, watch in hand. I had
it sent forward duly to the owner at Kearney."

THE OWNER OF THIS WAS FOUND TO BE A
BLACKSMITH, HALF A MILE AWAY."

328

THE STOKY OF OTJE, POST OFFICE.

44 There is a wide difference between the exposure of such trans-
parent tricks as that and the burglary of an office, which is gener-
ally done by experts, whose plans are well laid and the evidence
destroyed. The postmaster at Albuquerque, N. M., was robbed in a
very methodical way. When the postal clerks had registered in
from their runs arid gone to bed, at about three o'clock in the morn-
ing, three burglars entered the rear door of the post office, seized the
night clerk, a boy of sixteen, bound and gagged him, and proceeded
very deliberately to their work. The post office room had formerly
been used for a national bank and had in its rear a large vault, the
doors of which were customarily closed and locked with a key. In
the rear of this large vault was a strong safe, which contained the
post office funds, while the sacks of registered letters awaiting out-
going trains were put in the vault. By closing the front doors of
this vault the burglars worked without noise upon the safe, and by

"WHICH THEY HID IN THEIR GARDEN A
FEW RODS FROM THE RIVER."

six o'clock they had opened it, ab-
stracted its contents, taken the regis-
tered letters from the sacks by cutting
them open, and gone on their way.
Early in the morning the postmaster engaged the
local officers, and was assisted by detectives of the
express companies, but very little could be done. When I
reached the place the only trace discovered was a blacksmith's sledge
which lay among the weeds in the rear of the building, and the
owner of this was found after a diligent search to be a blacksmith

STORIES OF INSPECTORS. 329

half a mile away. He remembered, too, that the day before the
robbery a stranger had been in his shop asking questions, and that
the next morning he found his shop door forced open and some of
his tools missing. We next learned that this stranger was the son
of a ranchman living five miles away, and that he had gone from
Albuquerque to a small town in Kansas. There we had him
promptly arrested, and himself and his baggage searched on sus-
picion ; but as he gave a straight account of his proceedings, and as
no stamps or money were found upon him, he was released. The
adjoining offices were thoroughly advised of the details of the rob-
bery, and of the kinds and quantity of the plunder.

" A month afterwards word came from the marshal of Western
Texas that a clew had been found there. I was in that way put in
communication with a prisoner awaiting trial for a murder in El
Paso. He told a fairly straight story to the effect that he was hid-
ing in a house on the Rio Grande, about five miles below El Paso
the night of the robbery ; and one night his friends, who were
outlaws, came in with a lot of stamps and postal supplies, which
they hid in their garden a few rods from the river. Before he would
give their names he wanted the Government to pay him enough to
enable him to defend himself on the trial for murder. His figures
were too steep, and before negotiations were completed with him he
was tried and sentenced to be hanged. But I went with a guard to
the place he described and found a deserted house which tallied with
his description, and we dug up soil enough, looking for the stamps,
to make a big garden ; but although the men had gone away, later on
two of them were secured and connected with the burglary. But
they were wanted for a dozen like offences that had the prior atten-
tion of the court."

" An inexperienced thief will seldom cover up his misdeeds or his
whereabouts, if he runs away. I recall the matter of the postmaster
at Lebanon, N. C. Some unpaid drafts upon him for balances due
the Government were returned, and the inspector went there. The
transcripts of his accounts as rendered to the Department indicated
so large an amount of business transacted at his office that I expec-
ted to find Lebanon quite a thriving town. There was no settle-
ment there at all, and it was with difficulty that I could locate the
post office. I finally found it in a small frame building at a cross

330

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

roads in the turpentine woods, twenty miles from Wilmington.
The only other building near the post office was a deserted
'still.' The trees had dried up, so no turpentine could be got, and

the only man to be found near
by was the partner of the ab-
sconding postmaster, who w|s
very reluctant to tell me any-
thing at all about the office or
the missing postmaster. I found
that the latter, suspecting my
coining, had sagaciously got as
far away as possible, as he was
unable to raise the funds to
meet his balance. This finan-
cier had credited himself with
about $800 a year for what was
actually about $20 a year, and his
total deficit was about $2,000.
His sureties were found to be
penniless, and the only recourse
left was to prosecute the post-
master criminally, if it was possible to get him. I was told
he had left the place in a buggy several days before my arrival,
but no one knew where he was going. After winding up his
office affairs, I watched the mails outgoing for a while to see if I
could find a letter addressed to him. I failed in this, and became
somewhat discouraged, when, sitting one night in the post office at
Wilmington and watching a clerk assort some letters for the country
near Lebanon, my eye fell upon an envelope addressed to a man in
Rosewater not far distant. It was postmarked in Texas. From
much experience with hand writings I have been able to tell very
readily if a hand is disguised, and I could see very well that this
address was. I had in the office records several samples of this
man's writing, and the <L' as it appeared in Lebanon had a
long flourishing tail, which had its fac-simile in this address, although
written back-handed. Making a note of the postmark, I at once
telegraphed to the United States marshal a description of the wanted
postmaster, with full particulars of the time he left North Carolina,

IN THE TURPENTINE WOODS.

STORIES OF INSPECTORS .

331

MY EYE FELL, UPON AN ENVELOPE."

and the name of the post office where he was supposed to be getting
his mail. Being a new arrival at the place, I thought he could be
found readily, and in a week's time I was notified that the marshal
had secured him. He was then liv- _ _.. ..

ing twenty miles from the post office
where he mailed his letter and under
an assumed name, but when he came
up to the office again he was identi-
fied and arrested. He is now serving
a long term in Columbus."

" On a star route running out
from Salisbury, N. C., there had
been many thefts of money from
registered letters, and the depart-
ment and the people thereabouts
were alike impatient to catch the
thief. There was much trouble
in doing it. A number of the in-
spectors tried their hand at it,
but it would invariably happen that, as soon as an officer came
upon the ground, pilferings would cease. The postmasters upon
the route, about a dozen of them in all, bore excellent reputations,
and all professed anxiety to have the guilty punished. I had
been at work at the case once without success and tried it again,
taking every possible precaution the second time to conceal my
doings. With a good assistant I put up at a farm house entirely
off from the route and where at our leisure we completed cm-
plans for carefully testing the different offices. The weather was
very stormy, which favored us, as there were few people travelling
upon the roads ; and thus we were able to get around without
letting the inquisitive discover that strangers were in their neighbor-
hood, which was very thinly settled at best. It was difficult to de-
cide which postmaster we should begin with, for generally the
adjoining office has to cooperate and be in the officer's confidence,
and if the guilty one himself is one of the two so trusted, of course
he is put on guard. Then, perhaps the carrier may have a key and
be opening the pouches. But in this case the general reputation of
all the postmasters was excellent. They were all respectable, well-

332

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

to-do people. The last one to be thought of would naturally
have been the postmistress at Bilesville. She had been a school
teacher, was of a good family, and had not only the respect but
the confidence and sympathy of the people, because her husband
was a worthless fellow, who was serving a term in prison for
larceny. She was a delicate-looking young woman with a very
sad face.

" On my first trip I rode over the route as a pretended book agent.
I sat in the old stage, conspicuously holding in my hand a flashy
bound book when we reached her office, and she came to the door and
looked out at me. I was watching her covertly, and did not fail to
note that when she turned to go into the office she threw a quick
look backward at me and spoke in a low voice to the carrier whc
was coming out with the mail sacks. Half an hour later I said to
the driver :

" 4 1 believe I made a good impression on that pretty postmistress at
Bilesville. Wish I had shown her my book.'

" ' Yes,' he said, ' and she
asked me if you warii't a post
office inspector.'

" ' What is that ? ' I asked.
44 ' Oh, one of them fellers
that go around catchin' up with
the lame ducks. There's been a
lot o' stealin' on this road, and
I wish they'd do some thin'
about it. I'm gettin' blamed
for it myself.'

" I decided at once that un-
less the driver was a good deal
smarter than he looked and
acted he was not to be sus-
pected, and, from the quick
suspicion of the postmistress

U SHE ASKED ME ]F YOU WARN'T A ,- . T

POST OFFICE INSPECTOR" ^ l WaS M OffiC6r ' ^ ^

was to be looked out for. So

when I related this fact to my friend, he agreed that we should
first test the schoolma'am's office. The last theft reported had

STORIES OF INSPECTORS. 333

been, about ten days before our visit, so that another was about
due. We fixed our lines in the usual way, sending our regis-
tered letters through the schoolma'am's hands. The carrier made
a very brief stop. Nobody else had touched the letters. They
came out to our hands so clean and neat that we thought it impos-
sible that they could have been tampered with. We opened them
at once and were astonished to find that all the four letters had
been rifled. Returning to the office, we found the stolen bills in the
young woman's purse, and though her unusually sad face was lighted
up a little with the success of her day's work, the thoughtful expression
returned to it when we explained our business. But she main-
tained perfect composure. She was placed upon trial a few
months later. Her health, meantime, had failed rapidly, and in
spite of the damaging evidence against her, I secretly hoped the jury
would be able to acquit her, as it did. She died wretchedly a
short time afterward, and upon her deathbed confessed to having
stolen the money for which her husband was imprisoned. Many
of her friends believed that the inspectors had persecuted an
innocent woman, and I received several letters saying that I was
not smart enough to catch a real thief. The woman was un-
doubtedly insane."

" Some of the inspectors' work is not of such a somber and sad-
dening character. Much of it has a ludicrous phase which softens
the hardships and relieves the strain which too constant mingling
with the frail is apt to bring upon a man. Such an instance was the
matter of the Gallup, N. M., post office, a berth that paid the incumbent
one thousand dollars a year, c stealin's out,' where the work was
easy, and the social position fairly good, the rest of the citizens of
Gallup being mainly miners and gamblers. Swan was a pioneer in
New Mexico, and knew every one in the territory. He was recom-
mended for postmaster by the governor and all the ex-governors,
by all the railroad and mining authorities, as well as by all the
ranchmen and army officers ; and, moreover, he had in his possession
letters from Abraham Lincoln attesting the writer's friendship and
admiration for Swan. Naturally Swan was appointed. He made an
excellent postmaster so far as taking in money for stamps and
money orders went ; but he failed to make reports of the fiscal
operations of his office. A long life in an arid country and frequent

334

THE STORY OF OTJK POST OFFICE.

recourse to the common cure for a dry climate had made Swan less
efficient than formerly. So in due time an inspector was sent
to make his acquaintance.

" Being near Gallup, the necessary papers were sent me, and I
went down to see if anything was due the Government. I reached
Gallup about three o'clock in the morning. It was cold, raw, and
gloomy in every way. At sight I pronounced the town the least
picturesque mining settlement in the territory, if not in the world.
The only visible light came from a small frame building near the
depot, to which I hastened to get warm. It was not the hotel, but
a barroom, with a dozen or more professional customers on hand,
more or less awake and busy. Three men were snoring on the bar,
and the others were playing faro or watching the game. They were
all very groggy, and all but the proprietor were hard.' looking
citizens. The most besotted was an old man. He was thick-set,
wore a greasy slouch hat and a blue flannel shirt, had a big pistol
in his belt, and generally a very ' bad ' look. He was a clumsy,

stupid gambler, and was losing
money fast. About four o'clock
he got up, stretched himself,
and said :

" ' Good evenin', boys ; reckon
I'll have to turn in a leetle early
now, s' long as I've got the post
office to tend to.'

" When he said this I conject-
ured that this must be Mr. Swan,
with whom I had business.

" After a short nap in the ' hotel ' I walked up
to the post office the poorest frame building
in town. A poorly equipped drug store occupied
a part of the room, and in a rear corner was a
rough case, containing a half dozen boxes for holding letters. Swan
sat on a packing box near the front door, looking out at the beauties
of nature, while the drug clerk was tying up the letters for him.
Swan called out lazily :

" ' Got her done yet, Jimmie ? '
" 4 Pretty near, captain.'

STORIES OF INSPECTORS. 335

" ' Wall, hurry her a leetle to-day ; we missed it yesterday, and I
got to go on an inquest this morning, too.'

" I presented myself to Mr. Swan as he was going out of the office-

" ' So you are a post office inspector, are ye ? Wall, you'll find
they aint nothing wrong with this office not since I had it. Can't
say much for it before that.' I hinted that some of his reports were
a little over due, and we might look into that.

" Yes, tha's right. Say, Jimmie, how about them money order
bills ? They ben paid yet ? '

" Oh, no, captain. You remember I've been trying a long time to
get you to fix them up.'

" ' Yes, tha's so, Jimmie.' He added, turning to me, ' You see, I
ben so busy.'

"'Now, Mr. Swan,' said I, 'let's count the funds and see your
receipts for money deposited; then we will have the balance very
soon.'

" ' Yes, I see. Tha's the idea. Jimmie, you got a head for figures ;
you and the colonel go over the books, and I'll look in again pretty
soon.'

" ' But how about the funds ? The money you have taken in since
you took charge ; where is that ? '

"'Let me see,' he said vacantly, 'what did I do with it? Oh,
yes ; I see ; why, you see, I've paid out a good deal one way or
another ; but you'll find it's all right.'

" ' The books ' referred to were a small pass book. It had a few
straggling entries of stamps, money paid on a house Swan was build-
ing, whisky accounts, paid and unpaid, and private memoranda of
various kinds. It took a week to approximate his accounts, and he
owed the Government over two thousand dollars. A gambler
was a surety on his bond, and he handed me the full amount
on demand. I could get so little out of Swan that I thought
he might be more communicative to a commissioner, and had him
taken before one for a hearing ; but, instead of becoming more cohe-
rent, Swan broke down completely, and sobbed pitifully that so
great a man should come to trouble.

" ' Jedge,' he sobbed, ' it's too bad. I was the first friend Abe
Lincoln had when he begun practicin' law, and if he was alive to-day,
I wouldn't be slavin' out my life in a post office. Abe knew I was

336

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

an honest man. He wouldn't send no inspectors 'round my office.
He'd ast me once in awhile if I was runnin' rny office O K, and that

would settle it.'

"In due time Swan went to Sante F for a visit. He got a very
short sentence, partly because it was plain that no work could be got
out of him in the 4 pen ' or anywhere else. The people of Gallup
were all sorry for Swan, and I had great difficulty in finding anyone
who would make application for the post office."

'HE GOT OUT OF PATIENCE."

" I had a rather queer experience at Price, Utah. The postal ser-
vice is universal, and when it is not slipping a cog in one place it is
in another ; but it seldom happens that a postmaster will wilfully
close his office and let things 4 go to smash.' At Price the postmaster
tendered his resignation repeatedly, and, being unable to get relief,
purposely closed his office. No doubt the Department could not con-
ceive the possibility of a Government employee struggling to get out
of a position that paid six hundred dollars a year. But this post-

STORIES OF INSPECTORS. 337

master paid his clerk seventy-five dollars a month, and then had to
give his own time to the work. Having a fine trade to look after,
he got out of patience, and locked his doors against all comers.
Then went up a howl of rage. That orfice separated mail for a large
military post some miles away, and telegrams were showered upon
the War Department, asking for authority to kill the civilian who
had cut off communication. When I reached Price 159 large sacks
of mail were piled up in the depot, and the angriest men I ever
faced were the soldier boys, looking at them wistfully, but unable to
open them and get their long expected letters from the East. I
swore in a number of assistants, and we worked day and night upon
the pile, and finally got the letters into their proper channels.
Declining to hang the postmaster, as most of the people desired, I
laid the facts before the United States attorney; but there they
rested. There is no law to punish such an offence. Before I left,
the postmaster, who was a shrewd, bright young Swede, asked me :
" ' What is this going to cost me, Mr. Inspector? '
" Having just finished the 159th sack of mail, I said :
" 4 Fifty thousand dollars, if I have the fixing of the sum, my
friend.'

" He said that was too much, but if it wasn't more than $500, or
even $1000, he would rather pay it than neglect his business any
longer.

" There is small veneration for official dignity upon the frontier,
and Federal employees who carry the importance of office to objec-
tionable pitches in the East are apt to impair their standing west of
the Mississippi. It sometimes happens that a modest officer is made
to suffer for the faults of his confreres. At Canon City once I had
gone to my room .to prepare for dinner, when a card was brought up
from a postmaster at a little place up in the mountains, whom I
requested to come up. He appeared at once, a fine, handsome speci-
men of physical manhood, fully six feet six inches tall, robust and
vigorous, sunburned, and with piercing eyes. He was dressed in a
riding suit, and had about him the peculiar, swinging freedom of a
horseman, combined with the grace of an educated gentleman.

" ; Ah,' he asked, 'you are the post office inspector for this state?'
" ' Yes, sir, one of them,' I replied ; 4 how can I serve you? '
" He wore a threatening smile, as he continued :

338 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

" 4 You were at my place my office about six months ago, I
think, at Coe ? '

" ' No,' I said, reflecting, < 1 don't think I ever saw you before, or
ever was at Coe.'

" ' Now, think again, for I want you to be careful about it. I was
not there myself, but my wife was a little way from the office. You
got off the stage, cursing and abusing us because our office wasn't
always open during business hours. Recollect, now ? '

u 4 Well, hardly,' I said. 4 1 am not in the habit of addressing
postmasters in that way, especially women.'

"He looked disappointed, and said:

" 4 Well, I have been trying to find this man for months, and I give
you my word that when I do, I will teach him a lesson in politeness.
But I am convinced it wasn't you, and am glad to meet you. What
will you drink ? ' I drank to his early meeting with the man with the
swelled head, but secretly wished my unknown colleague better luck.
Subsequently I learned this man was one of the wealthiest and most
popular miners in Colorado, and had a fine record for keeping all his
promises.

" It would be difficult to tell in what part of the country depreda-
tions upon the mails are the most prevalent. They are frequent,
more especially, perhaps, in the mountain districts of the Virginias,
North Carolina and Tennessee. The mail service there is mainly on
horseback ; the mountain paths are arduous and from its inaccessi-
bility such a country offers many attractions for thieves.

" Not long since a railroad was built southward from Weston,
W. Va., for the purpose of getting out the heavy timber along the
Kanawha River. Laborers on the road sent much of their wages home
by mail, and on one particular route a lot of stealing was done. The
senders, who were Italians and Hungarians, supposed the money
must necessarily be stolen by the mailing postmaster; but as the
road penetrated farther into the mountains, and letters sent from one
office after another met the same fate, the foreigners grew frantic,
and threatened to hang every postmaster in the vicinit} 7 ", if nec-
essary, to catch the right one. Alarmed at these threats, the post-
masters themselves began to clamor for the arrest of the thief, and
the postmaster at Jacksonville was especially loud in his howls for
an inspector. He was a brawny mountaineer, and kept a hotel, as

STORIES OF INSPECTORS.

339

well as the post office. He had accused all of the adjoining offices
of the stealing and had seen a number of fights as a consequence.
When the inspectors began work it was naturally supposed he would
be a valuable aid, but as an extra precaution it was decided to test
his office also. Accordingly several registers were together passed
through his hands. When the carrier brought them to Jacksonville,
the postmaster invited him to
bait his horses and take lunch,
which he did. Meantime the
hotel keeper helped himself to
the contents of the letters and
passed them along empty to
Weston ; but the inspector got
them first and immediately after-
wards the thief. He had in-
stantly concealed the money and
it was not found. He was the
politest man I ever saw, for
while I was searching his pock-
ets for the stolen bills, he asked
me if I wouldn't prefer to take
dinner first, as it was waiting
and I looked hungry and tired.
The evidence against him was
not air tight, and he escaped
the penitentiary by paying a large fine, and making good all the
losses upon the route. He has since moved to another hotel in
the mountains, and often invites me to come and go fishing
with him."

The following, an older story (they must never be too new),
used to be told by one of the best inspectors in the service. It is a
story from actual life. Put in the inspector's words it is :

u ln the month of February, 1882. a through registered pouch
from Sabine City to Chicago, was rifled of one hundred and forty-
four registered letters, containing in the aggregate more than $15,-
000. The rifled pouch, with a slit as long as a man's arm cut in
it with a sharp knife, was found later on underneath the depot at
Sabine City. The inspector-in-charge at Chicago was advised by

A POSTMASTER IN THE MOUNTAINS OF
WEST VIRGINIA.

340

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

telegraph by the postmaster of Sabine City of the facts, and he also
stated that a letter from himself to the United States sub-treasury
at Chicago containing $1,100 was among the stolen matter. The
11,100 consisted of a $1,000 bill and a $100 dollar bill. The
inspector-in-charge at Chicago telegraphed to every inspector in
the division to report at once at Chicago. I was hurriedly advised of
the facts, and instructed to proceed immediately to Sabine City to
investigate the case. I telegraphed to the postmaster there, under an
assumed name, to meet me at the Northwestern Hotel at 9 o'clock
that night. I admonished him to keep the matter strictly secret;
that I was registered under an assumed name, and that my business
there would be that of buying a carload of horses to ship to New
York.

" In this through pouch to Chicago was contained all the registered
matter from post offices within a circuit of about fifty miles adjacent
to Sabine City, and among the one hundred and forty-four registers
stolen were those from many of these offices. In order to ascertain
the contents of each registered package I had the postmaster get up
a printed letter in his name to the several postmasters whence these
letters came, and in due course we ascertained to a cent what was
contained in every registered package. In a number there were
jewelry, ear-rings, cuff buttons, watch chains and bracelets. Others
contained money orders, bank drafts, checks, postage stamps, gold,
silver and national currency, the total amounting to about $15,000.
After a few days another inspector was sent to assist me, and we
formulated a systematic plan of work, having engaged quarters in
the upper front rooms of the Northwestern Hotel overlooking the
depot.

" We ascertained that on the night of the robbery the pouch in
question was receipted for by Railway Postal Clerk Wilson at the post
office at about 5 o'clock in the evening, but that the train that was
to carry it to Chicago was not due to pass through Sabine City until
about 9 o'clock at night. This registered pouch was thrown on
the top of all the other pouches on the transfer wagon, so that it
could readily be taken care of at the depot, and at the depot it
was thrown on top of the transfer truck for the same reason, so that
it could be readily seen and be the first pouch to be thrown into the
car. That night was one of the coldest of the winter. The train

STORIES OF INSPECTORS. 341

did not arrive until about midnight. The truck was pushed into
the baggage room to await the arrival of the belated train. In the
baggage room there was no fire, but in an adjoining room there "was
a brilliant coal fire, around which the hack drivers and bus drivers,
mail messengers and depot hands were congregated to keep them-
selves warm. On the arrival of the train the truck was pushed out
to the car, and Clerk Wilson mechanically reached forward for the
through registered pouch for Chicago ; but it was not there, although
he had receipted at the post office for it in his name at 5 o'clock
in the evening. He reported the matter immediately and search
was instituted without success.

" The next morning the empty cut pouch was found underneath the
depot. It was a mystery that no one could solve. A list of all
the employees about the depot was made by us, together with all the
postal clerks, ex-postal clerks, mail drivers, bus drivers, draymen,,
baggagemen, conductors, and in fact everybody that had anything to
do about the depot, or ever had had, and they were thoroughly can-
vassed by us ' horse buyers.'

"Days, weeks rolled by. At the hotel table, where we sat with
a number of reporters for the daily papers of Sabine City, we joined
in the general censure of the Post Office Department for doing noth-
ing whatever to capture the thief. No one was more bitter against
the inspectors than we were ourselves, because as ' horsemen ' we had
a right to express our feelings of resentment against a government so
indifferent and dilatory. A number of clews were worked and run
down from day to day. After days and nights of tiresome labor we
at last made up our minds who the guilty person was. One
Gideon Robertson, who drove the transfer mail wagon between the
post office and the depot, was suspected. But we soon satisfied our-
selves that he was innocent ; in fact we took him into our confidence.
Robertson had known us as Mr. Douglass and Mr. Brown, and had
thought, of course, that we were purchasing horses for the eastern
market. He became our fast friend, but had no suspicions. We
questioned him and cross-questioned him. After a while he quite
innocently remarked that on one occasion Shorty ' Green, who
was formerly a driver of the mail wagon, jokingly remarked to him
that they could make a good 4 haul ' by going through the registered
pouch. But ; Shorty ' went further, and suggested that in the dark

342

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

lane behind the depot he could attack Gideon, and Gideon could
make a show of resistance, and be overpowered, and that both of
them could then rob the pouch together, and Gideon would be
cleared, of course.

44 Our attention was now entirely turned to < Shorty ' Green, whose
real name was Fleming B. Green. He was then engaged driving a
hack about the city. He was receiving $10 a week for his work,
and had a family consisting of a wife and two children. We learned
that he had purchased a house and lot, that he had bought a sewing
machine, had laid in a good supply of coal for the winter, and was liv-
ing in very comfortable circumstances. We became well acquainted
with ' Shorty ' in our capacity as horsemen, and found that he was
playing billiards, something that he had never done before (and
always getting beaten) ; and that he was drinking considerably, was,
in fact, becoming an all-round 'sport.' His expenses were about
$40 a week. He was negotiating a business which would entail an
investment of a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars. He was to
take a leave of absence and go with his family on a visit to Centreville.

" It had reached the night preceding the day when ' Shorty ' was
to start. He was breaking in a substitute to drive his hack. It was
an extremely cold winter night and there was a ' show ' in the public
hall. * Shorty ' went to this theatre. We then made up our minds
to proceed to his house, which was about a mile distant from the
main portion of the city across Sabine River. At night 'Shorty'
invariably took to his heels at the bridge and ran clear to his home,
as if afraid of his own shadow. About 9 o'clock we reached his
house ; Mrs. Green appeared at the door. We asked her if Mr.
Green was in. She said he was busy down town with his hack ; he
would not probably come home until 12 or 1 o'clock, sometimes
he stayed out all night. We rather abruptly walked into the house.
She then offered us seats. We frankly told her that we were repre-
sentatives of the Post Office Department and had come there to make
inquiries about the mail robbery. This seemed to give her a sudden
start.

" ' Oh,' she said, ' Mr. Green doesn't know anything about the
mail robbery.'

" ' Well,' said we, 'perhaps he might give us some information.
He was a former mail driver and was around the depot frequently.'

STOKIES OF INSPECTORS. 343

" ' No,' she said, 4 he doesn't know anything about it at all.'

" We then asked her where he was on the night of the robbery.
She said he was at home that night early. We asked her how siie
could remember that he was at home that special night. She said
she knew he was at home that night because she remembered that in
the morning, when they heard the newsboys calling out about the
mail robbery, he said nobody could say he had a hand in it, because
he was at home. We had ascertained previously that 4 Shorty ' was
at the Grand Hotel at two o'clock on the morning in question and
had asked Gideon Robertson if it was actually true that the registered
pouch had been rifled ; and he told Gideon that he was not able to
sleep after he had heard about it. We learned also, as a matter of
fact, that he had not been at home at all after supper that night.

" We spent an hour talking with Mrs. Green. We dwelt partic-
ularly on the coal question for some reason, and she was so very
much agitated (although she tried not to show it) that she ran her
needle several times underneath her thumb nail. She assured us
that when Mr. Green came home she would tell him of our visit, and
if he had any information he would be only too glad to impart it.
We bade her good-night and crossed back over the Long Bridge.
Persons from the theatre soon began to pass by on their way home.
Among the last we could see in the moonlight, approaching on the
snowy sidewalk, the form of 4 Shorty ' Green.

" I walked out and tapped him on the shoulder, and said :

44 4 Shorty, I want you.'

44 His answer was :

44 4 What for, sir ? '

44 * For the mail robbery.'

u 4 What mail robbery ? '

44 4 Well, the mail robbery. You know what mail robbery I mean.
Where the pouch was cut several weeks ago. We thought perhaps
you could give us some information about it.'

44 4 Why, I know nothing about it, sir.'

44 4 Well, we would like to have you go down to the Northwestern
Hotel with us.'

44 It occurred to us that if he had been an innocent man, his first
impulse would have been to invite us to his house. But he fell
in with my comrade, and I dropped behind. As we neared

344 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the hotel, ' Shorty ' remarked that we had better go around to the
back door, as the hotel office was full of traveling men and others
who had come from the theatre ;. and this seemed to us another
evidence of his guilt, for if he had been an innocent man, he had
nothing to fear by going through the office. But we went up the
back way, walked into our room, turned the key, and asked him
to remove his overcoat and take a seat. We then directed his-
attention to our quarters. He could see that we had a good outlook
covering the depot.

" We then plied question upon question, and cornered him at every
turn. His explanations of his whereabouts on the night of the
robbery were so conflicting and unreasonable that he could hardly
tell us his name distinctly. He at last braced up enough to say :

" ' Why, you don't think I robbed that pouch, do you ? '

" We said to him :

" 4 Shorty, we not only think that you stole it and robbed it, but
we know it, and now you are in a proper position to confess ; you
may as well make a clean breast of the whole business and tell us all
the facts. We have been over at your house all this evening. We
have conversed with your wife on this subject for several hours, and
we have such facts that it will be impossible for you to escape ; and
the very best thing that you can do is to tell the whole, unadultera-
ted truth. Now, 'Shorty,' why did you rob that pouch? What
possessed your mind to do such a thing ? '

" Tremblingly, and with quivering lips and tears rolling down his
cheeks, he admitted that he was guilty.

" ' Well,' said we, ' we knew it. Now, if you are going to be
straight from now on with us, we will treat you the very best we can ;
but we want you to make restoration of every dollar and every
article that you took from those registered packages.'

" He was ready to proceed with us to his home, where he
informed us the money was hidden underneath the coal in
his coal shed. We searched him and satisfied ourselves that he
intended to do as he agreed. He said that he had spent about
$150 of the stolen money, but that the balance was still hidden away
in the coal.

" Upon reaching the house, we found Mrs. Green and the neighbor
still awaiting ' Shorty's ' arrival. < Shorty ' said to his wife that

STORIES OF INSPECTORS. 345

he had been arrested for stealing the mail pouch. She acted like a
person devoid of reason, uttered cries, reached suddenly out to take
up a revolver that lay on the bureau ; but I had it in my pocket in
a second. She moaned and cried terribly. The neighbor, the
woman who was calling, made her exit very quickly. We told
4 Shorty ' we could not waste any time, but wanted to secure the
contents of the stolen registers. With lamp in hand he proceeded
to the coal shed. ' Shorty ' began shoveling the coal. Soon he
reached a large package done up in a calico dress. We took the
package and 4 Shorty ' back to the hotel, but before going we told
him that there were some bracelets missing.

" ' Oh,' Mrs. Green said, 4 1 have those ; ' and between the
mattresses of her bed they were snugly tucked away. Watch chains
and other jewelry, he said, were thrown away in the river.

" We arrived at the hotel about half past two in the morning, and
with the newspaper men and hotel clerk, counted the money. The
thousand dollar bill and the one hundred dollar bill that the post-
master had mailed in his registered letter to Chicago, were found in-
tact, as well as all the contents of the other registers, with the
exception of about $150 and the jewelry that had been thrown into
the river. It was too late to put ' Shorty ' in jail, so he spent the
night with the inspectors. But there was no sleep for him, and
there was none for the inspectors, either. Before daybreak the news-
boys on the streets were calling out the news of the arrest of
4 Shorty ' Green for the robbery of the mail pouch. It was any-
thing but music in his ears.

" This robbery had been the main topic of conversation in all Sabine
City ever since it occurred, and now that the horse dealers had turned
out to be post office inspectors, and had arrested the robber, recovered
the money, and got a full confession from the accused, it was a
revelation to the good citizens of that busy and enterprising Western
city. After breakfast it seemed as if the whole of Sabine City
poured into the hotel and up through the corridors, to get a view,
not so much of the prisoner as of the officers, and a regular reception
followed. 4 Shorty ' Green was indicted by the grand jury, pleaded
guilty, threw himself upon the mercy of the court, his wife appear-
ing with her little children in the court-room every day during the
trial ; and the fact that he had made restitution, had formerly borne

346 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

a good name, and was generally popular, caused the court to give
him only one year in the penitentiary."

About the year 1881 a young man named Herbert Morton was
assistant postmaster at Pierre, Dakota. He moved in the best
circles of that town, and had the confidence and respect of everybody.
After working for a number of years in the post office, he applied
for a leave of absence, which was duly granted by the amiable post-
master. After his leave had expired he did not return. Inquiries
from the Department came to the postmaster relative to the issuance
of numerous money orders of large denominations, which had been
paid at different post offices throughout the country, that purported
to have been issued at the Pierre office. Upon examination it was
found that no such orders had been regularly written up at that
office. It was evident that young Morton had gone with the inten-
tion never to return. The postmaster ascertained that blank money
orders and advices had been removed from the back part of the
book, so systematically that he did not detect it until the receipt
of this information from the Department, when he found that orders
amounting to about $1,500 had been surreptitiously abstracted.
A number of inspectors were detailed to work up the case. A full
description of Morton was printed and sent to all the important
money order offices in the United States, offering a liberal reward
for his capture ; but it was without avail.

Several years rolled ' by, with no trace of the fugitive. Finally,
an inspector of the Department had occasion to visit his brother at
Kansas Cit}% Mo., to spend New Year's. " After talking over our
personal affairs," he says, " the conversation drifted into other matters.
New Year's eve, when we were about ready to retire for the night,
my brother remarked that he had before him the sad duty of caring
for the dead. It was an old and warm friend of his, whom he was
very intimate with when he was agent of the Northwestern Railroad
at Pierre, Dakota. It was Herbert Morton ! I asked him if
Morton was assistant postmaster there. He said that he believed
Morton did go into the post office to work. I told my brother that
I believed Morton was the young man whom the post office inspec-
tors had been looking for for several years, and I related to him the
story of Morton's crime. He was incredulous, of course, but we
pursued our inquiries. Morton's body had been found lying frozen

STOKIES OF INSPECTORS. 347

between two haystacks near Independence ; the man had worn a
coarse suit of clothes and a cap with a brakeman's badge of -the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa F Railroad ; and his hands were hardened
as if by a brakeman's labor.

" The news of the discovery of the body was published in the Kan-
sas City papers. Among the trivial effects found upon him was a
photograph of a woman, whose name was written on it, and the pho-
tographer's card, at Reedsburg, Wis., readily led to the man's identi-
fication. My brother, being aware that Morton was engaged to a
young woman at Reedsburg, Morton's boyhood home, and as this was
published in the Kansas City papers, his attention was at once at-
tracted, and he went immediately to the embalmer's to identify his
old friend. He positively identified him by a scar upon his neck.

"I telegraphed the facts officially to the Department and to the
inspector who had the case personally in charge. I also telegraphed
to Morton's father, who was a highly respected clergyman, that I
would await such directions as he might give me. The old gentle-
man requested that his son have Christian burial, but said it was im-
possible for him to be present.

" My visit in Kansas City was prolonged on account of the revela-
tions in this case. I learned that a young woman figured prominently
in the matter ; that she had known Herbert Morton in Pierre, and that
he had become enamored of her. I learned that she was then in
Kansas City, and was known by several aliases. After diligent
search, I finally found her. She said that she had seen young Mor-
ton in Kansas City and along the line of the Atchinson, Topeka &
Santa Fe road ; that she had acted as a detective, and had from time
to time been disguised as a newsboy on the train or as a fireman on the
engine. She went with me to the embalmer's and identified the
body. I have always believed that this young woman knew more
about Morton's death than has ever come to light."

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS ; PREVENTING CRIME.

HE following story of an old-timer, one of the
cleverest and bravest of all the inspectors, illus-
trates another phase of this most exacting service :
" After the discovery of gold in the Black
Hills, in the then territory of Wyoming, the city
of Deadwood had assumed metropolitan proportions on
account of the thousands of miners who had rushed
into that country. Miners from Colorado, from Idaho,
from Montana and from the Pacific slope had flocked there in
anticipation of making great discoveries. The great Homestake
mine had been prospected and found to be fabulously rich in gold.

" A mail route was deemed a necessity and one was established,
running from Cheyenne, via Hat Creek and Rapid City, to
Deadwood. The service had been increasing arid was made
daily. A rival line was soon put in operation, running from Sidney,
Neb., to the Black Hills. Both of these routes for nearly their
entire distance passed through an Indian country, and the Sioux
Indians were not regarded as friendly, and did not look kindly on
the invasion of what they regarded as their exclusive country.
Many of the valleys were rich in game, but up to the discovery of
gold no white man had attempted a settlement, though the country
was well known to old mountaineers like Bridger, Beckwith and
others, but little by the outside world.

" The establishment of these mail routes was attended with much
danger. As soon as the fact became known that gold was being
sent from Deadwood to the ' States ' the road agents began their
work, and it was not an uncommon thing for a stage to be ' held
up ' twice in one night. The Indians, too, were very troublesome,
and it became necessary, especially on the stages in which gold dust
was carried, to put on a guard for protection, and many a fight

348

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS : PREVENTING CRIME.

349

ensued. They were often compelled to repulse attacks from Indians
who were trying to prevent the permanent settlement of the country
in and around the Black Hills, which they knew would destroy the
game in their favorite hunting grounds.

" During this time I received instructions to make a trip to Dead-
wood for the purpose of investigating the loss of some registered
mail from Deadwood to the ' States.' I left Cheyenne and proceeded
with the stage as far as Hat Creek, where the mail was supposed to

FLOCKED Til EKE IN ANTICIPATION OF MAKING GREAT DISCOVERIES."

have been lost while in transit. There I learned that the Indians
had made an attack on the stage a short time previous, and had
killed the driver and secured all of the mail, which they afterward
burned. Having become convinced of this fact, I saw little more to
do as regarded the investigation, as I knew of no way to discover
what Indian or Indians had committed the offence, and so reported
to the Department. I continued the trip to Deadwood, however,
arriving there at the time when there was considerable excitement
over the Indian difficulties. For several days after my arrival there
was not a single passenger leaving by stage. I concluded that I

350 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

would return by the Sidney route, although that carried me nearer
to where the Indians were supposed to be located. I went to the
office of the stage company and they informed me that they should
run out a stage next day, but that nobody had as yet booked as
a passenger, and that the probabilities were that if I went I would
be the only one, with the driver, going through.

" I instructed the agent to put my name on the way-bill. I
would start, at least. During the afternoon of that day four or five
people called on me at the hotel and inquired if it was my intention
to leave for the ' States ' next morning. I assured them that that was
what I intended to do, and after considerable conversation they
informed me that they were also anxious to go, and concluded that
if it was safe for a special agent to make the trip, they too would
take the chances. We again went to the stage office and the agent
informed us that he would supply each one of the passengers with a
Springfield rifle, which would enable us to protect ourselves from
any small raiding body of Indians that might attack us.

" The next morning we started with five other passengers from
Deadwood, all armed with Springfield rifles. I soon became aware
of the fact that there was less danger from Indians than from my
fellow-passengers, as but few, if any, of them were accustomed to
handling fire arms, and the discharge of a gun was not an uncommon
thing on the occasion of the sudden discovery of a rock or stump
which was mistaken for an Indian. With a great deal of effort on my
part I succeeded in having each man withdraw the cartridges from
his rifle, and the trip from that on became much more pleasant.
Still none of us were particularly happy, nor did we feel safe until
reaching the military post known as Fort Robinson, which had been
established for the purpose of holding these Indians in check. We
reached Sidney without having seen an Indian, although the stage
following was not so fortunate, being compelled to fight on several
occasions ; but it succeeded in getting through without the injury of
any person."

Another of the sharp, true fellows on the inspector force says :

" Complaint had been made that a registered letter containing $40

in currency, mailed at a small post office in western North Carolina,

and addressed to a well-known firm in Asheville, had been rifled.

The matter was given to me for investigation. As is customary, I

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS ; PREVENTING CRIME.

351

first made a close inspection of the R. P. envelope and the letter
envelope in which the money was said to have been placed. There
was not the slightest evidence that either had been tampered with.
I then went to see the merchant in Asheville to whom the letter
was addressed, and was assured that the letter had been opened in
the presence of several reputable persons, all of whom
testified that no money was enclosed, but only several
leaves of an old almanac. The infer-
ence, then, was that if the letter had
kj>/ been rifled at all it was in the mailing

office, and I
therefore pro-
ceeded thence
to continue
my investiga-
tion.

" Blank-
ville was
situated in
a remote
part of the state,
far from railroads.
The postmaster
was an old man,
who also ran a
mill, and the post
office was in his
house, a small, log
affair, on the banks
of a wild, pictur-
esque mountain
stream. His two
daughters assisted
him in the office, and the reputation of the family was excellent. I
questioned them all very closely, however, and as one of the many
requisites of an inspector is to read human nature, I soon made up
my mind that the letter had not been interfered with in that office.

" I next made inquiry as to the character of the person who sent
the letter. His reputation was not good ; he was described as a lawless
and desperate man, who was in debt and would not hesitate at any-
thing. I made up my mind that he had never mailed the money as
he claimed. I drove to his home, and was informed that he and a

"HIS HOUSE, A SMALL, LOG AFFAIR.

352 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

number of other men were working on the road some distance away.
His wife said, however, that she had seen him put the money in the
letter in question, but did not see him seal it.

" I then drove towards where the men were at work, and found
them eating dinner at a spring. I left the buggy some distance
back, and approached them on foot. My man was pointed out to
me, and I got him to go with me down the road away from the rest ;
he proved to be a great, strapping fellow, over six feet in height,
and very powerful looking, with a decidedly ugly appearance.
Reaching a secluded spot, I asked him a number of questions about
the letter, and his answers were very decided that he had put the
money in the letter, even describing the notes, and endeavoring to
throw suspicion upon the aged postmaster at Blankville.

" Finding that my questions resulted in nothing definite, I deter-
mined upon a more heroic treatment, and, looking him full in the
eye and pulling out the almanac leaves, I said :

" ' My friend, you have evidently made a great mistake. You
were under the impression, when you put these leaves in your letter
instead of the money, that the Government would pay you back for
your supposed loss, but it does not hold itself responsible for losses
of registered letters ; so that if you had put the money in, which I
know you did not, you could not have recovered it, if it were lost.'

" All this time I was looking him full in the eye. For a moment
nothing more was said by either of us, but I could distinctly read
his thoughts, and during that moment I knew my life was in peril,
for to prove a man a liar in that country is just as dangerous as to
call him one. But I never let my eyes waver, and presently I saw
his eyelids twitch, and I felt that my danger was past. Without a
word of acknowledgment, his expression plainly admitted his guilt
to me, and finally saying : ' Well, it's pretty hard for a poor man to
lose that amount of money,' he invited me to go home and take din-
ner with him. I declined ; and there my case was closed."

Some portions of North Carolina are infected with illicit distillers.
An inspector approaching them is in danger of being mistaken for a
revenue officer and treated accordingly. One inspector, speaking of
this, says:

" I had a case there where it became necessary to hunt up a man
and his son to get their testimony. Accordingly I secured a horse

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PREVENTING CRIME. 353

and buggy at Albemarle and with a man to drive me started off in
search of my witnesses.

"Reaching their residence I was told that they were down the road
a few miles, at a neighbor's house ; so I drove on in the direction
indicated. In due course of time, we reached the neighbor's house,
only to be informed that they were stiR further down the road ; but
no definite direction could be obtained. I concluded, however, to
keep on. As we left the main road, the hills became steeper and
wilder, and I noticed my driver getting very uneasy, looking around
on every side, as if he expected trouble. Presently he broke out
with :

" ' Say, stranger, do you know this is a dangerous business you
are on ? These yer people all take you for a revenue, and they are
just as likely to shoot first, and then ask about you afterwards.'

" 4 Is that so ? ' I asked. 4 Well, there is one thing satisfactory,
anyhow.'

" < What's that ? ' he inquired.

44 * If they do shoot, they are just as likely to hit you as me.'

" Jehu scratched his head a moment, and after taking it all in,
replied :

" ' That's so, but I don't see what in thunder that's got to do with it.'

" I ordered him to drive on. Presently the road faded away to a
mere trail, the surroundings became wilder, and I concluded that our
further progress was useless as well as hopeless. Seeing a small rise
of ground in front, however, I decided to reach that and take a good
look around. Just as we got to the summit, there suddenly appeared
before me such a wild, weird scene that I shall never forget it. Right
in front, and not more than a dozen yards away, rough-looking
fellows were busily engaged distilling brandy. It was a secluded
spot, with the high- wooded hills closing it in from any distant view.

" The fellows gazed keenly at me with startled looks. It was a
critical moment, and I knew there was no time to hesitate ; for they
belonged to a class of men who do not consider consequences when
it comes to self-protection. So, ordering my driver to stop, I leaped
out of the buggy, and before they had time to recover from their
astonishment, I was in the midst of them. My manner assured them
of my peaceful intentions. The men I was after were there ; I
secured my evidence, which they were very willing to give. But

354

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

before I left them one of the party slipped around to the driver,
and inquired thoroughly about me, and after being satisfied, wanted
to sell him some peach brandy at fifty cents a gallon."

Another says :

44 1 go back to the time while I was in the Railway Mail Service.
There was at that time an organization in West Virginia called
* Red Men,' who were banded together for certain purposes known
only to themselves, and persons joining the lodge were compelled to

ON HOESEBACK OVER THE MOUNTAINS.

take one of the most terrible oaths that could possibly be administere<
to anyone. These < Red Men ' had whipped a number of persons,
burned some barns (and also two or three private residences) , and.
had become a terror to almost the entire county of B arbour. About
this time the carrier on the star route from Beverly to Webster was
held up, the mail pouch robbed by masked men, and a number of
registered letters taken. We found that the c Red Men,' one Mr.
Price, one Mark Kettle, and a man by the name of Hoffman, were at
the Belington office when the carrier passed on the day of the
robbery and left about the time he did. These men were also known
to be leaders in the order of ' Red Men.' We finally secured suffi-

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS ; PREVENTING CRIME. 355

cient evidence to warrant the arrest of the three. In the meantime,
it had gone out that government officers were in the county, and J
allowed that we had better make a strike. The inspector-in-charge
told me he could not ride horseback and I would have to go. I said
all right, and an inspector and a marshal and myself started
out. We rode pretty fast, for we had been notified by the dis-
trict attorney that we would have trouble ; that the men we were
after would kill if they could ; that they had been in the Barbour
County jail and their friends came down and broke open the jail
and took them out. My fellow inspector was riding his first horse ;
and we were riding at a brisk trot, when I noticed that he could not
keep his seat in the saddle, and said to him :

" ' Tom, why don't you keep in the saddle ? '

" He replied :

44 4 1 can't. Don't you see that when I go up, this horse goes
down, and meets me on the rise, so I never get down ? '

" But we got there, and got all three of our men and landed them
in jail. The next day they were tried and convicted. Price got
ten years, Hoffman nine, and Kettle five in the penitentiary."

Says another :

44 1 was looking into a case of rifling registered letters and traced
it to a colored boy about sixteen years old, who had been 4 carrying '
on a star route in Southern Alabama. I went to his father's house
and was told that the boy was in a field, hoeing cotton. I struck
out and finally came across him and found he was a dwarf. But I
concluded I had better take him with me and perhaps I could re-
cover some of the stolen property. I told him I was an inspector.
Then he called out, 4 O mamma,' and a colored woman (weight three
hundred pounds) came up. And the boy said :

44 4 Mamma, the big boss is gwine to take me. He says I done
stole sumfin.'

44 The old woman said : 4 Look heah, mister, dat boy nevah done
stole nuffin. I knows he nevah did. I done raised dat boy right,
and if you tuk him you tuk me long too.'

44 1 said I guessed I could carry her and the boy. I had a mule
about the size of a good, big dog, but I thought we could all three
ride him, and the boy went with me. But we did not prosecute
him on account of his size and ignorance.

356 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

"Another of my adventures was on a star route in Southern
Alabama. I had traveled from 6 A. M. to 10 p. M., and it was so
dark that I couldn't find my way ; so after looking around, I dis-
covered a light, and, by letting down fences, I finally reached a
house, or rather a cabin, and hallooed at the top of my voice. Finally
an old man came out, and I asked him if he could keep me over
night. He said he was not in the habit of keeping people, but as I
was a stranger, he would let me stay. I tied the mule and gave
him some corn fodder and went in and found the house occupied by
a white man and woman. I asked for something to eat and the
woman gave me some corn bread and buttermilk, and what she
called 4 turnip-greens.' I enjoyed my supper (not having had any
dinner), and then went up what they called stairs. There were
only two rooms in the cabin. The upstairs room was a kind of aa
attic, but I lay down and went to sleep.

" I was soon aroused by someone trying to get into the room, as I
supposed ; but after listening some time, I again went to sleep. I
was again aroused by someone trying the door, and asked who was
there and was answered by a growl. It was the dog ! I struck a
match, and then the dog began to bark and spring at the door. I
expected it would give way and let him in. I was unable to find
an outlet, but I heard a movement below, and soon the old man
came up with a light and asked me what was wrong. I asked him
if he would be kind enough to take the dog downstairs. I could
see by the tallow dip he carried one of the largest bulldogs that ever
devoured trouserings. I waited for daylight, called for my mule
(but not for breakfast), thinking only of putting distance between
myself and that ferocious canine."

" Sometimes an inspector will stumble upon clews most curiously.
There had been a great number of losses reported on a star route
once, and several vain efforts had been made to catch the thief. I
looked over the reports in the case, and concluded I would take a
new plan of action. I left the railroad several miles above the office
where the star route came in, and there procured a horse and buggy
and started out. A terrible wind and rain storm came up, and,
crossing a stream, the water ran away over the buggy and I got very
wet and cold. But I drove up to a little store and asked permission
to dry my clothes and get something to eat for myself and horse.

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PREVENTING CRIME. 357

" While waiting I fell into conversation with a young physician
and soon found him very talkative. He told me that about once a
week he would go to the railroad and have a good time. He finally
told me about a game of poker that he had enjoyed on his last trip
to Blacksville, and he said :

" ' W'y, I broke the crowd, and Joe (calling the assistant postmas-
ter by name) had to pay me in stamps, ten-cent stamps, and I would
hold them until Joe got money enough, to redeem them.'

" Joe did not redeem them, for I had him 4 in ' in three days, and
he's learning a trade now.

" We once had a complaint from a man in Missouri in regard to a
land and lumber company. I found that the person complained of
was using a letter head of a company representing themselves as
owners of one million acres of timber, coal and iron ore land, with a
capital of $250,000. The fellow turned out to be a crank, but he
had taken in shot-guns, molasses, fine setter dogs, flour, boots, shoes
and numerous other articles. I found he had received by express
and freight at different times large quantities of goods, and at the
depot I found a crate of tinware and agricultural implements of vari-
ous kinds marked to his address. His last speculation related to ten
head of Jersey cows. All the necessary evidence was in, but he ' played
the crazy racket ' and got clear although he was bright enough
to secure about seven thousand dollars 1 worth of stuff and money.

" The greatest fraud I have ever come in contact with was that of
' The Financial Cooperative Company ' of Dashtown. This was
an order where you were supposed to pay in fifty dollars and in four
or six months draw one hundred dollars. The swindlers had a fine
office elegantly furnished, boarded at the best hotels, gave wine sup-
pers, and swindled people out of between three and four hundred
thousand dollars. Eight arrests were made ; but the ' president ' of
the company went to Europe, and left the others to work out their
own salvation.

" Another fraud, worked in West Virginia. A post office box was
jnted and all mail addressed to J. Smith was put in it. We found that
ds box had been rented by two well-known young men, who were
irrying on the merchant tailoring business, both active church mem-
jra, and one of them at the head of the Young Men's Christian
Association. They put this notice in various papers :

358 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

" ' The West Virginia Investment Company. Send 25 c. and you will receive
full instructions.'

"We found that J. Smith was a myth and that the two young
men were in fact J. Smith. To our letter asking what to do the
answer came back :

** 'Fisli for suckers as we do.'

" Well, we fished, and had the fellows dangling at the end of our
line in very short order. His honor gave them $50 and costs each*
which they did not mind. It was the exposure that hurt. Some of
the old church members are still after them.

" I had been out on a long trip in the back country once, and
looked pretty rough when I got on the cars. Having a gray beard
and wearing a skull cap, I attracted the attention of a little girl
about nine or ten years of age, who finally came up to me and asked
if I was Santa Glaus. I told her ' No,' and she then asked me if I
was not some relation of his, and, falling into the humor of the
thing, I told her I was one of his clerks. She then described a doll
that she had received the previous Christmas, and insisted that I
ought to remember it ; and finally she accused me of taking it, as
she said it had been stolen. She wanted to know if I would bring
it back next Christmas. I promised that she should have another
doll."

Other stories by one of the good men :

44 1 was on an important green-goods case, where the postmaster
had been invited to assist New York green-goods people. They of-
fered him $600, and he turned the bid over to the Post Office Depart-
ment, and Leffin and myself were selected to go to Olga, Michigan.
The postmaster was notified that we had come up there on business,

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PREVENTING CRIME. 365

and we took him into our confidence. We asked the postmaster to
accept this tender of $600 from the New Yorker.

44 The green-goods men sent out a letter-head, in which they called
themselves the Coal Hill and Trust Company, having ten directors
and ten trustees, Avhose names appeared on this letter-head. Our
scheme was to decoy these people from New York to get the accu-
mulation of mail at Olga ; so we fixed up a letter, which the post-
master sent, saying he was fearful that the inspectors would come up
and demand the mail, and that he thought the best thing they could
do, owing to the fact that he was not on friendly terms with the
expressmen, was to come out and express their mail to New York
themselves. The best thing they could do was to come and get their
mail.

44 Then they opened up on the postmaster. They said : 4 What
will the Postmaster General think of you when we go down to
Washington and tell him that you have offered to help us for $600 a
year, and that you weakened and backed out?' The postmaster
replied that they could go to the Postmaster General. Then they
sent several letters signed with alleged signatures of the chief in-
spector and the attorney general ; and finally the inspectors got
another letter from New York saying that they proposed to write
letters to such and such people, showing what kind of a postmaster
they had at Olga. The postmaster replied to that, that he didn't
care what they did. Along came a telegram then, saying : 4 We will
be with you by the 15th.' Soon he got another, this from Buffalo,
giving the hour of their intended arrival.

" Friday morning early the fellow walked into the post office at
Olga. He said :

44 ' Is this Mr. Shippen? My name is Mullen, and I see you recog-
nize me. I want my brother's mail.'

" That was not his brother's name, but he kept on :

" ' You know who I am when I tell you I want my brother's mail.
He told me to give you forty more.'

44 He pulled out $40, but did not lay it down.

44 4 If you will have that mail wrapped up, like an express pack-
age,' he said, 4 1 will be in about eight o'clock. I will ask you for
the mail and be gone about my business.'

I chased the fellow after he left the office and halted him. I

366

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

told him I was a Government officer. He began fighting. Leffin,
who had gone on ahead ; ran back and said :

" ' See here, we're not here for any prize-fighting or foot races.
Better stop ! '

"We slipped the handcuffs on him and took him to Grand
Rapids. He was searched, and there was some seventy-five dollars
in gold and greenbacks found on him, and a physician's prescription,
written in Easton, Pa. Leffin got on the train and went to Easton
and found the doctor who wrote it; it was for George Moyei\

"l CHASED THE FELLOW AFTER HE LEFT THE OFFICE AND HALTED HIM."

Everybody knew him about there twenty-five years before. He
would come back to Easton periodically. Leffin then went to New
York and found that Inspector Byrnes had a photograph of this
fellow. He had been arrested in Michigan, charged with having
beaten a farmer out of $3,500 on a card trick near Seymour, Indiana.
In that case they 'hung' the jury, and he was not convicted. After
the jury had disagreed he was remanded to jail and his bonds
reduced to a thousand dollars; and three men came to pay the
money. So justice will miscarry.

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PREVENTING CRIME. 367

" Another case was the Saginaw case. The Saginaw green-goods
man had sent several letters around to different forts. They were
written, not printed circulars. They were addressed to different
sergeants of the companies, advising them that they had certain
goods on hand, twos, fives, tens, etc., as good as any turned out at
the Treasury Department. This green-goods man would tell the
sender what box to address his mail to. Of course, in the letter
that was sent in by the particular sergeant from Fort Brady it was
indicated in what box he wanted his mail to go. This particular
victim was a man by the name of O'Brien.

" I went up to Sault Ste. Marie, and furnished the soldiers money
to send. We wanted to catch the man with the letter upon him.
I put that in the pouch, witnessed by the postmaster, who also wit-
nessed the composition of the letter. I went through with it to
Saginaw, and before I had the letter placed in the box, I ran over
and was deputized as a United States Marshal. I stood in the Sag-
inaw post office two days, watching that box.

" On the second afternoon, a man, a great, big fellow, came in, got
his mail, and was going out. I sprang out after him. I said :

" Mister, I shall have to take charge of you.'

He said, < What's that for ? '

" I said : 4 1 will tell you all about that before the commis-
sioner.'

" ' But there is some mistake about this. The idea of my
coming here to get my brother's mail and being arrested is ridic-
ulous.'

" He insisted that his brother had got him in trouble. The United
States marshal searched the man, and among other things found
were directions how to make new money look old. Well, sir, I
never saw a fellow perspire as he did. When the United States
attorney arrived, the fellow weakened. He said : ' Well, I guess I
might as well make a clean breast of it.'

" His story was this. He had been an engineer on the Pierre
and Marquette Railroad. He had been removed for something, his
wife had been sick, times had been hard, and he received one of these
green-goods circulars. He himself had been in the regular army
and knew that the fellows ' blew ' their pay right and left as fast
as they got it, so he argued that he might as well have some of it.

368 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

So he sent out these green-goods circulars. The commissioner held
him, but I think he was let off."

" In Cincinnati once the division chief called me in and said :

" 4 There have been half a dozen registered letters rifled, and I think
you had better go to Indianapolis and see if they have any informa-
tion up there.' I went, looked at my registered package envelopes,
and had about come to the conclusion that it was either being done
on the routes or else at the Plantville, Ind., post office.

" Plantville was seven miles from Sunburn, and the mail had to
pass through Centre post office. We fixed up our test and got up to
Sunburn about four o'clock in the morning. At the post office at
Plantville I announced to the postmaster that I was an inspector,
and I only wanted to put a letter into the pouch. He informed me
that the mail had gone.

" I said : 4 You had better give me a note to the carrier, then.'

" He wrote me one. We got down about half way over the road,
and I overtook the fellow. I said : 4 1 have a matter that I want to
keep very quiet. I have got a letter that I want to put into the
pouch and I want no one to know anything about it.'

u He said : 4 I can't read the note, and I don't know what's in it,
and I can't open that pouch.'

" 4 1 am going to put this letter in there,' I said.

44 4 You can't put anything in there,' he said. 4 If you open that
pouch, you'll get your brains blowed out.'

44 Finally he let me put the register in the pouch ; but I was
afraid that this fellow when he got to Sunburn would 'give me
away.' So I said to him :

44 4 Now you've got yourself into a pretty fix, and if anything leaks
out about this, you will be in trouble.'

44 My partner was still in town ' taking orders for a Grand Army
book.' I got on the train and went away, because my test register
was not to be dispatched until the mail was put on the postal car.
There were three or four other registers. One was very flat, and,
holding it up, I could plainly see that it had been opened. The
letter contained $288.

44 Then we drove back to Plantville and requested the postmaster
to send for the persons who had mailed the letters. He had sent out
two registers ; they were found to have been rifled. One contained

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PREVENTING CRIME. 369

$50 and one $40. We got the two letters and a description of the
money in them. After the registers were put in the package, partner
4 went back into the country ' with his book which he was trying to
sell. I went into the postoffice. The postmaster's boy looked very
suspicious. I said :

u ; Mr. Postmaster, I suppose you are aware that there is stealing
going on in your office. We are post office inspectors, and we are
here to notify you that there is somebody in your office stealing.'

tk He said: 4 1 would not steal anything. I never stole anything
in my life ; and there is nobody else that could steal anything with-
out my knowing it/

" 4 But you have got a boy here. What do you know about him ? '

" 4 Why,' he said ; 4 that is my own son, and I would trust him
with my life.'

" c He is stealing registers.'

" ' No, sir,' the old man said, 'he is doing nothing of the kind.'

" Partner found the boy in a neighboring grocery. He came in
looking guilty. I said to him :

" 4 Young man, I came here to get that money you have taken out
of the registered letters. We want that money that you have taken
out of the letters. We want the $288. There was $288 you took
out of one, and $50 out of another. What have you got to say
about it ? '

" He said : < I never took the money, and besides that I have got
a good reputation.'

" 4 Aren't you a smart young fellow,' I said, < to try to fasten
this thing on your poor old father in this way ? '

" Pretty soon he said : 4 Well, I have got the money and I will
go and get it.'

" The father broke down completely. He cried :

" ' My God ! My God ! I never want to set my eyes on him
again ! '

" The boy produced $541 for us. He had been stealing for
weeks. He was sentenced for one year, but was pardoned inside
of four months. The father died of grief soon afterwards. The
boy became a professional housebreaker."

An inspector had a queer experience sometime ago in a pretty
little town in Maryland. As his train neared this village, he

370

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

walked into the mail-car, asked for the mail clerk, showed his com-
mission and put in a letter addressed to James Lancaster, a fictitious
name. The letter contained a $10 bill. The inspector stood upon
the platform of the mail car when the train stopped and the
pouch was thrown off. A boy took the pouch over his shoul-
der and started up the village street. There was a crowd of
visitors inside the post office who swarmed towards the little
desk. The inspector waited fifteen minutes until they had all
gone to get their mail. He entered the place. A handsome girl,
seventeen years old and dressed in an old-fashioned bodice and
light colored skirt, sat behind the wire grating in a rocking chair,
sewing.

" Is there a letter here for James Lancaster?" he asked.

" No," she said, after sorting some letters in a case marked " L."

" I am sure the letter must have come," said the inquisitor.

" It's not here."

" Are you the postmaster ? "

" No. I am the assistant. My father is the postmaster."

" Who opened the pouch that came in by the last train ? "

" I did."

" No one to help you ? "

" No, sir."

" Maybe it's stuck in the pouch. I have heard of such things.
Won't you look ? "

She took the pouch, turned it upside down, shook it, and looked
inside. No letter.

" Won't you let me come in and help you look for it ? "

" No. No one is allowed in here."

The inspector drew out his commission. " May I come in now? "
he asked.

" Yes," blushing ; " I beg your pardon."

" I mailed a letter myself to James Lancaster," the inspector said.
" It is a fictitious name, Lancaster. The letter was put in that
pouch by the mail clerk on the train, who took a memorandum of
it, and locked the pouch in my presence. When that pouch was put
off at the station, I followed it, and kept it in sight until it was
taken into the post office. Now, you say you opened it alone, that
no one else touched it? Where is my letter ?"

APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PREVENTING CRIME. 371

"I never saw it, sir. If you doubt me, you can search me."

The inspector began to pace the floor in deep thought. The girl,
more beautiful than ever in her excitement, sat down in the chair,
crossed her legs, and began to rock herself to and fro.

" Call your mother, and she can search you in my presence/'

" My mother is dead."

Again the inspector paced the floor. As he walked back and
forth, he noticed the swinging feet of the postmaster's daughter.
One of her stockings had fallen a little, and under it was the shape
of an envelope !

" Your stocking has dropped," he said.

The girl turned scarlet and then white, and stopped rocking.
She caught her breath, and almost fainted. Then she recovered
herself, took the letter from its hiding place, handed it to the in-
spector, and burst into a flood of passionate tears.

The girl had admirers, as was natural ; her father was miserly,
not giving her the money even that was needed for a bright bit of
ribbon, or ever a new dress. She had been tempted to take money
from the mails for bits of finery. The inspector bitterly accused the
old man of being the one to blame.

" I suppose you will arrest her ? " he said.

" Will you make restitution of the sum stolen?"

It was handed over. " Will you arrest her ? "

" If I did, what would be her future ? No ; unless you or she
tells, this will never be known."

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS.

HE Third Assistant Postmaster General is the finance
officer of the Department. He receives and deposits
the postal funds, collects drafts, prepares warrants for
the payment of postal indebtedness, and all that ; and
it is his figures which show at the present time that
the usual postal deficit of five or six millions is surely
disappearing, and that by the plans and estimates of
the present Postmaster General they will soon be
changed into a slight net revenue. The Finance
Division requires fifteen clerks. Then the Third Assistant has the
division of registration, which looks after all the registered matter;
and he also has the division of
files, records, and mails. This last
division opens 1,400,000 letters
and parcels in a year. The num-
ber of registered letters and par-
cels received is over 17,000 annu-
ally, and the number of letters
briefed, recorded and filed away
after final action is 20,000 a year.
The number of letters separate-
ly written, copied, indexed and
mailed, is 30,000 annually. The
Third Assistant is the bookkeeper
of the Department, as it were.
Some of the methods of this office
have become, during many years
of contending growth and prece-
dent, antiquated and not uniform.
Effort was made two years ago, by

372

MB. A. I>. HAZEN,

Third Assistant Postmaster General.

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS.

373

the appointment of a special commission of expert accountants, to
revise these methods, so that all the post offices should keep their
accounts alike.

Two thirds of the clerks of the Third Assistant's office are em-
ployed in the Stamp Division, which has the regulation of the stamp,
stamped envelope, post-card and
letter sheet business, and also the
regulation of the second class mat-
ter privilege. Most of the work
of the Stamp Division is done in
the rooms along the lower corridor
on the Seventh Street side of the
Post Office Building, and the
chief's room, Mr. E. B. George's,
is at the corner of Seventh and F
Streets. The clerks of the Stamp
Division are greatly overworked.
If Mr. George had been provided
with additional help in proportion
to the increase of the work of this
division as necessitated by the
growth of the service, he would
have twenty additional clerks now.
The chief is a Haverhill, Mass.,
man, who was a member of the
House of Representatives of the Bay State when General Banks was
Governor ; and he was a state senator in '62. In the legislature of
'59 with him were Charles W. Upham of Salem, George M. Stearns
of Chicopee, Tappan Wentworth of Lowell, and Caleb Gushing of
Newburyport ; and Benjamin F. Butler was in the Senate. Mr.
George was a soldier of the war and entered the Stamp Division as a
clerk in 1866.

The ordinary postage stamps used by the Post Office Department
are manufactured by the American Bank Note Company of New
York. They bid for this work, and as is the case with all Govern-
ment contracts, there must be open competitive bidding and an award
of the work to the lowest responsible bidder. The processes by
which postage stamps are manufactured are secret, and much of the

ME. E. B. GEORGE,

Chief of the Stamp Division.

374 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

patented machinery is in use in this manufacture alone. Informa-
tion is often refused to foreign governments, and agents of the
United States have repeatedly made fruitless visits to the company
to be admitted .to the rooms where the stamps are manufactured.
Some of the most bitterly contested lawsuits on record have arisen
with regard to different patents employed in the manufacture of
stamps, and an immense amount of ingenuity has been expended in
bringing the art of printing them rapidly and cheaply to its present
perfection. Postage stamps are used in nearly all civilized countries,
but almost all are manufactured either in London, Paris, or New
York. The entire American Continent, some European States, and
many of the South Sea Islands are supplied with stamps from the
American metropolis.

A somewhat cursory description of the manufacture of stamps
appeared some time ago in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and various
other papers. The first step is to make the die. The device, which
has generally been the head of some distinguished public man, is
settled upon by the Government, and the drawings made. The
service of the engraver is next required. An engraving in deep in-
taglio is made upon steel, which has been softened by a peculiar pro-
cess of de carbonization. The device is cut, and afterwards the
border, which is a more or less complicated scroll. The steel is then
hardened by a recarbonization, and the intaglio, technically known
as the female die, is ready for use.

The next step is to make the upper die, known as the male die or
punch. A cylinder of soft steel is pressed by a hydraulic ram upon
the intaglio engraving, and after it has been pressed into all the
depressions is slightly touched up with the graver. A cameo coun-
terpart of the intaglio is thus formed, and from these the sheet is
made up by pressing the hardened steel upon the softer metal. The
discovery of the process of softening the steel for working and hard-
ening it for use greatly simplified the task of printing stamps, as
formerly but one pair of dies were used, owing to the cost of engrav-
ing and the practical impossibility of making by hand a number of
exactly similar devices; and the process of printing stamps was
therefore a very slow and expensive one.

The dies are arranged in a press, each press producing a sheet of
two hundred stamps. When this sheet is ready for use it is torn in

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 375

two, the stamps furnished to postmasters coming in half sheets.
The paper is supplied by the Government daily on requisition from
the manufacturer, a careful record being kept of the amount of the
issue; and the company must return the full number of stamped
sheets that have been issued unstamped. The sheets are placed in
the press and by an ingenious device are fed to the dies and counted.

A CABINET OF STAMPS IN THE THIRD ASSISTANT'S OFFICE.

The paper rests upon the female die, which alone is inked, the punch
coming down upon it and pressing the paper upon the inked surface.
The printing is true steel engraving, the process being exactly oppo-
site from that employed in printing from type, the lower surfaces
receiving the deep color and the upper one being light. f

The next step is to gum the stamped sheets. This was formerly
done by hand, large brushes being used, but a more effective method
has been devised by which a roller is passed over the sheets by
machinery, applying the gum evenly over the entire surface. Great
care is taken in the preparation of this glue, as it is necessary to give

376 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the sheets a coating that will not become soft and sticky through
exposure to a moist atmosphere, and still will be sufficiently adhesive
to prevent the possibility of detachment from the letters to which
they are affixed. An entire issue of three-cent stamps, those printed
in blue and bearing the figure of a locomotive, once had to be retired
because of the imperfection of the gummed surface. The cost to the
Government amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and the incon-
venience' to the public was extreme, as the stamps frequently failed
to adhere, and the letters were not sent to their destinations.

After the process of gumming is completed the sheets are placed
upon racks and dried by being pressed on a series of steam pipes.
If a single stamp is in any way mutilated, the entire sheet of 100
stamps is burned; and 500,000 are said to be burned every week
from this cause. The greatest accuracy is observed in counting the
sheets of stamps to guard against pilfering by the employees ; but
during the past twenty years not a sheet has been lost in this way.
During the process of manufacturing the sheets are counted at least
eleven times.

The last step in the manufacture is to punch the holes dividing
one stamp from another. This seems simple enough, but as a mat-
ter of fact the invention of a means by which single stamps could be
separated from a sheet gave more trouble than any other process in
their manufacture, and occasioned a lawsuit that lasted many years.
Men scarcely beyond middle life can remember the trouble and
annoyance occasioned by the old-fashioned sheets which were with-
out perforation or division of any kind. A regular part of the equip-
ment of every office and every house was a tin ruler and a pair of
shears to cut stamps from the sheet. The inconvenience of such a
process is evident, and about 1845 the English government offered a
reward for any device by which the stamps could be printed so as to
be easily divided from the sheet. A series of knives or lances cutting
through the space between the stamps was first tried, but proved
highly unsatisfactory. The stamps were liable to tear, and the
knives almost immediately became so blunted as to be practically
useless. A mechanic named Archer then presented a device con-
sisting of a number of hollow punches, with sharp edges, which
would perforate the sheets at short intervals. The post office author-
ities declared that the paper soon clogged the machine and rendered

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CABDS. 377

it useless. It was neglected for a while, but finally one or two
improvements were introduced, and a defect in the paper furnished,
arising from its unequal thickness, was remedied. The perforating
machine was then found to operate perfectly, and is now in use all
over the world.

In perforating stamps for use in this country, the gummed and
dried sheets are piled up fifty thick and placed under a heavy piece
of machinery provided with many hundred punches so arranged as to
pierce the spaces between the stamps. The sheets are run through
lengthwise, and afterwards changed in position, and ths cross per-
forations made. They are then ready for issue. Each sheet is
divided into two equal parts, and the stamps are delivered to the
Government. They are delivered by the million to the postage
stamp agency in Trinity Place, New York City.

It has several times been proposed to print the postage stamps at
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington. Postmaster
General Dickinson in his time drew an amendment to the Post Office
Appropriation Bill for this purpose. The printing of the stamps and
postal cards would not be a very large enterprise in comparison with
the work now done at the Bureau. The number of sheets of postage
stamps printed per year of all kinds is 10,000,000, or about 50,000
per day. There are about 200 stamps in a sheet of the ordinary size.
It would probably take a force of seventy or eighty men and women
to do the work. If the tax on manufactured tobacco should be re-
pealed, the suspension of printing tobacco stamps at the Bureau
would leave a chance for printing the postage stamps. This work is
done on twenty hand presses and ten steam presses. One man is
employed at each press, with two women assistants on the hand
presses and one on the steam presses. This makes a force of seventy,
to which would have to be added about fifty operatives in the other
divisions of the office. About two thirds of this force, it is estimated,
would be required to print the postage stamps, not including the
postal cards. The cards would not require a large force, but would
take considerable storage room. There are obvious advantages,
according to the advocates of the scheme, in having the postage
stamps printed by the Government in Washington. It would save
to the Government whatever profit is now made by the contractors,
would permit more rapid communication between the Post Office

378

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Department and the printers, and the prompter filling of orders, and,
as it was maintained at the time, would make fraud practically im-
possible.

The postmaster at San Diego, California, tells a story about a per-
son living in that town who corresponded with his young lady ; and
she certainly was an economical young lady. The economical fea-
ture of the correspondence was that writing paper and envelopes
were dispensed with and the thoughts of the writer were put upon
the mucilage side of the postage stamp. On the lower edge of the
stamp was of course the small margin of white paper, such as is
often found on a row of stamps when several are purchased, and on
this the address was written ; and the stamp, instead of being placed
on the back of a letter, was sent on its important mission with a let-
ter on its back. It arrived at San Diego all right, and was delivered
to the person to whom it was addressed. But of the stamp crank,
a chapter later on. The other kind is more numerous than this.
The stamped envelopes are all manufactured at Hartford, Conn.,

by the contractors, the Plimpton
Manufacturing Co. and the Morgan
Envelope Co. These are made
plain, without any printing 011
them, or bearing a blank return
request, or what is designated as a
special request containing a per-
son's name. The printing is done
at the factory at Hartford, in the
course of making the envelope.
All orders from postmasters for
these envelopes are sent to the
Stamp Division and forwarded to
Hartford, and the envelopes are
sent from there to the postmasters.
Reckoning the different sizes, qual-
ities, denominations and color of
paper, the Department issues sixty-
eight different kinds ; and a while
ago an order for all of these was sent for the national bureau of
the Universal Postal Union for distribution. Each nation is to be

HON. ELISHA MORGAN,
President, Morgan-Plimpton Envelope Co.

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 379

furnished with five sets of each kind of United States stamped
paper. It is a general exchange among all the nations in- the
Postal Union.

The denominations in which the stamped envelopes are issued are
one, two, four and five. The five-cent ones are used entirely for
foreign correspondence. There are three different qualities of many
of the sizes ; and there are ten different sizes of envelopes besides
the newspaper wrapper, which is issued in denominations of one and
two cents. The wrappers are also made at Hartford, under the
same contract with the envelopes. This contract is let once in four
years. The contract for official, registered-package and tag envelopes
is made every year. The terms, of course, from year to year are
determined by the price of paper stock. The contract of a year ago
was for less than the present one, paper stock having advanced con-
siderably during the period.

The cost of stamped envelopes to the public is no more with,
printing than without. Of course the contractor knows about the
proportion of plain and printed ones that he will be called upon to
furnish, and he takes the expense of printing into account in making
his bid. But under his bid he is to furnish whatever proportion the
Department may order of special request or blank request envelopes.
It has been argued by job printers in many parts of the country that
the Government has no right to secure the printing of these return
request envelopes by the envelope contractor at such reduced rates,
because it is in effect forming a combination and shutting out all the
aforesaid job printers from a chance to do at least a part of the work.
It is said in reply by the supporters of the present system that if the
printing were not done by the contractors the number of stamped
envelopes printed would doubtless be much smaller, and the amount
of business anyway that would go to the different printing offices
scattered throughout the country would be very small ; that they
would not recognize it when they saw it. Furthermore, the accom-
modation involved in the return request, printed without apparent
extra cost 011 the stamped envelope, is a great convenience to multi-
tudes of business men. In that way it is a public accommodation ;
and again it is actually found to be of immense value to the Dead
Letter Office, for evidently if the return request were printed on all
envelopes dropped into the mails no letters could ever go to the

380

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Dead Letter Office, because when they failed of delivery, they would
be returned to the senders ; and it has even been argued that
a law ought to be passed to compel all persons mailing letters
to put this request on, not in printing necessarily, but in some way
at least.

But the argument of the printers has been strong enough to pre-
vail, and in the last session of Congress the act providing for the

A FRAME OF STAMPED ENVELOPES.

return request on stamped envelopes was repealed. The Senate
rejected the bill, but in conference receded from its objection. So,
there is no more printing of the return request by the Government
contractors. The demand for special request envelopes is in-
creasing more rapidly than that for any other kind of stamped
paper, and there are more special request envelopes issued now than
of any other kind, even including the plain and the blank request,
which has only one line across the envelope. When the stamp
division does not specify just what kind of envelopes its orders call

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 381

for, the contractors send half plain and half blank. Most of the
large offices desire to have theirs plain, except when they order
the special request put on. Almost every business man now
uses this means of having his communication returned to him
within a stated short period, in case it cannot be delivered to his
correspondent.

The stamp division receives the requisitions of postmasters for all
supplies of postage stamps, stamped envelopes and postal cards,
sends a regular order each day, except Sundays and holidays, to the
several agencies whence the stamp paper is distributed, directing that
the postmasters named in the orders be furnished with the supplies
specified, and charges to the account of each postmaster the value of
the stamped paper which he has thus ordered. Each requisition is
examined to make sure that the signature affixed is that of the post-
master at the place mentioned, and also to ascertain whether the
business of the office requires the supply ordered. If a postmaster
at a small office should order an unusually large supply, or a quantity
of any particular denomination of stamps larger than would ordina-
rily be required at a post office of that class, he is called upon to
explain why such supplies are required.

This precaution is necessary as a matter of ordinary business, and
also to prevent any attempts on the part of postmasters to increase
the receipts of their offices, and hence their own compensations, by
procuring matter to be mailed at their offices that should properly be
mailed elsewhere. For, while everyone has the right to buy postage
stamps and to mail his letters wherever he pleases, yet it is evidently
not a fair thing to the Department for a person doing business in a
large city, for instance, to take his postal matter to some small
suburban office to mail it, for the reason that his city office has to
receive and deliver all his incoming mail, and practically has to do
all his work, and is consequently furnished with the means with
which to do it ; consequently, the matter furnished from that office
does not lessen the expense there, but does increase the emoluments
of the smaller office at the expense of the Government. Yet it has
sometimes been found that the business of a small office is enlarged
in this way.

Several years ago a post office was established in Connecticut near
the New York State line, within a few miles of two or three other

382

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

post offices. The pay, of course, was small. Soon the postmaster
wrote to the First Assistant Postmaster General to be instructed
whether he should receive and mail any matter that might be brought
to his office. He was informed that he should not refuse to accept
any matter that was entitled to transmission in the mails. A little
later a firm in New York City wrote to inquire if, under the Postal
Laws and Regulations, they had a right to mail their letters and other

SPECIMENS OF STAMP!]

SPECIMENS OF STAMPED ENVELOPES.

postal matter where they pleased. This query was replied to in the
affirmative. The connection between these two inquiries became
apparent soon after when the postmaster at the little Connecticut
office began to order extraordinary quantities of stamps and to mail
extraordinary quantities of matter ; and it was soon developed that
the New York firm, who were the sons of the Connecticut postmaster,
expressed their matter to his office in order that the old gentleman
might increase his compensation from almost nothing to $250 a

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 383

quarter. The postmaster was removed ; and it was then that this
order was issued :

" Every postmaster at a fourth class office is forbidden on pain of removal to
solicit from any person residing or doing business within the delivery of another
post office, or from any agent of such person, the deposit for mailing at his office
of any mail matter, or to enter into any agreement or to have any understanding
with any person whatever whereby either for or without consideration matter to
be sent through the mails is procured to be mailed at the office of such post-
masters."

A sharp, desperate game was tried several years ago by a post-
master at a small mountain town in the South. He began to order
unusually large numbers of stamps, notably of the higher denomina-
tions. When called upon for an explanation of the sudden increase
of postal business at his office he built, on paper, a bustling business
community, enumerated the number of families, manufactured a
great shop that sent out many packages of merchandise by registered
mail, and described the flourishing academy on the main street,
whose students corresponded very extensively. It was all a pure
fiction, of course. The flourishing town was a dozen deserted shan-
ties. There was no shop at all, and the seminary building was a
sheepfold. The postmaster was arrested, but he escaped from his
captors by jumping from a fast-moving railroad train.

An interesting case was brought to light not long ago in the
neighborhood of New York City. It appeared that some enterpris-
ing burglar who entered a small post office near the metropolis had
carelessly thrown away a package of newspapers which they found
in the safe. They evidently considered it worthless ; but it contained
all the postmaster's stamps, and they were worth ten thousand dol-
lars ! Evidently there were so many of them that if the patrons of
the post office in question had spent all their time writing letters
they could not have used so many stamps. This incident caused
inquiry to be made at the New York post office. It was explained
that the amount of this business of " booming " local sales is not to
be gauged by the amount of stamp sales, because there is a consump-
tion of stamps for mails sent out from that city to the value of at
least $3,000,000 per year from stamps that were not sold in the city, but
which reached consumers through other means. A great many buyers
send pay to business houses in New York for goods in stamps ; and
it was said that a good number of houses receive stamps yearly to the

384 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

amount of 150,000 in payment for goods. Many houses receive
more stamps than they can possibly use in their own mailings,
and dispose of them to brokers at a discount, the brokers in turn
peddling them out to other merchants at about three per cent, below
their face value.

There is no law effectually to reach sales of this kind, and even
if there were, its operation could not be far-reaching, because such
sales do not cut an important figure in the postage business. The
receipts of stamps in payment for goods is an important matter, how-
ever, and adding them to the stamps brought to the city by merchants
who purchase out of town to help the local postmasters, and stamps
brought to the citv by visitors who send out letters from New York,
there is an aggregate of at least 13,000,000 in stamps that go through
the New York post office which have been purchased elsewhere and
for which the New York office gets no credit whatever.

Some say, therefore, that the Post Office Department does the
New York post office an injustice by basing its allowance for ex-
penses on the stamp sales. The yearly receipts at the New York
office amount to about 17,000,000. This, of course, is a larger busi-
ness than is done anywhere else, but it is said that if the office were
paid according to the number of stamps that must pass through it
attached to letters, representing out-of-town as well as local pur-
chasers, the year's business at the New York office would amount to
$10,000,000. The New York postal authorities would be very grate-
ful to anyone who might devise a way by which the business naturally
belonging to the New York office would be turned in there. They
confess their inability to see how any law can prevent a merchant
from buying stamps where he pleases, and if he happens to live in
the suburbs and wishes to help a friend by making his purchases of
him, there is nothing that can stop him, unless it be discovered that
his friend is also favoring him by letting him have stamps at a dis-
count. It is regarded also as practically impossible to prevent people
from sending stamps to merchants in payment for goods, and, of
course, there is no way of regulating the use of stamps which visitors
to the city may have bought elsewhere.

The present contract for stamped envelopes is very advantageous
to the Department. The bids amounted to $755,276, being
$85,720, or 10.3 per cent, less than the cost of corresponding num-

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 385

bers and kinds at the prices in the contract made in 1886. With an
allowance of an annual increase of 12 per cent, in the quantities to
be required, the reduction in cost for the four years of the contract
term amounts to over $450,000, as compared with the previous
contract. The United States is by far the largest consumer of
stamped envelopes of all nations in the world. Upward of
500,000,000 are used in an average year. In England, Germany,
France, Russia, and Austria combined the number furnished in 1888
was only a little more than 70,000,000, or about one seventh of the
quantity used in this country.

The attention of the Department is now and then called to the
importance of a better system of checking at the envelope factory at
Hartford, so that it may be absolutely certain that no stamped
envelopes escape. There is a Government agent there, but he is not
supposed to know about the condition of the stock of envelopes
until it actually comes into his custody. He knows how many
stamped envelopes he receives, and what he does with them ; but
whether any are lost in the process of manufacture before they come
to him he cannot determine, and really that is not his affair. The
envelopes are counted automatically as they come out of the
machine, counted and banded in packages of twenty-five, and then
put up inside of boxes holding 250 or 500 of the ordinary letter
size. So, probably, all that he takes account of is the number of boxes.
It would be difficult for anyone after stealing stamped envelopes
to dispose of them, supposing that he could take enough to make it
amount to anything. Within two years it has been necessary
for the contractors to enlarge their factory materially, and while
they were doing it a portion of the building was torn away. They
employed a watchman to be on guard there all the while, but
after the work was completed it was found that somebody in Hart-
ford was offering stamped envelopes for sale at a discount. The
matter was investigated immediately, and the theft was traced to a
watchman. The Department recovered nearly all the envelopes that
were stolen, and the contractors paid the postage value of all that
were not recovered.

The postal cards are all manufactured at Birmingham, Conn. Mr.
Albert Daggett is the contractor and Wilkinson Brothers are the
manufacturers of the paper. The postal card agency at Birmingham,

386

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

is the main source of supply. There are two sub-agencies, one at
Chicago and another at St. Louis, to which the postal cards are
shipped, as freight, for distribution. All orders come to the Stamp

Division and the agencies are
directed to send the cards out.
From Birmingham, New England,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Delaware, and all the South-
ern States east of the Mississippi
River, except Kentucky, are sup-
plied. St. Louis supplies the states
west of the Mississippi and south
of Iowa and Nebraska. Colorado
and California are supplied from
Chicago ; and all the Northwest,
and Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and
Michigan get their supplies from
Chicago. A postal sub-agency is
about to be established at Wash-
ington for the better supply of the
South. At each of these cities the
postmaster acts as sub-agent and
has such clerical help as may be
necessary ; and he is allowed clerk hire for them.

There are three sizes issued, A, B and C, and also a two-cent
international card and the new reply postal card, now so rapidly
coming into general use. The big card is popular, but it costs
the Government more to furnish it, and its tendency is to lessen
the correspondence at letter rates and increase it at postal card
rates. The Postmaster General's idea was, however, that the more
space the people have to write on for one cent the nearer they
come to one-cent postage. Business men find the card very useful
in sending out announcements. Its size is different from anything
else that goes in the mail, and one card tied alone in a big bunch of
mail matter gets jammed and broken. That was one reason why the
conference of inspectors recommended that stamped envelopes be fur-
nished without including the cost of the envelope so that mail
matter would be more uniform in size and therefore easier to handle.

MR. ALBERT DAGGETT,
Postal Card Contractor.

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 387

The B, or ordinary, cards cost the Department 35 cents a thou-
sand, the A cards 3T cents, and the C cards 50 cents. In the present
contract for the ordinary cards the price is about one third cheaper
than in the old one, the average price of the cards being about 9
cents a pound in the former contract, and 6 cents a pound in the
present one. The estimated number of cards required during the
four years of the contract term is 2,000,000,000, at a cost of about
$800,000, a-nd the reduction in cost for the four years will amount to
fully $150,000, as compared with the prices in the old contract. The
postage on the estimated quantity of cards being called for during
these four years is $20,000,000. The contract requires nearly 7,000
tons of paper, or an average of six tons for each working day. Postal
cards were first introduced into this country in 1873, and the issue
for the first year was about 100,000,000 cards. The contract price
was then $1.30 a thousand cards, or about three and a half times
the average price in the present contract.

The postal card factory of ex-Senator Daggett is at Shelton, Con-
necticut, which is only three miles from Birmingham, Ansonia and
Derby, a celebrated manufacturing neighborhood, in which every-
thing from a pin to a piano is made. The postal card factory is on
the opposite side of the canal from the Derby paper mills of the
Wilkinson Brothers. They supply the paper for the old, or medium
sized card, and for the new manilla card, commonly called the big
card. The paper for the small, or ladies' card is made by the Whit-
ing Paper Co., of Holyoke, of which Hon. William Whiting, a former
member of Congress from Massachusetts, is president.

The plates from which the postal cards are made are of steel, and
are produced from a die engraved at the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing. The plates are made by rolling this die on soft steel plates,
which are afterwards hardened and carefully gone over by an ex-
perienced engraver. The time consumed in engraving one of these
dies is about three months. The paper is received at the factory on
small, four-wheeled trucks, four thousand sheets to a truck of the
old card, and three thousand sheets of the new. The former lot
weighs 2,112 pounds, and the latter 2,700 pounds. . The cards are
first printed on the Whitlock two-revolution press, which is also
made in Shelton. These presses print 100 cards at each im-
pression, of the ladies' size and of the old cards, so called, and 64 of

388

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the big card ; and they all print in 10 hours 10,000 sheets of postal
cards, or 1,000,000 of the small and medium size, and 640,000 of the
large size. This is the largest number of postal cards ever printed
on one press; for, before the term of the present contract began,
twenty-four cards only had been made at one impression. In one of
the rushes of business which sometimes occur these wonderful presses
are run twenty-three out of the twenty-four hours for fifteen con-
secutive days without a skip or a break.

THE POSTAL CARD FACTORY AT SHEI/TON, CONN.

It happens not infrequently that one of these busy times occurs.
Two or more big orders will come in in a single day sometimes.
Once an order came from St. Louis for 10,000,000 and another from
Chicago on the same day for 25,000,000. It took four freight cars
to carry these cards away ; but there were enough on hand to fill
both orders. The vault at the factory holds 125,000,000 cards, all
packed in boxes, and the contract requires that 20,000,000 shall be
constantly stored there. When these orders for 35,000,000 cards
came, the contractor had on hand fully 50,0(50,000.

The paper for the small card is made of rags and sulphide wood

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS.

389

pulp in equal proportions. The old card is printed on the finest
wood paper. The big card is made of a fine manilla paper manufac-
tured from jute butts. After the cards are printed, they are dried
carefully so as not to print on the backs, and are put through two
machines, which cut the sheets into strips of ten cards each, and
then cross-cut these sheets into single cards. The slitter, as it is
called, is run by two persons, one of whom feeds the machine ; and
the other carries the strip, when cut, to the cross-cutters. One

THE POSTAL CARD FACTORY AT SHELTON, AGAIN.

slitter cuts enough strips to supply three cross cutter machines. The
cross cutters are run by a "feeder," and three "helpers," or
"banders." As the strips are fed through these cross cutters, the
cards are cut exactly in the shape in which the purchaser finds them,
and dropped into ten little compartments at the rear of the machines,
and in front of the bandery. When 25 strips have passed through
the machine, the wheel, on which there are four rows of these little
compartments, makes a quarter turn and presents the cards to the
banders in packages of 25, so that they may affix the gum band
which is to retain them in their place. At the same time one of the

390 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

hands examines the cards for spoiled ones, while another counts the
packages to see that no mistake has been made by the feeders.
The cards are then stacked up in piles of twenty packs, which are in
turn placed in small pasteboard boxes containing 500 cards each.
The pasteboard boxes are then packed in strong wooden cases (of
which about five carloads a month are used), in two, five and twenty-
five thousand lots, all ready for shipment.

The paper for the C, or big card, is jute, and its manufacture is a
long and difficult process. It is done by tearing apart the bales
(which contain about 400 pounds pressed very tightly together).
It is then passed through cutting machines and a picker, to cleanse
it from bark, pith and other dirt. From the picker, or duster, it is
packed in rotary iron or steel boilers and treated with a solution of
lime, when it is subjected to steam pressure for a number of hours,
which softens the harsh nature of the raw jute. It is then placed in
a washing machine, designed especially for this work, where it is
thoroughly cleansed of all lime and other impurities. The stock is
then of a reddish brown color, and is treated to a bath of chloride of
lime, sufficiently strong to bleach it to the shade seen in the card.
Then it is thrown into beating engines, where the fibres are slowly
and continuously, for several hours, passed between dull knives,
until the fibres are reduced to a degree of fineness so thorough as to
admit of their being thoroughly interlaced into the woven sheet,
which is accomplished by passing the pulpy mass over finely woven
wire cloth, thence through rolls to free it of water, and thence
through dryers, heated by steam, to remove all moisture. After this
process it is put through calendar rolls, which give it the even and
smooth finish which appears in the finished card. The manufacture
of the paper is now complete, and after being cut into sheets of the
desired size, it is ready to go to the printing presses.

The paper used in the regular or B card, which has been the one
used ever since the Government first adopted postal cards, is com-
posed entirely of wood fibre made from spruce and poplar reduced
to pulp from the logs, after the bark has been removed, by cutting
it into small chips. The machine which cuts up the logs is a most
wonderful one. A log is put into the hopper of the machine and
is cut into chips in the time it takes a man to lift another one from
the pile and throw it into the hopper, but a few seconds. The

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS.

391

logs are four feet long and from five to ten inches in diameter.
The chips are about an inch long and a quarter of an inch thick.
They are placed in a bronze digester, and treated with sulphur-
ous acid and subjected to steam pressure, which thoroughly dis-
integrates the fibre and leaves it in a pulpy mass ready for the same
process of manufacture into paper as is used in the case of the C
card. The material used in the paper for card A is white linen rags.

CUTTING POSTAL CARDS IN STKIPS.

The process used to convert them into paper is about the same as in
the other cases.

There was complaint at one time that the big card would not
copy ; that is, that a good impression could not be taken of any
writing put upon it, and this, though the material from which it is
made was a strong, hard, firm paper. But any paper will absorb
common writing ink. It is likely that the Department, in selecting
the kind of paper to be used, did not consider that it would be used
for copying. But if the experiment is tried with good copying ink,
and if care is taken, the result is always satisfactory. There is nothing
harder than to make the postal card paper of just the proper texture.

392 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The mania for the collection of cards is nothing like that for the
collection of stamps, but people frequently try to see how much they
can write on the back of one. President Cleveland's latest message
contained 15,000 words. Yet a man in Belfast, Maine, put it all on
the back of an ordinary postal card, with a steel pen and ink, each
letter, as seen through a microscope, being beautifully formed.
Moreover, a border three eighths of an inch wide was left around
the card, representing a string of beads, 52 in number, each three
sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and containing the Lord's Prayer ;
and 4,000 words were put into this border. The man was 77 years
old, and insisted that he could get 18,000 words on a postal card.
It took him 45 days to write this one.

The Stamp Division manages the very important matter of the
issue, distribution and collection of newspaper and periodical stamps,
which, as may be inferred, are used in the collection and payment of
postage on second class matter mailed at the pound rate. Of these
there are a great many denominations from one cent up to sixty
dollars. They are arranged in such denominations as will be mul-
tiples, and will enable postmasters, by making combinations of them,
to represent any amount of postage. In one sense these stamps are
never used at all ; that is, the public never uses them. The pub-
lisher is always required to pay the amount of postage due when he
sends his papers to be mailed. The postmaster is required to give
him a receipt for it and to affix to the stub of that receipt stamps
representing the exact amount paid.

The method of attending to this business has been somewhat
improved lately. Originally, a receipt book with stubs was fur-
nished to each postmaster, and he filled out a receipt and gave it to
the publishers, and attached to the stub the proper amount of stamps ;
and at the end of the quarter he was required to send these stubs,
with his statement of postage collected during the quarter, to the
Stamp Division. There the statement was examined and the stamps
on the stubs counted to see that the postmaster had affixed the proper
amount and canceled them. Now the Stamp Division sends the
larger offices manifold receipt books, made in sets of three sheets.
The postmaster puts carbon paper under two of the sheets and writes
the receipt on the first. That, of course, gives an exact copy on the
other two, one of which he is to retain in his office as a record, so

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CAEDS. 393

that when an inspector examines the office and looks into the trans-
action of second class business, there will be something which he
may consult. (Then, if he wishes, he may compare that record with
the original receipts held by the publisher.) The third copy, to
which the stamps are affixed, the postmaster sends now to the Stamp
Division, in order that it may be known what amount of postage he
has collected. After the stamps are counted they are all destroyed,
as rapidly as the clerks can count them. During the first month of
a quarter they rarely do this, there is so much other work on hand.

The present system operates as a check on the postmaster, because
it leaves him no chance to make a receipt to the publisher for an
amount different from that entered on the stub. In the old way, for
instance, he could have given the publisher a receipt for five hundred
pounds, and could enter on his stub two hundred and fifty, and affix
the stamps accordingly. Then, too, under the old method he had
no complete record in his office ; so that inspectors, when they called,
were at a loss. At a big office like New York, where they must do
things systematically, a record would be kept ; but a great many post-
masters did not keep systematic records, and had nothing from which
an inspector could ascertain the amount of business actually done.
The new method is of further advantage because it enables the post-
master to keep, without any trouble, a complete record always on file
in his office. He gets a fac-simile of the receipt which he gives to
the publisher, without any extra work. Before, he had to fill out a
receipt separately.

The larger newspapers keep a sum of money on deposit at their
post offices to draw to for the payment of their newspaper postage
bills. The postage for the day is figured up according to the weight
of the package, and the stamps to the extent of the postage are then
selected. None of these stamps are ever sold, so that even if one
passed into dishonest hands it would be of little use, for it is not a
legal tender and could not be used for postal purposes. But a
woman who had the craze for stamp collecting called at the Bangor
post office recently and said she wanted to buy " some of the stamps
which are canceled when postage is paid on regular publications."
It is against the rule to sell these stamps, and the woman's remark
led to an investigation by an inspector. As they were never allowed
to go from the office, they were naturally of great value to collectors.

394 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The inspector found that the book had been taken by an employee,
who believed it to be of no use. He sold them and found eager cus-
tomers. But whatever ones he had on hand he cheerfully gave to
the inspector who called on him.

It is believed by many that there used to be considerable collusion
between the business offices of newspapers and the second class matter
clerks in post offices ; but now there is hardly any. The amount of
revenue from second class matter to be expected in a given year or
month from a given office is regular. It is known at the Stamp
Division what the average increase is, and any marked falling off
during any particular quarter would at once excite suspicion. The
long and short of it is, however, that the postmaster has to be
trusted. Some have contended that a stamp of small denomination
should have been adopted at the beginning, so that it could be affixed
to the bundle of papers when they were mailed ; and that would have
been the end of it, as with other stamps. An objection would be, of
course, that it would be a great source of annoyance to publishers ;
and it would require a great many stamps of small denominations,
down to fractions of a cent even. Most likely a departure like this
could never be made.

In the annual report of the Postmaster General there is always
printed a table, giving the weights and postages collected on second
class matter, at offices which send out 40,000,000 pounds, collect
over $400,000, and earn over 23 per cent, of the amount collected in
the United States for second class matter, as at New York, all
the way down to Meriden, Conn., which sends out twelve or thirteen
thousand pounds annually, collects perhaps $125, and contributes
1/100 of one per cent, to the revenue from this source.

It is frequently contended that large newspapers, which receive a
great many more stamps than they have any direct use for, should
have the privilege of exchanging these for stamps of large denomina-
tions at the post offices, rather than sell their surplus at a discount to
some dealer. The Third Assistant Postmaster General would say
that such a change would seem to be improper ; that instead of
enlarging the opportunities now afforded for the use of stamps as cur-
rency, which the change suggested would do, they should be abridged,
if possible. Moreover, if this change were made, there could con-
sistently be no sufficient reason urged against extending the change

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CAKDS. 395

so as to make large denominations of stamps receivable for postage
due and special delivery purposes, or for the payment of any kind of
postage, or, in other words, of having them made exchangeable for
other ordinary stamps of any convenient denomination a practice
that would doubtless be advocated, but which would be unquestion-
ably inexpedient.

It costs the Post Office Department, as a careful estimate made by
Postmaster General Wanamaker has set forth, from $12,000,000 to
$15,000,000 as a dead loss annually to transport newspapers in the
mails. But though he has pointed this out, he has also tried to im-
press upon Congress and the country, as far as he could, the still
more striking fact that, if the Department could secure credit for the
free work that it does for the other executive departments, the pos-
tal deficit would not only disappear at once, but there would actually
be a surplus ; and he has even gone so far as to suggest that with
these logical and right changes the privileges already accorded to
the newspapers (which he has argued are right, because it is the in-
tention of the Department to disseminate intelligence in every pos-
sible way) might be extended even to the free carriage of papers
altogether.

The special delivery stamp is of particular design, to be used only
for the purpose of securing the special delivery of a letter, and it is
made of this different form and larger than others so as to attract
this instant attention, and so that any person handling it, no matter
how hastily, will discover this purpose. Yet the question is often
repeated, why it would not do to put on the same value of two-cent
stamps. This would not answer the purpose ; they would not clearly
show that they were put on in order to secure special delivery,
and they would not attract particular attention, either. A ten-cent
special delivery stamp on a letter, as one writer has said, is supposed
to keep it in constant motion from the time the letter is deposited
until it is delivered. There is liable to be a little delay in starting a
letter when it is deposited in a letter box instead of a post office, but
everything must make way for special delivery letters after they once
get into the vicinity of a mail bag. The clerk hustles them out with
the first mail leaving the office and puts them on the outside of pack-
ages, or in a bundle by themselves, so that the next employee may see
them in an instant. If the special delivery stamp is put on a pack-

396 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

age of second, third, or fourth class matter, it has to be treated in a
first class manner that is, it goes into a pouch instead of a sack,
and is pushed through just as rapidly as a letter bearing the same
stamp.

Two years ago over two and a half millions of pieces of mail were
sent by special delivery, and the average time consumed in the
delivery of each, after it reached the post office of the addressee, was
only twenty minutes. That same year the number of pieces delivered
was nearly one third more than the average for the four years
previous. The messengers are paid by the piece, so that the larger
the number of letters the better the wages. At some offices where
substitute carriers are awaiting vacancies they are employed on the
special delivery service. In Boston three times as many special
delivery letters were delivered in August of 1890 as were delivered
in August of 1886, and in Baltimore almost a similar increase has
been shown.

There had been some complaint about the special delivery service
at the Chicago office. An improvement ingeniously contrived was
a mechanical carrier device, similar to the cash systems in use in
large mercantile establishments, by which all special delivery mail
was to be whisked across from the receiving to the recording division.
This saved considerable time, but did not overcome the delay of
entering the letters in the messenger's delivery book. Then a plan
was suggested which it was thought would completely do away
with the delay of carrying special delivery mail from the depots to the
office, and of handling and recording it there. Upon eight of
the railway post office trains arriving daily at Chicago, clerks from
the Chicago post office distribute and " route " mail directly to the
carriers. These clerks could, in a few minutes each trip, enter the
special delivery mail in the delivery books of the messengers, hand
the mail and the books directly to the messengers at the depots ;
and they in turn could immediately make their deliveries, and the
records in the office could be made up from the delivery books after
they were returned.

Another suggestion is that the special delivery be supplemented
by a plan for return messages. A person who puts ten cents extra
on a letter to insure immediate delivery, would, it is presumed, feel
equal to the payment of another dime to hear from his specially

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CAKDS. 397

delivered message without delay. So it is proposed that the sender
of a special delivery letter may put with it a return envelope, with
another special delivery stamp upon it, addressed to himself. The
messenger takes the letter and the return envelope, waits five
minutes for an answer to be written, and then delivers it at the
return address before coming back to the office. The stamps on
the return envelope are to be canceled before the messenger starts
on the trip. If there should be no answer, or if the person to whom
the letter is sent is not at home, the sender would, of course, lose his
extra dime, unless, of course, this fact is the very information he is
after. But here the special delivery service would again come in
contact with the district messenger service, and that would be a
serious thing. Some postmasters have hesitated to encourage it,
because it so interferes. Some have employed district messenger
boys. But most of the postmasters understand that it is a valuable
facility which the public is willing to pay for, and they have
accordingly encouraged it. The only forcible objection to the system,
as has been many times pointed out, is that it does not work
well on Sundays, as the post offices are not required to make Sun-
day deliveries. All postmasters are allowed to fix Sunday hours for
their offices, and some choose to make deliveries of special stamp
letters ; but the rule of the Department has been to ease Sun-
day work for men already overworked. The public probably
sympathizes with this practice ; and there can be no charge of indi-
rection made against the Department, as all who use the special
delivery stamp know that post offices are only opened 011 Sunday for
general deliveries and that no street deliveries are made.

The folded letter sheets are furnished by the Postal Card Company
of New York. They are supplied at the stamp agencies, but it is a
small business, and the demand for this class of stamped paper is
decreasing. Many think it had better go out of use altogether. The
sheets are furnished only to Presidential offices. They were first
tried during the War, as it was thought they would be useful to the
soldiers for paper and envelope together ; but it was found later that
there was no demand for them, and they were discontinued. The
second demand arose mostly from persons who had a letter sheet
envelope for introduction. None of the big concerns or old con-
tractors even bid on them. The cost is $23 a thousand. The postage

398 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

would be |20 ; that is, $3 a thousand is for the sheets. That is the
price which is charged to postmasters. They are issued only in two
cent denominations, and there is only one kind of them. Twenty
per cent, less were issued this year than last. Business men use
them but little, if at all.

Official envelopes are the kind used by the Department, by the
postmasters, and by all postal officials, or deputies of officials, for
their official correspondence. The free registered package is similarly
used tor registered letters. The Morgan Company has the present
contract for these, but the year previous it was secured by White,
Corbin & Co., of Rockville, Conn., but the Morgan Envelope Co.
made the envelopes. The Post Office Department has nothing to do
with the official envelopes of the other departments.

There has always been more or less discussion of the supposed
abuse of the penalty envelope. The Department formerly had
stamps, which were used in order that the Department might get
credit for the matter which it was obliged to carry, and which it
carried under the old arrangement for nothing and without having
anything to show for what it did. When the stamps were used, the
Post Office Department provided all the other departments with
stamps and kept a record of them. Now each department provides
itself with envelopes. A report was made in Congress a few years
ago upon the abuse of the franking privilege. It was brought out
that there were many hundreds of officials and clerks who could use
stamps ; and having got them, these people would, of course, use
them for much of their correspondence.

A ruling of the Third Assistant Postmaster General is that in-
dented or perforated sheets of paper containing characters which can
be read by the blind are first class matter if they contain actual per-
sonal correspondence, and that otherwise they are mailable at the
third class rate. This means that the correspondence of the blind,
bulky as it necessarily is, is treated like matter sent for any other
class of persons. In fact, any class distinctions have always been
objected to by the Department. It is well known that the fear of
being charged double and treble the ordinary rates compels the blind
to make their letters as short as possible, and it is argued that they
ask for no discrimination in their favor on such matter as they are
able to send in the ordinary form, which includes type-written and

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, POSTAL CARDS. 399

pen-written letters. It is when they are obliged to put the same
matter in an embossed system, either because they cannot afford a
typewriter, or because the person addressed is blind and can only
read the embossed letter, that they ask to have the same matter go
at practically the same rate. The whole number of blind persons in
the United States is about 60,000 ; and it is contended, furthermore,
that the amount of mail matter sent by them at letter rates would
be almost infinitesimal as compared with that sent by the seeing ; and,
therefore, the cost of transportation and delivery could not be per-
ceptibly increased. The blind complain of another difficulty. Their
letters, being written on embossed paper, are rolled up and wrapped
like a newspaper for the better protection of the pages, and open at
both ends. Though they pay the first class rate of postage, their
letters are apt to be treated as second class matter. These, accor-
dingly, sometimes lie over with newspapers and packages in a rush,
and the delay causes not only inconvenience, but disappointment and
loss. But the chief foreign countries take this view that the per-
sonal correspondence of the blind is first class, and, as has been
stated, it is feared that the favor asked for them would be sought by
many other classes.

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS; HANDLING KEGISTEBS.

OSTMASTERS are required to make requisition for all
the supplies of stamped paper needed at their offices
of the Third Assistant Postmaster General. The
requisitions all come to the Stamp Division, are
arranged alphabetically, examined and compared with
the books of the Department to see if the person
who signs the requisition is postmaster, and to find the
amount of his bond and the amount of stamps furnished
him during the preceding quarter. Every requisition has to go
through this examination; or the clerks have only the signer's
word for it that he is postmaster.

The first of a quarter the division receives several thousand
requisitions every day. From about the 5th of July, say, the Stamp
Division files requisitions from 1,200 postmasters a day, and this
process continues for about twenty days. On 1,200 requisitions
from postmasters tlje clerks probably fill 1,100 for stamps 1,000 for
postal cards, 600 for stamped envelopes and 800 or 900 for special
request envelopes. In addition to these are orders for postage due
and newspaper and periodical stamps; so that, including all kinds
of paper, they fill some days more than 4,000 requisitions. Blanks
are furnished the postmasters, on which they order, on one blank,
all the ordinary stamps, postal cards and ordinary stamped envelopes
wanted ; and on other blanks they order special request envelopes,
postage due stamps and newspaper and periodical stamps. The
division sends seven orders a day to the several postal agencies,
giving the names of postmasters, offices, counties and states, one
order for ordinary and special delivery stamps, one for postage due,
one for newspaper and periodical stamps, one for letter sheet
envelopes, one for ordinary and one for special request envelopes,
and one to each of the postal card agencies. All of the stamps and

400

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS; HANDLING REGISTERS. 401

letter sheets are distributed from New York, all the envelopes from
Hartford, and the postal cards from the agencies.

There are forty-seven clerks in the Stamp Division continually
employed on this work, not including the chief and eight laborers
and messengers. The work of counting newspaper and periodical
stamps which are returned, and of redeeming damaged stamps and
envelopes spoiled by misdirection, occupies the time of several men.
At the first of the quarter it takes all the available force to fill the
postmasters' orders. When this rush is over, all the available force
is put to the work of counting and redeeming the stubs of receipts.
It is impossible, with the present force, to keep up with the requisi-
tions at the first of a quarter, although they never wait more than a
few days. The messengers are instructed, when they open the
requisitions, to separate those of all the large offices (that is, the
offices that order more than a hundred dollars' worth), and these are
filled immediately; and the smaller ones go out as rapidly as possi-
ble. There is never any serious delay.

Postmasters rarely anticipate the end of the quarter, and many
persist in ordering on the first of the quarter when there is no need
whatever. The Stamp Division discourages the practice of order-
ing on even quarters as much as possible, in order to have the work
more generally distributed. The largest offices do not order so
much on the first of a quarter. They order every month. New
York orders a little over $ 300, 000 worth of stamps every month, and
over 4,000,000 postal cards a month. The postmaster's bond is
$600,000, and he probably has on hand always a greater amount of
Government property than he gives bond for. He deposits his
money often, of course, but the New York office carries in stock
always over $500,000 worth of stamped paper. The stamp and
envelope agencies do not have any extra people to put on for a great
rush of work at the beginnings of quarters, but they rarely fall
behind more than a few days. The contractors put their goods in
boxes and cases ready for shipment, and the force at the stamp
agency does the rest, making out the receipts and writing the labels
for the packages. The stamps are sent out to postmasters by regis-
tered mail, as the envelopes and postal cards are, except that postal
cards for Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati are sup-
plied by freight. To all of the postal card sub-agencies shipments

402 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

are made by freight. New York requires a car load of postal cards
every thirty days.

The distribution of these valuable supplies is such an intricate
and immense business that it takes considerable time to complete an
order. A nearby postmaster, say, makes a requisition. It reaches
the Third Assistant's office the next morning, and the Stamp
Division by noontime. All of the requisitions received at the
Stamp Division before one o'clock are put in the order arranged for
that day. The orders are first arranged alphabetically, so that the
transcriptions to the order sheets for the agencies and also to the
ledgers (both of which are arranged alphabetically) can be arranged
more easily. The clerks have so many requisitions to examine every
day that it is impossible for them to notice the names of the post-
masters making them sufficiently to enable them to become familiar
with the names to an extent that would help them in searching the
ledger though they know without any hesitation, of course, that
Van Cott is postmaster at New York, and McKean at Pittsburg,
and Harlow at St. Louis, and Wills at Nashville, and Backus at
San Francisco, and so on. In some quarters (for instance, the third
and fourth quarters of last year\ it is impossible to do all the work
without ordering the force back at night, for this work of issuing
the stamped paper must be kept up with. And the work of redeem-
ing stamped paper must be kept up ; all that is received during the
quarter must be counted and properly allowed during that quarter.
All the receipts that come in for stamped paper issued have to be
alphabetized and entered on the impression books, and then turned
over to the Auditor's office, before the close of the quarter.

The only work that can possibly be let go, no matter what the
rush may be, is the work of examining stubs. In some quarters
the clerks are utterly unable to do it. All postmasters at whose
offices second-class publications are mailed are required to submit
quarterly statements of their collections of postage on that matter,
and with that quarterly statement, as has been said, to send
their stubs of receipts, with stamps affixed and cancelled, represent-
ing the exact amount of postage collected. Those are all examined,
with the stubs, and then counted and destroyed, and the amount is
posted ; and there are between seven and eight thousand offices at
which second class publications are mailed. Thus far these state-

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS; HANDLING REGISTERS. 403

ments have all been compared by the Stamp Division clerks, but
it is getting to be impossible to do it. If a postmaster has not
affixed the proper amount of stamps, he is called upon for the defi-
ciency. Every few days a bundle of from fifty to a hundred reports
are received from inspectors of offices which they have visited in the
natural course of business. A special inspection is requested in
case any dishonesty is discovered or suspected; but the chance for

WHERE RETURNED STAMPS ARE STEAMED, COUNTED AND DESTROYED.

this discovery or suspicion is small, because the clerks could not
recall continual mistakes on the part of one postmaster, and probably
a different clerk would examine the postmaster's receipts each quar-
ter. If the statement appears to be correct, and the stubs of receipts
correspond, there would be nothing to excite suspicion unless there
has been a material falling off in the amount of postage collected at
the office in question during the quarter.

It is not understood by all that stamped envelopes spoiled by mis-
direction or by mistakes, or rendered useless by changes in firm

404

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

names, addresses, etc., may be redeemed, upon presentation at the
post office within the delivery of which the misdirection or the mis-
take or change occurred, at their postage value in postage stamps,
if presented in substantially a whole condition. But stamps cut or
torn from stamped envelopes are rieither receivable in paying postage
nor redeemable. This is in order to prevent the redemption of
envelopes that may have passed through the mails without cancella-
tions of the stamps. For this same reason stamps cut from
stamped envelopes uncancelled cannot be affixed to letters in pay-
ment of postage, and letters so mailed are held for postage. Where
stamps are damaged in the hands of postmasters, or stamped envelopes
have been spoiled as just described, they are all sent to the Stamp
Division each quarter. These have to be counted, and then a notice
of credit of the amount is sent to the postmaster and a credit sheet
made up for the Auditor, authorizing the Auditor's office to credit
each postmaster with such an amount. New York sends in about
forty large boxes full of stamped envelopes every quarter, contain-
ing about 400,000, due principally to misdirections and changes of
firm names, and about the same quantity is received from Chicago:
for the larger the city the larger the business.

In a hot month the Stamp Division receives nearly a hundred
packages a day of damaged stamps. During the winter, in the cold,
dry weather, there are very few received, not any more in a month
than are received in summer in a day. The damaged stamps come
mostly from the South and Southwest, because the climate is hotter
and damper. They are nearly all twos, and batches vary from a few
dollars' worth to several hundred dollars' worth. They all have to
be counted. Most of them arrive solid, and have to be put in hot
water and steamed apart in the first place. If they all come out in
full sheets they are very readily counted; but the worst work is
when the postmaster keeps his stamps he knows not how, and the
playful cockroach riots among them and eats the mucilage off, and
a few stick together, and a few tear, and he sends several hundred
in, all separate and loose. Then each individual stamp has to
be handled and counted. After they are counted, they are all
destroyed. The stamps that are returned during hot weather are
not damaged through the carelessness of the postmaster. It is the
state of the atmosphere, for often they adhere when placed in vaults.

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS; HANDLING REGISTERS. 405

The question has been studied how to find a mucilage that will not
be affected by atmospheric changes ; for this business causes a great
deal of annoyance to the public also. A man buys ten, twenty,
twenty-five stamps, and puts them in his pocket. They stick
together. He takes them back to the postmaster and wants him to
redeem them, and is told that the regulations don't allow it. He

DESTROYING RETUKNED STAMPED ENVELOPES.

cannot send them to the Department and have them redeemed, either.
He may, however, dampen them and tear them apart, and then put
mucilage on them again.

To allow the postmaster to redeem unused stamps would be in
effect to make them currency. All business houses who advertise
extensively receive immense numbers of stamps, many more than
they can use, especially of the higher denominations. But if the
Department were to redeem them, it would be flooded. Nor can a
postmaster sell stamps which he has in his possession as Government
property except for cash; nor, indeed, is he allowed to exchange
them for others of different denominations ; and all this because it

406

THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

would make currency of them. And it is argued that business
houses which take stamps in payment for bills know that they are
not currency, and hence must not complain that they are not allowed
to pass them as such. Hence, no doubt, as before hinted, millions of
stamps are sold at a discount, though not very much to the agents
of the Department, as it is believed, for that is unlawful. A
private individual may sell them, of course, as cheaply as he chooses,
or he may give them away, or throw them away; and similarly he
may buy them as he chooses.

Said the redemption clerk at the New York post office recently:

" The redemption business at the New York office is probably as large as that
in all the other post offices of the country combined. The stamped paper comes
to me sometimes in great batches, and one day alone I paid out $380 worth of
stamps. The largest amount returned in a lump was one lot of about 10,000
envelopes, one-cent and two-cent. I handed out for those just 8,700 two-cent
stamps, or $174 worth. The large banking and mercantile houses and the clubs
are about the only concerns that take advantage of the law. There are, un-
doubtedly, thousands of stamped envelopes spoiled which are destroyed, as the
fact that they are redeemable is not generally known."

In a year the New York post office has redeemed as much as
$20,000 worth of stamped envelopes; and it was a very smart metro-
politan who saved the stamps of stamped envelopes to the value,
as he thought, of $140, only to find that they were worthless.

The immense business of the Stamp Division is illustrated each
year by a table similar to the following :

Articles issued.

Number.

Amount.

Ordinary postage stamps

2 397 503 340

$46 239 050 00

Special-delivery stamps . . .

2 569 350

256 935 00

Newspaper and periodical stamps

4 098 263

2 055 798.00

Postage-due stamps

14 974 820

361 573 00

Stamped envelopes, plain

224 611 250

4 373 525 99

Stamped envelopes, request

281 743 500

6 078 140 45

Newspaper wrappers

49 871 500

579 501 50

Letter-sheet envelopes

817 500

18 802 50

Postal cards

424 216 750

4 246 165 00

Aggregate

3 400 406 273

$64 209 491 44

The total number of requisitions filled during an average year
for the several kinds of stamped paper is nearly 600,000. The
most notable item of increase always is that of the special request

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS; HANDLING REGISTERS. 407

envelopes. The number of parcels in which these supplies are put
up and mailed to postmasters during an average year is almost
three quarters of
a million. Then
there are issued
13,500,000 regis-
tered package en-
velopes, 1,300,000
tag envelopes for
registered pack-
ages, 1,800,000 en-
velopes for return-
ing dead letters,
38,000,000 official
envelopes for the
use of postmasters

-. , T THE BIG LETTER PRESS,

and other postal

i r <r /-\ r\ f\ Operated by two men to make copies of requisitions filled.

officials,and 53,000

newspaper and periodical stub books, or more, in an average
year. The number of cases in which postmasters return damaged
stamps and misdirected stamped envelopes for credit is usually
almost 12,000. Credits are allowed to the extent of almost a quarter
of a million dollars.

The object of the registry service, an important division of the
Third Assistant's office already mentioned, is the safer transmission
of mail than the ordinary process affords. The chief safeguard of
registered matter is to confide the registered matter to the care of
those employees of the Department alone who are sworn officers.
These include postmasters, their assistants and the sworn clerks of
their offices, postal clerks, transfer agents and letter carriers. The
aim is to have a registered letter, from the time it is deposited in
the post office where it is mailed until it is received by the person
to whom it is addressed, in the custody of one or another of these
officials or employees. Every person to whom the custody of a
registered article is intrusted must make a record of it, give a receipt
for it when "it is received, and take a receipt when he parts with it.

To handle each registered piece separately would require a very
large force of postal clerks, while between some points, no matter

408

THE STOBY OF OUB, POST OFFICE.

how large the force, owing to the limited time in transit, it would
be impossible to give and take the usual receipts and make the
necessary record. To overcome this difficulty the registered pouch
and inner sack systems were introduced. In the pouches passing
between given points are placed all the registered articles that
would ordinarily pass to the office to which the pouches are
dispatched. These pouches are locked, as has been said, with
rotary or tell-tale locks, that indicate when they are opened. Each
pouch is handled as a single registered article, and is receipted for
by the label it bears and the serial and rotary numbers of the lock with
which it is fastened. It may contain fifty or more articles, but
the postal clerk who receives it counts it as a single piece. Its con-
tents, when inclosed, are first carefully verified by two pouching
clerks, and again by two witnesses when the pouch is opened at its
destination. Nothing can be removed in transit without changing
the rotary number of the lock ; and as each person who receives the
pouch is obliged to receipt for it by the rotary, as well as the serial,
number of the lock, it can readily be ascertained who, if anybody,
opens the pouch. The postal clerks are not permitted to have keys
to open the rotary locks ; these are furnished only to postmasters who
exchange registered pouches. Thus, registered matter transmitted
in these pouches is as safe (if, indeed, it is not safer, since it is not
subject to the danger of being mislaid or stolen in transit) as when
delivered separately piece by piece to the postal clerks.

The difference between the registered pouch and the inner sack
service is chiefly that registered pouches are received in person
by postal clerks or transfer agents, both sworn employees of the Rail-
way Mail Service, at the office of dispatch, and are either delivered
by them in like manner at the office of destination or to another
postal clerk or transfer agent for such delivery. Inner sacks may
not at all times be in the special custody of postal clerks or transfer
agents, but they are designed to meet, as nearly as possible, the
requirements of the registered pouch service at offices where direct
receipt and delivery to postmasters, postal clerks, or transfer agents
are impossible. Where one or both of the exchanging offices is not
a terminal office for postal clerks and where there is no transfer
agent, the registered sacks, after being closed with tell-tale locks,
are pouched in iron-lock pouches with ordinary mail, from the post

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS; HANDLING REGISTERS. 409

office where it is made up, to a postal clerk, or from the latter to
the post office, of destination. They are never exposed to the view
of outsiders, nor are they handled by any but sworn officials or
employees, except in locked pouches, and then their presence is
unknown. The brass-lock service is in operation only upon star
routes, and is designed to relieve postmasters at small offices from
handling, recording, and receipting for registered matter other than
that addressed to their own offices, as they would be compelled to
do if the matter inclosed in the brass-lock pouches were received in
the way -pouches.

The registry method of mailing articles is not as popular in this
country as in some others. One reason is that other governments
show their own faith in the system by indemnifying any losers.
England, for instance, considers the fee paid on each letter or pack-
age as insurance for the twenty-five dollars which the British Gov-
ernment will pay the sender should the article be lost beyond
recovery This is the highest rate of indemnification paid by any
country. In the United States last year there were more than
eleven million pieces carried by the registered mails. This repre-
sented a special revenue of over $11,000. There were only nine
hundred pieces lost, and if the insurance had been placed on a par
with Germany's, say, each loser might have received ten dollars a
parcel and the special receipts would yet have covered the actual
disbursements. The indemnification for lost registered mail has
been strongly recommended by Postmaster General Wanamaker, and
many newspapers have desired it. Congressional action is, of
course, required. It is very much assumed in this country, and
rightly, that the ordinary mails are safe enough for most purposes ;
and some time ago an insurance company in New York, which
went into the business of insuring the delivery of letters, promptly
went out of business. Much of the advocacy of indemnification by
the Government is due to the fact that express companies, under-
taking to deliver valuable packages, become responsible for them,
while the Post Office Department does not.

SECOND CLASS MATTER FIENDS.

office of the Third Assistant has its annoyances and
its trials. It has its fiends who want their publica-
tions admitted to the mails as second class matter
when they are not second class matter at all, and its
fiends who will not admit them. The Post Office
Department, or its representatives in the different
post offices, are very particular to know the exact character of a
publication which applies for admission to the mails at the cent-a-
pound rate. Not only must it be known whether the publication is
to be a magazine or a newspaper published daily, semi-weekly,
weekly, or monthly, where it is printed, who runs it, who edits it,
and how the editor is paid, but the publisher has also to state
whether the proprietors or the editors are interested pecuni-
arily in any business or trade represented by the publication. The
publisher must further state whether its readers consider his paper
a general or special trade organ or not, how many copies he fur-
nishes regularly to each advertiser, and whether these copies are free
or paid for. The number of papers printed for each issue must be
set forth, as well as how many of them go to subscribers who have
paid for them with their own money ; and, besides stating the sub-
scription price and the number of sample copies which it is desired
to send out each week, the publisher has to disclose the ways in
which he has planned to obtain the names of the persons to whom
he intends to send these sample copies.

The pound rate was established by the Congressional Act of 1874,
but the distinction between advertising sheets and other newspapers
was not made until 1879. All other rules of the Department in
regard to advertising sheets have been made in accordance with the
act of 1879. The act of June 23, 1874, in giving the pound rate
of postage, gave it to actual subscribers and news agents only.

410

SECOND CLASS MATTER FIENDS. 411

Under this act there was no definition ; the publisher only said the
publication was issued periodically. But the act of March 3, 187 &,
stated conditions upon which a publication should be admitted as
second class. This act enlarged the privilege of publishers so as to
include sample copies. Prior to the Act of 1874 special mention
was made of exchanges; they went free of postage. It is still
assumed that they go at the pound rate.

The work of classifying the periodicals has been done at the
Department since September 15, 1887. Before that only difficult
questions were referred to the Department. Any postmaster had
authority to admit a publication, by exercising his judgment ; or, if
the character of the publication were questioned, the case was carried
to the Department. Until September 15, 1887, there was no general
oversight by the Department of these publications. Many of them
were admitted by the permit of postmasters ; and it is impossible
now to determine whether they were really entitled to admission.
There was almost an endless variety of rulings; for there were
almost as many judges as there were postmasters. Now, whenever a
new publication is presented for mailing, it is the duty of the post-
master to require the publisher to make sworn answer to a series of
questions given in the Regulations, to furnish the postmaster with
two copies of the paper; and the latter exercises his judgment
whether he will issue a regular temporary permit allowing it to go
at the pound rate, or a conditional permit allowing the publication
to go on a deposit of third class postage, subject to the refunding of
the excess over second class postage, if the Department decides that
it may go as second class ; or he will refuse to issue a temporary
permit and forward the publication to the Department with a state-
ment of the facts.

In passing upon a case the Third Assistant's office first sees
whether the publication complies with the technical requirements
whether it is issued at stated intervals, bears the date of issue,
and is published as frequently as four times a year and is numbered ;
whether the application for entry is from the office of publication as
shown by the paper. The office of publication is defined as "an
office where the business of the paper is transacted, and where orders
for subscriptions are received during business hours ; " and " this
office of publication shall be shown by the periodical itself." It

412 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

would cause endless confusion if papers were printed in one place
and mailed in another, and so far as the collection of postage on
them is concerned, it would be almost impossible to attend to it
properly. Of course, if all classes of matter went at the same rate
it would make no difference ; but as long as the publisher of the
second class periodical has special privileges, he is restricted to send-
ing it from the post office of publication.

These are the technical points. As to other requirements, the
character and general appearance of the paper are taken into account ;
whether it appears to be published in the interest of any one person,
or is devoted almost entirely to advertising ; the number of copies
printed ; the number of subscribers claimed ; the subscription price ;
and the number of sample copies proposed to be mailed ; and, on
these points, the office forms an opinion whether the publication
comes under the clause which provides :

" It must be originated and published for the dissemination of information of
a public character, or devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special in-
dustry, and having a legitimate list of subscribers, PROVIDED, HOWEVER, that
nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to admit to the second class
rate regular publications designed primarily for advertising purposes, or for free
circulation, or for circulation at nominal rates."

It is very difficult to determine whether a publication is issued at
the nominal rate or not, by reason of the custom of offering pre-
miums. The Department has not drawn the line very closely on
the premium business. A few years ago a New York daily offered
Webster's Dictionary as a premium. Numerous weeklies offer pre-
miums for getting certain numbers of new subscribers. Agricultural
papers offer seeds, and it is very difficult to say whether the publi-
cations are intended more to advertise the seeds or to disseminate
knowledge.

A good many publishers think the Department very inquisitorial.
But there is law for it all ; and all this is necessary, as well as law-
ful, because of the great increase in the volume of new publications,
and because so many schemes for advertising purposes are sprung on
an unsuspecting Post Office Department every day. The law stipu-
lates that the publication shall have a legitimate list of subscribers.
Attorney General Devens rendered an opinion in 1879 that whether
the list was legitimate or not was a fact to be determined by getting
all the facts that could be ascertained; that a publication might

SECOND CLASS MATTER FIENDS. 413

have a nominal list of subscribers and yet it would be an advertising
sheet, the list being simply procured for the purpose of obtaining
the pound rate, and the main object being advertising ; so that a
publication that has a small list of subscribers and a large list of
sample copies might not be admitted, while another publication
having no large number of subscribers, but having few sample
copies, would be legitimate.

One of the worst of the mere advertising publications to secure
admission to the mails before there was any regularity in the process
was a sort of farmers' paper published in central New York, which
the publisher would mail regularly to anyone who would send him a
list of names ; and then he would send circulars, as well as papers, to
the persons in the list. He would offer premiums of the nominal full
subscription price, and that seemed to give the periodical some char-
acter. Another publication of the same concern was issued from
New York, and it claimed a monthly circulation of 500,000. A
post office inspector found, however, that it did not have more than
3,000 real subscribers, and that all the rest were sample copies.
These two publications were later combined, and at the present time
are probably legitimate. Some really first class papers are used to
advertise certain things. For instance, one magazine used to send
out with every copy a coupon for which the subscriber received a
pattern, worth twenty cents, as a premium. The coupon, however,
must not be detached from the regular sheets of the publication, nor
must it be inserted in such a way that the evident intention was to
have it detached. Some papers have printed among their pages
coupons with perforations so that they might readily be torn off;
and a Philadelphia publication once sent out errata to a catalogue,
(which had previously been issued by the same house), intended to
be taken out of the magazine and put in the catalogue. The publi-
cation was excluded as long as it carried this extra sheet, which was
in effect merchandise.

The disposition of the Department is unquestionably liberal. Its
present head, and others who have directed its affairs, have believed
in the American periodical. But the laws which draw the line so
closely are necessary and wise, and there is no question that the
legitimate and wise publishers of the country sympathize with the
Department when it is brave enough to exclude an illegitimate pub-

414

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

lication, no matter how powerful it may seem to be. The exclusion
of mere advertising sheets would naturally throw more advertising
into the hands of those legitimately in the newspaper business.
The pound rate of postage was enacted for the purpose of encourag-
ing the dissemination of information of a public character, and any-
thing of a private character was supposed to be excluded, unless it
might be incidental. Being for that purpose, it was not the intent
of the law to allow a man's private business to be the main object of
the publication. If he wanted to circulate any information in regard
to that, he should do it in the proper way, by paying the legitimate
postage on it. And otherwise, a great many papers would be practi-
cally price lists that would crowd out all competitors. A publica-
tion was recently before the Department which had a business house
back of it ; in fact, it had been published by them. It was gradually
merged, however, into an independent corporation. Yet it still
remained true that a person who did business with that house and
got them to handle his goods, must place an advertisement in their
paper, and the price of the advertisement was deducted from his bill
of goods. The business house before mentioned paid for a large
number of copies of the paper and furnished to it a list of names to
which these were to be sent, and this list formed an important part
of the whole subscription list.

The secret society papers and those intended to develop insurance
associations are hard to reach. Generally speaking, their subscrip-
tion lists would be merely nominal, because they would go without
question to each member of the society or association. But the
organizations get around that ; for the society or the association will
contract with a publisher for a regular periodical, and it will take
one copy for each member, and claim that all these members are
legitimate subscribers for the paper, while the fact probably is that
the different lodges, or councils, or subordinate assemblies, are called
upon to subscribe for a certain number of copies ; and there is noth-
ing in the postal laws and regulations to prevent this, although it
would probably be admitted freely enough that the publications are
primarily for advertising purposes. The publication price is usually
very low, for with the large circulations that are inevitable the
publisher can afford to furnish great numbers cheaply.

There is trouble also with the "supplement" business, for the

SECOND CLASS MATTER FIENDS. 415

idea is prevalent that anything may be called a supplement. The
law says that the supplement must be matter that is issued with
the publication. The regulation provides that an independent
publication that is not germane to the periodical is not supple-
mental matter ; that a publication that is issued, and has advertise-
ments, and is offered as a supplement to various papers, is not
permissible ; but that literary matter may be accepted as a supple-
ment. If a sheet is intended for more than one paper, it is not a
supplement, but if it is for a particular paper, and if its advertising
is for that paper, then it is a supplement. But where the advertis-
ing is general and does not belong to the periodical, it is not a sup-
plement. In order that a supplement may be identified with its
paper it must bear the name of the paper and the date of issue.

The Third Assistant's office has admitted on the average six thou-
sand periodicals a year, for the five years in which the decisions have
been with the Department. Many of them, probably two fifths, are
old publications re-admitted. So that four clerks in the Stamp Divis-
ion have passed upon eighteen thousand new publications in addition
to the others. In making up this record, a publication that is in its
first volume is called new ; if it is in its second volume, it is called
old. Sometimes a publisher will number the first volume of his
paper ten. There is no regulation to prevent his doing that. The
Department is obliged to exclude not more than one tenth of the
publications submitted to it, and probably one tenth of those
excluded modify the forms and purposes of their publications so as
to be admitted finally. The work of the clerks, or of the Third
Assistant, or of the Assistant Attorney General of the Department,
so far as it relates to second-class publications, is not entirely
pleasant, unless the life of a man is pleasant who spends it chiefly
doing unpopular things which are also right. The clerk in charge
ought to have twice as many assistants in order to keep up with his
mail. Probably two fifths of all the applications have to go back
for correction. The technical requirements are specified on the back
of the blank, but few notice it. For instance, they do not show the
periods of issue, nor the subscription price ; the applications may
not show the number of subscribers ; and if that is so, the Depart-
ment cannot take action. The correspondence cases are handled by
the clerk in charge and an assistant. The other clerks do miscella-

416 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

neous work, answering letters, which number from ten to fifty a
day, and all that.

Not infrequently the Department investigates an alleged subscrip-
tion list. A suspected publisher is invited to send to the Depart-
ment the names of twenty-five or fifty of his subscribers. He does it.
The supposed subscribers are invited to say upon a slip (which is
sent for reenclosure to the Department in a penalty envelope)
whether he is really a subscriber or not, and often not one in the
twenty-five or fifty will say that he is. But on the other hand all
admit that they receive the paper gratuitously. Information in these
cases is usually secured in this way, and from postmasters, too, at
the offices of publication ; but now and then post office inspectors are
required to make investigations. It is a natural thing for the
rejected publisher to make as fussy a time of it as he can. The
rejection is great advertising for him and he does not fail to see
the advantage. He either gives up his publication, however, or
else makes it conform to law.

Many think the pound rate ought to be limited to actual subscrip-
tions and to a reasonable number of sample copies, a number equal
to one half the subscribers, say ; and something like this was recom-
mended at the Postmaster General's recent convention of postmas-
ters. Some, on the other hand, believe that every printed thing
ought to go at a uniform rate, and that, if necessary, the rates should
be raised. It is unfortunate that the Department is without any
digest of rulings. The Postal Laws and Regulations are almost
impossible to obtain, though just now they have been edited again.
When questions relating to second class matter are appealed, they
go to the Third Assistant, and from him to the Postmaster General.

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC.

ESIDES being obliged to contend with the second
class matter fiend, the Third Assistant's office has
the stamp maniac to deal with. It ought to be
said that the trials and annoyances of the Third
Assistant's office which are due to the stamp maniac
are confined to the amateur, for the professionals
understand that the Department cannot supply any
kind of stamps, foreign or domestic, old or new, in
any quantity. For the comfort of the Department
and everybody of influence in it, as well as for the
public convenience, the following might well be posted in large red
and blue letters on all bill-boards :

The Post Office Department does not buy or deal in canceled stamps or those
that have been used. No specimen stamps, either domestic or foreign, are sold
or given away by the Department. Newspaper and periodical stamps, either
perfect or canceled, are not permitted to pass beyond the custody of postal
officials. On no pretext are they sold to anyone.

But there is nothing of discouragement in this for the stamp
maniac, professional or amateur. He goes on forever. He has his
publications. They are devoted exclusively to philately, as the
stamp mania is called. In almost every large city and town in the
country are professional dealers in postage stamps.

The methods used in the buying and selling are auction, approval
sheet, and private sale. Auctions are carried on by several of the
large dealers and many rare stamps are sold by auction at what
seem enormous figures. The auctions result for the most part from
the breaking up of fine collections, with such specimens added as
the cataloguer may wish to dispose of in this way. These figures
show about what amounts first class sales will bring, according to
the rarities offered: 864 lots, $2,423.98; 981 lots, $2,522.16; 1095

417

418

THE STORY OP OUR POST OFFICE.

lots, 14,056.57; 1,113 lots, 2,698.37; and 1,729 lots, 16,601.89.
The highest prices paid for single stamps at these sales were $326
and 1140 ; and none of the stamps sold were very rare ones. The
approval sheet method is a very satisfactory way of buying and

SUABLE STAMPS

selling stamps. It gives a chance to examine the stamps before
buying, and so one is able to see exactly the condition of the
stamp ; and it brings into communication those who would do busi-
ness together in no other way. Shops where nothing but stamps are
sold are found in all the large cities. Paris has a stamp mart in
the open street.

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 419

The prices of stamps vary, according to their rarity, from twenty-
five cents per thousand to several hundred dollars apiece, some e~ven
reaching into the thousands. On the first page of a well-known
catalogue one finds the following:

Brattleboro, Yt 1846 5 cent . .' $250.00

Baltimore, Md. . . . . . 1846 5 cent black on white paper . . 200.00

Baltimore, Md 1846 5 cent black on bluish paper . . 300.00

Baltimore, Md., envelope . 1846 5 cent black on white paper . . 300.00

Baltimore, Md., envelope . 1846 5 cent black on buff paper . . . 300.00

Baltimore, Md., envelope . 1846 5 cent black on blue paper . . . 300.00

Millbury, Mass 1847 5 cent black on bluish paper . . 300.00

New Haven, Conn., envelope 1845 5 cent red 200.00

New York, N. Y. ... 1842-3 3 cent black on buff paper . . . 100.00

New York, N. Y 1842 3 cent black on green paper . . 100.00

New York, N. Y 1842 3 cent black on blue paper . . . 20.00

New York, N. Y 1842 3 cent black on blue glazed paper . 7.50

New York, N. Y 1845 5 cent black 3.50

New York, N. Y 1845 5 cent black variety 15.00

Providence, R. I 1846 5 cent black 3.50

Providence, R. 1 1846 10 cent black 20.00

St. Louis, Mo 1845 5 cent black 75.00

St. Louis, Mo 1845 10 cent black 50.00

St. Louis, Mo 1845 20 cent black 500.00

Probably the cataloguer could not supply more than half a dozen
of the above list and many of them could not be purchased at any
figure whatever.

That high prices are not restricted to United States stamps is
shown by the following list of prices :

Canada 1851 12d $100.00

Cape of Good Hope Id 100.00

Cape of Good Hope 4d 90.00

Hawaiian Islands ... 1851-2 2c *. 500.00

Hawaiian Islands .... 1851 5c 300.00

Hawaiian Islands .... 1851 13c 200.00

Hawaiian Islands .... 1851 13c. variety 300.00

Mauritius 1848 8d 200.00

Mauritius 1847 Id 350.00

Mauritius 1847 2d 350.00

British Guiana 1850 2c 150.00

British Guiana 1850 4c 215.00

British Guiana 1856 4c. blue 250.00

British Guiana 1856 4c. magenta 350.00

These are a few of the rarer stamps, but, as with coins, their value
varies enormously with the condition of the specimen. Among the

420 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

choice stamps are those issued by various cities and towns of the
Confederate States of America.

Philately is the name given to the branch of study which
embraces the collecting and arranging of postage stamps. The word
was introduced in 1865 by M. Herpin, a well-known French col-
lector of the time. The word has been put in the dictionaries of
Webster and Worcester and occurs also in the Century Dictionary.
As M. Herpin explains it, the word means "the love of the study
of all that concerns pre-payment."

It is maintained by many that this study is a science ; but call it
a study. It is a great study! It teaches history, geography and
the arts. It teaches the use of the eyes, and it cultivates the
memory ; for what collector is there who, though he has five or six
thousand varieties, cannot tell at a glance whether a certain stamp
has a mate among his treasures ?

Every boy collector knows upon looking at the stamps of the 1869
issue of the United States that, at some time in the past, letters
must have been carried by men on horseback; of course he asks,
until he has been told that before railroads led to every part of the
country the only communication was by pony post. On the fifteen
and twenty-four cent stamps of the same issue he sees the pictures,
taken from those immense paintings in the Capitol at Washington,
representing the landing of Columbus, and the signing the
Declaration of Independence. He again asks questions, until he
learns about Columbus and about the men who signed the Declara-
tion ; and he also finds out why it was necessary to sign one. From
these he goes to stamps bearing portraits of the presidents. Turn-
ing to Mexico he sees the great changes that have taken place in her
history, the government overthrown, the empire created under Maxi-
milian, and finally the restoration of the old government. It does
not take him long to find out what this means, and he never forgets
it, because his stamps are before him to keep it fixed in his mind.

Every country contributes something to his history lesson. He
learns geography partly from the stamps themselves and partly by
locating the countries whence they come. If he has a Columbian
Republic, State of Panama, issue of 1887, he will have a map of the
Isthmus of Panama. An envelope of the Hawaiian Islands has a
fine picture of Honolulu and its harbor.

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 421

A stamp collection is particularly rich in objects of natural his-
tory. Canada shows the beaver, India the tiger and the poisonous
cobra de capello, New South Wales the kangaroo, the lyre bird (the
most beautiful of the birds of paradise) and the emu. Tasmania has
the duck bill, Peru the llama, the United States of America the
eagle, the United States of Colombia a condor, New Foundland the
seal, the cod and the New Foundland dog, Gautemala the quezal,
Western Australia the beautiful black swan. One of the water-
marks in the old Indian stamps is the head of the elephant and that
of the island of Jamaica is a pineapple. Ancient history is recalled
by the various allegorical figures, the finest of which are those
found on the newspaper and periodical stamps of the United States.
They are gems in workmanship and coloring. Even astronomy is
touched upon, for on the stamps of the new republic of Brazil is the
constellation of the Southern Cross.

The young man soon learns the various styles of engraving and
finally the very construction of the paper upon which the stamps are
printed. So, before condemning the stamp crank, see how good
he is to the world, and then understand how he can derive so much
pleasure from his hobby.

Scores of books go into the most minute descriptions of all the
stamps known to have been printed. They give quality, color and
kind of paper, water marks, colors and shades of colors, perfora-
tions and variations of perforations, rouletting, size, variation in
dies struck from the same plates, errors in die, color and paper, and
so on. For a knowledge of everything accessible touching United
States stamps a volume by Mr. John K. Tiffany of St. Louis suffices.
The advanced collector will find in the catalogue of Moens & Co.
of Brussels, the most valuable guide yet published. As to the
envelopes of the United States new discoveries, errors, etc., are
continually made, and the excellent book of Mr. Horner, which has
long been authoritative, is a little out of date. A new and complete
description of the United States stamped envelopes, wrappers and
sheets by Messrs. Tiffany, Bogert & Rechert, experts on the
subject, has just been published by the Scott Stamp and Coin Co.
It contains reproductions of fifty different sizes and shapes of
envelopes.

The collection of postage stamps in the United States did not

CATALOGUE OF POSTAGE STAMPS.

No. DATE. TYPE. VALUE. COLOR.

USED

699 700

74 1887 699 $or blue

75 '-* 700 30or blue

76 l * 701 soor olive

30 5

50 10

707

77 1888

78 "

79 "

702 rooi lilac

703 7OOr violet
7O4looor pearl gray

704

75
i.oo

80 1890

8 1 '*

82 "

83 "

84 "

85 1800
8f> "

87 '*

705 2or emerald green 3

5Or olive green 5

loor crincson 10

tf 20or purple 20

3Oor bluish purple 30

Same re- en graved,

705 sor olive green 5

loor crimson 10

" 2ocr purple 20

* 3OOr blu'sh purple 30

No, DATE. TYPE. VALUED COLOR. NEW. USED

89 1891 706 roor blue and red ro z

REVENUES USED FOR POSTAGE.

707

151 1887

152 M
T53 4i

Perforated. '

707 icor gieenish p

708 2Oor lilac

J * 2cor " var

NEWSPAPER STAMPS

Roule.tted.

201 1889

202 "

203 ''

204 *'

205 "

206 '

207

208

209 "

210 "

211 "

212 "

213 "

214 "

215

216
21? "
218

709

ror yellow

2or '

50r *

roor

2OOr

3Oor *

50Or

700r

icoor

lor ol.ve

2or green

$or pale brown
toor violtt
2oor black
3Oor carmine
soor green
7OOr blue
lOOOr brown

50
30

30
50
60

1.25

1.50

2
6

35
60

75
I. CO

7io 7 ,

A FAC SIMILE OF A PAGE FROM A STAMP CATALOGUE.

40-
25
15
15
25
25

5
8

25
35
60

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 423

begin to be known until about 1860, though collections began abroad
in the early fifties. There were a number of dealers in the United
States as early as 1862. At the present time there are several firms
of stamp dealers in this country, each having a capital of over
$ 100, 000 invested in stamps, envelopes, and so forth. In New York
City there are seven firms which make a business of collecting rare
stamps and disposing of them to collectors. These professionals are
always in touch with the markets in Europe, generally having resi-
dent buyers on the continent or in London, and the volume of busi-
ness done by them is astonishing. For thirty dollars one can buy a.
set of three albums, handsomely bound, with a separate space
reserved for each of the twelve thousand different stamps whick
make up a complete collection, and with a description of each stamp,
It takes many times thirty dollars, however, to make up the col-
lection. The professional stamp collector is generally a dealer also
in curious coins, fractional currency and Confederate notes.

The Scott Stamp and Coin Company does business in two offices
in New York City. Up town they occupy an entire building. The
basement floor is occupied by the coin department, and the first floor
contains the salesrooms and assorting departments. A large force
of women, trained in the business, is constantly occupied in making
up packets, arranging approval sheets, and assorting the more or less
permanent stock in trade. The salesroom occupies the front of the
first floor. A long table extends from one end of the room to the
other with a row of stools in front and several women clerks
behind. The sales are mainly made from sales albums, in which a,
very large assortment of stamps is arranged and classified with the
price indited in pencil over each stamp. The stock albums are kept
in enormous safes arranged along the wall behind the table, and in
these safes are also kept the reserve stock of stamps, which are
arranged in envelopes in consecutive order in boxes, each envelope
bearing the catalogue number of the stamps which it contains. A
large royal octavo catalogue, abundantly illustrated and containing
some four hundred pages, is the standard by which sales and
exchanges are almost universally conducted in this country. New
editions are issued each year, and the prices of stamps are gauged
for the most part by the results of the permanent auction sales
which have taken place during the year. The enormous correspon-

424

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

dence of the company relates to the sales of individual stamps at
catalogue prices, to the approval sheet system, and to the sale of
packets.

This sale of packets constitutes a large part of the business
of most of the stamp dealers. Every dealer publishes his packet
list, in which he offers the best bargains which he can afford ; and
for comparative beginners the purchase of a series of graded packets
forms the cheapest means of starting a collection. Packets contain-
ing one thousand assorted stamps (including duplicates) are offered
for twenty-five cents ; others containing one or two hundred, with
no duplicates, are offered for the same amount ; and as the quality
of the contents of packets increases the price increases in a propor-
tionate degree. For instance, seven hundred different stamps from
fifty-five countries in the Western Hemisphere, called the " Colum-
bus Packet, " are offered for $25, and one hundred and fifty Mexican
stamps, including some rare varieties, are offered for $15. Thirty-
five South American stamps are offered at fifty cents.

The stamp dealers and the stamp collectors want important
stamps, whether used or unused, to be put upon the free list. Mr.
R. R. Bogert, of the Bogert & Durbin Company, said not long ago:

11 To know how widespread this engaging pursuit has become, you have only to
consider the fact that there is at least $300,000 of incorporated capital engaged
in the business in this country alone and about 150 publications devoted to it,
and several hundred thousand people engaged in it. Germany has not so many
publications nor so many collectors as America, but the subject is approached
even more seriously there than here. Their papers are more historical and ex-
haustive than ours. Great Britain numbers her collectors by the hundreds of
thousands, too, and France is not far behind. Boys no longer outnumber the
others, but clergymen, lawyers, doctors, business men, and women engage in it
heartily. One of the most earnest collectors in this city is a clergyman, who,
when he attends an auction sale of stamps, gets genuinely excited over the
bargains."

An estimate made by a very conservative stamp dealer puts the
number of collectors in the United States at 300,000. But thou-
sands upon thousands of young people take up the occupation each
year ; for stamp collecting has been found to be a most attractive
way of interesting the young in politics and geography, and it is
encouraged by many teachers and parents. Sales of dealers show a
great annual increase, and there is not a large city but has its
philatelic society, where members discuss and exchange stamps.

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 425

As for albums, it is estimated that upwards of a quarter of a million
dollars is expended on them each year, from the cheap twenty-five
cent editions for beginners to the $25 editions for more advanced
collectors, and the higher priced ones specially prepared for the
very expert collector, who is not content with ordinary specimens of
each die.

The newspaper and postage due stamps, the former used entirely
by the second class matter clerks in the post offices and the latter by
postmasters or clerks only, with which to charge postage due, are
supposed never to come into possession of the public ; but they some-
times escape through postal people who are not sufficiently familiar
with the regulations. Almost every considerable stamp dealer
offers them for sale. A few years ago a postmaster in Massachusetts
sold several hundred dollars' worth of periodical stamps. When he
was notified to stop, he tried to recover all of these ; but they had
got securely in the clutch of the stamp cranks, and of course could
not be recovered. The stock of periodical and postage due stamps
in the hands of dealers is augmented by the acquisition of stocks
stolen from post offices. The burglars cannot use these stamps, and
their only means of disposing of them is to " fences, " and eventually
the stamp dealers (who, of course, cannot afford to be too particular
about the sources of their supply) come into possession of them.
Certain customers of the stamp dealers are frequently complained of
to post office inspectors. They have sent for approval sheets (sheets
from which the customer is supposed to select what he wants and
return the money for his purchase), but keep the stamps and never
send the money. The largest concerns, however, frequently send
approval sheets to the value of a hundred dollars ; but this is only
to customers of known responsibility. The stamp cranks exchange
surplus stamps among themselves, of course.

In Europe the stamp collection craze is much wilder than it ever
was in this country. The Queen's counsel, Philbrick, had a large
and fine assortment, and he kept up a continual correspondence
for many years with all the principal collectors in Europe and
America. Recently, 'however, he disposed of North and South
American stamps, preferring to confine his attention to the Old
World. At the same time he disposed of his collection of orchids
to a stamp dealer of Ipswich. The Ipswich collector has a large

426 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

building devoted to stamps, and he has made a fortune in the busi-
ness. It is said that Alphonse de Rothschild sold his collection
of postage stamps for $60,000. It was not generally known, even
to stamp collectors, that he possessed a particularly fine assortment
of stamps ; but that was because his collection was made many years
ago, and for ten years or more he had apparently lost all interest in
the subject. The largest and finest collection in the world is in the
possession? of Count Philip de Ferrary of the French Capital, the son
of the late Duke of Galliera. The postage stamps of this titled
individual are worth $500,000; at all events he spent that amount
collecting them. The cost of the 3,000 volumes in which they are
exhibited was $65,000. Next in value is the collection of the late
T. K. Taplin, M. P., a linen weaver of London, who expended
something over a quarter of a million on his hobby, paying $40,000
for a single private collection, which he purchased not to incorporate
bodily in his own collection but to cull out a few rare specimens
which it contained. He bequeathed his whole collection, valued at
$125,000, to the British Museum. The total number of different
stamps which have been issued in all the world from 1840, judging
by the face alone, is about twelve thousand, but there are minute
differences in stamps in the same series and denomination, such as
the texture of the paper or the different water marks, which are
esteemed important by fastidious collectors, and which make a com-
plete collection run up into the hundreds of thousands. At a recent
sale of rare postage stamps in London a single British stamp of 1856
brought $250 and was considered cheap at that price. Some Rus-
sian stamps are so rare that they command almost any price,
and attempts are frequently made to forge them. Sir Daniel Cooper,
a far-off Australian collector, recently sold his fine collection for
815,000. In England, Belgium, France and Germany, there are
stamp dealers having each a capital of over $100,000 invested.

Single foreign stamps have been sold at auction for very high
prices, and private sales are reported at fabulous sums. On very
scarce stamps the differences in value for the same denomination are
controlled principally by the condition of the stamps, whether dam-
aged, soiled, mutilated, or defaced, or in prime condition. The
stamps of the Reunion Isles have brought various prices, according
to conditions, from $200 to $400. The 12d stamp issued by Canada

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 427

in 1851 has been sold at from $100 to $150, though numerous
proof specimens can be bought for a five-dollar bill. In the
Sandwich Islands earlier stamps are scarce, ugly and very valuable.
The 13c (1851 and 1852) has been sold at from $150 to $300.
Probably the highest priced stamp in existence is the common look-
ing one penny of Mauritius, issued in 1847. A single one of these
is valued at $1,000, because there are only six or eight of them
known to be in existence. There is probably no genuine one in this
country; but as the field for forgery is wide, there are a good many
bogus ones. Of course, in order to be valuable, proof of the genuine
character of the stamp must be had. Each of these six or eight
recognized Mauritius stamps has a tabulated record of the different
owners who have possessed it, corresponding to the pedigree of a
blooded horse.

In the United States one of the best collections of stamps is owned
by Mr. John K. Tiffany, President of "The American Philatelic
Association," author of the work on the postage stamps of the
United States, and possessor of the finest philatelic library in
the country as well. Like many other advanced collectors, Mr.
Tiffany is a lawyer of high standing. His tireless industry and
perseverance have enabled him to discover many new varieties in
United States stamps. Other advanced collectors are W. C. Van
Derlip, Boston, Gen. E. D. Townsend, U. S. A., Washington,
D. C., R. C. Brock, attorney-at-law, Philadelphia, and P. H. Hill,
merchant, Nashville, Tenn. The best collection of envelopes in
Washington City is owned by Gen. Duncan S. Walker. At a
recent New York sale of stamps from the collection of Mr. Brock
the aggregate reached was upwards of $10,000.

Of the United States stamps there are many varieties ; and includ-
ing the so-called local stamps and varieties of paper, perforation,
grille, shade of color, errors, etc., together with the many thou-
sands of varieties of envelopes (when size, shape, paper, dies, errors,
etc., are considered), they constitute probably the highest aggre-
gate philatelic value of all countries. It is considered that the hand-
somest stamps issued, taken altogether as sets, are the United States
newspaper and periodical stamps, never used except to paste
in account books, never seen by the public except in albums.
These stamps, as is well known, range in face value from one cent

428 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

to $60, being twenty-five in number, and are very handsome in
design and color. Sets of these are not obtainable from the Govern-
ment now, except by foreign countries for official purposes of identi-
fication under the Postal Union agreement. Nevertheless, as some
ten or more sets were given away by a former official of the Post
Office Department as specimens, and as a number of the sets that
went abroad have found their way back to this country, sets of them
have been sold at various prices, ranging from $20 to their full face
value.

Perhaps the mostly high prized sets of United States stamps are
the special stamps used for many years for the payment of official
postage. These stamps, excepting those of the Post Office Depart-
ment and of the larger values of the State Department ($2, $5, $10,
and $20) were similar in design, though different in color. A
fine set of them in first class condition might bring about $50.

The issue of stamps was undertaken by several American post-
masters before the use of the first stamps printed in 1847 by the
United States. The attention of the Postmaster General was called
to the matter, but he saw no objection to the arrangement, and the
stamps were ignored by the Department. These stamps had no
official sanction and no significance except as indicating the amount
of postage charged; and they represent merely an agreement be-
tween the local postmaster and his patrons. Their object was to
enable the public to mail letters at hours when the post office was
closed. The most valuable of these, perhaps, is a fine specimen
of the original envelope of the stamped envelopes issued in 1845
by the postmaster of New Haven. A poor specimen of this stamp
sold at auction for $200. A fine specimen recently found among
a lot of unwrapped letters costing ten cents apiece is held at
$1,800. It is easily worth $1,000. Other varieties of the "post-
master" stamps, issued mostly in 1845, have been sold as follows
(sometimes at even higher prices): Brattleboro, Vt., five cent,
$150 ; Baltimore, five varieties of five cent, from $150 to $250 ;
Millbury, Mass., 1845, five cent, sold at $200 to $300, one
specimen held at $500. The Brattleboro stamp was engraved by
Thomas Chubbuck, who lived in Brattleboro and afterwards in
Springfield. This stamp was issued by Dr. F. N. Palmer (the
postmaster at Brattleboro in 1845-8), and did duty in Brattleboro

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC.

429

and vicinity, recognized by all postmasters as a voucher of the pay-
ment of the letter to which it was affixed. It was not the first
postage stamp issued or used in this country, as has sometimes been
claimed, being antedated by a stamp issued by the New York post-
master as early as 1842, while the St. Louis post office had used

BATON ROUGE.LA %^ $ 5O.
100 Js -

MAPION.VA

stamps of this denomination at least a year before Dr. Palmer's
stamp appeared in 1846. Only a few countries had then begun the
use of postage stamps, Great Britain in 1840, Brazil in 1841, and
Saxony soon after. The Palmer stamps were in use but a short
time, for the Government soon after began the issue of stamps.
Years after Mr. Chubbuck found among his specimens of work a

430

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

single sheet of eight of these stamps, and sold them to a collector
for a small sum. The purchaser afterwards told him that he sold
the eight stamps for |10 each; "but the man I sold them to," he
added, "got $20 apiece for them." A former Boston dealer in
stamps two years ago said :

"I only know of two persons in Boston who can boast of own-
ing a Palmer stamp. One was bought about twenty years ago
for seventy-five cents; the other, bought in 1882, cost per-
haps $100."

Other local or semi-local stamps highly prized by collectors are :
Alexandria, Va., 1845, five cent, valued at $200; Providence, R. I.,
five cent, valued at $3, and ten cent, valued at $20 ; New York City
Dispatch three cents, valued at from $1 to $15; and St. Louis, face
values respectively five, ten, and fifteen cents.

On July 23, 1845, Colonel Gardner, then postmaster at Washing-
ton, issued stamped or prepaid envelopes of a five cent denomina-
tion, which were sold to the public at six and one quarter cents
each, or one "pip," as the half shilling was then called, or eighteen
for $1. A full description of them has been found, but not a single
envelope, used or unused. An advanced collector has stimulated the
search by the offer of $1,000 for an undoubted specimen.

Some collectors pay high prices for errors in color or impression,
or for engraver's errors. Take the following combination of errors :
The " horseman carrier, " as it is called, has printed upon it a picture
of a horseman at full speed, and from his head flies the legend " one
cent." Above is "Government" and below "City Dispatch."
These stamps are said to have been used from 1851 until as late as
1860. Several varieties were found, including long and short rays,
prints in black and in red, and later one with the word " sent "
instead of "cent." Finally a variety was found with "O R E"
instead of "one" and "sent" instead of "cent." This unique
combination of engraver's errors is found in the collection of
C. F. Rothfuchs of Washington, and could not be purchased
for $200.

Errors in United States envelopes are very numerous. Those of
the 1869 set occur in the fifteen cent, twenty-four cent, thirty cent
and ninety cent, and were caused in printing, the medallion being
inverted in each case. Errors in the regular stamps sell to dealers

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 431

all the way from fifty cents to $7, according to the condition of the
stamps and the eagerness of the collector. Errors in the small
denominations have been sold at $50 and $ 75, and the ninety cent
error is held at $250. The only error known in the color of the
official stamps is in the two cent navy. The regular color is blue ;
the error is of the same color of green as the State Department
stamps, and sells at about $6.

Foreign "errors" are plentiful as huckleberries in season. The
British Colony at the Cape of Good Hope issued two triangular
stamps in 1857, a Id red and a 4d blue. By mistake some of the
Id were printed in blue and some of the 4d in red. The regular
colors are worth now from $4 to $6 each ; the errors, from $100 to
$150 each.

The highest price at which a specimen of the ten cent Reay War
Department envelope has been sold was received at auction many
years ago, the price, paid by Mr. Tiffany, being $50. Since then
specimens have been sold at much lower figures, especially those
of the light red variety. The six cent special issue size of enve-
lope specimens are of peculiar shape and are sold at $50. General
Walker has specimens not held by any other collector, upon which
he has uniformly declined to put a price. They embrace such
oddities as the five cent Garfield envelope printed in blue instead
of brown, old issues of shapes and water marks not chronicled,
and issues of the Plympton series, numbering one hundred and
fifty and of various dies, shapes and water marks, not chronicled by
any one, and not, so far as known, officially mentioned in public
lists.

A few years ago the Postmaster General ordered a reprint of an
obsolete design of a five cent stamped envelope. It was a mistake,
and as soon as it was discovered, all of the envelopes, about ten
thousand in number, were called in. A stamp collector in New
York learned in some way that these envelopes were soon to be
called in; so he bought fifteen hundred of them before the post-
master had time to send them back to the Department. He soon
had a monopoly of the issue, and was selling them freely at $5 each
to stamp cranks. Another incident : a collector learned that there
would be a short issue of a certain denomination put in circulation,
so he went to the contractor and purchased $10,000 worth of the new

432 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

issue. He attempted to sell them at greatly advanced prices, and
complaint was made to the Department. An investigation was
had, and the result was that an unlimited" number was ordered
to be printed, and the man who had invested his $10,000 was so
badly off that he appealed to the Department to redeem his unsold
stock. The Department is always on the lookout for counterfeiters,
and suspicions are generally aroused when persons not authorized to
sell stamps are found disposing of them in large quantities. But
in twenty years it has not been discovered that any counterfeiting
has really been done.

In Chicago not long ago a woman entered complaint at the post
office that many of her letters received from her brother in China
came without stamps, and when received, the corners where the
stamps should have been were wet. In some cases the thief had not
stopped to remove the stamp by wetting it, but had cut it out,
leaving the contents exposed. In one of the letters so mutilated
was a check for $50. The lady said that her brother-in-law, who
also received letters from China, had had his letters tampered with
in the same way. It was some stamp maniac, and such have only
to be caught to be dismissed in disgrace. The stamp craze once got
a New York letter carrier in trouble. When he entered the service
even, he was beginning to show signs of a violent mania. Soon the
unfortunate victim's movements became so queer as to attract atten-
tion. The boxes of his fellow carriers seemed to have a fascination
for him. He would plunge his arm into them and withdraw hand-
fuls of letters, over which he seemed to gloat with immeasurable
glee. This was especially the case when the foreign mails came in.
It was simply thought to be good grounds for suspecting him of
being an ordinary letter thief. But when he was searched his
sadder condition was disclosed. In every pocket of his clothes,
plastered about him, wherever they could be concealed, were stamps
cancelled, useless postage stamps. There were hundreds of them,
stamps from all corners of the world. Had he worn them out-
wardly upon his person he would have looked like a walking crazy
quilt.

The unsuspecting stamp collecting public is exposed to other
handicaps and frauds. Awhile ago a person who pretended to be
"John J. Morgan, philatelist, publisher Columbian Philatelist,

THE MUCH ABUSED STAMP MANIAC. 433

Camden, N. J.," was found to have been operating for a year with
circulars, price lists, etc., of what he called rare postage stamps.
A great many persons, tempted by his liberal offers, sent him
their valuable supplies, which they never saw again nor any
money, either. About the same time a person who called himself
Horace Stone began a similar business in Philadelphia. He was
suspected of being " Morgan " ; but just as the operations of this
person, or persons, began to attract notice he, or they, silently dis-
appeared.

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

T had been a favorite contention of Postmaster General
Wanamaker that the thousands of post offices in this
country were not closely enough in touch with the Post
Office Department at Washington, and he had sought
in every way to bring the general post office and all
its branches into better sympathy. The Department
learns from the post offices that the postmasters unques-
tionably do better work if they understand that the offices
at the central bureau take an interest in them and support
them in their efforts to improve the service. In all of his
reports Mr. Wanamaker had advocated a wider inspection, or
visitation, of the post offices. He first urged the division of the
country into twenty-five or thirty postal districts, in which the
best postal expert in each one, perhaps a postmaster, perhaps an
inspector or a railway mail superintendent, should be deputed
to visit all the offices from time to time, and not only make
suggestions to the postmasters for their improvement, but also ex-
amine all the phases of the postal business and see in what way it
could be improved ; and he recorded his firm belief that an appropria-
tion of $50,000 for such a purpose would actually save to the
Department ten times that sum in the cutting off of useless service
and especially in enabling the service, as it stands, to do a much
more remunerative work in numberless quarters. This was too much
new legislation for Congress, and the measure never passed. It then
occurred to Mr. Wanamaker that he could enlist the cooperation of
the postmasters themselves, without expense to the Department,
depending upon their loyalty to the service, which he had had fre-
quent occasion to be made aware of. He said in his report of last year :

There was, to be sure, no money to pay them for any services it was proposed
to ask for; but I had had such frequent unsolicited evidences of their enthusiastic
support that this objection did not seem material. The authority of the official

434

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES. 435

not specially deputized to do certain things might be questioned, but I depended,
on the other hand, upon the adaptability and good temper of the visitor and the
visited alike.

A personally signed credential of the Postmaster General was
therefore finally sent to each of the 2,807 county-seat postmasters
in the United States. It was accompanied by a brief note for each
visited postmaster to see, and the following questions for the visitor
to answer with reference to each visited office :

1. Is the post office located conveniently for the people ? If a map of the
town, with location marked, or a picture of the building can be conveniently
obtained, it will be useful to the Department.

2. Is it within the eighty rod limit ; if not, why could it not be so located ?

3. Is the post office well arranged, clean and orderly ?

4. Are the books, accounts and reports kept properly and promptly written
up ?

5. Is the office used as a place for lounging ?

6. State the time when the mails are received and dispatched.

7. Is notice of the lottery law posted where the public may see it ?

8. Do the patrons of the office generally regard the post office as efficiently
conducted ?

9. Does the postmaster study and understand the postal laws and regulations
and realize the responsibility and dignity of being an officer of the United
States ?

10. State how much time the postmaster gives personally to the duties of the
office ; and if the work is done by proxy, who does it, and at what pay ?

11. If the postmaster has any other business of office, state it.

12. What improvements in the postal service for this locality have occurred
since the present postmaster was appointed ?

13. State the names of and distances from your office to the four nearest
post offices.

14. How can the service be improved, and what is the chief obstacle in the way
of improvement ?

15. At what distance from your office is the nearest telegraph office ?

16. At what distance from your office is the nearest savings bank ?

What marking will you give the postmaster on the following basis: 1 means
poor, 2 means fair, 3 means good, 4 means excellent, 5 means perfect.

The elements to enter into the rating are the following: Convenience of the
office, cleanliness, order, keeping of the accounts, personal attention of the post-
master, improvements in the service made during the last year, growth of the
business in the past twelve months.

The postmasters were quick to realize the benefits of this visita-
tion. The county-seat postmasters enjoyed making their trips so
much, and saw that the visits would benefit the visitor and the
visited alike so much, that they travelled in the aggregate thousands
of miles, and spent out of their own pockets thousands of dollars.

436 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The magnitude of some of these undertakings was most notable.
Fresno County, in California, for instance, comprises over eight
thousand square miles, or nearly 5,280,000 acres. Its eastern boun-
dary is the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and its western
the summit of the Coast Range. Fresno County is larger than
Massachusetts or New Jersey, and four times as large as Rhode
Island. Everywhere wonderful good judgment was exercised. The
visits were just official enough, and just unofficial enough ; so that
the visited postmasters were very glad to cooperate and to furnish
all necessary information. 2142 of the 2800 county-seat postmasters
actually made reports in the time specified, and not only did they
report upon the condition of 45,600 of the post offices of the country,
but they made thousands, even, of valuable suggestions for the im-
provement of the service in detail. Many of these suggestions might
seem trivial, but in the aggregate they were of immense importance.'
All suggestions were referred to the proper bureaus in the Depart-
ment, and wherever it was wise and possible the recommended
changes were made. The county-seat postmasters were reported
upon in turn by the inspectors.

The following were the leading items obtained by an actual com-
pilation of over 38,000 of these reports:

Post offices conveniently located 36,930

Post offices inconveniently located 607

Changes of locations suggested 162

Post offices well kept, clean and orderly . . 34,718

Post offices not well kept, etc., 3,126

Books, accounts and reports properly and promptly written up .... 31,107

Books, etc., not properly and promptly written up 6,281

Post offices lounging places 1,250

Post offices not lounging places 35,691

Offices having one or more mails arriving and departing every day (that

is, supplied with daily mail service) 29,909

Notices of the lottery law found posted 32,677

Lottery law not posted 4,962

Post offices satisfactory to patrons 36,267

Post offices not satisfactory to patrons 1,066

Postmasters found to understand the Postal Laws and Regulations . . . 32,573

Postmasters found not to understand the Postal Laws and Regulations . 4,814

Postmasters devote all their time to their offices 22,070*

Postmasters do not devote all their time to their offices 15,420

Postmasters found to be engaged in objectionable employment in con-
nection with their post offices 166

Postmasters made obvious improvements in the service of their offices . 9,801

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES. 437

Postmasters who had not made improvements in the service 23,997

Offices which could be discontinued and supplied from other offices . . 409

Number of offices rated 5, or perfect 4,754

Number of offices rated 4, or excellent 8,495

Number of offices rated 3, or good 14,797

Number of offices rated 2, or fair 8,508

Number of offices rated 1, or poor 1,919

Two of the most interesting items (to quote from the last
annual report) which every county-seat postmaster was asked to
report upon, were the distances from the post office to the nearest
telegraph office, and the distances to the nearest savings bank. These
distances, reported in various terms of feet, blocks, rods, yards and
miles, were reduced to a common term, and averages struck of
the various parts of the country, with the following results :

New England States. Average distance to the nearest telegraph office, 4
miles ; average distance to the nearest savings bank, 10 miles.

Middle States. Average distance to the nearest telegraph office, 3 miles ;
average distance to the nearest savings bank, 25 miles.

Southern States. Average distance to the nearest telegraph office, 9 miles;
average distance to the nearest savings bank, 33 miles.

Western States. Average distance to the nearest telegraph office, 7 miles;
average distance to the nearest savings bank, 26' miles.

Pacific Slope States. Average distance to the nearest telegraph office, 13 miles;
average distance to the nearest savings bank, 52 miles.

Many of the visiting postmasters exercised great originality and
acumen in making up their reports. Many sent carefully prepared
letters discussing topics of postal interest. Many adorned their
reports with maps, diagrams and other illustrations. Many sent
photographs, which gave, of course, the exact appearance of the
visited offices, inside and out ; and some of the county-seat inspectors
submitted with their reports photographs of all the offices in their
counties.

Mr. J. B. Patrick, postmaster at Clarion, Pa., bound his reports
and enclosed them in a stiff brown cover. He wrote that he visited
every one of the seventy-four offices in his county. He made rec-
ommendations about the star routes. He travelled in all about four
hundred and fifty miles, three hundred by buggy, one hundred and
thirty-three by rail and seventeen on foot.

Mr. C. A. Wilcox, postmaster of Quincy, Ills., reported upon
Adams County. His visit caused seven postmasters to supply their
offices with new cases, and they soon experienced an increased revenue

438

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

439

from box rents. He found thirty-three offices in the county which
had no banking, and twenty-four which had no telegraph, facilities.
Mr. Wilcox submitted a map of each town and a very clearly drawn
map of Adams County. Reporting upon the Richfield post office,
he said :

Supplied by stage
from Fall Creek six
times a week. The in-
spector will always re-
member Richfield. If
it were as large as
ancient Rome, it would
cover as many hills.
Being circumscribed in
area, it covers only one,
or rather, seven com-
bined in one. Beyond
the town it slopes away
to the four points of
the compass, down,
down, down.

Postmaster James
F. Sarratt of Steu-
benville, Ohio, in-
spected the offices of Jefferson County. He discovered a great inter-
est, especially among the farmers, in the development of the star route
service, and he recommended that letter boxes be put along all the
star routes so that mail messengers might collect mail that had been
deposited and deliver it at the termini of their routes. Postmaster
Sarratt believed that the increase in the amount of mail would be
perceptible. He noticed that those villagers in a township which
were not provided with a post office felt rather keenly that they were
discriminated against. He also discovered that the farms were not
only more desirable, but actually more valuable, where those postal
facilities were provided.

The postmaster at Marion Court House, Iowa, Samuel Daniels,
submitted handsome maps of many of the places in his county, and
also sent photographs of many of the offices.

Postmaster Lewis G. Holt of Lawrence, Mass., inspected the
offices of Essex County along with the then postmaster of Salem.
He noticed that all the postmasters were anxious to know if in any

KOTTGHING IT NEAR RICHFIELD.

440

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

way they were behind the times, and they all expressed themselves
as not only ready to learn and adopt newer methods but pleased with
friendly criticism. The post offices of Essex County were marked :
3 perfect, 26 excellent, 24 good, 14 fair and 3 poor.

The Columbus, Ind., postmaster, Amos E. Hartman, sent fine
photographs of all the post offices in Bartholomew County. The
postmaster at Pomeroy, O., Walter W. Merrick, did likewise. So
also did the county-seat postmaster of Branch County, Michigan,
Albert A. Dorrance of Coldwater.

A. A. Thomson, postmaster at Carlisle, Pa., reported upon
Cumberland County. He visited fifty-one of his fifty-seven post
offices. They were all conveniently located. Forty-six were well
arranged, clean and orderly, and five were not. In thirty-seven the
books, accounts and reports were properly kept and correctly written
up, but in fourteen the stamp books were not posted nor the registry
books properly checked. Twenty-one offices were not used as loun-

ging places. In thirty
lounging was allowed, but
it could not well be prevented as
the offices were principally shops
or ticket offices. In five the
anti-lottery law was not found to
be posted ; in thirty-six the Postal Laws and Regulations were in
use, but in thirteen they were not ; though in these thirteen their
other business mostly engaged the attention of the postmasters. In
twenty-five offices the postmasters gave all their time to their public
duties ; in thirty-five the efforts of the postmasters were divided with
private business, and in four the work was done by proxy ; twelve

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

441

had no other business or office, and, although thirty-nine did other
things, the revenue of these offices did not justify making the postal
work exclusive. There was no savings bank in the county.

Sj CRAWFORD COUNTY (PA.) SCENES.

Mr. O. H. Hollister, postmaster at Mead-
ville, Pa., enclosed his eighty-eight reports in
a fine, soft calf binding, and the last page of
the cover contained a pouch with the map of
the county. Postmaster Hollister said :

The change of star routes which I have indicated with the change from tri-
weekly service to a daily, are the most important. 1 find that offices with a daily
service are more appreciated and usually better equipped than those with a tri-
weekly service. Complaint has been made by the patrons of tri-weekly service
offices that other offices in the county have a daily mail, which have no more
claim to such service
than theirs ; and they
do not understand
why there should
be any discrimination
made between offices
of the same kind. I
am of opinion that a
post office in a dwell-
ing house is not as
desirable as in a store.
Many of the offices in
a store are reported
to be lounging places,
but it is usually a
country store and the
lounging is in the
evening after regular MARK L. DEMOTTE, P. M, VALPARAISO, IND.

442 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

business hours and is no detriment to the service. More efficient service could
be obtained by increased compensation.

Postmaster Hollister reported that he traveled five hundred miles,
and that the ten hundred and six square miles of his county con-
tained a population of 65,324 persons, and that of the eighty-four
offices visited he found eleven perfect, eleven excellent, forty good,
seventeen fair and five poor.

Postmaster Jas. M. Brown of Toledo, Ohio, inspected the offices
of Lucas County, and he accompanied his report with neat pictures
of all the offices reported on.

The postmaster at Valparaiso, Indiana, Mr. Mark L. DeMotte, re-
ported upon the offices of Porter County. He submitted fine photo-
graphs of all the offices in his county ; and he took them himself,
because on the last page of the report appeared a picture of his horse,
carriage and camera, and the postmaster himself.

The women postmasters came grandly to the front in the county-
seat inspections. A recent computation made out that there were
6,335 postmistresses in the country, distributed by states and terri-
tories as follows :

Pennsylvania 463 Colorado 114

Virginia 460 Maryland 114

North Carolina 322 Wisconsin 104

Ohio 256 Nebraska 103

New York 243 Louisiana 103

Georgia 216 Washington 98

Texas 210 Massachusetts 75

Kentucky 209 Minnesota 75

Illinois 194 New Hampshire 73

Alabama 190 Montana 67

California 186 Vermont 66

Mississippi 184 Connecticut 57

Tennessee 181 Wyoming 54

Kansas 164 New Jersey 52

Indiana 159 Utah 52

Iowa 156 Idaho 40

Michigan 149 Arizona 29

Maine 140 New Mexico 28

Florida 136 Nevada 24

North and South Dakota . . . 127 Delaware 12

Oregon 127 Indian Territory 11

South Carolina 125 Oklahoma 10

Missouri 124 Rhode Island 10

Arkansas 122 Alaska 1

West Virginia 120

It fell to the lot of sixty-one of these women to make the county-
seat visitations, and they displayed enterprise and determination in
this work, and tact and judgment, too, of rare, though not surprising

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES. 443

degree. Almost all took pains to report that they had been very
courteously welcomed ; indeed, they probably surpassed the men in
this respect. They travelled about with the same success as the
men. In Idaho, one woman covered almost 300 miles on horse-
back, and in Mississippi another visited almost all the offices in her
county in a sailboat.

A whole book could be written about the many admirable women
who work away with all their tact and business prudence, and with
a loyalty sometimes more loyal than a man's, trying to please their
patrons and the Department alike, and pleasing both because they
try. Sometimes they are popular and successful politicians in their
way. Sometimes they are the most important persons in their
towns. They know what is going on without reading all the postal
cards that pass through their offices. They keep their books neatly
and accurately, and having, usually, less of outside business than the
average man, their time is less divided with other duties. They
deserve to be known outside of their own localities.

Mrs. Lucy S. Miller of Mariposa, California, inspected the offices of Mariposa
County, all but two or three of them, which were too far away. She reported
that the postmasters were very critical and interested, and that most of the offices,
were in good order. Mrs. Miller was appointed after the man first recommended
had failed to qualify. '* I have learned much of patience, forbearance and
policy," she wrote, " and have acquired some knowledge of human nature, which
should be in itself an education." The morning mail reaches Mariposa at five in
the morning, summer and winter, and before that hour Mrs. Miller is faithfully
at her post and has the mail in readiness for the different carriers as they call.

Miss Mary I. Grow, postmistress at Coif ax, La., reported upon Grant Parish.
She found many postmasters who did not understand how to keep the postal
account book; but she gave them advice and instruction, and was cordially
thanked for her visits.

Mrs. Mary E. Jones, postmistress at Downieville, Cal., inspected the offices of
Sierra County. She gathered her information personally from the business men.
A few of the offices in the mountains she did not visit, as it would have taken two-
weeks of travel by stage through three or four other counties. She insisted that
the postmasters were above the average in intelligence and business capacity.

Mrs. Mary Green, postmistress at Warrenton, N. C., had to travel for many
miles in private conveyances in order to reach all the offices in Warren County.

Miss Annie Mountien of Yernon, Florida, reported that it would be incon-
venient for her to inspect all the offices in her county, as it would require journeys
aggregating 320 miles and mostly in private conveyances, and as the salary of her
office was only $40 a quarter, she hardly felt like undergoing the expense. But
she suggested that two other postmasters be called in to her assistance; and the
county was so divided.

Mrs. E. A. S. Mixson inspected Barnwell County, S. C. She is one of the

444

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES. 445

brightest postmistress in the whole service, a Massachusetts woman, postmistress
at Barnwell. She gained valuable experience in her office under President
Arthur, and has made very many improvements under the present adminis-
tration. Hers is the most conveniently fitted office in the county, and routes
and offices have been established during Mrs. Mixson' s incumbency which add
greatly to the facilities of her neighborhood. Mrs. Mixson and her mother, who
is also a widow, have taught school for years in the South, and they add fine
educations, as well as experience, to the tasks before them. Mrs. Mixson visited
38 out of the 40 offices of Barnwell County, travelling 300 miles for the purpose.
The worst kept office was in an old building, partly made of logs and partly of
slab boards with the bark on. The inside had been fitted up with a few shelves.
There was a loft overhead filled with fodder and grain. The loft was reached
by a ladder, and all about were plows, plow-lines, baskets, and bacon. The light
was admitted only through the open door. It was a great surprise to the half
dozen loungers that a woman should ride in with the mail messenger. There
were rivers to be forded, but the hardest trip was a ride of 40 miles in a road-
cart. There were bridges and swamps to be crossed, and sometimes the water
was up above the feet. The carrier said the pouch frequently had to be put on
the horse's back, at this point; and so it was kept out of the water. In another
place were trenches thrown up as a protection against Kilpatrick's troops, and a
field was pointed out where some Union soldier boys lay buried. One day Mrs.
Mixson came to the smallest post office in the county, kept in a building 8x10.
The postmaster said that his receipts for the first month had been 15 cents,
and that the average after that was about $1 a month. Here was a deserted
village, once a lively manufacturing town, and there some rails, standing upright
in the ground, marked the edge of the Savannah where it overflowed. The mail
carrier had to swim the stream. A ride of twelve miles had to be taken one night
through a cypress swamp, muddy, dark, and filled with swamps and trees, in order
to take a six o'clock train in the morning.

Miss Lucy Bowers of Tipton, Iowa, reported fully upon her county, and re-
marked in her letter that she could not let the reports go without testifying to
the unvarying courtesy of the postmasters whom she met ; they all wanted to see
her again. Miss Bowers said recently that the most profoundly interesting event
in connection with her appointment was the receipt of her commission from the
Department: and she added: "I have ever since by diligence and care tried to
make the work of the office show me worthy of this honor, and also as far as I
could I have tried to further the general reforms advocated by the Postmaster
General."

Mrs. A. E. Frank, postmistress at Jacksonville, Alabama, inspected the offices in
Calhoun County. She enjoyed meeting the postmasters, and thought the visits
beneficial all around. The only drawback was the heavy livery bill.

Miss Ionia B. Bomar, inspected Massac County, Illinois. She reported that,
"being a girl," it was rather hard work, but she enjoyed it very much, and she
consoled herself with the thought that she was working in a good cause.

Miss Sarah Johnson, postmistress at Richfield, Utah, made returns from
personal knowledge upon all but two of the offices in her county, and these, ac-
cording to report, were well managed. This lady received her appointment on
Christmas Day, 1890, and now six days out of seven she is at the office from eight
in the morning till seven at night, and she does all her own housework in addition.

A GROUP OF POSTMISTRESSES.
446

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

447

She erected a new brick building for the post office, and besides supporting her-
self entirely takes care of her mother. " I love my work more and more," she
says, " and try to make the postal service what it should be. If I am requested
to make another county inspection," she adds, "I shall do better than I did last
time, because I understand it now."

Miss Jennie J. Berrie, postmistress at Lexington, Mo., submitted maps and
statements with her reports. " It would be the grandest piece of work," she
said, " if all the post offices could be united by the postal telegraph. Some post
offices seem so isolated, from seven to ten miles from the nearest telegraph office,
and there is no communication with the outer world but the slow-going, twice-a-
week mail." Miss Berrie was born and educated in the town where she is now

postmistress, and naturally is known to all the patrons of the office a good
qualification, it has been said, in a county where half the population are Smiths,
Browns and Joneses, and where it is sometimes of importance to know the
"hand-write" of many of them. Miss Berrie' s employment and her pleasure
go on side by side. The men are chivalrous and the women kind-hearted. ** And
what more," Miss Berrie has written, "could a postmistress desire than to meet
continually kind friends, friends of my childhood and friends of to-day." This
little woman's effort now is to raise the office from third to second class.
At Lexington, as elsewhere, there is the inevitable lost package and the letter
that never came. Miss Berrie and her mother are alone in the world, but
they have a cat and a dog; and the postmistress finds her day well occupied going
to the office at half past six in the morning and returning home at half past
eight. "Good health," she says, "remunerative employment, and a desire to

448 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

please and be pleased, make life interesting and well worth the living." All of
the papers spoke very highly of the appointment of Miss Berrie.

Miss Kate Cox, postmistress at Graveton, Texas, reported upon Trinity County
without referring to her own office, as she did not think that was expected. But
she adds, " I would be very glad to have you appoint someone to visit my office at
any time."

Mrs. Sarah L. Christie, postmistress at Nyack, N. Y., visited all the offices in
Kockland County except two. These were so far away in the hills that they
could not easily be reached in the required time. Mrs. Christie was born in
ISTyack and has always lived there. She was early a clerk in the post office and
later assistant to her father, who was postmaster. She was first appointed
postmistress by President Hayes on the death of her father in 1880, and she was
re-appointed by President Arthur. She was removed by the last administration
but re-appointed by President Harrison in 1890.

Another eastern postmistress who made the county-seat inspections was Miss
Effie J. Cooper of Port Royal, Juniata County, Pa. She and her sister support
their widowed mother. A great deal of work was entailed upon the Port Royal
office by the delivery and receipt of the Census mail, for the enumerator for the
seventh district of Pennsylvania lived in that town, and he mailed tons of matter
at Miss Cooper's office; and as much of it had to be registered the postmistress
often worked from half past six in the morning till half past ten at night.

Miss Cassie W. Hull of Bath, divided the work of visiting the offices in Steuben
County, N. Y., with the postmaster at Corning. He took forty-six offices and
she forty-four, and Miss Hull visited all but two of hers. She found some
imperfect bookkeeping, but as most of the postmasters had opportunity to study
nothing but the Postal Laws and Regulations, and as these were sometimes hard
to understand, or get at, it was not strange. Miss Hull added that she did not
enjoy taking the time or money for making these visits, but she was satisfied all
the same that they were a good thing. Miss Hull has reason to be proud of her
friends, and she is. Judge Ramsay, John Davenport, Ira Davenport, J. F. Park-
hurst, and all the leading Republicans of the district were "for her" and Con-
gressman John Raines willingly recommended her appointment. Miss Hull's
success was very warmly greeted by all the papers of the neighborhood. She had
been for ten years financial and business clerk in the Bath Courier office, and won
great commendation for her energy and discretion. Miss Hull's brother was the
editor of the Courier, and his sudden death had grieved the newspaper fraternity
of the whole state. But it was, not on this account solely that Miss Hull's
appointment was warmly greeted. The Buffalo News called her a woman of
unusual and marked ability. Editor Hull had a Bible class of a hundred young
men at Bath, and they unitedly urged his sister's appointment as postmistress.
As Miss Hull moved about the county on her tour of inspection, the local papers
met her with complimentary and sincere greetings.

Mrs. Mary Truly of Fayette, Mississippi, found the postmasters clamorous for a
stated salary, so that they might realize the dignity of being United States
officers, and not be compelled to do so undignified a thing as watch every little
two-cent stamp that came in sight. She noticed some loafing in the post offices,
but it was hard for the country storekeepers to get rid of this, or they would lose
some of their trade. On this account Mrs. Truly suggested that as an adjunct to
some woman's business, such as millinery or dressmaking, the small post office

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

449

would be better managed. This postmistress has never missed a mail, lost a
registered letter, or heard a single complaint against her office. She has moved
her quarters nearer to the railroad, so that the railroad company has to pay for
the mail messenger service, which formerly cost $95 a year. Mrs. Truly has a
fine grown-up boy whom she is educating.

Miss Margaret Gr. Davis, postmistress at Biloxi, Harrison County, Miss., sub-
mitted maps and other drawings, and made numerous suggestions for the im-
provement of the service.

Miss Jeannie Hubbard, postmistress at Paris, Maine, reported upon Oxford
County upon eighty-four of the eighty-seven offices. Oxford County is per-
haps one hundred miles long and fifty wide, and Miss Hubbard feared that it
would cost her $200 to make the visits. She did most of the work by corre-
spondence, and very satisfactorily, too; and she secured the attention of a number
of weekly papers to the visitation, and hence prepared the postmasters and the
public to be ready for it.

Mrs. Flora H. Hawes of Hot Springs, Arkansas, visited all but two offices in
her county, but satisfied herself before submitting her report that these were well
conducted; and later she visited them. Mrs. Hawes is a remarkable woman. She
was born and reared at Salem, Washing- n,,!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!!,
ton County, Indiana. Her family is among
the most notable and influential in that
state. Her father, Dr. Sanford H. Har-
rod, was a man of sterling worth, uni-
versally esteemed. Mrs. Hawes is closely
related to Hon. John C. New, and her
sister married W. W. Borden, of Borden,
Indiana, a man of wealth and scientific
attainments, and a nominee for Congress.
Mrs. Hawes was married to Professor
Edgar Poe Hawes, a man of literary tastes
and pronounced culture ; and in his work
as a teacher he was much assisted by his
wife, whose education and superior power
as an elocutionist admirably qualified her
for this. After the death of Professor
Hawes, Mrs. Hawes accepted a position in
the public schools of Hot Springs. Here,
as everywhere, she won the warmest
friendship of all. Though modest in
manner, she is determined as a queen.
With her, to determine is to execute, and
to plan is to accomplish. More than once
her shrewd abilities, excellent generalship,
and sharp woman's wit have triumphed over self-reliant men opponents. She
overcame thus the opposition to her appointment as postmistress at Hot Springs,
an opposition based mainly upon the fact that she was a woman. In a cosmo-
politan city of 15,000 inhabitants, with a population of at least 10,000 visitors,
many women would have refrained from undertaking such a fight. Mrs.
Hawes made a personal contest, however, and overcame all obstacles. She has

MRS. FLORA H. HAWES,
Postmistress, Hot Springs, Ark.

450

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

for three years performed the intricate, responsible duties of her post with credit

to herself and her people.

One of the women visitors, Mrs. Mary E. P. Bogert, the postmistress at Wilkes

Barre, Pa., inspected Luzerne County. She submitted reports of all of the forty-
four post offices,
each marked with
the stamp of the
office. She said in
her letter accom-
panying the re-
ports :

" I have been
much interested in
this work, and
these personal vis-
its have shown me
the many difficult-
ies under which the fourth class
postmasters labor. Many of them
have very imperfect facilities for
work, and some of them little real
knowledge just how the work
should be done. All are anxious
to do it well, but many fall short
of any standard of excellence, not,
however, from carelessness, but
simply from limited knowledge.
They would so gladly welcome
some special instruction. I
spent much time in explaining
to some of these fourth class post-
^ masters things they were anxious to
understand. Many of these offices
would be in better condition if the
postmasters had more definite knowledge.
Great good must result from this effort
to bring all the offices into closer union
with the Department. In marking papers
I have endeavored to make each mark a
just one. Pittston, Hazleton, and Nanti-
coke are very excellent. I should like to
mark them ' 5 ' only that nothing can be perfect, and ' 4 ' has been the
highest number."

The history of Mrs. Bogert, lately the postmistress at the largest town in this
country, probably, where a woman has been postmistress in recent years (next to
Louisville, where Mrs. Thompson was postmistress for so long) is very interest-
ing. She is a descendant of the old historic line of Paterson, and her early home
was at Sweet Air, near Baltimore City. Miss Paterson went to the Millersville,
Pa., State Normal School, and having lost her parents and her home, taught for
one term at the Collegiate Institute at Salem, New Jersey, and from there,
through the influence of school friends, she was called to the Franklin Grammar
School in Wilkes Barre. She was a great success, teaching for the love of the
work, as well as for the pay; and she taught until 1879, when she was married to
Joseph K. Bogert, one of Wilkes Barre' s prominent men, who had been soldier,
editor and politician. Mr. Bogert was appointed postmaster in 1885, and held

MRS. MAEY E. P. BOGERT.

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

451

the position at the time of his death. The citizens of Wilkes Barre united in a
strong, determined effort to secure the position for his widow, and sent a petition
to the Department, which was acknowledged at the time to be the strongest paper
of the kind ever presented there. The petition was gotten up regardless of
politics, and President Cleveland appointed Mrs. Bogert postmistress of Wilkes
Barre in April, 1887. She held the position for five years. She kept a general
supervision of every department of the office, giving personal care to all details,
stimulating each employee to give to his work the best that was in him, having
entire control of both clerical and carrier force, and devoting the greater portion
of her time to the work. The county-seat visitation called out some of Mrs.
Bogert' s best work. She realized that a closer union with the Department would
result in great good; she took especial pains to carry out the Postmaster General's
wish to the very letter, making many explanations, giving instruction where
needed, familiarizing herself with the difficulties under which the postmasters
labored, and realizing more and more the great good that must accrue from this
careful inspection. About two weeks after the completion of her term she was
called back to the office by a series of sad circumstances. The new postmaster
was called away by the death of his father. The assistant postmaster was ill at
the same time; and he requested Mrs. Bogert to take charge of the office for a
time. Later, the new postmaster desired her to accept permanently the position
of assistant postmistress; and she did so. ^

Miss H. L. Dear, postmistress at Pop-
larville, is one of the Mississippi post-
mistresses of note. She was appointed,
as many postmasters in the South
are, on the recommendation of her pre-
decessor.

Mrs. Bertha Kleven, postmistress at
Culbertson, Nebraska. Her husband,
Captain John E. Kleven, a veteran of the
war, was postmaster at Culbertson from
1874 till 1881. The appointment of his
successor, made after his death in 1881,
was unpopular, and the next year citizens
of all parties urged the appointment of
Captain Kleven' s widow.

Mrs. Emma J. Zeluff is postmistress at
Grant City, Mo. She was appointed
under the present administration, but the
post office work had been familiar to her,
as her husband had been postmaster from
1882 until his death in 1884. Mrs. Zeluff
was removed in 1885, but she taught in
the public school. Two hundred citizens
petitioned for her appointment in 1889.
It has always been her earnest desire,

she has written, to comply with the rules and regulations of the Department and
to deal fairly and honestly with all. The local papers spoke very highly of
this lady when she was appointed.

MRS. MARY SUMNER LONG,
Postmistress, Charlottesville, Va.

452

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Mrs. Ada Hunter is postmistress at Kinston, N. C. She was appointed in
September, 1889. Her principal assistant is her husband, who has charge of the
money order department; and Mrs. Hunter's daughter is the separating clerk.
The Kinston office is very well managed.

Mrs. MarySumner Long, postmistress at Charlottesville, Virginia, is the daugh-
ter of the Union Major General Sumner and the widow of the Confederate Major

General Long, the military secretary
and biographer of General Robert E.
Lee. Mrs. Long is a lady of marked
social and literary tastes and acquire-
ments, as well as of great business
capacity. She was originally ap-
pointed postmistress at Charlottes-
ville, March 2, 1877, by General
Grant, and has been reappointed by
every successive administration, hav-
ing had commissions signed by Pres-
X idents Grant, Hayes, Garfield,
Arthur, Cleveland and Har-
rison. Her husband be-
came blind from wounds
received in the war and
she was for many years
the sole support of a fam-
ily of five. Mrs. Long's
business-like administra-
tion of the post office,
during all these fifteen
years, has been very sat-
isfactory to all her pat-
rons.

Mrs. Barbara Dickey,
postmistress at Dover,
la., was born at Mt. Joy,
Pa., in December, 1813,
and was married in 1841.
Bride and groom moved to Fort Madison, Iowa, and lived there over eleven years,
and then moved to Dover, established a store, and began a post office ; and she
gave it the name of Dover. Mrs. Dickey has managed this office ever since.

Miss Amanda B. Shaver has managed the post office at Wegee, Ohio, since 1864.
The proceeds of this office have varied during Miss Shaver's incumbency as
assistant from $8 a year to $61. 11. Once twenty-eight persons, who the postmistress
knew did not receive more than two letters every year, called twenty-eight times
in one day for their mail, and Miss Shaver has answered the bell forty times many
a day when her pay has amounted to one or two cents. Miss Shaver's grand-
father was a soldier of the War of 1812, and her great-grandfather kept the horse
and tent of George Washington. He was too young for regular service as a
soldier. Miss Shaver's maternal grandfather was John Ney. He was also a
soldier of the War of 1812, and used to transport goods by wagon over the old

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES.

453

MRS. M. A. MEILY,
Postmistress, Ono, Pa.

National Pike from 1815 to 1830. John Ney claimed to be a nephew of Marshal
Ney. Miss Shaver's maternal grandmother was the oldest daughter of Thomas
Kildare, one of the tea-spillers, though he was pressed into that service by the

others, being but a barefoot boy of seventeen
years when the crowd found him on their way to
the water's edge.

Mrs. M. A. Meily was appointed postmistress at
Ono, Pa., May 28, 1863. Her husband was a
Union soldier, and her father had been postmaster
at Ono when the office was established; and it had
been called Seltzersville after him.

The oldest postmistress in the country is Miss
Martha E. Stone of North Oxford, Mass. She
was commissioned postmistress by Horatio King,
then first assistant Postmaster General, April 27,
1857. At that time there were two mails a day at
North Oxford; now the business of the office is
nearly quadrupled. The office has always been
kept in the sitting-room of Miss Stone's home,
however. Among her literary labors Miss Stone
assisted ex-Senator George in his compilation of
the " Davis Genealogy." She was also associated
with Judge Learned of Albany, in his compilation of the genealogy of the
Learned family. The Learned and Davis families were intimately connected by

frequent intermarriages, and among the

wealthiest and most influential in Ox-
ford. From the former Miss Stone traces
her descent, being the great-grand-
daughter of Col. Ebenezer Learned, one
of the first permanent settlers of the
town in 1713. Later she was for nineteen
years a teacher in public and private
schools, and she has served on the school
board, elected by the vote of her people.
The champion whistling postmistress
is Miss Hattie E. Connors, of Sorrento,
Me. She was born at Sullivan, in the
Pine Tree State, and educated at the
Castine Normal School. After gradua-
tion she taught school for several years.
In May, 1888, she was appointed post-
mistress at Sorrento. She has always
been musical. She learned to play the
piano at an early age; and though she
does not profess to play any instrument
very well, she makes good music on
the banjo, mandolin, zither and guitar,

as well as the piano. Her favorite in- MISS HATTIE E. CONNORS,

strument is the violin, and upon this The Whistling Postmistress of Sorrento.

454 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

she is very proficient. Miss Connors has always been a whistler. She does not
claim to excel, but she whistles with her fingers, unlike any other feminine
artist. It is this manner of her performance that makes her so unique. She
has never practised whistling much; it came to her naturally, and she does
it without effort. She is a bright, energetic young woman and remarkably
well read. She is thoroughly self-reliant for a woman, and has a very
charming personality, and is a favorite both with the summer visitors and the
" natives " at Sorrento. Generals S. V. Benet and A. W. Greely have heard Miss
Connors whistle and they have written out most complimentary testimonials for
her. She has had engagements with a Boston lyceum bureau.

THE TEXAS QUARTETTE.

The Texas quartette were born January 10, 1890, to. Mrs. Page, the wife of
Mr. E. P. Page, postmaster at Ingersol, Texas. With mingled feelings of
happiness and consternation, the father wrote to Studebaker Bros., among many,
to know if they would contribute to the amelioration of his situation. They sent
him a fine road wagon. An elderly western woman sent a check for three hun-
dred dollars to the mother. Encouraged by these and other attentions, Mr. Page
resigned his post office and exhibited his babies. But having tired of this, he
desired the office back again. Studebaker Bros, endorsed him for the position,
and when he wrote to the Department that, though he was a Democrat, his babies
were all girls and might yet marry Republicans, General Clarkson promptly ap-
pointed him. The babies were photographed by Josh Whealdon, of Texarkana,
Ark.

The Postmaster General desired to repeat the county seat inspec-
tions, and he called to the Department in May seven postmasters
from various parts of the country who had interested themselves to

2,200 POSTMASTERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES. 455

the best advantage in the previous inspection. They were B. Wilson
Smith, LaFayette, Ind. ; F. T. Spinney, Medford, Mass. ; L. H.
Beyerle, Goshen, Ind. ; Jas. P. Harter, Hagerstown, Md. ; O. H.
Hollister, Meadville, Penn. ; J. F. Sarratt, Steubenville, Ohio ; and
Archibald Brady, Charlotte, N. C. They met at the Department on
the 22d of June, sat for three days, and resolved that the visitations
ought to be repeated. The conference agreed that, in repeating the
visits, particular attention should be paid to the minute details

F. T. SPINNEY, ARCHIBALD BRADY, J. P. HARTER,

Medford, Mass. Charlotte, N. C. Hagerstown, Md.

L. H. BEYERLE, B. WILSON SMITH, J. F. SARRATT, O. H. HOLLISTER,

Goshen, Ind. LaFayette, Ind. Steubenville, O. Meadville, Pa.

THE SEVEN CONFEREES FOB THE SECOND VISITATION.

of each branch of the service ; and a list of questions should be
published to set postmasters to thinking. The visiting postmaster
was to grade the post offices in his county as excellent, good, fair,
or poor, and the following elements were to be taken into account :
cleanliness, order, keeping of accounts, personal attention of post-
master, improvements in the service, knowledge and observance of
the Postal Laws and Regulations, and enthusiasm. It was recom-
mended that all postmasters rated as " excellent " should be honor-
ably mentioned by a special letter of the Postmaster General or

456

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

otherwise, and all postmasters rated " poor " should be notified that
there was room for improvement and should be instructed how to
effect it. Each county-seat postmaster was to forward to the De-
partment a report containing an alphabetical list of the post offices
in his county, with the grading of each, and was to retain in his
office, for future reference, the detailed report of the questions
and answers upon which he based his rating. He was also to call
special attention by letter to subjects requiring action by the
Department.

So, later on, the instructions to all the county-seat postmasters
were sent out, and again the 2,200 or more visitors were to make
their examination, were to learn and teach ; and again the condition
of thousands of post offices was to be reported upon, and thousands
of valuable changes were again to be recommended and effected.

THE OLDEST POSTIASTEE.

HE oldest postmaster ! A theme for poets, rather
than mere makers of books. He is a delightful
old fellow, wherever he is found; and he is
found in quaint localities, quaintly attending to
his duties every da} 7 , and quaintly believed by all of
his neighbors to be the oldest postmaster in the ser-
vice, and that beyond a question. It should be a
hazardous thing to say that the following list gives the
names and offices, the states, and the dates of appointment of the
oldest postmasters. It is safe to say, though, that the following are
some of them :

Name.

Appointed.

Office.

State.

Roswell Beardsley

June 28, 1828

North Lansing

New York

Woodbridge Clifford

October 4, 1839

North Edgecomb

Maine

Sidney E. Palmer

July 29, 1841

Yermont (now Geny).

New York

John C. Marvel

July 12, 1844

Rehoboth

Massachusetts

Warren Cobb

September 12, 1845

East Sharon

Massachusetts

Joseph Strode

October 2, 1845

Strode' s Mills

Pennsylvania

Archibald R. Havens

January 14, 1848

Shelter Island

New York

Joseph Chaney

June 9, 1849

Bristol

Maryland

Curtis Wood

July 3, 1849

Cordaville

Massachusetts

M. F. Winchester

July 10, 1849

South Amenia

New York

Thomas Bradenbaugh

July 20, 1849

Pleasantville

Maryland

M. P. Nichols

November 27, 1849

Reed's Ferry

New Hampshire

A. K. Makenzie

March 11, 1850

Indian River

Maine

J. H. Wadsworth

May 1, 1850

South Franklin

Massachusetts

Peter Lansing

September 30, 1850

Lisha's Kill

New York

William F. Howe

January 13, 1851

North Leominster

Massachusetts

J. L. Gemmill

January 21, 1851

Freeland

Maryland

Eayre Oliphant

February 26, 1851

New Lisbon

New Jersey

S. S. Fuller

September 24, 1851

Mansfield

Connecticut

C. B. Williams

December 15, 1851

Bondville

Vermont

L. C. Danforth

May 7, 1852

Weathersfield

Vermont

Osinan Pixley

May 28, 1852

Ingraham

Illinois

457

458

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Name.

Appointed.

Office.

State.

Ephraim Miller

November 24, 1852

Summit Mills

Pennsylvania

Alvin Weed

December 16, 1852

North Stamford

Connecticut

William Trexler

September 6, 1853

Long Swamp

Pennsylvania

Franklin Tourtillot

May 20, 1854

Maxfield

Maine

Henry Bartling

May 20, 1854

Addi son

Illinois

Charles N. Gery

April 5, 1855

Seisholtzville

Pennsylvania

Jacob Shaffner

July 11, 1855

Host

Pennsylvania

E. A. Leinbach

July 20, 1855

Leinbach' s

Pennsylvania

W. P. Coursen

September 3, 1855

Fredon

New Jersey

J. W. Kimball

December 28, 1855

Gilead

Maine

Joseph Keck

February 2, 1856

Keek's Centre

New York

B. 0. Prettyman

March 17, 1856

Hollyville

Delaware

Andrew Smith

November 11, 1856

Wegee

Ohio

J. H. Keplinger

November 11, 1856

Winfield

Ohio

William A. Hight

December 6, 1856

Wetaug

Illinois

R. N. Candee

December 29, 1856

Pontiac

New York

William Dunlap

February 17, 1857

W T est Salisbury

New Hampshire

Lewis Hammonds

February 19, 1857

Royalton

Kentucky

Martha E. Stone

April 27, 1857

North Oxford

Massachusetts

K. K. Thompson

May 14, 1857

West Trenton

Maine

Ferdinand AuBuchon

June 29, 1857

French Village

Missouri

William Folker

July 6, 1857

Acasto

Missouri

David Brobst

July 27, 1857

Marcy

Ohio

E. S. Cowles

September 1, 1857

Campton

Iowa

Josiah Willson

October 2, 1857

Oak Grove

New Jersey

1. G. Reynolds

November 7, 1857

South Brooks

Maine

S. K. Nurse

March 3, 1858

Denverton

California

John T. Parker

March 31, 1858

Gran vi lie

Missouri

James S. Chapin

July 31, 1858

Lincoln

Massachusetts

David Beck

August 3, 1858

Beck's Mills

Indiana

Silas Hatch, 2d.

August 26, 1858

Hatchville

Massachusetts

W. G. Harding

August 28, 1858

Berkshire

Massachusetts

D. I). Gore

September 1, 1858

McCameron

Indiana

J. B. Dunham

November 4, ]>58

Almoral

Iowa

A. W. Story

December 4, 1858

Pigeon Cove

Massachusetts

Amos Carpenter

December 16, 1858

Carpenter's Store

Missouri

R. J. Jewell

January 18, 1859

Elk Creek

Kentucky

W. H. Morse

February 9, 1859

Gilmer

Illinois

James Hibbs

March 16, 1859

Hibbsville

Iowa

R. T. Hutchinson

August 25, 1859

Gilead

Connecticut

P. W. Richmond

September 1, 1859

Potter Hill

New York

J. H. Trueblood

November 18, 1859

Canton

Indiana

Margaret Hunter

December 31, 1859

Weiseburg

Maryland

Addi son Whithed

February 29, 1860

Vernon

Vermont

Cephas Haskins

April 16, 1860

Lakeville

Massachusetts

R. M. Nelson

April 17, 1860

Birdsville

Kentucky

C. S. Holden

April 18, 1860

Manton

Rhode Island

D. K. Marsh

August 11, 1860

Marshfield

Pennsylvania

L. F. Perry

September 24, 1860

Perry's Mills

New York

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

459

Name.

Appointed.

Office.

State.

F. J. Schreiber

November 28, 1860

Cruger

Illinois

H. M. Selden

December 29, 1860

Haddam Neck

Connecticut

E. P. Higby

December 29, 1860

Mapleton

Kansas

William Moreschel

January 7, 1861

Homestead

Iowa

Xavier Guittard

March 13, 1861

Guittard Station

Kansas

Charles Hornung

March 20, 1861

New Bavaria

Ohio

B. F. Thomas

March 25, 1861

Mount Hope

Indiana

Thomas Machan

April 10, 1861

Belle Isle

New York

E. S. Dewey

April 13, 1861

East Poultney

Vermont

Sylvanus W. Hall

April 22, 1861

Marion

Massachusetts

Chauncey Carpenter

May 11, 1861

Doran

Iowa

John A. Blaney

May 13, 1861

Whitesburg

Pennsylvania

Washington Hildreth

May 15, 1861

Lock

Ohio

E. C. Sindel

May 21, 1861

Winameg

Ohio

Robert B. Hill

May 30, 1861

Leesburg

Pennsylvania

Albert Larr

May 31, 1861

Wright

Indiana

George M. Delano

June 5, 1861

Hey worth

Illinois

John M. Burr

June 20, 1861

Burrville

Connecticut

David Baughman

June 26, 1861

Oak Point

Illinois

Nathaniel Clark

June 29, 1861

Paxton

Massachusetts

Daniel Frelick

July 5, 1861

Broken Sword

Ohio

P. P. Poast

July 9, 1861

Poast Town

Ohio

S. B. Minnick

July 11, 1861

Castine

Ohio

Joseph Greely, Jr.

July 16, 1861

North Sutton

New Hampshire

William H. Griffith

July 16, 1861

Marshall

Ohio

Samuel M. Currier

July 26, 1861

West Henniker

New Hampshire

Rufus Smith

July 26, 1861

North Littleton

New Hampshire

Samuel Everts

August 2, 1861

Cornwall

Vermont

D. I. Dewey

August 7, 1861

North Manlius

New York

B. B. Evans

August 10, 1861

Camba

Ohio

John Hall

August 12, 1861

North Springfield

Vermont

John Treat

August 15, 1861

Enneld

Maine

Jono. J. Blaney

August 17, 1861

Summit Station

New York

Horatio B. Magown

August 31, 1861

West Hanover

Massachusetts

M. H. Lufkin

August 31, 1861

Exeter

Maine

Eli W. Watrous

September 11, 1861

Kirkwood Centre

New York

Adaline T. Davis

September 15, 1861

Sunbury

Ohio

I. Edwin Smith

October 3, 1861

Smithville

Massachusetts

George Copeland

October 4, 1861

South Easton

Massachusetts

George O. Sharp

October 4, 1861

Kickapoo City

Kansas

John Lemmax

November 7, 1861

Whigville

Ohio

John D. Davis

January 16, 1862

Annisquam

Massachusetts

H. W. Taylor

February 11, 1862

Aurelius

New York

Thomas Leonard

February 14, 1862

Leonard ville

New Jersey

J. M. Hagensick

February 17, 1862

Ceres

Iowa

Isaac A. Walker

February 19, 1862

Stow

Maine

J. M. Mattoon

February 26, 1862

Geneva

Kansas

W. E. Hammond

March 20, 1862

Oramel

New York

Theo. P. Cornell

March 21, 1862

Paulina

New Jersey

Adolphus Frick

April 10, 1862

Campbellton

Missouri

John Sparks

April 18, 1862

Fairport

Iowa

James Campbell

May 8, 1862

Peru

Kentucky

Charles G. Robeson

May 9, 1862

Saxon

Illinois

Hiram Ricker

June 4, 1862

South Poland

Maine

Warren Richardson

June 25, 1862

Wilson's Crossing

New Hampshire

460

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Name.

Appointed.

Office.

State.

Andrew Van Alstyne

July 1, 1862

Chatham Centre

New York

Joel Newson

July 28, 1862

Azalia

Indiana

John II. Lytle

August 1, 1862

Magnolia

Maryland

Clarinda T. Battey

August 11, 1862

South Scituate

Rhode Island

Richard Thompson

August 21, 1862

Spanish Ranch

California

Edwin Scott

September 25, 1862

Hawley

Massachusetts

John V. Fares

October 4, 1862

Kasson

Indiana

John Bake

October 11, 1862

Contreras

Ohio

Joseph H. Moulton

December 17, 1862

South Sanford

Maine

Bradford M. Field

January 16, 1863

Leverett

Massachusetts

William Tuttle, Jr.

January 19, 1863

Miracle Run

West Virginia

P. J. S. Garis

January 30, 1863

Millbrook

New Jersey

S. G. Russell

February 3, 1863

Bluffdale

Illinois

Wesley G. Scott

February 21, 1863

Scottsville

Indiana

John G. Sanborn

March 23, 1863

Horn's Mills

New Hampshire

J. M. Baldwin

April 2, 1863

Sidney

New Jersey

James R. Mead

April 4, 1863

Hanover

New Jersey

Phineas W. Turner

April 11, 1863

Turnerville

Connecticut

W. H. Boggs

April 13, 1863

Burnside

Indiana

Mary A. Meily

May 28, 1863

Ono

Pennsylvania

J. M. McCluskey

June 5, 1863

Alder Creek

New York

Stephen Bennett

June 8, 1863

Big Buffalo

West Virginia

Pardon T. Bates

June 11, 1863

W. Greenwich Cen.

Rhode Island

Phebe D. Osgood

July 9, 1863

North Penobscot

Maine

Francina Pratt

July 13, 1863

Greene Corner

Maine

Elizabeth Nelson

July 13, 1863

Hillsboro Centre

New Hampshire

Thomas Henderson

July 14, 1863

Black Horse

Maryland

John B. White

August 5, 1863

Garrettsburgh

Kentucky

I. C. Sherman

August 7, 1863

New Baltimore

New York

Charles V. Minott

September 25, 1863

Phippsburgh

Maine

A. G. Shoemaker

November 11, 1863

Rockville

Kansas

Reuben Dunbar

December 24, 1863

Horse Shoe Bottom

Kentucky

Henry Tilley

January 11, 1864

Castle Hill

Maine

Isaac G. Stetson

January 25, 1864

South Hanover

Massachusetts

Erastus A. Plummer

January 26, 1864

Raymond

Maine

Augustus S. Fayles

January 26, 1864

Gushing

Maine

George B. Wilson

January 27, 1864

Holaday's

Iowa

T. H. Woodcock

February 16, 1864

Rockland Lake

New York

Dean Blanchard

February 24, 1864

Rainier

Oregon

Henry J. Lane

March 30, 1864

East Raymond

Maine

A. J. Jardine

April 18, 1864

North Star

Pennsylvania

Richard Pantall

April 20, 1864

Millburn

Illinois

William M. Eldridge

April 29, 1864

South Harwich

Massachusetts

Thomas M. Pierce

April 30, 1864

Pierce Station

Tennessee

William W. Wood

May 9, 1864

Wood's Falls

New York

D. R. Harrison

May 26, 1864

Herrin's Prairie

Illinois

F. M. Hankins

June 7, 1864

Harrisonville

Kentucky

Lauton Pettet

June 22, 1864

Lake Road

New York

Henry E. Mason

September 19, 1864

Medway

Massachusetts

John P. Haskison

September 19, 1864

Healdville

Vermont

John S. Hutchms

October 10, 1864

Central House

California

Gasca Rich

November 1, 1864

Richville

Vermont

Barbara Dickey

November 15, 1864

Dover

Iowa

William M. Fowler

November 21, 1864

Fowler's

West Virginia

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

461

Name.

Appointed.

Office.

State.

Roger T. Clements

January 25, 1865

Union

Kentucky

Charles E. Libby

February 15, 1865

Dry Mills

Maine

A. D. Birnie

February 27, 1865

Cathlamet

Washington

William C. Davison

March 1, 1865

Hartwick Seminary

New York

C. G. Washburn

March 24, 1865

East Taunton

Massachusetts

Elisha Winslow

March 24, 1865

Virgil

New York

Martha A. Pond

April 10, 1865

Whiting

Vermont

Joshua Griffith

April 13, 1865

Ludingtonville

New York

Howard M. Curtis

April 27, 1865

New Castle

New Hampshire

James Rodgers

May 11, 1865

Blakeville

Iowa

Thomas F. Palmer

May 30, 1865

North Fayette

Maine

Calvin Z. Parmelee

June 14, 1865

East Windsor Hill

Connecticut

I. P. Wilcoxson

June 29, 1865

Christiansburg

Kentucky

Charles F. Bryant

July 26, 1865

Sharon

Massachusetts

W. K. Green

August 9, 1865

Nolensville

Tennessee

John Dunham

September 7, 1865

Chilmark

Massachusetts

Cornelius Van Alstine

September 18, 1865

Marshville

New York

J. S. Lindsey

October 6, 1865

Del Ray

Illinois

John Forbes

October 11, 1865

Wilmington

New York

Sumner Evans

October 26, 1865

East Stoneham

Maine

Roswell Beardsley has been
postmaster at North Lansing,
New York, since June 28, 1828.
He was born in 1809, is eighty-
three years old, and has served
as postmaster continuously for
sixty-four years. He was ap-
pointed during the administra-
tion of President John Quincy
Adams upon the urgent recom-
mendation of Win. H. Seward,
then a young politician and
a partner of Mr. Beardsley' s
brother, Nelson. During all
these years Mr. Beardsley has
conducted his office to the en-
tire satisfaction of the public,
and he has never been repri-
manded for failure to perform
his duties. He gives the post
office his personal attention
every day, as well as his little
store. His patrons all love him,
and hope his life may be spared
for many years. Nobody ever
sought to get the office away
from Mr. Beardsley. His health
is good, and he eats three good
meals every day with perfect regularity.

ROSWELL, BEARDSLEY,
North Lansing, New York, the Oldest Postmaster.

He is a Democrat in politics, but is

462

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

not offensive. He lets his neighbors believe and practice any sort or quality of
religious belief that suits them, and he does the same. He has never been in
Washington. The post office over which Mr. Beardsley presides pays him an
annual compensation of $170. The first year he held it the pay was $19.53.
Mr. Beardsley has never failed to make out his quarterly report with his
own hand.

Joseph Strode, postmaster at Strode' s Mills, Pennsylvania, is one of the oldest
of the old-timers. He was appointed October 2, 1845. Strode' s Mills is a quiet

POSTMASTEKS APPOINTED IN THE FORTIES.

village, and the post office serves the farmers and the miners who live about. It
is situated on the oldPittsburg and Philadelphia turnpike, and Mr. Strode' s father
was postmaster from 1837 until his death in 1845. At that early day Strode' s
Mills had a daily mail by the east and west bound stages. When the Pennsyl-
vania Road had been completed to Huntingdon in 1851, the mail for Strode's Mills
went by rail.

Peter Lansing, postmaster at Lisha's Kill, New York, dates back to 1850, and he
remembers that in 1832 postage was computed by miles from his office to New
York, a single letter costing 18% cents. He was then, at fourteen, the assistant

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER. 463

of Postmaster Lewis Morris. They exchanged mails daily over stages running
between Albany and Schenectady. In '34 the Lisha's Kill office began to receive
mail from Albany and Schenectady by rail, and the mail was brought in on horse-
back from a place called Centre, three miles off. At that time the railroad cars
on the Albany and Schenectady road were drawn by horses.

Osman Pixley, postmaster at Ingraham, Clay County, Illinois, since May 28,
1852, says:

" Ingraham post office was established in the fall of 1825, as Ingraham Prairie.
The country was new and the government land not more than one half taken up,
and the people were well satisfied with one mail per week. The Government
gave the net proceeds to the contractor, the amount being but a few cents a trip.
We carried the mail then from Louisville, fourteen miles, with creeks to cross
and but one bridge on the line. The patrons of the office had to contribute
something to help compensate the contractor, and sometimes one neighbor would
carry the mail and sometimes another, so that it came lightly on the contractor.
The twice-a-week mail we considered quite a treat, but on the new route there
was not a single bridge, and some of the streams were so deep that in certain
seasons of the year we would be weeks without a mail on account of the high
water. This continued until about 1872, when we petitioned the postmaster
general for a daily route from here by way of Wakefield Boot and Wilsonburgh to
Noble. We placed it in the hands of Senator Logan and the route was granted.
Some of the patrons of the office very reluctantly signed the petition, stating
that they did not see any use of a mail every day, and thought it an imposition
on the Government. When this office was first established, it would have taken
as many weeks as it now takes days for a letter to reach New York City. Then
all letters going out of the state, or very far, had to pass through a distributing
office and would be delayed there about twenty-four hours. At that time the rate
of postage was five cents for three hundred miles or less, and ten cents for over
three hundred miles. I very well recollect when letters came unpaid and
frequently the party addressed would not pay the postage, and the letter
would be sent to the Dead Letter Office. It was not infrequent for one
pei-son who had a spite against another to send him a large letter with post-
age to collect, and when the letter was opened, it would be found to contain
waste paper, or something of that kind. The same thing was done for a joke
among friends.

" During the Rebellion we had but one mail a week, and well do I recollect with
what great anxiety mail day was looked for, and the sad disappointments that
nearly every mail would bring. Usually a crowd was in waiting and nearly every
letter received from the army was read in the office, and such sadness as some of
them brought caused much shedding of tears, for the people in this vicinity were
loyal, and a very large majority of the able bodied men went to the army leaving
wives, sweethearts and mothers. There are now about forty pensions coming
to this little office, and very many of the anxious mothers and sweethearts and
wives have passed away."

Henry Bartling has been postmaster at Addison, Illinois, since May 20, 1854,
" I thank God," he says, " that I could be of service to my neighbors and fellow-
citizens for such a long period." He adds:

" Everything has worked smoothly and quietly, even during the dreadful years
of 1861 to '65. The office was given to me without my seeking it, and I had no
knowledge of the petition my neighbors had sent to Washington. This fact has
done much to sweeten the arduous and responsible labor connected with the office,
and has encouraged me all these years to do my work faithfully. It was an honor-
able and confidential position the citizens had placed me in, and it has always
been my endeavor to run the affairs of the office for the welfare of the community,
according to the postal laws. I have never interfered officially in the politics of
the country, although individually I cared as much as any other citizen for the

POSTMASTERS APPOINTED IN THE FIFTIES.
(Except Curtis Wood, appointed 1849.)

464

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

465

weal of our beloved country. My principle was, as postmaster: This office is
alike for all, no matter what political opinion may prevail, and the post office
should be free from all influences and political partisanship, a free institution of
a free and liberty-loving people."

Jacob Shaffner, postmaster at Host, Pennsylvania, has had no predecessor nor
successor in his office. He was first commissioned in July, 1855. In the early days
the postmaster was amanuensis to nearly every man, woman and child in the whole
vicinity; but he was more, he was a mind reader; he would tell them what they
wanted to say. Mr. Shaffner's salary
had risen to $20 a year until 1860 ; then
it was reduced to $19 a year, but it has
risen somewhat since that time.

Postmaster Andrew Smith, of Wegee,
Ohio, received his commission November
11, 1856. For several years he had but
one mail a day at Wegee on the steam-
boat route between Wheeling and Park-
ersburgh. In the fall of 1861 Mr. Smith
raised a company, became its captain,
and went to war in the 77th Regiment
of Ohio Volunteers, remaining in the
service until February, 1863, when he
was mustered out for disability. He
did not resign his commission. The
post office remained under the faithful
management of Miss Amanda B. Shaver.

J. H. Keplinger, postmaster at Win-
field, Ohio, took possession of his office
in '56. The year before he had been
made a justice of the peace, and two
years later he was commissioned notary
public for Tuscarawas County, and his
latest commission in that capacity is
signed by Governor McKinley. Mr.

Keplinger remembers the famous campaign of General William Henry Harrison,
in 1836, and he listened to a speech made by the general at Massilon. He
walked over forty miles to hear it; but being only a little over seventeen, he was
more taken up, as any boy would be, with the parade, the banners, and the
ox-teams. Mr. Keplinger says :

"I remember very distinctly the live coons perched on high poles fastened up-
right on wagons, one wagon drawn by six yoke of oxen, with a threshing floor on
it, and men on top the floor threshing with flails; and women on open vehicles
were spinning flax. One wagon had on it a log cabin; one with a printing press,
printing papers and scattering them to the crowd; others with nail machines in
full operation, and many other things. In the parade were thousands on horse
and on foot. General Harrison with his staff was in the parade, tall and erect,
but looking careworn and feeble. The procession marched to the grove west of
Massilon, where dinner was served upon long tables, with eatables of almost every
description. One item was fine, fat pigs, with feet, ears and tails on, roasted to
a nice brown, and standing on their feet on large plates."

ANDREW SMITH,
Postmaster at Wegee, O., since 1856.

466 THE STORY OF OTJK POST OFFICE.

David Brobst has been postmaster at Marcy, Ohio, since 1857. In that year he
had the mail carried from Lithopolis, five miles away, once a week. The
Department paid nothing for this service. After a while Mr. Brobst was
allowed three dollars a quarter for carrying the mails, and finally he se-
cured a tri- weekly mail from South Bloomfield, eleven miles away; and again,
Marcy had a daily mail from Ashville by way of St. Paul. In the thirty-five
years of Mr. Brobst' s service he has probably been absent from his office less than
two weeks; and during each year of the first eight or ten in which he conducted
the postal business of Marcy, it cost him five hundred dollars or more.

S. K. Nurse, postmaster atDenverton, California, had some early lessons at North
Chili, IS". Y., and at Strasburgh, Ohio. He spent a year at telegraphy at Spring-
field, 111., and at St. Louis. He went to California in 1849, and in 1850 sailed for
Valparaiso, Chili, with a party of railroad surveyors. They had great trouble to
get their mail in that country, but Mr. Nurse was introduced at the post office and
permitted to sort out his mail inside. It was customary there to post a list of
letters received, and if a person found he had one, he called out the fact to the
delivery clerk. As each steamer brought five hundred or a thousand letters, this
was a very tedious process. Letters were sent to the United States through the
consul on payment of fifty cents per letter. Mr. Nurse frequently sent his
through the English consul at thirty-one cents a letter, and these were transferred
at Panama. In 1854 Mr. Nurse settled in Benicia, Cal., and in 1858 he had the
Denverton office established and was appointed postmaster. For a long time
transient travellers, back and forth from Suisun City, nine miles distant, would
carry the mail. Mr. Nurse used to have great times helping the Spaniards in his
neighborhood to find their letters.

J. B. Dunham, postmaster at Almoral, Iowa, was born in Bakers ville, Yermont,
in 1835. He worked at farming and at wool carding in his father's mill, until he
was twenty. In 1855 the family moved to Bo wen's Prairie, in Jones County,
Iowa, and the next .year they settled with a small company at Almoral, as they
called it, borrowing the name of the Queen's residence and dropping the first
letter. In 1857 a post office was established at Almoral. Mr. Dunham was made
assistant postmaster. The mails were brought to the little post office, a board
shanty from East Dubuque, forty miles away, by a single horse. In 1858 Mr.
Dunham was a full-fledged postmaster. In his first year he organized a brass
band, which did efficient work in 1859, in the Lincoln campaign; and this band
afterwards went into the war. The women of the town made a beautiful flag for
it out of their own material, and it was hoisted above the post office with every
victory and lowered to half mast with every whipping. The citizens subscribed
in those days for a daily newspaper, which was brought by a special messenger
from Earlville, then the nearest railway station, and after work hours people
would gather at the office and hear the news read. Mr. Dunham recalls the story
of a postmaster in a neighboring town who, after securing the establishment of
the office with great difficulty and managing it for some time at great loss, re-
turned from work one night to find that his wife, tired of having this important
place of public business right in the front room, had peremptorily removed the
whole outfit to the front yard.

Robert J. Jewell, postmaster at Elk Creek, Spencer County, Kentucky, is fifty-
six years old. He has been in the service thirty-six years. He was appointed

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER. 467

Jan. 18, 1859, and from that clay to this has had no trouble with the patrons of his
office, nor with the Department, a record, surely, to be proud of.

John H. Trueblood, postmaster at Canton, Indiana, was commissioned in 1859.
He was born in 1815 in the then territory of Indiana, in the midst of the tall
timber. When he was old enough, he began to work on a farm, attending school
for two or three months in the winter until he was twenty, and then, as he was not
in very good health, his father gave him the rest of his time, and he took a
clerkship in a store. In 1852 Mr. Trueblood, having built a storehouse and
station at Harristown, on the New Albany and Salem Railroad, had charge of
the railroad and post office business there for four or five years. He says:

" When I first kept the office, we did not always have to prepay the postage.
When prepaid, we marked the letter paid, and sent a bill wrapped with the
letter stating it was paid. If the sender did not pay the postage, we sent a bill
with the postage charged to the office of destination. All letters were wrapped
up and sent to distributing post offices, except those to neighboring offices.
Every paper, letter or mailable matter had to be accounted for and a copy of it
sent to the Department at Washington and a copy kept in the office, in case it
should be lost. All printed matter was then sent without being prepaid, and
large amounts of printed matter were left in the office, parties refusing to pay
the postage, for postage then was nearly as much as the price of the newspapers
now. The work of tending the mail is not more than half as much now as it
was when I first had charge of the office, nor is the pay as good. We then
collected all the postage on newspapers, pamphlets and all printed matter, and
considerable on letters, and that double what it now is, but there is much more
correspondence now than then."

Mr. Trueblood adds :

"Southern Indiana, during the Civil War, had many sympathizers with the
South, and a number of the ' Knights of the Golden Circle,' in the near vicinity,
and some I knew very often would stop at my store in going and returning from
their secret, dark lodges. The biggest scare I ever had was when the John
Morgan raid came through this town and were all day in passing. The advance
guard came whooping and firing their guns. They soon filled the store room and
post office. I stayed in my store till 3 P. M., before I could get them out and close
the store. Many of them stopped here and fed their horses and got their
dinners. Dick, a brother of the general, took dinner at our house, as did also
many of the soldiers. They robbed the store of $400 worth of goods, took all the
mail and about $100 worth of horse-feed. Hobson followed next day, but did
not get much for his tired men and horses to eat. After the raiders were gone,
I found what they left of the mail in the corn-crib, letters all opened."

Mr. Trueblood recalls that in the old time the postage on weekly newspapers
was twenty-six cents per year and on monthly thirteen. His father used to have
to pay twenty-five cents for every letter received from North Carolina, his native
state, and sometimes he or some of the neighbors would get word that there was
a letter in the post office for them, and not having a quarter, they would often
be obliged to leave the letter in the post office for a day, and sometimes for
weeks.

Addison Whithed has been postmaster at Vernon, Yermont, since February
29, 1860. He was a clerk in the Veriion post office, though, for fifteen years
before that, as his father kept it. Mr. Whithed, in fact, succeeded his father,
who had held the office twenty-eight years in its present location, and who was
an old-time landlord and merchant, both of which vocations were transmitted,
along with the postal business, to the son. The Yernon office was established in

POSTMASTERS APPOINTED IN THE SIXTIES.

(Except Osman Pixley ('52) and William Irwin ('70).)

468

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER. 469

1820. The whole amount of postage received for the first quarter of 1821 was
$2.16j^. For years there was but one mail a week, supplied from Brattleboro.
Then the stage went daily to Worcester, and so the mail went, until the comple-
tion of the railroad in 1848. Mr. Whithed represented his town in the Vermont
legislature in 1872 and 1874, and he has also been selectman and lister; and it
hardly needs to be said of a public official of forty-seven years' service that his
life has been characterized by a scrupulous regard for the public interest.

The postmaster at Lakeville, Massachusetts, is Cephas Haskins. His post office
was established in 1860, and he was appointed at that time. In war days there were
usually three regiments encamped at Lakeville, and the soldiers, and especially
those just from home, were great letter- writers ; and if a mail was to be dis-
patched in the morning it had to be prepared the night before, with all its wrap-
ping and recording.

Xavier Guittard was appointed postmaster at Guittard Station, Kansas, March
13, 1861. In those days he kept a station on the overland stage route, and his
post office has never been moved. Those were prosperous times for the farmers
who had corn and hay to sell to the army of emigrants.

Charles Hornung, postmaster at New Bavaria, Ohio, was born in Bavaria in
Germany in 1823, and came to this country at fourteen. His father entered 160
acres of land, then a part of a wilderness full of wolves and bears. The Wyan-
dotte Indians inhabited the whole region up to 1842, when they were taken to
Missouri. In 1844 Mr. Hornung married and went to farming for himself, and
ten years later he added merchandising to his pursuits. In '55 Mr. Hornung
began the manufacture of pearlash, and in 1881 he built an elevator, and in 1882 a
lumber mill. In 1848 he had a post office established in his neighborhood
and named after the birthplace of a majority of his neighbors. Mr. Hornung
was at once appointed postmaster. In '60 he took the stump for Lincoln, and he
was appointed postmaster by Lincoln, March 20, 1861. The first mail route which
supplied New Bavaria extended from Tiffin to Defiance, a distance of seventy-
three miles. The service was once a week, and the first mail-carrier, a one-legged
man named Nurbaum, had a hard time of it in the winter with eighteen miles of
woods to traverse, and no bridges across the creeks.

Thomas Machan, postmaster at Belle Isle, New York, was appointed postmaster
in April, 1861. His name has twice been sent to the Department for removal on
political grounds, once under Johnson and once under Cleveland; but friends came
forward each time to prevent a change.

Chauncey Carpenter, postmaster at Doran, Iowa, began work May 11, 1861. He
goes back much farther than that in truth, for he first used to handle mail at
Vermont, now Gerry post office, in Chautauqua County, New York, in 1834. He
was then twenty-one, and the rates of postage, as he remembers, were 6X for
less than 30 miles; 10 cents from 30 to 80 miles; 12> over 80 and under 150
miles; 18% over 150 and less than 400 miles; over 400 miles 25 cents. Probably
not one letter in 50 was prepaid. He adds :

"We had a distributing office at Buffalo and at Erie, Pa., about equi-distant,
(50 miles). Letters to those offices, or beyond, were put in one wrapper, with a
way-bill of all the letters enclosed showing the amount of postage; but for all
intervening offices it was a way-bill and wrapper for each letter, unless there
happened to be more than one letter at the same time for the same office. We

470 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

did not use twine, but folded the wrappers as circulars are now folded; one
wrapper being used several times, by changing so as to get a new side for the
address. It may be imagined what the labor of making out a quarterly report
was, when we consider that a large per cent, of the letters sent and received were
entered singly, and the yards of columns of figures, with fractions of cents, to be
footed up."

Mr. Carpenter goes on to say :

" I well remember the first time I ever saw anything written on the absurdity
of making out way-bills for letters and enclosing them in wrappers. It was in
the New York Tribune, by Horace Greeley. He showed up the folly of so much
labor, which was of no practical use. The registry system was first started since
the date of my commission, the registry fee being 5 cents and the letter without
envelope marked k registered '; which in theory was to entitle it to receive extra
care from those who handled it, but practically it was an advertisement to any
thief what letters to select. It was probably safer not to register a valuable
letter than to register it."

Mr. Carpenter was married in 1843 to Miss Catherine C. Stoneman, sister of
George Stoneman, Sen., and aunt of General George Stoneman, noted in the war,
and later Governor of California.

The postmaster at Whitesburg, Pennsylvania, J. A. Blaney, was not appointed
postmaster until 1861, but he recalls one cold night in 1858 when he took the mail
carrier in out of the snow and saved him from freezing to death. There have
been cold times since then, but the carrier always finds a comfortable haven at
Mr. Blaney's. His office was robbed once, and once they lost the mail key; but
these have been the postmaster's only misadventures.

Washington Hildreth, who has been postmaster at Lock, Ohio, since 1861, is a
dealer in merchandise. Mr. Hildreth's office was special when it was established,
and it was supplied from Horner, the nearest office, which was fifteen miles away,
at first twice a week and then three times a week. Much of the pay of the carrier
was formerly raised by subscription. Mr. Hildreth is sixty-three.

R. B. Hill, postmaster at Leesburg, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, was born in
1840. He was commissioned postmaster by Montgomery Blair May 30, 1861.
From 1861 to 1871 the Leesburg post office received its mail by carrier on the
route between Pittsburg and Mercer. As Leesburg was six miles south of
Mercer and fifty miles from Pittsburg, Mr. Hill received the mail, when the
roads were bad in winter, anywhere from dark to midnight, and from three in the
afternoon to daylight.

David Baughman, postmaster at Oak Point, Clark County, Illinois, was ap-
pointed by President Lincoln in June, 1861. At first the proceeds of the office
ranged from two to three dollars per quarter, and it was necessary for Mr. Baugh-
man to ride from four to six miles to a justice of the peace in order to file his
claims correctly. Mr. Baughman had some trouble during the war with Southern
sympathizers to whom he would not sell ammunition, and who thought it all
right to rob the mails. He was threatened several times. He was born near
Ganesville, Ohio, in 1820, and in 1841 he entered the land upon which he still lives.

The continuous service of Samuel Everts, postmaster at Cornwall, Vermont,
dates from his commission of August 2, 1861, but his earlier experience of
thirteen years from his first appointment, May 2, 1833, entitles him to honorable
mention among the oldest officials in the entire postal service. Cornwall was on

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

471

the main route from Albany to Montreal with a daily mail, which was carried in
a four-horse covered hack. A few years later this through service was enlarged,
but the advent of railroads has caused so many changes in mail routes that now
the Cornwall post office is on a small
local route from West Cornwall to Mid-
dlebury.

The commission of John J. Blaney,
postmaster at Summit Station, New
York, was issued in August, 1861. He
was twenty-two then, and he has been
postmaster these thirty-one years since
that time. The mails used frequently
to be delayed on the railroad, as they
had not learned in those days to lift the
snow blockades with snow plows.

George O. Sharp, postmaster at Kick-
apoo City, Kansas, went to Kansas from
Virginia in the spring of 1855 when he
was forty- three years old. In 1857 he
was in business in Kickapoo City and
was that year elected a justice of the
peace, an office which he still holds.
Mr. Sharp's predecessor in the Kickapoo
City office resigned because a number of
the soldiers at Fort Levenworth had
nearly bankrupted him by making away
with his cigars and liquor. Mr. Sharp's
brother had been a postmaster, and as

early as 1837 he himself had been sworn in as assistant at Quarter's Landing,
now West Virginia. Mr. Sharp has had bullets whiz through his office while he
was holding court in the old times. He has tried nine hundred and fifty
cases among his neighbors and friends with such even justice as never to
have one of them appeal, and he has married in his time two hundred and
seventy-five couples, " two pairs a second time," as he once said. A few years
ago every foot of Mr. Sharp's land was washed away by the Missouri River, and
he lost all of his $7,500.

John Lemmax has served as postmaster at Whigville, Noble County, Ohio, since
the seventh clay of November, 1861. The nearest post office was four miles away,
and Mr. Lemmax was accustomed to hire a boy to go there for the mail once
a week. Three other citizens had tried the post office and found the work
too arduous for the pay ; but as Mr. Lemmax had finally secured a regular
weekly mail, and as he was merchandising, he accepted the post. In all of his
thirty-one years nothing mailed from Whigville has been lost. In the wartime
some of the Southern sympathizers used to gibe the mail carrier by saying that he
was very foolish to work for a defunct government with an unconstitutional
president, as he would never receive any pay. In 1886, Mr. Lemmax received a
statement that the audit of his accounts from 1875 to that time showed that the
Department was indebted to him in $2.33.

SAMUEL EVERTS,
Postmaster, Cornwall, Vermont.

472 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

John M. Hagensick has been postmaster at Ceres, Iowa, since February, 1862.
He is hale and hearty at sixty-six.

Jonathan M. Mattoon has been postmaster at Geneva, Kansas, since Febuary
26, 1862. He is hale and hearty at seventy-eight, and as he says, never poisoned
his system with tobacco or liquor of any kind. He has tried, he adds, to serve the
Government and the people honestly, but he finds by long experience that it is a
hard matter to please everybody and at the same time strictly comply with all the
regulations of the Department. Mr. Mattoon has noticed that he has to furnish a
room, with fuel and light, to answer a great number of letters of inquiry from the
different executive departments, and to keep a record of the work of the mail
messenger, all for $35 or $40 a quarter, and that the messenger on his part
receives $30 a quarter for two trips a day of about 100 rods. As is well known,
however, this is not a unique experience.

James Campbell, postmaster at Peru, Kentucky, was appointed in 1862, when
the Peru office was established, and he has been postmaster there ever since.
Peru is twenty-one miles from Louisville, on the Louisville and Nashville Road,
and it supplies Brownsboro, which is two and one half miles away, six times a
week.

Joel Newson was appointed postmaster at Azalia, Indiana, July 28, 1862. At
that time he handled a weekly mail. ~N"ow he has two mails daily. Then it took
five days for a letter to go to Washington. Now the time consumed is twenty-
seven hours. In all these thirty-three years Mr. Newson has handled the mail in
the same room. Mr. Newson is an ardent Republican, and at the beginning of
the Cleveland administration he resigned. But no Democrat was found who
could or would take the office, and so the veteran continued at his post. Mr.
Newson remembers the war scenes at his little post office very well. Soldiers
were allowed to have their letters franked by chaplains and on the payment of
postage by the addressees, and they took many occasions to amuse themselves.
Once some of the boys of the 39th Indiana wrapped up some hard-tack and sent
it to one of the citizens of Azalia at a cost to him of twenty -four cents. But when
the accounts of the sickness and the wounds and the deaths came, there was
another side to the story. Then there were tears and sorrow. Mr. Newson was
accustomed to take some newspaper during the war and from this he would read
to the assembled crowds the news of the battles.

John Y. Fares, postmaster at Kasson, Yanderburgh County, Illinois, was com-
missioned Oct. 4, 1862, by Montgomery Blair, and John A. Kasson, then First
Assistant Postmaster General, forwarded his commission. Mr. Fares congratu-
lates himself that the mails were never interfered with during the war by any-
body, and that the patrons of his office are law-abiding German- American citizens,
who appreciate his work. Though Mr. Fares is an avowed Republican, he was
not disturbed by the last administration. " I have always aimed," he says, "to do
the duty I owe to the public and to my office."

Stephen Bennett, of Big Buffalo, West Virginia, goes back to June 8, 1863. He
recalls when letter bills were sent along, when the rate was three cents for each
half ounce or fractional part of one, and when, of course, there were no postal
cards. Mr. Bennett remembers the great confusion during the war, though there
was no active fighting in his neighborhood.

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER. 473

Thomas Henderson, postmaster at Black Horse, Harford County, Maryland,
remembers when the post office nearest to him was Bel Air, the county seat,
which was fourteen miles away, and the next nearest was Baltimore, twenty-four
miles away. It was customary for farmers when hauling their produce to the
latter place to take out and bring the mail for themselves and their neighbors.
Postage was twenty-five cents for an ordinary letter, and when this price was
reduced to ten cents, it was considered very cheap. The county newspapers were
sent out weekly from Bel Air by a youth on horseback, who carried them to the
subscribers and took back items of local news to the editor. Neither envelopes
nor mucilage had then been invented. The letter sheet had to be so folded as to
form its own envelope, and then sealed with a wafer, prepared and purchased
for the purpose, or with sealing wax, or with paste made of wheat flour. Mr.
Henderson knew of a Frenchman who boasted that he was so expert that he
could call at a post office for a letter of this kind under an assumed name, take
it into a private room, unfold it, and read the contents, refold and restore it to
the original state without breaking the seal, and then return it to the office with
the explanation that the letter was not for him, after all. Black Horse was the
first post office established in all that region. For a long time it received only
one mail a week. For a while in the early history of the office it was removed a
mile away to Shawsville, but during the war it was brought back to Black Horse.
"Many stirring incidents," says Mr. Henderson, "happened in the post office
in those times of alarm and danger. On mail hours the neighbors would often
gather, and while one read the latest news the others would listen, in comment
some sympathizing with one of the fiercely contending armies and some with
the other."

A. G. Shoemaker, postmaster at Rockville, Kansas, goes back to Nov. 11, 1863.
This Miami County town was laid out in 1859. It was two and one half miles
from the state line of Missouri. Mr. Shoemaker moved there in 1860 and began
blacksmithing. There was no post office nearer than West Point, and in 1862,
after Rockville became a military post, where Union soldiers guarded the Kansas
border, Mr. Shoemaker got up a petition for a post office. Finally a daily mail
came to supply the farmers and stockmen with prices. The first mail carrier was
Harvey Campbell. He was a small man, but he would ride up to the office in war
times with plenty of dignity, and the fifty or more soldiers of various colors (for
there were Indians and Mexicans among them), all eager enough for letters from
home, would gather about to hear the latest news from the seat of war. Mr.
Shoemaker remembers one little fellow not more than six years old, whose legs
would hardly reach across the horse's back, who would ride up and greet the
postmaster with :

" What is the latest news from the Potomac, Mr. Shoemaker ? "
When the soldiers left the post, and there was no protection, Mr. Shoemaker
frequently used to put the mail in a bushel basket and hide it away from the
office somewhere, so that it could not be seized by the Confederates. In those
times old and young women, with very little girls and boys, would come eight or
ten miles on horseback for their mail. Now in the neighborhood of Rockville
fine carriages and horses take the place of ponies and ox-carts.

D. R. Harrison, postmaster at Herrin's Prairie, Illinois, since May 26, 1864, is a
dealer in general merchandise. The Herrin's Prairie post office was established

Wr<?' v *SA t y ^ c u ' "

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^ ' \ V .^?* J...

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i n

f^f^ <ff-

POSTMASTEKS APPOINTED IX THE SIXTIES.
474

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER. 475

in May, 1864. It was supplied with a weekly mail from Fredonia, and Mr.
Harrison employed the carrier, who used to receive two thirds of the proceeds of
the office. That, at least, was the supposition, though Mr. Harrison really paid
him fifty cents a trip, and what the proceeds of the office did not yield the
postmaster himself paid, and that was about half of his salary for several years.

I. P. Wilcoxson has been postmaster at Christiansburg, Shelby County, Ken-
tucky, since June 29, 1865. In all of Mr. Wilcoxson' s twenty-seven years of service
he recalls only one letter sent out from his office which contained money (and that
contained $3 and was sent by the postmaster himself) which went astray, and in
the same twenty-seven years only three letters or packages claimed to have con-
tained valuables and to have been mailed to Christiansburg went astray.

Jacob A. Horner has been postmaster at Hancock, Indiana, since January, 1867.
He was born in Harrison County, Indiana, in 1838, and worked on a farm until he
was of age. In 1860 he became a storekeeper in Hancock, and he was soon
assistant postmaster. Mr. Horner has a letter from First Assistant Postmaster
General Marshall, dated June 1, 1872, which assigned his office to the fifth class
and fixed the annual salary of the postmaster at nine dollars per annum ; and
the postmaster was permitted to apply, on the salary of a mail carrier between
Hancock and Fredericksburg, Ind., a town four miles away, two thirds of his
nine dollars.

Harvey E. Wilcox has been postmaster at Kidge Mills, New York, since July
23, 1867. Postmaster General Kandall signed his commission and established
the office of Ridge Mills.

Bernard Schneider, postmaster at Fulda, Spencer County, Indiana, was born in
Prussia, in 1823, and came to this country in 1849. After he had lived at Fulda
for ten years he was appointed postmaster. His salary rose rapidly from $28 a
year to $56 a year, and now the pay is between $75 and $85 annually. Mr.
Schneider, though nearly seventy years of age, is very healthy, except for the rheu-
matism, now and then, which obliges him to work slowly.

Elihu Phillips has been postmaster at Texas, West Virginia, for thirty-five years,
and he calculates that his experience in the postal service has cost him a thousand
dollars at least. Mr. Phillips is a farmer, and his work is much interfered with
sometimes by the arrival of the mails.

In the far northwest are some old-timers. William Irwin, postmaster at Ten
Mile, Oregon, was appointed June 13, 1870, when his office was established. His
office has been served from such romantic points as Lookingglass, Civil Bend and
Olalla. The Ten Mile Office has doubled its business since it was established.
Mrs. Irwin is the deputy postmaster at Ten Mile.

James Urquhart, postmaster at Napavine, Washington, went to the coast in the
fall of '52. He remembers Portland, Oregon, as a straggling village. The mail
went by steamboat from Portland to Montecello, Oregon, and from there carried
to the Sound once a week on horseback. The Napavine post office was estab-
lished in the wilderness, but now it is a distributing point for ten post offices in
the neighborhood. Mr. Urquhart is the father of eight Republican voters.

The Silver Creek and Mossy Rock post offices, in Lewis County, Washington,
were established March 15, 1875. John Tucker was the first postmaster at Silver
Creek. He had a weekly mail, and the carrier, in order to cross Cowlitz River,

476

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

had to put his mail and saddle in a canoe and paddle across, leading his horse by
his side, and the current was often so strong that he was obliged to proceed up
stream a hundred yards in order not to land too far below. His horse soon learned
to swim straight across, however.

E. G-. White, postmaster at Osceola, Washington, was born in New Hampshire
in 1837. He had to do with the post office at Landaff, N. H., in 1858-9, and at
Georgetown, Mass., from 1861 to 1863. He emigrated to Washington in 1873, and
was appointed postmaster at Osceola in '77. The office nearest to Osceola at that
time was Wilkeson, 11 miles away. The carrier made one trip a week, and had to
ford the fiery White River, a wild mountain torrent. He was drowned in 1879,
and neither the carrier nor the mail was ever recovered ; but Postmaster White
hired another carrier and notified the Department. Six offices have been estab-
lished since 1877 in the territory formerly served by the Osceola office.

N. A. Wheeler, postmaster at Alpowa, Washington, is another old-timer. He
has an idea that the chief need of the postal service is to have people understand
it, and know how to use it. He would print in circular form articles from the
Postal Guide, and send them in packages of a hundred or a thousand, as occasion
might require, to every post office, so that they might be distributed to all. These
would be saved and continually referred to, and the educational benefit would be
tremendous. He would even have a law passed to prevent any person from
sending a letter upon which the return request was not printed, and if persons
did not desire their names to appear on the envelopes they could have a box and
print the box number. He would even go farther and provide that no letter
should be dispatched in the mails which had not been provided with the Govern-
ment stamped envelope.

Some of the old postmasters whose service has not been contin-
uous are :

Name.

Date of first appointment.

Office.

State.

John Datesman

March 31, 1832

Fennersville

Pennsylvania

Jesse M. Perrine

May 5, 1836

Perrine

Pennsylvania

William H. Wallace

July 30, 1841

Port Homer

Ohio

John Wilson

July 14, 1849

Plato

Illinois

John Lackland

May 23, 1853

Principle

Maryland

John C. Spencer

February 10, 1854

East Clarendon

Vermont

Jasper Workman

July 13, 1855

Bald Knob

West Virginia

Christopher B. Stout

December 10, 1856

Readington

New Jersey

Christian Schneider

December 30, 1856

Orland

Indiana

Hiram Smith

April 3, 1858

Bashan

Ohio

John B. Stone

May 10, 1858

Roxalana

West Virginia

William H. Balcom

February 12, 1859

Argo

Illinois

Elijah Watson

April 3, 1860

Rushville

Missouri

William Wagner

September 18, 1861

Buck's Ranch

California

John B. Wissler

November 30, 1861

Brunnerville

Pennsylvania

The most notable of the veterans whose terms of service in one locality have
been for any reason interrupted is William H. Wallace, postmaster at Hammonds-
ville, Ohio. He has seen sixty-two years of postal work. In June,, 1830, A. G.

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

477

Richardson- was postmaster at Wellsville, Columbiana County, Ohio, and Mr.
Wallace was his assistant. The next year Mr. Wallace opened, in partnership
with Jacob Groff, a general store at Mouth of Yellow Creek, Jefferson County,
Ohio, and upon his application a post office was established there, and Mr. Graff
was made postmaster. Mr. Wallace was his assistant, but at the end of three
years, on a dissolution of partnership, he was really postmaster. In 1839 Mr.
Wallace removed to Port Homer, where he opened another store. In 1841 he was
appointed postmaster at Port Homer by Postmaster General Granger. In 1852 he
removed his post office to Hammondsville, in Jefferson County, and was appointed
postmaster there by Judge Hall. At Hammondsville he was also express agent
forty years ago, and this position Mr. Wallace still fills. He says:

"Old time rates of postage were figured thus: for a single letter carried 30
miles, 6% cents, called then a fip ; thence up to 80 miles, 10 cents ; thence up to
150 miles, eleven pence (12}4 cents);
thence up to 400 miles, three fips (18%
cents); 400 miles or to any part of

the United States, 25 cents. Store- / X

keepers in those early days were in / \

the habit of taking all kinds of coun- / \

try or farm trade for goods, and / H^

where a post office was connected
with the store, it was as common to
take produce for letters and papers
as for goods. The prices of produce
varied some seasons, but butter and
eggs were always low in summer,
the prevailing price being 6# cents
a pound for the former and 5 cents
per dozen for the latter. To illus-
trate: to pay postage on a 25 cent
letter it required the amount of
the following articles separately: 4
pounds of butter, 5 dozen of eggs,
2 bushels of oats, 2 bushels of pota-
toes, \% pounds of common coarse
wool, a little over % bushels of wheat,
and other articles in proportion. To
illustrate further the cost of the ex-
pense of correspondence: Suppose a
farmer and family communicated
with a New York correspondent and
had to receive 32 unpaid letters, he
must sell a good milch cow to foot
the postage bill, for $8 would buy a

good cow. It made it obligatory upon the postmaster, as far as it was possible
for him to scrutinize rigidly every letter, and if it consisted of two pieces of
paper, then double postage was charged."

Mr. Wallace goes on:

" I have travelled in the stage when it took three days and three nights to
reach Philadelphia from Pittsburg. One newspaper of small dimensions in the
county town for the whole county was a rule, and many in the county never
scanned its columns ; and if they did, the general or far off news did not come
under their eye. Then farmers and farmers' sons were dubbed clod-
hoppers. Ask them the governor's name and they could not tell it. I know of
families of some prominence in the county when I was a boy, that never saw a
newspaper."

WM. H. WALLACE, HAMMONDSVILLE, O.

478 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Again Mr. Wallace says :

" Just seventy-three years ago in the city of Baltimore, I witnessed the hanging,
for robbing the United States mail, of the noted Haire and his co-worker, then
the greatest robbers of mails. Then it was a death penalty to rob the United
States mail. Shortly after was another hanging in the same city that I witnessed.
Button and Hull robbed the mail not far out of the city, and murdered the driver,
Heaps. Heaps and his family lived in the city, and his children were my play-
mates. There were no express lines, the mails being the only public mode to
send money. The villains stopped the mail coach in the night with none but the
driver aboard. He was ordered to give up the mail. This he did; but it was
concluded, fearing detection and arrest, to take the driver's life by shooting and
stabbing, each taking a hand. They then tied the two horses by the lines to a
tree, and made off with the mail. They visited the city next day and were
arrested. Hutton was an old offender, and young Hull inveighed as an accom-
plice. He was only about twenty years old ; had studied medicine in Utica where
his father, who was a druggist, lived.

" My first trip on business to Philadelphia was sixty-one years ago by mail
stage, and I returned home via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as far as it was
built. The road was made to Ellicott's Mills, thirteen miles, with strap rail; two
horses tandem ; capacity of coach twelve or fifteen; rate of speed ten miles per hour.
This mode was continued until finished to Frederick, when I was again a passenger;
next, pony-sized locomotives from Baltimore to Cumberland, thence by mail stage
to Brownsville, Pa. I crossed the Alleghenies twenty-six times before the railroad
traversed them. The robbery of the mails while en route by stage was common,
and for safety at times postillions were brought into requisition. The common
way of carrying money by person was to encase it in a leathern belt, or silk
bandanna handkerchief, and placing around the body next to the bare hide.
Stockton and Stokes of Baltimore were the first stage owners that I have any
recollection of more than seventy years ago; the next Reside and Slay maker over
the Baltimore route. My first trip over the Alleghenies from Baltimore to Browns-
ville was in the month of August, 1820, just seventy-two years ago the past August,
in my bare head and bare feet. The sun was hot, and so was the pike road.

'* On March 4, 1829, General Jackson succeeded Mr. Adams as President, and
the way the Postmaster General, John McLean, and the postmasters of any note
had to fly the track, was a caution. 'To the victors belong the spoils ' was the
ruling motto. I visited Washington fifty-eight years ago; was formally introduced
to General Jackson at the White House by a member of Congress, and had a good
little talk. He held in his hand a two-cent clay pipe, which he had been smoking.
I also had a good talk with Henry Clay. One day when the House was not in
session my member of Congress seated me on the speaker's chair, saying, 'Now
you can say that you have sat in the speaker's chair.'

" Neither Philadelphia nor New York was flooded then with periodicals. No
Tribune, no Herald, no Times, no Ledf/er. In regard to men of great wealth, they
did not flourish, leaving out Stephen Girard. The Ridge ways were spoken of;
Cornelius Vanderbilt of New York was then taking in pennies for ferrying with
his skiff, ferrying in his teens; John Jacob Astor and his wife cleaned and pre-
pared furs, and she said they must wait till they would get ahead before they
could afford to eat a cooky. Large hotels did not abound in either city. Nearly
fifty years ago the Washington House on Chestnut Street was opened. On my
arrival in Philadelphia in the morning, after a three days' and three nights' stage
ride from Pittsburg, a friend said to me, ' A new hotel has just opened on Chest-
nut Street; try that fora change.' I accordingly repaired to the place, entered
my name, etc. When dinner was announced, I entered the dining room and there
was a most sumptuous repast, and a corps of caparisoned waiters. But behold!
not a solitary guest besides myself; and all the waiters wanted to take a hand at
serving me. It was really a strange ordeal to pass through, but I finally came
out all right."

Mr. Wallace was born in Frelighsburg, in the Province of Quebec, Dec. 2, 1811.
His maternal progenitors originated in Germany and his father's people in the

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

479

land of William Wallace. His maternal grandfather laid out the town where
William H. Wallace was born, and called it after his own name. He was a surgeon
in the British Navy and descended from the same stock as Victoria. Mr.
Wallace's father was a prosperous merchant and manufacturer in Canada,
and when the War of 1812 broke out (being an American, born in Massachusetts,
and never having sworn allegiance to the Crown) closed up his business at a heavy
sacrifice and left for the United States. He finally settled in Baltimore.

OLD POSTMASTERS WHOSE TERMS HAVE BEEN INTERRUPTED.

John Datesman, postmaster at West Milton, Pennsylvania, was born in 1810 in
Northampton County. He began the general mercantile business at Fennersville,
Monroe County, in 1831, and gave the place its name, and was appointed postmaster
there March 31, 1832. After a service of four years he went to Union County and
bought the land where West Milton now stands. There he started a general store,
named the place West Milton, and was appointed postmaster March 6, 1862. This
position he still holds. In Fennersville, he was appointed justice of the peace;
and at West Milton he was elected to this office for ten years. Mr. Datesman was
for a number of years the most extensive grain dealer in all his region. His first

480 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

goods were bought in Philadelphia and brought to West Milton in canal boats.
Grain from Union, Centre, and Clinton Counties was hauled to West Milton by
teams. Mr. and Mrs. Datesman celebrated their golden wedding in 1881 and their
sixtieth anniversary in July, 1891. They have four grown-up sons and three
grown-up daughters.

Jesse M. Perrine, postmaster at Utica, Pennsylvania, was last appointed June 17,
1889 ; but he is entitled to consideration among the oldest postmasters. His official
experience extends back to May 5, 1836, when he was appointed postmaster at
Perrine, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. The mails then came but once a week on
horseback through the forest trails and over uncertain roads of a newly settled
country. In the fall of 1842, another member of the family, Enoch Perrine, was
appointed postmaster at Perrine, but in June, 1845, Jesse M. Perrine was re-ap-
pointed and he held the position until April 22, 1854, when he was again succeeded
by Enoch Perrine. In 1863, Jesse M. Perrine moved to Utica and became post-
master April 6, 1866, holding the office until Sept. 10, 1885, when he resigned in
spite of the remonstrances of both Democrats and Republicans. He was re-
appointed by President Harrison June 17, 1889, and is still in office. Postmaster
Perrine is now seventy-eight years old.

John Wilson, postmaster at Plato, Illinois, was first appointed postmaster July
14, 1849. He stayed until July. 1850. In October, 1852, he was re-appointed, and
he held the position until March, 1891. His first appointment dates from the
establishment of the Plato office. The Wilson family received considerable mail
from Baltimore, Ohio, and Danville, and it was very inconvenient to get mail
from Pickamink, the nearest post office, which was four miles distant ; and then,
too, the saving of postage was an important consideration. Accordingly Mr.
Wilson appealed to the Department. It was intended that his father should be
postmaster, but the appointment was finally made in the son' s name. At that
time one could count, on the fingers, the settlers along the Iroquois River from
Spring Creek for twelve miles north. At first the office was patronized by six
settlers only. In 1849, though Plato (on paper) was the greatest town between
Lafayette and Chicago, disputing the supremacy of Bunkum (now the village
of Iroquois), then the county seat. It was the boom town of Grand Prairie in
those days. It had water navigation, and wharves, and mills, and shops, and lots
(all on paper) were sold according to plat, at fabulous prices, to eastern capital-
ists. John Wilson was a young surveyor and civil engineer, having been sent
from Danville to lay out the town. He remained through all its vicissitudes.

The postmaster at Principio, Maryland, John Lackland, was first a clerk in the
post office at Principio in 1848. In 1849 the office was moved to College Green;
and in 1853, when it was moved back again to Principio, Mr. Lackland was ap-
pointed postmaster. He stepped out during the administration of Buchanan, but
was appointed again under Lincoln. He has held the office ever since. The mail
service at his office was interfered with only twice during the war, once when the
Massachusetts troops were attacked at Baltimore, and second at the time of one
of the raids into Maryland, when Baltimore was put under martial law.

J. C. Spencer, postmaster at East Clarendon, Yermont, first saw service in
1852, when he was assistant. In 1854 he was appointed postmaster by James
Campbell. He went out under Buchanan, but Montgomery Blair appointed him
again in '61.

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER. 481

Jasper Workman, postmaster at Bald Knob, West Virginia, was first commis-
sioned as postmaster in the summer of 1855. Bald Knob post office was at that
time the only one between Boone Court House and Oceana, the county seat of
Wyoming County, and the distance between these two points was forty-five miles.
Between Bald Knob and Logan Court House, which was thirty miles to the west-
ward, there v/as no office, and between Bald Knob and Peytonia, which was thirty-
five miles to the northeast, there was no office. Mr. Workman says:

" When the War of the Kebellion broke out, a party of Confederates on a second
visit to this place searching for arms seized the post office, in which I had about
$16 worth of stamps and envelopes, and divided these and other booty among
them. The key of the office I saved. On this occasion I was taken prisoner and
kept tied to iny brother William, also a prisoner, for one day and a night. During
the war there was no post office here; and here through all that period I remained,
caring for a young family and my aged parents; and through all the horrors of
those times I stood true to the old flag and to my convictions. After the war,
during the administration of President Johnson, I was again appointed postmaster
at this, rny old station. I am proud to say that during my official administration
no charge of any kind has been preferred against me. Two years after my second
appointment I was paid a salary, and from the first salary the Post Office Depart-
ment at Washington deducted $16.06, the price of the stamps and envelopes which
were confiscated by the Confederates."

C. B. Stout, postmaster at Centreville, New Jersey, was first a clerk in the Read-
ington, New Jersey, post office in 1846. In 1856 Mr. Stout was himself postmaster
at Readington, but in 1862 he resigned and removed to Centreville. His commission
as postmaster at that place is signed by Montgomery Blair, and dated April 8, 1862.

Christian Schneider has been postmaster at Orland, Steuben County, Indiana,
practically since December 30, 1856. He was appointed then by James Camp-
bell, but in 1861 James Plass was put in his place. Mr. Schneider was deputy,
however, and in 1865 he was again appointed postmaster. From the first of
January, 1857, to the present time Mr. Schneider has not been out of his office
a week. In early times Orland had a semi-weekly mail from Flint, Indiana, and
Bronson, Michigan, but later it was made daily from Bronson to Orland. In 1870,
the Orland office was made a money order office, and in the last twenty-two years
Mr. Schneider has issued nearly 5,000 postal notes, and over 20,000 money orders.
He was born in Germany in 1818, and came to this country in 1846. He has lived
in Orland ever since this last date; and although almost seventy-five years old
writes a fine, clear hand, and is a venerable, sturdy character.

Hiram Smith was postmaster of Bashan, Ohio, until August 15. He was first
appointed in April, 1858. During his thirty-four years of service Mr. Smith
missed but four mails. One was interfered with by snowstorms and two by high
water in the river ; and the fourth was lost in fording. He resigned at sixty-
seven on account of ill-health and old age. Bashan is a small office in a beautiful
country three miles from the Ohio River.

John B. Stone was appointed postmaster at Roxalana, West Yirginia, May 10,
1858, by Postmaster General Aaron Y. Brown, during Buchanan's administration.
The mail was then carried once a week on horseback from Charleston to Glen vi lie,
Gilmer County, a distance of eighty miles, with only half a dozen offices on the
entire route; and often the mails were delayed two or three weeks on account of
high water and bad roads. In his earlier years as postmaster Mr. Stone's annual
income from the service ranged from two dollars to two dollars and a quarter.

482

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

During the war there was practically no postal service at Roxalana for several
years on account of the "Rangers" that infested all of the back counties of the
state. Mr. Stone's commissions have been signed by nineteen postmasters general,
and he now serves the second and third generations of his original patrons.

Wm. H. Balcom, postmaster at Argo, Illinois, was born in 1810. He was
appointed postmaster at Argo, February 12, 1859 ; and he served continuously in
that capacity till August 19, 1892.

Elijah Watson was postmaster at Rushville, Missouri, from April 3, 1860, o
February 14, 1876. During the various changes of administration no attention
was paid to Mr. Watson's politics, and during all this time the faithful old post-
master hardly lost a day from his office. Mr. Watson was re-appointed March 28,
1877, and he is still the postmaster at' Rushville. This is a village of less than
300 inhabitants, yet six railroads pass, and Postmaster Watson, who is now
seventy-six years old, "makes" twenty-four mail trains daily, carrying the
pouches on his back nearly half a mile. He has never lost a single letter.
Once during the war bushwhackers broke into his office and robbed it of the
supply of stamps. At another time guerrillas attempted his life.

William Wagner, postmaster at Buck's Ranch, California, went to Plumas
County over forty years ago, and has lived at Buck's Ranch since June, 1860.
He remembers the first mail route from Oraville to Quincy, established in 1859, the
first regular route in Plumas County. There was little change in the transpor-
tation of mails in the sixties, but in the seventies there was a fruitful field in
Plumas County for the straw bidder. A happy thought of one contractor was to
carry the mail by any route he chose, so it eventually got to its destination.
Letters for near-by post offices were carried by way of Sacramento, and thence to
Reno, one hundred miles to the eastward. When complaint was made the con-
tractor was influential enough to have the Buck's Ranch post office removed
thirteen miles to suit his convenience, and a man was appointed postmaster who
could neither read nor write. But this flagrant performance was held up in time.

John B. Wissler, postmaster at Brunnerville, Pennsylvania, up to June 18, '92,
says:

"I have before me a letter in sheet form, folded, mailed at Baltimore, June 24,
1829. The postmark stamped in red, the postage '10' put on with pen and red
ink. The addressee had to pay ten cents to get it. The writer has this apology
inside : I should have paid this letter, but they never go so safe.' In 1858 we
received our mail at Lititz ; any patron of the store passing through Lititz
brought the mail, some forgetting to leave it here until days after they had
carried it around in their pocket. In 1860 I made application for a post office but
failed, being a Republican in politics. In 1861 I applied again and got the post
office established through the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens."

The following old postmasters have lately retired after long and
honorable periods of service i

Name.

Served.

Office.

State.

Charles Emery
H. B. Stiles
Jacob Renwald

Sept. 15, 1853, to Nov. 15, 1892
June 5, 1861, to Oct 20, 1892
Feb. 13, 1864, to Oct. 17, 1892

Townsend Harbor
Brookline
Summitville

Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Iowa

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

483

One of the oldest living ex-postmasters is Dr. John Follett Baker, of Batavia, New
York. He was born at Roxbury, New York, September 14, 1815. He began the
study of medicine at twenty, and was graduated from the Geneva Medical College
in January, 1841. He was a Whig, and his services to his party were early recog-
nized by his selection as a school commis-
sioner; and in June, 1841, President William
Henry Harrison appointed him postmaster
at Otselic, in Chenango County, N. Y. At
that time he was the youngest postmaster
on the records. Dr. Baker is among the
acknowledged leaders of his profession in
western New York. He has discovered a
specific remedy for the cure of cerebro-
spinal meningitis; and in 1866 he was
called to the chair of surgery in the Penn-
sylvania Homoeopathic Medical College,
but was obliged to decline. He has always
taken a deep interest in politics, and has
been in his day an acknowledged leader in
public affairs as well as in medicine. He
secured the passage by the New York
Legislature of '47-'48 of a bill to secure the
better recognition of his chosen profes-
sion; and he has always been notable for
accomplishing things.

But the oldest postmaster is passing IBIHHiHII^Efc^. *% I

away, and sprightly as he is, and familiar DR> JOHN F. BAKEK.

with the service in the early and the late

times, and beloved as he is by all his neighbors (who know him better than
they do anybody else), his time comes and he travels on. "I am eighty-two,"
the venerated postmaster of Frankfort, Indiana, said a year ago. "I go, I trust,
to the better land." He did not survive the perils of winter.

John Earner reached Bloomington, Indiana, the site of the State University, in
1828. He used to say :

" There was then a mail route from Louisville, Ky., through New Albany,
Salem, Bedford, Bloomington, Martinsville, the Bluffs, of White River, to Indian-
apolis, the seat of government. The mail was carried on horseback by Colonel
Green, once a week, and on nearing the towns he would sound his long tin trum-
pet to announce to the citizens the arrival of the L^nited States mail ' on
horseback.' There was a mail route from Madison through Columbus and
Franklin to Indianapolis one from Cincinnati, via Lawrenceburgh, Greensburgh
and Shelby ville to Indianapolis, and a route from Cincinnati via Oxford, Liberty,
Connersville and Rushville to the state capital. I think as early as 1830 a stage
was run on this route by John Lister, one among the first contractors for coach
service in the State.

" The Cumberland or National Road, from the east through Columbus, and
Richmond, Ind., Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Springfield, 111., Jefferson .City, Mo.,
the road was * cut out,' large trees removed, and the centre grubbed in 1828,
'29, '30 and '31. Through Indianapolis on west the mails were first carried on
this road on horseback, and frequently detained for a week on account of
high water ; no bridges at that date. Stages and wagons got through the deep

484

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

soil, as far back as 1842 on this road by prying out the wheels at the deepest
mud holes.

" The Michigan road was surveyed and marked from Lake Michigan through
Logansport, by act of the State Legislature, approved in January, 1828, under a
treaty made with the Miami Indians for the lands with which to construct the
road. This road was from Madison, Ind., to the lake. It became a mail route,
and the mail was carried on horseback from the state capital north to the lake
in 1833. A portion of this route was through swamps, and had to be travelled
around to shun the impassable obstructions. After coaches, or stages, were put
on the route, from about 1836 to 1852, passengers starting in the coaches were
compelled to get out and carry a fence rail to pry the wheels of the vehicle out
of the many mud holes on the road. Horses frequently sunk to midsides in
water and mud.

" The first mail was carried on horseback from Lafayette via Jefferson four
miles west, to Frankfort, twenty-four miles east of Lafayette, in the year 1830.
The county seat was located and lots sold July 12, 1830. Col. Samuel D. Maxwell
was the first postmaster and first county clerk a gentleman of fine culture and
one among the best citizens and pioneers. He was afterward mayor of Indian-
apolis. The first mail I saw arrive in the city was in April, 1832, the year I
settled here. The 'postboy,' a young man, John Ross, carried it from Lafay-
ette to Jefferson on horseback and then on foot to Frankfort, four miles, in "a
small pouch like an old pair of saddle-bags. I was appointed postmaster at this
place in February, 1834, to succeed the first postmaster. I was then a poor young
man, a mechanic, with a small family, and was well pleased with the position, as I
thought it might bring a little revenue about $30 per quarter. The first mail I
opened was on the 3d day of February, 1834. Jerry Dunn, the ' post boy,'

reached the western suburbs of the
town and tooted aloud his tin horn.

"Sometimes a new citizen residing
near the principal stream, Sugar Creek,
would send the carrier back with a
note reading as follows : ' From my
knowledge of Sugar Creek the mail
cannot pass over with safety;' signed
Joseph Wood; consequently we were
without a mail for two weeks. In 1838,
1839, and 1840, a four-horse coach was
put on a ' new route,' as it was called,
from Indianapolis north on the Michi-
gan road via Kirklin, Frankfort, Jef-
ferson and Huntersville to Lafayette.
This line of stages ran daily between
the points named. It generally took
day and night to run the sixty-five
miles. The coaches were well loaded
with passengers from the east * going
west.' Daniel Hunter, the contractor,
finally failed, and the coaches were
taken off the line. In 1848 Jacob
Jones put coaches on the line from
Indianapolis via Kirklin, Frankfort
and Rossville to Delphi. He and An-
drew Mclntyre continued to run the coaches or light wagons three times
a week till 1854. About that time the Indianapolis and Lafayette Railroad
was completed to Lafayette and we were supplied with a daily mail, from
Colfax Station to Frankfort, ten miles, by coaches over a swampy, 'bad,' mud
road.

" In October, 1838, Amos Kendall, Postmaster General, passed through Indian-
apolis on a tour of inspection of the service, I suppose. A short time afterward
he started an ' express ' or ' fast mail,' from Washington or Baltimore west on
the National Road to St. Louis or Jefferson City. In February, 1839, 1 saw one of

JOHN BARNEK, FKANKFOKT,

THE OLDEST POSTMASTER.

485

the mail boys riding his horse in a lope on that road between Richmond and
Indianapolis. I think he changed horses every forty or fifty miles, and carried a
small mail sack. The experiment was soon abandoned.

" The post office furniture in the Frankfort office from 1831 to 1841 consisted of
a table, twenty-nine by thirty-six inches, with a drawer made underneath; an
alphabet case of twenty-six for letters and the same number for newspapers
placed one above the other on the back of the table. I could generally tell \vho
1 r,i(l mail matter in the office, but many times went to the boxes to satisfy persons
who thought differently. I was once twenty-four miles from home in a neighbor-
ing town, and a patron of the office made his way through a large gathering of
people and asked me if there was a letter in the office for him."

OLDTIMERS IN THE SEEVICE.

LDTIMERS, another theme for poets ! Hearty,
old, young fellows they, full of activity and
good for many other years ; full of years and
pathos, some of them, trudging on, looking
-back now and then, loved by their fellows and
their people. Thousands of others may stand
faithfully to their friendship for the service for
their growing love of it ; theirs is the sober, solid,
indispensable attachment of a lifetime !

The Nestor of the Portland post office is James Harris, or " Uncle Jimmy," as
he is called. Mr. Harris entered the service July 6, 1846, as clerk in the letter
division. At that time there were but f .

six employees in the Portland office ; now
there are about sixty. The Eastern Rail-
road ran as far as Portland, and one
route agent did all the work, which was
frequently performed by Mr. Harris him-
self in the capacity of substitute. He
has enjoyed the acquaintance and friend-
ship of the many distinguished men whom
Portland has produced. William Pitt
Fessenden, Judge Clifford and Judge Fox
were all personal friends of his. Mr. Har-
ris is seventy-five years old. He enjoys
excellent health, and, except for a slight
attack of rheumatism now and then,
which lays him up for a day or two, he is
at his place in the office, rain or shine.
He says he is still a boy, and always will
be. Mr. Harris relates an amusing ex-
perience. Going to the office one morn-
ing, he took his " specs " from the drawer
in which lie was in the habit of keeping
them, and put them on; he did his work
as usual, and when he was ready to go JAMES HARRIS, PORTLAND, ME.

Hfr

OLDTIMERS IN THE SERVICE. 487

home, took the spectacles off. In doing this his finger went through the hole
where the glass is supposed to be. Both glasses were gone. He had worked
all day that way. Two days previous to Mr. Harris' appointment ground was
broken for the Grand Trunk Kailroad. He was but a small boy at the time,
but he remembers when General Lafayette came to Portland. All the school chil-
dren turned out, and in the evening a magnificent ball was given in his honor.

Charles Brigham of the Boston office is probably the oldest postal clerk in the
United States. He was born at Brownington, Vermont, in 1814. He \vas
fourth of the nine children of Silas Brigham, and he is descended from Thomas
Brigham, who, history states, " at the age of thirty-two years, embarked at
London for New England, April 18, 1635, in the ship Susan and Ellyn, Edward
Payne, master." When a boy, young Brigham learned the trade of tanner. He
went to Boston in the year 1835. He was appointed clerk in the Boston post
office in August, 1837, by Postmaster Nathaniel Greene. At that time the post
office occupied a portion of the Old State House. The remainder of the
building was taken up by offices of the city government. Fifteen men com-
posed the entire clerical force, and twelve hours was an ordinary day's work; and
if a foreign steamer arrived, all the clerks were frequently required to work
twenty hours, or until the extra work was cleared away. For twenty-five years
Mr. Brigham was foreman in the paper room of the mailing division, and he is
still an active and valuable clerk in the distributing branch of the mailing divi-
sion. During his fifty-three years of service has been absent from duty on
account of illness only three weeks, less than half a day a year. He is a unique
example of the reliable, well-preserved post office clerk. He has seen ten post-
masters come and go.

John Lewis entered the service July 28, 1845. He was born at Charlestown in
September, 1820. He began work under Postmaster Greene. At that time the
post office was located in State Street. Mr. Lewis was distributing clerk in the
post office until 1852, when he was appointed as head of the mailing division, and
he was practically chief clerk of the entire office during the administration of
several postmasters. Every postmaster under whom he served depended very
much upon Mr. Lewis' knowledge of postal affairs. During 1874 Mr. Lewis was
taken from the mailing division and put in charge of the inquiry or dead letter
division of the office. In 1885 he was made superintendent of the Jamaica Plain
branch, his residence being there. Mr. Lewis holds this position at the present
time.

Benjamin H. Hersey was born in Charlestown, in November, 1825. He entered
the Boston post office during the administration of Postmaster Greene in August,
1848. In 1854 Mr. Hersey was put in charge of the night force in the mailing
division by Postmaster Bailey, and there he remained until December 1889, a period
of thirty-three years, when he was relieved from night service and placed in a
responsible position in the letter room of the mailing division, where he is
actively at work at the present time. Mr. Hersey has been absent from his work
on account of sickness during his whole term only three months. In 1848 there
were forty-six men in the Boston office ; and this small number even had a good
deal of time for story telling. The exciting times were when an English steamer
would arrive, or when sixty thousand or eighty thousand letters would be added
to the regular mail from the various armies in the war. Mr. Hersey and John
Lewis were school fellows at the old Bunker Hill school.

///

JOHN LEWIS,

'^tma

488

OLDTIMEKS IN THE SERVICE. 489

Then there is Amherst A. Alden, interesting in more ways than one. Mr
Alden was born at Duxbury in May, 1830. He was the third son of Captain
Briggs Alden, and nephew of Dr. Samuel Alden, whom he succeeded as a mem-
ber of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati in 1886. Mr. Alden was
educated at Partridge Academy in Duxbury. At the age of seventeen he went to
Illinois, where he taught school. In 1850 Mr. Alden was appointed to a clerkship
in the Boston post office, in the mailing division, where he remained for several
years. He is at present in charge of the collection of box rents and stamped
envelopes. Upon returning from Illinois Mr. Alden became the private secretary
of Daniel Webster. He is a lineal descendant of the John Alden who came over
in the Mayflower and wooed the fair Priscilla without meaning it at first. He
is a member of the Webster Historical Society, and of the Cincinnati, of whom
his grandfather, Major Josiah Alden, was for many years president.

Henry S. Adams is another veteran in the Boston office. Mr. Adams was born
atDerry, N. H., in August, 1832, and entered the post office at Newburyport in
1846, where he remained until 1853, then he entered the Boston office under Post-
master Gordon. E. C. Bailey succeeded Mr. Gordon as postmaster, and Mr.
Adams was appointed his private secretary, which position he held until 1857,
when Postmaster Capen appointed him assistant cashier. In 1862 he was ap-
pointed to the important position of cashier by Postmaster Palfrey. This posi-
tion he still holds. During part of the year 1875, Mr. Adams served as assistant
postmaster to Postmaster Burt, and he has been honored in different ways by the
Post Office Department. He lately served on a commission appointed by the
Postmaster General to formulate a system of accounts for the use of first class
post offices in the United States.

Then there is John Quincy Adams, a brother of the cashier. He was born in
Derry, N. H., in September, 1834. At the age of ten he moved to Newburyport
and attended the schools of that city until he was fourteen. Then he became a
clerk in a store. At twenty-one he was appointed a clerk in the newspaper de-
partment of the Boston post office. Under Postmaster Capen, Mr. Adams was ap-
pointed to the position of superintendent of the newspaper division, where he
remained until 1882, when he was appointed to take charge of the second class
matter branch of the office and deal directly with publishers. Owing to a change
in the method of handling this branch of the service, Mr. Adams was at the be-
ginning of 1892 appointed superintendent of the Somerville branch office. Mr.
Adams is a descendant of Robert Adams, a cousin of Henry, who came to New
England in 1630, and died in Braintree in 1646. This same Adams was the ances-
tor of President John Adams. In 1863 Mr. Adams was lieutenant in the Fourth
Unattached Company of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, which enlisted
for ninety days, doing garrison duty. During 1866, '67 and '68 he was a
member of the Chelsea Common Council, and in '69 and '70 was a member
of the Board of Aldermen. From '74 to '86 he was a member of the Chelsea
Board of Education.

John W. Crowell was born in Boston in July, 1835, and he was educated in the
Boylston and Quincy schools. In 1850 he was apprenticed to the firm of Wood-
ward & Grosjean to learn the silversmith's trade, but after two years at this
business he took up the trade of sail making. In January, 1856, Mr. Crowell
was appointed a letter carrier by Postmaster Bailey. At that time there were
but ten carriers in the city and two deliveries were made daily. Mr. Crowell

490 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

continued as an active carrier until 1874, when he was made a distributor in the
carrier's division, a position which he now holds. In '56 four deliveries a day
were made, and one cent had to be collected on each piece of matter. This
money was turned into the post office and there all the salaries were paid (the
office being self supporting) until '02, when the regular salary was paid. When
Mr. Crowell was a sorter, there were only six of these, and now there are seventy-
five in the Boston office. He is only fifty-seven and seems good for twenty years
more of service at least.

Another old-timer is Alonzo F. Johnson. Mr. Johnson was born in Boston in
June, 1833. He was educated in the public schools of Cambridge, and entered
the Boston post office as a clerk in 1856, under Postmaster Bailey. Mr. Johnson
has been superintendent of the general delivery of the post office since the year
1876, a position which he now holds.

Philip Marchington is one of the oldest letter carriers, in point of service, in
the whole country. He was born at Halifax, N. S., in June, 1838, and was ap-
pointed a letter carrier at the Boston office in October, 1856; and he is working
on route No. 10, just as when he was originally appointed. In common with all the
carriers he received at first ten dollars a week, and in addition to that a propor-
tionate amount of the fund which accrued each month from the proceeds of
stamps sold at places on the different routes. This made the salaries of the
carriers average about fifteen dollars a week. Mr. Marchington is a welcome
visitor everywhere, and with his fine physique and brisk gait would never be
taken for one who had seen thirty-five years of continuous service.

Alfred Sanborn was born in Boston in 1840, and entered the Boston office
January 1, 1857. In '67 the first postal cars were put on between Boston and
New York, and Mr. Sanborn was assigned to the Boston and Springfield run; but
he returned to the Boston office after a month of this service. Mr. Sanborn has
worked in the mailing division for thirty-five years, twenty-five of which have
been at night service. In 1881 he was appointed foreman of the mailing division;
but in 1887 he was transferred to day duty in the paper room.

Francis Underwood dates back to 1858. He was born in South Boston, May 18,
1838. He was educated in the public schools, and appointed a clerk in the
Boston office in May, 1858, serving as a substitute a year and a half before he was
appointed a regular clerk. Mr. Underwood is at present in charge of the collec-
tion of unpaid postage, where he performs valuable service. During his connec-
tion with the Boston office he has been absent on account of illness not more than
a single week.

Eugene A. Reed is another veteran. He was born in Hubbardstown, Mass.,
December 23, 1841. He was appointed clerk in the Boston office February 1,
1861, under Postmaster Nahum Caperi, and served under Postmaster Palfrey and
all the others. During the administration of Postmaster Palfrey, Mr. Reed was
appointed foreman in the mailing division, and at the time of the original ap-
pointment of a superintendent of mails he was made assistant superintendent, a
position which he still holds.

A familiar figure in the Boston office is Woodbury Emery, the wholesale stamp
clerk. He was born at Plymouth, N. H., in 1824, and went to the public schools
there. He was originally appointed a clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washing-
ton in 1853, but in 1865 he was transferred to the office in Boston. For several
years he worked in the general delivery division, and when the post office was

OLDTIMERS IN THE SEKVICE.

491

located in the old Merchants' Exchange Building on State St., Mr. Emery sorted
newspapers for the carriers and retailed stamps. Now he sells them at whole-
sale.

One of the dearest old men in the service is Moses Church, the senior letter
carrier of Worcester, Mass. He comes from an old and honorable New England
family. His grandfather Church was settled as pastor over a Congregational
society in Hartford during the latter part of the last century, and there lived and
died, in the same house where Mr. Church's parents afterwards lived, and where
the present Mr. Church was born. In 1857, being then in the employ of the
American Printing Telegraph Company, Mr. Church was sent by them to their
office in Worcester, and after six years' employment there, was appointed, in
1863, when the law for free delivery service began, one of the three letter carriers
for that city. In 1877, when the bill classifying cities and towns and fixing the
salaries of carriers according to population was proposed, the carriers of Worces-
ter and other cities of the second class were strongly opposed to the bill and
Mr. Church was unanimously sent to a convention in Washington and empowered
to stay at the capital for several months to work against the bill. His efforts
have made his name familiar to letter carriers throughout the country. Since
that time Mr. Church has frequently been the representative of the Worcester
force at the conventions of letter carriers, and since the organization of the
National Association three years ago, he has been the vice-president for Massa-
chusetts. Mr. Church has been, for many
years, a deacon in the Salem Street Con-
gregational Church. In private life he is
wholly without reproach, a man of pure
and Christian character, and in his do-
mestic relations most devoted and affec-
tionate. He says:

" My employment as letter carrier is
always very pleasant to me. Anything
that is of interest to the office, to the
carriers, or my route, has my .earnest sym-
pathy. Little can I tell how my life has
been interwoven with those to whom I
have carried mail. Their joys and sor-
rows have taken a deep hold upon my life.
The bonds of sympathy have grown strong
as the years have gone by, and even now,
old men working on the streets stop me
and tell how I used to carry their letters
long years ago. I shared with those on
my route their joys and sorrows; our
tears have flowed together. I was made
a confidential friend in their hopes and
plans. The wedding that was to be, or
the loss of the loved and gone, were all
told to me; and is it any wonder that the
tie of sympathy should bind very close to
my heart people that for so many years
have made me so much a confidant and linked so much of their lives with mine?
My post I hope to hold, it may be for years to come, until some day, whether
in the near or far future, no one can tell, God, who loves both you and me, will
call and I shall take my long vacation."

MOSES CHUKCH, WORCESTER, MASS.

492

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Kussell F. Benson, the veteran letter carrier of Troy, was born in Heath,
Franklin County, Mass., in 1821, and was appointed in October, 1864. His is one
of the most familiar figures on the streets of Troy. Daily he goes his rounds at
a speed which would tax the energies of some of his more youthful fellows; and
Mr. Benson enjoys his work, for when his annual vacation comes around he is

always loth to relinquish his duties.
) Lately he celebrated his seventy-first
I birthday, but he lost no time on that ac-
'! count. Mr. Benson has a hobby besides
the pride he feels in maintaining his posi-
tion at the post office. It is the old pump
at the corner of Ferry and Third Streets
in Troy. From old, old times he has
quaffed the water from its spout, and to
him no liquid is so pure. Everybody
knows Mr. Benson and he knows almost
everybody. He is always ready with
cheery answers and is regarded as one of
the most efficient and well-posted letter-
carriers on the Troy force.

Charles A. Tyler, the veteran letter car-
rier of New York City, is probably the
oldest in the whole service. Mr. Tyler
is as fine an old gentleman as one could
meet in a day's journey. He says:

. RUSSELL F. BENSON, TROY, N.Y.

" I was a boy of fourteen when I first
began to deliver mail. The post office
was then located in the old rotunda in
City Hall Park, at the corner of Centre
Street. My father was a clerk in the post

office at the time, and one day in 1837, when I went down to the office to
see him, John H. Hallett, for nearly fifty years chief clerk of the carriers'
department, asked me if I would take some important letters to Lawyer
Clarkson Crolius, who was in later years alderman of the Sixth Ward. Mr.
Crolius had an office in Manhattan court. I delivered the letters safely. Eight
years afterwards my father resigned his clerkship and accepted a position
as letter carrier. There were but twenty-three mail carriers then, and each
of them was allowed to have an assistant, but these helpers were not per-
mitted to enter the post office, and were required to give a pledge that they
would perform their duty faithfully and promptly, meet the carriers at stated
places and receive the mail for delivery each day. I was employed as one
of the assistants in 1845, during the administration of President Polk, and con-
tinued until 1849. Then the California gold fever infected the employees. I
took the opportunity to obtain a clerkship and served until 1850. At the solicita-
tion of Edwin Crosswell of Albany, I was appointed a carrier in the district that
my father served in. The route was a very large one, bounded by old Chatham
Street, the Bowery, Grand Street and Broadway, and it included the City Hall
Park. More than 'a score of carriers are now employed in the same district.

"I was next sent to the Fourteenth Ward, with two associates. About that
time the city was divided into postal districts, with a certain number of carriers
for each district. I was appointed to take charge of District No. 4, the largest
in the city.

" In 1854 or 1855, it was suggested by ex- Judge Nelson T. Waterbury to Isaac
Y. Fowler, who was then postmaster, that a registry department be established

OLDTIMERS IN THE SERVICE.

493

to supply the demands of the merchants. Mr. Fowler liked the suggestion.
Four men, Enoch G. Hebberd, Jeremiah Clark, Arthur Fitzpatrick and myself
were selected to attend to the business of the new department.

" In January, 1860, I was assigned, by Gen. John A. Dix, who had been ap-
pointed by President Buchanan to succeed Postmaster Fowler, resigned, on a
route in the Fifth W a rd. This was a happy change for me. This was during
the war. The draft riots occurred at that time, and I shouldered a musket to nid
in the defence of the office against the mob. Seven incendiary fires started by
the mob could be seen from the roof of the post office building. Two of our
number were killed, and two wounded. Pistol balls, stones and slung-shots flew
past our heads, but I escaped with only a slight wound in the wrist.

" In 1880 General Hancock made application to the Postmaster General for a
carrier to be assigned to deliver the mail on Governor's Island. I accepted the
place and began my duties on April 1, 1880, much to my relief, for I had been for
years serving the heaviest route in the city. During the presidential

campaign of 1880
the mail to the

was very
In addi-
tion to great bun-
dles of letters Gen-
eral Hancock re-
ceived large quan-
tities of news-
papers."

Mr. Tyler has
always been very
much interested
in Sunday schools,
and some day he
wants to visitPhil-
adelphia to see if
the Quakers have
better schools than
New York and Brook-
lyn. In the 1840 cam-
paign of hard cider
and log cabins Mr.
Tyler used to write
songs, and the singers
used to sing them. He is
a dignified and handsome
man, but he thoroughly enjoys a
joke. His steps are not long now,
but he covers the ground faster than
most of the youngsters.
The next oldest man in point of service on the New York force is James
Watson, who "carries" out of the main office in a thick business district. He
was appointed early in the Polk administration. Mr. Watson has been in harness
forty -three years, and no complaint has ever been set down against him. He is a
man of talent and has written a number of carriers' addresses for New Year's,
besides delivering lectures on various topics connected with the service. As a
versifier he has considerable talent. All of Mr. Watson's papers are well worth
reading. In one of them, entitled, " Old Time Post Offices," he says:

494 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

" From the time when human knowledge first began to develop itself in written
characters, clown to the present, man has held some kind of postal communication
with man, and nation with nation. In the first book of Kings we read how Queen
Jezebel 'wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them
to the elders and nobles in the city.' Also, in the book of Esther, ' And the
letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces.' The means of convey-
ance, according to the sacred writer, were by horses, mules, camels and young
dromedaries. Xenophon tells how King Cyrus had post stations established
throughout his kingdom, where men and horses were always kept in readiness to
carry the mails he sent home. Herodotus also mentions how large structures
were erected for post stations, a day's journey apart from each other, with every
convenience for the transmission of letters. The mail service of China dates
far back into antiquity. It is asserted that five hundred years ago they had over
ten thousand mail stations throughout the empire. The Japanese had similar
postal arrangement to that of the Chinese.

" In Prescott's ' Conquest of Peru' he mentions how the Incas had postal com-
munication established from one end of their country to the other by means of
swift runners. Ever since man began to reason he has sought by artificial methods
to supplement his natural means of locomotion. He tamed the horse, the camel,
the elephant; he invented wheeled vehicles, oared galleys, sailing vessels, steam-
ships, locomotives, etc., and every age has seen some improvement in the carrying
of written communications between the individuals. Although we find sculp-
tured on the walls of Assyria and Egypt representations of wheeled chariots, and
also in paintings in the chambers of Herculaneum, yet the first mention of a post-
chaise for carrying the mail is in the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England. It is
about six hundred years ago that the first regular mail service was established in
Europe. In the reign of Edward the Fourth of England, post offices were estab-
lished for government purposes only, and in the reign of James the First they
were opened for the use of the general public. They soon became self sustaining,
and, to use the language of Macaulay, it was ' a splendid triumph of civilization.' "

John Brown is the oldest old timer in the Philadelphia office. He began work
January 1, 1845. In those times the service was by closed pouches between ter-
minal offices and way-stations, so that mail between way-stations, even if they
were only a few miles distant, had to go to a terminal office, not to be brought
back until the next train, and perhaps not until the next day. In 1845 there were
about twenty clerks and the same number of carriers in the Philadelphia office.
When W. J. P. White, who was afterwards postmaster, was appointed to a clerk-
ship, he was the thirteenth employee. It was no part of the duty of the penny
post to take letters to the office. Mr. Brown remembers that the postmaster once
refused to receive a letter with a stamp on it, saying that he got no money for it
and knew nothing about it any way. If patrons went to the post office themselves
they paid the charges when their mail was handed to them; if the carriers took
the mail out, they carried the little way-bills for collection. In addition the carrier
collected two cents for each letter taken out and one half cent for each newspaper,
and this was all the pay the carrier received. Mr. Brown remembers that one
carrier made $2,500 a year. Stamping in the Philadelphi a was done by the clerk last
appointed, and he was expected to rate, mark and stamp all letters deposited in
the post office. He had to know geography, local distances and all that. In
addition to this he was expected to make a reasonable guess how many pieces of
paper each letter contained. If a letter was sent in an envelope it was judged as
a separate or extra piece of paper, no matter how small the piece of paper inside
might be. If three bank notes were sent it would be subject to four rates. Thus,
if one sent a letter to some point three hundred miles distant, it would be subject
to one dollar postage. All this the junior clerk was expected to know, and he had

OLDTIMEES IN THE SERVICE.

495

to mark the amount of postage on each letter with his pen. More ship letters
were sent to Boston than to any other port. The postage for these was 18% cents.
The two cents additional, " for ship," made 20%. The postage on newspapers for
a certain distance was only one half cent, and at the general delivery window for
newspapers a keg of half cent coins was kept so that change might easily be
made.

A. noted old timer in the Philadelphia office is Lewis Wunder. He was ap-
pointed a stamp clerk in 1849 by Postmaster White, who was appointed on the
recommendation of Daniel Webster. Mr. White had been chief clerk under the

previous administration and he became an efficient postmaster. Under that
administration it seems that definite awards of allowances were not made for
post offices, for the postmaster was allowed to spend the money necessary to pay
the running expenses of his office, and any surplus of receipts beyond this sum
he had the authority to distribute among his clerks, and Mr. Wunder recalls
receiving, for one quarter, seventy dollars as his share. Then came Postmaster
John Miller, then Postmaster Gideon G. Westcott, whose chief clerk was William
Y. McKean, lately managing editor of the Public Ledger. Mr. Wunder was
appointed chief clerk by General Harry Bingham when he was postmaster, but
under Postmaster Hartranft the office of assistant postmaster was created and

496

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

INI

OWEN EVANS, PITTSBUKG, PA.

that of chief clerk abolished. Then came
George Fail-man, General Bingham's pri-
vate secretary, and then Col. A. Louden
Snowden, Minister to Spain.

Owen Evans is the veteran of the Pitts-
burg office. He was appointed a carrier
under the penny post system in April,
1861, along with two others, David Jenk-
ins and John Flinn, the father of State
Senator Flinn. Mr. Evans has been in
continuous service ever since. He is
now a paper distributor.

The veteran of the Cleveland office is
Miles A. Beebe. He was born in 1843,
in Columbia, Ohio, and went to Cleve-
land in 1858 to learn the printer's trade.
He w T as a printer until 1865, when Edwin
Cowles, postmaster at Cleveland, ap-
pointed him a letter carrier. Mr. Beebe
was a ninety-day soldier, but, becoming
sick, he was discharged. He worked at
his trade again, but out-door exercise
was necessary. Cleveland had thirteen
carriers in 1865, and some used hand

satchels and some small baskets. Mr. Beebe was a delegate to the convention of
letter carriers that met in 1880 at Cincin-
nati to form a mutual benefit association ;
and though this project fell through, he
has always been interested in the wel-
fare of his fellows.

Louisville has one of the stoutest vet-
erans of them all. Every afternoon at
four a visitor may see a hale old man
with a kindly face leave the rear door of
the post office in that town, a cane in one
hand and a lunch basket in the other. It
is John B. Strasburg. He was born in
Hanover, Germany, in 1818, and was
brought to this country while he was yet
a child. His education was received at
the village school at Lawrenceburg, Ind.
Thence he went to Baltimore, where he
worked at the trade of box making.
There he was married; and he went to
Louisville in 1842 with his family. On
March 16, 1843, he obtained a position in
the post office. His duty then, as now,
was to distribute the mail. The post-
master was Hon. H. L. Mosby, and the

MILES A. BEEBE, CLEVELAND, O.

OLDTIMERS IN THE SERVICE.

497

President was John Tyler, " of the firm of Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," to quote
Mr. Strasburg. There was no railroad postal service in those days. All mail
was carried on horseback, or by stage-coach or steamboat. It was brought from
St. Louis, Nashville and Lexington by
stage. The Indianapolis mail came by
stage, as far as Madison, whence it was
taken along by steamboat. The Eastern
mail was nine days arriving from New
York, being brought from Cincinnati
by boat. Mr. Strasburg says that he
remembers that there was once a package
weighing forty ounces in tile office and
the owner paid the postage with eighty
silver half dollars. This famous Louis-
ville veteran has not had more than two
months' rest since he began, and has
lost very little time by sickness. He
hopes to round out a half century of ser-
vice, and more, too.

The Nashville post office has two vete-
rans, and they are worthy of a place in
the most notable category. They are
"Old ManCarr," and "Uncle Jerry Buck-
ley." Jerry Buckley was born May 3,
1821. W. N. Carr's birthday was Febru-
ary 9, 1821. "They were appointed in
1862," Major Wills once wrote, "and
have served continuously since. They

are always on duty, from early morning until late at night, watching constantly
for their patrons' letters. The weather report has no effect upon them. Snow
and rain are like the sunshine. How many thousand people in Nashville can bear
testimony to the faithful performance of duty by these old veterans ! They have
travelled almost every route, and possibly no two men in Nashville are better
and more generally known than 'Uncle Jerry Buckley' and 'Old Man Carr.'
They still 'hold their own,' and give way to no one on the force. It is a plea-
sure to say that these faithful veterans are held in kindly esteem by all the good
people of Nashville."

Mr. Buckley delivered the first ordinary letter and also the first registered
letter ever received at the Nashville office. The former went to Mr. Peter Harris,
and the latter to the present postmaster at Nashville, who was then a lieuten-
ant-colonel of the United States volunteers on duty at that place. Uncle
Jerry distinguished himself in January, 1882, by delivering his mail in a boat
when the Cumberland Eiver flooded his route. He is much admired by
the carriers as well as the people of Nashville, and makes a patriotic speech
when called upon.

Lester McMurphy has been employed in the Springfield, 111., office since Sep-
tember, 1856. It was monotonous till '61, but then the call to arms brought to
that quiet city of 9,000 people many thousands of soldiers. Camp Butler, near
by, was for postal purposes a city of 100,000 population, as every inhabitant was

J. B. STBASBUKG, LOUISVILLE, KY.

498

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

a letter writer almost daily. There were only five clerks in the Springfield office,
and they were accustomed to go on duty at half past four in the morning and
never stop until eleven at night. But towards the close of the excitement two
clerks were added. Since 1872 Mr. McMurphy has been assistant postmaster at
Springfield.

Joshua R. Rines is the veteran letter carrier of the Pacific Slope. He was born
at Mailand, Nova Scotia. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Massa-
chusetts. In the year 1834, " Jack, as they call him, first saw the light of day.

In 1856 he went to California by way of Cape Horn, settling in Marysville. July
4, 1861, his left arm was shot off. He was firing a salute in honor of the capture
of Fort Donelson. The following year " Jack" emigrated to San Francisco, and
he has been away from there only for three days. On the 15th of November,
1869, Mr. Rines was appointed an employee of Uncle Sam. He is the only one left
of the original seventeen carriers first appointed by General Coey. Seven of that
number had but one arm apiece. During all these years "Jack" has been the
only one who seemed to hold his own.

Said Mr. Rines a while ago: " You see it was not everybody that cared to hire
a man to deliver him his mail when the post office was so convenient, but three

OLDTIMERS IN THE SERVICE.

499

made a fine living by going around among the merchants and business men
and delivering their letters to them at five cents apiece. Many's the solid dollar
I got for bringing a man the letter he had long been waiting for; aye, and many's
the five dollar gold piece, too. Those that had money in those days spent it
freely ; and there was one gambler down on Third Street who never gave me less-
than $5 when I brought him a letter. Of course, you must remember that San Fran
cisco was away out of the
world then, and letters
from home, like angel's
visits, came scarce and
high."

Mr. Bines had no special
bag or satchel; but he got
himself a pair of common
gunny sacks, which he
loaded up with the letters.
One of these he left once
at a saloon on Market
Street while he started off
to deliver the contents of
the other. Then he came
back, left the empty sack
with the obliging bartend-
er, and started off with
the fresh one. The sacks
were never rifled. Let-
ters were too popular and
shooting too free just then.
They had queer times of it
indeed. Every man had
to report every second
night for sorting duty or
forfeit $1 of his pay for a
substitute. The eight car-
riers would gather togeth-
er in the post office, and
when the mails came in,
they used to empty the
sacks on the floor and
squat down around the
pile of letters and pick
them out. As each ad-
dress was read the man who held the letter would flick it across the pile to
whomever it belonged, with one of these remarks:

" This is for you, John."

" Put this in Billy's pile."

" Here's another for that red-headed girl on Mission Street, Jack. Who can be
writing to her all the time from Kentucky ?"

Mr. Kines began to agitate the formation of a letter-carriers' mutual aid associa-

JERKY BUCKLEY, HIS DAUGHTEFl, HIS SON-IN-LAW

(HENRY A. TANKSLEY, A NASHVILLE LETTER
CARRIER) AND HIS GRANDCHILD.

500

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

tion as early as 1881. In 1887 lie broached the plan of a mutual aid association,
and from this beginning sprung the organization now so successful in San Fran-
cisco. He was the first treasurer of it, and was four times reflected.

Tim Mahoney he likes to be called plain Tim is a watchman now in the San
Francisco custom house, but he was the first postman in San Francisco. He began
to deliver letters as early as 1859. Soon it became known that Tim was a letter-car-
rier; and he did a rushing business. The least he ever received for a letter was
twenty-five cents, and the average pay was $1. Finally his customers increased
to such an extent that he had to become select. The " two bit " trade was ig-
nored, and he " catered " entirely to dollar patrons. Tim recalls a touching story.
One of his many dead letters was addressed:

To Jack Hayes.

Please give him this letter. It's from his poor old mother.
He is somewhere in California."

This curious address touched the heart of Tim Mahoney and he vowed to find
Jack Hayes and give him the letter without asking for a fee. In a filthy den
called a lodging-house, located in an alley off Bush Street below Kearny, he found
the man. It happened that Jack was lying on a straw pallet, coughing his life

away. He answered Tim's queries in
husky whispers.

"Must be a mistake. I don't expect
I any letters. I ran away from home ten
i years ago and cut the old folks."

There was a letter just the same, and
Tim opened it and read it to the dying

^^ I prodigal. It was from a sorrowing, for-

giving mother. The prodigal wept at
every sentence, and Tim could not help
but keep him company. He wept so
much that he entirely forgot to collect his
fee and actually dropped a couple of
dollars in the room.

The veterans in the service are not want-
ing among the old pony riders and con-
tractors. They are to be found every-
where. Now and then one figures up the
number of miles he travels in a year, or
in a decade, or in a quarter of a century.
A. J. Williams is mail rider between
Somerville and Hartselle, in Morgan Coun-
ty, Alabama. He has been carrying mail
bags for the last fourteen years. For five
years the route went by Priceville, and
the distance going and returning was

twenty-eight miles ; and the aggregate distance traveled was 43,820 miles. The re-
maining nine years the round trip had been eighteen miles, making a total for the
entire distance traveled during the fourteen years of 92,726. Most of the time
the trips have been made on horseback, and always they are on the schedule
time. Mr. Williams is about sixty-five years old; is a sober man, though

LESTER Mo MURPHY,
Springfield, 111.

OLDTIMEES IN THE SERVICE.

501

not a prohibitionist. He is a good citizen, a sound Democrat, and courteous
and obliging.

Alfred Richards began to carry the mail July 1, 1841, from New Bedford, Mass.,
to Bristol, R. I. He was born in 1817, at Sharon, Mass. He was a farmer's boy,
and when he was sixteen drove a bread wagon for Edwin Wentworth of Canton.
His brothers, who went in the boot-making business, wanted him to learn that trade.
He did it in six months. Then it was called a day' s work to put the bottoms on three
pairs of boots. Mr. Richards made boots in Stoughton and North Bridgewater.
The latter was then a town of sixty* houses ; now it is Brockton, with 35,000

people. At twenty Mr. Richards began taking care of stage horses at Middle-
boro. After a while he went to New Bedford, in this same staging business.
The stages between Canton and New Bedford were taken off when the railroad
was finished in 1840. Mr. Richards had no money with which to buy horses and
carriages to carry out his first contract, that of July 1, 1841. But Elias Sampson,
the agent of the stage line for which he had worked, supplied him with horses
and harnesses, and he hired a carriage. When Mr. Richards' business increased,
he bought a Concord coach. The hardest driving he ever saw was in the great
gale of the 8th of September, 1869. His four-horse team became almost unman-
ageable amid the shrieking of the winds and the falling tree limbs. Mr. Richards
is warmly respected by all who know him, and he is proud, and with good
reason, of his faithful record.

The character of all characters among the old mail contractors was undoubtedly
Major Anderson Arnot, as he was most commonly called, or Andrew Jackson

502

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

A. J. WILLIAMS,
Soinerville, Ala.

Arnot, as he sometimes called himself. Major Arnot laid claim to one hundred
and one years, and to over seventy years of actual life in the mail service. He

was, until his lonely death three months ago,
one of the most familiar figures in Washington
City. He wore an ancient stove-pipe hat, a
ruffled shirt front, an antique double-breasted,
cut-away coat with brass buttons, a waistcoat
of some light, figured material, heavy black
shoes with immense nickel buckles, and an
enormous fob chain. Frequently he carried a
luncheon basket. Major Arnot had a unique
card, which he often handed to his friends.

The Major told his own story best. He
said once:

" I was born in what is now West Virginia,
on the first day of September, 1792, in a block
house, and am one fourth Delaware. When
thirteen years of age I ran away from home
and went to Ohio, where I lived with the Indi-
ans, and from there went with two buck Indians
into the War of 1812. We went on our own
hook as postilions, and were paid for carrying
messages from one army to another. I saw the
Capitol at Washington burned in 1814, and car-
ried the

news to the army at Blagdensburg.
After the war I drove a stage between
Washington and Baltimore. I was con-
nected with the postal service for seventy
years as carrier, sub-contractor, or con-
tractor, and there is not an employee in
the Post Office Department to-day who
will not tell you he found me a contractor
when he came in.

"I voted for Monroe in 1816 and saw
him inaugurated in 1817, and I have seen
every inauguration since, with the excep-
tion of one or two. I was here when
Jackson rode from Tennessee on horse-
back, and saw his horse standing at the
old hitching post by Riggs' bank. Amos
Kendall was his Postmaster General, and
I remember him very well. He was a
brilliant man, of medium stature, not over
thirty-five or forty years of age. I did
my heaviest contracting at the beginning
of his term, and one year received one

eighth of the entire land service paid by ALFRED RICHARDS,

the Government. It was at least half a New Bedford, Mass.

OLDTIMERS IN THE SERVICE.

503

million, as the Government spent about four millions per annum for transpor-
tation. In 1837 Kendall fined me fifty dollars on account of the mails being
thirteen hours late at
Jefferson City, Mis-
souri. The money to
pay the legislature of
Missouri was in the
mail, having been sent
from St. Louis, and my
driver was shot from
his box by bandits ; but
the team ran away and
the authorities sent
out after the money.
St. Louis was my head-
quarters, and all the
routes west of the Al-
leghenies were under
my control, although a
great many were not
in my name. At one
time I had contracts in
every state and terri-
tory in the Union, and
employed about one
hundred and fifty men
and worked five hun-
dred horses, coaches
and buckboards.

" I frequently drew
from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars every ninety days, but the railroads ran us off. One day I was at
the Treasury getting some money changed, and a man stepped up and said to me:

" 'Well, old pioneer, do you know I have paid you many a hundred thousand
dollars over this counter? '

" I remembered him and said, ' Yes, you have.'

" ' Well,' says he, ' where is it now ? '

" ' Gone,' says I, ' back in the channels from which it came.'

" ' Such is life,' said he.

" ' Yes,' said I, ' such is life. That's about all there is to it.'

" My principal routes were to and from St. Louis on both sides of the river.
St. Louis was a very small place then, and some of the letters I received were ad-
dressed : ' St. Louis on the Missouri, a small town near Alton.' When the national
road was laid out, it struck the Mississippi near Alton, instead of St. Louis.

" I crossed Iowa in 1833, laying off Government posts. We crossed the river in
Indian scows where Keokuk now stands. In 1835 I made up a party to go to
Santa Fe. Eleven started and nine got there. We went into California to see
what there was there. We went as scouts. People ask what became of the

MAJ. ANDEKSON AKNOTT.

504

THE STORY OF OUE, POST OFFICE.

other two who did not get there. I have stood up man to man and cast lots to
see which should die for the others. In the spring of 1836 we started out from
Los Angeles; got some ponies. I helped to build seven hundred miles of the
Mexican Central road and my tracks are at Chihauhau, where I drove a spike in
a tree in 1836. Some of the boys went up to the town and got into trouble and
the Spaniards chased us into the mountains, where we sold our horses, and then
boarded a vessel for New Orleans. We had some trouble with the sailors and
the captain thought the best way to settle it would be to make sailors out of us.
At New Orleans an officer demanded the crew of the captain, but I boarded a
vessel for New York.

44 1 used to hire a Chinaman to carry the mail on the frontier. That was from
1851 to 1856 or 1857. I had a very heroic picture of him travelling on snowshoes.
The Chinaman was going at the rate of sixty miles an hour on snowshoes and two
Indians chased him. Chinamen are very expert with the knife and can hit the
mark a good way off. He threw a knife and struck one Indian, and then the other
fellow shot an arrow at-him as the second knife left the Chinaman's hand.

A ARNOT,

OLD

onm Jail (fonfracior

n ME innwsurtlo.

LfAOING THE IRON HORSE '(JDM

THE ATLANTIC- TO THE
PACIFIC

CALL CARD, JANUARY, 1892.

hundredth new. year myevesh.lv,
been open-, .iiul good (or fifly y-m
yet to come for you) sajp-
book My long life is owing to
main strength and awkwardness
and right to my fellow-man:

HEADQUARTFRS. No 1319 F STREET N W.. WASHINGTON, D, C,
MAJOR ANDERSON ARNOT' S CARD.

" I knew Brigham Young well; he was a good friend to me and never forgot a
favor. I was at Noble at the time of the assassination of Joe Smith. In 1852
one of my trains was snowed under near Salt Lake and I sent to Young for aid.
He jumped up from the table when my name was mentioned, and said:

* ' What, Arnot ? What has he to do with this mail ? '

" ' Owner,' said the carrier.

" * Come in in an hour and your train will be taken care of,' said Young.

** When I went out there some years after I called to see him and settle with
him; but he said:

" ' My people have been paid for this years ago; a kindness to me lasts forever.'

" A great deal of money was made in California in 1850 and 1851, but every
dollar that was dug out cost four, to say nothing of the lives lost; and only
about every twentieth man made anything, while the balance lost all they had.
I have unloaded flour at the stations, the freight upon which was one hundred
dollars a barrel from Missouri to the Coast. I was trading as well as running a
stage. I had a good deal of emigrant business at one time, but carried mostly
freight, and was all through the Mexican War as master of transportation. I
was running a transfer at New Orleans when the war overtook me. I sold out to
my partners and went to St. Louis, where my family was, and stayed there most
of the time during the war. I was sixty-eight years old then."

THE LOUISIANA LOTTEEY.

RAUDS perpetrated upon the people of this country
through the mails are numerous enough. They are
successful mainly because the American people like
two things : they want to get something for noth-
ing, and have an insane notion that they can do it ;
and second, they naturally enjoy gambling. They
like to take chances ; they believe that the wheel
of fortune will revolve the next time, or the next,
if not this time, for them. Frauds upon the people perpetrated
through the mails have been common, too, in spite of the best efforts
of the officers of the Department. Happily, better laws and better
bravery and skill, the former on the part of an aroused national
legislature and the latter on the part of the brave and skilful officers
of the Department, are driving these general swindles out of the
mails. Of all frauds, ancient or modern, the Louisiana Lottery was
the grandest, the boldest, the most extensive, the most absurd ; and
whatever the moral grounds for opposing it were, it was largely
opposed, and it was chiefly beaten down and out of sight, because
it had fairly robbed the people of this country of millions, and
millions, and millions.

The charter of the Louisiana Lottery Company was obtained in
1868. The grant was for a period of twenty-five years, to date from
January 1, 1869. The act became a law without the signature of
Governor Henry Clay Warmoth. He permitted the specified ten
days to pass without vetoing it, for the reason that if he did so the
bill would be passed anyway, and he preferred to keep hands off.
No one denies that the charter was obtained originally by bribery
and corruption. Oaths have been made that it was so obtained. In
1879 the Legislature of Louisiana abrogated the charter of the Com-
pany, but a United States judge enjoined the operation of the

505

506

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

repealing statute. That year a constitutional convention submitted
a new constitution to the people of Louisiana. The lottery managers
pleaded before this convention that their charter was a contract
protected by the Constitution of the United States and binding upon
the conscience of Louisiana. The Company claimed credit for
rescuing the state from negro domination, and promised, moreover,
to renounce its monopoly at the close of the charter period. Under

REV. ME. CARRADINE'S CONCEPTION OF THE LOTTERY.

these circumstances the new constitution declared gambling a vice
and commanded the legislature to enact laws for its suppression,
and it also declared that after Jan. 1, 1895, all lotteries in Louisiana
should be unlawful. These facts are clearly brought out by Col.
John C. Wickliffe, Secretary of the Anti-Lottery State Executive
Committee, in a recent Forum. The new constitution contem-
plated the chartering of new lotteries, of course ; but the in-
fluence of the big one was always sufficient to keep any legislative
bills introduced to provide for them from ever coming to a vote. It

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 507

still held, therefore, a monopoly of the gambling business of the
state, and of course it did not increase its payment of $40,000
annually to the Charity Hospital of New Orleans.

The growth and power of the Lottery Company are familiar; so,
also, its struggle for existence, and its discomfiture. Mr. C. C.
Buel, associate editor of the Century Magazine, has described the
more recent corrupt processes of the Lottery Company. John A.
Morris, who had become the ruling spirit in the Lottery before the
McEnery and Nichols contest for the Democratic nomination for
Governor, went to work to secure a renewal of his charter in typical
lottery fashion. Governor Nichols was nominated. When it was
evident that he would be successful, the Lottery insinuated $10,000
into his campaign without his knowledge. Then came the floods
of the winter of 1890. Governor Nichols could not respond imme-
diately to the helpless cries of the distressed planters. The Lottery
sent the Governor a check for $100,000. He returned it. Then
Mr. Morris' agents sent checks of proportionate size to every levee
officer in the distressed region, and only one of these was returned.
The Lottery loaded steamboats with supplies, and after the water
had receded, distributed thousands of dollars 9 worth of seeds. To
New Orleans alone $50,000 was given for levees. Extra " capital
prizes" were distributed'. Offers were made to the archbishop to
relieve the diocese of New Orleans of its debts. These were refused.
$5,000 was offered to the Normal School at Natchitoches, and
$30,000 to the sanitary board of New Orleans. This last was
accepted, but many of the board resigned. The title of the new
lottery bill was " The Revenue Amendment," whatever that might
mean. Governor Nichols attacked this in his message to the legis-
lature ; but " The Revenue Amendment " was brought before the
legislature, and, as Mr. Buel says, such a struggle as Louisiana had
never seen before was begun. The amendment proposed (to tell
his story in the past tense) a new article for the constitution of the
state, to be voted upon in April, 1892. It was called, "Article on
Levees, Schools, Charities, Pensions, Drainage, Lotteries and Gen-
eral Funds." It sought to reestablish the Lottery for twenty-five
years from Jan. 1, 1894, in the name of John A. Morris and six
other persons thereafter to be revealed. In consideration of the
" contract " (no charter this time) John A. Morris was to undertake

508 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

that during the life of the Lottery $31,250,000 should be paid to the
state, in yearly parts of $1,250,000, the latter sum to be apportioned
(in quarterly payments) as follows : $350,000 to the public schools,
$350,000 to the levees, $80,000 to state hospitals, $40,000 to state
insane asylums, $25,000 for the deaf, dumb and blind, $5,000 to the
Soldiers' Home (a state institution), $50,000 for pensions to " dis-
abled, infirm or indigent Confederate soldiers," $100,000 to the city
of New Orleans for drainage and other sanitary purposes, and
$250,000 to the general fund of the state. Rival lotteries were
effectually shut out by the necessity of coming into life in the same
way, and of paying an equal amount to the state. The Company
besides was to be exempt from taxation ; though the sum of $1,250,-
000 was not far from. the equitable taxes on the new capitalization
at the premium value of the stock. Mr. Buel goes on :

"At first the legislature was tempted with $500,000 a year, but as one member
thought his scruples could not be overcome by less than $1,250,000, and as others
deemed it wiser to confront their constituents with that sum behind them, Mr.
Morris good naturedly consented. What was a million, more or less, to him,
when all this money was coming out of the pockets of the people it was supposed
to benefit, along with as much more to line his own pockets! A word like
* self erosity ' should be invented to express such boundless love of mankind.
The delusion of those statesmen may be inferred from the fact that $1,250,000 is
not far from the present state taxation; but they were told by the lottery that
ninety-three per cent, of all its business comes from outside the state ; yet it is a
demonstrable fact, on the theory that each of its one hundred and eight local
policy shops brings in a business of $60 a day (which is said to be the minimum
tolerated, a shop being moved or the management changed if the income is less),
that the local daily drawing will more than pay the new obligation to the state,
showing that it will really come out of the pockets of Louisianians, and from
the class least able to pay it. But could anything be more fascinating as a bribe
to the average citizen than the abrogation of all taxes ? Some very good men
in Louisiana have persuaded themselves that this is the real and not the apparent
effect of * The Revenue Amendment.' They do not see, among other incongruities,
that in public schools supported by the lottery, the teachers might properly be
agents for the sale of tickets, and that it would be laudable for the pupils to
economize on luncheons, so that during a week they might save the price of at
least one ticket.

" As an amendment to the constitution the bill could be passed only by a two
thirds vote in each house. For a time the lottery was slightly in arrears. All
of the colored brethren were on its side, in plenty of white company. Little by
little the opposition saw their forces flowing to the lottery side, a final sign of
weakness being the plea that support of the bill was, after all, only saying to the
constituencies, ' If you don't want this lottery, don't vote for the amendment.'
A member who yielded to this plea said he would rather his son should die than

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 509

be educated by that fund. At the critical moment the anti-lottery members in
caucus pledged their sacred honor not to be bought or wheedled into support of
the bill. A senator who had given that pledge, who had been impoverished,
who was in poor health and harassed as to the support of his family, was the
last man needed for a lottery victory. He voted to submit the question to
the people, sank into his chair, and in shame buried his face in his hands.
Nearly a year afterward this pitiable man was carried ill to the Hotel Dieu in
New Orleans. After his death a belt containing $18,000 was found on his person,
and was considered to be the remaining part of a larger sum. A relative pub-
lished a defence to the effect that he voted according to his convictions, but did
not deny that the money was found upon him. There was a white Baptist
minister in the legislature who voted for the bill, it was said, because the
lottery had subscribed to his church. He was turned out of his church and
afterward out of the denomination. Symptoms of sudden wealth broke out on
many members, previously poor, who are mentioned by name in the talk of the
town.

" Amid much jubilation, on that great day for charity, the bill was sent to
Governor Nicolls, who returned it, on July 7, with his veto. The House lost
no time on the following day in passing it over the Governor's head by a vote of
sixty-six to thirty-one, one member *>eing absent. The Senate would doubtless
have followed suit but for an unforeseen accident. One of its members had been
to New Orleans on the wings of victory, where he had acquired a state of delirium
tremens. His vote was needed to override the veto, and his physician had
declared that his life would be forfeited, probably, if he were carried to the
Senate. Nevertheless, his wife is said to have favored the attempt; an effort
was made to get the use of the Lieutenant-Governor's room for his accommoda-
tion; then it was suggested that the Senate should meet where the sick man lay.
But the opposition threatened to investigate the ability of the man to cast a
legal vote. The man died, and in desperation the lottery senators decided that
as the bill had already passed by a two thirds vote it was unnecessary to submit
it to the Governor for approval. The House adopted this view; and when the
Secretary of State declined to certify the bill on that ground, and for the reason
that alterations and changes in the journals of the two houses, regarding the
bill, had been made without proper authority, the Supreme Court of the State,
by a three to two judgment (Associate Justice McEnery concurring), set aside
both objections, and the bill was promulgated."

But this repulse seemed only to nerve the anti-lottery fighters to
more terrible earnestness. Dozens of the best men in the state took
their fortunes, if not their lives, in their hands to do battle to the
monster. Public men were fearless, indomitable. A few of the
papers, unbought and unpurchasable, did valiant service. The
churches, except unhappily in a few timid instances, meddled with
terrific benevolence in public affairs. The names of this gallant
band all deserve to be remembered, and they will be.

One needs to visit New Orleans himself, and lounge for a week
in its highways and byways, to understand the humiliating, terrible,

510 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

tragic situation under which the Lottery has put that romantic city.
A book might be written, books have been written, to describe the
situation in which these stricken people have been put. And the
fraud is so barefaced and so absurd I It is so simple I Mr. Wick-
liffe described it in his Forum article above mentioned :

"These drawings are advertised always with much rhetorical flourish. Not
satisfied with styling them ' grand ' they are proclaimed as ' extraordinary ' ;
and extraordinary they are in a plurality of senses. There are twelve of them
every year, one for each month. Two of the twelve are proclaimed as having
each a capital prize of $600,000. The other ten are more modest, contenting
themselves with the capital prizes of only $300,000 each. For the two drawings
with the larger capital prizes there are 100,000 tickets issued at $40 each. In
reality, since the tickets are divided into coupons at a dollar each, there are
4,000,000 tickets, upon no one of which is it possible to win more than $15,000.
The other way of putting it, however, sounds grander and proves consequently
more delusive and enticing.

"It is manifest that, if the company sells all its tickets for one of these semi-
annual drawings, it takes into its coffers $,000,000, the money of other people.
For the two drawings, of this character, therefore, the proceeds of the sale of all
tickets, if sold, must amount to the enormous sum of $8,000,000.

" The same number of whole tickets, 100,000, is issued for each of the remain-
ing ten monthly drawings ; but now the whole tickets are divided into twenty
one-dollar coupons. The proceeds of these $300,000 prize drawings, if all tickets
are sold, amount to $2,000,000 each. For the ten, we have, therefore, the aggre-
gate of $20,000,000. It is seen by these figures that the company issues for its
twelve monthly drawings tickets of the face value of $28,000,000.

" The advertised lists of prizes in connection with these drawings are as
follows: For the two, with capital prizes of $600,000 each, 3,144 prizes, aggre-
gating $2,109,600. For the ten other drawings there are for each 3,143 prizes of a
total value for each drawing of $1,054,800. We have now the figures necessary
to comprehend the scheme, as follows:

Face value of tickets, twelve drawings $28,000,000

Total prizes, twelve drawings 14,767,200

Remainder, representing gross profits $13,232,800

" It is doubtless true that all tickets issued are not sold; but this does not affect
the dishonesty of the general rate. So, the unsold tickets are placed in the
wheel with the sold, and the company is the beneficiary of the winnings upon
them.

"The meaning of this is, that the company would sell the tickets to the value
of $28,000,000 and collect the same; generously refund to a comparatively small
number of winners less than $15, 000,000; and appropriate to themselves more than
$13,000,000. In other words, this company takes a trifle less than 47 per cent,
for themselves, a trifle more than 53 per cent, for the limited band of winners.
This is as near to an appropriation of one half as these men dare to venture.
The daily drawings, the scheme which fleeces the miserably poor, are cast in a
still more dishonest mould."

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 511

There is another way to give the actual figures. It is :
Ten drawings per annum two special drawings.

INCOME.

Ten drawings, 1,000,000 tickets at $20 each $20,000,000

Two drawings, 200,000 tickets at $40 each 8,000,000

Total $28,000,000

EXPENSES.

Prizes, ten drawings $10,548,000

Prizes, two semi-annual drawings 4,219,200

Commissions to agents 2,000,000

Advertising 2,000,000

All other expenses 1,000,000

Net profits 8,232,800

Total $28,000,000

In this exhibit no account is made of the daily drawings, the exact figures of
which are not obtainable, but they exceed $2,000,000 annually, making the
enormous annual income of $30,000,000 or twice the sum that was paid Napoleon
by Jefferson in 1801 for the entire Louisiana purchase.

With a profit of 18,000,000 or $10,000,000 a year it is easy to see
how the Company could offer the state a bribe of $31,250,000 for a
twenty-five years' extension of its charter. It could easily have
done it, and besides have bribed legislatures, governors, and courts,
and still enriched its stockholders with a profit of $4,000,000 or
$5,000,000 a year. It trusted to the credulity of men and women
to keep up ^ts revenues, and it did not trust in vain. The following
table, though, proves the great odds against winning a prize. Some
of the victims may relish seeing how badly they were swindled :

99,909 to 1 against winning $15,000

49,999 to 1 against winning 5,000

33,332 to 1 against winning 2,000

19,999 to 1 against winning 1,000

19,999 to 1 against winning 500

1 1,1 10 to 1 against winning 100

3,447 to 1 against winning 50

1,265 to 1 against winning 30

357 to 1 against winning . . 15

172 to 1 against winning 20

84 to 1 against winning 10

45 to 1 against winning 5

512

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Dr. William Shaw Bo wen, the newspaper correspondent, was present
at the Lottery drawing of March 11, 1890. He has described it
very entertainingly as follows :

** The superfluous scenery was cleared away so as to expose the entire stage
area. A parlor set in black and gold was spread. The floor was, in recognition
of the nature of the proceedings about to be enacted, very suitably covered with
a plain green cloth like the table of a faro game. On one side stood a machine
which would impress the unfamiliar spectator as a peculiar one. An immense
drum of mahogany, with glass in place of the conventional sheepskin, was poised
on an axle passing through its centre on a wooden standard. The axle protruded
from the glass heads on either side, and ended in a crank of iron with a wooden

handle. The diameter of the drum was about five feet, and from head to head
the distance was apparently one half the diameter. A trap door tefi inches square
was formed in the circumference.

"On the opposite side of the stage and resting on a standard above the green
cloth was a smaller wheel. It was a highly polished brazen affair, with plate-
glass heads. Through the latter an axle ran, but, unlike the large drum, there
were no cranks. A small trap, about six inches square, appeared in the peri-
phery. Several chairs stood in the centre of the stage in the rear of the mechan-
ism above described.

" By the side of the first drum stood a white-headed old man. He was of large
stature, but the progress of years weighed heavily upon him, and his shoulders
wereT)ent so as to throw his florid face, with its full white hirsute covering, for-
ward towards the floor. Gray-blue eyes, fierce and penetrating, gleamed beneath
bushy, overhanging brows. A suit of Confederate gray clothing, well cut and
neat, covered the aged man. He paused a moment, with one hand resting on the
great mahogany drum. Throwing his head back, he swept his eyes cursorily
over the eager assemblage before him. At 10.45 o'clock another historic person-

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 513

age appeared on the scene. He was clad in black, and a handsome face crowned
by snow-white, closely cropped hair was poised proudly above an elegant, digni-
fied form. His shaven cheeks were cold, his eyes were cold, his countenance, of
the Gallic cast, was impassive. 'Old Jubal' once appeared more like an old-fash-
ioned soldier of the type which prevailed a century ago. His confrere, ex-Lieu-
tenant-General Beauregard, though at present enacting the part of croupier, did not
for a moment bury his modern military carriage. You might easily fancy him in
barry red trousers and gold-lace kepi, witnessing the march past of massive Gallic
battalions on the plain of Chalons. As the co-manager of the Louisiana Lottery,
General Beauregard does not bury his historic identity as completely as does
Old Jubal.'

" Two small boys in knickerbockers took their places, one by the large drum
and one by the small brass wheel. With the utmost solemnity, Croupier Early
proceeded to blindfold the boy beside him. Located near the brazen drum, Crou-
pier Beauregard, with corresponding gravity, tied a white handkerchief over the
eyes of his juvenile assistant. Several white canvas sacks were placed near the
great wheel. The contents of each sack assumed the bulk of a bushel of grain.
The gathered neck of each sack was tightly tied with a cord over which a strip
of white paper was drawn and sealed with red wax. Croupier Jubal carefully
broke the seal of one sack and poured the contents through the trap-door open-
ing into the great wheel. There was a rattling sound and a heap of small white
and black cylinders appeared through the glass side of the bottom of the drum.
One sack after the other was emptied until the little cylinders filled the drum
exactly half full. In other words, a drum five feet in diameter, and two feet six
inches along the axis, contained the contents of the canvas sacks, in bulk two feet
six inches deep at the thickest part. After closing the door, Croupier Jubal
motioned to two negros who stood in the wings. They approached, one on each
side of the drum, and by the axle cranks they slowly revolved it three times.
Then they reversed the action and turned the drum three times in the opposite
direction. The little black and white cylinders rattled merrily as they whirled
about. Then the negroes returned to their places in the wings. 'Old Jubal*
calmly seated himself in a chair near the trap door. The great wheel was ready
for use.

" On the other extremity of the green cloth a scene almost identical was en-
acted. There was, however, only a single canvas sack a small one and there
were no sable assistants to turn the brazen drum. Croupier Beauregard poured
the contents in little black and white cylinders through the trap door, closed
it, and with his own white fingers twirled the drum three times in one direction,
and three times oppositely. Then he seated himself and complacently pulled his
immaculate linen wristbands down over his hands. His part of the game was
also in readiness.

" A square table was located in the rear of the large wheel. Beside it sat a
clerk who leaned over a large blankbook whose pages were ruled into spaces.
Two men, with their hats cocked rakishly on one side, came forward and faced
the audience. They stood between the two wheels. A boy in blue occupied a
chair placed on the front centre of the stage. His back was to the spectators.
In front of him was a small square box. Croupier Early drew forth his watch.
Croupier Beauregard likewise glanced at his timekeeper. The audience craned
their necks forward impatiently.

514 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

"The balcony was nearly filled with women. The larger proportion were evi-
dently residents of the city of New Orleans. Many of them held, half concealed,
a printed slip of paper. They had purchased tickets in the drawing and could
not curb their impatience and await at home the tidings of the lucky numbers.
Some of the women were strangers Northern visitors to the semi-tropical city.
There were all sorts and kinds of men on the parquet floor. There were the
regular attendants who were always on deck, as it were, to be in readiness if their
monthly investment should prove fortunate. The clock struck eleven. Croupier
Early again consulted his watch. Likewise did Croupier Beauregard. The two
ex-generals then glanced at each other. Then they arose from their seats and
each opened the door of the wheel beside which he stood. At a signal the two
blindfolded boys each reached a hand inside the wheel beside which he was placed.
Simultaneously each boy drew forth a single little cylinder. The boy beside the
great drum handed his cylinder to Croupier Early who had resumed his chair.
The boy placed by the small brass wheel extended his cylinder to white-headed
Croupier Beauregard.

"'OldJubal' drew the white paper from the encircling black rubber tube in
which it was thrust. In measured tones he read the number, ' 48,186." The
voice of General Beauregard was likewise measured and somewhat harder
in its timbre when he called the figures on the white slip of paper which
he drew from the little black tube: '200' he said. The rakish-looking man
standing nearest to 'Old Jubal' exclaimed in loud tones, '48,186.' The equally
rakish-appearing individual, standing near to General Beauregard, cried in sounds
which extended across the auditorium to St. Charles Street in front of the
theatre: '200 dollars.' Thus it was that ticket No. 48,186 drew a prize of $200.
The rubber cylinders were handed the boy by the box. There were 840 cylin-
ders contained in the small brass drum over which Croupier Beauregard presided
and one by one the boy, his assistant, drew forth from each the roll of paper
which decided the fate of many a man's or woman's aspirations and hopes.
When ten cylinders had been withdrawn from each of the wheels the clerk,
seated at the table, called in droning tones 'Time!' Thereupon 'Old Jubal'
and his coadjutor, Beauregard, solemnly arose, closed the trap door, and caused
the wheels to revolve three times in one direction and three times the other.
Then the doors were again opened and the thoroughly shaken up contents were
abstracted one by one by the blindfolded boys.

"For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the little cylinders, I will
mention that they are of rubber, about one inch long and one seventh of an inch in
diameter, open at each end. There are 100,000 of these cylinders, corresponding
to the number of tickets in the drawing, and in each cylinder is thrust a rolled
white paper ticket or slip, on which is printed one of the numbers of the tickets
in the drawing, ranging from 1 to 100,000. The small wheel contains similar
cylinders, each one containing a slip of paper on which is printed the figures
representing one of the 840 prizes in the drawing. The cylinder which contains
the slip marked $300,000 the capital prize is the ultima thule of the hopes
of all of those who invest in tickets in the drawing.

" One hour passed away. The monotonous voices of the two old generals, and
the ligneous tones of the two rakish individuals who parrot like repeated
their call of the numbers, went on, went like clock work. Only three large
prizes of $5,000 each had been taken from the brass drum. Plenty of smaller

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 515

prizes, $200, $300, and $500 had come forth, however. The audience, whose ten-
sion was drawn to a pitch corresponding to that of the occupants of the grand
stand on the day of Futurity stakes, became restless. Men moved uneasily in
their seats. An old woman, evidently one who scrubbed floors for a living, sat
near me. She held a ticket in one hand. Whenever a number was called she
turned her eyes in a mechanical manner towards the number on the precious slip.
Precious ? Yes ; precious until the last cylinder had been removed from the brass
drum. Then I heard her groan and she tore the paper in fragments and flung
them on the floor. Soon after 12 o'clock Croupier Beauregard read from a slip
he unrolled, ' $100,000.' Loudly the rakish man near to him called forth ' $100,-
000.' Then he exclaimed, 'A prize of $100,000 is drawn!' and he named the
number of the ticket unrolled by ' Old Jubal.' A buzz was heard on the floor,
and men and women looked about them to ascertain if any person present held
the ticket bearing the lucky number. Alas, no one gave a sign.

"At exactly 12.30 Croupier Jubal unrolled a slip of paper and called '8,132.'
From Beauregard's side of the green cloth came the answer, '$300,000.' The
rakish man bawled: ' No. 8,132 draws the capital prize of $300,000.' The audience
remained as still as death for a moment; then a sound of a murmur expressive of
disgust went up and half of those present hastened out of the theatre. Every
ticket holder could not draw the great prize, but the holder apparently thought
that his piece of paper ought to have borne the lucky number; hence his wrath.
The subsequent proceedings were no longer interesting. One by one the numbers
were called, and one by one the numbers in the small drum were read off. Finally
the last of the cylinders were removed from the latter, and the monthly drawing
was at an end.

" The cylinders in the large wheel remained seemingly undiminished in num-
ber. I endeavored to measure with my eyes the extent of the reduction, and I
reached the conclusion that the contents of the drum were lowered about half an
inch. The several bushels of cylinders remaining corresponded to the number
of tickets that had not been included within the radius of the smile of the God-
dess of Fortune. Did each unlucky ticket represent a crushed human hope ?
By no means, as will subsequently be shown. There were 69 per cent, of the
tickets in the drawing of March 11, 1890, sold. The remainder, 31 per cent, of
the whole, were, as unsold tickets, drawn against by the Louisiana Lottery Com-
pany. About one third of the tickets numbers, therefore, in the large drum were
owned by the lottery, which, of course, took its chances in like proportion in the
prizes which were drawn. How many of the prizes in the month's scheme were
drawn by the 31 per cent, of tickets unsold and held by the Company does not
appear, for the number constitutes one of the secrets of the institution. It is
quite reasonable to assume that one third of all the prizes were drawn by the
Company on March 11, fairly, of course, according to the system which prevails
and which is well understood by the regular purchasers of lottery tickets. How
the profits must have rolled in on that day ! "

And one must have visited New Orleans also to have known in
what a deathlike grip the Lottery held its myriad victims. Reverend
Mr. Carradine, of New Orleans, one of the most fearless and effec-
tive of the opponents of the Lottery, used to say :

516

THE STORY OF OUR, POST OFFICE.

" To send a servant with money to the market is virtually to send a portion of
your money to the lottery. Sometimes a householder has wondered at his ot-
her slim dinners. The cook did not. She had invested some of her employer's
money for the benefit of the stockholders of the lottery. Your meal that day
may have been slender, but the lottery gained thereby. Just visit the markets
in the morning and see the kitchen people as with baskets on their arms they

stream by scores
into the ticket of-
fices. How these
offices do abound
in the neighbor-
hood of the mar-
kets!

" Is that all the
stealing done?
Not by any means.
Married women by
hundreds invest
the money set
apart for home ex-
penses. Fatheis
often wonder that
their children are
not better dressed,
nor the house and
table better fur-
nished. The ex-
planation can only
be found in the
from the cash drawers of their em-
I believe that if we had the money

OF A ONCE HAPPY AND RESPECTED FAMILY."

cash receipts of the lottery. Clerks steal

ployers. Everywhere stealing is going on.

that has been stolen to find its way into the lottery, we could pave the city

streets from end to end, and take care of the charity hospitals.

" Men once trusted and respected stand exalted no longer because of this
corporation. I know of men who were once well to do financially, but to-day
virtually tramps and beggars on our streets. If the proposition that I have
uttered that the Louisiana Lottery has been the cause of social and commercial
ruin to thousands if that statement could be heard in numerous desolated
homes in New Orleans, a groan of assent would go up, and poverty-stricken wife
and shame-branded child would exclaim: 'It is true.' Only a few days ago I
heard of a young woman who invested all of her little possessions in the lottery
and, reduced to despair and poverty, took her life. The papers merely published
her death. That was all the public knew of the case, but the family and a few
friends, as they looked at her obituary, saw the lines twist and writhe and
settle in an awful shape that spelled the word ' suicide.' If you were aware of
the number of tireless grates and shoeless feet and tearful eyes and hungry
people produced in this city by this gigantic iniquity you would be aghast.

" Did you ever study the building of the lottery as it stands on the corner of
St. Charles and Union Streets? Look carefully and you will discover that its

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY.

517

foundations rest on human misery; its walls, like hands of agony, look up and
clutch at a receding sky. Its windows are washed with human tears; its walls
drip with the ghastly moisture of human pain and human blood ; its floors are
paved with falsehood; its doors, like a dragon's mouth, are kept open to devour
the passer-by, and its clerks are kept busy writing down day and night, how
many fools there are in the United States.

" On the day of the drawing look; coming out of the front door is a black
mahogany box containing the records and paraphernalia of the proceedings. It
is escorted. It looks like a coffin, and it is one. It is the coffin of human hopes,
of buried manhood and womanhood, and of lost integrity of individual and of
community. The cortege crosses the street to the Academy of Music. A church
would not do for such obsequies as this. Call in the crowd and pack the place
from floor to gallery. It is a sad funeral. It is one in which everybody is con-
cerned, and so let everybody see. Two old generals act as pallbearers. They
once stood up for a lost cause, let them now stand up for the lost honor of a
great commonwealth. For this is the obsequies going on in the building. It is the
funeral of the departed honor
and integrity of the city of
New Orleans and the state of
Louisiana."

But the " daily draw-
ing " is probably the vilest
form of the Lottery fraud,
and it is the special curse
of the colored population.
In every lottery office
there are dream books for
consultation by the

poor, deluded

player, who

imagines they

will reveal to

him the " gig

or " saddle " by *

which he can

" hit " the Lottery. There are one hundred and twenty-four policy

shops in New Orleans ; places where combination tickets are written

in the daily drawings. The average receipts of these shops are

about thirty dollars per diem each. As there are three hundred

and thirteen drawings per annum, the annual receipts from this

source are about $1,165,000. This enormous sum all comes from

the pockets of the poor and ignorant. At a large policy shop on

SHAME-BRANDED CHILD AND POVERTY-STRICKEN WIFE.

518 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Royal Street once between the hours of one and two, thirty-four
persons entered and purchased within the hour ; of these twenty-
three were negroes and eleven white. Eighteen were women,
six were children between ten and fourteen, and ten were men.
All of these persons were laboring people. The daily drawing
is operated as follows : Every day in the week except Friday
seventy-eight numbers are placed in a wheel and thirteen are
taken out, and these thirteen are arranged in the order in which
they are drawn, into thirteen separate stations, numbered from one
to thirteen. Printed tickets are sold at one dollar apiece, generally
divided into fourths, at twenty-five cents each, with three numbers
in them. The plan is based on the combination of seventy-eight
numbers, taken three in a set.

If this were all of the daily drawing, the evil would be small as
compared with the actual facts, because the scheme of these printed
tickets apparently approaches more nearly to fairness than the
scheme of the monthly drawings. But it is arranged with diabolical
ingenuity to whet the appetite of the unfortunate victim of the
lottery craze and to induce him to return again and again. This is
accomplished by giving a prize fifteen per cent, less than the price of a
ticket for all tickets which contain one of the numbers drawn from
the wheel. Take the Friday scheme, which consists of the ternary
combinations of seventy-five numbers, with eleven drawn from the
wheel. This gives 67,252 possible combinations of seventy -five
numbers with three in a set, and hence there are that number of
tickets. The scheme of the prizes is as follows :

1 prize of $4,273.40 $4,273.40

5 prizes of 850.00 4,250.00

16 85.00 1,360.00

50 42.50 . . ' 2,125.00

34.00 1,462.00

25.50 1,275.00

8.50 544.00

4.25 252.00

1.70 5,766.40

85 18,849.60

43
50
64
64

3,392
22,176

25,861 $40,117.40

The chance to win the capital prize, therefore, is one in 67,525, and
when one wins it, one only gets $4,275.40 for $1 as against 115,000

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 519

for $ 1 in the monthly, with a chance of one in one hundred thousand.
The chance to win a prize of $4.25 is one in 1,237. The chance to
win a prize of $1.70 is one in nineteen. The chance to win a prize
of eighty-five cents, fifteen per cent, less than the cost of a ticket, is
one in a little more than three.

If one takes from all this the attachment whereby 22,176
prizes of fifteen per cent, less than the cost of the tickets that win,
them, it presents itself as a scheme which distributes only thirty-
one per cent, in prizes, nineteen per cent, below the established fraud
line. Even with this bait it distributes only forty-nine per cent, in
prizes, one per cent, below the unfair line. But this bait never
fails. The holder of the ticket with one winning number hands it
in as so much cash and pays the difference in money for another
chance. The result is that the money won in prizes comes back to
the company, day after day, with fifteen per cent, additional from
the pockets of the foolish investor, and he in process of time becomes-
a lottery drunkard. Of such there are thousands upon thousands
in New Orleans.

But the printed tickets in the daily drawing represent a small
portion of this evil. The main rascality lies in the policy tickets
which are written up to suit the fancy of the purchaser. Every
form of ignorance and superstition is played upon by the policy
agents. There are the dream books and other fetiches. There are
various ways one is allowed to bet, "gig" " saddle," " capital,"
"single number," "all day," and "station."

Take, for instance, the " washerwoman's gig " four, eleven, forty-
four. The chance that these three or any other first three numbers
will, in any order, be the first three numbers out of the thirteen,
taken from the wheel in five days in the week is the continued
product of the numbers 78, 77, 76, divided by six, which is 76,076 ;
so that one in 76,076 is the chance to win. In other words, if one
should play this gig every day for two hundred and fifty-three
years, the mathematical chances are that it would come out once>
and after spending 176,076 one would receive, if it did come, the
munificent prize of $100 ! If you bet on a single number coming-
out in any particular station, your chance to win is one in sev-
enty-eight. If you do win, you are paid fifty-six for one. If you
bet that any particular number will be one of the thirteen drawn,

520 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

your chance to win is one in six ; and if you do win, you are paid
four for one.

Compare these figures with those of the roulette table. Your
chance to win there is one in thirty-one ; if you do win, you are paid
twenty-seven for one. The professional gambler, who is denounced
"by the law, indicted by the grand jury, and hunted by the police, is
satisfied with a percentage in his favor of twelve per cent. He turns
liis wheel for the few people who can stand around his table. This
gigantic swindle turns its wheel daily for the unnumbered mul-
titude who may bet at the game. The smallest percentage it permits
itself to take is twenty-two per cent. On the most of its game its
percentage is from thirty-three to forty-one per cent., and on part of
its game it is incalculable.

The magnitude of the general business of the Lottery was illus-
trated by the operations of the New Orleans post office. The
letters received and outgoing belonging to the Louisiana Lottery
through this office were, in the early part of 1890, approximately as
follows :

Daily average received 5,800

Daily average sent out 11,000

Daily average registered letters received 2,800

Daily average postal orders received 1,600

When the Department forbade the forwarding of registered mail to
the Lottery Company, the Company requested its customers to write
to M. A. Dauphin, the president, personally. He then received more
than five hundred letters from the post office every day. The regis-
tered letters sent to the New Orleans post office from various parts of
the country used to go, and now go in limited numbers, to the New
Orleans National Bank. The stock of this bank, which is a United
States depository, is owned by John A. Morris, Albert Baldwin, and
other Lottery stockholders. But the Lottery people own four fifths
of all the bank stock of New Orleans, for that matter. They con-
trol the Louisiana National, which is worth $600 a share, owing to its
numerous receipts of Lottery money. A representative of the New
Orleans National Bank, with an assistant, used to be stationed at the
post office to look after the thousands of registered letters that arrived ;
for nearly 45 per cent, of the entire business of the New Orleans post
office was derived from the Lottery. The 1,600 postal orders which

THE LOUISIANA LOTTERY. 521

used to be received daily were handled by clerks of the bank stationed
at the post office, and a rubber stamp was used to sign the receipts.
The return cards were also stamped at the post office, and never saw
the inside of the bank. The registered letters represented daily
about $30,000, and in an average year almost $ 11,000,000 came in
through the registry system. The orders averaged, it is said, $20
each. Letters received by M. A. Dauphin, not registered or contain-
ing money orders, used to bring him bank bills, that came from all
parts of the world bills of exchange, drafts on London, and all
kinds of negotiable paper used to arrive. Indeed, it is estimated that
almost $3,000,000 used to reach the Lottery yearly, in addition to
the almost $22,000,000 received yearly in registered letters and
in money orders. Then there was the business of the expresses and
the proceeds of tickets purchased in the city of New Orleans and
vicinity. This influx of money has been called "a tempest of gold."
Now, however, since the passage of the anti-lottery bill, all this,
is changed. The income of the New Orleans post office has been
reduced by over $100,000 annually. But this, of course, repre-
sents a saving of millions and millions to the poor, gullible fools who*
have been so eager, time and again, to play this losing game.

There was also the temptation that the Lottery mail held out to the
postal employees. That is almost entirely removed, and it is an in-
calculable good that it is so. The temptation to steal the Lottery
letters was very great, of course, for all who handled them knew
very well that they contained loose bank bills, the product, too, of a,
gigantic scheme of robbery. They knew that thousands of the*
registered letters contained money. Legally the postal clerks com-
mitted a crime when they opened one of these letters, as with any
other kind of letter. And so, in this secondary phase of the matter,
the Post Office Department was really aiding and abetting crime.

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT,

'/A

The Anti-Lottery
in Congress. The

HE gallant spirits in Louisiana made their
fight. The dogged Postmaster General
made his fight; for it required nerve to
face at once the timid arguments of short-
sighted politicians, the attacks of million-
naires upon his credit, and the foul mouths
of scandal mongers.
Bill was introduced
lottery managers jingled their money bags in the very corridors of
the Capitol. These facts, and facts they were known to be, promptly
found their way into all the newspapers, and the Washington dis-
patches for weeks and months printed the continued story of their
intended corruption. Such a tide of public sentiment against this
iniquity swept over the country that the Anti-Lottery Bill could do
nothing else but pass ; and it was a hardy thing for the newspapers,
accustomed to the patronage of this all-embracing institution, to
make and push it on, and honor is theirs, as much as the President's,
the Postmaster General's, the Chief Inspector's, or anybody's. It was
very much vaunted that the law would prove to be unconstitutional ;
but John A. Morris, and perhaps some others, believed that the Su-
preme Court would uphold it, and it is known that he, if not others,
believed that the expenditure of money in the Louisiana Legislature
and in the state generally might as well cease. But whether it
ceased or not, the warfare of the Post Office Department and the war-
fare of public opinion kept on, and it won a famous victory.

The partnership which the Louisiana Lottery Company was really
forcing the Post Office Department to perform with it upon every
post route in the country, and the demoralization of the service itself
in this process, were pointed out in the Postmaster General's letter
to the President dated June 28, 1890. Mr. Wanamaker said :

522

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 523

" Recent and reliable investigations of the mailing operations of the Louisiana
Lottery Company at New Orleans and Washington prove conclusively the magni-
tude of its affairs. It is almost incredible, but capable of proof, that its chief
business offices in Washington are conducted in two or more localities, employing
numbers of clerks, often working night and day, using express wagons and furni-
ture cars to haul the out-going mail, which is frequently carted in the night from
place to place, to prevent suspicion or identification. It is estimated that it dis-
patches from the National Capital alone fifty thousand letters per month, and the
mail received by the same office may be safely counted by the ton. What is true
of Washington is probably five-fold true of New Orleans."

He went on :

" This vast business is terribly demoralizing to the postal service. It enlists
some of the postmasters, subsidizes clerks, tempts mail assorters and carriers
and compels large outlays from the Department for inspectors to trace lost or
stolen letters. The postal employees readily assume that a letter directed to a
lottery company contains money that it is in the mail in violation of the spirit
of the law that its loss will be difficult to trace and that an attempt to punish
the offender who shall abstract it will more likely fail than prosecutions of an or-
dinary character. Hence, the temptation to purloin it is exceptionally great."

The Postmaster General concluded :

" With all the admitted evils within and without the Postal Department, result-
ing from this nefarious traffic, I am, as the head of this Department, powerless
to act. It is indeed a humiliating position, subjecting me to the suspicion of law-
abiding citizens that your Postmaster General is ignorant of, indifferent to, or
wilfully evading the law when he is without authority under existing statutes to
exclude this matter from the mails. It is even more humiliating to contemplate
that the entire Post Office Department is, in point of fact, the principal agent of
the Louisiana State Lottery Company, and that every extension of the postal system
spreads the hurtful power and influence of that company.

The laws had been entirely insufficient to arrest the perpetration
of these lottery frauds. The experience of Postmasters General
Key and Gresham (both good lawyers, and both Circuit Judges now)
had been enough to prove this. The statutes omitted to give the
Postmaster General any authority to delay or withhold from delivery
any ordinary sealed letter which he might have reason to believe or
evidence to suspect related to a lottery, or any power to prevent the
delivery of registered mail, or the payment of money orders to any
person, unless it could be proven that he was actually engaged in
conducting such a lottery. The section relating to ordinary letters,
which has been construed to be penal, was not available in the
courts, because it was necessary to obtain from them the issuance of
warrants upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation

524

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

particularly describing the letters to be seized. Thus only those
could be reached that could be particularly described, and those letters
would constitute, as the Postmaster General pointed out, an infinites-
imal part of the mail of any lottery company doing a large business.
As to the other section, that relating to registered letters and money
orders, the instructions of his predecessors forbidding the delivery of
registers or the payment of money orders to the Louisiana State
Lottery or its officers were followed immediately by advertisements
of the Company that remittances for the purchase of tickets could
thereafter be made to the New Orleans National Bank. Postmaster

General Gresham consequently took occasion to direct the post-
master at New Orleans to withhold all matter for this bank ; but
an injunction of the court restrained the postmaster from executing
this order, and all the Lottery mail had consequently been delivered
without question.

The new bill, as drawn by General Tyner and passed by both
houses without alteration, defined the offence for depositing letters
relating, to lotteries, and fixed the penalty therefor ; provided for the
prosecution of the same by information or indictment; extended
the jurisdiction so as to include any district into which the letter
might pass, as well as that of mailing, thus enlarging the opportunity

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 525

to collect evidence and to remove the trial from the local influence
surrounding the courts in states where lotteries had been success-
fully established; authorized the withholding of registered letters
and the payment of money orders from banks and individuals acting
as agents of lotteries ; and prohibited the use of the mails to news-
papers containing lottery advertisements.

There was something to work with, and the Postmaster General
went to work. His letter quoted from above (which was followed
so quickly by the President's special message to Congress upon the
subject) had been preceded by two days by a letter to the Chief Post
Office Inspector directing Colonel Sharp, the inspector-in-charge at
Chattanooga, to proceed to New Orleans and return to the Postmaster
General, after a most discreet and confidential inquiry, and after con-
ference with Collector Warmoth, the leading Republican of the state,
and Governor Nicholls and other avowed leaders of the anti-lottery
movement, with the names of three or four candidates for postmaster
of that town ; and it was stipulated that they must be men of " intel-
ligence, courage and absolute integrity," men " who cannot be
swerved by threats or bribes." So much was done.

But Chief Inspector Rathbone and his doughty assistants also
went to work. It was a quiet, searching, determined, concerted at-
tack, not a crusade at all, but simply a brave execution of a brave
law. The liveliest part of the fight centered in New Orleans.
By direction of the Chief Post Office Inspector, Inspector William
T. Sullivan of the St. Louis division was sent to that city to assume
general supervision, in cooperation with Postmaster Eaton. They
and other postmasters elsewhere excluded thousands of papers from
the mails. Immense masses of evidence were accumulated.

There were but few prosecutions instituted during the first few
months subsequent to the passage of the law. It had been a well
known fact that it was impossible to secure fair treatment in the
courts at New Orleans, and consequently the Department was com-
pelled to seek justice elsewhere. Proceedings against officials and
employees of the company were begun in communities where it was
believed a fair trial could be had. On Nov. 1, 1890, the Austin
division of post office inspectors was established, and Mr. George C.
Maynard, an inspector with inestimably more skill and nerve than
the stranger sees in his mild blue eyes and smooth, round face, was

526 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE. .

put in charge. The same month Mr. Maynard visited New Orleans
to ascertain the progress of the work there. He found that the
revenues of the office were decreasing rapidly and a preliminary ex-
amination made possible a good saving in the matter of clerk hire.

The first arrest in this division for violation of the anti-lottery law
was made by Inspector Sullivan, Nov. 5, 1890. J. Pinckney Smith,
business manager of the Daily States, was arrested for mailing an
edition of his paper containing an advertisement of the Lottery.
The case was taken before United States Commissioner Wright, at
New Orleans, and examination set for Nov. 10, 1890, the bond being
fixed at $1,000. The evidence was conclusive and the accused
bound over to answer to the United States Court. Smith proved
that he was absent from the city when the mailing of the unlawful
matter took place, and sought to fasten the entire responsibility on
a boy who was employed to bring the mail edition to the post office.
In this he failed, the commissioner holding that he was the respon-
sible head of the establishment and therefore guilty as charged.
The United States Attorney took the ground that the Government
could not secure a conviction of Smith, and for this reason he never
presented the case for indictment.

M. A. Dauphin, president of the Lottery Company, died in
December, 1890, and was succeeded by Paul Conrad, his former
chief clerk. Conrad had been employed continuously by the Lottery
Company since it began. Dauphin's policy up to the day of his
death was to acquiesce in the changed conditions brought about by
the passage of the anti-lottery law and to cut loose entirely from
the use of the mails. Conrad, on the contrary, resorted to all kinds
of subterfuges to further the business interests of his company,
and he soon found himself one of the principal defendants in a
large number of criminal proceedings. He tried to utilize his
connection with an ice concern to increase the revenues of the
Lottery Company, but without success, as examinations of the ice
company's mail showed.

In January, 1891, Inspectors Maynard and Stoddard made an ex-
amination of the post office at New Orleans, with reference to a
reduction of the clerk-hire allowance, rendered necessary by the
falling off of the revenues. As a result of this investigation and
the one made the preceding November for the same purpose, a total

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 527

decrease in the annual allowance of 117,400 was made. After the
first effect of the withdrawal of the Lottery patronage upon the
revenues of the office, a healthy and steady increase in revenues was
reported. This was due entirely to the increased support of legiti-
mate business enterprises.

The first attempt of the Lottery men to set the new law at open
defiance was in the case of Sam Alexander, an agent of the Lottery
in Houston, Texas. In connection with his cigar and tobacco trade,
Alexander did a large business in the sale of Lottery tickets and even
conducted this business by mail over a large part of the State of
Texas. Alexander paid no attention to the new law, but continued
to mail the monthly lists of prizes to his patrons and to correspond
with them about his Lottery business. In November, 1890, Inspector
Maynard and Postmaster George A. Race of Houston secured evi-
dence nearly sufficient for a criminal prosecution, but immediate
success was deferred by the action of Assistant Postmaster Kinney
of Austin, who refused to turn over, and who, in fact, destroyed, the
evidence which had come into his hands. Work was renewed, how-
ever. In February, 1891, three indictments were obtained in the
United States Court at Austin, and Alexander was arrested on the
llth. Acting upon the advice of his attorney, Alexander presented
himself in court and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to pay a
fine and the costs of prosecution, amounting to probably not less than
$1,000. Kinney, the assistant postmaster, was reported to the Post-
master General and dismissed from the service for insubordination.
This dismissal had a beneficial effect. It was an unmistakable
notice to all officials and employees of the Government that the
Postmaster General was determined to enforce the new law with all
the energy and power at his command.

In March, 1891, it was ascertained by Inspector Maynard that the
post office at El Paso, Texas, was flooded with lottery circulars ad-
dressed to persons in all parts of the country ; and early in April,
Inspectors Maynard and Clum (the latter having just reported for
duty from the Cincinnati division) left for El Paso to make an in-
vestigation. They learned that the Juarez Lottery Co. of Juarez,
Mexico, were mailing their circulars through the El Paso post office
because they saved three cents on each letter deposited (the rate
being five cents, of course, if mailed in the Mexican post office at

528 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Juarez) ; and up to the time of the arrival of the inspectors they had
managed to put into the mails a vast quantity of their literature. A
post office box was first rented by one of the lottery clerks in another
name, supposed to be fictitious. A large supply of envelopes was next
procured and a request to return in ten days to this box number was
printed on them. These envelopes were then mailed through the
public drop in the post office, sealed and containing the lottery
circulars. There was no attempt at concealment, and it was evident
that the seal of these letters and their return, if undelivered, to the
lottery box, was depended upon to protect these violators of the law
from criminal prosecution. But they had no sooner begun opera-
tions than hundreds of these letters were voluntarily turned over by
the insulted addressees to their local postmasters, who in turn for-
warded them to the Department ; and the letters were then sent to
the inspector-in-charge at Austin. They furnished him with exact
information as to the methods of this company.

The first move of the inspectors was to capture the person who
mailed the letters containing the lottery matter. This was accom-
plished on the night of the 12th of April, about 7 P. M., when a
person, who was afterwards ascertained to be the president of the
Juarez Lottery Company, appeared at the post office at El Paso and
deposited a handful of letters in the drop, which were immediately
recognized, by Inspector Maynard stationed near by, as being
similar in appearance to other lottery matter heretofore mailed there.
At a signal Inspector Clum drew in the person who had deposited
these letters. He would neither reveal his identity nor give any in-
formation as to the contents of the letters. Accordingly in his
presence were prepared the usual letters of instruction to the post-
masters at the offices to which his letters were directed (for he ad-
mitted mailing them), requesting that the envelopes and their contents,
if in relation to a lottery, be procured from the addressees and re-
turned to the inspectors for use as evidence.

The prisoner then seemed suddenly to realize the precariousness
of his situation. He was detained by the inspectors at their hotel
over night, and after a good supper imparted the fact that he was
the president of the Juarez Company, that his name was Nicholas
Leipheimer, and that he had been but two months in this country.
He made several generous propositions in the form of offers of good

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 529

honest dollars of the United States for his release from custody, and
even offered the inspectors remunerative employment with the Juarez
Lottery in return for such a favor. The next day, the 13th of April,
Leipheimer was duly arrested. Commissioner McKie held him for
the United States Grand Jury in the sum of $2,000, which was
promptly furnished. Armand Plassen, chief of correspondence of
the lottery, was arrested on April 15, taken before Commissioner
McKie the same day, and held for the United States Grand Jury,
bond being fixed at $1,000, which was given. Warrants were also
issued for the arrest of F. A. Gonzales and Eugene B. Fatman, but
they kept out of reach. The first named was manager and the other
treasurer of the Juarez Lottery Company.

About fifteen separate cases were completed against Leipheimer ;
but this number not being deemed sufficient, the inspectors took an-
other decisive step in the case which greatly increased the amount
of evidence against him. As soon as Leipheimer was placed under
arrest, the lottery people abandoned their box at the El Paso office.
In the course of a week over five hundred of the lottery letters
supposed to contain the circulars (the same having been returned
to the box in accordance with the request printed on the envelope
as undelivered) had accumulated. These letters being sealed, they
could not be opened even by the inspectors ; but Judge A. J. Evans,
the United States Attorney at El Paso, whose advice and assistance
had already proved of much benefit to the inspectors, soon solved
the problem. He secured a search warrant which was placed in the
hands of Capt. B. G. Duval, Chief Deputy United States Marshal,
who proceeded to the post office box (which had been minutely
described in the warrant) took therefrom five hundred and thirty-
five lottery letters, broke their seals as directed by the warrant,
found each and every letter to contain lottery circulars, and made a
regular legal return of the same to the court. This furnished the
material upon which to base five hundred and thirty-five separate
cases against Leipheimer, in addition to the fifteen previously re-
ferred to. This action of Judge Evans and the inspectors caused
the lottery press to vent its wrath in every conceivable manner. But
it only showed the more how keenly the blow was felt.

The- city of El Paso may be aptly termed the gambler's paradise.
Games of chance of every kind prevail at all hours of the day and

530

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

night, and are participated in by representatives of nearly every
race on the globe, who congregate there for the indulgence of this

alluring diversion. It was only
natural, therefore, that the lottery
sharks should desire to be as near
as possible to this class. Accord-
ingly the Mexican town of Ciudad
Juarez, formerly Paso del Norte,
and connected with El Paso by
two bridges crossed at frequent
intervals by horse cars, was chosen
as a convenient spot. Securing
from the neighboring State of Chi-
huahua a concession to do a
"banking" business, under the
title of the "Mexican International
Banking Company," together with
the privilege of conducting a game
of chance under the name of the
" Juarez Lottery," the backers of
the enterprise put up a large brick
building in the Ciudad Juarez. General Mosby was employed at an
unknown compensation to preside monthly at the " wheel of fortune."
In May, 1891, a decision of the Supreme Court of Louisiana
granted the Louisiana Lottery Company the prayed-for mandamus
compelling the Secretary of State to promulgate the proposed Lottery
amendment, in order to permit the voters of the state to pass upon
the question of a renewal of the Lottery charter. This decision,
coming so soon after the apparent defeat of the Lottery bill (by
reason of its veto by Governor Nicholls and its failure to pass over
the veto), raised the spirits of the Lottery people. The decision was
published in full by the Lottery press and circulated widely. Recog-
nizing its value as a Lottery advertisement, Paul Conrad made imme-
diate arrangements for mailing vast quantities of the papers containing
the full text to persons throughout the state. But when he
concluded a little later to have these papers dumped into the post
office as " sample copies " under the cent-a-pound rate, Inspector
Maynard at once stopped this unlawful proceeding and collected

JOHN S. MOSBY.

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 531

from the several newspaper offenders nearly $1,000 to cover the
difference between the cent-a-pound rate and the legitimate rate as
third class matter!

Just at this time the lottery combination at El Paso endeavored to
retaliate. The El Paso Times published in the form of plate
matter, some two weeks subsequent to the handing down of the
decision, what purported to be a dispatch from New Orleans, headed
"The Lottery Wins," giving a brief account of the Lottery
decision. Postmaster James A. Smith, of El Paso, recognizing at
once the real character of the " news," and acting upon the
instructions of the Postmaster General, excluded that issue of the
Times from the mails, and telegraphed to the Department for a
ruling. Before a reply could be received the Lottery Company got
out a warrant and placed Postmaster Smith under arrest, charging
him with illegal detention of the mails. An hour or so later
instructions were received from the Department releasing the papers,
and they were promptly forwarded in the next outgoing mails.
The postmaster gave bond, and upon consulting with Inspector
Clum, who had been detailed to visit El Paso, concluded to
waive examination and let the case go to the United States Grand
Jury. At this juncture Postmaster Smith received a telegram
from the Chief Inspector's office indorsing his action in stop-
ping the Times and urging him to fight the case before the com-
missioner. This was done with such good success (the inspector
acting as Smith's attorney), that the postmaster was triumphantly
acquitted.

In June, 1891, Paul Conrad began to deluge the post office at
New Orleans with large quantities of the City Item pamphlet con-
taining the Supreme Court decision ; and, in addition, neatly folded
between the leaves of each pamphlet and concealed from view, was
an ordinary express envelope containing the printed address of the
New Orleans National Bank, the well known and long established
agent of the Lottery. The scheme was a bold one. The pamphlets
slipped through. Large numbers of them, however, reached the
Department. The Attorney General decided that they were " repug-
nant to the provisions of the anti-lottery law " and therefore un-
mailable. The Chief Post Office Inspector's office at once telegraphed
Mr. Maynard to take appropriate action. His diligence was

532 THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

rewarded by the completion of perhaps five hundred separate cases
based on circulars addressed to persons in nineteen different states,
embracing more than thirty judicial districts, and a large num-
ber of the cases enabled prosecutions to be begun in three judicial
districts of Texas, where the people and the courts were distinctly
anti-lottery in sentiment. Operations were begun in the western
district of Texas, where the cooperation of Judge Evans, as prose-
cutor for the Government, could be secured. Warrants were sworn
out before D. H. Hart, United States Commissioner at Austin,
against the following persons as defendants, all connected with the
Louisiana State Lottery Company in an official capacity: Paul
Conrad, President ; Joseph P. Homer, Secretary ; Directors : Jno. A.
Morris, Frank T. Howard, Chapman H. Hymans, Felix Herwig, Paul
O. Fazende, Joseph L. Herwig, L. Poche, W. Valeton, A. J. Bache-
min, P. Voorhees, M. P. Arnoult, P. L. Labarre and J. E. Brula-
tour. Paul Conrad and the seven lottery clerks were arrested
Aug. 26, 1891, in New Orleans, and on Sept. 1,1891, before United
States Commissioner Wm. Wright, waived examination and were
bound over in the sum of $500, each to await action on the ques-
tion of the issuance of the necessary writ of removal to the district
in which the prosecution was begun.

The mailing of the pamphlets was thus brought to a sudden ter-
mination. But not for long. Conrad next resorted to the seal of
first class matter to defend himself against detection, and he resumed
the mailing of the pamphlets, enclosing them in sealed envelopes
and prepaying them with postage at the letter rate. Inspector Fisher
went upon the case. A large quantity of additional evidence was
soon secured. Discovering this fact, the Lottery Company next
began to mail matter surreptitiously at night in letter boxes
remote from the main office. But soon they ceased doing this.
The work in the Austin division had been superb, but in order that
it might be done still better, the Posmaster General removed
Mr. Maynard's headquarters from Austin to New Orleans and added
the State of Mississippi to the district. Quicker communication
with the Department was thus afforded, and the inspectors were
better able to exercise a constant surveillance over the movements of
the company.

The case involving the question of the constitutionality of the

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 533

anti-lottery law was known as the case of the United States vs.
Dupre. On Jan. 17, 1891, Geo. W. Dupre, one of the editors of
the Daily States, presented himself at the office of the postmaster
at New Orleans and stated that he had come for the purpose of
violating the anti-lottery law, intimating that it was proposed to test
its constitutionality in the Supreme Court of the United States. He
accordingly deposited in the mails a letter containing a Lottery ticket
and a copy of a newspaper containing a Lottery advertisement, and
submitting to arrest, was taken before United States Commissioner
Wright, and held to answer in the sum of $250. Subsequently
on Feb. 13, 1891, the defendant caused himself to be re-arrested,
and on February 18th withdrew a former plea of "not guilty" and
entered a plea of "guilty," and the case was sent to the United
States Supreme Court. It was freely admitted that with the
United States mails closed against it, the Lottery could not exist and
at the same time pay into the coffers of the state $1,250,000 per
annum : and it was evident, therefore, that the decision of the Supreme
Court would practically decide the campaign in Louisiana either for
or against the Lottery.

Both sides rested on their arms the Lottery people with appre-
hension and bravado, the Department with quiet nerve and confi-
dence. A terrific blow had been struck already. The amount of
lottery business passing through the mails at New Orleans, during the
first ten days of September, 1890, just before the passage of the new
law, and that observed during the period from July 8 to 17, 1891,
after the law had been in operation a little over nine months, were :

Sept., 1890. July, 1891.

Ordinary letters received by the Lottery 30,000 534

Registered letters received by Lottery's agent 8,464 41

Money orders paid to Lottery's agent $1,635.98 $93.00

Postal notes paid to Lottery's agent $8,275.86 $200.48

The following table shows the number of Lottery tickets found in
letters opened in the Dead Letter Office :

Dec. 1889 935
Jan. 1890 1,211
Feb. 1890 1,013
March 1890 1,042
April 1890 787
May 1890 789

June 1890 844
July 1890 595
Aug. 1890 559
Sept. 1890 626
Oct. 1890 531
Nov. 1890 286

Dec. 1890 122
Jan. 1891 121
Feb. 1891 65
March 1891 66
April 1891 58
May 1891 60

June 1891 46
July 1891 36
Aug. 1891 28
Sept. 1891 35
Oct. 1891 49

tt is t>.< imperative duty of every postmaster to see that a copy of this circular is kept posted over each letter drop
in his office, and Inspectors are required to report at once to the Department any failure to do so.

CAUTION.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C-, January 27, 1891.

The attention of patrons of the post office is called to the
fact that the law lately enacted prescribing penalties for using
the United States Mails for the conveyance or transmittal of

matter of any kind, applies as well to the person mailing money,
money-orders, postal notes, or drafts to lottery companies or their
agents, as it does to the lottery companies and their agents.

All persons are therefore warned not to use the mails for such
purposes, and attention is called to the following extract frojn the
law on thq subject passed September 19, 1890:

Revised Statutes of the United States

"SEC. 3894. No letter, postal-card, or circular concerning iny lottery, so-called gift concert, or
Other similar enterprise offering prizes dependent upon lot or chance, or concerning schemes de-

perty under false pretenses, and no list of the draw-
lottery ticket or part thereof, and no check, draft,
ie purchase of any ticket, tickets, or part thereof,
or of any share or any chance in any such lottery or gift enterprise, shall be carried in the' mail
or delivered at or through any post-office or branch thereof, or by any letter carrier; nor shall
any newspaper, circular, pamphlet, or publication of any kind containing any advertisement of
any lottery or gift enterprise of any kind offering prizes dependent upon lot or chance, or con-
taining any list of prizes awarded at the drawings of any such lottery or gift enterprise, whether
said list is of any part or of all of the drawing, be carried in the mail or delivered by any post-
master or letter-carrier Any person who shall knowingly deposit or cause to be deposited, or
who shall knowmgly send or cause to be sent, anything to be) conveyed or delivered by mail in
violation of this section, or who shall knowingly cause to be delivered by mail anything herein
forbidden to be carried by mail, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall
be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more
than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment for each offense."

By ORDER OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL.

A FAC SIMILE OF THE LOTTERY CAUTION NOTICE.

534

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 535

A decrease in the number of Lottery tickets received at the Dead
Letter Office began in July, when it was evident that public senti-
ment against the Lottery was about to assert itself, and in November,
1890, as soon as the direct effect of the new legislation and of the
instructions of the Department began to be felt, the number of Lot-
tery letters received at the Dead Letter Office dropped fifty per cent.

The difficulties in the way of the post office inspectors were not
the only ones to be encountered and overthrown. The exact inter-
pretation of the law was difficult on some points. The determi-
nation and learning of General Tyner were required, as well as the
persistent support of the Attorney General himself. The Depart-
ment could not inaugurate an unreasonable crusade. It must show
a logical enforcement of the spirit as well as the letter of the law.

Postmasters and prosecuting officers had to be posted upon the
intricacies of the new legislation. It had to be stated that a distri-
bution of prizes among certain persons did not necessarily imply a
violation of the law. The award might depend upon the skill, learn-
ing, or calculative genius of the competitor. It certainly could not be
held that an offer to give a prize for the best written essay on a
given subject was a " scheme offering prizes dependent upon lot or
chance." A newspaper publisher might invite his subscribers to
figure on the result of an election, and offer prizes for the best
estimates. A person well informed in political matters, taking into
consideration the result of previous elections, the ordinary ratio of
increase, the general condition of affairs, etc., might with some
reasonable degree of accuracy, estimate the probable vote of the
several contesting parties. Nor would it be a violation of the law
for a newspaper publisher to offer a prize for " the most popular
school teacher," in a certain district, the result to be determined by
vote, each copy of the newspaper containing a coupon representing
one vote. The same could be said of an offer to give a prize to the
person making the nearest correct guess on the number of beans,
shot, etc., in a certain jar. In this instance the competitor might
make calculations which enabled him to form some idea of the prob-
able number. Again, a prize might be offered for the largest list of
words formed of the letters in a given sentence. It was evident that
the result of such a competition depended upon skill and knowledge.
A number of prizes might be offered for the solution of a certain

536 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

rebus, the awards to be made in the order of the receipt of the
correct answers. The result in this instance depended upon the in-
genuity and promptness of the participants in the contest. The
same principle applied to schemes offering prizes for the best answers
to historical or geographical questions, mathematical problems, or any
other competition, the result of which depended upon the knowledge,
skill or promptness of the competitor, and not upon mere chance.

But schemes of the character just described would become " schemes
dependent upon lot or chance," if for instance, the managers should
state that all correct answers to a certain rebus or series of questions
would be numbered, and on a certain day a drawing would be held
to determine which of the persons sending in the correct solutions
should receive the prize or prizes. The skill of the competitor might
place him among the favored class entitled to participate in the draw-
ing for the prizes, but it did not avail in obtaining a prize. The
person sending the last correct answer might receive the first prize,
while the first person might receive nothing at all.

It was self evident that a publisher might offer prizes to a number
of persons securing the largest lists of subscribers to his paper, with-
out in anywise violating the law. This was in the nature of a re-
ward for the best service. A merchant might also present a premium
with every five, ten, or twenty dollars' worth of goods purchased of
him ; or he might give a present to anyone, who, as his agent in one
sense, sold a given amount of a certain article. In the first instance,
it was nothing but a rebate on the price of the goods, and in the
other it was a price offered* for a certain specified service. Soap
manufacturers and tobacco dealers often pack coupons with their
goods. If a certain number of these were returned to the firms, the
sender would be entitled to a present. There was no chance in
such a scheme, for every person presenting the requisite number of
coupons received a prize.

The question whether a scheme " dependent upon lot or chance " was
honestly conducted, or whether the offer was bona fide, or whether
the prizes would be awarded fairly and precisely as stated, was never
considered. The law denied the use of the mails to all "lotteries"
and schemes of chance, and it did not limit such prohibition to fraudu-
lent concerns. Nor did it alter its character if the participants in a
lottery scheme or drawing, either as subscribers to a newspaper or

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 537

purchasers at a store, presumably received quid pro quo, or the value of
their money, either in their subscription to the paper or their purchase.
There were numerous decisions of the courts to the effect that the sale
of any article, coupled with chances in the distribution of certain
prizes, was a lottery. The value of a chance given with a subscrip-
tion or a purchase was to all intents and purposes included in the price
of the paper or goods.

The rule to be applied in the consideration of a presumed lottery
scheme was whether the result was " dependent upon lot or chance."
There was no doubt that any scheme where prizes were distributed
among the holders of chances, or tickets, as the result of a drawing,
was a lottery within the meaning of the law. A regular lottery was
generally conducted in this manner, and it would be manifestly unfair
to permit a merchant to do what the ordinary lottery company could
not do. A merchant advertises that every purchaser at his shop up
to a certain date will receive a numbered ticket entitling him to a
chance in certain prizes. Previous to the distribution of tickets a
number is selected at random, placed in an envelope, and sealed. At
the time stated the envelope is opened, and the person holding the
ticket bearing the corresponding number to the one in the envelope
receives the prize. The result of this scheme is dependent entirely
upon chance, for the purchaser is not supposed to know the num-
ber placed in the envelope, nor can any skill or knowledge enable
him to ascertain the fact by an actual or approximate calculation.
The same principle would apply where the purchaser was allowed to
guess the name of a certain President of the United States contained
in a sealed envelope.

A number of persons join in what is known as a " watch club."
Each member agrees to pay so much a week. A drawing is to occur
weekly, and the member whose name is drawn receives his watch and
withdraws from the club. This is repeated until all the members
have drawn watches. A member's dues cease as soon as he draws ;
consequently one person receives a watch for, say, one dollar, while
another pays five dollars, and the last possibly forty dollars. This
is undoubtedly a scheme dependent upon lot or chance, for each
person joining the club takes the chance of getting a watch, probably
valued at forty or fifty dollars, for one, two, or three or four dollars,
etc. This same plan is used for " suit clubs," " overcoat clubs," etc.

538 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

So, schemes that came within the anti-lottery law were numerous
and varied enough to suit the most exacting. Many of them were
of a local nature and generally regarded as harmless in their charac-
ter and effects. But the law vested no discretionary power in the
Post Office Department, nor did it make any distinction between lot-
teries for charitable or religious purposes and those conducted as a
regular business. They must all be treated alike. The law denied
them the use of the mails in the conduct and furtherance of their
business. The Department, however, must not desire to be unneces-
sarily harsh in the enforcement of the law, and newspapers were not
detained on account of the advertisement of a lottery scheme when
it was evident that the publisher acted innocently in the matter, and
without any intent to violate the law. But if, after due warning,
the publisher repeated the offence, then his paper must be denied
admission to the mails. A sealed letter could not, under the law and
ruling of the courts, be withdrawn from the mails on mere suspicion
that it contained lottery matter. But the citizen was forbidden to
use the mails for forwarding lottery matter, and this prohibition was
morally binding upon him. Every person depositing a letter in the
mails concerning a lottery was liable to prosecution under the postal
clause of the law.

Foreign lotteries frequently flooded the United States mails with
their circulars in sealed envelopes. Under a ruling of the Secretary
of the Treasury, lottery tickets and lottery circulars and advertisements
were liable to customs duties as "printed matter." Article 11 of
the Universal Postal Union Treaty forbade the mailing of any article
from one administration of the Union to another, which under the
laws of the country of destination would be liable to customs duties ;
and as lottery tickets and lottery circulars and advertisements were
dutiable, and were, therefore, unlawfully in the mails, they would be
treated by custom officers as " forfeited goods." Postmasters at ex-
change offices were authorized to stamp matter which they had good
reason to believe contained dutiable articles : " Supposed Liable to
Customs Duties," and when a letter so endorsed reached the office
of destination, the postmaster had to require the addressee to open it
in the presence of the customs officer, or in the presence of himself,
if he has been designated for that purpose by the customs officer ; so
that if lottery tickets or lottery circulars were found in the letter, it

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 539

had to be surrendered to the customs officer, or sent to him in a " pen-
alty envelope."

This treatment of foreign matter, and the provision of the Act
which related also to foreign newspapers containing lottery advertise-
ments, was of very great importance. There was a Mexican lottery
distributing its circulars, through a mailing agency at New York City,
all over this country. Moreover, but a short time before several fraud-
ulent lotteries were operated extensively through the mails. The
most prominent of these were the " Cheyenne Lottery," the " Laramie
City Lottery" and the "Wyoming Lottery." In these "lotteries"
there were no drawings. The persons operating them simply secured
money for alleged tickets. These concerns were broken up by the
enforcement of the law in the United States Courts in New York City,
where they were all operating by a gang known as the Pattee gang.
Then they transferred their " business " to Victoria, Canada, and St.
Steven's, New Brunswick, where they continued to flood the United
States with newspapers and other advertising. A few years ago,
there was in Broadway, New York City, a concern operating a German
lottery, and selling lottery tickets as " Simmon & Co." Two of this
firm were arrested and convicted in the United States Court. After
his conviction Simmon went to Hamburg, where he continued to flood
the United States with circulars.

More important still. It would be a very simple thing for the
Louisiana Lottery, with the great wealth at its command, to publish
a newspaper in Canada, or in some other foreign country, and have
it sent to pretended subscribers in the United States, precisely as
they were sending out the magazine called u Family Fiction " from
Washington City. Two tons weight of an edition (or 100,000 copies)
of this lottery advertising magazine had been seized in the city of
New York, having been printed there and forwarded by mail from New
York in bulk, to the supposed representative of the lottery in
Washington, where it was again distributed to the pretended sub-
scribers. So, the Post Office Department not only transmitted this
matter from New York to Washington in bulk, but again transported
it to the supposed subscribers. Canada had been more exclusive.
The customs authorities of the Dominion issued a few years ago an
order forbidding the sending into Canada, through the mails, of copies
of a couple of criminal papers published in New York City. Large

540

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

quantities of these papers were held back on the postal cars from the
Canadian mail, and the postal clerks in charge had orders not to send
any copies of these papers across the line.

The lotteries could not only send the tons of fraudulent matter
into the United States, but they could spring up anew like mush-
rooms. In 1889, in the city of New York, about a million and a
half of lottery tickets were seized, all appertaining to the following
lotteries :

" The Original Little Louisiana Company of San Diego, Cal."

*' Supplement to the Louisiana Lottery, Kansas City and New York."

"The Oakland Little Louisiana Company of Oakland, Cal."

" The Original Little Louisiana Company of San Francisco."

In June, 1890, at the " Hamilton Bank Note Company, " 100,000
tickets of the " California Little Louisiana Company " were seized

A FAC SIMILE OF A BOGUS LOTTERY TICKET.

There was no town named upon the ticket, and, to all intents and
purposes, it was a Louisiana Lottery ticket. The words under the
title were :

" The Louisiana State Lottery Company will draw at New Orleans on Tuesday,
August 12, 1890, the regular monthly drawing."

But these tickets were all sold at twenty-five cents for the half
ticket and fifty cents for the whole ticket. This ticket further said :

" This one half ticket entitles the holder thereof to one quarter of such prize as
may be drawn by the corresponding number of the one dollar coupon of the above
named drawing."

This was printed in fine type, which the ordinary ticket buyer
would never think of reading. After this seizure of 100,000 tickets

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT.

541

79,000 tickets of the " Supplement to the Louisiana Lottery, " of
Kansas City, Kansas, were seized. Not long after a person in New
York undertook to counterfeit German lottery tickets. He was de-
tected through the honesty of the engraver to whom he went to have
his dies made for printing these bogus tickets ; and the man was con^
victed and sentenced.

Attractive characters, the anti-lottery fighters of Louisiana, grim,
courageous, brilliant-minded, prevailing against terrific odds, deserv-
ing honorable places on the scroll of public virtue.

The leader among leaders in the great fight against the Lottery was Governor
Francis Tillou Nicholls, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the state.
He was born in Donaldsonville, in the parish of Ascension, Louisiana, August 20,
1834. His father, Thomas Clark Nicholls, one of the men wounded in the
skirmish with the British, December 23, 1814, just before the battle of New

OF NEW J)MAN8 f DETROITAND HEW YORK.
1 WILL DmW TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1892.

TO ONtC-TWSrHTiSt

SEVcN, CIPHER, mm. CIPHER, FtVE.

It WITHJN FMRK MONi

f / /f - * / ' r~*KH*.

ANOTHER FAC SIMILE OF A BOGUS TICKET.

Orleans, was member of the General Assembly and judge of a District Court for
many years, and in 1843 was appointed senior judge of the Louisiana Court of
Errors and Appeals. His mother, Louise H. Drake, was a sister o^ the poet,
Joseph Rodman Drake. Governor Nicholls graduated at West Point in 1855,
and was assigned to the Third Artillery. He served against the Seminoles, and
was on the frontier in 1856; but he resigned his commission that year and en-
gaged in the practice of law at Napoleonville, La. In 1860 he married Miss
Caroline Z. Guion. In 1851 he entered the Confederate Army as a captain in the
Eighth Louisiana Infantry. He gradually rose to the rank of brigadier-general,
served under Stonewall Jackson, lost his left arm at Winchester, Ya., and was
captured; but he fell into the hands of old army friends, who treated him as a
guest rather than a prisoner. At the battle of Chancellors ville, he lost his left
foot also, but he continued in service till the close of the war. Then he returned
to the parish of Assumption and resumed the law. He was elected Governor of
Louisiana in 1876, and served with distinction till 1879. Later he was appointed
to the Board of Visitors to West Point and was made president of that body. He

542

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

i I

was reflected governor in 1888. In his message to the legislature Governor
Nicholls attacked the Lottery in the most vigorous style, and throughout the
bitter struggle that ensued remained true to the sentiment expressed in the

closing paragraph of that cele-
brated document: 'At no time
and under no circumstances
shall I permit one of my hands

^^ * | to aid in degrading that which

the other was lost in seeking to
uphold, the honor of my native
state.' History presents few
grander figures than the ' one-
armed, one-legged hero-gover-
nor, Francis T. Nicholls.' In
the face of fearful odds he led
the light to victory. The whole
country applauded when he
was appointed Chief Justice.
Governor Nicholls preserves the
bearing and manner of a trained
soldier, erect and courtly. He
belongs to one of the oldest
families of his state, and be-
sides practising law, has been
nearly all his life a sugar
planter. He has a very inter-
esting family, to which he is
greatly attached.

Hon. Randall L. Gibson, lately United States Senator, was a native of Kentucky.
From childhood, however, he had been a resident of Louisiana; for his father
established an extensive sugar plantation at " Live Oak," in Terrebonne parish.
Senator Gibson graduated from Yale, studied law in the University of Louisiana,
and commanded a fighting brigade during the war. He was a broad-minded
gentleman, and labored earnestly for the interests of his state. He served
four terms in the National House of Representatives, and was serving his second
term as United States Senator when death deprived his state, his neighbors and
his friends of one of their most devoted lovers. One of his most successful
achievements was the creation of the Mississippi River Commission, according to
the plans of his close friend, Captain James B. Eads. It is likely that Senator
Gibson accomplished more for the advancement of education in Louisiana than
any other man of his generation, for it was through his instrumentality that the
late Paul Tulane, of Princeton, New Jersey, donated over a million dollars for the
endowment of the Tulane University in New Orleans. Senator Gibson was
the President of the Board of Trustees of this institution, and took a deep interest
in its development. He was also a trustee of the Peabody Fund, a regent of the
Smithsonian Institution, and an administrator of the Howard Library of New
Orleans. He had travelled widely, and was a student of the best literature, as
well as of public questions.

Hon. Edgar H. Farrar has been called the strongest advocate against the

EX-GOVERNOR FRANCIS T. NICHOLLS.

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT.

543

Lottery in the entire number of eloquent speakers. He comes of an old Louisiana
family. He graduated with high honor at the University of Virginia, studied
law, and soon drew to himself a large practice in New Orleans. He is a man
noted for the aptness and vigor of his utterances, whether before the bar of
justice or upon the forum of public discussion. He has had the rare ambition
of possessing no political ambition whatever.

Colonel William Preston Johnston is one of the most notable men in the whole
South. He is a native of Kentucky, the son of General Albert Sidney Johnston,
famed in the Confederate Service. Colonel Johnston is a graduate of Yale, and
his literary works, notably a book recently published discussing the plays of
Shakespeare, have earned the recognition of the best critics. Colonel Johnston
has been for several years President of Tulane University, the intellectual centre
of Louisiana, and under his thoughtful direction this institution has greatly
stimulated the general cause of education. He is a man of the most attractive
personal character. With all his intellectuality he combines amiability and
modesty in a notable degree; and with all his other accomplishments, he is a
lecturer and poet.

Hon. W. G. Vincent is an old-time New Orleans merchant, a man of much
public spirit and of charming personal characteristics. He was at the head of
the Anti-Lottery League. Though long since past the meridian of life, he has

mastered the art of growing old grace-

fully. He is a cultivated gentleman and j
much beloved.

; ]

Hon. Walter Henry Rogers was the in-
domitable attorney general of Louisiana

during the great lottery fight. He is a

native of New Orleans, and graduated

from the local high school in 1860 with

highest honors. His commencement

address attracted wide attention; but at

seventeen, just as he was preparing for

the University of Virginia, the war broke

out, and Mr. Rogers enlisted in the

New Orleans Cadets, the first volunteer

company in Louisiana. He did not sur-
render until May 16, 1865, at Meridian,
Mississippi. His ancestors, the Grays of
England, were celebrated for their valor.
Mr. Rogers graduated from the Uni-
versity of Louisiana in 1866, being the
second time the valedictorian of his class.
The same year he became a member of
the Louisiana Legislature. From 1876 to
1880 he occupied the bench of the Fifth
District Civil Court, until he was elected
judge of the Court of Appeals. In 1884 he resigned to resume the practice of
his profession, and was elected city attorney of New Orleans. He was a sup-
porter of the candidacy of General Nicholls, acting as a member of his Executive

HON. WALTER H. ROGERS,
Late Attorney General of Louisiana.

544 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Committee, and as Chairman of the Committee on Credentials, and he was put
upon the ticket for attorney general. His arguments in the famous case of the
State of Louisiana vs. the Louisiana State Lottery Company were master works of
eloquence and law. He was a delegate to the Chicago Convention of 1892.
Judge Rogers has been President of the Veterans of the Army of Tennessee, and
President of the Board of Directors of Camp Nicholls, the soldiers' home of
Louisiana, and he has been a brigadier general on the staff of General Gordon,
Commander-in-Chief of the United Confederate Veterans. The domestic life of
Judge Rogers has been most happy. Three daughters complete his home
circle.

Mr. J. Ward Gurley, Jr., is one of the gallant band of lawyers who waged war
so valiantly against the Lottery. He inspires confidence everywhere, and though
slower than some others to take up the Lottery fight, he evinced, when once
engaged in it, an activity truly surprising. He enjoys a lucrative practice, and is
a remarkably successful advocate.

Col. James Davidson Hill is one of the foremost citizens of New Orleans. He
had always opposed the Lottery. In 1877, while a member of the Legislature, he
advocated the repeal of the Lottery charter, and the act of 1879, which should
have been the death blow of the Lottery, was introduced. by him. His friends
urged him for speaker, but the influence of the Lottery defeated him. When the
renewal of the charter was attempted, he threw his whole strength in with his
old-time friends. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the League,
and Chairman of the Committee on Conference with the Farmers' Alliance, and
to the effective work of his Alliance Committee, in Lafayette in August, 1891,
which resulted in the Lafayette Compact, the success of the anti-lottery cause
is to be mainly attributed. The Farmers' Alliance stood true. The anti-lottery
ticket was elected, the proposed amendment defeated. Colonel Hill is President
of the Louisiana Printing and Publishing Company, which publishes the New
Orleans Delta, the official organ of the Anti-Lottery League, and his activity in
campaign work, until the inauguration of Governor Foster, was hardly sur-

Judge Frank McGloin is a distinguished lawyer, who has already occupied
with great credit a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals of New Orleans.
Of Irish ancestry, he exhibits in his personality the wit, good nature, and
pugnacity of that race. His diversion is literature, and he has produced several
notable works in poetry as well as prose.

Colonel C. Harrison Parker is a Mississippian by birth, who from his early
manhood has followed the profession of journalism. He has held prominent
positions on many of the leading journals of New Orleans, and has secured, along
with his acknowledged great energy, a reputation as an uncompromising reformer.
In 1881 he was editor-in-chief of the Picayune, and he inaugurated a fight in the
Democratic party which culminated in the election of Governor Nicholls in 1888.
He was appointed a state tax collector by Governor Nicholls. He was one of the
organizers of the Anti-Lottery League, and was chosen chairman of the Execu-
tive Committee, and conducted the correspondence incident to the organization
of the movement throughout the state. He organized a company for the publi-
cation of the New Delta, and he has been the editor and manager of that paper
since its foundation. The New Delta fought the combined daily press of the

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 545

state, backed as it was by Lottery millions; but its cause, though one of the most
unequal, was one of the most gallant in the history of journalism.

Colonel John Curd Wickliffe, the co-editor with Colonel Parker in the manage-
ment of the New Delta, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1854. He is a
son of Hon. John Creps Wickliffe, a grandson of Charles Anderson Wickliffe of
Bardstown, a former Governor of Kentucky and Postmaster General, and a nephew
of Hon. R. C. Wickliffe, who was Governor of Louisiana in 1856. He is a lawyer
as well as a journalist, and was district attorney for Grant and several adjacent
parishes from 1884 to 1888. He was one of the original seven to form the
Anti-Lottery League, and became Secretary of the Democratic Anti-Lottery
League, Secretary of the Campaign Committee, and Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Speakers. His caustic editorials and his not infrequent magazine
articles did much to raise public sentiment against the Lottery in the North as
well as amongst his neighbors.

Rev. Benjamin M. Palmer, D. D., LL. D., was born in Charleston, S. C., in
January, 1818. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1838, and after
three years of theological study was licensed by the presbytery of Charleston.
He was ordained in the autumn of 1841 and installed as pastor of the First Pres-
byterian Church in Savannah. In 1843 he was transferred to the pastorate of the
Presbyterian Church at Columbia, S. C. That relation was continued for four-
teen years; and in addition Dr. Palmer filled, from 1853 to 1857, the chair of
church history and polity in the seminary at Columbia, and he was one of the
editors of the Southern Presbyterian Review. In 1856 he became pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, where, after a pastorate of thirty-six
years, he remains, at seventy-five, one of the most loved and learned clergymen
of the South. He was the first moderator of the Southern General Assembly,
organized in 1861, and he has served in ten general assemblies. In 1853 he was
chosen to the chair of Hebrew in the theological seminary, then just organized,
at Danville, Ky. ; in 1860 he was elected to the chair of pastoral theology in the
seminary of Princeton, IS". J. ; in 1874 he was called to the chancellorship of the
Southwestern Presbyterian University of Clarksville, Tenn. ; and in 1881 he was
appointed a professor of pastoral theology in the seminary at Columbia. But
all of these positions he declined. Dr. Palmer is one of the most eloquent
preachers in the South, and the beauty of his diction, the loftiness of his
thought, and the fluency of his expression, are unsurpassed by any preacher of
his denomination. The crusade which he preached against the Lottery was
magnificent, and was the chief cause, doubtless, of the general opposition of the
church in Louisiana.

Rev. Max Heller, Rabbi in charge of Temple Sinai, was the brave and eloquent
leader among his people, as Doctor Palmer was among his. He was born at
Prague, in Bohemia, in January, 1860, graduated from the Gymnasium in 1879,
emigrated to America in the same year, and entered almost immediately upon the
courses in the Hebrew Union College and McMechin University of Cincinnati.
He graduated from the former as Rabbi in 1884, and from the latter as Bachelor
of Letters in 1882 and of Master of Letters in 1884, and held positions as Rabbi
in Chicago and in Houston, Texas. Rabbi Heller is a man of wide learning, as
well as of intense enthusiasm, and his work in the fight which Louisiana waged
almost single handed in behalf of the entire Union, was of extreme importance.

ANTI-LOTTP:RY LEADERS OF LOUISIANA.

546

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT.

547

Hon. Frank Adair Monroe was born at Annapolis, Maryland, in August, 1844.
His paternal grandfather was Thomas B. Monroe, who removed to Kentucky
toward the close of the last century, and married a daughter of General John
Adair, Governor of the state, and for nearly thirty years a judge of the District
Court of the United States. Mr. Monroe' s father was appointed by Pierce Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory. His maternal grandfather
was William Winder Polk, an officer of the United States Navy. Mr. Monroe
attended the Kentucky Military Institute, entered the Confederate army, and
was wounded and captured. He was elected judge in 1872 and 1876, and in 1882
was appointed to his present seat. As vice-president of the Anti-Lottery League
Judge Monroe's labors were indefatigable. He organized clubs in all of the wards
of New Orleans, and his forcible address compelled the earnest support of many.
He ranks easily among the first of Louisiana's judges.

Hon. Thomas S. Adams, Secretary of State of Louisiana, is a farmer. He was
the president of the Farmers' Alliance of the state, and his wide influence and
high character enabled him, apart from his leadership in a political party which
arrayed itself almost solidly. against the Lottery, to be of the greatest service.
He was, indeed, nominated for the office of governor by his party, but, believing
that Governor Foster would make the better fight, loyally withdrew. Mr. Adams
is distinguished for his towering, slender figure of six feet four inches. He lives

in what is known as the "hill country,"

and he is a typical Highlander.

Governor Murphy J. Foster comes from
the southwestern part of the state the
beautiful Teche country, celebrated in
Longfellow' s Evangeline. Although long
prominent in political affairs, Governor
Foster attained his greatest prominence
by his activity in the anti-lottery struggle.
He made his first speech in the legisla-
ture in opposition to the re-charter, and
soon found himself a leader at the very
front. He is yet a young man, but pos-
sessed of truly remarkable energy and
courage, and he has developed executive
capacity of the first class. His fellow
citizens are also proud of him for the
grace with which he and his wife pre-
side over the Executive Mansion at
Baton Rouge.

Hon. Don Caffery comes from the same
parish with Governor Foster, of whom
he is a connection. He is a successful
lawyer and an eloquent speaker, popular
in every way. He is a state senator, lives in the centre of a fine sugar
raising district, has given close attention to sugar raising, and is interested
in the largest sugar factory in Louisiana. He combines a kind and sunny
disposition with his notable fortitude, and was appointed United States Senator
by Governor Foster to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Gibson.

HON. MURPHY J. FOSTER.

548 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Mr. Edwin T. Merrick, Jr., son of Hon. Edwin T. Merrick, who was twice
elected Chief Justice of the State of Louisiana, is a scion of an old and most dis-
tinguished family. He was born in 1859 in the parish of Pointe Coupee, and is a
graduate of Yanderbilt University, and a leader among the younger members of
the New Orleans bar, possessing a rare reputation for care in the preparation of
his cases, as well as for zeal in trying them. He was one of the first to enlist for
the war against the Lottery. Thoroughly devoted to his profession, he went in
without personal or political aspirations, but solely to fight as hard as his
strength would permit him. As chairman of the Federal Sub-Committee, Mr.
Merrick was the author of several articles in support of the Anti-Lottery Postal
Law. His characteristics are public spirit, integrity and ability. Added to it
all, his home life is most happy.

Hon. James D. Coleman is a high official of various social organizations. He
is a member of the New Orleans bar, a fine speaker and just as fine a citizen.
He was born in New Orleans, in December, 1844, and was a Confederate volunteer
at sixteen, a member of Company D, of the noted Crescent Regiment of New
Orleans. His father cut short his military career, however. He was put to
college in Paris and subsequently in Germany, and returned to New Orleans in
1865, and graduated with honor from the Law Department of the Louisiana
University in 1867. He has been for three successive terms unanimously elected
Supreme President of the Catholic Knights. of America, and by appointment of
the Archbishop of New Orleans he was a vice-president from Louisiana to the
Baltimore Catholic Congress. Mr. Coleman was one of the first to see the future
terrors which would result from continued Lottery domination, and, long before
the public agitation against the re-charter, his voice was heard in condemnation
of it. He was one of the first to sound the alarm: " Death to all lotteries! " He
was a member of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Lottery League. He
assisted in founding the New Delta, and he is still one of the directors of that
courageous journal.

Hon. Ernest B. Kruttschnitt is one of the most prominent of the younger
lawyers of New Orleans. Indeed, he possesses some of the qualities of his
distinguished uncle, Judah P. Benjamin, formerly United States Senator and
Secretary of State of the Confederacy. Mr. Kruttschnitt has been conspicuous
in public enterprises. He was for several years a member of the Board of School
Directors of New Orleans, and he always takes a warm interest in educational
matters. He was a member of the Anti-Lottery Committee. He is short
in stature, and, though inclined to stoutness, is quick in his movements,
and speaks with such rapidity as to baffle the skill of the most expert
stenographer.

Mr. A. A. Woods is a prominent merchant of New Orleans, and was one of the
first to espouse the anti-lottery cause. His was the greater bravery, for hardly a
merchant in the city but felt the power of the monstrous monopoly which ruled
her for so many years. His influence, too, was the greater on this account, and
his judgment and business tact were found of the greatest value.

Mr. J. M. Foster, a prominent citizen of Shreveport and a man of strongly
marked characteristics and much respected for his integrity and public spirit,
was one of the most persistent opponents of the lottery. He did especially good
service in arousing public sentiment against the Lottery. Determination and

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT. 549

frankness are marked traits of Mr. Foster, and lie brought them into full play in
the anti-lottery light.

Hon. Theodore S. Wilkinson, formerly a member of Congress, is a descendant
of the celebrated General Wilkinson of the United States Army. His family has
long been prominent in Louisiana affairs. One of his brothers is a member of the
United States Board of Appraisers, and another occupies a responsible position
in charge of the Louisiana Quarantine Station. He is engaged in sugar planting.
In the Lottery fight he was at the head of the State Committee. He is a man of
fine presence and of the highest character.

Hon. Frank P. Stubbs, a prominent lawyer of Monroe, is one of the wealthiest
citizens in the northern part of Louisiana. His strong convictions and his wide
influence among the people of his region made him one of the most successful
leaders in the anti-lottery campaign. He is an active member of the Episco-
pal Church.

Hon. Edward D. White, United States Senator, is the son of a former governor
of Louisiana. Though comparatively young, his career has been most active,
for he has been a state senator, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of
his state, and already, in his first term in the United States Senate, his eloquence
has attracted marked attention. Besides being a lawyer of the first rank, he
possesses one of the finest sugar plantations in Louisiana. His frame is robust,
his energy and his capacity for work almost unlimited. He is a graduate of
Georgetown College, and an earnest member of the Catholic Church. His
manners are extremely popular, and benevolence is a marked trait of his per-
sonality.

Hon. Charles Parlange was born in 1851 in New Orleans, and he has always
resided on the family plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish. He went to school
after the war at Centenary College, in Lexington, Louisiana, and began the prac-
tice of law in 1873. In 1878 he was appointed by President Hayes as one of the
representatives of Louisiana at the Paris Exposition. In 1879 he was a delegate
to the Constitutional Convention of Louisiana. He was the youngest man but one
in that body, but the present judicial system of the state is based upon his
project. He has been a member of important committees in three state senates.
In 1881 he welcomed the French delegates to the Yorktown Celebration in an
eloquent address in French. In 1885 he was appointed United States District
Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He has been three times a delegate
to Democratic national conventions. He has always been an uncompromising foe
of the lottery. It was his motion in the Constitutional Convention in 1889 to
strike out the article recognizing the Lottery that precipitated the whole debate
upon this topic, and the first meeting of the Anti-Lottery League of Louisiana
took place in his office on February 12, 1890. But twelve persons were present.
From the beginning Mr. Parlange was a member of the Executive Committee of
Five. In April, 1890, he originated the idea of appealing to the whole nation and
to Congress for anti-lottery legislation, and he prepared an address, which, being
adopted by the League, was sent to President, cabinet ministers, senators, and
representatives. At the 1890 convention of anti-lottery men, held at Baton
Eouge, Mr. Parlange addressed the delegates in French. He was chosen chair-
man of the Democratic Anti-Lottery State Executive Committee. He devoted
his whole time and energy to the duties of this position, until the state conven-

550

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

tion, which met in 1891, nominated him for lieutenant-governor. Mr. Krutt-
schnitt succeeded him as chairman of the State Committee. From February,
1890, until the state election in 1892, which elected the anti-lottery state ticket by
a great majority, Mr. Parlange devoted nearly his whole time to the cause. He
corresponded with authorities out of the state, and canvassed many parts of
Louisiana, frequently addressing his audiences in French. He is a law partner of

United States Senator White, and a
typical Creole gentleman.

General George D. Johnston was born
in Kaleigh, N. C., fifty-seven years ago;
but his parents removed to Alabama
when he was only two years old. Young
Johnston entered Howard College, at
Marion, Ala., and graduated first in his
class at nineteen. He then studied law
at the University of Virginia, was ad-
mitted to the bar at Marion, and was
soon elected a member of the Alabama
Legislature. When the war broke out
he was commissioned a second lieutenant
in an Alabama regiment, served in the
Armies of Northern Virginia and of
Tennessee, and was promoted to a brig-
adier-generalship. He was wounded
seven times, and was for a while a pris-
oner in Fortress Monroe. After the war
he resumed the practice of his profes-
sion, but before long accepted the post
of commandant of cadets at the Univer-
sity of Alabama. Later he accepted
the presidency of the State Citadel

Academy of Charleston, a military institute. He resigned this post to enter the
anti-lottery fight, and he not only did effectual service in the East and the
North, rousing public sentiment and raising money by the thousand, but made
speeches at home for the Foster-Parlange ticket. He has been a lifelong friend
of Senator Morgan, is a devoted friend of Dr. Palmer, and was appointed to the
Civil Service Commission on the recommendation of the Louisiana senators and
others. His work for the anti-lottery cause drew the President's attention
to him.

GEN. GEORGE D. JOHNSTON.

DEVIOUS METHODS OP LOTTERY MEN.

HE work performed in the other post office
inspection divisions was not as general as
in Louisiana and Texas, but it was as effective
as it could be in the more limited fields.
Inspector Seybolt, in charge of the San Fran-
cisco division, secured the arrest of ten lottery
agents, six in the northern district of Cali-
fornia, and four in the southern; and they
were all indicted. When the anti-lottery law
went into effect, he called on the publishers of the daily papers in
San Francisco, and explained its provisions. He was assured that
they had no desire to violate the law, and that they would in future
publish two editions of their paper, one containing the lottery adver-
tisements, which would be circulated by means of carriers, the other
to be free from such matter and sent through the mails. The pro-
prietors of papers publishing two editions agreed to furnish the
inspector's office with copies of them, so that it might know that
they were doing as they had agreed. Considerable annoyance was
caused, however, by this arrangement. Many persons receiving the
papers in the city or by carrier sent single copies through the mails
to friends at a distance, not knowing that the paper contained lottery
matter, and with no intention of violating the law; and many cases
of this kind were made up for investigation. In every case inquiry
proved that the publishers of the paper were not at fault; and where
evidence was procured against persons mailing them, the United
States Attorney advised that no prosecution be made, for the reason
that there was no intention to violate the law.

In the Denver Division Inspector Patterson was able to report, by
Sept. 25, 1891, that there was not a lottery in Colorado which used
the United States mails to distribute tickets or circulars ; as there

551

552 THE STOEY OF OUE POST OFFICE.

was not in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah or Wyoming. The new
lottery law and the agents of the Postmaster General did it.
Arthur C. Johnston and Jerome H. Boyd were the most persistent
lottery men with whom the Denver inspectors and District Attorney
Fleming had to deal. They were indicted five times for knowingly
depositing lottery circulars in the mails, and for violating the sec-
tion of the new act against using a fictitious name for conducting
and promoting, by means of the post office, a lottery business, an
unlawful business under the laws of Colorado. The first indict-
ment was returned Dec. 21, 1889; the last four July 12, 1890.
Jan. 24, 1890, Johnston was convicted under the first indictment,
and Boyd, at that time simply a reputed clerk for Johnston, was
acquitted by the jury. Johnston was fined $150 by the court, and
paid costs ; and then proceeded cautiously to reorganize his lottery
scheme, using the mails after his conviction very warily at first. He
began his lottery enterprise in Denver under the name of A. C.
Ross & Co., conducting thereby what he called the Denver State
Lottery, and pretending to act as agent for a man in the East named
A. C. Ross. Finding himself still observed by the inspectors, he
and Boyd actually incorporated themselves into a bank, which they
called the Bank of Commerce of Denver, and rented a building and
fitted it up with costly furniture. The opening of the new bank
was delayed on one pretext or another; and Johnston and Boyd,
behind the doors and partitions of the building, prepared their lot-
tery circulars, which' they succeeded in depositing, by the hands of
their unknown employees, and frequently by themselves, in the post
office and in the letter boxes of the city. Being detected in this,
they again changed front, and operated for awhile under the name
of "B. F. Rhodus," as agents for their lottery. By this time,
evidence of the fictitious character of the firm name, A. C. Ross &
Co., having been secured, arrests upon a mass of letters as
addressed and already in the district attorney's hands, began to
follow in quick succession. Every day for awhile, and then every
other day, they were brought before the United States Commissioner
and required to furnish bonds until some fifteen separate prosecutions
accumulated against them. But it was apparent that the business
was entirely broken up, and upon promises by the chief offender
never again to misuse the mails and to leave the state and reform,

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTERY MEN. 553

only a fine was imposed. Others were fined. The Weeks brothers
were sentenced to from four years to three years and six months in
the Detroit House of Correction the severity of the sentence due to
the barefaced swindle (an alleged piano raffle) which they endeav-
ored to perpetrate. A summary of the work on the Denver division
showed twelve persons prosecuted under fourteen indictments. Of
these, ten were convicted or pleaded guilty, one got off, and one was
not found.

In the Chicago division thirty -five arrests under the lottery act
were made. Of this number twelve were lottery agents, thir-
teen were publishers, and ten were citizens arrested for mailing
cards or letters to the Louisiana Lottery or its agents. C. E. Gould,
alias L. S. Loring, agent for the Louisiana Lottery, was arrested
January 15 at Chicago for conducting a lottery business through the
medium of the mails. Incontrovertible evidence of the mailing of
large quantities of lottery letters, circulars and tickets was secured;
and the sagacious attorney for the Lottery Company advised his client
to plead guilty and make no defence in order that the evidence
might not be brought out. This was done. The fine of $500 was
regarded by many as nothing more than a mild license which an
agent of the Lottery could well afford to pay once in every thirty
days and still feather his nest with swan's down, especially since a
private individual was fined twenty-five dollars and costs for mail-
ing a single postal card to the Lottery Company asking the date of a
drawing, and this agent was mailing ten thousand of these lottery
circulars and letters monthly. Ben Hotelin (alias F. M. Orr), Alfred
Smith, Fannie Newbauer and James Newbauer, lottery agents of
Milwaukee, were arrested March 24. James Newbauer pleaded
guilty and was fined $500 on each count; Mrs. Newbauer pleaded
guilty and was fined $50. Smith, a colored porter, was held as a
witness and Hotelin was acquitted. Newbauer was sent to jail for
twenty days for contempt of court. The same persons were arrested
again March 27 in the western district of Wisconsin. Mrs. New-
bauer pleaded guilty and was fined $50. The Newbauer fines
amounted in all to over $3,000.

In the Chattanooga division twenty arrests were caused ; thirteen
of newspaper proprietors or employees charged with mailing news-
papers containing lottery advertisements or prize schemes; six of

554 THE STORY OF OTJR POST OFFICE.

private individuals charged with mailing postal cards containing-
matter pertaining to lotteries ; and of one charged with depositing
circulars for the purpose of advertising a bond lottery scheme. It
was the policy of the district attorneys throughout the South to
bear lightly on these offenders in cases where ignorance of the law
was pleaded. But the telegraphic order that prompt action should
be taken by inspectors to enforce the anti-lottery law was obeyed
to the letter. Inspectors in the field struck promptly and fear-
lessly, and they struck some of the influential publishing companies.
The operations of the Lottery Company became so feeble that they
were scarcely perceptible. The act of writing and mailing postal
cards was usually confessed, and the district attorneys advised that
no proceedings be instituted. In almost every post office in the
South there was conspicuously posted the lottery caution card. It
was the first information the masses of the people had of the passage
of the law.

The Cincinnati division reported that in the district of Indiana no
arrests at all were made. In Ohio there were a dozen or more.
There were several cases of the violation of the lottery act in the
mailing of newspapers which contained lottery advertisements ; but
it was the policy of the United States attorneys to warn the offend-
ing publishers to withdraw these. In several cases, too, uninten-
tional violations of the law were simply reprimanded. There was a
notable case on this division, that of the Johnstons. David P.
Johnston and his two sons removed in 1884 from Louisiana
to Cincinnati and established an agency of the Louisiana Lottery.
The old man was soon afterwards fined $200 ; but the punish-
ment served to advertise his business, and he continued in it
after his conviction. Soon the elder Johnston and one son were
tried and this time paid fines amounting to nearly $1,200. This
caused them to remove to Covington, in another federal district,
where they conducted a lottery business under the name of J. H.
Wilson. For some time it was found to be difficult to connect the
Johnstons with the business of "Wilson," but it was accomplished
by authorizing the postmaster at Covington to withhold all mail for
" Wilson " until he called for it in person. No such person appeared,
and all mail for "Wilson " was forwarded to the Dead Letter Office.
This seriously crippled the business of the Johnstons, but again they

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTERY MEN. 555

were found to be engaged in the business on a large scale about the
time of the passage of the new lottery law. The Johnstons were
found to be living over a restaurant, in the centre of the city. The
manner in which their rooms were partitioned off aroused suspicion,
and after a close surveillance their method of operations was dis-
closed. After a watch of two weeks one of the sons was found
coming from the hallway bearing in his arms a large envelope box ;
and the inspector who was following him found that he went directly
to the district messenger office, and returned therefrom without the
box. Late that night two men emerged with the box and mailed
from it lottery letters, putting them into various street boxes.
These letters were immediately marked for identification and sent
forward to the addresses, with requests to return them after examina-
tion. With the evidence thus procured W. P. and D. C. Johnston
were duly convicted and sentenced to eighteen months' imprison-
ment and a $500 fine.

The New York, Philadelphia and Boston divisions reported a
similar activity on the part of inspectors and the same policy on the
part of prosecutors. In New England the only agent of the Lottery
Company was found to be L. F. Crosby of Boston, who had thriven
in the business for fifteen years or more, and had been convicted
twice during that time before the United States Court by the efforts
of the post office inspectors. Evidence against him was quickly
collected. But where, a year before, he was receiving one hundred
or more ordinary letters a day, he received only four or five after the
anti-lottery law passed ; and his business was found to be conducted
almost entirely out of the mails, and even this ceased before long to
be profitable. In New England the public simply ceased dealing
with the Lottery.

In the Washington division twenty-six arrests were made.
Charles Thompson, Jr., attorney for the Louisiana Lottery, was
arrested Sept. 18, 1890. His examination lasted three days before
Police Justice Miller, and he was held in $300 for the grand jury.
He was indicted December 1. Trial was set for December 8, and
continued to December 13, when motion was made to quash the
indictment. The motion was overruled, but the case was never
tried. W. W. Gould, agent of the Louisiana Lottery, was arrested
Aug. 22, 1890, Oct. 18, 1890, and Nov. 24, 1890, on four indict-

556 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

ments. He pleaded guilty, asked for mercy, and was fined $50 in
each case. Gould was again .indicted Jan. 19, 1891, for attempting
to bribe an officer of the United States. A motion to quash this
indictment was sustained by Judge Bradley of the District Court.
The other cases were not notable, though James D. Martin, alias J.
S. Mclntyre, publisher of The Capital Almanac, a lottery advertising
pamphlet, Was arrested in Washington, Jan. 9, 1891, and held in
$500 bail for the grand jury. He. was indicted, but a motion to
quash was sustained by the court. The arrests in the Washington
division were made, seven in the District of Columbia, one in Mary-
land, three in North Carolina, four in Virginia and eleven in West
Virginia.

The Washington inspectors had proceeded for two years under the
old law prohibiting the mailing of lottery circulars. They easily
ascertained that the Louisiana Lottery Company mailed lottery cir-
culars in sealed envelopes, often as many as 60,000 or 75,000 at a
time, that a bin, "D," in the Washington post office was assigned
to the use of M. A. Dauphin and the Louisiana Lottery Company,
that this bin had been rented by Charles Thompson, Jr., who had
filed a power of attorney from M. A. Dauphin to receive all mail
matter addressed to him, to the Louisiana State Lottery Company,
or to bin "D." From 300 to 2,500 letters a day were received by
Thompson or his order through this box. All this mail matter was
taken regularly every morning by Thomas Williams, a driver in the
employ of the Adams Express Company (who called for it, as he
said, by the order of the superintendent of that company) and sent
by express to Paul Conrad, at Baltimore, Md. It was discovered,
however, that he delivered this mail matter to Charles Thompson,
Jr., at his office on F Street, opposite the Ebbitt House. The
inspector conferred at different times with the United States attor-
neys ; but their suggestions about prosecuting anybody within the
District of Columbia, and particularly the great Louisiana State
Lottery Company, seemed to be regarded as a particularly ancient
joke. The United States attorneys, finding that the inspectors were
persistent, finally wrote a letter suggesting that certain evidence be
obtained. It was obtained without trouble, and again all this was
spread before the " prosecutor, " when further suggestions were made
to obtain still more evidence. This sort of delay continued for

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTERY MEN. 55 T

months. The then district attorney said that he did not believe a
conviction could be had within the District of Columbia ; that every
body, almost, patronized the Lottery Company, even judges, Sena-
tors, Members of the House, attorneys, business men, old and young
women; and all looked forward eagerly to the drawing days.

But the inspectors persevered. They obtained evidence sufficient
to cause the arrest on Sept. 15, 1890, of Thompson. This man's
examination before the police justice lasted three days, as has been
said. The examination had the appearance of a regular trial, being
fought step by step clear through ; but the evidence was so direct
that the court had to hold Thompson for the grand jury. An indict-
ment was at once found ; and though the motion to quash was over-
ruled by Chief Justice Bingham, the case never came to trial.

It was a notorious fact that, next to New Orleans itself, Wash-
ington was the most profitable market for the lottery traffic; that
lottery tickets could be found publicly offered for sale, being dis-
played in show cases, at cigar stores, hotels, saloons and barber
shops ; and in fact the bootblacks and the newsboys in the streets
had these tickets for sale regularly every month. The principal
headquarters for the sale of lottery tickets, however, was at 1305 F
Street, N. W. The agent and manager was W. W. Gould, the
acknowledged District "king" for the sale of lottery tickets for
many years.

On April 29, 1878, Congress enacted a law which was intended
to punish any person who promoted in any way any sort of a lottery
in the District of Columbia. This law had practically been a dead
letter. The Washington postal authorities did not like this to be
so. It was a simple matter to obtain evidence against Gould for
violations of this law; and on Aug. 22, 1890, Major J. D. King,
inspector-in- charge at Washington, swore out a raiding warrant for
Gould's arrest and a search of his premises. The man was arrested
and held for the grand jury. The. inspectors continued these raids
during August, September, October and November, 1890, and Gould
was held on each occasion. Finally he made up his mind the
Department was in earnest. He closed up his office ; it was adver-
tised for rent. Gould became alarmed. He appeared before the
court and entered a plea of guilty to the four indictments pending
against him. The court accepted this plea. The first information

558

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the inspector's office had of this action was the court reports in the
city papers. On Jan. 19, 1891, an attempted bribery of a Govern-
ment witness was reported fully to the grand jury, and an indict-
ment against Gould was the result. A motion was made to quash ;
the argument was heard before Judge Bradley, who sustained the
motion.

*' CAUGHT IN THE ACT OP OPENING THE BOX, AND WITH THE
LETTERS IN HIS POSSESSION."

In November, 1890, the inspector's office in Washington was
informed that The Capital Almanac was very largely circulated
through the mails. This purported to be published by J. S. Mcln-
tyre. . It was gotten up in very attractive form and contained a
complete advertisement of the Louisiana Lottery Company. A
great many letters were received at the city post office addressed to

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTERY MEN. 559

"J. S. Mclntyre, Box 4867." It was found that Charles Thomp-
son, the agent of the Louisiana Lottery, had rented box 631 in the
name of J. S. Mclntyre, but there was no box No. 4367. The let-
ters were taken out of box 631 by James D. Martin. Martin was
arrested on Jan. 9, 1891, caught in the act of opening the box and
with the letters in his possession. He was indicted by the grand
jury, but his case was never tried. The Capital Almanac, however,
has not been sent through the mails since then.

It required only time to show that all this skilful, brave work of
the Department was telling. The Postmaster General's report for
1891 (when most of the prosecutions were over) showed the fol-
lowing aggregate of results :

Total number of arrests from September 19, 1890 (the date the law went into

effect), to June 30, 1891 153

Total number of indictments by grand juries during same period .... 75

Total number out on bail awaiting action of grand juries 73

Total number of convictions 56

Total number discharged from custody (no case made out) 1

Average amount of bail required ($200 to $5,000) in each case, $1,000.
For period from July 1, 1891, to October 23, 1891:

Total number of arrests 49

Total number of indictments by grand juries 578

Total number out on bail awaiting action of grand juries 42

Total number convicted (fined from $5 to $200 each) 3

Average amount of bail required (from $100 to $5,000) in each case, $800.

The disproportion of trials and convictions to the number of
arrests and indictments was accounted for by the usual delays of the
law (the failures to reach the cases on the dockets, the postpone-
ments of the trials to subsequent dates or terms, etc.), and not to
any lack of judgment on the part of inspectors.

And North Dakota had had her fight. In the latter part of 1889
it was rumored that the Louisiana Lottery Company would attempt
to secure a charter in one of the new states, but the plans, if plans
there were, never came to anything. In the winter of 1890, how-
ever, during the session of the first legislature of North Dakota,
George E. Spencer, ex-senator from Alabama and attorney for the
Louisiana Company, appeared at Bismark and began the work of
organizing a raid upon North Dakota. He took into his confidence
some of the most influential men. The utmost secrecy was observed
by all, and it was not until their plans were fully matured that the

The SUPREME COURT of the
UNITED STATES having decided the

ANTI-LOTTERY POSTAL LAW
to be Constitutional, it is hereby ordered
and directed that no one in the employ
of this Company shall mail a letter
which in any way refers directly or in-
directly to the business of the lottery.

It must be understood that this
Company will aid in the enforcement
of the law.

By order of the Board of Direc-
tors of the Louisiana State Lottery
Company.

PAUL CONRAD,

PRESIDENT

DEFEAT ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE LOTTERY.

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTERY MEN. 561

public became aware of the plot. The bill granting the charter to
the Lottery Company to operate in North Dakota was introduced in
February, 1890, and rapidly pushed through the legislature. The
state was to receive $105,000 as soon as it became a law and
$75,000 annually thereafter during the existence of the charter;
and it was understood that a large sum of money would be given to
the farmers of the state as a relief fund. Brave Governor John A.
Miller, however, vetoed the bill, and public sentiment was suffi-
ciently aroused to compel many of the legislators to withdraw their
support. The bill failed to pass over the governor's veto. Assist-
ance came from all parts of the country to relieve the farmers in their
great distress. Anticipating a second attempt to capture the state,
Governor Miller, on July 12, 1890, issued a public circular, affirm-
ing his belief that the lottery men were planning secretly -to secure
a charter to legalize their business, and closing with the following
statement :

"I am recently in receipt of a telegram from the Mexican Lottery Company
offering $250,000 for a charter in North Dakota. It is of the utmost importance,
therefore, that our friends should be on the alert and that no local or personal
ambition, or want of activity, or lack of care in the selection of representatives
to conventions should be allowed to jeopardize the highest and best interests of
our state and her people for generations to come by the possible legislation of an
institution of this character."

Public indignation was so aroused that the lottery managers never
succeeded in getting another hold on the legislature of North
Dakota. But unquestionably thousands of dollars were used to
purchase the votes of members. In March, 1890, there was read in
the House a letter written by the attorney general of the state,
George F. Goodwin, giving an account of the lottery scheme and
the names of several senators and members who had received these
same thousands of dollars for their votes.

The decision of the Supreme Court upon the test cases was handed
down in February, 1892. Tt sustained the validity of the anti-
lottery legislation at every point. This practically ended the fight
in favor of the Government. The Louisiana Lottery publicly
admitted its defeat by announcing its intention thereafter to obey
the law faithfully both in letter and in spirit. The most notable
prosecution which had taken place was that of the officers and
employees of the Juarez Lottery at El Paso. Five hundred and

562 THE STORY OF OUil POST OFFICE.

fifty indictments had been returned against that concern, and from
the legal preparations made by the defendants it was anticipated
that a sharp contest would be made in court. The decision of the
Supreme Court, however, took all the heart out of the defence, and
when the cases were called the defendants pleaded guilty and were
subjected to fines of $3,000 or more. In addition to this the defend-
ants were required to forward to the Postmaster General a letter
promising thereafter carefully to observe the law. The guarantee
held by the Department that this promise would be rigidly adhered
to was the known fact that the Government possessed additional
unused evidence upon which new prosecutions could be based at
any time.

A remarkable political revolution occurred in April last in
Louisiana, directly superinduced by the enactment of the anti-lottery
legislation and its rigid enforcement by the Post Office Department.
Immediately upon the announcement of the adverse decision of the
Supreme Court, leaders of the pro-lottery fight publicly declared their
intention to withdraw the lottery issue from the state canvass then
in progress. This was followed by the election of an anti-lottery
governor and a legislature pledged to destroy the gigantic gambling
monopoly that had ruled the state so long. At the recent session
of the legislature stringent anti-lottery legislation, designed to take
effect Jan. 1, 1894, immediately on the expiration of the charter of
the present lottery corporation, was passed. The Lottery had been
making in the meantime herculean efforts to retain its rapidly van-
ishing patronage by diverting it to the express companies ; but this
was found to be a fruitless as well as a costly experiment. The
truth is that the enactment and vigorous enforcement of the Federal
anti-lottery law has proved absolutely fatal to the successful exploit-
ing of lottery schemes. With their advertisements shut out from the
mails, prevented from the transaction of their business through the
postal establishment, it is impossible for any but local concerns of
this character to exist. The Louisiana Company publicly announced
a reduction of its capital prize from 1300,000 to $75,000, and the
opinion was expressed by competent observers that the monthly draw-
ings would be discontinued entirely in the near future.

There had been various devices, more or less transparent, for
keeping up in some way the business of the Lottery. In February,

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTEKY MEN.

563

1891, blank orders for Louisiana Lottery tickets were distributed,
accompanied by the following printed note :

" Recent changes in the United States Postal regulations have rendered it pref-
erable to more closely consult the interest of our Canadian patrons by establish-
ing a branch office in Canada. We, therefore, take pleasure in thus specially
notifying our former friends and patrons that all orders received by the under-
signed will be accorded the same security and prompt attention as when formerly

addressed to M. A. Dauphin, Washington, D. C.

"L. H. BOOLE,

" Post Office Box 133, Montreal, Canada."

Then came the pretended Chicago dispatch which appeared in
various journals as "news." It read:

"Postoffice Inspector Fitz has discovered, a result of several months' investi-
gation, that the Louisiana Lottery has succeeded in evading the anti-lottery
law by establishing a branch office under the name of the A B C Com-
pany at D E , Mexico, under the patronage of Gen. F G . It is flooding
the large cities of this country with its circulars openly, and the postal authori-
ties are powerless to prevent it, because they have no authority to tamper with
the mails from a foreign country, even if they know it contains lottery matter.
Captain Fitz has the names of the agents of the concern in most of the large
cities, and the Postoffice Department will prosecute them, but it is not thought
that this will affect the business to any considerable extent, as the Lottery Com-
pany has lists of the names and addresses of nearly all who play the Lottery."

General Tyner commented entertainingly on this. He said:

" Under the guise of a piece of news, couched in terms of friendliness to the
anti-lottery reform, it was intended to circulate all over the country as a means of
notifying lottery ticket buyers where they might send for tickets and informa-
tion. These people do some very neat work in that line. It was only a few
weeks ago that a most innocent looking dispatch appeared in a New York paper,
telling how the postmaster at Camden, N". J., had captured a quantity of lottery
matter, which proved conclusively that in spite of the efforts of the Government
to suppress it, the Louisiana Company was still doing business in the old way,
etc. This was, of course, a mere notice to customers all over the country to for-
ward their money as before. A Western firm which does a large business in
* patent inside ' newspapers, supplying, I believe, about eighteen hundred editors
with its sheets printed on one side, received soon after a letter from a leading
advertising agency in the East enclosing a check for $1,300 to prepay the inser-
tion of this little Camden dispatch among their miscellaneous matter, credited as
an extract from the New York paper in which it originally appeared. The firm,
being honorable and law abiding men and opposed to the lottery business on
principle, declined the offer and sent the check back. The advertising agency
was not discouraged, however, and presently captured another and less scrupu-
lous ' patent inside ' concern. Postmasters in some cases discovered the item and
threw the papers containing it out of the mails; but the trick was too new to
be generally apprehended, and the most that could be done was to put away the
lesson for future use."

564 THE STOBY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

But here was the latest. There was no telling whether it had any
connection with the big Louisiana Lottery Company; it was not too
dishonest for them, but was it not too small ? The promises to pay
and the thirty twentieth parts of tickets were enclosed with the
following :

LITTLE LOUISIANA STATE LOTTERY CO.,

NEW ORLEANS, DETROIT, AND NEW YOKK

FINANCIAL STANDING, ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

WINDSOR, ONTARIO (opposite Detroit, Mich.), July 5, 1892.

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL,.

Dear Sir : We take the privilege of sending you herewith one twenty dollar
ticket and thirty one dollar tickets in the drawing of our lottery which takes
place Tuesday, July 19, 1892. The $20 ticket we present you free of charge.
The great trouble with the lottery business in your locality is that no one has

$1000.

i ycdct com offihe fy&ntfect Qfateb* < fy/cdue vtcwiled <3Paya&4e al tfa office
(8 ,

THIS NOTE IS NOT NECOTIABLE. AND 15 VALID ONL AFTEO THE CONDITIONS
Or ACCOMPANVING LETTER HAVE BEEN COMPUEO WITH

A FAC SIMILE OF THE RECEIPT FOR $1,000.

drawn a prize of any value for years. This has caused the people to become dis-
couraged and many have entirely stopped buying tickets. Now in order to stimu-
late and enliven the sale of lottery tickets and advertise our business, we are
going to arrange matters so that the $20 ticket which we present you will draw a
prize of $15,000, providing you will agree to accept $1,000 of this amount and permit
us to refer to you as one of the parties who drew $15,000 in the July drawing of the
Lottery. In addition to this you must dispose of the thirty one dollar tickets sent
herewith, realizing therefrom $30, which amount you must send to the company
so that it will reach them not later than Tuesday, July 12, 1892. We require you
to dispose of these thirty tickets because we .want as many persons as possible in
your locality interested in this July drawing.

We hope that you will fully understand that the only reason we require you to
send the money to the Company is that it shows them you have sold the tickets
and not given them away. It shows them that you have followed their instruc-

DEVIOUS METHODS OF LOTTERY MEN. 565

tion and are keeping good faith with them, and it also shows that you are willing
to do at least this much work in return for this favor and generosity to you. We
understand, of course, that we will lose money on this plan of advertising the first
month, but you will readily see that if the public is led to believe that you drew
$15,000, we will sell many thousand tickets in your part of the state as a direct
result of such advertisement. This is the only way in which we can advertise
and build up our business now, as Congress has lately passed laws preventing us
from using the newspapers, so we have adopted this plan of giving a few prizes to
our confidential correspondents in various parts of the country, and we are satis-
fied this is the best plan of advertising that can be devised. We must receive
your remittance not later than Tuesday, July 12, so that we may have ample time
in which to send our instructions to New Orleans. Of course with your influence
in your locality you will have no trouble of disposing of this small number of
tickets in time for your remittance to reach us by the 12th of July. However,
should you meet with any delay in disposing of them, it would be much better
and safer for you to send the money to the Company yourself and sell the tickets
afterwards, and in this way your remittance would reach us early enough to
insure you the $1,000 guaranteed above. Do not under any circumstances sell your
$20 ticket. We will send the $1,000 by express immediately after the drawing
on the 19th, and when you receive it you must return to us at once the note for
$1,000 which we enclose. The money set apart by the Company for advertising
in this manner will be exhausted with the July drawing and no such offer will
ever be made to you again. Unless we hear favorably from you by July 12th we
will withdraw this offer and the tickets, and note sent herewith will be cancelled
and become valueless. This offer is made to you in good faith and in the strict-
est secrecy and we hope you will so regard it. We are going to place several
prizes of this amount in your locality this month. Send money by express only,
and direct all communications to

CHAS. E. GOODWIN & Co.,

Windsor, Ontario.

GEEEN GOODS SWINDLES.

HE green goods swindle is the most extensive
one "worked" through the medium of the
mails. Very few people know exactly what
green goods are, many who do know have
paid dearly for their knowledge. A large gang
located in New York City constantly flood the
mails with circulars offering for sale to the ad-
dressee counterfeit money "so perfect that it can-
not be told from the genuine," and informs him in
what manner he shall proceed to obtain this money. In all the
circulars the term used to describe their money is either "green
goods," or simply "goods." But these men do not handle counter-
feit money. They simply lead the victim on to rob him. No
sympathy is to be expressed for the man who is swindled by these
green goods dealers. He is, if anything, a more insidious fraud
than the alleged dealer, for he is willing to purchase counterfeit
money with which to swindle his neighbors. If these fellows
have such wonderful counterfeits of United States notes, that can
be passed as easily as the genuine, why do they wish to sell them at
ten cents on the dollar? Would it not be more profitable to use
the counterfeits themselves? Strange, the victims, and there have
been thousands of them, never think of this.

The circulars sent out by these alleged dealers in counterfeit
money will describe their scheme better than anything else will.
The following are the chief kinds of circulars used. They are in
stereotyped tone and are the chief ones that have ever been issued.
They tell their own story :

STKICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.

My Dear Sir : I am desirous of obtaining a good shrewd agent in your locality
to handle ray " goods." I enclose herewith a newspaper clipping, which gives all

566

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 567

the information that could be desired, and which explains itself. Thinking you
are in a position to safely handle my goods, I have concluded to write you. If
you don't care to invest in this enterprise, I hope you will excuse the liberty I
have taken in making the proposition. If you have been unsuccessful in your
business, I can supply you with goods with, which you can pay off all your debts
and start free and clear again. You can purchase mortgages, etc. An oppor-
tunity like this to make an independent fortune has never crossed your path
before and in all probability never will again as long as you live. It was never in-
tended that one man should have millions of dollars and another nothing, so don't
throw away this chance to get riches. Others have grown rich around you, no
one knows how. Why not help yourself? If you have not the ready money to

Dear Sir;

1 am in possession of a Good thing, and wish your confidential
and friendly co-operation in a schemV"which~,""if grasped now, will make yon
independently ricn, and will at the same time better my o"wn"condition. The
enclosed newspaper clipping gives some very interesting particulars. Read It.

There is no reason why you should be a slave and toil all your life-
time for nothing, when the opportunity is here for you to benefit yourself
in a substantial way In olden times nonesty was a very good policy, but
times have changed People in these progressive days seldom (if ever) allow
conscientious scruples to interfere with their aim in life, so why should
you? Others have grown rich around you <no one knows how;, why not you?

There is some serious and highly important food for thought here and your
sober and earnest attention should be given to every word in this letter A.
person without the "Universal Rudder the Almighty Dollar," is thought but
little of in this world, and is looked upon as of no importance. Is not
this true? I know whereof I speak, as in former years I have drank from the
"bitter cup'' myself

You will see from the sketch that my goods are not what the law can
class as real counterfeits, inasmuch as they were printed from genuine plates
and can easily be passed in your section of the country with impunity.

L f my business should suit you, it will be certainly beet for you to
come on here and see me in person, as I prefer to deal only face-to-face
with my customers Experience has taught me that this is the- safest and
most satisfactory way for both. By your coming on here you will see what
you are getting, and I will see with whom I am dealing, consequently every,
thing must be on the 'square' and we will both feel better satisfied.

If you nave not the money to buy my goods, I would consent to your
taking some confidential friend in with you who has, provided of course he
is trustworthy and could keep the secret You could both then come on
together and make the deal However, you would be very foolish to take any
one in with you if you could raise money enough yourself I know it is
quite a journey for you to make, but ''ye gods and little fishes, just
think of the ''gold mine" in store for you in the way of profits, and
besides, I aiways make a liberal allowance in goods to cover all expenses
for traveling.

Should you make up your mind to come on, i know you will always be
thankful for your visit vQ me. You will find me s quar_e_an_d__hon est in every
particular When you arrive here I will show you"my"en"tTf"e""8toc"k7I from
which you may make your own selection, then i f my goods are rot all that I
claim for them, and are not as fine as the enclosed speaks of, I will make
you a present of One Thousand Dollars in gold, and also cheerfully pay all
expenditures incurf~ed : Tn : "y6uT"y6uTney.~"TaTF"enough, is it not?

My prices are as follows: $3QQ gets Three Thousand; $400 gets Five
Thousand; $650 gets Ten Tnousand; $1,000 gets Thirty Thousand; or in other
words, the more you invest the cheaper you get the goods You can invest
$5,000 or more if you choose, but $300 worth of goods is positively the very*
smallest amount I will sell under any circumstances. The sizes run from
One to Twenty If you will invest $650 or more I will agree to give you the
exclusive agency for the whole State

Now my dear Sir, should you wish to do business with me, you must obey;
the following instructions and do only as I direct

A FAG SIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF A GREEN GOODS CIRCULAR.

568 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

purchase my goods, I would consent to your taking some confidential friend in
with you, provided, of course, he is trustworthy and could keep a secret. You
can both come on together and make the deal. However, you would be very
foolish to take anyone in with you if you could raise enough money yourself. If
you conclude to embrace this " golden chance " and my business should suit you,
it will be absolutely necessary for you to come on here and see me in person. I

t deMeaj V ' c/faencna a yecd*, jAtew/ tSfyent eh yoat /ecatety
''." J^enctoje AeieuelA a neuyfiafiet c/efifiehy itdec/i
ehfemat'een l/iae 1 cea'd/ 4e defied', an^-w/iec/t ex/i/ach* e&eefi 'SMeh^ehy yea ate en
adasefan to Jaft/y Aand& )ny yeedj^ ^ Aave ccnc/adta / to wide yea,, ty 'yea dent
cate to ehvejt eh tAti enteifiteje 3^ Aefie yea *$ eaxxete Me /eMity t/ Siave Safan eh
madena e*Ae Aic/iaftt'een t J^yeet Aave /een unwcceMfa/ eh yeu>t tajeheM, <S can Jetfi-
4/u yeet Me'tA aeea^ wl/i u>/tecA yeee can dau e^ a// neat aetti ana jfate 1 fiee ana

s-\ f /f / / / /

c/eat aaaeh. tf/ea can AtttomUt mei/aaaej, efa <S&n e/z/tetfanety erne we'd to maae an

^T / # f / * S

t 1 fafane Aa<f nevet cieMea/ neett AatA ve/&ie ana eh a// dtecavefet'u* newt
fraaeh ad tontz ad yea /M4., tSe 1 i&a<) newi entondea Mae 1 ene man j/ieata>
c/aatf/ata and ' ane/Aei netAeha, je aen'e 1 {/tiew away mc<f c/iance to at

W. / / / / f y/f'9/

ateu>n tecrt aieana ycee, ne ene ftne'U'J /lew. //riv nt

JV yea nave nee 1 Me teaau meneu to galena je my aeeaj, c/ te-eafa cement to wceft
tadeha Jeme cenda'ent'fa/ /tienO* en weM yea, dtevc</ea / ,*e/ ceuue /e e<i e'la^^eie'/y ana'

ceu/a neeA a Jedee 1 . c/ea can vew ceme en toaewei ana mane e"Ae aeae. <s?Kiew-
/ & s

cvet, yea wea/*/ ve vein /fce/eiw to faae anyene en wetA yea e/ yea ceee/a take
' / / / / / / S

eneitaA meney yeuijefe <sY yea cenc/ade to em/tace e"/eJ "aeto/en dance' ana my
vujehejj dncaia date 1 uea, e't wecf ve ,aMe/ae l e/^ necejdaiy *vi yea to ceme en Aete ana dee
me eh StetJen, c/ en/y dea/ face to^yace wee 1 /, my cadtometJj {pajfieteence /a<t
me fdae 1 dcd eJ e"Ae jafet ana me^f jaeej/tzctoi'V way f&t wtA. //Aen yea
me yea jee te-nae 1 yea aiewtwena ana c/ tee ie>Ae tx am aea/t<na?i6ee'nj cendfauene'i'fo
<u>e det'A fe/ /etfei jafaded*. <s de nee 1 aja net eazfiece 1 to /edaed'ene cent anti/ yea nat>t
earameiied 'my entile jtocd, je/ecSa/ wAat yea tf-anf', and* e"4e aeedj ate eh yeat tieJJAfMen.
tf/cu mad catiy {/fa acedj away u-etA yea, and ' e/ 'yea delete ee" <[F we// <fee yea <ta/e/u

& w ', f S S / S S / S

eateSt/ie cety. <S can V een^ene 1 to jendiha aeedj eetAet jjy ex/iteM ei mac/. ^P dncu*
tf ed auete a teaineu fvi yea to maae, vat 1 toea at* ene emmende Ate/e'e'j to de made
ne tern wAa/evei, and* ajfai aJ earftenjeJ ate cencetned' <S a/waw made a

ANOTHER FAG SIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF A GREEN GOODS CIRCULAR.

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 569

only deal face to face with my customers. Experience lias taught me that this is
the safest and most satisfactory way for both. When you meet me you see
what you are buying and I see who I am dealing with, consequently we
both feel better satisfied. I do not ask or expect to be paid one cent until
you have examined my entire stock, select what you want, and the goods are
in your possession. You must carry the goods away with you and if you desire
it I will see you safely out of the city. I can't consent to send goods either by
express or mail.

I know it is quite a journey for you to make, but look at the immense profit
to be made, with no risks whatever, and as far as expenses are concerned, I
always make a liberal allowance to cover them. Make up your mind to come on
at once. I know you will always look back at your trip to see me with pleasure
and profit. My goods are first class in every particular, and as fine as the news-
paper article speaks of. Your own good sense should tell you I can have no
object in misrepresenting the quality of my stock and bring you on here on a
fool's errand, for I .ask no money in advance and trade only on the terms men-
tioned, namely, don't ask or expect to be paid one cent until you have examined
my entire stock (consisting of hundreds of thousands of dollars), select what you
want, and the goods are in your possession. My prices are as follows : Three
hundred and fifty dollars buys four thousand dollars in my goods; five hundred
dollars buys fifty-five hundred dollars ; seven hundred and fifty dollars buys ten
thousand five hundred dollars, and fifteen hundred dollars buys twenty-eight
thousand dollars. The more you invest the cheaper you get the goods. Three
hundred and fifty dollars' worth is positively the smallest amount I will sell under
any consideration, as I won't do a retail business; it would let too many into the
secret. If you will invest seven hundred and fifty or fifteen hundred dollars, I
will agree to give you the exclusive State right. Now, if you wish to do business
with me you must obey the following instructions and do as I tell you, and pay
no attention to any other addresses you receive from any of my agents, as this is
the only address for you to send to now, as this is headquarters. I will not re-
ceive a telegram at any other address but this one.

First. Don't, as long as you live, ever write me a letter; if you do, I shall
refuse to receive it, and furthermore, all business relations between us will end.
Don't forget this, please, and remember I mean exactly what I say.

Second. If you wish to come on here and see me, send a telegram, a copy of
which is herein enclosed. Send this telegram as it reads, and is signed on en-
closed slip. Remember, send no letters ; telegrams only received.

Third. On receipt of your telegram I will send you full instructions how to
meet me and what hotel to stop at, then no mistake will be made in finding me.
Don't think of coming on to meet me without first telegraphing me for instruc-
tions, which be sure to follow.

Fourth. Pay no attention to any circulars you receive printed in blue ink, as
they are not reliable and don't come from headquarters, as all my circulars will
be printed in black ink, so don't forget this and look out.

In conclusion I wish to say if you cannot come on here or have not three
hundred and fifty dollars to invest, simply let the matter drop until you hear from
me again.

Now, allow me once more to caution you not to write letters. You must be
guided by my advice, if you do you are bound to succeed. No such thing as fail.

CONFIDENTIAL.

I am desirous of obtaining a shrewd
in your locality to handle iny "Goods." I enclose
herewith a newspaper clipping, which gives all the
information, that could be desired and explains it-
self. Thinking you. are in a position to handle my
Goods safely I have concluded to write you, and if
you doo' I care to invest in Ihis enterprise I hope you
will excuse the liberty I have taken in making the
proposition. I have a very superior article of tha
Kind, in fact the best ever issued or put on the roar-'
Ketj the sizes run from one to twenty. I warrant
each and every note to be perfect as to Paper, Color
ing, Vignette, Printing, Engraving and Signatures,
and when made to appear as having been used or hand-
led much, I defy the best bank clerk or expert to
tell them from the genuine. It has cost me a great
deal of time and money to perfect these goods and I
have at last succeeded where many others failed, in
producing the Genuine Fibre Paper My stock now la
as neat and perfect as human skill can make it and
absolutely no risk in, using it. Remember, this is ar
^article which will go anywhere and everywhere, leav-
ing for you a net profit of from Ten to Twelve Hun-
dred per cent, according to the amount you buy. These
goods cannot be detected in the ordinary course of
tradg, and only at the Treasury in Washington through
the duplication of the numbers, and not then if the
genuine bill of the same number is still in circula-
tion, so that they are really as good as Go-Id. "Now, my
frjcnd (as I "will take the liberty of calling you),
we are strangers to one another, "but if you are de-
sirous of handling these goods, and will come here to.
see me, you-^ili find me a sqtuare white man in all roy
dealings, as my manner of doing busiaess will sho-w.
It is as follows: when you come here I will show
you my entire stock, from one to one hundred thou-
sand dollars, compare them with th genuine* and
in fact submit them to any test you see fit, before
you pay me a single dollar, then after you are thor-
oughly satisfied on every point, you. can select
whatever sizes you want and pay cash for your pur-
chase and carry the goods home with you. Mow, my
friend, to do this business safely, it must be done

A THIRD FAC SIMILE OF A GREEN GOODS CIRCULAR (FIRST PAGE).

570

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES.

571

Act square ; be true and honorable ; do me no harm and you will never regret it.
You can make money faster and easier by dealing in my goods than you ever
dreamed of before in your life.

Yours very truly, in honor and confidence.

Dear Sir: If you have no conscientious scruples regarding how men get
money, I write to say that I am in a position to supply you with an " article"
that for commercial purposes is as good as gold. (See New York Sun, April
26, 1891.)

This communication may be somewhat startling or probably unwelcome. If
so, I trust you will be good enough to destroy the same as no harm or insult is
intended. If, on the other hand, you can keep a secret and should be desirous of
bettering your financial condition, I can be a valuable assistant, provided you
are gifted with sufficient nerve and are willing to invest a few hundred as seed.
Understand ?

The goods I refer to are really as fine as human skill and science can make
them. People are growing rich around you every day (no one knows how), why
not you ?

A prepaid telegram (no letters) saying: "Goods received," signed with your
correct name and post office address, will bring interesting particulars by return

mail * Yours respectfully,

W. E. GRAHAM, 172 Hudson St., New York.

Dear Sir : You are an entire stranger to me, yet I take the liberty to address
you on an important subject, which I trust will be kept confidential, should my
proposition be accepted or not.

No doubt you have been the recipient of numerous letters in relation to the
same matter, which on thorough investigation were found to be unreliable. The
method employed by the writers of aforesaid letters has been a source of great
annoyance and expense to me, as I have agents in several states who find it
utterly impossible to find trustworthy men to act as sub-agents for my line of
goods, simply because they have been victims of fraud and deceit, practised upon
them by unscrupulous men, who claim to have for sale that which they have not.
How they manage to induce men of common sense to invest their money on the
representations that they can furnish them with an article fully equal to the
original at the ridiculously low figure of ten per cent, on the dollar, and some-
times as low as five per cent, is something I cannot understand.

If one would stop to think and calculate on the cost of machinery, engraving,
manufacture of paper, and numerous other items for the making of a duplicate,
how easily it could be perceived that the representations made by this class of
men were fraudulent on their face.

I have a duplicate which has withstood a test that thoroughly convinces me of
its worth (see New York Sun, April 26, 1891), and to accomplish this end I
have spent years of labor and spared no expense, and I can conscientiously say
that it has never yet been refused when tendered in payment of debts, or as a
deposit in banking houses. I have no newspaper clipping printed praising its
qualities to convince you of its excellence, though to my personal knowledge it
has never been rejected by experts, nor have I ever heard of one being detected,
or looked upon suspiciously, since I first put them in circulation.

572 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Now, my dear sir, if you think you have sufficient nerve to handle the goods to
advantage and have no conscientious scruples as to how you obtain wealth, so
long as it will not injure yourself, your family, or neighbors, but will rather place
you and your family in a position beyond want or the bitter privations of life in
after years, I will, on receipt of a telegram from you, present documentary
evidence that will convince you beyond any possible doubt that I am all that I
claim and that my goods cannot be distinguished from the genuine until the
secret is disclosed. I will also appoint a place of safety for our meeting where
you can thoroughly examine the goods and subject them to any test whatever you
may desire. Kemember I am the sole manufacturer and you cannot get my
goods elsewhere.

My terms are twenty per cent, on the dollar. The lowest amount you can in-
vest is $200, and the highest $5,000.

Trusting you will not divulge the contents of this letter to anyone, I remain in
confidence and good faith, Sincerely yours,

W. E. GRAHAM.

P. S. I request as a favor that you never write me a letter to the address herein,
as I shall positively refuse to receive it; a letter being damaging evidence in all
cases for both parties and especially so in this. Simply send a prepaid telegram
directed to W. E. Graham, 172 Hudson Street, New York, and say " Send Freight
Rates," then sign your name and post office address where a reply will be sure to
reach you.

Remember your address must accompany your name, as the one I now have will
be immediately destroyed to avoid any unforeseen accidents.

Of course no one but ourselves will know its meaning, so have no fear.

The following are the instructions for telegraphing generally
enclosed with one of the circulars quoted above. These instructions
are in various forms and several different ones are therefore given.
They show a variety in the wording, as well as many changes in
the address:

KEEP THIS FOR REFERENCE.

When you are ready to come and see me send me the following telegraph
despatch :

G. Lewis,

1986 3d Avenue, New York City.

Send duplicate engraving of officer, No. 603.

and sign your telegram Tom, George, Henry, Frank or any other name you
choose. I will understand who it is from.

CAUTION. In sending telegram be sure and send the right word and number,
as it is absolutely necessary. Without these I would not know who it is
from.

Remember, write me no letters. I will not receive or answer them.

If you wish to come and see me, send me the following telegram. I shall
understand it, and will send full instructions how I can be found, but distinctly
remember, under no consideration ever send me a letter, for I won't receive it.

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 573

CAUTION. In sending telegram be sure and send the right words and number,
as it is absolutely necessary. Without these I would not know who it is from.
Eem ember, write me no letters. I will not receive or answer them.

COPY OF TELEGRAM YOU ARE TO SEND.
James Wolf,

Tilly Foster, Putnam Co., N. Y.

Send particulars on Horse, No. 10,516.

I shall send you full instructions on receipt of above telegram where you can
meet me at my headquarters. I only receive my telegrams at this address, but
transact business elsewhere.

Answer at once. This address good for fifteen days only.

Prepay all telegrams so I will be sure to get it.

Do NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES sign your name and address, for I will
only know who you are by the password and numbers that you sign and NO
OTHER WAY. The telegram and address that you are to send is as follows:

Address,

C. Grand,

2196 Eighth Avenue, New York City.

Telegram. Send Setter Dog, Number 5,472.
Be sure and sign your password, SETTP:R DOG, and your NUMBER AS ABOVE.

KEEP THIS FOR REFERENCE.

If you wish to come and see me send the following telegraph despatch. I
shall understand it and will send you full instructions how I can be found, but
distinctly understand I mean exactly what I say, under no consideration send me
a letter, for I positively won't receive it.

COPY OF TELEGRAM YOU ARE TO SEND.
John J. Hudson,

Weston, Lewis Co., West Va.

" Mixed Seeds: 1

After the words "Mixed Seeds" place your name and postoffice address. If
possible, place name and number of street on which you reside, or, if you have
one, give postoffice box. It is a matter of no moment how much telegram costs,
I want all the above information in it. Sometimes agents telegraph from another
place than where they live. If they have to do that I can't tell where to send
replies, for I don't keep any memorandum of my agents' names and addresses.

I shall send you full instructions on receipt of above telegram where and how
you can meet me at my headquarters I only receive my telegrams at this
address but transact business elsewhere.

You will please remember to pay the charges on your telegrams, as I don't wish
them sent in any other way and won't receive them unless they are prepaid. It
attracts attention, and I make allowance in goods to cover expenses, so it costs
you nothing.

Don't fail to prepay all charges on messages.

Never send night telegrams. Send your messages in the morning between eight
and twelve o'clock if possible.

574 THE STORY OF OUR .POST OFFICE.

KEEP THIS FOR REFERENCE.
If you wish to come and see me send the following telegraph dispatch:

George S. Warner,

35 Church Street, New York City, N. T.

" Send Catalogue Number 17,529,"

and sign your telegram Thomas, George, Henry, Frank, Charles or any other
name you please. You can use your own first name if you choose, I will under-
stand who it is from.

CAUTION. In sending telegram be sure and send the right words and number
as above as it is absolutely necessary.

You will please remember to pay charges on your telegrams, as I don't wish
them sent in any other way, and won't receive them unless they are prepaid. It
attracts attention, besides I make allowance in goods to cover all expenses, so it
costs you nothing.

Don't fail to prepay all charges on messages.

After reading my letter through carefully, you conclude you cannot spare the
time to come here and see me face to face, or have not three hundred and fifty
dollars to invest in the speculation, telegraph me saying, * What are net prices ? "
I will then make you another proposition, but I advise you to lay aside all other
business and come to see me at once.

Send for full instructions how to find me.

One of the green goods gangs recently began operations from the
post office at Flushing, N. Y. Several different names were used.
The following are a copy of a circular sent out, and the instructions
to be followed in writing; and the envelope was enclosed in which
the return letter was to be sent :

Dear Sir : You have been referred to me as a trustworthy person, and one
who can keep his own counsel, therefore I would be pleased to open a correspon-
dence with you in regard to the business which I propose, and if you will be
guided by my advice and experience there is no reason why you should not make
a sure and safe fortune; there is absolutely no risk, as the article is (Good) money
and is perfect, as the enclosed newspaper clipping will prove. The sizes are Is,
2s, 5s, and 10s. My prices are: four thousand costs three hundred and fifty
dollars, seventy-five hundred costs five hundred dollars, thirteen thousand
five hundred costs six hundred and fifty dollars, and twenty-eight thou-
sand costs one thousand dollars, and so on at an increasing ratio; so the
larger the quantity you purchase the cheaper you obtain the goods. Four
thousand in my goods costing three hundred and fifty dollars is the smallest
amount I will send under any circumstances, as I will not retail my valuable
goods. If you will raise six hundred and fifty dollars, or will bring one thousand
dollars in cash, I will give you your entire state to yourself and you will meet
with no opposition. Furthermore, I will not give you the goods at these figures
after the first deal. I only give them at these prices as an extra inducement and
to give you a start. After the first trade I charge at the rate of twenty-five cents
on the dollar. Now, my friend, if you wish to engage in this speculation it will

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 575

be absolutely necessary for you to come here and see me personally, as I only deal
face to face with customers, believing it to be the safest as well as the most satis-
factory way for both, as by your coming here you will see what you are buying,
and I see who I am dealing with, and both feel better satisfied. I know it is quite
a journey for you to come here, but the immense profits to be derived from the
goods amply repay you for that, and as far as expenses are concerned, I always
make a liberal allowance in goods to cover them. Make up your mind to lay aside
all other business and come on at once. You can't make money as rapidly at any-
thing else, besides it is absolutely safe, for no one trading with me has ever been
in any trouble, but on the contrary all are making money. You will find me
square, man to man, and will never have cause to regret a visit to see me. If you
have been unsuccessful in your business you can pay off all your debts with my
goods and start free and clear again. It was never intended that one man should
have millions of dollars and another nothing, so don't throw away this chance to
make a fortune; others have grown rich around you no one knows how why
not help yourself ? I am ready to meet you in New York City at any time you
may appoint, which I trust may be soon, as delays are to be avoided. I will show
you my entire stock from which you can make your own selection, and remember,
I expect you to carry your goods home with you, as I never send anything either
by mail or express, therefore don't write for samples, for you will only waste
time as I never reply to letters requesting samples. Don't ask me to meet you
outside of New York City, for I can't be absent even for a single day, as I would
have to disappoint my customers who came here during my absence, many of
whom come a long distance to see me. If my goods, on examination, do not
come up to your expectations, or are not exactly what I claim them to be, I will
refund you your expenses from your home, and pay all expenses of return
trip. Do not betray me or mention to a living soul what passes between us, as I
have never done you any harm and never shall, but will prove a true and last-
ing friend to you. Make up your mind to come here, and immediately on
receipt of an answer to this I will name a hotel for you to stop at, how you will
know me, and give you full, plain instructions how a speedy fortune can be
safely made. I shall always return your letters to you, and as a guarantee
of good faith on your part request the return of this letter and newspaper
clipping.

Never sign your name to letters, but always use A 337. I shall understand it
and know who it is from. In that way if any accident occurs and your letter
mjght go astray no harm is done.

Trusting you will answer at once and return the letter, I remain,

Yours in confidence,

A FRIEND.
Address as per enclosed slip.

P. S. If you should write to me and I do not answer your letter promptly you
may be sure I have not received it so please write again.

I want you when you answer this letter to use the enclosed envelope; if you
write me and use any other envelope I will not reply to it. The only way I can
tell whether you have received this letter is by receiving your answer enclosed in
this envelope, so use no other. Remember this. You must reply at once, for
this offer is only open for a limited time.

576

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Enclosed was the " newspaper clipping ": " How the Treasury is
Robbed." The envelope was addressed to Alex. E. Barre, Flushing,
Queen's Co., N. Y. In all of these circulars reference is made to
newspaper clippings from different newspapers, especially from the

EAL.
on the

( ce at the
'cen Cov
r-General
a Strana-

Dsel had
and they

*t week
or non-
id The
UrecU I

MUlation
bo news-
Hrpnbll-
stitutlon
ct npon
[tare of

tie. Tbe

.2S

gard to
ublic In-

grsj

having
, shown
ith there
had con-
was an-
since to
"With
ted that
lays ago
nterfere,
is utterly
Inforuw-

sre con-

e Execu
same Is-
le South
y cases.

thers as
s it been
able ex-
vex and
mwenitb
ring- It
any re-
tsuse, or
<1, npon
>nrplalnt
irty 10 do

public
tlvtaui'CS
tint (ho

uu tared

.Mir, In-
ptlon to
because

of tbe

of an-

/; hand

on tbe

ACODNTERFEITER60ESFREE.

The country flooded with $2,000,000,000

of counterfeit money in the past year.

and pronounced by Government

experts to be as good as the

genuine greenback.

The tellnre ot the United States Court to convict
Joseph Reed, alias Banks, alias Moore, mid many
other aliases, one of the most skllfnll and expert
counterfeiters In this or any otlier country, is a great

against him to warrant a different result
one obtained. The District Attorney thought so too.
The fan", wasdno to the insufficient evidence. Yot
the story 'a one of the moat extraordinary ever told
nvolvtnic as It does the most remarkable creduIKy
and no less unusual cunning

offering to sell hi

plates that could not

The merchant, by the barest accident happened to
be an honest man at heart, and although the
temptation offered to Mm was a great one, on*
that not one man In a hundred could refuse, de-
cided not to accept the proposal but to Inform
United States Marshal Moore, who answered the
letter under tbe merchant's name who hart re-
ceived lt.and wrote to the counterfeiter and Inform-
ed him that It was "Just the stuff be was looking
tor," but stated that owing to pressure of business
It was impossible for him to visit New York and
suggested I to Mr. Counterfeiter that the malls
were a safe medium through which to transact
business and Stated thaUt this was satisfactory,
he wonld. order $soo worth" to start on.
The reply came back that on no account would
e do business through the malls that it was abso-
I ntely necessary that he should see his customer
and do business./!** to face onfv. being the safest,
surest and most satisfactory way t '

rasaaa^'S'SSj a nd i* . *

K In'onseqnence the Marshal wired fi
tlons " how to know and where to me<
terfelterand in dne time arrived at place of

iy an old man who brt
with him a Valise, "which he opened

,.
fully said K would suit him, und put hU hand In

It : but in the place of money he drew a pistol, and
placing It at the counterfeiter's bead mac'.e him a
prisoner, and took the contents of the bag Into his
possession. Upon being arraigned on the charge
of offering ana selling what was supposed to be.
counterfeit money." the prisoner apparently be-
came Indignant and stoutly denied that he ever
had a counterfeit bill In his iffe. and be demanded
hat the expert* employed by the Treasury. Depart-
nent at Washington be sent for.

Bis demand was compiled wltn, and -on arrival
of the gentlemen th*y at once set about making 'a
thorough and critical examination of the supposed
counterfeits , then submitted their sworn report,
which was as follows : That all these Unlled Slates
Treasury notes, were printed from genuine platee
used by former workmen m tim PittHmp Bureau,
and were perfect and exact duplicates of genuine
bills Issued by tbe Government, /Ttiey further
added that they had long been a^waro that some
persons hail possession of a eel of plates supposed
to have been furnished by one of the engravers lo
the Engraving Bureau, and finally that the only
dlffsrence between tse notes found on the pris-
oner, ami tbe genuine, lies in there not being so
mnch silk fibre Interwoven In rhe paper. The
.soner's cofftuel asked tbe Government experts
they would swear that the bills examined by
were counterfeits. To tUe astonishment of
evonr one In the court room, they replied that thei
wotud not, in fact could not, as thev were positive
the bills were as good a& any Issued by the Govern-
ment, and added that the fault lay In the careless
manner ooserved ID the Treasury Department In
allowing workmen to handle Government nlatea,
printing WKS. oies.eto.. ag they ./uhed

Lef
i-

EXTRJG

400
Dress
enforc<

lht

ioth Re-

uljourn-
ng
fllon of

'.ul the
rhc Cus-
cniniued
member

la Slate
M State

I at all

'rule,!
Foster

cd and
p.wlsb
ncrally
ch was
.(] un-

Pric
300
Dress
broide.
Bosom
Bosom
inches,

Pric.

troupes thr
was also th
Hock." "I

his active i
of the MetB
of eleven o)

J. W. Oils
bcr c-f the 8
day, aged 4.
Westmorele
of the Rev.
trrian Bant
, O. C. Ben
on Tuesday
election red
ivn Asse'SBOl
l)e. Witt Be

Frederick!
anoe agent
Broom conr

The judge bad no other alternative than to
struct the Jury to discharge the prisoner, who
thanked Uie Jury and quickly skipped out of the
court room, valise In hand, that contained a cold
$100,000 of money that was good enough for the
writer at all events. The reporter was not alene
In his envious thoughts, because from the ex-
pressions and suggestive remarks of some of tbe
members of the Jury at the departure of the pris-
oner, It seemed that they would like to have a few
thaosand of the so-called counterfeits themselves.

To give our candid opinion we could Bee no
difference In tbe bills as the notes were punted
from genuine United Slates plates obtained from
the Engraving Department at Washington, by
whom It Is not known and perhaps never will be.
As the case now Rtands some one Is getting rich In
a safe, fast and sure manner at tbe expense of the
Government.

The Secret Service Detectives say the only way
to effectually stop the circulation of this money, la
t capture the platc-s now In possession of this
gang. The presumption Is that the plates are not
m this country, but It) Canada, and that the print-
Ing Is being done there. There Is no possible way
:>f tracing he bills to any of the ageuu circulating
taem, to Oo so, it would be necessary o have <v
Government expert In every store, li every town
and city In the United States, as these bills aro
old by the wholesale to trustworthy farmers and
country merctunis, In oeotions of the country
where not oue man In ten 'thousand knows any-
tU.ng about money (Its gennlness, etc.), <iu,l are
readily passed from hand to hand in tne ordinary
course of trade, without their true character ever
being discovered or even suspected. Wnen large
bills are offered by a purchaser,. they are given out
la caanfeauJ.l Je latter Innocently pasaes tbe bills

DT any possibility of their being traced to the

if$nt circulating tlem.

xhe District Attorney, In. conversation with the
reporter, casnally remarked, that It wna astonish-
ing how eagerly Hie average c.flzen. that Is
those who are apparently honest and fairly well
off, aie willing to engage in the business. The
race for wealth predominates over every other
n. All a person wants now adays Is
money; It don'i soem to make any difference
either how they get It. Th advice of the poet to
bUnon Is followed by all classesof tho community

Go*, money, nwsoa: (ret money honestly If yori
3n ; diitonwuiT If you mnst
As ihe Government, only Is the lo.ier, and Is so

7611 ab.e to suud It, the average ciuren has

10 coriscif ntlons Bcrnules whatever, tn taking ad-
vant* of the oiler made by these men, especially

there is no risk or danger In hsu-lllng these
rt irt-ley use proper precautions and keep their

nil.-iww ID themselves. A cloie montn as they
1*1 ly-.ru be-<ecret of socceee In this nefarioni

A Ota ^Hver Strike.

CRirrLB CBEEB, Col. Feb. I7.-Tbe greatest strike

yet made in this cnmp was made yesterday In the

Blue Bell, on Squaw Gulch. About 4 P. M, a blsat

the tunnel opened a body of sliver- glance twenty;.

Dedderso
Democratic
died suddei
be bad goni
died from b

Tbe Hon
sembly and
city on Tuei
nent in atra
old.

Tbe Japa
performer,
peered at th
dead in Cut
circus.

Mrs. Char
John Pomei
K. Walker,
ago, aged M

Moses H.
merchant o
monla at, Mu
and dauglit

James Vs
dpnce in Kl<
81. A wife

Edward I
the " Hpotiei
Brothers' cl

Joslab Cl)
aud for mar
Me., 4ied ot

Dr W D
the Cumbet
yesterday I

Renry W
anu author,
attack of li

Peter E. L
terd:ty at V

Johann S
of Norway

The Thin

The Thin
Ing on Tues
committee
removal of
street to
reported In
Eighty-first
estimated t
land at $ 9
committee
West a
$50000; the
and that $;
wltn tbe SI
tee's estlms
a dKbt of (

There wa
The. society

AN ALLEGED NEWSPAPEB CLIPPINGr USED BY GKEEN GOODS MEN.

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 577

New York Sun and the New York Times. Any person at all
familiar with newspaper articles would at once discover that these
clippings are bogus and prepared by the person transmitting the
letter or under his direction for the occasion.

When a reply is made to a green goods circular that has been
sent out either by letter or telegraph, detailed, clear instruc-
tions are immediately sent to the intended victim as to the place
of meeting, the route to be followed, and the hotel at which he
is to stay. The following are copies of telegrams that are to be used
by the intended purchaser of green goods during his journey to New
York, or other appointed place of meeting, and also all the instruc-
tions as to the place of meeting, how the men are to recognize each
other, the hotel, etc. :

Send me this telegram the day you start from home.

To F. Z. Wells,

2114 Eighth Avenue,

New York City, N. T.

Have shipped goods to-day.

J. M.

Send me this telegram when you are half way on the road; fill in the time that
you will arrive at the hotel so that I can be in time to meet you. Do not put the
name of the hotel in the telegram.

To F. Z. Wells,

2114 Eighth Avenue,

New York City, N. Y.

Will arrive at hotel at o'clock.

J. M.

Pay strict attention to these instructions and follow them carefully.

FIRST. When you leave home buy a ticket direct to Yonkers, N". Y.

SECOND. When you are a short distance from home send me a telegram say-
ing (have started goods to-day).

THIRD. When you arrive at Yonkers, N". Y., go direct to the Yonkers Hotel,
register your name and take a room, and remain in it until you see or hear from
me.

FOURTH. When you are about half way on the road send me. another telegram
stating what time you will arrive at the hotel.

Should you arrive in the evening you may not see me until the next morning,
but don't get uneasy as I will be sure to meet you.

WARNING.

Beware of strangers around the depot or on the train who may claim to know
you. Have nothing to do with any man on earth until you are called on in your
room in your hotel. The password is " Monticello, 90." When you are called on

actual
>a was
od tbe
laorof
d from

trader-
of the
er one

oeday

noting
ur de-

JMWt-r

e than
(ttons
toy the

VSS&
erthe
tj buy

warde

(pects
Corner
kedaa
nlbful
of it-
{tube
u as to
ttrday
noed
MBkec
Kht by
teem?
re also
n the

eeny
owing

od i he
ded to
a are a

Host to
.bv tbe

bibuy

(owing

pinion

jrgyto

fcereou

hod
.owlog

iuTT

whom

The Counterfeiters Harvest 5*

S.S BAST W 4 v TO GET WEALTH.

Greenback* last as Good as Genuine
& MYSTERY EXPLAINED

Sow 'On* i f Oar Oliin Atntsttd Fartnne-

coroner Weimer held an autopsy yesterday over
me reuiaioa of farmer John Williams who dropped
dead lu front of Robinson's general merchandise
(tore The cause of death was given as heart
disease By tbe sudden death of Williams the
mystery surrounding his sudden attainment of
wealth Das been cleared up Among the effects
found upon Williams' person at tbe time ot his
death were a number of letters from tbe celebrated
Urockway t Frank (rang of counterfeiters of Sow
Vork City rhese letters went to show that Wll-
Hams had been acting as agent for tbe counter-
feiters in this section for the last two years. Three
bank-books were also found on the deceased,
showing a balance of over $100.000 to his credit
Williams who was a poor man 2 years ago explained
hie rise In fortune to his acquaintances by Haying
he had an Interest In a gold mine lu Colorado,
which he had bough', fora few hundred dollars,
but which bad turned out one of the best paying
mines In tbe gold country. Williams" used to
leave home about three times a year when be
would announce that be was going on a, visit to
hid mine. It U now shown by his letters, thai
these trips were made to New York for the purpose
jf renewing bis ntock of counterfeit money, and
that tbe mine existed only in his Imagination
Mr, Wllllc.ms was always regarded as an upright
honest man, aud stood very well in the co

t a breath of suspicion w
i>y his neighbors of any w

was ever enter

(Scrupulous iu other tc&pccts, as long as men think
they can make money more easily than they can
earn It, and the opportunity offers so long will
they brave the perils of the law and continue to
make and deal In counterfeit money There never
das been, and probably never will be a time when
this country or any. within civilization is free from
tbe curse ot counterfeiting ID the counterfeiting
of paper money much skill and labor, costly tool

Government changes the entire face and form of
tbe notes DOW in use they will continue to circu-
late as freely as the gtnulue of course engraved
counterfeits are the most dangerous of alt, a very
dne $& and $10 bill was issued a short time ago
from a aeries of plates by this same gang and are
tittle less perfect thtin tbe genuine and cannot be
detected, ordinarily, save by a powerful lens
when some slight Imperfection of the scroll work
is Olscernable, but the finest counterfeits from
every point of view are one^ and two's of the
' are about equal to tht

mansbip So dangerous are
tbuse counterfeits that the Treasury Department
thought seriously of retiring all notes of these de-
. .. . .aidser-

_. _. country

Frank Das amassed considerable wealth In this
ouslness and Is still doing so, the Government be-
ing unable W connect him directly with any of
i hese transactions, be is a shrewd and cautions
man and it seems U aole to conduct his nefarious
business In a safe and profitable manner It Is
very rare that any of his agents betray him. and
it U said will never travel about with any of the
goods in his possession but Insists upon bis cus-
tomers coming to him at some designated polut
which place Is changed from time to time and In
this way escapes detection and secures absolute
safety for himself and agents In the transaction of

About three months go a prominent merchant
of California received a letter from this same gang
offering to sell him money printed from Treasury
plates that could not be tend from the genuine
Th merchant, by the barest accident happened to
be an honest man at heart and although the
lemptation offered to him was a great one one
that not one man ID a hundred could refuse de-
cided nol to accept the proposal but to Inform
United States Marshal Moore who answered tbe
letter under -the merchant's name who had re-
ceived It and wrote to the counterfeiter and Inform
ed him that It was ' lust the stuff he was looking
for," but stated that owing to pressure of business
It was impossible for him to visit New York and
suggested to Mr Counterfeiter that the malls
were a safe medium through wblch to transact
business and stated that If this was satisfactory
b would order $300 wonh to start on.

The reply came oack that on no -Recount would
e do ouslness to rough the.mails that It was abso-
lutely necessary that be ehonld see his customer
and do business face lo/acf only being the safest
surest and most satisfactory way to transact a
business of this nature, and promising If the goods
were not as One as represented to reimburse him
for all expenses- of me trip and forfeit tl ooo li

Wghing

in consequence the Marshal wired for ' Initrac-
n* now toltttow and where to meet the coun-
rfelter and In due lime arrived at place of freet-
g the Grand International Hotel. Sew York City
uf< was called upon fry an old man who bronchi
tin him a valise, which he opened In the room,
playing packages of mouey amounting to
loo ooo The detective examined the money care-
illy said It would suit Mm. and put his haad In
Is pocket as If to Bring out the money to pay for
but In the place of money he drew a pistol, and
icing It at the counterfeiter's bead made him a
rlsoner and took the contents of the bag Into his
jasesslon Upon being arraigned on the charge
f offering and selling what was supposed to 6e
>unterfelt money, the prisoner apparently be-
rne Indignant and stoutly denied that be ever
^aA a counterfeit Wll in his life, and he demanded
that the experts employed by the Treasury Depart-
ment at Washln gton be sent for
ademaud was complied with, and on arrival
f the gentleru en they at once .set about making a
lorough and critical examination of the supposed
ouoterfelts , then submitted their sworn report,
bleb was as follows That all tnese United States
reasury notes, were printed from genuine plates
used by former workmen In the Printing Bureau,
nd were perfect and exact duplicates of genuine
Ills Issued by the Government They further
added that tbey had long been aware that some
na bad possession oct*9el of plates supposed

ve l)eeu furnished t>y one 01 the engravers In

bo Engraving. Uureau, and finally that the only
difference between tbe notes found on tbo prts-
ner, and the genuine, lies In there not belngso
lurh silk fibre 'Interwoven In the paper The
risoner's counsel asked the Government experts
f they would swear that the bills examined by
hem were counterfeits. To the astonishment ot
ry on* In tbe court room, they replied that tbey
uld not, In fact could not, as they were positive
any.lsaued by the Govern
e fault lay In the careless
manner observed In tbe Treasury Department In
allowing workmen to handle Government plates
rtntlng Inks, dies, etc., as they wished.
The Judge had no other alternative Uian to in-
struct the Jury to discharge tbe prtsone .
.banked tbe Jury and quickly skipped out of the
court room, valise In hand, that contained a cold
$100 000 of money that was good enough for the
writer at all events. The reporter was ntft alone

cw tab yo
median)
caaca
lib yea
abition
whic

his envious thoughts, because from the ex
iresslonsand suggestive remarks of

ome of the

members of the Jury at the depa/ture of the prts
ner, It seemed that they would like to have a few

thousand of the so-call

ey would
ed counte

rfeits themselves

To give our candid opinion we could see no
difference In the bills as tbe notes were printed
from genuine United Slates platen obtained from
the Engraving Department at Washington, by
whom it is not known and perhaps never will be
As the case now stands some one Is getting rlob In

safe, fast and sore manner at the expense of the
Government.

The Secret Service Detectives say the otily way
to effectually stop the circulation ot Ihls money IB
to capture tie plates, now In possession of tnli
gang. The presumption Is that the plates are no
In this country, but In Canada, and that the print-
ing is being done there. Thers Is no possible way
of tracing the bills to any of the agents circulating
them, to do so. It would be necessary to have a
Government expert In every store. In every town
and city In the United States, as these bills are
sold by tho wholesale to trustworthy tanners an
country merchants, In sections or the conntr
where not one man In ten thousand knows any
thing about money (lu genulness, etc.), and are
readily passed from hand to hand In the ordinary
course of trade, without their trne character ever
being discovered or even inspected. VFnen large
bills are offered by a purchaser, they are given on
In change and the latter Innocently passes Che bill
upon some one else and thus tbey go through
thousands of bands without any fear of detection
or any possibility of their being traced to the
agents Circulating them

The District Attorney, In conversation with th
reporter, casually remarked, that It was astonish
Ing how eagerly the average citizen, teat Is
those who are apparently honest aad fairly w
off, are willing to engage In the business. T
race for wealth predominates over every othe
consideration Alia person wants now adaysl

money ; It don't seem to make any dlfferenc
get It. The advice of the poet to
his son Is followed by nil classesof the community

ither how they

can ; dishonestly U you must

As the Government, only Is Uie loser, and Isjw
well able to stand It, the average citizen *
no conscientious scruples whatever. In taking ad
vantage of the offer made by these men, especial!
as there U no risk or danger In handling the*
bills If tbey use proper precautions and keep their
business to themselves. A close month as the

AXOTHEU ALLEGED NE\VSPAPER CLIPPING.

578

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 579

in your room you will be given the password and handed your telegram, then you
will know you are with the right party.

I enclose a sample of my goods to show you how absolutely perfect they are. I
need not praise them to you as they speak for themselves. I want you to examine
this sample very carefully and put it to any test you choose. I defy detection.
You can judge paper, printing, engraving, inks, etc., as well from this sample as
you can from five hundred, so do not ask me to send you any more for I will have
to refuse to do so.

Now I have said all that I can say and I therefore ask a special favor of you to
write me no letters through the mails to this address. This is the only dangerous
part of the business, and if you send me a letter through the mails, after the
above request not to do so, I will consider you a traitor and will be no longer your
friend. You are at liberty to send me a telegram at any time which I will
promptly answer if you wish it, but take my word for it there is no need of any
more waste of time in negotiation, simply come on here like a man and make
your deal and let that be sufficient. Send both your telegrams, the one on leaving
home and the one when you are half way, to the enclosed address.

Now, my friend, be careful and don't allow yourself to be led off by strangers,
no matter how plausible they may be. Wait in your room at your hotel until you
get the password and are handed your telegram.

Come on dressed as much like the residents of a city as possible so that you will
not look like a stranger to this part of the country.

I advise you to come on here and deal as soon as you possibly can. These
directions are permanent and remain good until I notify you to the contrary.
Don't forget to telegraph as directed above.

Let me call your attention to the advantage of securing the right of your state.
First, I will not sell to anyone in your state as long as you continue to be my
agent. I will also not allow anyone else to handle my. goods in your state, and
besides the advantage of buying largely at first is that you secure a larger amount
of goods for your money, as I charge at the rate of twenty-five cents on the
dollar for the first deal. If you invest six hundred and fifty dollars I give you
ten thousand in my goods, and if you invest one thousand dollars, I will give
you twenty thousand in my goods; either of the above amounts secure the state
rights.

I will also allow you liberally in my goods to cover all your expenses in both
ways. Remember, three hundred dollars is the smallest amount you can come
here and do business for.

Trusting you will make up your mind to come here at once and become one of.
my best customers, I am, YouB FBIEND .

P. S. When you telegraph do not sign your name to your dispatches; simply
sign " J. M." and I will understand who it is.

Be careful to follow the instructions to the letter and you will find me very
easy. I enclose you two telegrams which send me according to instructions. In
telegram (No. 2) put the time that you will arrive at the hotel.

The password is MONTICELLO 90.

Sign all your telegrams " J. M."

When you arrive here I will show you my goods just the same as any salesman

FOUNDED I860

CAPITAL $ I 500 000,

BRANCH OF
22 OLD BROAD STREET. LONDON. ENGLAND
39&4I BOULEVARD DES CAPUCINES. PARIS.
7380&8IP1AZZIDISPAGNA, ROME ITALY.

70 FRIEDRICH STRASSE,BERUN,GERMANY.
44 GERHOSS STRASSE.HAMBURG.GERMANY.
66REDMILLER LANE, BELFAST, IRELAND

HOBOKEN.N.d

Dear Sir.-

Mr Georg'e Morris has requested us to
write to you concerning his reliability.
tafce pl.easure in stating that he is thoroughly
trustworthy, and -we guarantee any transaction
you may .frave with him

Tour* rp*tf tsjly*

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 581

will show you his samples. It is you that is to be satisfied and if they are
not in all and every particular just as I represent them to you to be, I will cheer-
fully pay all your expenses and make you a present of five hundred dollars in
gold.

Remember it is to your advantage to buy all you can at the first purchase, for
on all purchases which surely follow I charge you twenty-five per cent. I sell
cheaply, on the first purchase, to convince you of the worth and quality of my
goods so you can see the advantage and profit to be gained by bringing as much
money at first as you can possibly invest.

Also, I cannot allow you the full right of your state for less than $650. If you
cannot raise that amount at first I will give you the same right for $500, and
allow you ninety days' credit for the balance, $150, and all your expenses and
time from the day you leave home and return.

Do not come here without money and I give money for money.

You must not have anything to say to anyone about the hotel or trains.
Remember you will be shown your second telegram and password, then you will
know everything is all right.

Hoping to see you very soon, I remain,

YOUKS IN CONFIDENCE.

P. S. Have a process of making enclosed sample look as though it had been in
circulation some time which I will disclose to you when I see you.

Telegraph me at once on receipt of this letter so I will know it reaches you
safely. Just say " Catalogue received O. K." This precaution is necessary on
account of dishonest mail carriers.

The sample referred to is always a genuine one dollar silver
certificate. With the green goods circular is generally what pur-
ports to be an endorsement from a banking house as to the financial
responsibility of the writer. The accompanying is a fac simile of
the letter generally used. Of course there is no such firm located in
Hoboken, N. J., as Watson Bros. & Co. The letters, as well as
the newspaper clipping spoken of above, are prepared by the operators
of this scheme to delude their easy victims.

The names of persons to whom green goods circulars are sent are
obtained in various ways. They are frequently purchased from
agencies, who make a business of collecting names and selling
them ; but the latest mode of gathering these names is by sending
to postmasters and trying to induce them, in consideration of a small
sum, to furnish the names of all persons worth more than five hun-
dred dollars receiving mail at their office. But it is a violation of
the regulations of the Department for any postmaster to give such
information. The postmaster, however, has not always understood
that the names are desired for the purpose of sending green goods

582

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

circulars, as the address of the person desiring the names is gen-
erally given as that of a harness company or a hardware company.
The mail is probably directed to New York, to some saloon or
tobacconist's, and, if it reaches its destination, is most likely called
for by the green goods dealer himself. The following is a copy of
one of these circulars recently sent to postmasters :

READ INSTRUCTIONS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.

POSTMASTER:

Dear Sir: It you will kindly return this sheet before the expiration of 1
days, and place thereon (very plainly and carefully written with pen and ink,) the
names of all men (no women) as herein provided, who are permanent residents
and who receive mail at your office, we will send you one dollar as pay for the list,
and the trouble it will occasion you.

THE CONDITIONS ARE:

FIRST. That each and every name written hereon is genuine, and that of a
man (over twenty-one years of age) whom you conscientiously believe (or is re-
puted to be) worth the sum of five hundred dollars, either in real or personal
property.

SECOND. Give one name only in each respective family, the head of the
family preferred.

THIRD. No duplicates this is very important. You are therefore requested
to examine the list thoroughly before certifying to its correctness.

FOURTH. The postmaster's name is not to be included in the body of this list.
A separate space has been provided for the same on the opposite side of this
sheet and it must be placed therein. A violation of either condition makes this
agreement null and void.

If this sheet is not large enough, fill out the balance on ordinary paper, and

oblige, THE BRADLEY HARNESS CO.

152 West Broadway, New York.

Names.

I hereby certify that the foregoing list was compiled as
instructed, and respectfully request that you forward one
dollar for my trouble.

Date.

.189

.Postmaster.

Affix " Postmarking"
or " Dating ' Stamp in
above diagram.

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 583

Some person, who received a green goods circular, thought he had
discovered a large gang of counterfeiters and accordingly, in great
confidence, sent the circular and the other enclosure to the Pinkerton
Detective Agency at New York. The following letter received in
reply gives a good idea of the game :

Dear Sir : I have your letter of the 26th, with enclosure of circular letter sent
from this city. The sender is not a dealer in counterfeit money; his object is to
swindle by what is commonly known as the " sawdust" or " green goods " swin-
dle. The scheme is to induce any to whom letters are sent, to come to New
York, and the idea is held out that he will be sold counterfeit money. Should
the party take the bait, he is met on his arrival by an agent of the swindlers who
conducts the victim to a room hired for the occasion in some secluded locality in
which on a table is placed some new, genuine United States notes (greenbacks),
national bank notes or Canadian bank bills, which are represented by the swindler
as counterfeit. The victim, on being induced to purchase a quantity, sees the bills
made into a package, wrapped and sealed. This package is sometimes put into a
valise or box. The attention of the purchaser is then drawn away from the
package, valise, or box, and in an instant another similar package, valise or box
is substituted by a party who is concealed behind a partition and works through
a false panel. It is sometimes the case that the swindler will start for the express
office with his victim and the genuine money in his valise, but while en route
will manage to make an exchange with a confederate and get a fac simile in ex-
change. This substituted package, valise, or box, is carried to the express office
by the victim and one of the swindlers and is shipped to the address of the victim.
The party swindled does not discover that he has been the victim of sharpers until
he arrives home and opening the valise, package or box which he has sent by
express at the solicitation of the swindler, he discovers packages of loose paper,
bricks, lead pipe, scrap iron, or packages of sawdust. Convictions for offences of
this kind are rare, as those who have been swindled fear the odium that is at-
tached to their being willing to be a party to purchasing and putting in circula-
tion, counterfeit money. It is evident that these "green goods" people are
flooding your section of the country with circulars offering to sell you "green
goods," and I therefore suggest that you make the matter public through your
P ress - ROBT. A. PINKERTOX,

When it became apparent that green goods were being dealt in in
great quantities, it was necessary that some means should be devised
to stop the mail of these swindlers. Large quantities of letters
were being received by them daily and there was no power at the
command of the Postmaster General to interfere with them. Sec-
tion 5480 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which
provided for the punishment of persons conducting a fraudulent
business through the medium of the post office establishment, was
inadequate properly to cope with this business and was, by the Act
of March 2, 1889, amended so as to read as follows:

584 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

An act to punish dealers and pretended dealers in counterfeit money and other
fraudulent devices for using the United States mails.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, That section fifty-four hundred and eighty
of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby so amended to read as follows:

SECTION 5480. If any person having devised or intending to devise any scheme
to defraud, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange, alter, give away or distribute,
supply or furnish, or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious com,
bank notes, paper money, or any obligation or security of the United States or of
any state, territory, municipality, company, corporation or person, or anything
represented to be or intended to be, or intimated or held out to be such counter-
feit or spurious articles, or any scheme or artifice to obtain money by or through
correspondence, by what is commonly called the " sawdust swindle," or "coun-
terfeit money fraud," or by dealing or pretending to deal in what is commonly
called "green articles," "green coin," "bills," "paper goods," '-spurious
Treasury notes," "United States goods," " green cigars," or any other names or
terms intended to be understood as relating to such counterfeit or spurious arti-
cles, to be effected by either opening or intending to open correspondence or
communication with any person, whether resident within or outside the United
States, by means of the post office establishment of the United States, or by
inciting such other person or any person to open communication with the person
so devising or intending, shall, in and for executing such scheme or artifice or
attempting so to do, place or caused to be placed, any letter packet, writing, cir-
cular, pamphlet or advertisement in any post office, branch post office, or street
or hotel letter-box of the United States, to be sent or delivered by the said post
office establishment, or shall take or receive any such therefrom, such person so
misusing the post office establishment shall, upon conviction, be punishable by a
fine of not more than five hundred dollars, and by imprisonment for not more
than eighteen months, or by both such punishments, at the discretion of the
court. The indictment, information or complaint made severally charge offences
to the number of three when committed within the same six calendar months;
but the court thereupon shall give a single sentence, and shall proportion the
punishment especially to the'degree in which the abuse of the post office estab-
lishment enters as an instrument into such fraudulent scheme and device.

SEC. 2. That any person who in and for conducting, promoting or carrying
on, in any manner by means of the post office establishment of the United
States, any scheme or device mentioned in the preceding section, or any other
unlawful business whatsoever, shall use or assume or request to be addressed by
any fictitious, false, or assumed title, name or address, or name other than his
own proper name, or shall take or receive from any post office of the United
States any letter, postal cards, or packet addressed to any such fictitious, false, or
assumed title, name or address, or name other than his own lawful and proper
name, shall, upon conviction, be punishable as provided in the first section of
this act.

SEC. 3. That the postmaster general may, upon evidence satisfactory to him,
that any person is using any fictitious, false or assumed name, title or address in
conducting, promoting or carrying on, or assisting therein, by means of the post
office establishment of the United States, any business scheme or device in viola-
tion of the provisions of this act, instruct any postmaster at any post office at
which such letters, cards or packets addressed to such fictitious, false or
assumed name or address arrive to notify the party claiming or receiving such
letters, cards or packets to appear at the post office and be identified ; and if the
party so notified fail to appear and be identified, or if it shall satisfactorily
appear that such letters, cards or packets are addressed to a fictitious, false or
assumed name or address, such letters, postal cards or packages shall be for-
warded to the dead letter office as fictitious matter.

SEC. 4. That all matter, the deposit of which in the mails is by this act made
punishable, is hereby declared non-mailable ; but nothing in this act shall be so
construed as to authorize any person other than an employee of the dead-letter
office, duly authorized thereto, to open any letter not addressed to himself.

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 585

SEC. 5. That whenever the postmaster general is satisfied that letters or
packets sent in the mail are addressed to places not the residence or business
address of the persons for whom they are intended, to enable such persons to
escape identification, he may direct postmasters to deliver such letters only for
the post office upon identification of persons addressed.

The names under which these green goods swindlers operated
were nearly all fictitious; so, as soon as the Postmaster General
was aware that a certain name and address was that of a green goods
man, instructions would be promptly issued to the postmaster at the
office of address to call upon him for identification under the pro-
visions of the act above referred to before the delivery of any mail to
him could be made. After such a notice is issued by the postmaster
for the addressee to appear for identification, these letters are seldom
claimed, and in course of time they reach the Dead Letter Office.
In the past few years a great many letters addressed to green goods
dealers, containing various sums of money ranging from one dollar
to two hundred dollars and even more, have reached the Dead Letter
Office. In one instance a single batch of letters addressed to Adam
P. Conklin, Hoboken, N. J., contained five thousand dollars in
good money. Conklin had been called on to identif} T himself under
amended Section 5480 of the Revised Statutes, but he never
appeared. In other instances, one thousand dollars, two thousand
dollars, etc., have been taken out of letters to one address. The
writers of these letters, when they are informed by the postmaster at
their homes, that the Post Office Department has certain money
which it appears was sent, by them to a certain person, disclaim
all knowledge of the transaction and refuse to receive it. Hardly
one third of the money which reaches the Dead Letter Office in this
manner has been returned and accepted by the senders.

Many honest persons who receive these circulars send them to the
Department. In this way the aliases adopted by these men are
known to the authorities very soon after the circulars are sent out.
It is generally on this information that orders to appear for identifica-
tion are issued. A record is kept in the Department of all green goods
dealers called on for identification. Within the past year over one
thousand different names were entered on this book ; and nearly twenty
thousand green goods circulars were forwarded to the Department !

The appearance of a few of the names (fictitious, of course,) of
these swindlers as they appear on the Department record is ;

586 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

J. A. Fuller, 2176 Eighth Ave., New York City.

Frank Martin, 37^ Desbrosses St., New York City.

H. Franklin, care of Store, 2157 Eighth Ave., New York City.

Felix Bayard, 143 Beekman St., New York City.

Frank Howard, 33 Church St., New York City.

H. Lizzet, 2214 Eighth Ave., New York City.

John J. Hudson, Weston, Lewis Co., W. Va.

Charles Mansfield, 283 Nicholas Ave., New York City.

E. C. Hamilton, 375 West 128th St., New York City.

The addresses given by these green goods men were generally
saloons. Arrangements are made with the saloon keeper to
receive all mail, and it will be called for. The mail is also
addressed to places where private letter boxes are kept. Not
long ago eight letter carriers, who were, unhappily, in collusion
with these men, were arrested in New York City. The mail would
be addressed to a street and number on the carrier's route; he would
put it in his pocket, and then at some appointed place give it to the
green goods man.

The green goods dealers have a great many different methods of
"working" their victims. Previous to the passage of the act of
March 2, 1889, which enabled the post office authorities to stop
the mail of these dealers, it was the custom to carry the whole busi-
ness on through the medium of the post office. A number of circu-
lars were sent out in this way, describing the wonderful merits of
the goods, which were offered at exceedingly low rates. Should
the addressee remit a small amount, requesting a sample of the
green goods, a good one dollar bill would be sent. This could be
easily passed, of course, and the victim would probably conclude to
make a larger investment. He would send on one hundred dollars,
or more, in good money, expecting in return to receive, perhaps, one
thousand dollars in counterfeit bills. But the counterfeit monej^
never came. The alleged dealer would pocket the money of his
victim and pay no further attention to him. The aliases and
addresses of these dealers were frequently changed so that letters
of inquiry or complaint seldom reached their destination; and if
they did, no attention was paid to them.

Another method of operation was to request the intended victim
to order any amount of goods he desired and they would be sent to
him by express, " C. O. D." In due course of time the box arrives,
and the charges are promptly paid to the express agent. In high

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 587

glee the recipient of the box sneaks off to some secret place to open
it. Instead of bright, crisp counterfeit greenbacks, he finds nothing
but sawdust, bricks, or strips of green paper. He is swindled; but
it would never do to complain to the authorities, for he realizes that
he is as much a scoundrel as the man who offered to sell him the
counterfeit money.

The vigorous and prompt enforcement of the Act of March 2
now makes it almost impossible for the green goods dealers to
receive mail, and they have had to devise other ways of swindling
their victims. The present method is to send out circulars to
prospective victims and request them to send a telegram (a copy
of which is enclosed with the circular) if they desire to invest
in the green goods. Then full instructions will be sent them how
and where they can meet the dealer. In reply to this telegram will
be sent a letter containing full instructions, and a good one dollar
bill is generally enclosed as a sample of the goods dealt in. It is
suggested by the dealer that the intending purchaser use this one
dollar bill, just to see how easy it is to pass it.

When the would-be purchaser is ready to start for New York, or
any other place of meeting agreed upon (most of the meetings, how-
ever, are appointed for New York City), he advises the dealer as to
the hour of his departure. On reaching a certain point, generally
some small town within a few miles of New York, he is to be met
by the dealer or his agent, who is known among the fraternity as
the "steerer." He is to go to the hotel named in the instructions,
retire to his room, and wait until called on. His telegrams or
some passwords are to be the sign of recognition. The would-be
purchaser arrives at the hotel, and he retires to his room, where it
is not long before he is joined by the green goods "steerer," who
presents the proper credentials. Proceeding from the hotel, the
victim is generally taken to New York City. He is treated in a
royal manner, being taken to the finest restaurants, gin palaces, and
other alluring "joints."

The " steerer " has now fully won the confidence of his intended
victim and has got him in a happy frame of mind. He takes him
to the place where the "goods " are kept and the deal is to be made.
Good money, which is represented to be counterfeit, is shown to him
and he examines it. He concludes to invest in a certain amount;

588

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE,

it is counted off, and placed in a small satchel, bag, or box. Good
greenbacks are given in payment. The "steerer" engages the
victim in conversation and takes him to the other side of the room
to show him something, and, in the meantime, a trap door in the
wall is opened and the satchel containing the money is removed and
one just like it, containing packages of green paper, cut in the size
of bills with genuine bills on the top and bottom of the pile, is put
in its place. The victim gets his satchel; it is opened and he sees

"HE GOES OUT TO THE CAB WITH A BAG OR SATCHEL CONTAINING
THE MONEY."

the packages of "money " ; but he is warned not to examine it until
he is some distance from New York City, as the police are always
on the lookout and might notice what he had and arrest him.

Another method adopted by these men is for the " steerer " to
conduct the victim into a room in some convenient hotel, show him
the " goods " which he proposes to sell to him, and count them out;
but just as the transfer is to be made a loud knock is heard at the
door, the money is quickly slipped into the "steerer's" pocket, and
the door is opened. Two men enter the room and represent them-
selves to be Government officers, who, having discovered the where-

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 589

abouts of this counterfeiter, have come to arrest him. The
" steerer " begins to offer money to them to be let off. The bogus
officers are at first very indignant to think that their integrity should
be assailed, but when the bribe reaches fair proportions, they reluc-
tantly consent to take it and let the offender off. The green goods
man takes his victim to one side and explains the situation ; if the
bribe is not paid, both will be arrested. But it will never do to pay
these officers of the law with counterfeit money, and the only way
out of the difficulty is for the intending purchaser to pay the prom-
ised bribe, and the counterfeit money will be given to him as soon
as the officers are out of sight and hearing. The " bribe " is paid.
This generally takes all the money the victim has brought with
him. The "officers " retire. In a few minutes, the green goods man
makes some excuse to leave the room. He never returns; and, after
waiting some time in the vain hope that the man will come back and
give him the goods, the victim realizes that he has been swindled.

Sometimes the trick is done in a cab. When the "steerer"
reaches the city in company with his victim, he suggests that they
take a cab and drive to a certain point where the goods will be
delivered. The destination is generally a liquor shop. A con-
federate is waiting in the saloon when the cab drives up at the
appointed hour. He goes out to the cab with a bag or satchel con-
taining the money which is, of course, genuine. The victim is
told to count it and see that it is all right. The bills are new and
clean; of this much he is certain. He is excited, but not suspicious.
He hands his good money out of the window to the confederate,
while the "steerer" in the cab puts the satchel under the seat,
where, as he suggests, it will be safer. Under the seat is a slide
which can be worked by the man on the inside. When the cab
starts off, he removes this slide and the bag drops to the ground and
is picked up and carried away by the confederate. A bogus bag
is under the seat all the while, and this is given to the victim when
he gets on the train to go home. He is warned not to open the
satchel until he gets to his destination. Should he do so earlier his
actions might rouse suspicion ; and (horrible ! horrible ! ) he might
be arrested with the counterfeit money in his possession.

A year ago a successful attempt was made to punish a man who
sent to an alleged green goods dealer for counterfeit money.

590 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The case was in charge of Inspectors Jacobs and Stoutenburgh.
A. M. Nicholson sent a letter to Adam P. Conklin, Hoboken, N. J.,
ordering green goods. Good money was enclosed in payment. Mr.
Nicholson's letter reached the Dead Letter Office, as Mr. Conklin,
who was called on for identification, did not appear, and it was
opened. The letter was passed over to the inspectors, and they
went to see Mr. Nicholson. Mr. Jacobs read to Mr. Nicholson the
portion of the letter which said : " Please send ten ones and the bal-
ance in fives, moderately old, " and asked him what he meant by that.
He replied that he meant one and five dollar bills. Mr. Jacobs asked
him what opportunity he had for passing the bills, and he replied :

" Why, I could pass any quantity of them ; I could pass them at
any of the stores."

Asked what he had done with the circulars received from Conklin,
he stated that he burned those he had not returned. The letter and
envelope in question were shown to him and he identified both the
letter and the superscription on the envelope as being in the hand-
writing of his sister. The person to whom the letter was addressed,
"Adam P. Conklin, Hoboken, N. J.." was none other than Ed.
Parmalee, the notorious green goods dealer. It is needless to
say that Parmalee, alias Conklin, did not handle counterfeit
money. It was the old saw-dust business pure and simple. Nichol-
son was arraigned before United States Commissioner Rogers at
Baltimore and held in $1,500 to await the action of the grand jury.
He was indicted Oct. 13, 1890, tried October 14, and the jury
found a verdict of guilty on the same day. Motion was made for a
new trial, which was overruled Oct. 24, 1890. On the same day
he was sentenced to thirty days in the Baltimore city jail.

It is generally supposed that there are two separate gangs of green
goods men in New York City. The managers of these schemes
generally live in handsome houses, surrounded with all the luxuries
of life. They do not appear in the game, but furnish all the neces-
sary money to pay expenses and delude the prospective purchaser.
The men who do the work receive a certain share of the profits.

The Post Office Department has been unrelenting in its efforts to
crush these green goods swindlers. They are forced by the sur-
veillance of the post office inspectors to change their addresses every
few weeks. Telegraph companies require identification, just as the

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES. 591

Department does, when they have reason to believe that a telegram
is from a green goods man. But an important part in breaking up
this business must necessarily be done by the state and local authori-
ties. There are a great many different individuals engaged in one
green goods transaction: the manager of the scheme, the person who
addresses the envelopes, the one who mails them, the "steerer," etc.,
are all different persons. The offence under the postal laws is mail-
ing the circular or causing it to be mailed; hence the difficulty of
getting hold of the manager of the scheme is apparent. It is neces-
sary, in order to reach him, to show by legal evidence that he caused
the circular to be mailed. Many arrests of green goods men have
been made by post office inspectors, and convictions have generally
followed; but these fellows are simply "stool pigeons," and the
game may easily go along without them.

One of the victims of a green goods gang recently opened corre-
spondence with the Chief of the Secret Service of the Treasury.
The whole story is told in the three following letters :

HON. - , United States Attorney :

Dear Sir : Inclosed I send you copies of correspondence had with one,

, of , and the chief of this service. It is the opinion of the chief

that this man can be and should be prosecuted under Section 5480, of the Revised
Statutes. I present the matter for your information, and request the prosecu-
tion of . You will notice that he admits writing the letter; therefore,

Section 5480, in my opinion, will reach him.

Respectfully yours,

, Operative.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, SECRET SERVICE DIVISION,
MR _ _. WASHINGTON, D. C., May 12, 1892.

Sir: Your letter, dated May 3d, is received, in which you ask: "May I
correspond with you confidentially on quite an important case ? " I reply, you
may. Any letter addressed "A. L. Drummond, Chief Secret Service Division,
Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., " marked "personal" will not be
opened by anyone except the chief himself.

Respectfully yours,

JAMES J. BROOKS, Actiny Chief.

_ _ , , April, 1892.

MR. A. L. DRUMMOND:

Dear Sir : Yours received, and I will leave off preliminaries, and tell you
all straight and honestly. Inclosed, you will find a copy of a letter I received,
and so I answered it done just as the instructions say and I went down to

592 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

New York City and met the agent, and he took me to the head man, and there I
saw the goods, as they call it, and I picked out the amount I wanted to buy,
which was $25,000, for which I paid $1,000 in New York drafts, and I and the
agents went to the express office, and there I sent, or intended to send, it to my
address; but the scoundrels changed boxes on me, and when I got home and
received the box, it had nothing in it but blank paper. Now, Mr. Drummond, I
am very desirous this shall be confidential, but I can tell you lots about these
green goods swindlers. I would just like to be the means of bringing or help
bringing them to justice, and I have the drafts you can see the endorsers and
I could go to every place in New York City. I can show you the waiting room
and take you to the place they keep the goods to show. I can tell you just the
place where I met the agents, and I am satisfied I would know them at sight, un-
less they were wonderfully disguised. Now, Mr. Drummond, I hope you can
help me get back my money, for it has ruined me, and I have not very much
money to push the thing, and if you can get back my money for me, I will give
you a good slice of it. I am out over $1,200, express and all. If you can do any-
thing for me please do, and also please let me know, for I do hate to lose $1,200
on such mean, base villains as they are, and if I can help you in any way to bring
them to justice I will, and if there is any reward I want you to have it; but I do
want to see them caught and I want my money, if such a thing is possible. But
I can tell you lots about them, Mr. Drummond, and if I can help you in any way,
I am ready. You can see the drafts, the endorsers, and I can tell you just where I
went to the express office, where I met the agent, where I seen the old men, and
all about it. Please keep this letter and its contents very confidential. I hope
you can do something for me, Mr. Drummond. If you can, please let me know
soon; but you know I am almost a poor man now, and almost broke up. Please
tell me on what conditions you will help me, and please do all you can for me,
and I will help you all I can.

Yours respectfully, etc.

When the District Attorney was asked what he intended doing
about the matter, he said :

"I do not know. I should judge by the tone of his letter that
the loss of his $1,200 is punishment enough, and when he realizes
his position, his punishment will be about as great as he can bear."

If the local authorities of a city really start out to capture green
goods men they can usually do it. The Post Office Department,
as stated, has only to do with the connection of this fraud with the
mails ; and, as stated, too, with all the different members of a gang
and all the different aliases, it is only with the greatest difficulty
that evidence can be had that one of these persons really posts a
letter. Plenty of evidence is at hand, however, for the local detec-
tive officer, if he only has the clue and will work it out.

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS.

iHE story of the various frauds operated
through the medium of the mails would
fill whole books. In a great many in-
stances, however, they are of a similar
character, and many are simply ingeni-
ously devised "catch games." The adver-
tisements of them are worded evasively and
the object is to lead the reader to believe that
he is obtaining something of great value for
nothing. It doesn't seem to matter, either, whether the something
is very useful or not. The Post Office Department is kept con-
stantly busy watching the mails to prevent the wholesale circula-
tion of advertisements of fraudulent schemes, to locate the swindlers,
and to gather evidence which will justify some action against them,
or the detention of their registered mail and money orders under the
power vested in the Postmaster General. Indeed, if it were not for
the vigilance of the officers of the Department, the number of
schemes for obtaining money under fraudulent pretences would
undoubtedly soon be multiplied a hundred-fold.

The repressive influence of the work of the corps of inspectors
cannot be calculated. Many persons who conceive ingenious swin-
dles for capturing the stray nickels and dimes of the unsophisticated
are restrained from putting them into practice for fear of detection
by the postal authorities. Scarcely a day passes that arrests of per-
sons engaged in operating fraudulent enterprises are not reported.
Every safeguard possible is thrown around the mails; and, if the
people themselves would only display a little more thought, would
examine a little more closely the offers to sell gold watches for a
dollar, or give crayon portraits free "simply as an advertisement,"
there would be no opportunity for these swindlers to flourish.

594 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

They are always punished in the end, but the swindles still go on.
Confidence operators count upon detection ; they also count upon the
glorious fool public.

Most of the swindles, like the green goods business, are oper-
ated from New York City. A good many of the manipulators,
however, are located in Chicago, San Francisco, and other large
cities. A few make their headquarters in small places, thinking to
avoid apprehension. Inducements are held out on all sides to make
money without working for it. Opportunities are offered for in-
vestments paying profits heretofore unheard of. A certain firm has
secured a large tract of land which it will divide into small lots
and sell at a very low figure in order to advertise what they repre-
sent to be "the city of the future." Investigation seldom fails to
show that these wonderfully cheap lots are nothing but marsh lands
or the tops of impassable mountains. Not infrequently they have
been found to be entirely under water. No wonder the generous
dealer can afford to sell his lots for $2.50 apiece or for the price of
the deed (allowing him a reasonable fee for attending to the busi-
ness) when he probably purchased the whole tract of land at two or
three dollars an acre.

A few years ago a great many persons were induced, by glaring
advertisements describing the richness and beauty of a certain region
in Florida (which promised, in a few years, of course, to be one of
the great cities of the South), to pay $2.50 for small lots. One
of the purchasers, who concluded to settle on his estate, journeyed
to the land of flowers to see it. He has not yet been able to set
foot upon his lot ; for at last accounts he was under the impression
that it was located in the middle of a beautiful lake, and the
water was still there.

Probably the biggest swindle which has been operated of late
years throughout the country, next to the green goods business
and the Louisiana Lottery, of course, has been the "endowment
associations." These have been carried on extensively in Kansas
and other Western states, and in several of the Eastern states also.
Persons engaged in manipulating these schemes have no difficulty,
as a general thing, in being incorporated under the loose incorpora-
tion laws of some of the states. The association elects its officers
and board of managers, secures an office, and issues glowing adver-

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. 595

tisements and circulars describing its peculiar advantages for caring
for the "surplus earnings" of the "thrifty," and inviting them to
invest and secure a fortune. The association issues what are gener-
ally known as endowment certificates, usually said to be good for
one thousand dollars each. The purchasers are required to pay
small regular premiums, the agreement being that any failure to
pay within a specified time shall involve a forfeiture by the holder
of his certificate and of all monies then paid into the concern. In
some cases certificates are arranged to fall due at certain stated
intervals, while in others the payment of the certificate depends
upon the amount of money in the treasury of the association. The
certificates are always paid in the order in which they are numbered.
The liquidation of the certificates is conducted according to the
statements contained in the circulars, in accordance with the above
system. It is always arranged, however, that the officers and
directors of the association hold the first numbered certificates.
By the time these certificates have all been paid, the concern fails,
the business of the association is taken in charge by the state
authorities, and the balance of the certificate holders have nothing
to show for the money they have invested but the handsomely
executed certificate ; and it is very pretty !

One of these concerns, located at Hartford, Conn., carried on an
extensive business for some time. The certificates were for one
thousand dollars each, and about ten or fifteen of them were held
by the officers of the company and different members of their
families. These were all paid. One of the officers of the
concern, however, was not treated as generously as his part-
ners, and he exposed the whole swindle. It was found that the
company had not met, nor could it meet under the plan upon
which it was running, the payment of the outstanding certifi-
cates at all.

This class of so-called securities, like many others of a worthless
character, are offered to poor people who have a limited income
and who can only afford to invest very small amounts. The
Department has taken every means to destroy these concerns, and
very few of them are in operation to-day. In fact, they are short-
lived in any event, for the profits are all reaped in a few months,
and then the concern breaks up.

596 THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

A similar scheme to which the Department has lately been paying
attention is briefly this: Tickets numbered consecutively from one
to any number are sold either by the " company " itself or by its
agents scattered throughout the country. These tickets cost one
dollar each, with the provision that a certain amount shall be paid
each month until fifty dollars are paid, when the ticket becomes a
certificate for stock of the par value of one hundred dollars ; and
they carry with them the right to obtain a loan from the company.
These loans are advertised to be made each month, and vary in
amount from five to ten thousand dollars. The "loans" are to be
returned to the company within a specified time, usually a long
period of years. A certain portion of the funds in the hands of the
company is to be invested, from time to time, in mines and other
bonanzas, out of which a profit sufficiently large is expected to make
for the stockholders (those who purchase tickets) enormous returns.
The entire company, on investigation, proved to be a single person,
who controlled the whole machinery of the scheme. He decided
to what number a certain "loan" would be made; that is to say,
whether ticket numbered "1," or "7589," or some other number,
should receive a loan of five dollars or five thousand dollars.
Right at this point the fraud came to the surface. No loans were
ever made. If complaints were received by the company that
"investors" had received no money after complying with all the
requirements of the concern, they were answered that their tickets
would, at some future time, be entitled to a loan.

The European claims agency had been a very profitable swindle
until the Department took hold of it. These advertised for missing-
heirs to boundless unclaimed fortunes in European countries. They
asked no fee for their trouble if not successful, and assured the
persons addressed that the only expense in establishing the claims
was the small sum of twenty-five dollars for a bondsman, which
sum, of course, must be paid in advance. The money was paid for
the supposed bondsman somewhere in Europe, but in reality the
money never found its way out of the close fists of the swindlers in
New York City. Their circulars, which were sent broadcast through
the country, contained the names of persons to whom they said
the money or property was due. They selected names common in
every city directory ; hence they had no trouble in reaching thousands

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. 597

of people bearing the same or similar family names. It is surprising
how many apparently intelligent people have parted with their
money under such circumstances without the shadow of a guarantee
that they are dealing with responsible persons. They accept the
mere statement of a stranger, perhaps a fictitious stranger, without
question, send their remittance, and live a few months in the
peaceful expectation of realizing a fortune which never comes.
When the hard, cold truth dawns upon them, they are too proud to
allow their neighbors to know how they have been fooled, and
others are -defrauded.

As soon as the Department was advised of these swindles the
postmaster at New York City was notified to call upon the operators
of the scheme for identification before delivering any mail matter to
them. In many cases the scheme was " worked " under aliases and the
operators could not identify themselves. In these cases the letters
were returned to the senders. Orders were also issued to the post-
master at New York forbidding the delivery of registered letters or
the payment of money orders to these persons.

This heir scheme has also been " worked" in England, by swind-
lers who send their circulars to men and women in this country
advising them of large sums of money, estates, etc., which are
waiting to be claimed by rightful heirs. The party addressed is
believed to be "one of the nearest heirs," and for a small amount,
generally one or two dollars, the matter will be thoroughly looked
into. Circulars have been sent to postmasters in this country,
stating that it is believed that heirs to a certain large estate in
England are located somewhere in their vicinity, and requesting
them to post a notice in a conspicuous place in their offices, so that
all patrons can see it. The notice generally invites all persons of
English parentage to send their names to the undersigned, and full
particulars about their ancestors and their emigration to this coun-
try. The postmaster is led to expect, for his trouble in posting
the circular, a certain percentage of the money that may be inherited
by the discovered heir residing in his neighborhood. For a while,
notwithstanding the orders of the Department to the contrary, some
of these notices were posted, and good green dollars found their
way into the hands of these swindlers from prospective English
landholders and " peers of the realm. ' ' With the assistance of the

598 THE STOKY OF oUil POST OFFICE.

English postal authorities, however, this whole method of swindling
has almost entirely disappeared.

Bogus detective agencies were in vogue several years ago. It is
the height of ambition of many city and country boys (and men) to
be detectives. The bogus detective swindlers simply played upon
this mania. Detective agencies were organized under the laws of
some states (where it is possible to incorporate almost anything),
for the apparent purpose of aiding in the detection of persons engaged
in illegitimate business, as well as criminals, thieves, etc. Officers
were elected, and headquarters fitted up. Elaborate circulars,
describing the great benefits to be derived from such an institution
(which proposed to have its confidential agents in every town and
hamlet in the country), were sent out. A private communication
generally accompanied the circular, which stated that the agency
desired to secure a discreet and competent representative where the
person addressed resided; and if the latter would like the appoint-
ment, a commission and badge would be forwarded to him. It
would be necessary, however, to send five dollars as a preliminary
fee. A certain commission would be allowed him on any business
entrusted to his care. The would-be detective enclosed his money
and received a commission duly made out and signed by the proper
"officials," and a brass badge worth perhaps ten cents. He never
heard anything more of the company; and of course these concerns
never do any detective business. A large number of the corre-
spondents of the same agency have frequently been found in one
place ; for as this is a " confidential " position, and as the holder of
the commission expects soon to electrify the community by his
exploits and detective skill, the " detective " keeps quiet until a
considerable time has elapsed and no business has appeared, when
he begins to talk about the matter and finds that many others have
been caught in the selfsame net.

Advertisements are frequently seen in newspapers having mostly
a rural circulation offering "free for the next thirty days " a beauti-
ful life-sized crayon portrait of any person sending to the address
named in the advertisement a portrait of himself or any member of
his family ; the only consideration being that, in return for this
exquisite work of art, it is to be shown to friends who may be
induced thereby to become patrons of the concern. People in poor

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. 599

circumstances, who are unable to have large pictures made, send
their tintypes or card photographs to be enlarged "free of cost."
In a few days a letter arrives stating that the picture has been begun
and is sure to be a fine work of art. It Avill indeed be an ornament
to any home. But as the picture "would probably be broken, or
otherwise disfigured " in transit, unless a frame is put around it, a
price list of frames that can be furnished at a moderate cost is
enclosed, and a remittance to cover the cost of the frame that may
be chosen is requested. If the person is unable to purchase the
frame, and urges that the picture be forwarded at his risk, or that
the original picture be returned to him, no attention is ever paid to
the request and the picture is pigeon-holed until the deluded one
concludes to order a frame or invokes the aid of the Department in
securing restitution. If a frame is ordered at from five to six
dollars, the picture, which is nothing but a sun print with a little
crayon rubbed over it, is forwarded in a very cheap frame, the
picture and frame probably not costing more than $2 or $2.50.
The pictures sent for enlargement are generally those (most unhap-
pily) of dead relatives, and they are held by these crayon companies
to force the purchase of a frame ; and in many instances the amount
asked for is remitted simply that the original picture may be
recovered. Not long ago the Post Office Department withheld the
registered mail and money orders of one concern until the swindlers
returned to the owners about fifteen thousand photographs, which
they had refused to send back unless frames were ordered.

Another petty swindle has been operated extensively during the
past year through the mails, but it does not come within the pro-
hibition of any postal law, and the Department has not yet been able
to reach it except in cases where the fraud was apparent. It is so
absurd and impracticable, however, that it is fast disappearing for
the want of supporters. Several prizes are offered to persons send-
ing in the first correct answers to a simple rebus. A subscription
price of from ten to fifty cents or the purchase of some little article
of small value is generally required to accompany the answer to
these rebuses. At first, thousands of answers flowed into the
offices of these concerns. Possibly a few prizes were awarded, but
as no specific complaint was ever entered, upon which an action
could be based toward excluding such matter from the mails, the

600 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

scheme is still carried on to a limited extent. This does not come
within the prohibition of the anti-lottery law, as the prizes are not
dependent on lot or chance, but rather upon the skill and prompt-
ness of the competitor in sending in his answer. But it is a swin-
dle surely enough, and recently the postmaster at New York was
instructed not to deliver mail to one of these concerns. The firm
had advertised in many newspapers that it would pay prizes of from
ten to five hundred dollars to any one who would guess certain
simple puzzles. One problem was to fill out the blanks in
"A-r-ca," the complete word being "the best country on earth."
The company advertised that it would receive answers only from
subscribers to its paper, which cost thirty cents a year. Those who
did send in solutions to the puzzle were told that the prize would be
paid in a lot at Roselawn Park, at Riverhead, L. I. The subscriber
must send $5 for the expenses of the transfer, etc., if he wanted an
inner lot, and 135 if he wished a corner one. In point of fact
Roselawn Park is a barren waste, worth only a few dollars an acre,
and the swindlers did not own it at all. The firm had been receiv-
ing about three hundred letters a day.

A small swindle is sometimes operated by sending to merchants
throughout the country a parcel containing eight packages of a
patent medicine. These packages retail at twenty-five cents each;
and a purchase of one of them carries with it the right to a num-
bered ticket which purports to entitle the holder of it to a valuable
piece of jewelry or silver ware, as ''per the option " of the operator.
It is understood that the rewards or prizes are always given and that
each ticket receives its present. The inducement held out in order
to get a purchaser for the nostrums is the hope of obtaining a pre-
mium in addition to the medicine, worth, perhaps, many times the
twenty-five cents which must be invested. After the matter is
finally settled, the purchaser may square his account thus :

Amount invested $0.25 $0.25

Received one package of " medicine " $0.00

Received one article of jewelry or silverware ........ $0.05 $0.05

Balance in favor of the operator $0.20

A short time ago an advertisement appeared in different news-
papers throughout the country stating that gold watches would be

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. 601

sent for a certain number of subscribers to the paper published by
the advertiser. At the bottom of the advertisement was a cut of a
watch, near which it was stated that that was the watch that would
be sent. Every person was to send one dollar for a subscription to
the paper for one year. While it was not stated in positive terms
that the person would receive a gold watch, yet such would be the
impression from reading the advertisement. If the dollar was
remitted, a brass sun dial, which could be bought anywhere for fifteen
cents, was enclosed with the information that in order to get the
"gold watch," a certain number of subscribers, generally very
large, would have to be sent.

A few years ago an advertisement appeared in the papers stating
that for the sum of one dollar a receipt would be given for the per-
manent cure for stammering. When the dollar was sent the receipt
was returned, which simply read, "Keep your mouth shut."
Another instance : An advertisement recited that for fifty cents a
recipe would be given for catching all the fish in any given body of
water. When the fifty cents was sent a slip would be returned
telling the victim "to dip all the water out and then pick up all the
fish." An extensive fraud was recently carried on by certain per-
sons claiming to be commission merchants, or produce dealers, who
sent out their circulars and price-lists offering prices higher than
the market, when in fact they had no commission house, and per-
haps not even desk room; and the goods shipped to them were
received and sold at any price obtainable, no returns whatever
being made.

Sometime since a very glowing advertisement of a book appeared,
" exclusively for young unmarried people, both gentlemen and
ladies," the price of which was $5. For the $5 a very cheap edition
of the Bible was sent. Great frauds were once carried on by the
proposed publication of handsome illustrated books, for which photo-
graphs of prominent men were solicited. It was added that to
have the necessary copper-plates engraved would cost 116.75. A
surprisingly large number responded with photographs and money;
but no books, of course, were ever printed.

A "fruit company," which exists only on letter heads and
envelopes, will address a number of letters dated generally New
York or New Orleans, to John Smith, say, its travelling agent at

602 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

different places of seldom more than three or five thousand inhabi-
tants, in care of the leading hotel, endorsed: "Hold until Mr. S.
calls." In due course of time "Smith" makes his appearance. He
is a smooth, polite gentleman, a good talker, and apparently full of
business. He makes friends with everybody, and undoubtedly
leads the proprietor to believe that he is an important ornament to
his profession. His mail is handed to him; he opens it in the
office. One of the letters is from his "firm," acknowledging the
receipt of a number of orders, complimenting . him on his success,
and encouraging him to renewed activity. His request for funds is
cheerfully complied with, and a check, generally for about fifty
dollars, drawn on some well-known New York bank, is enclosed for
travelling expenses and salary.

The " latest quotations in the fruit market " are also given for his
guidance; Florida oranges are quoted at from $1.75 to $2 per box,
while the regular market price, at the time when the letter in ques-
tion is dated, is $4 and over a box; lemons are quoted at $3.50 a
box regular quotation $6; bananas $1.25 to $1.35 regular
quotation $2.50 to $3; and so on. In an off-hand way Smith
shows the letter to the proprietor to examine these "quotations;"
and Smith is also careful that he sees the check. The agent now
starts out to solicit orders from fruit dealers in the town, and he
generally meets with success, for his prices are very low, and no
payments are required until after the goods are delivered.

The hotel man hears of these transactions and his good opinion of
Mr. S. is greatly strengthened. Business finished, the agent is
ready to leave, and calls for his bill. He expresses his gratitude to
the proprietor for his kind treatment, and promises to send his
friends along. He is running short of money, and asks the hotel
keeper to cash the check he has just received from his house.
There is seldom any objection, as it would be poor policy to offend
such an important and ornamental customer as Smith. The amount
of the bill is deducted and Mr. S. receives the balance of his check
in good greenbacks. The check is placed with a bank for collection,
but before long it returns with the information that the "fruit
company " is not a depositor and is not known. Mr. Smith and his
"fruit orders " are never again heard of.

" Smith " follows up the letters sent out by his " firm '' to the

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. 603

different places, and repeats the same operation. Sometimes he is
scared off his route and the letters are returned to the mailing
office, in accordance with a card on the envelope, from the places he
has not visited, as "unclaimed." The "fruit company " cannot be
found at the place indicated on the envelope, or anywhere else in
the city, and in due course the letters reach the Dead Letter Office.
Occasionally, if the "agent" thinks he has an easy victim, he will
explain his financial condition to the dealer from whom he has
received an order, and will ask him to cash his check.

At one time there appeared in country weeklies an advertisement
offering $6,725 in cash prizes to persons sending answers to a simple
puzzle, inserted in the advertisement. The puzzle was simple
enough, and the answers, accompanied by $1 for a bottle of Funk's
Wonderful Life Preserver, came rolling in at the rate of several
hundred a day. To each patron was sent a small bottle of pills and
a small wood cut for framing. Later a circular was sent out saying
that a list of the prize winners could not be sent by mail on account
of the lottery law, but if any patron was dissatisfied his money-
would be returned, if the goods were sent back in good condition.
Of course such a return of the goods was impossible.

Some time ago circulars were sent to a large number of farmers
offering to send a corn-sheller free, if the aforesaid farmers would
remit $5 to pay the expenses of packing and shipping; the only
consideration asked in return being that they should exhibit the
shellers to their neighbors and induce them to buy. A large num-
ber of farmers sent on $ 5 for the shellers and in return received by
mail a piece of hoop iron six or eight inches long.

Another game is " worked" by pretended patent agents in different
parts of the country, who procure from the official publications of
the patent office the names of thousands of inventors to whom
patents have been granted. They write to these inventors, saying
that they are in communication with capitalists who desire to pur-
chase certain rights in the patents. "Big money" is in prospect,
and only $20 will be required for the expense of conducting the
affair. Later on $20 more is demanded, and so on, as long as the
poor inventor will respond.

A few months ago two hundred letters from all parts of the United
States, and not a few of them from Europe, were received at the

604 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Department. All were addressed to the "Pacific Matrimonial
Bureau, San Francisco, Cal.," and each one contained an enclosure
of ten cents in postage stamps or in silver. Without exception they
were answers to a circular issued some time before by this bureau in
behalf of "a lady of wealth," somewhat embarrassed by a child that
was not a wise child. She desired to share a considerable fortune
with any good and honorable man who was willing to give her his
name. It was requested that anyone responding should accompany
his reply with ten cents as a token of good faith. Many good and
honorable men were found willing to give their names to this
unfortunate lady. Indeed, the two hundred letters in the batch
referred to were only a few of the thousands that had reached the
San Francisco post office in response to the circular.

The post office inspector in Chicago sometime ago looked into the
business conducted by a concern ostensibly engaged in the beneficent
work of giving every boy or girl who sold $4.80 worth of baking
powder or toilet soap a $45 bicycle. Circulars printed in black and
blue on business-looking paper were scattered broadcast. The num-
ber of youngsters who accepted the alluring offer was something
enormous. The scheme was thus described in a circular:

" We make a list of every person who accepts this proposition and sends an
order for one dozen cans of baking powder. We give a bicycle for every fifteen
dozen sold. You do not have to send any more orders than the one dozen to
entitle you to a bicycle, but you will have to wait until other persons have sent
in orders to the amount of fourteen dozen. The first person who sends in an
order will get the first bicycle. The second one will get the second bicycle, and
so on. If thirty people send in an order in answer to this proposition the first
day, their orders will be numbered as they are received from one to thirty, and
numbers one and two will have bicycles shipped them that day; on the next day,
if thirty more come in, the numbers will extend up to sixty, and numbers three
and four will have bicycles shipped them that day; and so on until everyone
accepting this offer receives a bicycle. This offer will remain good for thirty
clays from the time you receive this circular and perhaps longer; possibly the
whole season, but we will not promise to hold it open longer than thirty days,
and it will depend upon the number of persons who accept in that time, so you
must get in your order for one dozen within thirty days to entitle you to a
bicycle under this offer. When the offer is withdrawn we shall then continue
sending out bicycles until every one who has accepted this offer has received one,
sending one out for every additional fourteen dozen ordered from our regular
trade (special offers excepted)."

It requires but little figuring to see that if one thousand children
took this easy means of getting a wheel, nine hundred and ninety-

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. G05

eight of them would be supplied as soon as the fraudulent concern
had disposed of 1,500,000 dozen cans of baking powder, or 18,000,-
000 cans in all. For this amount of baking powder the company
would receive $7,200,000.

This particular concern was no beardless novice in the swindling
business. Their various schemes yielded them 1,500 ordinary let-
ters and fifty registered letters on an average every day. One of
the schemes they practised was a newspaper, edited with a handsaw
and used to advertise their other schemes while " working " the
"gold watch game." Another scheme of theirs was the "Monarch
Laundry Works," which advertised to give away 1,000 washing
machines, just to introduce them, on receipt of sixty cents for the
packing. The person who sent sixty cents received a tin tube, six
by nine inches, packed in a paper box. They had another "fake,"
a newspaper of the matrimonial kind. The Universal Supply Com-
pany, the American Supply Company, the Garden City Supply
Company, and the Rubber Supply Company were other branches of
the swindle. One of the "partners" had been indicted in Boston
and arrested in Chicago for advertising "silk remnants" for sale.
People were requested to send $1 to him and receive a certain num-
ber of yards of silk. So they did ; but it was not silk cloth, but
silk thread, that they received.

The general delivery clerk in the Philadelphia post office found,
some months ago, that he had an accumulation of 4,800 letters,
many registered, and all addressed to William H. Williamson &
Company. Williamson & Company appeared to carry on an exten-
sive business in moth powder and blacking and other patent articles.
Their advertisement in the papers read :

"Man with push wanted in each city, town and hamlet, to introduce the
fastest selling household article on record. Over a million sold in Philadelphia.
Will pay competent persons $4 per day. Address with stamp, etc."

The Williamsons were soon doing a rushing business. They
were making fortunes selling moth powders for $1 per hundred
packages to agents who in turn sold the packages for five cents
apiece. Country folks sent them a great correspondence. Whether
the agents sold the stuff or not did not concern the company.
Under all the circumstances the Williamsons disappeared.

606 *""" THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Not long ago a man in East Orange, N. J., solicited business by
means of the following remarkable circular :

ff " Would you like to get married ?

" If so, we will give you the names of twenty persons, either male or female,
who would like to have the pleasure of writing to you or seeing you. We have
both classes, the rich as well as the poor.

" If you do not care to marry, and would like to have some fun, send to us for
the fun list; life is too short to be wasted away doing nothing and knowing
nothing, so have a little fun while it is going. Which list will you have, our
marriage list or our fun list ?

" To get the list you must send us 10 cents and the names of five single
persons.

" Remember, girls, this is leap year. Boys, look out, or they will be after you.

" Send 50 cents and join our Fun and Frolic Club for one year.

" If you are already married, please hand this circular to some friend who is
not." ff

Those who desired the "marriage list" must send twenty cents
and five new names, and a list of twenty men or women who desired
to correspond with a view to matrimony were sent in return. A
young Jerseyman who sent for the " fun and frolic list " received a
list of twenty women and twenty men, residing at various points in
Pennsylvania and the Western states. It was thought at first that
the swindler was amenable to the postal laws, but there was no per-
ceptible fraud, and hence nothing could be done.

Not long ago a fellow in Fort Worth, Texas, sent out two thou-
sand letters through the mails asking each addressee to send him
ten cents. He was $200 in debt and would promptly return the ten
cents as soon as he could get out of it, and that would be very soon.
A good many replied. A few years ago a student in some college
sent similar requests broadcast, saying that unless he received aid
he would be compelled to abandon the ambition of his life to
enter the Christian ministry. He received many replies, and in
many a case $5 was sent. Some clergymen read the letter to their
congregations and collections were taken up. There is no way to
close the mails to these people, because it is not pretended that they
promise something which they do not send.

There are more indecent things than this. Some time ago a
wealthy gentleman in New York, whose family were spending the
summer at a seaside resort, received in a letter from some blackmailer
a picture of one of his daughters. The letter stated that this

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH THE MAILS. 607

picture had been secured a few days before,, and that it would be
published, "with a full account of the scene it represented," in a
newspaper, unless the father wanted to purchase the negative and
the prints. The sum demanded for the negative was perhaps five
hundred, perhaps a thousand dollars. The father, in order to avoid
a scandal, sent the money on. But because he had no business to
do that did not mitigate the indecency of the blackmail. These
pictures are very ingeniously prepared. A copy of some off-color
picture will be procured, and a "snap shot" taken of the young
woman whose father is to be victimized. The girl's face is fixed
on the other picture and prints are made from it. Thousands of
dollars used to be extorted from wealthy men in this way, but the
Post Office Department has succeeded in checking the business.

The Department is annually deprived of a considerable amount of
revenue by the use of postage stamps that have once been used.
Some letters go through the mails where the stamps have not been
cancelled, through some defect in the cancelling stamp, or the care-
lessness of the postmaster in not striking the stamp properly. A
post office inspector recently visited several mills where old paper
was used in the manufacture of new paper. In a room of one of
these mills, where twenty or more men and girls were employed in
sorting the old stock of paper as it was taken into the mill and put-
ting it on an endless belt which carried it to another part of the
mill, he picked up within two minutes five old envelopes as they
were passing, the stamps on which had not been touched in post-
marking. The inspector found that the girls were saving a great
many of these envelopes; and when asked why they did it, they
replied that they supposed the stamps were good, as there were no
marks on them. These stamps were accordingly collected by the
girls and the stamps removed and sold to merchants at a discount,
who also used them innocently.

Very few persons realize that the use of a stamp which has served
the purpose for which it was intended, whether it is cancelled or
not, is in violation of the penalty clause of one of the sections of the
revised statutes. This provides that:

" Any person employed in any department of the post office establishment of
the United States who shall wilfully and knowingly use or cause to be used, in
prepayment of postage, any postage stamp, postal card, or stamped envelope

608

THE STORY OF OUR, POST OFFICE.

. . . which has already been used for a like purpose, or shall remove or attempt
to remove the cancelling or defacing marks from any such postage stamp, or
stamped envelope, or postal card, with the intent to use or cause the use of the
same a second time, or offer to sell the same .... shall be deemed guilty of a
felony, and shall be imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than three
years."

Another clause provides that if any person not employed in any
department of the post office establishment of the United States shall
commit any of the offences described in the section just quoted
from, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by
imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year,
or by a tine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five
hundred dollars, for each offence, or both.

THE CUKSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE.

'HE school catalogue is the greatest boon
to the obscene literature dealer. Many
schools and colleges, and especially
those for young women, do not give the
names of students in their catalogues.
A person once obtained surreptitiously from
an assistant professor in a female seminary
some fifteen or more catalogues of other
female seminaries and colleges. It was
soon found that obscene advertisements and pictures had been
sent to nearly all the young women whose names appeared in the
books. About a year ago vile advertisements were reported to
have been received by every student in one of the largest colleges
for young women in the country. A Member of Congress recently
forwarded to the Post Office Department two particularly rank
pamphlets which had been sent to two young women in his dis-
trict, and he denounced in the strongest- terms the fiends who were
thus permitted to invade the home and poison the innocent. It is.
known, indeed, that this stuff has been addressed to the daughters
of Members of Congress themselves, and hardly a day passes that
some father or mother does not forward to the Department obscene
pamphlets or pictures received by son or daughter. But in thou-
sands of cases the deadly virus does its work without the slightest
suspicion on the part of parents.

Many parents deceive themselves. Instances of this indifference,
or self deception, have come to the knowledge of the agents of
societies for the suppression of vice many, many times. In one
case not long ago a boy of about seventeen was discovered with
one of the vilest of all the obscene books in his possession. He
had just been out dining in New York with his father when the

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

agent interviewed him. At first he denied all knowledge of any
such book, but it was certain that he had that morning received it
from a classmate to whom he had loaned it. The agent gave him
Ms choice of being arrested or producing the book. He handed it
out of his pocket.

The agent took the book to the boy's father, who knew nothing
of it. The father cried indignantly :

"You need not tell me any such stuff about my boy; he wouldn't
look at such a book."

The boy was called in, and the book was shown him, and the
question asked:

" Have you had this book ? "

He replied, "Yes, sir."

" Have you loaned it to other boys ? "

"Yes, sir," he said.

" How long have you had it ? "

"About two weeks," he replied.

The book was traced back more than a year to a time when this
young man and a friend had had it in Connecticut, where they had
spent the previous summer together. In the case of the companion
who had returned the book the agent had the same experience with
the father until the boy confessed to having it and to reading it in
his room at night after going upstairs to bed. These were boys
of most respectable parents. The first ran away and married clan-
destinely, while the latter left his home and went to New York in
order to be free from all restraints.

In one school an agent of a society for the suppression of vice
found that over one third of a class of fifty girls confessed to having
had pamphlets and pictures of the grossest obscenity. One of
these, a mere girl of thirteen years, the agent found in her home.
In his presence she went to a bureau drawer and brought out a sealed
package. It was found to contain a quantity of the most debasing
matter.

In 1882, in one of the beautiful towns on the Hudson, the princi-
pal of a select school for boys discovered in a pocketbook left in the
desk of one of the boys, whom with some half dozen others he had
expelled for disorderly conduct, an obscene picture. The professor
determined to have the matter probed to the bottom, and to discover,

THE CURSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE. 611

if possible, who of the boys, if any, had, or had had, this matter.
He sent for the agent of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
The agent visited the school and had an interview with several of
the students. Little by little he drew out the facts that this picture
came out of a well-known obscene book, and that nearly all the
boys had seen and read the book, while several of them had other
matter of like character then in their possession. The owner of the
book was found, and as he was the ringleader of the disorderly
element, and was looked up to by all the boys as a sort of chief, he
was arrested. He was living with an uncle, the head of a
large manufacturing establishment. The agent went to the uncle's
residence and found that one of the boy's expelled associates had
driven out to notify him that there was an officer on his trail, and
he had hurriedly harnessed his horse and driven into town a few
moments before the agent arrived.

The agent followed during a fierce thunder storm. The livery
stables in town were searched for the horse and buggy. They were
soon found. At ten in the evening the friend who had notified the
boy to escape came for the horse and from him the whereabouts of
the young culprit was discovered. He was wrapped in the folds of
a cloak of rubber, hiding by the side of a church, waiting for his
horse. As the officer approached him, he pressed his right hand
toward his inside pocket, where afterwards a bowie knife was found.
His companion, driving out to notify this young desperado to flee
from justice, had taken a small girl along with him. He desired to
remain with his " pal " over night and was accordingly searched
before going into his cell. In his inside coat pocket was the usual
mess of obscenity. With it were letters from young girls and
painted women. One of the expelled boys, who was asked the
cause of the disorder in the school, replied that it was the obscene
matter, the boys' papers and the stories of crime that had been
sent them.

In numerous instances matter of the most filthy character has been
found in the possession of school children, boys and girls. These
pamphlets are read in some secret corner and then passed from
hand to hand, notwithstanding the vigilance of teachers and parents.
Mere youngsters sit up all night and read the stuff.

During the rage for photographs in packages of cigarettes, not

612 THE STOKY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

long ago, the mails were flooded with such pictures, and thousands
of improper ones found their way to the Dead Letter Office. They
were produced in almost incredible numbers, largely in Boston, the
method being for a photographer to obtain a contract from a manu-
facturer of cigarettes to supply so many millions, of a size and
general description named. The contractor would then go into the
market and buy, chiefly through agents, every new and suitable
photograph obtainable of actresses, ballet dancers, etc. In one
instance the pictures of the entire list of pupils at a fashionable
school for young ladies were secured surreptitiously and multiplied
and distributed in packages of cigarettes. The portraits thus col-
lected were mounted in sizes matched on huge cards, a hundred or
more on each, and each card was placed before the camera and
reproduced on a scale as much smaller as was desired. In this way
whole sheets of photographs were struck off from the resulting
negatives at once, subsequently to be cut apart and delivered to the
cigarette maker. There was so much money in this business that
photographers of the highest ostensible repute went into it
secretly.

No less dangerous than obscene books and publications are the so-
called medical pamphlets, advertising some quack remedy. These
pamphlets are of no medical value whatever, and only debauch the
mind and inflame the passions of those who read them. Thousands
are sent out daily to all parts of the country, addressed to boys and
girls, young men and women, and even to the elderly.

The Post Office Department has used every means at its command
to suppress all this traffic. Indictments have been secured in hun-
dreds of cases, and in many convictions have followed. Nearly every
day orders are issued from the Department to throw out obscene
pictures and pamphlets which have been deposited for mailing.
Moses Harman, of Valley Falls, Kansas, was for a number of years
the publisher of one of the most filthy publications that ever came
to the Department. He was taken in hand by Mr. R. W. McAfee,
an inspector of the Post Office Department, and on February 18,
1890, Harman was arrested. He was tried before Judge Foster of
the United States Court in Kansas, and on April 30, 1890, was
sentenced to five years' imprisonment and had to pay a fine of three
hundred dollars and the costs of prosecution.

* THE CURSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE. 613

Another filthy paper was published at Princeton, Mass. Ezra H.
Hey wood, an old acquaintance of all who are familiar with the fight
against obscene literature for the past twenty years, was its editor.
Hey wood was convicted in 1876 for a violation of the then existing
law against obscenity. While serving sentence for this offence, he
was pardoned by President Hayes upon a petition largely signed
by residents of his home. The publication of this paper promptly
began soon after Heywood's release from prison in 1877. Sev-
eral attempts were made to bring him to justice for violation of
the obscene laws, but all efforts failed on account of the instructions
of the court. In one of the cases the judge held that Heywood's
descriptions were the expression of the editor's ideas and that under
the Constitution "every man was entitled to his opinion."

Shortly after General Tyner's appointment as Assistant Attorney
General for the Post Office Department in 1889, he received numer-
ous complaints from prominent physicians and others concerning the
circulation of Heywood's publication in the mails. He promptly
called the attention of the Chief Inspector to it, with the suggestion
that a prosecution should be immediately begun against Heywood.
He also directed the postmaster at Princeton to withhold the edition
then in his office and to submit a copy of all subsequent editions for
examination before they were permitted to pass. Heywood tried to
deposit his papers at other offices and on mail cars, but this plan
was promptly frustrated by the vigilance of the Department. Hey-
wood was finally arrested May 17, 1890, and arraigned before the
United States Commissioner at Boston on the same day and held in
$500 bonds. An indictment was subsequently found by the grand
jury and the trial began before Judge Carpenter of the United States
Court on June 10, 1890. It lasted two days and resulted in the
conviction of Heywood. He was sentenced to two years at hard
labor in the state prison at Charlestown.

The laws on the statute books are inadequate entirely to close the
mails against this traffic. The Assistant Attorney General for the
Department in his report for 1889 urgently referred to the need
of added legislation. During the Fifty-First Congress an attempt
was made to secure further amendments to the law against
obscenity, but without success. This was the fact about the Fifty-
Second Congress also.

614

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The subject of obscene literature circulated through the mails,
and of frauds operated through the medium of the post, would be
incomplete without some reference to the work of the New York
Society for the Suppression of Vice, and of its dauntless secre-
tary, Mr. Anthony Comstock, who is also an inspector of the Post
Office Department. The work of this society and of its agent has
been so closely identified with the Postal Department that it
is almost a part of it. Hardly any scheme can be operated with
any degree of success without resorting to the mails; and hence
Mr. Comstock, acting under national and state authority, has been

enabled to accomplish a great deal.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, who
would otherwise engage in these
low enterprises, have been re-
strained by fear of detection and
imprisonment.

Anthony Comstock was born in
Connecticut in 1844. When he
was about twenty word reached
his home that his brother Samuel
had been killed at Gettysburg.
He went, with an older brother,
to bring the body home, and then
enlisted to fill the vacancy in the
regiment caused by his brother's
death. He served until mustered
out at the close of the war, fore-
shadowing the bravery that was
to distinguish his later career.
In 1865 Mr. Comstock secured

a clerk's place in New Haven, and remained there for nearly a
year. Mr. Christopher R. Robert about that time was starting
the Lookout Mountain Educational Institute. A company of
gentlemen, of whom Robert and Peter Cooper of New York were
principals, purchased the Government hospitals on the top of Look-
out Mountain and turned them into dormitories and schools. Mr.
Comstock was sent by Messrs. Robert and Cooper as a steward for
the school, to purchase supplies, etc. He worked about sixteen hours

MR. ANTHONY COMSTOCK.

THE CURSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE. 615

a day and broke himself completely down. In the fall of 1867 he
went to New York with five dollars in his pocket. He walked the
streets of the city for a whole week trying to find something
to do. Finally he found a place on Saturday evening with
Ammidown, Lane & Co., of Warren Street. After remaining
with this firm for a short time, he secured a better position with
J. B. Spellman & Sons, wholesale notion dealers. He was obliged
to begin at the bottom of the ladder, as he was not familiar
with business habits. He was stock clerk for about three months,
when he was promoted to salesman. For three years he had to-
ll ve very "close."

During this time Mr. ComstocR became aware, through informa-
tion gathered from his associates, of the demoralizing influence of
the obscene literature, pictures, etc., of the day, and from various-
sources gathered some idea of the enormous traffic in this stuff.
Indeed, a number of his associates, bright and intelligent young
men, were ruined before his eyes in this manner. In the early part
of 1872 one or two sad cases came to his attention, of young men
who had been ruined; one of them was turned out of his home.
Obscene books were openly advertised in sporting and criminal news-
papers. Hundreds of thousands of circulars were annually sent
through the mails. The process used in sending out circulars
advertising these books was to secure names in different ways,
through postmasters, by agents, etc., and, after being used by one
dealer they were sold to another, and thus passed from hand to hand,
so that the victim was well supplied. A man who was arrested in
Massachusetts about this time had more than three hundred thou-
sand names, to which he had been sending his circulars. All this
impressed young Comstock.

On March 2, 1872, at the instance of Mr. Comstock, seven persons
were arrested for alleged dealing in obscene literature. These were
the first arrests. Shortly after the appalling fact was revealed to
him that there was a business, regularly organized and backed by
large capital, systematically carried on through the mails. But he
knew nothing of the practice of law and had no funds at his com-
mand to carry on the work. He had no friends of influence to
advise him ; nor was he able to leave his business to take up the
prosecutions. But the burden seemingly was placed upon him.

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Mr. Comstock believed the old Talmudic proverb: "Where no man
is, be thou a man." Dr. Theodore Cuyler once remarked that it
was a good thing to fight the devil at one's own door.

So this task was thrust upon Mr. Comstock; he did not seek it.
Before the month of March had expired, he found that it was neces-
sary to have funds in order to work successfully. He had discov-
ered that one William Haynes published twenty-four of the worst
books, and that he was probably the oldest dealer in the country.
Mr. Haynes had died a short time before, and Mr. Comstock found
that his widow had possession of his plates and books. He made
a demand on her for them. She offered to sell them to him for
$450, but he had no means to buy them; and he did not know where
the books and plates were. Mr. Comstock was without friends,
and he had no one to turn to for assistance or sympathy. But Mr.
Morris K. Jesup, a wealthy banker of New York City, learning
something of his work, called on him. He appealed to Mr. Jesup
for help. The latter immediately placed 1650 at Mr. Comstock's
disposal ; $150 to reimburse him for the moneys he had expended,
and $500 to work with. With this $500 and in less than sixty
days he secured over $50,000 worth of books, prints, steel and
copper plate engravings, etc. It was a revelation to the com-
munity.

Step by step during 1872 inroads were made into this business
until finally ten tons of matter were taken at one seizure from the
estate of Jeremiah H. Farrell. Farrell had once been taken before
the police court for the circulation of obscene matter, but the case
was thrown out because the book which Mr. Comstock presented did
not contain either an obscene word or an obscene picture. At that
time not only the police justices but many in the community
believed that a thing could not be obscene unless it contained a
"bawdy picture or word. Little by little Mr. Comstock had been
learning in the school of experience. He was not discouraged at
small obstacles, but took the case to the grand jury and had Farrell
indicted. A bench warrant was issued by Recorder John K.
Hackett for Farrell's arrest. A police officer notified Farrell to get
out of the way if he did not want to be taken and punished.
The sagacious Farrell went South, but in about two weeks was
brought back and buried in Greenwood Cemetery.. On a search

THE CUESE OF OBSCENE LITERATUEE. 617

warrant issued by Recorder Hackett, Mr. Comstock seized about six
tons of stereotype plates in the office of a printer named Thomas
Holman, corner of White and Centre Streets, New York, and five
tons of books at 14 Ann Street, in the same city, Farrell's former
place of business. The handling of so much obscene matter neces-
sarily attracted attention. Public sentiment was aroused and dur-
ing the year 1873 a number of persons were sentenced in the United
States Court in New York City for sending obscene matter through
the mails, the usual sentence being the full extent of the law, one
year's imprisonment and $500 fine. But many escaped because of
the inadequacy of the statutes.

The United States Statutes were amended in March, 1873. The
approval of this law was Mr. Comstock' s anniversary, for he made
his first arrest on March 3, 1872. The bill passed both Houses of
Congress between twelve and one o'clock of March 2, and was-
signed the day following by President Grant. Senators Windom
of Minnesota, Buckingham of Connecticut, and Ferry of Michigan,
and Representative Clinton L. Merriam of New York interested
themselves in having some one appointed to enforce this law. They
went personally to the Postmaster General, who stated that he could
not appoint anyone as there was no appropriation ; but that he would
do so if they would appropriate the salary and per diem of a special
agent. An amendment was offered in the Senate to the appropria-
tion bill then pending. Hearing of this, Mr. Comstock went to
some of the senators and asked them to withdraw the amendment
and have him appointed without compensation, as all he wanted the
office for was the better to enable himself to enforce the law. On
March 5, 1873, Mr. Comstock was commissioned a special agent of
the Post Office Department, and he has held that office ever since
without compensation. He has received commissions from seven-
teen different postmasters general.

In 1873, in order the more effectually to prosecute the work, the
New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was incorporated by
the Legislature of the State of New York. The incorporators
named in the original act are Morris K. Jesup, Howard Potter,
Jacob F. Wyckoff, William E. Dodge, Jr., Charles E. Whitehead,
Cephas Brainard, Thatcher M. Adams, William F. Lee, J. Pier-
pont Morgan, J. M. Cornell, W. H. S. Wood, Elbert Monroe,

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

George W. Clark, Cornelius R. Agnew, and R. R. McBurney, of
the city of New York, and Moses S. Beach and Henry R. Jones of
the city of Brooklyn. The object of this society was defined to be
"the enforcement of the laws for the suppression of the trade in
and the circulation of obscene literature and illustrations, advertise-
ments and articles for an indecent or immoral use, as it is or may
te forbidden by the laws of the State of New York or of the United
States." The society was authorized to adopt by-laws for its gov-
ernment, select officers and appoint agents. The police officers of
the city of New York, and of all other cities in the State of New
York, were required to aid this corporation, or its officers or agents,
in the enforcement of all laws for the suppression of vice. The
society was organized under this act in November, 1875, and Mr.
Comstock was at that time appointed secretary and special agent,
in which capacity he has continued ever since.

Mr. Comstock continued to enforce the law during 1874 and
1875. The courts were willing to use proper evidence to punish
the dealers in obscene matter and check this evil, and Mr. Comstock
made it the rule to secure the most positive evidence against a man
found violating either the state or the United States laws before
making the arrest. The rigorous enforcement of this law, however,
brought down the curses of the "obscene fraternity." During the
year 1875 there were more than a dozen attempts made upon Mr.
Comstock' s life, and numerous conspiracies or plots were discovered
to put him out of the way; but, impressed with the importance of
defending the youth of the land from this great curse, he rapidly
pressed the work forward. The attacks upon Mr. Comstock resulted
in turning public sentiment for a time against him, and one of the
results was to cripple him financially. He was soon three thousand
dollars in debt. The demands of the work were such that it could
not be dropped, nor could it be carried forward without increasing
indebtedness. Applications to good men seemed to fall upon deaf
ears. Out of this adversity, moreover, came a still harder blow.
An assassin severed four arteries in his face, and he lay at death's
door for several days. The coward's blow aroused public senti-
ment, and men rallied on all sides; and before the wound was
healed, the debt of three thousand dollars was paid and Mr. Com-
stock has ever since had money or credit to work with.

THE CURSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE.

619

Up to the first of January, 1893, Mr. Comstock made 1,796
arrests, seized forty-five tons of obscene matter and seventeen tons
of gambling, immoral, lottery and swindling paraphernalia. Aside
from this thousands of cases have been investigated and hundreds
of fraudulent schemes have been stopped without arresting the
operators. Nearly every fraud, as has been said, is obliged to use
the mails of the United States. This is generally done, of course,
under cover of fictitious names and addresses. Now letters
addressed to fictitious names are held upon the order of the Post-
master General until the person claiming them shall be fully identi-
fied before delivery. So these fraudulent dealers have been forced
out of the mails to the telegraph and express companies. By some
additional legislation in the legislatures of New York and New
Jersey it has been made an offence for any person to use a fictitious
name to carry on an unlawful business. Whenever it is dis-
covered that a fraudulent scheme is being conducted by means of
the telegraph or express, the managers of these companies are imme-
diately notified, and they, in turn, call upon the parties to come
forward and be identified.

Mr. Comstock' s work has not alone been confined to the suppres-
sion of obscene literature. He has pursued the Louisiana Lottery
Company and many other lottery schemes until, even before the
passage of the anti-lottery postal law, they were driven almost
entirely out of New York. An agent of the Louisiana Lottery
Company offered to pay $25,000 annually into the treasury of the
society if the company were permitted to run only one office in New
York City unmolested. The green goods business has also had a
share of Mr. Comstock's attention, and about fifty alleged dealers in
counterfeit money have been arrested and convicted at his instance.

The following table is from the last annual report of the New
York Society for the Suppression of Vice :

Stock Confiscated.

Prior to Jan., 1891.

During 1891.

Total.

Books and sheet stock seized and
destroyed

48,199 Ibs.

400 Ibs.

48 599 Ibs

Obscene pictures and photos . .
Microscopic pictures for charms,
knives, etc

811,204

7,768

1,788

812,992
7 768

620

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Stock Confiscated.

Prior to Jan., 1891.

During 1891.

Total.

Negative plates for making obscene

5,262

Engraved steel and copper plates .
Wood cuts and electro plates . .
Stereotype plates for printing

379
590

27,189 Ibs.

135 Ibs.

379
590

27,324 Ibs.

Number of different books . . .
Lithograph stones destroyed or
seized . ....

227
58

228
58

Articles for immoral use ....
Lead moulds for making obscene

92,670
TOO Ibs.

92,670
700 Ibs.

Establishments for making same
closed .

Indecent playing cards destroyed .
Boxes of pills, powders, etc., used
by ouacks

6,176
4 444

6,176
4,444

Circulars, catalogues, songs,
poems etc . ....

1,516,832

10,837

1,527,669

Newspapers containing unlawful
advertisements or obscene matter
Open letters seized in possession of
persons arrested

32,660
114 983

32,683
114,983

Names of dealers as revealed by
account books of publishers . .
Obscene pictures, framed on walls
of saloons

6,000
150

6,000
194

Figures and images seized and de-
stroyed

2 362

2,370

Letters, packages, etc., seized in.
hands of dealers, ready for mail-
ing at time of arrest

58,451

Names and post office addresses to
whom circulars, etc., may be
sent, that are sold as matters of
merchandise, seized in hands of
persons arrested

990 570

990,570

Obscene plays stopped or places of
amusement closed

Keno layouts

1 and 4 cups

Faro layouts

Roulette layouts .......

Rouge et Noir layouts
Hazard layouts

Odd and even layouts

Fan tan layouts

Lottery tickets .......

2,003 423

2,003,451

Lottery circulars .......

459,200

10 172

469,372

Lotteries suppressed .....
Pool tickets

40
1 767 641

13 400

54
1 781 041

Sweat boards . . .

Black boards and slates ....
Deal boxes

483
49

539
49

Deal trades and deal boards . . .
Packs of cards ....

107

863

107

894

Policy and pool shops raided or
closed

396

THE CUKSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE.

621

Stock Confiscated.

Prior to Jan., 1891.

During 1891.

Total.

Score cards pool

3 067

252

3 319

Sheets and books for recording bets
Manifold books for recording poli-

4,607
23 001

286
4 625

4,993
27 626

Gaming tables

Dream books

173

234

French pool registers . . . . .
Account books

5
450

495

Trays for holding pool tickets . .
Ivory and composition chips . .
Cue boxes . .

122,295
22

1,576

122,871
22

Tally cards for faro

11 079

Card presses

Prize packages

2 559

2 629

Envelopes for envelope game . .

11,733
37,438

340
19 674

12,073
57 112

Dice

118

Iron safes in gambling saloons . .
" Green goods" circulars ....
Miles travelled by agents outside
New York City

11
20,500

319 665

19 378

20,500

339,043

Branch organizations for the suppression of vice have been estab-
lished in many parts of the country. The Western Society, of
which Mr. R. W. McAfee of St. Louis, Mo., who is a post office
inspector, is the agent, has done valuable work. Mr. Henry Chase
of the New England Society and Mr. C. R. Bennett of the San
Francisco Society have accomplished a great deal.

Fraud and indecency are greatly fostered by the private letter
box. The business conducted at these places has of late years been
very largely increased. There is no doubt that the establishment
and maintenance of these places is an interference with the postal
monopoly which by the Constitution is reserved to the Government.
Nearly every year, as the Sun said recently, Congress is urged
to pass a law to prohibit the private letter boxes which are scattered
through the large cities of the East and are especially numerous in
New York, The postmaster, the district attorney, and the postal
inspectors have always been strongly in favor of such a law, and
have repeatedly advanced strong arguments in support of it, but for
some mysterious reason a strong opposition has developed every
time it came up for passage. The truth is, a lobby stops its passage.

In New York these boxes are obtainable in saloons, cigar

622 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

stores, florists' shops and drug stores, on the most frequented
avenues. Some are advertised in the newspapers and some are
known only to the parties interested and the postal authorities.
The latter know that the private letter boxes are used only by persons
who wish to maintain clandestine correspondence, and that the most
usual patrons are green goods men, confidence men, women who
are afraid to let their correspondence be known to their families,
profligate men and women, and foolish youths and girls. The
inspectors assert that more swindles are perpetrated through these
unofficial post offices than in any other manner; and they assert
that the owners of the stores .where these boxes are know well the
character of the persons who rent them. In fact, they are nearly
always in league with them, for otherwise the swindlers could fre-
quently be detected.

Some of the purposes for which these letter boxes are used are
indicated in the following personals printed in a great newspaper :

Is there a young lady that would desire acquaintance of industrious American
man ? west side preferred ; view matrimony. Box 30, 8th Ave.

May Whitney. Your friend that stopped at the Plaza' Hotel would like to hear
from you. Address, Harry B., box 350, Broadway.

While matrimonial bureaus sometimes find their origin in adver-
tisements similar to the first one printed above, yet the men who
usually insert them hope to find responses from women inclined to
meet them half way. This sort of correspondence would attract
little attention from the postal authorities, however, if it were not
that young girls are sometimes dragged into the nets spread by the
scheming men and women who advertise "honorable intentions"
along with offers of friendship. More innocent and romantic are
the personals which are sometimes bandied back and forth between
young men and their sweethearts. Perhaps objections to the lovers
by the stern parents of the loved have driven them to correspond
through private letter boxes ; certainly a large number of elope-
ments are credited to this sort of business.

Crooks of all kinds use the private letter boxes. The police
records prove this. A crook in New York desiring "to do a piece
of business " in connection with some bank in a Western town, for
instance, and finding it necessary to have written communication
with his " pals," hires a letter box in some part of the town remote

THE CURSE OF OBSCENE LITERATURE. 623

from his residence. Of course he uses an assumed name. The
advantage of the letter box to the conspirators is apparent. If the
conspiracy is discovered before it can be carried out the letter box
will rarely furnish evidence. The mail having been deposited in a
box, it would be necessary to prove that the person suspected took
it out. This is extremely difficult. If the "job" has been done,
and the police are looking for the criminals, the same difficulty is
encountered. If there were no private letter boxes, the crook would
find it more difficult to cover his tracks. If letters were sent
directly to him from the town where the crime was committed, a
clue would be left. If the letters were addressed to him in care of
another, detectives might trace the connection; if the letters were
addressed to a fictitious person, that, too, would not preclude dis-
covery.

"Sometime ago," says Inspector James, "we suspected a man
who was receiving large quantities of mail from the rural districts.
From information we had received we were morally certain that
he was doing a swindling business. His real or assumed name was
Brown. We instructed the letter carrier, who delivered his mail at
a cigar store up town, to make some inquiries about him, and, if
possible, to see him personally. The letter carrier met with a
rebuff at the very first question he put to the proprietor.

"'You deliver the mail here, and that ends your duty,' " said the
latter, significantly. *You have no call to meddle with Mr.
Brown's business.'

" The next day the letter carrier was accosted on the street near
the cigar store, by a big, rough-looking fellow.

" Say,' he said to the letter carrier, * you're too fresh. You mind
your own business, or you'll get a crick in your neck before long.
See? We don't want any freshies around here, and they'll die young
if they come. Now, go on, or I'll push your face in.'

" The letter carrier telephoned down here and we ordered him to
try to keep the fellow in sight. An inspector hurried up as soon
as we could get a warrant and nabbed the fellow.

"What do you suppose we charged him with? Detaining the
mails. That was the only charge we could make against him.
When we brought him before the United States Commissioner, he
hired a lawyer and gave bail for examination. If he is convicted,

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

lie will pay $100 fine. That won't bother him much, and in the
meantime the business continues."

Mr. Comstock himself has a great wooden case, which he calls
liis "sarcophagus," full of legal papers relating to prosecutions of
green goods men and other swindlers who have worked through
private letter boxes.

" One of my most recent arrests, " he said recently, " was that of
.an alleged expressman, whose office on Sixth Avenue served as a
cover for the green goods men. He pretended to have some letter
boxes, and large quantities of mail were delivered to him for per-
sons alleged to have letter boxes in his office. We found that he
Lad no letter boxes at all, but placed the letters between the leaves
of his order book until they were called for. One of my men called
on him and pretended that he wanted to rent a letter box for a little
quiet business. The expressman was shy at first, but finally
"became convinced that his visitor meant business and became very
confidential. He said he received ten dollars a month for every
name used by his customers, and there were ten of them. He said they
received a great many letters, and were doing a splendid business.

" I caught another fellow recently who was doing business on a
Tery extensive scale. He had letter boxes in two different sta-
tionery stores, besides an office in a house occupied by one of the
stationers. He tried to bribe a postmaster in a New Jersey town to
send his circulars to people in his district and to forward replies.
I found that the stationer whose parlor was occupied by the green
goods man carried his mail to him. The green goods man was very
smart and kept dodging from one place to another. But I finally
caught him. The New Jersey postmaster had pretended to accept
the bribe, and had marked the money sent to him.

" The plan of detaining suspected mail at the post office until the
addresser comes forward and is identified has resulted in much
good. I made up a report recently showing that in this way twenty
thousand green goods letters were held and sent to the Dead Letter
Office in one month, and four thousand dollars in money was held
back from the green goods men in the same time."

CUKIOTJS QUESTIONS OF LAW.

w i

HE Post Office Department makes all possible
effort to protect the public against all forms
of fraud and vice perpetrated or fostered in
the mails, and whether the Louisiana Lot-
tery is to be attacked, or the green goods
swindlers run to cover, or the "obscenity
men " brought to justice, or all the other
swindlers, big and little, bold and mean, are

to be suppressed, the chief inspector and his gallant fellows run
the country over to do it. They are supported and counselled by
Hon. James N. Tyner, Assistant Attorney General for the Post
Office Department. His thirty years' experience in the postal
service have taught him what there is worth knowing about it. He
knows politics and human nature as well as the postal service, and
he has filled congressional committee places with distinction, as
well as almost every position in the postal service from special
agent to Postmaster General.

But if there is much that the Postmaster General's attorney
or his inspectors may do, there is much more that the public may
do. They may cease to be swindled. It seems to need to be under-
stood that people should avoid all those advertisements offering
great inducements for small amounts. There is always some catch
in them, and if anything ever is returned it is of no value either
for use or ornament. The swindlers are not going to advertise
their scheme all over the country and give a prize valued all the
way from ten cents to as many hundred dollars for the few cents
charged for the subscription price of a paper or the small article
which they offer for sale. Some of these schemes are not exactly
frauds, but they are " catch games, " which lead people on and then
make some demand for additional money before their hopes can be

625

626

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

realized. It seems to need to be understood that the promoters of
these fraudulent schemes are not working for nothing and paying
their expenses besides. It seems to need to be understood that, in all
these dishonest practices that sometimes make the mails so baleful,
as well as in the smaller, honest mistakes and irregularities which

__ ____ are daily occurring, the

promptest report of all the
facts to the chief inspector
is the most grateful thing
for the postal service and
the people.

The Attorney General
for the Department is not
only the Postmaster Gen-
eral's counsel in the law
matters in which he is
obliged to interest him-
self; he is also charged
with the duty of passing
upon legal questions which
come to him daily in some
form or other, and which
affect the status of clerk,
carrier, contractor, post-
master, or indeed the whole service. The mere conundrums which are
propounded by the dozen, either by postmasters or by the public, may
usually be replied to by the chief o^ the Correspondence Division.
This is a process, naturally, of answering questions over and over
again, and in hundreds of cases the same forms of letters are all that
are required. Often the chief of the Correspondence Division
appeals to the First Assistant Postmaster General, to whose office
his division is attached, and he replies; but often the point is
wholly difficult, and then the Assistant Attorney General is appealed
to for his ruling. It is safe to say that he is always considering
some legal technicality, or some far-reaching general policy. He
is continually studying the postal department ; he is always correct-
ing erroneous impressions on the part of the people or the post-
masters.

HON. JAMES N. TYNEK.

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW.

627

There are hundreds of impressions about the postal service which
are erroneous. Take the sanctity of the mails. The seal of a letter is
absolutely secure ; it can be opened only by the clerks of the Dead
Letter Office, and they may open it simply to trace it to its sender,
and never to divulge in any way a particle of its con tents The
rule of the Department, which has been in force for many years,
under the provisions of which postmasters are forbidden to make
public information obtained by them in the discharge of their duties,
is based upon' the general principle that "one of the highest obliga-
tions of the Department to the people is to preserve, by all means
in its power, the absolute sanctity of the seal." The postmaster is
an agent of the Government, and there is no relation which the
Government sustains toward the people of such high trust as the
transmission of sealed communications. The name of the person
addressed is written on the outside of the letter for the single pur-
pose of enabling the postmaster to deliver it to the proper person.
For any other purpose the postmaster is presumed to have no knowl-
edge of the ad-
dress. His knowl-
edge is confined to
the discharge of
his official duties.
The privacy of the
service will be at
an end if the post-
master could be
required to dis-
close the name or
address of his pat-
rons, except after
due legal proceed-
ings should have

i ,1 rm

been taken. The

patron of the post office furnishes a postmaster with his address

for one purpose only to secure the delivery of his mail.

This rule can never be considered hardship when it is remem-
bered that a letter addressed to a person whom one desires to find
will be delivered to him, if his address be known; and if the

GENERAL TYNEB IN HIS OFFICE.

628 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

addressee of the letter wants the postmaster to be advised of his
whereabouts, he will give him the information; if not, the post-
master must not furnish it against his wishes. The address of a
patron is his own secret, to be made public by him in his own way.

All mail matter is the property of the sender until it reaches its
destination, and may be withdrawn at any time before delivery. If
a letter is to be recalled after its dispatch, the writer must give some
reason. The mere statement that the writer has changed his mind
as to its contents is insufficient. If a letter is delivered at the
address named upon it, or to the person in whose care it may be
directed, or to any person upon the order of the addressee, it goes
beyond the custody of the Post Office Department. Recently in
New Orleans a letter was delivered to the person in whose care it
was directed. The letter was opened by this person, and the con-
tents appropriated to his use. Jle was arrested. The court held
that the delivery of the letter by the Post Office Department was
complete when the letter was placed in the hands of the person in
whose care it was addressed, and that any tampering with it after
such delivery by any person other than the addressee was not
cognizable under United States Statutes ; the aggrieved party must
seek his remedy in the state courts. But a section of the United
States Statutes does provide for the punishment of persons opening
letters not addressed to themselves obtained from the post office by
fraud or deceit.

A firm which had long been really insolvent had succeeded in
keeping this knowledge from the public and continued to receive
money from investors, which the partners employed dishonestly for
their own advantage. It was their intention to raise one more large
sum, part of which was to be contributed by a business friend of one
of them, and then to leave the country with their spoils and let
their creditors shift for themselves. But the wife of the business
friend and the wife of the man who meant to victimize him fre-
quently corresponded with each other, and the latter wrote a gossip-
ing letter to the former, in which she mentioned that her husband
had been in poor health lately on account of business troubles, but
that she trusted their approaching trip to Canada would restore
him. Remembering too late that her husband had asked her to
mention neither of these facts, she went to the post office to recall

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW. 629

her letter. The postmaster refused to give it up. She could give
no good reason for demanding it and became petulant and irritated
when he continued to refuse. He remained firm and the letter was
sent. The recipient showed it to her husband, whose suspicions
were aroused. As a consequence the dishonest firm was broken up,
and both the partners were punished.

In Brooklyn not long ago a well dressed, good looking young
woman was charged with opening a sealed letter addressed to her
sister-in-law. The defendant's husband Timothy had deserted her
seven weeks before. She made unsuccessful efforts to find him.
She finally went to her sister-in-law's to ascertain, if possible, where
her husband was. While she waited the postman delivered a letter.
Noticing that it was in the handwriting of her husband she opened
it. She learned that her husband was in Connecticut, and would
be in Brooklyn on a certain day. She informed the police, and the
runaway was taken into custody. Meanwhile the sister-in-law
learned that the woman had opened a letter addressed to her, and
secured a warrant charging her with violating the laws of the
United States.

Questions that have arisen about the delivery of mails to crimi-
nals have been very difficult. They not only involve the question
of individual right, but frequently present the not more important
but more intricate question of 'the respective rights and powers of
the national and state governments. It is certainly the policy of
the National Government, through the machinery of the post office,
to deliver to the party addressed or his authorized agents every
piece of mailable matter entrusted to its care. On the other hand,
it will readily be seen that in many instances the enforcement of
local or municipal law and the protection of society demand that
letters should not be so delivered. To allow a prisoner confined in
jail free and untrammelled intercourse with the public by means of
sealed communications would afford him the means of easy escape ;
while to subject his correspondence to the inspection of anyone
appointed for that purpose without his consent might seriously
embarrass his defence. Again, it would seem that some regard
ought to be had for the nature of his confinement. A rule that
might be applied to the case of a prisoner awaiting execution of a
sentence of death would be extremely harsh if applied to the case of

(330 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

one imprisoned in default of bail awaiting indictment for a mere
misdemeanor.

A question was raised by a complaint of a criminal confined in
the Richmond, Va., jail, that he was not allowed to send or receive
mail matter without having it inspected by the prison authorities.
The prisoner was not under indictment, nor was his mail examined
under the authority of any general prison rule. In that case it was
the duty of the postmaster to deliver the mail addressed to the
prisoner to the person authorized by him to receive it. To recon-
cile a seeming conflict between the opinions referred to, it must be
understood that while the custody, care, transmission and delivery
of mail matter is a function of the National Government beyond the
interference and control of state and municipal government, it is
equally true that the citizen in all his rights of life, liberty and
property is the subject of state or municipal government. The
state or municipal government may deprive him of life, liberty or
property. Among other rights of which it may deprive him is that
of using the mails for any purpose. Among other classes of prop-
erty of which it may deprive him is his property in letters addressed
to him. Of course all of this must be done by process of law.
The municipal authority may prescribe, among other rules for his
confinement, that the prisoner shall receive no sealed communi-
cations from persons outside of the 'prison, and may direct that no
postal official or other person be allowed to deliver to him any such
communication. All this the local authorities may do as a means
of enforcing local law. However, neither state nor other local
authority can control the officers of the United States in the matter
of the delivery of mail matter. The local authority may so guard
the prisoner as to prevent him from receiving mail matter addressed
to him, but it cannot require the postmaster to deliver such matter
to one of its own officers, nor to anyone not authorized by the
party addressed to receive it. An order by prison authorities,
therefore, directing the warden to take from the post office mail
matter addressed to a prisoner under his charge, and to open it,
would be in violation of law, and would not authorize the postmaster
to deliver such matter to the warden. It does not follow, however,
that a rule requiring the warden to open letters addressed to prison-
ers under his charge, and directed to his care, is in violation of law;

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW. 631

for it is fair to assume that a party addressing the prisoner in the
care of the warden thereby agrees to submit to such prison rules as
may be enforced touching the correspondence of prisoners.

In 1883 there was referred to the Assistant Attorney General's
office a communication from the postmaster at Nashville, from which
it appeared that letters addressed to convicts undergoing confinement
in the state penitentiary were opened by the warden before being
delivered to the parties addressed. It further appeared that there
were one or more branch prisons. The postmaster stated that let-
ters were frequently returned to his office "opened or otherwise
mutilated, with a request to send them to the coal mines, or branch
prisons, as they are called." The Assistant Attorney General held
that the warden had no right to open letters not addressed to pris-
oners under his personal care, and that letters intended for the pris-
oners in the branch prisons should be forwarded to the person or
officer having such prisoners in charge.

The postmaster further inquired if it was not the duty of the
warden "to envelope such mutilated letters and pay postage there-
on." The Attorney General said:

"It is the duty of the warden before opening a letter to satisfy' himself that
the prisoner addressed is under his personal charge. If by mistake he should
open a letter addressed to a person not under his charge, it would be his duty to
return the letter in such condition as to admit of its being forwarded without
endangering its contents. Additional postage should not be charged unless the
envelope should be so mutilated as to render it necessary to enclose the letter in
a new one. If the postmaster should have knowledge of the fact that a prisoner
was confined in a branch prison, he should forward such mail matter without
having first delivered it to the warden of the principal or local prison."

Another entertaining question, that relating to the liability of
newspaper subscribers for their subscriptions, has lately been dis-
cussed in a New York paper. The Post Office Department is not
infrequently in receipt of appeals from citizens of which the follow-
ing is a fair specimen :

" I sent one dollar to a well-known weekly paper for trial subscription last July.
At the end of that time I did not request the publishers to continue it. They did
so, however, and I finally refused to take it from the carrier. They sent me the
bill and enclosed subscription laws notice.

" What I would like to know is, if reputable newspapers do business this way;
also, if the enclosed is a correct transcription of the laws of the United States. If
so, it would seem as if the United States laws were framed to admit of blackmail-
ing."

632 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

The "subscription laws" notice referred to in the letter pur-
ported to contain a compilation of "the decisions of the United
States courts on the relation of subscribers to publishers." The
"compilation" was divided into seven paragraphs, thus:

1. Subscribers who do not give express notice to the contrary, are considered
as wishing to renew their subscriptions.

2. If subscribers order the discontinuance of their periodicals, the publisher
may continue to send them until all the arrearages are paid.

3. If subscribers neglect or refuse to take their periodicals from the post
office to which they are directed, they are responsible until they have settled
their bills and ordered them discontinued.

4. If subscribers move to other places without informing the publishers, and
the papers are sent to the former address, they are held responsible.

5. The courts have decided that refusing to take periodicals from the office or
removing and leaving them uncalled for is prima facie evidence of intentional
fraud.

6. If subscribers pay in advance, they are bound to give notice at the end of
the time if they do not wish to continue taking it; otherwise the publisher is au-
thorized to send it, and the subscriber will be responsible until express notice
with payment of all arrearages, is sent to the publisher.

7. The latest postal laws are such that newspaper publishers can arrest any-
one for fraud who takes a paper and refuses to pay for it. Under this law, the
man who allows his subscription to run along for some time unpaid and then
orders it discontinued, or orders the postmaster to mark it "refused" and have a
postal card sent notifying the publisher, leaves himself liable to arrest and fine
the same as for theft.

There are no such laws or rulings as are here represented to
exist. All the relations between publishers and subscribers are gov-
erned by the common law and statutes as in force in the several states.
In New York one rule may prevail, in Massachusetts another. The
Post Office Department, moreover, has nothing whatever to do with
the matter further than to instruct its postmasters that they must
not lend their official aid to publishers in forcing periodicals upon
unwilling addressees. If a person notifies a postmaster that he does
not want a certain paper or magazine delivered any longer, the post-
master is required not only to respect the request, but also to send
to the publisher a formal notice to discontinue it. If the publisher
ignores this notice, the postmaster is authorized to dispose of the
periodical for old paper.

The franking privilege is a fruitful source of discussion. In
1890 the question was raised whether a compilation composed of
extracts from the message of the President, the annual reports of

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW. 633

the heads of the executive departments, the admiral of the navy,
and the commissioner of navigation, could be admitted to the mails
as "free matter." General Tyner discussed it thus:

" Two kinds of mail matter are, by the provisions of law, admitted to the mail
without the payment of postage: (1.) public documents printed by order of
Congress, the Congressional Eecord, or any part thereof, or speeches, or reports
contained therein, which may be sent in the mails under the frank of senators
and representatives, and certain officers of the two houses of Congress; (2.) official
matter, which the law defines as * relating exclusively to the business of the
government,' and which may be sent free in penalty envelopes, not under a frank,
by any authorized officer of the Government. Strictly construed, the law does not
permit a senator or representative to frank the report of a cabinet officer or head
of a bureau, or any other strictly official document, unless it shall have been
printed by special order of Congress, or shall have been subsequently incorporated
as a part of the Congressional Eecord. The law expressly provides that the right
to send ' official matter ' free in the mails shall be extended to all officers of the
United States Government, not including members of Congress (see act of July
5, 1884, Sec. 3, 23 Stats., p. 158). On the other hand, the law, strictly construed,
will not permit an executive officer to send free in the mails the Congressional
Record, speeches or reports therein contained, or other public documents printed
by order of Congress such as can be carried under the frank of a member of
Congress.

" The one can be franked and must bear the signature of the person sending it,
to whom the franking privilege is by the law intended; the other is not matter
that can be carried under frank, and is sent for the benefit of the Government
only, under certain penalties intended to protect the mails.

*' The compilation presented is not a public document in any reasonable sense.
So much of it as is made up of quotations from executive documents, reports,
etc., cannot be lawfully carried as free matter under the frank of a member of
Congress, and so much as is made up of the Congressional Record, speeches,
reports of committees, etc., cannot be lawfully carried free in a penalty or official
envelope. Some action by Congress authorizing the compilation and publication
of such a document is necessary to entitle it to come within the provisions of the
law relating to free matter, or such as can be carried under a frank, or to official
matter or such as can be enclosed in penalty envelopes.

"It would require a construction so liberal as not to be warranted by the
language or spirit of the law, to permit an individual in no wise connected with
the Government, to make up pamphlets, or other publications, or extracts from
speeches, executive reports, and other public documents, so as to admit them to
the mails * free,' even under the franks of senators and representatives. It is
also somewhat questionable whether a member of Congress should be rightly
exercising the franking privilege by putting his frank upon pamphlets gotten up
for special purposes by unofficial persons, societies, committees, or corporations,
though considerable latitude in such cases has been heretofore allowed by the Post
Office Department during political campaigns."

A decision rendered by Judge Thayer not long ago upon demurrer
to the indictment in the case of the United States vs. Boyle, in the

634 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

District Court of Missouri, discussed the transmission of "dunning
postal cards " through the mails. This question had been similarly
discussed and passed upon in many instances by General Tyner.
The postal cards in the case read thus :

" Please call and settle account which is long past due, and for which our col-
lector has called several times, and oblige."

(The postal card upon which the above words were written without display was
held to be mailable.)

"You owe us $1.80. We have called several times for same. If not paid at
once, we shall place with our law agency for collection."

(The postal card on which the above words were written was held to be unmail-
able.)

" You owe us $1.80 long past due. We have called several times for the amount.
If it is not paid at once, we shall place the same with our lawyer for collection."

(The postal card on which the above words were written was held to be unmail-
able.)

Judge Thayer, discussing the case, said :

"Section 1 of the Act of September 26, 1888, provides 'that all matter, other-
wise mailable by law, upon the envelope or outside cover or wrapper of which, or
any postal card upon which, any delineations, epithets, terms or language of an
indecent, lewd, lascivious, obscene, libellous, scurrilous, defamatory or threaten-
ing character, or calculated by the terms, or manner or style of display, and obvi-
ously intended to reflect injuriously upon the character or conduct of another,
maybe written or printed, or otherwise impressed or apparent, are hereby declared
nou-mailable matter, and shall not be conveyed in the mails,' etc. If the post-
cards in question are non-mailable, it is because they contain language of a
'threatening character,' within the meaning of the law, or because they contain
language 'calculated . . . and obviously intended to reflect injuriously upon the
character and conduct ' of the person to whom they were addressed. It is clear
that they fall within no clause of the statute unless they are within the clauses
last referred to.

"Two of the cards, as will be observed, contain a demand for the money alleged
to be due, and a threat to place the demand in the hands of a lawyer for collection
if not paid at once. The question, therefore, arises whether Congress intended
to prohibit the mailing of postal cards containing, or on which are written, threats
of that kind. The language of the statute is very general, and certainly may be
construed as a prohibition against mailing postal cards which contain threats to
bring suit if debts are not paid, as well as being a prohibition against mailing
cards containing threats of personal violence, or threats of any other character.
It is most probable, I think, that Congress intended the Act should receive that
construction. It is a well known fact that prior to the passage of the law some
persons had made a practice of enforcing the payment of debts by mailing postal
cards or letters bearing offensive, threatening or abusive matter, which was open
to the inspection of all persons through whose hands such postal cards or letters
happened to pass. In some quarters the practice alluded to of sending communi-
cations through the mail that were both calculated and intended to humiliate and
injure the person addressed in public estimation, had become one of the recog-
nized methods of compelling payment of debts. Congress evidently intended by
the Act of September 26, 1888, utterly to suppress the practice in question. It
has not only declared that libellous, scurrillous and defamatory matter written
on postal cards, or on envelopes containing letters, shall not be disseminated
through the mails, but no matter of a 'threatening character,' or that is even
' calculated . . . and . . . intended to reflect injuriously upon the character or
conduct,' shall be so disseminated, if written on postal cards, or on the envelopes

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW. 635

of letters, and hence is open to public inspection. I conclude that a postal card
on which is written a demand for the payment of a debt, or a threat to sue, or to
place the demand in the hands of a lawyer for suit, if the debt is not paid, is now
non-mailable matter. Henceforth, persons writing such demands and threats
must enclose them in sealed envelopes, or subject themselves to criminal prosecu-
tion.

" The language employed in the postal card described in the first count is not
of a threatening character, and, in my opinion, no jury would be warranted*in
finding, in view of its contents, that it was obviously intended by the writer to
reflect injuriously upon the character or conduct of the person addressed, or to
injure or degrade him in the eyes of the public. It is true that it contains a demand
for the payment of a debt, and says it is long past due, and that a collector has
called several times; but it is couched in respectful terms, and no intent is apparent
to put it in such form as to attract public notice, or to make it offensive to the
person addressed. Congress has not declared that postal cards shall not be used
to make such demands, and a construction of the act ought not to be adopted that
will unnecessarily restrict their use for business purposes. The card in question
cannot be held to be non-mailable, without being over-critical and extremely punc-
tilious in the choice of language which men may lawfully use in their daily transac-
tions."

The question whether a letter can be attached was discussed some
time ago in one of the papers. A postmaster appears to have
written :

" A young man in our village handed me a letter to register, which he said
contained fifteen dollars, and which he proposed to send to his mother in Buffalo.
A person to whom he owed ten dollars for two weeks' board heard of it and came
to the post office to see about it. I refused to give any information concerning it,
and he then went to a justice of the peace and swore out a writ of attachment,
and a constable came to the post office to serve it upon me. I declined to recog-
nize his authority, whereupon he said that he would have that letter if he had to
smash the post office in to get it, that he was an officer of the law, and that I
had to obey the writ. I still refused, and then he commenced a torrent of abuse
and knocked in the door leading into the interior of the post office. I had a
double-barreled gun, a revolver and a slingshot nearby, which I keep for the
protection of the mails. I didn't want to kill the fellow, so I used the slingshot
upon him. The first blow laid him upon the floor, and then I hit him five or six
times over his face. I was arrested for assault with intent to kill, and fined $25
and costs. Now did I do right in protecting that registered letter from going
into the hands of the constable, and if I did, how about the fine imposed upon
me?"

The answer was that the constable had no right to attach the let-
ter. It was in the custody of the United States, in the mails, and
his action was unlawful. The postmaster had a right to resist his
levying upon the mail matter, using only such force as was neces-
sary to prevent his interference with the mails. But this postmas-
ter used more force than was necessary, and was properly fined.

The Attorney General for the Department frequently has to dis-
cuss the question whether the use of fac similes of stamps, postal

(J36 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

cards, etc., is lawful. For example, it is not an uncommon thing
for a business man to have a card printed in imitation of the United
States postal card, the only difference being that in lieu of the
words "United States Postal Card " he will substitute "Smith's
Eostal Card," or "Brown's Postal Card," and perhaps his own
portrait, or some other, in place of the official one. A one cent
stamp is affixed to these cards, and they are deposited in the post
office.

An ingenious advertising scheme was recently devised by a
retail house whose business is mostly local. It was a fac simile
of a cancelled postal card of the ladies' size, purporting to be from
one woman to another recommending the firm in question. On
each side of the card was printed an advertisement in imitation of
a newspaper clipping. These cards were distributed by carriers.
Imitations of the special delivery stamp have been printed on
envelopes. The official inscription would be eliminated and in its
place would be the name and address of the firm or person issuing
the same, or sometimes a return request: "If not delivered in ten

days return to ." In the rush of handling mail it is not

unusual for the mail clerk to take this card for a special delivery
stamp, and to handle these letters with the special delivery
matter.

Imitations of postal money orders, postal notes, and the seal of
the Post Office Department and other postal devices, have been used
for advertising purposes. Government "penalty envelopes " are fre-
quently imitated in style and size of type and manner of display.
Stamps are always affixed, but at a casual glance such an envelope
would naturally attract more attention than an ordinary one. These
different advertising devices are used innocently and without any
intention to defraud the revenues ; and very few persons are aware
that such a use of postage stamps and other obligations of the United
States is in clear violation of a penal statute. The statute says :

" It shall not be lawful to design, engrave, print, or in any manner make or
execute, or to utter, issue, distribute, circulate or use any business or professional
card, notice, placard, circular, handbill or advertisement, in the likeness or
similitude of any bond, certificate of indebtedness, certificate of deposit coupon,
United States note, Treasury note, fractional note, or other obligation or security
of the United States, which has been or may be issued under, or authorized
by, any act of Congress heretofore passed or which may hereafter be passed; or

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW. 637

to write, print or otherwise impress upon any such instrument, obligation or
security, any business or professional card, notice, or advertisement, or any notice
or advertisement of any matter or thing whatever. Any person violating this
section shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars, recoverable one half to
the use of the informer."

The section quoted below defines the words " obligation or other
security of the United States " to mean all representatives of value
issued by authority of Congress. Postal cards, money orders, postal
notes, etc., are "representatives of value" issued by authority of
Congress :

" The words ' obligation or other security of the United States ' shall be held to
mean all bonds, certificates of indebtedness, national (bank) currency, coupons,
United States notes, Treasury notes, fractional notes, certificates of deposit,
bills, checks or drafts for money, drawn by or upon authorized officers of the
United States, stamps or other representatives of value, of whatever denomination,
which may have been or may (be) issued under any act of Congress."

The penal section says :

" Every person who, with intent to defraud, falsely makes, forges, counter-
feits or alters any obligation or security of the United States, shall be punished
by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment at hard
labor not more than fifteen years."

It has been hard to say just whether the various European pre-
mium bond schemes are fraudulent or not. Nearly all the smaller
European states issue what are known as "premium bonds." The
face value of these is generally small ; they bear small interest, and
the loans under which they are issued run from twenty-five to one
hundred years. But the principal feature of these securities is the
"premium" scheme. The general plan is this:

On an issue of six per cent, interest bearing bonds by a European
government, for instance, the government pays three per cent., the
other three per cent, being covered into a sinking fund. Then, at
stated intervals during the life of the issue of bonds, the accumu-
lated three per cent, is portioned off into capital and lesser prizes,
ranging from a few francs to many thousands of dollars. Of course
it may be years before a bond of a given number gets a chance
to figure in a drawing; and even after a bond is "drawn" it is still
redeemable for its face value at maturity and the three per cent,
yearly interest, although disqualified to take further chances in the
"drawing." But it can readily be seen that a "drawn" bond is a

(538 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

drug in the market in comparison to an "undrawn " bond, no matter
how remote the chance of its being a prize winner. This ingenious
scheme was an invention of the Austrian government years ago,
when nobody would buy its bonds, owing to its low credit in money
markets. By arousing the lottery spirit the bonds went off rapidly.

The prizes range from $2,000 down, and the average price of a
bond is from $10 or $20. Princes and dukes, whose noble ances-
tors have left them nothing with which to maintain the family name
and castle, too proud to work, frequently issue "bonds " with the
authority of the government on the premium plan, with the hope
of repairing their shattered fortunes.

There has never been any question as to the integrity of the gov-
ernment issuing these bonds ; but the plan under which the bonds
are redeemed is clearly that of a lottery, and, even if there were no
other objections, this feature would close the mails against their
circulation. It has been observed that these loans always run for
long periods, generally fifty, seventy-five, or ninety years; and, as
the value of the bonds is small, many of them passing from hand to
hand and from generation to generation, are probably lost or
destroyed, the government can afford to pay what would seem to be
unusual interest. In Europe, as in this country, these securities
are purchased by persons of small means; they do not have many
valuable papers to look after, and consequently are not very careful
of two or three bonds.

It has been urged that the Department casts reflections upon the
commercial integrity of the countries issuing premium bonds;
and that it violates all principles of international amity by its rul-
ing. But the plan under which these bonds are redeemed is that
of a lottery, and this fact has never been contradicted. Then shall
foreign nations be allowed a privilege denied to our own citizens ?
Congress forbids the use of the mails to all lotteries, and there is
no difference between a lottery conducted by an organized govern-
ment and one conducted by a company or individual operating
under the laws of a state of the Union. Why is it not claimed that
the United States impugned dishonesty to the state of Louisiana in
declining to transmit over its post routes all matter relating to a
lottery company organized under the constitution of the state ? In
the opinion of Congress lotteries were injurious and demoralizing to

CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF LAW. 639

the community, and it therefore announced that it would not be a
party to the dissemination of matter relating to these schemes ; no
distinction is made between a legal and an illegal lottery ; between
an honestly conducted and a fraudulent lottery.

Again it has been insisted that, as these premium bonds will
eventually be redeemed and pay a fair interest, the scheme cannot
be properly classed as a "lottery." Suppose a company issues
tickets at $20 each bearing three per cent, interest payable at
redemption, and redeemable at their face value and interest,
seventy-five years from date; these tickets to be divided in series
and entitled to participate in a certain number of drawings for
prizes every drawn ticket to be cancelled. While this plan
would be more liberal to participators than the ordinary lottery
scheme, yet it would be in many respects advantageous to the com-
pany, and it would still retain the element of gambling. Such a
concern could well afford to pay three per cent, interest, and one
per cent, in large prizes on the millions which it would have at its
disposal for investments of various kinds. And, too, how many of
these tickets would be presented for redemption at the end of
seventy-five years? Passing from father to son, and from hand to
hand, half of these tickets would be lost or destroyed. How many
would buy these tickets if the only incentive were the three per
cent. ? The courts have repeatedly held that any scheme for the dis-
tribution of prizes of unequal value as the result of a drawing or by
lot or chance, whether the holder of a chance receives full value for
the price of his chance in merchandise or other manner, or the
chance is given free as an inducement to purchase, is a lottery
within the meaning of the law.

Before the passage of the lottery law of September, 1890, a great
many concerns in various parts of the country dealt in these pre-
mium bonds. They were generally sold on the instalment plan, and
in batches of five to ten bonds. The principal dealers were located
in New York and San Francisco. One of the largest dealers in
New York City was E. H. Homer, of 88 Wall Street, who had
agencies in about fifteen of the larger cities. It is estimated that
one hundred million dollars were invested in these bonds in this
country. The advertisements of the agents of these foreign bonds
were published in most of the large newspapers in the country.

640 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

After General Tyner's adverse opinion postmasters were promptly
notified to advise publishers to discontinue the insertion of these
advertisements. Considerable objection was raised by the dealers;
and even the representatives of foreign governments objected.
They maintained that as these were official securities their circula-
tion and advertisement could not be interfered with.

In order to bring the matter to issue cases were made up against
Horner, and indictments were found against him for mailing circu-
lars relating to premium bonds in several different states. A test
case was arranged by the attorneys for Horner and the Department
of Justice. It was carried to the Supreme Court. Horner' s main
contention was that the premium bond scheme was not a lottery
within the meaning of the lottery act, and that the law as far as it
applied to such schemes was void, as it contravened a treaty between
the United States and Austria. But the court held that "A statute
is a law equally with a treaty, and if subsequent to and conflicting
with a treaty, supersedes the latter." Horner was subsequently
indicted, and late in May, 1892, was arraigned before Judge Bene-
dict's court in the southern district of New York. A verdict of
guilty was rendered by the jury, and Horner went out of business.

The complaint against these premium bonds was not so much on
account of their illegal features as that their sale was in the hands
of unscrupulous dealers, who did not hesitate to enrich themselves
at the expense of their customers and the good name of the country
whose securities they handled. These dealers purchased bonds in
Europe in large quantities and probably at reduced prices. Many
of the larger firms had agents in the European states who bought
up bonds often at a large discount from owners who desired to con-
vert them into money, and many complaints were made by persons
who had been defrauded by different dealers.

DEPKEDATIONS AND BOBBEKIES.

ND so it happens, every now and then," said
the Washington Post once, and the Washing-
ton Post ought to know, because its editor
is none other than ex-Postmaster General Hat-
ton, "that somebody in the post office service
goes wrong, to whom the experience of others
in the same line of criminal industry seems
to be of no avail. It is one of the most sur-
prising things in the world that such pecu-
lations should ever occur, the certainty of
exposure being almost as infallible as a mathematical axiom.

" So thoroughly organized is the system of inspection in the Post
Ofcce Department," the Post continued, "that, to use a strong meta-
phor, every man who perverts the funds in his charge or pilfers from
the mails takes his life in his hands. He certainly takes his liberty
and good name and invariably loses both. He cannot cover his
tracks for any great length of time. The letter thief is preordained
to detection. There is no chance of his eluding the silent and
unerring pursuers, who, once possessed of a clue to their game, are
never thrown off the scent.

" Were a similar system of surveillance to obtain in the manage-
ment of the private affairs of life," the same authority concluded,
" in the conduct of a mercantile or banking business, for instance,
the list of embezzlements and defalcations would be speedily reduced
to a minimum. That there are comparatively few in the post office
service is a fortunate thing for the people. The value of the ser-
vice depends upon its safety, and the Government has reduced its
supervision of the letters entrusted to it for transmission to very
nearly an exact science."

That is the whole story; and yet it is impossible, of course, that

641

642 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

all depredations and robberies of the mails should be prevented.
Every depredator will admit that he is a fool to ply his thievery,
and every burglar or safe-breaker, and every highway robber upon
the plains, knows that prison walls or the fatal bullets of fatal guns
are surely in store for him. The stories of depredations and of rob-
beries are of no interest as the simple recital of a crime. On the
contrary, they are abhorrent. But details establish and fasten in
the mind the fact better than any mere assertion, no matter how
strongly it may be put, may do. It is worth while to know, not
merely that the thieves and the highwaymen are imprisoned or
killed, but that this particular thief, and that particular highway-
man, served so many years at hard labor, or died horribly, riddled
with such a number of cold lead bullets.

The depredators find money and stamps in the letters, the money-
drawers, or the safes. The money they can dispose of. It is not
so easy, it is not easy at all, in fact, with the stamps. One of the
most remarkable post office robberies on record occurred at Minne-
apolis in July, 1886. The thieves entered through the stamp
window at night, closing the shutter behind them. Then they
proceeded to break into the safe in which the stamps were kept, per-
forming the task with a diamond drill so quietly that men working
close by in the building did not hear them. In front of the safe
was a large plate glass window, but the cold had covered it with
frost so that no one could see through it. The burglars secured
600,000 two-cent stamps and 200,000 one-cent stamps, besides some
money, the whole amounting to the value of over $14,000. They
tried to dispose of their booty through other persons who acted as
"fences," and in this way they were caught at Chicago. $4,078
worth of the stamps were recovered, and of course the thieves were
punished.

There had been post office robberies in Western Pennsylvania.
Stamps were stolen. They had to be disposed of. In various
places, especially in Buffalo, large quantities of the stamps were
offered for sale to business men known to use the mails extensively.
A liberal discount on the face value was offered the purchaser, and
a plausible story about how they came to be in possession of the
would-be seller offered. The business men of course informed the
postmaster or the Department at once ; and thus information was not

DEPREDATIONS AND ROBBERIES. 643

only given that led to the tracking of the thieves, but by the pub-
lication of the news broadcast the thieves were prevented from
disposing of their wrongly gotten wares.

A Nebraska man lately made a more or less ingenious explanation
why he possessed a large quantity of postage stamps. He had been
in Plattsmouth on the evening of a post office robbery, and a few
days after was discovered in Omaha trying to sell a large quantity
of postage stamps corresponding, in amount and size of the sheets in
which they were found, with the stamps stolen from the Plattsmouth
office. The thief said that he had been corresponding for a long
time with his lady love and had sent her a great many stamps with
which to reply. Just before the Plattsmouth robbery he and his
sweetheart were married, and she surprised him by handing back all
the postage stamps that he had sent her during their long corre-
spondence !

A colored man was arrested at South Boston, Va., charged with
robbing the post office there. He had been a leader in several bene-
ficial and cooperative societies and the agent among his people for
building and loan associations. Suspicion was first directed towards
him when it was learned that he was paying up his accounts to his
social orders in stamps. The robbery had occurred months before,
and the post office safe containing several hundred dollars' worth of
stamps was hauled away on a wheelbarrow. But the man had not
disposed of all his stamps. A good number were found among his
effects.

Clay, Cal., is a collection of a few straggling houses. Its only
prominence, in fact, is due to the presence of a post office within its
borders. One evening a couple of fellows broke open a barn about
three quarters of a mile from Clay and stole a horse and roadcart.
They then drove to the post office, and after breaking in the flimsy
door blew the safe open with a little gunpowder. Possessing them-
selves of the $72 worth of stamps which it contained, the two men
struck out for Sacramento. They had gone but a short distance
when the cart in which they were riding upset ; but leaving it in the
road, they continued their journey on foot. Every wayside saloon
they chanced to hit upon was visited and the stolen stamps were
exchanged for beer. The news that this kind of currency was being
distributed travelled fast. It came to the knowledge of the

644 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

deputy sheriff ; he arrested the two men and held them until they
were taken in custody by the post office inspector.

Sometimes persons who mail letters and papers are careless, and
hence now and then a post office depredation. One night in Chicago
two small boys accompanied by a little girl (and a very ragged trio
of youngsters they were) were observed removing bulky newspaper
packets stamped for mailing from the top of a post box at the corner
of Twelfth and Wabash Avenue. A citizen gave chase after the
juvenile thieves, but they eluded apprehension. Three children
similar in appearance were watched removing like packages from
the mail box at the corner of Eighteenth and State Streets. The
superintendent of city delivery cheerfully acknowledged that com-
plaints had been made to him of the larceny of parcels deposited on
the boxes.

" We are not responsible for these losses," said he. "People who
fail to deposit parcels and papers at this office do it at their own
risk. Messenger boys intrusted to post valuable bundles, and in
many cases heavy packages with numerous stamps attached, are sup-
posed to deposit them in this office, but to save time they place
them on the tops of boxes at street corners. About one year ago
numerous complaints were made by citizens that mail packages were
being stolen from the covers of post boxes. We finally ran down
the thief. He was an old man who had reduced his method to a
fine art."

It fares equally hard with persons who try to use cancelled
stamps. Out in Los Angeles not long ago a man was fined $70 for
using a cancelled two-cent stamp. The postmaster at Portersville,
Cal., noticed when cancelling stamps on letters mailed at his office
a letter with a cancelled stamp affixed in prepayment of postage.
He accidentally cancelled the stamp a second time, and forwarded
the letter to its destination. He was aware, however, who had
mailed the letter. A few months later the same man presented
himself at the stamp window of the Portersville office and desired
to purchase twenty-five cents' worth of postage stamps. He was
noticed to have in his hand a letter addressed to a young woman at
Milo, and this letter had a cancelled stamp affixed. The man, on
purchasing the stamps, deposited the letter with the stamp affixed
in the receiving box. The postmaster withdrew the same from the

DEPREDATIONS AND ROBBERIES. 645

mail, and, advising the inspector-in-charge at San Francisco, was
ordered to forward the letter to headquarters. An inspector visited
Portersville and soon caused the depredator to be taken into cus-
tody. He entered a plea of guilty and was promptly sentenced.

In an average year perhaps fifty postmasters, a score of assistant
postmasters, forty or fifty post office clerks, and anywhere from fifty
to seventy-five mail carriers are arrested for dishonesty. But there
are 230,000 people employed in the postal service in one way and
another, and this percentage of wrong doing is infinitesimal. But
that does not prevent the inspector force from using its hardest
efforts to cut the percentage down, and they are continually doing
it, especially since the lottery matter has been driven from the
mails. It is to be said in extenuation, too, that these tens of thou-
sands of postal employees are exposed to much temptation, and some-
times they find themselves in tight places financially, and it seems
a simple thing to help themselves out temporarily by "turning
over " some of the Government cash which is lying idle on their
hands. Every dishonest postal employee imagines that his method
of stealing is a new one ; that he does it better than anyone ever did
it before ; and that he can elude detection. He is invariably caught.
He can never tell when he is being watched or how.

The rifling of letters is one of the most dangerous as well as one
of the most common forms of theft; for no matter if a clerk becomes
expert in detecting the presence of money in letters, he also exposes
himself the more to detection by the very freedom with which he
practises his art. A short time ago a clerk in a North Carolina post
office was caught in the act of rifling a letter. He had achieved
such expertness in distinguishing paper money by the smell that after
his capture he selected with unerring accuracy seven letters contain-
ing banknotes out of four hundred placed before him, though blind-
folded, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the inspectors. Not
merely old bills can be thus smelled out, but new ones. Likewise
employees of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing say that they
can "smell out" new notes in envelopes every time.

Then the carelessness of people who enclose money in letters is
most surprising. Probably the most flagrant case of this kind on
record was that of a Chicago man who mailed an envelope with
$4,000 in it and forgot to put any writing on the inside or any

646 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

address on the outside. He got the sum back by application
to the Dead Letter Office after having much trouble to prove
his claim.

Money is sent by post in all sorts of queer ways, the notion being
usually to disguise it as much as possible. At Christmas time
particularly such tricks are practised as poking bills in the fingers
of gloves or of mittens knit by affectionate women relatives for little
ones far away. Small sums of cash are concealed for similar pur-
poses in candy boxes and secreted with merchandise in every con-
ceivable fashion. Coin is very apt to be dispatched between two
pieces of pasteboard, perhaps glued on. It is always mailed in that
manner abroad, for the reason that it is against the law in Europe
to send anything made of gold or silver by post. Probably the
safest way to enclose a greenback in a letter is to roll it up tightly
between the hands like a small lamplighter and lay it in the fold of
the paper. A note so treated is not readily detected by holding the
envelope containing it up to the light, and the expert postal thief
who is able to tell a letter that has money in it by the peculiar
touch is "stumped" by the lamplighter.

Coin lost in the mail mostly meets this fate by slipping out of the
envelope. When that happens it is found in the letter sack, and
forwarded to the Department with an accompanying description
of any letters or packages in the same sack which look as if the
money might possibly have escaped from them. The number of
the mail and the place it came from, together with the number of the
sack, are also recorded. If the owner communicates his loss to
the Department, he can get the money back by giving data properly
corresponding with all these detailed memoranda. Banknotes are
not infrequently enclosed in newspapers for mailing. An Ohio
postmaster sent in a $20 bill which he found put up in this Avay in
a paper without an address a while ago. From $800 to $1,500,
found in dead letters and uncalled for, is turned in to the Treasury
every month.

In some of the larger post offices galleries are provided from
which suspected clerks may be watched. The honest ones do not
object to them, because they are never under suspicion. The dis-
honest or the over- sensitive sometimes make objections; but the
moral effect of these repressive provisions is always wholesome.

DEPREDATIONS AND BOBBERIES. 647

Recently a gallery was added to the New York office. Said In-
spector James, describing it :

"It is to command .a view of the office and the men employed on
the big floor. A similar gallery has been constructed in the post
office at Chicago, and in several other offices arrangements have been
made by which inspectors can see without being seen. The loss of
letters is a serious thing. The public depends upon us to ferret out
the dishonest clerks, and now we are better prepared than ever
before to do it speedily, and without having honest men under sus-
picion. From the new gallery the work of the city department
clerks can be seen at all times. And men from this office will be
on duty in that gallery regularly. I believe it will tend to prevent
dishonesty, and if it does no one will be happier than I. It is an
unpleasant duty to arrest any man."

The thieving postal employee is usually caught with the decoy
letter or the marked money or coin. He is always caught somehow,
and these are customary methods. As has been said so many times,
the postal thief is never smart. He does as well as he can, but he
is never sufficiently smart to escape detection. Two or three
months ago the Scott Stamp & Coin Company of New York noticed
that some of its mail was missing. Inspectors laid the usual trap
for the suspected carrier. A letter addressed to the Scott Company
and containing a marked silver dollar was placed in the box from
which he took his mail. This box adjoined that of the carrier on
whose route the stamp company is. The suspected carrier should
have placed the letter in the box for " misboxed " letters, but he
did not do so. He was arrested and the marked dollar was found
in his pocket. The letter he had destroyed. The fellow confessed,
and found himself in jail. He had a wife and three children. He
had not thought of them. This last summer a Boston letter carrier

who had seen twenty-four years of service was arrested for embez-
zling letters, and sentenced to five years at hard labor in the state
prison. He was married, and had two grown-up children.

The record shows that the loss of registered mail is an infinites-
imal percentage of the ' enormous total transmitted by this method.
Perhaps this has been the reason why, in the unusual cases referred
to, rare ingenuity has sometimes been exercised to defraud this
branch of the service. Out in Idaho in 1887 a postmaster devised

648 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

what he considered a "dead sure thing." He took his book of
blank money orders, and having chosen a fictitious name, drew
orders under that name in favor of various banks in adjacent states
and territories. His advices corresponding to these orders were
signed with his real name as postmaster. Then he wrote a letter
to each bank, signing his false name, saying that he had drawn the
orders in their favor because he had expected to be travelling
through their towns and to be able to collect the cash thus deposited.
But he had changed his plans, and would be obliged if the banks
would kindly collect the money and remit it by registered letter to
him at a certain post office mentioning a post office, not far from
his own, which received all its registered mail through his own
office. To complete the plan in every detail he appended in each
case to the fictitious letter his own certificate as postmaster that
the bogus person was a genuine remitter. Of course the banks
promptly complied, sending the money by registered mail to the post
office indicated. When the registered letters addressed to the false
name passed through his own office on their way to their destination
he retained them. In this highly original manner he secured nearly
$20,000, skipping thereupon to Canada. The fraud was very soon
discovered in the Department, and this clever postmaster was extra-
dited on a charge of forgery, the Attorney General holding that the
issuing of a United States security without authority was forgery
in a technical sense. This applied because the postmaster was only
authorized to issue money orders upon receiving an equivalent in
cash. Five years in the penitentiary was his portion. '

It is hard to find in the records of the Department cases in which
women have depredated the mails. Children have done so, and
among them have been girls, and not long ago in Huntington, W.
Va., two girls of nine and twelve narrowly escaped the penitentiary.
Business firms in that town had been missing mail. The lock boxes
at the post office were watched, and the two little girls were caught
unlocking the boxes and with several keys upon their persons. In
order to convict them it was necessary to have evidence, and the
Huntington postmaster took the stand. While he was testifying
one of the grand jury happened to come into the court room. He
saw what was going on and hurried back into the grand jury room.
In a moment the foreman of the jury came in and called the atten-

DEPREDATIONS AND BOBBERIES. 649

tion of the district attorney to the fact that the indictment was
indorsed "not a true bill." The fact had escaped attention. It
was generally believed that the girls had been made the tool of
some practised post office thief.

But if it is such an unusual thing to find a woman depredator,
there is noticed in the rare cases no lack of ingenuity or nerve. An
eighteen year old girl was clerk in one of the New York sub-
stations. She resigned. An examination of the books revealed a
shortage of $400 in the money order account. The girl told the
officers that her predecessor had taught her how to manipulate the
books so as always to have a balance on hand. This woman was
arrested. Two days later the post office inspectors missed the pretty
ex-clerk. They finally heard of her in Buffalo, and a warrant was
sent there for her arrest, but when the marshal went into the house
she slipped out and was hauled into the house of a neighbor through
a window. Shortly afterwards an inspector was in Buffalo after
another defaulter and he tried to locate the girl, who was at the
house of a Mr. Clark. The inspector went to Clark's, having
arranged with the letter carrier on that route to deliver a bogus
registered letter. The girl saw him and ran. Mrs. Clark asked if
the inspector had a warrant, and when he said no, slammed the door
in his face.

Then the inspector swore out a warrant for Clark for harboring a
fugitive from justice. That made Clark give the girl up. She
was taken to New York and admitted to bail in $5,000. When her
trial was to take place the girl's lawyer asked for a long continuance
on the ground that she was about to become a mother and could not
endure the strain of a trial. The man who had furnished bail for
the pretty defaulter went to the United States District Attorney and
said that he wanted to surrender the young woman. She was
arrested and sent to Ludlow Street jail. It was a bad situation for
the jail officials. If the girl had been incarcerated in any other
prison than Ludlow Street jail, or if she had not been a United
States prisoner, she would have been sent at once to Bellevue
Hospital. But the United States Government does not make any
provision for sick prisoners, and she must therefore remain there,
away from friends and with no other medical attendance than could
be given by the prison doctor; and her child would go through life

650 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

with the added stigma of having been born in prison, which could
never be removed. The young woman was merely a prisoner held
for trial. She had not been convicted of any crime, and she might
not be. It was a case similar to that of Ethel Osborne, the Eng-
lishwoman who stole her friend's jewels and was afterwards sent to
prison for perjury in testifying that she had not taken the jewels.
She was released before her sentence expired, in order that her child
might not be born in prison. The girl was finally sent to the
Sloane Maternity Hospital. Sometime after she went into the
United States Court, accompanied by her sister, who carried a fine
fifteen days old boy baby, and pleaded guilty to embezzling the
$400. She was sentenced to six months in New City jail and
ordered to pay costs, which amounted to almost $200.

In an average year perhaps eight hundred post offices are burglar-
ized. These crimes are usually committed by organized gangs of
thieves, operating under directions from a chief at headquarters in
one big city or another. New York appears to be the centre for the
business. As a rule, the robbers attack post offices far distant from
their headquarters, where they meet at intervals, and divide what
plunder they receive. They are equipped with the appliances for
breaking into the strongest buildings, frequently employing explo-
sives, " cracking " safes by the most expert methods, and not hesita-
ting to resort to murder on occasion. It is no wonder that the
inspectors agree that increased rewards should be offered for the
capture of such criminals. Evidently better provisions for safes
should be made, and more care should be taken by postmasters to
guard their valuables, and more than all, the inspector force should
be increased; but it is a satisfaction that the hard work which the
inspectors put in upon these cases is having its effect, and that the
robberies of post offices are becoming fewer.

The post office burglars do some funny things. Last summer
they robbed the safe in the Ashland Village, N. H., post office, and
stole a hand-car and rode away for miles upon the railroad, only to
be caught in the end, of course. In a New Jersey village the post
office is next door to the railroad station in an isolated neighbor-
hood. Behind the letter boxes stood the safe, which was supposed
to be burglar proof. But the burglars drilled holes in its doors and
put in powder. This was touched off and the safe was fairly

DEPREDATIONS AND BOBBERIES. 651

blown to pieces. The explosion shattered all the boxes in front and
generally destroyed the office. The burglars then began to search
the interior of the safe. It contained only a newspaper bundle that
looked as if it were an old overcoat wrapped up. The bundle was
tossed into one corner of the room. The burglars left behind them
a pick-axe, a hatchet, and a cold chisel. About four days before the
postmaster had received a consignment of $10,000 worth of stamps.
It was these, and not an old overcoat, that were wrapped up in the
newspaper in the safe.

Last June Postmaster Olmsted, of Geneseo, New York, got up
very early one morning to overtake his extra work, which had been
caused by the accumulation of mail in consequence of a normal
school commencement. He encountered two burglars breaking his
safe open. As Mr. Olmsted pushed in the heavy front door of the
office he was confronted by a big fellow with a drawn revolver, who
yelled:

" What in - - are you doing here ? "

Mr. Olmsted sprang upon the burglar and dragged him down the
stone steps to the sidewalk and threw him. But the second burglar
appeared and gave the postmaster a stinging blow with a billy and
then began to shoot. Mr. Olmsted turned to grapple with the
second man, when the first jumped up, and before those who had
been aroused by Mr. Olmsted's yells could reach the scene both
burglars had escaped. Mr. Olmsted sustained severe wounds. The
burglars had entered by means of a back window, prying it open
with a jimmy. A number of tools were found in the office, showing
that the thieves were not amateurs in the business. The citizens of
Geneseo wanted their gamey postmaster to have a chance personally
to shoot these fellows when they were caught.

The last of the desperate gang of post office robbers who infested
Northwestern Pennsylvania within the past year, and who were
run to cover by Post Office Inspector McCalmont, met a most tragic
end. He was Patsy Dowd, formerly of Dunkirk, and called Dun-
kirk Paddy. He was out driving with a couple of painted women
from Jamestown; they had words, and Dowd struck one of the
women in the mouth. This occurred a short distance above Flu-
vanna. They drove to the hotel there. A young man saw that one
of the women had blood on her face and asked her what was the

652 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

matter. She told him that Dowd had hit her in the face. Dowd
(and the women) retreated to the parlor for the young fellow and
his companions said they would " fix " Dowd. They pushed open
the door. Dowd drew a revolver; the others threw beer bottles at
him. Dowd fired, and the young mediator fell dead with a bullet
in his heart. Dowd escaped from the hotel. The police of James-
town were sent for. Dowd returned to the hotel in a few minutes,
and seeing what he had done, turned the revolver toward his heart
and fired four deadly shots into his body. Dunkirk Paddy was not
thirty, but he had spent a good part of ten years in the penitentiary.
His father had fallen from a roof and been killed ; a brother was
burned to death; and another of the three brothers had thrown him-
self in front of a locomotive and been crushed to pieces. Only a
sister is left of this family. She is a nun.

On the night of May 19,1892, Postmaster Clouse of Woodbury,
Pa., who lives in a house adjoining the post office, was awakened
by an explosion in his office. He ran to the second story window
and looked into the street. Just as he reached the window a man
came out of the post office and ran down street. Mr. Clouse called
to him to stop. The man did stop, and wheeled, and raising his
arm, fired a shot at the postmaster, who involuntarily dodged; and
the bullet cut through the sleeve of the night-shirt in which Mr.
Clouse was arrayed. Mr. Clouse went into the house, searched for
a weapon, and, not finding one, started downstairs and out into the
street, still dressed for slumber. As he reached the street the man
was waiting. He fired two more shots one of which cut through
the shoulder of the postmaster's only garment. In the meantime
Mrs. Clouse had been attracted by the noise, and hurried to the
veranda. The robber then devoted his attention to Mrs. Clouse,
and fired two shots, one of which necessitated the mending of her
only garment at the neck. Mr. Clouse, thoroughly infuriated,
started toward the robber. When within five feet of him another
shot cut a lock of hair from the postmaster's head, and the man
turned and ran, followed by Mr. Clouse, who by this time had been
joined by several citizens. The robber escaped, but he was captured
after a few days in Bedford County.

A daring robbery occurred last July at Pleasant Grove, Utah.
The shop and post office were boldly broken into by five tramps.

DEPREDATIONS AND ROBBERIES. 653

They took groceries and neckties, as well as money. It hap-
pened on a Sunday morning, when the streets of the town were
almost deserted. But between ten o'clock and noon five men were
observed by several housewives, wandering around "sizing up" the
town. The morning services closed about twelve o'clock and soon
the members of the congregations sought their homes. The obliging
postmaster was requested to open and distribute the mail. As he
reached for a bundle of letters on the rack, three men jumped up
from behind the desk containing the money and stamp drawer, and
making out through a side entrance went racing down the road.
The entire populace of "the town gave chase. The fugitives were
all good sprinters, but they proved no match for the gallant citizens
of Pleasant Grove, and after being chased through the fields and
over the wire fences, they were at last captured. The men who
held out until the home stretch, escorted their prisoners back to the
town and later took them to Ogden, where they were securely
stowed away in jail. The remaining two burglars were afterwards
found hidden away in a grove. When questioned as to the cause
which led to the commission of their crime, the prisoners answered,
frankly, "hunger."

The depredations and the robberies now and then brought to light
in the East and the North are effete and playful compared with the
exploits more frequently chronicled in the South and West. One
picturesque episode marked the capture of three desperate mail
robbers in Barbour County, W. Va. There was in that part of the
country an organization known as the Red Men. At the beginning
it was fairly respectable, being intended for the purpose of putting
down tramps; and it included many good citizens. But bad char-
acters got control of it, and it degenerated into a sort of White Cap
society, terrorizing that region, whipping prominent persons and
committing murders occasionally. Members of the association,
Avhile engaged in their nocturnal excursions, wore long robes of red
stuff, red hats and red masks in the shape of hoods, so that their
appearance was very awful. Three desperadoes named Price, Kittle
and Hoffman were the leaders, and they finally took to knocking
down mail messengers and stealing letters and packages. So they
were hunted down in the mountains and were sentenced to long
terms of imprisonment. In court the most important witness was

654 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the secretary of the Red Men, named Brown, whose beard by the
official tape was found to measure five feet four inches in length,
his moustache measuring four feet two inches.

Two or three months ago United States Marshal Carter B. Harri-
son received in his office at Nashville the following telegram from
Cookeville, in Putnam County, Tennessee :

"Storekeeper and Gauger Ballinger killed last night near Cookeville. Send
officer to Barnes' distillery to-day."

For some time a warrant had been out for the arrest of Frank
Sloan on the charge of robbing the mail. Sloan was formerly post-
master at a country town in Putnam County. Deputy Marshal
Brown, Storekeeper Ballinger and Creed Cardwell finally struck
Sloan's trail and traced him to a log cabin six miles east of Cooke-
ville. Sloane was in the house with the windows and doors barri-
caded. The three officers surrounded the house, each man going
up at a different point to prevent Sloan's escape. Sloan knew they
had come after him, and were going to take him or fight desper-
ately. At daylight Brown and Cardwell passed around the house
to get within range of the rear entrance. Ballinger was to watch
the front door. Suddenly a sheet of flame shot out of the window.
Ballinger threw up his hands and sank to the ground. Sloan had
shot his barrels of buckshot into the officer. The lower part of his
body was fairly riddled, and death relieved him in a few minutes.
Sloan drove the other officers off the premises and fled. He was a
most desperate character. Only a few days before he had ridden
into Cookeville, fired into the post office, and run the postmaster
out of town. He then called on the sheriff, made him walk up to
him with uplifted hands, and terrorized all the citizens with his
ready gun.

"An unrivalled celebrity," writes Mr. Rene Bache, "was earned
by the famous Rube Burrows, who may fairly be considered to
have been the most remarkable outlaw of the century. Begin-
ning life as a school teacher, he soon found a more congenial
employment in robbery and murder, betaking himself to depreda-
tions on the postal service incidentally. His last important achieve-
ment of this sort was an attack upon a train near Buckatunna,
Miss., on the Mobile and Ohio Railway, in September, 1889. In
this adventure he was accompanied by Joe Jackson and Rube Smith,

DEPREDATIONS AND ROBBERIES.

'655

two criminals of almost equal notoriety. The three men mounted
the tender and covered the engineer and fireman with their pistols,
proceeding thereupon to pillage the express and mail cars, taking all
the registered packages which they found in the latter.

"By this time Rube Burrows had become such a terror in that
region that rewards aggregating 17,000 were offered for his capture,
dead or alive. The Post Office Department offered $1,000 of this
amount. But the robber was so dreaded that no one dared to
attempt to arrest him. Nevertheless, a man named Carter and
another determined to accomplish it. Having watched the desperado
arid seen him enter a negro cabin, they offered two colored men,
who were passing, $100 each to enter the cabin, seize Burrows when
off his guard, and cry out for their assistance. The negroes carried
out their part of the programme, and Carter and his companion
rushed in, covering Burrows with their guns. Having bound the
captive, they laid him helpless across the back of a mule and car-
ried him in that way to the neighboring village of Myrtlewood,
Ala.

" There being no one in charge of the jail, Burrows was taken to
a house near by and guarded by the two negroes and a white
man, while Carter went to a hotel a little distance away to sleep.
During the night Rube said that he was hungry and asked one
of the negroes to hand him the canvas sack containing his " kit, "
in which were some crackers. The request was complied with, and
plunging his manacled hands into the bag, he drew forth two pis-
tols, with which he covered his captors. Having thus secured the
advantage, he obliged them to remove his bonds and compelled the
two negroes to bind and gag the white man. Then he made one of
the colored men similarly bind and gag the other.

" A less desperate ruffian would have been content thereupon to
make his escape, but Burrows declared that he proposed to recover
his rifle and money, which Carter had taken. So he compelled the
remaining negro to lead him to the room in the country hotel which
Carter occupied, obliging him at the pistol's muzzle to knock at the
door and say that Carter was wanted at the jail. Carter opened
the door unsuspectingly and found himself confronted by Rube's
revolvers. However, he was a braver man than the desperado sup-
posed, and instead of surrendering, he immediately drew his own

656 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

weapon and began firing. A tremendous fusilade ensued, the fight
being carried out to the street, where Burrows fell, mortally wounded.
Carter was severely hurt, and lost an arm in consequence of a wound
in his shoulder. He subsequently received the whole of the Gov-
ernment reward, as well as a share of the balance of the $7,000.
Rube Smith is in prison for life. Joe Jackson stabbed one of his
'guards in the jail at Jackson, Miss., and ran up a spiral stairway,
to the top of the building. Being covered with rifles, rather than
be taken, he deliberately dived sixty feet to the stone floor below
and was smashed to pieces."

The far Southwest and West give us, however, the most numer-
ous and terrible tales of robbery and murder, and they illustrate, just
as strikingly, though not more so, for that would be impossible, the
admirable bravery of the mail and express messengers and the stage
drivers and the train men.

" Hold-ups " of mail trains have been common in the Lone Star
State. A gang of highwaymen led by the notorious Ed Reeves held
up a train on the Panhandle Road in Texas in 1887. They robbed
the express car, knocking the messenger senseless with a six-shooter,
but the postal clerk refused to open the mail car in response to their
demand. So they blew open the door with dynamite and cut open
the pouches. They then selected watches, rings, diamonds and
other valuables from the passengers. Altogether it was very thor-
oughly done, and, besides jewelry, they secured $7,009.50 in cash.
Reeves was subsequently captured after a desperate fight, during
which he was shot five times, and preferring death to imprisonment,
he offered the sheriff $50 to kill him. Five inspectors and deputy
marshals lay in wait for Whitley, another desperate member of the
band, at his house. When he entered they covered him with their
guns, but he opened fire at once, and fell, riddled with bullets,
dying, pistol in hand, and with the smile upon his face which men
wear who die from gunshot wounds.

The post office inspectors meet with many thrilling experiences
trying to capture these desperate mail robbers. "One of the most
desperate criminals of this description," to quote from Mr. Bache
again, "was the notorious H. W. Burton, otherwise known as Ham
White. He achieved the repute of being the most daring highway-
man of recent times, and obtained the very remarkable distinction

DEPREDATIONS AND BOBBERIES. 657

of two sentences of life imprisonment. A feature of his work was
that he always did it alone, holding up stage coaches single handed,
although himself a cripple. He committed four such robberies in
one day near Austin, Tex. No bandit was ever more courteous than
he. In one case, where he went through a vehicular conveyance on
a lonely road in 1877, he took $20 from one passenger, and gave him
back $1 for supper; another, who was a drummer from Chicago,
gave up $75 and got back $5 commission for cash, while a third
unfortunate was permitted to keep his watch because of its senti-
mental value as an heirloom.

"That particular adventure which occurred near Luling, Tex.,
brought about Ham White's arrest. Although sentenced for life,
he was pardoned by President Hayes in 1881. But the business
of highway robbery had an irresistible fascination for him, and
within six weeks he was at it again. Seeking a new field of opera-
tions in Arkansas, his lonely figure clad in brown jean pantaloons,
cavalry boots, slouch hat and mask of black cloth, became very soon
a familiar terror of the road. His final exploit was the robbing of
a stage between Fayetteville and Alma. There were fourteen pas-
sengers, thirteen men and one woman, and they were obliged to get
out one by one, while the brigand covered the head of each with a
cloth sack, as a preliminary to going through them. This was inva-
riably his method. Two hours later he took lunch at the same
hotel with his victims, and was interested in listening to their
stories of the bravery which each had exhibited in the trying ordeal
they had been through, although he subsequently said that he had
never met with a more peaceable party. After being captured he
made a desperate attempt to escape from the office of the jail, being
alone with the jailer, at whose head he presented a dummy pistol
which he had made in his cell out of leather and tinfoil. However,
the jailer knocked him down with a pair of shackles and quietly
secured him. His plan was to get the keys, lock his guards in the
jail, and run for it."

"I have been a wanderer in the great West since 1871," writes a
former Indian agent, "and have had some decidedly characteristic
experiences with mail robbers and Indians. I am also guilty of
having been a postmaster myself. In fact, I am a ' XX ' postmas-
ter, having been twice commissioned to serve in that capacity at a

658 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

romantic city in Arizona. I guarded my post office at one time for
more than a week, aided by six special deputies all of us fully
armed. Finally a box of giant powder was placed under my office,
and a fuse was lighted. The result was a cloud of dust, accompanied
by a little 'stage thunder,' as the building was constructed of
adobes, with a tin roof.

" Once I was an innocent passenger on a stage coach, travelling
from Tucson to Florence, Ariz., when a bold stage robber with a
bad heart and a big gun actually persuaded me to contribute three
whole Mexican dollars towards his support. He also took the mail
pouch and Wells, Fargo & Co.'s express box. His manner was
very impolite. He robbed seven stages in Arizona single handed.
He was a very desperate man, but one evening he was surrounded
by a sheriff's posse of seven men, armed with double barreled shot-
guns, and the next day the robber was buried at Tucson. His name
was Billy Brazzleton."

The "hold-ups" of stages and trains in the South and West had
been noticed to be so numerous for in the year ended June 30,
1891, seventeen coaches were held up and pillaged in the South and
twenty-eight in the West that large rewards were offered for
the apprehension of any mail robbers. One good story will suffice
to illustrate the reckless terror which the Western highwayman
strikes in the hearts of travellers ; the fated desperation with which
he escapes capture, the fated stroke which lays him cold in death.

But first for a pleasant little story of a robbery which occurred
near Grand Junction, Col., in 1886. Highwaymen held up a mail
train, having piled ties on the track to stop it. They put the con-
ductor and fireman out on a pile of rocks alongside the track, and
kept them covered with guns while they got the postal clerk and the
express messenger and put them likewise under guard. Being con-
tent with pillaging the express and mail cars, they did not interfere
with the passengers; but an Englishman on his travels was so
delighted at the notion of encountering so wild and woolly an
adventure, that he insisted upon leaving the car in order to see what
was going on. When the porter tried to stop him, saying that he
would be killed if he went outside, he replied :

" But I want to observe how they rob a train in this blooming
country, don't you know."

DEPREDATIONS AND JOBBERIES. 659

He did actually get as far as the platform when a bullet through
his hat induced him to retreat precipitately. The robbers were
pursued by inspectors and United States marshals through Colorado
and Utah to a dugout where they had taken refuge. There were
four of them and each got five years.

The story of Black Bart, the notorious "P o 8," is typical. In
1888 Special Officer Hume, of Wells, Fargo & Co., issued a bulletin
describing the supposed robber, offering rewards for his capture, and
enumerating some of his exploits. He had robbed twenty-eight
stages in California alone between July, 1875, and November, 1883,
and had just been released from the state prison at San Quentin.
The recent "hold-ups," which had been "one man" robberies and
had drawn attention to Black Bart again, had been the robbery of
the mail and of Wells, Fargo & Co., between Bieber and Redding;
of the stage from Downieville, through Nevada City, where the
mail was stolen, and a gold bar worth $2,200 was taken from the
express messenger; and of the stage between Eureka and Ukiah,
where some $700 was taken from the mail messenger and probably
$1,000 worth of valuables from seven mail bags which were rifled.

It appeared from the description that Black Bart was sixty years
old, measured five feet eight in his stockings, was light and had
blue eyes, wore a number six shoe and a seven and one quarter hat,
weighed one hundred and sixty pounds, and never used tobacco,
liquor or opium in any form. It appeared, too, that he was some-
what waggish, was neat in dress and polite in manner, never swore
or gambled, and though he had made his headquarters in San Fran-
cisco for eight years was hardly known to anybody there.

The bulletin of Special Officer Hume shows that Black Bart had
acknowledged having committed the twenty-eight robberies in
California alone, and that twenty-seven of these related to the
United States mail as well as to the treasure boxes of Wells, Fargo &
Co. A list of all these robberies is given, and it looks like this:

1. Stage from Sonora to Milton, July 26,1875,4 miles from Copperopolis.
John Shine, driver.

2. Stage from San Juan to Marysville, Dec. 28, 1875, 10 miles from San Juan.
Mike Hogan, driver.

3. Stage from Roseburg to Yreka, June 2, 1875, 5 miles from Cottonwood.
A. C. Adams, driver.

4. Stage from Point Arena to Duncan's Mills, Augusts, 1877, between Fort
Ross and Russian River.

5. Stage from Quincy to Oroville, July 25, 1878, 1 mile from Berry Creek.

660 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

6._ stage from La Porte to Oroville, July 30, 1878, 5 miles from La Porte.
D. E. Barry, driver.

7._ stage from Cahto to Ukiali, Oct. 2, 1878, 12 miles from Ukiah.
8. Stage from Covelo to Ukiah, Oct. 3, 1878, 10 miles from Potter Valley.
9. Stage from La Porte to Oroville, June 21, 1879, 3 miles from Forbestown.
Dave Quadlin, driver.

10. Stage from Roseburg to Redding, Oct. 25, 1879, 2 miles from Bass Station.

11. Stage from Alturas to Redding, Oct. 27, 1879, 12 miles above Millville.

12. Stage from Point Arena to Duncan's Mills, July 22, 1880, 2j^ miles from
Henry's Station. M. K. McLennan, driver. Mr. W. J. Turner and wife of San
Francisco, passengers.

13. Stage from Weaverville, to Redding, Sept. 1, 1880, 1 mile from Last
Chance. Charles Cramer, driver. Took breakfast next morning at Mr. Adkin-
son's on Eagle Creek.

14. Stage from Roseburg to Yreka, Sept. 16, 1880, 1 mile from Oregon State
Line. NortEddings, driver.

15. Stage from Redding to Roseburg, Nov. 20, 1880, 1 mile from Oregon State
Line. Joe Mason, driver.

16. Stage from Roseburg to Yreka, Aug. 33, 1881, 9> miles from Yreka. John
Lulloway, driver.

17. Stage from Yreka to Redding, Oct. 8, 1881, 3 miles from Bass Station.
Horace Williams, driver.

18. Stage from Lakeview to Redding, Oct. 11, 1881, 2 miles from Round
Mountain post office. Louis Brewster, driver.

19. Stage from Downieville to Marysville, Dec. 15, 1881, 4 miles from Dobbins
Ranch. George Sharpe, driver.

20. Stage from North San Juan to Smartville, Dec. 27, 1881.

21. Stage from Ukiah to Cloverdale, Jan. 26, 1882, 6 miles from Cloverdale.
Harry Forse, driver.

22. Stage from Little Lake to Ukiah, June 14, 1882, 3 miles from Little Lake.
Thomas B. Forse, driver.

23. Attempt to rob stage from La Porte to Oroville, July 13, 1882, nine miles
from Strawberry. George Helms, driver. Geo. W. Hackett, Wells, Fargo & Co.'s
messenger fired at robber and put him to flight.

24. Stage from Yreka to Redding, Sept. 17, 1882, 14 miles from Redding.
Horace Williams, driver.

25. Stage from Lakeport to Cloverdale, Nov. 24, 1882, 6 miles from Clover-
dale. Ed Crawford, driver.

26. Stage from Lakeport to Cloverdale, April 12, 1883, 5 miles from Cloverdale.
Connibeck, driver.

27. Stage from Jackson to lone City, June 23, 1883, 4 miles from Jackson.
Clint Tadcliffe, driver. (In all the above mentioned robberies, he also robbed the
United States mail.)

28. Stage from Sonora to Milton, Nov. 3, 1883, 3 miles from Copperopolis.
R. E. McConnell, driver.

Black Bart used to be called the "P o 8," because on two or
three occasions he left behind, for the consolation of the robbed,
some verses that he had written. A favorite lay of his seemed to be :

" here I lay me down to sleep
to wait the coming morrow
perhaps success perhaps defeat
and everlasting sorrow
I've labored long and hard for bread
for honor and for riches
But on my corns too long youve tred

DEPREDATIONS AND ROBBERIES. 661

let come what will 111 try it on
my condition can't be worse
and if there's money in that box
Tis munny in my purse."

The brave express messengers who capture these highwaymen and
kill them fare hard sometimes at the hands of fickle Fortune.
Eugene Blair of New Hampshire, long a faithful messenger, killed
the notorious Big Jack Davis. After years of exposure to the
attacks of outlaws, having twice escaped death at their hands while
defending Wells, Fargo & Co.'s treasure, he was finally persuaded
by his brother, John Blair, a state senator of Nevada, and by his
mother, too, to withdraw from the express service. His brother
and his mother believed that the deadly rancor of the cut-throats
whom he had so often brought to grief would lead them to assassinate
him. He did resign, and he went into the lumber business with
his brother at Pioche, Nevada. There, while hauling wood one
day, his wagon brake failed to act, and the team, a pair of little
mustangs, could not hold the wagon back, which turned over,
throwing some of the wood on the driver and crushing his chest so
that he was crippled for life. He returned to his old employers,
who pensioned him for life. Not long ago the Wells-Fargo stage
express was attacked by two highwaymen near Redding, Cal. The
messengers drew their guns. One robber received a dozen buck
shot wounds in the face, neck and chest, and the other was shot
through the body. But one of the messengers was killed. The
cut-throats who had caused his death were soon recovering their
health, comfortably housed, in jail, to be sure, but well-fed and
pampered by sentimental sympathizers.

The bombarding and looting of the Southern Pacific express at
Collis, Cal., recently, is still fresh in the minds of Calif ornians, if
not of Easterners. Four thoroughly desperate highwaymen blew up
the cars with dynamite, secured treasure from the express boxes and
the mails, and rode away. But posses were formed and the robbers
captured, though not till one or two of the pursuers had been
killed. No time was lost, however, in stringing them up to the
arm of a convenient tree. Thus is the stroke of justice sure. It
may fall slowly; but it may fall quickly.

SMUGGLING IN THE MAILS.

HE instructions of the Post Office Depart-
ment say that when letters, sealed pack-
ages, or packages the wrappers of which
cannot be removed without destroying them,
are received in the United States from a
foreign country, and the postmaster of the
exchange office at which they are received
has reason to believe they contain articles liable
to customs duties, he shall immediately notify the customs offi-
cers of the district in which his office is located, or the customs
officer designated by the Secretary of the Treasury for the purpose of
examining the mails arriving from foreign countries, of the receipt
of such letters or packages, and their several addresses ; and if any
letters or packages of this character are addressed to persons residing
within the delivery of his office, the postmaster shall also, at the time
of its arrival, promptly notify the addressees that such letters or
packages have been received, and are believed to contain articles liable
to customs duties, and that they must appear at the post office at
a time designated, not exceeding twenty days from the date of the
notice, and receive and open the letters or packages in the presence
of an officer of the customs.

Letters, all registered articles, and sealed packages the wrappers
of which cannot be removed without destroying them, which are
supposed to contain articles liable to customs duties, and which are
addressed to persons residing outside of the delivery of the United
States exchange office where they were first received from abroad,
have to be forwarded without longer detention than twenty-four
hours to their respective destinations marked "supposed liable to
customs duties," and upon their receipt at the offices of destination
the postmasters shall notify the nearest customs officer and the

SMUGGLING IN THE MAILS. 663

persons addressed, in the manner and to the same effect as provided
in the case of similar letters or packages addressed for delivery at the
United States exchange office where they were first received.

If a reply is not received from the customs officer within twenty
days from the date of the notice, the package may be delivered to
the addressee without regard to the stamp " supposed liable to
United States customs duties." But if the customs officer should
request the postmaster to allow the package to be opened in his
presence by the addressee, the postmaster will comply with the re-
quest, and immediately report the nature arid probable value of the con-
tents to the customs officer (retaining the package in his possession);
whereupon the customs officer informs the postmaster of the amount
of the customs duties due upon the package, which amount the post-
master collects upon the final delivery of the package and transmits
under official registration to the customs officer. But this does not
authorize or allow customs officers to seize or take possession of any
letter or sealed package while it is in the custody of a postmaster,
nor until after its delivery to the addressee ; and no letter or sealed
package can be detained at the office of delivery a longer period than
may be necessary for the appearance of a customs officer and the
addressee.

Unsealed packages (except registered articles which are to be
treated as sealed packages) received in the mails from foreign
countries, which are found upon examination by customs officers to
contain articles liable to duty, are delivered by the postmaster at the
exchange office of receipt to the proper officer of the customs with
notice of delivery to the person addressed. But books received from
countries or colonies of the Universal Postal Union, all unsealed pack-
ages of merchandise received in the mails from Mexico and Canada,
and all packages received by parcels post from any foreign country,
which are found to be dutiable, when addressed to a post office other
than the exchange office of receipt, are promptly transmitted by mail
to the addressees charged with the amounts of duty respectively, which
amounts postmasters at the offices of destination collect of the ad-
dressees and remit by the first mail, under registration, to the collec-
tor of customs of the district.

In case of the refusal or neglect of addressees of such dutiable
books, or packages of merchandise from Mexico and Canada, to

664 THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

apply for them at the post office of destination within a period of
thirty days from the date of their receipt and pay the customs duties
and any postage charges, the postmaster specially returns the same
under official registration marked to show why they were not de-
livered to the collector of the customs of the district ; but in the
case of packages received by parcels post from foreign countries
which appear to be undeliverable, postmasters at post offices of des-
tination, at the expiration of thirty days from the date of their
receipt, report to the " Superintendent of Foreign Mails, Post Office
Department," that the packages are undeliverable, giving the reason
why, and stating the names and addresses of both senders and ad-
dressees of the packages, dates and places of mailing, dates of receipt,
and what the packages are said to contain, and hold the packages
subject to the further orders of the Department. Postmasters are
instructed to collect the customs duties on such books and packages
forwarded to their offices for delivery to addressees, and promptly re-
mit the sum so collected by them to collectors of the customs in
registered letters, using penalty envelopes and omitting the regis-
tration fee, as for all official matter.

Postal clerks on railway post offices exchanging mails with Canada
are directed to examine carefully Canadian mails coming into their
hands for distribution, and to turn into the nearest exchange post
office where there is a customs officer all books and packages of
merchandise known or supposed to be liable to customs duty.

At the New York post office are rooms assigned to the customs
offices, known as the customs bureau, and another room for the use
of these offices in the examination of unsealed packages. On the
arrival of a foreign mail all unsealed packages of books, or packages
which contain merchandise which may possibly be dutiable, are taken
out under the supervision of the superintendents of the distribution
and delivery divisions, or their representatives, and sent to the room
of the delivery division, where they are examined by the customs
officers. Those found to be dutiable are seized, and those free of
duty sent out for delivery or despatch. There is no special method
pursued in the New York office for the detection of smuggling ; but
superintendents and their assistants use their best judgment 111 de-
ciding what packages may or may not be reasonably supposed to
contain dutiable goods, and, of course, the postal officials cooperate

SMUGGLING IN THE MAILS. (J65

as well as may be with the customs officers. In most cases of
seizure it is not believed by the customs officers that either the
senders or the addressees are guilty of wilful violation of law or
of intention to defraud ; but they send, or send for, articles, either in
ignorance of the statute or with a bona fide intention of paying
whatever duties may be chargeable. This supposition is borne out by
the fact that the New York office receives many small articles, such
as trinkets, photographs, handkerchiefs, and such articles of clothing
as may be sent from Europe by mail, in which the writer expresses
a willingness to pay whatever duties the law imposes.

About 750 sealed packages are annually seized at the New York
office after they have been opened by their owners in the presence of
the customs officers, and probably not less than four times that
number are received at other offices. In an average year almost
25,000 unsealed packages are seized at the New York office and
released on fines which are equivalent to the duties, amounting to
almost $ 20,000. The value of uncut diamonds, which are duty free,
imported through the mails in an average year is almost $175,000.
The first inspector detailed at the New York bureau made some very
valuable seizures. The most valuable was a small package contain-
ing diamonds valued at $25,000. Another lot was valued at
$20,000. There are no such seizures made now, of course.

Methods that have been adopted by would-be smugglers, are in-
genious enough. A package from Germany was found not long ago,
to contain a small roll of butter. A wire was passed through and
an obstruction met with, which proved to be a tin box filled with
valuable jewelry. Cakes of soap have been used to send diamonds
in. Often the interior of a book is found to have been cut out,
leaving nothing but the outer portion and the covers to give it the
appearance of a book intact. The diamonds, or whatever it is
intended to smuggle, are snugly packed in the cavity. Often persons
ordering gloves or shoes from abroad will have the right hand or left
hand glove or shoe sent by one mail and the other by the next. The
first is held until the other arrives to make the lot complete ; and
then the duty is collected in case the seizure is released. A large
number of small packages are found to contain wedding cake,
which is not held, not being subject to duty. The dutiable and
supposed dutiable articles arriving from foreign countries are con-

666 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

tinually becoming fewer in number, no doubt because senders and
addressees are becoming more familiar with the law.

At the cities along the Canadian border not much smuggling has
been detected, and it is doubtful, with the watchfulness of the rail-
way postal clerks, if much is practised. At Buffalo a short time
ago, however, it was suspected that sheet music was smuggled into
this country through the mails, because of the large number
of postal notes returned to the Buffalo office for collection by a
music dealer of Toronto ; for in one week they amounted to nearly
$100. The prices of music in this country have been higher, because
the composer has to be paid a royalty ; but with the Canadian or
English pirate this expense is saved, and with the expense of print-
ing and postage alone to pay he can sell his music for almost nothing.
It had been suspected for some time that this contraband sheet music
had been smuggled into this country ; but to be sure of it was a hard
thing. In a large post office the clerks have lists of the copyright
publications. But when they are obliged to sort two or three
thousand letters within a time already too short for them, they hardly
like to stop for the small chance of finding any. At Port Huron,
Michigan, much trouble has been encountered with this contraband
music. It has frequently been found rolled on the inside of transient
newspapers, and in the hurry of this work it was not possible to
inspect all of these. Still, the suspicious ones are examined.

The postal officials at San Francisco report that the practice of
using the mails for smuggling is not prevalent now ; whether because
the many ruses employed have lost their novelty, one by one, or
because the amount of risk is too great in proportion to the value of
the article smuggled, cannot be said. The fact remains, however,
that where fifty or sixty seizures a month used to be reported at the
San Francisco office, the average monthly number now scarcely
exceeds twenty. The peculiar genius shown by the senders of pro-
hibited articles is pretty well balanced by the astuteness of the clerks
whose duty it is to ferret them out. About the holiday season the
greatest number of confiscations are made. Silk handkerchiefs, silk
hose, fans, books, curios, etc., in all guises and shapes, turn up. It
is a common practice to place a silk handkerchief in a newspaper,
the whole being ordinarily folded and addressed. These handker-
chiefs come principally in the China mails ; and they seldom reach

SMUGGLING IN THE MAILS. 667

their destinations. A veteran in the San Francisco office, who has
made a close study of the silk handkerchief problem, says :

" I don't know how it is that I manage to discover handkerchiefs
in newspapers. To my mind it appears a sort of intuition that
extends itself to the ends of my fingers. I can feel the handkerchief.
A newspaper with a handkerchief on the inside seems to have a
gritty feeling when doubled or otherwise manipulated in the hands."

It is almost impossible to explain how clerks manage to discover
these handkerchiefs. It is done by a sort of intuition. One would
have to see a clerk wrestling with a heavy Oriental newspaper mail
to enjoy the fullest satisfaction offered by his curious detective art.
Probably a dozen handkerchiefs of more or less value are detected
in every China mail.

From Germany and France gloves frequently come, and they also
are often hidden away in the capacious folds of foreign newspapers ;
and shrewdly enough, as at New York, the senders frequently send
one glove at a time so that, should it be discovered, it may be taken
as a sample and allowed to pass ; but the wary seizure clerk lays
the suspected glove and paper aside quite confident that in
the next mail its mate will come and he is right in nearly every
case. The feminine craze for silk stockiugs, especially those manu-
factured in the cities of France and other European silk centres, is
evidenced by the number of these dainty articles that come through
the mails. Very much like the silk handkerchief the stocking de-
clares itself to the fingers of the examining clerk by the gritty
feeling of the paper in which it is enclosed.

The recent regulation concerning the importation of books
through the mails, by which all books are technically seized,
naturally swells the volume of confiscations, although forfeitures of
this kind are more or less technical. There can be no criminal
intent on the part of senders of books to cheat the Government out
of any duty. They never could be disguised in any shape and they
are turned over to the Custom House without comment.

A clerk in the San Francisco office relates an odd incident in
connection with the smuggling of a silver cross from Ireland in a
Catholic prayer-book. A square hole was cut in the inside of the
book from page one, clear through to the last, and in this hole was
placed a silver cross of considerable value. The book was closed,

668 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

strongly and unsuspiciously wrapped, so that its sides could be
plainly seen, and it was thus sent through the mails. When it
reached the Eegistry Division the seizure clerk pressed his fingers
into service, and, convinced that the book was not what it pretended
to be, the usual " suspected " stamp was placed upon it, and it was
turned over to the customs officer. In cases of this kind the delib-
erate intent to defraud is manifest, and but little mercy is shown.

It seems odd that attempts should be made to smuggle mush-
rooms into the San Francisco office from Italy, but the practice,
curiously enough, obtains. The mushrooms are of a peculiar kind,
dried and quite relishable by Italian residents. They come in small
bags with sixteen or eighteen cents postage attached, and are invari-
ably detected, not, however, by the intuition of the seizure clerk's fin-
gers, but purely through the exercise of his organs of smell, upon which
the mushrooms, packed or unpacked, have a very emphatic effect.

But smuggling through the mails is going out of date. The
marvelous accuracy of the postal machinery and its grasp upon so
many details make practically useless any traffic of this kind. Of
all articles attempted to be smuggled through the mails, fully nine
tenths are discovered. Forfeiture does not always result. The
seizing officers, into whose hands this matter is given, use discretion
in dealing with the claims of persons to whom the seized articles are
addressed. Persons allowed to depart with the detained articles
are carefully instructed to inform the sender of the circumstance, so
that the offence may not be repeated. Where it is repeated and
the records are so kept that a repetition may readily be noted no
mercy can be shown.

THE LAEGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE.

HE Sixth Auditor's office and its methods
and organization, are of interest to every one
of the 230,000 people who have relations
with the postal service and to hundreds of
thousands more. This bureau consists of an
auditor, a deputy, a chief clerk, ten chiefs of
division and a disbursing officer, and about
five hundred clerks, and is unquestionably
the largest and most important accounting
office in the world. In 1891 the total amount of accounts and
claims passed upon by the Auditor's clerks exceeded $450,000,000.
Nearly 70,000 post offices making ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
quarterly statements of their busi-
ness submit annually nearly 300,-
000 separate accounts, and every
figure in each is carefully checked
and examined in the Auditor's of-
fice ; and this is not taking into con-
sideration the principal post offices,
like New York and Chicago, which
render accounts of their business
more frequently. From New York
City the money order report fre-
quently contains over 80,000
vouchers in a single week. One par-
ticular clerk during his service
in this bureau has footed over
25,000,000 separate vouchers.
Each one of the almost 300,000
accounts must be received, opened,

HON. THOMAS B. COULTER,

Sixth Auditor of the Treasury.

669

670 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

examined, verified, corrected if need be, registered and settled.
Almost every written word, and every single figure is scrutinized.
Every column is footed, every correction is verified again and
ao-ain. Every account passes through four divisions, and from the
opening rooms to the file rooms through the hands and the vigilant
scrutiny of no less than nine sets of clerks.

Until 1836 the accounts of the Post Office Department were kept
by that Department itself ; but in that year of Jackson's administra-
tion Amos Kendall caused to be established the office of the Sixth
Auditor of the Treasury, or the Auditor of the Treasury for the
Post Office Department, as he is often designated, whose duty it is
to receive, audit and file all accounts arising in or pertaining to the
Post Office Department. Considered with respect to the duties of
the other five auditors of the Treasury, the scope of the duties of
the Sixth Auditor is unique and extraordinary. Each of the other
five auditors, after auditing the accounts pertaining to his bureau,
forwards them, together with the vouchers, to either the First or
Second Comptroller of the Treasury, as the case may be, by whom
they are received and revised before final disposition is made of them.
But the Sixth Auditor has complete supervision and control of the
post office accounts without reference to any other bureau whatever.
To this statement there is one exception, viz : If the Postmaster
General, or any other person, is dissatisfied with the Auditor's settle-
ment of his account, he may within twelve months appeal to the
First Comptroller of the Treasury, whose decision shall be conclu-
sive. This exception is, in fact, little more than an apparent one, as
cases of appeal to the First Comptroller are of very rare occurrence.

The business of the Sixth Auditor's office has increased in equal
steps with the growth of the country. . The Sixth Auditor's great
force of clerks (which is far too small for the work to be performed,
and the condition must become worse and worse, as the country
cannot be prevented from growing) are distributed among ten divi-
sions, as follows :

The Examining Division receives and audits the postal accounts of presiden-
tial postmasters.

The Book-keeping Division audits the postal accounts of fourth class post-
masters and keeps the ledger accounts of all postmasters and contractors and the
miscellaneous accounts.

The Collecting Division reviews the postal accounts of fourth class post-

THE LARGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE. 671

masters, collects balances due from and pays balances due to late and present
postmasters; sends every quarter to each postmaster in the United States a
statement of his account; has charge of the correspondence in relation to postal
accounts and of the final adjustment of said accounts.

The Review Division reviews the postal accounts of postmasters at presidential
offices and the accounts for mail transportation and miscellaneous expenses.

The Pay Division has the adjustment and payment of all accounts for the
transportation of the mails, both foreign and domestic, and for all post office
supplies.

The Foreign Division has the adjustment of postal and money order accounts
with foreign countries.

The Inspecting Division is charged with the examination of weekly money
order statements and vouchers.

The Recording Division audits the money order and postal note accounts,
carries on correspondence in regard to them, and pays and collects balances on
these accounts.

The Assorting Division arranges paid money orders and postal notes by states,
and post offices and numerically.

The Checking Division compares the vouchers arranged by the Assorting
Division with the statements of the postmasters who issued them.

There are over 67,000 post offices in the United States, and of
these nearly 20,000 are money order offices. Each postmaster is
required to render to the Auditor every three months an account of
the postal business at his office. The postmaster at a money order
office, in addition to rendering his quarterly postal accounts, must,
if his office is authorized to transact international business, for-
ward to the Auditor every week a statement of his money order
and postal note statement. Up to July, 1892, every postmaster
at a money order office, whether international or domestic, was
required to render his money order account weekly. But the num-
ber of such offices has recently been so largely increased that the
number of accounts at domestic offices has had to be reduced as
noted.

But the vast volume of this business is not confined to the
issuance and payment of domestic orders and postal notes. The
international money order system has spread over nearly the whole
civilized world, except Spain and the Spanish-American States, and
Russia. It is certainly a remarkable evidence of modern progress to
see a large corps of clerks busy in the settlement of postal and
money order accounts with Japan, which only yesterday was hedged
in from the rest of the world, or with the isles of the sea, which
within the memory of men yet living, were the undisputed dominion

672

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of cannibals and savages. The international business is audited by
the Foreign Division, while the domestic business employs the whole
force of the Inspecting, the Recording, the Assorting and the Checking
divisions.

" Every money order or postal note, wheresoever paid in the
United States, ultimately finds its way," one of the clerks said
recently, " into the archives of the Auditor's office, unless lost by
fire, flood or theft, after payment, and in nearly all cases of such
loss a proper voucher is substituted, so that the postmaster gets his
credit. The individual who ten years ago cashed an order in the
remotest office of the country then in the system can find that order

( , on file to-morrow in

the Department, if
for any reasonable
purpose he should so
desire." He adds :

" But while all orders
and notes paid find their
way straight to the Aud-
itor's office, not all do
that are issued. If you
apply to your postmaster
and obtain a money order
for fifty dollars, and then
carelessly lose it before
mailing, or if it is lost in
transit, or after being
received by the payee,
either you or he ^an ap-
ply for and obtain a du-
plicate from the superin-
tendent at Washington.
Thousands of such dupli-
cates are issued and paid
every year. But if after
buying a money order
you should put it into
your pocket and then un-
fortunately get drowned,
and your body should
never be recovered, the

chances are that your heirs, having no knowledge of the order, would never
recover the sum. By reason of various accidental causes an uncertain and
unknown number of these issued orders and notes is lost every year. It may be

FOR CLERKS OF THE SIXTH AUDITOR'S OFFICE.

THE LARGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE. 673

fifty, or it may be five hundred, and at the end of the year the Government is
ahead the amount of their aggregate.

" There is a tradition that this surplus, growing greater every year, would now
aggregate several millions of dollars, but this is mere tradition. While the
accounts will show how many more orders have been issued than are paid in a
given year, there is no way for the Department to know what has become of those
that are missing, or how many of them will ultimately be presented for payment,
either by the original or duplicate. Under the system of examining and check-
ing these vouchers it is next to impossible for any postmaster, were he so dis-
posed, to perpetrate any extensive frauds without being detected.

"The many thousands of money orders and postal notes, for the payment of
which a given large office may claim credit in a given week, are not only com-
pared and checked one by one upon the ' paid ' side of the statement from the
office, but after such comparison and checking they are sorted out by states, and
then by offices, just as they were issued from the thousands of country offices all
over the land; and then after being still further arranged by numbers, they are
compared and checked up against the various postmasters who issued them.
The charge upon the 'issued side' of the issuing postmaster's account, and the
credit upon the 'paid side' of the paying postmaster's account, for a given
voucher, are expected to agree. It is seldom that they disagree for any other
reason than the fallibility common to all men. In the many cases in which they
do in fact disagree, the necessary credit or debit is entered on the account, and
the postmaster is directed by circular to make a corresponding entry upon his
next weekly statement."

Most remarkable testimony of the efficiency of the public service,
and the almost absolute safety of this popular method of transmitting
money, is found in the following statement from a recent report of
the Superintendent of the Money Order System :

" All cases of alleged improper payment of money orders are referred to post
office inspectors for investigation and report. Two hundred and twenty-six cases
of this kind, involving the sum of $6,982, were acted on during the last fiscal
year. Post office inspectors recovered in the course of their investigations the
amounts of twenty-one orders, or $329.50 in all, and paid the same over to the true
payees or owners; in fifty-two cases, in which the orders aggregated $1,416.55, it
was ascertained that the claims were not well founded, the orders having been
properly paid; the paying postmasters were required to make good to the owners
the amounts of thirty-nine orders, in all $951.54, for failure to exercise the
degree of precaution enjoined upon them by the regulations as to payment; in
two cases, involving $45, in which the issuing postmasters were found to be at
fault, they were required to make good the amounts to the owners; the payees
themselves, on account of contributory negligence, in two cases, where the orders
together amounted to $10.21, were adjudged responsible, and required to bear
the loss, and the remitter, for like reason, in one case, was made to sustain it,
the amount of the order being $50; while in the remaining twenty-four cases,
where the orders aggregated $1,627.08, the Department assumed the loss, the
evidence not being sufficient to fix the responsibility upon either of the post-
masters, the remitter, or the payee."

674

THE STORY OF OTJK POST OFFICE.

The vast number of accounts adjusted and the enormous amounts
of money thereby represented are exhibited in the following brief
statement for a late fiscal year :

Number of
accounts.

Amount
involved.

Postal accounts ....

249,181

$137,594,249.11

Money order accounts

505,728

280 872 257 34

Railroad companies for transportation of mails . .

10,367
527

25,907,133.46
456 220 78

Mail contractors' star service
Ocean mail and consular postal service . .

115,455

178

5,564,383.11
615 039 17

Mail messenger accounts ...

29,342

1 052 661 38

Special mail carrier accounts

5,247

47 926 26

Superintendents and assistant superintendents
railway mail service and post office inspectors .
Miscellaneous accounts

1,723
1,599

343,787.98
1 811 080 23

Total

919 357

$454 264 738 82

In addition to all this work the office mailed during the year 332,-
883 letters, statements, etc., 12,438 Postmaster General's drafts in
payment of balances due present and late postmasters and 8,145
auditor's drafts to collect balances due the United States.

The date on which each postmaster's postal account is received is
immediately stamped on the outside of it. A case occurred within
the past year which exemplified the usefulness and necessity of this
seemingly trivial act. A postmaster in Texas had sustained the loss
of a large amount of stamps by fire or burglary, but he neglected to
make a formal claim for them with the Assistant Attorney General
for the Post Office Department within six months, as provided by
law. In due time he was called upon by the Auditor to make good
the amount. He replied that he had made his claim in one of his
quarterly accounts, giving the quarter. His account was gotten up
and his statement found to be correct; he had claimed credit therein
for the amount he had lost. The question then arose : Had he made
the claim within the six months, as required by law ? Reference to
the stamp on the outside of the account showed that by a narrow
margin of a few days the account had been received within the
prescribed period. On this evidence the claim was held to be a
valid one.

If the account is that of a presidential postmaster, it is then
turned over to the Examining Division. The corps on this division

THE LARGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE.

675

is divided into different sections ; one section passes upon the
vouchers and correspondence relating to letter carriers and the mis-
cellaneous expenses of the Free Delivery System; another upon
vouchers for railway postal clerks and the miscellaneous expenses of
railway transportation ; another upon the miscellaneous items of ex-
pense, from rent of post offices to an allowance for " cat meat."
These various details having been thoroughly examined and corrected,
the account is then fully stated and balanced, the proper record

OLD ACCOUNTS CURRENT.

made on the books, and the account forwarded to the Review Divi-
sion. This division carefully scrutinizes and reviews all the vouchers,
additions and computations, and if everything be found correct the
account is sent to the Book-keeping Division. Here the account is
again reviewed and then posted upon the ledgers of the bureau.
After this the account is turned over to the Collecting Division.
In the Collecting Division (if the account shows no balance) an
official postal card is at once sent to the postmaster, advising him of
that fact ; if it shows a balance in his favor or a balance due the

676 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

United States, a statement clearly explaining the items making up
said balance with instructions for his present and future guidance is
sent. The account is then filed in the archives of the office. The
account of a fourth class postmaster is treated in like manner, except
that it is audited by the Book-keeping Division and reviewed by the
Collecting Division.

When a postmaster retires from office, his account is finally
adjusted by the Collecting Division. If the final audit exhibits a
balance due the late postmaster, a Postmaster General's draft drawn
in his favor on the postmaster at some large office is remitted to him
in payment thereof. If the account on final audit shows a balance
due the United States, a collection draft therefor is drawn upon him
in favor of some postmaster. If neither he nor his sureties will pay
the draft, it is recalled, and certified copies of the accounts, vouchers
and necessary papers transmitted to the solicitor of the Treasury,
under whose directions suit is instituted against the principal and
his sureties. The United States Statutes provide that, in order to
hold a postmaster's sureties, suit must be brought within three years
after the close of the account,

So enormous is the quantity of work in this office that until the
last two or three years it was all that the Auditor could do, where a
postmaster or late postmaster owed a balance to the United States,
to notify him of that fact and demand immediate payment. This
summary method of collection was stigmatized by many postmasters
as a " stand and deliver " method. But the system of keeping the
accounts has been so much improved and the force of clerks so
judiciously distributed that complaints of this kind are heard no
more. Some one has suggested that before postmasters are appointed
an educational test be given to them, and their knowledge of busi-
ness and accounts examined into. This proposal has been declared
impracticable ; but the present Auditor, Hon. Thomas B. Coulter of
Ohio, has by an admirable system of printed statements and instruc-
tions accomplished more in the direction of fitting postmasters for
their responsible positions than any other scheme could well be
devised to do. Their errors are clearly indicated to them and they
are enjoined to be prompt, careful and accurate in their dealings
with the Government. Since the inauguration of this system, a
wonderful change for the better has been made apparent.

THE LARGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE.

67T

In addition to the business growing out of the quarterly accounts
current and the money order statements, a third grade branch
of the business coming to the Auditor's office (to quote again
from the above authority), is comprised in the accounts of the great
army of mail contractors, mail carriers, and mail messengers scattered
throughout the country, including all who have to do with the
transportation of the mail ; from the enormous business done by the
great railroad and steamboat lines down to the most insignificant

THE VETERAN CLERK AMONG THE ARCHIVES.

star route in the remotest portion of the country. All business
pertaining to this branch of the service is settled by the Pay Divi-
sion, so named from the fact that it is from the quarterly statements
here made up that the Postmaster General takes his data in making
up his warrants upon the Treasury for the payment of these con-
tractors, carriers and messengers.

These warrants, after being verified by the clerks of this division,
reviewed by the Review Division, registered by the Book-keeping
Division, and countersigned by the Auditor, are returned to the
proper official of the Post Office Department, by whom they are

678 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

mailed to the parties in interest. During an average year this
division settles accounts with railroad companies, steamboat lines,
star route contractors and sub-contractors, steamship lines, mail
messengers, special mail carriers and miscellaneous creditors, to the
total number of 150,000, upon which settlements is paid out from
the Treasury the sum of over 130,000,000. In the Book-keeping
Division, in addition to the ledger accounts with postmasters, are
also kept over 7,000 mail contractors' accounts, embracing almost
20,000 mail routes, and altogether filling one hundred and twenty
or more large ledgers, and requiring during the year more than six
hundred thousand entries. In an average year this division regis-
ters and passes over 100,000 Postmaster General's warrants, amount-
ing to more than $30,000,000.

The very smart are continually writing to the Postmaster General,
or directly to the Sixth Auditor himself, to point out errors in their
accounts. The clerks of this immense bureau are not infallible ;
but almost invariably the irregularity is with the complainant, as he
is very soon informed in a manner so explicit that he cannot longer
misunderstand. The oldest clerk cannot recall an instance where
the Government has lost a dollar, or a postmaster been finally
wronged of a penny, by a mistake emanating from this office. A
band of fellow Templars, among whom was an important Ohio post-
master, called on Judge Coulter once, just to see the postmaster
convince the Auditor that the Government owed him a penny just a
penny, which, of course, he didn't care for, except to illustrate a
great underlying principle of justice and business exactness. The
postmaster was convinced, as soon as the papers could be called for,
that the Government was right ; and his little excursion into the
mysteries of auditing had cost him $14 within an hour after he had
told the story.

Then there is the funny postmaster, who either tries, or does not
try, to be so. Judge Coulter tells an amusing story of his experience
with the postmaster of a small office in Georgia. His quarterly
report was overdue, and a notice was sent to him requesting that it
be forwarded. Nothing was heard in reply, and about two weeks
later another more personal and more emphatic notice was sent from
headquarters, stating that the report must be sent immediately. Still
no answer, and about two weeks later the Auditor himself wrote a very

THE LARGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE.

679

strong letter, telling the postmaster that unless the reports were
immediately received, his name would be reported for dismissal. To
this was received the following
answer by return mail :

Dear Sir : I have received all of
your previous letters regarding some
reports you desire from this office,
and I would have you understand, sir,
that they have annoyed me very
much, and further I will say that you
need send no further communications
whatever to me concerning those re-
ports, as I don't intend to waste any
time on anything of the kind or send

any reports to Washington until

I get through cutting my hay.

The veteran clerk of the Sixth
Auditor's office is Rev. Matthew
A. Turner. His term of service
covers forty-three years. Mr.
Turner is a direct descendant of
Robert Turner, who came to this
country with William Penn and was a member of Penn's first council.
This early ancestor purchased a farm in Oxford Township, Chester
Co., Pa., where the old homestead still remains in possession of the
Turner family. Matthew A. Turner entered the ministry and became
a member of the Baltimore Conference of the M. E. Church; but
after a few years' service he retired from active work owing to failing
health. In the administration of General Taylor, Mr. Turner was
appointed to a clerkship in the Sixth Auditor's office, and there for
nearly thirty years he has had charge of the archives. He enjoys
the esteem of all his associates, who, on the fortieth anniversary of
his connection with the office, presented him with a gold-headed
ebony cane.

KEV. MATTHEW A. TURNEE.

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPAETIENT.

'HE Post Office Department proper is full of inter-
esting people. In the later days appointments are
made only after examinations, and your clerk comes
out like a straw that is drawn, though the sup-
position is that the straw is the longest and the
best, for that has been the purpose of the examina-
tions. The old-time ways, when persons were ap-
pointed upon influence, when characters who had
seen better days, when notable women bravely and
without regret went to work for a living, have passed out of mind.
But many of these remain, and the Post Office Department, or any
other, would be dreary indeed without them. The labors of the
Department clerk are pleasant. He goes to his desk at nine, has half
an hour for luncheon, and comes away at four ; or if the weather is
particularly hot, he is released at three. He is entitled to thirty days'
" leave " during the year, and if he is really sick, and is obliged to
stay away from his work, his pay is allowed to go on for a reasonable
time. He is liable to become encrusted with precedents and forms, if
his service is too much prolonged ; and business men have said that it
was a positive objection that an applicant for work should have been
employed in a Government bureau. This is mistaken reasoning,
probably, for the Department clerk is unsuitable for active outside
business, not because of his lack of capacity, but rather because of
his lack of courage to give that capacity a real trial. He is very
comfortable where he is. He hesitates to flee to dangers that he
knows not of.

Men in the Government employ earn all the way from $900, to
9 1,8 00 annually, and now arid then one becomes a chief of division
at $2,000 or $2,200, or a chief clerk at $2,500. They are not dis-
lodged much by the advent of Democratic or Republican presidents,

680

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 681

nor much for incompetency, either. The women earn nearly as much
as the men. They fill places where skill, diligence and tact are
required, as well as the men do ; but they have not been put in
places of command much yet, and many appointing officers who want
clerks, and especially stenographers and typewriters, prefer men, and
call for them from the Civil Service Commission, because it is not so
easy to ask a women to work after hours, or to go to another room
of an errand; nor may one always smoke in the same room. The
records of the Civil Service Commission show that about a sixth as
many women as men are called for for appointment.

It is still a somewhat common belief that places in the Govern-
ment service may be had simply for the asking ; and especially is it
thought that any member of Congress or any Cabinet officer may
provide for relatives and friends without particular effort. Nothing
is more untrue, nothing very much more tragic. The places of
responsibility in the departments are filled by important political
adherents of one party or the other, as the case may be. All clerical
positions are filled simply and solely by examination. The posts of
watchmen and messengers, charwomen, and that, are filled by
appointment by the head of the department ; and if it is true, as it
is, that all this work is disagreeable in the extreme (and avoided by
many because it is thought to be menial), it is also true that hun-
dreds, thousands, even, of people apply for these places so urgently
that they are always filled and others are on the ground waiting for
the first vacancy, which, really or by inference, is promised to them.

Postmaster General Wanamaker early discovered that the de-
partmental force was encumbered somewhat by the lazy, and a
good deal by the superannuated and unfit. He pointed out that it
was not humane to remove clerks who had done efficient service,
however dimly in the past that service had been ; nor was it to be
expected that a civil pension list could be voted, nor was he prepared
to say that that was desirable. But he did insist that so long as the
departmental force could not be increased by Congressional allow-
ances, and so long, too, as enormous amounts of work were expected
from these same forces, the only logical scheme was a definite plan of
promotions for merit and of retirements for demerit ; and he advo-
cated not only examinations for entry into the service, but examina-
tions at stated periods, both physical and mental, for retention in the

682 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

service. He devised his general scheme of promotions every-
where in the Department, in post offices and in the Railway Mail,
for merit, and that alone, after examinations which really examined.
This scheme filled vacancies in the higher positions, not by direct
calls upon the civil service examiners for inexperienced clerks who
had been examined for no special places, but rather by promoting or
transferring to these posts clerks who had already proved their value
to the service.

But why discuss the clerks in general, or the men simply, when
the women of the Department are so much more interesting ? They
are good and true, supporting their mothers or their boys, proving
every day by their labors and their cheery faces that the world is
good enough for them. There is one, perhaps, who meddles in the
politics of her division (or of the country), or causes comment at the
seashore, or walks in the corridors and talks to men ; but it is not
one in a hundred, and all the rest work very demurely, purifying
the rooms they work in, benefiting the men they work with by their
presence simply. They are the kind of women a son or a brother
likes to respect and love.

The translator in the Money Order Office is a woman who was
appointed from Louisiana, under President Garfield, to a $900 clerk-
ship in the Dead Letter Office. After one year's service she was
transferred, with a promotion, to the desk of translator in the Money
Order Office, and she has earned successive promotions, until she
now holds a $1,600 clerkship. She enjoys the distinction of being
the only woman in her division, which numbers fifty clerks. Her
duties embrace translations of communications from foreign countries
with regard to international money orders, and also general corre-
spondence on the same subject. A prolonged residence on the con-
tinent of Europe enabled her thoroughly to master French, German
and Italian, and since her appointment she has added to these Spanish
and the Scandinavian tongues, which she found to be of use in her
work, as, in accordance with international etiquette, in corresponding
with foreign countries, each country employs the language of its own
nationality. In addition to the translations, this lady has assigned
to her much work of a miscellaneous character, involving the correc-
tion of errors in international money orders, deciphering doubtful
addresses, and the adjustment of the money order accounts with

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 683

foreign countries of differences in amounts ; and she has been able to
master the intricate details of the international money order system
so well that, during the temporary absences of the chief of that sec-
tion, she is invariably put in charge of it.

The gentle little woman in the Foreign Mails Office who engrosses
the postal treaties made between this country and foreign nations is
Scotch by birth, and the widow of a Southern clergyman. She was
educated in France and Germany, and speaks the language of each
country like a native. In addition to her other work, she makes up
and examines the accounts for carrying the mails between this and
foreign countries. She is thought by many to be the finest penman
in the Department.

One of the clerks in the Office of Foreign Mails in addition to
being an English scholar far above the average, speaks French and
German. She is a Southern woman by birth, a great reader, and
well versed in all the important topics of the day. This lady is a
widow with two bright daughters, for whom she is providing a pro-
fessional education in music and art. Her work consists of trans-
lating complaints coming from the central post offices of foreign
countries where French, German, Italian and Spanish are spoken,
making out vouchers for the payment of the various steamship com-
panies which carry the mails, and other miscellaneous work in
connection with the office.

The clerk who assists the statistician in the office of the Second
Assistant General is a tall, fine faced girl, who passed the civil service
examinations and was appointed to the Post Office Department while
yet in her teens, a graduate of the Normal Schools of Philadelphia.
In recognition of her faithful service she has been promoted from
time to time until she now receives $1,400 a year. She is one
of the few women in the Department whose work deals altogether
with figures. This is very trying to the nerves, but this lady likes it
and says she feels like a walking abacus. She prepares the statistics
of star and steamboat service for the yearly and monthly reports, the
latter showing the increase or decrease in the annual rate of expendi-
tures, length of routes, extent of service and miles travelled through-
out the United States ; the yearly report giving number of route,
annual rate of pay of contractor and sub-contractor, length of route,
number of trips per week, number of miles travelled per week, and

684

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

number of miles travelled per annum ; prepares certified copies of any
papers that may be needed in law suits or by Congress in connection
with the service. All this requires brains.

The clerk in charge of the Postmaster General's u journal " is a
widow with five children, all of whom she has educated and fitted
to fill responsible positions in life. She was first appointed to the
Dead Letter Office in 1876 where she remained for eight years, dur-

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT WOMEN.

ing which time she filled various places in the property and minor
branches. She was subsequently detailed to the Bond Division and
afterward transferred to the position which she now occupies. Her
work consists in recording in large journals, of seven hundred pages
each, the Postmaster General's orders, which vary in length from ten
lines to twenty pages, and contain all appointments of postmasters,
establishments of new post offices and free delivery offices, appoint-
ments of letter carriers, orders from the Office of Foreign Mails in

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 685

regard to the transportation of mails to and from foreign countries,
and all orders authorizing expenditures in the postal service which
originate in the Salary and Allowance Divisions. The orders for
the appointment of railway postal clerks and other employees in
the Railway Mail Service have been until recently recorded at this
desk. From five to six of the big seven hundred page journals
above mentioned are filled in one year. This work was formerly
in charge of men, but this lady has given entire satisfaction from the
time of her appointment five years ago.

The clerk in charge of the Postmaster General's letter books was
appointed in 1881 on the request of President Arthur, for she was
bridesmaid at his wedding. Her work consists in copying letters
signed by the Postmaster General from the press copy books into
permanent record books, and indexing each letter under several head-
ings according to the character of the contents, persons addressed,
subject matter, date, volume, etc. She also has the custody and
arrangement of certain miscellaneous papers, circulars, and data
relating to visits to post offices and inquiries originating in the Post-
master General's office. She has been twice promoted for painstaking
work. Her friends, it is not too much to say, love the sight of her
benignant face.

The clerk in charge of the Postal Guide work, the stenographer
and typewriter to the First Assistant's chief clerk, is the only woman
who has ever held that position. Her education was had in Europe,
where she spent eight years studying music and painting, besides
French, German, Italian and Spanish, in which languages she passed
civil service examinations at a high grade. She was appointed a
translator in the Bureau of Foreign Mails at a salary of $ 1,2 00 a
year and subsequently transferred to the First Assistant's office and
promoted. Her work requires precision, adaptability and patience.
Besides keeping daily records of the new post offices gone into
operation, changes of names and sites of post offices as well as dis-
continuances of them, for publication in the monthly supplement to
the Cf-uide, she prepares the data for the yearly Guide, which
includes an alphabetical list of the 68,000 post offices in the United
States, giving county and state in which each post office is located, a
list by states and counties, also alphabetically arranged, and one by
counties; an alphabetical list by states of the 3,000 presidential

686 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

offices, giving counties and salaries ; the designation by typographical
signs of all money order offices, international and domestic ; postal
note offices and county seats, and the various tables giving lists of
states and territories and the official abbreviations of the names of
the same, and number of post offices in each state and territory
during the last seven years respectively ; and the number of post
offices by classes. She reads proof, and corrects errors in previous
editions by searching the records in the various branches of the Depart-
ment. The amount of labor involved in this work may be imagined
if one thinks simply of the details connected with the establishment
of new post offices at the rate of nearly one hundred per day.

The stenographer and typewriter to the Assistant Attorney
General is a young woman who passed the civil service examinations
and was first appointed stenographer to Postmaster Ross, at Wash-
ington; and she was subsequently transferred to her present
position. She has the custody of the reserve files, and takes the
correspondence originating in this office relative to the legal questions
and decisions in connection with lottery circulars, green goods and
other fraudulent matter passing through the mails ; letters for the
signature of the Postmaster General, allowing or disallowing, as the
case may be, claims of postmasters for loss of stamps, money orders,
or other postal funds by fire or burglary ; rulings on the admission to
the mails of certain books, pamphlets and other prohibited matter ;
contracts for ocean mail service, and other miscellaneous legal
documents.

A section clerk in the Bond Division is a very sweet young
woman who was first appointed to the Equipment Division and
afterwards transferred and promoted to her present position. She
was educated at Notre Dame in Washington. She is one of the
five clerks whose duties consist in forwarding and examining the
bonds of postmasters at fourth-class offices. After a case appointing
a postmaster at an office of the fourth class has been duly signed,
entered upon the books of the Appointment Division and the journal
of the Postmaster General, it is sent to this division where the
section clerk enters the same on the proper records (namely, county
book, bond book and index book) and forwards the postmaster a
letter of appointment, a blank bond accompanied by a set of rules to
enable him to execute it properly, and a clerk's oath and an assist-

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 687

ant's oath. There are cases to be treated for change of name and site,
or both, and for discontinuances of post offices. The bond sent to
a postmaster is partially filled out by a clerk so that the postmaster
has little more to do than sign his name, yet a great quantity of
them must be returned because this is not done correctly. The work
is apportioned among these six clerks according to states and
population, and there is a county book for each state. When the
bond is returned by the postmaster it is examined by the section
clerk, and if found to be incorrect, it is returned for correction
accompanied with a circular or manuscript letter, according to the
exigency of the case, indicating the error. The greatest care and
minutest scrutiny is required in this examination. If correctly
executed the bond is initialled by the clerk, marked in the books as
commissioned, sent to the First Assistant for signature and then to
the commission clerk who forwards the commission, and entered by
the report clerk upon the different reports for the use of the Con-
tract Office, Stamp Division and Auditor's office, the Equipment
Division, and for publication in the Daily Bulletin and Postal G-uide.
The bonds are finally returned to the section clerk who files them
alphabetically according to states.

A woman performs the work of section clerk in the Appointment
Division. She was appointed, after having passed a successful civil
service examination, to a position in the Interior Department, at a
salary of $ 900, and was afterwards transferred to the Post Office
Department, under Mr. Dickinson, and designated section clerk in
charge of the desk to which were assigned the post offices in the
states of Missouri and Wisconsin. She was promoted in 1889 to
a $1,200 place. To facilitate the clerical labor of the Appoint-
ment Division the states and territories are apportioned among fifteen
clerks. The desks to which these assignments are made are known
as section desks. It is the duty of section clerks to receive all papers
referring to post offices in their states. The papers are briefed and en-
closed in " jackets " representing the office to which the papers belong,
so that, whether the communication refers to a new office wanted, or
an old office to be discontinued, to a change of name or location, or
to any complaint affecting the postmaster, the paper may be immedi-
ately obtainable. The work of a section clerk calls for intelligence
and tact ; all data of special importance must be noted so as to secure

688 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the Department against a wrong conclusion. The clerk must be able
to answer all questions promptly as to papers regarding any con-
troversy among rivaT aspirants for appointment, as also, the status of
an applicant for appointment as postmaster, so far as letters of rec-
ommendation or petitions or protests may indicate. It has been a
custom of those interested in mooted cases to apply directly to the
section clerk for information. The latter must be able, therefore, to
give any information requested, if it is proper that such information
should be imparted; and there the judgment is required. Two
women have thus far been designated as section clerks in the
Appointment Division.

The clerk in charge of the Returning Division of the Dead Letter
Office is a woman who has been twenty-eight years in honored service.
She was appointed by Postmaster General Blair at a salary of $480
a year, and has been promoted from time to time until at present she
is receiving $1,400. Her mother was a direct descendant of Governor
Bradford of Plymouth, and her grandfather was a president of Harvard
College. Her father, who was an officer in the army, educated this
lady for a teacher. After his death she supported her widowed
mother for many years. She has educated two of her nephews and
is now preparing another for college. Notwithstanding her many
years of clerical duty, she is wholly domestic, and as thorough and
exact in these homely duties as in her work in the office. She says
that at the time when she was appointed the Department was like a
large and well-regulated family ; and she was personally and socially
acquainted with the Postmaster General, and the assistants and their
families. She has at present about thirty women in her division, but
at one time, before the reorganization of the office, on account of in-
creased business, she had over one hundred. Her duties consist in
distributing, among the clerks in her division, the packages of letters
that have already been opened and separated from those containing
valuable enclosures. It is the business of the clerk to whom distri-
bution is thus made to examine these letters for any clue that may
enable them to be returned to the sender. Those containing printed
circulars, and such as do not disclose the name and address of the
writer, are put into sacks and stored in the basement daily, and finally
sold to the junk dealers. Formerly they were carried to the paper
mill where, under the supervision of an inspector of the Department

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 689

they were made into pulp. It is also the chiefs duty to make a
daily report to the superintendent of the work of the division, and
to keep a separate record of the work of each clerk, giving the num-
ber of letters treated, the number sent to other divisions for treat-
ment, the number returned to senders and the number discarded as
waste paper. She gives instructions, too, as to the manner of treat-
ment. Those written in foreign languages are entrusted to special
clerks who have a knowledge of the language in which the letter is
written. She is universally loved by all whom she has " graduated,"
and she has proven her qualifications to exercise authority by the rare
endowments which she brought to her work.

The woman in charge of the Foreign Division of the Dead Letter
Office was appointed in 1886, and assigned to the duty of return-
ing letters written in foreign languages to the writers ; and in ad-
dition of translating official communications, exchanged between this
Department and foreign countries, for the bureau to which she was
attached. She was soon assigned to the charge of what was then
called the Foreign Branch, which has since grown to such dimensions
that it forms a division of itself. There are at present five clerks,
all women, engaged in this work of returning to the country of
origin unclaimed foreign letters which have been sent to the Dead
Letter Office for treatment. They average about 38,000 per month.
The number of pieces treated in the year 1891-92 was over 900,000.
Another branch of the work, " blind reading," consists in redirecting
and forwarding to destination, misdirected or illegibly addressed let-
ters of foreign origin, which have already been treated by experts at the
larger post offices without success. These average 6,000 per 'month,
about ten per cent, being corrected and forwarded. To do this work
a knowledge of foreign languages is necessary. One must be versed
in all the Latin as well as the Germanic languages, and have some
acquaintance with the Russian and Slavonic. An intimate knowl-
edge of geography and of the postal regulations of the different
countries is also essential. That she possesses these requisites in an
eminent degree is happily attested by her successes. She is one of
the hardest workers in this vast, always busy place, and so devoted to
her duties that she never hesitates to come before or remain after
office hours.

One of the Dead Letter Office clerks engaged in the treatment of

WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT.

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 691

domestic misdirected letters was formerly a teacher in the public
schools of Massachusetts, her native state. She passed a very
creditable civil service examination and since her appointment her
services have* been utilized in various branches of the work of the
office. Misdirected letters belong to what is called the " live
letters " ; they have never become " dead " by lying in post offices of
destination uncalled for. The error in the address may generally be
attributed to two causes, ignorance and carelessness. In many in-
stances they are addressed with phonetic spelling by foreigners or
others who have little or no knowledge of the orthography of the
English language. Special adaptation is necessary for this work,
besides a large fund of general knowledge. One must be well in-
formed as to the names of the principal post offices in this and
foreign countries, and have some knowledge of the names of the
streets and the numbering of the houses in the larger cities, while
the names of colleges, schools, hotels and large business firms must
be familiar. A knowledge of the languages, be it ever so slight, is
of great assistance.

The clerk in charge of the museum of the Dead Letter Office is
the only one left of the original seven women appointed to the Post
Office Department thirty years ago. She is called the mother of
the Dead Letter Office. This good lady is remembered by many a
soldier whom she nursed in the war, for she devoted her whole time
out of office hours to nursing in the hospitals in Washington. She
was first appointed at a salary of $480 a year, and is now receiving
$900. On the twenty-ninth anniversary of her appointment her
fellow clerks presented her with an onyx clock and an engrossed
testimonial of their love. While her immediate duties are those of
a returning clerk, she is enabled to explain to visitors many of the
details of the work of the office, show them the objects on exhibition
and answer their hundreds of questions. The album of soldiers'
photographs, gone astray during the war, is particularly appropriated
to her.

The only woman permanently employed in the Money Division of
the Dead Letter Office was appointed from New York by Post-
master General James in 1881. Having had five years' experience
as a school teacher, she was able to adapt herself readily to clerical
work. It is her duty to record, and return to the senders when

692 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

possible, such letters as have been opened and found to contain
money. She is required to receipt for all money letters received by
her, and is held responsible for them until they are turned over to
the Mailing Division at the close of each day. The records show a
complete history of each letter handled, and can be quickly traced
from first treatment to final disposition. If a letter contains the
faintest clew to the identity of the writer, it is sent under cover to
the postmaster at the mailing office, together with careful instructions
as to the delivery of it. About ninety-five per cent, are delivered
by this means. The largest amount which she has yet found in a
single letter is $1,000, but a letter containing one cent receives the
same careful attention, and equal effort is made to discover the
owner. About $50,000 in money is restored to the senders of
letters each year, and the accounts are kept so accurately that in all
the period of this woman's service, not a cent of the thousands passing
through her hands has failed to be properly accounted for. Never
since her appointment has she failed to report for duty at 9 o'clock,
save once, when an accident caused her to be delayed eight minutes,
nor has she lost an hour on account of illness in a service of ten
years. It is believed this record cannot be equalled in the entire
Department. This lady has been twice promoted. Her present
salary is $1,200 per year.

In charge of the Minor Division of the Dead Letter Office is a
woman who has worked there over twenty-five years. She is from
Massachusetts. She was appointed in 1865 at a salary of $600, and
her executive ability attracting attention, she was put in charge of
what was called the "held for postage" branch, and her salary
increased. So successful was her arrangement of this work that
other branches were added to it, until now as chief she has charge of
what is called the Minor Division, where are treated all letters con-
taining photographs, stamps, valuable papers, such as receipts,
passports, manuscripts, etc., and all misdirected, fictitious,
unaddressed, hotel and held for postage letters without valuable
enclosures received from the Unmailable Division. This lady was
largely instrumental in opening the higher grade of clerkship to
women, and has been promoted from time to time in recognition of
her valuable services, until she now receives $1,400 per annum. So
comprehensive is her grasp of the details of the office that she acts

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 693

quickly and decisively, no matter what difficulties she encounters.
While a strict disciplinarian, she has the welfare of her clerks always
at heart, esteeming them for their industry and refinement. Her
duties consist in distributing the work according to its nature and
the necessities of the moment. She keeps the various reports as to
letters returned by each clerk to writers or to other divisions, those
destroyed and those filed, those filed or destroyed which, after having
been sent out, fail to reach the writers or addressees and have been
returned again, Canadian letters and jacket-searches one sent daily
to the Superintendent, the other a daily and monthly report for the
records of the office, all of which are kept under different headings,
such as photographs, stamps, miscellaneous, misdirected, hotel,
etc., foreign short-paid, lottery, and those mailed; and all must
tally with the lists as made at the " opening desk," the amount of
labor performed by each and every clerk and the record of attend-
ance, ability and efficiency.

One of the clerks in charge of photographs in the Minor Division
of the Dead Letter Office is a most interesting brunette, who takes
great pleasure in her work and is always ready to explain to visitors
anything in connection with it. She graduated at the high school
at her home in Michigan with the highest honors of her class, passed
a very creditable civil service examination, and has been promoted
since her appointment less than two years ago. Over thirty-eight
thousand personal photographs were received in this division during
the last year, of which more than thirty-two thousand were returned
to the senders. The remainder are filed in cases to be returned to
the owners if called for. Of these the greater number have been
forwarded to the persons addressed and, not being called for, were
advertised, after which, being unclaimed, they were sent hither.
A small portion are unmailable for various reasons, lack of postage or
address, or of sufficient address. Many packages addressed to foreign
countries are detained at the New York post office or other exchange
post office for insufficient postage, package rates having been paid,
whereas letter rate is required. These are afterwards forwarded to
the Dead Letter Office, and if it is impossible to return them to the
sender, the person to whom they are addressed is notified of the
amount of postage due, and upon his remitting the same, the pack-
age is forwarded. A daily record is kept of all photographs received.

694 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Another clerk in the Minor Division of the Dead Letter Office is
also a bright brunette. Her work in this division is the treatment
of " live " letters in centra-distinction to the ordinary dead letters.
Dead letters, properly speaking, are those which have been duly
stamped, properly addressed, etc., but are unclaimed at the office of
destination. " Live " letters, on the contrary, are those mailed at
the various post offices and sent to the Dead Letter office as unmail-
able, either for lack of necessary postage, misdirection or insufficient
addresses. They are accompanied by lists explaining cause of no
transmission and opened at the " opening table " and distributed.
Those found to contain nothing of a negotiable character are sent
to this division and either sent to the writer or destroyed. Certain
marks, thoroughly understood by the initiated and showing the dis-
position of every one, are made on the lists, which are filed for
future reference. The letters are then examined and those to be
returned are made up in packages of fifty each, passed to the return-
ing desks where they are separated, and then returned to the writers.
This division bears the distinction of being wholly composed of
women ; and the work is especially adapted to them.

A clerk in the Returning Division, a most refined young woman,
passed the civil service examination at Lincoln, Neb., as copyist arid
stenographer, and was appointed as clerk and promoted shortly after-
ward. She treats about eight hundred and fifty letters per day,
returning about forty per cent, to senders. Aside from this she is
repeatedly detailed as stenographer and typewriter to the chief
clerk or the Superintendent. This is the division, where, as in the
case of all the others, it is not the duty of clerks to read all the let-
ters received (they have been asked, indeed, if they are required to
answer them), and where, as in all the others, the only interest the
clerk feels in the letter is to know if it contains sufficient clew to
warrant its return. More letters in proportion are received in this
branch from the Southern states than from any other quarter, prob-
ably on account of the preponderance of colored people ; but a greater
per centage of these are returned, as they are more careful to sign
their names in full.

The assistant chief in the Returning Division of the Dead Letter
Office passed civil service examinations at a high grade, and by com-
petitive examination has since been promoted twice. Her office

THE WOMEN OP THE DEPARTMENT. 695

record has been exceptionally good, as she has never been late and
has lost no time through illness. She early developed great aptitude
for reading difficult signatures and postmarks, and made the largest
daily average of letters returned for several years, until in 1888 her
efficiency marked her as peculiarly fitted to take entire charge of the
Returning Division of thirty clerks during the absence of her chief.
Thus she became assistant chief. She has performed the duties of
this position with great tact and executive ability, for four consecu-
tive years. As assistant her duties are to record daily the number
of letters distributed to each clerk, to revise and correct the indi-
vidual monthly reports of the letters treated, to instruct new clerks,
to send out official mail (that is, dead mail containing important
legal papers not recorded) and to sort and send out wrecked and
robbed mail. She is a kindergartner by 'profession, holds a diploma
as a proficient Sunday school teacher from the Chautauqua Assembly,
as well as one for the four years' college course, is a teacher in the
Sunday school, and the support of a widowed, invalid mother.
Her father was a naval officer and her grandfather an officer of the
Revolution and a relative of William Cullen Bryant.

A clerk in the Returning Division, a pretty and interesting
widow, has a fine son whom she is affording a business education.
She comes from an old, aristocratic family of Pennsylvania. Her
father was a prominent politician and a general on Governor Curtin's
staff in the wartime. She was appointed a clerk in the Dead Letter
office thirteen years ago upon the recommendation of President Har-
rison, then a senator from Indiana. Her daily average of letters
forwarded to writers is over three hundred and twenty-five, and her
record for attendance has been exceptionally good. She is noted for
her sweet disposition and her readiness and capacity to assist at any
of the desks.

A woman clerk in the Returning Division was educated in the
public schools of Missouri and passed the civil service examinations,
making the highest average from her state. She has since passed
the departmental examination and been promoted. She examines
between seven and eight hundred letters daily, returning an average
of over three hundred. Two hundred and fifty is considered a fair
day's work. She is a faithful, conscientious clerk and a devoted
sister as well, as she is educating a younger brother. Her obliging

696 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

disposition makes her a general favorite with her superior officers
and fellow clerks. Her work requires application and quickness of
intuition, qualities which she possesses in a marked degree.

A Massachusetts woman, now a clerk in the Bond Division, was one
of the most rapid and at the same time most thorough and conscien-
tious clerks in the Dead Letter Office. She is a graduate of the Nor-
mal School at Salem, and for seventeen years was a clerk in the Boston
post office, where she served in the general delivery and inquiry divi-
sions with such credit that she received two promotions. She is
quick and accurate, and made an average of over three hundred
letters per day returned to writers. Her work shows adaptability
and experience, and the good New England kind of strength. She
was transferred to the Department by the new rule now in vogue
making transfers from the first class post offices of the country
to the departmental service upon certification of the postmaster and
a non-competitive examination by the civil service board. She is the
support of a widowed mother.

A woman clerk in the Foreign Division devotes a large portion of
her time to search cases ; that is, to tracing missing matter of foreign
origin, upon application of the addressee or sender ; and since each
applicant apparently imagines that his or her lost letter or parcel is
the only one in the Dead Letter Office and that the same is held for
an indefinite period, subject to application, great care as well as zeal
is necessary to satisfy applicants. A record is kept in all such cases
of the names and addresses of the applicants, of the countries of
origin, the contents of the letters and the results. If found, the
article is entered upon another record and forwarded with the proper
papers to the postal authorities of the place of residence of the
applicant, for delivery to him, and his receipt is taken, which is also
recorded ; and then the case is returned to the Inquiry Division as
" finished." In addition, this sweet faced lady assists in the final
examination and counting of the unopened letters returned to
countries of origin.

A clerk in the Unmailable and Property Division of the Dead
Letter Office, a fine, modest young girl, is one of sixteen who treat
all unmailable, held for postage and unclaimed merchandise turned
in from the 68,000 post offices. The work consists in recording the
address and contents of each package, and in searching for some

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 697

clew to the sender. The communications received from persons who
have lost packages in the mails are referred to the Inquiry Division,
which division carries on all correspondence in reference to the lost
article and obtains the necessary information in regard to it. This
information is, in turn, given to the searcher who, with the date of
mailing, a description of the contents of the parcel, and the name and
address upon it, examines the records, and if the parcel is found,
forwards it. In some cases the package has never reached the Dead
Letter Office. In many instances it has not been securely wrapped,
and the cover having been torn off in the mail, it has been received
at the office as a blank. Nearly 90,000 packages are received
annually.

The clerk in charge of the Canadian held for postage desk in the
Minor Division, and the assistant to the chief of that division, is a
woman who has held various positions in this section for over twelve
years. She is an unassuming, self-reliant widow with two sons.
Her father, who was a New Englander of wealth and position, gave
all his children a liberal education in English and classical branches,
and this lady was specially taught in French. She had a brother in
the army. Her greatest ambition is conscientiously to do her duty
to her children. There are sixteen clerks in this division, whose
work she directs in the absence of the chief. In her special labor of
treating Canadian held for postage letters (which come from the
various post offices and reach her desk unopened, accompanied by
lists containing addresses and numbers to correspond with those on
the letter) she is required to number them again consecutively as
received and record them in the Canadian record book ; and at the
same time she must send the addressee a card notice numbered to
correspond with the letter and the record. This circular card
requests the addressee to return all this with the required postage,
and when received at the Department, the letter is promptly for-
warded and the returned card filed in this division for future
reference. If after thirty days the card notice has not been returned,
the letter is opened and returned to the writer or otherwise treated
according to its contents. On an average more than half of these
letters are forwarded to the addressees, and about five hundred
are treated per month. Another branch of this woman's work is
called "jacket searches." This consists in tracing, upon requests of

WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT.

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 699

writers or addressees, letters forwarded to the Dead Letter Office,
with, accompanying lists by postmasters, as unmailable for some cause,
and in notifying persons interested what disposition has been made
of them ; or in returning the letters if they are found. The same
woman is required to record and treat publishers' manuscripts
returned to the Dead Letter Office.

A clerk in the Foreign Division of the Dead Letter Office was an
early appointee from Massachusetts in 1871, through the influence of
her uncle, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. She was educated at Derry,
(N. H.) Academy and New Hampton Literary Institute, and taught
school for several years. She outranks most of the clerks in punctual-
ity. She has not lost half a day by sickness in her whole period of ser-
vice. Experience as a teacher developed her conscientious feelings of
right, which have predominated in her official connection with the De-
partment. Her duties are varied and interesting, requiring physical
endurance as well as mental activity. The recording and preparing
of parcels received from foreign countries for return to the country of
origin is assigned to her, and a record of matter sent from the United
States to foreign countries, which has been found to be undeliverable
and sent to the Dead Letter Office for disposition. She sends the
required acknowledgment of receipt to the postal administrations
which accompany returns of unclaimed matter with letter of advice ;
and examines, returns and sends request letters. She is a great
favorite with her fellow clerks.

The stenographer and typewriter to the Superintendent of the
Dead Letter Office is a painstaking young woman who was em-
ployed as stenographer and typewriter for two years in the office
of a prominent attorney in New York, and upon one occasion
wrote from dictation upon the typewriter, for use in the Supreme
Court, eight hundred folios of testimony in one week, without
a single error. She passed the civil service examination in stenog-
raphy and typewriting at a high grade, and was appointed to a
position in the Post Office Department in 1888. She was the first to
receive a promotion under the new system of competitive examina-
tions. In addition to her work as secretary, she has five books in her
charge : the time record, in which she keeps a daily record of the
attendance of the clerks of the office, making a report of the same
monthly for the Chief Clerk of the Department, and also a semi-

700 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

monthly report and monthly report of all time by the clerks in excess
of the regular thirty days' annual leave : the record of special letters,
in which a brief is kept of the subject matter of replies made in answer
to inquiries made by the public and postmasters relative to missing
mail, etc. ; the requisition book, in which are entered all requisi-
tions made by this office on the Public Printer, the disbursing
officer, or the Division of Supplies ; the record of stamp accounts
between the United States and Canada, in which is kept and balanced
yearly an account of the postage stamps due the United States and
Canada, respectively, in their reciprocal exchanges of stamps accruing
from insufficiently prepaid letters ; and a record of directories on
hand for reference in the Dead Letter Office in forwarding and re-
turning mail, in which are kept the date of requisition, receipt, publi-
cation and latest issue on hand, cost of directory, etc. She also
endorses the " jackets " in which applications for missing mail, etc., are
filed, with the reply made thereto by the office ; copies and arranges for
convenient reference by the Superintendent the daily reports of the
progress and status of the work done by the several divisions of his
office ; and does all the mimeograph work for the Dead Letter Office.
The stenographer and typewriter to the Chief Clerk of the Dead
Letter Office is a bright little brunette, who can make her fingers
click the keys at the rate of a hundred words per minute. She
passed the civil service examination at a grade of ninety-two, and was
appointed to her present position about two years ago. She is the
author of a book of very pretty nursery rhymes, some of which she
wrote while yet a child, and she has a more ambitious book of
poems in press. Her work consists of writing from dictation letters
to postmasters and applicants for lost mail, and she copies on the
typewriter the tabulated monthly and annual reports of the Dead
Letter Office. These are some of this clever girl's nursery rhymes :

Three pretty girls,
All ribbons and curls,

Dressed for the fancy ball.
'* I wonder," said they,
" What people will say

When they see us come into the hall."

Baby is sick,
Run away quick,

And fetch the best doctor in town.

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 701

Don't get Dr. Strong,
His nose is too long,

But try to get good Dr. Brown.

Dear little butterfly,
How quick you flutter by,
Gaily for hours
Kissing the flowers.
Now here and now there,
And now dear knows where.
Come again, pleasure bring,
Dear little gaudy thing.

Come into the woods and live with me ;

I love you and we will happy be.

We'll eat the wild berries and sleep anywhere,

And dress in the skins of the lion and bear ;

We'll dig in the ground for silver and gold

Till we're ever and ever and ever so old.

This is the way the pig goes, grunt, grunt, grunt,
This is the way the dog goes, bow, wow, wow,

The cow goes moo,

And the doves go, coo,
And this is the way the cat goes, meow, meow, meow.

This is the way the hens go, cluck, cluck, cluck,

This is the way the roosters go, ooo-oo ooo-oo ooo,

The crow goes, caw,

And the lambs go, baa,
And this is the way the owl goes, to- whit, to-whoo, to-whoo.

The youngest clerk in the Dead Letter Office was educated in the
public schools of Washington and passed a successful civil service
examination. She quickly mastered the details of her work. She
keeps a record of the packages which have been sent in from the
various post offices as unmailable or unclaimed. They are recorded
alphabetically and numerically, together with a description of the
contents, treatment and final disposition. By this method they
are easily traced. But the most trying work of this desk is the
searching for blank packages, as those are called, which can only
be identified by a description of their contents, the wrappers having
been lost in transit. There were 17,000 of these unaddressed arti-
cles received and recorded last year. Another important branch of
the work is the keeping of a special account of the foreign and
domestic money orders, postal notes, etc., received from persons in

702 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

this and foreign countries, which are remitted in answer to circulars
of detention sent, notifying them of the receipt at the Dead Letter
Office of letters to their address. They are all entered in the
record for money orders and balanced carefully. This is a very
"heavy desk," especially after the holidays, when thousands are
making inquiries for lost gifts.

The Assistant Chief of the Assorting Division of the Sixth Audi-
tor's office is a woman of notable executive ability. She was
formerly postmistress of her city in Illinois, a place of ten thousand
people, and the business of her office was conducted so well that she
was re-appointed without opposition for a second term by General
Grant, and her office bore the reputation of being one of the best in
the country. In 1881 she accepted a $900 clerkship in the office of
the Sixth Auditor, and she has been promoted from time to time until
she now receives $ 1,400 a year. For some time she was assistant to
the Chief Clerk of the Auditor, but on a reorganization of the bureau
in 1891 she was appointed to her present position. The business of
this division was then four years behind hand ; but it was soon syste-
matized, and to-day for the first time in the history of the Department
the work is kept up to date. Credit for it all is freely accorded to
this lady by the Auditor and her chief. She is the widow of a
soldier who had six brothers in the Union Army, is at all times much
interested in the welfare of the veterans, and has done much to
assist and relieve them in time of sickness or distress. She is an
honorary member of the National Rifles and the Union Veteran
Corps, and a member of the Woman's Relief Corps and other
patriotic organizations.

A notable clerk in the Sixth Auditor's office came in with the
beginning of President Cleveland's administration ; and she has
been capable of such good work, that, though a somewhat ardent
politician, she has not been disturbed for political reasons. She is
an expert accountant and finds abundant opportunities to use her
mathematical talents. She is not only accurate but rapid ; so that
she has often been employed to " fetch up " the work of others less
successful. Her work for the first seven years consisted of exam-
ining postmasters' accounts, verifying the daily cancellations and
estimating the commissious on them. The daily requirement of
each clerk was seventy offices. During the first four years this

THE WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT. 703

woman passed one hundred and sixty accounts in a single day,
- the largest day's work that had ever been done in the office.
Her present work is checking money orders, verifying amounts and
ascertaining if there is a signature, and writing the date of payment
in a check book. The weekly requirement is four boxes of 2,850
orders each, and this woman is one of five in a division of forty who
has reached seven boxes in a single week. Her father was a teacher
by profession and she attended the Medina Academy in New York.
During the Civil War she taught school to support her invalid
mother, while her father was fighting for the Union. Later on she
studied law and was the first woman to be admitted to the bar in
Dakota. She made a canvass throughout the West and raised many
thousands of dollars for the establishment of the Presbyterian Uni-
versity in South Dakota. She passed not only the usual Department
civil service examinations, but also the legal one necessary for appoint-
ment to a legal clerical position, and she enjoys the distinction of being
the only woman yet to receive such a Government appointment.
She is the author of two realistic novels that prove her to be a bold
thinker, and is also one of the board of managers of the Association
of American Authors.

A clerk in the Collecting Division of the Sixth Auditor's office, a
New Jersey woman, has served continuously in this office for more
than twenty years. The work of her division is entirely in con-
nection with the settlement of the quarterly accounts of postmasters.
It requires thought and judgment. The accounts as itemized and
jacketed are compared with those rendered by the postmasters ; and
when they are closed a card is sent the postmaster to that effect.
Where there is a credit balance, a credit card is sent ; or if discrep-
ancies are found between the account as rendered by the postmaster
and that of the Auditor, a credit statement (or if the postmaster is
a debtor, a debit statement) explaining the discrepancies. This
card also informs the postmaster, in cases of credits, that a draft will
be sent him in due course of business, or if he is a debtor, he is
informed that he can bring the amount forward in his succeeding
quarterly account or deposit a balance, as he prefers. If the debtor
is a late postmaster the mode is slightly different, a draft being
made upon him for the amount of his indebtedness and placed in the
hands of his successor. The " jacket " of a postmaster's account

704 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

contains an itemized statement of the account and compensation of
the postmaster, as made by the Auditor's office, the postmaster's
statement and any letters he may have written in relation thereto,
and a brief of the Department's replies. When a new bond has been
called for and received a new jacket is made, the old account balanced
and brought forward, and the old bond taken from the files in the
Bond Division, where it is replaced by the new bond, and filed with
the old jacket in the reserve files. In the case of the establishment
of new offices, according to the notification by the Bond Division, a
jacket is made upon which the date of establishment is noted in
order properly to adjust the postmaster's account by quarters. These
jackets are all filed alphabetically by offices and states, the different
regions being distributed among the various clerks. Great exactness
is necessary in this endless routine, and this clever Jersey woman has
proved herself uncommonly painstaking and rapid.

The clerk in charge of the day-book entry desk in the Sixth
Auditor's office is a woman of commanding presence and great force
of character. In 1873 she was appointed through the civil service
commission as a copyist, but, evincing more than ordinary aptitude
for clerical work, she was assigned soon after to a desk in the
Registering Division, which she held for thirteen years, receiving
always the commendation of her superior officers and all those who
had any knowledge of her work. This work required a knowledge
of postmasters' accounts, great accuracy, a close attention to details,
neatness and rapidity, and so apparent was her ability to cope with
all these that it was frequently said she " worked like a man." She
was promoted from time to time until she now receives a salary of
$1,600. Her work requires a familiarity with the operations of
every division of the office in order properly to correct or readjust the
first auditing of the postmasters' accounts when exception is made to
them either by the postmaster, or on account of fraudulent cancel-
lations, or for any of the various reasons. Another branch of this
work is the adjustment of the accounts of delinquent postmasters,
that reach the Department after the appropriation of the year has
been exhausted. This woman possesses an active mind, is well
informed upon topics of political and literary interest, and keeps
quite up with the times.

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

HE duties of a postmaster would probably
outnumber the post offices in this country
if they could be enumerated ; and no one but
the postmaster himself understands what
tact, good nature, decision, and business judg-
ment are required to meet the thousand and
one emergencies that arise almost daily. And
this statement applies to the smaller offices as
well as the larger. In the cities and large
towns complaints, utterly groundless in most cases, find their
way into the newspapers. In the smaller places complaints about
the post office, equally unfounded and mischievous, keep the tongue
of gossip wagging.

" He's had it long enough, " they say, " and he's too confounded
strict. He permits no one to go inside of his office, except on busi-
ness; and then he keeps no chairs for folks to sit on. He won't
accommodate our bank by depositing his post office and money order
funds in it; he won't credit our best men for box rents or quarterly
postage on newspapers; he won't put a stamp on a letter unless
it is paid for, and every one does not have the change in his pocket.
And yet I have seen this stickler for two cents give away nickels
ind ten cent stamps to miserable beggars, who made him believe
they were famishing for sustenance, without even questioning them.
He refuses to allow people who own boxes close to the delivery
window to reach through and help themselves to save time. He
refuses to put stamps on letters for anybody but old people and chil-
dren. He charges letter postage on newspapers, if people wish to
write only a word or two to their friends on the margin. He won't
keep his office open later than nine o'clock at night and on Sunday
only an hour before and after church. He weighs nearly every

705

706 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

letter dropped into the office, and if it is what he calls 'over-
weight' he charges additional postage. He refuses to deliver
anonymous letters. But the crowning objection to him is, tKat he
refused to clean out the office boxes, and all, for one night, and let
a fair be held there for the benefit of our base ball club."

A fruitful source of work among the larger postmasters is the
perpetual bombardment of inquiries from persons in all parts of the
country about all sorts of matters, with which postmasters have
nothing whatever to do ; but they are always appealed to as the sup-
posed best posted and the supposed best natured persons in their
particular localities. And no doubt they are. Anxious inquirers
want to know whether their fathers and sons, and even their sisters,
cousins and aunts are in town. A farmer or rancher wants to know
if the postmaster won't sell his eggs and garden truck between mails
on commission. Bucolic poets want to know if the postmaster
won't publish, or at least won't "promote," their campaign songs.
One wants to know whether his old friend, whom he has not heard
from since '72, is still running his saloon on the South side. He
wants to know what is the best way to get a dog license.

The situation of the smaller postmasters, and especially of those
in the little country places, is even more uncomfortable. One
has described a most engaging incident, which happens every day,
no doubt, in the country post office. It ran thus :

"I want to get a money order," she said, thrusting her head through the
window.

" Please make out an application," replied the clerk. You'll find the blanks
on the desk back of you."

' What application ? I just want to send fifteen dollars to "

'Please to fill out the blank," interrupted the clerk, handing her one.

' I I will you please fill it out for me ? "

' I can't. It's against the rules. You must fill it out yourself."

' Oh, dear me, I don't believe I can. What do you do first ? "

' Write the date."

'Where?"

' On the first line."

' There ! On that line ? "

4 Yes that's it."

' Now, let me see, is this the tenth or the eleventh ? "

' The tenth."

' I thought so, but I wasn't sure. What do I do now ? "

'Write the amount to be sent."

' It's fifteen dollars."

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 707

" Well, write it on the next blank line."

*' There?"

" Yes."

*' How easy it is, after all! Now what do I do ? "

" Where is the money to be paid ? "

"Oh, at Chicago."

" Well, write ' Chicago ' after the words 'payable at.' "

'I I don't see ' payable.' "

"There it is."

"Oh, of course; how perfectly ridiculous of me not to see it myself! Now
what shall I put after ' State of ? ' "

" Why, 'Illinois,' to be sure."

'' Of course! What a goose I am! Now, let me see, what comes next ?"

" To whom are you sending the money ? "

" Oh, Mr. John Smith; that is, I'm really sending it to Mrs. Smith, who is my
sister; but we thought it would be better to send it in his name and save her from
the trouble of going to the office, and of course he can take it to her, as the money's
really for sister; but if it makes any difference, I suppose "

" It makes no difference at all."

" I didn't see why it should really, and I'm glad it don't, for sister isn't in good
health, and she might not be able to go to the office herself, and "

" Write Mr. Smith's name and address on the lines below."

" Yes there are so many Smiths."

" ' Joseph N.' will do, won't it ? "

" Yes, Yes."

" I can write it ' Joseph Newman Smith ' if you prefer. Newman is his middle
name."

" Joseph N. will do."

" Oh, will it? I'm sure I don't see why it shouldn't. He's so well known
anyhow."

" Now write your own name and address on the [other lines as quickly as you
can; there are others waiting."

It doesn't take her more than twenty minutes to do this, and ten more to ask
if Smith will have to be identified, and when he'll get the money, and how she'll
know he got it, and if the post office is responsible if the money is lost, and if a
registered letter wouldn't have been as safe.

An expert at the business tells us that where the money order
transactions in a given post office number in the course of a year
20,000, or an average of about sixty-five per day, embracing issues
and payments, a single clerk working alone may reasonably be
expected to do all the work, including the keeping of the records
and the rendition of all reports and returns. Not so under the
above conditions, however.

The clerks in post offices, the postmistresses, and the men, too,
have often been berated for what has been called discourtesy. '
Especially do the women come in for a share of the abuse, for that

708 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

is what it is, mostly. Their duties are made distressing, particularly
by the public. The public has a right to be smart, cranky, hoggish,
or anything else. But the grind on the person at the window or
behind the desk is something horrible. They who face it are paid,
and with sufficient liberality, it may be supposed, or they would not
choose to retain their places. Thoughtfulness and good natured
concessions are probably oftenest thought of by the postal servants,
and hence it may be concluded, not unreasonably, that they are the
least to blame. The British postmaster general not long ago found
it necessary to warn the young women employed in post offices that
they really must be decently civil. He issued a circular enjoining
civility upon employees of both sexes ; but it was obvious that he
had the young women in his eye, for he said there were "some, if
not many, whom it is impossible to acquit of inattention and levity
in the discharge of their official duties. Often they will keep a
member of the public waiting while they, perhaps, finish some idle
conversation or complete a row of knitting." The complaint,
according to the London Spectator, was perfectly just; "but Sir
James will find that a good many circulars are required, for the evil
springs, not from idleness, or even rudeness, but from caste feeling.
The girls are uncivil, just as bank clerks are uncivil, in order to
show that they are not 4 shoppies,' bound to attend to the orders of
their customers. They make the public wait just as a sign that
they are official persons, and not girls hired to sell stamps and money
orders." It is far too harsh a criticism for this country. The clerks
and postmistresses, and especially the postmasters, understand that
they are the servants of the public, and that they cannot justify them-
selves to their superiors, and to the public, upon whom their
superiors, no matter how high, depend, except by unflagging
efficiency.

The postmasters in the larger places are always finding something
to contend with. Their business bodies and their influential people
are continually pressing them for extra facilities, and they are con-
tinually pressing the Department; but the Department cannot act,
because it has not the money. The legislative branch and not the
executive, it seems to be forgotten, furnishes the appropriations
with which the postal service is operated. The post offices are, of
course, without the stimulus of competition. An added burden is

INSIDE HALF A DOZP^N POST OFFICES.

709

that their allowances of money are always inadequate. They do not
often keep pace with the growth of the city or town, and hence with
the growth of the postal needs, and accordingly it is only by the
utmost care and systematization that the service is actually prevented
from falling behind. In a large western office the business increased
eighty per cent, in eight years, and yet the clerical force was not
added to by a single person! The postmasters are without
resident inspectors. Low pay necessitates the employment of many
boys, whose habits of life are not fixed and who are consequently
uneasy, and who, far worse, are the more exposed to temptations.
The postmaster has no miscellaneous fund upon which he may draw
for small items of expense ; every bill, for a penny's worth almost,
must go to the Department for approval. He appoints clerks and
carriers, if in a classified office, without having a chance to examine
them himself, and if it is
true, as it is, that it is best
that for the lack of time

and other reasons they \

should be examined out- <Jfifll \

side, it is also true that the
character of the would-be
clerical carrier is not al- j
ways certified to after suf-
ficient scrutiny. In the
largest offices, where the
Post Office Department is ,
simply the tenant of the
Treasury, the postmasters
are not the custodians of
the buildings, and indiffer-
ence, if not actual care-
lessness, often results in
the internal management
of these great Government
establishments. So many
persons falsely claim that depredations have been committed upon
their mail that one postal expert has urged the passage of a law to
punish these. The postmaster is bored almost to death by repeated

HON. CORNELIUS VAN COTT.

710 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

inquiries for lists of all sorts of persons, who follow all sorts of
occupations; so that hardly a month passes that the Department
does not reiterate its invariable regulation that postmasters shall
reply to no such requests. And this reiteration goes along with
hundreds of other "suggestions to the public" and "dont's" pub-
lished in the monthly Guides. The postmaster can only work away
as best he may, making the most of his allowances of money by con-
solidating his force, inspiriting the men and women with more
energetic and skilful efforts, studying how some extra postal facili-
ties may be afforded to his people (which has simply never been
thought of before), asking the criticism of these same people, that
their ideas as well as his may be examined and their attention inci-
dentally drawn to their own shortcomings.

The operations of the New York post office are the most mysteri-
ous. This greatest office serves a million and a half of people
directly, and intimately affects the service of millions more. It
is the great clearing house for foreign mails. It is unique, unex-
plored, superb. There are five divisions or departments, devoted
respectively to the financial accounts, the mailing and distribution
of letters, the city delivery, the registry, and the money order
business (to venture on for a few moments with Mr. James, who
ought to know about it). He has written :

After the letters are sent through the drops the first thing done with them is to
"face them up," or arrange them right side up so that the directed sides all face
the same way. There is a large table behind each drop, and as fast as the letters
fall upon it sometimes dribbling their way through, but in the later and busier
hours of the day, coming in torrents a clerk rakes them towards him, arranges
them in the manner stated, after which he passes them over to the stamping
clerks. The collectors who bring the letters from the lamp post boxes face them
up and divide them into those for city delivery, domestic, and foreign. The
stamping is done by machine, which will cancel, postmark, count and stack the
letters and postal cards at the rate of about 25,000 per hour. In two hours and
two minutes, it canceled, postmarked, counted, and stacked 46,480 letters and
postal cards, of which 21,000 were letters. The machine is driven by an electric
motor, but can be run with foot power like a small printing press. A clerk who
stands by it watches for envelopes which are stamped on the left instead of the
right hand corner, and that have more than one or two stamps upon them, and by
feeding them properly in the machine sees that they are cancelled.

Then comes the process of separation. The letters have been " faced up " and
stamped, and now lie in great rows ready to go through various sortings before
they start on their destination. There are seventy-five separation tables, dupli-
cates of each other, each one containing ninety pigeon holes. These pigeon holes

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

711

may be classified under three divisions. The first includes boxes devoted to a
special post office to which letters are sent directly. These represent large cities,
and their number is comparatively few; there are ten in New York, three in
Pennsylvania, three in Ohio, etc. The letters thrown into these pigeon-holes are
tied up into bundles, and are not distributed any further. The second division
includes letters for New York, New England, and some of the Middle and Western
States and Canada. These have to be redistributed in the office. The third
division includes the remaining states in the Union, and the letters for this
division are separated by postal clerks on the railway trains. Letters for the
principal Eastern States for the South and West, and for Canada, are still further
separated; others are sent to some prominent city from which they are distributed
to the surrounding towns; others are sorted in the railway postal cars.

The mail for New York City is sorted at tables which have pigeon holes which
open front and rear, and are marked with each carrier's route. The assorters for
carriers have to remember each carrier's boundary and the odd and even numbers
sometimes go to different divisions. The assorter must also remember the names
of three thousand persons who rent post office boxes, and send the letters to the
proper numbers. The assorters who send letters to the different branch post
offices are fined for every error which sends a letter to the wrong station. The
system is so perfect that such an error can always be traced to the person who
makes it. The same method is pursued in the distribution of the foreign mail,
for which there are provided fourteen distribution tables, each having twenty-
nine boxes. After the letters are sorted they are tied up in bundles and thrown
into the large mail bags. The bags are placed in large sized pigeon holes, or

712

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

frames, and receive the bundles as they are thrown in. Newspapers are
assorted in the basement of the building, where there are ten separation
tables, each with sixty-four divisions. One table is devoted entirely to news-
dealers' packages.

Several times during the day, when the carriers start out with their mail, the main
room of the post office presents an unusual scene of animation. The men in their
uniforms go from one assorter's table to another, each one taking the mail de-
posited in the box assigned to him. The carriers then arrange it according to
their route, sitting at a long counter divided into compartments. The mail
delivery for some districts is very large. The Equitable Insurance Building on
Broadway is a place of delivery for over thirteen hundred names, and there are
other buildings where the delivery is as large. Many leading firms who own boxes
have an immense correspondence, far too large for the boxes to accommodate.
Some firms have a trunkful of letters every day. Keys to these trunks are kept
in the post office and in the business house. The largest mails go to the great
mercantile houses who often receive two or three thousand letters a day each.

Carriers keep a
memorandum book in
which they enter the
name of any person
whom they cannot
find. In this book
are set down the ad-
dress of the letter,
the cause of its non-
delivery, and certain
initials which show
the character of the
missive, such as " M "
for mail, a letter from
outside of the city;
"M. E.," mail re-
quest, the same kind
of letter, with a re-
quest to return to
writer; "C. D.," card

drop, a postal card dropped in New York. Letters for which no owner can
be found are sent in due course of time to the Dead Letter Office at Washington,
but postal cards are tied into bundles and burned in the fire under the boiler
which lifts the elevator; literally, this class of lost and useless correspondence
helps to run the big post office.

The newspaper tables are in the basement, and, as elsewhere, the
pitching and the rapid distribution are the marvel of every looker-on.
The papers are massed in states and territories and sent to be distrib-
uted on the postal cars. Thousands of bags of newspapers go out
in a day. It is busy times, too, when a foreign mail arrives. A
marine telegraph announces the approach of a steamer yet outside

A CORNER IN THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE.

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

713

the Hook, so that the clerks have cleared the deck for action to take
a nautical metaphor ashore. These days the stampers, separators,
mail makers, pouchers and dispatchers are up to their eyes in work.
The present postmaster of New York, Hon. Cornelius Van Cott,
has been a marked success, and that, too, though he has been brought
into comparison with much vaunted predecessors. He was born in
New York City, in 1838, of revolutionary stock. As a young man
he went into the insurance business, and soon became vice-president
of the JEtna Company. He was a customs officer under Collectors
Draper and Barney, until in 1869 President Grant made him collec-
tor of internal re venue. He had been a volunteer fireman, and after
the overthrow of the Tweed ring in New York he became prominent
in politics. He was a fire commissioner from 1873 to 1875, and
again from 1879 to 1885, much of the time as president of the
board. He made improvements. He was never contented if he did
not. He changed the system of fire escapes on large buildings,
compelled large retail shops to
provide for exits in case of fire,
and made over the fire boat
William Havemeyer, and he
personally inspected the thea-
tres. Mr. Van Cott has always /
been a politician, and he has I
never neglected a chance to ad-
vance his chosen party and
party associates. For years he
was a most energetic member
of the Republican State Com-
mittee, and he has frequently
been a delegate to state conven-
tions. In 1887 he was a state
senator from the eighth district ;
and this is saying much, because
he was elected by a plurality of
over 4,800 in a quarter of New

York City which had previously been hostile by 1,500. As a senator
Mr. Van Cott introduced bills for a uniform divorce law and for bet-
ter methods of granting medical degrees. Though successful in the

HON. JAMES S. McKEAX.

CARRIER'S CASES, PITTSBURG OFFICE

THE MAILING SHED, PITTSBURG.

714

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

715

Senate, and surrounded by influential friends, he resigned his office to
become postmaster. He has always been a man who has had some-
thing else that he was able to do. Mr. Van Cott has obtained allow-
ances of over $100,000 for clerk hire for his office, and he has been
able to add over one hundred clerks to his force which is still inad-
equate, however, but necessarily so for the same old reasons. He has
established twenty new sub-stations and made many improvements in
handling the mail, which have attracted less attention but have been
just as important. Mr. Van Cott grew wealthy in the stable busi-
ness, and he is pres-
ident of the Lincoln
Club, and of the
West Side Savings
Bank. His bond is
for 1600, 000.

One of the larg-
est purely inland
offices, and an office
in the finest of the
large new buildings
lately erected, is
that presided over
by Hon. James S.
McKean at Pitts-
burg. In a town
which has had many
popular postmas-
ters Mr. McKean is
the most popular of
all, and he has de-
served this unusual
distinction. His of-
fice is a great dis-
tributing centre, and it affects the business naturally of the whole
of Western Pennsylvania. Last year this office handled 65,000,000
pieces of mail ; and the beauty of it was that this was an excess of
14,000,000 pieces over the record of the previous year. A clever
newspaper writer said not long ago :

POSTMASTER McKEAN'S PRIVATE OFFICE.

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

717

" There was a great fight over the Pittsburg postmastership early in the ad-
ministration. Senator Quay had a candidate. So did Dalzell, the Representative.
The Senator won. James S. McKean was appointed. He is a Scotchman, a
bachelor, fat, pleasant, rosy cheeked, and, as one has said, * as sweet as a woman.'
This appointment was one more illustration of the fact that out of the red hot
political fight there
often comes a good
postmaster. McKean
is a pusher; not loud,
but very smooth.
When the appoint-
ment was made Pitts-
burg had a public
building slowly ap-
proaching completion.
McKean began to
crowd things, and he
soon got into this new
building, which under
the ordinary course of
Government routine
would not have been
ready for at least two
years. He spent $1,800
of his own money in
fitting up the post-
master's office in the
new building. He
printed 25,000 copies
of an illustrated souve-
nir of the post office
service of Pittsburg,

showing the progress from 1787 to 1891. This souvenir cost $2,500, the most
of which came out of the enthusiastic young postmaster's pocket. When
McKean went into office he had a host of enemies as the result of the factional
fight. Soon many of those enemies were his warm friends, won over by the
improvements made in the post office service."

Mr. McKean was born in New Abbey, in Dumfriesshire, Scot-
land, in 1850. In 1866 his family settled in Washington County,
Penn. The future postmaster worked on a farm, and drove a horse
to the city to sell the farm products. He liked the city, and soon
he worked there; and then, in 1876, he became a partner in the firm
of Duff, McKean & Co., dealers in agricultural implements and
hardware. He made money, and he has invested it well in manu-
facturing and landed interests. He has more personal acquaintances
and probably more personal friends than any man in Pittsburg.

ASSISTANT POSTMASTER'S OFFICE, PITTSBURG.

A DOKM1TOKY IN THE PITTSBUKG OFFICE

THE PITTSBUKG KKGISTKY OFFICE.

718

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

719

He is true and kind; and kindness and loyalty do their work. Oct.
1, 1891, Postmaster MeKean moved into the finest post office build-
ing in the world, no doubt. There are larger new public buildings
in this country, but none more solidly built or finished so hand-
somely. The screens and woodwork throughout are of solid
mahogany, elegantly carved. When the stranger walks up the
granite steps and enters the marble paved corridors he is impressed
with the positive grandeur of his surroundings. The carved wood-
work, the marble
wainscoting ? and
the artistic ceil-
ings are alike the
objects of his ad-
miration. In the
general office of
the postmaster
he sees beautiful
etchings first, but
in the private of-
fice luxury itself
is found. The
frescoed walls and
ceilings, the drap-
eries, the service
of onyx and silver, the faultless furniture, all give the visitor a
feeling of comfort and of ease. The hearty reception of the post-
master and the courteous treatment of his subordinates make the
caller feel the better for having met them.

An invitation to take a peep behind the scenes is accepted always.
The business of the registry division, under the charge of a woman,
one of the most capable in the whole service, has grown from 28,836
letters registered and 82,832 delivered in 1886 to 37,329 registered
and 119,507 delivered in 1892. In the Money Order Division the
employees are all women from the superintendent to the junior clerk,
and their work is next to perfection. The growth of the business
in this branch has increased from 11,535,148.97 in 1886 to $2,566,-
570.32 in 1892. The working room of the office, where the "hust-
ling" is done, is a scene of ceaseless activity. The mails are

CORRIDOR, UNITED STATES COURT, PITTSBURG.

THE PITTSBURG MONEY ORDER OFFICE.

THE CASHIER'S OFFICE.

720

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 721

rushed into the main room on trucks and opened on a special table.
The time when the city mail is received is instantly marked on the
back of the letters and soon it is all distributed to the boxes and the
carriers. The city division is separated from the mailing division
partly by a wire screen and partly by an imaginary line, and the
general arrangement is such that it is not necessary for the clerks in
one division to invade the territory of another; so that none but
those in a given division can be held responsible for any loss or

SMITHFIELD STREET CORRIDOR, PITTSBURG POST OFFICE.

error within its boundaries. The mailing division, like the city
division, is so arranged that there is not a bit of superfluous hand-
ling of mail either in distributing or in pouching. The arrange-
ment of the office, a thing of the greatest importance, is next to
perfect; and all through are signs of the model post office.

The Washington City office is notable for the great amount of
free ordinary and registered matter which it is obliged to handle for
the Government. The registry division ranks, in number of pieces
handled, third in the United States, while in regard to revenue it
ranks tenth. The enormous Government values passing through
this registry office amount annually to some $530,000,000. Of this

722

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

723

amount some 1160,000,000 is in revenue stamps sent from the
United States Treasury to the various collectors of internal revenue
throughout the country. This amounts in bulk to about 450 tons
annually. The total weight of registered mail per annum is about
1,650 tons; and this is now increased by the establishment of
a postal card agency in Washington for a dozen states. All the
supplies of stationery, typewriting machines, etc., sent by the
Treasury and Interior Departments to collectors, receivers of land
offices, Indian schools, etc., are registered at Washington. This
system actually saves the other Departments millions of money the

country over, which would otherwise be spent for expressage ; and
if the Post Office Department were to be credited with these
amounts, the postal deficit would entirely disappear. During the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1892, there were handled at Washington
69,159 paid registered pieces and 346,451 free registered pieces.
Were the office to receive the registry fee of ten cents on each of
these pieces, the revenue would amount to 141,561. Were the
postage paid on the 1,650 tons, all rated as third class matter, the
amount would be $264,000, a total in all of 8305,561. As it is,
the Washington office receives less than $7,000 in registry fees !
The total expenditure for clerk hire is $224, 100 per annum. So, if

724

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the registry work received its dues, it would pay all the salaries of
the clerks, as well as the greater proportion of the salaries of the
carriers. The mailing and the registry divisions together dispatch
about 6,000 tons of mail annually. The estimate placed upon the
total free matter handled is seventy per cent, of the whole.

According to this estimate Washington would rank fifth in
importance among the post offices of the country, for New York,
Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston would be the only cities to out-
rank it in gross earnings. The business done in the Washington
office is equal to that of St. Louis and Cincinnati combined, and
to three times that of Baltimore. But if Washington really ranks
fifth in the amount of mail matter forwarded, it is unrivalled with
regard to the value of the mail matter handled. In an average year
there are forwarded for the Post Office and Treasury Departments
alone almost 800,000 registered letters and parcels which are valued
at almost a million dollars; and during the ten years from 1880 to
1890 the values which passed through the Washington office aggre-
gated over 15,600,000,000. It is estimated that if all this had
been sent by express, it would have cost the Government over $1,-

^__ ,,.,. . ,, mm ^ 000,000. And the increase in

the amount of registry business
is enormous. In 1881 less than
600,000 pieces of registered mat-
ter were handled. In ten years
the number had swelled to 2,100,-
000 annually. In eight years the
business of the Washington office
increased 257 per cent. ; and for
the same period Philadelphia's
increase was eighty-two per cent.,
Chicago's seventy per cent., NCAV
York's sixty-two per cent, and
St. Louis's fifty-one.

The postmaster at Washington
is Capt. Henry Sherwood, a Michi-
gan man, who was born in Avon,

CAPT. HENRY SHERWOOD,

postmaster at Washington city. ber of Company C> in the Fourth

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

725

Michigan Cavalry, and he lost a leg at the Battle of Lattimers'
Mills. In 1866 Captain Sherwood was appointed a clerk in the
War Department. In 1868 he was assistant doorkeeper of the
Fortieth Congress ; and he was postmaster of the Forty-Third and
Forty-Seventh Congresses. At the end of that Congress he was ap-
pointed assistant postmaster of Washington by Mr. Frank Conger.
After holding that position eight years he was appointed postmaster
upon the appointment of Hon. John W. Ross as District Com-
missioner.

The Washington post office occupied for years a dingy, rickety
death trap on Louisiana Avenue. The passage of legislation was
finally secured to provide not only for an immense, beautiful post
office structure on Pennsylvania Avenue, but also for a temporary
office to be rented for three years, until the permanent quarters
should be ready. The five hundred employees of Postmaster Sher-
wood's force are at present
quartered, therefore, in a fine
four-story brick building on G
Street near Seventh.

A typical Southern post of-
fice though perhaps it is not
typical so much as it is sur-
passingly efficient is enjoyed
by the people of Nashville.
Major A. W. Wills has been
postmaster. He was born in
Philadelphia in 1841, went to
school at the Tremont Semi-
nary in Norristown, and began
to study law. This was when
the war broke out. He volun-
teered, with three of his four
brothers. His regiment, the
Anderson Cavalry, met its first
service in the battle of Antietam. Then the regiment went South,
having enlisted for service in the army of the Southwest. After an
active service of a year in the cavalry, Major Wills was assigned to
staff duty, receiving the appointment of captain and assistant quarter-

MAJ. A. W. WILLS.

726 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

master. For several years he was depot quartermaster at Nashville,
and his disbursements covered millions of dollars. When the
war ended, at the request of Gen. George H. Thomas command-
ing the armies of the Southwest, on whose staff he was then serving,
Major Wills took charge of the purchase of national cemetery
lands in the Southwest and constructed the national cemeteries at
Corinth, Miss., and Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn. He also served on
the staff of General John F. Miller, who afterwards became senator
from California. He was brevetted major and lieutenant-colonel
for meritorious services and for bravery in the battles of Antietam
and Nashville. As quartermaster Major Wills had a force of fifty-
two clerks and at times as many as a hundred employees. General
Thomas was anxious to have him transferred to the regular army,
but Major Wills had had enough. He spent a part of the year 1868
in Washington with his two principal clerks settling his various
accounts. He had formed an attachment for the Southern country,
and it was better for his health; so he returned to Nashville and
began the practice of law, having married Miss Eleanora Willauer,
daughter of Dr. I. B. Willauer of Nashville and grandniece of
Anthony Van Leer, an original iron manufacturer of Tennessee.
Major Wills is a bustling business man. He is a director in the
Sheffield, Ala., Land & Improvement Company, and president of the
Alabama Iron & Railway Company. The people of Nashville have
freely said that this Republican postmaster has given them a better
service than they ever had before. Major Wills has put on collec-
tors' carts, established sub-stations, and won the patrons of his office
to him by numberless small attentions intended to take them into
his confidence, win their honest criticism, and secure their good
ideas and support in furthering his own ideas and efforts. He asks
the newspapers for their advice, makes announcements of his pur-
poses. He is intensely interested in politics also, as his good lady
is in literature and art.

The experience of Major Wills at Nashville is undoubtedly not
unlike that of many others. He must be a walking encyclopedia,
the judge of every man's credit in the town, liable to be obliged to
give his report in detail when called upon by some suspicious
stranger for the suspicious stranger calls, rather than risk a stamp
on an unknown postmaster. If a man mails a letter improperly

IXSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

727

addressed or with insufficient postage, or writes a letter and fails to
mail it at all, the postmaster at Nashville, as elsewhere, is to
blame. To cite a case: A colored man called at the Nashville
office regularly ev-
ery morning for
more than two
weeks for a letter
from a neighboring
town, and was as-
sured at the gen-
eral delivery win-
dow that no such
letter had come.

"But, boss, dah
mus' be a letter for
me; B rudder Jones
was out dar an' see
it writ."

This led the post
office people to sus-
pect that there was
something wrong
and an inspector
was put upon the
trail: but he could
find no irregularity. For several months nothing further was heard
of the case, but at last one day the general delivery clerk met the
troubled patron and asked him about the matter.

"Bless yo' life, boss, I done quit havin' any mo' trouble dat
way. De ole 'oman done come home now."

"But what about the letters she wrote you when she was away?
Did you ever get them? "

"Yes, boss. De ole 'oman write one every day an' jes' put it
right down in her trunk, and when she come home she went an'
fotch 'em every one."

Hardly a day passes in the Nashville office that some one does not
ask when he will get an answer to a letter just mailed, not telling
its destination, of course ; and the puzzled clerk is led to ask why, if

THE NASHVILLE POST OFFICE.

728 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

a postmaster knows how long it takes a letter to go and how long
its answer will be in coming back, he shouldn't also know how long
it will take the addressee to answer it, or whether he will answer it
at all or not? No sacrifice is too great, no duty too onerous for the
patient, mild-eyed postmaster. The man in search of the stamp
window always finds the registry department or superintendent of
carriers, and the man who is sent to the "second window below"
invariably turns up at the third or fourth window. But when a
woman with a contralto voice pitched an octave too high comes with
a letter " written on snow white paper with snow white fingers "
and wants a "snow white stamp " it is too, too much.

The people who come with packages to weigh are perhaps the
worst enemies a postmaster has. Cold law compels him to ask what
is in the package, and this question is objectionable to ninety-nine
out of every one hundred package senders. A young woman comes
tripping up and hands in a package done up in a neat white paper
and tied with a blue ribbon, and asks :

"What's the postage on this bundle?"

The postmaster cannot tell and asks what is in it. Of course, it
may be handkerchiefs, or printed matter, or "returned manuscript."
In most cases it is articles " returned for revision " ; and the abandon
of the miss who is mailing them gives way to indignation when she
is forced to say "old letters."

The sorrows and secrets of a great many confiding souls are post
office property. If a truant husband has left a sorrowing wife, the
postmaster is taken into the secret; if a woman receives an anony-
mous letter, the postmaster is advised ; if a jealousy between
husband and wife spring up, it will in some way come -to the post-
master's ears, and he is expected to know all about suspicious
letters and so on in all the rounds of partnership and family differ-
ences. People call for express packages and railroad tickets, and
want to register trunks, birdcages, looking glasses, clocks and a hun-
dred other unmailable things, and are astonished that the postmaster
refuses to take them when "all the other offices do it." Not one in
a thousand reads the printed instructions on anything. Almost
every day some stranger wants a money order cashed without identi-
fication, and he is certain "this is the first office I ever struck that
asked a man to be identified " ; and then flies into a passion and

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

729

informs the postmaster that he will hereafter have his money sent
by check on the bank when he goes again to a "one hoss town."
The postmaster usually reasons with this class of cranks, and the
result generally is :

"Well, that is so; and strange I never saw it in that light before.
,What an idiot I am, anyhow."

THE MAILING KOOM IN THE NASHVILLE OFFICE.

The experiences of the far Western postmaster in the " boom "
town are very interesting, if not actually thrilling. Take the cases
of Oklahoma City and Guthrie. In Guthrie was one of the most
capable and progressive postmasters in the whole service. His
name is Dennis T. Flynn. He is but thirty-two, has a fine, smooth,
aquiline face, and that he is trusted among his people and at the
Department alike is certain, for he has been the chief adviser of the
Department in business and political matters and is now con-
gressional delegate. Another' applicant for the Guthrie office
insisted that he had the promise of appointment; so that,
although Mr. Flynn had been appointed some months before, he did

730

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

not take possession of the post office until the famous 22d of April,
1889, at twelve o'clock noon. He was not a "sooner." He arrived

__ in Guthrie on the celebrated

"] first train."

Mr. Flynn had taken this
means of conveyance, believ-
ing that no wagons or horse-
back riders could outstrip
a steam train running forty
miles an hour. But he was
surprised and disgusted to
find on jumping off (and
turning a somersault in the
operation), that a city of
2,500 people living in tents,
or not living in anything at
all, were already locating
town lots. There was no
time for meditation. The
United States Land Office
had been partly constructed,
and as it was the only frame
building in sight, everybody except the "sooners " entered the grand,
free-for-all foot race for its portal, thinking to obtain some idea of
the "layout" of the town site. Mr. Flynn was , among the most
fleet footed, and he arrived at the Land Office along with others
amid cries of " Keep on the move," " Don't stop there," " That's my
lot," from the mouths of the " sooners," and echoed on all sides.
The "sooners" were already stretching their clothes lines; and
though the Land Office was but eighty rods from the railroad station
it seemed a mile, and Mr. Flynn has since expressed his deliberate
opinion that that race of eighty rods among clothes lines, soldiers,
United States deputy marshals, six-shooters, Winchesters and oaths,
was the most exciting of his life.

At the Land Office Mr. Flynn met Mr. George M. Christian,
assistant superintendent of the Railway Mail Service, who had already
been sent to Oklahoma to open a post office, and he told Mr. Flynn
that he had located the Guthrie office on the Government acre. The

HON. DENNIS T. FLYNN,
Congressional Delegate from Oklahoma.

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 731

new postmaster visited the new site and found a tent about ten
by twelve with a sign "Post Office" attached to it, daubed in
red colored ink. Inside was a railway postal clerk in charge.
Having no commission and not being acquainted with the clerk,
Postmaster Flynn was refused admission. His valise was not even
admitted.

He had as yet secured no lot. But he had seen the location of
the post office, and as he was satisfied that the land upon which the
tent stood was not a part of the Government acre, he speedily paid
one dollar for two shingles, which he at once labelled "taken by D.
T. Flynn," and stuck them in the ground twenty-five feet apart.
The town was not surveyed, and of course there were no streets, and
everybody was claiming lots which others were claiming. Before
morning as many as ten tents were pitched on the ground claimed
by Mr. Flynn, and as the ten tents faced in ten different directions,
and as every owner claimed that his tent faced the street, here was
some confusion. Pandemonium reigned. No one slept the first
night ; and as there were no lamps or even candles the dark seemed
darker than usual and yet more hideous with the cries of the
Western boomers.

On the evening of April 25 the new postmaster was notified
by telegraph from Washington to take possession of his office, as his
commission had been issued. Up to this time but little attention
had been paid to the post office by anybody. All were too busy
trying to take and hold their lots. The next morning at four
o'clock the new postmaster took charge. He had four clerks. He
had telegraphed to Arkansas City for lanterns, and improvised fifty
pigeon holes for letters, and had paid $10 for a board twelve feet
long and eighteen inches wide, which was used as a counter upon
which letters were delivered.

By ten o'clock this was Friday Mr. Flynn discovered that if
something were not done and that right away, the new postmaster
and his clerks and their tent, pigeon holes, ten dollar board and all,
would be tramped under foot by the anxious, surging crowd which had
at last begun to realize the importance of the post office. The post-
master called upon Captain McArthur, in command of the troops
stationed at Guthrie, and he promptly furnished a company of sol-
diers to assist Mr. Flynn and act under his directions. When the

THE GENESIS OF THE GUTHRIE OFFICE.
732

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 733

soldiers arrived the crowd had grown to three thousand men. For-
tunately they were good natured. They realized that nobody was
so anxious to deliver their mail to them as the new postmaster him-
self, and upon his request they quickly formed four lines in front of
the tent, where, with a line of soldiers between them, they proceeded
in turn to call for their mail. In the midst of the worst dust and
sand storm ever known in that country, the postmaster and his
assistants handed out the letters, which they had tried to assort in
alphabetical order on Thursday night. They had not stopped this
work for dinner; but at nine they were obliged from sheer exhaus-
tion to close the tent, to the intense disgust of many of the settlers,
who had actually stood in line all day waiting for their chances to
call. But they did not leave their places, and at four o'clock in
the morning the postmaster and his clerks were again at work,
wakened by the cries :

"O postmaster, you opened at four o'clock yesterday morning! "

It was not too early for the boomers. Their camp fires were
burning along the line for fully three quarters of a mile, and
all was activity and bustle, with their coffee making and joke
cracking.

The postmaster had by this time obtained two hundred dollars'
worth of stamps from the postmaster at Arkansas City, and after
breakfast, having sworn in six of his friends as additional clerks,
Mr. Flynn, refusing to sell any individual more than ten cents'
worth, proceeded along the lines to make his little stock go as far
as it would. By four in the afternoon of Saturday all his stamps
were sold, and some speculators who had brought a quantity with
them began selling two-cent stamps at twenty-five and fifty cents
apiece. The postmaster could do nothing for awhile to prevent
this ; but when his supply came and the settlers learned that the
postmaster had plenty of stamps and did not charge more than the
regulation price for a single one of them, he was the most popular
and sought after individual in the territory.

It made no matter how many hours the postmaster kept open, or
how many clerks he employed; the line of callers was never dimin-
ished night or day. Speculating in places in the line soon began,
and many who had nothing to do (and who never received a letter
in their lives) would take places like anybody else, and after wait-

734 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

ing a night and part of a day, would reach the front of the tent and
then for five or ten dollars would ask for the mail for less fortunate,
or more fortunate strangers, who had been too busy to stand
in line.

In order to break up this practice, the postmaster on Monday,
April 29, swore in ten more of his friends in addition to the seven
already employed ; and he then was able to announce that in addi-
tion to keeping the clerks in the tent at work he would also proceed
to call out the names on all his letters, one after another, from an
improvised platform, made out of boxes, which should be put up in
the midst of the crowd. At six o'clock on Monday morning Mr.
Flynn and ten of his clerks mounted this platform and began to call
alphabetically every letter in the tent. If letters were not called
for, they were promptly returned to the inside. The first day of
this auction, as it was called, twenty thousand letters were delivered
outside the tent, and the letter Z was reached at 6 p. M. Eleven
men were calling letters at the same time, and it took over ten hours
of very hard work to complete the operation.

Tuesday morning the frame of a building twenty-five by fifty feet
was begun, and Thursday night the lock and call boxes in the new
post office, the former at $3 per quarter and the latter at $2, were
all rented; and there were cries for more. Friday morning the new
post office was opened. Even with the help of the military the
postmaster and his men could not handle the crowd. Postmaster
Flynn had at once had six general delivery windows, marked in
sections of the alphabet, cut in the north side of the new building ;
and even under these circumstances it was not possible from that
time till September entirely to break the six lines of anxious men
standing all the hours of the day. The registry business arid the
delivery of women's letters was the only work transacted inside.
The crowd was good natured enough to christen the post office
"Flynn's Livery Stable," as the holes cut in the sides of the build-
ing so much resembled those in the side of a stable. In January,
1890, the postmaster moved to a brick building near by. But on
the first of April last, he returned to the lot upon which the office
was originally located; now there is a handsome room twenty-five
by eighty, virtually on a corner, with furniture and fixtures as
handsome as any in the West, outside of Government buildings.

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 735

The receipts of this wonderful post office have never been less than
$10,000 annually, since its opening, and of course they have mar-
vellously increased.

The articles offered for mailing in the early days would stock a
curiosity shop two or three times over. Paper and envelopes were
scarce, so that cuffs, collars, and shirt bosoms, and every conceiva-
ble article which could be written upon were mailed, with the proper
postage prepaid and the address on the one side, and the most realis-
tic if sometimes awkward descriptions of the grand opening of the
territory. In only a few days five hundred special delivery letters
had been received, and as the postmaster had no receipt blanks, the
addressees very accommodatingly agreed to remember that they had
received them. One would come addressed to "Mr. Whitkins,
near big tent." all of which was very graphic, to be sure, but not
definite, as there were fully ten thousand tents in town. Another
would come for Mr. Burdock, "at a cheap restaurant." These
utterly failed of delivery, as every restaurant in the town charged
not less than $2 as the price of the hospitality of a single meal.
Still another came addressed to a man (not Simpson) "with no
socks."

A great difficulty lay in the fact that hardly a name could be
called out that some other person of the same name, if not of the
same initials, did not also reply. Mr. Flynn was at the general
delivery window one morning. A man called for his mail. There
was none, and he was so informed; but he was also informed that
another person of the same name, even to the initials, had pre-
viously been at the window. He began to rave ; but fortunately for
the postmaster another man only a few feet distant from the line
interjected :

" You're a liar ! That's my name, and you have been stealing my
mail ! "

The two men, made acquainted in this fashion, afterwards found
that they were first cousins. There were two brothers named Billy
in Guthrie at the time. Neither knew where the other was, neither
had seen the other since the war; but they met at one of the win-
dows of "Flynn's Livery Stable."

The remarkable fellow who came to the top in all this scurry
and shuffle was born in Phoenixville, Pa., was sent to an orphan

736

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

asylum after his father and mother died, learned the printer's trade,
studied law in Buffalo and lived there until he was twenty, went
to Riverside, Iowa, and established the Riverside Leader, travelled
> on by ox-team to Kiowa, Kan., and established the

Kiowa Herald there, and
was postmaster under
President Arthur.
Another good
! man, George A.
Beidler, of Penn-
sylvania, postmas-
ter at Oklahoma
City, experienced
, social and po-
litical con-
vulsions
similar to
those just
related of
, Guthrie.

-* I

Before the opening of the Oklahoma country, and up to the twenty-
second day of April, Oklahoma Station consisted of a railroad
house, telegraph office, watering tank, post office and five houses.

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 73 1

From this station goods and merchandise received over the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa F6 were forwarded by wagon trains across the country
to the military post of Fort Reno, thirty-two miles distant, and also to
the Indian posts of Darlington and Anadarko, beyond, so that Okla-
homa station was rather an important forwarding point. The mails for
Fort Reno, Darlington and Anadarko were received from north and
south daily over the railroad and by four-horse stages, and mails
were dispatched daily to Fort Reno, Darlington and Anadarko.
There were probably thirty-five people at Oklahoma station. They
were the railroad agent, the telegraph operator, track repairers,
the Government forwarding agent, the commissary agent, soldiers
and the postmaster. Some of these had their families with them.
The mail consisted probably of one hundred letters and one hundred
papers daily. There was no post office nearer than Fort Reno,
thirty-two miles west, or Purcell, thirty-two miles south. A
post office was first established in February, 1888. The first post-
master was soon relieved ; so also the second. On March 20 Mr.
Beidler was appointed.

The new postmaster arrived at Oklahoma Station April 11, with
his little boy Chase, with gloomy misgivings. It was the midst of
a wilderness and late in the evening, and instead of being wel-
comed, they were taken to task and questioned sharply by the sol-
diers, who were preventing people from leaving any of the trains
that stopped. Mr. Beidler assured the soldiers that he was the
newly appointed postmaster and was allowed to remain. Lodgings
were extremely scarce, but the strangers were directed to a building
some distance from the railroad occupied by Captain Sommers of the
quartermaster's department. They stayed here until the fifteenth,
when the new postmaster relieved the old. There was considerable
shaking of heads ; for the " leading citizens " did not know who the
new postmaster was, nor was the idea settled in their minds that
there was ever to be a new postmaster at all. But after building
out of old logs a temporary stockade, Mr. Beidler moved the office
from the old postmaster's quarters. That same day it was in run-
ning order as a United States post office with the stars and stripes
floating over it more proudly than if it had been a $6,000,000 post
office, custom house, United States court house, and what not, all
combined.

738 THE STORY OF OTJR POST OFFICE.

Business was very light for a few days. But only a week inter-
vened till the opening day; the avalanche was coming on the
twenty-second. With the first trains in the afternoon came immense
quantities of mail, and the new comers arriving by train and wagon,
on horseback or on foot, seemed immediately to surround the little
post office. Then there was no rest. Men, women and children
clamored all at once for their mail. The postmaster and his clerks
would take turns calling off names at the top of their voices ; and
that they did for weeks. The two lines at the general delivery
window extended squares and squares, and they did not break or
weaken from four in the morning till eight o'clock at night. The
postmaster and his small son slept, valuables within reach, among the
bags, on top of the mailing table, anywhere; and frequently
the postmaster, and the boy, too, were kept up for the noise, until
three in the morning, in a vain struggle to gain on the distri-
butions. Six men were at work and they had their hands full for
months afterwards. The postmaster's bill for clerk hire was a snug
$500. The clerks were constantly besieged by individuals looking
for their mail .out of turn. Some stuck out a quarter; others a
nickel or a dime, others a half dollar, or a dollar. It was a polite
point with the employees of the Oklahoma office to wait upon the
women first; and men would go to the women and prevail upon
them to ask for their mail. Some would have a number of men's
names to inquire for, their husbands, brothers and uncles, of course.
Some would have tales of woe about their aunts, who were very
sick, or about their children, who were dying. Some of the "mer-
chants " had boxes of their own which they nailed up.

With all the rush and crush and the army of malicious and mis-
chievous, Mr. Beidler was never robbed, from first to last; nor
did he lose a cent, or a register, by theft or otherwise. One night
a clerk overheard persons outside cheerfully arranging to rob the
office ; but a soldier guard for several nights stopped all this. Once
the postmaster was told that unless ie engaged sufficient help the
office would be mobbed, but it was never done.

Mr. Beidler kept the post office in the stockade for several
months. Then he moved; and later he moved into his present
roomy quarters. This was in July, 1890. The business of the
office is steadily increasing. Oklahoma has nearly ten thousand

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES.

739

people now, and gas and water works are built. Fine buildings
are going up in all directions ; where the old stockade stood is now
solidly built over for half a mile.

In July of 1891 the people living in the little collection of
miners' locations in the gulch of Willow Creek, down in an unob-
trusive corner of southwestern Colorado, believed they had arrived
at that dignity which entitled them to postal service and accordingly
drew up the necessary petition, which was duly forwarded to the
Department. All this resulted, in due course of time, in the estab-
lishment of the post office of Creede, with C. C. Meister as post-

* THE CREEDE POST OFFICE.

master. Mr. Meister was not named by. the people because of any
suspected aptitude for clerical duties. He was a prospector and a
good fellow. Winter was coming on, when prospecting days would
end. And it was decided that Meister could probably put the mail
from the pouches into the candle box with about as great rapidity
and as much eclat as anybody in the camp, also without visible
means of support. So Mr. Meister got his commission and located
the office in a surveyor's quarters; got his "batching " outfit in, used
his dining table for the distributing board, had a cabinet constructed
of canned fruit boxes, and pasted a few numbers from an insurance
calendar on the fronts. For a time the camp was proud and happy.

740 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

But other people began to see in the mineral " finds " of Creede a
greater destiny. Strange names, which were hard to spell, began to
appear on the increasing piles of letters. The postmaster put them
in the boxes religiously and felt injured if the owners who found
their mail on top of Bachelor Hill or on a cracker box in the store
across the way objected to his system. One day in December the
railroad was completed; with it came a greater pile of mail than in
all the nightmares caused by the increasing worry Postmaster
Meister had ever dreamed of.

The complaints came in so fast that Mr. Meister came to the
conclusion he " was not cut out " for a postmaster, and in one of the
piles of letters he did get out on time one day was a meek but
emphatic resignation and request for immediate relief from official
life. While the missive was on its way Mr. Meister felt something
must be done. He owned a cabin on the other side of the gulch
and one day moved the office thither. It was not a large office, but it
had been built in less time than the Government requires for fitting
up a post office, and compared to the old one it was a palace ; size,
twelve by fourteen feet, ceiling sufficiently high to allow standing
erect, but no more, one window to admit the light. There was
room for the cabinet, for a distributing table sufficiently large for
stamping letters, a bed for the weary postmaster at night, and the
all-important stove. Probably ten persons could get into the space
left for the public, if one were not too grasping.

Mr. Meister had scarcely " located " when the West awoke to the
fact that Creede was a great camp, and everybody tried to get in
"on the ground floor" on the same day. There it was that Mr.
Meister's serious trouble began. A city of eight thousand inhabi-
tants and a daily inflow of eight hundred more sprang up as in a
day. They were men of business who got mail, and they needed it
in their business. From the little bundle of letters, which even Mr.
Meister could soon distribute, the daily incoming mail to Creede
reached many thousands; while papers well, Mr. Meister did not
consider them woith bothering about, and why should he, now ?

The post office of Creede about this time was probably conducive
of more profanity than any one thing which ever existed in the
postal service of this land before. Mails went here and there as if
possessed of fiends incarnate. Men wanted money to do business

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 741

with, wanted bills of goods shipped, wanted advices from head-
quarters in real estate and mining deals, wanted papers, wanted
letters from home and a hundred other things which they did not
get, or, when they did, found them open, or miscarried, or got them
all out of the office at once, as if the fates had relented after a time
and showered all upon them in one instalment.

Hundreds of men stood in line in front of the Creede office in the
snow, freezing from without but burning within with rage and mak-
ing the very atmosphere bluer with profanity than it could have been
with cold. Once inside the man whose turn had finally come swore
at the postmaster, swore at everything, knew there was mail there for
him. He had a telegram saying it had been sent a week before and
he wanted it. Then he swore at the man behind him, who swore at
him, who in turn found his words echoed by the man behind ; all of
which seemed to excite the weary and wild-eyed postmaster behind
the window who, through it all, had but one letter in mind the one
which would release him from thraldom and inflict his punishment
on the man appointed to fill his place. Assistants he tried, but still
the men cursed and things seemed to get worse instead of better.

Light in the darkness came in a bright little woman who had
floated in with the boom; it was she who took hold of the
mail with tact and good memory and judgment. In a measure
Meister's load was lightened. With two assistants and himself a
species of order was brought out of chaos, but still the letter that he
looked for never came. The business at the Creede office at this
time was from five thousand to ten thousand letters a day, and no
sooner was one set of names half learned than the patrons had gone
away (mail to follow), and others had come to fill their places. Thou-
sands of parents had written to long lost sons in the hope that they
had floated in with the new excitement. Valuable mail was coming
registered, and the facilities for handling it were none. The
advertised letters were four thousand in one month.

The little woman conceived a way to get rid of the piles of un-
touched papers. She caused a notice to be posted outside during
the rush:

ALL MAIL UNCALLED FOR AFTER THIRTY DAYS
WILL BE BURNED ACCORDING TO LAW.

742 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

With such a sign staring them in the face the men in line
watched the sparks Hy from the stove-pipe protruding through the
roof, their minds filled with the knowledge that many letters
lay inside despite their daily calls. Groans would be sent after
each spark somewhat in this wise :

"That's my letter!" "There goes those deed's I've called for
every day for two weeks."

"I'll never know whether my wife is sick or divorced."

"I wonder if he takes my offer on the mine or not? "

One was in no humor to talk sense upon getting to the window
after freezing outside for an hour or two. This was shown in an
expression dropped by a miner who was going to another camp.

" Send my mail to Cripple Creek, when you find it, and see that
you do it, will you?"

"Write it down," came from the clerk who did not know the
name.

" You go to ! Write that down, will you ? "

There was one way to get your mail (if you had a box) without
standing in line half a day. The bright assistant had a small son
and the son was susceptible to insults. For a quarter, or a dime
sometimes, the son would dodge between the legs of the men crowd-
ing the doorway and filling the standing space, pass behind the
cabinet and emerge with your supply only to return with the next
insult offered. In this way the son did a thriving business, though
the men in line objected strenuously at the methods employed to
dodge the line.

After weeks, long weeks, weeks of anguish of mind and loss of
money, Mr. Meister one day found the letter he had waited for.
Another took possession of the office. In the meantime the rush at
the Creede office had reached some regular basis, and the creation of
the second office for the camp at Amethyst, further down the gulch,
had relieved the pressure. The new postmaster's first move was to
secure a larger room capable of accommodating many, to increase
the distributing facilities, to employ competent aid, and to bring
about order as speedily as possible. Two thousand letters went to
the Dead Letter Office the first month, and the list the next month
was fully as large. Add a money order office department which
averaged two thousand dollars a day, send out and receive still

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES. 743

several thousand letters a day, and some idea may be formed what
magnitude of business a fourth class office may sometimes be called
upon to handle.

At Leadville there was some such experience as here at Creede.
The postmaster, ex-Senator Tabor, paid out over three thousand
dollars in excess of his income in a few weeks for clerical services,
and Mr. Meister was probably in as bad a strait. The Leadville post-
master made millions in mines while he was losing that sum, and
the Creede postmaster made some money too ; but for attention to
his duties he might have done as well as Senator Tabor did. There
is other danger for the postmaster in a boom city. He is in constant
danger from fire, due to the haste and its inflammable materials with
which the camps are constructed. Several months ago more than
half of Creede was destroyed by fire, and it was only by the hardest
labor that the postmaster at Amethyst saved his outfit and the mails.
He did it and was open for business in a few hours. Danger from
robbery is always imminent in such camps, where life at best is
speculative and at times lawlessness is at its worst. Money comes
and goes through the mails at such times in great quantities, and the
postmaster must be alert and watchful at all times.

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE.

FEATURE of Postmaster General Wana-
maker's administration was long ago
observed to be frequent conferences of the
different classes of officials and employees
for an interchange of ideas or the deci-
sion of some difficult question. Now the
inspectors are called together, now the railway
mail" superintendents, now a few county seat
postmasters, now a few near-by postmasters to settle something
quickly. The most notable and interesting conference of all
these was that of half a hundred of the chief postmasters of the
country. The Postmaster General most of all desired ideas; he
knew that no one man could possibly possess all the good ideas,
and, least of all, that the Postmaster General could be the one man
to possess all the good ones about the postal service. In his busi-
ness it had been his custom to call about him his clever men and
discuss with them ideas of his, or of theirs, and either bring
something out of them, or else conclude that there was nothing in
them to be brought out.

This spirit had already permeated the postal service. Post-
masters, big and little, had long before begun to see that they could
be benefactors of the Department, if they made two postage stamps
sell where only one had sold before, for that meant revenue ; and
revenue meant liberality on the part of Congress, and liberality on
the part of Congress meant accurate, adequate service. The post-
masters had all taken the view that the postal service was like any
other business ; if it were examined thoroughly, grasped, attended
to, done economically and according to better methods, " boomed,"
it would grow and be profitable and appreciated like any other.
As one of the postal experts has written :

744

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 745

"You know the astonishing results of the county-seat visits how some
2,200 postmasters out of 2,800, with no hope of remuneration, have expended a
sum estimated at not less than $100,000 from their own pockets, upon your
simple request that they should do something to benefit not themselves so much
as their neighboring offices and the service at large.

" Why should you not have 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 agents each working with the
same zeal to bring about a self sustaining basis in the postal service ? The argu-
ment to be made to them would be the same as is made in your annual report,
that Congress expects the postal service to be self sustaining, and will not vote
it adequate appropriations until it becomes so; that, therefore, it is to the interest
of every postmaster to help to bring about that result, since he will share
equally with others in the ensuing results.

" They might work along two lines. It could be shown to them that the
deficit for the current year will probably be about $4,000,000. It could also be
shown that if, for the succeeding year, either $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 increased
revenue could be gained, or $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 decreased expenditure
brought about, there would be no question of the status of the Department for
1893. $2,000,000 is to the total revenues of the Department as 2 to say 70, or a
little less than three per cent. What county-seat postmaster would not willingly
try to show over and above the normal business of his county the further gain
of three per cent, increased revenue ? There would be a fascination and an
emulation about this task, far greater, it seems to me, than could possibly enter
into a simple matter of county visiting. Each one of these men, whose services
would be thus enlisted, would be put upon his metal as a business man to show
what he could do. If, as is often the case, he were already a merchant, ways
and means would naturally occur to him.

4< To employ figures for a moment, there are some 3,000 presidential post-
masters. Perhaps one half or two thirds of these are county-seat offices. The
total number of county seats is 2,800. Counting these and the presidential offices
that are not county seats, the Department could rely upon some 4,000 patriotic
men who would certainly do something, and almost certainly a great deal, in both
of the directions I have mentioned. See what a small result might be asked of
each one. Suppose the object were to gain $2,000,000, we will say, by two ways ;
first, by decreasing the expenditure $1,000,000, and second, by increasing the
receipts $1,000,000. Each of these 4,000 postmasters would only have to bring
about an increased revenue of $250, and a decreased expenditure of $250, or, to
put it in another way, and allot an increase and decrease proportionately to each
office, he would need to bring about an increase in its revenues of a trifle more
than one per cent., and a decrease in its expenditures of a trifle more than one
per cent."

This March conference of postmasters was no junket. Some of
the visitors brought their good wives with them, thinking to show
them Washington ; but they saw less of them than they did at home.
There were three sessions daily, one at nine, one at two and one at
eight. The postmasters had luncheon at Mr. Wanamaker's house in I
Street, and met the President and various members of the Cabinet,
as well as ex-Postmasters General King, Hatton and Dickinson.

746 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

They were invited by the Post Office Committees of the Senate and
the House to appear at the Capitol and explain and advocate some
of the Postmaster General's proposed reforms. They were too busy
to go in a body and sent a committee, and this same committee
remained for a week after the conference was over, and appeared
repeatedly before the committees, continuing their advocacies. A
letter from the Postmaster General to Senator Sawyer, Chairman of
the Senate Committee, accompanied fourteen bills (advocating
postal savings banks, a postal telegraph and postal telephone, pneu-
matic tubes, fractional postal notes, the exclusion of certain so-called
second class publications, the consolidation of third and fourth class
matter, country free delivery and collection, extension of town free
delivery, the insurance of registered matter, better regularity in the
employment of substitute letter carriers, the re-classification of postal
clerks, increased remuneration for fourth class postmasters, the pre-
ferment of veterans for collectors of mail, and the reduction of
money order fees), which this committee elaborated and argued for ;
and a full account of their daily, open sessions, as well as the
printed bills, later appeared in a Senate document of twenty-eight
pages. There was hardly a man gathered at this conference
who would not have made a suitable Postmaster General him-
self, or at least an assistant. Though there was no politics in
the meeting (for there was no time for it, if there had been
dispositions), every man among the postmasters was a politician,
shrewd, tactful and popular, as well as a business man. As one
has said:

" Other things being equal, the best politician makes the best postmaster.
People who have pet theories about civil service and business qualifications and
the like will dispute this proposition. But it is a fact, proven again and again.
The best politician makes the best postmaster. All of the Department officials
who have any ideas outside of their routine duties agree to this. And they
offer a plausible argument in explanation. The man who is in politics appreciates
in the highest degree the expediency of doing things which other people want.
He strives to please. His energies are directed toward meeting popular needs.
His mind is trained to catch the general desire. That kind of education lays the
foundation for a good postmaster. The man who has been absorbed within the
limits of his own business, and who doesn't touch politics or other matters of
general interest, may have made money and established a reputation as a splendid
business man, but he is apt to be only moderately successful as a postmaster.
He is set in his ways, and bull-headed, and can't be made to understand that he
is the servant of the people."

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE.

747

Mr, James Gayler, assistant postmaster at New York, represented
Mr. Van Cott ; Mr. J. M. McGrath, superintendent of delivery at
Chicago, represented Colonel Sexton; Mr. B. F. Hughes, assistant
postmaster at Philadelphia, represented Mr. Field; Mr. A. M. Cox,
superintendent of delivery at San Francisco, represented General
Backus; Mr. H. H. Muller, assistant postmaster at Cincinnati,
represented Mr. Zumstein ; and Mr. David Lanning, assistant post-
master, represented Postmaster Gardner of Columbus. The postmas-
ters present were :

Thomas IS". Hart, Boston.
John B. Harlow, St. Louis.
Geo. J. Collins, Brooklyn.
W. W. Johnson, Baltimore.
F. B. Nofsinger, Kansas City.
W. D. Hale, Minneapolis.
John A. Reynolds, Rochester.
James M. Warner, Albany.
O. H. Russell, Richmond.
John C. Small, Portland, Me.
R. A. Edgerton, Little Rock.

A. T. Anderson, Cleveland.

B. F. Gentsch, Buffalo.
Henry Sherwood, Washington.
E. T. Hance, Detroit.

W. A. Nowell, Milwaukee.
S. M. Eaton, New Orleans.

John Corcoran, Denver.
T. S. Clarkson, Omaha.
E. P. Thompson, Indianapolis.
John Barrett, Louisville.
Edw. A. Conklin, Newark.
James M. Brown, Toledo.
J. R. Lewis, Atlanta.
E. B. Bennett, Hartford.
N. D. Sperry, New Haven.
S. D. Dickinson, Jersey City.

A. W. Wills, Nashville.
W. P. Burbank, Lowell.

W. J. W. Cowden, Wheeling.
C. R. Higgins, Ft. Wayne.
S. S. Piper, Manchester.

B. Wilson Smith, Lafayette.

Mr. C. W. Ernst, assistant postmaster at Boston, was also present.

Some postmasters who were invited to the conference were not
able to be present, and some who lived too far away were not
invited. Theirs have been good American careers, whether they
were present at this meeting or not, and every man is worth a
careful word of praise. They were strong American men, full of the
confidence of their people (or they could never have been selected),
full of enthusiasm to justify to their people and to the political leaders
who brought about their appointments, and to the Department alike
which honored them with its support, the expectations of the most
critical. They were actually of opinion that they really had no right
to their post offices unless they did better than their predecessors.

The postmaster at Boston, Hon. Thomas Norton Hart, was one of the prom-
inent figures, noticeable for his shrewd, Yankee ' face, and his spirited,
business-like demeanor. Mr. Hart was born in North Reading, Mass., in 1829,

748

POSTMASTEKS AT A CONFERENCE.

749

and went to Boston as a boy of thirteen to work in a store. He returned to
Beading to school for a year and a half, but went to Boston in 1844 to work in a
hat store. In eleven years he was a partner. In 1860 the senior retired from
business and the junior partner organized the firm of Hart, Taylor and Company,
a firm which was so successful that the future mayor and postmaster sold out,
rich, in 1878. In 1879 Mr. Hart was made president of the Mt. Yernon National
Bank, and in that year, too, represented Ward 18 in tfie Common Council. He
was reflected later, and in 1882, '85 and '86 served in the Board of Aldermen.
Four years in succession the Republicans of Boston nominated Mr. Hart for
mayor, and in 1889 and in 1890 he was elected, the only Republican in recent
years who had been equal to this task. His vote rose from something over
18,000 to something over 32,000; he found $3,300,000 in the city treasury and
left over six millions. In making appointments Mr. Hart always looked to
fitness first, thinking that the best politics. He treated government as a
business, to be conducted on business principles, and with a view to the public
good as the first and last consideration. Of Democrats in office he expected
that they should abstain from active opposition to the government that retained
their services. For the postal service he laid down the rule that new
appointees should begin at the foot of the ladder, and that the advanced posi-
tions should be filled by promotions. He believes that the frequent collection
and quick dispatch of mail matter is equally important with the frequent and
prompt delivery of mail received. Mr. Hart accordingly quickened the
service in the remote, as well as the near
quarters of his postal districts, for he
serves in Boston and her suburbs over
600,000 people.

The assistant postmaster at Boston is
Mr. Hart's son-in-law, a newspaper man of
very wide experience, and his private
secretary in the mayor's office. This
scholarly gentleman, Mr. Carl W. Ernst,
was born in 1845, at Edesse, in Hanover,
Germany. He was educated at home by
his father, a prominent clergyman, at the
progymnasium in Northeim, and at the
famous Klosterschule in Ilfeld. He surren-
dered his German citizenship and emi-
grated in 1863, entered Concordia College
at Fort Wayne, graduated in 1865 with
honor, and graduated in '68 at Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis, with honor. He had
charge of the Lutheran parish at Gene-
seo, 111., in '68 and '69, and at Providence,
R. I., from '69 to '72. Then he began active

newspaper work, and from '71 to '84 contributed much to the Boston Advert
the North German Gazette and the Providence Press, writing leaders mostly.
From '84 to '88 he edited the Boston Beacon. Mr. Ernst has had many learned
3 s published, some of them being " On St. George Mivart and Evolution,"
"On Socialism in Germany," "Luther as an Educator," " Personal Characteristics

Mil. C. W. ERNST,
Assistant Postmaster at Boston.

750

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of Luther," "Easter Customs," "Wit and Diplomacy in Dictionaries" and
" Law Reforms in Germany." He has prepared bibliographies of Boston orators
and Boston ordinances, and has edited Ramsbach's Katechet, Keyl's Skeletons of
Luther's Sermons, W. B. Weeden's Social Law of Labor, and Gautier's Wagner.

In '88 he wrote " Principles of Tariff

^^8B ^^N. Reform" in advocacy of President

Harrison's election. Mr. Ernst is a
member of the Phi Beta Kappa, a
member of the American Philological
Society, and a fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science.

The appointment of Walter D.
Stinson as postmaster at Augusta,
upon the retirement of the redoubt-
able Manley, gave universal satisfac-
tion. He had been ten years in the
Augusta office and was only thirty-
four. His father and three brothers
perished in the war. He earned his
own living since he was twelve, and
was obliged to school himself. But
he graduated from a commercial
school and went into business. He
turned to the South for a little rail-
road surveying, but soon entered the
employ of the Eastern Express Com-
pany. At the close of Mr. Manley' s
first term Mr. Stinson was advertising manager for Vickery & Hill of Augusta.
On Mr. Manley' s reappointment, however, he was made assistant postmaster.
He has always been a prolific newspaper writer.

The postmaster at Portland, John Chase Small, was born in 1842, at Buxton, in
York County, Maine. His father, Judge Richard Small, had moved from Maine
to Guildhall, Vermont, in 1845, but Mr. Small had returned to Maine at the age
of eighteen, and had become a clerk in a large importing house, where he was a
partner from 1866 to 1885. Then the railroad and lumber business occupied his
time, until he was appointed postmaster, in November, 1891.

Mr. Henry Robinson, postmaster at Concord, N. H., was appointed by Presi-
dent Harrison, in May, 1889, upon the petition of nearly all of the business
houses of that city. Mr. Robinson is a lawyer by profession, a ready and
forcible speaker, and a newspaper writer of much experience. He takes a great
interest in literary pursuits, and has delivered interesting public lectures.
He served successive terms in the state House of Representatives, being a mem-
ber of the judiciary committee and chairman of the railroad committee of that
body. Although one of the youngest members, he was called upon to take a
leading part in the debates; and he was the only member in Concord reflected
in 1880. His name was brought forward prominently as a candidate for
the speakership at the session of 1881, but he withdrew from the contest. In
1883 he was elected to the state senate, receiving more than a party vote, though

HON. JOSEPH H. MANLEY.

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE.

751

CONCORD POST OFFICE.

then only just eligible to a seat there; but he was appointed chairman of the
judiciary committee. He is the only son of Nahum Robinson, Esq., the present
building agent of the Concord & Montreal Railroad, and is a native of Concord,
where his forty years of life have been spent, with
the exception of five years when he was pursuing
his studies in Boston. Mr. Robinson married
the only daughter of the late Senator Edward
H. Rollins. His family numbers four fine chil-
dren. He is liberal in religion and an earnest
Republican in politics. The Concord postmaster
has devoted his time to the duties of the position
with great enthusiasm. He has instituted many
improvements in the mail service, and taken great
pride in the position that he holds. His theory is that at no point does the
machinery of government come so closely in contact with the people as at the
post office, and he regards his duties as those of a public servant ; and he has
conducted his office so as to make it especially popular.

Samuel Slade Piper, Postmaster at Manchester, N. H., was one of three children
of James Piper of Lyme, N. H., and of Polly Slade of Hanover, N. H., and was
born in the rugged town of Lyme, May 11, 1840. When he was ten years of age
his parents removed to Manchester. This was in the spring of 1851; and Mr.
Piper has since resided in the " Queen City of the Merrimack." He received the
advantage of a rather limited education in the schools of Manchester. All were
obliged to contribute to the family treasury. So at twelve he began work in the
printing department of the Manchester Print Works at a salary of three dollars
per week for one season. After a winter's schooling, he returned to work in the
same corporation. Later he was employed in the Amoskeag corporation's mills
as a "roping" boy in the spinning department; but after two years his mother
was anxious that Slade should do something to learn more of the actual business
of the world. He was therefore placed ambitiously in a retail dry goods and
carpet store, where he started as " chore boy." Young Piper's first three months
of this work were " on trial" and without pay. At the end of this time his em-
ployer gave him three dollars per week with the promise that this "salary"
should be increased. Mr. Piper followed the dry goods business until he was
twenty years of age. At nineteen he had been married to Miss Hattie C. Porter,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Loved Porter, of Lyndon, Vt. The news of the firing
on Sumter came. Mr. Piper's father was a strong Whig, firm in the belief that
slavery was the one terrible curse of the land ; so when the call for five hundred
thousand men was issued, young Piper and his brother enlisted in the First New
Hampshire Light Battery. This organization was mustered into the service
September, 1861. Mr. Piper participated in the following battles and skirmishes:
Fredericksburg in the spring of 1862, Rappahannock Station, White Sulphur
Springs, Groveton, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Union and Upperville, Fredericks-
burg, Chancellorsville, the second battle of Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness,
Spottsylvania, Todd's Tavern, North Anna, Poe River, Sheldon's Cross Roads,
Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Deep Bottom. Confined by sickness at the battle
of Mine Run, that was the only fight in which his battery participated which
Mr. Piper missed. He and Col. Smith A. Whitfield were comrades. In January,
1865, Mr. Piper went back to the army and was stationed in the quartermaster's

752 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

department in the Shenandoah Valley, and later on in the quartermaster's depart-
ment at City Point, Virginia. After the war the future postmaster resumed
his old vocation. In 1877 and 1878 he represented his ward in the legislature,
being clerk of the committee on military affairs, which revised the New E
shire militia laws now in vogue. In 1877 and 1878 he was elected commander
of Louis Bell Post, G. A. R., of Manchester, and in 1881 was elected senior
vice-commander of the department of New Hampshire. In 1867 at the request
of Governor Frederick Smith, the first New Hampshire Battery was reorganized,
and Mr. Piper was chosen its commander.

Mr. Willis P. Burbank, postmaster at Lowell, was secretary of the commit-
tee of postmasters which stayed in Washington to lay its recommendations
before the committees of the Senate and the House. This popular, efficient fellow
was born in the historic town of Londonderry, N. H., in 1857. His father had
been in the manufacturing business in Lowell until 1855, when he moved to
Londonderry. When Mr. Burbank was about twelve years of age, his parents
went to Nashua, N. H., the superior educational facilities which that city offered
to the five Burbank children being its attraction. The boy varied his attendance
at school by working in a cotton factory, for it was essential, owing to the family
circumstances, that every member should contribute to the common fund.
After graduating from the public schools of Nashua, young Burbank studied for
a year under a private teacher. Leaving Nashua he entered the clothing store of
Putnam & Son, of Lowell, as a salesman, and his business " gumption" rapidly
advanced him, until the inevitable day came when with the push of the Yankee
he went into business for himself. In 1879 he opened a clothing store in Lowell
in partnership with Mr. M. E. Gannon and soon established a second store in,
Holyoke, Mass., that thriving seat of the paper industry. When his partner
retired, the business was continued under the firm name of W. P. Burbank & Co.
Mr. Burbank was for several years a director in the Lowell Electric Light Com-
pany, which has grown to be a prosperous concern. He has been identified with
fraternal societies many years. He is a member of the various branches of the
Masonic order, Knights of Pythias and Royal Arcanum, and was the Grand Regent
of the last named society from 1887 to 1889. He has always been an unflinching
Republican, recognized as a valuable aid in the campaigns of the party, and he is
a graceful and convincing speaker. During the presidential campaign of 1888 he
did effectual work; before that he had been found of great value during the
successful Congressional campaigns of Hon. Charles H. Allen. President
Harrison appointed him postmaster at Lowell and he entered upon the duties of
his office March 1, 1890. He has filled the position fully, and his active, young
energy and his natural capacity, backed by the experience of a sound business
training, has made his one of the best run offices in the country. Mr. Burbank
is a popular man in Lowell and his popularity is not circumscribed by political
party lines. He is a social soul, a clever after dinner speaker, a good story teller,
and one of these generous fellows who thinks well of his fellow men.

The postmaster at Lawrence, Mass., Mr. Lewis G. Holt, was born in Andover
in 1839. He went to school and worked on a farm until July, 1861, when he
enlisted in the 14th Massachusetts Infantry. He served for three years in this
command, afterwards the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, up to the battle of
Cold Harbor, where he was wounded. After the war he returned to the Andover
farm, but in 1873 went into the ice business in Lawrence. He was soon treasurer

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE.

753

of the Lawrence Ice Company. He has been a member of the school committee
and of the city council of Lawrence.

The postmaster at rare old Salem, Mass., Mr. W. Harvey Merrill, was born
in Salem in 1850. He stopped going to school in 1803, and, as he has said,
has "been at work ever since." First he was an errand boy. Then he was a
stationer, then a furnisher, and then a stationer again. In 1879 he formed the
partnership of Merrill & Mackintire. He is a member of a number of secret
societies, and a director of the Salem
Cooperative Bank, and he was for years
secretary of the Salem Flambeau Club.

Captain Augustus J. Hoitt, postmaster
at Lynn, Mass., was born at North-
wood, N. H., in December, 1845. In '61
young Hoitt enlisted as a private in the
5th N. H. Volunteers, "The Fighting
Fifth" as it was called, because its cas-
ualties numbered two hundred and
ninety-five. Among the two thousand
infantry regiments in the service none
equalled this remarkable record. Cap-
tain Hoitt fought in all the battles of
The Fighting Fifth, was wounded at
Cold Harbor, and recovered from his
wounds in hospital at Washington in
time to join his company for the fight
at Deep Bottom. In front of Petersburg
he was promoted to be captain of Com-
pany I, though barely nineteen years of
age. In 1865 he entered the employ of
Breed & Doak, shoe manufacturers, at
Lynn. In 1883 he was marshal of his
city, and that post he held for two years,

when he went into business again with B. F. Doak & Co. He was appointed
postmaster in 1889. He was a member of the Lynn Common Council in 1870,
but that was his only elective office. He has greatly improved the postal
service at Lynn, and is one of the most popular and respected citizens of the
great shoe town.

The postmaster at New Bedford, Mr. Charles H. Gifford, is descended from
Puritan stock. His ancestors landed on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in 1630.
He was born in New Bedford in 1833 ; went to the Friends' Academy and to Hav-
erford College, and entered the office of his father, who was engaged in the
whaling business. He has always been a prominent business man of his city
and an ardent Eepublican. Mr. Gifford had an opportunity to move his
office into a fine new public building, and he has conducted his office with
rare tact and enterprise.

President Cleveland's very public-spirited and enterprising postmaster of
Providence, Mr. Chas. H. George, was born in Foxboro, Mass., in July, 1839.
He left school at twelve, and went to Providence, and began work in a hardware

CAPTAIN AUGUSTUS J. HOITT.

754

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

store but after three year she entered the Taunton Academy, After a year and
a half in that institution he returned to his former place. Then for five years he
book-keeper. In 1860 he went into business for himself. Two years later

he formed the partnership of George &
Cutler; and three years later the name
of the firm was Chas. H. George & Com-
pany. In 1870 he was a director of the
Koger Williams National Bank, and eight
years afterwards he was president of
the bank. It is one of the oldest bank-
ing institutions in the country. Mr.
George has served on the Providence
School Board, and has been for three
years President of the Providence Board
of Trade. He is a director of several
financial institutions, is a gentleman of
quiet tastes as well as of ceaseless busi-
ness activity, and thoroughly enjoys the
delights of his home in Harvard Avenue
"on the hill."

Col. J. Evarts Greene, postmaster at
Worcester, Mass., since April 1, 1891, was
born in Boston, in 1834. He was edu-
cated in the public schools of Koxbury,
the Koxbury Latin School and Yale Col-
lege, where he graduated in 1853. The
next year he was assistant teacher in the
Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at
Cheshire, and in the summer of 1854 went to Keosauqua, Iowa, where he
remained about three years, teaching and acquiring some knowledge of civil
engineering, for the improvement of the Des Moines River was then in progress
there. In the spring of 185Y Mr. Greene went to Kansas City, and for about two
years was employed in surveying public lands in the valleys of the Smoky Hill
and Republican Rivers, west of Fort Riley. He returned to Massachusetts in
the spring of 1859 and was admitted to the bar. A few months later he began
practice in North Brookfield, Mass., was appointed justice of the peace and trial
justice, and continued the practice of law there till the spring of '61, when he
was the first in his town to enlist for the war. Upon the organization of the 15th
Regiment of Massachusetts Yolunteers, he was commissioned first lieutenant of
Company F, and he served as such until the battle of Ball' s Bluff, where the men
of his command made, after the general retreat, the last resistance on the
extreme right of the field. Having been instructed to hold the top of the Bluff
at all hazards, he was at length surrounded, only one of his men could remain
with him, and compelled to surrender, delivering his sword to Captain Otho
R. Singleton, of a Mississippi regiment. About twenty years later Captain
Greene and Captain Singleton again met, having exchanged letters in the
interval, on terms of cordial friendship, and Captain Singleton, then a member
of Congress, returned the sword with expressions of esteem and good will. Mr.
Greene having been promoted in January, 1862, was held as a prisoner of war in

ME. CHAS. H. GIFFOKD,
Postmaster, New Bedford, Mass.

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 755

Richmond until February 22, 1862, when, with some hundreds of other prisoners,
he was released upon parole, and was honorably discharged in November, 1862.
He then returned to his law office, and continued to practice until May, 1868,
when he went to Worcester to edit the Daily Spy. In that capacity, as the
principal editor of a morning paper, and doing most of the editorial writing, he
worked for about twenty-three years, until he assumed the duties of postmaster.
In the meantime, he had been twice elected a director of the free public library
of his city, and he was twice president of the board. He was also for a time one
of the city park commissioners. Col. Greene is one of the best known editors
and public men in Massachusetts.

The postmaster at Springfield, Mass., is another gallant soldier and another
accomplished and courteous gentleman. The recent chapters in the story of his
life prove that. Col. Henry M. Phillips was born at Athol, in Worcester County,
Mass., in 1845. He went to the common schools of Athol and Fitchburg and then
to the Deerfield Academy and the military school at Norwich, Yt. Thence, at
the age of sixteen, he volunteered for the war, and he fought all through it. In
the spring of '65 he was honorably mustered out of service. He first went to
work as private secretary to Hon. Henry Alexander, Jr., of Springfield, Mass.
In '71 he was appointed deputy collector of Internal Revenue, and also assistant
assessor in the 10th Massachusetts district. In that year, too, he organized the
firm of Phillips, Mowry& Co., for the manufacture of steam-heating apparatus.
This firm was incorporated in 18*76 as the Phillips Manufacturing Company,
and Colonel Phillips is still its president and treasurer. Mr. Phillips was a
member of the Springfield city council for two years, representative to the
general court in 1880-81, mayor of Springfield in '83-'84-'85, and a state senator of
Massachusetts in '86 and '87. He was for two years commander of Wilcox Post
of Springfield and senior vice-commander of Massachusetts once and is a
companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Loyal Legion. He is a
Mason of the 32d degree and has held several Masonic offices in lodge and
commandery of Knights Templar. He is a director of the Second National Bank
of Springfield and of the Springfield Five Cents Savings Bank, and a director and
member of the finance committee of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
Company. His administration of the post office has pleased the Springfield
Bepublican', it has been a positive delight to the people of his enterprising city
of homes. Colonel Phillips has a fine, warm, social side. He likes to see you at
his office, at his club, or at his hospitable home among the trees upon the hillside;
he likes to take you driving; he likes the softer pleasures of the companionship
of men and women, as well as the pleasures of business and politics.

A Connecticut chronicler has told the story of Hon. Nehemiah D. Sperry, the
veteran postmaster of New Haven, the oldest timer at the conference of post-
masters and yet the youngest man among them all, better than any foreign pen
may do, no matter with what admiring friendship it may be taken up :

The ancient town of Woodbridge, which adjoins New Haven on the west,
spreads itself out for many square miles over a broad ridge, at an elevation of
from three to six hundred feet above the city. In one of its most picturesque
localities, near the head of the famous Woodbridge Ravine, stands a low, old-
fashioned farmhouse, known as " the Sperry Place." It has been in the posses-
sion of the family ever since a grant of land was made to Richard Sperry, one of
the original settlers of the town, who afterwards made himself famous in the
rf tli nnnnfip.t.imit Colonv bv suDDlvins: the wants of the regicides,

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Tl fifty-five boys and girls. While he was
yet little more than a boy, he exchanged
the position of pupil for that of teacher,
and during the winter months of several
years conducted successfully various dis-
trict schools. The last season of his
teaching he received the highest salary
paid in Connecticut for district school
teaching on the committee having in
charge several schools, offering a prize
to the teacher who should make the
greatest improvement during the term.
At the age of fourteen young Sperry
went to New Haven to attend school,
doing chores for his board. On the
first Sunday the family with whom he
\ boarded, not being altogether proud of

the appearance of the country boy, con-
^^^ trived to have him conducted to a small

^^^ primitive Methodist church, instead of

t^^ taking him with them to their pew in a
more fashionable place of worship ; but
the young man instantly detected their
trick and quickly made his appearance,
panting with haste, at the Centre or
Middle Brick Church, where Dr. Leon-
ard Bacon was then in the prime of his
ministry. He was subsequently induced
to take a seat in the Chapel Street
Church, afterwards the Church of the
Redeemer, which he soon joined, and of

which he still continues to be a prominent and liberal member. Having learned
the trade of mason and builder, he went into business, forming a partnership
with his brother-in-law, Willis M. Smith. The firm is still in existence, the
oldest continuous one in the city. To it New Haven owes many of its finest and
most important buildings.

Mr. Sperry' s public spirit, however, could not long be confined within the
limits of private business. He joined the Masonic fraternity, and rapidly rose to
its higher degrees. He interested himself in every social and public movement.
But in the field of politics his public spirit, tact, faculty of organization,
and knowledge of men found widest scope. Having served in various capacities
in his city government he would have been nominated in 1855 for the governor-
ship of Connecticut, but that he lacked the years. His youth, however, did not
disqualify him for the office of Secretary of State, to which he was elected for
two successive terms. While he held that office the constitutional amendment,
making ability to read a qualification for voting, was prepared at his suggestion ;
and it succeeded. He threw himself heartily into the American party, and was
a member of the National American Convention which met at Philadelphia in
June, 1855, and a member, too, of the committee on platform. This committee,
made up of one man from each state, was in session for a week. The great
fight broke on the question of slavery, and the pro-slavery men secured a major-
ity of one. Mr. Sperry was, of course, in the minority. Two reports were
made and a bitter discussion lasted several days. Finally New York cast her

HON. NEHEMIAH D. SPERRY,

Postmaster at New Haven.

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 757

vote with the majority. The anti-slavery men withdrew to the Girard House
and passed a resolution and sent it to the country with an address. The resolu-
tion ran:

" That we demand the unconditional restoration of that time-honored comprom-
ise known as the Missouri Prohibition, which was destroyed in utter disregard of
the popular will a wrong no lapse of time can palliate, and no plea for its
continuance can justify; and that we will use all constitutional means to main-
tain the positive guarantee of its compact until the object for which it was
enacted has been consummated by the admission of Kansas and Nebraska as free
states."

Among those who, with Mr. Sperry, bolted the convention and passed this
resolution were Henry Wilson, James Buffington and Andrew J. Richmond of
Massachusetts; Gov. Anthony Colby of New Hampshire; Schuyler Coif ax,
William Cumback and Godlove S. Orth of Indiana, and Gov. Thomas H. Ford
of Ohio. This was the first bolt in any national convention on the question of
slavery ; and this bolt gave the Republican party its nascent power. From this
time Mr. Sperry naturally affiliated with the Republican party. He was a
member of the convention which nominated Fremont for the presidency. He
was soon made chairman of the Republican state committee and under his
management Connecticut always went his way. Having secured the election of
Governor Buckingham by a notable victory, he lent efficient aid in the nomination
and election of President Lincoln. He was elected a member and the secretary
of the National Republican Committee, was a delegate to the Baltimore convention
which renominated Mr. Lincoln, and was elected one of the executive committee
of seven which had the reelection of Mr. Lincoln in charge. In his own city
during the war he was chairman of the Citizen's Recruiting Committee. In these
positions he gained large control of the course of politics in his state, contributed
much to the success of the administration and much to help the soldiers in the
war, gained the confidence of public men and exerted wide influence. He became
bondsman for the builders of the Monitor, and was full of confidence that she
could whip the Merrimac. With President Lincoln and his advisers he was on
terms of intimacy, and no one was more relied upon by them than Mr. Sperry.
He was the president of the state Republican convention which named General
Grant for the Presidency, and was one of the early supporters of his candidacy.
Mr. Sperry's activity in politics brought upon him sharp attacks, but he always
bore them with good nature and serenity. He was a dangerous antagonist; but
always a fair and honorable one.

President Lincoln appointed Mr. Sperry postmaster of New Haven; and this
position he held uninterruptedly for six terms under eleven different Presidents.
The business increased, owing as much to the skill and liberality with which it
was conducted, as to the demands of the people, and the New Haven office came
to be regarded by the Department as a model office. No one ventured to com-
pete with Mr. Sperry for his position. At the close of twenty-four years of
service-, the general accounts of the office, the business of which had amounted
to millions annually, balanced within eight cents! In the administration of
Postmaster General Randall, Mr. Sperry declined a commission to examine the
postal systems of foreign countries. On the election of President Garfield, it
was anticipated by Mr. Sperry's friends that he would be invited to take the
postmaster general's portfolio. The state government was substantially unani-
mous for him and a majority of all the senators from New England favored the
election; but when it was found that New England could have but one seat in
the Cabinet, Mr. Sperry refused to stand in the way of more important interests.
Postmaster General Hatton, on retiring from office in 1885, said that for ability
and efficiency the best offices in the country ranked in the following order: New
Haven, Cincinnati, Philadelphia.

Mr. Sperry retired from his office May 16, 1885, as good naturedly as
he had been promoted. He had been promoted (among his friends) for they
tendered him a public banquet. The largest opera house in the city was filled.
He did not cease to keep an open eye upon the public interest. He
gested a system for the constant collection and frequent publication, by t
National Government, of facts relating to the general condition of I
The National Board of Trade, of which Mr. Sperry is a member, adopted his

758

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

plan, and has commended it to Congress. In 1886 Mr. Sperry was unanimously
nominated for Congress, at a time when his election was assured; but he felt
obliged to decline the nomination for reasons satisfactory to his Kepubhcans
friends. In 1889 a petition signed by leading Republicans and Democrats asked
him to consent to become a candidate for reappointment as postmaster of New
Haven, and thus the office sought the man.

Edward B. Bennett, postmaster at Hartford, was a farmer's boy, born in
Hampton, Windham Co., Conn., in 1842. At eighteen years of age he entered
Williston Seminary at East Hampton, Mass., and was graduated in 1862. Then
he entered Yale College and was graduated in 1866. He taught school and
began the study of law under Hon. C. F. Cleveland, at Hampton, and completed
his studies with Hon. Franklin Chamberlin at Hartford. Mr. Bennett was
admitted to the bar in January, 1868, and began to practise at Hampton. At

the state election in the following
April he was chosen representative
to the legislature from the town of
Hampton. The next year he opened
a law office in Hartford. His prac-
tice soon became lucrative. He was
chosen assistant clerk of the Connect-
icut House of Representatives in '69,
clerk of the house in '70 and clerk of
the senate in '71. Subsequently he
was elected to the common council
of Hartford and in 1878 he was
elected judge of the city court of that
city, which position he held by suc-
cessive reelections for a period of
thirteen years. In May, 1891, he was
appointed postmaster to succeed
Major John C. Kinney, who had died
in office. Major Kinney had been the
editor of Senator Hawley's Hartford
Courant. In addition to his profes-
sional duties Judge Bennett has in-
terested himself extensively in busi-
ness affairs. He is director or other
officer in several corporations that

carry on enterprises important to his city, and has been successful in business,
as well as in politics and at the bar. He has been always a Republican; and
for sometime he served as member of the state central committee of Connecti-
cut; indeed, he was its secretary for several years. Mrs. Bennett is the
daughter of Hon. James L. Howard of Hartford.

Capt. George J. Collins, postmaster of Brooklyn, was born fifty-two years ago
in New York City. While still a youth he removed with his guardians to
Brooklyn, having, when only six, lost both father and mother. He first enlisted
April 19, 1861, as a private in Company E of the 12th New York State Militia. He
served with this command until its muster out of service, and reenlisted as a
private in Company G, 127th New York Volunteers, August 14, 1862, for the war;
and was promoted in September, 1862, to be sergeant-major, in November, 1862,

HON. EDWAKD, B. BENNETT,
Postmaster at Hartford.

POSTMASTEKS AT A CONFERENCE.

759

to be second lieutenant, and in March, 1864, to be first lieutenant. He served
as acting adjutant for a considerable period, and for a while as acting assistant
inspector general, in the Department of the South, and when not thus engaged
was for most of his term of service in command of his company. Captain Collins
served in the Valley of the Shenandoah, and in front of Washington in 1861-2-
at the siege of Suffolk, in the pursuit of Longstreet, in Gordon's Division, in
General Dix's operations against Richmond in the spring and summer of 1863
with the Army of the Potomac from Williamsport until the month of August,'

63, when General Gordon's Division was sent to Morris Island, S. C.; and he
took part with his regiment in all its varied duties. He was in the night attack
on Forts Johnson and Simpkins, in Charleston harbor, in 1864, and was one of the
few who succeeded in landing his boat; at the battle of Honey Hill, S. C., in Novem-
ber, 1864; at the battle of Deveaux's Neck, S. C., December, 1864, at the action of
Pocataligo Bridge, in December, 1864; in December, 1864, in its engagements near
the Charleston & Savannah Railroads. In February, 1865, an order was issued, by
command of General Sherman, designating the 127th Regiment, New York
Volunteers, as a permanent garrison for the city of Charleston, and Company H
(Captain Collins' Company) was designated as a permanent provost guard. These
arduous duties were performed to meet the commendation not only of his
superior officers but of the citizens generally. In addition he was presiding
magistrate at the City Court, Charleston, to which position he was appointed by
Maj-Gen. John P. Hatch. He was mustered out of service with his regiment
June 30, 1865, having served continuously in the field for thirty-nine months.
Upon the death of General Grant Captain Collins was one of the twelve veterans
selected to bring his venerated body from Mount McGregor to Riverside. He
was, by a unanimous vote of U. S. Grant Post of Brooklyn, elected its com-
mander in 1890, and he is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.

Captain Collins' business is the manufacture 'of blank books. In 1865 he and
the late M. B. Sesnon established the house of Collins & Sesnon, of New York
City. Since the death of Mr. Sesnon the business has been conducted as George
J. Collins & Co. Postmaster Collins has been, and is, connected as trustee or
otherwise, with various financial institutions, and he is counted on all hands a tip-
topper among business men. His public spirit has always been notable. He
was a Brooklyn alderman for two terms, and in the councils of the Republicans of
his city has often figured prominently.

When the term of Postmaster Hendrix expired in 1890, President Harrison
selected Mr. Collins for the Brooklyn post office; and on July 1 he began his
administration of that important trust. By his energy, always manifested, how-
ever, in a kindly manner, he soon gained the confidence of his subordinates, and
this, with his business training, has enabled him to push forward improvements
for Brooklyn and put the service in better condition than ever before. On April
1, 1892, the business of the post office was transferred from the old quarters to
the new Federal building. The latest improved furniture and fittings were put
in, and the Brooklyn office enjoys, with Pittsburg and Baltimore, the newest and
most capacious accommodations in the country.

One of the veterans who gave the conference of postmasters the benefit of their
experience, as well as their new ideas, was Mr. James Gayler, assistant postmaster
at New York, who represented Mr. Van Cott, his much admired chief. Mr. Gayler
was born in IST^w Vork Citv. Tn 1855 he entered the service as a clerk, and he

kfl

mim

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 761

served until 1861, when he resigned to accept an appointment as assistant to Mr.
James Holbrook, then the Department's special agent at New York whose repu-
tation as a vigilant officer, as well as the author of " Ten Years Among the Mail
Bags," and as editor of " The United States Mail and Post Office Assistant," was
familiar to the older-timers. Mr. Gayler rendered most efficient service in his
new position, and after Mr. Holbrook' s death, was, in 1864, without solicitation
on his part, appointed by General Blair to fill the vacancy. He assumed edi-
torial charge of the " United States Mail," which was then the official organ of
the Department, and the only medium through which the various changes in the
postal laws and regulations, and the rulings of the Department in regard to them,
were communicated to postmasters. These duties of special agent were per-
formed by Mr. Gayler with so much success that he earned a high reputation. In
two depredation cases alone which were entrusted to him for investigation he
recovered over $400,000 which had been dishonestly appropriated by em-
ployees. In 1865 Mr. Gayler was requested by Postmaster General Denison to sug-
gest a substitute for the system of registration. This were submitted and approved
by the Department, but the report was lost and it was not until 1867 that, having
duplicated his previous labors, Mr. Gayler was able to secure the adoption of laws
which, with some minor modifications, have been in effect ever since, and, as
recently stated by Mr. James, have been the means of saving millions to the public.
The system, as described by Mr. Gayler himself, was not a useless effort to render
it impossible to tamper with registered matter, but was intended to render it ex-
ceedingly dangerous to do so; and that purpose it has carried out so well that
the registry system of the United States post office is believed to be superior to
any other in the world. In 1873 Mr. Gayler resigned his post as special agent
to accept that of general superintendent of city delivery at the New York office,
in which place he served efficiently until 1880, when he was appointed to his
present place. His efforts to improve the service have been remarkably successful.

Gen. James M. Warner was born in Middlebury, Yt., in 1836, graduated from
West Point in 1860, and served at Fort Lyon, Col., until August, 1862, the last
year as commander of the post. He was then commissioned colonel of the llth
Vermont Volunteers, which regiment soon after became the 1st Vermont Heavy
Artillery, and was assigned to duty in the defences of Washington in May, 1864.
General Warner was ordered to join the 6th Corps of the Army of the Potomac
in the Wilderness. He was severely wounded at Spottsylvania Court House; and
was later assigned to command at Tenallytown, on the Rockville turnpike, where
he stayed until after the repulse of Early. Still later he joined the 6th Corps at
Monocacy Junction, and participated in all the battles of Sheridan in the
Shenandoah, commanding the Vermont Brigade at Winchester. The following
day he was put permanently in command of the 1st Brigade of the 2d Division of
the 6th Corps. General Warner then rejoined the Army of the Potomac and
took part in all of its subsequent operations. April 2, 1865, he led one of the
three brigades of Getty's Division, which constituted the assaulting column which
penetrated the enemy's line in front of Petersburg; and he was present at the
surrender of Lee at Appomattox. He was mustered out of volunteer service
Jan. 15, 1866, with the rank of brigadier-general and of brevet major-general;
and on February 4th, he was mustered out of the regular service, in which he was
a captain and a brevet brigadier-general. Since the war General Warner has been
.a manufacturer in Albany. He is president of the Albany Card and Paper

762 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Company, and director in the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company,
the Albany Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the National Commercial Bank of
Albany. Middlebury College has conferred upon him the degree of Master of
Arts. His service as postmaster at Albany has been notable for its efficiency.

The postmaster at Syracuse, Hon. Carroll E. Smith, was born at Syracuse on
Christmas Day, 1832, of old Massachusetts stock. His father was Hon. Vivius
W. Smith, the personal friend of Thurlow Weed, and a prominent journalist for
fifty years. He was the editor of the Syracuse Journal, which the son has edited
and partly owned for almost thirty years. Mr. Smith had experience as a young
man in Rochester as well as Syracuse; but his long, useful and influential life
has been devoted chiefly to the political, social and business interests of his
native town. He voted for Fremont in 1856. He was clerk of the city of
Syracuse from 1854 to 1857 and clerk of Onondaga County from 1865 to 1868. In
1876 and 1877 he was a Member of Assembly, and he has almost always been
a member of the Republican State Committee, and often a delegate to the state
conventions of his party, where, many times, too, he has written party platforms.
In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention; and in 1888 he
was elected to the board of regents of the University of the State of New York
over Charles A. Dana, who was the nominee of his party. He is, as his old
friend, Hon. E. Prentiss Bailey, editor of the Utica Observer, has said of him, " a
man of genial aspect, of sturdy character, of conservative mind; approachable,
affable, just, discriminating, high minded." For over twenty years Mr. Smith had
been prominent in the New York State Associated Press, and for six years he was
president of its executive committee, and one of the many trophies of his career
which adorn his pleasant home in Syracuse is a royal service of silver presented
to him by his loyal associates in this organization. Mr. Smith's service as
postmaster of Syracuse, to which post he was appointed early in the administra-
tion of President Harrison, has been conspicuous for his fidelity to the good old
methods of business and, with equal step, to the progressive energy which has
lately characterized the service.

Gen. John A. Reynolds, postmaster at Rochester, N. Y., was born in New York
City in October, 1830. Nine years later his father moved to Webster, Monroe
Co., N. Y., where the whole family was engaged at farming until 1849, when
they removed to Rochester, where both father and son engaged in the grocery
business. When Sumter was fired on, Mr. Reynolds was in command of the
Rochester Union Grays, which company he had joined as early as 1851. At the
organization of the 13th New York Regiment, Captain Reynolds offered the ser-
vices of the Union Grays as a company of artillery. The tender was not accepted,
for the reason that no more artillery was then needed; but Gen. Lansing B.
Swan told Captain Reynolds to wait and he would soon have a chance to fight.
In August, Col. E. D. Bentley, who had been commissioned to raise a regiment
of light artillery, wrote to Captain Reynolds asking him if he could raise a com-
pany. The Union Grays became Reynolds' battery and joined the First New York
Light Artillery. Under the new title Mr. Reynolds was reflected captain at
Elmira, whence the journey was made to Washington, and camp was pitched on
Capitol Hill. In March it was sent to Baltimore, and when Banks was repulsed
in the Shenandoah, Reynolds' battery went to Harper's Ferry, whence it soon ad-
vanced down the valley under Sigel and joined McDowell's corps, by whom it was
held m reserve at Cedar Mountain. Rappahannock Station was its first battle.

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 763

This was followed by a desperate fight at White Sulphur Springs. The batter-
though badly cut up, passed through the battles of Second Bull Run and
Antietam with great credit.

After Antietam Captain Reynolds was put in command of the four batteries
of the division. After the terrible fights at Fredericksburgh and Chancellors-
ville, he was promoted for gallant service to be major, and he was made assistant
chief of artillery of the 1st Corps under General Wainright. Soon after the battle
of Gettysburg he was made chief of artillery on the 12th Corps and had immediate
command of four batteries. When the llth and 12th Corps went West under Gen-
eral Hooker to the relief of General Thomas, who was besieged at Chattanooga,
Major Reynolds went with them and he was engaged in the Wauhatchie midnight
attack in which Captain Atwell and Lieutenant Geary were killed and many
wounded. In the battle of Lookout Mountain General Reynolds had command
of all the artillery, and the superb way but this is already written in the his-
tories. After that memorable fight General Reynolds followed the enemy to
Missionary Ridge, took part in the repulse of Bragg and followed the enemy to
Ringgold, Ga., where he became a member of General Hooker's staff as chief of
artillery. After the organization of the 12th Corps in 1864 two new batteries
were added to his command, forming the famous artillery brigade of that corps
which became noted as the best artillery brigade in the army. His command
was almost constantly engaged while with Sherman before Atlanta and on the
inarch to the sea.

Then General Reynolds was made chief of artillery of the army of Georgia under
General Slocum. At Bentonville, General Williams and General Reynolds, who
were behind the 12th Corps, heard artillery firing ahead and, in violation of
orders, hurried to the front. They found the Confederates making awful havoc
among the advance corps of the Union Army. General Reynolds determined to
fight, and even before General Williams was aware of it, two batteries were placed
in the open field, where they made it so hot for the other fellows that the latter
retreated and the day was saved. General Reynolds continued on to Richmond,
and he was present at the Grand Review. His splendid record as a commanding
officer has never been disputed. He united courage, coolness and good judg-
ment, and he knew his soldiers and their needs as well as the details of modern
war. General Reynolds is a stanch friend and a good, old-fashioned gentleman.

Buffalo's big-hearted postmaster, Mr. Bernhard F. Gentsch, was born in the
Duchy of Saxe Alleburg, Germany, in 1835, in a little village where his father
was superintendent of a small brickyard. From the age of eight young
Bernhard attended school in the morning and worked every afternoon in the
brickyard. The bricks were made by hand, and it was no child's play. But in
half a dozen years the boy was apprenticed to a miller in the neighborhood to
learn the trade. He continued in the mill till he was almost twenty. Having
read a great deal of America, however, he finally succeeded, after much difficulty,
in prevailing upon his parents to allow him to seek his fortune in the new world.

Mr. Gentsch reached Buffalo in 1854 with four dollars in his pockets. He
found employment at once on the railroad; but on the 1st of January, 1855, he
secured a position at the distillery of Clark and Brown, and he was employed in
the hardest kind of outdoor work. In the spring he was promoted to a better
place in the works. He remained with Clark and Brown until December, 1859,
serving the last two years as foreman in one of the chief departments. He

764

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

married a Buffalo lady in 1858, and having saved from his small salary a few hun-
dred dollars, and being anxious to prosper on his own account, he purchased, in
the fall of 1859, the interest of C. R. Menning in the establishment now so wel
known as B F Gentsch & Sons, manufacturers of vinegar, pickles, preserves,
etc. He has accumulated a considerable fortune, and established a busines
widely known for its high and reliable character.

In 1878 Mr. Gentsch was elected Member of Assembly from the first district
of Erie County, and he was the second Republican to represent that strongly
Democratic quarter. The district was changed the following year, preventing
his return. At the organization of the South Buffalo Business Men's Association,
he was elected president, and he has been invariably reflected up to the present
time. In July, 1890, he was tendered, without solicitation, the position of post-
master. With his customary care and determination to succeed, Mr. Gentsch
immediately arranged to give up his business interests to the care of his sons, sur-
rounded himself with experienced post office officials, and gave his entire time to
the management of the post office. He soon mastered the details, and the many
improvements in the service at Buffalo were long ago appreciated by the citizens.
In two years more was accomplished in the way of improved and increased service
than any other had done in any previous five years.

The Republican nomination for mayor was offered Mr. Gentsch in 1891, but he
declined the honor upon the ground that it was his duty to the President and the
people to serve out his term as postmaster. That is like him. He is heart and
mind in his work all the time; and his heart is generous and his mind full of the
business and the politics that make a public office a satisfaction and a pride to
the public.

The postmaster of Jersey City, Mr. Samuel D. Dickinson, has had an unusually
marked career. He is but forty-two, but he has been an influential figure in the
politics of his state for several years. He was born in the city of Philadel-
phia, but the greater part of his life has been spent in Jersey City, in whose
political and business affairs he has always taken a keen, intelligent inter-
est. In 1884 he was sent to the Assembly as the representative of the third
district, and he remained four terms, serving as speaker in '87. He made an ex-
cellent record and demonstrated that he possessed the highest order of energy,
judgment and public spirit. In 1885 he was elected comptroller of Jersey City,
and he held that office for several years. He has also taken a lively interest in
military affairs, and in 1868 entered the 4th Regiment, N. G. S. 1ST. J., and as
long ago as '88 was its popular colonel, the youngest officer of that rank in the
state. In 1881 he was elected adjutant of the State Battalion at Yorktown, and
in 1883 accompanied the American Rifle Team to England as one of its officers.
Colonel Dickinson's name has been mentioned for the Republican nomination for
Governor, and his friends throughout the state have not forgotten it.

The Newark, N. J., postmaster is Edward L. Conklin, and a good one he is;
and this is another career to study. He was appointed in October, 1889, and at
once devoted his best energies to improving and extending the service. A
year or more ago he had the misfortune to lose his hand at the wrist while
sawing some handles to be used in the post office. The carriers showed
their respect and love by sending a large bouquet of flowers to his house
every day during his illness. Mr. Conklin has provided Newark with an admir-
able service, and enjoys the esteem of the public in a marked degree. The Newark

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 765

postmaster was born in Patterson, N. J., in 1841. At the age of eighteen he went
to Newark to learn the sash and blind tr^de under William King. In 1861 he
enlisted in Kearney's brigade, the Second New Jersey, and was mustered out with
two bad wounds and a record of three years of honorable service. He was soon
after the war made foreman in the paper box department of his old employer,
Mr. King, and a year later he married a daughter of Mr. King, and was still
further promoted to a responsible position in the office, when in 1873 he was ad-
mitted to partnership. In 1887 a change was made in the firm; Mr. Conklin and
Isaac W. King, one of the sons, took the sash and blind and box branch of the
business which they still continue. Mr. Conklin is a prominent member of
Lincoln Post of the Grand Army. He has served with credit in the Board of
Freeholders of Essex County, and (though always an ardent Republican) was
treasurer of both the city and county committees of Newark and Essex for two
terms each. He has been a director of the North Ward National Bank and of the
Franklin Savings Institution for a number of years.

The postmaster at Philadelphia, Mr. John Field, was born in County Derry,
Ireland, in 1834. At thirteen he was among the leading pupils in the public
schools of his native place. At fourteen his parents, Richard and Isabella Field,
with their eight children, left Ireland for Philadelphia. On the voyage the father
died and was buried at sea. Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia, Mr. Field,
then a boy of fourteen, found employment with Mr. Amar Young, the founder of
the present house of Young, Smyth, Field & Co., at $1.50 a week. Since that
time, with the exception of a brief period when he was connected with the great
New York house of A. T. Stewart & Co., he had been first as employee, and later
on as partner, continuously with this house up to the present time.

John Field is as honest as the broad day. On one occasion, but a few years after
he entered the employment of Mr. Young, a certain merchant owed the firm con-
siderable money and had paid no attention to requests for payment but, on the
contrary, ordered another lot of a certain line of goods. A superior employee
(superior in position) took the order, and handing it indignantly to young Field
said :

" John, write this man that we are entirely out of those goods. We have had
enough of that kind of business."

The boy took the order, hesitated for a moment, for there was no knowing what
the outcome would be, and he could not afford to lose his position; but his honor
triumphed.

" I cannot do that, sir."

** Cannot do it ? We will see whether you can do it or not, sir."

"It would be a lie and I have never forgotten my mother's charge to tell the
truth," replied young Field. " I can," he continued, " write him of our usual
custom, and state to him that upon remittance we shall be glad to send the
goods."

The employee, now more amazed than ever, stepped back, folded his arms and
gazed at the young man for several seconds; he said no more; there was nothing
more to say. It is this same rugged honesty in John Field that has made him an
arbiter in the settlement of disputes, an executor of large estates, and a trusted
counsellor of the afflicted.

The Philadelphia postmaster has rugged nerve. The firm of Young, Smyth,
p?Airi XT r<^ vori i-,o/i frT. TroQvss a.Ti immfinsfi business in wholesale notions. Mr.

766 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

B.F.HUQHES.

JOHN FIELD AND HIS ASSISTANTS.

stated to him that they understood a certain man in Belfast had been perpetrating
frauds upon the Government, and that some of his goods had been shipped to
Young, Smyth, Field & Co. They asked to see the foreign invoice book of the
firm, a request which was promptly complied with. In the course of a few days Mr.
Young was asked to go down to the custom house. He found that the officers
had prepared an enormous list of undervaluation charges, and stated that the

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE. 767

Government had a claim of $80,000 against the house. They made to Mr. Young
an offer to compromise the claim. He said he would submit the matter to his
partner, Mr. Field, who had entire charge of the importations. Mr. Field
promptly denied the existence of such a condition, and said that if anybody had
claims against the house, the United States Courts were open. The special agents
made every effort to have the firm effect a compromise. Mr. Field declared th at the
house was prepared to spend a " million for defence, but not one cent for
tribute." The case was carried before a Congressional committee; and finally
to the United States Courts, where the firm was completely vindicated.
The bold stand taken by John Field resulted in the breaking up of the whole
system.

The Philadelphia postmaster possesses a notable self-education. As a boy
he took a full course at a commercial college, and during all his life he
has been a great reader. His memory is remarkable and his grasp of propositions
quick and thorough. In national politics Mr. Field has always been an ardent
Republican. His first vote was for John C. Fremont, and he has supported every
Republican for the Presidency since. His work in connection with the committee
of one hundred of Philadelphia typified the man. No part of that work, he has
been heard to say, gave him more satisfaction than the investigation of the alms-
house frauds, and the punishment of the embezzling officer.

Mr. Field has served a term as president of the Hibernian Society of Philadel-
phia, and he is treasurer of the Franklin Reformatory Home, a manager of the
Magdalen Society, a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association property,
a director of the Mechanics National Bank, and president of the Board of
Trustees of the Orphanage of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From child-
hood he has been an active member of that religious denomination. He is an
eloquent speaker, and is in great demand on post-prandial occasions, when his
dry humor and keenness are much appreciated.

Benjamin Franklin Hughes, assistant postmaster of Philadelphia, was born at
Fowlersville, Columbia Co., Penn., in 1844. His parents lived upon a farm where
he remained until he was nineteen years of age. Until his eighteenth year he
attended a country school. Then he taught for two winters, working upon his
father's farm in the summer. At nineteen he went to the Miilville Institute at
Millville, in Columbia County, and for the next six years, with intervals of teaching,
he was a student at the Missionary Institute, Selin's Grove, Snyder Co., Penn., and
at Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg. He then became principal of Pine Grove
Seminary, at Pine Grove, in Centre County, but this position he was compelled to give
up at the end of a year on account of failing health. After several months of rest
he became associate editor of the Pittston Gazette, at Pittston, inLuzerne County.
During the years 1870 and 1871 he resided in Pittston, was superintendent of
the schools of the borough of West Pittston, and successively associate editor of
the Pittston Gazette and editor of the Wyoming Valley Journal. The years 1872
and 1873 were spent at Northumberland and Hazleton respectively, as principal
of the high schools of those boroughs. In the autumn of 1873 Mr. Hughes
removed to Philadelphia where he engaged in the insurance business and in the
autumn of 1875 he was registered as a student of law in the office of R. L.
Ashhurst, Esq. In June, 1878, he was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia, and
since that time he has been in the active practice of his profession, with the ex-
rf t.liA rmst thrift vears. which have begQ devoted to the post office work.

768

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

He is the head of the law firm of Hughes, Eyre & Britton, and is also president
of the Provident Mutual Accident Insurance Company of Philadelphia.

In the sessions of 1883 and 1885 Mr. Hughes represented the Eighth District of
Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania State Senate, taking an active part in the work
of that body, and being especially prominent in the legislation for the reform of
the city charter. Since 1878 he has been in active demand in all campaigns
as a stump speaker. Some of his experiences upon the stump were summed
up in an entertaining article published in LippincotV s Magazine in 1890.
Mr. Hughes is a married man. He and his wife and son live in a pleasant
home at Mount Airy, one of the most beautiful of Philadelphia's many beauti-
ful suburbs.

William Waters Johnson, postmaster of Baltimore, is probably the youngest
man who ever held the position. He first saw the light on Nov. 12, 1854, and
just thirty-six years after that event he stepped into the post office of the city
of his birth as its chief executive. He had an ordinary school education,
followed by a course in a business college, at the completion of which he entered
mercantile life. At the present time he is a member of a wholesale coal firm, and
he ranks with the foremost merchants of Baltimore. Mr. Johnson is a fine

specimen of physical manhood. He is
six feet tall and built in good propor-
tion. His manners and address are easy
and engaging, and he is particularly
noted for his kindly and unassuming
ways. Placed in a position of promi-
nence in early manhood, he has borne
the honors bestowed upon him with
such modesty and good taste that he has
won the esteem of all. Almost from the
beginning of his official career, Mr. John-
son had to face assaults made upon him
by disappointed people; but he came
out of every fray with colors always fly-
ing. He has never wavered from the
path of progress which he mapped out.
He selected a corps of able assistants;
men capable of filling the places as-
signed to them, and not put there for
ornament. He proceeded to establish
new methods for conducting the postal
business, systematizing the work so that
every cog and wheel of the vast machine
did its full duty; and where he found a
defective piece of machinery he did not
hesitate to cast it aside and replace it

with serviceable material. Here is where his excellent business training stood
him in good stead. He was able to see at a glance where improvements were
necessary and what the improvement should consist of. For months after
taking charge of the office Mr. Johnson almost lived there. It was a frequent
occurrence for him to arrive at the office at five o'clock in the morning and not

**$ IP

MR. W. W. JOHNSON,
Postmaster at Baltimore.

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE.

769

go home until midnight. Some of his most solicitous friends feared he had
gone daft upon his chosen work.

Mr. Johnson always contended that, as in any business pursuit, the greater the
attractions of it the greater the results; and, although his friends would some-
times smile when he would argue that large facilities meant a large use of the
mails, they were compelled to admit after he had been in office but six short
months that he was right. In those same six months he secured the appoint-
ment of thirty-two additional letter-carriers ; and he now has a good dozen more.
Instead of four daily deliveries in the city, he had seven made in the business
district, and one additional one at the hotels and clubs at 9 P. M. He inaug-
urated the separation for city delivery of mails on trains, saving thereby at least
two hours. Two hundred additional street letter and package boxes were put
into use, and the cart collection service was greatly extended. He had three
additional stations and twenty new stamp agencies established. He improved
the system of delivering special letters by having a corps of boys of his own
selection, each of whom he held to strict accountability; and soon their work was
trebled. He adopted a rule that no special delivery letter should remain in the
office longer than three minutes after its receipt.

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH,

INHERE are fine, big postmasters, and fine
business men and postmasters in the South,
in the West, in the Northwest, and on the
far Pacific Slope. Many attended the con-
ference at the Department ; all would have
graced its councils. It is worth while to
study them all, present or absent, for the
successes of their careers as men and postal

officers. They have studied the needs of the service, and the needs
of meeting them, as well.

Mr. Otis H. Kussell, postmaster of Richmond, was born in Baltimore in 1845.
He went to Petersburgh, Ya., in January, 1851, and resided there and in Bruns-
wick County, Va., until September, 1868. He was the son of a Union man and
during the war sympathized with the loyal North. From '65 to '68 he was
engaged in mercantile pursuits in Petersburgh. In September of the latter
year he was appointed collector of internal revenue, for the Fourth District of
Virginia, by President Johnson, with an office in Manchester, Ya. ; but he failed to
be confirmed by the Senate. He served as chief collector of the Third District
of Yirginia, however, with an office in Richmond, from May, 1869, until May, 1873,
when he was appointed collector for the Third District by President Grant. In
the consolidation of districts in October, 1876, Mr. Russell was dropped as col-
lector, but he remained as chief deputy until May, 1877, when he was re-ap-
pointed collector by President Hayes. In a second consolidation of districts in
August 1883, he was again dropped, but in February, 1885, was appointed collec-
tor of the port of Richmond by President Arthur, and he served until the first of
January 1889. In November, 1889, he was appointed postmaster of Richmond,
by President Harrison. In politics Mr. Russell has always been a warm Republi-
can, in religion a Methodist. He was a member of the Republican National
Conventions of 1876 and 1880, and one of the contesting delegates in 1884. He
has been appointed to place by five Presidents. A strict performance of official
duty in these twenty years were the qualification and the praise.

The earliest records of Rhode Island bear the name of the Mowry family.
The names of John and Nathaniel Mowry are set down in the oldest chronicles
which tell of the settlement of Northern Rhode Island, and in the oldest deeds
and other public documents still extant stand side by side with those of Edward

770

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 771

Inman, Stephen Arnold and Koger Williams. The heads of the family early
became landed proprietors, and added to material prosperity unusual mental
vigor. In 1816, Smith Mo wry, Jr., the eldest son of Sylvester Mowry of Smithfield,
K. I., removed to Charleston, S. C., and there established the branch of the
family of which the oldest living representative is at present Maj. Albert Haven
Mowry, the postmaster of Charleston City. In Charleston, Smith Mowry, Jr.,
adopted the business of a cotton factor and by his business ability and spot-
less name became one of the leading merchants of the city. To his efforts the
city is indebted, in a large measure, for one of its present railway lines. Mr.
Mowry became a director in the South Carolina Eailway Company and at his
decease held a similar position on the Northeastern Eailroad. The eldest son of
Smith Mowry, Jr., was Lewis Dexter, born in 1824. He entered his father's fac-
torage business and became president of the Union Bank, and his energy and
public spirit became famous in Charleston. Of Lewis D. Mowry's marriage
with Margaret McGee Nellage two sons were born. The elder was Albert Haven.

Major Mowry is now in his forty-fifth year. His education was obtained in the
private schools of his native city and at the Cheraw Institute. At the age of
seventeen he entered the Confederate service, becoming a member of Company
D, Sixth S. C. Cavalry, Butler's Brigade, Hampton's Division of Johnson's Corps,
and did not lay down his arms until finally paroled at Hillsborough, N. C.,
April 26, 1865. He returned to Charleston, where he became a clerk in his
father's business; and this position he held until he became a member of the
firm in 1869. When the business of this hous"e was wound up in 1884, Major
Mowry accepted the secretaryship of the Congressional Committee on Public
Buildings and Grounds. This office he held until he resigned it fifteen months
later upon his appointment to the postmastership of Charleston City. Major
Mowry's appointment was made at the suggestion of Senator Hampton, Con-
gressman Samuel Dibble and Mr. Hugh S. Thompson.

Mr. Mowry is a prominent member of Washington Lodge No. 5, F. & A. M.,
Delta Lodge of Perfection No. 14, and of Rose Croix Chapter. He is also a mem-
ber of both the K. of H. and K. & L. of H., of Congressional Lodge N. U. of
Washington, D. C., and of the Port Society, St. Patrick's Benevolent Society, the
Hibernian Society, the New England Society, and of the Charleston and Queen
City Clubs of Charleston. In 1869 Major Mowry was married to Emma, daughter
of H. M. Manigault, Esq., of Charleston, and twelve children have been the
issue; nine of them are living. Major Mowry's personal appearance is attractive.
Clean shaven, with a high and broad brow, dark hair liberally sprinkled with
gray, large and rather deep-set and piercing eyes, and a decidedly Napoleonic
cast of features, his face is a striking one. His administration of the Charleston
office has been notably fine. He has secured attention at the Department; and
by touching all his people with the hand of liberality and convenience, has also
secured their willing plaudits.

General John Randolph Lewis, postmaster of Atlanta, Ga., was born in
Erie County, Penn., in 1834. He went to country schools, and for a short
time an academy; but he left home at fifteen to make his own way. He
graduated at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, and subsequently
studied medicine and took the full diploma of the Medical Department of the
University of Vermont, at Burlington, Vt. There he was in practise. On the
o/vi.1- _.e A u^j.j :~ n^^^omr TT "First; Vermont Volunteers, and

772

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 773

was mustered into the United Service as sergeant of Company H, May 2, '61.
He served on the Peninsula in Virginia until August, '61, and fought in the
battle of Big Bethel. In September he was mustered into the service again as
captain of Company I, 5th Yermont Volunteers, and was continuously in service
with his regiment as part of the " Old Vermont Brigade," and took part in
nearly all the battles of the Army of the Potomac (and many skirmishes) until
he lost his arm at the battle of the Wilderness. Meantime Captain Lewis had
been promoted to be major, in July, '62, lieutenant-colonel, in October, '62,
and colonel, in June, '64. He was also wounded in the leg at the battle of
White Oak Swamp, in the seven days' fight on the Peninsula. He was then
appointed colonel of the First Kegiment, Veteran Reserve Corps, and he served
on special duty in Washington, and on a traveling board inspecting men in hos-
pitals, until the surrender in 1865.

He was then ordered to his regiment on duty at the Prison Camp at Elmira,
N. Y. In June, '65, he relieved General Tracy, now Secretary of the Navy, as
Post Commander of Elmira, and paroled and sent home all the prisoners
confined there. Colonel Lewis was then ordered to duty as inspector general on
the staff of Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, at Nashville, with whom he served about six
months. He then relieved General Fisk as assistant commissioner, B. R. F. & A.
L., for the state of Tennessee, being assigned to duty in his brevet rank as
brigadier-general, which had been conferred in March '65. General Lewis
retained charge of Bureau affairs in Tennessee until January, 1867, when he was
ordered to Georgia, as Inspector General on the staff of Gen. C. C. Sibley,
assistant commissioner for Georgia, and as the latter was also District Commander,
General Lewis was placed in charge of Bureau affairs. In October, '68, General
Sibley was retired, and General Lewis was assigned to duty in his place as
assistant commissioner for Georgia, being himself retired in April, 1870. Mean-
time he had been appointed major of the 44th United States Infantry in '67.
General Lewis secured lands to be purchased by various competent bodies and
caused to be erected schoolhouses for negro children in nearly all the principal
cities in Georgia, and he had aided also in the organization of the Atlanta
University, having erected largely with Bureau funds the first two buildings of
that institution. A large number of colored schools had been aided and
partially supported by the Bureau during all General Lewis's administration.
In the fall of 1870 he was appointed by the Government of Georgia the first
State School Commissioner and being confirmed by the State Senate, he organized
the present public school system of the Empire State of the South. With a very
small fund and under the most tremendous difficulties the system was partially
put in operation, and by effective work at the five principal cities it was so
securely established that it could not be overthrown, and it is to-day
working out on a grand scale its beneficial results. In 1873 General Lewis
went to Iowa to go into business with Gen. Lewis A. Grant, Assistant
Secretary of War, but finally returned East in 1876; and in 1880 he was
obliged to return to Georgia for a milder climate. He assisted in carrying
on the Atlanta Cotton Exposition, of 1881, and in 1883 entered mercantile
business, which he carried on until August 1889, when he was appointed post-
master of Atlanta.

General Lewis has been a model officer in civil as well as military life. He
has watched the needs of his city and made improvements, as his most cap-

774 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

tious opponents admit, as fast as time and departmental allowances, always nec-
essarily meagre, have permitted. General Lewis is a tall, slender man, bronzed in
the Southern sun.

The handsome young postmaster at Savannah, Joseph Francis Doyle, was born
at Savannah in October, 1862. After passing through the grammar schools of his
native city, he entered the high school, and graduated with highest honors, an
achievement to be proud of, as the class was one of unusual excellence. He entered
upon a business career in 1880 in the extensive grocery establishment of his father,
Capt. W. J. Doyle, who although an uncompromising Republican, had been
called to a seat in the city council by the combined voices of all parties. The
son was appointed postmaster October 1, 1890. He has aimed to be progressive
yet conservative and business-like in his methods, always on the watch for
such improvements as should keep his office to the front, and has endeavored by
every means at his disposal to facilitate and to quicken the business man's means
of communication with the world outside of Savannah. His administration has
proved thoroughly satisfactory to the public as well as the Department, and his
selection has been fully justified.

The self-made man who holds the important postmastership at Jacksonville,
Patrick E. McMurray, was born in Ireland in 1841, and emigrated to the United
States at an early age. He settled in New Haven, Conn., where he learned the
carriage-making trade. At the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the 9th
Connecticut Volunteers and served for three years, being honorably discharged
at Hartford, Conn., in 1864, where he again took up his trade. But in 1867 he
went to California, still to pursue his business of carriage making. In 1874,
however, when the resources of Florida were attracting attention everywhere, he
settled in Jacksonville, where, in company with his brother, he started a carriage
factory under the firm name of McMurray & Co. Taking an active interest in
public affairs he was elected city marshal in 1877. He served for a year, when
his rapidly increasing business caused him to resign. His fellow-citizens elected
him an alderman in 1880 and again in 1831. He was once nominated for mayor,
but was defeated. He was elected to the State Senate, however, and there he
distinguished himself by his eloquence and methodical business manner. He
succeeded, against a powerful opposition, in passing the mechanics' lien law and
the city charter of Jacksonville, very important and useful legislation.

In the terrible yellow fever epidemic of 1888, Captain McMurray gallantly
served as one of the members of the Jacksonville Sanitary Auxiliary Association.
The services which he rendered at this trying time no doubt greatly influenced
President Harrison when he had a postmaster to select for the city. Eminently
qualified by business experience and public service, Captain McMurray has won the
praise even from his political enemies. When the fire in 1891 completely wiped
the post office block out of existence, the public press and the merchants spoke
in the highest terms of his speedy reorganization of his forces. He lost not a
single delivery of the mails. Captain McMurray served two terms as commander
of O. M. Mitchel Post, and his comrades elected him a delegate to the G. A. R.
Encampment in Washington.

The postmaster at Galveston, Col. Wm. H. Sinclair, was born at Akron, Ohio,
in 1839. He went to school at Jonesville, Mich., whither his parents had
removed, and in May, '61, enlisted as a private in Company C of the 7th
Michigan Infantry. He was aide on the staff of Brigadier-General Stanley, now

POSTMASTEKS WEST AND SOUTH. 775

Major-General commanding the department of Texas, and was mustered out
colonel by brevet. He was at Island No. 10, Corinth, luka, Corinth again, Stone
River, Farmington, Miss., Franklin, Tenn., and Manchester Pike. He marched
with Sherman to the sea, and twice had his horse shot under him. After the war
he went to Texas with his corps, and he has made Galveston his home ever since.
He was a member of the twelfth legislature of Texas, and a warm personal friend
of Governor Davis; and he filled the post of collector of internal revenue from
May 1, 1873, up to the time of Cleveland's inauguration. Colonel Sinclair was
president of the Galveston City Eailroad Company. When he became a stock-
holder of this road in '76 it had four miles of track; now it has forty. Colonel
Sinclair is a leading Mason, an honorary member of the Busch Zouaves of St. Louis,
and a member of the G. A. R., of the Loyal Legion and of the Society of the Army
of the Cumberland. He is a popular business man and politician, and, as it
follows, has been a most successful postmaster.

Rollin A. Edgerton, postmaster at Little Rock, and a resident of that city
since 1865, is a native of Rutland County, Vermont. He was born in Pawlet in
1840. At the age of twelve he removed to Potsdam, N. Y., attending the
academy there four years; after which he went to Fremont, Ohio, where his
father was then residing. He was a clerk in a hardware store when President
Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand men, and he at once enlisted in
the 8th Ohio Infantry. He was mustered out as a sergeant soon after the expi-
ration of three month's term, and immediately entered the 72d Ohio Infantry
for three years, was made quartermaster's sergeant, then promoted to second
lieutenant and then to first. He participated in the battle of Shiloh, the siege
of Corinth, the battle of Jackson, the sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, and in
all the campaign made by the Army of the Tennessee up to his muster out in
December, 1864. .

Early in 1865 General Edgerton made Little Rock his home, and he has resided
there continuously. In April, 1870, he was commissioned by President Grant
as receiver of public moneys. He was appointed postmaster by President
Arthur in 1881, and again by President Harrison in 1889. He has been six
times elected a member of the school board of his city, for three years each
time. He was formerly a director in the Iron Mountain Railroad Company and
president of the bridge company which erected the first railway bridge across
tlie Arkansas River. In January, 1866, he was married to Miss Emma A.
Downs, of Fremont, Ohio. They have two sons, Charles R. and Morgan B. ; the
former now engaged in business, and the latter a student at Cornell University.
Mr. Edgerton is a Grand Army man and a companion in the Ohio Commandery
of the Loyal Legion.

Robert F. Patterson, postmaster at Memphis, was born in Belfast, Me.,
where he received a common school and academic education until he was
eighteen. Then he was a book-keeper in a hardware store in Bangor; but three
years after he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, where he was engaged in business
when the war began. He enlisted as second lieutenant in the 5th Iowa Infantry,
in June, 1861, and was rapidly promoted to brevet brigadier-general. He partici-
pated in the Fremont and other campaigns in Missouri in 1861, in the capture of
New Madrid and Island No. 10, in the advance on Corinth, in the battle of luka,
where he was wounded, in the second two days' battle of Corinth, in the capture
of Yicksburg, in the battle of Helena, in the campaign against Little Rock, and

Fort Wayne, Ind.

Springfield, Mass.

Lowell,

Rochester, N. Y.

Minneapolis, Minn.

Buffalo, N. Y.

Hartford, Conn.

Philadelphia, Pa.

'r*,d

Washington, D. C.

*/ T.rno

Louisville, Ky.

Indianapolis, Ind.

Milwaukee, Wis.

St. Paul, Minn.

Charleston, S. C.

Chicago, 111.

0-r-A^vS^'

St. Louis, Mo.

Boston, Mass.

AUTOGRAPHS OF POSTMASTERS.

776

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 777

in the battle of Jenkin's Ferry. After serving several months as Provost
Marshal-General of the Department of Arkansas, he was ordered to report to
General Canby in New Orleans and took part in the campaign against Mobile.
After Appomattox General Patterson was ordered to report to General Sheridan,
who was organizing an army at Brownsville, Texas, to drive the French troops
out of Mexico, but they were ordered to withdraw. General Patterson was then
ordered to the command of Iowa troops at Davenport, where he was mustered
out in September, 1865. He soon after went to Memphis and engaged in the
business of cotton broker, but he was appointed by President Grant, in April,
1869, Collector of Internal Kevenue for the Western Division of Tennessee, a
position which he held for thirteen years. He was appointed postmaster in
August, 1889, and he has made many improvements which are appreciated by the
people and the Department alike. His first vote was cast for Fremont for
President in 1856, and he has been a Kepublican ever since. Said a Memphis
publication of General Patterson lately:

He has been a useful and public spirited denizen; he was a member of the
commission by which the city is governed for years, and showed in performance
of the duties of that office, business habits and purpose. He took office as post-
master in '89, and holds it until '93. He has made improvements in the service
which are appreciated here, and he is generally considered by the business
community at least one of the most efficient men that have held the place.

Good words and well deserved. General Patterson is an affable gentleman,
as well as a successful business man and public officer. The Maine man does
get on.

The postmaster at Louisville, Ky., Mr. John Barret, was born in 1854. His
ancestors were the earliest Virginians and his later people were followers of
Clay and Unionists. His mother was a daughter of Judge W. C. Goodloe, for
twenty-five years Judge of the Blue-grass Circuit Court, and his home adjoined
Ashland, the home of Henry Clay at Lexington, and they enjoyed each other's
personal as well as political friendship. Judge Goodloe was an ardent abolition-
ist, and joined with Robert J. Breckenridge in preventing Kentucky from voting
for secession. Col. Wm. Cassius Goodloe, than whom no braver man ever lived,
was an uncle of Mr. Barret, and one of the first Whig governors, Wm. Owsley,
was his great-grandfather on his mother's side. This man, as Judge of the Court
of Appeals, standing with Boyle and with Mills, stamped out the first germs of
repudiation. Mr. Barret's father was a member of the Kentucky legislature, a
Republican from the strong Democratic county of Green, and he afterwards
practised law in Louisville. In 1871 Mr. Barret entered Centre College, one of
the oldest Presbyterian institutions of learning, and graduated in 1875. He
also graduated at the Louisville Law School in 1877 and began the practice of
law. Mr. Barret's father had been manager of the Louisville Industrial School
of Reform, an institution of note in the Southwest for the education of poor
boys and girls, and in 1882, upon the death of his father, Mr. Barret was chosen
his successor. In 1887 he was appointed by the Governor of Kentucky a Repub-
lican member of the non-partisan commission to adjust the accounts of James
W. Tate, the defaulting State Treasurer, and in the following year he was nomi-
nated unanimously as the Republican candidate for State Treasurer. Mr. Barret
is fond of social life, and was aide on the staff of Gov. Simon Bolivar Buckner;
but, unhappily, he is as yet unmarried.

778 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Wm J. W. Cowden, postmaster of Wheeling, is a Western Pennsylvania!!.
In September, 1871, he went to West Virginia, and taking up his residence in
Wheeling, began the study of law with Hon. W. P. Hubbard. He was a young
man of steady and studious habits, and as he pursued his work with great dili-
gence, he was admitted to the bar in October of the next year. It was a struggle
to build up a practice the returns of which would yield him a living, but he was
equal to the task. People entrusted business to his care, until by and by he
became the possessor of a paying practice; and he won the confidence of lawyers.
Mr. Cowden was born in May, 1846, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. He
was educated at Westminster College. Prior to his graduation, he spent several
years teaching, most of the time in academies, where he gave instruction in the
classics and higher mathematics. But teaching was not congenial, and he there-
fore devoted his energies to the law. Having a taste for politics Mr. Cowden was
chosen secretary of the Republican State Central and Executive Committees, in
1876, in which positions he continued, rendering satisfactory and efficient service
until 1884, when he was elected chairman of the same committees. He was
called upon to manage the exciting campaign of 1884 and 1888; and also served
twice as chairman of the Congressional Committee of the First West Virginia
District. Many times he refused official position. He might have had the nomi-
nation for Judge of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit, when nomination was
equivalent to election. He was appointed postmaster without his knowledge in
April, 1889. When he accepted the office he resigned his committee chairman-
ships. Mr. Cowden is a Calvinist in faith, and for many years has been a ruling
elder in the United Presbyterian Church in Wheeling. His wife is the daughter
of Rev. J. T. McClure, D. D., for more than forty years pastor of the church to
which Mr. Cowden belongs.

The postmaster at Cincinnati, Hon. John Zumstein, was born Oct. 26, 1829, at
Klingenmunster-on-the-Rhine, in Bavaria. He left the old country at fifteen, and
came to New York, but proceeded thence to Philadelphia, where he learned the
business of a butcher. Afterwards he went to Cincinnati, and engaged in the
pork packing business with his father-in-law. He was a sutler in the 5th Ohio
Cavalry in the war, and after its close was commissioned a sutler in the regular
army and stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Later, however, he retired to
his farm at Camp Dennison, Ohio. In 1876, Mr. Zumstein was elected a represen-
tative to the Ohio legislature from Hamilton County. In 1878, and again in 1884,
he was County Commissioner, and in 1887 County Treasurer. In 1883 he had
been appointed a director of Long View Insane Asylum for five years; in 1888 he
was reappointed. Mr. Zumstein became postmaster at Cincinnati in 1891, only
after a hard contest, but his conduct of this important office thoroughly
justified the wisdom of his selection. He brought to his position the training of
a politician as well as a business man, and his administration of the Cincinnati
office has been one of the best in its history.

Henry H. Muller was born in Cincinnati, 1849. He entered the post office as a
stamp clerk in 1870, and served in that position until March 1, 1882, when he was
appointed assistant postmaster by Col. S. A. Whitfield, lately the First Assistant
Postmaster General, who was at that time postmaster at Cincinnati. Mr. Muller
is widely known in his native city, where his genial manners and official ability
have made him popular. Possessed of rare tact, superior judgment and fine
executive powers, his services have been invaluable to the Cincinnati office, and

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH.

779

they have contributed much to the enviable reputation which it enjoys amon-
the post offices of the country. He has, for many years, been recognized by the
Department as a postal expert, and on several occasions has been selected by the
Postmaster General to serve on important commissions. Mr. Muller has long
been connected with the Masonic order and has attained the thirty-third degree.
The Columbus office was represented at the conference by Mr. David Lanning,
assistant postmaster. He was born in 1845, in the village of West Carlisle, Coshocton
County, Ohio, and received a common school and academic education. His father

was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Coshocton County on the Democratic ticket in
the fall of 1860. When the war broke out he became a very ardent Union man, and
made the first war speech in the county. His father assisted in raising a good num-
ber of companies for different regiments, and in December, 1861, was commis-
sioned major of the 80th Ohio Volunteers. He was killed at the battle of Corinth,
Miss., October 4, 1862. The son enlisted in Company F of the 51st Ohio, in
September, 1861, and went with his company to CampMeigs, where the regiment
rendezvoused, but when the company was mustered, the examining surgeon
refused to muster him, as he was too young. He was employed as a clerk*
however, and remained with the regiment until March, 1863, when he was
mustered in as a private at Murfreesborough, Tenn. During his term of service

780 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Mr. Lanning served as clerk in the mustering office at division headquarters, and
as an orderly at 21st and 4th Army Corps headquarters. On the Atlanta
campaign he scouted for General Howard until the latter assumed the command
of the Army of the Tennessee. After the capture of Atlanta, he was put in
charge of General Stanley's escort, and retained that position until June, 1865.
He was then transferred to the headquarters of the 1st division, 4th Army Corps,
as chief clerk at the mustering office, and was mustered out of service in October,
1865, at Victoria, Texas. Mr. Lanning was engaged in farming and school-
teaching until 1871. He was also in the livery business, and he worked as
a traveling salesman until June, 1880, when he was appointed a clerk in the
adjutant general's office; and he served in that capacity during the four years of
Governor Foster's incumbency. He was Adjutant General of the Grand Army of
the Republic, Department of Ohio, in the years 1882-'3; was elected chief clerk
of the Ohio House of Representatives in January, 1886, and reflected by acclama-
tion in 1888. He was reading clerk of the National Convention in 1888 that
nominated General Harrison for President, and the stentorian quality of his
voice caused notice to be taken of it by the press very generally, and he was
urged by Members of Congress from Ohio to become a candidate for reading
clerk at the organization of the 50th Congress. The contest was finally decided
against him. Mr. Lanning was appointed assistant postmaster at Columbus, in
March, 1890. He has taken the stump in almost every campaign since returning
from the war, and especially during the Presidential campaign of 1888 did his
power as an orator come effectually into play.

As lively and as level-headed as any man at the conference was Hon. James M.
Brown, of Toledo. He was a prominent debater in the sessions and stayed behind
as chairman of the legislative committee, drawing bills, arguing for them, writing
for the papers. The postal savings bank proposition was his specialty, and
after his return to Toledo at the close of the conference, he wrote two articles
upon this topic for the Blade, of his city, so well informed and logical that they
attracted attention the country over. Mr. Brown is son of Hiram J. L. and
Rosanna Perry Brown, born in Delaware County, Ohio, and educated at the Ohio
Wesleyan University. He learned the printing business in the office of the
Delaware Gazette, and afterwards, during the excitement of the Kansas-Nebraska
war, published the Herald, at Oskaloosa, Iowa. He studied law with Lee &
Brewer, at Tiffin, Ohio, and began practice at Lima. In 1869 he removed to
Toledo, and entered into the partnership of Lee & Brown, with Gen. John C.
Lee, his law preceptor. This firm occupied a prominent position in the
profession for twenty-two years, and was only terminated by the death of
General Lee in 1891.

The postmaster of Toledo has always been a stanch Republican in politics,
he is industrious, energetic, has an extended reputation as a successful organizer,
and is a safe counsellor. During the war he was Deputy United States Marshal
for the Northern District of Ohio, and in the exciting, critical period when the
draft was being resisted, desertions from the army encouraged, and the Knights
of the Golden Circle organized, he rendered hazardous and efficient service to
the Government. During the past three Presidential campaigns he has been
chosen chairman of the executive committee of his party for his county, and he
has always led his friends to victory. Mr. Brown was three times commissioned
by the Governor a member of the Board of Elections of the city of Toledo; has

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH.

781

served as a member of the board of directors of the Toledo House of Refuge
and Correction; for eight years has been annually elected president of the Toledo
Humane Society, and is a member of the Presbyterian church.

Mr. Brown is a man of average height
and well built. He has the face and
manners of the bustling, judicious law-
yer, business man and high-purposed
politician that he is. He is proud of
his work, proud of the postal service,
proud of the people of Toledo, who ap-
preciate it, proud of his manly son in
Harvard College. When it was known
that Colonel Whitfield was to resign the
post of first assistant, the Toledo papers
spoke of Mr. Brown as a man exactly
suited for the vacancy.

Mr. Elwood T. Hance, postmaster at
Detroit, was born at Concord, Pa., in
1850. He moved several times, till '76
found him a law student in the office of
Charles Flowers, a Detroit attorney. In
1879 he was admitted to the Bar. Then
came the trials incident to a career in
law; but this spirited fellow only left the
trials behind him. At the age of forty
every gate in life was opened wide
to him. As postmaster of Detroit he
gave assurance early in his official ca-
reer of an administration that would

stand foremost in the history of the city. Indeed, ex-Postmaster General
Dickinson, his neighbor and friend, had, in a public utterance, already paid
him the compliment of being the best postmaster in the United States. The
citizens of Detroit agreed; and a man's reputation at home, if the result of
enthusiasm, is also the result of a close and searching view.

Mr. Hance' s appointment came in 1889 after the death of Postmaster Copeland.
He surveyed his field and began at once the work of developing his service to its
fullest efficiency, displaying always a restless activity that was sure to tell. A
friend has described him to be a man below the medium height, of pleasing, dig-
nified bearing, affable to a fault. He is thoroughly busy; but the invitation to
a seat in his office somehow places the visitor at his ease, and when he bows
himself out it is with a consciousness of having respectful attention to the end.
Mr. Hance is the real postmaster of Detroit. He knows the value of good advice,
however, and is at all times ready to avail himself of the wisdom of others. No
detail is too small for his attention. He goes to the bottom of everything, is a
worker himself and expects work from his subordinates. It would be hard to
find a resident of Detroit who does not believe that the postmastership was
given to the right man. Mr. Hance is a handsome fellow, fond of society as well as
prominent in business, and is an admired friend of Alger, McMillan, Stockbridge,
Palmer, Olds, Bates and the other big leaders of the Michigan Republicans.

MB. ELWOOD T. HANCE,
Postmaster at Detroit.

782

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Col. George G. Briggs, postmaster at Grand Rapids, was born in Wayne
County, Mich. His father was a Massachusetts man. His mother, living at a
dear old age in Battle Creek, is of Pennsylvania Quaker stock. Their four chil-
dren were sons, and George the eldest. He attended the common school until
about fourteen years, when lie entered a mercantile house at Battle Creek, where
he remained in the capacity of clerk for three years. Six months were then
spent in Olivet College, which he left to accept the position of book-keeper in the
principal mercantile house of Galesburg, Illinois. After five years he returned
to Battle Creek, purchased an interest in the firm of Averell & Manchester and
continued this connection under the name of Averell, Briggs & Co., until 1862.
Then through his efforts a cavalry company was raised, composed largely of his
friends and acquaintances in and about Battle Creek. He was appointed first
lieutenant, and his command became a part of the famous Seventh Michigan
Cavalry. He was adjutant in July, 1863; captain in March, 1864; major in
May, 1864; lieutenant-colonel in October, 1864, and colonel in May, 1865.

The Michigan Cavalry Brigade made a name second to none in the Cavalry
Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and from January, 1863, to the surrender of
Lee, it met the enemy in skirmishes and general engagements fifty-six times.
Colonel Briggs fought with his regiment at Gettysburg; was in the campaign
under Sheridan, in the Shenandoah Valley, and rendered notable services at

Winchester, Cedar Creek, Five Forks,
Sailor's Creek and Appomattox.

On the day of Lee's surrender, Colo-
nel Briggs conducted the truce party to
General Custer, and with it returned to
General Lee's headquarters with Custer 1 s
reply. In July, 1864, when the Confed-
erates under Early attempted to capture
Washington, Colonel Briggs, then return-
ing from leave of absence, was put in
command of the troops in Re-mount
Camp, and with them, after a night's
march, he did successful battle in front
of Fort Storm, and held an advanced
position until the enemy withdrew. Colo-
nel Briggs was twice wounded, and had
four horses killed under him in action.
He was taken prisoner at Buchland's
Mills, escaped two days later, and after
a week of dodging within the enemy's
lines, again entered the camp of his
friends. After the surrender of Lee, Colo-
nel Briggs marched two regiments of
his brigade across the Western plains,
and was in command of all the cavalry
in the South sub-district of the plains,
with headquarters at Fort Collins for several months. The command was then
moved to Salt Lake City, where, in December, 1865, the colonel was mustered
out of service. The command under Colonel Briggs, while in Colorado, operated

COL. GEORGE G. BRIGGS,
Postmaster, Grand Rapids.

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 783

against the tribes of Indians then upon the warpath, and performed valuable
service in protecting settlers and guarding the stage lines over the mountains Lo
Fort Halleck. Once his command rescued from the Indians an emigrant train,
which had been surrounded for two days, and but for his timely succor, some
two hundred men, women and children would have been ruthlessly massacred.

When young Briggs enlisted the citizens of Galesburg gave him a sabre; when
lie left his command, the soldiers gave him a beautiful watch. Returning to
Grand Rapids, Colonel Briggs married Miss Julia R. Pierce, youngest daughter
of the late John W. Pierce, one of the earliest settlers of Grand Rapids. A
partnership was entered into with his father-in-law, in the dry goods business,
which was continued until 1869. Then Mr. Briggs became one of the organizers
of the Michigan Barrel Company. This Company was incorporated in 1870, with
capital of $300,000; Colonel Briggs being, on its organization, secretary and
treasurer. In 1868 he was elected to represent his city in the state legis-
lature. The same year he was a delegate to the convention which nominated
Orant and Colfax, and he was one of the committee to notify General Grant of
his nomination. Through Mr. Briggs' instrumentality the organization, in 1881,
of the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners of Grand Rapids was secured;
He became a member of the Board of Public Works in 1885, and since May, 1888,
has been its president, and during his term of office, the magnificent city hall,
-costing upwards of $350,000, was completed. He was one of the incorporators,
in 1887, of the Grand Rapids Board of Trade, and was elected its first presi-
dent. In 1887 Governor Luce appointed Colonel Briggs a member of the com-
mision to secure appropriate monuments for the Michigan troops at Gettysburg.
The only secret society of which Colonel Briggs is a member, is the military
Order of the Loyal Legion. In April, 1890, he was appointed postmaster. His
record has gratified the expectations of all who have been familiar with his wide
business, social and political experience. Although a military disciplinarian, he
is kind and courteous, and is a universal favorite among his men.

Few postmasters of first class offices have had the years of service and experi-
ence of the postmaster at Indianapolis. All the great improvements in the
service have taken place during his time, and the history of the Indianapolis
office and the story of the present postmaster, since the close of the Civil War,
run in parallel lines. Edward Payne Thompson, this practical officer, is
fifty-one years old. He was born in Salem, Indiana, in June, 1841. In 1846, his
father, having been elected Secretary of State of Indiana, removed to Indian-
apolis. He resided on the site of the present post office and here the future post-
master lived until 1855, when ground was cleared for the Government building.
Mr. Thompson was educated at Asbury University (now DePauw), at Green-
castle, Indiana, which he left in his junior year, in April, 1861, to enlist in Com-
pany K of the 16th Indiana Volunteers. He served in the Army of the Potomac
until the expiration of his enlistment. Upon his return home in May, 1862, he
enlisted in Company B, of the 55th Indiana Volunteers, and later he was con-
nected with the army as a citizen, serving in Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana and
Mississippi, and until after the surrender of Lee. At the close of the war he
married Miss Mary Williams, eldest daughter of Hon. Wm. Williams of Warsaw,
Indiana, who was a member of Congress for four terms, and United States
Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay under President Arthur.

In October, 1866, Mr. Thompson was appointed assistant postmaster of

784 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Indianapolis, and that position he held continuously until April, 1885, serving two
and a half years under Postmaster Rose, twelve years under the popular Col.
" Bill" Holloway, and four years under James A. Wildman. From 1885 to 1
he was not connected with the postal service. Upon the appointment of William
Wallace as postmaster, Mr. Thompson was again installed as assistant postmaster.
The death of Mr. Wallace occurred in April, 1891, when Mr. Thompson was
designated by the bondsmen of Mr. Wallace as acting postmaster, and subse-
quently, on June 9, he was appointed postmaster by the President.

Mr. Thompson organized the carrier service of Indianapolis. The first routes
are covered to-day as he then planned them. The whole service in Indianapolis
is recognized the country over as standing in the front rank. Much of this effi-
ciency is due to Mr. Thompson. His connection with the service has been so
close and exacting that no outside business venture has ever engaged his atten-
tion. He was elected a school commissioner of Indianapolis for six years,
however, a position without salary.

Mr. B. Wilson Smith, postmaster at Lafayette, Indiana, was an active member
of the conference of postmasters and he presided over the meeting of seven,
called later in the year, to map out the second county seat visitation. He was
born in Hanover County, Virginia. On his maternal side he is the grandson of a
Revolutionary officer, Col. Benjamin Wilson, who served with distinction not
only in Virginia, but in the Continental Army. At the maturity of his youth,
young Smith moved with his parents to the state of Indiana and settled in White
County, named for a gallant colonel who fell in the battle of Tippecanoe. His
home for the first few years was an humble log cabin, and his life the hard
toil of the pioneer. This life was only varied for the first few years by teaching
school through the winter months part of the time. The first school realized
him eleven dollars over and above his board, but he was accustomed to toil, and
withal was cheerful hearted. So, toil and hardship and meagre compensation
left no wrinkles. Just as he was reaching his majority, he turned his back on
his happy home, sad at the leaving, hopeful in the going. Behind was home with
its full-measured meaning, before him a college life with its hopeful possibilities.
A single term's board was in his pockets, and eighty-five miles of distance inter-
vened. Graduating in 1855 from Asbury University after a full classical course,
he accepted a call to Cornell College, Iowa, and for two years taught Greek and
Latin. Returning to Indiana he spent three years more in the schoolroom, then
three years in the ministry and five years in Valparaiso College as president. He
resigned the presidency and took a growing church at Terre Haute. Health fail-
ing again he left the ministry and travelled. In 1872 the Republican State Con-
vention nominated him for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and he
participated in that great campaign under the master chairman, Col. J. W. Foster,
later Secretary of State. Then he compiled a full series of civil and school
township official books which had so extensive a sale that no township office in
Indiana could be found where some of his productions were not in use.

In January, 1890, Mr. Smith was appointed postmaster at Lafayette by Presi-
dent Harrison. He mastered the details of his office, studied its relation to the
public, and that he has not failed is evidenced by the reforms he has introduced
and the wider fields he has opened up for the business of his city. He has
twice refused the tender of the unanimous nomination for state senator, once in
Indiana and once in Iowa; has been twice nominated for the legislature without

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH.

785

consultation and in his absence; has served three terms in the Indiana House of
Representatives. In that body he took high rank as a debater, and won the rep-
utation of knowing the contents of every bill fairly before the House. He is a
rapid extempore speaker, the despair of shorthand men. In religion he is a
Methodist; in politics, an old time Whig, then, of course, a Republican. For
thirty years or more he has been an ardent admirer and friend of General Har-

HOOSIEB POSTMASTERS.

rison. Scientific instruments in profusion adorn his home in Lafayette, his
family read and converse in six or seven languages, and his daughte:
bers of various literary clubs.

Mr. Cecilius Risley Higgins, postmaster at Fort Wayne, Indiana, was born at
Kalida, Putnam County, Ohio, in January, 1847. Shortly after his people
removed to Delphos, Ohio, where at the age of thirteen he entered the service o
the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway as telegraph messenger boy.

786 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

While serving in this capacity he learned telegraphy and was employed as an
operator. After a service of seven years, he was appointed ticket and freight
agent at Ada and Delphos, Ohio, and he served till January 1, 1868, when he
was called to Fort Wayne, to accept the responsible post of train despatcher of
that road with jurisdiction from Chicago to Crestline, Ohio. The Grand Rapids
<fe Indiana Railroad upon its completion, from Richmond, Indiana, to Paris,
Michigan, was added to his charge, so that trains on five hundred and seventy-
five miles of road were under his direction. This position of train despatcher
he filled nine years. Then he was for two years fuel and tie agent. In 1879 he
was appointed chief clerk of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Company.

Those personal and business qualities which made him popular and successful
in railroad life also made Mr. Higgins popular among his neighbors. Having
always taken an active interest in politics, he was tendered in 1886 the Repub-
lican nomination for county auditor. He accepted this and made a gallant con-
test. But he was unable entirely to overcome the tremendous adverse majority
in the county, although he ran 2,700 votes ahead of his ticket. During the
exciting campaign of 1888, Mr. Higgins served as treasurer of the Allen County
Republican committee and as director of the Morton Club. In recognition of
his tried capacity and service, President Harrison appointed him postmaster.
Mr. Higgins has filled this office with signal ability. He has the enthusiasm of
a young man, and the public nature of his previous business experience fitted
him in an unusual degree for a service that is all the public's.

The hustling postmaster at Goshen, Lincoln H. Beyerle, was born in Syracuse,
Indiana, in 1860. In 1863 his father was a practising physician and druggist at
Leesburgh. In 1868, however, the family emigrated to Goshen. Young Beyerle
fitted for college, but at the age of fifteen became so fascinated with journalism
that he bought a small printing outfit with his savings and set it up in the rear
part of his father's drugstore. He published an amateur paper, called the
Goshen Clipper, doing all the work himself. He learned shorthand, and took
testimony in the Elkhart Circuit Court of Judge William A. Woods. At sixteen
he became an amanuensis at Moline, Illinois, and in the next seven years at other
places. Then he purchased the Independent, a paper published at Pierceton,
Indiana, and soon made it aggressively a Blaine paper in 1884. But Beyerle was
ambitious. His paper prospered, and he made a combination with the Goshen
Times, formed a stock company, and started a daily edition of that paper. The
times were so lively in the Harrison campaign that open threats were made by
Mr. Beyerle' s opponents. The leading Republicans, not only of his town but of
the state of Indiana, joined in requesting his appointment as postmaster.

Col. James A. Sexton, the big, handsome postmaster of Chicago, has had his
own way to make in the world. But he has made it. He was born in Chicago
in 1844. He went to school as he could and worked when he could. His
parents were not rich. They had gone to Chicago from Rochester, New York, in
1834. Chicago was not the " Queen City of the Lakes " then; but their struggle
and young Sexton's had the bustle and encouragement of the sturdy town in
which they were seeking fortune to applaud it.

The young man was but seventeen when the war broke out; but he enlisted in
the three months service as a private soldier, and then reenlisted in "I" Co.,
51st Illinois Infantry, and was made sergeant. In June, 1862, he was transferred
to "E" Co., 67th Illinois Infantry, and promoted to a lieutenancy, and in the

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 787

August following a company was recruited under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A.
of Chicago and he was elected its captain, and the company became " D " of the
72d Illinois Infantry. He commanded this regiment at the battles of Columbia,
Duck Eiver, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville, and indeed all through the
Nashville campaign. In 1865 he was assigned to duty on the staff of Gen. A. J.
Smith, of the 16th Army Corps, as acting provost marshal, and served till the close
of the war. After the war he purchased a plantation in Alabama and managed it for
a while; but he went back to Chicago before long and founded the now extensive
stove manufactory of Cribben, Sexton $ Co. Colonel Sexton takes a genuine
interest in Grand Army affairs and is a past commander of the Department of
Illinois. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, the Chicago Union Veteran Club,
the Veteran Union League, and a Mason of high degree; he has held the highest
positions in these bodies and is an honored comrade and friend in all of them.

Colonel Sexton's administration of the Chicago post office has been superior
enough to attract the merited notice of the Department officials and the plaudits
of the public which he serves. He was not trained in the post office duties ; but better
than that, he evidenced singular aptitude. He is zealous in action and competent
in talent. He was a good man to reconstruct and restore the badly tangled and
confused condition in which he found his office. Colonel Sexton is patient, per-
severing, industrious, urbane. His successor will have use for these accom-
plishments. The postal service of Chicago, on account of the rapid extension
and growth in population of that wonderful city, needs money constantly and
perpetual reorganization and care; and the local, national and foreign business
which its World's Fair brings to the Chicago office will be uncommon enough to
tax the most tireless and ingenious worker.

Mr. Winslow A. No well, Milwaukee's popular postmaster, was born in
Portmouth, N. H., January 31, 1840. He comes of distinguished ancestry, many
of whom took part in the early colonial development of New England. Young
Nowell obtained a public school and academic education and went to New York
City, and later to Milwaukee, in 1864. He was subsequently the proprietor of a
pepper mill, which was consumed by fire in 1874. He has since that time held
several offices of trust. From 1873 to 1876 he was a commissioner of public
works of this city and a member of the legislature in 1877, after which he served
as Deputy United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He was
appointed postmaster by President Harrison in August, 1889. A thorough-going
^Republican, he is an earnest, practical civil service reformer, and his course as
postmaster, by the actual demonstration that the business branches of the public
service can best be conducted on the merit system, has been such as to win for
him the esteem of all but the most unreasonable partizans.

On taking hold of the office, he evinced a determination to run it on business
principles, making appointments and promotions to the most responsible posi-
tions upon the sole test of qualification. He did not regard the service as a
political machine or an eleemosynary institution. He gives more time to the
work of his office than any of his employees. He personally supervises and is
familiar with the details of the work of every division, prescribing the duties of
his subordinates and enforcing the strictest system and accountability, with a
kindness and justice, however, that has endeared him to every employee, and lie
insists not only that the clerks and carriers shall themselves be gentlemanly, but
also that they shall be treated as gentlemen by the public. Mr. Nowell is a man

788

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 789

of genial manner and a capital entertainer. He is the father of several children
who are married. His home is graced by a most estimable wife, who is beloved
by a wide circle of friends. Mr. Nowell is a stanch American, and a steady
unswerving friend, a citizen worth having in a town. A local paper said of him
at the time of his appointment:

"He is about five feet eight inches in height, has heavy shoulders and chest
dark laughing eyes and an affable manner. He is enthusiastically devoted to his
charming family, to the Light Horse Squadron, and to the interests of the
Republican party. He is swarthy as a Mexican, polite as a Frenchman and
witty as an Irishman."

The postmaster of St. Paul, Capt. Henry Anson Castle, was born near Quincy,
Illinois, in 1841. Both his parents were natives of Vermont. He was trained to
mercantile pursuits by his father and afterwards received a collegiate schooling,
graduating in 1862. He immediately enlisted as a private in the 73d Illinois
Volunteers. After serving three months he was made a sergeant major of his
regiment, was severely wounded in the battle of Stone's River, and finally dis-
charged. When his wound healed he raised a company for the 137th Illinois,
which he commanded as captain during its term of service. In the intervals
he studied law, was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Illinois,
and opened an office in Quincy. But a severe attack of hemorrhage of the
lungs in 1866 obliged him to abandon the law and seek a different climate.

Captain Castle arrived in St. Paul in July, 1866. It became his future home.
His health had so far improved in two years that he established the wholesale
depot of Comstock, Castle & Co., which he successfully conducted for six years.
He then reembarked in the legal profession, but in 1876 was chosen editor-in-
chief of the St. Paul Dispatch, a pursuit more in accord with his tastes. He
conducted the Dispatch for nearly nine years, most of the time being both editor
and publisher. In 1885 he sold his paper, and he has since been engaged in the
development of suburban property.

This gallant man has always been an active Republican. He has been a dele-
gate to most of the district and state conventions since 1868 and a speaker in all
the leading campaigns. In 1872 he was president of the St. Paul Central Grant
and Wilson Club. In 1873 he was a member of the Minnesota Legislature, and
the same year took a leading part in the movement which resulted in electing
Hon. C. K. Davis Governor. Governor Davis appointed him adjutant general in
1875, and he held his office in a part of Governor Pillsbury's first term. In 1883
he was appointed state oil inspector by Governor Hubbard and held that place
four years. He was secretary or treasurer of the Republican State Central Com-
mittee a greater part of the time from 1875 to 1883. In 1884 he was made chair-
man of the committee, and in that capacity conducted the famous Elaine and
Logan campaign in Minnesota.

Captain Castle has held many honorary positions involving labor and respon-
sibility gratuitously contributed. He was president of the St. Paul Library
Association two years; director of the Chamber of Commerce nineteen years;
department commander of the Grand Army three years; president of the Min-
nesota Editorial Association two years; secretary of the Minnesota Soldiers'
Orphans' Home seven years; and president of th6 Board of Trustees of the
Minnesota Soldiers' Home five years. He is a director in two banks and in
several business corporations, besides being president of the North St. Paul Land

790 THE STORY OF OUR. POST OFFICE.

CompaDy and other institutions of that prosperous suburb hobby. In 1865 Cap-
tain Castle was married to Miss Margaret W. Jaques of Quincy, Illinois. The
result of this union is three sons and four daughters.

In February, 1892, Captain Castle was appointed postmaster of St. Paul. The
St. Paul Globe, a paper opposed to him politically said:

" There is no criticism to be passed on the President's selection of Henry A.
Castle for the St. Paul postmastership. Captain Castle in the old days used to
be a newspaper man, and he generously gave many of the best years of his life to
the education and enlightenment of the public in the ranks of a craft whose
members labor not for their own profit but for the welfare of others. His
abilities have won him success, and he is counted among the first men of this
community in character, attainments and capacity. Added to this, he has many
charms of manner and mind. He is an agreeable companion, an effective and
graceful speaker, either on the rostrum or at the dinner table, and at all times a
courteous and interesting gentleman."

Major William Dismore Hale, postmaster of Minneapolis, has been a resident
of that city for twenty-four years, among its busiest workers in building up the
lumber and milling industries. He went there in September, 1867, and entered
the office of the Minnesota Central Railway Company as clerk. Later he entered
the office of W. D. Washburn & Co., as clerk and book-keeper. In 1872 he was
made agent of the Minneapolis Mill Co., and administered the affairs of the
water power for the next five years. Upon the death of G. M. Stickney he was
taken into the partnership of W. D. Washburn & Co., in 1876, and he continued
to be the manager of its business until its incorporation as the Washburn Mill
Company and of the latter corporation until the close of its business in 1889.
The transactions of these companies were of great magnitude and variety. In
the lumber department logs were cut upon the lands of the company on Rum
River and the upper Mississippi, and driven to the booms of the Mississippi.
There were two mammoth saw mills operated, one at Anoka and one at Minne-
apolis, and lumber yards established for storing and drying. As much as 25,000,-
000 feet of pine lumber have been manufactured in a single year. In the milling
department the company operated two flouring mills, the Palisade at Minne-
apolis of 1,800 barrels daily capacity, and the Lincoln at Anoka of 700 barrels
capacity. They began the manufacture of flour at the time when the new pro-
cess of rolls was substituted for that of millstones. To his ability to select fit
assistance, and his talent for systematizing complicated affairs, Major Hale's great
measure of business success is to be attributed. In addition to the care of his
private business, Major Hale was from 1875 to 1881 a director and secretary and
treasurer of the Minneapolis and Duluth Railway Company, and also a director,
from 1875 to 1881, and secretary, from 1878 to 1881, of the Minneapolis and St.
Louis Railway Company under the presidency of Senator W. D. Washburn, when
these roads were organized and under construction. In 1884, Major Hale was
nominated by both political parties as a member of the Board of Education of
the city of Minneapolis and elected without opposition. At the expiration of his
term he was elected again for three years. He served seven years without com-
pensation in that most responsible office, where good judgment and the most
delicate tact are required. Major Hale had resided at Cannon Falls, Minn.,
whither he had gone in 1856, but he returned east and taught school the following
winter, and then went to Kansas, where he spent the next two years. In Cannon
Falls, in 1859, he purchased a prairie farm and employed the following two years

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 791

in its cultivation, raising crops of wheat. At the session of the Minnesota
Legislature of 1861 he was elected enrolling clerk of the senate.

At the breaking out of the war, Win. J. Hale volunteered as a private in
Company E in the Third Regiment of Minnesota Infantry, was appointed
sergeant of the company, and upon the organization of the regiment was pro-
moted to be sergeant major. After rendezvousing at Fort Snelling, the regiment
proceeded in November, 1861, to Kentucky, where it was occupied in guard duty
with frequent collisions with the enemy. Being captured in Tennessee in July,

1862, in a raid by General Forest, the enlisted men were paroled and joined
General Sibley's command in the Indian campaign during the summer of 1862.
Exchanged in December of that year they returned to Tennessee in January of

1863. The regiment participated in the capture of Yicksburg and of Little Rock.
At the organization of the Fourth Regiment of Colored United States Artillery,
Mr. Hale was transferred at the request of the commander of the regiment and
appointed adjutant and afterwards major, and stationed chiefly at Fort Halleck.
He served with the artillery for two and a half years, until mustered out of
service in February, 1866. Allured by his agricultural tastes and experience, he
took a plantation in the vicinity of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and planted and
gathered a crop of cotton. The following January, however, his plantation life
was closed by a call to serve as agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, in which capac-
ity he was during the summer, the autocrat of two Arkansas counties. This duty
over he went back to Minneapolis.

Major Hale was born at Norridgewock, Maine, in August, 1836. His father was
Eusebius Hale, a Congregational minister, and his mother Philena (Dinsmore)
Hale. The Hales were of English ancestry, the Dinsmores the descendants
of John Dinsmore, who emigrated to New Hampshire from the north of Ireland
in 1723. The family removed from Maine to Long Island in 1852. Ma^'or Hale
received an academic education, and the last four winters before going west
taught school on Long Island. Major Hale' s qualifications for postmaster were
his experience in the management of large business interests of all kinds and
his proved capacity for the largest trusts. He did even better than had been
expected.

A veteran in the service and a most delightful gentleman is Hon. James C.
Conkling, the postmaster at Springfield, 111. He was born in New York City in
1816. In 1829 he entered the Morristown, New Jersey, academy, and in '35
graduated from Princeton, where he enjoyed the lectures of Professor Albert
N. Dowd, Joseph Henry and Dr. James W. Alexander. Mr. Conkling read law
at Morristown in the office of Hon. Henry A. Ford. He removed to Springfield,
111., in November, 1838, and at once began to practise law. The legislature was
then holding its last session at Yandalia. The following summer the state records
and offices were removed to Springfield. Edward D. Baker, Stephen A. Douglass
and Abraham Lincoln were already distinguished members of the Sangamon
county bar. The state of Illinois had less than half a million inhabitants and
Chicago was a village of four thousand people. Mr. Conkling was first a partner
of Hon. Cyrus Walker, but after two years he became a partner of Gen. James A.
Shields, then auditor of state, and afterwards a gallant commander in the Mexi-
can War, and still later a United States Senator from three different states. In
'45 Mr. Conkling was elected mayor of Springfield, and in '51 he became a mem-
ber of the lower house. In '56 he was a member of the committee on resolu-

792

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

tions in the first Republican state convention in Illinois. This was at Bloomington
and John M. Palmer presided over it. In 1860 Mr. Conkling was a Republican
presidential elector. In '61 he assisted Governor Yates in raising troops, and
in '63 was appointed by Governor Yates agent of the state to settle claims

against the Government. In '64 he was
again a presidential elector, and in '66 he
again went to the lower house of the
legislature. Just at the close of the war
Peoria, Decatur, Bloomington, Chicago,
and other places sought to wrest the
state capital from Springfield. Mr.
Conkling' s bill to provide a new capitol
building for Springfield drew out the
united opposition of all these places;
but it passed by 82 to 80. Mr. Conkling
was appointed a trustee of Blackburn
University at Carlinville by Judge David
Davis, and a trustee of the Illinois State
University at Urbana by Governor Cul-
lom. Mr. Conkling is greatly interested
in educational as well as political and
postal matters, and is proud of his
city which is proud of him.

Isaac Brandt, the postmaster at Des
Moines, was born near Lancaster, Fair-
field County, Ohio, in April, 1827. His
paternal grandparents were Adam and
Eve Metzler Brandt, who were married
in 1775, in Cumberland County, Penn-
sylvania. Their lives were constantly
in danger from the Tories and the roving bands of Indians, but they were
both good shots. Indeed, it was the custom of the husband to carry a
rifle on his plow, and the wife always had another by her side as she sat
by her spinning wheel under the shade of a tree near the centre of the field.
Adam Brandt enlisted in the Continental Army, served with distinction, and
returned to his home to enjoy fifty years of wedded life. Three of this man's
sons have celebrated golden weddings, and Isaac Brandt and his wife bid
fair to celebrate theirs. Mr. Brandt's father was a saddler. The boy went to the
district school in Lancaster and to Williams College and was apprenticed at the age
of sixteen to learn the shoemaker's trade; and he either worked at shoemaking,
or went to school, or taught school in the winter, until he was twenty-one. On
his twenty-first birthday he began business for himself. In 1850 he removed to
Auburn, Indiana, and carried on the shoe business. In 1854 was elected sheriff
of DeKalb County and served two years. In 1856, in company with Judge John
Morris of Fort Wayne and Hon. T. R. Dickenson of Waterloo, he visited Illinois
and Iowa, and in 1858, removed with his wife and three small children to Des
Moines, where he became a general merchant. He was a delegate to the Republi"
can Convention in Indianapolis in 1856; was appointed assistant treasurer of
Iowa in 1867, and in 1873 was elected a member of the Fifteenth General Assem-

HON. JAMES C. CONKLING,
Postmaster, Springfield, 111.

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH,

793

JOHN B. HAKLOW, POSTMASTER, ST. LOUIS.

bly of Iowa, and was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and of
Cities and Towns. In 1877 Mr. Brandt was a member of the city council of Des
Moines, and he was made mayor pro tern, by that body. He has been associated
with the Independent Order of Good Templars for thirty-six years, and for six
years he was grand worthy chief of the order in Iowa. He was one of the
original Abolitionists. When a mere boy he spent a quarter, all the money he
had in the world, to feed a fugitive slave, and his homes in Indiana and Iowa

794 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

were always recognized as safe retreats for the hunted black man. He first met
John Brown in 1857, and afterwards saw him three times at Des Moines. The
last time was not long before the attack on Harper's Ferry. John Brown came
along early one morning with four negroes lying in his covered wagon on a bed
covered with corn stalks. The party stopped in front of Mr. Brandt's house on
Capitol Hill and John Brown talked with him, until, leaning over the front gate,
he finally said good-by. Mr. Brandt still preserves the old gate as a cherished
relic. The Des Moines postmaster possesses the characteristics of his German
and Scotch ancestry, and his earnestness, self reliance and energy account for his
recognized success.

Mr. John B. Harlow, postmaster of St. Louis, was born at Sackett's Harbor,
Jefferson County, N. Y., in April, 1844, and moved with parents to Central Illinois,
when he was ten. In April, 1861, he enlisted in Company F (the first company
organized in Tazewell County) of the 8th Illinois Volunteers for three months'
service. He reenlisted in August, 1861, for the war, in the 47th Illinois Volun-
teers, and he served with his regiment until the war was over. Mr. Harlow par-
ticipated in the campaigns in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missis-
sippi, Louisiana and Alabama; notably the sieges and battles of Island No. 10, in
front of Corinth, luka, Corinth; the siege and assault on the works at Vicksburg,
May 22, 1863; with Gen. A. J. Smith and the 16th Army Corps in the Red River
Campaign; at Chicot, Arkansas; after Price through Arkansas and Missouri, and
at Nashville in the fall and winter of 1864; and in the Mobile campaign in 1865.
He was commissioned lieutenant in 1864 and breveted captain in 1865 for gallant
and meritorious service in the field, and was mustered out February 8, 1866.

Mr. Harlow entered the postal service as clerk on the Chicago and Centralia
R. P. O. in September, 1866, and was promoted to head clerk and transferred to
the Chicago & St. Louis R. P. O. in 1868. In 1870 he was entailed to assist in the
establishment of " double daily" postal service between Buffalo, New York and
Chicago and next promoted to chief head clerk and assigned to duty at St.
Louis, Mo. (the initial step towards the establishment of a division, with head-
quarters at that place) in 1871. The office of superintendent of mails having
"been created, Mr. Harlow was promoted and assigned to that position at St. Louis,
April, 1873. January, 1890, he was promoted and commissioned postmaster at St.
Louis by President Harrison.

This is the plain tale, promotion, promotion, and then promotion, of a plain
man, " Major" Harlow. He is not a major at all. " The title is based," as he
himself once explained to a friend, " solely upon the fact that, when tendered a
majority near the close of the war, I positively declined the same, and although
I have made innumerable efforts to ' detach ' the title, it has clung to me (as such
honors will) for the past quarter of a century; and it seems that I might as well
try to prevent my intimate friends from calling me * John. ' "

But this simple story of promotion: it describes one of the most notable char-
acters in the postal service, a man admired by all the postal people whom he
knows, from special delivery boy to Postmaster General, and admired and taken
pride in by the people of his city. Postmaster Harlow compels more results with
the same money than any other postmaster; that is, his operating expenses, com-
pared with his receipts, are the smallest in the country. He knows the railway
mail, the post office, the delivery, inside and out. He has been frequently sum-
moned to Washington to serve on commissions; and his chief value is not, as

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 795

might be supposec 1 that he knows so much about the service (great as that value

is) but rather that h ls knowledge is ingenious, restless and creative, and is made

do duty not for show purposes, but for greater and greater improvements con-

+ ?f T When somebod y has an ^ea, and he knows what to

do with it; and he has ideas of his own.

Almost everybody in St. Louis knows, or ought to know, of the kind

heart and the good deeds of Isaac H. Sturgeon, the assistant postmaster.

ough past seventy, no one would ever call him old. Nobody but Mr Sturgeon

THE ST. LOUIS POST OFFICE.

himself could tell the tales of lovers and husbands and wives united, and all the
other stories of the mails, and he would be too modest to do it. This old school
gentleman was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1821, when it was known
as " The dark and bloody ground." His great-grandfather, John Hume, was of
Scotch origin, and his grandfather, Thomas Sturgeon, was of Scotch Irish origin.
On the maternal side his grandfather, Edward Tyler, was of English origin and
his grandfather, Isaac Hughes, was of Scotch origin. Mr. Sturgeon's uncle,
Robert Tyler, was for fifteen years the law partner of James Guthrie, Franklin
Pierce's Secretary of the Treasury. In the family of this gentleman Mr. Stur-

796 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

geon was raised. He went to St. Louis in 1845. In April, 1848, Mr. Sturgeon was
elected in St. Louis to the Board of Aldermen, reflected in 1850, and 1852, over-
coming a Whig majority. In August, 1852, he was elected state senator from
St. Louis. In April, 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed him United States
Assistant Treasurer, and President James Buchanan reappointed him, and he
held the position until his term expired, when Mr. Lincoln appointed a Republi-
can to succeed him. He was president and superintendent of the North Missouri
Railroad for eleven years. He was many times appointed by President Grant a
United States commissioner to examine railroads built with Government aid, his
last work of the kind being upon the first section of the Texas Pacific Railroad.
When the whiskey frauds of 1875 were discovered, and a collector of internal
revenue in St. Louis had to be named, Mr. Sturgeon was appointed by Presi-
dent Grant to the position, which he held through the administration of Presi-
dents Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Hayes and Cleveland, until the 10th of November,
1885, when President Cleveland gave the position to a Democrat.

Mr. Sturgeon, though acting with the Democratic party till the Rebellion, was
always a Union man. During the pendency of the compromise measure of 1850
he was in Washington for months, and was on intimate terms with Henry Clay
and warmly espoused his compromise measures. Mr. Clay's son, James B.
Clay, married a sister of Mr. Sturgeon's aunt, Miss Susan Jacob, of Louisville,
Kentucky. He saw Mr. Clay almost daily and ventured to suggest to Mr. Clay
that if public meetings could be gotten up all over the country in favor of his
measures, it would make more sure their passage, as the wavering and doubting
members would become firm supporters, if they felt sure their constituents
would sustain them. " Yes," said Mr. Clay, " but I am so tired and worn with
sustaining the debate that I am unable to write the letters to start their meet-
ings." Mr. Sturgeon asked if he might write to Louisville, and also to
St. Louis, on the subject and say that he did so with his (Mr. Clay's)
sanction. He said yes, and Mr. Sturgeon at once wrote to Hon. James Guthrie,
leader of the Louisville Democracy, and to his personal friend, Geo. D. Prentice,
editor of the Louisville Journal. Mr. Prentice published Mr. Sturgeon's letter
and editorially remarked that it was from a young Democrat, but a patriot. A
tremendous mass meeting was held, over which Mr. Guthrie presided, and
resolutions were unanimously passed in favor of the measures. A similar
meeting was held in St. Louis, and similar resolutions were passed.

As assistant treasurer at St. Louis until April, 1861, Mr. Sturgeon was instru-
mental in preventing the seizure of a million of United States treasure, and of
munitions of war of very great value, by the Secessionists. In 1849, when he
was in Albany, he introduced a preamble and resolution calling a national con-
vention in St. Louis for October of that year, in favor of the construction of a
railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The
resolution passed unanimously. Hon. Stephen A. Douglass presided over the
convention, and Colonel Benton made an eloquent speech. Hon. W. R. Thompson
of Indiana also made a speech. But nothing ever came of the convention. In
the wartime, however, the railroad and the telegraph were projected. The
Southern states having seceded, St. Louis, according to Mr. Sturgeon, was robbed
of the position of starting point, and it went to Omaha; and to the additional
fact that the war cut off the Southern trade from St. Louis, he attributes the
advantage of Chicago over St. Louis, which has never been regained. After the

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH.

797

war, when Col. Tom Scott undertook to build the Texas and Pacific Railroad.
Mr. Sturgeon saw an opportunity to repair the injuries to St. Louis. He wrote
vigorously for his adopted city as the best eastern terminus. Another national
convention was called; but Congress was overwhelmed with so much contention
on the part of New Orleans, Yicksburg and Memphis, which insisted that one or
the other of them and not St. Louis should be the terminus, that the cherished
object was defeated a second time. In 1874 the chief eastern and western
trunk lines of railroad sent representatives to Saratoga to organize to regu-
late voluntarily their interstate commerce, and Mr. Sturgeon was selected as one

798 THE STORY OF OUB POST OFFICE.

of the western commissioners. But the managers of the railroad did not deal
fairly with one another, and the attempt was abandoned after six months. On
eight different occasions, President Grant selected Mr. Sturgeon to examine rail-
roads built by Government aid. Mr. Sturgeon was married in 1858 to Miss
Nannie Celeste Allen, daughter of the late Beverly Allen, a distinguished lawyer
of St. Louis. His wife's mother was a sister of General John Pope, and grand-
daughter of Judge Nathaniel Pope, long the United States Circuit Judge of
Illinois. Of eleven children eight are still spared to them.

Dr. Francis Bacon Nofsinger, the postmaster of Kansas City, was born in Mont-
gomery County, Indiana, in November, 1837. His father, William R. Nofsinger,
was prominent in politics, having served in the Indiana legislature two terms
and in the convention that formed the State Constitution, was trustee of the
Wabash & Erie Canal in 1852 and was elected State Treasurer in 1854. Young
Nofsinger was studying medicine when the war broke out, but he at once entered
the army and gave his services (being an ungraduate) for one year to the medical
department without pay. Having graduated at the Nashville Medical Univer-
sity in 1863, he was appointed an assistant surgeon, and he remained in the army
until the close of the war. Dr. Nofsinger removed to Kansas City in June, 1869,
and went into the pork and beef packing business. In 1873 he was elected presi-
dent of the city council, and one year later became president of the board of
trade, which position he filled, with honor to himself and benefit to his city, for
four consecutive years. In November, 1889, Dr. Nofsinger was appointed post-
master. He is a business man, pure and simple; but just as, at one time, he was
champion chess player for the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan
(and he excels at quoits), so he has moved his men on the post office chessboard
out of discord and discontent into harmony, enthusiasm and success. Dr.
Nofsinger is a man of fine presence, gray haired, and universally popular in his
very lively town.

Col. Thaddeus Stevens Clarkson, postmaster of Omaha, was born at Gettys-
burg, Pennsylvania, in 1840, and received his education at the college of St.
James in Washington County, Maryland, three miles from the Antietam battle-
field. At seventeen he moved to Chicago. He enlisted in Company A, 1st Illinois
Artillery, on April 16, 1861, as a private; was promoted to adjutant of the 13th
Illinois Cavalry, in December, 1861 ; served twelve months on the staff of Brig-
Gen. J. W. Davidson; commanded Battery K of the 2d Missouri Artillery by
assignment for six months; and was made major of the 3d Arkansas Cav-
alry in December, 1863, commanding that until nearly the close of the war, and
making for himself a record that any soldier might be proud of.

After the close of the war Mr. Clarkson settled in Omaha, then a town of
about three thousand five hundred people, and he has since been identified with
Nebraska and her interests. He has taken a prominent part in the reorganiza-
tion of the old soldiers, has been department commander of the Grand Army for
Nebraska, and is at present junior vice-commander-in-chief of the national organi-'
zation. Colonel Clarkson was appointed postmaster of his adopted city, which
he had seen grow to such superb proportions, and he has been a model officer,
managing his office, pushing for more men and larger extensions of the service,
earning the unmeasured praise of his patrons and the papers, just as he used to
fight, with dash and sure success. He is a handsome, military looking man,
popular at the department and strong in Nebraska politics.

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH.

799

The postmaster of Denver, another member of the conference, is a rushing
business man and politician, Mr. John Corcoran, young, full of snap, and
" spry " enough to keep up with the steady growth of his beautiful town. Mr.
Corcoran was born in Cairo, Illinois, in 1848. He joined an Illinois regiment at
the outbreak of the war, but was wounded before he had been enrolled, and was
in consequence not accepted as an enlisted man, though he later went into the
navy and served all through the war. When it was all over he went to Friar's
Point, Mississippi, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was chief
mover in the organization of the free school system at that place and for several
years was a member of the Mississippi legislature. He went to Colorado in
1878 and there remained, devoting himself to mining and mercantile business
with conspicuous success. He is proud to be called a merchant.

Postmaster Corcoran had long been a power in Colorado politics, as well as an
influential factor in Denver business affairs, when he was appointed postmaster
July 1, 1889. He was a good talker on
the stump and a shrewd, careful organ-
izer, and had not only figured promi-
nently in the legislature of Colorado,
but had been chairman of the county
committee of his county. In these
posts he always enjoyed the confidence
of the party managers and had the good
will and loyalty of his constituents
always to depend upon. His incum-
bency as postmaster has been marked
by a similar activity and satisfaction.
Mr. Corcoran is a quick, incisive person,
who is all business when it is business,
and all fun when it is fun.

When Postmaster Shaw first went to
Spokane Falls, he became identified with
the Review, as its business manager, and
afterwards as associate editor. Later he
resumed the practice of law. He formed
a partnership with Millard T. Hartson
and also engaged extensively in the real
estate business. The initiative step
toward the success of the Spokane Ex-
position was taken by Mr. Shaw. When

the enterprise was not yet an assured fact, he labored earnestly to place it upon a
substantial basis, and his efforts left no doubt of its success.

Albert J. Shaw was born in Aurora, N. Y., in April, 1856, and after a thor-
ough course at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, N. Y., was graduated f roi
that institution in 1878. He was admitted to the bar of Rochester, N. Y., in
October 1881, and practised successfully in that city until the spring of . 84,
when he was appointed, by President Arthur, Receiver of Public Moneys
Lewiston, Idaho. He served in that office his full term with credit to himself
and to his chosen party. With the change of administration he resigned his
office. Mr. Shaw was honored by President Harrison with the appointment of

MB. ALBERT J. SHAW,
Postmaster at Spokane.

800

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

postmaster at Spokane without his solicitation, and he has made a fine office in
that wonderful bustling country.

Mr. J. O. Coleman, postmaster of Sacramento, was born at Hopkinsville, Ken-
tucky, in January, 1845. There he obtained a common school education, and
learned the trade of cabinet maker. In 1863, by advice of his physician, he went

to California, and after a brief stay, re-
turned as far as Virginia City, Nevada,
where he obtained employment in the
famous Gould & Curry Mine. The high
altitude did not agree with him, how-
ever, and he returned to Sacramento, and
obtained a situation in a commercial
house. In 1866 he returned to his native
state, and was successful in the hardware
business; but he went to California in
1877, and after visiting many portions of
the state, decided to settle permanently
in Sacramento, where he opened an ex-
change and loan office. He has taken an
active part in public matters, the success
of many of which has been credited to
his watchfulness and push. Of those
which have shown lasting results may be
mentioned the free, open air concerts, the
Citizens' Improvement Association and
the Sacramento Street Improvement Co.
At no time has he been free from some
public work. As an originator and organ-
izer Mr. Coleman was most prominent
in the grand flower festival tendered by
the citizens of Sacramento to Mrs.

Margaret E. Crocker. It was he who suggested the unique testimonial and set
about to interest the citizens in the affair. Mr. Coleman has always taken an
active part in campaign work. He is a quiet worker and thorough in details, and
though he cannot be classed as a public speaker, yet he readily expresses his
views clearly and concisely. He was prominently mentioned for mayor in 1887,
though he had never asked for recognition by his party. He was appointed post-
master in 1890, having been recommended for the position by one of the strongest
petitions that was ever sent from Sacramento. Mr. Coleman has a fine soft side.
He loves flowers and is fond of books; and he has taken into the Sacramento
office not only the skill and business prudence that has made him of so much con-
sequence in the public affairs of his city, but also the civility of the accomplished
and loyal gentleman.

The gallant postmaster of San Francisco, Gen. Samuel Woolsey Backus, was
born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in November, 1844. He went to California
with his parents in 1852. His education was largely received in the public
schools of Sacramento. It was in that city that he first gave evidence of the
stern quality which has since earned for him so much esteem and confidence.
When a lad of but eighteen years, he joined the ranks of the California Hun-

MR. IBVIN A. BENTON,
Lately Postmaster at Salt Lake City,

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 801

dred, and bravely started east for the defence of his country. This was in
January, 1863; and from that time until the close of the war he served with
distinguished honor, taking part in most of the Virginia campaigns and earning
notice more than once for bravery on the field. After the close of the war he
served one year as an officer of Company F, 2d California Cavalry, on the Modoc
frontier, and during the winter of '65 and '66 was assigned to the command of Fort
Bidwell.

Resigning from the army he went to San Francisco and entered business as a
shipping and commission merchant. This period of his life extended from 1867
to 1878. In 1877 he was elected on the same ticket with Hon. John F. Swift to
represent the old 19th Assembly District in the legislature. During his term as
assemblyman he succeeded in accomplishing much for the National Guard of
California, and his services in this line earned for him later the appointment of
adjutant-general for the state, which honor was conferred upon him by Governor
Perkins in 1880. His thorough executive ability here came into full play, and a
most systematic reorganization of the state militia was effected.

In 1882 General Backus was appointed postmaster of San Francisco by Presi-
dent Garlield. He held this position for four years. His administration was
noted for its efficiency, and consequently for its popularity. So marked was his
success that, upon the expiration of the term of President Cleveland's appointee
in 1890, General Backus was again selected for the place by President Harrison.
In administering the affairs of his office, General Backus is especially noted for
his close attention to the most trifling details. He gives his entire attention to the
work in hand, directing the labors of hundreds of clerks and insisting upon a
strict observance of a systematic code of office rules.

As a worker in the ranks of the Grand Army General Backus has earned a
warm place in the hearts of the old soldiers. He was one of the organizers of
Lincoln Post No. 1, of San Francisco, and he served twice as its commander. In
1877 he was made commander of the Department of California. In 1886 he was
elected senior vice-commander-in-chief of the national order. His latest honor
consisted in his election, in May last, as commander of the Loyal Legion of the
California Commandery. It is not in public places alone, however, that General
Backus has distinguished himself in his community. He takes rank as a jour-
nalist of uncommon energy and originality. In 1885 and '86 he was publisher and
proprietor of the San Francisco Evening Post, and in 1890 he became sole pro-
prietor of the Wasp, the Puck and Judge of the Coast. Both of these papers
sprang into new life as the result of his brief but vigorous management.

Personally General Backus is one of the most polished of men. He is a
student, a keen observer of men and a good speaker. He is prompt in action, a
splendid organizer, a through disciplinarian. He is patriotic, true to his friends,
broad gauged, and not limited or held in check in the performance of good deeds
by personal prejudice, whether of race, creed or color.

A thoroughly popular official is Mr. D. S. Richardson, assistant postmaster of
San Francisco, in whose energetic make-up are combined the traits which make
the best successes certain. He was born in Massachusetts in 1851. He went
California, however, four years later, so that he may rightly lay claim to the
title Californian. He was educated in the public schools of Oakland, and sub-
sequently attended the University of California. He adopted the vocation of
school teacher, and from 1868 to 1873 taught school in various parts of the state.

802

THE STORY OF OTJB POST OFFICE.

He met with a thousand and one experiences which he subsequently wrote into
a series of the most delightful magazine articles.

Mr Kichardson went to Mexico in 1874 as the correspondent of the San Fran-
cisco Chronicle and contributed to its columns a number of sketches specially
dealing with the romance of Aztec civilization. In 1875 he was appointed sec-
retary of legation in Mexico City, under Hon. John W. Foster, then Minister to
Mexico. He held this responsible position until 1879, when he returned to San
Francisco to enter the postal service as secretary under General Coey. He con-

tinued in this position during the administration of General Backus from 1882
to 1886, and retired from the service during the administration of Mr. Cleveland
to accept the post of foreign secretary to the Japanese Consul in San Fran-
cisco, which he held till 1890. Upon the reentry of General Backus into the post-
mastership, the position of secretary was again offered him, and in April, 1891,
he was appointed to his present position of assistant postmaster.

In his leisure moments Mr. Richardson devotes himself to literary pursuits.
Several years ago he contributed extensively to the best western magazines and
periodicals, and achieved a wide reputation for his honest, vigorous style.
Though not closely identified with politics, Mr. Richardson is popular among the

POSTMASTERS WEST AND SOUTH. 803

party leaders of his state, and the notably able manner in which he has admin-
istered the arduous requirements of his present position assures his friends that
his full capacity for public affairs is yet really to be tested. Mr. Richardson is
a handsome man, generous and hearty to the utmost, a delightful correspondent
and a friend to be very proud of.

Mr. Alexander M. Cox, superintendent of the city delivery division of the
San Francisco office, represented General Backus at the conference of post-
masters. He is one of the best equipped men in the postal service west of the
Mississippi River; in its broadest sense a self-made man, having risen to his
present position from the ranks and for merit alone. He was born in Virginia
in 1849. Between 1865 and 1874 Mr. Cox was engaged in mercantile pursuits in
his native state and in New York. Then he decided to try his fortune in Cali-
fornia, and he reached San Francisco in November, 1874. In March, 1875, he
was appointed a letter carrier by Postmaster Coey, and within a year he had
proved his all-around capabilities so well that he was made assistant superin-
tendent of carriers. In March, 1877, he was transferred from that position to be
superintendent of Station A, a place of much responsibility. So exceptional was
the reputation that he made for intelligent work and executive skill that Post-
master Backus selected him, in October, 1882, for his superintendent of carriers
and city delivery, and made him at the same time ex-officio General Superin-
tendent of the entire office. The latter position he now holds. At the confer-
ence of postmasters he acquitted himself with great dignity and credit.

Mr. Cox is a man of agreeable manners, prompt, thoroughly a master of his
business, and full of the right progressive spirit. Few men in the service have a
wider circle of friends. He has that rare faculty of being able to govern men,
and at the same time to preserve with them relations of cordial good will. He
has introduced not only complete order into his division, but many improve-
ments which have secured for him the commendations of experienced officials
in other offices and at the Department.

CLEEKS' AND CAEEIEES' OEGANIZATIONS.

HE postal employees have their local organi-
zations for mutual benefit. They also have na-
tional organizations. One is the National As-
sociation of Carriers, another the National
Association of Post Office Clerks, another the
U. S. Railway Mail Service Mutual Benefit
Association, and the fourth the National Asso-
ciation of Railway Postal Clerks. The postal

employees have their papers. One, the Postal Record, a monthly

published in New York, is devoted chiefly to the interests of the

carriers though it takes hardly less interest in the clerks and all

the rest. The R. M. S. Bugle, a

monthly journal, is published in

Chicago, and, as its name implies,

is chiefly devoted to the Railway

Mail Service.

The first editor of the Postal Record
was Alvin G. Brown. He was born in
Reading, Mass., and went to school until
he was thirteen, when he learned the
trade of printer in the office of the Mid-
dlesex Journal, published at the neighbor-
ing town of Woburn. After that he en-
tered the printing office of Rand, Avery
& Co. in Boston. He was only a boy
when President Lincoln called for 300,000
volunteers, but he threw his stick down,
and, running away to Lynnfield, enlisted
for three years in the Woburn National
Rangers. It was found that the boy was
too young to enlist without the consent
of his parents. He finally secured this,
and was mustered in with Company K
of the 39th Massachusetts Volunteers.

804

ME. ALVIN G. UKOWX,

Founder of the Postal Record.

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

805

Old Times and New.

He did not come home until the war
was over, and, though participating
in twenty-two battles, escaped with-
out a wound. He was in the Grand
Review. Mr. Brown's health was
not good when he returned to Mas-
sachusetts after the war and he
worked at the printer's trade for
seven years in Ohio. But he wan-
dered back home again, was foreman
of a printing office in Stoneham, and
then he bought an office in Maiden
for himself. He now has these same
presses and employs a dozen or more
men. In November, 1888, he began
the publication of the Postal Record.
The new journal was clean-cut and
newsy. It was a difficult matter the
first year to convince the postal
people that they needed such a publi-
cation. But a detailed account of
the first Annual Convention of the
Letter Carriers, at Milwaukee, was
given. After that the prosperity of
the Record was certain. In the vol-
ume of 1890 Mr. Brown published
monthly beautiful half-tone pic-
tures, with discriminating sketches
accompanying them, of the chief
officials of the Department and the
chief postmasters; and he printed
pictures and sketches of the leaders
among the carriers and the clerks.
An especially fine illustrated report
of the dedication of the Sunset Cox
statue in Astor Place was given.
The first convention of post office
clerks, which was held in Washing-
ton in January, 1890, made the Postal
Record its official organ, and at the
second convention of the National
Association of Letter Carriers, Mr.
Brown's publication was voted a
similar mark of confidence. Mr.
Brown is a thorough printer, and no
exception could ever be taken to the

typographical appearance of his paper, nor to the matter in it, either. But he
was not directly connected with the Department, and he thought it wise that
his publication should change hands. In September, 1891, he sold out to John

YE PIONEER POSTMAN

Where is the Postman, Nancy, with the

New England mail ?

How slow he was a comin', along the In-
dian trail ,
And some poor fellows never came in

solitude they fell,
Before the savage tomahawk, with none

to tell the talc-
Now, everywhere, o er all the earth the

latest news is known,
By the far reachin' telegraph, and speakm'

telephone;
And fast trains gather up the mails, along the

iron path,
As whirlwinds to the autumn leaves that fall

before their wrath.

JOHN H. YATES.

FAC SIMILE FROM A CORNER OF THE
OLD POSTAL RECORD.

THE POSTAL RECORD.

Vol. 5.

A JOURNAL FOR POSTAL EMPLOYEES.

No. 10.

MONTHLY . li.oo Pn Amnm )
nt ADVANCE.

NEW YORK OCTOBER, 1892

HOUSE COLLECTIONS.

fOS POSTMASTER-GENERAL'S CHEAT DE-
PARTURE BASED UPON SUCCESSFUL
TESTS,

Postmaster - General Wanamaker has
just issued bis long expected order -depu-
tizing the postmasters in free delivery
cities, towns and country communities to
put up house letter boxes fo/ the collection
as well as the delivery of mail, whenever
two-thirds of the house holders on a given
route signify their desire to have this new
double service. The letter boxes tested in
St. Louis and Washington have been
selected, as is well known, after two years
of examination among 1,600 models, and
in St Louis, especially, where the prac-
tical test of the collection and delivery
box was tried under the most unfavorable
conditions possible in that or any other
free delivery place, have the results been
especially gratifying to Postmaster Harlow
and to the Department. The test shows
that collections as well as deliveries are
possible without any loss of time on the
average, and that where circumstances are
favorable, as on compactly settled routes,
time is actually saved which may be de-
voted, of course, to putting on extra de-
liveries at the proper time. A remarkable
thing discovered is that this new double
service, that of delivery without delay to
safe receptacles at everybody's door, and
that of collections without delay from safe
places and upon all the regular deliveries
at bouses where the little disc indicates
that mail is to be collected, is now possi-
ble, and that. too. without any appreciable
change in the carrier force, and hence
without expense to the Department ex-
cept, ol course, as tune enough is saved to
permit the putting on of more deliveries
or the employment of more carriers with
the money saved.
1{> Pniaster Barlow's report is a* fol-

POST OFFICE. ST. Louis, Mo. )
OFFICE OP THE POSTMASTER \

July ,6th, 1892!)
(Cofy.)

Hon. 5 A Knitfield. First Assistant
Postmaster. Central. Washington.
D. C ,

Sir-In compliance with instructions re-
ceived from \our office, dated respectively
December 7 3 d. '91. and Februaryjd '02
1 have caused a thorough test to be made
of the House Letter Box /or delivery and

collection (Model 345, "A," special number
14, now known as "The Postal Improve-
ment Company's box"), and respectfully
submit the following result of said test:

The principles primarily involved were

ist A delivery arid collection box to be
applied to the exterior of houses.

jd. An interior delivery and collection
box to be attached to the doors.

$d* 'A box for delivery and collection to
be built into the walls of dwelling bouses.

As evidence of the adaptibility of the
box in question, I will state that, of the
ninety -three boxes now in position, eighteen
are placed or built in Walls, varying in
thickness from four inches to three feet;
thiity-five are attached to porches or posts,
some being placed in columns supporting
porches (with a flush face, the boxes being
inside the column), the remainder being
placed on doors. In one instance the
owner connected the box at the door with
the electric annunciator in the servants'
hall, the alarm being sounded by the open
ing of the box. All of which is, to me at
least, satisfactory proof that the box can
be adapted to almost any situation, and,
in my opinion! reasonably meets all the
requirements of the Department

With a view to make the test, from a
postal standpoint, as severe as possible,
route 554 was selected for the reason that
all of the residences thereon are located
ot less than seventy-6ve feet from the
street line necessarily increasing the dis-
tance to be covered by the carrier, and
also requiring special vigilance on his part
to note if the "collection target" is dis-
played.

Inclosed herewith please find detailed
report of the Superintendent of City De-
livery (with map of route 554, and state-
ment of carrier). Also a number of letters
received from the house-holders on said
route.

The increase in collections as shown by
the report in detail, is no doubt attribut-
able to the greater convenience for mailing
together with the more assured prompt de-
livery of letters, than via as heretofore
the pocket of the "man of the house;"
while an additional convenience to the
public may be fairly anticipated, in the
matter of orders with small remittances
for stamps, envelopes, etc , to be brought
in by the carrier, the money and order
going direct into the hands of a postal em-
plo)ee. who collects, fills and delivers the
same, thus reducing the chances of loss to
the minimum

Permit me to say in conclusion I am
confident that a house-to house collection
and delivery service can be maintained
even on an exceptionally difficult route.

and on ordinarily closely built routes would
without material loss of time to the carrier;
result in the saving of considerable time
over the present system. I am. Sir. very
respectfully,

(Signed) JOHN B. HARLOW.
Postmaster.

Superintendent Cookton's letter said :

POSTOPFICB ST. Louis. Mo.. )
THIRU DIVISION, July 15, 1892. I
Mr John B Harlow, Postmaster. St.
Louis, Mo

Sir in submitting the enclosed report
showing test of the route 554, before and
after bouse delivery and collection boxes
were put up, I desire to say the test was a
thorough and reliable one, the-carrier being
accompanied by an Assistant Superin-
tendent of this Division, and has de-
monstrated the fact that the box is a benefit,
both to the service and the public. Delivery
and collection can be made from the box
in less time than by ringing bell and mak-
ing a person*) delivery.

The route selected is an ideal one from an
official point of view, it being a large route
composed wholly of residences, each with
large grounds, and every house set back
seventy-five feet from the sidewalk.

The box is evidently an inducement to a
larger use of the mails, shown by the col-
lection of 838 pieces from house collec-
tion boxes, and 121 pieces from street
letter boxes in June, a total of 959 pieces
against 294 pieces banded to carrier and
collected from street letter boxes in April
an increase of 665 pieces, or 225 percent.

The actual hours of delivery shows an
increase of 3# hours in June over April, or
2t minutes per day, which is explained by
the necessity of carrier covering the entire
route at each delivery. I am respectfully,
JNO. H. COOKSON,
Superintendent.

Carrier Hitchcock said.
/no. H. Cookson. Superintendent Free De-
livery:

Sir In reply to your inquiry as to
whether I have increased my speed in de-
livering mail on my route since the house
delivery and collection boxes were put up,
I desire to say that I preserve the same gait
or speed in delivery now that I did before
the boxes were put up, or in other words I
have not increased my speed in walking.
Respectfully,

ALBON G. HITCHCOCK,
Carrier 554.

The report of deliveries on Carrier Route ,
No 554 is as follows.

FAC SIMILE OF A FIBST PAGE OF THE PRESENT POSTAL RECOBD.

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

807

F. Victory, a carrier of station D in New York City, and secretary of the National
Association of Letter Carriers.

John F. Victory was born in Ireland in 1862. He came to this country with
his parents early in 1864, and settled in Warren, R. I. At fourteen he furnished
rovidence Journal with local items for the town of Warren. About the
same time he opened a store near the local post office and did a good business in
newspapers, books, periodicals, etc., for about two years, when he accepted a
position on the staff of the Providence Weekly Visitor. In the meantime he had
attended the public schools of Warren. He was quick to learn and was invari-
ably at the head of his class. In 1883 he sought a living in New York City.
There he spent two years in a law
office at a nominal salary. Hoping to

be able to attend a law school, he . x x

became a letter carrier in 1886. He
had thought that his hours of duty
could be arranged so as to permit his
attendance at the evening classes of
the University of the City of New
York. In this he was mistaken; but,
because of his necessities, he retained
his position in the postal service. He
has been an active member of the New
York Letter Carriers' Association since
1886, was largely instrumental in form-
ing a branch of the National Associa-
tion of Letter Carriers in New York,
in 1890, was sent as a delegate to the
tirst National Convention in that year
at Boston, and there was unanimously
elected secretary. At Detroit, in 1891,
and at Indianapolis in 1892, he was
unanimously reflected. Perhaps no
man in the United States has had more
to do with the building up of the
Carriers' Association than Mr. Victory.
As secretary he has witnessed the
organization grow, in two years, from fifty-three branches to three hundred
and forty-five. He married a Miss Hines of Stamford, Ct., in 1888, and is the
happy father of two fine boys. Mr. Victory conducts the Postal Record with
increasing success in addition to his other arduous duties. He is an indefatigable
worker, with an ambition to be of service to the postal employees of the country,
whom he considers as a whole an overworked, underpaid body of public servants.
He strenuously advocates an increased salary for the clerks and carriers and
believes that in justice to the men who devote the best years of their lives to the
service, and for the good of the service itself, the application of the civil service
laws should be extended so as to embrace the employees of every free delivery
office. Mr. Victory had been a frequent contributor to the Postal Record under
the editorship of Mr. Brown. He recognized that a journal devoted to the in-
terests of postal employees, and of the postal service, too, merited support. As

MR. JOHN F. VICTORY,

Editor of the Postal Record and Secretary of
the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Vol 6

CHICAGO ILL.. DEC 25 1891

No 2

-THE*

R y Mail Service Bugle,

PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY

Ona Dollar per Annum In Advance.

CAPT JAMES E WHITE.

Most Efficient Railway Mail
Superintendent

From Chicago Herald

One of the most .efficient general superin
cndents that the railway mail servioe bas
ever had t<* Captaio "James E White who
in October 1890. was promoted to I hat
position. lie is now ID Chicago plan oi nj!
feveral important improveneute in the serv-
ice Captaio White's career is unique and
in every way is highly creditable to himself.
He was a brave soldier daring the witr hav-
ing* won bis rank of Captain l>y big bravery
as a member of the Thirteenth Iowa Volu
teers In March. 1866. be was appointed
to a clerkship on one of the western roads
The railway mail service was then in its 10-
toney His progress was rapid He bar
the ability and the work was congenial U
him fn ]>}* he was chosen to he the
chief clerk of the service, with the head
quarters at Omaha. ID November 1H71 he
was made the district superintended
thjs division, will* headquarters at Chicago

He immediately won recognition in the
department for his comprehensive grasp o
all subjects cognate to ibe service, and bio
division w.is quickly recognized as the bes
managed in the entire United States. The
InghcM tribute to bis thoroughness and his
high standing is the fact that in spitt- ol th<
most strenuous efforts ol the. friends of tin
democratic candidates for the plat*. Tost
master General Vilas refused to remove him
jDMiig as a reason that the 'departme
con Id not afford lo lose the services of
valuable an official.

Captaiu While ha. seen the service grow
from very small to mammoth proportions
and he has the satisfaction of knowing tha
large degree of it* worth is doe to bis own
< i>i>M-ifntmiis tflorts ll is twenty -K
years ago. and a little more, sin'* it
first established by a George B Armstrong
end since that time the country bas increas-
ed ID population thirty millions and th
railroad roilenge shows an increase of I3G,

Its usefulness has by no taeaap reached
s limit Dnringjhe next two years sever-
I thousand miles of new service will bead-
ed to meet tbe growing demands of tbe
service in tbe West Tbe world's fair cor-
espondenee will have to be disposed of in
more satisfactory way than now, else
here will be great delays in the Chicago
postoffice Then ngain, the growth of tbe
West bas been so rapid that additional mail
acilities have become an imperative neces-
ity Chicago not only needs more mail

Boston. New York and Philadelphia. It
practicability and value have been so tboi
ougnly demonstrated in the East that it wil
be generally introduced in the large citu
of tbe West as well. In fine, it is Captai.
White's constant endeavor to make tb
ail way mail service tbe most efficient an-
ndispensabie branch f tbe Postofte* De
partment

accommodations, but I he commercial cen
rs of tbe West. St. Loui* Kansas City
envei Omaha. Minneapolis, Milwaukee
Paol etc It is Captain White's idea
and it. will be his aim to give these citie
< i me :u MI in U K 1 at IOIIK that are now enjoy
ed by Boston. New York and Philadelphia
Ose of bis ideas for the promotion of the
1 1 ue of the service to business men is U
handle the through distribution of city mai
on the trains, so that the moment, the mfti
car reaches its destination tbe letters wi
be ready for immediate delivery by th
carriers' This Captain White will mak
feature of the service This will consider
ably 'increase the expense, but he wise-
ly deems that tbe good that
come to tbe business community and the
time that will be saved will more than ofl
pet any extra expenditure that may be in
curred Tins distribution is now done
souieuhat in Chicago and in a larger way in

To those of our readers who do not pei
use the General Orders the following ord<
recently promulgated by the P M Gen

ay prove interesting.

That hereafter vacancies in the cla*ifa>.
service of tbe Post Office Department :
Washington, D C., to which promotioi
from lower grades cannot be made, shall, i
all cases where there are eligible candidate
berefrom, be rilled by transfer from tl
Railway Mail Service or tbe classified p*
ffices, within tbe limits of tbe regnlatioi
fixing the quota of each Slate. Tbe Secon
Assistant Postmaster General is hereby n
strocted to give notice of this regulation i
tbe Superintendents of each division of U
Hailwy Mail Service, to be by him pr-
loiilgated throughout his division, and .
cause proptt records to he kept in each div
sion, and on the first day of each quarter i
report to the Postmaster General ibe nam.
of the persons '" that service who desen
and desire tran:Tfr to tbe Department se

ce at Washington, with a detailed recoj,
of" the person in each case. And tbe poe
master at every postoffice having fifty
more officers and employes, is likewis."
hereby instructed to give similar notvot t
them and to make like reports on the fin-
day of each quarter to the Postmaster Get,
eral

It is further ordered. That vacancies
tbe se post office service shall hereafter t
filled by transfer from the Railway Mai
Service or classified port offices, under th
ame regulations which are above applied
selections for vacancies in the Departments

The office records above mentioned shl'
embrace the following subjects Regularit
and promptness ofattendance. ability, appl
cation and industry. babiU, adpt*Wlifr>
health, and such others as may be t
by tbe Postmaster General

Any R P C wishing a
make application to his Div Supt

A FIRST PAGE OF THE R. M. S. BUGLE.

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

809

secretary he had given it support. He represented Mr. Brown in Xew York, in
fact, as business manager as well as a correspondent.

The editor of the R. M. S. Bugle is A. E. Winrott, a railway postal clerk,
whose headquarters are in Chicago. There his paper is issued at 334 Dearborn
Street. The It. M. S. Bugle was established seven years ago at Calmar, Iowa, by M i .
Winrott himself. He published a local paper at Calmar, and, being connected
with the postal service, was impressed with the notion that a journal devoted to
the interests of railway postal clerks would be a successful venture. Towards
the end of the first year of the Bugle s life and at the beginning of the Democratic
administration, its editor was removed from the service. Two months later his
printing office was burned. This calamity left him almost penniless; but lie was
determined not to succumb. He moved to Des Moines and a few weeks later
resumed the publication of the Bugle
there. But after six months, desiring
to make his publication national, he
moved it to Chicago. But the Railway
Mail Service was demoralized; hardly
a clerk that was not uncomfortable on
account of the change of administra-
tion. The prospects of the Bugle,
therefore, were discouraging. As
soon as the new administration clas-
sified the service there was a change
for the better. Mr. Winrott was re-
appointed to his route in May, 1889.
The Bugle has championed the cause
of railway postal clerks upon every
opportunity. It has advocated a
re-classification with larger salaries,
and through its efforts state and
national organizations have been per-
fected. Mr. Winrott has personally

ME. A. K. WINBOTT,
Editor of the R. M. S. Bugle.

made up every page of its paper since

it was started, and for the last eight

months has personally done all the

presswork, and that, too, in addition

to holding his route as postal clerk.

The Bugle has correspondence from various parts of the country, chiefly the

West, a page of editorial gossip, and a fair run of advertisements. Up to April,

1890, it had been a monthly; it was then made a fortnightly.

The idea of the founders of the National Association of Letter
Carriers was that only by a unity of purpose and method could the
condition of this important body of 11,000 Federal employees be
improved and generally dignified. They saw, too, that among all
wage-earners organization was the theme. The letter carriers of
Milwaukee issued, in the early summer of 1889, a call for a gath-
ering of carriers from all over the country to meet in Milwaukee at

810

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 811

the time of the Grand Army encampment in the following August.
The purpose of the meeting was stated to be a discussion of the
advisability of forming an association of carriers. An association
was organized ; its primary object was to secure an increased salary
for letter carriers, and its labors during the first year of its existence
were chiefly to that end. Many obstacles, however, had to be
contended with, and the association did not thrive.

The first annual convention was held in Boston in July, 1890.
About fifty cities were represented, and there were fifty-three
branches of the association. A committee was appointed to draft a

plan of insurance, and the proposition to extend the civil service
rules to all free delivery cities was urged. In August, 1891, the
second national convention was held in Detroit. The association
had then grown to embrace 235 branches and a membership of over
6,000 letter carriers. As at Boston the convention was held simul-
taneously with the Grand Army encampment. For two years an
effort had been made to add $200 a year to the salaries of all car-
riers. At the Detroit meeting an equalization of salaries was
approved of, and since that time the association has labored to
establish four grades of carriers for the entire service with salaries
of |600 for the first year, $800 for the second year, f 1,000 for the
third, and $1,200 a year thereafter ; and a bill intended to carry

812

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

out this project was favorably reported by the House post office com-
mittee of the Fifty-Second Congress and put upon the calendar.
The proposition to extend the civil service rules to all free delivery
offices was further discussed, and a petition with 50,000 signatures
was lately presented successfully to the President.

A year ago the United States Letter Carriers' Mutual Benefit
Association was organized. It is chartered and operates under the
jurisdiction of the National Association of Letter Carriers. It was
started on a level rate assessment basis, but at the third annual con-
vention of the national organization in Indianapolis in August, 1892,
a change was made to a graded rate as follows :

Between the ages of

$1,500

$3,000

Between the ages of

$1,500

$3,000

2125

$ .50

$1.00

4243

$ .80 $1.60

2530

.54

1.08

4344

.82

1.64

3031

.56

1.12

4445

.84

1.68

3132

.58

1.16

4546

.86

1.72

3233

.60

1.20

4647

.88

1.76

3334

.62

1.24

4748

.90

1.80

3435

.64

1.28

4849

.92

1.84

3536

.66

1.32

4950

.94

1.88

3637

.68

1.36 '

5051

.96

1.92

3738

.70

1.40

5152

.98

1.96

3839

.72

1.44

5253

1.00

2.00

3940

.74

1.48

5354

1.02

2.04

4041

.76

1.52

5455

1.04

2.08

4142

.78

1.56

5556

1.06

2.12

The trustees of the Mutual Benefit Association, Messrs. W. J.
Kent of Auburn, N. Y., Charles M. O'Brien of Cleveland, and S.

E. Graham of Kansas City, chose the last named president of the
board. To him applications for membership have to be sent. The
chief collector is Mr. Wilmot Dunn of Nashville. On account of
the acknowledged good health of letter carriers as a body of out-
door workers, the Mutual Benefit Association is able to offer insur-
ance at low rates ; and another advantage is that the expenses for
salaries, offices, advertising, etc., are almost nothing.

Officers of the National Association of Letter Carriers are :
President: Frank E. Smith, San Francisco, Cal.; Vice-President: Martin W.
Malone, Philadelphia, Pa.; Secretary: John F. Victory, New York, X. Y. ;
Treasurer: Alex. McDonald, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Sergeant-at-Arn*: Edward

F. Daugherty, Dayton, Ohio; Executive Board: W. H. Ho-an, Chicago, 111.;
Chairman; C. C. Couden, Cincinnati, Ohio; Wm. J. Hennessey, Boston, Mass.;

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

813

Wm. M. Slater, Fort Wayne, Ind. ; J. H. McMullan, Brooklyn, X. Y.; Legislative
Committee : Chas. H. Cutler, Boston, Mass., Chairman ; Thos. J. Garrity, Maiden
Mass.; W. J. Morrison, Brooklyn, X. Y.; W. P. Roosa, Elmira, X Y J F'
Walsli, Chicago, 111.

The following table gives the number of branches by states and
the name of the vice-president for each state :

i
1

State.

Vice-Presidents.

State.

Vice-Presidents.

X. Y.

Chris. Tormey, Syracuse.

Tenn.

M. E. Doolin, Xashville.

Mass.

J. H. Allen, Springfield.

Wash.

J. W. Scott, Seattle.

Ohio.

J. A. Turner, Columbus.

Xy.

A. F. Watkins, Louisville.

111.

J. E. Hammond, Englewood.

Vt.'

D. E. Tasker, Brattleboro.

Penn.

George Jones, Xew Castle.

La.

E. McL. Cruice, X. Orleans.

22
14

Mich.
Conn.

X. A. Beardslee, B'le Creek.
H. M. Cummings, X. Haven.

Utah.
S. C.

H. E. Dewey, Salt Lake City.
Jas. P. Farmer, Columbia.

N. J.

J. S. Whigam, Xewark.

Ark.

H. H. Gilkey, Little Rock.

Cal.
Ind.

I. A. Ball, San Jose.
Geo. P. McKee, Logansport.

2
2

Miss.
Ore.

Jno. J. Dorney, Vicksburg.
R. E. Fiske, Portsmouth.

Mo.

J. A. Spellman, St. Joseph.

Fla.

W. A. J. Pollock, Pensacola.

Kans.

C. H. Kerle, Topeka.

Mon.

James Blythe, Helena.

Wis.

T. J. Murray, Milwaukee.

X. D.

J. M. Johnson, Fargo.

Tex.

J. E. Hess, Dallas.

S. D.

A. T. Buell, Huron.

R. I.

H. P. Dislev. Providence.

W. V.

Jno. H. Mason, Wheeling.

Neb.

C. A. Parcel!, Fremont.

Ala.

Jno. Harmon, Montgomery.

Me.

Wm. Sprague, Bath.

Md.

Jno. W. Buchta, Baltimore.

la.

W. H. Schlosser, Sioux City.

N. C.

J. W. C. Drake, Asheville.

Minn.

Jerome S. Kriz, Duluth.

Ida.

W. R. Miner, Boise City.

Gol.

R. O. B. Dunning, Col. Sp'gs.

Del.

Joseph Duffy, Wilmington.

X. H.

Taylor Waterhouse, P' tsm' h.

D. C.

W. B. Brittain, Washington.

Ga.

Alex. George, Augusta.

The Indianapolis convention had representatives of 344 branches
of the Letter Carriers' Association present. This was a gain of 109
in a year. The National Association annually votes a sum of
money for the decoration of the grave of the great benefactor of the
carriers, Sunset Cox, and of the monument in Astor Place, New
York City, which the carriers of the country have erected to his
memory. It was reported at the Indianapolis meeting that this
monument cost $12,000. The name of the dead Congressman is held
in the deepest reverence by all the carriers.

The eight hour law for carriers, according to the carriers them-
selves, is admittedly very difficult to apply throughout the service.
As originally presented to Congress, the measure provided that eight

814

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

consecutive hours should constitute a day's work. The word " con-
secutive " was finally stricken out on the understanding that the hours
should be as nearly consecutive as possible. The letter carriers
naturally believe that a better application of the law could be had in
many quarters, and they point to cities like Washington, Baltimore
and Newark as instances of its admirable enforcement; and they
seek pay for overtime under the law largely for the purpose of
securing its better enforcement. They insist that they are entitled
to all that Congress intended that the law should give them. They
hold that not more than two attendances a day should be required,
and that the legal day's work is not intended to be scattered over a

period of from twelve to
fifteen hours.

The proposition to pay
collectors $600 a year has
been advocated on the
ground that the work of a
collector is necessarily of a
routine nature, and does not
require the carriers' mental
application, and hence does
not deserve the same degree
of remuneration that the
carrier receives ; and if col-
lectors could be paid less,
regular carriers could be
paid more. The Carriers'
Association, however, op-
posed the proposition to pay
collectors $600 a year, for
they reason that if the sal-
aries of collectors can be
reduced their own pay may
be cut down ; and they
point out that, while the
work of the collector is not
similar to that of the regular carrier, it is just as hard. It requires
more physical effort, and it is maintained that if his pay were

THE TWO EXTIiEMES IN THE GREEN BAY,
WISCONSIN, POST OFFICE.

James Lokoutka, the Tallest Letter Carrier in the Ser-
vice, measuring 6 ft 5^ in., and Frank Tilton, one of
the Smallest Letter Carriers in the Service.

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

815

reduced the general efficiency of this branch of the service would
be endangered.

The first president of the National Association of Letter Carriers was Wm. H.
Wood of Detroit. He was born in Boston in 1835, and lived there until 1846,
when he went as a mere boy with the soldiers to the Mexican War. After the
military operations were over, he was turned loose along with many others in
the streets of New Orleans; but he found his way back ,to Portland and worked
at the trade of machinist. Soon after he became a steamship engineer. This
work took him to various quarters of the globe. In 1855 he left the ocean service

for the Great Lakes. Then he worked railroading. But the war came on and he
enlisted. " I did it," he once said, "to help sustain old Glory." In May, 1861,
he joined the 1st Michigan Light Artillery, with which he served for two years;
and he was then detailed as a scout in the service of Secretary Stanton until the
end of the war. After Appomattox he returned to Detroit, and as he had been
incapacitated by wounds and exposure from his previous occupation, he was
appointed a letter carrier. In 1889 the proposition to form a national association
of letter carriers was much discussed. Mr. Wood became a leader in the move-
ment, and at the first national convention, held at Milwaukee, was elected the
first president of the association. He had difficulties to encounter. The secre-
tary who had been elected resigned after six months. There was no money in
the treasury. But at the end of Mr. Wood's incumbency of a year, fifty-three

816

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

branches of the National Association of Letter Carriers had been formed, and
they had a membership of over 4,000.

The second president of the association was John J. Goodwin, a letter carrier
of Providence. He was born in Cumberland, R. I., in 1859. He moved to Provi-
dence with his parents shortly after, and went to the common schools. Mr.
Goodwin's diversions were music and literature. He was president of the Young
Men's Literary Society of Olneyville. He had a medical turn, and spent some
time in Boston familiarizing himself with the latest methods of applying
electricity in medicine. In 1884 he was appointed a letter carrier and. assigned
to a district in South Providence, which he continues to cover. Mr. Goodwin
was the Providence delegate to the Milwaukee convention and was temporary
chairman of the organization. He was elected a member of the executive com-

mittee, and had much to do with bringing the larger offices into the association.
Several months before this convention he had been prominent at a meeting held
in New 'York of carriers representing the larger free delivery offices. He was
elected president of the National Association at the Boston convention. Mr.
Goodwin possesses much executive ability. He has the appearance of a student,
and he writes well and talks better.

The third president of the National Association, Theodore C. Dennis, was born
in 1842, went to school in Boston until he was twelve, and then began to earn his
own living. He enlisted in the army in 1861, and served until September, 1864.
He was wounded and captured by Mosby's guerillas and held a prisoner at Belle
Isle and Libby. He first became a letter carrier in 1869.

E. W. Crane, last year's treasurer of the National Association, is an
Indianapolis man, and was appointed a substitute in May, 1878, and a regular
carrier in March, 1879. For twelve years he has served one route. He has

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

817

always taken a keen interest in the National Association. He has believed
for one thing, that the best improvement of the carriers comes through the
cooperation of the Department officials with the organization of the carriers
themselves.

Last year's chairman of the Executive Board, George J. Kleffner, was born in
Omaha in January, 1863; went to the public schools, learned the trade of
cooper, was secretary of the Central Labor and Trades Union of Omaha from
1883 to 1889, and in 1888 took the Civil Service examination and became a letter
carrier. He represented the local organization of carriers in all the national
meetings for two years, was a member of the National Legislative Committee, and
at Detroit was elected chairman of the Executive Board. In 1889 Mayor Brootch
of Omaha appointed Mr. Kleffner a member of the commission to draft a charter
for the government of cities of the metropolitan
class in Nebraska, and in this onerous post he
acquitted himself with great credit.

Thomas B. Gregory, another member of last
year's Executive Board, was born on a farm in
Morgan County, Indiana, in 1858, and until he
was eighteen he worked at farming, attended the
district school in the winter, and then taught
for three years. Then for two years he did
broker's work in an office in Indianapolis, and for
four years he worked in the Indianapolis Veneer
Works; but ill health caused him to remove to
Colorado, and in 1889 he passed the letter-carrier
examination and was appointed in Denver. He
represented the Denver carriers at the National
Convention at Detroit in 1891, and was elected a
member of the Executive Board.

The sergeant-at=arms of the National Associa-
tion last year was David W. Washington, a carrier
in Memphis since July, 1874. He was one of the
first colored men to be employed in the mail ser-
vice in Memphis, and is one of the most industrious fellows to be found any-
where. He went to Le Moyne Normal College, and is a hard student. He is a
Sunday school superintendent, took the lead in lifting the debt from Avery
Chapel, is a prominent Odd Fellow, and organized the Afro- American Hall Com-
pany. He is also a frequent correspondent of the organs of the colored people.

The present president of the National Association is Frank E. Smith of San
Francisco. He was born in New York City in 1850. His mother died when he
was eight months old and his father less than a year and a half later. He lived
with his aunt until he was ten years old, and then became an errand boy in a hat
store on Broadway. At fifteen Mr. Smith began to learn the trade of gilder o
sio-ns and picture frames, and he went to night school. He had had no school]
at all before, that. At eighteen, his health failing, he learned the trade of bnc
layer and plasterer. At this trade he worked until 1876, when he visited the
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia and became possessed of a desire 1
the country. He reached San Francisco in June, 1877, having proceeded across

DAVID W. WASHINGTON,

Late Sergeant-at-Arms of the

National Association of

Letter Carriers.

818

THE STORY OF OUR, POST OFFICE.

the country by working at his trade in one place until he had earned money
enough to take him to another. Mr. Smith served as a brick layer in San Fran-
cisco until 1883, when he became a carrier. He is a model carrier, attached to his
work, faithful and popular. He is devoted to his wife and little girl, and takes
great interest in every one of the eight fraternal societies of which he is a mem-
ber, naturally putting the Carriers' Association in first place. Mr. Smith was one
of the organizers, and for the first three terms president of the San Francisco
Letter Carriers' Mutual Aid Association. He was the first president of the local
branch of the National Association, and he represented his fellows in the Detroit

as well as the Indianapolis convention. At Detroit he was elected vice-president,
and at Indianapolis president, and he is still president of the San Francisco
branch.

Martin W. Malone, vice president of the National Association of Letter Carriers,
was born in Philadelphia in 1860, and he has lived in the city of Brotherly Love
ever since. He went to the public schools and to the Central High School and
served an apprenticeship at the trade of machinist. He was appointed a letter
carrier by Postmaster William F. Harrity in April, 1886, and ever since that time,
besides proving himself efficient on his route, lie has taken an interest in the
organizations of the letter carriers. < He was president of the Philadelphia

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 819

association, which urged the passage of the eight hour law for carriers, and is at
present secretary of the Philadelphia branch of the National Association, as well
as the national vice-president.

Alexander McDonald was born at Inverness, Scotland, in October, 1852. While
he was yet a boy, his parents immigrated to Canada and settled at Bayfield,
Ontario. Young McDonald went to the high school of that town, and at eighteen]
filled with unusual ambition, set out for the states. He found employment at
Saginaw, Michigan, as a lumber inspector. There he remained for several years.
Finally he settled in Grand Rapids, and became a clerk in the Michigan Hotel
for four years. He was appointed a letter carrier in the Grand Rapids office by
Captain Moore in July, 1885, and his record remains one of the best; indeed, he
has never yet missed a single delivery. When in September, 1890, the Grand
Rapids carriers organized Branch 56 of the National Association, Mr. McDonald
was elected secretary, and he has always been unanimously reflected since.
He was delegate to the Detroit convention of 1891 and to the Indianapolis con-
vention of 1892, where he was unanimously elected treasurer. McDonald com-
bines a rare modesty with all his ambition, and this makes him popular with the
people whom he serves as well as with his colleagues.

Edward F. Daugherty of Dayton, O., sergeant-at-arms, is a Lebanon, Pa., boy,
born in 1867. When he was four months old he was taken to Dayton. He went
to the public schools and to a commercial college, and then learned pharmacy
with his father. In 1887 he went west, and finally reached Portland, Oregon,
with five dollars in his pocket; but he found work with the storekeeper and post-
master of Glencoe, Oregon. He was soon assistant postmaster, clerk, and book-
keeper, and, as he says, teamster and cowboy. Later he was an engineer in his
employer's mill. Mr. Daugherty soon returned to Dayton, however, and was
clerk in the Dayton post office. After two years he became a carrier; and he
lately passed an examination for the Railway Mail Service. Mr. Daugherty
weights one hundred and seventy, and is six feet tall. His mother was a teacher
in Mr. Wanamaker's Sunday school in Philadelphia thirty-one years ago, and was
one of the guests, at the future Postmaster General's wedding.

The second member of the executive board (William H. Hogan, president of
the Chicago Letter Carriers' Band, is the chairman), Charles C. Couden of Cincin-
nati, was born in December, 1849, on a farm in Hamilton County, Ohio, of Ken-
tucky parents, who had emigrated from Virginia in wagons. Mr. Couden went to
commercial college in Cincinnati, and then entered the employ of the New York
Life Insurance Company in Chicago. Poor health, however, caused him to
become a carrier in Cincinnati in 1870. He has been secretary of his local asso-
ciation for years, and organized the west, from the Ohio to the Pacific Coast, in
support of the eight hour movement; and he has been a leader in the national
conventions as well as at home. Mr. Couden thoroughly enjoys his family of
two boys and a girl. He is a prominent Mason.

William J. Hennessey, of the executive board, was born in Youghall, Ireland,
in 1863, but he was a Boston youngster five years later. At ten he sold news-
papers; and this he continued to do in order to work his way through the Dear-
born Grammar School and the Roxbury High School. He took the advanced
course in the Boston English High School, and was one of the first to take a
civil service examination, passing at 97.4. He was a clerk in the Boston post

820

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

office for a year, but in July, '85, became a carrier and was assigned to the Dor-
chester station. He was married in 1883, and is devoted to his wife and four
children He is president of the Boston Letter Carriers' Mutual Benefit Asso-
ciation, and was a delegate to the National convention in Detroit in 1891 and to
the Indianapolis convention of '92. He is in the Boston University Law School,
intending to be admitted to the bar; and in order to accommodate him his
superior officers have transferred him to a late collection route. Mr. Hennessey s

Boston association embraces five hundred men and is duly chartered under the
laws of Massachusetts; and it pays to sick members $7 a week and to their
dependents in case of death $1,000. The cost of this insurance last year was $4.

W. M. Slater was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in September, 1861. He went
to school until lie was sixteen, and then worked in foundries and blacksmith
shops. Afterwards he went to the Fort Wayne Business College, and then to
Kansas City in 1885, where he worked at a druggist's and later in a candy factory.
Later still lie was a driver on the Grand Avenue cable road. In 1889 he returned

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 821

to Fort Wayne, and in August of that year was appointed a letter carrier by
Postmaster Higgins. He was Secretary of Branch No. 116 of the National Asso-
ciation of Letter Carriers for two years, and was chosen a delegate to the Indian-
apolis convention in 1892. He was elected a member of the executive board,
and introduced a resolution in favor of putting all free delivery post offices
under civil service rules.

Joseph H. McMullan was born in August, 1851, in New York City, but before
he was a year old his parents removed to Brooklyn, and there Mr. McMullan has
since resided. He went to school until he was twelve, but then began to work
in the chief engineer's office at the Brooklyn navy yard as a messenger. There
he stayed for six years. He was afterwards employed in the machine shop and
store room for two years. In 1873 he was appointed a letter carrier; and he is
now serving his second term as president of the Letter Carriers' Mutual Benefit
Association of Brooklyn, and he was formerly treasurer of this organization for
three years. He was delegate to the Indianapolis convention, and elected a
member of the executive committee. He is a past regent and past representa-
tive of the Royal Arcanum, of which he has been a member for over ten years.
He is a family man and a public spirited citizen.

Charles H. Cutler, chairman of the legislative committee of the Carriers'
Association, was born in Cambridge, Mass., in October, 1854, a descendant of
the Thomas Cutler who settled in that region in 1634, and who, about 1051,
removed to Cambridge Great Farms, which is now Lexington, and built one of
the first houses in that locality. Mr. Cutler's great grandfather, Thomas Cutler,
was a member of Captain Parker's company at the Battle of Lexington. Young
Cutler went to the Cambridge public schools and to a Boston business college,
and after a few years in a wholesale house in Boston, entered the Cambridge
branch of the Boston post office as a substitute carrier in 1875. A year later he
was made a full carrier, and in 1889 passed the examination for post office
inspector. Mr. Cutler has been an officer of various secret societies and presi-
dent of the Boston branch of the Letter Carriers' Mutual Benefit Association;
and for three years he has been a delegate to the National conventions. He has
been for twenty-two years a member of the Massachusetts militia, having been
captain of the Cambridge City Guard, Company B, 5th Regiment; in command for
four years of the First Brigade Signal Corps, with the rank of first lieutenant on
the staff of Brigadier-General Nat Wales ; and he is now sergeant-major of the
5th Regiment, Col. William A. Bancroft, commanding.

Thomas J. Garrity, of the legislative committee, was born at St. Helen's, in
Lancashire, England, in 1858, and came to Maiden, Mass., in 1872. He was for
fifteen years an employee of the Boston Rubber Shoe Company there. Tlu-n.
when the free delivery service was put on in Maiden, Mr. Garrity was appointed
a letter carrier. His popularity was attested in the Boston Globe's voting con-
test for the most popular carrier. He was third in a list of fifty-five competitors
and polled over a hundred thousand votes. Mr. Garrity has been the bass
soloist in the Catholic church choir in Maiden for fifteen years, and he lias fre-
quently won applause upon the amateur stage.

William J. Morrison was born in New York City in 1856. That year his people
removed to Brooklyn, and there he has lived ever since. He went to public
school No. 27, which he left at the age of thirteen, however, to work in

822

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

York In 1878 he was appointed a letter carrier in the Brooklyn office. He is
Past Master of Cosmopolitan Lodge, 585, F. and A. M., and Secretary of Gate of
the Temple Chapter 208, Royal Arch Masons. He was married in 1879 and
devoted to his wife and four children.

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, CARRIERS 1 ASSOCIATION.

W. P. Roosa was born in Elmira, in January, 1849. Young Roosa went to school win-
ters and worked summers until 1861, when he was bound out to learn the gilder's
trade, which he followed, reluctantly, as he says, until 1874. Then he was
appointed a substitute letter carrier in the Elmira office, being the first appointed
in that city; and he was appointed a regular carrier in October, 1874. He has
served his present route seventeen years. For several years he played the double
bass in the Elmira Opera House orchestra; but he gave it up in 1882, and five
years ago he learned the cello, which he plays professionally somewhat, and in

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

823

trios with his son and daughter, who play the violin and the viola. Mr. Roosa has
been a delegate to the last two national conventions of the carriers, and was
elected vice-president for New York at the first, and a member of the legislative
committee at the second.

John F. Walsh was born in Hazel Green, Wisconsin, in 1863, but removed in
1875 to Darlington, Wisconsin. He went to school until he was sixteen, and then
began to learn the trade of harness maker. In 1879 he went to Chicago, and
worked in fancy leather novelty goods and attended business college evenings.

He was then book-keeper for a coal company, but before long engaged in the leather
and trunk business in Minneapolis. But after two years he sold out and entered
the Chicago post office, and was soon appointed to his present district. Mr. Walsh
lias been prominent in the National Association since its beginning. He has
been three times secretary of the Chicago branch, was a delegate to the New York
conference in 1890, and at the Indianapolis convention in 1892 was elected a m
ber of the legislative committee.

S. E. Graham, president of the board of trustees of the Letter Carriers' Mutual

UL m

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 825

Benefit Association, is serving his fifth year as a carrier in the Kansas City office.
He was born in Butler County, Pa., in October, 1864, and his early years were spent
in the oil regions. He received a common school and academic education, was a
teacher in Pennsylvania from 1881 to 1887, and in 1888 removed to Kansas City.
He takes a great interest in the welfare of the carriers' organizations, and believes
thoroughly in the policy of cooperating with the Department in carrying out its
various reforms.

Charles M. O'Brien was born in Northampton, Mass., in September, 1853. He
entered the postal service as a carrier in September, 1886, at Cleveland, and ever
since he has taken an active interest in the welfare of his comrades. He was for
one term treasurer of Branch 40 of the National Association, and has been a
delegate to most of the national conventions. At the Detroit convention he was
on the committee on insurance, which drafted the constitution and by-laws of the
Mutual Benefit Association, and he was then elected a trustee for 'three years.
He is happily married and has one child.

William J. Kent, who was born in Auburn, N. Y., and has always lived there,
was employed in D. M. Osborne & Co.'s Reapers Works for nine years. He was
engaged in the grocery business for two years, but in 1880 became a letter car-
rier. His activity in helping to form the Letter Carriers' Mutual Benefit Asso-
ciation has won for him a large acquaintanceship. He was elected a trustee of
the Association at Detroit in 1891, having won attention by explaining the
tl Auburn plan " of life insurance, some of the features of which were incor-
porated in the Benefit Association.

Wilrnot Dunn, the chief collector of the Letter Carriers' Mutual Benefit
Association, was born in Haylield, Crawford County, Pa,, in August, 1858. In
1S(>S he removed with his parents to Nashville. He went to the common schools,
but at sixteen was apprenticed as a harness maker. He was married in January,
1879, to Miss Mary Polk Hundley, of Perry ville, Ky., and a year later entered
the postal service as a mounted auxiliary carrier at Nashville. For the past
nine years he has been carrier number one on one of the most important business
routes of the city. His interest in the Carriers' Association has always been
active and effectual. He was a delegate to the Milwaukee Convention of 1889,
and was one of the organizers of the National Association. A delegate to the
Boston Convention, he was appointed one of a committee of three to formulate
a plan of life insurance, and the scheme of Mr. Dunn and his associates was
adopted with hardly any changes the following year at Detroit. He was elected
the first chief collector of the Association, and at the Indianapolis Convention 01
189:2 was unanimously reflected.

The clerks in the Philadelphia post office once had a glee club.
The carriers in the Chicago post office have a brass band. It is the
only organization of its kind in the world, an association of musicians
wearing the modest uniform of the letter carrier. Although com-
paratively young, this band is firmly established with its twenty-seven
members, and it is intended to increase the size of the organizi
to forty. The band was organized in June, 1891, and nek
first rehearsal in the early part of the following month. The idea

826 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

originated in the Chicago post office, and was pushed to actual
results by the efforts of William H. Hogan, Charles Woodward,
Bert E. Whitney and Frank F. Gilbert. Professor Reuben Clarke
was engaged as instructor, and band headquarters were secured in a
room on Dearborn Street, where rehearsals were held, then as now,
every Saturday night. The band room is neatly furnished, and
forms a pleasant rendezvous not only for the members of the band, but
for their friends. The uniform is the regulation carriers' uniform,
except that the cap, which has a drooping visor, is embellished with
a heavy gold cord intertwined with braid on the top and with the
letters " C. L. C. B." in gold on the front. The band has made but
little public display, as its time has mostly been taken up with the
rehearsals and real musical work indoors. The first formal appear-
ance of the band was at the entertainment and ball given in its honor
in February, 1892. This event attracted the attention of the
Chicago papers. On its first anniversary the band serenaded Colonel
Sexton and presented him with a large group photograph. Mr.
Hogan is a member of the letter carriers' quartette as well as
the president of the band. His grandfather, William Harmon,
composed temperance songs, and Mr. Hogan has written waltzes,
and such popular melodies as " Old Cuckoo Clock " and " Pretty
Dimpled Cheeks." The officers of the band are : W. H. Hogan,
President; S. R. Kew, Vice-President; L. L. Frary, Secretary;
B. E. Whitney, Treasurer; H. F. Putz, Librarian.

In 1882 and 1883, J. Holt Green of Louisville, Ky., was very
anxious to bring together representatives of the post office clerks in
December, 1884. The change of administration dampened the
enthusiasm of a large number ; a few met, however, among them
Messrs. Thomas of Boston (now superintendent of mails there),
Cowan of Pittsburg, Stanton of Brooklyn, White of Detroit, Johnson
of Wheeling, Green of Louisville, Chaney of Washington, and
Jacobus of Newark. Scattered efforts to organize the postal clerks
had been made previously. The organization of 1884 was intended
to unite fraternally all clerks in the United States for their mutual
benefit, and to secure legislation which should entitle them to better
recognition as government employees. As the result of the first
convention a bill for the better classification and more equitable
pay of clerks was introduced in the House of Representatives

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 827

and referred to one of the committees ; but it never saw the
light of day.

In 1886 another convention met. The chief workers who attended
were Messrs. Barrett of Baltimore, Holmes of Brooklyn, Shaefer of
Philadelphia, Smallwood of Washington (now assistant superinten-
dent of mails there), and Whalan of Boston. The national organ-
ization was further solidified, and able arguments for better
classification were presented to the Post Office Committees. A classi-
fication bill was passed, which was a step in the right direction.
In November, 1889, a third convention was called for Washington
City. Thirty-two delegates, representing all of the large cities east
of the Eockies, met at the Capital the next February. Three bills
were drafted, one regulating salaries, one providing for leaves of
absence, and one limiting the hours of work to eight. The leaves of
absence bill was passed. The convention held in Pittsburg in Sep-
tember, 1891, showed a large increase in the number of delegates, and
a bill was introduced which was afterwards approved by the conven-
tions of postmasters and of post office inspectors, and by postmasters
generally. This bill, further supported by the clerks' convention
of September, 1892, engaged the attention of the Fifty-Second
Congress.

Officers of the National Association of Post Office Clerks are :

President : Benjamin Parkhurst, Washington, D. C. ; Vice-President : George
A. Plummer, Minneapolis; Second Vice-President: Benedict Levy, St. Louis;
Third Vice-President: Sid. B. Redding, Fort Smith, Ark.; Secretary: C. R.
Slusser, Denver; Treasurer: J. T. A. Lewis, Boston; Executive Committee:
Charles J. W. Little, Kansas City; Wilber E. Crumbacker, Chicago; M. V. B.
Sallade, Pittsburgh; Robt. E. L. Mclntyre, New Orleans; Cornelius J. Ford,
Boston; A. M. Vincent, Buffalo; W. G. Boyd, Washington; J. W. Dillin, Nash-
ville, and E. F. Delehunte, Cincinnati; Legislative Committee: J. T. A. Lewis,
Boston, Chairman ; Benjamin Parkhurst, Washington, and Geo. E. Van Nos-
trand, Brooklyn.

The president of the Clerks' Association, Benjamin Parkhurst, is a clerk in the
Washington post office. He was born in '62, in Flatbush, N. Y., and went
with his father and mother to Washington in '63. He went to the schools of the
district until he was fourteen and then began to learn the art of printing. After
three years he was appointed a substitute in the Railway Mail Service and was
soon assigned to duty on the New York and Washington railway post office.
In September, 1880, he was appointed a clerk in the Washington post office, and
assigned to duty in the mailing division as a stamper. He has passed through
all the grades in that division, having been stamper, clerk in charge of third and
fourth class matter, western distributor, assorter, and eastern distributor; and

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 829

now he is foreman. His interest in the National Association has always been
active. He has been treasurer of the local association for three successive
terms and was a delegate to the national conventions held in Washington in
1890, in Pittsburg in 1891, and in St. Louis iin 1892. He is a member of New
Jerusalem Lodge, F. A. A. M., of Washington.

The first vice-president, George A. Plummer, is a clerk in the Minneapolis
office. He was born in Philadelphia and received a fair common school educa-
tion, supplemented by what might be called a newspaper education, for his
father always kept the family supplied with several publications of real value.
In 1853 Mr. Plummer' s father and his seven boys moved West and settled on a
farm near Minneapolis. They all remained there until the breaking out of the
war. Then five of the boys shouldered their muskets one after another and
went to the front. One came home a sergeant, one a captain, and one a colonel.
Mr. Plummer was the only one to go back to the farm. But he soon returned to
the city for the benefit of his wife's health and secured a place on the carriers'
force of the Minneapolis office. This was eleven years ago. He was a carrier
four years, when he was transferred to the clerical force in the city distribution.
He was superintendent of distribution under Postmaster Ankeny, and he is now
superintendent of distribution, and assistant superintendent of city delivery.
" I have always tried to live upon the square," he wrote recently; and so it
seems he has done, for he enjoys the confidence of his superior officers and his
neighbors as well as that of his associates in the Clerks' Association.

Benedict Loevy, of the St. Louis office, second vice-president of the National
Association, was born November, 1860, and went to school until he was fourteen.
He worked for various firms in St. Louis and at sixteen became a clerk in the
office of Clark and Dillon, lawyers; but in '78 he entered the St. Louis post
office and was assigned to duty in the registry division. There he is now
foreman.

The third vice-president of the National Association, Sid. B. Kedding, is a
Kentucky boy, now assistant postmaster at Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was born
in 1869. Mr. Redding' s father was a descendant of Commodore Perry, and his
maternal grandfather was Col. Sidney M. Barnes, a noted Kentucky soldier. It
was he who took possession of Lookout Mountain for General Hooker. Mr.
Redding has lived in Little Rock and Sante Fe, but in 1883 he went to Carthage,
Missouri, for a better schooling. There he was president and orator of his class
in the high school, and he afterwards won a speaking medal in the College of
Carthage. After graduation he was the editor of the Monthly Forum, a peri-
odical published by a group of bright young men in Carthage, and in '88 he took
the stump in Southwestern Missouri for the Republican ticket. He was appointed
assistant postmaster at Fort Smith in '89, and he has seen the Fort Smith office
enjoy its most progressive era; for Postmaster Barnes has occupied a new Gov-
ernment building and reorganized the service upon a city basis.

Charles R. Slusser, the energetic secretary of the National Association, hails
from Denver. He was born at Roanoke, Indiana, in 1867, was educated at the
Roanoke Classical Seminary and the Fort Wayne Methodist Episcopal College,
and employed as clerk in a general store and as local correspondent of the News-
Express. He has been in the postal service six years, and is at present a clerk
in the Denver office. He was reflected secretary at the last annual meeting, and

830

THE STORY OF OTJB. POST OFFICE.

his handsome face, as well as his efficient conduct at his post, are a cordial
pleasure to all of his associates.

James T. A. Lewis, a clerk in the Boston office, is treasurer of the National
Association. He was a soldier. He enlisted as early as April 23, 1861, in Com-
pany D, of the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers, the famous Webster Kegiment.
He participated in all its engagements under Banks, McDowell, and Pope in
'61 and '62; and he fought with the army of the Potomac from September, '62,
till May, '64, except at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, for then he was in
the hospital on account of wounds. He was wounded at Bull Kun, as well as at
Antietam, and was taken prisoner at Gettysburg and confined at Libby and Belle
Isle. Having been exchanged in October, '63, he reenlisted in January, '64, and

THE MINNEAPOLIS DELIVERY DIVISION.

was wounded at Bethesda Church in Virginia in May. In March, '65, he was
mustered out on account of wounds. He entered the postal service in June,
1870. Mr. Lewis was born in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, in '44, went to
school there, and later attended the Brimmer and Mayhew schools in Boston.
But, enlisting at sixteen as he did, he had little time for early study. He was
first appointed as a carrier, but in '73 was transferred to a clerkship in the city
delivery, and he is still there. Mr. Lewis was treasurer of the Boston Post
Office Clerks' Association, and became deeply interested in the national organi-
zation. Since '83 the year of its inception, he has been its trusted treasurer.
He was a delegate to many of the national conventions, and is as popular as
any member of this large body of popular men.

At the head of the executive committee is Charles J. W. Little of Kansas
?ity. He has been a vice-president and acting president of the Association also.

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 831

If asked his age, Mr. Little always says: On my last birthday I was seventeen."
It is certain, however, that he was born in Hartford, Conn., thirty-five years ago.
His parents went west and settled at Mankato, Minn., and then at Independence,
Kansas. Mr. Little had a common school education and taught school. He
worked in a drug store, but he did not care for that; so he passed the civil ser-
vice examination six years ago, and he has been clerk, paper distributor, and
general delivery clerk in the Kansas City post office ever since. The Kansas City
association sent him to the Washington Convention, and there he was elected
vice-president. Mr. Little is a member of Oriental Commandery, K. T., of
Kansas City. He has been a member of the Presbyterian church since he was
fifteen.

Wilber E. Crumbacker, clerk in the Chicago office and member of the execu-
tive committee, is an Indiana man. He was born at Crown Point in 1850. He
lived there until 1860, when, in order to give his children the benefit of an
academic education, his father moved to Valparaiso, Ind. In '61 Mr. Crum-
backer' s father entered the postal service at Washington, and then went into the
army. His family moved to the capital city with him, and young Crumbacker
entered Columbian College. But the confusion of wartime filled the city, and
besides, the greater part of the college building was used as a hospital, and the
students could not profit much by their tuition. "To sit at my desk," Mr.
Crumbacker has lately written, " near a window facing on the park, covered
as it was with long rows of hospital tents, and trying to conjugate some Latin
verb, my attention would be continually attracted by the muffled roll of drums,
with its sad significance. I much preferred to go among the wounded soldiers,
to assist them, if possible, and to hear them recount the stories of their battles."
Mr. Crumbacker' s father died in 1865, and the family returned again to Valpa-
raiso. There the academic course was resumed and it was continued until 1868,
when the family moved to Chicago. In 1871 Mr. Crumbacker was appointed to
the post office and assigned to the mailing division. He began with the "plat-
form," and has seen service in all its sections. He is now in charge of the news-
paper section. He was elected by the local association of clerks as a delegate to
the Pittsburg Convention, and he was at the national gathering in St. Louis in
September as well. Mr. Crumbacker has been for twelve years a member of the
Illinois militia; for the enthusiasm of the wartime has never been overcome by
its terrors. He was married in May, 1874, at New Buffalo, Michigan, to Miss
Julia S. Harris.

M. V. B. Sallade, member of the executive committee, was born in Clarion
County, Penn., in September, 1840. He went to school until he was thirteen,
when he began to learn the nailing trade in the Kittaning Rolling Mill. In 1862
he enlisted in the 155th Pennsylvania regiment, and served until the close of the
war, when he returned to his trade in Pittsburg. He went to work slate roof-
ing, but in August, '90, was appointed a clerk in the Pittsburg post office. He
is the father of a fine family of five sons and one daughter.

The New Orleans member of the executive committee, Robert E. L. Mclntyre,
is the son of Col. Thomas Mclntyre, sergeant-at-arms of the Louisiana Legisla-
ture. He was born in '66, went to the public schools, took an academic course at
the Jesuit College of New Orleans, started out in life at eighteen, and secured a
place in the Cotton Centennial Exposition. He passed the civil service examina-
tion soon after and was appointed a clerk in the city delivery division by Capt. S.

RoBt.LI1f.iNTYRE,

XE.CUT

CH AS. j.vv. LITTLE,

CORN EU!.;sJ. FORD,

ALONZOW v INC

832

CLERKS' AND .CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 833

H. Buck, then the postmaster. He was before long transferred to the registry
division as delivery clerk. Postmaster Nott promoted him to be superintendent of
the register division. Under Major Eaton Mr. Mclntyre was made foreman of
the registry division. He was one of the organizers of the New Orleans Clerks'
Association, and was elected vice-president at its first meeting. Mr. Mclntyre is
a steadfast fellow, fond of social enjoyments. He has always been fond of mili-
tary duty, and he is one of the oldest members of the Louisiana Rifles, thought
by many to be the best drilled company in the Southern states. At any rate, Mr.
Mclntyre once won a gold medal as the best drilled man in it. He is also one of
the early members of the Young Men's Gymnastic Club; and he was president of
the Perseverance Boat Club for a number of years.

Cornelius J. Ford, president of the Boston Post Office Clerks' Association, is a
native of Boston, born Jan. 3, 1851. After graduation from the Boylston School at
the age of fifteen, he learned the plastering trade, which he followed until the
fall of 1882, when he entered the postal service as clerk in the Boston post office,
where he is still employed. Mr. Ford is a charter member of the Boston Post
Office Clerks' Association and became president Jan. 10, 1892. He was delegate-
at-large to the St. Louis convention and was appointed by the president of the
National Association a member of the executive committee.

Alonzo M. Vincent was born at Sherman, New York, in April, 1867. He was
bred there, and graduated from the Sherman Academy in 1885. Immediately
afterwards he was appointed from the civil service list as receiving and dispatch-
ing clerk in the Buffalo post office under Postmaster Bedford. For the past five
years he has been in the mailing division, working every day at the New York,
Pennsylvania, Canada and Michigan cases. He is obliged to " carry " about 7,000
offices. His last examination was on New York state, as follows: Cards handled,
3,494; cards correct, 3,487; cards wrong, 7; percentage correct, 99.79 per cent. ;
separations in states, 166; separations made, 168; time, two hours and fifty min-
utes; number of cases per minute, 21. Mr. Vincent is secretary of the Buffalo
Post Office Clerks' Association, as well as a member of the executive committee
of the National Association. In 1891 he passed the examination for the Railway
Mail Service, but did not enter it. Before entering the Buffalo office, Mr. Vincent
had done duty in the Sherman office.

W. G. Boyd was born in Washington City, in January, 1859, and was educated
in the public schools of the District. After graduation he entered his father's
hardware establishment, but in 1881 he was appointed a clerk in the delivery
division of the city post office, which position he has filled with credit ever
since.

Joseph W. Dillin is a son of the late Hon. Joseph R. Dill in, and was born in
Elkton, Giles County, Tenn., in May, 1863. His parents moved to Nashville while
Mr. Dillin was yet a baby, and there he has lived, except for eight years, when he
enjoyed the freedom of his father's farm at Smyrna, Tennessee. He went to the
Nashville schools, and to the Montgomery Bell Academy. He was stamp clerk in
the internal revenue office at Nashville from 1882 to 1885, and then became assistant
book-keeper for the Tennessee Manufacturing Company of Nashville, which is the
next largest cotton mill in the South. There he stayed till October, 1888, when
he was appointed superintendent of the registry division of the Nashville post
office. Mr. Dillin was unanimously chosen first president of the Nashville Post

834

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Office Clerks' Association, and was reflected; and he is now one of the two-
southern members of the executive committee of the National Association.

E. F. Delehunte was born at Cleveland in September, 1856, went to the common
schools, and afterwards became a drummer, representing Messrs. George Wor-
thington & Co. of Cleveland. He passed the requisite civil service examination in
February, 1877, and was appointed a clerk in the Cleveland office September 1
of the same year. He has made excellent records on Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and
Pennsylvania, and has often been promoted.

Two members of the Legislative Committee of the clerks are President Park-
hurst and Treasurer Lewis. The third is George Van Nostrand of the Brooklyn
office. He is a Brooklyn boy, thirty-three years old. His mother's ancestors
were Ethan Allen and Roger Sherman, and his father's the earliest settlers of
Ehode Island. He went to school in Brooklyn. In '76 he entered mercantile
life ; but the firm with which he held a place of responsibility failed, and in 1884

he entered the second civil service ex-
amination in Brooklyn for a place as clerk
in the post office. He passed, and was
soon appointed by General James
McLeer. He was first a clerk in the city
paper division, and under Postmaster
Hendricks he was put at the head of this
division in recognition of his ability.
Upon the recommendation of Postmaster
Collins, Mr. Van Nostrand was made a
member of the Civil Service Board for the
Brooklyn office; and his record during
'his eight years of service has thus been
not only irreproachable in a purely
routine way, but it has been a superior
and aggressive service. His department
is a model in the Brooklyn office, and
he enjoys the confidence of his men as
well as of the public. He is something
of a parliamentarian and debater. He
was made Executive Committee man,
and Legislative Committee man also, at
the Pittsburg convention, and he has
always proved in these directions as well
as in the other a tireless worker. He

believes in recognizing the employees of the postal service; for in that way, with
liberal attention to their welfare and the encouragement that always accom-
panies it, is the service to be most improved.

Last year's president of the National Association was Wm. J. Osgood of the
Chicago office. His earliest recollection takes him back to his rambles as a boy
almost in the shadow of old Monadnock. He was born in 1848 in Mason Village,
New Hampshire. He went west while yet a lad. George B. Armstrong secured
him a place in the Chicago post office. He was a stamper at first, and then a box
clerk, and then foreman at the stamping table. Mr. Osgood helped save the
mails at the time of the great Chicago fire, and on this account was promoted to the

ME. GEO. E. VAN NOSTRAND.

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 835

city distributing department, where after awhile he was made foreman. He is at
present in charge of the package and parcel department. He is a member in
high standing in several societies, and out of hours contributes to periodicals.
Mr. Osgood was elected the first secretary of the Chicago Association of Post
Office Clerks, and after two terms he was made secretary of the National Asso-
ciation. He was elected to the presidency of the association by acclamation at
the Pittsburg convention of 1891.

The first vice-president of the Clerks' Association last year was Mr. Plum-
mer; the second, Mr. Parkhurst. The third vice-president was A. F. Hinners of
the Milwaukee post office. He was born at Beardstown, 111., in 1854. He
removed to Chicago with his parents when he was six years old, but at the age
of eighteen went to Milwaukee and entered the post office under Henry C. Payne.
In 1877 he was a stamper in the mailing department. He was promoted to be
assistant superintendent of mails in 1882 and still holds that position. He is
a veteran in the Milwaukee office and represented the local Clerks' Association
in the Washington and Pittsburg Conventions.

Last year's chairman of the executive committee was W. A. Renner of the
Philadelphia office. He is a Richmond, Va., boy, born in '55. In 1859 his people
moved to West Point, New York, where young Renner received a common school
education at the Post school. At eighteen he had the entire management of the
restaurant for the cadets at the Academy. In September, 1875, the Renner
family moved to Philadelphia, and in '76 Mr. Renner was appointed a clerk in
the office of the superintendent at Fairmount Park. He was there till '81, when
he was appointed a clerk in the central office. In '83 he was promoted to the
east distribution case and that position he still holds. In 1890 Mr. Renner was
elected a delegate to the Washington Convention, and he was at once made a
member of the executive committee. In '91 he was a delegate to the Pittsburg
Convention, and there he was appointed chairman of the executive committee.
He represented the Philadelphia clerks at the St. Louis Convention in September.

J. T. Matliis, of the St. Augustine office, was another member of last year's
executive committee. He went to Florida in 1882, and engaged in the lumber
business and the culture of oranges at Grovesdale near Crescent City. He -was
later employed in a store near Seville. In 1885 he was appointed postmaster at
Grovesdale. But it was a new office and Mr. Mathis resigned March 4, 1887.
The same year he was appointed a clerk in the post office at Crescent City. In
1887 he went to St. Augustine and was appointed general delivery clerk. He is
now chief clerk, or assistant postmaster. He has always taken a deep interest in
the welfare of the National Association.

James Edward Cowen, of last year's executive committee, is a clerk in the
Pittsburg office, and a strong, popular man. He first saw the light at Fort Perry,
in Allegheny County, in 1854. He went to school until he was fourteen, and then
took a preparatory course for college. But at eighteen, when he was almost
ready to enter, the panic of 1873 broke upon the country, and, along with so
many others whose stories have not been told, his prospects were darkened. He
first entered the Pittsburg post office in 1880 under Postmaster Anderson,
has been promoted until he is now foreman of the mailing division. Mr. Cowen
is one of Postmaster McKean's trusted lieutenants. He enjoys his home and his
family of five, and is a good citizen, interested in all good causes.

836

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

W H Hill represented the clerks of the Detroit office on the executive com-
mittee last year. He was elected at the Pittsburg Convention. He was born m
Kochester, N. ., in 1853; was taken west at the age of three to Portland, Mich.,
where he remained for four years. Then he returned to Kochester for a school-
ing He studied in the common schools and in business colleges for twelve
years. He then went west again and entered Harper Hospital in Detroit for the
purpose of studying medicine. But his father's death occurred within a year,

and bread winning became his stern necessity. He worked in a civil engineers
office at Grand Rapids for two years ; but he made his way back to Detroit again
and went to work in the House of Correction as an overseer. The occupation did
not suit him, and after six months he entered the employ of Pingree & Smith,
shoe manufacturers, remaining till 1881, when he became a substitute carrier in
the Detroit post office. After six months he was permanently appointed as a
" No. 3 man," and from that post he rose to the letter case, where he still is.

The idea of organizing the railway postal clerks into a mutual
benefit association was conceived by John A. Montgomery of

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 837

Chicago in 1874. The proposition immediately met with favor, and
an organization was formed in October of that year at Chicago.
Austin B. Hulse of Washington City was elected president, and
Mr. Montgomery was chosen secretary and treasurer. The first
annual meeting of the Association was held in New York City in
October, 1875.

The United States Railway Mail Service Mutual Benefit Asso-
ciation was incorporated Nov. 17, 1880, in the state of Illinois.
The chief object of the Association is to provide benefits in cases
of death among its members. The salary of the secretary and
treasurer is at the rate of one hundred dollars a year for each 250
members, but in no case shall it be less than $400 per year. The
chairman of the executive committee is paid $100 annually. Local
secretaries who received and forwarded to the secretary and treasurer
as much as $ 1,200 annually used to receive two per cent, of
the total. No other officer receives remuneration for his services.
Annual meetings are held the first Tuesday in September. These
are attended by one delegate for each division of the Railway Mail
Service, and by one for every twenty-five members in each division.
The officers are always delegates. The chief officials of the Depart-
ment, as well as all connected with the Railway Mail Service, are
eligible to membership. Would-be members are obliged to furnish
a certificate of good health from a recognized physician ; and pay-
ments of dues are regulated by the ages of the members. The
benefit fund is deposited in a bank or trust company designated by
the directors. This fund is maintained in proportion to the total
obligation of the Association to its beneficiaries in the ratio of one
fourth of one per cent, of such obligation. A member who fails to
pay his assessment in thirty days has to be suspended. If he is
delinquent for sixty days, he forfeits his membership. Any mem-
ber guilty of habitual drunkenness or gross misdemeanor is promptly
expelled. A membership fee of $3 is charged and the annual dues
are $1. The assessments made upon the death of a member vary
from $1 .50 to $3 according to the age of the member who pays.
The amount collected by a given assessment is turned over to the
heirs of the beneficiary ; but the sum must not exceed $2,000.

The officers of the United States Railway Mail Mutual Benefit
Association are :

838

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

President : T. T. Taylor, Fort Scott, Kansas; Secretary and Treasurer : C. E.
LaGrave, Chicago, 111. ; Vice Presidents of Divisions : 1st, M. A. Buttricks,
New Haven, Conn.; 2d, W. J. Fox, Philadelphia, Pa.; 3d, J. W. Hollyday, Wash-
ington, D. C. ; 4th, Charles Fitzgerald, Jackson, Miss. ; 5th, W. O. Bangs, Cin-
cinnati, O.; 6th, J. M. Butler, Lincoln, Neb.; 7th, W. J. Carr, Wichita, Kansas;
8th, A. H. Merrill, San Francisco, Cal. ; 9th, D. M. Wells, Cleveland, O. ; 10th,
J. H. Nightingale, Faribault, Minn.; llth, O. L. Teachout, Fort Worth, Texas;

Executive Committee : J. F. Blodgett,
Atlanta, Ga.; T. T. Ballinger, Med-
ford, N. J. ; W. Meredith, Chicago, 111. ;
W. H. Housel, Galesburg, 111.; C. A.
Schirmer, Chicago, 111. ; Harry E. First,
Cincinnati, Ohio; G. L. Bowyer, Chi-
cago, 111.

Born in Georgetown, Ohio, in 1860,
Thomas T. Taylor, Jr., moved in his
early youth with his parents to Edina,
Mo. After good experience as school-
boy, printer's apprentice, farmer boy,
page in the Kansas House of Represent-
atives, and freshman in Washburn Col-

I ^_ lege, Topeka, in October, 1881, he entered

the Railway Mail Service on the south-
ern division of the La Junta & Deming
R. P. O. with headquarters at Santa Fe.
The following year he was promoted to

El class 3 and became clerk in charge of the

consolidated railway post offices of the

La Junta & Deming and the Kansas City

& La Junta lines. In 1884 another con-

MR. THOMAS T. TAYLOR, solidation resulted in his promotion to

President, Railway Mail Service Mutual class 5 and he was P ut in char ^ e of a
Benefit Association. crew on the night line. In 1885 Mr.

Taylor resigned to take a special course

at Oberlin College, and in another year entered the real estate and loan business
in Hutchinson, Kansas. In 1889 he reentered the Railway Mail Service on the
Kiowa & Panhandle, and soon after was transferred to the St. Joseph & Caldwell.
On the first of January, 1890, he was promoted and assigned to duty as chief
clerk at Fort Scott, Kansas.

The secretary and treasurer is C. E. LaGrave of Chicago. Mr. LaGrave was
born in Paw Paw, Michigan, in 1847. He was a post office clerk there for several
years, and for three years was assistant postmaster at Kalamazoo. He has been
a railway postal clerk nineteen years, and is actively in service on the Detroit
and Chicago railway post office. He has been twice reflected secretary and
treasurer of the Mutual Benefit Association. His popularity among his fellows,
and the enterprise and business judgment which he displays in the performance
of his duties, are thus attested.

Minot A. Butricks, chief clerk at New Haven, was born in July, 1835, in
Orange, Connecticut. In August, 1862, having assisted in recruiting Company I,

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

839

Urn

of the 15th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, he was commissioned as first
lieutenant. Shortly after he became captain. He served with that regiment
throughout the war, participating in many engagements, and for a time was con-
fined in Libby Prison. After the war he served successfully as carrier in the
New Haven post office, as Fire Marshal of New Haven, and as clerk in the Rail-
way Mail Service, under an appointment from Postmaster General Jewell. Mr.
Butricks is one of the most prominent members of the Mutual Benefit Associa-
tion. He was its president for four years.

W. J. Fox was born in 1859 near Kirkwood, N. J. He went to school and
worked on a farm, and then learned the trade of miller. He worked in Illinois
and Indiana and in Philadelphia; and in April, 1882, entered the Railway Mail
Service. He is now a clerk of class 5,
in charge of the New York and Pitts-
burg R. P. O.

John W. Hollyday is a Findlay, Ohio,
boy, who was born in '52. He is the
son of Rev. R. H. Hollyday, a well known
home missionary of the Presbyterian
faith, in northwestern Ohio. At fifteen
young Hollyday entered a mercantile
establishment in Findlay, and there he
worked for ten years. In 1878 he was
appointed a clerk on the New York and
Chicago R. P. O. There he worked
until 1885, except during 1881 and 1882,
when he was detailed to duty in the
office of the superintendent of the 9th
Division at Cleveland. In February, 1885,
lie was assigned to duty in the office
of the general superintendent at Wash-
ington. He is the clerk in charge of the
cases for appointment, transfer, and
removal in the Railway Mail Service.
Mr. Hollyday has been a delegate to
most of the Mutual Benefit conventions,
and was chairman of the committee on
arrangements for the recent convention
in Washington. His connection with the Association, as well as his daily duty,
have probably familiarized him with the personnel of the Railway Mail Service
in an unequalled degree.

Charles F. Fitzgerald, a clerk on the Cairo and New Orleans line, was born at
Jackson, Mississippi, in 1857. His father and mother had emigrated from Ire--
land in the early fifties. The father was a truck farmer, and the son, and a
brother slightly older, trundled their vegetables through the streets of Jackson
as mere urchins. There was push in young Charles, however, and he drove a
horse car in order to attend a school in Jackson, and later went to the convent
academy of St. Joseph in that town. In 1879 he was a clerk to the superin-
tendent of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, but in 1885 resigned to enter
the Railway Mail Service. He was before long promoted to class 5 and made

ME. C. E. LAGRAVE,
Secretary, R. M. S. Mutual Benefit Assn.

J.W.HOLIYDAY,

WASHINGTON.

840

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 841

chief clerk at New Orleans on the recommendation of the retiring chief clerk.
Mr. Fitzgerald is married and has four children, and he believes it to be the
duty of every clerk who loves his family to join the Mutual Benefit Association.

North Royalton, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is the native place of Wendell O.
Bangs. He was born in September, 1858. Mr. Bangs entered the Railway Mail
Service in January, 1877, on the Chicago and Cincinnati, and rapidly passing
through the subordinate positions, soon had charge of a crew. In 1882 he was
transferred to the Cleveland and Cincinnati as clerk in charge. In 1886 he
became general agent for the Equitable Accident Insurance Company and
largely increased the business of that company in Chicago, Indianapolis, Rich-
mond, Indiana and Cincinnati. But his attachment for his earlier calling soon
led him back again into the Railway Mail Service, where he is now employed
in charge of a crew running between Hinton, W. Virginia and Cincinnati. Mr.
Bangs has twice been elected vice president.

John M. Butler was born on a farm in Sullivan County, Indiana, in '56, but
removed with his parents in '64 to Pawnee City, Neb. There he went to the high
school, and afterwards learned the harness business. He worked at this trade
until '79, when he was appointed to the Railway Mail Service. He is now chief
clerk at Lincoln.

W. J. Carr first saw duty in the postal service in 1874, when he was a clerk in
the Chetopa, Kan., post office. In 1876 he was a clerk in the Dennison, Tex., post
office, and in 1878 was assistant postmaster at Parsons, Kan. Then he was
appointed a route agent on the Atchison road between Santa Fe and Socorro, N.
M. ; and he was later transferred to the La Junta & Deming, and, later still, to the
Kansas City & Deming. In 1882 he was transferred to the St. Louis & Tex-
arkana route, and assigned to duty as assistant chief clerk at Kansas City. In
1883 he was transferred to the Kansas City & Denver, and in 1891 to the Saint
Louis & Burrton, and assigned to duty as chief clerk at Wichita.

A. H. Merrill was born in Frankfort, Me., in 1856. His people removed to
Portland, and then to Boston, and finally to San Francisco in 1873. Young
Merrill went to school there, and then learned the printing business; but he after-
wards became secretary of a land and flume company, in Susanville, Cal. In
1879, however, he returned to San Francisco and became a railway postal clerk.
He rose rapidly through all the grades, until he is now assistant superintendent
of the 8th Division.

D. M. Wells was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in September, 1845, and moved
with his parents a few years later to La Porte, where he received an ordinary
school education and became a dry goods clerk. In 1873 he entered the Railway
Mail Service on the Toledo & Chicago, was put in charge of an Illinois and
Indiana paper case, and has been the only paper clerk on that line to be promoted
to be head clerk while still retaining his position as paper distributor. During
the centennial year Mr, Wells was on duty at the Grand Central station in New
York City and also at the New York office in charge of the Illinois distribution.
In '77 he returned to his former line as clerk in charge, and in the fall of 1883
was detailed as chief examiner of the 9th Division, holding this position until
July 1, 1889, the date of his promotion to be assistant superintendent and chief
clerk at Cleveland. Mr. Wells served about five months in the war in 1864. His
father was a soldier of the war of 1812.

g42 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

John H. Nightingale was born in New York City in January, 1854. On
account of his father's long service in the war, followed by years of suffering and
expense, the son was necessarily deprived of many educational advantages.
Nevertheless, the young man found opportunity to learn many useful lessons-
while his associates were asleep or enjoying themselves; and so an excellent self-
education was acquired. He was for five years foreman in a marble cutter's in
Faribault,Minn., entered the Railway Mail Service in 1886, and, passing through
the subordinate grades, was promoted to class 5 in 1891. He was a delegate to-
the sixteenth and seventeenth annual conventions and was elected vice-president
in 1891 and in 1892.

O. L. Teachout is chief clerk of the Railway Mail Service for the eleventh
division at Fort Worth. He was born in Manchester, New York, in 1841. His.
people removed to Michigan in 1858; but Mr. Teachout was in New York at
school when the war broke out, and he enlisted under the first call for seventy-
five thousand men, as a private in the 28th New York, at Canandaigua. His home
was in Michigan until 1879, where he was a farmer and live-stock breeder.
Then he moved to Texas. He was appointed to the service in 1881.

John F. Blodgett was born in Augusta, Georgia, in October, in 1855, graduated
from the local high school, and at nineteen worked as a clerk in a railroad office.
He was appointed to the Railway Mail Service in 1877, as a mail route messenger
on the Camak & Macon Railway Post Office. Later he was transferred to the
Charlotte and Atlanta, and promoted to be clerk in charge in 1880, and later still
he was made chief clerk at Atlanta. Mr. Blodgett is a Knight Templar and a,
member of the Mystic Shrine, and having himself risen from the ranks, he
appreciates thoroughly the situation of the clerks.

Thomas F. Ballinger was born near Medford, N. J., in October, 1857. His
earlier education was obtained from private schools. He graduated from
Pierce' s College of Business, in Philadelphia, in 1877. After several years' expe-
rience as book-keeper he was appointed postal clerk on the South Amboy and
Philadelphia and afterwards transferred to the New York and Washington,
where. he is now clerk in charge. Mr. Ballinger is a 32d degree Mason and also
the present D. D. G. M. of the 21st District of New Jersey I. O. O. F.

William Meredith of Chicago is another director of the Mutual Benefit Asso-
ciation. He was born at Big Rock, Illinois, in 1842, of Welsh ancestors. He
worked on his father's farm until 1865, when he sought the gold fields of Nevada-
and Idaho. He taught school a little, but in 1867 returned to Illinois, and later
entered the law department of Michigan University and graduated in 1869. Mr.
Meredith opened a law office in Taylor's Falls, Minnesota, but clients were not
numerous enough to suit him and he went to Oregon, only to find the profession
of the law overcrowded there. In 1872 he entered the Railway Mail Service as a
messenger between Aurora and Forest-on. He was a clerk of class 5 on the
New York and Chicago and a member of Captain White's crew which brought
the $20,000,000 of gold coin from San Francisco across the continent to New
York. He is now in the real estate business in Chicago.

W. H. Housel was born near Akron, Ohio, in 1835, and worked on a farm until
he was nineteen. When he was twenty his father died leaving a large family;
and Mr. Housel prospected for coal during the summer season in the counties of
Mahoning and Trumbull, and in the winter attended school at seminaries at

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 843

Western Star, Inland, and Canfield. In the winter of '57 and '58 he taught school
near Youngstown. In the spring of '68 he caught the Pike Peak's fever and in
company with thirteen others, started for the bounding West. The party took
boat at Beaver Falls, Penn., and after sailing down the Ohio and up the Missis-
sippi and Missouri to Leavenworth, bought six yokes of oxen and supplies enough
for Denver. After prospecting in that region for six weeks Mr. Housel and his
companions concluded that gold was not so very plenty, and the party was dis-
banded. Mr. Housel with two of his companions started down the Platte River
in a flat boat. But this mode of travel was too slow, and they were glad to be
picked up by a stranger bound for St. Jo. They finally reached Hannibal and
Alton. Mr. Housel then worked on a farm in Illinois and taught school in Cham-
paign County, Illinois. In '59 he worked on a farm in Ohio; but he later re-
turned to Illinois and began to teach. He enlisted in Company G of the 25th
Illinois Infantry on August 25, 1861, and served until September 1, 1864, when he
was discharged at Springfield. Then he taught school for a year, and was deputy
sheriff of Champaign County for a year. The next year he ran a country store.
After that he worked at carpentry and taught school in the winter. In 1870 he
was appointed a railway postal clerk.

Charles A. Schirmer was born in Chicago in 1862. Being an orphan, he was
obliged to leave school at ten. At sixteen he was a tin and sheet iron worker for
Dresel & Folz, and in three years was foreman. Then he became a clerk on the
Chicago and Winona in '83. He was permanently appointed in '84. He has
been twice promoted, was for awhile assistant chief clerk at Chicago, and is now
a clerk of class 5 again on the Chicago, Elroy and St. Paul. He has a wife and
four fine children.

Harry E. First, president of the Railway Postal Clerks' Association of the
5th Division for the third time, runs between Chicago and Cincinnati. He was
born in Bloomington, 111., in 1861, of Scotch-Irish parentage. An orphan at six,
he went, nevertheless, to the high school at Worcester, Ohio, to Green Hill
Academy, Columbia City, Indiana, and to the Valparaiso (Indiana) College. He
entered the mail service in 1886, on the Graf ton, W. Ya., and Cincinnati line.
He is a clerk of class 5, and has charge of a crew. He has appeared before the
committee of the Fifty-Second Congress to urge legislation for postal clerks.

George L. Bowyer was born in Williamson County, Illinois, in February, 1852,
but was taken by his parents to Carbondale, in Jackson County, when he was
two and a half. He went to the common schools and had two years at college,
and was for a while a clerk in a general store. In 1870 he was appointed a cadet-
engineer at Annapolis, but never went there. Then he was a clerk in a railway
office for four years. He was in business for awhile and then clerk in the Car-
bondale post office. Thence, in '76, he entered the Railway Mail Service. He
was removed in '85 for politics and was a commercial traveller and book-keeper.
He was reappointed in '87, however, and is now clerk in charge on the Chicago
& Cairo night line.

A prominent member of last year's Board of Directors was Frank W. Moody, of
Waukegan, 111. He is a Wisconsin boy, born in Dodge County in 1858. His peo-
ple were Yermonters. Since 1867 Mr. Moody has lived in Lake County, 111. He
went to the common schools, worked on a farm, taught school, and was married
in 1880; and he worked in a store until his appointment to the R. M. S. in

844 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

1883 under Captain White. He is a clerk of class 4 on the Chicago, Elroy
and St. Paul.

Another member of last year's board was William H. Biggan, of Middletown,
N. Y. He was born in Sheffield, England, in 1851, and came to this country with his
parents in 1859. They lived in Philadelphia for a while, but moved to Middletown
in 1861. He went through the local academy and then learned the trade of car-
penter. He was appointed a clerk in the Middletown post office in 1875, and there
stayed until he secured his place in the Railway Mail Service in 1881. He was
promoted to be clerk in charge in 1885, on the New York and Dunkirk line, where
he still serves.

C. O. Wengler, another director last year, was born at Allenton, Missouri, in
1857. He went to school in his native place and in St. Louis until he was seven
teen. Mr. Wengler' s father was a general merchant in Allenton and the post-
master there. Young Wengler went to St. Louis and became a plumber and gas
fitter. He worked at this business for seven years and was foreman of his shop
for two years. He entered the Railway Mail Service in July, 1881, and was
assigned to the St. Louis and Kansas City run. He is on the same line now, and
clerk in charge of the fast mail.

The railway postal clerks, doubtless encouraged by the successes
of other organizations of postal employes, began to take steps
early in the year 1891 to organize themselves into an association.
Their object was to express certain wishes of theirs and to take
steps to realize them. A call was published in the R. M. S. Bugle
for a convention to be held in Cincinnati on the 15th of July, 1891.
It is doubtful who first suggested this conference, but Mr. A. E.
Winrott, editor of the Bugle, was among the most prominent to
give it form. Representatives of nearly all of the divisions were
present. Prominent in the meeting were Capt. H. William Fry of
Winona, Minn., and Messrs. S. Z. Ettinger of St. Louis, H. W. Mc-
George of Washington City, and S. K. Baughman of Quincy, 111.
The convention was called to order by Mr. Harry E. First of Cincin-
nati, and he was made temporary chairman, and Mr. M. H. Bunn
of Atlanta was chosen temporary secretary. Mr. C. A. Guthrie of
Chicago was shortly made permanent chairman, and Mr. Bunn per-
manent secretary.

After a two days' session an organization substantially as follows
was made : Each division was to have its own association, with its
own constitution, officers, etc., and each was to elect two representa-
tives, one of whom was to be of class 4 or 5 and the other of
one of the other three classes, these twenty-two men to constitute
the National Association, who should have the affairs of all the

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS.

845

MR. M. H. BUNN.

eleven associations in charge. This National Association was to
elect its own officers, not necessarily from among the twenty-two
members, and the officers were to be a
president, a vice-president, and a secretary.
The meeting dissolved, after appointing
August 19 as the day and St. Louis the
place for a ratification meeting of the
newly elected members of the National
Association. This meeting was held, the
Cincinnati constitution was adopted, and
the following officers elected for the year :
President, M. C. Hadley of Waltham,
Mass. ; Vice-President, C. A. Guthrie of
Chicago ; Secretary and Treasurer, M. H.
Bunn of Atlanta. The constitution pro-
vides for annual meetings on first Wednes-
days in August and for per capita assessments on the division
associations for funds with which to pay expenses.

The first undertaking of the Association was to urge the passage
of a bill re-classifying the Railway Mail Service ; and to effect this
object the Association adjourned to meet in Washington the next
September, this in order that the officers might cooperate with
the officials of the Department, and by acting upon their advice
secure assistance more quickly. An executive committee of seven
members were chosen to forward, if possible, the bill before Con-
gress, which had been drawn by the National Association. An
assessment of fifty cents was levied on each member to pay the
expenses of this committee; and the committee chosen were:
F. W. Ginther, Chairman ; and Messrs. A. A. Forbes, S. Z. Ettinger,
C. A. Guthrie, H. W. McGeorge, C. L. Brown, and M. H. Bunn.
This committee met in Washington late in January. They devoted
themselves to the post office committees, secured the introduction
of their bill in each branch, and saw it pass the Senate.

The Association held its first annual convention at Detroit, in
August, 1892. The report of the national secretary showed that the
Association was thoroughly organized in all divisions except the first,
with 3,500 members ; that $1,846.40 had been collected and $1,828
expended. The following officers were elected: President, J. G.

846

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 847

Eennessy of St. Louis ; Vice-President, C. E. Bentley of Cony, Penn. :
and Secretary and Treasurer, Will Lamb of Cincinnati. None of the
former officers desired reelection. Mr. M. C. Hadley had resigned
his post as president the preceding November, and Mr. C. A. Guthrie
had been president since that time. To complete, if possible, some
legislative action, Mr. F. W. Ginther of Harrisburg, Pa., Mr. O. H.
Smith of Sparta, Wis., and Mr. B. L. Temple of San Antonio, Texas,
were chosen a legislative committee. Messrs. Ginther, McGeorge,
Smith and Ettinger were elected the executive committee.
The officers of the Railway Postal Clerks' Association are :

President: J. G. Fennessy, St. Louis; Vice-President: C. E. Bentley, Corry,
Pa.; Secretary and Treasurer: Will Lamb, Cincinnati; Executive Committee:
F. W. Ginther, Harrisburg Pa. ; H. W. McGeorge, Washington, D. C. ; O. M.
Smith, Sparta, Wis.; and S. Z. Ettinger, St. Louis; Legislative Committee:
Messrs. Smith, Ginther, and B. L. Temple of San Antonio.

The president of the National Association of Railway Postal Clerks, J. G.
Fennessy, was born in April, 1853, in Memphis. He left the public schools there
at the age of nineteen, and moved with his uncle to Little Kock, his parents
having died. He learned the trade of carriage maker, and became foreman in
his uncle's shop. But he left this work in May, 187*7, to become a railway postal
clerk. He has been on the St. Louis & Texarkana K. P. O. ever since, most of
the time as clerk in charge. His home is now St. Louis. Mr. Fennessy has taken
great interest in the postal clerks' association from the start. He was twice
president of his division association, and at the annual meeting at Detroit in
1892 was chosen the national president. He is very popular with his colleagues
throughout the service.

Charles E. Bentley, clerk in charge of New York and Chicago trains Nos. 4
and 13, was born in North Colebrook, Conn., in 1854. He has lived in Western
New York and New Jersey, but Corry, Penn., has been his home since 1869. He
entered the Railway Mail Service in 1872. In 1875 he was a clerk on the Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern between Buffalo and Toledo. He was made clerk in
charge in October, 1881, and he has lately completed his seventeenth year of
service on the night run. Mr. Bentley is a prominent member of the Knights of
Pythias. He was elected captain of the Corry City division upon its institution
in 1886, and was appointed adjutant of the Fourth Regiment in 1887, and elected
colonel of the same regiment in 1888. In August, 1891, he was commissioned
brigadier-general of Pennsylvania for four years, and has two thousand Knights
of Pythias in his command.

Will Lamb was born near Cadiz, Henry County, Indiana, in January, 1863. He
was a farmer's boy, but went to school until he was sixteen. Then his parents
sent him to Spiceland Academy, where he spent two winters, working on the
farm in the summer. The next winter he taught school, but soon an enterprising
tailor in New Castle, Indiana, offered him a place. He occupied it for only six
months, however, and then began book-keeping for a milling firm at Lapel,
Indiana. In a short time he was put in charge of a branch establishment at

848 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Anderson. Mr. Lamb later attended school at Spiceland for a while, and spent
the next four years teaching. He was for a time a clerk in a dry-goods house in
Indianapolis, and then a passenger brakeman on the Peoria Division of the Big
Four. In 1889 Mr. Lamb became a railway postal clerk on the Chicago & Cincin-
nati night line. He is now in Division Superintendent Davis' office at Cincinnati.
Mr. Lamb has been secretary and treasurer of the Fifth Division Railway Postal
Clerks, and at the meeting of the National Association at Detroit in 1891 was
chosen secretary and treasurer.

F. W. Ginther was born on a. farm in Cook County, 111., thirty-nine years ago.
He attended the public schools of Cook and Coles Counties until he was sixteen.
Then he assisted his father in the management of a woollen factory. At twenty-
three he was appointed to a place in the Post Office Department at Washington.
In 1877 he was appointed a clerk in the Railway Mail Service between New
York and Pittsburg.

Horatio W. McGeorge was born in Athens, Pa., in November, 1843. At
fifteen he was taken out of school to learn the trade of harness-making. In
November, 1861, he enlisted in Company G of the 101st New York Volunteers,
and saw three years of hard service. He has lived at times in Georgia, Buffalo
and Virginia. In 1871 he was appointed a United States gauger of Internal"
Revenue and served three years. He was appointed a railway postal clerk in
1874, has passed through all the grades, and is now clerk in charge of the
Washington and Wilmington. He has been active in the Mutual Benefit Associa-
tion, and was a delegate to the Denver Convention in 1892; and he was also
active in the formation of the National Association of Railway Postal Clerks at
Cincinnati in 1891, and was chosen a member of the first executive committee
and of the committee on constitution and by-laws. He was a delegate, too, to
the next two national conventions. Mr. McGeorge is an enthusiast in botany,
entomology and ichthyology.

Halbert O. Smith was born at Montague, in Franklin County, Mass., in October,
1862. But his parents moved to Wisconsin when he was yet a boy, and he went
to school at Sparta, in that state, and partly completed a collegiate course at the
University of Wisconsin. He was a teacher, and in 1884 was the Democratic
candidate for superintendent of schools for Monroe County. He entered the Rail-
way Mail Service in July, 1887, on the St. Paul and Elroy line; but in May, 1889,
he was transferred to the Chicago and Minneapolis. He was married in January,
1884, and has two pretty children.

Samuel Z. Ettinger was born near Carlisle, Pa., in December, 1837. He went
to school in Lancaster County, whither his parents moved in 1843, was later
employed in a bookstore in Columbia for five years, and moved to Kansas with
his parents in 1857. They settled on a farm in Leavenworth County. Mr. Ettin-
ger served on the local school board for six years, and was three times elected
justice of the peace. He was appointed as a mail route agent from St. Joseph, Mo.,
to Alexandria, Nebraska, in February 1873, but was transferred in October, 1883, to
the St. Louis, Moberly and Kansas City railway post office as clerk in charge. In
December, 1890, he was transferred to the St. Louis and Council Bluffs, where he
is still employed. During his almost twenty years of service he has lost but four
days on account of sickness; and though he has passed through four wrecks, in
which his car was turned over, he escaped injury in all but one, but in that he

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANIZATIONS. 849

was injured so severely that he was kept in bed for six weeks. He has been a
member of the Mutual Benefit Association from its organization, and was one of
the originators of the Railway Postal Clerks' Association. He was on the com-
mittee which spent four months in Washington and helped to secure from the
House post office committee a favorable report on the reclassificati on bill and from
the Senate the passage of the bill.

B. L. Temple was born in Gatesville, Texas, in April, 1854. At fourteen he
was left to make his own way in the world. But he acquired the rudiments of an
education by attending the country schools for a few months now and then, by
working on a farm, and in any honest way making a living. He took a preparatory
course at Webberville Academy, and entered Waco University at nineteen, but
lack of means prevented him from graduating. Then he taught school at Brack-
ettville, Texas, and studied law, which he practised for three years; and he
later joined a company of Texas rangers engaged in suppressing lawlessness on
the Rio Grande border. Indeed, on one of these excursions he was shot entirely
through the body while engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with a Mexican bandit.
But he recovered, married happily, resumed his work of teaching and of study-
ing law again, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1880, at San Antonio.
Three years later lie removed to Pleasanton, Texas,. and was elected county
attorney. He was afterwards a candidate for representative to the legislature
but was defeated by the Farmers' Alliance candidate, though he carried his own
county by five to one. He was appointed a railway postal clerk in October, 1887,
on the San Antonio and Kerrville line. The postal clerks centering at San
Antonio chose him a delegate to the National Convention held at St. Louis in 1892,
and at the Detroit convention of '92 he was elected one of the three members of
the legislative committee. He was once petitioned by every business man in
Kerrville to be a candidate for district attorney of the 38th judicial district of
Texas, which comprises six counties, but declined. He lives most happily in
San Antonio with his very interesting family of five.

M. H. Bunn, the first secretary and treasurer of the Association, is twenty-eight
years old. He was born and reared in a country town in northeast Georgia and
went to the common schools, but was not able to complete his collegiate course
on account of the illness of his father. He was first in business in Atlanta, but
in 1885 entered the Railway Mail Service. He is on the Nashville and Atlanta
line, has served in all the grades and been in class 5 three and one half years.
Mr. Bunn is much attached to the Railway Mail Service, and remains in it in
spite of tempting offers from outside.

An unscrupulous lobbyist-editor has been known now and then to
prey upon the carriers or the railway postal clerks. The plan is
briefly to take advantage of the desire of the postal employes to
secure better pay. There is plenty of justice in this, but the way
to obtain better pay is not, as many a hard-working, under-paid
clerk and carrier has found out, to fill with their good dollars the
pockets of some pretender who can do nothing for them. The
usual method is for the fellow to boast that this large sum or that
has been voted to some particular class of postal employes on the

850 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

" influence " of the fellow himself. He accordingly asks for sub-
scriptions for his paper. He offers to prepare a memorial to Congress,
which is to be given to the press also "in order that public sympa-
thy may be excited." The petitions of business men are then
worked up. The pretender even offers to "fix" the House post
office committee, so that it will favorably report his bill! He
states blandly that he has the chairman selected, and he will
have postmasters " fire into " this chairman ten thousand letters
favoring certain measures. Further, he is able to lobby any
bill through himself, unaided and alone. There is no need of
the presence of committees of the carriers or the clerks. When
the bill fails, the pretender complains that it has been the efforts
of the committees of clerks or carriers, who have been working
for other measures of a similar nature, or have been in some way
interfering with his plans, which has kept him from success. It was
confidentially and rather boastingly admitted by one of these fellows
not long ago that he had made from two to three thousand dollars
out of the railway postal clerks in one of these adventures, receiv-
ing from fifty to two hundred dollars in a single mail regularly at
times, and that he had previously made seven thousand dollars prey-
ing similarly upon another class of postal employes.

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS,

N the summer of 1890 Postmaster General
Wanamaker, who had long before that realized
the value of emulation in post office work,
decided to award twelve gold medals to the
clerks of best record in the Railway Mail Ser-
vice at the close of that year. The clerk in
each division to receive a medal was to be the
one who had made " the best general record on the
largest number of cards representing post offices dis-
tributed by routes or by counties, modified by the
class of the clerk, the number of separations, the
cards per minute cased correctly, the error slip record, and the car
work of the clerk." The twelfth medal was to be awarded to the
clerk of any class in any division who should correctly distribute
during the year, in the shortest time and with the largest number of
separations, cards representing the greatest number of post offices;
and in this contest special consideration was to be given to the
rapidity with which the distribution was accomplished. The
examinations were to be conducted according to rules approved
by the 1889 convention of division superintendents of the Railway
Mail Service and by the General Superintendent ; and the commit-
tees to make the awards were to be selected by the clerks of the
various divisions themselves. The twelfth medal was to be
awarded by a committee designated by the General Superinten-
dent. These medals were awarded in due course, and the
emulation among the clerks which these, and medals subse-
quently offered and awarded by the General Superintendent and
the Postmaster General incited, had very much to do with
the increased efficiency which the records of the Railway Mail
Service show.

851

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS. 853

The clerk to win the Postmaster General's medal in the New England division
was W. A. Manchester. He was born in New Bedford in 1855, but he now lives in
Taunton. He entered the service in July, 1880, being assigned to the Boston and
lopewell Junction railway post office. In December, 1889, he was transferred to
the Boston and Albany line, and the following June promoted to class 4 and
$1,150 a year. On the first of May, 1892, he was again promoted to be clerk
m charge, to class 5, with a salary of $1,300 a year. Mr. Manchester has had
over forty case examinations, none of which fall below ninety-nine per cent,
correct, and nearly half of them have been perfect.

In the second division P. J. McDonnell, a clerk .of class 4 on the New York
and Washington line, won the Postmaster General's 1890 medal. Mr. McDonnell
was born in Ireland in 1851. He has earned his own living since he was twelve,
and though possessing only common school educational advantages, he early
entered commercial life and succeeded in it. He became a railway postal clerk
in April, '84, on the Middletown and New York City railway post office. In a
month he had been transferred to the New York and Washington line, and by
September he had earned his permanent appointment as a clerk of class 2 at a
salary of $900 a year. He had made a very creditable case examination and been
otherwise favorably reported on. In September, 1885, he was promoted to class
3, at $1,000, having passed the best examination record of all the clerks of
his grade and being otherwise commended. These same qualifications led to his
promotion in '87 and '92 to classes 4 and 5. To earn the Postmaster General's
medal he had to case 99.31 per cent, of 11,743 cards, representing as many post
offices.

Hardy T. Gregory, a clerk of class 5, was the winner of the Postmaster
General's medal for the third division. He was born in Williamstown,
North Carolina, in 1868, and went to school in Greensborough. He was ap-
pointed a mailing clerk in the Greensborough post office in 1885, and from
that position went into the Kailway Mail Service on the Goldsborough and
Greensborough railway post office. In May, 1889, he was appointed a clerk of
class 3 in the Washington and Charlotte railway post office, and he has since
won two promotions; his energy and perseverance have been notable, in his
early post office service, as well as in the railway mail. He is only twenty-four,
and younger than most of the clerks in charge, but his control of his men is admir-
able. He won the Postmaster General's medal by handling, at six examinations
within the year 1890, 10,755 cards without an error.

H. M. Kobinson of Atlanta, was the medal winner of the fourth division. He
was born in 1858, has lived in Atlanta since early childhood, in the Government
employ since 1877. He was a clerk in the Atlanta post office for two years,
and in 1879 was assigned to duty as a railway postal clerk on the two hundred
and sixty-seven mile run between Charlotte and Atlanta. Along with his pro-
motion to be clerk in charge has come a wonderful development of postal facili-
ties along this line. He is now chief clerk at Atlanta, and has under his
supervision thirty-one lines of railroad in the states of Georgia and Alabama
which cover 3,222 miles. Mr. Robinson was obliged to obtain a record of 99.98
per cent, of 10,089 cards handled (being 34 cards a minute) to win the Postmaster
General's medal away from the four hundred clerks of the fourth division. At
the seventeenth annual convention of the R. M. S. Mutual Benefit Association,
which met at Alexandria Bay, N. Y., in 1891, Mr. Robinson was unanimously

854 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

elected president. He is a prominent Knight Templar, and recorder of Tarrab
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

In the fifth division Charles Yallandingham McChesney won the Postmaster
General's medal by contributing 10,367 cards with a percentage of 93.93 correct.
This very clever man was born at Hamersville, O., in September, 1865. He loved
school, graduated from the Lebanon Normal School at twenty, and afterwards
taught at Hamersville and in Clermont County. He was appointed a -railway
postal clerk at $800 in May, 1886, and received his permanent appointment in
November of the same year at $1,000 a year. He was promoted to be a fourth
class clerk in October, 1887, at $1,150, and shortly afterwards was put in charge
of car and crew at $1,300. Mr. McChesney is five feet ten, weighs one hundred
and thirty-three pounds, and has never been sick in his life. He was married in
1884 and is very fond of his little family of two.

The medal winner in the sixth division was A. D. Deacon, a clerk of class
3, running between Cedar Rapids, la., and Watertown, S. D. His home is
Cedar Rapids. Mr. Deacon was born in 1856, in Ulster, Ire. He emigrated to
America at sixteen and settled near Grand Rapids, where he worked on a farm
for four years, going to the district school as he could in the winter months. He
kept on studying. He attended the high school at Cedar Rapids for eighteen
months, the Iowa State Normal School for a year, and the State University at
Iowa City for two years. He taught school for about five years at different
intervals during this time to obtain the money necessary to enable him to keep
at his books. But his studies impaired his health. His failing strength and his
lack of means caused him to leave the University. He secured a place with the
American Express Co., which he held for nearly three years and then resigned to
be appointed in the Railway Mail Service in July, 1884. His first assignment
was to transfer duty at Cedar Rapids. In December, 1884, he was transferred to
the Albert Lea and Burlington railway post office, promoted to class 2 in
January, 1885, and in class 3 in August of the same year; was transferred to
the Burlington and Council Bluffs railway post office, in August, 1887, and
promoted to class 4 in September of the same year; and re-transferred to the
Albert Lea and Burlington railway post office, and reduced to class 3 at his
own request in October, 1887, and to the Cedar Rapids and Watertown railway
post office in November, 1889, where he is now in charge of a car.

James L. Stice was the winner of Postmaster General Wanamaker's medal in
the seventh division. He was born at Alexandria in December, 1861, and moved
to Oswego, Kan., in 1873; graduated from the high school there, and learned
the printer's trade but gave it up on account of ill health. He was a clerk in
the Oswego post office for three years; but he resigned to become deputy county
treasurer. After that he was employed by the Kansas and Texas Coal Co.,
becoming finally general book-keeper in the central office. But this was too
confining, and he secured a place in the Railway Mail Service in July, 1884.
Mr. Stice was first in charge on the St. Louis and Halstead railway post office,
which was wrecked near Sullivan, Mcf., in the latter part of May, 1889, and he
was injured so that he could do nothing for thirty days; but soon after he
resumed his regular duties, he was caught in another wreck. He was clerk in
charge of the St. Louis and Burrton railway post office, which collided with a
stock train at Brush Creek, Mo., late in June, 1892. The postal car was com-
pletely destroyed, and Mr. Stice was severely jammed in the left shoulder. It

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS. 855

took him two or three months to recover from this accident. In the contest for
the Postmaster General's medal the record of Mr. Stice shows 825 separations,
17,603 cards handled, 17,589 correct, fourteen errors, time, ten hours eighteen
minutes, general average per cent, correct 99.92, 28.47 cards per minute, 282
errors in distribution and 7,489 checked against others. In this division August
Kraft, W. B. Webb, G. F. Bliss, M. T. Gillock and W. E. Harvey, other clerks,
were recommended for favorable mention.

Frank E. Whitney, a clerk on the Ogden and San Francisco line, won the Post-
master General's medal in the eighth division. He is thirty-one years old, a
Hudson, Mich., boy. He was appointed to the Deer Lodge and Ogden railway
post office, as a clerk of class 1 at $800 in November, 1882. The next year in
May he was promoted and permanently appointed to class 3 at $1,000. Mr.
Whitney applied before long for a transfer to the Ogden and San Francisco,
where he thought there would be a better chance for promotion, and he was
transferred in April, 1885, at a lower salary. But within a month he was pro-
moted to class 4 at $1,150 a year, and in six months he had been promoted
again to class 5 at $1,300 a year. The division superintendent at San Fran-
cisco, Mr. Flint, writes of Mr. Whitney that he is a most unassuming man, and
would sooner take upon himself the blame for any irregularity in his run
than have it put upon another. While apparently diffident, he is a great
student, and his sole ambition is to excel. He tries to impress upon his clerks
that it is an easy matter for them to keep posted at all times by reviewing
at least once or twice during their lay-offs the cards of the states which they
have to work.

The Postmaster General's medal for the ninth division was won by W. E.
Schutt, a clerk of class 5 in the New York and Chicago railway post office.
He made a record of 99.93 per cent, on 10,396 offices during the year. Mr. Schutt
was born in 1857 of German parents at Avilla, Ind., and was first appointed to
the Railway Mail Service in November, 1879. He was permanently appointed as
a clerk of class 2 at $900 a year in May, 1880. In February, 1882, he was pro-
moted to class 4 and in March, 1886, to class 5. In April, 1891, he resigned
his post and was appointed superintendent of mails at Cleveland at an annual
salary of $1,800.

The medal winner in the tenth division was Albert Miller of La Crosse, Wis.
He was born in Owego, Tioga County, N. Y., in 1856. At the age of three he
was taken by his sister to Rockford, 111., and four years later the family moved
to La Crosse. Mr. Miller went to the common schools, the La Crosse Valley
Seminary, and the West Salem high school, and taught from the age of sixteen
until April, 1886, when he resigned the principalship of the Bangor, Wisconsin,
schools to go into the Railway Mail Service. He had been appointed to the
Chicago and Minneapolis railway post office in April. He was permanently
appointed and promoted in class 2 in October of the same year. Another year
he rose to class 3, and in June, 1889, he had been promoted to class 4.
Mr. Miller has learned the distribution of twelve different states so well since his
probationary period is over, that he has a record of between ninety-nine and one
hundred per cent, correct for all of the thirty examinations which he has passed.
His present line is the heaviest in the tenth division, and his record for fidelity as
well as exactness is excellent. Mr. Miller was married in 1889, and his family
live in La Crosse.

856

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Curtis H. Field, the postal clerk to win the gold medal in the eleventh division,
was born in Denver in 1866. After going to school in his native city young Field
moved to Leadville at sixteen when the mining excitement was at its height.
After two years, however, he returned to Denver and applied for a position as
letter carrier. He proved to be one of the most efficient men in the service,
and was before long promoted to be distributing clerk, and then head clerk
for the distribution of paper mail. In March, 1888, he was appointed a proba-
tionary clerk in the Kailway Mail Service on the Kansas City and Pueblo railway
post office. He was soon after permanently appointed and transferred to the
Denver and Fort Worth, where he still is. In the competition for the Postmaster
General's medal, Mr. Field correctly cased 6,607 out of 6,608 cards, at the rate of
19.78 per minute. He is married to a daughter of Judge J. L. Berry of Atchison,
Kan., and his marriage has been most happy.

The general gold medal, open to competition by the entire Railway Mail
Service, was won by C. H. Oler, a clerk of class 4 in the ninth division running
on the New York and Chicago railway post office. Mr. Oler was born at Economy,
in Wayne County, Ind., in 1863. He was appointed to the Eailway Mail Ser-
vice in September, 1889, as a
clerk of class 1. His perma-
nent appointment as a clerk of
class 2 was dated March 13,
1890. In June of that year he
was promoted to class 3, and
in two weeks he was again
promoted. In March, 1891,
upon the organization of the
sea post office service upon
the German lines of steamers,
Mr. Oler was appointed a clerk,
and he was a most efficient
member of this corps until a
few months ago, when he
became a clerk again on the

, _ ^ New York and Chicago railway

f^ \ ^gdm P st offi ce.

WS The announcement was

made by General Superin-
tendent White last March
that J. F. Phelps, a clerk
of class 5, on the Sedalia
and Denison, had won the
General Superintendent's
medal by distributing cor-
rectly 99.96 per cent, of 32,195 cards, and by handling them at the
rate of twenty-eight cards per minute. Captain White said:

MR. J. F. PHELPS,

Winner of the General Superintendent's Medal.

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS.

857

" This is a magnificent record the best ever made, and demonstrates that any
clerk having a fair memory, being industrious and determined, can master any
distribution that may be required of him. In this instance Mr. Phelps learned
the distribution of a large number of states which he is not required to work
when on regular duty."

It was added that the clerks named below, having entered the
contest and remained in it till its close, were entitled to the highest
commendation:

Div.

Name.

Route.

Cards
handled.

Per cent,
correct.

Cards
per min.

1st .

E. F. Upham . . .

Boston & Albany .

7,222

99.83

1st .

W. A. Manchester .

Boston & Albany .

7,203

99.83

2d .

G. P. Keck ....

New York & Pitts.

7,788

97.86

2d .

W. A. Van Brocklin

Buff. & Bradford .

6,886

99.08

3d .

J. F. Gamble . . .

Wash. & Charlotte

9,188

98.44

4th .

W. L. M. Austin . .

Char. & Atlanta .

5,582

99.92

4th .

T. P. Miller . . .

Char. & Atlanta .

5,043

99.96

5th .

J. C. Edgerton . .

Grafton & Cin. . .

10,913

99.60

5th .

L. O. Claprood . .

Pittsburgh & Chic.

10,134

99.16

6th .

W. H. Riddell . . .

Chic. & Cedar R. .

5,767

99.82

6th .

P. L. Donegan . .

Albert Lea & Burl.

5,727

99.63

7th .

J. C. Talliaferro . .

St. Louis & Burrton

22,141

99.96

8th .

A. R. Wilson . . .

Alb. & Los Angeles

2,137

99.76

9th .

W. W. Allen, Jr. . .

New York & Chic.

11,107

99.39

9th .

C. H. Buttenbender .

New York & Chic.

10,365

99.71

10th .

M. Collins ....

Chic. & Minneapolis

13,927

99.78

10th .

M. J. Woulfe . . .

Minneapolis & C. B.

13,075

99.77

llth.

(Not competing).

Mr. Phelps was first appointed a sub-
stitute railway postal clerk in January,
1888. He worked in this capacity until
March, 1889, when he was permanently
appointed to the Kansas City and Osceola
railway post office. In July of the same
year he was transferred to the Sedalia and
Denison, where he began as helper and
gradually worked up to distributor. He
was promoted in '90 and '92 to classes
4 and 5. Mr. Phelps was born in Bath,
111., and his occupation before entering
the Railway Mail Service had been that
of farmer.

Elijah E. Fraser, head clerk on the
Detroit and Chicago night line, is ac-
corded by many the distinction of being
the fastest and most accurate clerk in the
Railway Mail Service. He was born at
Ogdensburg, N. Y., in 1841. He enlisted

MB. ELIJAH E. FRASER,
Detroit and Chicago Railway Post Office.

858

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

in the army at nineteen and served for over two years as a musician and for over
two as a private soldier. Afterwards he went into the harness business
in Michigan. But this was not congenial and he soon secured work as a
letter carrier in Detroit. In five years he had been advanced to the post of
superintendent of carriers. But he soon resigned this place to accept an appoint-
ment to the Kailway Mail Service. Mr. Fraser is noted for his energy and per-
sistence and for his unassuming manners, and he is a great favorite with his
fellows. The following are some of Mr. Fraser' s best throws on case examinations :

ILLINOIS.

Cards handled 2,444

Number of separations made . 211

Cards thrown correct .... 2,439

Cards not known

Cards thrown wrong .... 4

Percentage correct 99.49

Time: 1 hour, 9 minutes.

Cards handled per minute , . 35.42

MICHIGAN.

Cards handled 1,944

Number of separations made . 162

Cards thrown correct .... 1,941

Cards thrown wrong .... 3

Percentage correct 99.84

Time : 36 minutes,

Cards handled per minute . . . 51.54

WISCONSIN.

Cards handled

Number of separations made
Cards thrown correct . .
Cards thrown wrong . .
Percentage correct . . .
Time: 37 minutes,
Cards handled per minute

IOWA.

Cards handled ,

Number of separations made
Cards thrown correct . . .
Cards thrown wrong . .
Percentage correct . . .
Time : 35 minutes.
Cards handled per minute .

1,726

138

1,723

99.88

. 46.6

. 1,802
. 204
. 1,792
10
. 99.44

51.5

The clerks in the post offices, though somewhat lacking the stimulus which the
railway postal clerks have enjoyed, have been sufficiently emulated, nevertheless,
to score some wonderful records. In the New York post office Frank C.
Koehrig has the best record and a perfect one, one hundred per cent., for casing
letters. He was born in New York City, and is not yet twenty-six years old. He
was educated in Grammar School No. 14, in East 27th Street, and graduated from
there in 1883. He entered the postal service in December of that year as a sub-
stitute clerk in the city department of the New York post office, and served as
such until January, 1884, when he was appointed a regular clerk in the letter dis-
tribution department.

In the Philadelphia post office William E. Talley holds the record. He was
born in September, 1863, in the Quaker city; was appointed stamper in the mail-
ing division in June, 1885 ; was promoted to be letter distributor in August, 1886 ;
resigned from the service in December, 1886; was reappointed as a substitute
clerk in March, 1890; was appointed a regular clerk in March, 1890; was pro-
moted to be a distributor on the Pennsylvania letter case in October, 1890, and
was again promoted on the same case in September, 1891. His record on case
examination is:

Date.

Scheme.

No. of
cards.

Per
cent.

Oct., 1890

First Half Pennsylvania

1,546

100

March, 1891

Second Half Pennsylvania

1,449

100

April, 1891

Second examination on Second Half Pennsylvania
Scheme

1,459

100

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS. 859

Time in distribution, twenty-four cards to the minute. Error record, as
shown by error slips returned by Superintendent, Railway Mail Service, second
division, for year ending June 30, 1892 twenty-four errors.

The record breaker in the Baltimore post office is Samuel Whiteside, a clerk in
the mailing division. He is forty-eight years old and first entered the postal
service in May, 1878, and he held the position of clerk until July, 1886, when he
left the service, but he was reinstated in June, 1890. His record in his last ex-
amination: Regularity and promptness in attendance, one hundred; ability,
eighty; application and industry, eighty; habits, one hundred; adaptability,
eighty-five; health, one hundred. At case examination for the past year he filed
6,595 cards with an average of 91.94 per cent.

Joseph S. Mettee, foreman of a crew in the city division of the Baltimore office,
is another record man. He is fifty-two. He entered the service in May, 1869,
and held the position of clerk and foreman until December, 1886, when he left
the service. He did not reenter until March, 1890. He also was a soldier in the
Union Army during the Rebellion, and he served with great credit' for three years.
He is universally liked by his superintendent and fellow clerks. His official
record is as follows: Regularity and promptness in attendance, one hundred;
ability, eighty-five; application and industry, eighty-five; habits, one hundred;
adaptability, ninety; health, ninety. He filed 1,000 cards in sixty-five minutes,
and the per cent, correct was 91.80.

The most notably efficient clerk in the Washington office is Samuel W. Denny.
He was examined for a clerkship in February, 1890, passing fourteenth on the
list, with eighty-six per cent, to his credit, and was appointed in the delivery
division in May, 1890. Mr. Denny is in his twenty-second year. He was born in
Wilmington, Del. He attended the public schools of his native place until
January, 1888, when he removed to Washington, and finished his schooling in
1890, as a member of the business class of the Washington high school. His
examination was a regular distribution of mails, both letters and cards, as
received for delivery through the various branches of the office. This was a per-
fect test, as all kinds of first class matter, addressed in over 1,000 different hand-
writings, were distributed with only two errors in 1,110 pieces of mail handled,
and one of them was for a firm which for years had held a box in the office and
had only relinquished it a month before. This letter was sent to the box division.

Another record man in the Washington office is Frederick Sillers, a clerk in the
mailing division. He went through the Washington high school, was a clerk in
an attorney's office, learned the printing business, and became a clerk in the
Washington post office, from the civil service list, with an average of ninety, in
December, 1889. In three case examinations he has handled 6,766 cards, throw-
ing 6,745 correctly, which is a fraction over thirty-five cards a minute, and an
average of 99.56 per cent. ; and his error record of mail distributing will compare
favorably with this. Not long ago in a review of one examination he made 150
separations of 1,320 cards, throwing 1,319 correctly in twenty-nine minutes, or at
the rate of forty-five per minute.

The record clerk in the Atlanta office is Elijah H. Bass, a colored man, whose
average for the last year was 99.51. General Lewis speaks of him in the highest
terms. Mr. Bass was first appointed to the Atlanta office in October, 1881, as a
paper mailing clerk at $400 a year. His pay was soon raised to $500. He next

XXXXXOCXXCOOCOXOOCOOCXTsQ

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS.

861

served under Acting Postmaster B. H. Camp, as letter clerk, at $850 a year.
Under Postmaster Walsh his pay was reduced to $800 a year, and it remained
there under Postmaster Renfroe. General Lewis promoted him to $900 the first
year of his incumbency, and his pay is now $1,000. Mr. Bass was born in Ox-
ford, Ga., in 1859.

The record clerk in the Nashville office is Charles C. Yan Leer, though several
others press him close. A statement of recent case examinations of the three
clerks in the Nashville office making the best examinations, showing the total
number of cards handled in nine examinations, the number of errors made, and
the percentage correct, is as follows :

Name.

Number
cards.

Number
correct.

Number
errors.

Per cent,
correct.

C. Van Leer

9,681

12 027

99 62

O'Callaghan

12 126

9 645

qq rq

Duling

9 201

9 140

qq qq

In the more recent case examinations the record was as follows :

C. C. Van Leer, Mississippi scheme 100 per cent.

John Halbach, Alabama scheme 97.15 per cent.

Wm. O'Callaghan, Tennessee scheme 99.31 per cent.

A. Duling, Tennessee scheme 99.93 per cent.

Thomas Brown, Tennessee scheme 97.38 per cent.

P. R. Bailey, Tennessee scheme 96.96 per cent.

J. H. Patton, Tennessee 95.73 per cent.

The average per cent, was 98.46.

Mr. Van Leer was born in Nashville and educated in its public schools. He has
been in the post office for five years, is a sober, industrious, studious fellow,
attending sharply to his duties and taking a bright-minded interest in postal
affairs in general.

The two record breakers in the Cincinnati office are H. H. Richards and John
Foy, letter distributors. Mr. Richards was appointed a clerk in the mailing
division in July, 1891, and he has been promoted through the various grades to
the position of foreman of distributors, a post which he now holds. In examina-
tions on distribution he holds the highest record in his division. His percentage
is 99.74. Mr. Foy was appointed in July, 1886. He has the distinction of being
the most rapid letter distributor in the Cincinnati office. He is twenty-two years
old and a model fellow.

Louis J. Brown holds the best record for casing letters in the Buffalo post
office. He is but twenty-five and only entered the service in October, 1890.
During the past year he "put up" 7,057 cards, making nineteen errors, or a
percentage of 99.73. Postmaster Gentsch speaks very highly of Mr. Brown.

In the delivery division of the Minneapolis office Vernon G. Packard excels,
and in the mailing division Rasmus J. Peterson, though in both divisions others
press them hard. Mr. Packard was born near Adrian, Mich., in 1863, and entered
the postal service at Minneapolis in December, 1889. He spent his boyhood on
a farm and attended school during the winter months only. He went to Minne-
apolis in 1881, attended the high school, and afterwards taught country schools.
He took the civil service examination in February, 1889, standing seventh in a

862

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

class of nineteen competitors, by securing an average marking of eighty-five per
cent., and he was appointed a clerk in December, 1889. Mr. Peterson was born
in January, 1855, in Denmark. He emigrated with his parents to America in
1865, settling on a farm in Brown County, Wisconsin. He attended country
school during the winter months of his boyhood, though he enjoyed a year's
tuition at Ausburg Seminary in Minneapolis. He was employed in the freight
depot of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company for three years;
took the civil service examination in February, 1889, standing tenth in a class of
nineteen by securing an average of eighty per cent., and was employed as clerk
in December, 1889.

In the St. Louis post office George J. Schmidt stands at the head of the mailing
division, and Chauncey T. Davis at the head of the city delivery. Mr. Davis
entered the St. Louis office in the city distribution in June, 1882. His record for
regularity and promptness of attendance is one hundred per cent. ; for ability, one
hundred; for application and industry, one hundred; for habits, one hundred;
and for adaptability, one hundred; and the result of his latest case examination
is as follows :

Nature of Examination.

Total Number
cards handled.

Total Number
correct.

Total
Number
wrong

Per cent,
correct.

Time.

Inside distribution . . .
Outside distribution . . .
Special firms

3,698
3,698
533

3,653
3,636
531

98.78
98.32
99.62

2h. 40m.
4h.
27m.

Station separation ....

2,228
100

2,214
100

99.37
100.00

30m.
6m.

Mr. Schmidt was born in St. Louis in 1863, and has lived there ever since. He
went to the public schools, but at the age of thirteen was obliged to begin to work
for a living. In July, 1882, he entered the postal service. His office record is,
for regularity and promptness of attendance, one hundred per cent. ; for ability,
one hundred; for application and industry, one hundred; for habits, one hundred;
and for adaptability, one hundred. The result of his case examination was as
follows :

State.

Total number
cards handled.

Total number
correct.

Total
number

Per cent, correct.

Time.

wrong.

Indiana . . .

2,066

2,047

99.08

2h. 16m.

Ohio ....

3,148

3,006

142

95.49

4h. 16m.

Illinois . . .

2,438

2,433

99.80 .

Ih. 55m.

Illinois . . .

2,462

2,460

99.92

Ih. 22m.

There are three notable men in the San Franciso post office. They are all record
breakers. One is George M. Coon of the letter mailing division. He was born
at Greenfield, Mich., in November, 1858; received the usual country school
education, and had the further privilege of a course at the State Normal School at
Ypsilanti, which fitted him for the vocation of school teaching; followed that
profession for two years, and then entered the University of Michigan to take
up the study of civil engineering. In the employ of the Wheeling & Lake Erie

MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS. 863

R. R. Co., and in the service of the United States Topographical Survey on the
Mississippi and as principal of a school at Springswell, Mich., Mr. Coon dis-
played his diversified talents and acquired a useful fund of experience. In 1885
he went to San Francisco and entered the postal service in 1887, being appointed
from the civil service list. He quickly learned the routine of the post office, and
being peculiarly fitted for this work (possessing a retentive memory, good eye-
sight, and a remarkable quickness of action, and being endowed with a strong
constitution), he soon took the lead among his fellows, and though pressed
closely by some of them, he has always maintained his reputation as the best all
around clerk in the mailing division of the San Francisco office. Mr. Coon on
one occasion succeeded in routing one hundred and twelve mixed letters per
minute, making twelve separations, and in ordinary course of mail (making
ninety separations) he cases an average of fifty letters per minute.

William F. Kelly, a clerk in the newspaper division, is considered to be without
an equal as a newspaper distributor on the whole Pacific Coast. The marvellous
accuracy and speed in his own particular work, which he has acquired during his
five years' connection with the post office, is due as much to his natural ability as
to his industry and desire to excel. Making eighty-three separations, and dis-
tributing well wrapped and clearly addressed papers, faced and piled, he has
"worked up " in one hour twelve No. 1 tie-sacks of these containing four hun-
dred copies each. Mr. Kelly is a native of Rhode Island. He went to California
with his parents in 1867, when only two years old. He attended the public
schools, and afterwards learned the machinist's trade, being employed in the
Union Iron Works. In 1887 he passed the civil service examination and was
appointed to his present position, a most responsible one, as a large portion of
the San Francisco daily morning newspapers are distributed by him. They had
a>case examination in the San Francisco office last summer. A fine record had
been made by one of the clerks, who cased 1,395 out of 1,397 cards in twenty-
eight minutes. Mr. Kelly threw off his coat and cased 1,418 cards out of 1,418
in twenty-five and one half minutes ! This remarkable man has distributed one
hundred bulky newspapers per minute for an hour, and a dozen of his friends
are willing to back him against anybody in the service.

R. W. Madden, distributor of city mails on the Ogden and Oakland line, and
another San Francisco record breaker, was born in Oquawka, Henderson County,
111., in January, 1866. He went to California in 1873, and was educated in the
schools of Watsonville. 1885 found him in San Francisco. He passed the civil
service examination in July, 1887, was appointed to the city department in Sep-
tember, 1887, was four months on the stamp block, and was promoted to the
case. When the fast mail was inaugurated in November, 1889, between New
York and San Francisco, Mr. Madden was sent out to make the pioneer trip. He
was snowbound eleven days during the great blockade of January, 1890. During
regular distribution on trains Mr. Madden has been timed as high as fifty letters
per minute. The work of city distribution necessitates an almost perfect knowl-
edge of city, prominent men, firms, box-holders, etc., but Mr. Madden has it.

The E. M. S. Bugle printed in May of last year an account of one of Mr. Coon's
phenomenal card throws. He had thrown 1,397 cards with two errors in twenty-
eight minutes. But Mr. Fraser, of the Detroit and Chicago, soon after threw
Michigan by general scheme 1,944 cards, 162 separations with five errors in
thirty-eight minutes, at the chief clerk's office in Detroit. Some of his fellow

864 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

clerks seemed to question the record, and the day following Mr. Fraser, in the
presence of eight clerks, lowered the previous record by one minute and thirty-
seven seconds. Chief Clerk Gilbert timed Mr. Fraser with a stop-watch. Follow-
ing is the comparative record of the throws of Mr. Coon and Mr. Fraser:

GEO. M. COON, SAN FBANCISCO POST OFFICE.

Whole number of cards 1,397

Whole number of errors 2

Time, 28 minutes.

Average per second 83

Average per minute 49.8

E. FRASEK, DETROIT & CHICAGO RAILWAY POST OFFICE.

Whole number of cards 1,944

Whole number of errors 3

Time, 36 minutes, 23)^ seconds.

Average per second .89

Average per minute 53.4

WHERE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE.

HE complicated, vast machinery of the Post
Office Department, and the statutes and
regulations by which it is controlled, all
derive their origin from the Constitu-
tional grant of power to Congress "to
establish post offices and post roads."
This power, which is the establishment
of postal facilities by designating partic-
ular places and buildings for post offices and selecting routes for the
transportation of the mails, belongs exclusively to Congress. Exclu-
siven^ss of authority over the system is absolutely necessary to insure
the regularity and harmony of action which, under the administra-
tion of the postal system by the National Government, has produced
the wonderful results with which all are familiar. The designation
of particular roads as post roads, the power to construct them, or to
acquire them by leasing or otherwise by contract, is incidental to the
general authority conferred on Congress. That body has full power
to enact all legislation necessary for establishing post offices and
post roads wherever thej^ may be needed for the postal service.

Congress is not confined, however, in the exercise of this power
to the acquisition by purchase or contract of the property and
facilities necessary to the postal service. These facilities cannot be
withheld by the obstinacy of a private person, nor, indeed, can any
authority prevent the acquisition by the Government of the means
and instruments by which alone its functions can be performed.
The Federal Government is as sovereign within its sphere as the
states are within theirs. Its sphere, indeed, is limited, and certain
subjects only are committed to it ; but its power over these subjects
is as full and complete as that of any other sovereignty. Hence the
right of eminent domain exists in the Federal Government for the

WHERE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE.

867

purpose of acquiring means and facilities for establishing a postal
system and may be exercised as may be appropriate and proper to that
t has been exercised for the purpose of condemning land for post
office sites, and under the same principle it undoubtedly may be exer-
to condemn land for the purposes of post roads ; and this as
well within the limits of the states, as upon the soil of the territories.
The function of the Postmaster General is purely executive. He
has simply to carry out the laws passed by Congress for the regula-
tion of the postal service. Within those" laws, and within the pre-
cedents and regulations which have grown up under them, he may

A VIEW OF THE CAPITOL FROJkf THE NORTHEAST.

exercise the whole of his energy and originality in making the
operations of the Department as effective as possible ; and while it
is true that the Department would easily operate itself (and some
are disposed merely to permit it to do that), most Postmasters Gen-
eral soon discover that they are hampered by a great many legisla-
tive restrictions which they would like to brush away or by a lack of
legislative permission which they would like to secure. Those
things they find it impossible to do ; and it is right that it should
be impossible, in the smaller restrictions which regulate the details
of the service. It is right because, while considerations of politics
or of particular public policies or personal considerations have pre-
vented and do prevent wise and necessary legislation oftentimes, it

WHEKE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE.

869

is also important that the various purposes of the Departments of
the Government be kept faithfully in mind. It is best to hasten
slowly; for a single act of Congress which affects the conduct
of the Post Office Department, or of any department, for that
matter, in a broad way, or even in a small way, becomes historical.
Thousands of bills twenty thousand in an average first session
of Congress are introduced. A few hundreds find their way
through the various committees ; only a score perhaps are enacted.
So is it especially of the postal service, which, though it is
the great business department of the Government, the Department
which actually and directly af-
fects all the millions in the
whole country, receives scant
attention.

This is nobody's fault ex-
cept it is the fault of everybody.
The House and Senate are too
busy with other affairs of less
importance. Attention cannot
often enough be secured for
legislation which has been pre-
pared by committees. But
the trouble chiefly lies in the
apathy of the people themselves
who use the mails, and who
very seldom understand that
the Post Office Department is
thoroughly a productive con-
sumer of the people's money.
It expends annually, to be sure, $80,000,000.
money back ; and if it could be credited with the amount of free work
for the other executive departments which it performs, its balance sheet
would show a surplus earning of millions. Persons who think about
the matter say that it is not expected that the money expended on the
Post Office Department should come back dollar for dollar,
however, is the expectation of a steady majority of the people -
they expect anything at all about it ; for hardly ever does any other
policy seem to hold sway in either branch of Congress. The Com-

MAJOR W. T. ELLSWORTH.

Clerk, Senate Post Office Committee.

But it earns this

870

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

mittees of Ways and Means, Appropriations, Naval Affairs, Foreign
Affairs, etc., are considered of the first importance. Post Office
Committees, unhappily, are not so regarded, and however hard and
heartily the members of the Post Office Committees may work they
know that public sentiment is not back of them demanding the
attention of the Senate and the House. Few members of either
branch seek places on the Post Office Committees. It means hard
work and small attention. When postal legislation is enacted, it is
all the more to the honor of those who do it.

In England, as is well known, the members of the Cabinet go
into the halls of Parliament and advocate their measures. Many

X House Post Office. X Senate Post Office.

| House Post Office Committee. | Senate Post Office Committee.

BASEMENT PLAN OF THE CAPITAL.

have believed that such a plan would be of advantage here. The
Cabinet officer, supposed to be familiar with his department, is also
supposed to be better aware of its needs ; at least, he is expected to
be so, when called upon for information or advice. The Cabinet
officer may go before committees only when invited. Cabinet officers
have been known to have themselves invited to appear, but
there is danger, no matter how punctilious they may be in these
things, that they may be accused of lobbying. A member of the
Cabinet is almost forbidden to make friends among the Members of
Congress, because this very enjoyable and innocent diversion is some
times distorted into terrible accounts of " using patronage to secure
legislation." The laws, and especially the postal laws, have to grow
out of the efforts of senators and representatives themselves.

WHERE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE.

871

The Senate Committee occupies the room in the northeast corner
of tiie Senate wing of the Capitol, on the first floor, or basement.
It is not so large, nor so light and airy, as the more important com-
mittees, so-called, enjoy; but it is comfortable. There are book-
cases, and a broad table around which the members sit, and file cases,
and a good desk, which are under the care of Major William T.
Ellsworth, a faithful friend of Senator Sawyer and the clerk of the
committee. The position of the House Committee is similar.
Their room is numbered 14. It is on the northeast corner of the

THE SENATE POST OFFICE COMMITTEE BOOM.

first floor. It is furnished much like the other. Mr. R. A. Crowell
is in charge of the records of the committee.

Each committee is divided into sub-committees, to which are
referred the various bills according to their import. The sub-com-
mittees report to the full committee, and the full committee reports
to the House. But, as hinted, few bills pass. In the first session
of the Fifty-First Congress 131 postal bills were introduced and
20 favorably reported; 8 passed. In the second session 17 were
introduced, and one was favorably reported. In the first session
of the Fifty-Second Congress 125 bills were referred, 8 were reported,
and one passed. The committees meet in the forenoon, before
the houses are called to order at twelve ; and some of the hardest

872

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

work done in Congress is never heard of, because it is committee
work. The clerks of committees keep a record of the exact status of
all bills, and they are usually private secretaries to the chairmen.

Among the stationary rooms, document rooms, restaurants, baths,
barber shops and bars, in the two wings of the Capitol, are the two
post offices for the convenience of the members. The Senate post
office is just across the hall from the Senate Committee room. The
House post office is much larger ; it is in the same corridor with the
House Committee. The mail for the members of Congress is sepa-

THE HOUSE POST OFFICE COMMIT!

rated at the Washington office from the ordinary city mail and given
to the messengers of the Senate and House post offices, who have
distributing cases in the city post office arranged by routes. These
mails, having been " routed " by the messengers, are taken to the
residences or lodgings of the senators and members in wagons, fur-
nished and manned by the two houses of Congress directly. These
carriers make no collections, except from the residences or lodgings
of members and from the Senate and House post offices. As large
packages, and often hundreds or thousands of great sacks of public
documents, have to be distributed in a week or a day, the use of
wagons is necessary. The first delivery of Congressional mail from
the Washington city post office is at 7.30 in the morning. After

WHEKE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE. 873

this the mail intended for senators or members is taken to the two
post offices at the Capitol and distributed in the boxes. If members
do not call for their mail during the day, it is taken ou-t of the
boxes at the two post offices, carried to the city post office again,
and thence delivered on the regular deliveries as late as five
o'clock.

The mail deposited at the Capitol is taken to the city office
several times a day for dispatch out of town. A large quantity of
official and unofficial communications with the various Executive
Departments are dropped with the Senate postmaster and the door-
keeper of the House of Representatives, and these are delivered by
riding pages, by men or boys on horseback, and do not go through the
mails at all, and of course no postage is paid upon them. Immense
amounts of the Senate and House mail go under the penalty enve-
lope, of course, though it is true that senators and members exhaust
their allowances (of one hundred and twenty-five dollars apiece per
Congress for mail) upon postage stamps long before a single session
is over. The postmaster of the Senate, the assistant postmaster,
and the messengers under them, are appointed by the sergeant-at-
arms of the Senate on the recommendations of senators. The post-
master of the House is elected just as the Speaker is, and he makes
the appointments in his office on the recommendations of members.
The postmasters of the Senate and the House are employees of those
bodies and directly responsible to them, and irregularities, if they
occur, are investigated by the two bodies, or their officers. But
depredators of the mail in these offices, as elsewhere, are amenable to
punishment in the usual way.

In most of the state capitals the collections and deliveries of the
local post offices are quite sufficient to accommodate the members of
the state legislatures ; but in some of the larger places officers of
these bodies are specially deputized to facilitate the handling of the
mail. In Augusta each branch of the legislature has a messenger
who distributes matter in his branch during session hours. At
Montpelier the sergeant-at-arms puts one of his deputies similarly
in charge of the mail of members. At the State House in Boston
collections are made as elsewhere, though packages in large quanti-
ties are sent to the post office by team at the expense of the state.
Delivery is made as elsewhere. When the General Court is sitting

874

THE STOBY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

the mail of members is delivered to the sergeant-at-arms of each
branch. The House appoints a postmaster of its own through the
sergeant-at-arms. At Albany each branch during session time pro-
vides, through its presiding officer, a special post office to handle the
letter mail, packages and documents of the members. Separate
rooms are fitted up with call and drop boxes, and each is in charge
of a postmaster, who has an assistant and a messenger. The
appointments which are made by the presiding officers are political.

INSIDE THE HOUSE POST OFFICE AT WASHINGTON.

Mails are taken to and from the Capitol in express wagons, and
when mails are turned over to the authorized messengers of the
Assembly they are technically delivered. The members of the New
York Legislature receive from 800 to 1,000 letters a day, and from
600 to 800 sacks of second, third and fourth class matter. The
members of the Senate buy $ 1,4 00 worth of stamps for their legis-
lative business, and the Assembly $1,600 worth, and their private
postages would probably bring the total up to $ 4,000. The thirty
or more state departments and commissions at Albany rent lock

WHERE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE.

875

boxes at the Albany post office. At Harrisburg an arrangement
almost exactly similar is in vogue.

Each house of the South Carolina Legislature has a messenger
who fetches mail from the Columbia office. Deliveries are as else-
where. At Atlanta a postmaster is appointed by the Speaker of the
House at each session of the legislature. He receives the mail of
members from the particular letter carrier of the Atlanta office on
whose route the Capitol building is, and distributes it in his case.
The state officers receive mail direct from the carriers. At Nash-

WAGONS FOR CONGRESSIONAL MAIL.

ville the home addresses of all the members, as well as their addresses
at the state capital during session, are secured by the city delivery,
in order to avoid mistakes, and three deliveries are made daily to
the doorkeepers of the two houses. Mail is collected as elsewhere.
At Austin the postmasters of the state Senate and House are elected
by the two bodies. These postmasters take the mail of members a
the post office, and are sworn in by the postmaster of Austin, so t
they can pass through the mailing room. The arrangemei
Rouge is almost exactly like this.

So at Lansing, Michigan. At the Capitol building a room wit
boxes, known as the legislative, or Capitol, post office, is fitted

876

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

and a messenger, or legislative postmaster, as he is called, handles
the mail of members under the pay of the two bodies. The Wiscon-
sin Legislature has an assistant postmaster as well. At St. Paul the
House elects an assistant clerk, who is postmaster ex officio. At
Des Moines the state employs a special letter carrier at $3 a day,
and he furnishes his own horse and wagon. During session time,
for the convenience of the legislature, the two branches elect a post-
master and an assistant, each at |4 a day, and the legislature also

THE SENATE POST OFFICE AT WASHINGTON.

elects a mail carrier to go between the city post office and the Capitol.
He is paid $5 a day and furnishes his own horse and wagon. All
these special carriers take the regulation oath, administered by the
postmaster. At Sacramento during session time each branch of the
legislature has a postmaster and a mail messenger ; and Postmaster
Coleman has a complete directory of the home addresses of members,
made of material furnished by themselves, so that their letters
quickly find their destinations. At all the other state capitals the
ordinary methods of the local post office prove entirely satisfactory.

WHERE POSTAL LAWS ABE MADE.

877

The city of Rochester, New York, has a separate post office in a
private business establishment, in the laboratory of Messrs. H. H.
Warner & Company, in fact. The wonderful extent of this business
shows what advertising will do and what the use of the mails will
do. Wrote a member of this firm recently :

" We make all our contracts for newspaper advertising direct with the news-
papers, and as we have contracts with about 8,000 of them in the United
States, and as each paper containing our advertisement is sent to our office to be
checked, our newspaper mail alone is something of an item. The letters re-
ceived through the post will average about a bushel in quantity per day; and as
we make it a rule to reply to every letter, we send out nearly as many letters as

HOUSE MAIL, WAGONS.

we receive. We also publish a cook-book of five hundred pages, which we give
away as a premium, and have sent something like one hundred thousand of these
through the mails, together with very many other premiums consisting of bound
books, maps, etc.

" But it is in the mailing pamphlets that we use the mails to the great*
tent We mail our pamphlets always once a year and oftentimes twice, the first
one being sent out during the months of January, February and March, and the
second during October, November and December. We do not use the mails at
all during the holidays, shutting down mailing about the 20th of December, and
resuming about the second week in January. We have found that the mails are
usually crowded at this time, and the people too much interested in holiday
goods We mail between seven and eight million pamphlets each spring and fall,
and use as many more in sending out to the trade in our boxes and by expr

We use the names of heads of families to send our pamphlets to, and genei
ally renew the list about once in two years. As fast as the lists come m th,
looked up in the Postal Guide to ascertain if each place the bat comes from is a

878

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

post office, and to guard against duplicate lists, for they come from every state
and territory in the Union. The lists are then taken by girls and the names
written on wrappers, which are used to wrap the pamphlets in. Each name is
generally written four times, on four different wrappers, as it can be done quicker,
and this is enough for four mailings. About five hundred writers are generally
employed, the writing being done for the most part by the thousand. After the
wrappers are written they are separated into states ready for the postal clerks.
Since April, 1887, during which month we sent out four million pamphlets (which
blocked the mail so that the superintendents from Washington and New York
came to our office to ascertain what could be done to handle our mail without so

HIDING PAGES IN FRONT OF THE CAPITOL.

much work on the mail trains), we have worked the mail in our own building
instead of having it worked on the trains, Cases were built especially for the
purpose of routing our mail ; and about two weeks before we commence mailing,
the superintendent of mails is notified, and postal clerks are sent here to work
the wrappers. When we mailed the old way, that is, previous to 1887, we
would ship the sack of mail direct to the state which we wanted it to reach, and
the postal clerks through whose hands this sack went were required to handle
each piece in the sack in order to route it. Now the postal clerks come to our
building, and route the wrappers before they are sent out, and as all the wrap-
pers addressed to one place are tied together, they can route all the names in
that place at one time, which is a great saving of time and trouble, as the sack
in which these wrappers are put is shipped to the route in the state to which it
is addressed, and the pieces it contains are not handled until they reach the route
marked on the sack. It not only saves the postal clerks much labor, but also the

WHERE POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE. 879

pamphlets from being handled three or four times, which formerly left them in
bad condition.

" After the wrappers are worked by the postal clerks, they are ready to be
stamped. Stamps are cancelled in the sheet by the post office officials, thus sav-
ing to the Post Office Department the cost of twelve men to cancel, which was
the number necessary to cancel the stamps on our pamphlets previous to 1887.
The stamps are put on the wrappers by girls, who become very expert. The
smartest girls will average about 25,000 stamped wrappers a day, although we
have two in our employ who have put on 27,500 each, working nine hours. After
the wrappers are stamped, they are tied in bundles of 250 each, and looked over
by an expert to see that each wrapper is stamped and also has a name and ad-
dress written on it.

" The wrappers are then ready for the mailers. The mailing is done by girls,
who sit at their work with pamphlets before them and an open mail sack at their
left hand. They become very expert in wrapping the pamphlets. After the
sacks are filled, they are inspected for loose wrappers or pamphlets, as occasion-
ally insufficient paste is put on the wrapper. The force employed in our mailing
room consists of two hundred girls and five men. The largest number of pamphlets
ever sent out by us in one day was 220,000, requiring 880 mail sacks to hold them.
The average number mailed during our busy season is 100,000 each day. This makes
about a carload and requires $1,000 worth of one cent stamps to send them out.

" We formerly had some trouble from postma'sters who would hold our
pamphlets (they being third class matter), saying that they were loaded down
with our pamphlets and could not get them out; but under the new system of
routing we now send but one sack a day to the larger places, which is cleared out
each day; we find this works well, not only for the post office but for the public."

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY.

'HE present Postmaster General went to his
public place without political experience.
Mr. Wanamaker had been a trained busi-
ness man, " in trade." He had, to be sure, been
frequently importuned by enthusiastic neigh-
bors, and by political persons of consequence
also, to run for office. Such enticements
as a Republican nomination for Congress-
man-at-large from Pennsylvania and for mayor
of his city (and it is a four years' term where needs make opportuni-
ties) had been held out to him ; but he had kept to his last. He had
been prominent in political committees, as well as in charitable and
business ones. His first notable appearance in politics was in the fall
of 1888. A desperate struggle for the overthrow of the Democratic
administration was about to be begun. The most capable political
generals had been selected to have charge of the Republican cam-
paign, and as one important evidence of their capacity they secured
the cooperation of a good number of wealthy, unblemished business
men in various parts of the country to provide the sinews of war.
These sinews of war were the subscriptions of money that they
raised. For, if anybody shall read this two years from now or
twenty, let him know that every political party raises all the money
it can and uses every cent of it. Money is used in political cam-
paigns to convince the doubtful voter (sometimes with torchlight
processions and brass bands, but oftenest now with the argument
of cold facts), and to keep the stalwart voter true to his allegiance ;
and hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent by national, state
and district committees for these purposes by the two chief parties.
As soon as President Harrison was elected it was generally
believed and cordially acquiesced in by the rank and file of Repub-

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY.

881

They were

licans everywhere that two men surely, of all who were mentioned
Cabinet positions, would be invited to the President's counsel
table. These were Mr. Elaine and Mr. Wanamaker.
thus selected in Republi-
can party opinion for two
reasons: They were fit,
the one the world-famed
diplomatist and the other
the merchant prince, for
the Secretaryship of State
in the one case and the
Postmaster Generalship
in the other; and second,
they had been of real ser-
vice in the campaign.
Each had represented
substantial elements that
had contributed to the
President's election, and
so party service, as well
as fitness, had its weight.
The Postmaster General
does not often recount an
exploit in which he him-
self has figured. But the

. , i-Ti THE CAPTAIN OF THE DEPARTMENT WATCH.

assistance which he was

able to render to the Republican party in 1888 he has always seemed

proud of.

" I had no more idea, " he said not long ago to Mr. George Alfred
Townsend and what follows here is a most interesting episode,
u of filling a place in the Cabinet or becoming a factor in our poli-
tics than any other merchant would have."

"After General Harrison was nominated," to quote this talk in
snatches, " I said that I did not think he had great prospects ; that
Cleveland had been elected, and that he had all the machinery of
the Government to reelect himself; and, said I, k he has in his wife
a factor now he did not have when he ran at first. She has become
a popular feature in his administration.' I added that I thought

882 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Cleveland could be beaten if the proper steps were taken, but that
our political methods were so much money thrown away in bands of
music, a host of bad employees, and many sorts of squandering. I
said then the old methods would undoubtedly fail to elect General
Harrison, but that I did not suppose the party managers would
make any changes in their old methods.

"Some time after that I received a telegraphic despatch from our
Senator Quay asking if I would meet him that day or the next. I
did not see what I had to do with politics, and was disposed to go
home in the country and reply that I had enough on my hands.
But reflecting that as he was our senator, courtesy demanded that I
should not be brusque. I replied that I would see him."

Mr. Wanamaker went on to recount how little he was disposed to
act, and how the senator had asked him how much time he wanted
to reflect.

"I said a week," he went on. "In effect I did not give any
answer for three weeks. I had plenty to do, and all this was an
invasion of my time and themes. At the end of that time I con-
sented to take part, if they would follow my suggestions. I wanted
an advisory board to the National Committee made up of business
men, and a treasurer appointed for that board; then I wanted an
executive committee taken out of that advisory board and limited
in number and with power to overlook not only the raising of that
money but its expenditure by the National Committee acceded to.
We did not need 8400,000 and we did not raise it."

"Did you raise $200,000 ? " Mr. Townsend asked.

"Yes, we raised more than that. My contribution was $10,000.
If you have a large purpose and can bring it to bear upon large-
minded men, you may as well ask for 110,000 as for $500, for men
are rather complimented when you ask them higher and they sacri-
fice high for a worthy end. I said to such as I addressed : ' How
much would you pay for insurance upon your business? If you
were confronted with from one year to three years of general depres-
sion by a change in our revenue and protective methods affecting
our manufactures and wages and good times, what would you pay to
be insured for a better year? ' That they understood to be the meas-
ure of their contribution. We raised the money so quickly that the
Democrats never knew anything about it. They had their spies out,

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY. 883

supposing that we were going to do something, but before they knew
what it was we had them beaten. They were not beaten in Novem-
ber, nor in October, but long before that."

'That money was necessary, I suppose, for campaign ex-
penses ? "

" There is no provision in law for the expense of holding an elec-
tion. A city like Philadelphia, which may have seven hundred
polling places, will have proper and necessary expenses of $20, per-
haps, for each booth; but these expenses are apt to be $100 a booth.
If you don't pay your speakers, you must pay their travelling and
living expenses. You must print your tickets, hold your meetings,
advertise ; in short, there is a proportion of money as necessary to be
raised as for corporation or any other purposes. When the election
was over and won, the National Committee would have given me
almost anything. The appointment was tendered to me as Post-
master General, and I am here."

The National Committee and the state of Pennsylvania united
in urging upon the President the appointment of Mr. Wanamaker
to a place in his Cabinet. There seemed from the first to be no
question about his selection, except that for a while he was slated
for the Secretaryship of the Navy. Then came urgent requests by
the hundred from all over the country for the appointment of Mr.
James S. Clarkson of Iowa, to a place in the President's political
family. He had distinguished himself in journalism and public life
by his versatility and rugged loyalty, and had also been of immeas-
urable importance in the campaign. It has been said that no man
was ever supported with such fervor, and it is no doubt true that
President Harrison genuinely desired to make Mr. Clarkson one of
the Cabinet. This desire on the part of eminent Republicans, and
on the part of the President himself also, continued to the very
4th of March. Mr. Wanamaker knew of it towards the last, and,
understanding that the appointment of two men who had been closely
identified with the National Committee would not be likely,
especially since in the public mind, if not in the President's, they
would be fitted into the same position, namely, the Postmaster Gen-
eralship, he encouraged the President to appoint General Clarkson and
leave him out. Mr. Clarkson heard of this. In fact, it is probably
true that the President, inclined to accept Mr. Wanamaker's

AS HE SOMETIMES STANDS.

884

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY. 885

proposition, offered the Postmaster Generalship to Mr. Clarkson
under the circumstances mentioned. The sturdy lowan would not
listen to this for a moment. He, as much as any member of the
National Committee, had learned to appreciate fully the value of
Mr. Wanamaker's services. Moreover, he had joined with the
other members of the National Committee in urging this appoint-
ment upon the President. The proposition was therefore not
to be thought of. This generous impulse (and the politics of this
country is full of generous impulse, if only the things not heard
of could be known) was followed up by an unmistakable earnest
of his devotion to his party; for General Clarkson, much against
his natural inclination and to the sacrifice of large personal inter-
ests, accepted the First Assistant Postmaster Generalship, and for
a year was the President's trusty political adviser and friend, as well
as the Postmaster General's.

To take Postmaster General Wanamaker and follow him through
a day will be lively work, but it is about the only way to study
him closely. He rises early in the morning, just how early is not
known definitely, as he is always up before anybody else. He has
retired in good season, and his eyes are wide open an hour or more
before breakfast time. He never looks as if he had just got up;
and this is true on account of nis sober habits of eating and
sleeping as well as of the natural, steady spirit that always looks
out of his countenance.

"He is a man above middle height," says Mr. Julian Hawthorne,
"rather lightly built. His face is fresh colored, smooth shaven and
young looking. His eyes are dark gray, very bright and observant;
forehead large, lower face slender in proportion; a good-sized, busi-
ness-like nose. There is a certain quiet energy and enthusiasm in
the expression of his countenance; you see that the man is a man of
genius, of judgment, of resources. His conversation is thoughtful,
terse and low-voiced. Activity and alertness are in him combined
with composure."

A recent description of him by Mr. Townsend says:

The Postmaster General has a little gray in his fine silken, light brown hair,
a fine head, light blue or gray eyes, and a bright, sensitive skin that is clean
shaved. His nose is good, the chin not heavy, and his temperament is that of a
high nervous industry. Although the eyes act quickly, they close sometimes

886

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

while he thinks, and the visitor sees a man who never acts without reflection, yet
has decision and reflection near neighbors. He has a small mouth, good teeth,
and a chord in his throat indicative of approaching age. When he stands up he
is tallish and straight, and nearly spare."

The Department carriage, which is a small cab drawn by two
small sorrel horses, is waiting at the door of 1731 I Street at a quar-
ter past eight, with the inevitable Hodge on the box, to take the

ROSS, THE POSTMASTER GENERAL'S MESSENGER.

Postmaster General after breakfast to the Department. Half past
eight finds him at his desk in the pleasant sunny room on the south
side of the building. He is half an hour ahead of the earliest clerk
and an hour and a half ahead of the stream of general visitors. He
opens his mail, gives some letters to his private secretary to look up
or answer, dictates to his stenographer replies to others, and answers
not a few with his own hand. He knows what comfort there is in
the personal letter and often writes it.

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY.

887

At nine or a little after the four Assistant Postmasters General
come in to meet him. They sit about his table for an hour or less
and discuss various propositions for the regulation or improvement
of the service, which they may have thought of, or chiefly which he
himself has thought of, or has had brought to his attention. This
conference, or Cabinet meeting, as it is sometimes called, is over at
ten. Then the senators and members (in session time) have begun
to come in. Ross, the colored messenger, who has been at the Post-

MR. JOHN B. MINICK, THE POSTMASTER GENERALS STENOGRAPHER,
TYPEWRITER AND TELEGRAPH OPERATOR.

master General's door under his thirteenth Postmaster General now,
and in effect is of so much consequence about the Department that he
is frequently called the Fifth Assistant Postmaster General, knows
them all, and pushes the screen door open to let them in.
Postmaster General disposes of their matters with great tact.
He sends for persons and papers, if it is necessary to do this
order to answer questions fully and quickly -on the supposition
that the papers and the persons are there to answer quesl

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Sometimes he goes out with a visitor to one of the bureaus to see
personally that inquiries are promptly answered. Sometimes the
member or the senator is able to stay but a moment. Sometimes,
if others are not coming in, or if persons who have sent their cards
in through the door or are waiting in the ante-room are not numer-
ous, the Postmaster General and his visitor sit down for a social or
a confidential political talk.

The private secretary's room is next to the Postmaster General's

AS THE PRIVATE SECRETARY SOMETIMES USED TO LOOK.

and a door opens into it from the same hallway ; and of course the two
rooms are connected. Many persons prefer to enter this way, and
sometimes it is quite sufficient for their purposes, and consequently
quite agreeable to the visitors and the Postmaster General also (all of
whose time is certain to be occupied), if they find out what they want
to know in the private secretary's room and go no further. Some-
times the latter's outer door is locked, and the Postmaster General,
in order not to be interrupted, takes a caller, or three or four of them
at a time, into the recesses of the inner room for greater immunity.
There is no end to the variety of work required of the Postmaster

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY.

889

General. There is, in the first place, the routine business of the
Department, the consultations with the assistants and with this one
and that one who have suggestions to make, or who have been fol-
lowing out lines of inquiry or action and have them to report upon.
There is, in addition, all the labor incident to the brand new things
continually undertaken by one like Mr. Wanamaker. He is always
gathering information about something and making busy prepara-
tions to use it in some way. He never gives up a fight; conse-
quently he is always adducing reasons why his causes ought to
win. He is never satisfied if he cannot think at the close of a day
that something had been accomplished ; and he has been known to
accomplish a dozen things in a day and still recall them only with
a half disgusted feeling that the things should not have been two
dozen instead of one. Then the Postmaster General's wide reputa-
tion for wealth and charity gives him a great deal of labor. Persons
see Jrim every day for whom it is impossible for him to do anything,
and yet he sees them, and they go away satisfied at least with
assurances of good will.

On ordinary days the Postmaster General is taken to his house for
luncheon about one o'clock. On Cabinet days he goes directly to
1731 I Street from the White House. He takes his time about his
luncheon, partly because he loves the company of his family, of which
he has been so much deprived during his public career, partly
because a quiet half hour is desired in the library discussing a
political or postal matter with a friend who has been invited to the
table. There are usually important appointments at the Department
after luncheon. Then follow more consultations with the assist-
ants, work is "rounded up " for the day, and a few directions given
for the next. There are more dictations to the stenographer, more
talks with the private secretary, more personal letters written, and
a paper rolled up and mailed away, or some token of remembrance
sent that served the same thoughtful purpose.

It is six before the Postmaster General leaves his desk, though
often in summer, if the heat has been bad and the work extra heavy,
or some friend is in town who would like the relaxation, a ride is taken
in the suburbs. The Postmaster General himself drives, usually a
pair of chestnut Vermont thoroughbreds bought of Senator Proctor,
hitched in an open buggy. Sometimes it is a single horse ; and the

890

POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY.

891

single horse quite contents him. It has been a hard day at best. A
hundred different people with a hundred different objects intently
in view have come and gone, some prevailing, some failing, but all
pretty well satisfied. Something has been done in the different
bureaus. Somebody has been
talked to about a favorite reform.
Perhaps the Postmaster General
has jumped in his carriage and
explained a measure of his own or
of somebody else to one of the
legislative committees of Con-
gress. Sight-seers in the Depart-
ment have been brought to the
screen door by guides and have
peered in ; or they have sometimes
entered and looked through the
two rooms. This process has not
been objectionable. In fact, it has
been rather pleasant, else the Post-
master General would not have
risen from his seat so often to
shake these people by the hand
and ask them to be sure to see all
the sights in the Department, and
especially the Dead Letter Office, with which they would be diverted.
The Postmaster General has not been idle for a moment all day
long. He has said that he decided thirty years ago not to read a
newspaper in business hours or to put his hands in his pockets. His
mind is restless always, and he actually seems unhappy when there
is nothing to do. This activity is always imparted to those about
him or they do not remain about him long. He states, or indicates,
or expects, that certain things shall be done. He does not take the
time to explain about the method. It is inferred that the person
charged with the duty knows about the method. But results are
very sharply looked for, and it is results that count with him. His
aversion to doing things over twice, or in the hardest way, or
wrongly, amounts almost to horror; for if a thing is not done right,
some one else only has to do it over again, and there is the time of

HON. FRANK A. MONROE,
Prominent in the Fight Against the Lottery.

892

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

a good man, as well as the time of a poor one, wasted. And if
things cannot be done upon direction in the proper way, or if they
are done without judgment, or at the wrong time, if, in short,
assistants cannot be depended upon to assist, they are of no use,
and large success is impossible, because a man must do everything
himself; and that is intolerable to leaders. In the philosophy of
John Wanamaker it is not tolerable to tell a person to do a thing
and then spend one's time following the person up to see that it is
done. Nor is it tolerable to employ the efforts of one person to
look after another. Such had better make room for their betters,
for the line has to march. The Postmaster General likes creative
men, not simply those who know an idea when they see it, and
know what to do with it, but those who have ideas of their own,
though perhaps that quality is simply a development of ideas.
When he suggested that the Department be provided with a per-

manent, high-salaried officer who

. ,

should be a sort of controller or
actuary to manage its business
affairs, some one desired to know
what such an officer would do.

"I don't know," replied the
Postmaster General (though his
meaning rather than his exact
words are here set down). "He
would be put there, and would do
what there was to be done. If
this postal service were a private
affair of mine, I would employ five
such persons at $10,000 a year.
They would earn ten or twenty
times their salaries. They would
know enough to fit into the dif-
ferent places. They would think,
plan, organize, develop."

So the man who works and
thinks, and is hearty, persistent, ingenious, original about it, is
a man after Mr. Wanamaker 's own heart. In that way comes suc-
cess, which he naturally thinks he has attained in business, if not

MB. THEODOKE DAVENPOET.
Disbursing Officer.

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY.

893

:ies.

politics, and which he understands comes only with these qualitL...
He has shaken up the dry bones amazingly, and he has not been timid
about it. In the purely executive work which has fallen to him to
do, he has simply gone ahead and
done it, as his wont used to be.
He has called conferences of post-
masters, inspectors and all. He
has investigated foreign systems
at his own expense. He has
spent his salary, probably, upon
a personal private secretary and
upon newspaper subscriptions,
newspaper clippings, postage,
etc., in order to know fully the
public impression and wish. He
has awarded medals. If the ex-
aminations for entrance to the
service were deemed faulty, he did
not hesitate to say so. He has
particularly solicited public criti-
cism, for no one wants to know
so much as he what is the matter
with the postal service, simply
because nobody knows better than he that it cannot be reformed
until it is known what the matter with it is. He has invited the
county-seat postmasters to make their visitations. All these are
little things comparatively. He has pushed the larger matters
with no less energy and boldness.

The Postmaster General's mail contains all things conceivable,
and just as he or some one deputized by him replies to everything,
so he has insisted that every letter coming to any desk in the
Department shall receive a prompt reply. His own mail is notably
filled with letters of a personal character touching notes from old
acquaintances in trouble letters asking for financial aid in all
parts of the country, from ten strangers and one acquaintance.
Some want five dollars; some would be satisfied with one. Almost
everybody who has tickets to sell appeals to the Postmaster
General, and the man who is struggling to lift the mortgage on his

MB. JAMES A. VOSE,
Appointment Clerk.

394 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

farm, or whose church is in debt only 1700, is a frequent corre-
spondent. Great numbers of letters asking for help come from
localities with which the Postmaster General, or some friend upon
whom he is able to call, are familiar. These requests are investi-
gatedpossibly something done. But the Baltimore genius who
some time ago named his baby boy after twenty-five or thirty
United States Senators and other public characters and secured from
each sums of $1 to $10 did not catch the "P. M. G." And not
less do all the curious inquiries about postal matters receive atten-
tive replies. This one or that one wants a parcels post, universal
free delivery, fractional currency, money order facilities at every
post office, and all that; and to each one it is explained why this
thing cannot be, and perhaps some document or argument is enclosed
by way of further explanation.

A few of the things that Mr. Wanamaker has let drop in speech
or letter not the long, prepared things, but the off-hand things.

His injunction to the postmasters at the conference is already
familiar :

" Gentlemen, you want to run your post offices as if there were another fellow
across the street competing with you, and you were trying to get all of the
business."

He said to the Philadelphia Record correspondent very early in
his experience at the Department :

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

To Postmaster Hart of Boston he said on one occasion :

" If there is any man in your post office who thinks he has reached the limit of
perfection, he ought to retire. What is wanted is men who propose and expect to
do better to-morrow than they are doing to-day."

He wrote to a citizen of Denver :

" Anyone who aids in improving the postal service by pointing out defects, or
by making suggestions, performs an act of good citizenship and is a friend of
good government, and especially of the Post Office Department."

And he added :

" The proper course to be pursued whenever there is mismanagement of any
post office, or whenever additional facilities seem to be needed, is for a few
persons to address the Department over their own signatures, stating the facts.
Such communications will receive prompt and careful attention."

A POSTMASTER GENERAI/S DAY. 895

Of the postal system he said in one of his annual reports :

" The people simply want the system administered with such efficiency and
economy that it shall offer them more and more accommodations and tax them
less and less. The only method I can suggest by which all their desires may be
gratified, is not merely to talk about the application of business principles to the
Department; it is really to apply them."

In a later report he said :

" I shall have the honor to advocate this year, as last, with whatever persuasive-
ness it is possible for me properly to use, certain measures, legislative and ad-
ministrative, which I believe to be for the benefit of the service. If some of them
fail as it cannot be hoped that all will succeed at once there will at least be
the benefit of the inquiries, the discussions, and the collection of opinions."

The Postmaster General has paid small attention to newspaper
attacks. But now and then, apparently for the personal satisfaction
of the moment merety, he tells a friend, or even writes a note to
some far-off stranger who has honestly made an inquiry of him,
about the latest lie. On these occasions he does not mince matters.
He wrote to a Western correspondent:

"I should like to have a commission composed of the editors of the ,

the , and any other three men of fairness, to visit and pass upon the build-
ing and methods of my business in Philadelphia, and if the statements you refer
to are found to be facts, I will contribute ten thousand dollars to any ten charities
that the mayor of your city may designate."

For the enterprising person who is always asking public men for
sentiments on various occasions the Postmaster General has always
had a ready pen. On the request of the New York World for a
New Year's sentiment, he wrote :

" My hopes and wishes are: First, to be able to do a full day's work every day
and thus turn wishes into realities. Second, that my friend, Mr. Pulitzer, might
get back his eyes, and be able to read his own paper. Third, to have fair play
while the plans and experiments of the Post Office Department are under way.
Ten minutes or ten months is hardly sufficient to reach over all this country with
a perfect postal system. Let the new employees of the Government in every
department have a fair chance to get acquainted with their work."

And he usually has a thought to utter if he is obliged to decline
invitations. When the Pittsburg Times moved into its new build-
ing, he wrote :

" I regret extremely that I cannot accept your courteous invitation for the 31st
of May, especially since the occasion is the opening of a newspaper office. We
do not generally attach enough consequence to these events. We pay attention
to the opening of halls, churches, schools and colleges, and that is right and

896 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

good; we ought to pay more attention to these enlargements of the power of the
p ress _ not the hackneyed ' power of the press' which is a vague, misunderstood
myth or bugbear to many but the real power of it, the power that it possesses
to make a forum, a pulpit, a school and a college for the discussion of all the
branches of political, social and home life, all in itself. We have the Times at
our office ,here every day, and I congratulate all of your readers and all of the
good Pennsylvanians who have a chance to become your readers, as well as your-
self, upon your prosperity."

Mr. Wanamaker has always been a good " interviewer " ; for,
though he much dislikes to talk for publication, preferring, as he
has always said, to do things and not talk, he is always willing,
when there is need; and usually he has something to say. Busi-
ness is a favorite topic with the questioner as well as with the
questioned. To pick a few detached quotations out of some of the
interviews :

"Yes, I think I could succeed as well now as in the past. It seems to me that
the conditions of to-day are even more favorable to success than when I was a
boy. There are better facilities for doing business and there is more business to
be done. Information in the shape of books and newspapers is now in the reach
of all, and the young man has two opportunities where he formerly had one."

" We are much more afraid of combinations of capital than we have any reason
for being. Competition regulates everything of that kind. No organization can
make immense profits for any length of time without its field soon swarms with
competitors. It requires brain and muscle to manage any sort of a business, and
the same elements which have produced business success in the past will produce
it now and will always produce it."

"New England has already learned the necessity of thoroughness; their disa-
bilities in the way of being distant for fuel and metals are turning out to their
advantage and the higher standard of their productions, and Pennsylvania must
fall into the same track."

"The trouble with the business of the United States heretofore, but it is fast
improving, has been that we all wanted to get rich so fast that when we made a
good thing, instead of keeping the standard up, we sought to make it cheaper by
using inferior material and less labor. What has made the English rich has been
keeping up their standard. But as our country settles down to a fixed destiny,
and ceases to wander and speculate so much, we also are learning that these
business houses must be prolonged by their good repute, so that the trade mark
shall be their best advertisement."

" The old eastern Pennsylvania population is a little slow, but they believe in
substance, too, and are industrious. It is my notion that Benjamin Franklin, in
the humble maxims he printed in his 'Poor Richard's Almanac,' gave the tone
to that old German population, and to the other races also, perhaps. It is possi-
ble that he drew those maxims from observation of those eighteenth century
races. He had much to do with giving Pennsylvania its cast of mind and method,
and after him Thaddeus Stevens, the founder of our public schools, conferred the
greatest benefit upon the state."

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY. 897

The Postmaster General has made good off-hand speeches, and one
often finds a touch of poetry in them. The presidential party, on its
way East from the Pacific Coast last year called at Springfield, 111.,
and General Harrison spoke at the grave of Lincoln. Mr. Wana-
maker followed him. He said :

" The man whose name is immortal said that we ought to have a Government
by the people and for the people ; and we might add to such glowing words this
thought, to-day that the Government ought to be close to the people, that they
may be able to understand each other better, and be able to help each other in
every practical way that builds up the industries of our country and benefits our
homes. I have heard it said sometimes at various points on the journey where
we have stopped, ' This is God's country,' but, where is there a spot that God's
autograph is not written plainly upon on the great mountains which his
shoulders have pushed up on the vast fields, fertile and beautiful ? We have
seen wonderful things in the flowers, in oranges, in corn, in the minds, in the
mills, and in the meadows; but the greatest of all has been the patriotism of the
people. Whether on the dewless plains, or in the mountains, or the ravines
bright and beautiful, wherever we have been scattered, we cannot lose sight of
the fact that this is one country, we are one people, we have but one God, and
we kneel together around a common altar and sing one song, * My country 'tis of
thee, sweet land of liberty! ' "

There is usually a kind word for a troubled person. To one
telling him tearfully of his mistakes he said :

"Go into the country, take plenty of fresh air, and when you feel restored
come back and I will find you something to do. Then with something to keep
yourself employed, you will forget your mistakes, and will be contented and
happy. Who does not make mistakes? Why, if I was to think only of the mis-
takes I had made I should be miserable indeed."

Mr. Wanamaker has been successful in a notable degree in taking
all of the postal people into his confidence and in winning their
support. He has done this by dealing directly with them as much
as possible. He has written to them and they have written to him,
and all have come to stand upon the same plane of mutual effort
for improvement. He caused his private secretary to write the
postmasters, just after one of his reports had been published :

" The Postmaster General has caused to be sent to you a copy of his annual
report for this year. He directs me to ask you if you will kindly study it and
write him as fully and frankly as possible, what you think can properly be said,
either against the recommendations contained in it or in support of them. He
desires to gather the best practical postal opinion obtainable from all quarters
of the country as to the best means of improving the postal service in every branch
and detail. The Postmaster General would therefore be much indebl
early reply to this request."

898 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

A Chicago mail collector had defended his satchel against a des-
perate assault of armed men. The Postmaster General saw it in
the papers, and wrote him :

" I have read with great interest the newspaper accounts of your bravery in
defending the mails entrusted to your charge against two robbers, and I beg to
thank you for this sturdy example of fidelity and duty. These exhibitions of
courage, while no more praiseworthy, perhaps, than the steady devotion and
nerve of the post office force in general, do more good than you are aware of."

Once, when a presidential party visited the city of Cleveland, the
Postmaster General slipped over to the post office, where the clerks
and carriers had gathered to greet him. These are a few of the
things he said:

" The postal service is not a set of public buildings and a book of regulations,
but it is the brains and hearts of 150,000 men, and its goodness is measured by
the intelligence and devotion of the silent, steady, everyday workers such as you,
who stand at your office cases and tread the streets from door to door with your
heavy burdens of mail. I beg you not to think that the Department at Washing-
ton is a heartless machine of old wheels belted with red tape.

" The long hours come from twenty men being loaded with the work that fairly
calls for twenty-five men. The five men short are because of a short appropria-
tion. If the Department could be trusted with sufficient money to remedy this
overburdened system, there would be no dissatisfaction with the hours."

No conference of officials or employees of any sort at the Depart-
ment but had to have a short speech from the Postmaster General.
These are some of the things he said at one of the meetings of
inspectors :

" I don't think that any one man knows it all; each of us may learn, from the
highest official down to the lowest. We are a very foolish people if we shut our
ears and eyes to what other people are doing. I often pick up things from
strangers; as you go along, pick up suggestions here and there, dot them down
and send them along. Even writing them down helps to concentrate your mind
on that part of the work.

" I am very much interested in trying for a self-supporting service. I do not
think it essential, and do not know why we should be self-supporting any more
than the Interior and other Departments. But there is just this much about it;
a deficiency is against proper appropriation. They do not think what it costs to
run other departments, but all the time harp on what it costs to run the Post
Office Department.

" You have got to help. You have got to give me your wit and wisdom and your
practical touch on everything as you get opportunity. You need not be afraid of
overstepping the mark and treading on somebody's heels. If you tread on the
chief's heels I will applaud you, and he may tread on mine. The more we push
each other the better."

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY. 899

Postmaster General Wanamaker rarely takes any business home
with him. If a person has come from a distance to see him, or if a
matter in hand is something which makes the quiet of the library
essential, an exception is made. But just as he turns every moment
at his office to business account, he diverts and enjoys himself every
moment at home. There are plenty of reasons why he should. He
himself likes fun. He likes games, music, literature, and most of
all pictures not most of all, though, because the family is more
attractive still the sons, successful; the daughters, clever; the
wife, full of old-fashioned sense, and hospitality, and heart. Only
intimates may know of the good they do, the Postmaster General
and his wife. There are sick people, and what they want is some-
how sent to them. Here, when the home is empty, a young friend
marries and comes on invitation to make free with the house and the
horses. There, some appreciative, old-time family friends occupy
the summer cottage for the season. Here is the almost daily com-
panionship and hope by the death bed of a leader of his party. It is
a hard home to leave, the home in I Street. But the Postmaster
General goes to Philadelphia on Saturday, and now and then a
friend may go with him to the seashore or the country, to the quiet
hospitality of Cape May or the quiet hospitality of Lindenhurst;
and Mr. Wanamaker has been known to take a friend along, stipu-
lating that he should not go to the Sunday school, as it might not
be so restful. It is a man worth studying; and many a one has
asked, Is he not ambitious? Some one referred to a newspaper
account that he wanted to be senator from Pennsylvania. He
laughed and said :

"I have no ambition to be other than a good Postmaster General. It is not
reasonable for me to suppose that I can make myself great in the role of states-
manship. My whole training has been that of a business man, and while I
might perhaps hope to make myself a great merchant, I could hardly expect to
succeed more than ordinarily well in an untried field. I accepted the Postmaster
Generalship with a desire to do what good I could for the country, and because I
believe it the duty of every American citizen to take part in such adminstration
of the Government as comes to him."

Some have said that Postmaster General Wanamaker's name has
been more in the papers than any other public man's. This is
probably not true; though, whatever horrible crimes have been laid
at his door, obscurity is not one of them. He has been talked about

900

^Si^\

**''<

THE BEST OF THE NEWSPAPER LIBELS.

D01

902 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

very much for several reasons. One is that he was a shopkeeper
and a Sunday school superintendent; and it seemed to be the notion
of the paragrapher that neither one of these individuals had any
business in public life, and surely a man who happened to be both
really had no place on the face of earth. These gibes have stopped
now mostly because there are too many shopkeepers and too many
religious people in this American country, and they are two classes of
citizens who are important to almost any public journal. The Post-
master General has made fights against powerful interests, and these
have caused a good deal of the abuse. He had been a great adver-
tiser. But last, he has been doing things, and they could not help
attracting attention.

There was always something cheerful and amusing in the lies
about Postmaster General Wanamaker. His private secretary saw
this and early began to devote one of his cabinet cases, long since
too small, to a collection of this delightful fiction delightful when
it deals with the public affairs of men, not so delightful, but just as
harmless, when the sanctity of anybody's household is invaded.
There was a cheap, unsuccessful farce produced in a far Western
city, which was unsuccessful because it was cheap enough to have
a caricature of the Postmaster General in it; and this same Post-
master General was represented as sending his private secretary
across the continent to see what the farce was really like. No mat-
ter where one of the tens of thousands of post office clerks had been
discourteous in the last four years, he had been put up to it by the
Postmaster General. He has been accused of having a business
venture with such a really horrible person as Governor Hill. And,
of course, it appeared in very many public journals that the Post-
master General secured the passage of the Postal Aid bill in order
that he himself might have half the money. So, too, a former
clerk of the Department, who had lost his place for the trifling cause
that he had gone insane, was seriously interviewed upon the short-
comings of the Post Office Department in general and of the Post-
master General in particular by all the really independent Chicago
papers. Some Boston scholar and gentleman picked up a Postal
G-uide published before the Postmaster General's order excluding
advertisements was issued and of course it is at once apparent to
the meanest intellect that he was permitting only Republican

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY. 903

newspapers to advertise in it. And you, too, Brutus! Here was
the editor of the chief Republican organ of Brooklyn, who note
that the Postmaster General wanted to extend the free delivery
service into the country, and asked if his idea was also to have the
Government present every farmer with a free telephone and a free
telegraph instrument. That was the most unkindest cut of all.

It is only a few months ago that the Philadelphia shop used to be
the meat and drink of the cheerful liar. The stories about the shop
are variegated and fugacious. There are two other firms in Phila-
delphia which have the name of Wanamaker in them. With one of
these the Postmaster General had something to do years ago. But,
of course, it was none the less true that Mr. John Wanamaker was
responsible for all the actions of these concerns, and that they ought
to close up and go out of business as his own ought. Then, as
with the postal service, everything done at the business house of the
Postmaster General was somehow attributed to him personally, and,
of course, he always had a tape measure in his pocket and was fre-
quently crying "cash" to small boys. A good place to find the
variegated and fugacious lie about the shop was in the columns of
the journal, whether published in Philadelphia or vicinity, which
had been found to be worthless as an advertising medium and of
still less consequence as a blackmailer. Oh, but these people were
going to have such a disgraceful person as this out of the Cabinet!
But all the stories were stale and flat compared with the fantastic
observations of the English press; for the question whether the Post-
master General could be tolerated any longer quickly became inter-
national, and tears were shed over the President; for if he permitted
such things to go on, he would disappear entirely from the public
view in a few months at the farthest.

One of the cleverest newspaper men in New York once wrote
verses upon some of these things. They ran :

My name is John; I run a great big store.
And I make money; which is not surprising,
When you reflect that each year I do more
Of advertising.

I advertise in papers great and small,
And everybody knows I'm enterprising;
But then, whate'er I do, they, one and all,
Say "advertising" !

904 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

When I was born, if they could have foreseen
The heights to which I have of late been rising,
The comment on my crying would have been :
"He's advertising."

I started once a mammoth Sunday school
My duty to my neighbors recognizing
But every day some narrow-minded fool
Said "advertising" !

If, as a business man, I take a hand
In a municipal reform uprising,
The others in it are a faithful band ;
I'm "advertising."

I bought a famous picture recently,
My best artistic judgment exercising,
And now all jealous Gotham says of me:
" He's advertising."

I've given my employees cooperation,
They will do better work for realizing
A share of profits; but full half the nation
Says: "advertising" !

I worked for Harrison in '88;
Now in his Cabinet I sit, advising;
Whene'er I'm mentioned in affairs of state,
I'm " advertising."

No doubt 'twill be the same thing when I die.
They'll say I did it for the eulogizing
Which is not grudged to others dead; but I
"All advertising!"

Then there was the ever present labor question. A New York
paper printed a bogus interview with an alleged factory inspector
and promptly a dozen more or less important organs of public
opinion printed lurid articles about Wanamaker's white slaves, and
one brave editor cried, " Throttle him ! " The shop has a mutual
benefit society which provides the sick and the heirs of the dead
with money. Out of this a lottery organ in New Orleans constructed
a very interesting novelette to the effect that the saintly Wana-
maker has a compulsory life insurance company organized in order
to drive the regular companies out of business. The firm of John
Wanamaker, importer, have cases against the customs officers for
wrong valuations, as all other importing firms do, by the dozen,
daily, probably ; and once, when the Wanamaker firm secured judg-
ment for a few hundred dollars, it was currently printed that the

A POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DAY. 905

Postmaster General had " beaten the Government " out of anywhere
from 8300,000 to $1,500,000. And this was not the humorous
thing, but the fact rather that the letters began to come in from the
regulation beggar asking for a portion of this money. A New York
importer had some ribbons or something sent to him through the
mails, upon which, for some reason, he had had the name of Wana-
maker put, and columns are printed, and here at last was the
Postmaster General convicted. He was a smuggler! Not by a
unanimous vote, however, for a brave, sagacious fellow in the West
wrote about him seriously as a " poco " collecting second-hand
clothing.

It was announced once upon a time that two new sizes of postal
cards would be issued; and soon the story was that they would be
of several tints and would be scented, and then a pleasant variation
was that thereafter all postage stamps would be gummed with
mucilage of the flavors of all the favorite syrups. A great deal of
wrath was spent over these tints, and scents, and flavors. But
friendly papers rushed valiantly to the rescue. And so it usually
happened.

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES,

HE Washington residence of the Postmaster
General is one of the historic houses of
the Capital. Through a dozen administrations
it has followed a notable career; and during
forty years, from season to season, its hospit-
able roof has sheltered brilliant gatherings
of the famous men and women of the Federal
City. The house was built by Col. J. J. Abert, the first chief of the
United States Topographical Engineers, and in succession has been the
home of Hon. James Donald Cameron, Senator Frelinghuysen, Secre-
tary of State under President Arthur, and of Hon. William C. Whit-
ney, Secretary of the Navy under President Cleveland, from whom
it passed into the hands of Postmaster General Wanamaker.

Occupying an ample frontage on I Street, just west of Seven-
teenth, in a neighborhood which has long been a quiet but fashiona-
ble residence quarter, the house antedates by several decades the
present era of fanciful architecture, and presents an uncompromising
front of red brick, topped by a mansard roof. If unpretentious, it
has a solid, comfortable appearance, while the vines, trailing over
the columns at the entrance, give the necessary touch of the pictur-
esque. Notwithstanding its plain exterior, the interior has always
been a notably handsome one, the decorations under the tenancy
of the Whitneys being particularly rich and lavish. The house
retained most of these furnishings when acquired by the Postmaster
General, but before, the gayeties of the first official season began,
the old mansion was in a measure refurnished mostly in the way
of bric-a-brac, embroideries, carvings and the like ; those innumera-
ble ornamental belongings which take on a sort of individuality,

The material and illustrations touching the Washington home of the Wanamakers are
derived from Miss Frances Benjamin Johnston's article in Demorest's Magazine.

906

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

907

and can scarcely be classed as furniture. Aside from these addi-
tions, some fifty paintings were brought over from the home* collec-
tion, and thus the decorative glories of the Whitney ball room,
while still guarded intact, were merged into the artistic beauties of

NUMBER 1731 I STREET.

the Wanamaker picture gallery. With its former elegance enhanced
by these changes, this noted interior continued the setting of a
delightful hospitality, which amply filled the traditions .
house, and rendered the most casual visit a pleasure.

Through the columned portal, with its garland of vines, 1

THE FIRST SALON.

THE SECOND SALON.

908

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

909

entrance is direct into an old-fashioned entry-way of forty years ago
- which would seem almost commonplace, were it not for its belong-
ings of antique wood carvings. Elaborately wrought tables, hall
chairs and stiff mediaeval benches stand here and there, while a fine
old grandfather's clock ticks solemnly in one corner. Though the
hall is somewhat sombre, one of the brightest, cosiest apartments is
just at the right of the entrance. This is a cheery little ante-room,

THE ANTE-ROOM.

boasting scores of attractive things, mostly in black and white, to
capture the eye and interest of the visitor. The walls are covered
with a small art gallery in monotone, presenting an array of etchings,
fine engravings, rare old prints, sketches in pencil, or pen and ink,
with here and there a photograph; the low shelves on either side of
the comfortable hearth being filled with books and magazines.
Martin Luther in bronze sits commandingly in the centre of the
mantel-piece, while photographs of the President and Mrs. Harrison
adorn either end. Not far from the hearth a pretty writing table in

910

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

oak, conveniently furnished, stands ready for the dispatch of hur-
ried note or leisurely letter, and all about are easy couches and snug
arm chairs for the morning half hour's enjoyment of the newspapers
or the latest periodical.

Just across from the ante-room and on the left of the hall, the en-
trance is into the first of the suite of salons where the scheme of
decoration is extremely dainty and tasteful quite after a woman's

THE DINING ROOM.

heart. The prevailing color is soft rose, which delicately tints the
walls, and the silken draperies, portieres and hangings fall in
graceful lines and folds all about the room ; and the light from chan-
delier and lamps shines through gauzy pink shades, casting a rosy
glow over the entire apartment. The furniture is in the type of
the Empire spindle-legged, carved, and much be-gilt with
brocaded upholstery in old rose and faded blue and an occasional
piece furnished in a rich damask of gold and gray satin. There
are a few exceptionally fine water colors on the walls, notably a

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

911

Spanish sketch, glowing with brilliant color, by the unrivalled
Vibert and the "Return from the Horse Fair," by Rosa Bonheur.
Framed delicately in white and gold, these art treasures only
emphasize the exquisite daintiness which characterize the room.

Heavy portieres of plush hang on either side of the broad entrance
leading into the second drawing room, on the right of which is the
dining-room the ballroom being at the end of the suite. This

THE ENTRANCE TO THE PICTUKE GALLERY.

second salon is also very delicate in tone, the walls and ceiling
carrying a pale lemon tint, with a wide frieze in graceful design of con-
trasting shades. Most of the furniture is of heavy gilt, upholstered in
rich and quaintly florid tapestry, whose astonishing blossoms suggest
the impossible posy gardens which flourished so proudly on our grand-
mothers' samplers. There are many bits of beautiful embroidery
draped here and there, and a specially rich and elaborate square
hangs upon the wall at one side, serving as a background for a
spirited, finely modeled bronze bust of Joan of Arc. A pr(

THE FIREPLACE IN THE PICTURE GALLERY

912

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES. 913

Watteau screen in an ornate gilt frame occupies one corner, while
several lacquered and inlaid cabinets and decorative tables carry a
bewildering array of choice bric-a-brac. Several fine pictures adorn
the walls, and with books, flowers and potted plants, add the final
touches to this charming interior. For all its attractions nobody
seems to come to a full stop in the second drawing-room, as the
regions bordering upon it are always certain to offer to the guests
of the house something better than the charm of merely inanimate
things. There is always a tendency to linger in the first of the
salons where, on reception days, the hostess holds her pleasant
court; and if a steadily advancing throng of arrivals brings the
necessity of "moving on," one is certain to find a delightful haven
in the dining-room, where the pretty daughter of the house, and her
corps of equally pretty assistants, preside over the tea and the
chocolate.

The dining-room is one of the most inviting rooms imaginable.
A flood of warm light comes in through the latticed windows which
fill one entire side of the apartment, and reflects a cheery glow from
the crimson damask with which the walls are hung. The furnish-
ings are simple and elegant a few rare pictures, a tasteful arrange-
ment of china and plate upon the substantial sideboard, and a
profusion of palms, ferns and blossoming plants which everywhere
mark a charming hobby of the hostess, and bring into higher relief
the ruddy cheerfulness of the room. It is here, on Cabinet days,
that the young people gather in gay groups to chat over their after-
noon tea while the brilliant throng of society moves in and out.

Through an archway leading from the dining-room the picture
gallery is reached a third magnetic centre, where the Postmaster
General perhaps, brisk and very genial, more than shares the
honors with his famous pictures. This room is the far-famed
ballroom added by Secretary Whitney, and there is hardly an interior
in Washington more talked about or oftener described than this
same handsome apartment. With good reason, too, --for with
its rich decoration, wealth of artistic treasure, and frequent assem-
blages of notable people, it has always been one of the famous salons
of the Capital. The coloring of the room is an effective blending
of pale terra-cotta and light brown, relieved by points of gilt,
woodwork is all in brown and gilt, while the walls are hung in terra-

914

THE STORY OF diUR POST OFFICE.

cotta damask, whereon cupids disport themselves gayly amid gar-
lands of roses.

There is a bewildering assortment of chairs, couches and tables,
all more or less gilded, carved or inlaid with seemingly noth-

THE MUSIC CORNER IN THE PICTURE GALLERY.

ing in common but their rich ornamentation, as, apparently, no two
are near enough alike in color or design to claim even distant kin-
ship. Oriental rugs partly cover the floor, and a great bearskin is
stretched in front of the hearth. The mantel and fireplace are
masterpieces of decorative art, and with a heap of logs blazing

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES. 915

upon the brass fire dogs, there is no cosier corner on a wintry day
than the quaint chimney seats on either side the glowing hearth.
Another pleasant feature of the room is the window seat running
under the wide, latticed windows, set into a deep embrasure at one
side, half hidden by dense rows of palms and ferns, which form a
sylvan screen for the low platform, where, on festal nights, musi-
cians are stationed. Besides a half dozen stand lamps, there are
only a few well chosen pieces of bric-a-brac placed about on tables;
although the collection of works of art, in editions de luxe, would
easily form a small library. Bric-a-brac and books, tables and
chairs, though otherwise ornamental and attractive, are here mere
accessories; as the vital interest naturally rests in the pictures.
These, as a whole, show the primary requirement of a really fine
collection that is, careful and even judgment of the true artistic
merits of a picture, uninfluenced by the persuasive weight the name
of a great painter is apt to carry.

The paintings, which bear the signatures of such masters as
Millet, Corot, Daubigny, Jules Breton, Bougereau, Van Marcke,
Detaile, De Neuville, or Munkacsy are, as a rule, fine, vigorous
works, owning in themselves some masterly quality to interest the
art lover other than the artist's name. Just at the right of the
entrance is Bougereau's "La Vierge aux Ange," which is one of
this artist's finest religious pictures, and ranks high among his mas-
terpieces. Near it is a characteristic study of rugged and pictur-
esque fisher folk, side by side with a military painting an episode
of the Franco-Prussian war, almost painful in the intensity of its
action. Another echo of this dire and unhappy struggle is the stir-
ring, impassioned bronze, which stands in front of the window
embrasure. Alsace, with the agony of defeat and unavailing sacri-
fice upon her brow, catches in her arms a dying soldier, and grasps
the musket falling from his pulseless hand. The grief, the desola-
tion, the hopelessness of this bitter fight are all living in this
magnificent bronze. Beyond the deep arched window is one of
Bougereau's beautiful, but much too ethereal peasant children.
With neglected knitting clasped between her rosy finger tips, the
little one gazes straight out of the canvas with such tender wistful-
ness that no explanation is needed why the owner calls this
painted bit of womanhood, "My Sweetheart." Near by are a

916

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

"Venetian Sunset," by Ziem, and an exquisite landscape by Dau-
bigny while a genre by Brozik portrays a very interesting inci-
dent, and might fitly be entitled "Showing Grandpa How Baby Can
Walk." Nearer the corner is a fanciful but cleverly treated canvas
by Firman-Girard, where two demure Japanese damsels, lying at
length in the cool shade of a river bank, drop their light fishing
tackle, in the lazy fun of coaxing a brood of pretty ducklings from

THE LIBRARY.

the water. On a draped easel by the fireplace is a particularly fine
cattle piece by E. Van Marcke, "Cattle Grazing on the Edge of the
Forest," which. is replete with calm restfulness. On the opposite
wall a glowing bit of Orientalism by Gerome occupies the corner,
while a quaintly charming Early English interior by Alma Tadema,
a vigorous*" Cuirassier " by Detaille, and a marine by Clays, are
neighbors.

Just here is a grand piano and a litter of music, above which is a
"Studio Interior" by Charlemont. Near this music corner, and

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES. 917

over a small bust of the artist is a genre by Munkacsy, entitled,
"After the Wedding," - a picture full of tender and delicate senti-
ment, and an excellent example of the painter's lighter and happier
vein. Aside from its artistic value, the canvas has for the owner
the deeper charm of personal association, as the demure little bride,
twirling the new wedding ring upon her finger, and her husband
lover watching her with his heart in his eyes are real people, a

A CORNER IN THE LIBRARY.

young Hungarian nobleman and his wife, whom Mr. Wanamaker
met while on a visit to M. de Munkacsy. Farther on "The Image
Vendor " by Brozik, is replete with humor and all the picturesque
ness of a rude Hungarian interior, and "The Flower-market of
Madeleine," by Victor Gilbert, shows a charming and charac
glimpse of Parisian outdoor life. Near by, a delicate water color
by Fortuny and a fine bit of color by Zamacois, hang under
Trumpeter," a splendid figure piece by de Neuvil e A noc
this neighborhood is occupied by one of the gems of the coll

918

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

"A Peasant Woman Sewing," a sm'all square canvas by Millet,
painted with the warmth and richness of color so strongly charac-
teristic of his more notable masterpieces.

Another step brings one to the portal of the ballroom, where
embroidered draperies hang in heavy folds, through which is dis-
closed a pretty vista of the drawing-rooms beyond. An old-
fashioned staircase leads to the floor above, where are the usual
sleeping apartments, handsomely furnished but in nowise remarka-
ble, unless it be for their comfort and entire lack of display. Mrs.
Wanamaker's boudoir is furnished with gilded wicker furniture and
old rose hangings, and is as pretty and inviting as it is modest.
The only room on this floor of any individual interest is the library,
whose cosiness, coupled with the wide diversity of its belongings,
tempts one involuntarily to label it a "den." This is the one room

in the house which best testifies
to the instructive personality of
the Postmaster General, and
shows him to be a man pos-
sessed of more than one vital in-
terest in life, every one of which
he has pushed to a successful
issue by sheer force of character.
The compass straws for such an
inference are here on every side.
A littered desk in the centre of
the room, easy chairs all about,
books in a solid phalanx against
the walls; while above them
hang numberless prints and
etchings.

Almost as conspicuous at Cape
May Point as President Harri-
son's cottage is the great square
house of the Postmaster General.
It stands near the summer home of the President. It is three stories
high, with wide verandas all around that command a sweeping view
of the Atlantic on three sides. At high tide, indeed, one may
stand on the lawn and toss a pebble into the boiling surf. During

THE LIGHTHOUSE AT CAPE MAY POINT.

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES. 919

the rough weather in the fall of 1891 the sea beat over the wall and
carried away a goodly strip of this same front lawn. Since then
Mr. Wanamaker has had a much stronger and higher wall built.
Between this wall and the surf is as fine a piece of beach as can be
found on the Jer-
sey Coast, and here
the President and
the Postmaster
General, or any
distinguished so-
journers at the
Summer Capital,
may disport them-
selves like por-
poises in the surf.
Mr. Wanamaker' s
house is a substan-
tial frame cottage,

THE COTTAGE AT CAPE MAY POINT.

with a wide hall

on each floor running clear through, with parlor and library opening
off one side, and dining and breakfast rooms on the other. The
upper portion is almost entirely devoted to sleeping rooms. The
entire establishment is furnished with quiet taste, but elegant
withal; and the inviting rooms have a restful, home-like appearance
even to the most superficial observer.

But Lindenhurst ! In the very heart of the Chelten Hills, rich
in scenes not only of great natural beauty but also of deep historic
import, there lies an irregular piece of land of about thirty-six acres,
one mile southward from Jenkintown, Pa., bounded on the north
by Washington Lane, on the south by the North Penn Railroad,
and on the east by the Old York Road. It slopes rapidly up
from the railroad, forming a rolling plateau cut up by shady ravines
and thickly covered with stately trees. On the apex of a small
hillock, screened from sight as one approaches from the Avest, stands
a magnificent mansion. This is " Lindenhurst, " the country seat of
the Postmaster General.

Ten years ago the topographical appearance of the grounds had
undergone no material change from the troublous times of a century

920

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

921

THE JAY COOKE MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT OGONTZ.

before, when the eyes of the infant republic were centered upon
the locality where Washington, with his half-famished but still
hopeful army, then
lay encamped. The
thirty-six acre plot,
then known as
"Mather's Place,"
was half arable
ground and half
dense woods. Chest-
nuts and oaks vied
proudly with each
other aspiring to
the skies ; and from
their gnarled roots
miniature rivers
bubbled forth and
ran riotously down the hillsides into the bosom of Tacony Creek.
Further up, upon the banks of this quiet stream, the flower and
pride of the Continental Army eked out a miserable existence dur-
ing that wretched
winter of 1777-78.
The rolling pla-
teau lying between
the York Road and
the old road to Ger-
mantown formed an
admirable lookout
for the Continental
outposts, and many
a signal passed from
there to the head-
quarters at Fort
Washington, four THE ENTRA NCE TO CHELTENHAM ACADEMY.

^al^iim ishes with King George's troops took place in that im-
mediate neighborhood, and there still stands upon the
Road, almost within a stone's throw of Lmdenhurst, a plain

922

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

erected over the grave of a soldier killed in one of these encounters.
The old road which bounds Lindenhurst on the north was used by
Washington when his army marched upon the British at German-
town, and it was over the same thoroughfare that the Continental
army, defeated but not disheartened, made its retreat. To this
fact is due the subsequent naming of the road Washington Lane.

The Old York Road is not less prominent from an historical
point of view. Old chroniclers say that commissioners were
appointed by the Colonial Government in 1711 to survey and lay
out this roadway connecting Philadelphia and New York; and it

has been called the
first turnpike in
the entire country.
That portion of the
thoroughfare which
cuts through Chel-
ten Hills is skirted
by several old build-
ings that have
played prominent
parts in the past his-
tory of the neighbor-
hood. " Ivy Green,"
from time imme-
morial the mansion
of the wealthy Shoemaker family, still stands on the easterly
side of the road, with scarcely a change in any of the details
which caused it to be known as the "handsomest house in the
country," when John and Charles Shoemaker built it, over a
hundred years ago. Many notable personages had been hospitably
housed there, and the old gray walls, if they could only speak,
would offer information never set down in books.

Tacony Creek flows at the foot of the lawn, and the old stone
bridge which crosses it a few hundred yards distant is still an object
of interest. The wide span of solid masonry, built in 1798, is a
marvel of strength and beauty. On the left of the bridge, going
north, stands the old Shoemaker Mill, now Bosler's, erected in
1744. This establishment, together with Mather's grist mill, a

BOSLER'S MILL,.

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

923

MATHER'S MILL, NOW THE ELECTRIC PLANT.

mile or so above, contributed much to the support of the Continental
Army during its encampment in the neighborhood. Mather's mill
stood at the foot of
the rolling plateau
mentioned above for
nearly one hundred
and fifty years, be-
ing finally remod-
elled a decade ago
to fit it for Mr.
Wanamaker's elec-
tric light plant and
power house. The
three hundred acres
lying to the south
of the mill had been
the property of the
Mather family for two centuries, having been conveyed by patent
of William Penn to John Russell in 1681. Russell's only daugh-
ter, Elizabeth, shortly after married Joseph Mather, in whose fam-
ily the property re-
mained for over a
century, when it
was split up into
lots and sold. Mr.
Wanamaker bought
the thirty-six acres,
embraced by the two
highways and the
railroad, ten years
ago, and proceeded
at once to lay out the
grounds of a country
seat which has since
become the pride of

Cheltenham township, and of the entire county, for that matter.

The natural beauty of the land made artificial embellishment in

some cases unnecessary; but Mr. Wanamaker spared no activity or

AN ENTRANCE TO LINDENHURST.

924

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

thought to make the place as beautiful as possible. Nature was im-
proved upon here, or left in its primeval grandeur there; in one
place a too precipitous hillock was levelled or a deep ravine filled
up. The touch of art brought forth from the arid ground wide
sheets of water and crystal fountains. The monarchs of the forest
were spared whenever possible. The natural vigor of the broad
lawns was intersected by innumerable shady footpaths, until the
place became a veritable park of parks. And here is Governor

THE LAKE AT ONE OF THE ENTEANCES.

Beaver's tree, and there President Harrison's the trees that they
themselves have planted.

One approaching from the railroad station crosses a rustic bridge
spanning a miniature lake, dotted with the graceful, snowy outlines
of a flock of swans. The road, after leaving the bridge, plunges at
once into a magnificent grove of trees, proceeding thence by a
gentle ascent to the top of the hill. Turning a bend in the road,
the visitor is suddenly brought face to face with the magnificent
outlines of the mansion itself. A broad horticultural panorama

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

925

spreads away in the distance. The house itself is of the Queen
Anne style of architecture, built of gray stone quarried on the
grounds, with a roof of bright red tiles. Wide, breezy porches run
around the entire house, commanding a grand view of all parts of the
grounds except where the envious trees spread their umbrageous
screens. From that portion of the veranda adjacent to the main
hallway one may obtain an unobstructed view of the most beautiful
part of the grounds. The lawn spreads away like a seamless carpet

THE MANSION AT LINDENHURST.

upon which its numerous perfectly kept flower beds appear like in-
woven figures. The waves of a large artificial lake dance between
sloping banks, and swans and pleasure boats float upon its surface.

To the south the topographical formation is entirely changed. A
tiny fountain plashes musically among ferns and water lilies, feed-
ing a miniature stream, which like some Lilliputian cascade plunges
over a series of small rocky ledges, swirls through little ravines,
and finally subsides in a pool where gold fish sport under the shadow
of a pretty rustic bridge.. Over this a tiny footpath crosses and

926

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

passes through a shady summer house. One pausing here to rest is
apt to forget the bustle and the turmoil of business and political life
so potently exemplified in the great house a distance away behind
the trees. There the architect has shown a master's hand. The
huge door of the main entrance is like the gate of a mediaeval castle,
and one has only to imagine a moat surrounding the house to make
the picture complete.

The opening of the door is not calculated to dispel the first

LOOKING FROM THE VERANDA.

impression. The elegance of the interior, seen in the soft light
streaming through stained glass windows, is like a scene from the
days of long ago. There is the broad hallway, with its tassellated
floor and elegant furnishings, with antique chairs scattered here
and there and with its high walls tastefully adorned with trophies
of the chase. To the left, as one may enter, is the front drawing-
room, spacious and comfortable and at the same time handsome. The
floor of hard polished wood is covered with Oriental rugs, and the
walls, furniture and other details are in perfect harmony. Hand-

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

927

some oil paintings adorn the walls; but one that is prized above all
the others is that of the elder daughter, painted in 1888, by the
celebrated Brozik in Paris. Adjoining this apartment is the dining-
room, furnished throughout in dark, warm colors. The immense
old-fashioned sideboard groans under its load of plate, while in
another corner the most valuable of the family china, principally
fine old Louis Phillipe, may be seen through the glass doors of

AMONG THE BOOKS.

walnut cabinets. The room is lighted from the west by a single
window of stained glass representing Millet's famous painting
"The Angelus." Over the broad doorway leading to the hrea
room are several specimens of art in stained glass depicting biblical
scenes, each complete in detail and of great richness of coloring
The breakfast room, or conservatory, a symphony in pale blue, and
brown, finished in oak, looks to the south through deep windows.
The mosaic floor is partially concealed by heavy rugs. The butler s
quarters in the rear would afford hours of delight to the connoisseur

928

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

in fine china. The walls are entirely surrounded by large open cup-
boards containing many thousand pieces of Dresden and Limoges
dinner- ware.

To the right of the large hallway is the library, an ideal apart-
ment of its kind, with a huge open fireplace to make it cosey and
warm in the winter, while it may be made equally as cool and
inviting a retreat during the heated term by the opening of the low
windows that face the wide sweep of lawn on the east. There the

ALDERNEYS IN THE WHITE WEED.

broad carriage drive winds its crooked course up the hill and circles
gracefully under the arch of heavy masonry before the door. The
most exacting bibliomaniac could not ask a greater boon than to be
permitted to draw up his easy chair before any one of the many
handsome bookcases lining the walls. They contain several thou-
sand rare volumes upon all manner of themes. The fittings of the
room are entirely of antique oak. Through the heavy curtains
draping the rear door of this quiet alcove a view may be had of the
comfortable home room, with its walls richly tapestried in golden
brown and its highly polished hardwood floors, the latter spread

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

with elegant rugs, and the former, as in the front drawing-room,
thickly covered with paintings of rare beauty. There is one mas-
terpiece in particular which catches the eye as soon as the visitor
enters the room. It depicts a young girl, in whose face rests an
expression soft and intellectual, seated gracefully in an easy chair,
in a setting of palms and flowering plants. It is a portrait of the
younger daughter, and in the corner appears the signature of the
artist and the date: "M. de Munkacsy, 1889." The room is filled
with articles of virtu, many of fabulous worth, no doubt.

Passing out into the hall again, and up the grand staircase, one
reaches a broad landing, a sort of entresol, in the rear wall of which
is built a magnifi-
cent organ. One
passes on to the main
landing, and so into
the picture gallery
directly over the
lower hall. Rich
oil paintings, deli-
cate water colors,
rare old etchings
and engravings,
with an occasional
old print of centu-
ries back, hang here THE STABLES AT LmDENH uBST.
in profusion. On
either side are the main bed chambers, all harmoniously dec-
orated in some favorite colors with hangings and appurtenances
of the finest texture. One room in particular is worthy of
especial mention. It is an alfresco study in pale blue with polished
maple wainscoting and furniture, and with stained-glass windows of
rich coloring and delicate design, bearing representations of
Good Shepherd and other religious subjects. The upper floor :
also devoted to luxurious chambers, and above in the great square
tower is the indispensable guest chamber. In the rear are t
servants' quarters, together with a commodious nursery,
nursery as applied to this apartment is rather a misnomer, mas-
nuch as those whose sanctum it once was have since abandoned it

930

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

for the drawing-room and the delights and drudgeries of society. It
is still an admirable lounging place, however.

The stable, a low, rambling structure built of stone similar to
that used in the construction of the house, is directly in the rear of
the chef's domain. Here ample accommodations are afforded for the
blooded animals in which the master of the house, and all the
members of the family, for that, take such interest. To the left
of the stalls is the harness room, fitted up with plain oak closets

THE BARNS AND THE GEEENHOUSES.

with doors of plate glass. To the right is the carriage room, where
the half dozen or more family turnouts are housed. But his horses
are not the only specimens of the brute creation which Mr. Wana-
maker likes to have about. He has a herd of thoroughbred cows,
small as to numbers, it is true, but decidedly large as far as money
value is concerned. There is just a round dozen of them, all full-
blooded Alderneys, Jerseys and Ayrshires, with pedigrees as long
as their tails. According to old John Getty, whose sole task it is
to care for them, they recognize their great importance and are

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES.

931

THE NATATOK1UM AND BOWLING ALLEY.

always well behaved, giving on an average about one hundred and
twenty quarts of milk a day, all of which is used in some form or
other at the big
house on the hill.
The barn is a partic-
ularly roomy struct-
ure, fitted up with
all modern im-
provements; and it
stands on the edge
of a large pasture
lot not far distant
from the dairy. The
latter, perched upon
a bed of rock in a
cool valley, resem-
bles nothing so
much as an Alpine cottage. The walls are of rough hewn gray
stone, covered *by a low shingle roof. The interior is as clean and
sweet as one could imagine. The tassellated floors, and the cream-
colored wainscoting
of tiles, surmounted
by pale blue walls
and ceilings in the
interior, go to make
up a very pretty
picture. Here old
John Getty makes
the many pounds
of rich butter for
the folks at Lin-
denhurst and for
the household in
Washington.

South of the dai-
ry stands the natatorium and ten-pin alley recently erected.
The building is two stories high; the first floor is occupied by
a swimming pool a hundred feet long. The tank is lined with

HODMAN WANAMAKER S HOUSE

932 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

white tiles, over which a clear stream of limpid water runs, after
being warmed to a comfortable temperature by a boiler in the
cellar. Electric lights make the place bright at night. Friends
of the family frequently run out from the neighboring city to enjoy
the delights of this retreat. The spirit of progress has also shown
itself in another portion of the grounds. Near the entrance to Lin-
denhurst the old grist mill of Isaac Mather stood as a landmark for
over a century, until finally compelled to give way before the march
of modern improvement. Where the old-fashioned mill stones once

THE HATTIE WANAMAKER MEMORIAL CHAPEL.

ground grimly the farmer's grain, more modern machinery now rat-
tles and whirs to supply water and light to the mansion. The
power house also supplies Mr. Rodman Wanamaker's residence on
the road above. This latter house stands on the brow of a hill and
from the front porch can be seen the tower of Lindenhurst across the
intervening valley.

An admirer of Mr. and Mrs. Wanamaker wrote recently:

"There is a part of the life of the Postmaster General known to but few of
those who see him as politician or business man ; it is his home life. Always Mr.
Wanamaker has made a point of leaving his business cares behind him when he
entered his home, and doing this has kept him young and given when there his
happy, thoughtless moments. It is no unusual sight to see the Postmaster
General running nimbly over the lawn of his beautiful home at Jenkintown, a
crowd of laughing young people in hot pursuit; and a lively chase he leads them,
before he is caught, if he is caught.

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES. 983

" This country home, you know, is particularly dear to both the Postmaster
General and Mrs. Wanamaker, and there the happiest hours in his busy life are
spent among the flowers and trees and birds. It is his custom, when at home, to
rise early each morning and spend a few minutes at least walking about the
grounds. He says it makes the day easier when he carries some of the morning
freshness into his office with him. For every one, from the old flagman at the
station to the dogs about the place, he has a kindly greeting when he meets them,
and they all feel better for having seen and spoken to him.

" It is a custom of Mr. Wanamaker' s to invite his Bible class each year to
spend a day with him at Lindenhurst. This day he keeps free from business,
and he gives his whole time to the entertainment of his guests, many of whom
never see the country at any other time and look forward to this visit from year
to year. The beautiful grounds present a most festive appearance upon this
yearly fete day; swings hang from the trees and games of tennis and croquet dot
the lawns, while everywhere groups of happy people wander about, to many of
whom, as one old woman once remarked, * It seems like Paradise.' They have a
dinner in the woods and a short talk from the host; and then they go home in the
cool of the evening to look forward to next year, when they will enjoy it all over

A STAET IN LIFE,

OHN WANAMAKER was born in 1837 in
what is now the southwestern section of
Philadelphia. This principally comprises
the twenty-sixth ward, but at that time it
was called the Neck, from the fact that it
lay between the Schuylkill and Delaware
Rivers. On his mother's side John Wana-
maker was descended from the Kochersper-
gers, a Dutch Huguenot family. His ma-
ternal grandmother's name before her marriage was Deshong.
The Kocherspergers came
to Pennsylvania from Hol-
land in the latter part of
the eighteenth century, and
settled on a farm near
Darby, Delaware County,
Pa., now a pleasant Phila-
delphia suburb on the Phil-
adelphia, Wilmington &
Baltimore Railroad, about
six miles out of the city.
When the Kocherspergers
settled at Darby it was a
farming country almost en-
tirely unimproved. The
great-grandfather Wana-
maker, and the grandfather
also, whose name was John,
came from Germany and
settled on a farm in Hunter-

NELSOX WANAMAKEK.

934

A START IN LIFE.

935

down County, N. J., where they lived for several years. Here the
grandfather married, and he afterwards went west and settled in
Ohio. Four children were born to them there. Nelson, the Post-
master General's father, was the youngest. There the good grand-
mother died. The grandfather returned with his four children to
Philadelphia and settled in the Neck, where he established a

brickyard. John Wan-

amaker, the elder, was
a tall, austere-looking
man, but of a most kind-
ly disposition. He was
noted among his neigh-
bors for his rugged hon-
esty and just business
uprightness.

In the meantime Nel-
son Wanamaker mar-
ried Elizabeth Deshong
Kochersperger, and on
July 11, 183T, their first
child, John, was born.
Nelson Wanamaker and
his father continued in
the brick-making busi-
ness until 1849. Then THE POSTMA STER GENERAL'S MOTHER.
the father sold his inter-
est in the brickyard to John Hallowell, and went with his wife and
a son and daughter to a small settlement that had no name in those
days, about six miles from Warsaw, Ind., in Kosciusko County. It is
now Leesburg. He settled on a half section of land, having pur-
chased it of a man named Metcalf . He had been in Indiana but a
short time when he sent for his favorite son, Nelson, who also sold
his interest in the brickyard to John Hallowell and started West
with his wife and five children. John Wanamaker was then abc
twelve years old. The journey required nearly a month of
It had to be accomplished by canal or by stage over primitive cor-
duroy roads. Nelson Wanamaker was dissatisfied with the chan^
when he found that the only educational possibility was a log

936

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

schoolhouse a long distance from their home, and that sessions
were held only a few weeks in the year. And his wife was home-
sick. So, the next year, after a stay of about ten months, they all
packed up their belongings and came back. The grandparents-
remained, however, and died at Leesburg.

" I came to this country, " said an old settler in Leesburg not long
since, "just forty years ago. John Wanamaker, grandfather of the
present Postmaster General, died a year or two before I came here.

THE BIKTHPLACE OF JOHN WANAMAKER.

I remember that in connection with farming he preached the Baptist
doctrine, and delivered his sermons at different points about the
neighborhood. He was considered an excellent preacher, and a
good farmer besides. He located at Clunette, or about one and a
half miles west of that village, and just seven miles west of Lees-
burg. Clunette at that time was called North Galveston. The old
homestead is still there. The children of the grandparents have
scattered to different parts of the country, and none remain here
except a daughter, Susan. Susan is a step-aunt of the Postmaster
General. She married Jesse Crabb, and came into possession of

A START IN LIFE. 937

the old Wanamaker homestead, which they now occupy, and they
are in well-to-do circumstances.

" After the grandfather died and the estate was being divided, the
Postmaster General came here twice to look after his interests. He
remained several weeks at a time. He was about twenty-one years
old. He was very fond of his grandmother, and showed her .every
attention. I can imagine that I see him now, with his gentle atten-
tion to 'Gran'ma Lizzie,' as he called her. The affection was
reciprocated, and the two were together much of the time. Every-
body liked young John. There was nothing rough about him ; you
see, when he talked, his voice was mild and kind, and his frank
manner made him the friend of everybody."

The little cemetery lies at the western edge of Leesburg. Marble
monuments stand at the head of the graves of John and Elizabeth
Wanamaker, and over the grave of Sarah, the daughter who died at
three, snowdrops blossom.

After Nelson Wanamaker returned to Philadelphia, he again lived
in the same house at Long Lane and Buck Road that he occupied
before going West, and he bought back his interest in the brick-
yard. John was now sent to a school in the neighborhood, called
the Old Landis School. He went there until the teacher, John
Neff, said to the father:

" It is no use to send John to me any more ; I have taught him all
I know."

This was all the schooling (to be had in schools) that John
Wanamaker ever had.

Nelson Wanamaker not long after disposed of his Philadelphia
business and moved to Chambersburg, Pa., taking his four youngest
children. John and William, being then young men, remained in
Philadelphia. At Chambersburg the father engaged in brick-
making for a brief period prior to his death. This occurred in
1861. The widow and her two youngest children returned to
Philadelphia and lived with the grown-up sons for a while,
but before long John Wanamaker bought a substantial brick
house at Thirteenth and Mt. Vernon Streets for his mother,
and there she lived until her death.

The work the Postmaster General used to do in the brickyard
was before and after school hours. As he himself has said:

938

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

"I would turn the bricks on their edge to let them dry, but
I never worked in the brickyard regularly. The first money I
received was seven copper cents, which seemed to give me an idea,
that if I was ever to do better than my father, I would have to learn
how to save."

Oftener, perhaps, the boy played, as any boy would do, among
the kilns. The Wanamaker brickyard was a great resort for the
Neck boys, and it is related that when the kilns were fired they had
fine times. The truck farmers' sons, it is whispered, even pur-

NELSON WANAMAKER'S BRICKYARD.

loined potatoes, watermelons, and corn from their fathers' fields, and
took them to the kiln house ; and in the meantime, if the night was
dark and the brick-burners had made a raid upon some neighbor,
the broiled chicken made a feast which everybody enjoyed. Some
go so far as to say that on one occasion a kind-hearted woman unsus-
pectingly loaned the revellers her cooking pots, into which they
popped the chicken which they had stolen from her own henhouse.
At the end of the brickyard was a frame schoolhouse, presided
over by an old-fashioned schoolmaster named Simpson. He was a
queer character; and, although not much of a teacher, was power-

A START IN LIFE. 939

ful at either end of a birch rod. He conducted spelling bees, with
his boy and girl pupils ranged on opposite sides. The words were
given out to the girls first, and when one proved too difficult for
them, it was passed over to the boys ; and, startling to relate, the
first boy who spelled it correctly was permitted to kiss all the girls !
The 17th of March was always a holiday, for Simpson was a devout
worshipper at the shrine of Saint Patrick. On that morning he
always came to the school with a big codfish under his arm, and
the Neck boys provided a plentiful supply of potatoes. The cod-
fish was cooked in a big iron pot, and the potatoes were roasted in
the ashes. Then schoolmaster and pupils partook of the feast.

A great many of the brickmakers' helpers were Africans ; and it
is a fact not generally known that a native American party was
originated in the Neck to defend these men, as well as those of
their race employed on the truck farms. In September, 1848, a big
crowd of coalheavers from the Schuylkill wharves, armed with
clubs and knives, made a raid on the Neck for the purpose of exter-
minating the colored men. The first place they visited was Lan-
dreth's nursery. Here they attacked an innocent, inoffensive old
man, who was at work with a man named Daniel Leahy loading
weeds. Leahy begged piteously for the old man's life, but they
nearly beat him to death. The shouts and yells of the rioters
alarmed the colored men in the Wanamaker brickyard and on the
neighboring truck farms, and they fled deeper into the Neck and
concealed themselves in hedges and swamps, where they lay for
days, being fed by their white friends until they were induced to
return to their homes. John Wanamaker's grandfather was always
a friend of these people and at this tiying time kept a dozen or
fifteen of them concealed in his house. A colored man employed by
Robert Dunk, who owned the old Alberti place, had been warned
by a white man at Lombard Street wharf that morning of the upris-
ing. He had just reached home when the mob attacked Landreth's
nursery, and hearing the yell and the old man's cry of "murder,"
he rushed to the barn and concealed himself in the straw mow.
Through a knothole in one of the boards he told his employer's son
Charles what he had heard. Then it was that the "Neckers"
organized to defend their employees. The mob retreated.

The present Postmaster General did not join the other boys much

940 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

in their rough and tumble sports or boyish pranks. His greatest
delight seemed to be in "tinkering" with a few carpenter's tools,
making various things according to his youthful fancy ; some worth-
less, others, such as a pigeon house or perhaps a chicken coop, of
more practical value.

When John Wanamaker was in his fifteenth year he went to work
as an errand boy in the general publishing house, at No. 439 Mar-
ket Street, of Messrs. Hayes & Zell, the Zell of encyclopaedia
fame. His pay was $1.50 a week. On drawing his salary on
Saturday nights his almost invariable custom was to buy a book or
article of some kind for his mother. It is told of him that, when he
was sent on an errand or sent to the performance of any other work,
no fire bells nor circus bands could turn him for an instant from his
duty. Another lad was employed at Hayes & Zell's at the same
time and was his direct opposite in character. Mr. Hayes went to
the war. When the war was over he strolled down Market Street
with a friend. Stopping at Sixth Street, he inquired whose store it
was there. He was told it was John Wanamaker's.

" John Wanamaker, " he repeated, " well, I knew he would make
a man."

The stroll was continued as far as the river front. There, lying
half asleep and stupid from intoxication, lay a man between two big
boxes. Mr. Hayes caught sight of the face and started back. He
looked again.

"There," he said, "as sure as I live, is the other boy who worked
in my place when John Wanamaker did."

But the book business was not satisfactory, and after being with
Hayes & Zell a few months, John Wanamaker left them. He now
went to see about a position with a notable clothier, Joseph M.
Bennett, then proprietor of the shop at 518 Market Street, called
Tower Hall. Young Wanamaker's reason for selecting a clothing
store was, as he said, because it was a business that had possibilities
of great growth; and also it seemed to lead up to the dry goods
business. This same Mr. Bennett was a distant relative by mar-
riage, and at that time he knew the Wanamaker family intimately.
In fact, he seemed to be the confidential adviser of Nelson Wana-
maker, and at one time, when the latter was seriously ill, he sent
for Colonel Bennett to draw up his will. The cordial relations

A START IN LIFE.

941

existing between the two families of course led Mr. Bennett to take
interest in the boy who now went to work in his store. Colonel
Bennett said recently :

"John was certainly the most ambitious boy I ever saw; I used
to take him to lunch with me, and he would tell how he was going
to be a great merchant. He was greatly interested in the temper-
ance cause, and had not been

with me long before he had -^^^^-

persuaded most of the em-
ployees in the store to join the
temperance society in which he
was interested. He was always
organizing something, seemed
to be a natural born organizer.
This faculty is probably largely
accreditable for his great suc-
cess in after life."

As the young man showed
great aptitude for business,
Colonel Bennett soon gave him
charge of the men's furnishing
department, allowing him to
buy goods for that part of the
business. But after working
here a few years, his health
failed. Life was beginning to
look serious. The young man became a convert and joined John
Chambers' Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Broad and Sansom
Streets. At this time, too, he had thoughts of entering the
ministry.

" I was on my feet too much, " as he has said, " running upstairs
and downstairs, and finally I took to spitting blood and was sent
out to Minnesota as a probable consumptive. When I returned
from Minnesota, with the serious thoughts of one likely to die, I
became a convert and joined the Presbyterian Church. I liked the
ministers, and like them yet. In those early days I made speeches
in the Association and in the Sunday school, and would have become
a minister, but the idea clung to my mind that I could accomplish

REV. JOHN CHAMBERS.
(From a Memorial Window at Lindenhurst.)

942 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

more in the same domain if I became a merchant and acquired means
and influence with fellow merchants."

The young man presented himself for enlistment in the army, but
there was the threatened illness, and he was rejected.

Up to the year 1861 John Wanamaker had saved $1,900. He
now induced Nathan Brown to go into business with him. He was
the son of Thomas Brown, a highly respected, old-time Philadel-
phian, whose daughter Mr. Wanamaker married. She saw him
through his struggles, and then, in his prosperity, made it count for
the happiness of her children and her friends, and for hundreds of
the unknown here and there who needed help.

The two young men rented a small store at Sixth and Market
Streets, and on Feb. 23, 1861, each put $2,000 into the business.
They called the firm Wanamaker & Brown, and their establishment
the Oak Hall Clothing Bazaar. Their first bill for store fixtures, on
April 2, 1861, being $375, made a great hole in their little capital;
and a bill of goods from a cloth firm for $739.94 made another
serious inroad on the cash balance. Five people were employed,
mostly very young men, except Mr. John Houghton, who was a
trusted employee at Tower Hall and was induced by Mr. Wana-
maker to leave that prosperous establishment and cast his fortunes
with the new house at the then large salary of $1,250 a year. He
was the first man employed by Mr. Wanamaker, and to this day he
holds an important position at Oak Hall, though all connection of
his old employer with Wanamaker & Brown ceased years ago.

On Monday, April 8, 1861, the firm of John Wanamaker &
Nathan Brown, trading as Wanamaker & Brown, opened their doors
for business at Sixth and Market Streets. There was no crowd of
customers outside waiting for the doors to open; in fact, people
going down Market Street that morning simply glanced at the new
sign without pausing; and some of the most skeptical shrugged
their shoulders, as if to say :

"Humph! they'll soon close up; there are too many clothing
stores in town already."

They did not understand the indomitable perseverance of the
head of that youthful firm. Finally a confiding one dropped in
and decided to leave his measure for a coat. On Tuesday, the 9th,
the head of the concern decided to go to New York to buy a stock

A START IN LIFE. 943

of ready -made goods. He took John Houghton with him. They
went over on Tuesday evening so as to be there early Wednesday
morning, and both occupied the same room in order to save
expenses. All day Wednesday they tramped up and down lower
Broadway and the cross streets in which clothing manufacturers
were located, looking for some one to trust them for a bill of goods.
It was all in vain. Business seemed to be in a more or less chaotic
condition ; the air was full of rumors of secession, and talk of an
open attack on Fort Sumter was heard at every street corner.
That night the two men went to bed footsore and weary, but still
hopeful. Early the next morning Mr. Houghton was awakened by
Mr. Wauamaker, who said :

"John, we'll buy a bill of goods to-day, if we have to pay cash."

They finally found a man who was willing to sell them a few
hundred dollars' worth of clothing on thirty days' time, a period
in those days not considered much better than spot cash. The two
men then returned to Philadelphia.

Although the store was opened for business on April 8, their
opening advertisement did not appear until April 27. It was in
the Public Ledger. On the first page at different places were six
modest little paragraphs, altogether aggregating only twenty-eight
lines. The first one said:

" Oak Hall Clothing Bazaar opens to-day, southeast corner 6th and Market
Streets."

And in another place appeared:

" Oak Hall Clothing Bazaar, southeast corner of 6th and Market Streets.

" Wanamaker & Brown desire to say to their friends and the public generally
that they open to-day with an entire new and complete stock of ready-made
clothing, and having purchased their goods under the pressure of the times
very low rates, will sell them accordingly." f

All during the war the business prospered; each year they accom-
plished more than the preceding year. Success finally led to the
establishment of a store for high class clothing and tailoring at :
Chestnut Street, under the firm name of John Wanamaker & Com-
pany. On Monday, April 5, 1869, this place was opened for busi-
ness. It was successful from the start. After a few years the i
was changed to S. M. Wanamaker & Company, John Wanamaker a
brother Samuel being at the head; and the establishment is still one

944 tHE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of the leading Chestnut Street clothing stores. The Postmaster
General's connection with this firm, too, ceased years ago.

The volume of business done at the two stores was enormous.
Goods were bought in such quantities that they could be sold at
lower prices than were ever known. " Wanamaker clothing " became
famous. It was now thought that business could be carried on
advantageously by establishing branch stores, so in 1872 a store was
started in Pittsburg as Wanamaker & Brown's. Branch stores were
also established in Baltimore, Richmond, Memphis, St. Louis and
Louisville ; but after a time they were all discontinued or sold to
their different managers, and Mr. Wanamaker devoted his energies
exclusively to the Philadelphia business. After the Chestnut Street
store had been running four or five years, Mr. Wanamaker again
determined to "spread out," as it were, and an opportunity such as
he had been looking for soon presented itself. Mr. Wanamaker
referred briefly to this great departure of 1876 in a recent conversa-
tion with Mr. George Alfred Townsend, thus :

" About 1874 the Pennsylvania Railroad offered for sale its freight depot at
Broad and Market Streets, as the erection of the public buildings there was an
obstacle to running in their tracks, and they retired two or three squares
to the west. The idea came to me that it was the greatest situation for a large
store, but I was perplexed and frightened at the idea of making such a purchase.
I could afford it, but with our Pennsylvania caution it seemed like almost a reck-
less thing to do. What am I to do with my two other stores? I thought ; and
then it occurred to me that at my place at Chelten Hills I had once planted, after
removal, a line of trees, and that two of them died because they were too old to
transplant. I thought to myself that perhaps the business places I have are too
old to transplant, and I let them stay and took up the new undertaking as a
third operation. There began my establishment. The ground cost me upwards
of $500,000. They said when I began that I was going to close up all the mer-
chants in Philadelphia and be a tyrant of the trade. The contrary result has
happened. The stores all around me and throughout the city have multiplied
and are better. At times we have them counted to note their increase. The
fact was that business in Philadelphia had gone along in the same ancient way
so long that innovation was almost a duty."

This is too fast, however. There was the religious development
and work in the future Cabinet officer's life. That went on with the
business, practical growth of the man; and it was practical, and
aggressive, and business-like also. Rev. John Chambers, the noble
North Irish man, into whose church and heart the young shop-
keeper went so early, always influenced his younger and his older

A START IN LIFE.

945

life. His Christian Association work soon began. Early in the
year 1854, the Association established itself in a small room on the
south side of Chestnut Street below Seventh. Interest in the move-
ment increased so rapidly there, that it soon became evident to
President George H. Stuart that a paid secretary was a neces-
sity. The name of John Wanamaker, the young clothing store
clerk and one of the most active members of John Chambers' Pres-
byterian Church, was proposed to him and favorably received. The
only objection was the lack of funds to pay the new secretary's
salary of $1,000, but President
Stuart said :

"If you can secure the man and
he is fitted for the place, I will
see that his salary is paid."

And so, early in the history of
the Association, Mr. Wanamaker
entered upon his duties as its first
salaried secretary. The young
secretary's talent for organization
soon became apparent, and the
Association flourished accordingly.
For years he performed the duties
of secretary, finally succeeding
Mr. Simmons in the presidency.
At that time a movement for
more commodious and elegant
quarters was on foot, and Mr.
Wanamaker turned most of his at-
tention to that subject. The property at Fifteenth and Chestnut
Streets was purchased and the present magnificent building erected
at a cost of $500,000, of which amount Mr. Wanamaker contributed
much personally, and secured more through his influence with
wealthy friends. In 1876 the building was completed, bearing a
debt of $200,000. In the winter of 1887, again through the efforts
of Mr. Wanamaker principally, the building was freed from all
incumbrances. Seven or eight years ago Mr. Wanamaker severed
his active connection with the Association, although he is stil
quently consulted on matters financial.

946 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Then there was the Christian Commission work. The young
protege of Chambers and of Stuart had not been permitted to go to
the front, but he helped to organize and to realize an admirable,
grand support and succor for the thousands of the soldiers. The
Christian Commission was formed through the efforts of the inter-
national committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, of
which George H. Stuart was chairman and John Wanamaker
secretary, who decided to summon an informal convention of the
American Associations to meet in New York on November 14, 1861.
This extraordinary convention, over which George H. Stuart pre-
sided, was in session for two days. A committee appointed to prepare
and present the business for its action, the members being Messrs.
Demon, Vernon, Wanamaker, Maniere, Baird, Collyer and Stuart
reported the following resolution whch was adopted unani-
mously :

" That it is the duty of the Young Men's Christian Association to take active
measures to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the soldiers in the
army and the sailors and marines in the navy in cooperation with the chaplains
and others.

" Also, that a Christian Commission, consisting of twelve members, who shall
serve gratuitously, and who may fill their own vacancies, be appointed to take
charge of the whole work."

The superb agitations and successes of Moody and Sankey of
course attracted the attention of religious Philadelphia; and in the
fall of 1875 great desire was expressed in the city of Brotherly Love
to hear the great revivalists. At the largest ministerial meeting
ever held in Philadelphia, in the lecture room of the Arch Street
Methodist Church, Rev. Dr. Harper presiding, it was unanimously
decided to extend a cordial invitation to Moody and Sankey to visit
Philadelphia. A committee of ministers, with Doctor Newman as
chairman, was appointed to attend to the spiritual part of the work;
and a committee of laymen, of which George H. Stuart was chair-
man, was constituted to superintend all business matters connected
with the proposed meetings. Mr. Stuart at the time declined serv-
ing on account of failing health, but Mr. Moody, who was then the
guest of Mr. Wanamaker, hearing of it, insisted on his serving, say-
ing that he would pray for his restoration to health; and he at last
decided to serve.

At the first meeting of the business committee the first question

A START IN LIFE. 947

naturally to arise was: Where could a suitable hall, with a central
location and large enough, be found to accommodate the immense
throngs everywhere being drawn to the meetings of these eloquent
evangelists. Various halls were named, including the Academy of
Music, but Mr. Stuart insisted that none of these was of sufficient
seating capacity to warrant bringing the evangelists to Philadel-
phia, and that money must be raised necessary to erect a special
building for their use. He thought, however, of the old Penn-
sylvania freight depot. He knew that Mr. Wanamaker had been
negotiating for its purchase, but that his offer had not been accepted.
Application was now made to Col. Thomas A. Scott, president of
the Pennsylvania road, to know on what terms he would rent the
building. He replied: "One dollar a year with repossession on
thirty days' notice." Mr. Stuart cabled this to Mr. Wanamaker in
Europe; he replied that he would start for home at once. He soon
purchased the old depot and granted the committee the free use of
it as long as it was desired. This building extended from Market
Street 373 feet to Kelly Street, a small thoroughfare near to and
running parallel with Chestnut Street, and from Thirteenth to
Juniper Street 250 feet.

A large amount of money was quickly subscribed in order to pre-
pare it for these meetings; an architect was employed, and two
hundred workmen were at once set to work making the necessary
changes, and the alterations were completed and the building ready
for occupancy by November 20. The vast edifice was fitted with
a complete interior structure to deaden the noise from the street.
The main audience room had a seating capacity of 8, 904 people ; at
the back end was the speaker's platform rising in tiers, with a seat-
ing capacity of 1,304, and there were 752 chairs in the committee
rooms. These 10,960 chairs Mr. Stuart had shipped from Connecti-
cut at a cost of twenty-eight cents a chair, probably the largest lot
of chairs ever bought at one time in this country. Two thirds of
the way forward the floor gradually rose to the front of the hall,
enabling everyone in the audience to hear and see the speaker. In
addition to the main audience hall there were three large inquiry
rooms, and a vestibule thirty-three feet wide ran around three sides
of the building, from which there was egress by ten feet doors open-
ing upon Market, Thirteenth and Juniper Streets. The three large

948

A START IN LIFE.

949

doors opening from Market Street, with the vestibule thirty-three
feet wide running the width of the building, was the place of
entrance, and the four large doors opening from the vestibule into
the main aisles running the length of the hall were the doors of
admission. There were four cross aisles six or eight feet wide,
and four main aisles eight or ten feet wide, as well as a wide
aisle running clear around the audience room. Speaking tubes gave
immediate communication between the chief usher and his three
hundred assistants, and between his platform and the speaker's plat-
form, as well as the central police station, there was telegraphic

CROWDS AT A MOODY AND SANKEY MEETING.

communication. The acoustic properties of the hall were admirable,
and Mr. Moody could be heard plainly in any part of the building.
The building was heated by steam supplied by a one hundred horse
power boiler. It was lighted by eleven large reflectors down the
centre of the hall, and sixty rings and a number of parallel jets run-
ning around the building, making in all about one thousand burners.
The interior was tastefully painted, the prevailing colors being red
and blue Daylight was admitted, and abundant facilities for venti-
lation were obtained by large skylights in the roof. A corps of three
hundred men volunteered to act as ushers to seat the public.

Mr. Stuart used to tell an amusing incident in regard
of the place. He would say:

950

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

"While I was superintending the work of preparation on a cold day in October,
the building being unheated, one of our prominent ministers happened to come
in, and asked me how many seats were being provided. When I told him the
number, he expressed great astonishment, saying, * Why, Spurgeon could not fi
these chairs on every week night but Saturday; and do you expect Moody to fill
them ? ' I told him that I did. Shortly afterwards this same minister said to a
friend of mine, after relating the circumstances referred to, that he never before
thought I was a fit subject for an insane asylum. While the doors were closed on
a cold winter night in January, and orders had been given to allow no other per-
son to come in, the house being crowded, this same minister knocked at the
door and had his card sent up to me on the platform, with a request that I would
have him let in, which I did."

INSIDE THE MOODY AND SANKEY AUDITORIUM.

On Friday evening, November 19, the building was opened
for examination by the ministerial and executive committee of
arrangements. Everything was pronounced in readiness for the
meetings, the first of which was held on Sunday, the 21st. The
meeting was announced for eight o'clock in the morning. Long
before that hour the rain began to fall, and by seven o'clock
was coming down in torrents. It was hardly to be expected that a
large audience could be collected at that early hour under the cir-
cumstances, but one who walked to the place of meeting with the
idea that there would be abundance of room quickened his pace as
soon as he reached Market Street, for both pavements were filled
with people for several blocks, all directing their steps toward the

A STAKT IN LIFE. 951

old freight depot. The Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Twelfth and Six-
teenth, and other north and south lines of passenger railways, had
put on an extra number of cars, and each one as it arrived dis-
charged a full load on Market Street. At half past seven the front
half of the auditorium was completely filled, and by a quarter before
eight only a small portion of the rear of the room remained empty.
The chief of police, with a squad of officers, was there, and they
assisted the ushers in instructing the new arrivals which entrance to
take. On the platform was seated the choir of three hundred
voices, trained by Professor Fischer, and a large number of clergy-
men of various denominations. Mr. Moody's reading stand was
placed in the middle of the front of the platform, and consisted sim-
ply of an open framework containing a book rest. A cabinet organ
stood beside it at the right of Mr. Moody. Places were provided
for the representatives of the press, both local and special. At the
rear of the stage a large canvas was hung, on which was inscribed
the text:

" Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."
On the wall of the Juniper Street side of the building, and run-
ning the whole length of the room, was the text :

" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God dwelleth on him."

On the Thirteenth Street side was the text:

" For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoso-
ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

At a quarter before eight Professor Fischer took his seat at the
organ, and the choir sang, " For You I Am Praying ; " at eight o'clock
the choir sang, "I Love to Tell the Story." At the close of this
hymn Mr. Moody appeared, quickly stepped forward, and announced
that the services would begin by singing the one hundred and first
hymn, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name." Mr. Sankey toot
his seat at the organ. Before opening the service Mr. Moody
announced that hereafter the doors would be closed promptly at the
hour appointed, week-day evening meetings at 7.30 o'clock, Sunday
morning at eight and afternoon at four o'clock; that after the doors
were closed, nobody would be admitted, not even the Pres
the United States. At the afternoon services the ram had not sub-

952 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

sided, but it had no visible effect. The huge sliding doors on Mar-
ket Street were opened at a quarter before three, and by 3.15 the
place was packed almost to suffocation, and the order was given to
close the doors. The multitude was increasing by tens, hundreds
and thousands from every quarter, and Market Street was at once
blocked up. The throng surged around the building on Thirteenth,
Juniper and Market Streets, thinking the doors might be reopened,
and was augmented by the late arrivals, who thought the doors had
not yet been opened. Every moment their numbers increased until
the streets on the three sides of the building were packed from side
to side, and the sidewalks were filled from Arch to Chestnut Street
on Thirteenth, and from Tenth to Broad on Market. The facility
with which the building could be emptied was a strong point.
Within five minutes after the doors were opened the room was
always cleared.

Altogether there were two hundred and ten meetings held, and it
is estimated that there were 1,100,000 in attendance upon all of
them. The cost of the meetings was over $40,000, which was
entirely met by voluntary contributions. None of the money went
to Mr. Moody or Mr. Sankey. The committee did not even pay
their hotel bill, for Mr. Moody was the guest of Mr. Wanamaker,
and Mr. Sankey of Mr. John F. Keen.

THE BIGGEST SHOP,

HE Moody and Sankey meetings closed on Jan-
uary 28, 18T6. Mr. Wanamaker at once pro-
ceeded to make alterations to fit the place up for
his clothing store. On April 10, a portion of
the great depot was ready for the sale of goods ;
but the only stock in good selling shape at that
time was hats. Every effort was put forth to get
the clothing stock ready, and this was opened
for business early in May. The Market Street
front was devoted to selling space, while the side
next to Kelly Street was used for receiving and
shipping goods, cutting clothing, etc. The retail
business of Philadelphia was almost entirely below
Thirteenth Street, and consequently this move
of John Wanamaker was considered exceedingly reckless by many,
and by others surely to mean utter failure. Merchants down town
had been moving along sleepily, getting what business they could
from the passers by. They seemed to ignore entirely the fact
that Philadelphia was growing; that all of the great localities,
in both the southwestern and northwestern parts of the city,
were being filled up with the comfortable homes of a well-to-do
people ; that the centre of population was rapidly receding from the
banks of the Delaware. John Wanamaker was the only merchant
of that time who realized this. He saw that an establishment
located at Thirteenth and Market Streets would soon be cen-
tral. More proof of this. The Postmaster General was a lifelong
friend and admirer of Franklin B. Gowen, and he supported at
every point his policy of securing adequate terminal facilities in
Philadelphia. He believed in competition. Their programme has
been successfully carried out, and the Reading Road has a depot in

953

954

THE STOBY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Philadelphia unsurpassed in the world. And it is only a block
from the great shop. The young merchant had already gained the
confidence of the public by his fair dealing at Sixth and Market
Streets and also at 818 and 820 Chestnut Street; and now this cen-
tral location, coupled with a confident public opinion, could not
mean failure, as he thought.

All through that hot summer of the centennial year the business
prospered ; people soon began to ask, and especially did the ladies
ask:

"Why don't you open a general dry goods business here?"
Already the idea had taken root in Mr. Wanamaker's mind.
Bright, energetic business men, each one of whom understood

THE GREAT SHOP IN 1879.

thoroughly some particular line of goods, were employed to buy
stocks of the freshest merchandise. Many importations were made.
The great depot was the scene of bustling activity all the winter of
1876-77. Old counters were taken out to make room for new ones,
and the new ones were arranged in circles around the big floor
space, with the original clothing and hat stocks arranged on tables
in roomy spaces on the Market and Thirteenth Street sides. Mr.
Wanamaker now conceived one of the best ideas of the venture to
get possession of some of the buildings between Kelly Street and

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 955

Chestnut, about midway between Thirteenth and Juniper Streets,
and to open up an entrance from Chestnut Street through to the
store, eventually forming a broad aisle from Chestnut to Market
Street. A transformation marvelous indeed was taking place.
Where three years before was a great shed crossed with railroad
tracks and filled with puffing locomotives and bending freight cars
was now a vast emporium of merchandise. It was intended simply
to be a shopping place ; but it was intended to be the best. Broad
circular counters were piled high with goods from all over the world.

INSIDE THE SHOP IN 1879.

On March 3, 1877, a double column advertisement had appeared in
all the Philadelphia papers. It was continued for some weeks,
headed with the words :

The Inauguration of the Dry Goods Business at the Grand Depot will take
place Monday, March 12, from nine to six o'clock.

JOHN WANAMAKER,
Thirteenth Street and New City Hall."

Then followed a list of the goods; and the advertisement closed
with a statement of the business system originated by Mr Wa
maker. It is really the foundation principle from whic
enterprise has grown. It ran thus :

956 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

(1.) Return of money if buyer returns goods in ten days, uninjured.
(2.) The guarantee to each buyer, stating terms of sale.
(3.) No second price.

(4.) Any article (including cut goods) will be exchanged, if desired, within
two weeks of sale.

Other merchants opened their eyes in astonishment and dismay.

"He can't do it."

"He will stop that inside of six months," was heard on all sides.

But it was the right principle and it succeeded. People had
confidence in a man who said he would do so much for them, and
who did as he agreed. They came, saw the immense stock, pur-
chased, went away, told their friends; and the friends came and
went away satisfied. The idea was never to disappoint anybody.

The Postmaster General said, in a recent interview :

" When 1 began a general mercantile business, complaints would come to me
that furniture would warp and split. I said to those who had charge of the
furniture branches : ' Why is this so ? ' They said furniture would always split,
or a portion of it; that complaints and threats to return goods were inevitable.
Said I, * If that is the case, I will go out of the business; I won't keep furniture.'
* What are we to do with this furniture ? ' said the factors. ' You can make
firewood of it rather than sell it and dissatisfy anybody.' '

On the first anniversary of his establishment as a general store
Mr. Wanamaker sent an advertisement to the papers that was in
effect an open letter to the public. It said in part:

" It seems a fitting time to present our best respects to all those who have
helped in the new undertaking. As many persons have considered the enterprise
an experiment, and as many more express a manifestly warm interest in building
up in Philadelphia an establishment the like of which New York has had for a
long time, it seems proper to say that the business done at the Grand Depot during
the year just closed fully confirms our expectations, and settles to the complete
satisfaction of the writer all doubts about its success. The facts prove beyond
question that never before in one year were so many goods retailed in Philadel-
phia by one house. This, in the face of the times and with an imperfect, untried
and hurried organization, encourages us to believe that with the experience now
had the coming year will find us doing far better service for our customers
than was possible in the past, and this we are sure will add to the successful
running of our establishment that we never believed Philadelphia too small
to need.

" Our great faith in the future of Philadelphia made it easy to make our plans
by a large scale and there is, so far, no reason to be disappointed, nor do we
expect there will be. We labor to increase the importance of the city; add to
its employment and increase the convenience of shopping to the 817,000 of her
residents, and the 810,000 more whose homes are in the outlying towns and
villages, to whom Philadelphia ought to be an attractive resort. The floating

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 957

population that made our streets so lively and our stores so busy during 1876,
may become permanent by due enterprise and joint action of Philadelphia
business men."

Although the store now had an opening through Chestnut Street,
Kelly Street was still a thoroughfare, and people coming in the
Chestnut Street way had to cross it to get into the store proper.
One by one the stores on Chestnut Street between Thirteenth and
Juniper were bought, until Mr. Wanamaker had them all but one ;
and that one had no outlet on Kelly Street, which was now bridged
over, connecting the Chestnut Street front with the main store.
Early in 1885 Kelly Street was closed up and erased from the city
plan. The street was made into a transept running from Thirteenth
to Jumper Street with a ceiling four stories high, all of glass.
This transept is crossed by light galleries. In each end of the
transept is a great stained glass window. The central panel of the
one in the west is a life-size portrait of the great Philadelphia
financier, Stephen Girard ; and interwoven in the border are views
of shipping, books of accounts, the seal of Pennsylvania, arms of
France, and the stars and stripes. The window at the east end
represents the financier of Revolutionary fame, Robert Morris, a
panel underneath his portrait restores his dwelling at the southeast
corner of Sixth and Market Streets where Oak Hall now stands, Mr.
Wanamaker 's first store; the lower panel on the left shows the
original Bank of North America, founded by Robert Morris ; the
border contains money bags, money scales, Continental currency,
first notes of the Bank of North America, and the United States
flag, arms and accoutrements.

Changes of one sort or another were going on all the time up to
the latter part of 1886. The roof was raised in various places and
other floors put in, until now there are four floors over nearly the
entire building, and six floors at the Thirteenth Street side, which
was entirely rebuilt in 1886. Electors were put in wherever it
was possible and a basement floor made under the entire building.
All these changes and improvements were made without interfering
with the regular business in any way; and all this growth o
ideas helped all the shopkeepers.

Truly, words cannot convey an idea of the magnitude of the
place. Only a short tour of it captivates and enchants the women,

958

THE STOBY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

confuses and confounds the men. There is no way to describe it
except to write an advertisement of it. Here, no doubt, the men
read as they run ; the women, perhaps, may pause and ponder.

Entering by the middle Chestnut Street door you stand in the
main aisle, a broad thoroughfare extending five hundred and ten
feet from Chestnut Street to Market Street and flanked on either
hand with the richest merchandise. To the right are the laces and
ruchings and all kindred stuffs for women's wear; through the arch-
ways is the princi-
pal millinery par-
lor, a place roomy
and always bright
with the newest
Paris ideas. One
comes to a wil-
derness of un-
trimmed milli-
nery and long
counters loaded
with gimps, artifi-
cial feathers and
flowers. There is
a place given over
to ribbons ; and
the nearly two
hundred feet of
selling room are
not enough. In
the transept are
silks from all the silk lands, and a million yards pass out over
those particular counters every year. In front of the women's
waiting-room are the blankets and the bed-clothing. Not an
infrequent thing is an invoice of blankets of twenty-five hundred
pairs. Here, too, is the linen corner, and there are mountains of
snowy whiteness all around. And the handkerchief counters ! At
Christmas time it is no unusual thing to see more than four hundred
styles of linen handkerchiefs, and the sales go beyond a million
pieces. The dress goods section takes up circle after circle. Now

THE THIRTEENTH AND MARKET STREET CORNER.

THE BIGGEST SHOP.

959

and then twenty thousand yards of a single kind of goods will be
sold in a day. If one were to add the number of yards of the hun-
dreds of other kinds of dress fabrics sold in a day, the result would
be a jumble of figures meaningless almost as those that try to tell
the distance of a fixed star. Then there are the books. More than
a million volumes were sold last year. At one corner is the bureau
of information, one of the many conveniences for visitors; there
are telegraph, telephone and post office facilities, opportunities to
leave parcels and have them checked free, and all that. There is

THE BIG STOKE FBOM THE PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL.

also a resting-room for women. There are seven broad, easy stair-
ways leading to the basement, a little world of wonders below the
level of the street. At the right is the dairy with a seating
capacity of eight hundred, the laigest restaurant in Philadelphia,
because, too, the average number of persons served each day is
more than three thousand. Twenty-eight thousand five hundred
oysters have been used there in a single day, and of the seductive
ice cream a consumption of fifteen hundred quarts daily is not
unusual. A novel feature of the basement is an immense soda water
fountain, and on hot summer days the average sales are over five

.WMMMTS>

irri

JUNIPER STREET

13'" STRtCT

PLAN OF MAIN FLOOR

0- STREET

PUN OF BASEMENT

960

THE BIGGEST SHOP.

961

thousand glasses. Toys and sporting goods take up a quarter of an
acre of floor space. Then there is the candy counter; and what is
more, eight tons of candy were sold there last Christmas week.

An ornamental stairway will lead you down into the sub-base-
ment, and there is the machinery room. There are eleven boilers,
aggregating fifteen hundred horse power, and burning twenty-six
tons of coal a day; and the seven steam engines have a combined
power of seven hundred horses. Here are the massive pumps, with
a capacity of a million gallons per day, that run the hydraulic ele-
vators, seven for freight and six for passengers, in various parts of
the great shop ; and here are the large pipes through which pure air
is driven to various parts of the building. The electric light plant

IN THE ENGINE BOOM.

is the largest used by any private establishment in America.
Almost five hundred arc lights and eight hundred incandescent
lights are regularly employed. Besides these the shop has 4,550
gas jets ; and about one hundred miles of steam pipe are required to
heat the building. At the delivery department a little army of
employees are arranging and dispatching parcels. Eighty- two>
delivery wagons and 155 horses are about the average number
employed and at times more than 23,000 packages are handled in
a day. Upstairs is the heart of the chinaware and glassware store.
In two days recently sixty thousand pieces of glassware were sold.
The principal cash desk is close by. More than eleven miles of
two-and-a-quarter-inch pneumatic tubing, reaching to eighty-six
stations in as many parts of the shop, converge at this point; and

962

THE STORY OF OUK POST OFFICE.

twenty-five cashiers are required. There is always a crowd of
interested visitors gathered around this place, peering through the
brass grating, watching the nimble fingers of the girls making
change, stamping schedules, and popping change and schedules back

THE CASHIEKS' CORNEJR.

into the little leather boxes, and sending them through the return
pipe to a far corner, maybe a quarter of a mile away ; and this from
morning till night.

Carpets, Oriental rugs and wall papers occupy more than an acre

A SCENE IN THE BASEMENT.

and an eighth of floor space on the second floor, and the Oriental rug
room is said to hold one of the richest gatherings of these art treas-
ures to be found on this continent. Agents of the house are fre-
quently passing to and fro in the Orient ready to pick up the choice
things as they appear. Near by is the ceramic art room. Ex-
quisite productions of the Royal Worcester, Crown Derby and Sevres

THE BIGGEST SHOP.

963

potteries are numerous, and there are rare specimens from the Royal
Berlin and Imperial Vienna works. Then there are women's,
misses' and children's dresses and wraps, and be it known that from
the middle of June to the end of the first week in August, 1891,
more than ten thousand women's blazers were actually sold here.
Furniture covers the whole of the third floor ; and there one may find

A TRANSEPT IN THE STORE.

more than three acres of nothing but samples. On the 6th of last
August nine hundred colonial chairs were sold here in two hours,
and the product of entire mills are used in this furniture business.
But there are other things to see in the fifteen acres of floor space
in this great mart. The fourth floor is principally used for invoice
purposes; here the great cases from all parts of the world are
received, being brought up by a powerful freight elevator kept
almost constantly in operation. Cases of linens from Ireland,

964

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

France, or Germany are hastily brought up to this floor, to be fol-
lowed by thousands of rolls of mattings, constituting an entire
vessel's cargo just from the Orient; then to be followed by great
cases of shoes from Boston and Philadelphia. Then will come up
cases, almost as large as a small house, filled with toys from Switzer-
land or Germany.

Each department has certain space in the invoice department
allotted to it, where, after the goods are opened and the contents
carefully compared with invoice sheets and checked off, sturdy por-

THE ARCADE ENTRANCE AT CHESTNUT STREET.

ters wheel the cases away and arrange them in long aisles in order
that the wares may be of easy access to fill depleted places below.
As Christmas approaches the noise and bustle here increases ; scores
of men and boys with trucks and baskets filled with all that goes to
swell the tide of gift-time things, hurry back and forth to keep the
army of sales people supplied. On the fourth floor, too, is the
auditing department, a great section surrounded by a brass grating,
with rows and rows of busy book-keepers at their desks, one hundred
and ten bright young women and men, in fact, who are kept busy
constantly looking after the accounts. The mail order department
has a corps of ninety quick-witted people, who do nothing but fill

THE BIGGEST SHOP.

965

orders for out-of-town customers. Orders by mail come from every
state in the Union, as well as from Mexico and Canada.

A really wonderful place is " Wanamaker's, " and hardly a sane
man, who had ventured within its doors and heard that it yielded
to its originator and master a clear profit of a round million dollars
a year, but would confess that he himself would be willing to be a
shopkeeper under these calamitous conditions, especially if he were
able to say that he had done it all himself. Why, during the hot
summer months there are over three thousand people employed in
the store, and the balance of the year there are about forty-eight hun-

IN MK. WANAMAKEK'S PEIVATE OFFICE.

dred ! Many of these, of course, are married men with families,
and many who are not married have parents or brothers and sisters
depending on them for support ; and all this really means that the
employees of this shop represent something like twenty thousand
people. Think of some town containing twenty thousand inhabi-
tants, and you have it- clearly.

On the second floor at the corner of Chestnut and Juniper Streets
is John Wanamaker's private office, a large square, airy room, with
ornamental mullioned windows. The ceiling is of great polished
oak beams and the floor and finish of the room is of polished natural
oak. The furniture is plain but massive ; across one corner of the

966

THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

room is a big open fireplace in which on chilly days a cheerful wood
fire burns and crackles. The furniture is massive, but there is
one exception. Mr. Wanamaker's own chair is a small, ordinary
rattan one of the simplest construction. On the walls are neatly
framed photographs and engravings of his mother and his nearest
friends. There is an ante -room, and on one side of the office is
an elaborately fitted up bathroom. While Mr. Wanamaker has

been away, the office has been used
by Mr. Ogden, his manager, who
has slipped away to its seclusion
to enjoy a quiet moment for
thought, or to consider some
weighty matter with the head of
a department.

On the fourth floor at the corner
of Thirteenth and Market Streets
is Thomas B. Wanamaker's office.
One first enters a reception room
about eight by twenty feet, which
is used at present by Mr. Howard
S. Jones as an office; then you
enter the office proper, a big
square room, tastefully and com-
fortably fitted up, but with noth-
ing lavish. All the offices in the
store, in fact, are noticeable for
their plainness and for the air of simple comfort in their furnishings.
Mr. Ogden's office on the first floor is a medium sized room with an
ante-room easy of access. There is scarcely a moment during the
day that half a dozen do not sit or stand in the ante-room waiting
for an audience with the busy man inside.

The exterior of the establishment is almost grotesque in its
appearance. The only portion having the pretensions of a great
business block is the Thirteenth and Market Streets corner, which
in 1886 was solidly rebuilt of brick and iron, six stories high, with
a massive clock tower on the corner. The Chestnut Street front
remains the same as it was before Mr. Wanamaker obtained posses-
sion of it, except that the first story is entirely of large plate glass

MB. EGBERT C. OGDEJf.

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 967

windows, and the remaining stories have been painted to match the
rest of the establishment. But it is predicted by some that the next
five years will see a $3,000,000 structure built upon this spot, com-
plete for business and beautiful in art. The property at Thir-
teenth and Market Streets, bought for $500,000, is now assessed at
11,875,000, and undoubtedly it would find a quick sale at two and
a half or three millions.

" Wanamaker's " is certainly unique. Other large cities and
towns have great retail stores, but no other store in any city in the
world holds the same relation to the public. There seems to be a
sense of joint proprietorship. The people come in, not as guests or
visitors, but with a sort of home feeling. They come because they
want to, and while everybody in the employ is glad to serve, visitors
are never pestered with questions about what they want. As high-
way, park, or public museum where your right to walk, to visit,
to enjoy is never questioned so is this place; for all Philadel-
phians and all their friends feel that they may come, see, and enjoy,
stay as long as they please, and go away without making a single
purchase, and be just as welcome to come again the next day. It
was a fresh idea born with the place and emanating from the
founder; and while it was purely original, it is yet so simple that
one asks why it was never thought of before, and why is it not
adopted more thoroughly elsewhere.

And it is business. Mr. Wanamaker says that when he was a
little fellow and used to be sent by his mother on errands to various
stores, being then a green country boy, as soon as he would enter a
place, it seemed as though his hands and feet grew to tremendous
proportions, and to be at once importuned as to his wants added
painfully to his embarrassment ; so at " Wanamaker's " one is never
disturbed by the well-meant but often sadly marred attempts of sales-
people really to do the purchasing, which is not their business at
all. Any one of a thousand reasons may exist why people do not
care to answer positive questions about their wants. The interroga-
tions disturb, distract, annoy ; if left to the operations of their own
minds, in perfect content, thinking, moving and doing just as they
would if they owned the whole place, they will far sooner be inter-
ested than if compelled to stand and deliver with humility and
meekness their half formed notions at the demand of a Cerberus at a

968 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

shop door. And all this is simply one idea. All this great busi-
ness is the result of action, but it has also been the outgrowth of
sound business methods. There is nothing mysterious about it.
Three great principles underlie the system, all liberal, all vital :
Liberal stock, liberal dealings, and liberal advertising.

The employees know all this. Mr. Wanamaker had a fiftieth
birthday five years ago, and the heads of departments in the store
and many of the old-timers presented him with a letter. It was
printed upon parchment from engraved plates, bound in book form,
with covers of cream moire silk and heavy ornamentation in solid
gold. Upon the cover were his monogram and his motto :

"THINKING, TOILING, TRYING, TRUSTING."

An alligator skin case inclosed the whole affair. The letter read
as follows :

"We are not willing to let the fiftieth anniversary of your birth pass without
some expression of our feeling toward you. It is our good fortune to be with
you on the scaffolding of the ' incompleted building,' and, while we are not
aware what the architect's plans may be, we know that he will build wisely and
well. As laborers with you and for you we look back with peculiar pride on
what you have done in twenty-five years. You have made a deep and lasting
dent on the business methods of your time. You have given new proof that
honest dealing and truth telling are the cornerstones of permanent mercantile
success. You have demonstrated that in conducting a great enterprise the man
need not be lost in the merchant. You have shown how much can be done by
* thinking, toiling, trying and trusting in God.' We are proud of our association
with you. Looking on you now in the prime of a vigorous manhood, we see a
future rich with promise opening before you. We see no horizon to your pros-
pects. That your days may be long, your happiness unclouded, and your power
to do good equal to your desire, is the sincere wish of faithfully yours," etc., etc.

Then there is the liberal advertising. John Wanamaker as an
advertiser is talked about more than any other living man in America
to-day. By many his great success in business is attributed entirely
to his skill as an advertiser. The business principles are the solid
foundations upon which the success of the establishment rests, to be
sure; but these principles had to be widely adverted to, as well
as lived up to, or else a large proportion of the public would never
know of them. And printers' ink has always been the thing. Mr.
Wanamaker once said:

u I would not give an advertisement in a newspaper of four hundred circula-
tion for five thousand dodgers or posters. If I wanted to sell cheap jewelry or

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 969

run a lottery scheme, I might use posters, but I wouldn't insult a decent reading
public with handbills."

When Wanamaker & Brown went into business in 1861 they
had not a cent to spare for advertising. The senior partner promptly
cast about, however, for some means of letting the public know of
the new firm. Soon came an order from the Custom House for uni-
forms for its employees, and as they had to be delivered on a certain
day, some lively work was done, and on the afternoon of the
appointed day the uniforms were loaded upon two push carts and
two men started off with them. The senior partner went along to-
collect the bill. After the goods were delivered, Mr. Wanamaker
said :

"Boys, you take the push cart back; I'm going over to the
Inquirer Office."

When he returned he said :

" The profits were thirty-eight dollars. I have spent it all in an
advertisement."

From this time on every cent that could be spared for the purpose
was put into advertising; there appeared all over town on bill-
boards, fences, or wherever a bit of space could be found, a poster
with simply " W & B " on it in big wood type. Of course every-
body was at once inquiring of everybody else : " What does W & B
mean ? " and it soon became known that it stood for the new firm at
Sixth and Market Streets. At thirteen different places in the city
they caused to be erected immense billboards, each over one hun-
dred feet long, being the largest at that time ever put up, on which
in large letters was of course all about the best clothing. These
boards also became the talk of the town, and the newspapers even
remarked about them. All this energy and originality counted.
There was now a little money for newspaper advertising, and it
was used freely.

For a merchant to advertise by more than a bare announcement of
his business was an innovation then. As an old-time Philadel-
phia merchant has said :

"Really, it wasn't considered polite then to advertise."

But polite or not polite, the advertising and the business went
hand in hand. The firm of Wanamaker & Brown soon began to
issue little four-page papers containing a good deal of miscellaneous

970 THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

and original reading matter, sandwiched between bright, readable
advertising paragraphs; for instance, "A bad sign to sign your
name to a note ; better buy your clothes at Oak Hall and pay cash."
Or, again, Mother Goose was paraphrased into :

"A, for all people, they're welcome to call
And buy their spring clothing at great Oak Hall."

One of these papers would be published for a few months and then
stopped, to be resumed later with a different name. Some of the
titles were "The Clothes-Line, " "Gentle Spring, Published for
Pleasure and Profit," "Suit-able Observations." One of the papers
was called "The Agricultural Fair," being circulated ^at the Mount
Holly Fair. It was a little four-page sheet printed on pink paper.
On the first page was a cut of a Chinaman, and a poem told how he
had discarded his Oriental costume for the American garb on learn-
ing of the great merits, etc., etc. This paper was looked upon as a
curiosity and thousands were quickly given away. After the edi-
tion was exhausted, anxious applicants pressed around the distribu-
tors for copies, and expressed great disappointment on being told
they could not get any.

But the chief journal was Everybody's Journal. At seventeen
John Wanamaker and one of his boyhood chums, a neighbor's boy,
bought a little job printing press, and "started a paper," Everybody's
Journal, it was called, and the young man did the editorial work,
while the other attended to the mechanical management. They ran
it for a year or more, and then suspended, owing to lack of time
for such things. Years afterward, in 1870, Everybody's Journal
was started again, and it ran for about three years, part of the time
managed by Mr. Howard S. Jones. It was monthly and the sub-
scription price was fifty cents a year ; it was a thoroughly edited
sheet, had some paid contributors, ran up a large list of sub-
scribers, and had a paying advertising patronage. More weighty
matters kept Mr. Wanamaker from giving it the attention he
desired, however, and its publication was stopped.

For eight years Mr. Wanamaker personally wrote all his adver-
tisements and made all contracts, being assisted at times, however,
by Mr. Jones, who then had charge of men's furnishing goods. In
1869 the advertising department was turned over to Mr. Jones, who

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 971

gave it his entire attention. Mr. Jones was teaching a Bible class
of young girls at one of the popular churches. There was a certain
man, a manufacturer of agricultural implements, whose daughter
was a member of Mr. Jones' class. He approached Mr. Jones and
said:

"Mr. Jones, I understand that you have taken charge of Mr.
Wanamaker's advertising department."

"Yes, sir," said Mr. Jones, "I have been more or less connected
with it for five years."

" Well, " said this conscientious maker of agricultural implements,
" now that you are an advertising man, I shall have to take my
daughter out of your class."

But about this time Mr. Jones was made superintendent of the Sun-
day school, and a woman was appointed in his place. The outraged
citizen's daughter remained in the class. Mr. Jones insists that if
this man had advertised his business, he could have become fabu-
lously rich. Mr. Jones had charge of the advertising until the firm
began to establish branch stores in other cities, when he was sent to
make all the arrangements for their establishment ; and after this,
up to 1878, there were several changes in the advertising depart-
ment.

A year or so after the establishment of the great shop at Thir-
teenth and Market Streets, Mr. Wanamaker conceived the idea of a
radical change in advertising. Previous to this time large display
advertisements were the rule ; they were used, in fact, by all stores
that advertised at all. All were displayed in the same manner, and
no matter how original in expression, every advertisement had the
same appearance. But the Wanamaker idea in advertisements
appeared. It was decided to adopt a style truly original. It was
to be simply this, a daily "store talk" in bright, catchy sentences,
telling of the specially interesting things in the place, all in a plain
type (old style pica), set in single column mostly, easy to read,
conspicuous, but not obtrusive. Mr. J. E. Powers, a most brilliant
writer, was employed at a large salary to write these advertisements,
and, with the exception of one or two brief intervals, Mr. Powers
remained with the house up to 1886. After his retirement Mr.
Wanamaker called in Mr. Manly M. Gillam, then managing
editor of the Philadelphia Record, whose advertisements of Col.

972

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Singerly's Holstein cattle and of the "Little Tycoon," then run-
ning at the Temple (Singerly's Theatre), had attracted his atten-
tion, and asked him if he would leave the Record and come to write
his advertisements. Mr. Gillam accepted the position, and he has
filled it in a way to attract the attention of the whole country since
Dec. 2, 1886. Every work day in the year he writes from one to
three columns, and occasionally eight columns of bright news

matter about store doings. Each
day it must be different; new
ideas, new thoughts, new expres-
sions. Any one would naturally
think that in such a great bazaar
as Wanamaker's, the diversity of
the stocks would make advertising
writing easy, but there are more
cogent reasons to consider than
mere word painting. Mr. Gillam
wrote not long ago :

" Surely the pen of man never found
a greater, grander business to work for.
There are inspirations in the size, in the
plan, in the growth of it. It is a little
world of buyers and sellers. The ends
of the earth come together there under
one roof. No lack of texts ; topics crowd
on you subjects are thick at every
counter. But there are limitations. Sim-
ply reeling off f a story for this, that or

the other thing, until one or two column galleys are full, isn't all. Every word
written goes into maybe a hundred dailies. Each stroke of the pen means
dollars to pay. The worry all the time is not "What shall we say?" but
"What shall be left out?" Fifty-four great departments, each a first-class
store in itself. Most of them begging for something in the papers. There must
be choosing. The draggy places must be touched up. The new things must
be hinted at perhaps one in a hundred. The sharpest bargain things must be
pointed out maybe one in fifty. But which ones ? There's the pinch."

Shortly after establishing the business at Thirteenth and Market
Streets, Mr. Wanamaker abandoned all poster and billboard adver-
tising. Advertising was confined almost exclusively to newspapers.
Dailies came first. He knew that daily papers were read by the
best of any population, and that an advertisement in a daily journal

MB. MANLY M. GILLAM.

THE BIGGEST SHOP.

973

would go straight home to the people who could buy and who were
ready to buy. And another reason : the magnitude of the business
was such that goods advertised in the morning were frequently sold
before store closing of the same day, and so, advertising matter of
this character in a weekly paper would probably be obsolete. The
weekly advertisements are devoted more to a class of goods that are
regularly in stock for a lengthy period, goods that can be drawn
upon to fill orders by mail. The monthly advertisements are of the
same character as the weekly, but are much smaller and vastly

SOME OF THE EIGHTY DELIVERY TEAMS.

fewer in number; and at certain times during the year advertising
in monthly papers is entirely discontinued. The daily advertise-
ment goes into about one hundred papers, the weekly in to about
three hundred. The annual outlay of the Wanamaker store for
advertisements amounts to about $300,000. Bills of some of the
Philadelphia dailies are sometimes nearly $3,000 a month. In
1888 the idea of lighting up the texts of the advertisements with
small outline cuts was adopted. It seemed to be the signal for
everybody else to use them, for now almost half the advertisements
one sees display these small outline cuts.

974 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Awhile after the big store started Mr. Wanamaker found that
some of his advertising bills could not be met as readily as he
desired, and that his account at a few newspaper offices was pretty
heavy. George W. Childs tells a little story about this period in
Mr. Wanamaker 's career:

"John Wanamaker' s bill at the Ledger office had reached a high figure, and
the business manager suggested to me that the Wanamaker advertisements should
be stopped ; but I said, ' No, let John Wanamaker run ; he will come out all right.
He is the only enterprising man in Philadelphia, and it would be a calamity to
the town, and particularly to the newspaper business, to have him go under; he
is a great advertiser and will not fail.' "

A few days after this occurred Mr. Wanamaker sent Mr. Childs
a check for $40,000.

The results of the Wanamaker advertising has been summed
up thus:

" He was the first advertiser to handle a general business in a liberal way in
the' newspapers. 'He'll go broke,' said the croakers, when columns, double
columns, half pages and even full pages began to appear. ' The business won't
stand it. ' Wouldn' t it ! "

"The best possible answer is the marvellous growth of the Wanamaker store;
long since the largest retail establishment in the world (almost fifteen acres of
floor space) and still growing thriftily.

"Another answer: Other general stores in Philadelphia slowly swung into
line. There was evolution and revolution. Advertising in the city dailies
doubled and trebled; it is now five or six times as much on the average as in
1877. And all the stores have prospered. The Wanamaker way has helped the
merchants, helped the newspapers, helped the city.

"Still another answer: More than fifty leading traders in different parts of the
country regularly copy as much of the Wanamaker advertising as can be tortured
into their service, and it seems to pay them."

In connection with the advertising department is the catalogue
department, where all catalogue and pamphlet matter is prepared.
This is all in charge of Mr. Albert G. Coburn, a newspaper man
full of ideas. Semi-annually is published a great illustrated general
catalogue, eight by eleven inches square, of one hundred and forty-
eight pages, containing a list of the goods in every department in the
store. It is really a huge fashion magazine, the number for the
spring of 1892 having over two hundred illustrations of fashions
alone, many in colors. Over twenty-five tons of paper are required
for each edition. It is sent all over the United States and orders
pour in from it constantly. Then each fall is published a book

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 975

catalogue of over one hundred pages, giving more than eight thou-
sand different titles of books, with descriptions and prices. Besides
these two regular catalogues, neat booklets are published at different
times, and there is never a time when there is not from one to four
of these in course of preparation.

A Chicago Tribune man who called on Mr. Wanamaker on Dec.
29, 1888, found him looking up over a huge stack of sheets of
paper, all written upon. There must have been one hundred of
them. The merchant read them carefully one by one, but with a
quick eye.

"Doubtless you are wondering what all these papers are," said
he. "Well, I will tell you. When I came to my desk last
Wednesday morning I was naturally thinking about the Christmas
business which we had. During the ten days previous to Christmas
the sales hovered about $100, 000 a day, and the total for the ten
days falls only a few dollars under a million. We shall beat that
next year. I am already planning for next year. This big pile of
papers here is a part of our preparation for the holiday trade of
1889."

The merchant spread one of the sheets out before him and con-
tinued : " When I came to work last Wednesday my thoughts ran
on to the Christmas that is to come. In five minutes I had written
this:

"8.30 A. M., Wednesday, 12, 26, '88. The interesting experience of the past ten
days' trade has taught us many things: Each of us has been saying If I had
this to do over again, I see how I could improve it there and there. While the
whole matter is fresh on your mind, jot down whatever occurs to you, that note
may be made of it for future use. Do this between now and 9 o'clock to-morrow,
and hand this paper to me personally. J. W."

"Here are sub-headings," continued Mr. Wanamaker, "for
arrangements of material, space required, help, general system,
complaints, suggestions, etc. This went to the printing office
upstairs with instructions to strike them off in an hour. One of
these blanks was sent to every person in a position of responsibility,
and when I reached my desk next morning here they were, written
out and signed. Now, what have I accomplished by this ? Why, I
have learned more about the details of my business than I could
have learned in an hour's talk with each of my subordinates. I

976

THE STOEY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

caught them when their minds were fresh with the difficulties and
needs of Christmas and encouraged them to give their opinions
deliberately and carefully over their signatures. I have made all
of these assistants feel that they have an interest in this business,
that their opinions are valued. On these reports, when they shall
liave been carefully read and summarized, plans will be laid for
next year, instructions given to buyers, changes made in the arrange-
ments of the place, and improvements be effected in the general
methods."

Besides the liberal advertising and the liberal treatment of those
who want, or do not want, to buy, there is the liberality, observable
everywhere in the Wanamaker store, towards the employees them-
selves. The weekly salary list alone of an establishment of this
sort is a small fortune, and annually approaches the two million
dollar mark. Every employee has two weeks' vacation each summer
with full salary, and the shop is closed at one o'clock on Saturdays
all summer, and every one draws a full week's pay. All sales-
people receive commissions on their sales, which are paid to them
every thirty days; and for ten days before Christmas, owing to the
longer hours of service, their commissions are doubled.

Mr. Wanamaker several years ago established in the store a free
library for the female employees. It now has 4,200 volumes of
standard fiction, history and general literature. Employees are per-
mitted to take books from the library and keep them three weeks,
or they may take a book out every day, provided they never have
out more than one book at a time. The success of the scheme has
been so great that steps are about to be taken to increase the num-
"ber of volumes and throw open the library to every employee, men
as well as women.

The men are not neglected. The favors are just as likely to be
for them as for the women. Mr. Wanamaker spent his vacation in
Philadelphia this summer. It was in August, just as a part of the
military force was returning from the Homestead riots. In the
establishment there are some eighteen persons who are members of
the National Guard, and they almost invariably arrange their sum-
mer vacations so that they will come at the time of the annual
encampments. The encampment this year was set for the 16th of
August, and the usual arrangements had been made. On their

THE BIGGEST SHOP. 977

return from camp the men all expected that their summer vacations
were over, but they found that their envelopes on pay day contained
their salaries for the time they were in camp, with a notice that
they were yet entitled to their two weeks' vacation. The announce-
ment was also made by Mr. Wanamaker that in the case of a
genuine loss of situation by any person who had been obliged to do
military duty, he would give them situations in his establishment.
All these things he does suddenly. They are all good; and they
are all business.

On Jan. 1, 1888, Hotel Walton at 800 N. Broad Street, Philadel-
phia, was opened. It was originally a four-story brownstone man-
sion, fronting on Broad, with a large side yard next to Brown
Street, but after Mr. Wanamaker purchased it, he caused to be
erected an L shaped addition fronting on Brown, and made other
alterations to have it the comfortable quarters for his female em-
ployees which it now is. The original idea, and the one under
which it is now conducted, was to furnish an acceptable home to
such of the shop girls as had to board among strangers. There are
seventy-four sleeping-rooms, a parlor, in which there is a piano and
an organ, two dining-rooms, a reading-room, a swimming bath and
a gymnasium. The average number of boarders is seventy in sum-
mer and ninety in winter and rates are $3.25 per week. As to its
popularity, enough to say that many who went there in January,
1888, are still there, and have come to look upon it as a home.
Said the Philadelphia Press, when the experiment was begun :

** The world is familiar with the dismal failure of Mr. A. T. Stewart in his effort
to provide for a somewhat similar class, and like attempts in behalf of mill girls
in some New England manufacturing centres have shown how difficult it is for a
young woman to accept the restraints with the comforts of a home which is not
her own. Aware, apparently, of all this, Mr. Wanamaker has wisely limited ad-
mission to those most likely to feel the want of the very remarkable accommoda-
tions he has provided, and these he has made of a character to render the house
lie has furnished unequaled in the history of such enterprises. These conditions
promise success, and if the experiment succeeds, as there is every reason to
believe it will, the debt of the community to Mr. Wanamaker will be measured
not by the capital invested, considerable as this is, but by the service rendered in
solving one of the most perplexing of modern problems the housing in pro-
tected comfort of the woman who works."

Mr. Wanamaker is a great believer in life insurance. Nothing
more than his policies aggregating a million and a half is necessary

9T8

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

to attest this fact. The investment feature, no doubt, has great
weight with him ; for, as one has said : What better expectation can
be had of money than an offer to give for $100,000 in one year
possibly 11,500,000, or for $200,000 in two years, or $300,000 in
three years, and so on, finally ending with $2,000,000 for an outlay
of $1,500,000 in fifteen years, and this last a certainty. And an
important consideration is the usual need of ready money to settle a
large estate. None of the enormous sacrifices, all too common, are
involved, and there can be no question of solvency. Mr. Waiia-
maker once said :

"By investing in life insurance for the benefit of my estate, payable either in
my later years or at my death, I am enabled to do my good as I go along. It
may be selfish for me to wish to see the fruits of the seed I sow. Possibly. If
so, selfish let it be. I take great pleasure in being my own executor. If I were
to spend my money lavishly, without thought of my estate and those who are to
benefit by it after I die, none could gainsay my right; but I would not feel
contented and satisfied."

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL.

NE must go back a generation to start with the incep-
tion of the famous Bethany. On the afternoon of
Feb. 7, 1858, through a blinding snowstorm, John
Wanamaker went with a missionary of the Ameri-
can Sunday School Union, Mr. E. H. Toland, to a
second story back room of an humble house at No.
2512 Pine Street, Philadelphia, to begin a mission

Sunday school in a very destitute and unpromising quarter. Twelve

children gathered, and, as there were no chairs or seats of any kind,

they sat upon the floor. Mr. Toland gave out a hymn, which was

sung. During the prayer, they all heard a rattling at the front

door, which they had locked as a

precautionary measure against the

toughs of the neighborhood, known

as "bouncers" and "killers," whose

clubs were the terror of the com-
munity. The noise soon ceased,

and the fourteen in the little back

room breathed easier. The res-
pite was of short duration, for the

toughs soon renewed hostilities at

the back door, which they broke

open. They rushed upstairs and

into the Sunday school room.

They brandished their clubs and

shook their fists in the faces of Mr.

Wanamaker and Mr. Toland, and

swore that no Sunday school should

be held in that neighborhood.

The children beat a hasty and

MR. E. H. TOLAND.

979

980

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

terrified retreat before this invasion, and the two young men, who
were threatened with a terrible beating, soon gathered up their
books and left. They soon overcame their fears, and on that same
afternoon, Mr. Toland and Mr. Wanamaker found another room to
let at No. 2135 South Street. They got the refusal of it, and
returned through the week and rented it for five dollars a month,
and on Sunday, Feb. 14, 1858, was made the actual beginning of
the Sunday school. The mission started by Mr. Wanamaker and
Mr. Toland was first called "First Independent Mission," then
"Chambers Mission School" and lastly "Bethany Mission."

THE FIRST MEETING AT 2135 SOUTH STREET.

At the first session at No. 2135 South Street there were gathered
twenty-seven children and two women, besides Mr. Toland and
John Wanamaker. There were no benches or chairs, and it looked
as if the first session would have to be held with all standing; but
finally the landlord, Andrew Kincaid, a shoemaker (who died dur-
ing the last year), was prevailed upon to bring up from his cellar
some old boards and bricks. Rude benches were improvised from
these on which they all sat to say their first lesson. During the
week John Wanamaker had bought a second-hand stove around on
Twenty- First Street, and had taken it to the room and set it up.

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL.

981

George H. Stuart, in his delightful autobiography, says of the
founding of Bethany Sunday School :

" It was in connection with this Association and as its president, that I ac-
quired the honor of being * the grandfather of Bethany Sabbath School,' now
the largest and most successful in the city, having some two thousand five hun-
dred pupils and a Bible class of some four hundred taught by Mr. John Wana-
maker. We were in the habit of holding monthly meetings of the Association,
at which topics of practical importance and interest were discussed. At that
time there was a great movement among the various Evangelical churches in
planting mission Sabbath schools in the city and our own little church had three
such schools. The subject for discussion on one evening was the question,
' What are the benefits to the church, or parent school, of establishing mission
schools ? ' During this discussion a young man of prominence and a good
speaker told the meeting that he was proud to say that he belonged to a church
(one of our leading churches) which had no mission Sabbath school. The result
of this speech was the organization of the Bethany School. Mr. John Wana-
maker, one of the youngest men of the church to which the speaker belonged
(that of Rev. John Chambers), and some others of the congregation, were
aggrieved that their church should not be represented in this good work, and
started out soon after to the most destitute part of the city, then haunted by a
gang called the Schuylkill Rangers, so that life was considered insecure late at
night. They procured, with great difficulty, a room in which to commence, and
organized a school in connection with their church. This school grew so rapidly
that a building was soon after erected for its use; but that soon became too small,
so that a larger lot was secured in an adjoining neighborhood, and a schoolhouse
built on the rear, with the intention of building a church in front. The school
still grew so rapidly that the ground intended fora church was covered by the
necessary school buildings and a large lot adjoining was secured for the church.
Here a church was soon after erected capable of seating nearly two thousand
persons. So a little mission school in an upper room has grown into a large
Sabbath school hall and ad joining church building at the corner of Twenty-Second
and Bainbridge Streets, being known as the Bethany Sunday School and Bethany
Presbyterian Church, connected with which there are schools of various kinds-
held during the week, libraries, reading rooms, and even a savings bank in which
poor people can deposit the smallest sums, also a dispensary where they can be
treated without charge, all designed to benefit the vast population that is now
gathered in that part of the city. From being regarded as one of the most
abandoned portions of the city, the vicinity of this school has become a delight-
ful place of residence for that class of industrious, God-fearing people whom it
has done so much to create. I rejoice that I was, in any degree, permitted to
give an impetus to this grand movement."

The windows of the schoolroom looked out over vacant fields.
With one exception there was not a house between South Street and
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The present district of substan-
tial houses was then covered with brickyards, duck ponds and ash
heaps ; and the vacant lots and dark corners formed by the piles of

982

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

bricks were a sort of rendezvous for the Schuylkill Rangers. But
Sunday after Sunday more and more children came, until there were
sixty in the little room. They then hired an adjoining room and
filled it, piling some persons on the stairs. Then they added a
third room downstairs.

On the 4th of July Mr. W. C. Oberteuffer proposed, in view of
the crowded condition of the room, to put up a tent on the adjoining
lot to accommodate the people. This was agreed to as the only
thing possible at the time, and during the week the old man went
along the wharves of the Schuylkill River and begged old ship sails.

THE CHAMBERS MISSION SCHOOL.

On the 12th of July the boys of the school and their superintendent
levelled the ash lot on South Street between Twenty-First and
Twenty-Second, and from Harmstead to South, and put up the tent.
There were threats that the tent would be torn down, but many of
the blusterers came to be numbered among those who supported the
work with their money and guarded it with their muscle and their
prayers. When the tent was finished an old white pulpit was
obtained from John Chambers' church lecture room. The tent had
a seating capacity of four hundred, and the curtains on sides of the
tent could be lifted up, making room for five or six hundred
more. Preaching was now held. Rev. Doctor Challen preached
in the morning, and in the evening Rev. J. R. Keisler.

Crowds flocked to this novel place of worship. Of course many

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL.

983

were attracted by idle curiosity, and the toughs that infested the
neighborhood gathered to see what chance there was for raising a
disturbance. But the size of the audience and the earnestness of
the teachers and leaders seemed to appeal to their better natures,
and the worshippers were unmolested. Friends gathered about this
handful of people and determined to build a place to worship in
after the summer was over. A lot of ground fifty by seventy feet
on South Street, above Twenty-First, was bought, and on the 16th of

THE FLRST HOME OF BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL.

October, the corner stone of a brick building forty by sixty feet was
laid by Rev. John Chambers, Alfred Cookman, James Neil, Doctors
Teyburn and Brainard, McLeod and Richard Garden.

The building was not completed when the cold weather came, and
the school lodged in a shed of the Lombard and South Streets Pas-
senger Railway Company, on South above Twenty- Third Street, for
three Sundays. It was then housed by the directors of the public
school on Twenty-Third Street above Lombard, where it met until it
moved to the new home for the dedication services, which took

984

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

place on Jan. 28, 1859. At the first session in the new building
there were two hundred and seventy-four pupils and seventeen
teachers present. On the 25th of March, 1865, Rev. T. Lowrie
made his first visit to the chapel, while serving the Moyamensing

THE PKESENT HOME OF BETHANY.

Mission, now the Harriet Holland Church. On the 19th of August,
1865, Mr. Lowrie began active labor with the mission, and on the
24th of September the church was organized with twenty members
and one elder. The prosperity of the work now fairly began, and
soon the building was too small. The members prepared to accom-
modate the neighborhood, which had commenced to grow. The

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 985

lot on the northwest corner of Twenty-First and Fitzwater was bought.
It was then thought to be too small, so the lot at the southeast
corner of Twenty-Second and Shippen (now Bainbridge), which was
112 x 138J feet, was bought. On the rear of this lot a great
structure was begun in the spring and dedicated on Feb. 13, 1868.
The part of the ground in front left for the church was thought to
be too small and was never built upon, but was absorbed in the
rebuilding of the Sunday school building. A lot 100x1381 adjoin-
ing on the east was purchased for a church building, which was
slowly erected and finally completed in 1874, giving a property to
the Bethany work of two substantial stone buildings, covering a lot
212 x 138J, seating 4,820 persons and costing altogether $214,000.

The growth of this wonderful mission has been marvelous. Now
there are nearly three thousand weekly attendants at the Sunday
school besides the hundreds and hundreds of visitors. The school
has over one hundred teachers and seventy officers. And the estab-
lishment of the church could truthfully be classed as a grand piece
of political economy. It has built up that neighborhood and been
of invaluable service in establishing and maintaining law and order
in that part of the city, formerly so disorderly and dangerous to life
and property. Rev. Dr. A. T. Pierson, shortly after resigning the
pastorate in 1889, said in regard to the work of Bethany:

"From the first inception of this enterprise a twenty minutes'
prayer meeting has been held at the close of the Sunday school ses-
sion, and visitors present at the school are invited to remain and
participate. At times as many as fourteen nations have been repre-
sented in those who have taken part in one of these after meetings,
and who have gone to their distant homes to bear the inspiration of
this school like a live coal to kindle fires on other altars. The
direct and indirect influences of this evangelic church and school
no pen can record, for no arithmetic can compute it. That whole
section of the city is transformed. The drinking saloon and filthy
hovel have given way to great blocks of neat and economical homes
for the workiiigman. There are sobriety, order, thrift, piety, where
once drunkenness, anarchy, idleness and crime abode. That school
and church have made police stations and lockups needless and
introduced all the blessings of a Christian civilization to redeem
poverty and misery."

986

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

Dr. Pierson himself was a grand man for this grand work.
At a meeting of the congregation of Bethany in June, 1883, it was
unanimously decided to call him to the pastorate. He accepted,
and for six years filled the pulpit and worked with untiring zeal

But for a long time Dr. Pierson

had felt that he could be of

greater use to the cause in stimu- ^,

lating missionary activity in the
United States and Europe. So,
after mature deliberation, he
decided in June, 1889, to ten-
der his resignation as pastor of
Bethany to take effect on August 1.
He was urged to withdraw it, but
he remained firm, and finally his
resignation was accepted. A call
was then extended to Rev. J. Wil-
bur Chapman, D. D., of Albany, N.
Y., to succeed Doctor Pierson. In
March he began his active work.

Years ago, when Bethany was
building, the trustees found that
they needed more money than they had at first supposed. The
building was rapidly approaching completion, but they discovered
that they had made no provision for the ventilation of the main
room. All the people who had contributed were discussed, and it
was decided that the drain had been so heavy upon them that they
could not at that time be asked to give more. There was only one
man, a wealthy marble dealer, who had refused aid, and no one had
the courage to attack him. At last Mr. Wanamaker, who was one
of the trustees, offered to go in person to the marble dealer and pre-
sent a picture of children suffocating in a Sunday school for need of
air. He went to the old gentleman's office, which was in his mar-
ble yard, and as he passed in he noticed a twelve-foot iron basin,
which in former days had been a fine fountain, but the running of
which the marble dealer had stopped when he bought the place, as
the water supply drew too heavily on his purse. Mr. Wanamaker
presented the case.

KEY. DK.

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 987

" Not a cent, sir, not a cent for such frivolities, " said the marble
dealer.

Mr. Wanamaker was daunted, but as he rose to go, his eye caught
the shafts of marble outside.

"If you do not wish to give money," he began, with a wicked
intent of arousing the old gentleman's ire, "you might send over
a block of marble. It could be sold, or might be used some way in
the building."

The marble dealer was furious. He saw that his visitor was
making game of him, and was about to make some violent answer,
when he happened to see the iron basin without.

"H'm," he chuckled, "there's that old fountain out there. I've
tried several times to give it to draymen to sell for old iron if they
would cart it away. You can have that for your Sunday school."

" Very well, I will have the men come around for it to-morrow.
It can be put to better use than either money or marble."

The old basin was cleaned and newly painted before the marble
dealer's eyes and was then taken to the Sunday school, where it was
set up in the middle of the big room, and a grotto with trailing
plants arranged in the centre.

No matter whether you care particularly about such things or not,
let me take you to the Sunday school to spend an hour; or if you
like, we may come out sooner. We go in off Bainbridge Street, and
soon find ourselves in the visitors' gallery, which extends around
three sides of the auditorium, part of which is reserved for classes.
Although we are there long before three o'clock, we find hundreds
of visitors already assembled. The subdued hum and bustle of new
arrivals increases, and very soon the visitors' gallery is filled, and
seats are found for the late comers wherever it is possible. For
many room is made on the platform near the orchestra. Presently
a tall, clean shaven, neatly dressed gentleman steps in. He makes
his entrance in the southwest corner. Eveiybody knows the new
arrival; that is shown by the friendly nods. Mr. Wanamaker, pre-
serving his habitual self possession, slowly makes his way toward
the desk which stands in front of the pulpit and far below it.

It is just three o'clock, and the congregation, or class, rather, for
Mr. Wanamaker's adult pupils form only a fragment of Bethany's
big army, is singing as the teacher makes his appearance promptly

988

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

on the minute set for the weekly lesson. The hymn is not inter-
rupted, and the last verse is sung with added pathos, for two or
three of the members have made addresses applying the lines to a
tender and brave young woman, a member of the class, whose death
had just occurred. Mr. Wanamaker joins in the singing (and he
sings well) as he steps to the platform. Now the male chorus of
half a dozen trained singers, under direction of Professor Sweeny,
take their position back of the superintendent. They sing without

AN INTERIOR VIEW OF BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL.

accompaniment. Then the pastor prays and the teacher talks. It
is a devout talk, full of the milk of human kindness, full of the
marrow of hard sense. Something is let out that the most care-
less of all the listeners is glad to carry away and remember. Then
there are the usual closing exercises, and the immense audience
passes slowly out, many lingering behind for the cheerful greeting
and the hearty handshake of the Postmaster General. We have
stayed an hour and have not known it.

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 989

There are livelier times than ever at the Sunday school on Christ-
mas Day; and livelier times at Thanksgiving. A press account
of last Thanksgiving is a good one :

" Postmaster General Wanamaker with a ham on his back. Rev. Chapman with
a sack of salt on his back. These were Thanksgiving Day scenes at Bethany
Sunday school, where, as usual, its leader, John Wanamaker, provided something
unique in the services.

" 'Let everybody bring an offering for the poor and sick,' he said last Sunday.
* Anything from a loaf of bread to a ton of coal.' So when the people went to
service at ten o'clock yesterday, they did take with them good things for the
poor. They piled them high before the platform, and it was a sight to suggest
that the millennium was coming right in the middle of this wicked nineteenth
century. They piled them up and piled them up bags of sugar, sacks of salt,
bundles of celery, baskets of apples, crates of eggs, cans of tea, and bags of
coffee enough to stock several grocery stores. Then when the congregation,
from which flowed this vast charity, had been dismissed, the most interesting
scenes were the assortment of the contributions preparatory to their distribu-
tion. Postmaster General Wanamaker took off his coat. Rev. Wilbur Chapman
also appeared in his shirt sleeves. They assorted the contributions carrying
boxes and bundles and bags in their arms and over their shoulders. Some flour
spilled down the neck of Pastor Chapman, and ham strings soiled the fingers of
the Postmaster General. The flexor muscles of their arms were stretched as they
had not been stretched for a long while in their ordinary business, and they all
confessed this truth after the things had been ordered to be sent around to poor
families, to hospitals, to orphanages, wherever they had heard of want, and
wherever it might arouse Thanksgiving pleasures in the hearts of the needy.
When it was all over the Postmaster General bundled on his overcoat over his
floured suit and took his carriage for Jenkintown."

Mr. Wanamaker has frequently said that he owes his start in life
to his ability to save money and to practise close economy at all
times. Whenever a young man approaches him for advice in any
business matter, no matter how busy Mr. Wanamaker may be, he
generally finds time to give the anxious applicant a few kindly
words of advice and encouragement, and always to say: "Save your
money." For years he has felt that habits of saving and thrift
should be encouraged among the working people, and particularly
among children ; that it would all add greatly to their material
comfort and content as well as foster higher aims and create a desire
for more ennobling pursuits. And with this thought constantly in
mind he established a few years ago a penny savings bank. It was
first opened in the schoolroom at Bethany. A safe was put in and
a banker's desk erected and the institution was opened for business
on the evening of Aug. 1, 1888. Deposits were made by children

990

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

themselves, by parents for their children, and by adults on their own
account. These ranged from one cent up to several dollars each.

The savings bank was successful from its very inception and soon
outgrew its quarters in the schoolroom. When it was found that
there was no law under which a penny savings bank could be incor-
porated, the efforts of Mr. Wanamaker secured an act of Assembly,
and it was signed by Governor Beaver on May 20, 1889. The
officers of the bank now purchased a lot on the southeast corner of
Twenty-First and Bainbridge Streets and remodelled the building on

THE PENNY SAVINGS BANK.

it so that it would be suitable for banking purposes. The total cost
of the lot and building was $10,000. The bank is sixteen by forty-
two feet, and is three stories high. The basement is furnished with
a safe deposit vault and has locked drawers for depositors. The
bank opened for business in its new quarters on May 1, 1890. Up
to this time deposits had been received only in the evenings, and
the officers served without compensation. Now regular banking
hours were established, from ten to three daily; and on Monday
and Friday evenings deposits are received until nine o'clock. A
salaried cashier and assistant were appointed. During the first
twelve months of the saving fund's existence 3,596 accounts were

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 991

opened, and $118,923.82 deposited in sums ranging from one cent
up. At the close of the year 185,606.81 remained on deposit.
On the 25th of June, 1892, there had been 8,750 accounts opened,
and almost half a million dollars had been deposited. Nearly
two thirds of the depositors are children, and many of the depositors
actually believe that Mr. Wanamaker now controls the bank abso-
lutely and is individually responsible for every cent of its liability.

It is worth while to spend half an hour in this bank some morning.
First a neat, happy looking woman with a market basket on her arm
steps in, deposits the amount that can be spared from the weekly
earnings ; she is scarcely out of the door before a wee toddler enters
and stands on tiptoe to reach his penny and book over the counter
to add to his cherished hoard. And so it goes on, from ten in the
morning until three in the afternoon. On the three evenings in
the weeks that the bank keeps open, the mechanic, the clerk, the
bronzed laboring man, the prosperous husbands of happy families,
drop in and leave their little sums for the growing nest-eggs laid
by for a rainy day. Mr. William McCouch, who first acted as the
bank's voluntary cashier in the Sunday school building, and is still
faithfully filling that responsible position, is personally acquainted
with nearly every one of the bank's nine thousand depositors, and
he meets them all with a smile of friendly recognition. The bank
is managed by a board of directors, of which Mr. Wanamaker is
president. The act of incorporation limits the investments of
penny savings banks to only first class securities, such as Government
bonds, city bonds of cities in the best standing, and real estate
mortgages. The funds of the First Penny Savings Bank are invested
principally in real estate mortgages bearing five and six per cent.,
and are therefore absolutely safe. The bank pays three and one half
per cent, on all deposits, and when the surplus amounts to fifteen
per cent, of its deposits all in excess of that amount is once in three
years divided equitably as an extra dividend to depositors. Any
minor can open an account in his own name. No director or
employee of the bank can borrow the bank's funds.

In the spring of 1890 the Langley House at Ocean City, N. J.,
was purchased by the superintendent's class of Bethany Church.
The object in view was to enable members of Mr. Wanamaker 's
class to enjoy the benefits of the ocean air at a very moderate cost,

992

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

and particularly to enable working people to seek rest at the sea
shore, who never could afford the high hotel rates at the average
resorts. A more worthy object still was that those members of the
class who were ill and could not pay, and elderly people too, could
enjoy themselves there free of cost. The house was rechristened
"Ocean Rest." It is a big three-story structure on the edge of the
beach, having a lot 150 x 235 feet. The house has forty sleeping
rooms, a parlor, a Jarge dining-room, and kitchen and smoking

'OCEAN BEST" AT OCEAN CITY, N. J.

rooms on the first floor. There are wide verandas on the front and
side of the house at the first and second floors, and twelve bath
houses hide themselves under the veranda. The establishment was
formally dedicated on July 11, 1890, Mr. Wanamaker's fifty-third
birthday.

In 1882 there was opened in the Bethany Sunday school building
the Bethany Industrial College, an idea of Mr. Wanamaker's, to give
instruction in the evening to those whose time was occupied during
the day in the pursuit of bread and butter. The different branches
taught were book-keeping, phonography, drawing, elocution, paint-

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL. 993

ing, French, German, vocal and instrumental music and art em-
broidery. The tuition fee is |1.50 for a course of forty nights.
Two thousand people gathered to witness the exercises incident to
the closing of the sixth scholastic year. The whole number of stu-
dents during the year was four hundred. The average attendance
for the seventy evenings the college was in session was one hundred
and thirty-four. The number of lessons given was nine thousand.
Thirteen branches were taught. Since the institution of the college
three thousand young people have received instruction and the sum
of 14,700 has been spent for tuition.

FOUR GEEAT POSTAL DEPARTUEES.

HERE have been postal telegraph propositions
in this country ever since the war. It has
been urged to buy existing telegraph lines, or
to lease them; and it has been proposed to build
Government lines. The most interesting prop-
osition is not of this kind at all. There is
nothing terrible or monstrous, or even radical
about it. It is plain, easy, and business-like.
It proposes simply that two tremendous ma-
chines, the Post Office Department and the telegraph companies,
shall help each other perform their work. It is a proposition that
the eleven thousand letter carriers of the Department shall help
the telegraph companies collect and deliver their messages, and that
a few postal clerks in a central bureau at Washington shall man-
age the stamp department and so shall do the book-keeping for this
part of the business of the companies. It is a proposition, on the
other hand, that the telegraph companies shall transmit, in return
for all this saving of cost to them in the conduct of their business,
telegraphic correspondence at rates which might equitably be re-
duced by exactly the cost of these items of expense, which it has
been most commonly estimated amount to a third of their whole
operating expenses.

So telegraphy would be cheapened. It would be brought within
the reach of millions of more people. It is not guesswork to say
so, because the universal experience of other countries as well as
this is that where postal facilities are cheapened and otherwise
made easy of access, added business has resulted which has more
than made up for any increased expenditure. The expense to the
Post Office Department for doing its part of the work would more
than be made up by the accessions to the postal revenue, not only

994

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 995

from the appropriation of two cents of the postage rates proposed for
telegrams under the scheme, but also from the impetus given to
general correspondence. The telegraph companies would be com-
pensated by an immediate saving of the important expenses men-
tioned, and by a remote if not an immediate accession to their
general business, which the cheapening of telegraphy and the
impetus given to general correspondence would surely bring about.
This is not merely the opinion of prominent persons on the postal
side of the question. Many directors of telegraph companies, and
many other business men of undoubted success and judgment, agree
that these results would inevitably follow.

The most discussed bill for the attachment of the telegraph to the
postal service provides substantially that all post offices which enjoy
the free delivery service and to which it may be from time to time
extended shall be postal telegraph stations ; though the Postmaster
General is empowered to designate, as may seem wise, upon the
application of the public or the telegraph companies, other post
offices and telegraph offices, from time to time, as postal telegraph
stations. The act would be put into effect after the Postmaster
General had invited proposals by public advertisements from tele-
graph companies either in existence or to be established, and had
contracted with one or more of them for a period of perhaps ten
years under conditions and at rates carefully laid down in the bill ;
with this provision, too, that the rates or tolls might be decreased
from time to time, with the consent of all contracting parties.
People would drop their postal telegrams (which would be messages
made out either upon stamped paper sold by the Department or upon
any sort of paper provided with stamps sold by the Department),
and would deposit them, as in the case of letters, in the letter
boxes, whether put up in the streets or attached for collection and
delivery posts at house doors. These postal telegrams are collected
three or four or eight or ten times a day, as the case may be, by
the carriers on their regular tours of 'collection. Similarly, when
they reach their destinations, the telegrams are delivered on the
regular deliveries by the carriers.

The proposition provides that telegrams shall be sent in the order
of filing, except that priority shall be given to telegrams relating
to the business of the Government. This means what it says. It

99t> . THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

does not mean that the telegraph companies may pretend to send
telegrams in the order of filing, and not do it ; or that they may pre-
tend to send Government telegrams, as they are supposed to be
required to do, in advance of other business, and not do it. It
means that a batch of telegrams received from a carrier on a given
trip shall be dispatched before those received from a carrier on a
succeeding trip shall be sent. There is no deception here. The
sender of the postal telegram will understand perfectly well that,
while the service in his particular case will not be as quick as the
regular service (though it is quite as likely to be as quick), his
message will nevertheless have a fair chance with all others ; and if
it is not very urgent, perhaps he does not care the next morning
or the same afternoon will do. And always the contracting tele-
graph companies keep up their regular line of business and always
they are accessible to intending senders of telegrams, if these people
choose to pay the higher rates and take the chance that their
telegrams will be delivered sooner.

It is provided in the bill that no liability shall attach to the Post
Office Department on account of delays or errors in the transmission
or delivery of postal telegrams. This follows the practice of the
Department with reference to other correspondence. The public
takes its chances with letters and packages because it is the Govern-
ment (which it trusts) which transports them. The public would
do so just the same with telegrams. It is made a great argument
in opposition to postal telegraphy that senders of messages would
be without the insurance which the telegraph companies now otter.
But the item of expense incurred annually by a telegraph company
for damages caused by delays and errors is infinitesimal, and the
company fights every claim as hard as it can. The inducement,
therefore, which the regular or preferred service, as it might be
called, would have to offer over the limited service proposed, would
be infinitesimal ; and besides, the present plan would not pretend to
do things with a safety which it did not mean to offer ; and besides,
again, if persons did not like to take chances with postal telegrams,
they could still use the regular service of the telegraph companies
at the higher rates.

The rates under the proposed bill would be as follows : For twenty
words between stations within a state or territory, or between

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 997

stations three hundred miles apart or less, fifteen cents ; for twenty
words between stations in the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Ken-
tucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and the states east of them,
twenty-five cents ; for twenty words between stations in the states
of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana and points
west of them twenty-five cents ; for twenty words between stations
in states forming, generally speaking, zones up and down both sides
of the Mississippi, twenty-five cents ; for twenty words between any
two stations not above provided for, fifty cents : for all words in excess
of the first twenty, one cent per word. The prepayment of replies
would be made at the office from which the original telegram was
transmitted. The rates for Government work would be annually
fixed by the Postmaster General as at present. Postal telegraph
money orders would be transmitted under the regulations now in
vogue ; only the tolls would necessarily be double the cost of the
transmission of money orders by mail.

The contracting telegraph companies, it is carefully provided,
shall have all the revenue from this postal telegraph service except
the usual rate of letter postage, two cents for each telegram. This
is reserved to the Post Office Department to cover the expenses of
supervision, book-keeping, etc. It will more than cover this expense,
because the present rate of letter postage more than covers exceeds
by $30,000,000 annually, in fact, the expense of transmitting the
letter mail. The postal telegraph accounts would be kept like
ordinary postal accounts by the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury.
The Postmaster General might provide suitable quarters in post
offices for the use of the telegraph companies. Nothing whatever
in the act, however, would prevent the telegraph companies from
maintaining offices of their own wherever they chose. Nor could
the telegraph companies compel the Postmaster General to furnish
quarters in post offices. The companies would employ at their
own cost, of course, all offices, operators, employees, etc., for the
transmission of postal telegrams. All of the work would be done
by the telegraph companies, and the telegraph companies would be
paid for performing the work by the departmental allowance of all
the money collected for the work except two cents, as before stated,
for each telegram. If the postmaster were to act as operator at some
point, he would be compensated by the telegraph company for that

998 THE STORY OF OUIl POST OFFICE.

work like any other employee of the telegraph company for similar
work ; that would be an affair of the contractor. A railroad or a
steamboat line, when it transports mail bags, hires the conductors
and the captains, the brake men and the deck-hands.

No distribution of patronage at all would be involved ; it is dis-
tinctly prevented. No expense to the Government could be involved ;
that is distinctly prevented. The postmasters would be compensated
for the postage portion of stamps and telegraph forms as they are
now compensated for postage on regular mail matter. Any con-
tracting telegraph company, as it is distinctly provided, might do
its regular business for the public as at present. The public
would be perfectly free to use the quicker form of telegraphing
if it continued to think it really a quicker form of telegraphing.
No telegraph company, indeed, would be compelled, nor could
any telegraph company possibly be compelled, to bid for this
limited class of work at all if it did not choose. If a bill like this
were passed and bids were publicly advertised for, and no telegraph
company chose to bid at the rates mentioned in the bill and under
the conditions advertised, there would be no postal telegraph
unless, possibly, some company of capitalists chose to build new
lines on the prospect of securing the contract.

It has never been made clear to the public why the telegraph
monopoly has opposed a postal telegraph. It may have been because
it feared that other companies might be organized to bid success-
fully under it for the limited class of work ; and this would surely
indicate that the rates set down in the bill are not too low. Be-
cause, even if the chance of success against the present well-
intrenched companies might be endangered on account of the large
first cost of plant and the small resources and facilities, still there
have been capitalists of judgment and real wealth willing to do it.
The true theory, no doubt, is that, while all the telegraph com-
panies would make just as much money after awhile because they
would be compensated fully for the deductions in rates by the extra
assistance that Avould be allowed to them they would be obliged
really to earn their dividends, would be compelled to do honest
work at honest prices and for honest returns ; and meantime might
come a possible financial shake-up and discomfiture. The opponents
of the measure do not longer maintain that postal telegraphy is an

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 999

illogical, unconstitutional development of the postal service (except,
perhaps, they do it in some quarters for effect). They chiefly argue
that the American people (who of all nations need quick communi-
cation) shall practically be kept twenty years behind the times;
and they hold, too, that the American people are not ingenious
enough to utilize the Post Office Department and the telegraph
machinery in conjunction with each other, and that there is no
brain in this American nation big enough to inaugurate a departure
like this.

Those who have studied the postal telegraph question find it hard
to believe that it is not coming. It proposes to pay for the work
that it involves, just as the Department pays the railroads, and the
steamboats, and the stage owners, and the pony riders. Nobody
would have to use a single postal telegram any more than he
would have to write a letter, or any more than he would have to
send it by steamboat rather than by train. There could be no
increase of Government employees except for a small central
bureau in Washington, or perhaps only for the employment of a few
clerks to handle the additional stamp business; and this would be
made up many times over by the added revenue due to that business
itself; and hence there would be no expense to the Department or
the people. Those who did the telegraphing would pay for it as
now. They would have to buy the stamps or the stamped paper
before they sent their telegrams, and having done that, no possible
expense could devolve upon anybody else for this work. The opera-
tors, like any other persons handling any part of the mails, would be
under oath to perform their duties faithfully, and if they did not
they would be sentenced, as provided in the bill, to hard labor for a
year, or three years.

This argument is one of the Postmaster General's many:

We feel rather proud if we quicken a mail between New York and Chicago by
three hours. We smile with satisfaction if we induce a railroad company to
put on a new mail train which puts the business men of New Orleans, say, four
hours nearer to the business men of Chicago. Here in the postal telegraph
plan is a proposition that saves days and nights. An astonishing increase of
ordinary correspondence by telegraph would inevitably follow the establishment
of low rates. The consumer and the producer would be brought nearer to-
gether. Neither would be robbed so much, and ultimately, it might not be
possible to rob him at all if the means of communication by which middle-men,
speculators, and adventurers, possessing as they do the advantage of money, were

1000 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

not monopolized. The reduced rates would extend to press dispatches. Papers
could be established, or could have telegraphic news, where now they cannot
afford it, and the news monopolies would be interfered with.

A fine old subterfuge always is to argue the unconstitutionally
of the postal telegraph. It is absurd. The powers granted to
Congress by the Constitution are not confined to those facilities
and instrumentalities of the postal service which were known or
in use at the time of the adoption of that instrument. They
keep pace with the progress of the country and adapt themselves
to the new developments of time and circumstances. They extend
from the horse with its rider to the stage coach, from the sailing
vessel to the steamboat, from the coach and steamboat to the
railroad, and from the railroad to the telegraph, as these new
agencies are successfully brought into use to meet the demands of
increased population and wealth. This is the language of the
Supreme Court.

Another point usually made very much of is that the contents of
messages would be given out. Absurd again. The telegraph, as
Judge Cooley has so well said, is established as a means of corre-
spondence, and as a substitute sometimes quite indispensable for
postal facilities. The reasons of public policy for maintaining the
secrecy of telegraphic communication are the same as those which
protect correspondence by mail ; and both methods of correspondence
are equally protected by constitutional guarantees. Though the
operator is not a public official, that circumstance is immaterial ; for
if it be permissible to make him testify to correspondence by tele-
graph what good reason can be given why the postmaster should not
be made subject to process for a like purpose and compelled to bring
into court correspondence which passes through his hands and to
open it for the purpose of evidence ?

The present Postmaster General has warmly advocated three
other far-reaching departures which are logical developments of the
postal service, and easy and inevitable methods also of quickening
all communication in this country. Indeed, they, with the postal
telegraph, propose to bring every man's door practically in electrical
communication with every other man's. The first of the three is
the postal telephone, which would connect all the suburbs, villages,
country stores, and other meeting places in the neighborhood of a

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 1001

free-delivery city or town, with similar points in the neighborhood
of every other. The extension of the free delivery into the country
is the second of these great departures. That proposes to employ
carriers in villages and farming communities smaller and more and
more sparsely settled, as occasion and the prospect of sufficient
remuneration require, for the collection and delivery of mail at the
door of the villager or rural dweller; and, wonderful to say, forty-
six experiments in this line have in the aggregate actually made
money in a year, which is conclusive proof, not that universal free
delivery is within reach, for that is not the contention, but that the
free delivery service may without expense, if not actually with
profit, be extended more and more into the country. The third
thing is the house letter box, so called. Experiments, tried under
the most unfavorable conditions, have shown that the same carrier
taking the same amount of time may collect mail from the door of
everybody on his route who has mail to collect, and deliver what-
ever he has to deliver upon this same regular route, without any
loss of time, offering, of course, the two incalculable conveniences
of having letters dropped without delay in a safe place and collected,
without the slightest inconvenience, from one's front door.

But these four reforms, the postal telegraph, the postal telephone,
country free delivery, and house-to-house collections of mail, are
discussed in one of the Postmaster General's off-hand talks inci-
sively. Mr. Heath, of the Indianapolis Journal, asked him what he
would do to develop the postal service, if he could have his way.
He

" There are four things that I can think of right away that I could do. They
are the simplest and easiest business propositions; and yet, consider them a
moment with me and see what a marvelous change they would work in the
postal system. See if each one does not commend itself to your business judg-
ment. See if you don't even feel sorry that politics and private interest stand
in the way of these improvements.

" You know that I have fought somewhat for a postal telegraph. It has not
been proposed that the Government should purchase or lease existing lines or
build any new ones. It has been contemplated to do nothing of the sort. It has
merely contemplated contracting with existing companies, or with companies
that might be incorporated, for the transmission of messages at reduced rates,
in consideration of the collection and delivery of these messages by the letter-
carriers of the Post Office Department. That is all there is of it. But think
how much there is of it! Every one of the six hundred cities in this country
I think the number is about six hundred now which have the free-delivery

1002

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

service, would be in direct electrical communication with every one of the five
hundred, and that, too, at rates low enough so that the plain people, who do the
bulk of the corresponding in this country, and not merely the wealthy business
people, could use the quickest means of intercommunication. The telegraph

AT ItOSEBURG, OHEGOX, A VILLAGE FREE DELIVERY OFFICK.

companies could afford to do this work thus cheaply for three reasons: One is
the additional patronage that the reduced rates and the regularity of collection
and delivery would bring; another is that their items of expense for collection
and delivery would be removed; the third is the use of the offices, clerks, stamps,
etc. In other words, the two great machines of the telegraph plants and the free

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 1003

delivery plant of the Post Office Department would fit into each other, helping each
other out and doing work at far less expense than would be required for either
to do the work independently. A person dropping a letter designated " postal
telegram" in a box in Chicago would have it taken up in the next collection,
telegraphed to its destination, say New York, and there taken out and delivered
in the first delivery. The answer would be sent off in the same way exactly.
The Department would contract with bidding telegraph companies to transmit
messages by telegraph, just as it now contracts with railroad companies, steam-
boats, stage-drivers, etc., to carry messages in sacks. The railroads and steam-
boats enjoy bidding. They find the transportation of mails for the Government
profitable. The telegraph companies would bid, and they would find their work
profitable."

"But it has been said that this would all require the employment of extra
people and the expenditures of extra money."

"I was about to speak of that. These objections are preposterous, and a very
great many who make them know that they are. The telegraph companies that
contract to transmit messages for the Department would handle them them-
selves, just the same as the railroad companies employ their engineers, firemen,
brakemen, etc., and the Department would have no more control of the operators
or other employees of the telegraph companies than it now has over the before-
mentioned railroad employees. The only regulation that would be required
would be similar to that now exercised over the railroads; namely, a certain
inspection to make sure that contracts are lived up to. A few clerks might be
necessary to manage the stamp accounts, and keep the books, and that sort of
thing. There could not possibly be any other employment of civil servants
involved, or any other possible expense.

" But let me keep to my original thought. It was that with this limited con-
tract postal telegraph, the Department doing its share and the telegraph com-
panies doing their share of the great work of conveying electrical letters, that
millions of people in the free delivery of cities would find a new means of com-
municating among themselves brought within their reach a means worthy of
these days of American enterprise and invention, and not obsolete for twenty
years."

"But, Mr. Wanamaker," said the correspondent, "this does not seem to be
providing for anybody except those living in the five hundred cities which have
letter carriers."

" I know; and that brings me to the second point which I was about to speak
of, the second great step in the ideal development of the postal service, that
stupendous, marvelous machine for the transmission of intelligence among the
people. Here are telephone lines, say, within cities and outside of them, rami-
fying everywhere in suburban neighborhoods, going to almost every popular
headquarters in town and country. Bring that great means of communication
(by contract with the Department, publicly, fairly, economically, inexpensively,
as in the case of the telegraph companies) within the reach of all the suburban
populations. Why, I dream of ten-cent telegrams and five-cent, if not three-
cent, telephone messages. And how wide reaching the combination of these two
systems would be, one connecting all the five hundred free-delivery cities and
the number is continually increasing by increase of population and decrease of
limits to which the free delivery may be applied and enabling these millions

1004 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

of suburban residents to use the telephone, in connection with it. Not even the
special knowledge of the telegraph operator, as in the other case, would be
required, for anybody can use the telephone, and thousands of little popular
centres within easy reach of the big cities would be brought into direct electri-
cal communication with all the other little popular centres, no matter where, in
the whole country. There would be no extra employment of people, no extra
expense. That is evident as soon as you know the proposition. There would
be no additional expense involved, except, as before suggested, in a possible
central bureau of a dozen clerks to do the requisite book-keeping. That is the
second point that I thought of when you first spoke to me of the ideal develop-
ment of the postal system."

" What is the third point ? "

" The third phase of it," said the Postmaster General, " is the rural free delivery,
that is to say, free delivery by carrier in towns, villages, and even farming communi-
ties not at present enjoying it. We have been trying it in forty-eight communities,
varying in population from three hundred to three thousand, and under all circum-
stances and conditions as you may have heard, an experiment like this: We have
the outgoing and the incoming mails collected from and delivered to every house,
and have found that the increased business which these additional facilities bring
to the total of the offices exceeded by almost $4,000 the expenditure of $10,000
allowed to be made in a year for the purpose of this experiment. It is evident,
then indeed, we have proved it that you can spend money for free delivery
in these small communities and get it back, and more, too, if you apply it under
similar conditions; and it is equally evident that you can put on the free delivery
under less favorable circumstances, and still have it pay its way. What I would
like to see, therefore, would be a large amount of money appropriated (which,
really, would not be appropriated, because it would all come back) for this ex-
tension of free delivery in villages and farming communities. That would mean
a collection and delivery of mail from every house within the area served by the
post office where the service would be put on; and if you think a moment you
will see that in thousands of places, especially where the telephone service is
connected with the telegraph service, would hundreds of thousands of houses be
brought into electrical communication with hundreds of thousands of others.
I don't say that free delivery could be made universal in this country for many years
to come. That is because of our immense sparsely settled areas, for it now costs us
fifty cents to carry many a letter to some remote quarter of the country; but I do
say that we can extend free delivery, and that, too, pretty fast, into the country
more and more. This you see, is the third thing, and it brings, as I have hinted,
hundreds of thousands of homes into electrical communication with an indefinite
number of others ; for the carrier in the village, as well as in the city, goes wher-
ever there is mail to deliver or collect."

"That is so simple that I should think they would vote the money for it in
Congress."

" I should think so, too; I hope they will. The trouble is in getting the prop-
osition rightly understood and in understanding not only that it is not a source
of loss in the end, but that it is of incalculable value to all the country homes
that would be affected by the extra facilities for receiving and posting letters and
papers. Think of the benefit of it to the papers themselves, for instance. The
business office of a great Southern paper is of opinion that its weekly circulation,

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 1005

now over 100,000, would be increased by 100,000, if the country people whom it
desires to reach, and who desire to be reached, could only have a chance."
" What is your fourth point in this development of the service ? "
" It is more in the line of the last than in the phases of it that are electrical,
though both of these last supplement the benefits of electrical communication
in a marked degree. The fourth scheme is the application of letter-boxes for
the collection, as well as the delivery, of mail from and to everybody's door in
every city, town and village, or even farming community, if desired. You may
remember that we have had a commission working at odd times during a good part
of two years examining fifteen hundred or more models of letter-boxes intended
for house doors, or the front walls of houses, with this object in view; to find
the simplest, safest, and least expensive device, either for the reception of mail
delivered, or for reception and collection both. Of course, the Department
would like to see delivery boxes put in, because then a quarter part, say, of the
time of the carrier force, which is now consumed in waiting for people to come
to doors to receive their mail, would be saved to the carrier force; but that is
no reason why the householder would want to pay forty or fifty cents for a
letter-box for the purpose. He probably would be willing however, to put in
a box if he could have his letters collected from the house door by the carrier
on his route without, that is to say, going to the corner or wherever the nearest
letter-box happens to be. But, however that was, or is, our commission picked
out six boxes as being the best, and we thereupon invited the six inventors to
make actual tests of their boxes on separate carrier routes, so that we could
determine whether the innovation would be popular and also whether the
present carrier force in a given community can collect mail from every house as
well as deliver it, without an extra expenditure of time, and hence of money.
The best tests thus far have been made at St. Louis, and the postmaster there,
Mr. Harlow, informs me that one of his carrier routes has been entirely supplied
with boxes, that the people there and elsewhere in his city are eager for the
house-to-house delivery and collection, and, what is more significant than all
this, he thinks that the collection as well as the delivery phase of the departure,
has come to stay.

" That is nothing less than wonderful if it should turn out, after repeated satis-
factory tests, to be true; for it means that the present carrier force of the Post
Office Department at present employed in some six hundred cities could collect
letters from everybody's door where they happen to be for collection as indi-
cated by disks which would appear where mail is to be collected incidentally
with the delivery of mail to every door where it is to be delivered; and all this
within the same time and without any extra expense, or, in other words, the
millions of people in these cities have, by this discovery, two great conveniences
which they did not have before, namely, all of their letters deposited in a safe
place at their doors without delay, and, what is more, all of their letters collected
from a safe place at their doors. And you see, as the free delivery service is
extended into smaller and smaller cities, into the towns, into the villages, even
into the farming districts, these privileges are correspondingly scattered."

The small free-delivery communities experimented upon varied
in size from three hundred persons to three thousand. Between
Feb. 1 and Sept. 3, 1891, the forty-six experimental offices

1006 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

aggregated 285 months of free delivery service, at a total cost
of carriers of 14,320.69, and a net profit to be credited to the
free delivery service of 8850.50. An entire year, aggregating 552
months for these forty-six offices, would have resulted, according to
the above proportion, in a net earning of $3,812.54. With an
appropriation of ,$200,000 for the next fiscal year the net earnings,
on the same basis, would have reached $76, 250.80 ; and with an appro-
priation of $500,000, the net earnings would have been, by the same
figures, $190,627, and with an appropriation of a million dollars,
$381,254. Of course the implication is that the service would be
put on in communities of areas and densities of population similar
to those already experimented with. But it is evident that it could
be put on in regions more and more sparsely settled.

A very important effect of the rural free delivery has been to
increase the pay of postmasters where it has been tried. The under-
paid fourth class postmasters have sometimes fallen an easy prey to
adventurers who try to inveigle them into attending conventions
district, state, or even national, for the purpose of making an
"impression" upon Congress. The result usually is that a few
deluded men gather only to find that there is no convention and
nothing to do but to take the next train home. If the national con-
vention materializes the result is probably a bill introduced into
Congress by some member who cares nothing for it except to oblige
the man who hands the hill to him, or to get rid of him ; and as the
bill involves the appropriation of anywhere from one to seven
millions it does not need to be said that it receives no attention
whatever. There is a practical way of benefiting the fourth class
postmasters. The question of increased pay for them is simply a
business proposition ; that if he does more things and does them
better he will have more pay. And, moreover, while so long as it
is a fact, as it is in thousands of cases, that the postmaster receives
all the money that his office earns, and he does not resign it, he can
make small headway pleading with Congress for appropriations of
millions to be divided amongst him, so to speak. The practical idea
has been that with the increased business which would result from
supplying so many of the smaller offices with postal telephones, rural
free delivery, and postal savings depositaries, the pay, which is
adjusted upon work performed, would be made greater as a matter of

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES. 1007

course. Experience has proved that this is right. It has not been
possible to try the postal telephone or the postal savings depository.
The country free delivery experiment, however, showed a net profit in
the forty-six communities of $ 3, 812. 54. It increased the pay of
thirty-eight of the postmasters involved by a total of $2,920.66,
the salaries of the postmasters at twelve of the nineteen presidential
offices where the free delivery experiment was tried, were increased
$1,600 in the aggregate. The increase in the other cases was
smaller, but it was exactly proportioned to the increased receipts
which gauged the increased work done.

There lias been a great demand, there is now, for this rural free
delivery extension. Instances have been cited where local enter-
prise has provided this collection and delivery of mails for years;
and doubtless something of the sort is common in thousands of com-
munities in this country. Here a young man collects and delivers
for people on a route between the post office and a store, and there
the patrons of the post office employ a star route messenger to collect
and deliver their mail, at a cost not exceeding five cents weekly.
Ordinary salt bags are utilized as family mail sacks and are dis-
tributed two or three times a week from one post office by regular
messengers, and the carrier receives yearly an average of fifty cents
per family, and the postmaster thanks and an increased cancella-
tion. Postmasters have made collections at their own expense, and
the result is an increased sale of stamps and stamped envelopes.
An effective method of collection and delivery has been by store
order wagons, and another by means of the expressman, who was
compensated by a liberal subscription at the close of the season. In.
a Pennsylvania town two boys of fourteen have bicycles, and they
collect and deliver the mail of the merchants, rain or shine. Hun-
dreds of mail messengers will say that they collect and deliver mail
along their routes for nothing.

Mr. J. H. Brigham, Master of the National Grange of the Patrons
of Husbandry and the National Grange, by the way, has supported
the country free delivery departure in every one of its five thousand
or more branches says of Fulton County, O., his home:

' There are several stage lines passing from the county seat through several
other post offices. The people who live along the road make arrangements with
the stage drivers to deliver mail into the boxes which they have put on the road.

1008

THE STORY OF OUR. POST OFFICE.

He not only deposits any mail that he may have, but he also collects any left
there and takes it to the post office. When there is mail to collect, a sign is put
up to indicate that fact. Those particularly in the arrangement, therefore, have

a daily mail
delivered and
they can send

any other ex-
pense than a
dollar a year.
It has been
suggested by
M r . White-
head, the lec-
turer of the
Grange, that
probably the

people in the country would be
entirely willing to pay one cent
additional postage on letters for
delivery. Undoubtedly arrange-
ments could be made for deliv-
ery of mail through the country
at very little expense, by follow-
ing some such system. For in-
stance, have a general distribut-
ing point at the centre of the
school district along the road-
side. The people living on the
cross roads could put their boxes
at the four corners and get their
mail there. Of course, where
there are no stage lines there
would have to be special mes-
sengers. These could be hired very cheaply because they would make quite a
little sum doing errands for people. Under the messenger system the farmers
would not need to come to the post office every day or two, as they do now,
considerable loss of time and money, and so frequently for nothing."

In every one of the communities where the free delivery experi-
ment has been tried the citizens have been most unwilling to give
it up. This is true at Hepzibah, Ga., where the postmaster, Mr.
R. L. Rhodes, is one of the most interested in the service; it is true
at Monroe, Mich., a town of over five thousand people, the largest
where the experiment was tried and where Mr. Austin, the post-
master, a very clever business man, reports a grand success. At

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES.

1009

National Soldiers' Home, Va., Postmaster Paul has reported the ser-
vice to be next to indispensable. The patrons of his office are
chiefly four thousand disabled
soldiers, many of them too aged
and infirm to make it conve-
nient, if it were possible, to call
at the office. Before the free
delivery service was established
it was not unusual to find, upon
the arrival of the mail, five
hundred or a thousand men
awaiting their turn at the post
office. To the lame and en-
feebled this entailed great
hardship; but it has all been
done away with by the free
delivery.

The cause of rural improve-
ment is greatly to be promoted
by the general introduction of
country free delivery in connec-
tion with the ten-block system
of numbering and locating country houses already in success-
ful operation in Contra Costa County, Cal. By this system
(which was devised by Mr. A. L. Bancroft, of San Francisco,

MR. L. H. RHODES,

Postmaster, Hepzibah, Ga.

MR. A. L. BANCROFT
joj Sntter Street, San Francisco.

A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY

Piaoosnnd Organ j

.80S Suitor Street. San FrsncUCOy

BANCROFT-WHITNEY Co.

Law Rook Publisher*, etc., 607-fil3 Ciny Street. San Francisco.

ALOHA FARM 4'*, CROFTON i b, Granville Way \ ContY* CoMa Fruit Parma.
GRANVILLB ORCHARD, 97 Vista Ignacio Walnut Creelf, Ca

THE TEN- BLOCK SVSTEM

Information given on application regarding theefttnMlshlnft of
i. the ten block sj- stem ul uumUei ing couutrj bouMa.ttct

THE CARD OF A CONTRA COSTA DWELLER.

1010

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

who has a farm in Contra Costa
County), all the country roads
bear distinctive names. Each
mile is divided into ten imagi-
nary blocks having a frontage on
each side of the road of exactly
one tenth of a mile each. Two
numbers are assigned to each
block, the odd ones on the left
and the even numbers on the
right. Wherever country houses
are near enough to be situated
within the same block they all
have the same block number,
but are distinguished by small
letters, thus: 246, 246a, 246b,
etc. Not only the exact loca-
tion but the correct distance of
every house entrance from some
convenient point of departure,
say the county seat, can be
quickly estimated by dividing
the block number by two (there
being two numbers to each
block for each side of the road)
and pointing off one decimal
place. For instance, No. 246
is 123 tenths miles, or 12.3
miles from the point of reck-
oning; or if 246 represents the
difference between two block
numbers, then 12.3 stands for
the distance between them ex-
pressed in miles.

Rural free delivery may easily
be applied according to the ten-
block system. The mail boxes
would be placed by the roadside

JfOU.lt GllEAT POSTAL DEPAKTUUES. lOll

and designated by the block number. Boxes would be placed at all
cross roads and at the entrances of all neighborhood roads, and at
other points along the route where many families would be accom-
modated. Next to each box, or in combination with it, would be
placed for the incoming mail a receptacle for the outgoing mail,
and collections as well as deliveries would be among the economical
features of the system. With proper regulations letters addressed
to neighbors along the route could be placed in some distinguishing
envelope for rapid separation and immediate delivery within an
hour or two. Mail roads would be selected with two objects in
view, one to locate the routes in the most thickly populated part of
the country, where the service would be of benefit to the greatest
number of people, and the other to locate them upon the most impor-
tant through roads, for the influence of the mail delivery upon the
roads travelled by the postmen would certainly make them the best
in the country. Then, too, if free delivery in the country should be
granted only where the roads have been named, measured, and blocked
off, and the road beds themselves have been put in proper condition,
it would be a constant and powerful influence in favor of good roads,
as well as rural improvement throughout the whole country.

It has already been proposed, and favorably commented upon by
thoughtful persons, to provide for the delivery and collection of mail
along star routes, by arrangement with the mail carriers, and it has
been suggested, and favorably commented upon in many quarters,
that the mail contractors should carry a small amount of postal sup-
plies, like stamps and envelopes, and should also issue money orders
and register letters. The owners of the house collection boxes have
offered to equip a sparsely settled rural route not only with their
collection and delivery box but also with a mounted carrier, so that
the exact effect upon the postal revenue of collections as well as
deliveries of mail in country places may be found out. This same
company has also offered to equip one or more country free delivery
routes as at present operated in villages, and for the same purpose.
With the improvement of the roads, therefore, and with the appli-
cation of the ten-block system of locating country houses, and the
application, moreover, of the principle of collections as well as
deliveries of mail, the free delivery extension into regions more and
more sparsely settled is capable of rapid development.

1012

THE STOTCY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

REJECTED HOUSE LETTEK BOXES.

The house letter box experiment, already mentioned, has been
successfully tried. A given carrier route (the slowest in St. Louis
to deliver to and collect from, on account of the distance of the
houses, seventy-five feet from the street), was supplied with one
hundred and forty-three boxes, and in three months it was actually

FOUR GREAT POSTAL DEPARTURES.

1013

shown, not only that the carrier was able to collect mail from every
house where mail had been deposited for collection and a little
disc which he could see from the sidewalk showed that it had been
deposited, because formerly he had to lose a quarter of his time
waiting for people to answer door bells, talk with persons upon
topics of no consequence, or be delayed in other ways ; but also that
four times as many letters were dropped into the house letter boxes
upon this route than were formerly collected from the street letter
boxes in the same territory during a similar period. This increase,
to be sure, is no doubt partly, attributable to the fact that many letters

VIEWS OF AN ACCEPTED HOUSE LETTER BOX.

formerly written at home and dropped down town were dropped
at home; and also, perhaps, that a few business letters formerly
written down town were written at home and dropped there, or at
least dropped there. But unquestionably the new facility caused an
actual twofold increase in letter writing. For what person does not
write more letters who has the writing materials, or the stenographer,
or the letter box, at hand. And then husbands can no longer be
accused of carrying letters intended for mailing for days and days in
tjieir inside pockets. An increase of revenue to the Department is
looked for through still another facilitation of correspondence. There

VIEWS OF THE ACCEPTED INSIDE HOTTRE BOX
1014

FOUR GKEAT POSTAL DEPAETUKES. 1015

was early shown in St. Louis a demand for stamps to be purchased
through the carriers ; and as it was customary to enclose money, a
dollar, say, in an envelope, and put a stamp on it, and have the carrier
take it to the post office, and have the required stamps returned (all
but the two cents' worth required to pay for the postage on the
return envelope with the stamps enclosed), there would be just so
much added business ; or it has been proposed that carriers take along
supplies of stamps with them to meet all immediate demands.

Another great advantage (in addition to the quick deliveries to
safe receptacles and the regular and frequent collections from one's
door, and in addition to the increased popularization of the whole
free delivery and consequent appreciation by Congress), is that the
chance of .securing booty, which would be distributed in a hundred
house boxes rather than a single street box, would not appeal to
thieves, and the almost sure chance of immediate apprehension, in
front of a man's own door rather than on a remote street corner,
would appeal to thieves.

According to the census there are 2,618,267 dwellings in towns
of 10,000 people or more in this country. In the towns of a popu-
lation of between five thousand and ten thousand, to which it has
several times been urgently proposed to extend the free delivery,
pending action by Congress, there are, perhaps, a million more
dwellings. So that the house-to-house collection and delivery of
mail really applies to almost 4,000,000 families; and it is calcu-
lated that mail is delivered in this country to as many business
addresses as homes.

IMPORTANT POSTAL' REFORMS.

adoption of the tubular post for the large cities
of this country has been persistently agitated*.
The Postmaster General caused to be made the
most thorough investigation of foreign systems
yet attempted, secured an appropriation of
$10,000 for the trial of pneumatic tube experiments
at home, and completed arrangements by which actual
tests should be made. He most desired to see New
York and Brooklyn connected, and an adequate
system for Chicago and the World's Fair. Perhaps the
best foreign system is in operation in Berlin, and, though
this plant has cost nearly 11,000,000, it pays its way,
and, what is more, notably increases the business of the telegraph
and the telephone companies, and of course, of the mail service.
The tubular post is very hard and expensive to maintain; and it
may be that the great, quick means of carrying letters and packets
in cities has yet to be discovered. It will probably be electrical,
and will fit, suitably and logically, the development of the service
in the other electrical directions.

An important postal reform for cities has been begun by Post-
master Harlow in St. Louis. He has induced a local electric road
to put on a street railway post office, and this has now been success-
fully in operation for some time. Mail intended for delivery is
taken out in the car, which passes the shipping door of the post
office, is sorted in transit, and is handed out at sub-stations on the
eighteen mile route, or handed direct to carriers. Similarly, matter
intended for mailing is prepared inside the cars on the inward trip
for despatch as soon as it reaches the post office. This departure
not only expedites the mail handled from three to five hours, but
it might also, if generally applied in St. Louis, necessitate the

1016

IMPORTANT POSTAL REFORMS.

1017

employment of fewer carriers by about twenty, or, better still,
permit the addition of collections and deliveries, where they might
be needed, by the use of these released carriers.

The position of postmasters general in the matter of smaller public
buildings has been repeatedly made clear. They observed that the
Department was paying too much for the rentals of small offices ;

POSTMASTER HARROW'S STREET CAR POST OFFICE.

and the trouble of leasing and the inconveniences of moving were
of very disagreeable moment. The chief bill introduced to provide
small public buildings has been championed by Postmaster General
Vilas as well as Mr. Wanamaker, and by such Democrats as Con-
gressman Blount of Georgia, as well as by such Republicans as ex-
Congressman Candler of Massachusetts. The proposition is to have
a skilled architect and superintendent of construction appointed in

PUBLIC BUILDINGS LATELY DESIGNED BY SUPERVISING
ARCHITECT EDBROOKE.

1018

IMPORTANT POSTAL REFORMS. 1019

the Post Office Department to prepare in conjunction with the
Supervising Architect of the Treasury, suitable designs for the erec-
tion of three classes of buildings, varying in cost according to tin-
amounts of the gross receipts of the offices in those places, as
follows :

1. Where the receipts of each of the two preceding years exceed $25,000 the
cost shall not exceed $25,000.

2. Where the receipts of each of the two preceding years shall have been no
more than $25,000, the building shall not exceed in cost $20,000.

3. Where the receipts of each of the two years preceding shall have been
no more than $20,000, the cost shall not exceed $15,000.

The bill furthermore contains necessary provisions as to acquire-
ments of title, the acceptance of donations or grants of lands by
municipalities, etc. Recently there were 588 post offices of the
first and second classes, whose gross receipts were 88,000 or more,
not located in Government buildings, whereat the aggregate allow-
ance for the rent was over 1461,000. In addition, there were 1,311
third class offices in rented quarters, whose receipts for the four
quarters ended March 31, 1891, amounted to $3,000 or more; the
aggregate amount allowed for the rent of these third class offices
was over $282,000, making a total of nearly three quarters of a mil-
lion dollars paid by the post office annually for rentals. There were,
in addition, 1,707 post offices not located in Government buildings
whereat the gross receipts ran from $3,000 upwards. There were
104 offices whose gross receipts exceeded for each of the two years in
question the sum of 125,000; forty-nine offices whose gross receipts
were over $20,000 but did not exceed $25,000, and 1,554 offices
whose gross receipts did not exceed $20,000 for each of a pair of
years in question. Apply these figures to the bill, and it appears
that the cost of the post office buildings, calculated according to this
provision, would be as follows :

For 104 buildings at $25,000 each s2. 000,000.00

For 49 buildings at $20,000 each is<, 000.00

For 1,554 buildings at not exceeding $15,000 each, which it is

roughly estimated may be divided into the following

groups :

500 buildings at the maximum of cost, $15,000 . $7,600,000.00

1,054 buildings not exceeding $10,000 each 10,540,000.00

$21.620.000.00

PUBLIC BUILDINGS IX WASHINGTON CITY

1020

IMPORTANT POSTAL REFORMS. 1021

In short, therefore, with an outlay of $21,000,000, every post
office doing a considerable business could be properly housed and a
saving accomplished of about three quarters of a million dollars per
annum. The entire expenditure of $21,000,000 would all be
covered by rentals in twenty-nine years, and probably in twenty-
five years or less, considering the annual increase of rentals. If
interest could be compounded at six per cent., it would all come
back in from fifteen to seventeen years. The net result of judicious
financiering in this connection would be the actual ownership by
the United States Government of upward of seventeen hundred sub-
stantial buildings, rent free perpetually, by simply advancing from
the Treasury the rentals of a few years. And the Postmaster
General adds:

"In one state alone there are fifteen presidential post offices that have now,
or are expecting to have public buildings costing from $50,000 to $250,000, or
averaging perhaps $150,000 each, making a total cost of $2,250,000 for the fifteen.
It seems within the bounds of reason that a building sufficient to meet all
requirements could be erected in each of these places for post office purposes
alone at a cost of $50,000 or a total of $750,000 for all of them, which would
leave a balance of $1,500,000 to be distributed among other 125 presidential
offices, giving each building at the smaller towns to cost on an average of
$12,500. The great need is small buildings wholly for postal purposes."

The Postmaster General, while strenuously advocating the stop-
page of any useless expenditure of money for large buildings, just
as strenuously advocated the need of adequate quarters for the post
offices in such cities as New York, Chicago, and Washington. He
took the lead in these matters, and though appropriations could
not be obtained for New York and Chicago, where, as has been
repeatedly pointed out, the post office buildings are dark, dingy,
overcrowded and unhealthy, if not actually dangerous, he suc-
ceeded in Washington, first in securing an allowance for the erection
of an immense post office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, and
second in removing the city post office to its present roomy quarters.

The Postmaster General has been in favor of one cent postage
always, but not immediately, not until other more necessary and
less costly reforms can be effected. He has calculated the effect
of one cent postage from every possible point of view. He had
an account taken of the number of pieces and weight of mail
matter mailed at all the post offices and on the transportation lines

1022 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

during the week ending May 12, 1890, for the special purpose of
knowing what the proportionate revenue and expense of each class
of matter was. Upon these figures it was carefully estimated that
two cent letter postage yielded to the Department 62.5 per cent, of
its revenue. At the present time its revenue from letter postage
would amount to over $45,000,000, and to cut that in half would
mean a loss evidently of over $22,500,000, and it cannot be esti-
mated that this tremendous loss to the revenue would be made up
with the same certainty and regularity that followed the reduction
of letter postage from three cents to two ; for a reduction from two
cents to one would be followed by a. tremendous increase in the
volume of mails, and no doubt extra room in post offices, extra car
space, and extra men would be everywhere required, and here would
be additional expense. The more attractive idea, therefore, has
been rather to work out the various comparatively easy reforms
which will make the Department self supporting and more so, and
by insisting that the Post Office Department shall have credit for
the millions of dollars' worth of work done for the other executive
departments, obtainthe a dditional argument that one cent postage
will not really be an unreasonable tax upon the people.

One cent postage has really not been demanded much. Ninety-
nine out of every hundred letters or newspaper utterances insist that
the postal facilities shall be improved in every way before they are
endangered by any economical spirit that would result from such
a loss in the postal revenues. Of course, large business firms hav-
ing postage bills of $5,000 or $20,000 annually would like to see
these bills cut in half. The " demand " for one cent postage has in
recent months been chiefly worked up by one of the most frowsy of
the lobbyists, who, whether in collusion with any of these important
business men or not, has exploited himself upon their support, caus-
ing petitions for one cent postage to be circulated amongst them and
soliciting persons in different parts of the country to write letters
which should commit Congressmen unwittingly to a one cent post-
age measure. For instance, one reads that a huge petition signed
by four thousand or more business firms of Chicago and other Illinois
cities in behalf of one cent postage is on its way to Senator This
and Congressmen That. This is one thing; and then one hundred
or more Congressmen have been inveigled into writing some con-

IMPORTANT POSTAL KEFOKMS. 1023

stituent, known or unknown, that they were in favor of one cent
postage right away, not really knowing what the effect of it would
be but supposing that it was a good thing. The petitions and the
letters have been worked up partly by the personal solicitation of
this lobbyist, though chiefly, perhaps, by the circulation broadcast of
a small card printed in red and blue announcing that a one cent
postage bill had been introduced and that it was the duty of every
citizen, without regard to politics, to support it.

The proposition of postal savings depositories, which the present
Postmaster General has so much believed in as a means of collecting

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN AT ONCE.

SHALL LETTER POSTAGE BE REDUCED TOONECEHTP

DEAR SIR : The Hon. P. S. Post, of Illinois, has introduced a bill into Congress
to reduce letter postage from two to one cent an ounce, and it will speedily become a
law if we will all do our duty without delay. Please write a letter to your member of
Congress byjirsi wa7and ask him to give prompt and cordial support to this measure.
It is believed the time has arrived when this change can be made in letter postage
without in the least affecting the efficiency of the postal service, and if we are ever to
have it, let it come now.'.' The Republican party promised to give it tousin its platform
adopted by the convention which nominated President HARRISON, and bills were in-
troduced into the last Congress by both Republicans and Democrats to effect it, but
upon Mr.WANAMAKER's request none of them were reported to the House, his reason
being that he had other reforms and improvements he desired introduced into the
service before we had penny postage. This proposed reduction in postage is beneficial
to every class of the community, to the poor man as well as to the rich, and we con

have it at once if you will instruct your Congressman hoiv to vote. One hundred and four Congressmen have thus far
^ promised to vote for this bill. Please send the answer to your letter to LOCK BOX 258, WASHINGTON, D. C.

This Change will Benefit Even) Citizen, Rict] and POOP!!

THIS IS BUSINESS, NOT POLITICS.

A CARD SHOWING HOW ONE CENT POSTAGE IS "PROMOTED."

hundreds of millions of dollars and putting it into actual circulation
and use, and, for even greater benefit, of inculcating in millions of
poor people habits of thrift and confidence in the immovable stability
of the Government, is best stated by himself in a reiteration of one
of his favorite utterances. The plan, he says, is:

" At designated post offices to receive on deposit sums of not less than one
dollar, which may be in postage stamps on cards to be furnished, interest to be
added fronj the beginning of the next month after transmitted to the Secretary
of the Treasury, who shall, at the beginning of each half year, fix the rate of
interest to be paid to depositors, said interest to be one half per cent, less than
the current rate at savings funds and private banks at the monetary centres.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall keep account of deposits by the states, and,
tojmt the money in circulation, shall offer the funds arising in each state as a
loan to the national banks of the same state, at a rate of interest to be fixed by

1024 THE STOKY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

him and these sums shall be declared trust funds, and shall be a preferred claim
against the assets of the banks.

" Another plan, quite simple, and thoroughly practical, would be to issue at
the post offices non-negotiable certificates of postal deposit in sums of $10, $20,
$50 and $100, for easy computation, bearing interest at the rate of half a cent a
day on a hundred dollars ($1.82> per year), or a little less than two per cent, per
annum after the first of the month following the date of deposit, and principal
and interest payable on demand at any money order office by proper indorsement
and identification under regulations of the Postmaster General. The money
deposited in each state to be reinvested so far as possible in the same state in
school or municipal bonds by the Postmaster General, subject to the approval of
the Secretary of the Treasury.

" In establishing these depositories due care should be taken to provide first
for the states without savings banks. The reports of 36,598 postmasters state
that the distance of savings banks from post offices varies from a few feet to hun-
dreds of miles, and the actual average of distance in 1876 out of 2,807 counties in
the United States is twenty-eight miles. As the post office is within easy walk-
ing distance of the home of every man, woman and child, so would the place of
deposit for savings be equally accessible and convenient."

Very many persons have been in favor of a limited parcels post,
or a fuller transportation of packages by the Post Office Department
than the people now enjoy, simply for the reason that the express
companies do not extend their lines to remote quarters that the
post office already serves, and so leave the people there without
any method of doing a small express business ; and for the second
reason that this country has a full parcels post with foreign
countries, for eleven pound packages may be sent abroad, and only
four pound packages may go in the domestic mails. It has been
pointed out that the Department does not need to defer to the express
companies, for the reason that they do not hesitate to take to them-
selves the short haul packages, which undoubtedly pay them, and
leave to the Department the long hauls, which are unprofitable to
it. But inasmuch as a parcels post would encumber the Depart-
ment, necessitating more room in offices and cars, and perhaps more
men, it is believed that the country is not ready for it yet, until
half a dozen or more reforms, which are greater and easier, are
brought about.

Mr. Wanamaker has been immediately in favor of a consolida-
tion of third and fourth class ma'tter. He said in a recent letter :

" If the private express system extended all over the country there would be no
necessity and probably little inclination to make use of the mails for the trans-
portation of parcels or merchandise, the express charges upon a four pound

IMPORTANT POSTAL REFORMS. 1025

package being usually less than half the amount of postage required upon it at
the present rate. The fact is, furthermore, that the great majority of small
towns have no express facilities. At such places the government has a virtual
monopoly of the carriage of fourth-class matter, and under the existing rate
uses this monopoly to work hardship upon the very class of people who are most
entitled to its consideration. The excessive charge upon this class of matter
thus defeats the very object for which it was admitted to the mails the univer-
sal accommodation of the people.' 1

The increased volume of mail likely to follow the admission of
fourth class matter at third class rates would not be serious, as it is

THE DEPAliTMENT BUILDING WITH A PROPOSED ADDITION OF THKEE STOKIES.

argued, and the benefit to patrons of the mail in remote places
would be great. Nor would the interference with the express com-
panies be appreciable. Moreover, the great difficulty now involved
in deciding in so many cases which is third class and which fourth
class matter would be done away with.

Good men have always fully believed in a better inspection of
the service, and have frequently recommended this, in order to make
the system more nearly perfect as a business machine. It is really
a ^reat central office, with perhaps 70,000 branches and almost
230,000 employees; and yet it is without coherence, except as the

1026 THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

spirit of a particular Postmaster General may happen to permeate
it, and except, too, as the postal employees themselves may be kept
in touch with the central officers. Mr. Wanamaker has boldly
urged the appointment of a permanent comptroller, or actuary, for
the Department, who should be the real executive officer, leaving
the Postmaster General free to elaborate his special large reforms ;
and he has urged the division of the country into postal districts,
each under the supervision of the best postal men in it, not only
for the purpose of correcting irregularities but to prevent them.
This would keep numberless details away from the delays that lurk
in department desks, would result in the abolition of thousands of
useless post offices and the establishment of the useful free delivery
over all the territory covered, and would finally make the postal
service really efficient, economical and business-like.

INDEX.

Titles of chapters are printed in capitals.
Titles of illustrations are printed in italics.
Titles of topics are printed in Roman.

Where titles of illustrations are identical with titles of topics, the page num-
bers of illustrations follow in italics.

PAGE

Accounts Current, Old G75

Addresses for Candidates to Read 80, 80

Adjustment Division, Second Asst's Office. 33

Advertising for the Store 968

Advertising by the Department 172

Agricultural Grounds, In the 12

Alaska, Postal Service in 36

Alderneys in the White Weed 928

Allowances for Clerks, How Awarded 166

Allowances for Rent, Fuel and Light, How

Awarded 168

Anderson, A. T., Postmaster, Cleveland, O. 779

Ante-Room, The (1731 1 St.) 909

Anti-Lottery Act, Interpretation of the 535

Anti-Lottery Leaders of Louisiana 541, 546

" A Once Happy and Respected Family ".. 576'

Appointment Division, Desks in the 283

Appointment Division, Operations of the.. 289
APPREHENDING CRIMINALS; PRE-
VENTING CRIME 348

Arrade Entrance at Chestnut Street, The . . 964
Archives, The Veteran Clerk among the. ..677

Arnoi's Card, Major Anderson 504

Arnot, Major Anderson 501,50.?

Around-the-World Letters C5

As He Sometimes Stands 884

Assistant Postmasters, A Form of Oath for 304
At 2135 South Street, The First Meeting.. . . 980

Auditor's Office, For Clerks of the 6 72

Auditor's Office, Duties of Women in the. . . 702

Auditor's Office, Work of the C69

Austin, H. P.., Postmaster, Monroe, Mich.. 1008
Autographs of Postmasters 776

Backus, S. W., Postmaster, San Francisco,

Cal 801, 802

Bag and Lock Repair Shop, The 120

Bag Shop, A Storeroom in the 130

Bag Shop, Economy of the 123

PAGE

Bag Shop, Work of Men in the 132

Bag Shop, Work of Women in the. 131

Baker, Dr. John F., Balavia, N. Y. 483

Bancroft's Card, A.B. (Contra Costa plan). 1009

Earner, John, Frankfort, Indiana 483, 484

Barret, J., Postmaster, Louisville, Ky..777, 772

Basement, A Scene in the 962

Beardsley, Roswell, the Oldest Post-
master 461, 461

Beebe, Miles A., Cleveland 496, 496

Beidler, G. A., Postmaster, Oklahoma City,

Oklahoma 736, 736

Bell, J. Lowrie, Second Assistant P. M. G. 23
Bennett, E.B., Postm'r, Hartford, Conn.758, 758
Bennett, H. S., Postmaster, Evansville, Ind. 785

Benson, Russell F., Troy, N. Y 492, 492

Benton, I. A., Salt Lake City 800

BETHANY SUNDAY SCHOOL 979

Bethany Sunday School, The First Home of 983

Bethany, The Present Home of 984

Bethany S. S., An Interior View of 988

Beyerle.L.H., Postmaster.Goshen, Ind.786, 75,5

Big, but Light-Fingered 183

Black Bart's Twenty-eight " Holdups " . . 659
Blacksmith's Shop, Where Catchers are

Repaired 127

Blank Used in Every Post Office, Supply

Room Containing 220

Blind Girl, Beaded Chair made by the 135

Blind, Postage for the 397

Blind Girl Stringing Bags, A 134, 134

Blind Reading, Specimens of 268

Blue Book, Curious Names in the 12

Bogert, Mrs. Mary E. P 450, 450

Bogus Fruit Companies 601

Bogus Letters 540

Bogus Lottery T/Y/.Wx, />/<-*; wt/rs <>f..~AQ,541

Bond Division, The Chief Room of the 301

Bonds of Different Postmasters 308

1027

1028

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

PAGE

Books, Among the (Lindenhurst) 927

hosier's Mill 922

Boston Old-Timers 487, 488

Boston Stamp Cancelling Machine, The... 187
Brandt, I., Postmaster, Des Moines, Ia.792, 797
Briggs, George G., Postmaster, Grand

Rapids, Mich 782, 782

Bristow, P. H., Chief Clerk, Fourth Asst's

Office 287, 286

Brown, A. G., Founder Postal Record. .804, 804
Brown, Jas. M., Postmaster, Toledo, O..780, 779

Buckley, Jerry, and Family 499

Building of the Ship, The 152

Bulletin, The Daily Railway Mail 101

Bulletin, Fac-simile of the 102

Bulletin, Printing Office of the 103

Bunn, M. II., Atlanta 845

Burbank, W. P., Postm'r Lowell, Mass. 752, 748

Burglaries of Post Offices G50

Burrows, Rube, Rene Bache on 654

Caldwell, Luther, Chief Bond Division.. 300, 299
Campbell, W. P., Asst. Gen. Supt. R. M. S. 51

Camp Destitution 98

Camp Destitution, Life at 98

Camp Destitution, Mail Fumigated at 99

Cape May Point, The Lighthouse at 918

Capital City Scenes 723

Capitol Basement, Plan of 871

Capitol, View of the 567

Capitol Vista in Winter 7

Captain of the Department Watch, The 881

Carradine's Conception of the Lottery, Rev.

Mr 506

Carrier, Duties of the 227

Carrier, Postmaster Robinson on the 233

Carriers' Asso., Executive Board of the. 819, 820
Carriers' Asso., Ex-Presidents of the. . .815, 815

Carriers' Asso., Leg. Com. of the 821, 822

Carriers' Association,Last Year's Officers of

the 816, 816

Carriers' Association, Officers of the. . .813, 818

Carriers' Band, The Chicago 825, 824

Carriers, Detroit Convention of. 810

Carriers, Examinations for 230

Carriers' M. B. A., Officers of the 823, 823

Carriers, National Association of 809

Carriers, The Pay of 236

CARRIERS, THE SPRIGHTLY MEN IN

GRAY 226

Carriers, Well-Known 811

Cashier's Corner, The 962

Castle, H. A., Postmaster, St. Paul 789, 788

Catcher, The Mail 119

Catching the Pouch from the Crane 64

" Caught in the Act of Opening the Box " . . 558

Centre Market, Scenes about 9

Chambers Mission School, The 982

Chambers, Rev. John 941

" Check on Liars " Letter Box 239, 239

Cheltenham Academy 920

PAGE

Cheltenham Academy, Entrance to 921

Chicago, Delivery Carts Used in 238

Chicago P. O. , Big Men and Little Men in ... 181

Church, Moses, Worcester, Mass 491, 491

Cincinnati Post Office, Inside the 176

CITY AND THE DEPARTMENT, THE .... 1

City Distributions on Trains 91

Civil Service Examinations, Failures and

Successes in 175

C. S. Rules, as Applied to the R. M. S 70

Clark, H. W., Services as Postmaster at

Jacksonville 95

Clarkson, Hon. J. S., Late 1st Assistant 164

Clarkson, Hon. J. S., Refuses a Cabinet PI. 883
Clarkson, T. S., Postmaster, Omaha 798, 797
Clerks' Asso., Executive Committee of .831, 832
Clerks' Asso., Last Year's Officers of. . ..837, 837

Clerks' Asso., Officers of the 827, 828

Clerks' Asso. , The National 827

CLERKS' AND CARRIERS' ORGANI-
ZATIONS 804

Coffee Window, At the 129

Coleman, J. O., Postmaster, Sacramento 800, 802
Collins, G. J., Postmaster, Brooklyn.. .758, 760

" Columbia," The Pacific Mail S. S 142

Complaints Classified 311

Comstock, Anthony 614, 614

Concord Post Office, The 751

Confederate States of America, Provisional

Stamps of the 429

Conferees for the Second Visitation, The

Seven 455

Congressional Appropriations, Need of 19

Congressional Mail 872

Congressional Mail, How Handled 875

Congressional Mail. Wagons for 876

Congress, The Powers of 867

Conklin, E. L., Postmaster, Newark. . . .764, 760
Conkling, J.C., Postm'r, Springfield, 111.791, 792
Conners, HattieE., The Whistling Postmis-
tress 453,455

Conspiracy to Secure a Post Office, A 292

Constantino Stamp Cancelling Machine,

The 190

Contra Costa Dweller, The Card of a 1009

Contra Costa Plan Illustrated, The 1010

Contra Costa Plan, The 1009

Contract Division, Work of the 25

Contract System, Disadvantages of the 127

Contractor Springer's Adventure 40

Contractors, Frauds Attempted by 30

CONUNDRUMS ANSWERED BY THE

HUNDRED 192

Corcoran, John, Postmaster, Denver 799

Cord Fastener, The 121

Corporate Bonding 308

Correspondence, The Division of 192

Cottage at Cape May Point, The 918, 919

Coulter, T. B., Sixth Auditor of the Treas-
ury 669

Country Free Delivery 1004

INDEX.

1029

PAGE

Country Free Delivery, J. H. Brigham on. .1007

County Seat Visitations. 435

County Seat Visitation, The Second 455

Cowden, \7. J. W., Postm'r, Wheeling. 778, 772

Cox, A. M., San Francisco 803, 802

Crawford County, Pa., Scenes 441

Creede Post Office, The 739

Creede Post Office, Experiences at 739

Crocheted by the Blind Girl 132

Cutting Postal Cards in Strips 391

Daggett, Albert, Postal Card Contractor... 386

Daily Drawings of the Lottery 517

Dangers to Post Office Clerks 183

Danny Redmond, The Rider on the Sunset

Trail 42

Davenport, Theodore, Disbursing Officer.. 892

DEAD LETTERS AND LIVE ONES 242

" Dead " Letters in the Dead Letter Office. 244
Dead Letter Office Affected by the Lottery 533

Dead Letter Office, Foreign Division 2G6

Dead Letter Office, Inquiry Division 244

Dead Letter Office, Minor Division 263

Dead Letter Office, Money Division 261

Dead Letter Office, Museum 271, 246

Dead Letter Office, Opening Division 245

Dead Letter Office, Returning Division 205
Dead L. O. Unmailable and Property Div. . 249

Defeat Acknowledged by the Lottery 560

Delivery Teams, Some of the Eighty 973

De Motte, M.\L., Postm'r, Valparaiso, Ind.441

Department Building, Description of 3

Department Building with a Proposed

Addition of Three Stories, The 1025

Department from the Washington Loan &

Trust Building 20

Destroying Returned Stamped Envelopes. . 405
Dickinson, S. D.,Postm'r Jersey City .. .764, 760

Dining-Room, The, (at 1731 1 St.) 910

Distributing Letters 184

DISTRIBUTING STAMPS, HANDLING

REGISTERS 400

Distributing the Mail by States and Routes 55
Division Superintendents, Captain White

and His 76

Doyle, J. F., Postmaster, Savannah 774, 772

DRIVING THE LOTTERY OUT 522

Dunning Postal Cards 634

Early Business Success, Principles Under-
lying 955

Edgerton, R. A., Postm'r, Little Rock.. 775, 772

Electing Postmasters 297

Ellsworth, W. T. 869

Endowment Associations 594

Engine Room, In the 961

Ernst, C.W., Asst. Postmaster, Boston.. 749, 749
ESTABLISHING OFFICES, APPOINT-
MENTS 277

European Claims Agencies 596

European Premium Bonds G37

Evans, Owen, Pittsburg 496, 496

Everts, Samuel, Postmaster Cornwall, Vt. 171

Examinations for Post Office Clerks 177

Examinations for the R. M. S. . .? 73

Executing Bonds, rides for 302

Fac-Similes of Government Obligations,

use of Illegal 635

Fast Mail at New York, Loading the 50

Fast Mail, The New York and Chicago 57

Fenton, G. G., Chief Appointment Div.287, 287
Field, John, Postmaster, Philadelphia. 765, 766

" Finance " Brazil Mail S. S 148

First Assistant's Office, The 166

Fixtures for Post Offices 172

" Flocked There in Anticipation of Mak-
ing Great Discoveries " 349

Floods, Provisions Against in R. M. S 94

Flynn, D. T. . 735, 730

Foreign Countries, Post Office Buildings of 19

Foreign Lottery Matter, Treatment of 538

Foreign Mails, Duties of the Superinten-
dent of 137

Foreign Mails, Methods of Transporting.. . 139

Foreign Postal Systems 18

Fort Foote, Seen at 10

Foster, Gov. Murphy J 548, 547

Fowler,E.C., Chief Clerk to First Ass't.164, 165

Franking Privilege, The 632

Fraser, E. E., Record Breaker 857, 857

FRAUDS PERPETRATED THROUGH

THE MAILS 593

Free Delivery in the Country 1001

Free Delivery Service, Beginning of the ... 226

Freight Yard, The Old Pennsylvania 948

Fumigation of Foreign Mails, The 160

Gayler, James, Asst. Postmaster, N. Y.,759, 760

General Delivery Clerk, Duties of 185

Gentsch, B. F., Postmaster, Buffalo.. ..763, 760
George, C.H., Postmaster, Providence, 753, 748
George, E. B., Chief, Stamp Division.. 373, 373
Gibson, R. L., Late Senator from La., 542, 524
Gifford, C. H., Postmaster, N. Bedford, 753, 754

Gillam, Mr. Manly M. 972

Gold Train, The Great 317

Grant, Alexander, Chief Clerk, R. M. S . . . 51

Gray, J. S., Editor, R. M. linlletin 104

Green Bay Post Office, Extremes in the 815

Green Goods Circulars, Fac-Simile of 567, 568,

570

Green Goods Circulars, The 566, 577

Green Goods Xetrsi> per Clippings 576, 578

GREEN GOODS SWINDLES 566

Green Goods Swindlers, The Act to Punish. 584

Green Goods Telegrams 572, 577

Green Goods Victims, Getting Names of.. . 582
Green Goods Victims, How " Worked "... 586
Greene, J. Evarts, Postm'r, Worcester, 754, 748

Guide, A First Page of t lie 110

Guide, Matter from the Postal 112

1030

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

PAGE

Guide, Nature of the Postal 109

Guthrie Office, The Genesis of the 732

Guthrie Post Office, Experiences at the 729

Hale, W. I., Postmaster, Minneapolis, 791,755
Harlow, J. B., Postmaster, St. Louis. . .794, 793

Hance, E. T., Postmaster, Detroit 781, 781

Harris, James, Portland, Me 486, 486

Harrison Cottage at Cape May, The 920

Hart, T. N., Postmaster, Boston 747, 748

Hattie Wanamaker Memorial Chapel, The 932

" Havel" North German Lloyd's S. S 138

Hawes, Mrs. F. H., Postmistress, Hot

Springs, Ark 449, 449

Hazen, A. D., Third Ass't P'm'r Gen 372

" He Arrested Letter Carriers on the Street " 318

" He Got Out of Patience " 336

Hey & Dolphin C'nc'll'g M'ch'ne, The 189, 186
Higgins, C.R., Postmaster, Ft. Wayne, 785, 755

' His House, a Small Log Affair" 351

Hoitt, A. J., Postmaster, Lynn 753, 753

"Hold-ups" 65G

Holt, L. G., P'm'r, Lawrence, Muss... .752, 748

Hotel Walton 977

House Collection Box, The 241

House Collections of Mail 1001

House Collections and Deliveries of Mail . . 1012

House Letter Boxes Rejected 1012

House Letter Box, The Inside 1014

House Letter Box, The Outside 1014

House Letter Box, Views of an Accepted. . 1013
House Letter Box, Views of the Accepted

Inside : 1014

House Mail Wagons 575

House Post Office Committee, The 868

House Post Office Committee Room, The. ..872

House Post Office, Inside the 574

Hughes, B. F., Asst. Postm'ster, Phila., 767, 766

" / Chased the Fellow " 366

INSIDE HALF A DOZEN POST OFFICES 705

Inspection, Better ; 1025

Inspector, Impersonating an , 319

INSPECTORS, THE, THE EYES AND

EARS 310

Inspectors, Qualities of 310

Inspectors, How Appointed 312

Inspection Division, the 2d Asst's Office... . 31

In the Turpentine Woods 330

Inquiry Division, The, Boston P. O 186

/ Street, No. 1731 (the Washington Home

of the Wanamakers) 907

Jay Cooke Memorial Chapel at Ogontz, The 921

Jackson, R. C., on Mail Weighings 92

Jacksonville Post Office in Yellow Fever

Times 95

Johnson, W. W., P'stm'r Baltimore, 768, 768
Johnston, G. D., Civil Service Commission-
er 550, 550

Juarez Lottery, Circumventing the 527

PAGE

Kirkbridge, F. B., Supt. Bag and Lock
Shops 122, 122

Lake at one of the Entrances, The 924

Lafayette Square, On 5

LaGrave, C. E., Secy. R. M. S. M. B. A.

838, 539

Lanning, David, Asst. Postmaster, Colum-
bus, O 779, 779

LARGEST ACCOUNTING OFFICE, THE.. 669
La Villa Junction, Fumigating Mails at... . 96

LAW, CURIOUS QUESTIONS OF 625

Lee House at Arlington, The 2

Leibhardt, D. P., Supt., Dead Letter Office

275,275

Letter Press for Copying Requisitions 407

Letter Sheet, The 397

LETTER TRAVELS, HOW A 47

Lewis, J. R., Postmaster, Atlanta 771, 772

Libels, The Best of the Newspaper 901

Library, A Corner in the 917

Lies and Libels about the Postmaster

General 902

Life Insurance, The Postmaster General on 977

Lindenhurst, An Entrance to 923

Lindenhurst, the Country-Seat of the

Wanamakers 919

" Live " Letters in the Dead Letter Office. . 243
Locks and Bags in the Mail Equipment

Division 117

Locks and Keys, Guarding 129, 133

Locks, Changing 128

Locks, Classes of 125

Locks in Use by the Department 118

Locks, Rejected, in the Mail Equipment

Division 131, 116

Lock Shop, The First Crew in the 126

Long, Mrs. Mary Sumner, Postmistress,

Charlottesville, Va 452, 451

Looking from the Veranda 926

Lottery Act Constitutional, The 561

Lottery Caution Notice, The 534

Lottery Devices to Keep Business 562

Lottery in Louisiana, Fighting the 525, 530

Lottery in North Dakota, The 559

LOTTERY MEN, DEVIOUS METHODS OF 551
Lottery, Partnership of the Dept. with the. 522

LOTTERY, THE LOUISIANA 505

Louisiana Lottery, C. C. Buel on 507

Louisiana Lottery, J. C. WicklifTe on.. .506, 510
Louisiana Lottery, Rev. Mr. Carradine on. 515

Louisiana Lottery, The Growth of the 505

Louisiana Lottery, W. S. Bowen on 512

L' Union Postale, A first page of 156,154

Macdonald, C. F., Supt. Money Order Div.. 217

Machine Shop in The Bag Shop, The 133

Mail Bags, Classes of 115

Mail Bags, Distributing and Calling in 135

Afiii/iny a Letter at the Last Moment 62

Mailing Section, Chicago Post Office 181

INDEX.

1031

PAGE
MAIL LOCKS AND THE BAGS, AMONG

THE 114

Mail Messenger Service, Contracts for 31

Mail of Criminals, The C29

Mails, The Sanctity of the 627

Mail Street, Scenes in 711

MAILS UPON THE SEA, AMERICAN 137

MAKING BONDS OF $80,000,000 299

Manley, J. H 750, 750

Mansfield, R. E., Services at Waycross 97

Mansion at Lindenhurst, The 925

Mather's Mill, Now the Electric Plant 923

Maynard, Inspector, Fights the Lottery 526

Maynard, James, Chief Clerk, Division of

Mail Depredations 313

McKean, J. S., Postmaster, Pittsburg..715, 713

McMurphy, Lester 497, 500

McMurray, P. E., Postm'r, Jacksonville774, 772
MEDAL MEN AND RECORD BREAKERS. 851
Meily, Mrs. M. A., Postmistress, Ono, Pa.. 453
Merrill, W. H., Postmaster, Salem, Mass.753, 748
Minick, J. B., the Postmaster General's

Stenographer 888

Minneapolis Delivery Division, The 831

Missent Mail, Pains Taken to Trace 91

Miss Malott (Northern Washington) 42

MONEY ORDERS AND SUPPLIES 202

Money Order Building, The ... 203

Money Order, Fac-Simile of a Domestic 206

Money Order Funds, Handling 214

Money Orders in the Auditor's Office 672

Money Order, Issuing and Paying 204

Money Orders, Rates for Domestic 204

Money Orders, Rates for Foreign 211

Money Order System, The Beginning of the 202

Money Order System, The International 209

Monroe, F. A. (in the Anti-Lottery Fight).. 891

Monroe (Mich.) Post Office, View of the 1008

Moody and Sankey Auditorium, Inside the 950
Moody and Sankey Meeting, Crowds at a.. 949

Moody and Sankey Meetings, The 946

Morgan, Elisha 375

Mosby, J. S. (Juarez Lottery ) 530

Mowry, A.H., Postm'r, Charleston, S. C.770, 77-2
Muller, H. H., Asst. Postmaster, Cin. . .778, 779
Museum, Dead Letter Office, 248, 250, 252, 254,
256, 258, 260,262,264, 266
" My Eye Fell upon an Envelope" 33 1

Names of Post Offices, Curious 283

Naming Post Offices 282

Nashville Old-timers 497, 498

Nashville Post Office, The 727

Nashville P. O., The Mailing Room in the. 729
Nashville Post Office, The Operations of the 726

Natatorium and Bowling Alley 931

Navy Yard, Lying at the 14

New Orleans P. O., Effect of Lottery Matter

on 520

" Newport," the Pacific Mail S. S 141

Newspaper Bow 5

PAGE

Newspaper Subscribers, The Liability of... 631

New York Old-timers 492, 493

New York Post Office, A Corner in the 712

New York Post Office, the Operations of . . . 710
Nicholls, F. T., Ex.-Gov. Louisiana . . . .541, 542

" Nixies." ... 89

Nofsinger, F. B., Postm'r, Kansas City.798, 797
Nowell, W. A., Postmaster, Milwaukee.. 787, 788

Oath for Postal Employees, A Form of 306

OBSCENE LITERATURE.THE CURSE OF, 609
Obscene Newspapers, Editors of, Impris-
oned 612

Ocean Mail Lettings, Fac-Simile of 146

Ocean Mail Service, Contracts for 146

Ocean Postage Reduced 162

" Ocean Rest " at Ocean City, N.J 992

Ogden, Mr. Robert C. 966

Ogontz Seminary, Jenkintown 920

Oklahoma City P. O., Adventures at the. . . 736

Oklahoma City Post Office, The 736'

OLDEST POSTMASTER, THE 457

Old Postmasters Whose Terms Have Been

Interrupted 479

Old Soldiers' Pictures, A Page from the

Album of 272

Old Soldiers 1 Pictures, The Portfolio of.... 273

OLD-TIMERS IN THE SERVICE 486

Oler, C.H... 159

Oler, C. H., on the Duties of Sea Post Office

Clerks 159

One Cent Postage 1021

One Cent Postage is "Promoted," a Card

Showing How 1023

One Cent Postage, " Booming " 1022

" On Horseback over the Mountains " 354

Owney," the Railway Mail Dog 84, 84

Pacific Coast and Back, On a Mail Train to

the 63

Paper, Tons of 221

" Para " Pacific Mail S. S 142

Parcels Post, The 1024

Parcels Received at the Dead Letter Office. 253

Parcels without Wrappers 257

Patterson, R. F., Postmaster, Memphis 775

PAY AND WORK OF POST OFFICE

CLERKS, THE 163

Peace Monument, The 7

Penalty Envelope, The 399

Penny Savings Bank, The 989, 990

Periodicals, Collecting Postage on 411

Periodical, What Constitutes a 410

Perry, W. G., Chief Clerk, Dead Letter

Office 276, 276

" Peru " Pacific Mail S. S 143

Phelps, J. F 856, 856

Philadelphia Old-Timers 494, 495

Philadelphia Post Office, Mailing Section.. 174
Philadelphia Post Office, The Delivery

Division of 228

1032

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

PAGE

Philately in Europe 425

Philately, The Value of Studying 421

Phillips, H. M., Postmaster, Springfield,

Mass 755,74*

Picture Gallery, The Entrance to the 911

Picture Gallery, The Fireplace in the 912

Picture Gallery, The Music Corner in the.. 914

Pierson, Rev. Dr. A. T 986

Piper, S. S., Postm'r, Manchester, N. H.751, 74S

Pittsburg Post Office Illustrated 714, 722

Pneumatic Tube, The 1016

Porter County, Ind. , Post Offices in 444

Postage Stamps Once Used 607

Postal Car, Cases in a... 57

Postal Card factory, The 388, 389

Postal Cards, Paper for 388

Postal Cards, The Manufacture of 385

Postal Car, The Interior of a 56

Postal Cars, The Construction of 59

POSTAL DEPARTURES, FOUR GREAT. 994
Postal Employees, Members of Each Class

of 11

POSTAL LAWS ARE MADE, WHERE. . . . 865

Postal Note, The 213

Postal Note, The, How Issued 212

Postal Record, A Page of the Present 806

Postal Record, A Corner from the Old 805

POSTAL REFORMS, IMPORTANT 1016

Postal Savings Depositories Proposition. . .1023

Postal Service, Growth of the 15

Postal Telegraph, The 994

Postal Telephone, The 1000

Postal Union at Vienna, The 151

POSTMASTER GEXERAL'S DAY, A 880

Postmaster General's Day, A 886

Postmaster General's Mother, The 935

Postmaster General's Office, The 890

Postmaster in the Mountains of W. Va., A. 339

Postmaster's Accounts, How Handled 674

POSTMASTERS AT A CONFERENCE.. . 744

Postmasters Appointed in the Fifties 464

Postmasters Appointed in the Forties 462

Postmasters Appointed in the Sixties . .468, 474

Postmasters, How Appointed 281

Postmasters, Instructions for New 280

Postmasters on Inspectors' Recommen-
dations, Appointing 295

Postmasters, Relations of the Public to 193

Postmistresses, Groups of. 446, 447, 453

Post Office Boxes 171

Post Office Department Women 684

Post Offices, Appointments to, Classified. . . 180

Post Offices, How Discontinued 286

Post Offices, Numbers of, by States 289

Post Route Map, Fac-simile of Part of 108

Post Route Maps", Manufacture and Use of.. 106

Pouching Newspapers for California 60

Pouching the Mail 54

" Poverty- Stricken Wife and Shame-
Branded Child " 577

Prices of Rare Stamps 420, 427, 429

PAGE

Private Post. Office, A 877

Private Secretary, The 888

Prohibitions for Railway Postal Clerks 79

Public and the Department, The 10

PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT,

THE 101

Public Buildings in Washington City 1020

Public Buildings Lately Designed by Super-
vising Architect Edbrooke 1018

Public Buildings, More Economical 1017

Public Buildings, Recent

Public, Relations of Postmasters to the. . . . 193

Railroads, The Pay of 34, 68

Railway Mail Service M. B. A 837

Railway Mail Service, The Superannuation

Act for 89

RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE, THE WON-
DERFUL 68

Railway Medal Men 853, 852

Railway Postal Clerks' Assn 844

Railway Postal Clerks' Assn., Officers of

the 847,540

Railway Postal Clerks, Better Examina-
tions urged for 82

Railway Postal Clerks, Duties of 69, 75

Railway Postal Clerks, Exam's of .. .69, 70, 72
Railway Postal Clerks, The Bravery of 87

Railway Postal Clerks, The Pay of 79

Railway Post Office, The full, Gov. McKinVy 78

Rathbone,E. G., 4th Assistant 277

Record Breaking Clerks 859, 860

Registry System, The 407

Regulation Wagon Service, The 38

Regulation Wagon Service, For the 39, 39

Removals of Postmasters 290

Repairing Bags, The Old System of 121

Repairing Leather Pouches 124

Requisitions, Filling 400, 405

Returned Stamps, Where Destroyed 403, 403
Reynolds, J. A., Postmaster, Rochester,

N. Y 762, 760

Rhodes, L. H., P'tm'r, Hepzibah, Ga.1008, 1009
Rich, I. />., Postmaster, Liverpool, Eng 144

Richards, Alfred 501, 502

Richardson, D. S., Asst. Postmaster, San

Francisco 803,803

Riding Pages in Front of the Capitol 879

Rifling Letters 645

R. M. S. Bugle, The 808

R. M. S. M. B. A., Vice-Pres'ts of the .... 839, 840

Robberies 641

Robinson, H., Postm'r, Concord, N. H..750, 748

Rodman Wanamaker's House 931

Roeser, Charles, Topographer 105, 106

Rogers, W. H 543, 543

Roughing it near Richfield 439, 439

Routing Room, In the 185, 185

Ross, the Postmaster General's Messenger.. 886

Rulings of the Department, The 193

Russell, O. H., Postm'r, Richmond, Va. 770, 772

INDEX.

1033

PAGE

Sacks, Punching Eyes Out of 128

Sacred Mount Vernon 2

Safety of the Mails, The 316

Salaries and Allowances, The Div. of 164

Salons in the Washington Home of the

Wanamakers 908

San Francisco Old-Timers 498, 501

Santa Claus, Children's Letters to 187

" Schemes," Learning 75

Scott Stamp and Coin Co. , The 423

Scott, A. H., Chief, Div. of Salaries and

Allowances 170, 169

Screen Wagon Service, The. . 39

Screen Wagon, The 40

Sea Post Offices 156

Sea Post Office, Inside the- 158

Second Assistant P. M. G., Duties of the 23

Second Salon, The (1731 1 St.) 908

" Seguranca," Brazil Mail S. S 150

Senate Post Office Committee, The 86*>

Senate Post Office Committee Room, The.. 871

Senate Post Office, The 877

Sexton, J. A. Postmaster., Chicago, 787, 788

Shaw, A. J., Postmaster, Spokane 799, 799

' She Asked Me if You War n't a Post Office

Inspector " *332

Sherwood, Henry, Postmaster, Washing-
ton, D. C 724, 724

Shook, E. H. , Chief, Div. of Supplies 225, 225

Shop, A Description of the 957

SHOP, THE BIGGEST 953

Shop in 187 9, Inside the 955

Shop in 1879, The Great 954

Sinclair, W. H., Postm'r, Galveston, 774, 772
Small, J. C., Postmaster, Portland, Me. 750, 748
Smith, Andrew, Postmaster, Wegee, 0. 465, 465
Smith, B. W., Postm'r, Lafayette.Ind. .784, 785
Smith, C. E., Postm'r, Syracuse, N.Y...762, 760

Smith, N. A. C 288, 288

Smuggling at New York 664

Smuggling at San Francisco 666

SMUGGLING IN THE MAILS 662

Society for the Suppression of Vice 617, 619

Soldiers' Home, at the 4

Special Delivery Service, The 396

Special Delivery Stamp, The 395

Sperry, N. D., Postm'r, New Haven, Ct.755, 756

" Spree" On Board the 140

St. Louis Post Office, Carriers' Division of. 232

St. Louis Post Office, Mailing Division 182

St. Louis Post Office, The 795

Stables at Lindenhurst, The 929

Stamp Catalogue, Fac-Simile Page from.. 422

Stamp Clerk, Duties of the 184

Stamp Mania, Extent of the 425

STAMP MANIAC, THE MUCH ABUSED. . 417
Stamped Envelopes Manufactured at Hart-
ford 378

Stamped Envelopes, Printers Opposed to.. 379

Stamped Envelopes, a Frame of 380

Stamped Envelopes, Specimens of 382

PAGE

Stamps, Booming Sales of 383

Stamps of Value 419

Stamps, Thefts of 642

Stamps, Utilizing Cancelled 644

Stamps Issued by Early Postmasters 429

STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES,

POSTAL CARDS 372

Stamps, the Manufacture of 373

Stamps in the 3d Assistant's Office, A Cab-
inet of 375

Stage Lines of the Far West, For the 44

Star Service, Advertisements for 26

Star Service, Duties of Postmasters in

Connection with 29

Star Service, Evils of the 37

Star Service, "increased" and "expedited " 32

Star Route Frauds, How Perpetrated 32

Star Route in the South, On a 27

Star Routes, Method of Letting 25

START IN LIFE, A 934

States and Territories, Cost of Service in. . 35
Stationery Room for 1st and 2d Class Offi-
ces, The 222

Stationery Room for the Department

Proper, The 224

Stevenson, A. E 163

" Sticker," A Very Difficult Address, known

Stinson, W. D., Postm'r, Augusta, Me 750

Stone, G. F., Chief Clerk, 2d Asst's Office.24, 24

Store, A Transept in the 963

Store from Philadelphia City Hall, The... .959

Store, Plans of the 960

STORIES OF INSPECTORS 320

Strasburg, J. B 496, 497

Street Car Post Office, Postm'r Harlow's.. 1017

Street Railway Post Office, The 1016

Stuart, George H. 945

Sturgeon, I. T., Asst. Postm'r, St. Louis.796, 797

Subsidy Act, Arguments for the 141

Subsidy Act, Provisions of the 145

Substitutes in the R. M. S 75

Supplement, What Constitutes a 414

SUPPLIES, MONEY ORDERS AND 202

Supplies, the Division of 218, 218

Swan, Gallup (N~. Mex.) Post Office 334

Tacony Creek, The old Arch over 920

Taylor, T. T., Pres. R. M. S. M. B. A. . . . 839, 839

Texas Quartette, the 454, 454

" The Horse Trainers Attempted to Arrest

Their Flight " 362

" The Owner of This Was Found to be a

Blacksmith " 327

Third Assistant's Office, Work of the 372

Thirteenth and Market Street Corner, The. 958
Thompson, E. P., Postm'r, Indianapolis 784, 785

Time Xowfor Reflection 325

Toland, E. H. 979

Tomb of Washington, The 3

Topographer's Office, Exterior 107

1034

THE STORY OF OUR POST OFFICE.

PAGE

Topographer's Office, Interior 109

Topographer's Office, Work of the IOC

Transfer of Mail at the Grand Central

Station, the 52

TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS,

THE 22

Tubular Post, the 101G

Turner, M. A 679

TWENTY-TWO HUNDRED POSTMAS-
TERS VISIT 45,000 OFFICES 434

TWO BEAUTIFUL HOMES 906

Two Essex County (Mass.) Post Offices 440

Tyler,R.D. S., Chief, Mail Eq'pm't Div.114, 115
Tyner, J. N. 626

Uncle Tobe 322

Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in the 36

Van Cott, Cornelius 713, 709

Van Nostrand, G. E 835, 835

Victory, J. F., Editor Postal Record. . . .807, 807
Views of Post Offices Returned by Visiting

Postmasters 438

Village Free Delivery Office, A 1002

Vose, J. A., Appointment Clerk 893, 893

"Wallace, W. H., Postmaster, Hammonds-

ville, O 477, 477

Wanamaker, Birthplace of John 936

Wanamaker' s Brickyard, Nelson 938

Wanamaker, Early Life of 934

Wanamaker, John, in the Cabinet 881

Wanamaker, John, Full Page Picture of. . 900
Wanamaker, John, Starts in Business 924

PAGE

Wanamaker, Nelson 934

Warner, J. M., Postm'r, Albany, N. Y., 761, 760

Wanamaker' s Private Office in Phila 965

Wanamakers, the Washington Home of the 906

Washington, D. W 817, 817

" Washington, " Newsboy 6

Way cross, At the Fumigating Station at.. 98

Waycross, Fumigating Mails at 97

Weighing the Mails 92

" We're Homespun Folks Here, Sir " 321

White, E. D 549, 524

" Which They Hid in Their Garden " 328

White House from the Southwest, The 6

White, J. E., General Supt. R. M. S 70

Whitfleld, S.A 165

Wheeler, M. D., Chief Inspector 312

Williams, A. J 500,502

Wills, A. W., Postmaster, Nashville. . . .725, 725
Winrott, A. E., Editor, R. M. S. Bugle, 809, 809

Women Clerks, Duties of 682

Women Depredators 648

Women Mail Carriers 41

WOMEN OF THE DEPARTMENT, THE .. 680

Women of the Department 690, 698

Women of the D. L. O., Duties of 688

Women Postmasters, Numbers of 442

Women Postmasters, Sketches of 445

Wrapping Paper and Twine, Supply Room

Containing 220

Wreckat Tipton, The 88,90,92

Wreck of the Fast Mail, A 86

Yellow Fever Times, Handling Mail in .... 95
Zumstein, J., Postm'r, Cincinnati 778, 779

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