The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-01

us SUR dnbAAe -
He has the army here to carry out his
commands and he can make all sorts OF
civil regulations. General Henry, as II
seemed to many. stretched the limit in this
regard. He tried to fix the prices of bread.
issued an order regulating marriages and
rode around like a little tin god on wheels.
He has the prestige of being a great soldier.
but it is questionable whether he succeeded
we'll as a civil administrator.
The governorship of Porto Rico is by no
means a bad place to have. San Juan is a
beautiful city and one Of the pleasantest
homes in Uncle Sans dominion. THE mill
tary governor has the palace which was
formerly occupied by the captains general
during the Spanish regime. The palace is a
building of three stories. 1t is with its
wings, about as large as the White House.
1t has a garden filed with beautiful flowers
and it's windows command magnificent views
Of the ocean and harbor. The house is very
comfortably furnished and its large parlors
are well adapted to entertaining.
The Governor General has also a summer
home, rent free, at Rio Piedras. This is one
Of the suburbs of San Juan. The house was
the property of the Spanish government and
was occupied by the captain general when
he wished to get out of the city. 1t has per-
haps the finest garden in Porto Rico. This
contains many old trees and a vast quantity
of rose bushes and tropical flowers.
The Governor General has q Cabinet made
I'D of the Porto Ricans who are the heads of
the departments. He has a secretary or
finance, of Justice and of the interior, and
under them a large number of native clerks
and understrappers. / do not know just how
many native Porto Ricans it takes to run
the government, but altogether they have a
salary list of s3l0,S22.
The Governor General has to direct the
| soldiers in all parts of Porto Rico. He has
the general supervision of nearly every
thing that goes on, although there are some
things which are practically independent of
him.
THE POSTOFFICES.
Among these are the postoffices, which are
| under the postmaster general at Washing
| ton. 1 nave spent some time in studying
| Uncle Sans mail here. The postal service
is as we'll managed as any new thing on the
| island. The larger cities now have Ameri-
can postmasters, and the clerks Oh the
money order department, who are TO be
| found all over the island. are almost all
Americans. Some of the postmasters are
from Washington city, some from Texas
and a number from Indiana, Ohio, New
York. West Virginia, California and other
States.
while the postal system is directed from
Washington, it is run to a certain extent
| INDEPENDENT of the department there. We
have, in fact, a Postofice Department IN
| miniature in Porto Rico. The island has an
independent money order ofhce, an lnoe-
pendent dead letter office and a special sys-
- g xo.tal ;pcaootorC Tho head of the
service is Capt. w. H. Elliott, of Indiana,
who was formerly connected with the navy.
but who came here at the close of the war
TO organize the service. Captain Elliott has
| visited every part of the island. When AS
| sjstant Postmaster General Heath was here
| some months ago he accompanied Captain
| Elliott, and the two planned many of the
changes which have since been made.
1 had q chat with Captain Elliott the other
day during which I asked him as to the
mails. Said he:
Under the Spaniards the postal and tele-
graph systems were combined. The tele-
graph operator was the postmaster. There
was no money-order business. and there was
no safety as to the mails. Letters were often
opened and money extracted. Many of the
officials claimed the right to tamper with all
letters and the postal service was in reality
a spy system under government supervision.
At that time a man did not dare to put a
business secret into a letter, and men were
often sent to Jail on the basis of information
got from letters which they had sent. AT
present we find it difficult to make our Porto
Rican postmasters understand that they
have not the right to open letters intrusted
to their care"
THE NEW POSTOFFICE.
"You have changed this long ago." said i.
course" replied Capt. Elliott. Some
improvements have been made by Mr.. Rob-
inson, who was in charge of the postoffice
before 1 came here. We at once separated
the telegraph and postal system. We re-
lieved the towns of the expenses of their
| postofices and established new offices ev-
| erywhere. There are now ninety-one post
Offices here, covering every part Of Porto
Rico. Only the important offices have Amer
lean postmastars.
1.-The chief expense of the postal bust
ness" Captain Elliott went on, ARE in
CARRYING the mails. We have six hundred
miles of road to cover, nearly all Of which
are star routes. Most Of the mails go in tin
boxes, which are strapped to the backs OF
ponies. Each mail carrier has two boxes
mus IdSteneQ ~ HIS pOAss dio AC Sil DG-
tween them as he joys his way from one
postofhce TO another"
do the Porto Ricans use the mails?"
Yes, indeed. Even the little towns de-
mand mails seven days of the week, even IL
they get only two or three letters each mail.
These people are, you know. very iliiterate.
The common people cannot read nor write
and only about one man in fifteen has any
education whatsoever"
The telegraph system is now managed
entirely by the War Department. 1t Is I'M
der the signal service corps. with Colonel
w. A. Glassford in charge. Colonel Glass
ford IS one of the most efficient men Of
Uncle Sans signal corps. He is a good
executive and has become noted through
a number of his experiments in the lines
of thought transmission. Among other
things he has sent messages further by
heliograph than any other man in the
world.
Some years ago he sent a message from
a mountain in Colorado to one in Utah, a
distance OF 1s9 miles. by means Of the
heliograph. These messages were flashed
from one point to the other by mirrors. The
Morse telegraph alphabet was used. The
dots and dashes were made by the flashes
of the sun on the mirrors This expert