The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-06
RUSSIAN MAILS.
a Week Required For Delivery Be
tween Towns 24O Miles Apart.


Russia has an elaborate system of
railways, which she constantly devel-
ops, and innumerable postal routes,
which are supposed to cover amply all
important points of her European en-
pire. Nevertheless, correspondence
within her boundaries is laborious and
uncertain. Many efforts have been
made in recent years by her rich mer-
chants to induce the government to
improve the postal service, but up to
the present time they have proved IN
availing. The newspapers of the en-
pire have suffered most keenly in the
management of the postoffices. Their
complaints have multiplied recently,
and the Nowoje Wremja, which is
more widely read than any other Rus
sian daily. has now begun news
paper campaign for reform. The ed
itor gives this description of the con-
ditions which he desires to see bet
tered: -,-
Our postal system in the interior
of the empire is, as is generally aok-
inowledged, very primitive. Its de-
| fects are due in large degree to the
greatness of the distances as we'll as
to the comparative scarcity of proper
railway connections. We have cities
which, geograp hically, are hardly $50
miles apart yet for postal purposes
are separated as Kieff and our be-
! loved Toulon. Curious stories might
be told of the correspondence between
two such cities. A friend of ours. in
Kieff exchanges business letters con-
stantly 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
F.fa !, iy1f.o r,,hc
RoVno can be carried on only by
means of registered letters, as no I'M
registered mail matter ever reaches
its destination, whether sent from one
city or the other. If not registered
letters simply disappear without leav-
ing a trace that might lead to their
recovery. For years this sort of thing
has been the rule hereabouts. Our
friend has his letters ready at 5
O'clock p. M, at which hour the main
postoffice 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 deliver
Registered letters only twice daily, at
noon and 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 ar
bitrarily, perhaps because the relief of
clearing up the Office has a more ben-
eficial effect on the digestion of civil
servants just before luncheon and
dinner. Now, after our friend has got
a registered letter into the main post
Office by this roundabout way, the Sc
uuence of events is as follows:
The letter is sent to the main tele-
graph office at o'clock on Monday,
say On Tuesday at noon the letter
goes to the main postoffice. At 8
o'clock on Wednesday it is sent away
on the mail train of the Southwest
railway, and it arrives in Rovno at
! is so inadequate to the amount of
work falling to it's lot that the Kieff
mail cannot be sorted before Thurs
day. At o'clock on Friday afternoon
a notice is sent to the village some
four miles off that a registered letter
| from Kieff is at the Rovno postoffice.
| The village authorities do not make
haste, and the person addressed con-
sequently does not get the notice be-
fore o'clock on Saturday afternoon.
AS on Sundays there is no delivery
from the Rovno postoffice, he must
wait until Monday to get the letter of
which he has received notice. This
makes one week the time required for
! the carriage and delivery of a letter
between cities 24O 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 be-
fore he could possibly get an answer
from his correspondent in Rovno II
/ he wished, he could even visit Paris
and take drive through the city and
arrive at home several hours in ad.
vance of his correspondents letter"
The editor adds that under such cir.
cumstances it is impossible to estab.
fish close trade relations among the
great cities of the Russian INTERIOR
| New York Sun.