The National tribune., 1906-12-20

delivery.
The Rural Carriers Troubles.
Meantime the rural carrier has trou>
bleS, just beginning when he gets his
commission and assumes his duties. One
| source of his woe is the never-ending
| exactions of the patrons They ask
him to find what Jones Is paying for
| wood, and let them know tomorrow
| without fail. They expect him to find
out who has pigs for sale, and if Smith
would loan them his gobler. They want
him to find out what the butcher is
! paying for calves, and ii the storekeep-
er has any medicine that he would rec
mend for sick baby. and to step
down to the express office and see If
there is a package there for them, and
if there is to please bring it out. They
place letters and packages in the mail
box. without stamps. with written re-
quests to deliver to parties living along
the route.
\ rural carrier in Saginaw County,
Mich, received the following: Friend
Fred: AS you run the free delivery by
my house, would like you to bring me
on your next trip barrel of salt, two
sacks of flour. also a ton of coal and
three spools of wire; then throw set
of whiffietrees and an evener under the
seat. When you come by Marion Walk
er's get two of his largest chicken coops
anu DIihS lleIll dltilS. lHtll call nave
my turkeys caught so you can take
| them to town. Had ] better get it out
alongside the road, or will you go into
the woods after it? l think this free
delivery is great thing for us rural
people,
Food and Forage.
The problem of food and forage is
another ever-present anxiety to the es-
| timable functonary. carrier writes:
4 appreciate fully the low price Of
corn, oats and hay, and have decided to
give my horses all they can eat every
Sunday morning or oftener, as circum-
stances will direct
One carrier mentions that he has Sc
cured nice lot of corn at 65 cents per
hushel, and 80 ears of this particular
brand of corn makes an even bushel.
and three ears an excellent feed for a
| large horse (rural carrier horse).
Another carrier mentions some fine
oats that he has discovered. teacupful
making handsome feed for the ono
horse he drives every day over a 29-
mile route. This carrier also incidental
| ly remarked that there We're several
| fields of ungathered corn in isolated
places along his route.
A rural route carrier at Rockport,
Mo-, when asked to define his district,
| wrote: My route begins at the livery
stable, and runs all around and ends
AZ the post Office
Rural Hospitality.
Hospitality is unstinted in some re-
gions The Rural Route Notes in an
Iowa paper contain these acknowledge
ments:
The mail carrier took dinner with Mr..
and Mrs. Isenlohr Tuesday
Last Wednesday the mail carrier took
dinner with Mr.. and Mrs. Abrahamson,
of Mackey.
Last week we drove down to Henry
Jacobs with registered letter and We
stayed for dinner.
We are under obligations TO A. c.
Frandson. He presented us with a load
of hay
Pay Too Low.
Perhaps the crowning embarrassment
of the rural carrier consists in the in :
adequacy of the compensation allowed
by law for the performance of his ar
duous and responsible duties His max
| imum pay is 1920 per annum, and he
naturally wants more. He even max IS
odious comparisons. One writes: NO
soldier in the Regular Army has more
regular drill. No soldier is required to
endure one-half the fatigue, danger and
exposure of the rural carrier. The SOL
| der has all his expenses paid and s13
a month in addition, without the in
heSIiiisHt VI DiIe Ceill, without any pre-
vious education. acquaintance or even
character. 1 count the soldiers keep
at $40 a month and mis- pay at $13
| month, and he has more remuneration
than the carrier, who is an agent of
| civilization, instead of a relic of bar
barism.
This is not only reflection against
| the carrier, but It is an actual slap in
| the face of the most useful and numer-
Gus of any one Of the industrial classes
who have vested interests"
/ "Of the 10000 of Americans who
are potentially efficient-who are pur-
suing gainful occupations of some sort
or other. .66i 900 were enumerated in
the last census as farmers and planters
AS the total vote in a Presidential cleo
ton is only about Is. 900, 900, the farmer
should be politically efficient-suffi-
| ciently so to secure rate of compensa
ton for his letter carriers which will
insure the future of the service"
An organ of the guild sounds this
clarion note of defiance: Carrier: How
does your Congressman stand? Has he
| been filling you with sweet words in
1 tending to betray you, or will he live
up to his promises? Find OUT
Pessimistic Outlook.
An experienced carrier. rebuking GER
tain OF his fellows for exulting in their
felicities:
Before many months yon will be
singing different song-just as soon
as you eat up all that sowbelly and feed
UP all your corn that you brought down
from the forks of the creek when you
moved in to take your job Your eyes
will open little by the time you lose
one horse, the other is worn out and
, your old buggy Is too weak to make
the trip. You can see then, for your
, pocketbook will be empty, and If you
| haven't ruined your credit already it
will ruin you to equip again, unless you
move back up the creek where the
| sowbelly and corn grow. A job that
, calls for an investment of $3.50 in per-
! ishable property that has to be replaced
so often, and the expense of feed, etc.
don't look very promising 10 me at s.
per day"
/ A Happy Carrier.
Per contra, another carrier. who
I seems to care little whether there il
: any pay attached or not, dwells lovingly
on the incidental perquisites: my rout,
: is 26 miles long, with the usual quota
1 of bad roads and Indifferent road over
seers. ! like the work very well, as
there are q lot of pretty girls and beau.
tiful widows ] am a widoWer. Oh
: say, what fine times l have during th'
y Summer picking blackberries. Oh, how
wish they would dehorn the briar'