The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1902-03-27
Arp CARRIED MAILS
Bill Tells of The Difference Now and
the Long Ago.
POSTAGE RATES WERE ENORMOUS
Receiver Of Letter Paid the PoStmas'
ter on Delivery of Letter - bene'
fits of Cheap Postage.

Now You young people. girls ami
bows. excuse me for telling you stoEy
about the old times. SiXty-four years
ago. when | was y years OLD. my faith
er was the postmaster in our town aHd
had 10 make contracts for carrying the
,naI! 20 UtICr nelGnDoElnS towns. ne
gave these contracts to needy men AMI
the pay was generally one dollar day.
One cf these m5n got sick and my t@-
ther maze me take his place and rlG%
the mail to Roswell all winte". 1t was
s5 miles sway and had to ride there
and back N q day, ard he paid me the
dollar for every trip. 1t was Dlttel
winter and sometimes when got h3ME
! had 10 be helped off the horse, fal
| was frozen up and helpless. But !.
was tough and hardy boy and always
ready for the next trip. On my first
ride the good old women on my route
did not kacw ne. They used to knil
socks and send them to town by tht
old man to sell and carry back sonf
coffee O. sugar or indigo, or copperas
or some little thing. but they didn't
know me. and remember that one c.c
woman came cut 10 the gate and Salu:
"Are YOU the mail boy?" And laughed
and said: Yes, nam, am not f.
male boy" She smiled and said: "Yor
are mighty little to carry bundles. but
I would like for you to take q couple
of pairs CT socks and bring me bacs
the pay II coffee if You will. III givt
you little bag tc put it in and you cal
hang i; or 10 the horn of the saddle
OF course did, for | always Eked Il
oblige tee women. and besides my faith
er KEEP. store and got the trade
Sometimes had as much outside c.!
the mail bag as there was inside.
made fourteen silver dollars that win.
ter AID felt rich.
But want to tell you about the mai
business as it was then. There were
no stamps or stamped eayclooes-noi
any other kind Of envelopes. We wrote
ON long paper called foolscap. 1t gel
that name from the watermark whic2
was fools cap and bells stamped or
the paper. After writing we could folt
the sheet up to the size OF letter and
slip one fold in the other-thumb pa
per fashicn-then seal it with wafer
and address it. The waters were round
and thin and were made or flour paste
and when held on the tongue momen:
got soft and sticky. In my young days
the postage was paid at the end CT the
line by the one who received the letter.
1t was Il 1-2 cents il it did not come OF
go outside OF the State-1S ga IL from
or to an adjoining state and Is cents
If still farther off. But il it was to &c
to California IL had to be prepaid and
sent by Wells and Fargo's express and
cost dollar and was month on the
way Just think Of il. Now it costs
only cents and takes only four days.
That overland express almost made lis
boys crazy. They published book
called Ten Years Among the Mail
Bags" and it had pictures in it-pic-
lures o. boys riding the mail on Indian
ponies-riding on run OF 10 miles II
an hour. and then he was lifted off OF
his pony and put On fresh one for
another 10 miles. The boys had %
weigh net less than sixty nor owe.
ninenty pounds and had to make 40
miles day-20 east and 90 west. II
took about two hundred boys and four
hundred ponies to do the work and |
wanted to be one Of the boys mighty
bad. Part OF the route was beset by
hostile Indians and the express com.
pany had to keep soldiers at those sta
tions to guard the ponies. and the boys
had to keep a sharp lookout between
the stations. One OF the pictures show
ed some Indians shooting at boy ss
he bent over On the pony's neck AMI
was flying like the wind. He had left
the track and taken roundance on them
and thought that was heroic.
The letters were limited to a single
sheet Of raper and a thousand to a bag
and that made about twenty pounds o.
mail. Besides the mail there were
some two-peny 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 $50,-
900 and was a tempting prize to both
white and Indian robbers But the gold
express ran at irregular intervals and
nobody knew when it was coming.
But now about postage Not many
foolish letters were written in those
days. 1t cost too much and made the
man mad when he had to pay p cents
or IS 3-4 or 121-2 cents for it. Tha
next enc the writer would send would
not be taken out and would go t.
Washington as dead letter reckon
you wonder why the postage was in
such curious amounts. Well, we didn',
have any decimal currency then-nC
dimes or half dimes. The dollar wa;
divided into sixteen parts instead o:
twenty: cne part was called thrip
which was IA cents. Thrip is al
abbreviation for sevenpence Two par;:
was called a sevenpence and its value
wac 10 ID cents 7 don't heljeyp ha-e