The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-12-22
REMEMBER THE
RURAL CARRIERS
Christmas is a Time To Show Ap-
probation Toward the Farm
erS' Untiring Friends.

With Christmas only few days
distant | want to urge on all my
farmer friends that in the distribu
ton of their gifts, however humble
they do not overlook the faithful
rural mail carrier. He is entitled tc
a CHEEKY word always; on Christmas
the remembrance should be a little
more substantial. If something is
to be bought, the list of desirable
and useful things is long: Muffier
gloves, overshoes, lap robe, cap and
so on. But it is not necessary to
buy something; gifts made by loving
hands carry more of the true mean
ing of Christmas than do those all
too often carelessly bought. There
is not rural carrier in the service
today but would appreciate a chicken
turkey, a few dozen eggs, a piece
of home-dressed meat and so on.
And no man deserves more of the
farmer than this same faithful, loyal
rural carrier who connects town and
country and removes the ce-preval-
ent isolation of farm life as no other
factor has ever succeeded in doing.
| often wonder if we realize the
debt which we owe the rural letter
service and carrier. 1t is now more
than half century since l was boy
on the old home farm, but l shall
never forget those days. l remem-
Der, as though it were but yesterday,
my Saturday trips to town to get
the household mail. 1t was my first
allotted duty No sooner was l old
enough to be entrusted with the re-
sponsibility than | was started off, to
back, for the weekly-town paper and
the occasional letters which consti-
tuted the family mail in those days.
The horses were busy in the fields; ;
| could not ride, but must walk the
whole distance, both ways The older
members of the family were busy,
SO the task fell to me, young though
I was. In winter time, when storms
had made the roads well-nigh i'm
passable, it was a struggle to reach
town, but | kept on with logged de-
termination, for the weekly mail was
the sole connecting link between our
humble farm home and the outside
world Thousands of other farm
boys, in those days and up to dozen
years ago, had similar experiences,
for until the rural free delivery ser
vice was established the farmer who
wanted his mail must go to town for
it himself, send one of the boys, or
arrange with some neighbor to get
for him.
Today all is changed. Hundreds
of thousands of farmers have their
mail brought to their very doors, alb
solutely free of charge. 1t is no
longer necessary to make the weekly
trip to town for the mail. Today the
average farm home has more mail
brought to it's doors by the rural mail
carrier, every day, than l secured for
a whole month on my Saturday trips
to the nearby town when | was lad,
over fifty years ago. The mail ser
vice has enlarged the farmers oppor-
nc L COl11O1 VI A11SS
him the weekly farm paper; in a
great many instances it brings him
one or more daily newspapers, IN ad
dition to the always desirable home
town weekly. 1t keeps him in close
touch with the markets; a letter of
inquiry as to prices and market needs
brings a response the next day. A
hastily-written letter or card brings
the necessary repair part from the
nearby town within twenty-four
hours after the accident has disabled
some machine, and a broken wheel
or part postpones further operations.
A telephone call results in groceries,
clothing-all manner of necessary
supplies-being delivered to the
farmer almost as quickly and as
easily as the city housewife secures
her supplies from the corner store.
In a multitude of diverse ways the
R. F. D. service and carrier serve the
farmer day after day, year after year.
And yet all too many of US accept it
all as matter of course and never
think to give the faithful carrier
either a CHEEKY word of greeting or
of thanks or more substantial
token, on Christmas, of our heartfelt
appreciation of what he is doing
for US.
Nor does our debt stop here. 1t is
not only that the rural carrier serves
US in his daily trips. He serves US,
indirectly, by the mere fact that he
is on the job, whether he brings us
mail day by day, or not. The gov
ernment does not establish rural
routes unless the country roads are
made and kept passable the year
around The fact that we are on q
rural route is evidence to all the