The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-07-28
THE EsoPUs POSTMASTER.


 Having a Presidential Candidate Makes
 a Difference With Business and In- come.
 Norman Cole. Postmaster of Esopus, is happy man these days. His face is wreathed in smiles and the merry jingle of much coin Issues from his prosperous pockets.
 Favored by the fortune that has brought this once humble village into sudden renown. Air. Cole is waxing wealthy from the volume of corre- spondenee which has to all intents and purposes, raised his fourth-class place to first-class importance.
 NIT. Coles income, as is the case with all foIrth-class Postmasters. depends entirely on fees. and is, therefore. reg ulated by the amount of business, Time was when he would complain of the meagerness of the receipts. but now he would not accept salary if the Government offered him one. which lis not unlikely If business continues as lit has been sinca the Democratic con- Ivention.
 Before that the income of the Post Office was something like $50 a month. One day last week the business was S11.50. q banner figure for Esopus, and for two weeks Judge Parker's stamp bill alone was S75. Cole calls this ''ex- citing" but he is joyous. and the situa- ton has not yet caused any harmful effects upon his nervous system.
 He is not the only person who has profted, either. Cole has a boy as- sistant, who has been trying for a whole year to get an increase in salary. He wore knee trousers, and in the in- tervals os his Post Office work picked berries to help out his income. A week ago Cole gave him the increase, and now the boy has cut off his curls and taken to long pants like simon Pure Government official.
 "Mr. Cole don't care nothin' about the Post Office" remarked this dignitary to-day. He's runnin' it just SOS to gimme a good job
 Of course, the chief business of the Post Office is in stamps. Apparently everybody in the world is writing to Judge Parker, and he replies to as many as he can. Until this excite ment' began the daily sale of stamps was about 75 cents, and occasionally it would jump to $1 when the few summer residents appeared, and as many as 30 letters a day would be mailed.
 Those were the days when the ar rival and departure of mails was lira- ited. How they have been increased to 41.-n a day each way and thnre will ha six when the present plans are carried out. As the postmaster's fees are pay able according to the number of stamps cancelled, Coles satisfaction may be understood,
 There never was much money in the business before, he said with twinkIing eyes to-day. I've been going over the records and find thet the average for these months will be about $3S a month. I hope we always have a Presidential nominee here-it pays. Even you news paper Fellows have to write letters and so do all the strangers that come up here to see the judge. We're doin' bet- ter than ever before, and expect things'll get buster yet before election time comes along.
 MT. Cole is one of the venerable citi- zens of Esopus and during the seven years of his incumbency of the post
 nastership until this extraordinary condition of affairs arose, he thought more of his farm than of Uncle Sam s service, but he Is all for Uncle Sam now. Dispatch to New York Herald. !