Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1894-01-17
CHINA'S MALL SYSTEM.
How Letters Are Transported in
the Flowery Kingdom.
individuals and Firms Manage the Post
Office and Perform Efficient Service
Guarding Against Robbery-A Gov
erment System to Be Established.

state department., Samuel Gracey,
United States consul at Foochoo.
China, tells how the mail is carried in
the ''fowery kingdom" China has not
yet established government post offices
or postal system for the masses of
the people, with all her adoption of
modern ways, but private enterprise is
depended upon to render communion
| ton easy between various parts of the
empire. This private transmission of
mail is conducted through what are
called ''letter shops" No stamps are
used, but the Chop or sign of the
keeper of the ''letter shop" is always
placed upon the envelope.
In this country when the govern
ment wishes to send communication
it incloses it in an envelope marked
official or ''public-free" and it goes
through the mail as other letters ex-
cept that no postage is paid. In China
imperial edicts and other official COM
munications are carried from city to
city and province to province by couri-
ers. Generally they make the trip
afoot, but in case of great haste they
are provided with horses at convenient
relay stations. Official letters or dis
patches are thus conveyed in cases of
emergency two hundred or two hun
bred and fifty miles day. In districts
where transmission of official COM
munications is frequent each station
master is required to keep on hand
from ten to twenty horses or donkeys,
and the local representative of the
government is held responsible for all
delays that occur. These official couri-
| ers, who correspond to our star route
mail carriers, are not allowed to carry
private dispatches or letters, their op-
erations being restricted to the trans
mission of government communica-
lions.
The public is served by the 'letter
shops" carrier system organized by
private enterprise transmitting the
mail from one station to another Con-
! sui Gracey says at the treaty ports the
letter shops are used by natives only,
but in the interior, or at places not
reached by the foreign postal arrange
ment, they are employed by foreign
! ers as well, though chiefly by mission
aries. ''These speak well of the sys-
tenn for it's security" he says, 'but
they do not consider it all that could
be desired in respect to quickness of
delivery. 1t somewhat resembles our
express business, as it transmits par
GELS of moderate size and weight. 1t is
said to possess two decided advantages
over our western system-insurance
against loss and monthly settlement of
accounts. All The letters and parcels
to be sent may be registered and in
sured."
| Before a letter is mailed or delivered
to the carrier its contents are displayed,
and the keeper of the letter shop then
signs his CHOP" or sign, so that its
| point of origin may be determined
Parcelsmay be transmitted in the same
manner, the charge for carrying being
g percentage of their declared value.
The shoplleeper gives receipt for the
letter or package, and he thus becomes
responsible for its safe delivery or its
return to the sender, with seal I'M
broken. In some parts of the empire,
the consul says, about two-thirds of
the expense of transmission is paid BY
| the sender, the remainder being
collected from the receiver. Thus the
shop is secured against entire loss from
transient customers and the sender
| haS ,tan bot 1o44 I
be conveyed with dispatch. Native
merchants who are regular customers
keep an open account with the shop
and make their settlements monthly.
In some of the larger cities and
towns the letter shops are numerous,
but in many remote villages there are
none. In Shanghai there are nearly
two hundred. Some of the shops en-
ploy solicitors who go from house to
house working up trade, competition
in many cities being strong. In the
northern provinces the shopkeepers
initiate the government and employ a
system of mounted carriers. Horses
or donkeys are used, the relays being
about ten miles apart. Each carrier or
messenger is intrusted with seventy
or eighty pounds of mail matter, and
travels about five miles an hour-much
slower than the government carriers.
For short distances and in central and
southern China the messenger travels
on foot at rapid gait. When the mes
senger arrives at station he hands
over the mail to a fresh carrier. ''He
starts at once" says Consul Gracey,
mo matter what may be the hour of
the day or night, and regardless of
winds, rain, heat or cold, he continues
the journey until he, too, has complet-
ed his service and handed the parcel
over to third messenger, and thus it
reaches its destination
This pony express, like that which
was in use across the western plains of
the United States forty years ago, is
sometimes subject to interruption bv
highwaymen, but the Chinese have a
way of compromising such villainy and
thus protecting their postal service.
The robber bands of each district col
lect blackmail from the shopkeepers,
and for regular sums paid they not
only do not modest the messengers
themselves, but they agree to keep
other marauders from doing so. Large
firms engaged in the carrying business
and in transporting travellers by carts