The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-11
THE PASSING THRONG.

Yesterday the Posr-INTELLIaENcBR prsated an
Associated Press dispatch from Washington
City, dated September 8, saying that Possmastsr
General Wanamaker had that day issued the ex-
pected order deputizing postmasters Of free de-
livery cities, towns and rural communities to
put up letter boxes on the request Of citizens
for the collection and delivery Of mail az house
doors. Postmaster Griffith Davies Yesterday
said that he had received no official netice ~
yet of the order aud could of course exnsss no
opinion until he had. Assistant Poxzmaster
William J. Colkstt. however. said that whilst
expressing no opinion on an order he Fad not
seen and considering It merely a. . Question
OF fact, such An order would multiply ttSa busi-
ness o. the Office almost indefinitely ane would
result in an enormous increase Of expe.ase for
carriers for that portion of cities neaiing 1t
least, viz: the resident part "At present we
have 125 drop letter boxes in Seattle. Elppose
that this means an average of . box fof every
sixteen blocks Now it will readily 90 seen
what this means if, instead of one box sor six
teen blocks, we had to take care OF leg. The
proposed new move means both calling for and
delivering mail or two classes Of work anGioubie
duty compared to present methods knother
thing to be remembered Is that the avsfage of
letters written for each person is very small
outside OF business circles. Taking the whole
country through. the letters mailed will not av-
erage much over twenty per head per ennum,
and Of these business houses write veg large
portion. OF the general public, outside
OF business men and business neigh.
borhoods, five to ten letters per snnum
per head will be a fair allowance ETen in
cities days must elapse without any letters
bein0mailed in the proposed house boSes, for
even with the boxes on their door. gate oT fence
posts, many people will still send or takeletters
to the postoffice direct But twice . dag with
out let up or change, the postman must make
b L. 4e
in Seattle, must get of his horse to is,ok in
boxes, OF which nine-tenths will always be
empty. As Mr.. Davies has said, We have sios re-
ceived our official notification As yet ans have
no means or knowing whether the order % as is
stated; oil We can say now is, therefore, that If
il does go into effect it will enormously Increase
letter carriage and delivery expenses without
any great increase in efficiency over the PRESENT
method"
s. l. Crawford and Capt ". R. Ballard re-
turned yesterday from waterville, after .
weeks absence. "The present route to tsis i'm.
portant point Is somewhat roundaboul" said
Mr.. Crawford yesterday, "being from aere to
Eliensburg BY rail, thence by stage to me Co
lumbia at Rock Island, where the Great North
ern railroad first strikes the river; ,hesce by
steamboat up the Columbia, through: We.
natchee and as far as Orondo on the easf bank
OF the river, and then by stage to WateSville.
Roundabout as this is it Is trifing compared to
the course which freight must travel to reach
there. The only route now IL by the Wishing
ton Central road west from Spokane, asai this
lands all Waterviile freight at Coulee Cits, fifty
miles away. Freight from Coulee5 City
to Wateryills Is 60 cents per hun
dred pounds: but high. as this seems
II does not afford over q bare livE:lg to
those in the business. since the distance t. long
aud the country rough ona When the Great
No. hAR1 ,lz Vi
few weeks at the farthest, the supply poIs will
be at that place, twenty miles away over $ good
wagon road, and freight will tumble frog 60 to
50 cents per hundred. Even thus far tee de-
nand for produce caused by the presence of the
Great Northern construction gangs 81 the
vicinity has caused Q veritable boom IN fscices !;
rs cents per pound 10 obtained for oats ss1d SO
cents per bushel for wheat We enioysi the
trip in both directions Coming back VS. went
20 Coulee City, thence to Spokane. anes from
there home. wsterville 10 doing well ants must
grow, with all that magnificent Big Bend7ooun-
try back OF it,
v. A Hardy and Howard II. Lewis renirned
yesterday morning from q weeks hunti,cg and
fishing trip in the Matches and Wenas valleys
they report sport to be unexcelled ard the
scenery grand. Mr.. Hardy said the tri-s was
one continual round of pleasure. The trout
were plentiful and took the gray hack!7 and
professor II manner that was refreshing to
the sPoTtsmeu. Mr.. Lewis has had some .t the
largest photographed go that his statements as
10 their size canno: be impeached. anI will
have the pictures placed on exhibition eshen
mounted Grouse were not over abundarE,, but
those oagget were splendid eating and made
camp life very enjoyable The trip from .'orth
Yakima to the camp on the Matches rivesr was
made IN wagon and at many places ths trail
was dangerous and looked down into rsvsss or
sulehss many hundred feet deep. Ones the
wagon Slowed over tie edge and il WAS oSsiy by
vigorous application Of the whip thzt the
horses were made to pull it back on the trail
and save the hunters and themselves from. fall
10 death.
George Hiiiiro Ando has returned fs,rn q
long and pleasant trip 10 his home in s!o,o.
Ja1an- He left this place on May Is last, lsndet
81 Yokohama on the 18th and 60, back o.. Fri.
day LAST kioto. his present home. is 270 miles
inland and Is the old capital OF the coun.ry of
the mikado. The place Of his birth was saika-
gen. The purpose o: this TIP was to lag in q
stock OF Japanese goods. and Mr.. Ando ocezspied
himself so eusi!y with this as 20 forget mech @.
bis English Mr.. Ando says that the ELECTIONS
Of Apri! last in Japan caused great excitesaent,
though the country is getting used to the par
Aameaiary sys,ern aad more interest is being