Evening star., 1897-02-27

| the department required certain portions
OF the trips to be made In the night time.
In 1889 the contractor for the mail SER
| vice between Washington and Baltimore
asked permission to carry the mail on the
| railroad His request was refused because
! the Postmaster General thought the train
| could not make the run in time to make
connections with stage line mails at Balti-
| more and Washington. This objection was
| overcome, however, by the contractor
agreeing to forward by stage all mail that
| failed to connect with the train. Grave
| doubts were entertained as to the feasibili-
| ty of the new railroad scheme. and as to
| whether the mail service performed on the
| railroads could ever be made acceptable to
the department 1t was dubious matter
all the way through. Many complaints
were made against those contractors who
permitted the mail to be carried on the
railroads when they had contracted to car
Upon one OF these occasions the department
notified the contractor that If the remiss-
ness complained of occurred again he would
be compelled to abandon the transports ton
of the mails on the railroad and resume the
post coaches at once. In another case
department official wrote: From experience
lad the adaptation of the railroad to the
purpose of mail transportation is becoming
every day more and more questionable"
What nightmare! How ridiculous all this
seems to us now: yet it is but very brief
and uncolored mention Of what really took
place.
The Office Work.
The United States is divided into sec
tons of one or more states each. and two
clerks are assigned to each section. These
clerks keep the books, conduct the cor
respondence, and make up all orders and
cases for changing schedules, increasing.
reducing or curtailing the service; all of
which are signed by the second assistant
postmaster general or the Postmaster
General. Contracts are awarded to the low
est bidder for the performance of the ser
vice for a term of four years; and these
sections are grouped into four contract
divisions, so that the service in one divis
ion can be awarded in December of each
year. Advertisements are issued and post
ed in every post office in the country, and
inserted In not to exceed ten newspapers
in each state several months before the
letting in December, thus as nearly as pos
slble every person in the United States may
have an opportunity to bid. man in
Maine may bid on service in California, or
man In Texas may bid on service in far
away Alaska.
The star service, being a branch Of the
postal service which penetrates sparsely
settled and remote parts of the country. is
not remunerative to the government, its
utility being almost without exception to
supply fourth-class post offices, offices that
furnish very little revenue to the govern
ment because their income is derived al
most solely from the cancellation of
stamps. and most of that goes to the post
masters. In fact, this service is almost
gratuity on the part of the government,
for it is not expected that the revenue re-
ceived by the department from offices sup
piled by star service will more than equal
one-fifth the cost of the service. AS this
Is rural service. it has some character
istics and customs entirely primitive in
their nature.
Humors of the Service.
A postmistress whose husband had been
forbidden to carry the mail because of his
relationship to the postrlstress complained
very bitterly of expenses and said that
the patrons of her Office lived so far away
that when they came after their mail she
had TO give them their dinner and supper
and sometimes had to keep them over night
and give them their breakfast. She com
planned that such business ate up the
profits of the office: said that since her
husband had been fired from carrying
the mail she couldn't afford it; that his
salary kind equaliZed matters" and
closed with the following p!aintive request:
Pleas, Kind sirlet me out uf this lob"
lhere Is route running across the desert
OF Arizona. not far from Yuma the hot
test place on earth in summer time upon
which 1t is necessary for the carrier to
naui wafer and feed enough with him to
supply himself and stock the whole Jour
hey, Tor ne can secure none en- route
There are many instances reported from
minins districts in the west where the
camp Is SO far from post office that min
-
ana 1t costs them one dollar for each letter
and not very long letter at that. In the
carry days of mail service in the west
When trips were made but once month
on some routes, it was one thing to get
the department to send the mail to a fron
tier post Cffice, but quite another thing for
the people In the surrounding country to
get 1t out OF the office. Men were there
seeking fortune. They had left wives, little
blue-eyed babies, fathers and mothers.
and sweethearts behind them somewhere
in the far east They were homesck-Oh.
SO homesick! and would willingly go
through any privation and pay almost any
amount of money (gold dusD to secure a
written message from those loved ones 1t
is reported on the best of authority that
under such circumstances men came from
sometimes hundreds of miles away and
camped In line before the post office sew
eral days before mail day, and remained
there day snG night until their turn came
Local spectators secured positions near
the office door, and on mail day sold them
to the homesick miners and prospectors for
as high as $500 each.
Sometimes the mail carriers in the star
service meet with very unusual and bur-
densome surprises. Some enterprising gold
miners recently evolved a scheme to secure
cheap transportation for their gold 1t
cost them a great deal to convey it,
guarded, in wagons to the railroad, thence
by rail to the mint or place of sale, so
they made nice little boxes, that when
hited with gold dust would not weigh to
exceed -FOUR pounds each, the limit of
weight for fourth-class mail matter. and
sent their product to market by mail at
merchandise rate-one cent an ounce Great
was the chagrin of the mail carrier who
carried the mail on snow shoes when he
learned that he was the unfortunate VIC
Tim OF the miners economical plan.
An Old Map.
The first post route (star service) man
ever used in this country was printed i'm
London, England, in 1715 as Map OF the
Dominiors of the King of Great Britain on
the Continent of North America" Later 1t
vas cut up into sections, and one section a
small sheet less than a foot square. now
hangs, an interesting relic of postal history.
In the office Of the chief clerk of the second
assistant postmaster general This section
OF the map includes the territory bounded
on the north by the 45th degree of north
latitude, the northern boundary Of Vermont
ard New Hampshire: on the east by the
18th degree Of longitude west from Green
wich. the eastern boundary of Maine: On
the south by the Both degree of north lati-
tude, which crosses the southern point of
New Jersey, and on the west by the 76:h
degree of longitude, which passes through
the center of the state of New York 1t is
very primitive in its appearance and is en-
titled "A Map of Part of North America,
New England, New York. New Jersey and