The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-04-01

(COpyrighted, 1901 h The Constitutions >
Now you young people. girls AMI boys
excuse me for telling you a story about
the old times Sixtyfour years ago. whom
l was l. years Old my father was the
postmaster in our town and had to make
contracts for carrying the mail to other
neighboring towns. lie gave these con-
tracts TO needy men ana tire pay vas
generally one dollar a day. one oE these
men got sick and my father made me
take his place and ride me mail to Ros-
We'll all winter. Il was p miles away
and l had to ride there and back in
day. and he paid me the dollar for every
trip. 1t was bitter winter and some
times when | got home ! had TO be
helped off of the horse for | was frozen
up and helpless. But | was q tough ana
hardy boy ana always ready for the next
trip. On my first ride the good old women
on my route did not know me. They
used to knit socks and send them To
town b. the old man to Sell ana carry
back some coffee or sugar or indigo o.
copperas, or some LITTLE thing, but they
didn't know me, and | remember that
one old woman came out to the gate
and said: Are you the mail boy?" And
| laughed and said. Yes. mann, | am
not female boy" She smiled and said
You are mighty little to carry bundles
but | would like for you to take couple
of Pairs of socks and bring me back the
pay in coffee if you Will Ill give You a
little bag to put it in and YOU can
hang it on to the horn Of the saddle"
OF course | did for | always liked to
oblge the women, and besides my father
kept q store and got the trade. some
times | had as much outside Of the mail
bag as there was inside. ] made fourteen
silver dollars that winter and felt rich.
But | want to tell you about the mail
business as it was then. There We're no
stamps or stamped envelopes-nor any
other kind Of envelopes. We wrote on Il
long paper called foolscap It got that
name from the WatCrmark which was a
FOOLS cap and bells stamped on the paper.
After writing we could fold the sheet
up to the size of letter and slip one
fold in the other-thumb paper fashion
then seal it with wafer and address it.
The waters were round and thin and
were made of -four paste and when held
on the tongue moment got soft and
sticky In my young days the pos age
was paid at the end of the line by the one
who received the letter. 1t was l. II
cents if it did not come or so outside
OF the State-1S "a if from or to an ad-
joining State and % cents if still farther
off But if it was to go to California it
had to be prepaid and sent by Wells and
Fargos express and cost a dollar and
was a month on the way. Just think
Of it, Now it costs only 2 cents and
takes only four days. That overland
express almost made us boys crazy
They published book called Ten Years
Among the Mail Bags" and it had pic
lures in it-pictures Of the boys riding
the mail on Indian ponies-riding on run
of 10 miles in an hour, and then he was
lifted off Of his pony and put on fresh
one for another 10 miles The boys had
to weigh not less than sixty nor over
ninety pounds and had to make 40 miles
a dav-20 east and 20 west 1t took about
two hundred boys and four hundred po-
nies to do the work and | wanted to
be one Of the boys mighty bad. Part
of the route was beset BY hostile IN
dams and the express company had 10
keep soldiers at these stations TO
guard the ponies and the boys had to
keep sharp lookout between the sta
tions. One of the pictures showed some
Indians shooting at 9 boy as he bent
over or the pony's neck and was flying
and taken roundance on them ana !
thought that was heroic.
The letters were limited to single
sheet of paper and a thousand to Tag
and that made about twenty pounds OF
mail Besides the mail there were some
two-ponv hacks with two drivers and
guns and these carried gold dust from
the mines to the Eastern States and were
limited to two hundred pounds, which
was worth nearly $4,000 and was
tempting prize to both white and indian
robbers But the gold express ran q II
regular intervals and nobody knew when
il was coming
But now about postage. Not many
foolish letters were written in those DAYS
II cost too much and made the man mad
when he had to pay p cents or IS 81 or
u IL centsE'Or It. The next one the
writer would send would not be taken out
and would go to Washington as a dead
letter. I reckon you wonder why the
postage was in such curious amounts
Well We didn't have any decimal cur
rency theme dimes or half dimes. Ine
dollar was divided into sixteen parts m
stead Of twenty: one part was called a
thrip which was 6 II cents. hrip IS an
a abbreviation for threepence Two parts
was called a SeVenIeIce anu Us Ndlue
was y IL cents l don't believe | have
seen a thrip or seyenpence IN hltE
years The government called them al in
and issued dimes and hals dimes instead.
In ruminating about the wonderful
change IL our postal laws since was
boy | am prepared To say that nothing
that has been discovered Or invented haS
wrought such beneficial results ana 50
~ he pleas
ure at home is more valued than the re-
ception of letters from kindred and
friends who are far away! postage Is
only one-tenth what it used TO be, but
there are twenty times as many letters
written by every person who write
and there are ten times az many TO
write them. The great northern mail
used to come to our town once q week
-in clo saclc in the boot Of q sta