The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-09-27
THE POSTAL SERVICE.

mat tne NEW 1Ork newspapers or Tue
morning will be distributed in Rutland.
Marking, as 1t does, the commencement of
a new era in the history of the postal SER
vice, as connected with Vermont, it may
not be amss, or prove uninteresting, TO
briefly recall the history of the postal ser
vice of the country. We mark time by
contrasts, and the vast progress the coun-
try has made during the past two centuries
cannot be brought into clearer light than
by the contrasts presented by the history
Of the postal service.
The first step towards postal service
was taken in what was known as the
''coffee house system The only CORE
spondence with the colonies was from the
neither country, and the letters and papers
brought thence were usually delivered on
shpboard to the persons to whom they
were addressed or their authorized repre-
sentatives while letters an papers not
called for, were taken by the captain to the
nearest coffee house, where they were ex-
posed to view, on table, waiting 20 he
called for by their owners. These, in turn.
were, by common consent, taken by one
person and distributed in given neighbor-
hood, and from this grew the custom of
depositing Email NATTER either received
from or to be forwarded to the mother
country, at coffee house TO be forwarded
by accommodating neighbors toward its
destination until finally it reached either
the person TO whom II was directed or the
ship by which it was TO be forwarded. And
here we may state that, with ali Our vast
progress, in many neighborhoods in Yer
mont, and elsewhere in the country, much
the same system, if it can be called system,
yet prevails-but only where the govern
ment does not afford suitable mail SER
vice.
The second step--and the frat SO far US
establishing an authorized postal service on
the part of the government was concerned
was an order passed by the general
court of Massachusetts, in 1889, and which
was as follows: 1t is ordered that notice
" be given that Richard Fairbanks his
g house in Boston is the place appointed
- where all the letters which are brought
Z" from beyond the seas, or are to be sent
"thither, to be left with him. and he is to
take care that they be delivered or sent
according to the directions; and he is al
I" lowed for every letter penny, and he
"must answer all miscarriages through his
town neglect in this kind" By law
passed in Virginia in 1857, the tmal was
passed from planter to planter, each man
taking out his own matter and sending a
nc.ghbor, under penalty of a hogshead of
tobacco. In 1879, New York established
II monthly mail to Boston, the letters being
brought to tae secretary's Office, where, US
the official advertisement stated, in lockt
box, they shall be preserved until the mes
" senger calls for them all persons paying
d" the postage before the bagg be seeled up. y
Thus early was the prepayment of postage
required. In 1862, Great Britain appointed
postmaster general for North America,
but il was more than fifteen years after
that date before a mail was carried further
north than Boston or south than Philadel-
phia and as late as 1868, the northern
point was still Boston while south the mail
was carried only to Charleston, and for
more than twenty years afterwards post
offices or post routes were unknown in the
interior of the country, being all situated
on the direct line between Boston and
Charleston. s.af
The third era in the history of the mail
service was the appointment of Benjamin
franklin as acknowledgements of the COL
onies in 1868. From that time the postal
service began to assume form and shape
and to be governed by o system which, to
1, greater or less extent, remains even to
this day. His first act was to make his son
controller of the postofice he, also, gave
the Philadelphia office first to his son, then
to one of his wife's relatives, and finally to
one of his own brothers. A perncious cx'
ample which General Grant has not failed
to follow aud even improve upon-fol
Franklin had only one relative in Office al
a time, while the president has farmed Out
the whole family of relatives, both his owr
and his wife's, on the country at the same
time. His next step was a real reform
but certain class of postmasters even now
curse him for it. He compelled the mai
carriers to take all the newspapers offered
instead of only those published by post
masters as had heretofore been the case
Bradford, when postmaster-general, pub
lished newspaper and refused to allow
Franklin's paper to be carried by the mail
practice, writes Franklin, that 81
=" thought so meanly of, that When after
80 wards came into his situation, 1 tool
care never to initiate it, Not to emu
merate all the reforms brought about b,
him, it is sufficient to say that be estab
lished penny posts in cities advertised thu
list of uncalled for letters made news
paper subscribers pay postage thereon
ninepence a year for fifty miles and eighteeI
pence for hundred miles or over ant
reduced the time it took to get an answer
from Boston To Philadelphia from 81,
weeks to three weeks. Ho. ~. Is
The third era was the establishing o
posts by the United Colonies in 1775, ano
the appointment of Franklin as postmaste
general with salary of one thousand dol
lars per annum, aud IN annual allowance
of three hundred and forty dollars for I
secretary and controller. He was author
lied to establish line OF posts from Fal
mouth in New England 10 Savannah
Georgia, "wth as many cross posts as HI
should see fit" The pay of postmaster
was provided for as follows: g The al