The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1897-04-29
BILL ARP ON POSTAL AFFAIRS.
He Tells OF the Times When Letter
Postage Was Twenty-Five Cents
and Under.

He Tells OF the Times When Letter
Postage Was Twenty-Five Cents
and Under.
There is perhaps no invention or con-
| trivance that has brought more COM
| fort to mankind than that of letters and
| their easy transmission by modern
postal service. How wonderfully cheap
they are and how swiftly they come
and go! Only 2 cents to the utmost
| limit Of the United States, say, 1000
J miles, and only 5 cents to be carried
across the ocean. It takes only cents
to carry a letter to the City Of Mexico,
but it takes cents to bring one back.
| for besides his weekly letter to us, he
has many friends, and the girl he left
behind him, and his postage is quite q
tax. She thinks L ought to write to
President Diaz and MIR. McKin-
ley and demand reciprocity, just for
Carl's sake, but | compromised with
her by promising to inclose dime in
every letter [ wrote to the boy. In
almost every mail that comes she is on
the lookout for q letter from some Of
the absent ones, and when she gets one
she reads it two or times and
files it away on her side Of the room.
has become as important an event in
the routine of our daily life as our daily
meals. 1t is an event that has grown
on US and become indispensable. Time
was when neither she nor | received a
letter q month, for she had no lover
but me, and | had cone but her, and
| our postal system was a darkey boy
1t was like that Of Zeb Vance, WHO
| received note from some fashionable
woman in Washington with the mys-
terious letters, "Is. S. V. p" endorsed
on it, and whom he answered it he put
on one corner rs. B. A. NJ" just to
keep up with society, he said. When
she afterwards asked for an explana-
tion, he smiled and said: ''Oh, they
stood for Sent by q nigger.'"
remember when the postage had to
| be paid at the last end of the line by
the person who received it., and it was
25 cents If it came 500 miles. If less
than that, but from out Of the State, it
was lSi cents, and, and If within the
State it was l24 ccnts. We had no
decimal currency then, but we had the
seven pence (l24 ccnts) and the thrip
(Gi cents) and they were worn to the
quick from constant use. Nothing told
their value except their size. We re-
ceivCd tho great United States mail
twice week and the footing Of the stage
drivers horn as ne rose to the brow Of
the distant hill aroused all the people
Of this little village, and most OF them
gathered at the post Otlice to hear the
news. Perhaps there were as many as
twenty weekly papers taken in the
town, but none OF them made mention
OF murders or suicides, or lynchings or
eiopements, or baseball or football, or
bicycle races or the fashions, or reward ,
ior guessing OF advertisements OF
cclcry compound, or photographs
OF mon or women or babies, or the
arrival OF anybody less than q Presi-
dent or Governor. But in our State
papers there wero some little pictures
or cuts OF hasty departures runaways g.
and all were uniformly advertised
IRAN away from tho subscriber. NV
boy Dick, etc, and | will give $lO re-
ward for his apprehension
But now the letters-ah, the letters
that como cvery day Besides the
family letters from kith and kin, there
are scores OF letters from good people
who arc working for church or charity,
or want information about Florida or
Mexico. Very often am I comforted
with compliments | love to receive,
and very often get a good, long letter
from some old-time Georgian who for
half a century has been living in Texas
or Arkansas, or somewhere In the
great West. 1t pleases me to reply tC
all and make the best answer that can