Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-07-15
Romance of Mail Carrying.
From the London News.1

The business OF carrying the mails,
whether by land or sea, was, in the
good old days, fertile of romance. The
very instructions given to captains of
the mail packets breathe the spirit of
adventure; they we're to run "while
they could, to fight when they could
no longer run, and to throw the mails
overheard when fighting would no
longer avail" Frequent were the en-
counters with highwaymen by land,
and with the French at sea. Generally
the highwaymen were merely vulgar
ruffians in search of purses and
watches. In chasing and fighting
these, the guards of the coaches often
showed true British bravery. One of
these, in reward for the courage he had
shown, was presented by George III.
with g. key of Windsor Park, to be
used by him and his descendants as
long as they drove g. coach between
Reading and London. Occasionally,
however, the highwaymen were of q
different type, and were in search of
what was infinitely more precious to
them than gold. When Sir John Coch-
rane was in prison for his participa-
ton in the Monmouth rebellion, the
mail packet coming from the south
was supposed to contain the warrant
for his execution. Animated by this
belief, Sir Johns daughter, Grizel
Cochrane, dressed herself in male at
tire, and, mounting on a fleet horse,
proceeded to Berwick-on-Tweed. On
Tweedmouth Moor she fell in with the
postboy. She dismounted him and
threatened him with immediate death
unless he gave up the post packet,
which he ultimately did The war
rant not reaching it's destination, the
execution could not take plhce, and in
the time thus gained other members Of
Sir Johns family found means, by the
help Of heavy ransom, to secure his
pardon.
Although the romance of the present
day may pale before these thrilling ad-
ventures; yet the service is not with
out it's heroes even now; and there is
some satisfaction in the reflection that
the romances Of to-day more often
than not consist in devotion, even to
death, to the duties Of the service.
Thus two letter-carriers persisted, not
many years ago, in q snow storm, and
it was discovered that their last act
had been to tie their bags upon one of
the roads posts, where they could be
readily found and conveyed to their
destination by others. Again, in 1856;
on the occasion of the laundering Of
the mail packet between Dover and
Ostend, the officer in charge of the
mails, seeing that the mails could not
be saved, removed all the cases con-
tanning the mail bags from the hold.
He persisted in the performance of his
duty, but he achieved the end for
which he thus gallantly sacrificed his
life, for the bags foated instead of 60
ing down with the vessel, and they
were all ultimately recovered. One
might add another instance Of this
fine spirit of devotion to duty which
was given about two years ago by a
letter sorter belonging to q travelling
post-ofice. The carriage in which he
and another sorter were at work was
smashed by a collision, aud they
themselves were badly injured. One
was senseless; and the other nearly so;
he was incapable ofspeech, but he was
able, by pointing to the green bag con-
tanning the registered letters, to save
it from being lost in the general wreck
and confusion.