The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-30
RussIA,s POSTAL YsrEM.

From the Fortnighty Review.
Cur postal system IN the interior q,
the empire is, as is generally ackuowl-
edged, very primitive. Its defects are due
in large degree to the greatness OF the
distances as well as to the comparative
scarcity OF proper railway connections.
We have cities which geographically
are hardly $50 miles apart, yet for
postal purposes are separated as kieff
and our beloved Toulon. Curious
stoies might be told of the correspond
ence between two such cities. A friend
of ours in Kietf exchanges business let
tiers constantly with several persons in
the neighborhood OF Rovno. The dis
tance from Kieff to Rovno is about 240
miles, and the persons in question live
about four miles from the latter city.
The correspondence between our friend
and his acquaintance near Rovno can
be carried on only by means of regis
tered letters. as no unregistered mail
matter ever reaches its destination,
whether sent from the one city or the
other. If not registered letters simply
disappear without leaving a trace that
might lead to their recovery. For years
this sort of thing has been the rule
Whereabouts. Our friend has his letters
ready at ) o'clock p. m, at which honr
the main post office in Kieff has been
closed for the day. He is obliged,
therefore, to mail them at the main
telegraph Office. This Office is wont to de-
liver registered letters only twice daily,
at noon and at 4 o'clock, to the main
post Office, although these hours do not
correspond with the time of departure
of the mail trains, but are chosen arbi-
trarily, perhaps because the relief OF
clearing up the Office has more bene-
fetal effect on the digestion of the civil
servants just before luncheon and din
ner. Now, after our friend has got a
registered letter into the main post
office by this roundabout way the Sc
quence of events is as follows:
''The letter is sent to the main tele-
graph Office at 5 o'clock Monday, say.
Tuesday at noon the letter goes to the
main postoffice. AZ Q o'clock Wednes-
day it is sent away on the mail train OF
the Southwest railway and it arrives in
Rovno at midnight. At Rovno the pos
tai force is so inadequate to the amount
of work falling to its lot that the Keiff
mail cannot be sorted before Thursday.
At o'clock Friday afternoon a notice
is sent to the village some four miles off
that registered letter from Kieff is at
the Rovno post Office. The village au-
thorities do not make haste and the
person addressed consequently does not
get the notice before o'clock Saturday
afternoon. As Sundays there is no de-
livery from the Rovno post Office, he
must wait until Monday to get the let
ter of which he has received notice.
That makes one week, the time required
for the carriage and delivery of letter
between cities two hundred and forty
miles apart. In the same period the
writer could travel easily from Kieff to
Toulon, cheer for France several times
In front of the town hall, and then start
for home soon enough to eat several
meals before he could possibly get an
answer from his correspondent in Row
no. If he wished he could even visit
Paris and take drive through the city
and arrive at home several hours in adj
vance of his CORRESPONDENTS letter,