The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-08-23
Our Merchants and Mail Facilities.

Our Merchants ana Mall aclutleS.
As we said In former article on "Tht
Trade OF Richmond" our merchants arc
conspicuous for their industry and en-.
ergy. A glance at Nam street from Four
tccnth 10 Eighth to-day from one who left
IL seventeen years ago In smouldering
ruins would readily attest the statement,
and especially when he reflected that the
men who more than rebuilt the business
OF the city were those who returned empty
handed from the dreadful scenes OF car
mage and the depressing influences OF sur
render and its results. Yes, 1t required
indomitable energy, courage, ana perse-
yerancc in such condition OF society with
labor thoroughly disorganized; 1t required
n test OF endurance that even surpasses the
energy Of ordinary thrift. Nor have they
since reliquished that energetic spirit.
II is true some Of the older firms were
unequal to the task OF recommending life,
as il were. Four years Of war had been
for them four years Of sleep and Danish
ment from the eyer-progressiyc, busy
world of trade. They awOke to find new
methods OF business which they could not
or cared not to comprehend. They strug-
clcd on, but their former prestige and
knowledge served TO retard rather IMAM
advance them. Younger firms who knew
of but were not so welded to the past as
to endangcr their fortunes by living III 1t
were seen TO prosper. The enterprise OF
the age was all that was needed, with their
native energy, TO make our merchants pre-
eminently successful.
The efforts at enterprise in the younger
firms, first seen in the employment OF
"drummers to meet and contend for
trade with the thousands who were over
running and stocking our territory with
goods from the North, were not seconded by
men Of the old regime, and therefore to a
certain extent counterbalanced. The in
furious effect Of the "old-timerS," who
could not cooperate with practical efforts,
has been gradually lcssening, and yet our
merchants are still much wanting in the
amount of enterprise that would be in keep
Ing with their industry.
The difference in competition for trade
between the present day and before the
war, is Just in the same proportion as has
been the improvement in the modes and
capacities for transportation and the facii-
ties for communication and it is in pro-
per appreciation of the great advantages
that are to be enjoyed from the securing OF
the most perfect system OF communication,
or OF as good as cities with which they are
that our merchants show one
great lack Of enterprise.
Several of the railroads running out OF
Richmond furnish us with the most
wrctched mail facilities, and ii they were
StudioUsIy inimical to the interests OF Rich
mond merchants they could not adopt
surer means for iniming them than by
The present running OF mail schedules.
The greatest trouble is the communication
with the system OF routes alon" the line OF
the Richmond and Danylle railroad. y let
tcrmailed in the afternoon by merchant in
Baltimore, Washington, or even in Phia-
delphia, is received at any point south Of
this city, on the line OF the Richmond and
Danvillc railroad, Just as soon as one
mailed at the same time by Il merchant in
Richmond. This is manicstly unfair to a
which giyeS it 50 much patron
lge, the principal terminus OF the road
md from which the road takes its name.
A like injustice is done our merchants by
The manner in which the York River rail-
road runs its mail schedule. Notwithstaud-
ing the fact that train leaves the city by
this route daily at $40 \. NJ, it carries
mail only to West Point and points for
which that place is the distributing Office
Mail for the whole belt Of country between
this city and West Point must lie over here
more than ten hourS, TO be carried down
with mail leaving New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore the same day. Is this doing
justice to a city which aided so materially
in giving birth to the road?
The Richmond and Petersburg railroad
also furnishes to Richmond very incOm-
plete mail facilities. \ letter may be sent
to Petersburg, leaving Richmond daily at
: \. NJ, vet, with no intermediate point.
or will. no place south OF Petersburg, by
this line, can Il Richmond merchant who
writes in time Tor our carly morning train
communicate sooner than a New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore merchant.
People who live between Richmond and
Petersburg, and who are dependent upon
this road for their mail, are constant
ly complaining of the late hour at
which they receive their Richmond mail.
II is bad enough that their mail should have
TO wait here for the 11:50 A. NJ. train: but
when, as is often the case, people living
have their letters carried to Petersburg and
brought back that evening or the next day,
il is past all endurance. There is much
more that could be written to show how
our merchants suffer through these de-
fective mail schedules in their connection
with horse and stage-mail routes in Virgil
mia. We shall reserve more particular and
extended investigation OF this subject for
another article.
The interests Of Richmond are to mea-
sure identical with the railroads which CEN
tire here. Yet when her merchants are
careless and seemingly Indifferent upon the
subject Is il not natural that these roads
should neglect them in their effort to satisfy
Others who are constantly pushing and urg-
ing their claims! Let a committee from the