The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-11-03
APOSTALEXPERIMENT
FREE RURAL DELIVERY A SUCCESS
IN YAKIMA COUNTY.
work of the Iife-snvins Service on
the Cesss-Trxt of the order
E~tahIishfng Fort St Michael

Special Dispatch 70 the Post-TE-eiItge-aceT.
" SEFTNsfsTgS Nov. 4-The fs~thcoT1a-
fng rA~or- 81 :he postmaster genera1 70
congress Will contain a very interesting
ACCOUNT OF the free delivery experimental
service IN rural districts. Il viii he g-att-
fyiEx 10 the people OF the state q Wash
tnVtcn 10 know thai the experiment tried
az North Yakima was the rnoss szrixfse-
tory Of al IN the United States. with che
single exception Of a service ~ Santa
Clara county Cal The North Yakima
service was established April /. 1897. ard
two carriers employed az sssa each. TIE
experiment was tried over an area 90 ten
square miles. and the rural population
served With mail by these carriers num-
hers about SO. The average number OF
miles Travelled per day By each carrier
was twenty-five and the number OF pieces
Of mail deilv red ard collected from April
70 July ! was - ss0 The. cos. Of the
service from is beginning until the latter
date was $40. or an annual cost % ssoa
Il cost 20 deliver each piece % mail IN
the North Yakima district -fna Of a cent
The only place IN the United States
where the rural mail was delivered
cheaper was ar Campbell Santa Clara
county where Il cos, bat $3.50 Of a cent
for each piece. A good idea 81 the cheap
ness % THIS service may b. had by two
or three comparisons with the cost Of rural
Ky. each piece az mail delivered cost
cents; AZ Whitman, Ga. $40 cents. and
at HsiltOwn- ". Va, the cost was 34-f0A
cents per piecs. This latter was the high
est OF any in all the experiments tried.
Concerning the experiment In the state
OF Washington. the report OF the post
master general VII! say:
North Yakima, Wash. where one OF
the latest experimental services was es-
tablished April, 1897. is a town OF compar-
atiyely recent growth which owes It's
origin 70 the development OF the irrsxa-
ton system IN that state The vicinity
consists Of clusters Of settlements. the land
being divided into small holdings OF frcm
ten 10 forty acres, and heing devoted 10
the culture Of fruit and hops. There are
two routes in operation each about TWEEN
ty-aEe miles long. covering an area Of
about ten square miles and serving about
$50 people
"A report received as TO the service in
this district gives somewhat picturesque
idea OF the rural service generally. IL
says. In substance:
Nearly everybody within the district
has his mail delivered. Some receptacle Il
fastened IN a convenient place so thar the
carriers can drop their mail without get
ting out OF their carts. Whenever a farm
er has mail in his box which he wishes
collected he displays a small white flag
This enables the carrier 20 drive on with
out stopping when there is no mail TO
leave or take. ard as each carrier mas
with him field glass he is thus often en-
aoied 10 save himself a trip of a quarter
OF a mile up a lane and back The
boxes" are OF suRdry shapes, sizes and
eo!orS One man mas lard pail hung out
on a fence post: three or four have nailed
up empty coal oil cans. and a few have
utilized syrup cans. These make very Sc
cure recsptacles when placed on the side
with the upper half OF one end cut out Old
apple boxes soap boxes cigar boxes and
IL one instance a wagon box. adorn the en-
trance 10 farms al over the valley. One
man has put up a small English tin tray-
cling trunk. Some OF the specially con-
structed boxes have glass fronts and a
locked compartment for letters and many
Of them are neatly painted. and have the
names Of the persons for whom they are in
tended displayed upon them
"Notwithss andlng the fact that the COM
munity OF North Yakima has suffered Sc
verely from hard times during the last two
years, and thar Il has not hitherto been in
the haols OF sending or receiving much mail
matter. the service there is recognized "a
a growing necessity"
The annual report OF General Superin-
tendent kImball. of the nfe-savlnE serv-
ice. VIII furnish the following data relative
10 the Twelfth district covering the en-
tire length Of the Pacific coast for the past
fiscal year.