Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-09-04
RURAL MAIL MAPS
Government Making Outline of
Free Delivery Routes.
STATES MAPPED BY SECTIONS
Brown Sun Prints" Showing Every
Road and Building Along Routes in
Great Demand by Commercial
Houses-Move Is Far Reaching.
Washington. D. G., Sept. 8.

''S8SSo-uoVS is T al nCdSiiuSs
Washington, D. c., Sept. 8.
Every part of Iowa which has rural
delivery is to be mapped by the gov
eminent. One of the latest develop
ments of the free rural delivery sys-
TEN is a system of maps of rural
areas. In time the department will be
in possession of detail maps of every
area in which rural delivery is carried
on and this will spread to the entire
United States as the system itself
grows. Already free delivery has been
established and is in operation in over
$4,000 square miles of territory, serv-
ing something over 100000 people, |
and the movement, which is still in
it's infancy, will be continued until ev-
cry part of the United States is enjoy
ing its great convenience. In order to
facilitate matters those in charge of
the system have found it necessary to
engage in the work of making maps of
the areas in which the work has been
established. which differ materially
from all other maps manufactured byI
the United States government. They
laid down on maps, every house, store,
church, road, mail box, hall, postoffice,
postal station, and factory within the
area covered by the service.
A rather remarkable feature of this
work is that the maps are made with
comparatively very little trouble and
cost. They are first of all plated from
the data obtained from the county as
SCISSORS, clerks, registers of deeds, rec
ords, ETC., from which the tracing is
obtained. Then from this tracing
large number. several thousand at
least, of what are known
as brown sun prints" are
taken. 1t is said that since
the manufacture of these maps was
first begun there has been a steady
and growing demand for them from
merchants, travelling statesmen, farm
ers, etc, living or having business in
the districts mapped. They find these
maps of immense value for the simple
reason that they are the only maps
produced in the United States giving
in detail the location of every building
in the regions that they represent.
doing business in Chicago wishes to
introduce new line of wares into one
of the Iowa counties by sending a rep
resentative to make p house to house
canvas. Assuming that the district
has free delivery service his next step
would be to procure one of those
brown sun maps from Superintendent
Machen, at Washington, which will
rr;,, L, all ;,,c~ L.
seeks BY this he will be able to see
which part of the section is most
thickly populated, will learn all about
the roads, and \ dozen or more other
things that could not be learned in
any other way except probably by con-
siderable time and expense.
1t is generally conceded that no 9TH
er branch of the postal service is so
popular as the rural free delivery. 1t
is in short the extension of the post
office to the homes of it's patrons, the
carrier performing all the functions OF
postmaster. Some curious results
have followed in the heels of the
work, the most striking being the phe-
nomenal increase of mail matter on
each route shortly after it's establish
ment. Experience, too, is showing
that this does not decrease after the
first few months but continues to in
crease regularly Thus it seems that
the regular visit of the mail wagons
and carriers has stimulated country
people to writing more letters than
they did when they had to go three or
four miles to the postoffice to mail a
missive after it has been prepared.
This increase in rural correspondence
has enlarged the number of deliveries,
which in turn call for answers in nine
cases out Of ten, the whole leading to
phenomenal increase in the amount
of mail matter.
Another very beneficial effect of the
rural service has been the improve
ment Of country roads. The farmers
knew that rural delivery would never
be established in this section as long
as the roads were in wretched condi-
| ton and SO set about to better them.
This map development, how
ever, is regarded as one
| of the greatest and most far
reaching Of the service SO far. This is
easily seen when one realizes that ev-
cry farm house, fence, factory, church
and school in America will be mapped
so that the superintendent of the rural
service will have at his hands a map
of the whole United States Gin sec
tions) that will give everything down
to the most obscure log cabin. These
maps, which are supplied to applicants
in very cheap and durable form, have
the routes marked in colors. Farm
houses are indicated by square black
dots, postofIices by circle, discontin-
ued postoffices by triangle, railroads
by cross Matched black line, churches
by small picture of building with a
spire, school houses by picture of a
house with flag over it, collection
| boxes by a St Andrews GROSS town.