Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-06-04
the ENGLISH PosT-oFFloE.
IT. Service II Slow Enough to Ploaco
Even tho British Public.

1 s"fSSSs 6lVStDuSIgaa
it, Service II Slow Enough to Pleace
Even tho British Public. #
There Is often good reason for critiois.
Ing some detail Of the postal service Of
our own country or city, as, for instance,
when 1t takes three days for . letter to
get from one street Of the city to the next
one, but he who Is pessimistically In
clined in regard towhat he finds here
should read the observations made in
England apropos Of the celebration Of
the jubilee OF the penny post. The
banquet, which Is inevitable on such an
occasion, having been attended to, the
newspapers have taken Z hand, so to
say, and mildly risen to remind the
British public what cause they have to
be proud of the progressive spirit with
which the postal affairs OF the country
have been managed, and they have not
been slow to point out particulars.
In the first place it Is stated with
much minuteness of detail and with
particular examples to give point and
force to tho charge, that it is the habit
OF the postal service to carry the mail
bags by rail through retired villages,
and then send them back fifteen or
twenty miles by carrier, rather than 20
to the trouble Of throwing of the bags
In passing the station; or, to speak more
exactly, rather than to expose the mind
of the Englishman to the dangerous
shock of doing things in a way not used
by his grandfathers. There are cases
given in which people living within two
or three hours easy drive from each
other can not communicate by mail in
less than two or three days because it is
the old fogy custom to carry the mails
somewhere or other to sort and distrib-
ute them or to avoid the bother Of put
ting them off at stations where the
trains do not stop.
Another form Of ecoentricity in the
English postal system which is pointed
out, and which has been more fire.
quently commented upon. is that it is
cheaper to send mail to the colonies of
Great Britain from q number OF Euro
pean countries than it IL from the
another country" 1t is less expensive,
for instance, to send mail matter from
Germany to Australia than to send the
same from England, fact which is
taken advantage of by English mer-
chants, who send their mail in bulk
across the channel, and have the post
age paid to another country, be-
cause OF the stupidity of the postal
authorities in England. 1t is said that
''there are no less than forty British
colonies or dependencies to which the
many, and from Russia than from Great
Britain" 1t is also cheaper to send lot
ters to out-of-the-way places than to
countries with which England IS in con-
slant communication. 1t is cheaper to
send by mail from England to Abyssin-
la or to Patagonia than to Australia or
New Zealand.
The London Tablet, complaining elo-
quently of this state Of things, remarks
that when it is borne in mind that in
the United States letter is carried by
rail tor penny all the three thousand
milos which separate New York from
San Francisco" it is 'inclined to be-
A0So VuoV AOVuAAk OuS 1uo pEOJuulCeS
and evil traditions Of the English Post
Office prevent" arrangements as satis-
factory being made on that side of the
water. 1t is not impossible that this is
true, but on this side we have great
difficulty in realizing how stiff is British
tradition and how invincible British
stupidity. An English nobleman, for
instance, has been travelling in this
country, and is now explaining to his
countrymen ut home how infinitely SUI
perior to the American system Of rail-
way carriages is the English plan Of
compartments; and were every newspa-
per for year to contain an account Of
different crime or casualty resulting
from the English system, the British
public would still believe in it. The
British postal service ought to please
the British public, it is just stupid
enough.-Boston Courier.