The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-25

not be taken out and would 90 30
Washington as a dead letter. recon
YOU wonder why the postage was In
such curious amounts Well we didn't
have any decimal currency thon-no
dino or hah dimes. The dollar was
divided into sixteen parts Instead Of
twenty one part was called a "Trip.
which was Ia Crnts. Thrp Is an
Authorization for threepence. Two
parts was called a sevonpence and It's
value was ~ l.2 cents. / don't believe
] have seen a "Trip or a sevenpence
In fifty years. The government called
them all in and Issued dimes and half
dimes instead
In Eliminating about the wonderful
change in our postal laws since / was
a boy am prepared to say that moth
Ing that has been discovered or In
vented has wrought such beneficial
results and so much comfort to the
people. What pleasure at home Is
more valued than the reception Of let
tiers from kindred and friends who are
far away? Postage is only one-tenth
what it used to be, but there are TWEEN.
ty 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 a stage contained
1t. Now five times that quantity comes
twice a day. l used to write about
two letters a week and now l write
twenty-five or thirty and receive more
than l write. For have quit answer
ing many letters that inclose no
stamp. The number Of letters in
creases faster than the postage de.
creases. When the postage had to be
paid at the end of the line it was pref
ty hard to receive a disagreeable let
ter and have to pay for it. My father
was a merchant for nearly fifty years
and sold goods on years time, and
sometimes We had to write dunning
! letter. to his customers. He wrote one
to a very slow man and got no an
sWer, so he wrote another and the slow
man wrote back that he would have
| to wait until he made another crop,
and as postage was high and silver
was scarce, he advised a very limited
| correspondence. He wrote another
letter to a belated customer at Warsaw
and another and another and then got
a reply which said:
81 have received your letters, but
they were a long time on the way. If
you had sent them around by Atlanta
and Marietta and Roswell I would
have gotten them sooner for we have
two mails a week by that route, but
only one by the way you sent them.
Hereafter you had better send them
that way. Our mail system is very
imperfect 1t takes six weeks for me
to get letter from Jack, who is in
the Arkansaw. You remember Jack
But am always glad to hear from you
Your friend, WILLIAM WATERS.
up. S.-As for that account of last
year, which you say has run a long
time-as the boy said to the molasses
just let her run. w. W."
l wonder if our young people know
who was our first postmaster general
He was the postmaster general before
the revolution and was turned out by
King George because he was sus
pected of being rebel and his name
was Benjamin Franklin. When the
Declaration Of independence was pass
ed, he established an independent line
and boycotted the English system ant
afterwards organized a system of oul
own. Sir Rowland Hill was the post
master general of England and in 1734
established what was called the penny
post. Before that the English mer
chants hired men to carry their letters
When the battle of the Waterloo was
fought the Rothschilds hired private
carriers to bring them the news o.
the great battle. English credit anC
bonds and consols were then ava!
down to Is cents on the doddar fol
Napoleon was just running rough sho
over kingdoms and governments. Tn
Rothschilds got the news of his defea
twentyfour hours sooner than tn
bankers of London and they secretl
bought up all the bonds and stock
and consols they could find, and whei
the good news came Of the great viz
tory these bonds and stocks jumped u
to par in a day and the Rothschild
made man. millions ard this was tn
beginning of their great fortune.
was n, dirty trick, but they didn
care. nearly a century they hav
controned the finances of the civilize