The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-01-07

1T MADE IT'S APPEARANCE IN ENG
LAND IN AUGUST, 1894.
John Palmer, n Theatrical Manager,
Brought Out the Idea-Pitt Helped
Him to Put II Into Execution Against
Isetty Strong Opposition.

Isetty Strong Opposition.
''To Trade Expedition and Property
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. 2, 1884, 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 I
his letter in at a 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 an
hoar, and to be delivered next morning
mt many distant breakfast table.
To appreciate to the full the present
state of postal facilities, one should
look at 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
1870 Ralph Allen, from whom Fielding
took his ideas for Squire Allworthy in
"Tom Jones, sent in a contract to farm
the cross country posts and to carry the
mails by what were subsequently known
as "Allen's Postboys," who were sup
posed TO travel on horseback at pace
averaging five miles an hour.
Palmer, in explaining his scheme for
reform to Pitt in 1888, thus criticised
the then existing state of things: 1.-THE
post" he said, Eat present, instead OF
being the quickest, is almost the SLOW
est conveyance in the country, and al
though, from the great improvements
| i'm our roads, other carriers have pro-
portionately mended their speed, the
post is as slow as ever" Palmer point
ed out to the authorities that the system
| then in vogue was unsafe, "for, said
he, "the mails are generally intrusted
to some idle boy without character,
mounted OH wornout hack, and who,
so far from being able to defend himself
or escape from a robber, is far more
likely to be in league with him.
What was known as the robbery OF
the Brighton mail in 1892 was not by
stopping of q mail coach by vel
mounted highwayman, but the stopping
of lad of about 10 years old by
couple of loafing footpads named Rock
and Howell, who were afterward hanged
in due course, and the circumstance
the mother of Rookie going night afte
night TO the gibbet TO collect the bone
as they were blown down by the win
suggested the poem "Mizpah.
Those boys without characters an
the wretched horses they bestrode wer
, cheap labor, and the profits on the col
tract enabled Allen to turn III abor
, Gig. 600 year and to take up his res
:. dence at Prior Park, one of the fine
Italian houses i'll England, and lt
= said that it was the sight Of this gran
e Mace and the knowledge of how Allen
n money had been made which first su
pested TO Palmer the attempt to bflI
his scheme to the notice Of the post
authorities. John Palmer was less
and manager Of the Bath and Brlst
theaters-it was at the old theateI
u Bath that actors like Lee, Crawtor
d Henderson, Siddons and Brunton ma
p some of their early appearances, whll
q thanks to the influence of friends, Ia
New theater was the only patent the
ter out of London.
N Palmer always appears to nave De
,s a man of more or less horsy tastes, IL
the late Mr.. Newcome of the Plymou
e theater. and his business led him
. travel "a good deal about the countl
- With him time was money; so, aoJurl
80 the slow, rumbling stagecoach, he we
about beating up actors, actresses
companies in postchaises, always,
ne course, passing the coaches on the rc
along which he was travelling W.
the mail coach of the future III his
he asked himself, remembering that
,e letter took three days to go from 81
70 to London, why letters should not
le carried at the same pace at which
in was possible to travel in chalse!
I'd kept a record of times and distanc
in and, having thought out all details
deeming his scheme ripe for adopt
Of he sought the good offices OF MIR. J'
IN Pratt, afterward Lord Camden,
is. whom Palmer was introduced to r
,e- who warmly approved the idea.
ne Lords Carteret and Tankervllle'
he Joint postmasters general, besides
ire being experts were bound secul
d. hand and foot by letters OF red tape
20 SO contented themselves with learn
in. the opinions Of the postofiice ofiici
rts who. it were almost needless TO I
Ids were almost to man against Palm
mt The farseeing Pitt was not long
ne coming to the conclusion that
by than half of the objections to the
in. nosed mail coach had their outcome
or. jealousy so, calling together Pain
SIN the postmasters general and sundry
he tile officials, he decided that the sys
m, should have a trial. London L
to graph.