The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-12-09
Fn2ST NAIL COACH.
1T MAIZE ITS APPEARANCE. IN ENG
tAND IN AUGUST, 1874.


Him to Put It Into Execution Against
Pretty Strong Opposition.
ITO Trade Expedition and PFC oerty
Protection" This was the legend on the
mail coach halfpenny struck to com.
memorate the introduction of the mail
coach by John Palmer of the Bath thea
ter on Aug. ,, 1854, an undertaking
which is not without its effect today.
The careful student Of the 'Postal
Guide" will not fail to notice what IA
cilities are open to him for the trans
mission of important letters. Over and
above frequent collections and conven-
iently late hours for posting, he can hand
bis letter in at railway station parcels
Office; he can post in late letter boxes at
the station serving the district for which
his 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 so miles all
hour, and to be delivered next morning
at many a distant breakfast table,
To appreciate to the full the present
state of postal facilities, one should
look at the system under which mails
We're carried prior to the Palmer era.
For two Or three centuries before the
first mail coach ran the post was carried
oy men or boys on horseback, but in
1920 Ralph Allen, from whom Fielding
took his ideas for Squire Allworthy in
''Tom Jones, sent in contract to farm
the cross country posts and to carry the
mails by what were subsequently known
ss "Allen's Postboys," who were sup
posed to travel en horseback at pace
averaging FIVE miles an hour.
Palmer, il explaining his scheme for
refor,i to Pitt in 1883, thus criticised
the then existing state of things: 1.-The
post" he said, at present, instead of
being the quickest, is almost the slow
est conveyance in the country, and al
though, from tho great improvements
in our roads, other carriers have pro:
portionately mended their speed, the
post is as slow as ever. F" Palmer point.
ed cut io the authorities that the system
then in vogue was unsafe, 'for, y said
he, "the mails are generally inuusted
to some idle boy without character,
mounted on wornout hack, and who,
so far from being able to defend himself
or escape from roDber, is far more
likely to be in league with him. "
What was known as the robbery OF
the Brighton mail in 1872 was not by
stopping Of a mail coach by q well
mounted highHayman, but the stopping
Of lad of about Is years old by o
couple of loafng footpads named Rookie
and Howell, who were afterward hanged
in due course and the circumstance of
the mother Of Rookie going night after
night to the gibDet to collect the bones
as they were blown down by the wind
suggested the poem "Mizpah. U
Those boys without characters and
the wretcned horses they bestrode were
cheap labor, and the profits on the con-
tract enabled Allen to turn in about
e12, 900 year and to take up his resi-
dence at Prior Park, one of the finest
Italian hopses in England, and it is
said that it was the sight Of this grand
place and the knowledge Of how Aliens
money har1 hear made Which Grst ~sus-,
sesied to Palmer the attempt to bring
his scheme to the notice Of the postal
authorities. John Palmer was lessee
and manager Of the Bath and Bristol
ters-it was at the old theateI at
Bath that actors like Lee. Crawford,
Henderson, Siddons and Brunton made
some oe their early appearances, while,
thanks to the influence Of friends, Bath
New theater was the only patent thea
ter out Of London.
Palmer always appears to have been
a man Of more Or less horsy tastes like
the late Mr.. Newcome Of the Plymouth
theater, and his business led him to
travel good deal about the country.
With him time was money so, abjurlng
the slow, rumbling stagecoach, he went
about beating up actors, actresses and
companies IN postchaises, always, OF
course, passing the coaches on the road
along which he was travelling. With
the mail coach of the future III his eye
he asked himself, remembering that a
letter took three days to so from Bath
to London, why letters should not be
carried at the same pace at which 1t
was possible to travel in a chaise: He
kept record of times and distances,
and, having thought out all details and
deeming h:s scheme ripe for adoption,
he sought the good Offices of Mr.. John
Pratt, afterward Lord Camden, By
whom Palmer was introduced to Pitt,
who warmly approved the idea.
Lords Carteret and Tankerville, the
joint postmasters general, besides not
being experts were bound securely
hand and foot by fetters of red tape, and
so contented themselves with learning
the opinions of the postoffice officials,
who, it were almost needless to tell,
We're almost to man against Palmer.
The farseeing Pitt was not long III
coming to the conclusion that more
than half Of the objections to the pro-
posed mail coach had their outcome ID
Jealousy so, calling together Palmer,
the postmasters general and sundry hos
tile officials, he decided that the system
should have a trial. - London Tele-
graph.
Just Like HIM.