Mails

“ The great mails of seventy-five years ago were operated on very much the same principle on which mails are operated today. The Post Office Department at Washington contracted with the great stage lines for the transmission of the mails by yearly [Pg 143] contracts, a given number of stages with a given number of horses to be run at given intervals, to stop at certain points, at a fixed yearly compensation, usually determined by the custom of advertising for bids and accepting the lowest offered. ”

“ Every concern, except possibly the small establishment doing a strictly neighborhood business, uses the mails more and more in the transaction of its business; we buy, sell, pay bills, collect money, make contracts, and execute all sorts of transactions by mail—all of which necessitates writing letters. Not only is it necessary to answer letters promptly, but the increasing accumulation of correspondence must be preserved and filed in a manner that will permit of easy reference; all of which emphasizes the necessity of systematic methods in the conduct of this very important department. ”

“ Messengers can be summoned from the post office by telephone, and arrangements can be made with the post office for the special delivery of all packets arriving by particular mails in advance of the ordinary postman. The sender of a packet may have it conveyed by express messenger all the way, or may direct that, after conveyance by ordinary post to the terminal post office, it shall then be delivered by special messenger. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Other officers, besides, are fixed at different foreign stations to direct the transfers of mails from packet to packet, or from packets to other modes of conveyance. Then, again, in growing numbers, another class of officers travel in charge of mails, such as the Indian and Australian, and on all the North American packets, who, with a number of sorters, are employed in sorting the mails during the voyage, in order to save time and labour in the despatch and receipt of mails at London and Liverpool respectively. ”

“ Permit me to observe, that the speedy conveyance of mails outwards, to any place, is but a minor point gained, unless the returns are made regular and equally rapid, and so combined, that while every place possible can be embraced in the line, no place shall obtain any undue advantage over another. These points can never be lost sight of in planning or arranging any mail communication, but more especially a communication like that at present proposed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The mails every week increase now, and we have 250,000 pieces of mail matter to sort and distribute every week, over a country larger than France, among a shifting population of soldiers, each of whom expects to get his letters as easily as he gets his rations. ”

“ He has to cast the unpaid postage and enter the correct account on the letter bill; take charge of registered letter bags and loose registered letters, and advise them on the letter bill; see to the correct labelling, tying, and sealing of the mail bags he makes up; check the despatch of mails on the bag list; dispose of his letters by a given time, the hours of the despatch of mails being fixed. In consequence, he often has to work under great pressure in order to finish in time. The postal clerk has to surcharge unpaid and insufficiently prepaid correspondence ”

“ Undeliverable domestic non-registered newspapers or magazines shall be returned to the origination post office and a notice shall be sent to the sender for payment of accrued charges and pick up at the designated post office branch within 15 days starting the day after the notice has been sent. Mails unclaimed after this period shall be disposed of in accordance with regulations regarding undelivered mails. All undeliverable international mails, with or without the name and address of the sender on the cover, shall be returned to the country of origin. ”

“ The word “mail,” properly applied to this form of chain-armour, is also used of armour generally, whether plate or chain, and is also transferred to the horny defensive coverings of animals, such as the tortoise, crab, &c. (see Arms and Armour) . (2) (O. Eng. mál, speech; probably the same as O. Saxon mahal, assembly; in meaning connected with O. Norse mále, stipulation) , a Scots law term meaning rent, tax. “Mails and duties” are the rents, whether in kind or money, of an estate. In English the word only survives in “blackmail” (q.v.) ”

“ In a few minutes, sometimes an hour or more, an entire mail is opened and the room cleared, the registry man getting away to his department with all the registered mails, and the newspaper force wheeling away the baskets full of newspapers and packages. The letters are then divided into four parts—those for New York City proper, those for the rest of the United States and Canada, those for foreign countries which have been sent in open mail to New York, and those which are unpaid or partially prepaid. ”

“ The magnitude of the task set the Military Postal Service may be appreciated when it is realised that the Army Mails from England have exceeded in bulk the whole of the mails arriving for the inhabitants of Cape Colony and Natal, and contained each week little short of 750,000 letters, newspapers, and parcels for the troops. ”

“ When the mails are ready, they are sent from the Post-Office in various ways. Those for one or two country roads are sent to a local railway station, and taken in charge by the railway guard, who drops the bags at the different points on the line according to their address; others are carried by mail gigs under one or more private contractors, while the rest are taken [Pg 237] by country-walking postmen, who make certain journeys during the day, returning in the evening with the letters and bags they have gathered during their travels. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Postmaster-General, in any contract he may enter into for the conveyance of the mail, may authorize the person with whom such contract is to be made, to carry newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, other than those conveyed in the mail. When the mode of conveyance and the size of the mails will admit it, magazines and pamphlets may be transported in the mail at one cent a sheet, for any distance not exceeding fifty miles, at one cent and an half for any distance over fifty and not exceeding one hundred miles, and two cents for any greater distance. ”

“ Sir, allusion has been made, in an early stage of this debate, to the history of the excitement which once pervaded a considerable part of the country, in reference to the transportation of the mails on the Lord's day. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In these days, when we may post up to within five minutes of the despatch of a mail, and letters for America may be posted within ten minutes of the sailing of the packet, we cannot be too thankful for our privileges. ”

“ When letters or newspapers are posted in great numbers, as in the case of circulars, they should be posted as early as practicable, and should be tied up in bundles with the addresses all in one direction, or they may be delayed in the press of work. [190] Every letter of consequence put into the post should contain the name of the sender and also his address, in order that, if it cannot be delivered as addressed, it may be promptly returned to the writer. All business letters, at any rate, might have the sender's name and address embossed on the back of the envelope. ”

“ Our home and foreign mail-packet service is a costly and gigantic branch of the Post-Office establishment. During the greater part of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the service was under the control of the Post-Office authorities. We have already given many details of the packet management of the period. ”

“ Throughout the day, the quietness of the post-office proper is broken in upon and varied by the arrival of some small mail. On one of these occasions, namely, on the receipt of the day-mail from London, the operations of the morning are gone over again on a small scale, and for a short time the office presents an appearance of some of its early bustle. Letters are delivered in the town, but those arriving for the country places remain at the office till the next morning. ”

“ They are also bought by the poor to write brief letters on.
It is a common practice, in writing to another person on your own business, to enclose a postage stamp to prepay the letter in reply. Some persons, who have much correspondence, procure their own address printed in script on the back of stamped envelopes, and then send these enclosed to bring back the expected return. Persons doing a great deal of business with each other, through the post-office, keep each other's envelopes on hand. ”

“ If you are doing a large mailing don’t neglect to make it a part of your duties to step in and watch the operations of your mailing clerks frequently. An employe sometimes forgets postal rates and wastes a great deal of money. We know an advertiser whose clerk sent out six thousand packages with four cents postage on each when the packages, consisting of printing matter, could have traveled at two cents. Most of the successful mail order advertisers keep their eyes on such details and they save money thereby. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Letter postage is to be charged on all hand-bills, circulars, or other printed matter which shall contain any manuscript writing whatever.
When the mail stops over night where there is a post-office, it must be kept in the office. ”

“ And you must certainly send the envelope addressed to yourself, and stamped. Always enclose return postage in a letter which asks a friend to do you a kindness, to send you information, or in any way to oblige you. One little two-cent stamp is not very much to either your correspondent or yourself, but postage-stamps soon count up when one has a great many letters to write and answer. ”

“ If any person shall enclose or conceal a letter, or other thing, or any memorandum in writing, in a newspaper, pamphlet, or magazine, or in any package of newspapers, pamphlets, or magazines, or make any writing or memorandum thereon, which he shall [Pg 426] have delivered into any post-office, or to any person for that purpose, in order that the same may be carried by post, free of letter postage, he shall forfeit the sum of five dollars for every such offence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When express mail is not delivered on time and after investigation it is determined that the post office is at fault, the post office branch of origination or destination shall refund the postage paid save for the value-declared fee and insurance fee upon seeing the proof of mailing or the cover of the mailed item. ”

“ Intent on my task, I went straight to the post-office, and after coming to an understanding with the postmaster, proceeded at once to look over the mail addressed to the mysterious X. Y. Z.
I found it to consist entirely of letters. They were about a dozen in number, and were, with one exception, similar in general appearance and manner of direction, though inscribed in widely different handwritings, and posted from various New England towns. The exception to which I allude had these few extra words written in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope: "To be kept till called for." ”

“ 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. ”