The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-05-23
THE POSTAL SERVICE.

Last Friday one week ago, as /
was watching the movements of
the news thirsty people, in the
Benton post Office, while the mail
was being changed, and the throng
of people, crowding around the
boxes, and taking therefrom arms
full of papers, letters and parcels,
reminded me of the great changes
and progress in the postal service
for the last so or 90 years.
This post Office scene carried me
back to the time when only a week
ly mail came to Benton, with prob
ably less than a dozen letters, and
still fewer papers for Benton and
vicinity. No one ever dreamed of
such a thing as a daily mail.
But when we stop to reflect for a
moment, such result need not be
surprising, nor wondered at. At
that day all country newspapers
were printed on hand presses, and
the operation was not only very la
borious and tiresome, but slow and
tedious. The subscription prices for
newspapers, were necessarily very
high and comparatively few people
were able to patronize newspapers.
l think my father paid So 90 per
year for the Columbia Democrat,
published by Col. Levi l.. Tate.
When l became subscriber for
that paper l paid $2.oo subscription
per year. The fact of the business
is, the papers could not be publish
ed any cheaper under the hand
press system.
Then again, al that time, letter
postage was 5 cents per letter, and
very often letters were sent with
postage due to be paid by the re-
ceiver before the letters were deliv-
ed, Later, letter postage dropped
to 3 cent stamp, and finally set
tied down to cent stamp.
l remember the time when a let
ter could not be sent to Michigan,
for less than rs cents. This state
ment may seem incredible. But
how I came to know, l had an un-
Gle, who had two brothers living
there, and uncle's family often
spoke of its costing IS cents to send
letters there. ! think they assign
ed it as a reason that mails crossing
oceans and great lakes, letters
would cost IS cents postage.
Post Offices were then few and
far between. For about every ten
miles square there was only one
post office. Periodicals of all de-
scriptions very high, and postage
also very high and the people gen
orally poor, financially, and the
country just in state of develop
ment by clearing up the forestry
into beautiful farms, there need not
be much wonder that there was not
at that time, much of reading
public.
There was time in my history
when there was only one post Office
for both villages and vicinities of
Cambria and New Columbus. Ev-
cry presidential election was watch
ed with the keenest interest, for
upon the success of the democrats,
or the old line wings, depended the
fate of which town would either
loose or win the post Office. The
scramble for the prize was indeed
exciting. But after a time the los
ing town also secured a post office,
So long as there was only one post
Office for both towns, and the town
losing the Office, would send a man
when the mail was due, for all the
mail matter belonging to that place.
Hence, country post offices, with
only weekly mails were not a mon
ey making institution. At that
time, as there still is, there was the
Fishing Creek post Office at Jones.
town. There was also one at Forks.
Adam Suit, of Salem, Luzerne
county, carried the mail, for many
years, on foot, from Berwick to
Red Rock. This man could out
travel any horse on his semi-week-
ly trips over the old Berwick Turn
pike and across the Knob Noun