Omaha daily bee., 1888-07-01

with a glorious being through the
window while drawing asalary,f regard
as a pinnacle of success UP which any
American boy may not be ashamed to
persplre.. l can easily recall the time
when Horace Greeley and the. postmas-
tiers who Canvassed for his paper had.
practically fenced i'm the United States,
and at that time | would no more have
dared TO offend a postmaster than I
would nowgo up to Colonel 1ngersoll
and arose his jealousy by criticisiug
ms works while heartily praising the
works of God.
The New York p~ostoaice is a large,
dignitied building, situated right where
the roads fork, being the place where
you turn oil to the right from the main
travelled road in order TO get to the
bridge. It's used partly for n p~ostofice
n partly for u court house. so that one
end of the building practically pays the
expenses of the other end. a self-sup-
porting pOstotice and court house here,
whore competition is hot and rents
high, would naturally show that times
are good and money plenty.
Mail ONE here from all foreign
countries and Europe also. 1t is dis
tributed ut once. and one is permitted
to mail a letter at my time, day or
night. It's wonderful. In tall build
lngs now there is an arrangement by
which n may shoot his letters into a
runway or Hume, and they will be car
ried into a Z, :. mail box on the ground
floor, where n trusty young man in n
specified straw helmet comes and fills
his valise with them, after which he
carries them to the p~ostofice and per-
sonally uses his influence with the post
master to have them sen away by the
early train.
| stood near the mail box at the bot
tom of the chute in the Standard oil
building the other day, and though l
remained there only ten or fifteen min
utes counted f~orty-ninc letters as they
were laid, n by one, hot from the
cackling ~typewriters above, and all no
doubt reekiug with the bloody and
startling statement, coming like a peal
of thunder from an unpeeled sky:
Dear Sir-Your esteemed favor of the
til inst. Tor ult. or proX.) is before me.
about as much use in this opening as
there would be in stating that I'VE
take our pen in hand" or in opening n
prayer by reading the minutes of the
previous meeting.
| hate to speak of the appointments
made from time to time in the New
York postotlice, for | know that | shall
arouse some hostility, as L intend to
talk plainly. From what I can learn
they are not conducive to the best in
| terests of the community. This is n
pretty EVE thing to say, but it is time
that the people and the president and
the postmaster general knew about it.
Harsh critics will claim that | say this
because | want the postotfice here my
self, but such is not the case. | have
been surfeited with official position.
The sightof a public office, regarded as
a public trust, makes me i'll. | wouldn't
be shut up in that hot old Now York
postotfice from 1880 in the morning till
10 o'clock at night as Postmaster Pear
son is, when | can frolic around over
the green sward all day with Red Shirt
and Poor Dog and Rocky Bear and
| other tragedians even at Il high salary.
So | am not speaking from selfish mo-
tives when | say that the appointments
referred to are not what we taxpayers
of New York could wish. | can imagine
the look of pain and deepanguish which
will pass over the presidents chubby
face this morning as he asks his wife to
please pass the molasses and at the same
time runs his eye thoughtfully down
this column to see if | I'm still friendly.
| know that it will cause pain in
| po0plLlo lltlJ lhN DSSh SbciSlO Jun
less. But what am | here for? If |
close my eyes to these things people will
stop the paper and say, Away with
such an A~rchimedian lever as that"
They will her say ''Tush!" and go
away.
| was standing in the lower main cor
ridOr of the general p~ostotttce on Friday
last, between the m~ailing-holc for let
ters going TO Peekaboo, Arizona, and
the main pillar which supports the
southwest corner of the money-order de-
partment, when a young woman, who
must he a resident of our town, though
| had never seen her before to my
knowledge, came in and looked out
upon the surging throng which was at
that time in the act of surging to and fro
on the busy street. She was not over
t%hirty-nine years old, but | fancied she
had been away from home a great deal,
and was in fact, no doubt, so at the time.
Her hair was speckled here and there
with silver, all save a bright new
growth OF hair which was held in place
by hair-pins and seemed to grow rank
est on the off side. AS ] looked at her
the thought came to me: She is alone
in a great city. Her parents may have
been wrenched from her. Shall | tell
her that her hat is not on straight, and
thereby get myself arrested, or shall |
open the conversationsby asking her if
she ever experienced that tired feeling
referred to in the advertising columns
of the elevated railroad?"
just thcn a man about tow came in,
and with Il roguiSh twinkle of the eye
said:
"Ah. there
The remark did not seem so pregnant
with thought as some statements have
heard made, and yet it attracted atten-
ton. / might have sand that myself,
but | am not a man about town, and |
am not ready that way. 1t was a re
mark which did not compromise him in
the least. He could have been "A candi-
date for the presidency, and yet a state
ment ef that kind, if it got into the
papers, would not cut him of from the
labor vote.
The young woman turned with a glad
smile of recognition, | thought, and