Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-04-19
CAPITAL CHAT.
More Rural Free Deliveries
for the Sd District.
Gov. Dole Of Hawaii Being Extensive
IyFeted at the Capital.
Expected Dismissal but Was AqreeabIy
Surprised by President.

4 III o.
| (SpeciaD.-A petition for the estab.
lishment of rural free delivery route
at Readfield, Me-, has been received
here by GOV. Burleigh and referred t.
Hon. A. w. Machen, superintendent Of
the rural free delivery in the post of
flee department.. In forwarding the
petition Gov. Burleigh has suggested
that when Special Agent E. P. Boutellt
visits Readfield and Mount Vernon foi
the purpose of examining proposed
routes he would do well to consult with
| Hon. d. II. Thing of Mount Vernon
who sent in the petition, relative tc
| the same.
A similar petition for rural free de-
livery route out of Stockton Springs in
Waldo county has been received by
| Gov. Burleigh and has likewise been
| referred to Superintendent Macher
with similar request for early inyes-
| tigation and report.
For some months the adjustment OF
| rural routes throughout the Third dis
trict and the inStalment of as MANY of
these as he can persuade the post office
department to take up has occupied
Gov. Burleigh extensively here, es-
pecially during the present session OF
Congress. More than any other single
subject rural free delivery matters
have engaged his time outside of the
sessions of the House, which begin at
noon. The gridirOning of a district with
routes, so that mail can be carried to
the door of most of the farmers not
only is Il difficult task, requiring a long
period, but must be watched constantly
| before the department. Letters re-
| ceived from Maine constantly empha-
size the popularity of this service in
the rural communities.
Gov. Burleigh is looking forward to
| the time when kennebec, Waldo, Han
| cock and Somerset counties will be
practically covered with rural free de-
livery routes and when mail carriers
will deliver letters and papers daily
to all the accessible population. This
he will probably accomplish within
two or three years. The most of the
work will likely be done within a year
but in the sparsely populated sections
it will come more slowly and in some
sections cannot, of course, be covered
at all. But in such sections the pro-
vision of the post office department for
the delivery of mail by star route car
! riers will probably enable nearly all
| the residents of the Third district to
get their mail at least once a day with
out going to the post office for it.
Mr.. Thomas S. Hopkins, who has a
summer home on the old family estate
| near Mount Vernon, Me-, is taking hold
very actively in the preparations for
| the national encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic here, next Octo-
Der. He is an active member of one of
the working committees, which organ
| lied weeks ago, and is now putting
things in shape for the large throngs
| of people certain to come here at that
| time. Mr.. Hopkins recently suggested
| to Hon. Elihu Root, the secretary of
war. that the encampment would be an
ideal time for the laying of the corner
stone of a Memorial bridge across the
Potomac here to Arlington, the great
national cemetery. Mr.. Root has taken
up heartily with the idea and will urge
| it. There is every prospect that this
| will be done, particularly if the present
Congress appropriates money for the
bridge. The subject has been before
Senate and House for several years
and the bill has passed the Senate sew
eral times.
In all probability there will be quite
an influx of ex-Confederates at the en-
campment, next fall. There are several
camps of them right here in the dis
| trict and as Virginia is right at the
door of Washington, many Of the boys
who wore the gray will take advantage
of the opportunity to look over the
Federal city and see what an encamp-
ment Of their former foes is like.
People here are awaiting with much
| interest the coming of the new commits
sioner of pensions, Hon. Eugene F.
| Ware of Topeka. Kan, some of whose
kinsmen live in the State of Maine. The
fact that Mr.. Ware is very good poet
has attracted some popular attention
to him and this city is experiencing a
| revival of interest in his productions.
| Ex-Speaker Reed of Maine, is an adj
mirer of Mr.. Wares writings, but
above all of his poem which begins:
| Once a Kansas zephyr strayed
| Where a brass-eyed bull pup played,
| And that foolish canine bayed
| At that zephyr in a gay
Semi-idiotic way.
Then that zephyr in about
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