New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-12-03

eral: Il have to wear some kind Of clothes, and
INC regulation suit H. may be. as cheap as any"
he was little Off on that point. because. as a
cold fact, the price paid under contract rates
Tor letter carriers uniforms is higher than that
at which any ordinary citizen can buy good
business suit made to order, of far superior
cloth. But the carriers sentiment was all right
and many rural carriers have acted on IT,
out in Arizona. where in the genial summer
sunshine the temperature occasionally rises to
llo degrees and stays there the rural carrier
rarely wears any insignia Of his dignity except
MS padSe. which is a nickel plated Arrangement
MADE TO ut any Kind of hat. Instead of comfort
aDly riding in a specially constructed postal
wagon, he as often as not mounts a buckng
bronco, or drives him to a blackboard with
| only an umbrella for shade But he makes
thrty odd miles a day, nevertheless and the
| Department has just issued orders TO cut down
this particular route from Tempe five or ten
miles day. chiefly out Of consideration for the
bronco because the carrier can probably sleep
as comfortably in his saddle as anywhere else
But in this fruit growing district of the Ter
rltory OF Arizona ii is interesting to note that
IN the last fiscal year two carriers delivered and
collected nearly one hundred thousand pieces
of mail matter Go be exact ninety thousand
q
Sundays and holidays excluded. Not a bad
piece of work for territory still TO be admitted
into the Union
The hardShirs sometimes encountered by the
rural carriers are shown in the photograph Of
rural carrier in Northern Ohio returning
from trip when the Thermometer was 10
degrees below zero Yet, though the First As
sistant Postmaster General reports that there
are several girls acting as bonded rural car
riers, few instances recorded of their falling
TO make their daily trips, either in the coolest
storms Of winter or the blazing heat Of summer.
one question which has received grave COR
sideratOn by the Department is the insecurity
and improper character of the mail boxes put
up on this subject the First Assistant Post
master General says:
In the early days of the service when neither
Congress nor the POstoflice Department. as
then organized, held out any hope that rural
free delivery would prove more than a transit
tory experiment, extreme careessness was
manifested as to the kind of receptaces put up
as rural free delivery boxes. Tomato cans
cigar boxes drainage pipes up ended. soap boxes
and even sections of discarded stove pipes were
used as mail boxes. and were frequently placed
in hedge rows or other inconvenient spots out
Of reach OF the carrier.
The Department has entered upon a sys-
tematic effort to correct this condition Of things,
and recommendation is made that the Gov
eminent provide uniform boxes and maintain
them charging a moderate rental.
The Department gives two pictures TO show
how boxes should and should not be made.
box in Illinois the that ought not to be- is
described as simply an old feedboX without any
protection from the weather or any immunity
from depreciation The other the California box
is a well devised lock box Of iron with two com
partments one for the reception OF the mail, the
other for its delivery. and with an automatic
continuance which raises either a red or a white