San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-04-27
OUR POsTOFFICE WORK.


Done, The Remedies Sug-
gested - The Duty of
the City i'm the
Premises.
The LIGHT, moved with desire to lay
before its readers the bottom facts con-
corning the postoffice in this city, its
merits, dement's, difficulties, ETC., has
sought its information at headquarters,
as appears from the following interview
with Postmaster Johnson:
Query: Mr.. Postmaster will you give to
me for the benefit of the public the results
OF your experience as postmaster since
December |, 1891?
Ans: To do this will require quite
little space in your columns, but as | am
satisfied no harm, but possibly some good
to the public may accrue, ! will take the
time TO give you my ideas concerning the
months
As you are aware, gave up all private
business when took charge of the post
Office and have given all of my time to
the service, with what result | leave the
public to judge:
had many things to contend with. In
the first place this Is an old Mexican town
forming three complete letter SIS in its
meanders through the city, scantily sup
piled with bridges.
In the second place the population is at
least one half OF foreign birth and names.
Third, and just here let me state that
this is a difficulty that the people
through their city COUNCIL. should
are not properly marked with
names at each street corner as they
should be. This has been the source of a
great deal of trouble to post office en-
plOyeS and has made our work very much
harder than it should have been.
Fourth. Alarge proportion of the business
OF this city is with Mexico and with in
habitants Lying between here and Mexico.
This is practically large frontier settle
ment and you know the average frontiers
man, while possessing many very excel
lent qualifications, is not as rule emf
nently qualified as a scribe, and as a di-
rect result of this, let me state that it
takes us four times as long TO handle 1000
letters from the trains coming in from
the west and south as it does from the
business cities of the north and east.
Fifth. You are aware that this is
great health resort visited by more
strangers in the course of year than any
two cities in the state. This mail is
difficult to handle for it is not here long
enough to locate by carriers, and even II
located is liable TO change from one
boarding house to another. Very little
of this mail comes addressed to street and
number, for two reasons. IT takes
stranger quite while To decide where he
will locate, and very frequently quite a
while to find out his street and number.
Sixth. The numbering OF the houses
has been conducted in very loose man
ner and the consequence is that on very
many of the streets one cannot depend on
the numbers to guide him in direction.
1t is a frequent occurrence 10 lind such
numbers as 4l0 and S36 on houses adjoin
ing each other. All this is very confusing
as you may suppose.
Seventh. The headquarters OF this mil
itary department is here and all Official
mail furnishes no revenue to the office and
so long as clerical allowances are based
upon receipts, this works hardship
upon the post Office employees.
Eighth. There has been great
an property TO settlement and
the occupants thereof ask that
their mail be delivered to them. Now
most of these suburban additions can on
ly be reached by mounted carriers, and In
this black, waXy land when it is wet,
progress is slow and laboriouS. This of
course will be remedied only when the
Less than year ago, largely at my
own expense, | got up a complete post
office directory for all that portion Of the
city that lay within the carrier limits
and have tried to keep up with the
changes since, but with only partial sue
cess.
On July lst of last year we could
who received mai within carriers
limits, which were extended as far as the
force would permit, but the changes by
way of additions inside the carrier limits
have been very great, and outside the
lines have calls from every direction for
extension of the service.
This cannot be granted without in
crease of force.
Query: You have stated the obstacles:
win you give your opinion as TO the proper
remedies?
Ans: The first and most important
remedy of all is to have the names OF
streets posted at every intersection, in
plain, durable letters. This can only be
done by the city itself. presented a pc
titiOn to the city council to this effect, a
short time after took charge Of the Of
flee, which was favorably received, and
understood contract had been let, and
have since called the attention of mem
bers of the council to this, but for some
reason it has not yet been done.
The next thing to be done is to have the
houses systematically numbered, so that
the numbers will be a guide. This the
city must look to. The people themselves
can help very materially by asking their
correspondents to address their letters to
street and number.
Care should be exercised by persons SUBJ
diving tracts Of land, to see that the
streets make connection with the streets
already laid out. The natural crooked
ness Of the river is bad enough, but when
new additions are made and look on the
map like basket full OF cards dropped on
the floor. it confuses things.
II this was a city Of American par
entage, growth and population,
laid of in ripht-anQles with