The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1915-09-06
PkIn YsTEn u0l[


Tie American postal system. which
nov stretches from The Atlantic 10
tbs Pacific over clone meshed net
OF fast mail routes. had its birth rs
. limping service along q narrow
strip Of the eastern seacoast. It's fass
est transportation agssey salloping
horse.
The anniversary. which has gone
begging for rseoenition for nearly a
century and . half. will not be for
mally observed IN spite Of its signi-
ficancs In making possible a nation
al spirit Few Of the millions 81
Americans who will make use of the
postal services this month will know
of in Historic aspect But those ia
|miliar With postal history recall each
year the striking contrasts between
facilities and methods OF the early
days and those OF the present
The private mail system that wGs
taken over In July. 1T75. by POST
master benjamin. Franklin. consisted
of thirty postoffices. nine post ride. $
and a slow schooner line to Atlantic
coast points. July. 1918. finds the
same system with more than 5000
pcstoffices and 100000 employees.
transportation OF mail by express
trains and over n few experimental
routes even by aeroplanes; city dis
tribution and collection by motor
|cycles. motor cars and pneumatic
tubes and preparations in progress
for beginning soon motorization Of
the rural free delivery service The
anniversary also falls this year just
after the announcement that before
THE end Of the year the last horse
drawn wagon will disappear from the
service of the Washington city post
Ioffice--the laboratory of the postal
service.
In Frankiin's day only letters Were
icarried originally in the mails,
though a few weekly papers and
small packages were taken by the
carriers as a matter OF accommoda-
ton The present elaborate CLASH
fication of mails was unnecessary.
The tons OF magazines and trade
journals that are carried today. had
no counterpart, and neither had the
missions of corresponds ice, business
and souvenir post cards that now
pass through postal channels.
Ali overland mail was carried eth
Ter on horseback or in stage coaches,
and because the latter were capable
OF making the trip between New
York and Boston al their best in two
days they were considered extraor-
|dinarily fast and were dubbed Fly
ling machines by the writer's OF the
day. Postage charges for greater
distances than 100 miles often
amounted 10 several shillings. and
the dispatch of a letter was consid-
erred a matter of some Importance
Today. On the other hand, nine
fast mail trains leave New York
daily for Boston, and an equal num-
Der are operated in the opposite di-
rection Each whirls thousands NJ
pounds of mail to its destination at
la speed sometimes of a mile min
ute. and each Is equipped with we'll
appointed railway postoffices that
make possible the sorting OF the mail
during its five-hour trip. And now
of whatever class the mail matter
dispatched may be the cost of the
average piece seldom runs over a
few cents
The dispatch of mail, too, has
come to be merely matter of rou-
tine. The postal patron drops his
letter into the nearest mailbox, per-
haps through a long chute from the
top story of skyscraper, perhaps
directly at busy street corner OF a
store, and gives the mat
ter no further consideration. He has
come unconsciously to harbor the
conviction that the bit of colorei
paper that has been placed IN the
corner OF his letter at trifling cost
will carry the message safely and
quickly TO its destination. though the
road lies across rivers, mountains,
continents and oceans
The volume OF mail in the early
days OF the postal service seems al
most negligible when compared with
the thousands OF tons carried today.
For many days one or two small
sacks easily accommodated the New
York Boston mail, and there Is now
In the national museum in Washing