People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1896-11-20
Letters Crossed THE Country in
the CareOf Small Boys First.
IT WAS PALMER'S SCHEME.
After the Boys Came Wagons
and That Was One Hundred
and Twelve Years Ago.
From the London Telegranh.


ton of the nail coach by I'M
Palmer, of the Bath theater on Au.
gust 2, 1884, so that Sunday last was
the one hundred and twel tn ami
verssry of an undertaking which ia
not without its effect today. The
careful student Of the Postal Guide
will not fail 10 notice what facilities
are open to hun for the transmission
Of important letters, Over and above
frequent collections and conveniently
late hours for posing, he can hand
his letters in at arailway station par
oels Office; he can post in late letter
boxes at the station sers ing the dis
triot for @hich bis letter is intended,
while up to the last moment there
hangs outside the sorting van box
into which letters may be dropped
preparatory TO being whirled away
throughout the length and breadth Of
England at the rate of fifty miles an
hour, and to be delivered next morn
Ing st many distant breakfast table.
To sppreolate to the full present state
of postal facilities one should look al
the system under which mails were
carried prior to the Palmer era. For
two or three centuries before the first
mail coach ran the post was carried
by men or boys on horseback, but in
1920 Ralph Allen, from whom Field
ing took his ideas for Squire All
worthy in "Tom jones'" cent in a
contract to farm the cross country
posts, aud to carry the mails by what
were subsequently known as "Allen's
post boys" wac were supposed to
travel on hors back st a pace ayerag-
ing five miles an hour. Palmer, in
explaining his soheme for reform to
Pitt, IL 1888, thus cri ioised the then
existing state OF things: "The post, y
he said, "at present, instead of being
the quickest, is almost tbs slowest
conveyance in the country, and, al
though, from the great improvement
in our roads, other carriers have pro-
portionately mended their speed, the
post is as slow as ever" Pamsr
pointed out to The authorities that
the system then in vogue was unsafe,
''fOr," sAid he, "ihe mails are generally
intruste to come idle boy without
character, mounted on q worn-out
hack, and who, SO far from being able
to defend himself or escape from g
robber, is far more likely to be in
league with him" What was known
as the robbery of the Brighton mai
in 1892 was not the stopping of a
mail coach ~ a wsIl-mountod high
wayman, but the stopping Of las
about 1iiteeu years old by q coupl. Of
loafug foot ada naned Rookie and
Howell, VIII we're after gae ds hen ked
in due oour3s, and the circumstance
of the mother OF Rookie going nigh,
after night to the glbbe5 10 collect the
bones IS they were blown down b,
the wind suggested the poem "Mz
par"
Those boys without character ana
the wretohed horses they bes rod,
we're cheap labor, and tbs profits on
the contract enabled Alien TO turn 10
about $4,000 ayear and to take M
his residence st Psior park, one o
the finest Italian hous8s in England
and it is raid that it was She SIGHT OF
tina grand place and the kuo vledgg
Of how Aliens money had been made
which first suggested to Palmer tbs
attempt to briBg his scheme 10 the
notice Of the postal AUTHORITIES. John
Palmer was lessee and manager of
the Bath and Bristol thoasers--i5 vas
ct the old taeators at Bath shat actors
like Lee, Crawford. Henderson, SID
dons and Brunton made ZONE of heir
early appearances, while, thanks to
the influence of friends, Bath new
theater was the only patent theater
out OF London. Palmer always ap
pears to have been man of more or
less horsey tastes, like the late Mr.,
Newcoms, of the P ymouth theater,
and his business led him to travel a
good deal about the country. With
him time was money, so, abjuring the
slow, runbling stage coach, bo went
abou beating up actors, actresses
and companies in post.chaises, always
of course, passing the coaches along
the road which be was travelling
With the mail coach OF the future in
his eye, he asked himself, remember