The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-03
NAIL BAG IN NEW LANDS.
Enormous Expansion Of the Postal
Service in Recent Years.

4AAC OHNebA ohAOA 0LA6LNAO5 SAC0A
Across Africa, Where Most of the
Explorers Made Their Fame-It Costs
No More to Send a Letter to Victoria
Nyanza Than to Liverpool The
Time of Transit Decreasing NJ coca
Has Cheap Rates.
From the New York Sun.
1t is an interesting fact that all those
parts Of equatorial Africa where a half
score Of great explorers made their fame,
regions from which most of the sensa-
tiOns of African discovery have come, are
now embraced in the Postal Union. 1t
costs nomore to-day to send a letter or
newspaper far toward the head waters of
the Congo, or to the great lakes of the
heart of Africa, than to mail them from
New York city TO Liverpool or ST. Peters
burg. 1t costs no more to send mail mat
ter to the nethermost parts of Siberia, or
to scores of Pacific islands that did not
contain a single white resident a few
years ago, than it does to Paris. OF
course this vast extension of the worlds
mail service is not now, and will not be
for years to come, upon a self-supporting
basis. 1t is merely one of the agencies
which the civilized world has adopted for
facilitating progress i'll the great regions
which it is trying to develop
A scent stamp will take one of our
mammoth Sunday newspapers from this
country to the white stations on the far
upper Congo. The probability is that the
actual cost of delivering one of these
newspapers at Stanley Falls, for instance,
is twice or three times the amount or
postage charged. 1t is carried over the
ocean about z 900 miles before it enters
Africa. 1t is transshipped three times
before, at Matadi, ninety miles from the
sea. it is at last placed on the back of the
mail carrier, who is to transport it 235
miles around the cataracts of the lower
! Congo There it is placed on one of the
steamers of the upper river, and the
carriage becomes reasonably cheap
again. Every pound of mail that goes
to the upper Congo is encased in water
! proof wrappings, and for more than two
| weeks it is carried up hin and down, I'M
! der the sCOrching sun and through the
! tropical rains, on the backs of porters;
and when it finally reaches Stanley Pool
| the mail is sorted for shipment by one or
another of the little steamboats, that drop
the mail packages at the government sta
lions or commercial posts as they thread
their way among the islands for ZOO
miles up the main river, for 500 miles up
the great Kassai and San6uru tributaries
of the south. or for 500 miles up the Mo
bangi atfluent of the north.
All these upper Congo stations, some
seventy-tive in number, isolated as they
! are from the rest of the world, have most
of the conveniences of the modern postal
service When white men among the
cannibals and the dwarfs write to their
| friends at home, they have the neat post
| age stamps of the Congo Free State to
aftix to the envelopes. If they wish to
| send money home they may procure
money orders at any of the stations Of
| the state, where, also the orders they re
| ceive from abroad are cashed. The only
respect in which the service is deficient
! is that the mails are irregular, for the
| white pioneers often wait days and even
weeks for the arrival of the mail steamer,
which is not only to bring them tidings
from home, but also the stores which
they need in carrying on their work.
This great convenience to the civilized
world was formed at a convention held at
Berne in 1874. The territory which since
then has acquired the privileges of the
| union is about twO-thirdS as large as the
| original area. The most of this territory
is found in the newer parts of the world,
| which are now being developed by varl-
Gus governments With the consent of all
the states that were original parties to
! Jl6 agreement us du NduldStS ia w DCCll
extended to all their newly acquired ter
ritories. When Brazil entered the Postal
! Union, not only its coast towns, but also
its most insignificant hamlets, nestled
among the Andes, on the upper waters of
the Amazon, were included in the arrange
ment Some countries require at least a
part of their colonies to bear the cost of
the service, whose expenses much
exceed the direct charge upon the
public; and as some of these colo
MES are not willing to bear the cost
they do not have the privilege of cheap
postage. Natal and Cape Colony, for in
stance, are not willing to make up out of
the public treasury, the considerable de-
felt which the cheap rates of the Postal
| Union would involve. We therefore see
the anomaly of postage rates to the coast
towns of Natal and Cape Colony two or
| three times as great as those to the neigh
| boring parts of Portuguese, East Africa.
The South African Republic has not
chosen to enter the Postal Union. The
great mass of the Beers receive very few
letters from abroad, anyway, and the
theory of the government is that the
thousands of Europeans who have come
to their gold mines can pay extra post
age; and so it happens that though one
railroad from the sea has reached Preto-
ria, the capital, and two others are APP
preaching that town. it costs about three
times as much to send letter Unere as TO
the lake regions of central Africa.
Most of the inhabited world except
China and COrea now enjoys the benefits
of the postal union. China declines To
come in, and the thousands of letters
passing monthly between her sons in for
eign lands an d the friends at home are
handled in MOST dilatOry fashion and at
! high postage rates. The only large area
in Africa not included in the union is the
| Sahara Desert and the fanatical SOudan
To be sure. the king Of kings who rules
over Abyssinia has not yet applied for ad
mission, but he has recently woke up tC
the Importance of postal facilities, and
steamers touching at any of the fOuI
| coast towns that are connected with the
| kings capital by caravan routes never
fail to find nowadays, royal valise, all
ready for the kings mail.
The age of steam has brought the outer
fringe of the world much nearer to us.
The Arctic tragedy that cost the lives of
! De Long and his men could not occur to-
/ day in the same neignbOrhoOd, for white
men, engaged in scientific WORKS have
continuously occupied the Lena Delta for
many months past. We expect to hear
once more from DR.. Nansen, because he
has promised, before he pushes into the
ice field, which he hopes will carry him
TO the pole, to touch at a point on the
| coast of Asia where he can communicate
with Russians and send a message home.
NOrdenskiOld skirted the same coast, and