Evening star., 1900-07-07
OUR POSTAL SYSTEM
Europeans Inspect Our Way of
Handling Letters.
THE EXHIBIT At THE PARIS FAIR
Takes Up Half of the Signal Ser-
ice Building.
FRENCH EXPERTS AMAZED
THE EXHIBIT At TEE PARIS FAIR
FRENCH EXPERTS AMAZED
Copyright. 1900. by v. Grbayedotr.,

| with no time for eating Just about 5000
| hours to see all the things worth seeing
| at the universal exposition. As there are
! only little over 5000 hours In year. and
| the exhibition a complete spectacle
| only survives five full months, 1t stands to
| reason that no man, barrin' he's a bird, as
| Mr.. Dooley would say, will ever begin to
| see quarter of the things sent here for
his inspection from all corners of the
| world.
1 had run across these discouraging sta
| tistics in a Paris newspaper the other
| morning, and was thinking what a pity 1t
| is that man Is not built on the model of
| the night, with a thousand eyes" The re-
| gret was acentuated by the legions of in
teresting objects that fringed the avenue
| l was strolling along my usual morning
| visit to the exhibition. From picturesque
building on my left big American flag
| was flying. Across the front of the bui d.
| ing was the inscription United States Sig
nal Service Bureau"
| But weather bureaus do not interest me
| and 1 was about to resume my quest of
| more enhancing novelties when a little
/ French child's comment attracted my at
| tention.
| Look, mamma, look; what a funny old
man on horse" the boy was saying. His
| mamma was looking with all eyes, so L
| looked, too. The funny old man and the
| horse were in the signal service bureau.
| wondering how they figured in meteoro-
| logical matters 1 went inside to inquire
| What saw there made me forget the 5000
hours proposition, at least. until | was COM
| Ing out, when, by a careful mathematical
calculation. l estimated that 1t would take
me just lis years to see the Paris exhibit
| ton thoroughly as 1 had inspected the
| things exhibited in the United States sig
nal service bureau.
Naturally. l made straight for the elder
ly cava Ter who had bewitched the French
| lady and her little boy. AS I approached
| l noticed that the funny old man was
| looking at me very intently. In fact, he was
staring insolently. 1 was just on the point
| of creating a scene when the little French
boy saved me. why, mamma" said the
| child, hes dead"
| No. dear" answered the lady, hes
| wax"
Whereupon I no longer lacked the nerve
| to go up to the man of wax the stuffed
| horse and read his label II ran as fol-
| lows: Model, from life, of a mountain and
| prairie mail carrier in the great north
| west
| Looking about, 1 saw on all sides objects
| that illustrated not the science of weather
| prognostication. but the postal service of
| the United States.
Yes" answered a nearby American
guard to whom l addressed my inquiries
1.-The signal service department has allotted
one-half of its building to display of the
| American postal service" The man added
4 that the astonished comments of the for
| eigners visiting the place We're the best
| evidence of the interesting character of the
! exhibit.
| The Exhibit is a Revelation.
| One only needed to look around to appre-
| ciate how strangely and variously the
| sights must impress a European, for even
| to the average American the exhibit as an
| entirety is revelation. 1t teaches many
| lessons, but the most salient inferences Of
| all are these: The immensity of our coun-
try. the thoroughness of our postal system
| and the practical ingenuity of our invent
| ors.
| The exhibit is artistically arranged
| though without any rigid adherence to sys-
| tematic chronological classification. 1t
covers precisely half the floor space of
| building about so feet square. You learn
| history, geography and statistics while you
| are looking around, all impaired in object
| lessons that make what you learn easy to
| remember.
| The creation of that interesting little
| world dates from Adam named Benja-
min Franklin. whose benevolent physiogno-
| my beams upon you from a portrait In
| scribed, First Postmaster General Of the
| United States From Poor Richard
| down to the latest acquisition of rich Uncle
| Sam, the whole graduation Is there, right
| under your eyes. manakin, in shabby
| attire, demonstrates what a letter carrier
| used to look like in the big cities when they
| were little more than villages compared to
| the big cities of today. Grinning supercil-
| iously across the aisle at this modest indf-
| vidual is wax gentleman. in the neatest
| uniform of gray, nonchalantly dumping let
| ters from silver-gilt post box. attached
| to a very up-to-date lamppost, into brand
| new leather pouch, stamped ~. S. NJ.
| and the date. 1900.
| You will find quaint Illustrations on tho
| wall representing a mail coach pulling up
| before the post office in Boston half cen
| tury ago, or mail packet being loaded
| with its little epiStoary cargo in the old
! fashioned days and the old-fashioned ways.
| Confronting them. in the shining pride of
| newness, are samples of the way things
are done nowadays. A luxurious mail cart
| seems to speak as plainly as words that IT
| wouldn't knuckle under for any kings
chariot. while a superb model of the Amer
| lear liner Paris shows how the United
States sends its mail over the water IN
| these days of grace.
| An American showing a foreign friend
| through the United States postal exhibit
would be likely to make many mistakes;
| to carry the malls" By way of confirming
his dictum he would consult the label.
| which would disclose that used to- was
4 an inaccuracy. The way letters were for
| merly carried in the eastern states is pretty
| nearly identical with the methods still pre-
| vailing in certain remote parts OF our limit
| less land.
| end his horse who coaxed me into the
| building belonged to the past had seen
| such Iong-haired, reckless samples or hu-
manity in Buffalo Biils snow, ana naa
| come to regard the type as representing
the scouts Of the plains which were rapldly
| disappearing from the earth. 1t was news
| to me that such specimens or letter carriers carriers
ar, still serving Uncle Sam through
| stretches of country big enough to make
three or four good-sized European states
Indian Letter Carriers.
A similar msconception seized me when L
| eazed upon another inanimate group.
conspicuous one occupying the central
space In the building. six-foot Indian,
| clad In buckskins. welding a long-lashed
| whip, is tramping. in snow shoes, across
| snow-covered mountain trail In front Of
| him is sled drawn by six big Esquimaux
| dogs, and in the sled Is loaded mail pouch.
| Is 1t any wonder / thought this group rep
| resented the olden time? But the fnscrip-
| ton corrected me. for 1t described the In
dian as one of our postal employees In that
| same bleak mysterious Great Northwest"
| 1 turned for Information to man who, at
| that moment, was giving orders to one OF
| the attendants at the exhibit. / was par
| ticularly fortunate, for he proved to be au
| expert on all matters pertaining to the pos
| tai department of the United States. He
1 was w. A. Brown, one of the oldest in
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