The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-30

NOW you young people, girls and boys,
excuse me for telling you a story about
the old times. Sixtyfour years ago. when
! was i" years old, my father was the
postmaster in our town and had to make
contracts for carrying the mail to other
neighboring towns. He gave these con-
tracts to needy men and the pay was
generally one dollar day. One of these
men got sick and my father made me
take his place and ride the mail to Ros-
we'll all winter. 1t was % miles away
and / had to ride there and back in a
day, and he paid me the dollar for every
trip. 1t was bitter winter and some
times when l got home | had to be
helped off of the horse, for | 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 know me. They
used to knit socks and send them to
town by the old man to sell and carry
back some coffee or sugar or indigo, or
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
I laughed and said: Yes, nam, l am
y.
You are mighty little to carry bundles,
but I would like for you to take couple
of PAIRS of socks and bring me back the
pay in coffee if you will. I'll give you a
little bag to put it in and you can
hang it on to the horn of the saddle. -
OF course l did. for [ always liked to
oblige the women, and besides my father
kept a store and got the trade. Some
~
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 were no
stamps or stamped envelopes-nor any
other kind of envelopes. We wrote on a
long paper called foolscap 1t got that
name from the watermark which was a
fools cap and bells stamped on the paper
After writing we could fold the sheet
up to the size of a 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
We're made of flour paste and when held
on the tongue a moment got soft and
sticky. In my young days the postage
was paid at the end of the line by the one
who received the letter. 1t was II IL
cents if it did not come or go outside
of the State-1S ga if from or to an adj
joining State and 25 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 a 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 day-20 east and 20 west 1t took about
two hundred boys and four hundred po-
MES 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 to
keep soldiers at these stations to
guard the ponies, and the boys had to
keep a sharp lookout between the sta
tions One of the pictures showed some
Indians shooting at a boy as he bent
over on the pony's neck and 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 single
sheet of paper and a thousand to bag
and that made about twenty pounds of
mail Besides the mail there were some
two-pony 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 a
tempting prize to both white and Indian
robbers. But the gold express ran at ir-
regular intervals and nobody knew when
it was coming.
But now about postage. Not many
foolish letters were written in those days.
IL cost too much and made the man mad
when he had to pay Is cents or Is ga or
u 1-2 cents for It. The next one the
writer would send would not be taken out
and would go to Washington as a dead
letter. l reckon you wonder why the
postage was in such curious amounts.
Well. we didn't have any decimal cur
rency then-nc dimes or half dimes. The
dollar was divided into sixteen parts in
stead of twenty; one part was called a
"Trip, which was IA cents. Thrip is an
abbreviation for threepence. Two parts
was called a seYenpence and it's value
was IL 1-2 cents don't believe I have
seen a "Trip or a sevenpence in fifty
years. The government called them all in
and issued dimes and half dimes instead.
In Illuminating about the wonderful
change in our postal laws since I was a
boy L am prepared to say that nothing
that has been discovered or invented has
wrought such beneficial results and so
much comfort to the people. What 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 can write
and there are ten times as many to
write them. The great northern mail
used to come to our town once a week
and a single sack in the boot of stage
contained it. Now five times that guam
tity comes twice a day. l used to write
about two letters a week and now / write
twenty-five or thirty and receive more
than | write. For l have quit answering
many letters that inclose no stamp. The
number of letters increases faster than