The Washington herald., 1918-12-23

+NpOuN MY years aEO the SuDJeCls =
was studied by me with great inter
est | began to overhaul all the pos
tai laws from the adoption of the
Constitution to date. When | came
across an act of Congress passed in
1895. and which had never been
/ amended or repealed. / discovered
that | would be justified in establish
ing a legal competition with the L.
). government in the business of
transporting etters from place to
place. But many distinguished law
yers. Daniel Webster. Ogden Hoff-
man. George NJ. Dallas and others,
told me that if | attempted TO run a
postofitce IN opposition 10 the Govern
nIent with a very big G.. l would find
myself locked up in the Albany peni-
tenuary in very short order.
Nevertheless | came speedily to the
conclusion that the best. sureSt and
only proper way to do "A thing was to
do it. So in the year 1872 l announced
by thousands of little handbills that
on a certain day "Hales Independent
Mail" would take letters from New
York to Boston at 8 Ia cents for let
ters of not more than half an ounce
each. The L. S. postage on a single
letter Of a quarter of an ounce. from
New York to Postons was-IS ga cents.
The L. s. rates for postage were ex-
tremcly various. Thus. single let
ter from New York to Brooklyn, or to
Jersey City (about a nlile), or from
any one pOst stoffice to another, how
eyer near, was Ii cents: next rate.
10 cents; next. Il 1-2 cents; then Is 3-4
cents. and last, % cents for all long
distances. 1t is well here to say that
these fractions occur because a very
large portion of silver money used in
this country fifty years ago was in
Spanish coins. If a scrap of paper.
a small coin. a little bit of lace. rib
bon or calico was enclosed in let
ter the rate of postage was double.
So that a bank note or a newspaper
advertisement in letter sent from
New York o Buffalo. or Portland. or
: Charleston. would be, if only a quar-
ter of an ounce. 80 cents: but as it
would undoubtedly exceed that by
weight of a few hairs the postage
would be one dollar. Whew!
My first mail TO Roston natter part
of ~ contained three letters, all un-
paid: total postage. ~ "A cents. And
il cost me about 50 to deliver them
and set my fees. But ] was encour-
aged by the size of my return mail,
which was twice as large as the first,
netting 81 l-2 cents. and it only cost
me another 50 to dispose of them in
New York.
So many people took a fancy to
send their letters unpaid, perhaps
with good reason for themselves for
supposing that the bottom would soon
drop out of tn Independent Mall
bucket. that ] soon saw the necessity
of devising some plan which would in
up. then invented my postage
stamps. which were sold at all my
offices in sheets of twenty. for 81; thus
virtually reducing the postage to
cents letter. Your Ledger friends
who are stamp collectors win now rest
assured that my stamp is entitled to
rank in their collection as the first real
. postage stamp ever used in this couu-
try to carry long distances. There
may have been local stamps for city
delivery of circulars, such as "Boyd's"
of New York, and "Blood's" of Phila-
delphia: but mine would insure the
delivery Of letters from any of my
offices, from Maine to Illinois, or from
Vermont to Columbus, Ohio.
A few days later my New York and
Boston offices were well under way.
l established another at Philadelphia,
which soon spread its branches all
through Pennsylvania and Ohio. New
offices were started every day, until
at last, when my friends humorously
called me the Independent Postmas-
ter-General, my offices were scattered
through the whole of New England,
New York. Pennsylvania, New Jer-
sey, Ohio, Michigan. ETC.. and even in
vaded Royal territory. by having In
dependent mail signs displayed in Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada.
When was left out in the cold by
Congress. my offices numbered 1io. and