The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-03-20
BILL ARp,s LETTER.

IL IL LIZ A)s As-A ~
BILL ARP,S LETTER.
ne Talks of the Time When his Father
was Postmaster and he was Mail Rider.
Aaauta Constellation.
Two cents-only two cents. Wien l
look at a postage stamp it carries me
away back. Back to. the time when my
father was postmaster and was his clerk,
and had to make up the mails in coun-
try town. The difference between now
aud then shows the worlds progress in a
privilege and a pleasure that is hardly
eycelled in any other branch of improve
ment. We couldent bear to be set back
again in that line to the old ways that
our fathers thought we're pretty good.
There were no stamps and no envelopes,
and no mncilage. The paper was folded
up like; q thumb-paper, and one side
slipped in the other and sealed with q
wrapper. The little school boys, you
know. had to use thumb. papers in their
spelling books to keep them clean where
their dirty thumbs Kept the pages open.
Girls iident have to use them, for they
were nicer and kept their hands clean,
and dident wear out the leaves by the
friction of their fingers. Boys are rough
things anyhow, and don't see what q
nice, sweet, clean, pretty girl wants with
one Of 'em. Girls they say are made of
sugar and spice and all that's nice, but
bows are made of snaps and snails and
puppy dog tails; ;Josephus says, that
whenSshe queen of Sheba was testing
Solomon's wisdom, she had fifty boys and
fifty girh all dressed alike in girls
clothes. and seated around a big room,
and asked the king to pick out the boys
from the girls, and he called for basin
of water and had it carried around to
each one and told them to wash their
I hands. The girls all rolled up their
sleeves little bit, but the boys just
sloshed their hands in any way and got
: water all over their aprons, and so the
king spotted every mothers 500 of 'em.
The postage used to be CIRCULATED by
the distance that Uncle Sam carried the
letters. Il was 12A cents anywhere in
the State, and 1Sa cents to Charleston,
and % cents to New York. 1t was never
prepaid. A man could aflict another
with 8 pistareen letter that wasent worth
five cents. A pistareen, you know, was
1Sa cents-that is seven pence and q
thrip. We had no dimes or half dimes.
The dollar was cut up into eights instead
Of tenths.; When countryman called
for letters and got one he would look at
it some time and turn it over and mef.
tate before he paid for it, and very often
they would say, "where did this letter
come from" Well, I would say for in
stance, it come from Dahlonega-don't
you see Dahlonega written up on the cor.
gner7D Then he would say, "well, /
reckon it's from Dick, my brother Dick.
He is up there digging gold. Don't you
reckon it's from Dick ?' II reckon it is,
said I. why don't you open it and see?"
No. I'll wait until j get home. THEY'LL.
all want to see it." When he got home
that letter would be an event in the farni.
~, and perhaps it would take them half
an hour to wade through it and make out
its contents. Nine out of ten of those
country letters began, II take my pen in
hand to let you know that I am well, and
hope these few lines will find you enjoy
ing the same blessing" My father kept
store and his country customers used to
ask him to write their letters for them,
and he always sent them to me, and most
of them told me to begin their letters
that way. There was not more than one
in five that could write, but they were
good, clever, honest people, and paid
their debts, but they hardly ever paid up
in full at the end of the year, and SO they
gave their notes for the balance aud
made their mark. My father used to say
that he had known cases where man
swore off his written signature, but he
never knew man to deny his mark.
Our. big Northern mail used to come in
stage from Madison twice week, and
I used to think the sound of the stage
horses, as the stage came over the hill,
was one of the sublimest things in the
world, and I thought that if | ever got to
be man. would be stage driver if l
could. Well, ] come pretty near it, for
nv father had hired man. to ride the
mail to Roswell and hack twice a week,
and the man got sick and so my father
put me on drumedary of horse and
the mail in some saddle-bags behind me,
and had to make the 4S miles in day
and kept itup all winter. / liked to
have froze several times, and had to be
lifted off the horse when I got home and
it nearly broke my mothers heart, but !
was getting a dollar trip and it was my
money, and so I wouldent back out.
The old women on the road used TO,
crowd me with their little commissions
and get me to bring them little pepper,
or copperas, or bluing, or pins and nee-
dies, or get me to take along some socks
and sell them, and so made friends and
acquaintance all the way. The first trip
made an old woman hailed me and
said, "Are you a mail boy ?" "Why,
yes. man," said I, "you dident think !
was female boy, did you 2" I thought
that was mighty smart, butt wasent very
civil and it made her 80 mad she never
told me what she wanted, and as she
turned her back on me heard her say,
t.l'll bet he is a little stuck up town
boy"
Ny father was postmaster for nearly
thirty years. It didn't pay mole than
about 5000 year, but it made his store
more of q public place. He didn't know
that anybody else hankered after it or
was trying to get it, but all of sudden
be got his orders to turn over the Office
to another man, an old line whig and a
competitor in business. Itmortified him
very much and made us all mad, for there
was-no fault found with his manag ement,
aud be never took much interest in poll