San Saba County news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1874-19??, 1893-05-19

carriers took euect July j, 1910; anu
was put in operation at forty-nine
Offices with about four hundred and
fifty carriers at an aggregate annual
compensation OF about $4,000
In the city of New York for the first
quarter there were delivered by car
riers 2,o69, AIS letters and ], sl0,7l7 col
leOted, or an increase Of about % per
cent over the preceding quarter. But
She growth Of the service was slow
until 1857 and 1883, when the number
of offices was nearly doubled. Previous
to Jan. 8, 1887, the requirement for the
service was that city should have a
population'of 20, 900 within the deliv-
erv of its postOftice- The law of Jan.
3, 1887, made any place eligible that
had a population OF 10000, or revenue
from its postofice for the preceding
fiscal year of $4,000
There are over 600 free delivery Offices
In the country, and the letter carriers
attached to this service deliver and coli
lect mail from 10000, 900 people The
annual expense is between $4,000, 600,
and sll 600, goo. A law has been re
peatedly propoTed to Congress to ex-
tend the service 10 towns of 5000 pop
ulation or of IS, 900 postal receipts for
the Inst fiscal year. This would add
175 places or more to the mum Der
served with the free delivery, and
1,5O0, 900 people would be accommo-
dated. The annual cost would be per-
haps s4OO, 200.
When town becomes entitled to the
free delivery service, either by reason
of population or revenue and it is
deemed advisable favorablv to consider
its claims, the postmaster is informed
that before the service can be estab-
lished the sidewalks must be paved,
streets lighted, houses numbered and
names of streets placed at intersections.
When this is done an inspector is sent
10 look over the field, lay off the car
rier's districts, locate the street letter
boxes and instruct the postmaster
as to details. Letter carriers are APP
pointed by the department on the rec
ommendation of the postmaster, ex-
cept at civil service offices, of which
there are forty-fve. At these offices
they have to pass a competitive eX
animation and are selected from the
list of eligibles in their order. At
these Offices they are appointed as sub
stitutes first and promoted when their
turn is reached.
At cities of -, 900 or more carriers
are paid 5000, $500 and 81 900. In free
delivery cities having populations
smaller than that, carriers are paid
5000 and $3.50 per year.
The Dead Letter, Office is the bust
est bureau of the entire department.
No more earnest and faithful body of
employees can be found in the public
service than the 107 clerks OF this
Office. Three have been connected
with it more than thirty years-AIrs.
A. X. Evans, the first woman ap-
pointed in this bureau; Mr.. A. f.
Moulden, for many years in charge of
the inquiry branch, and Brother" S.
d. Christie, a vertable father in
Israel.
The total number of errors in the
transmission OF mail matters in the
United States is very small compared
with the correct deliveries (for letters
alone in the ratio of about l to 325);
yet so long as the laundering public
make voluntary contributions daily to
this Office of over 10000 letters and
packages, Just so long will it be neces-
sary for the government to exercise
paternal functions in the correction
of those blunders, nine-teuths of which
are made by the people themselves.
II those who use the mails would
only be careful to observe q few
simple requirements, trifes in them
selves, but in the aggregate
of vast Importance, the work
of the Dead Letter Office
would soon be greatly reduced. If all
letter writer's would take the simple
pains to place their names and adj
dresses upon the envelopes, there
would be few undelivered letters. Gull
tivation of the habit of scanning the
address of the letter after it has been
written would prevent nine-tenths of
the mistakes due TO deficient or erron-
cons addresses. 1t IS purely a matter
of business habit, and the remedy is
the simplest. This habit would at
least correct one absurdity, viz, the
annual receipt by the Dead Letter Of
flee of about 5000 letters bearing no
superscription whatever, most of which
are written by business men and con-
tain Enclosures Of business value.
There is no law or regulation that
may compel affectionate relatives to
p6t their full names and addresses at [
the close OF every letter, but if they
wonld do this there would be a mil
lion and half more letters restored /
to their owners every year.
Roswell Beardsley has been postmas-
ter at North Lansing, y. y, since June |
%. 1928. He was born in 1903, is So |
years old, and has served as postmaster (
continuously for sixty-four years He |
was appointed during the administra
ton of President John Quincy Adams. Z
He was appointed to Office upon the l
urgent recommendation of William II. /