Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-20
n POSTAL UsAGES.
.,,o puAsEs OF THE MAIL sERv ssvRV0s etxIY YEARS AGO.

F'''s ,ce SIXTY YEARS AGO
 ordinary Letters In England a'a most Prohibitive-Adoption of Hs's ,v Post and the Queer Arsu- -,pts Against It.
 aneon Victoria aseended ths Nnsn tnsse were 10 telegraphs in this Rlon'. Y. ana few railways. The mails 'ip'a, a,,,rwgrded ' eeach, and the post a' .os m were to all but the we'll to do la 1isitive, It cost from 4d. to Is. 3d.. 0D. sa "single" letter under an '.ss ss'i in weight from one part of the llss ls1om to another. There were some |1sas,r sssraes, varying according to dis 7. s inc average rate being 9d., or as'' tba day's wage of . laborer. A ula1 1a letter meant a sing3a piece of fls.V sI.dbesiye envelopes had not been sl .od1 sS and the addition of a second s st paper made the letter "dou- ny al oas ', The postage was paid on de- .s ' bv the recipient, and as no cred aa .. 2; s;van the incursfon of a postman Nas ? noor neighborhood was watched n sides with fear rather than hope. ealoridee. s, the poet, saw a poor wom- 0s's a@SIinine to accept letter on the \ s of inability to pay. The good .a,.a ' hard doubtless with some diff '.r, s soupd the required ninepenee, ssta s the woman's remonstrances. Esn tbe postman had gone away. she pwsd Coleridge that the letter was blapk sheet of paper. Her brother arranged to send her at intervals i sheet. addressed i'll certain b;on as evidence that all was well \ him. and she as regularly, after raoting the address. refused to accept sane humorist on one occasion sent large numbers of letters, each on a yt as large as a tablecloth, all of ieh had to be delivered as single iges.
 Ehs system practically stifed written poursa among the working class aud Eea with severity upon the middle
 ba. t6s ll~A and highly placed Erely escaped postal taxation. The silege of franking covered the core ndenee not only of ministers, peers
 members of parliament, but of r relatives, friends and acquaint- n Ps. While in cue year early ill the n's reign no less than 2, 400, 900 brs were franked, single London
 paid annually q l, 1000 for postage Ia writer in The Quarterly referred bantly to go slight and rare all in- in laborer's life as the receipt
 letter. , Among the packets" Eed was q grand piano. An army rks was employed to fix the charges X collected, and the postal revenue einad stationary between 1915 and
 although ill the same period the
 htion increased from 19, 300, 900 to EO,OO0.
 ETed by this state of things, parlia-
 in 1889 adopted Rowland Hills psa of uniform inland penny post
 (which came into operation on Jan.
 k4O. The writer possesses a copy of
 guarterly Review of 1889, in which
 ptributor believed to be Croker) y denounees the scheme. "Will
 he says, write only to theiI
 Sand girls to their mothers? Will
 tters of romance or love, intrigue
 ahief, increase in at least equal
 Itlonss We doubt whether social ,Q Fomestie correspondence will be moi than doubled. A gigantic exem- llgg! |tlon of the old proverb-Penhy mi m fnd pound foolish" :" etc.
 j. aulay says that the penny post, us 's' llst established, was the object aa lent invectiye, as a manifest con wsa mi sOi the pope to enslaYe the souls IlIu1 shshmen. It was described as 'vh Ion made easy" The postal nu- 'pna es' Who IS l784 had opposed the
 lOn Of mail coaches, were inn - enemies of penny postage. The
 s'ef general of 1889, Lord Lich. ased his objections on the curi- Dp ala a that the building at St. Mar. oland would not be large nnf1 The secretary, Colonel Maber. 1u[! saltly rercated, "This plan we DY Know. is succeeded, and the Na a'e has hoen generally adopted ol upe %0 as Tell as in the United @ oaa .ae number of letters rose from A VvV n 1887 to 299, 100000 in
 o a TOT the year ending on March t about 1900, 900, GOO. The aplus ai wm in 1889 g1, e59, 516
 0SO-l eS,632, 133. Tho number
 a which was in 1887 about 8
 and ln 1854 15 per head, is
 psi head. -Fortnightly Review. High Titles Without Cost.
 0Jl M io'k arc copying the Ameri