The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1882-10-04
The Evolution Of the Postal system.


The first recorded riding-post for any
but governmental correspondence was
established in Persia by Cyrus, 500
years before the Christian era. He di-
vided his kingdom up into postal dis
tricts and appointed innumerable mes
sengers. These postal messengers of
Cyrus went continually, night and day,
with great speed. The superintendent
of the posts was an important officer.
Before he became the last Persian King,
Darius held it.
The first public riding-post in Rome
came in under Augustus. nearly six
centuries later. But the Chinese, who
are credited with lots of good In those
days, however bad they may be now.
had postal system away back in the
first chapter of their million-volume
history. A queer point in Chinese
postal history is that thcy had laws pro-
viding punishment for writer's of decoy
letters and robbers of the mails. Chi
nese posts were called jambs. They
were located twenty-five miles apart,
and Marco Polo swears they numbered
5000 and employed 200. 900 horses In
his day. These Chinese post houses
were also inns, at which sumptuous
cutoEt8luuucub WAS ptOti0cus bAc o
netian traveller Is TO be believed. The
Peruvians and Aztecs had regular
system of postal communication, evil
IDENTIFY the outgrowth of ages of expert
ence, when the Spaniards dissipated
their felicitous barbarism. Many speci-
mems of their hieroglyphical correspond
ence exist in the museum now.
Apart from the riding post. pigeons
were extensively employed in the Orient
for the conveyance of correspondence.
In fact the practice continues there to
this day. In Syria, Arabia, and Egypt
every bashaw generally has basketful
of them with him on his travels from
the grand seraglio, where they are bred,
and uses them in cases of emergency
to communicate with his friends. There
are records of dogs having been used
for long distance correspondence by
the races of Northern Europe.
In those days letters were generally
in the form of rolls, round . stick, or,
If long letter, round two sticks, be-
ginning at each end and rolling them
until they met in the middle. Books of
every size were called rolls. Our word
volume means just the same thing in it's
original Specification. The roll, book,
or letter was commonly written on one
side. Letters then, as is the custom
in the east at present, were sent in most
cases without being sealed while those
addressed to persons of distinction were
placed in q valuable purse, or bag,
which was tied, closed with clay or wax,
and so stamped with the writer's sig
net. The Roman scrinium, or bookcase,
very costly cabinet. shows how these
rolls were preserved. They were put
in lengthwise and labeled on the top.
Charlemagne established post on
the Persian plan in his empire in so7.
But the first actual letter-post system
extending beyond the mere conveyance
of letters between different parts of one
country, and branching out into for
eign lands, was originated by the Hanse
towns, about 1859. The Hanseatio
league, established in north Germany,
consisted chiefly of merchants in the
chief ports of Germany, France, Spain.
Portugal, Italy, Russia, Norway, and
England; correspondence between them
was business necessity, and this ne
cessity led to the formation Of postal
union, so to speak. The Hanse posts
carried private correspondence, too, but
at such rates that it cost more 10 post
love-letters than it dies to tell your girl
columns of a modern daily at 81 line.
As long as the Hanse towns stuck to
business and letter-carrying they were
all right. But they became belligerent,
and started in to fight other confedera-
tons and powers, and about the middle
of the fifteenth century their power be-
gan to decline. In 1905 all that was
left of what had been the most powerful
commercial league and automatic con-
federation in Europe were the towns of
Hamburg, Lubbock and Bremen. But
four centuries before that their postal
system had faded from monopolistic
powers. The Emperor Maximilian had
established post between Austria and
Normandy. About the same time Louis
in France since the decline of those es-
tablished by Charlemagne. Post-horses
and stages came in use In France in
148S.
The mounted posts In France were
stationed at distances of four miles
| apart, and were required to be ready
| day and night to carry government mes
sages as rapidly as possible. Private
| correspondence, however, was carried
on very differently. The students of .
| university in Paris established q postal
| institution in the eleventh century. A
number of pedestrian messengers were
employed, who bore letters from its
thousands of students to the various
countries of Europe from which they
came, and brought to them the money
they needed for the prosecution of their
studies.
England and America, however, were
the nations which actually developed
the postal system to its present magnifi-
cent proportions. The first post-houses
in England were established in 1883.
The regular riding-post system owes its
/ origin to Edward ". But as far back
as Edward II. private letters were sent
by regular post, as the inscription on
the envelopes, "Haste, post, haste!
shows.
Little or no Improvement was made in
England in the postal system until
Queen Bess' reign; $4,000 q year was
all the post cost then, even in its adj
vanced condition. In 1853, disputes
among the foreign merchants resident
in London, in regard to the foreign post,
which up to now they had been permit
ted to manage among themselves, which
they had done with a jealous eve to their
own interests, of course, led to the APP
pointment of a ssmaster of postsr The
| first chief postmaster of the world Gre
ated thus was Thomas Randolph. He
went to work vigorously, and in his time
did away with most of the abuses which
grew out of the old mixed-np system of
posts Cincinnati Enquirer.