Mailing

“ The arrangements for mailing and receiving letters in Paris are, in general, very satisfactory,—the branch post-offices are over a hundred in number, and they will receive not only letters and mailable packages, but telegrams. They do a very large business, and are generally thronged all day in the popular quarters,—the registry department being greatly in favor. ”

“ Such notice shall be served by mailing the same by registered mail, postage prepaid, in an envelope addressed to the contractor at any place he maintains an office or conducts his business, or his residence, or in any manner in which the United States marshal of the district in which the public improvement is situated is authorized by law to serve summons'. ”

“ The mail was dispatched in wagons from the main post office at Knoxville to the office of a mail transfer clerk at the railway station, the wagons being operated by persons having contracts for the purpose with the United States postal authorities. For claimant's convenience, the post office authorities consented that its newspapers might be weighed, for mailing, at the railway station instead of at the post office; claimant furnishing scales for the purpose. ”

“ It seems a much better way that the person who sends the tracts and papers should distribute the books too, as being better able to advise the books to read; for he or she learns the "bent of mind" of the seeker. So many different [Pg 76] persons at work causes confusion and mistakes. I mail papers, tracts, etc., attend to all the correspondence, to loaning and mailing the books, to all printed matter received, to all the advertising orders of every kind, to money received and expended,—consulting the President frequently, and the details are brought up before our monthly meetings. ”

“ Subsection (b) mandates the Postmaster General, upon receipt of a notice from the addressee specifying that he has received advertisements found by him to be within the statutory category, to issue on the addressee’s request an order directing the sender and his agents or assigns to refrain from further mailings to the named addressee. ”

“ The process described in our account of the travelling post-office is here gone through; a rapid exchange of bags is made, and each interest goes its separate and hurried way. During the interval, and just before the mail-cart deposits its contents at the door of the post-office, the clerks and letter-carriers will have been roused from their beds, and somewhat sulkily, perhaps, have found their places in time. They look sleepy and dull, but this is excusable; the hour is a drowsy one, and half the world is dozing. ”

“ In relation to opening the mails on the Sabbath, it may be noticed that the ninth section of the “act regulating the post-office establishment” makes it the duty of the postmaster to attend to the duties of his office “every day” on which a mail shall arrive at his office, and at “all reasonable hours” on every day of the week. When a mail is conveyed on the Sabbath, it must be opened and exchanged at the offices which it may reach in the course of the day. ”

“ A post master will suffer no person whatever, except his duly sworn assistants, or clerks and letter carriers, who may also have been sworn, to have access to the letters, newspapers, and packets in his office, or whatever constitutes a part of the mail, or to the mail locks or keys. ”

“ The habit of purchasing by mail is rapidly assuming enormous proportions in this country, and the custom has been catered to, in such a manner, that the ranchman on the plains may wear a latest style metropolitan custom-made suit, while his daughters may equip herself a la Fifth Avenue—all by inspection of a catalogue, a postal money order and a letter. ”

“ Cleveland—Strange Contents—Ida's Letter Bag—Appeals for Money, for Clothing, and for her Hand—An Original Letter from a Trapper.
July 13.
Going to the post-office for the morning mail is, I think, our greatest daily pleasure. For some reason, we seldom have many letters by our second mail, the 6.30 P.M. train, but in the morning our box is always well filled, for we receive regularly the dear daily Tribune, six weekly journals, and the leading magazines, and as we all have quite a number of correspondents, we feel deeply aggrieved if our box is not filled to repletion at least once a day. ”

“ Formerly, people went to the nearest postoffice for their mail; now, in all cities, the mail is delivered by postmen, just as the letter from Uncle Charles was delivered to-day.
“In almost all parts of the country there is a rural free delivery. By the roadside in front of each farmer’s house is a mail-box, having the name of the owner upon it.
“A letter carrier drives through the neighborhood with the mail. When he leaves mail in a box he raises a little signal which is attached to it in such a way that it can be seen from the farmhouse. ”

“ The Postmaster-General may allow to the postmasters respectively, a commission of fifty per cent. on the monies arising from the postage of newspapers, magazines and pamphlets; and to the postmasters, two cents for every free letter delivered out of the office, excepting such as are for the postmaster himself; and each postmaster who shall be required to keep a register of the arrival and departure of the mails, shall be allowed ten cents for each monthly return which he makes thereof to the general post-office. ”

“ Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Postmaster-general cause a mail to be carried from the nearest post-office on any established post-road to the Courthouse of any county which is now, or may hereafter be, established in any of the states or territories of the United States, and which is not or will not otherwise be accommodated with the mail; and the road on which the same shall be so carried, shall thereupon become a post-road, and so continue until other provision shall be made by law for the accomodation thereof with the mail. ”

“ Not an hour, day or night, the entire year through, but men are toiling to hurry your mail to its destination If your letter is for one of the large cities, skilful men board the train, and as it approaches its destination distribute the mail for each district, so that your letter will not lie for hours in the central office. ”

“ Then he distributes what he finds in the bags according to a pre-arranged order. The registered letters which have found their way to the office he at once transfers to the clerk on duty whose special province it is to deal with them; the bundles of ordinary letters—in one of which packets is the identical letter we ourselves posted—he hands over to his fellow-sorters, who, each standing opposite to a distinct set of boxes, labelled with the names of different towns on the route, at once sort them away. The newspapers he deals with himself. ”

“ It is not just that the farmer, who receives his mail at a neighboring town, should not only be compelled to send to the post-office for it, but to pay a considerable rent for a box in which to place it or to wait his turn at a general-delivery window, while the city resident has his mail brought to his door. ”

“ Section 3891 is as follow: 'Any person employed in any department of the postal service who shall unlawfully detain, delay, or open any letter, packet, bag, or mail of letters intrusted to him, or which has come into his possession, and which was intended to be conveyed by mail, or carried or delivered by any mail carrier, mail messenger, route agent, letter carrier, or other person employed in any department of the postal service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post-office or branch post-office established by authority of the postmaster general ”

“ The delivery of the letters in the town took place at any time during the day, according to the arrival of the mails, and it was effected by a single letter-carrier. [160] Private boxes for the principal merchants in the town, and private bags for the country gentlemen, [Pg 232] were almost indispensable to those who cared for the proper despatch and security of their correspondence. Many gentlemen who did not arrange to have private bags (at a great yearly expense) were compelled to make frequent journeys to the town to ascertain if any letters had arrived for them. ”

“ In looking over letters of the period antecedent to the Post Office reform, I find constant reference to expedients for saving postage; thus, in writing to a friend at a particular town, we would trouble him to call upon such and such others to communicate intelligence, or to make inquiries, the result to be reported in his next letter; sometimes, even, we would ask him to call upon tradesmen to give orders, [239] or to urge despatch in commissions previously given. ”

“ Long before the ordinary workmen in our towns are summoned from their repose, the Post-Office work in the provinces may be said to commence by the mail-cart clattering through the now silent streets to the railway station, there to await the arrival of the first and principal mail, and its first daily instalment of bags. ”

“ Post-Office Department.—One clerk of class 3, salary $1,600, prepares correspondence for the signature of the Postmaster-General and the Chief Clerk reads and refers the Congressional and Departmental mail addressed to the Postmaster-General; assists in the compilation of the estimates of appropriations for the Department and postal service; also assists in the compilation of the Postal Guides; in charge of the distribution of the Postal Laws and Regulations and of the Postal Guide throughout the postal service; stenographer and typewriter. ”

“ Another point, sometimes of considerable importance, concerns the time when a letter takes effect, and this is governed by the question of fact as to whom the Post Office Department is acting for. If, in making an offer, I ask for a reply by mail or simply for a reply, I constitute the mail as my agent, and the acceptor of that offer will be presumed to have communicated with me at the moment when he consigns his letter to the mails. ”

“ He does not ask his servant, “Is there any mail for me?” but “Are there any letters for me?” for mail, in the American sense, is a word that he seldom uses, save in such compounds as mail-van, mail-train and mail-order. He alwaus speaks of it as the post. The man who brings it is not a letter-carrier but a postman. ”

“ You can hold up a man's mail for twenty-four hours and take a photograph of every letter. You can do the same with every letter that he mails, unless he is very careful. He can be followed, you understand, and every time he drops a letter, a blue or yellow envelope is dropped on top—for a signal to the post-office people. ”

“ To the postmaster of Rochester, Whitley writes:—"I hear there is great neglect in your sending out of letters, and that there is a great abundance of them scattered about your house, especially in your chamber and upon the tester of your bed. This shows want of order in your business. You should get some room apart to be your office, in which only you should bring your mails, open and close them, and where you should sort letters, and let nobody come into it but yourself." ”

“ Another class of postal employees whose condition seems to demand legislation is that of clerks in post-offices, and I call especial attention to the repeated recommendations of the Postmaster-General for their classification. Proper legislation of this character for the relief of carriers in the free-delivery service has been frequent. Provision is made for their promotion; for substitutes for them on vacation; for substitutes for holidays, and limiting their hours of labor. ”

“ A person, for instance, anxiously expecting a letter, and not understanding that the mail by which it would come arrives only once a day, inquires at the office half a dozen times on the same day, and it is not very wonderful that the clerk in attendance should give short answers to the persevering applicant, or even omit to search for the letter. ”

“ The Director or Deputy Director, or, in his absence, the Postmaster-General under whose orders he is to work, should, on receipt of the first intimation that a force is to be mobilized, take the earliest opportunity to consult the General Officer appointed to command the force as to the postal requirements of the force in respect of the number of field post offices, the classes of postal business to be undertaken, the establishment to be provided, etc. ”

“ While making no attempt to teach letter writing, suggestions are made which, it is hoped, will prove of assistance to those whose duty it is to handle correspondence. Among those whom it is hoped a study of this book will benefit, are the incoming-mail clerk, the correspondent, the stenographer, the private secretary, the file clerk, and, in fact, every person who has anything to do with handling and preserving business or professional correspondence. ”

“ Letter-carriers are a very important class of men,—important, we mean, in their connection with the postal department. We speak of them here because their duties are not generally known to the public, nor their services properly appreciated or rewarded by the department. They are the “walking posts,” and carry with them daily thousands of dollars, which rarely are lost on their way to the recipients. ”

“ Each letter, put into the Post-Office, is forwarded, according to its address, by the first mail leaving the place, unless, indeed, it be posted "too late," when it is not forwarded till the next succeeding mail. Each postmaster is required to display a notice in the most conspicuous position in his office, giving every necessary information respecting the time of despatch and receipt of mails, delivery of letters, hours of attendance, &c. &c. On Sundays there is usually but one delivery of letters, viz. ”

“ And in case the Postmaster General shall not be able to conclude a contract for carrying the mail on any of such railroad routes, at a compensation not exceeding the aforesaid maximum rates, or for what he may deem a reasonable and fair compensation for the service to be performed, it shall be lawful for him to separate the letter mail from the residue of the mail, and to contract, either with or without advertising, for conveying the letter mail over such route, by horse express or otherwise, at the greatest speed that can reasonably be obtained ”