Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-02-28
LETTERS A DOLLAR.
California Miners Lined Up for the
Mail, and Places Worth $500.


A well-known patent attorney in
this city, who was in California in
the early mining days, apropos the
publication in the Post of the cost
of carrying mails on the Yukon,
makes some interesting statements
about similar service on the Pacific
coast in 1849-'50:
"We had to pay one dollar for every
letter sent or received" he states,
besides the government postage
We were in the mines, and had to
send a messenger, with an order for
the postmaster to deliver to him our
mail at Sacramento, a distepce Of
from rs to 100 miles, according to
the location of the camps. Parties
made business OF carrying the mail
and had regular routes around
through the mining camps. as. d.
AT that time mail went by way
Of the isthmus, there being but one
steamer every three weeks. AS re-
suit, at San Francisco and Sacra-
mento, the two main offices and sup
ply points for the state, there would
be a large crowd waiting every time
a mail arrived They finally adopted
a rule among themselves requiring
all to form in line and take their
turn, and hundreds stood or laid in
line day and night to keep their
places, sometimes several days be-
fore they could be served, the line
being formed days before the steamer
arrived. Resident spectators would
take position in the line, and when
they had advanced near the door
would sell their place to others from
the mines, who were waiting, fire.
quently getting from 800 to $500.
"Such thing can hardly be be-
lieved by those who have never
had any such experience, but in the
fall of 1849 an ox-team driver got ten
dollars per day and board, Sundays
being counted the same as other
days, while carpenters got from an
ounce ($16) to an ounce and a half
per day, everything else costing in
proportion; and hence the mail car
riers for the mines could better af-
ford to pay for the position in line
than to wait on expense and lose the
time, they sometimes being kept
waiting for week before they could
get all their mail for the several
camps.
Zone of the curious sights was
the sale of the New York papers. AS
soon as the steamer arrived a man
or boy with a,lot of papers would
rush ashore, mount box, and just
as fast as he could hand out the pa
pers and make change dispose of
them at a dollar each. OF course in
time all this changed, but com
munication with the states was
then so slow and the time required so
great that to us, isolated as we were
from home and friends and the whole
outside world, it seemed almost an
enternlty. Washington Post.
The proposal is made in Chicago
that three-cent fares be charged for
those who stand in street cars and
five-cent fares for those who sit. If
this plan should ever be generally
adopted, many of us would be sur
prised to find how comfortable it is,
after all, to stand. Fancy, too, with
what eagerness the shrewd young
man would seize the opportunity to
combine economy with gallantry by
giving up his seat to some pretty
young lady before the conductor
came round, and with what mixed
feelings the young lady, if also
thrifty, would regard the offer
Providence Journal.