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ADDRESS m was To (sum
THE EVENING GAZETTE
THE POSTAL cERVICE
Facts About This III-amen of Government
LBuslnesI Not Generally Known. _
’Edltor E. A. HEmstead, of the'Mead-
ville, Pa... Journal, who is also post-
master, recently delivered a. lecture
upon the Postal Service before the stu-,
dents of one of the business colleges of
his city.
Mr. Hempstead said that the deficit
of the post office department last year
was eleven million dollars. If, how-
ever, the other departments of the
Govermient paid the ordinary rates of
postage on what is now carried for
them free, there would be no deficit.
'but abilrplus. »_But ten States showed
a surplus last year. ,They were the
New England States, except Maine.
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, .
'Delaware and Illinois. New York
leads wth a surplus of $4,000,000; Mass-
achusetts is next with 1,400,000; Penn-
sylvania and Illinois each $800,000.
Each of the other 35 States shows a.
deficit, Ohio, President Mc-Kinley’s
State, leading with over $3,000,000;
Nebraska, Mr Bryant's State, coming
next with$1,400,000—a mere, but amus-
lng coincidence.
The beginning of the modern post-
ofllce is not very far back. Benjamin
Franklin was the first postmaster gen—
eral of the colonies. He had been post-
master general ,of the colonies be‘
fore the Declaration, of Independence,
and postmasteff of Philadelphia. His
connection with the postoffice and
postofiice department of the country
began in 1737, and continued until 1777.
covering 40 years. It is interesting to
note, in connection with. Franklin,
that when he was postmaster at Phila-
delphia he was also publisher of the
. principal newspaper. It is interesting
to note, also, that his compensation as
postmaster general befom the Rev olu-
tion was rather, indefinite. It depend-
ed upon the profits of the office. If
there were no profits he got no pay.
It was not until the end of four years
that' the office began to be selfisup-
porting. He was exceedingly enterpris-
ing and spent a great deal of. money
besides the receipts from the office.
»Whlle‘ he was postmaster‘in Philadel-
phia, and also publisher of a newsa
paper, he had the power to send his
own newspapers through the mails
and exclude all otherrnewspapersybut
he was wise enough not to exercise his
privilege. He granted the privileges of
the mail to all newspaper publishers.
France, which claims to have”taught
all nations to live," was really the
first country to take up the postal
work, as we knowit. There was a.
well defined postoflice department in
France as early as 1465, in the reign
ofLouis XL, and about 1627 they had a
registered letter system and a. system
of transfering money somewhat like
what we have to~day in‘our postal
mon'eyprder system. W'hen we stop
to'thlnk that we did not establish the
systémv until 1864, we must certainly
credit France with the great enterprise
in this direction. ‘
The postolfice in all countries except
this, from the beguning, has been a
royal prerogative. It has been a sys-
tem which the rulers have first taken
Into their<own hands for their own
profit, andlif’ they _did not want to con-
duct it themselves, it was farmed out.
Postmasterships were sold to the high-
est bidder, and postmast-erships and
other offices were even made heredi-
tary. In this country alone the post-
ollice has always been‘conducted for
the~benefltiof~the=people and for their
convenience, and not for profit.
The=first money order in this country
was issued in 1861. The cxpres com-
panies have tried'to col'npete with the
postoflice, in a way, in'the moneyor-
der _. business, but not with much, suc-
cess;
There are about eight billion letters
handled by the postofl‘ice departments
of the world in a year. The United
States monopolizes four billion, or one
half the letters of the world, although
[It has but one-twentieth the popula:
tion of the 'world. 'This shows thé
standing of our country in intelligence
as nothing else can.
The right of withdrawal of letters
after they had been deposited in the
postofli‘ce was referred to. In this
country it- is the propertyof the sender
until delivered, and may be withdrawn
even at a distant point by telegraph,
upon- application to the postmaster at
the office of .mail-ing, and deposit of suf-
ficent money to pay the expenses.
The postofilce’ does a. great deal for
its patrons that they know very little
about. It forwards letters from office
to office indefinitely, until delivered.
It employs experts to decipher badly
addliessed‘letters; to supply deficien-
cies in-addresses; to search directories,
and in many ways to do foreareiess
people and ignorant people what they
'will not-or can not do for themselves.
.VBy aid of a street directory of all .the
cities, with which all the larger offices
are supplied“ it delivers thousands of.
letters every month on which the
sender has put only a name and street
and number, omitting .the ,city. It
sends to the dead letter ofilce, and
there-opens millions of letters annually
which cannot be delivered, ascertains
the name and address of the writer of
each and returns the letter to him, if
possible. All this is done for the or-
iginal 2 cents postage, without any ex-
tra charge whatever. It hunts down
those who are using the mails to de-
fraud the people, returns mail to the
senders, and refuses to pay money or-
ders to such concerns or deliver regis-
tered letters to them—saving the peo-
ple large sums, of money annually.
This the express companies do not do.
The contlast is vastly in favor of the
Govemment in this re- pect. These are
onlya few of the many things the
Government ,does 1111' the
through the posmtfite, for the smal_
"sum of 2 cents. v.'l'.f_cl'l may :1“:er b~
reduced to 1 cent as soon as (2:31!"ngz
stops the leak caused by the abused
the second- class (newspaper) rail:
m'iv. haze. ’ . ‘
'this sort of tribute of admiration to
,naming business. Why should a geod
people '
_—
eiye rue éBOY'SA cH 'NcE.
I 1' . ‘ ‘»;- ‘ .
‘ twins. Undeniable
. 411ml Inappropriate Names.‘
The practice of naming children after
d stmguxshed or prominent men Who 1'
may be in the public eye for the‘ nonce,
11.1-. I: usually springing from patriotic
enthusiasm, dces not always have so
t'orthy an origin. Of course, where
fathers continue to call their young,
hopefuls after George Washington,
Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, Henry
“lard Beecher and such shining lights,
there is no suspicion of mercenary in-
tent, as there is evidently no hope of-
pecunia'l'y recognition of. their act, for
obvious reasons. But now and then
the great and good is abused, and mer-
cenary motives are apparent, or at
least suspected. Yet, while most men
prominent in public life have vulneré
'ablerspots about them and are easily
reached with a shaft of this kind—
“touched” the expressive phrase of the
day has it—now and then the mercen-
ary man finds himself badly left out
in the Cold, as he deserves, because of
his unwgrthy motives.
As illustlative of this point a morn-
ing paper prints an amusing instance,
for which it appears to vouch, as it is a
“spedial” from Washington, in which
a. Pennsylvania farmer complains to
his member of Congress that, having
eight months. ago named his “12-lb boy"
McKinley, “he being a large Bilt fel-
low,’_'_ he wrote to the President. “But, "
says the father, “he never so much as
ansuard my letter. I felt completely
beet. I did not no he was a stingy
grown man.”
Still worse—a cousin of the complain-
ant once named a son after “Mr.
Blaine,” and “Mr. B. Sent him a check
for $25,? and wrote him a”. very warm
letter, thanking him for the name.
He further complains that even Mr.
.‘ —_
y‘First Suigested by Robert Seydell oi
.Bryan sent one infantile namesake in
Homestead “a 10 dollar cloke and a ck
for some money," besides a. “very warm
later.” And the uphot of it all is that
the complainants neighbors are poking
fun at him. His name is Smith, he
says, and there are lot of Smiths
around his neighborhood, ' and he
would like to have theCongressman do
somi‘ethingJOr him to stop, the neigh-
bors' "gags?"
It would seem as if Mr. McKinley
was the only level-headed man in this
and great man have his name bestowed
upon a boy'who may, when he grows
up, make everyone sorry he was named.
as. he is?» Or why should an innocent
least don't handicap him- wlth too great
child have a name stuck on to him for
which he may have no ympa'th'y when
he arrives at the years of discretion
(such as “William J. Bryan,” for
instance)? No; give every boy a fair
chance with a name of his own, or at
a name—Brooklyn Standard Union. .
S‘YMPATHY OF THE BIRDS.
They Did Not Live Long'Aftér Their Lit:
tle Mistress Was Buried.
The last scenes of apathetic little
drama. and traged'yy in which canary
birds were conspicuous actors, was
recently enacted, and a little girl and
three canaries are under the sod in one
grave at Ekerty, Ind. Some time ago
Minnie Fay, a charmig little'girl, died.
She had been sick for some time, and
death came as a relief. During her
long sickness her most intimate friends
had been three canary birds, which
occupied .a cage _jut over her bed,where.
she could see them.“ '
There they sung to her their best
songs, and there she watched them with-
the kindliest devotion. As she became
weaker and weaker the birds seemed
to notice that semething momentous
was at hand. As she neared death she
became very nervous, and the little
songs of her canaries, Instead of pleas-
ing her, annoyed her. At last one day
she became very nervous, and when
the birds began to sing she'lnterrupted
them by exclaiming nervously: “Oh,
hush, Dick.” The birds seemed to un-
derstand either the look, tone or words
of their mistress and immediately
stopped.‘ The little girl died-the next
day.
Either the bath command or the loss
of their mistress affected them so seri-
ously that Dick died three days later,
a week later another died and a few
days later the last one dropped from
his perch and w'ras dead the next morn-
ing. when found. They had hardly
touched food since the command to
stop singing. They were laid to rest in
little graves made on top of the mound.
There always seemed to be the very
closest bond between the birds and the
invalid, and all think that'the birds
understood her command and that it
caused their death.-Louisville Com-
mercial.
Meann‘essfis idleness in. business.
To losepatiencemay be to lose all.
WHICH WAS FAIRLY OFTEN. I
'I—a...
“How did you first find out that yofl
loved me. darling?’ =
. "I found myself getting angry ex e1 _\
time pa called you an idiot.‘
j —Ale _Siopci. .~ .
\ ,.
.‘,-., . , I:
It has been built over and lined with
hung with lights, ,jeweled Icons, and
”Mail Magazine.
Ilever dreamed of saying papa and
say, but at the outset and for a long
1
_-
INVENTOR OF LEAD PIPE,
Pennsylvania In 1830. _
There was born In Milton, Pa.,‘ in 1890
a man of wonderful genius, it is said.
His name Was Robert Seydell and he
dled'*n 184.7.
. Mr. Seydell was a coppersmith and
was almost continuously working out
some, device connected witnthe ma—
chinery in his factory. To him, it is
related by some of the oldest citizens
of this place, belongs the discovery of
the process of making lead pipe, and
like many-other invenrtors, the idea of
making the. same was stolen from him
and further developed to its present
form of manufactule.
It was in .the atter .part of the thii-
ties that the idea suggested itself to
him,.and the following 'is the way he
wrought it out: He first took a slug
or casting of lead, placing it on a man-
drel, or rod of steel, about sixteen feet
long and one inch in diameter; the
mandrel was highly polished, and upon
this he drew, or rolled out, the lead to
the full length of the rod, thus giving
him an inch bore, and the material was
rolled, it is said, to one-fourth inch,
making a total diameter one and one-
half inches for the pipe. After com-
pletingseveral sections of the length
of the mandrel, he soldered them to-
gether, making the pipe of whatever
length he desired.
He put it to practical use by fasten»
ing it to pump heads, and also run-
ning it from springs to connect water-
ing troughs and spring houses in the
.1?-
.AN AGGRAVATING DISCOVERY
‘—-———b '
The Last Link Found Two Years After an
Estate Had Gone to the Crown; .
It was one of those big English es
tates whic was to make a great- mans
people rich if all the links in the long
chain of ancestry could be found. The
legatees in this country had twenty-
one years in Which to prove then
claim before the property would re-
vert to the Crown. ~ Everything possi?
ble had been done, and one link was
still missing. This was an old family
Bible containing certain necessary
records. It was supposed to have been
burned at the time of the Deerfield
massacre, but, notwithstanding, every
effort had been made to find it if by
any possibility it was in existence; but
without success and .the time expired.
Two years later one of the legatees,
a New York woman, chanced to see in
a paper the advertisement of a woman
who wanted work. The advertiser .had
signed her name, and it was a family
name of the woman who was one of
the claimantsfor the English estate.
It wasperhaps the persistent fascina-
tion which the earnest searcher into
genealogical records never loses, and
the force of habit formed in many
years’ search for precious documents,
which interested her at once. She
answered the
son, found that the woman had been
the wife Of a member of her family,
who had died, leaving her in financial
straits which had forced her to ad-
vertise for something to do to sup—
country round about here. Being
greatly pleased with his discovery,
and receiving the most flattering of
:omments from his friends and neigh~
bore in this section, he conCIuded to
make his invention more widely known.
and hence made a visit to Philadelphia, I
taking his device with him.
At the Franklin Institute 111 that city
he gave his first exhibition to quite
a. number of inventors, artisans and
mechanics. As it is now related, every‘
one who witnessed It was more than
delighted, and so expressed them-
selves in his immediate presence.
was not long that he was allowed to
remain in a condition of supreme hap-
piness over his invention, for a short
time after he made a disclosure of his
discovery, and while yet in Phlladel-‘
ohia, .he found out that by the persons
io whom he had given an exhibition of
the process of making lead pipe his idea
had been used and improved upon.
SHIIRCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
”refines Where Christ Laid No Longer I
’ Rough- Hewn Cave.
‘marble and hung with lamps, etc., till
It is no longer a: rough-hewn cave; but
on entering it (a: task of considerable
difficulty through the narrow, low arch
.It}
‘ port herself.
But the strange and romantic part
of the story was that among a ‘11 books
{and papers which had been cherished
Ias having belonged to her husband,
its register of births and deaths, the
only link that had been needed to ob-
tain the big estate, and now that it
was too late it was found where it
had been treasured simply as a sou-
venir. —New York Times. 1 '
‘. “Nil f1
FRANGES" s. WILLARDS ROMANCE.
Story of an Early Love Affair with Bishop
.Olinrles W. Fourier.
There was once all engagement be-
tween Bishop Chas. W. Fowler, and the
late Miss Frances E. Willard. Those
having. read Miss. Willard's ine-
moirs will remember an . intimation
that at one time in her life her heart
had its hero and that at an early day
she wore a ring and “acknowledged an;
allegiance baSed on a supposition."
Again she speaks of the romance of her
life being unguessed, a “secret lying.
.within the temperate zone of a great-
heart’s geography.” To those who
thought her cold _she said, “Cold bet
cause no brave Stanley had ever ex-
plored her heart's tropical clime; cold
because no Balboa had ever sailed on
roughly hewn out in the rock) and on
seeing the rocky slab on which lay the' 3
body of our Lord, you feel it is the
true site, for it/conveys the impression
that it is just the sort of a: cave that
would be used for sepulchre purposes
and these alone, and not ashrine built
to accommodate the thousands of pilc
grlms who fleck there annually. With-
in it the slab of rough-hewn rock lles‘
altar-wise against the side of the
cave, and- is about the width and
length that would be filled by a dead
body; the top of it is now covered with.
a marble .slab to protect it from the'
kisses- of the pilgrims, which would
long ere this have worn away the
stone.there:is just room in front of'
this slab for about four persons to
kneel; all the sides of the caves are-
pictures.
To attempt to describe the feelings “
evoked in the Christian soul when
adoring at such a spot wouldbe be-
yond human pen. The Russian pill-e
grims have a. touching habit of bring.
ing their bundle of grave clothes and:
laying them on“ this holy slab in
order to bless them for their future
use. Of course there is always a Greek
ecclesiasti'c present within the holy
shrine, to watch over it. Just outside
the cave is a small alabaster ornament
marking the traditional spot where the-
angels stood as they announced “He
Is not here, but He is. risen.”—Pall
PARENT’S TITLES.
I Family of Children 'r'liat Dropped Papa
”and Momma for Father and Mother
“.‘I was brought up," said a - fond
lather, “to say father and mother. I
mamma when I was a child, and I
1hould have made awkward work of it
f I had tried. My children until lately
lave always said papa land mamma. I
Ion't know how they got started that
time they never thought of saying
tnything else. Then the older ones
200k to saying father and mother. They
viked ,these titles better, and they
bought they were better form, too, I
1nd they taught the younger children '
also to say father and mother, and
10w they all say father and mother.
“The older. children soon accustomed
:hcmselves to the change; the younger
:hildren were a little shy over it at
irst, but they soon got pretty well used
:0 it, and now We rarely hear in my
mouse papa and mamma; it is father
1nd mother.
“And I must say I like it better. And
i. don 't think it is because that is the
way I was brought up, though thEse
:itles certainly do have to me an old
and familial-and affectionate sound that
3 very pleasant; but I think I like
father and mother better anyway."
Bis Arithmetic.
Mrs. O’b‘lynn—Och murther! Here’s
in account av how two min fell four.
:thories.
Mr. O'Flynn—Shure an’ ut isn’t as
lad- _as ut sames ut all. If two min
tell four sthories wan man could onl:
. the shivering. evangelist.
the bosom of its wide, pacific sea."
In their youth Bishop Fowler and
Miss Willard were students in the same
Methodist college, both being members
of . the Methodist Church. . Between
,theur‘was a strong aflinity, afriendship ,
thateventually ripened into a deep,
abiding love. The ring she speaks of
wearing as “an. allegiance based on a
supposition? ”’ was the gift of Bis-hop
Fowler. Both had great strength of
character and were born leaders of
men and women. The similarity of
their temperaments was frequently
considered by the young people as a
barrier to matrimony, and it was
finally. agreed that it would be best for
both to choose. separate paths in life.
The- engagement was accordingly
broken. ' . .
. . . .,
Inp'yonvesiion’(insulator Geori'o. . ~.
The gate: Senator. George of Missis-
sippi was an agnostic, _while his wife
:was deeply religious, says a corres-
pendent from that, State, She placed
a neighboring Baptist minister on his '
trail, and he got no peace. Once, rid-
ing slowly home from Chrrollton and
reading his mail, the preacher burst
out of the woods on his right hand
and began. They- came to a creek and-
orossed it. It was,
language, “saddle‘pocket deep.” On
the further bank he dismounted. “Git.
down," he'said, fiercely- The minis-
.ter looked at -‘him doubtfully. He
feared a- personal encounter- “Git,
down!" He got-down. “Now,” said
George, “I’m tired o’ beingharried
around. thi" kentry like I wasa cottom
tail rabbit an’ you was. a pack of nig-
ger dogs. ‘Baptize me right here." It
was winter, time, but the venerable. ,
statesman would not be denied. The
two men waded into the icy water up:
.to their. armpits, and the ceremony
was performed. Senator George climb-_
ed-intohis saddle and looked down on
“Now,” he
said", “you, go home and stay home_
I’m through, with this 7- foolishness.”
——Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Dieting'on the Side.
A certain stout lady resolved to con-
sult a physician‘about her corpulence.
;She had no previous experience with
“banting” of any sort. The doctor
drew up a careful dietary for her. She
must eat dry toast, plain boiled beef,
and a few other things of the same
lean sort, and in a month return and
report the result.
At the end of the time- the lady came
and was so stout she could hardly get
through the door. The doctor was
aghast.
.“Did you eat what I told you?” he
asked.
“Religiously,” she answered.
His brow wrinkled in perplexity.
Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration.
“Did you eat anything else?” he ask—
ed. -
“Why, my ordinary meals!” said the
lady.~—Pearson’s Weekly. ‘
No Doubt of It.
Strapté—A friend in needy—y
10v fallen two began-a.
Gashly—Is a fiend indeed.
advertisement in per-‘
in the Senator's,
. 1 __
11‘“ 1
ffh
the woman had the old Bible, with '
I
Norwalk Chronicler