The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-08-04
OLD POSTAL uSAGES.
Curious Pha1es Of lac Early Engfisi
Mail Service.


Mail Service.
Wien Queen Victoria ascended the
throne there were no selegraphs in this
country and few railways. The mails
We're forwarded by coach, and the post
age rates were to all but the welI-to-do
prohibitive. 1t cost 4d TO Is Sd to send
single letter under an ounce in
weight from one part of the kingdom
to another. There were some 10
charges, varying according TO distance,
the average rate being Cd, or half the
days wage OF laborer. A single
letter meant a single piece of paper
adhesive envelopes had not been in
vented), and the addition of second
scrap of paper made the letter "dou-
ble" one. The postage was paid on
delivery by the recipient; and as no
credit was given the incursion of
postman into "a poor neighborhood was
watched on all sides with fear rather
than hope
Colerldge, the poet, saw poor wom-
an declining TO accept a letter on the
score of inability to pay. The good
natured bard doubtless with some diff
ficulty) found the required ninepence,
despite the woman's circumstances.
When the postman had gone away she
showed Coleridge that the letter was
but blank sheet of paper. Her broth
er had arranged to send her at inter-
walls such a sheet, addressed in a GER
tain fashion, as evidence that all was
well with him, and she as regularly,
after inspecting the address, refused
to accept it. Some humorist on one oc-
casion sent out large numbers of let
tiers, each on a sheet as large as Ia
hlecloth, all of which had to be delir-
cred as single" missives.
This system practically stitied writ
ten intercourse among the working
| class, and pressed with severity upon
the middle class, but the rich and high
ly placed entirely escaped postal tax
alton The privilege of ranking COW
cred the correspondence not only of
ministers, peers and members of par
lament, but of their relatives, friends
and acquaintance. While in one year
early in the queens reign no less than
100000 letters were franked, a single
London firm paid annually 6 900 for
postage, and a writer in the Quarter
ly referred fiippantly TO so slight and
rare an incident in a laborer's life as
the receipt of a letter" Among the
packets ranked was a grand piano.
An army of clerks was employed to fix
the charges to be collected, and the
postal revenue remained stationary be-
tween 1915 and 1895, although in the
same period the population increased
from Is, 500, COO to 25,6O0,000.
| Moved by this state of things, parlia-
ment in 1899 adopted Rowland Hills
proposal of uniform inland penny
postage, which came into operation on
January 10, 1s40. The writer possesses
a copy of the Quarterly Review of
| 1893. in which contributor believed to
be Croker fercely denounces the
scheme Will clerks" he says, write
only to their fathers and girls to their
mothers? VIII not letters of romance
or love, intrigue or mischief. increase
in at least equal proportions? We
doubt whether social and domestic cor
respondence will be more than doubled"
| \ gigantic exemplification of the old
proverbs: Pennywise and pound fool
ish, etc.
| Macaulay says that the penny post.
when first established was the object
of violent invective. as a manifest con-
triyance of the pope to enslave the souls
of Englishmen. 1t was described as
"seditioD made easy" The postal au-
thorities, who in 1854 had opposed the
institution of mail coaches, were i'm
placable enemies of penny postage.
The postmaster-gener of 1889 (Lord
Lichfeld) based his objections on the
curious ground that the building at St.
Martin s. le-Grand would not be large
enough. The secretary, Col. Maoerly,
constantly repeated: This plan we
know will fail
As we know. it succeeded, and the
penny rate has been generally adopted
in Europe. as well as in the United
States. The number of letters rose
from 0,00o, o0O in 1887 to $4,000, 300 in
1S41; and for the year ending on March
| 81. 1897, they must be about LOO. o00.-
600. The postal surplus was in 1899
1,6595 $40, and in 1S96-'97 6 :, 63.2. 133.
The number of letters, which was in
1897 about three per head and in 1854
Is per head, is now "a per head--Lon-
don Fortnightly Review.
She Missed Him.
a DOOR woman who kept a small