The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-01-22
OLD TIME MAIL CARRIERS.
How Letters Were Distributed Bring
ing News from Battlefelds.

century, delays were continual in this
less frequenfed parts Of the country
When we consider the kind Of postmen
we had, the wages paid TO them and the
| work they had 10 do, tlris is not 10 be
wondered at.
Before the introduction Of the mail
coach, Of which use was first made IN
! lisa letters were carried by boys. who
were frequently men OF 80 or 80 years
Of age. They were mounted on ponies
themselves They were exposed to the
buAetings Of the weather aud to the rig
ors Of the winter, and they often found
good inn lire, with q glass or two Of
hot gog, too aIluring.
Down to the period Of the introduction
Of the coach, the post office was general
~ q stable as well, and the term post
master" had then a double significance.
He was the person entrusted with the
receipt and dispatch OF letters and with
the provision OF horses to carry the
mails.
The first part Of the duty was often
left to the bar men and chambermaids.
and was generally badly done, while the
horses provided were, as has been iHdi-
Gated, the worse instead OF the best OBJ
tainable. The postmaster at Aberdeen
in 1863 received salary Of about 600
year, and at Glasgow this officials
salary was fl40 and that OF his clerk
f30.
The coming Of the mail coach brought
into being a new body of men. The mail
guards and the c0achmen The guards
wages we're about half a guinea q week.
but they received much more in tips.
and some Of them earned $500 q year
in that way. Being, moreover, the news
papers Of the time. carrying news and
gossip from town TO town. they were
always in demand at the local hostel
ries, and their weakness was very clev-
erly hit of in set Of anonymous verses
called The Mail Coach Guard. In this
are introduced the names Of nearly all
the famous inns Of the period
Guards were fined for carrying fish,
poultry or anything Of the kind on their
own account, and they were forbidden
TO blow their horns in passing through
towns during the hours 81 divine ser.
vice on Sunday. a regulation which was
recently revived in regard 20 the horns
Of motor onsnihuses. The principal
cause OF fines with regard to the drivers
was losing time on the road.
in days Of war the coming 81 the mail
coach was eagerly awaited in the market
place Of each town, and on the occasion
Of any rgeat victory, as at the Nile Or
Waterloo, the horses were decorated with
laurel and flags were flown on the
coach.
The guard then douned his best scar
let coat and his gold-trinlmed hat, and
blew hts horn with might and main
Sometimes he would even discharge his
blunderbus, and generally did everything
he could to indicate that he was the
bearer Of glad tidings
Each big town had It's special distri
buting center for news and there all The
bloods OF the towns gathered 70 receive
the earliest intelligence In Glasgow
the Tontino coffee house was the recog-
nized place, hut London had general
post-otiee In Cloak lane Dowgate Hill
in 1870 and new ore was opened at
the Black Swan. in Bishopgate street.
year or two later subsequently, the
headquarters Of the postal service IN the
British Isles down 70 1929 was at Sir
Robert yiner's mansion in Lombard
street.
DE Quincey's description Of the run
ri a mail coach on q summers night
from the Gloucester coffee house To Bris
tol Is well known. but in the winter
i'll was a very different matter Many
stories are told Of showed up mails ami
OF guards and coaehmen frozen TO death
at Their posts. This was especially the
case in Scotland In the Annual Regis |
ter, in February. i195, We read;
MY letter Of two days ago is still
here, for though I have made an effort /
twice have been obliged to return. not
having reached bali the first stage. Two
mails are due from London, three from
Glasgow and four from Edinburgh. /
Neither the last guard that went hence
for Glasgow Oh Thursday nor he that /
went ON Wednesday have since been
heard Of
Another kind Of postman was he who
went around the town after the ordinary
of letters from the receiving +
officers had been made to gather in late I
letters for the mail This custom re-.
manned in force iii Dublin until 1850 +
though 1t had ben abandoned III almost /
esery other city years before. Each Of /
these bellmen, as they were called. car.
ried locked leather wallet. into which,
through an opening, letters and other
articles were placed For the eonyen.
fence Of this arrangement those who
posted letters into the late fee bag
paid one penny on each letter and half
penny Oh each newspaper in addition
10 the ordinary postage as personal
Zee to the man. THE profession appears
% have been q fairly profitable one
The postmen Of those days needed To
nave a great deal OF patience. The pre-
payment Of letters was not compulsory
md senders Of letters often left the re.
.eirers to pay for them This involved
lelay and sometimes two or three Wis.
is to the house before the work was
lone
The streets, m0reT0re were not named
n numbered Systematically, as they
ire now numbering first began in l76A
sith New Bufleigh street and Lincoln's
mn Fields and addresses were frequent
y long and incompFehensible. Thus III
.702 we learn that a letter was ad
lressed 20 Mr.. Archibald Dunbar Of
to be left at Capt. Dan
,ar's writing chamber at the Iron Rev
n. third story below the ross. noreth
md az the loose At Eaiusburob =