TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Bold (black face) text is denoted by =equal signs=.
Underlined text is denoted by ++double plus signs++.
A missing word is denoted by the caret ^ .
There is only one footnote in the book, referenced eight times from
the list of Carrier Stations on page 193, and it has been placed at
the end of that list.
Fractions are shown in the format a-b/c, for example 7-2/25 or 1/4;
the original book used the format a b-c.
Some other minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
[Illustration: POSTMASTER EDWARD M. MORGAN]
The Postal Service
(Fifth Edition)
By J. J. O’REILLY
EDITOR
[Illustration: The Chief]
THE GOVERNMENT WEEKLY
THE CHIEF PUBLISHING COMPANY
5 BEEKMAN STREET
NEW YORK CITY
Copyrighted 1912
By THE CHIEF PUBLISHING COMPANY
[Illustration: (decorative icon)]
FOREWORD
No other branch of the Federal Government furnishes employment to
so many men as the postal service, particularly that branch of
it in which letter carriers and clerks are used. In every city
vacancies occur frequently, by reason of death, resignation or
transfer, and the prospects of employment are always good for
intelligent young men of studious habits. To secure an appointment
in the postal service, as in other fields of labor, one must prove
his fitness for the job desired. Uncle Sam requires that this shall
be done in an open competitive examination, and usually there
are hundreds, in the large cities thousands, competing in the
same examinations. Taking New York City as an example, the annual
appointments to each position average between 200 to 300, while
the eligible lists usually contain 1,000 to 1,500 each. From this
it will be seen that only a small percentage stand any show of
appointment. Those that do succeed are the men who took pains to
prepare themselves for the test by a careful study of the subjects
required. The purpose of this book is to help the candidate to
“brush up,” to direct him in self-improvement, and point the way
by which any person of ordinary intelligence, willing to devote
his leisure moments to study, can pass a good examination and get
within striking distance on the eligible list.
CHAPTER I.
CRADLE DAYS OF THE POSTAL SERVICE.
No Branch of the federal government more strikingly illustrates
the wonderful growth and extension of Uncle Sam’s business than
the Postal Service. Its history is the history of the commercial
and industrial development of the nation, for it has kept abreast,
so far as supplying the means of quick and reliable communication
is concerned, of the onward march of progress. It ought to be the
desire and the aim of every man and woman who purposes to take
up the postal service as a life career, to know something of its
history, its gradual evolution. Only in this way can they form a
just estimate of its relative value in the scheme of government,
and without such knowledge they will be merely perfunctory human
machines, void of that close personal attachment so necessary to
success in any undertaking.
A review of the history of the postal service in America has all
the interest and charm of an old romance dealing with the life and
customs of a bygone age, particularly when depicted by one whose
heart and soul is wrapped up in the service, by one whose career
in itself is the best proof of what studious habits, devotion to
duty, and loyalty to the department can do for a man in the postal
service. That man is Edward M. Morgan, Postmaster of New York City,
who, starting as a letter-carrier in 1873, came up through the
ranks, grade by grade, until he was entrusted with the management
of one of the two largest post offices in the world.
Beginning of the Postal Service.
Mr. Morgan in speaking of the history of the postal service says:
“The post office played but a minor part in the early affairs
of New Amsterdam. For many years after the consummation of the
greatest real estate deal on record, which secured from the Indians
the whole island of Manhattan for twenty-four dollars, most of the
slight correspondence that was carried on was forwarded in the care
of chance travelers, or mutual friends of the correspondents. Later
the necessity of some sort of receiving place was felt and what
was known as the “Coffee House Delivery” came into use. Letters
were addressed to some popular coffee house or tavern, where, upon
receipt, they were “posted” in a conspicuous place in the public
room where they remained until by chance or gossip, the persons for
whom they were intended learned of their arrival.
New York’s First Post office.
“That system in time came to be regarded as unsatisfactory, and in
1692, when New York, as it had then come to be called, was still
a quiet village of about five thousand inhabitants, the village
authorities passed an act or ordinance establishing a post office.
This was followed by the founding here, in 1710, of a “Chief
Letter Office” by the Postmaster-General of Great Britain, shortly
afterwards, arrangements were made for the delivery of mail from
Boston twice a month, and propositions were advertised for the
establishment of a post to Albany. The interesting feature of that
advertisement, to us who are accustomed to the speedy locomotion
of to-day, was that the mail was not to be carried by coach, or
boat, or even on horseback, but on foot. The records are hazy as to
the location of the first official post office in New York City,
but according to an advertisement that appeared in a paper of the
period, it was removed in 1732 from the quarters it then occupied
to “the uppermost of the two houses on Broadway, opposite Beaver
Street.” The year 1753 found it still in the same location. It was
closed on Sundays, and at other times it was open for business from
8 A. M. until noon, excepting on post nights, when business was
transacted until 10 P. M.
Annual Postal Receipt Less Than $3,000.
“In 1786, during the administration of Sebastian Bauman, the
second postmaster after the close of the War of the Revolution,
there was a regular schedule for the arrival and dispatch of mails
between New York and Albany and New England, and also between New
York and the South. Mail from New England and Albany arrived on
Wednesday and Saturday in winter, and on Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday in summer. The income of the office at that time was
$2,789.84. Compare that sum and the income for the twelve months
ended September 30, 1911, when, for the first time in the history
of the New York office, the receipts for any twelve consecutive
months passed the twenty million dollar mark, being exactly
$20,451,172.53.”
Franklin First Postmaster General.
It is an interesting and singular coincidence, overlooked by
some of our historians, that the man to whom most credit is due,
probably, for the organization of our national postal service
was Benjamin Franklin, who did so much to encourage and promote
the use of electricity, the other great medium for transmitting
intelligence. Franklin was the first Postmaster General under the
Revolutionary organization, before the adoption of the Constitution
in 1787. He was chosen because of his earlier experience in postal
matters, as postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, and as Deputy
Postmaster General of the British Colonies in 1753. He was removed
from the latter office, to punish him for his active sympathies
with the colonists. When Independence was declared one of the first
acts of his fellow patriots was to place him at the head of the
Post Office Department. But the stern necessities of the Revolution
called for Franklin’s great abilities to perform services of still
greater importance, and Richard Bache, his son-in-law, was chosen
to succeed him as Postmaster General, in November, 1776. Mr. Bache
was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard, the compiler of the valuable
historical collection bearing that name. He held the office until
the adoption of the Constitution and the inauguration of Washington.
Washington chose for his Postmaster General, Samuel Osgood, of
the famous New England family. He had been graduated from Harvard
College in 1770. He soon became a member of the Massachusetts
Legislature, a member of the Board of War, and subsequently an
aid to General Ward. In 1779, he was chosen a member of the
Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, and two years later
was elected a member of Congress. After four years in Congress
he became first Commissioner of the Treasury. When he left
Washington’s cabinet he was made Naval Officer of the Port of New
York where he died August 12, 1813.