Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05

don, too. They are sent to Denmark, first,
and then by sailing vessel to Iceland. The
| trip is not so long as it seems, and the num-
Der of letters is far larger than anyone who
has not attempted to reckon up the Morse
element in the population of the United
States would imagine. A letter from New
York to Greenland would take the same
course, only it would have another trip by
sailing vessel, and q longer one against
obstacles which only the sea of the Arctic
region affords. Surrounded by Esquimaux,
with an iceberg for a background, the
Greenlander would read his communication
from his fellow Scandinavian in Wisconsin,
U. S. A. He wouldn't take his gloves of,
and those who are only tolerably familiar
with the curious tongue of these people may
be inclined to think him wise in handling it
with anything but bare hands. The
Moravian missionary, however, finds his en-
couragement from a co-religionist in this
country just as edifying in these outlandish
syllables as in any possible translation.
West Coast of South America.
Mail matter for Valparaiso takes, of
course, a different route from that pursued
by mails for the east coast of South
America. 1t is sent by Pacific mail steam
ships to the Isthmus of Panama, and goes
from Colon down the west coast by another
of those British tramp steamships which so
monopolize the carrying trade of South
American nations. This packet will stop
at various ports on her way, and before the
letters of the New York merchant have
reached the Chilean metropolis some 81
days will have elapsed. Chile is largely
under British influence, and the Americans
have little trade there. As consequence
not many letters are sent. The representa-
tives Of this country down there are chiefly
men who merit the title of adventure
either in its best or in its worst sense, gen.
orally the latter.
How about the great cities of Asia? Well,
they are generally reached on the old plan,
''via Liverpool" Here's a packge for
Bombay. There is another for Calcutta.
Both will go from the English seaport to
Brundisi by rail after crossing the channel.
At Brundisi under the Union Jack they
will set sail for the Suez Canal Stopping
at Alden, the ship will arrive at Bombay in
q days, and it will take 80 to get to Cal
cutta There is trihe more originality
about our way of getting to Pekin and
Yokohama. Mails are sent across the con-
tinent to San Francisco, and thence go
by the Oriental and Occidental Steamship
line to the ports of far Cathay, of Japan,
and of the Islands of the Pacific. It is this
line that would take letters from New York
to Honolulu, where the Sandwich Island
sugar business is ruled by Claus Spreckles,
and to Apia, which within few years has
been brought to the notice of the civilized
world, first as an objective point in the
cross-cutting politics of Germany and Eng
land in the Pacific, and second as the scene
of one OF
The Most Frightful Disasters.
that vessels of the United States Navy have
ever experienced. There are some Americans
on the Samoan Islands, and regular de-
livery of letters takes place, although the
volume of mail matter handled does not
compare with that of Honolulu or Pekin.
the great and growing city of
the Australian continent, receives her
American letters by the Occidental and
Oriental line. too. Postofice officials say
that there has been a marked increase in
the number of letters sent to and received
from Australia since the British colonies
began the work of framing "Constitu-
tion, which they have ended by accepting
many of the Governmental ideas Of the
United States, notably State autonomy.
Australian trade with America is still |
small. The chief bar to an increase is said |
to be the lack of carrying lines. |
One of the longest trips made by letters |
mailed from the United States is that to the \
Falkland Islands, which takes AZ days BY |
way of Liverpool and Lisboni the shortest |
across either ocean is that from New York |
to Liverpool, which is often made in less |
than seven days. We send specially ad- |
dressed letters to Havana by the Ward line
from New York, but the regular Havana
mail goes by way of the Plant line from |
Tampa, Fla The ''Red D" line takes the |
mails to Venezuelan ports. With the ever |
Central American Republics both |
the Ward line and the Pacific Mail Steam- |
ship Company furnish regular, but not too |
frequent communication. Mexico is reached |
either by rail or steamship. The City of |
Mexico is not such terrible distance from |
New York, but thu far-away ports on the |
shore of Yucatan can be got at much better |
oy steamship than by mule, and it doesn't |
begin to take so long to strike them by |
water from New York as it would to send |
nail bag from the City of Mexico. With |
he most remote of these places the United \
States has some trade and from the observa- !
ion of those who watch the volume of the |
nails it appears that this trade is steadily |
Assorted While En- Route.
On the French and German and English |
,cean liners the postal authorities have |
placed clerks who attend to the asserting of |
Ne ud1 edcu way, III ltansll, SO bnaI Wnen /
t reaches port there is no delay at all. |
During the past few years an entirely new
ystem has thus grown up, and Postmaster |
Van Cott is inclined to think that it would |
De hard to improve on the plan now in
rogue. In the city department of this
oostoffice men are employed to see that all |
addresses on letters going to foreign coun-
Jries are clearly written, and to put such |
addresses in the language of the country to
which they are going. |
That there will be further convenient de- |
7elopment in the way of international |
postal unions, within the next few years, is
certain. 1t is claimed that the postal au-
horities of this country have done more
Turing the past decade to push such Coop
,ration than those of any other single |
bower on the face of the earth. The in
luence of such steps forward is regarded as
altogether good; as tending to bring all
aces closer together and to hasten the
Millennium of the port.
When the war drum throbs no longer. and /
the battle flags are furled
n the Parliament of man, the federation of |
the world.
That isn't the conscious or expressed aim
# the uniformed officials in any postal
department, but none the less it is the
,oal of postal as well as commercial de-
'elopment.