The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-06-28
THE POSTAL SERVICE
PAST AND PRESENT

One Of the great addresses that
was made at the Trf-State POST
masters convention which closed it's
two days session in the city yester-
day at noon, was that OF q. G. Thorn
son, chief clerk Of the postofice de-
partment at Washington and his sub
ject was The Postal Service, Past and
Present. SO interesting was it that
The Forum will print the greater part
Of it. MI. Thomson said:
1t is quite a general rule among men
making addresses before conventions
to preface their remarks with a state
ment that they have no set speech.
This is a remark that I quite fire.
quently make myself, but in this in
stance / want to vary it by telling you
i have q set speech.
The Postal Service of the Ancients.
The word post is derived from the
Latin "postus," a form Of the word
pono, to place, and means a fixed loo
cation. 1t was originally applied to
the stations where the runner deliver
ed his messages to the nex carrier,
and awaited the arrival of a mesSen-
ger from the opposite direction, when
he would return to the post he had
left. The first postoffice was not a
place for the deposit of letters, but a
change house.
Established in Babylon.
Aside from mythology there are
authentic records to show that a postal
service was established in Babylonia
under Sargon / about $500 years before
Christ.
During the eighteenth Egyptian
dynasty letters were exchanged by
royal messengers between Babylonia
and Egypt. Those from Babylonia
which should be understood to include
Assyria, were written in cuneiform
! characters on clay tablets. The Egyp-
| tians employed a kind of picture writ
ing on ape made from papyrus, a
kind of reed. 1t is probable, however,
that the answers to the Babylonian
letters were written In cuneiform.
Just Like Present.
The term ''~postofice' and post
roads has been used almost precise
Iy as at present for centuries.
Cyrus the elder shortly after his
conquest of the Persian empire about
the year 55S B. C. sought to keep In
systematic touch with the affairs
throughout his vast domain, and ia
that end required his governors and
chief commanders to write to him FREE
quentIy concerning matters In their
respective districts, n in order to
render this correspondence nor sure
and to expedite delivery he caused e
be built post roads throughout the
empire and at such distances alone
these roads as a horse could travel
without harm he established posi-
houses.
The P~ostofFice in America.
The first traces OF a postal system
in America are found in the year 1899
when the general court OF Massa-
chusetts passed an ordinance legaliz-
ing such a system. The ordinance
directed that all letters brought from
across the sea, or to be sent to parts
OF the colonies, should be left at the
house of Richard Fairbanks in Bos.
ton, and by him sent to the propei
part of the country to which they
were directed. He was allowed a
penny compensation for the trans.
| mission OF each letter, and was &C.
countahle to the authorities for any
dereliction of duty.
The Virginia colony shortly after
wards established a postal system
which required every planter to &C
as carrier.
Seine Early History.
Before the pioneers Of the Connec'
ticut colony were fairly rid of the
hostile Indians that infested the shores
OF Long Island sound, the mail q
rier was t~rayersirg that territory OF
his way between New York and BDs.
ton. This was about the year 1877.
and the mail route referred to was tn.
first authorized by the colonial gov.
eminent in any part of the American
territory.
The mails Of that early period wer,
1 evidently not heavy as the carrier
. on this route between-New Yaxk and