The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-11
RURAL FREE MAIL DELIVERY
Partly Responsible for the Passing
of the Country store.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. March 10-with-
in the next few years those picturesque
landmarks in New England rural life. the
village store and postofiice. will have
passed away. Slowly but surely both are
decreasing. The trolley and the rural
free mail delivery are responsible for this
condition, and while both trolley and rur-
al free mail delivery are positive signs of
progress, there is no denying that there
are hundreds OF quiet country people liv-
ing with the memories of their fore
fathers about their nresides who regret
the advent of these things.
Around those oid-fashioned. dirty
porched. and dusty-wiaGswed village
stores and postoffices There are many
threads of sentiment that go to make up
the skein of affection in the heart of
the rural New Englander. and IT is only
natural that he scowls when he hears
the whizz Of the trolley car and answers
the call Of the postman who delivers his
mail at his front door
The rural free mail delivery is~a great
convenience to the residents of the coun-
try districts. but the older folks object
to it because IL upsets the social arrange
ment which has existed in the back coun-
try districts for years. The rural delivery
has been responsible for abolIshing the
club life of the village patriarch. He has
not the leg of an excuse to stand on any
longer for leaving his own country fire
side after the evening meal and going
after the mail, as he was accustomed to
do previous to the new order Of things
To those who live in the busy. hustling
cities this daily trip from the home to
the village store and postoffice seems of
little account, but to the lord of a country
household it means the only thing that
he has to break the daily monotony of
his quiet life. 1t is at the village post.
office that he sit down with the other old
citizens of the village and hears the news
of the neighborhood. discusses the ques-
tions of the day and, in a general way.
finds out what is going on in that part of
the world which he seldom views except
through the columns of a weekly paper
or through the stories related by an occa-
sional visitor ito town."
In a few years the village store will be
a novelty First. the rural free delivery
wiped out of existence the postoffice that
had been one of the things which the
storekeeper depended upon to make ends
meet. With the postoffice out of the store.
the revenue from canceling stamps was
taken away and many sales stopped at
the same time. for the reason that nearly
everyone who visited the postoffice for
mail rldue some little purchase. as they
say in the country. killing two birds
with one stone. But more certain de-
struction to the village store is threat
ened by the trolley lines that are already
cutting through from city to city and
drawing the trade of the villages to the
cities.
The carriers in this rural service are
picturesque characters The Government
has mapped out their routes about twenty
to twenty-four miles long. These carriers
do not come under the civil service sys-
TEN at all. and are not required to pass
any examinations. They are required to
furnish their own conveyances. which
usually consist of tough country horse
and a rickety wagon The Government pays
these carriers $3.50 year. The carriers are
not permitted TO carry passengers in their
vehicles, but they may carry small par
GELS, and some of them have esta blished
a fairly well paying parcel express BUSH
ness. Some of the carriers raise poultry
and other country produce. 1t is no I'M
usual sight to see a carrier coming into
the city from which his route starts in
the morning with load of chickens or
bags of potatoes and apples and turnips.
In the winter season these men have some
rough experiences getting through icy.
swollen streams and snow drifted roads.
They earn every cent the Government
pays for the service.
The mali boxes along some of the routes
are curious affairs. Most of them are
a lane leading to a farmhouse connects
with the mail highway. there will be
mail boxes on top Of stakes, for the car
riers are not expected to go off their main
route to deliver mail to families ON side
roads. A good many of the mail boxes
have the names of their owners on them
and this serves another purpose. iudcat-
ing to strangers where different persons
in the country live. The amount of mail
handled by the rural mail routes is con-
stantly increasing. which is a sufficiently
demonstration that the ser
vice is growing in favor with the resi-
dents of the rural districts. despite the
fact that IL has destroyed the peace of
mind of the older inhabitants.