AMOUNT OF WORK.
_Correspondence._
The amount of work performed by the Post-office in the transmission of
letters and other articles of correspondence within the space of a year,
may be gathered from the following figures, taken from the
Postmaster-General's annual report issued in 1883:--
The Letters numbered, 1,280,636,200
Post-cards, 144,016,200
Books and circulars, 288,206,400
Newspapers, 140,682,600
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Total, 1,853,541,400
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These figures are, however, of little service in conveying to our minds
any due conception of the amount of work which they represent. Nor, when
the scene of the work is spread and distributed over the whole country,
and the labour involved is shared in by a host of public servants, would
any arrangement of figures put the matter intelligibly within our grasp.
The quantity of paper used in this annual interchange of thought through
the intermediary of the British Post-office, may perhaps be measured by
the following facts:--Supposing each letter to contain a single sheet
of ordinary-sized note-paper; the post-cards taken at the size of inland
post-cards; book-packets as containing on an average fifty leaves of
novel-paper; and newspapers as being composed of three single leaves 18
inches by 24 inches,--the total area of paper used would be nearly 630
millions of square yards. This would be sufficient to pave a way hence
to the moon, of a yard and a half in breadth; or it would give to that
orb a girdle round its body 53 yards in width; or again, it would
encircle our own globe by a band 14 yards in width. Another way to look
at the magnitude of the Post-office work is as follows:--Suppose that
letters, book-packets, newspapers, and post-cards are taken at their
several ascertained averages as to weight, the total amount of the mails
for a year passing through the British Post-office, exclusive of the
weight of canvas bags and small stores of various kinds, would exceed
42,000 tons, which would be sufficient to provide full freight for a
fleet of twenty-one ships carrying 2000 tons of cargo each. What a
burthen of sorrows, joys, scandals, midnight studies, patient labours,
business energy, and everything good or bad which proceeds from the
human heart and brain, does not this represent! Yet, after all, what are
the figures above given, when put in the balance with the facts of
nature? The whole paper, according to the foregoing calculations,
although it would gird our earth with a band 14 yards wide, could only
be made to extend hence to the sun by being attenuated to the dimensions
of a tape of slightly over one-eighth of an inch in width!
Bearing in mind the great quantity of correspondence conveyed by the
post, as well as the hurry and bustle in which letters are often
written, it is not astonishing that writers should sometimes make
mistakes in addressing their letters; but it will perhaps create
surprise that one year's letters which could neither be delivered as
addressed, nor returned to the senders through the Dead-letter Office,
were over half a million in number! It is curious to note some remarks
written by the Post-office solicitor in Edinburgh eighty years ago with
respect to misdirected letters. He speaks of "the very gross inattention
in putting _the proper_ addresses upon letters--a cause which is more
productive of trouble and expense to the Post-office than any other
whatever. In fact, three out of four complaints respecting money and
other letters may generally be traced to that source, and of which, from
the proceedings of a few weeks past, I have ample evidence in my
possession at this moment." Letters posted in covers altogether innocent
of addresses, number 28,000 in the year; and the value in cash,
bank-notes, cheques, &c., found in these derelict missives is usually
about L8000. Letters sent off by post without covers, or from which
flimsy covers become detached in transit, number about 15,000; while the
loose stamps found in post-offices attain the annual total of 68,000.
The loose stamps are an evidence of the scrambling way in which letters
are often got ready for the post, and probably more so of the earnest
intentions of inexperienced persons, who, in preparing stamps for their
letters, roll them on the tongue until every trace of adhesive matter is
removed, with the result that so soon as the stamps become dry again
they fall from the covers. Letters which cannot be delivered in
consequence of errors in the addresses, or owing to persons removing
without giving notice of the fact to the Post-office, are no less than
5,650,000, such being the number that reach the Dead-letter Office. But
of these it is found possible to return to the writers about five
millions, while the remainder fail to be returned owing to the absence
of the writers' addresses from the letters. The other articles sent to
the Dead-letter Office in a year are as follows, viz.:--
Post-cards, nearly 600,000
Book-packets, " 5,000,000
Newspapers, " 478,000
As regards the book-packets, it is well to know that a large part of the
five millions is represented by circulars, which are classed as
book-packets, and the addresses on which are not infrequently taken by
advertisers from old directories or other unreliable sources.
There is one trifling item which it may be well to give, showing how the
smallest things contribute to build up the great, as drops of water
constitute the sea, and grains of sand the earth. Those tiny things
called postage-stamps, which are light as feathers, and might be blown
about by the slightest breeze, make up in the aggregate very
considerable bulk and weight, as will be appreciated when it is
mentioned that one year's issue for the United Kingdom amounts in weight
to no less than one hundred and fourteen tons.
ST VALENTINE'S DAY.
"The day's at hand, the young, the gay,
The lover's and the postman's day,
The day when, for that only day,
February turns to May,
And pens delight in secret play,
And few may hear what many say."
--LEIGH HUNT.
The customs of St Valentine's day have no direct connection with the
saint whose name has been borrowed to designate the festival of the 14th
of February. It is only by a side-light that any connection between the
saint and the custom can be traced.
In ancient Rome certain pagan feasts were held every year, commencing
about the middle of February, in honour of Pan and Juno, on which
occasions, amid other ceremonies, it was the custom for the names of
young women to be placed in boxes, and to be drawn for by the men as
chance might decide. Long after Christianity had been introduced into
Rome, these feasts continued to be observed, the priests of the early
Christian Church failing in their attempts to suppress or eradicate
them. Adopting a policy which has served missionaries in other quarters
of the globe, the priests, while unable at once to destroy the pagan
superstitions with the obscene observances by which they were
accompanied, endeavoured to lessen their vicious character, and to bring
them more into harmony with their religion; and one step in this policy
was the substitution of the names of the saints for those of young women
previously used in the lotteries. Now it happened that the fourteenth
day of February was the day set apart for the commemoration of the saint
named Valentine; and as the feasts referred to commenced, as has been
seen, in the middle of February, a connection would seem to have been
set up between the lotteries of the pagan customs (carried down to the
time when Valentines were drawn for) and the saint's festival, merely
through a coincidence of days. That St Valentine should have been
selected as the patron of the custom known to us nowadays, is too
unlikely, knowing as we do from history something of his life and death.
He was a priest who assisted the early Christians during the
persecutions under Claudius II., and who suffered a cruel martyrdom
about the year 270, being first beaten with clubs, and then beheaded.
The customs of St Valentine's Day have passed through many phases, each
age having its own variation, but all having a bearing to one idea. The
following is an account of the ceremony in our own country as observed
by "Misson," a learned traveller of the early part of last century:--"On
the eve of St Valentine's Day the young folks of England and Scotland,
by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little festival. An equal number
of maids and bachelors get together, each writes their true or some
feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up and draw by way
of lots, the maids taking the men's billets, and the men's the maids';
so that each of the young men lights upon a girl that he calls his
Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man whom she calls hers.
By this means each has two Valentines, but the man sticks faster to the
Valentine that has fallen to him than to the Valentine to whom he has
fallen. Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples,
the Valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their
billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this little sport
often ends in love." Pennant also, in writing of his tour in Scotland in
1769, refers to the observance of this custom in the north of Scotland
in these words:--"The young people in February draw Valentines, and from
them collect their future fortune in the nuptial state."
In later times the drawing of a lady's name for a Valentine was made the
means of placing the drawer under the obligation to make a present to
the lady. The celebrated Miss Stuart, who became the Duchess of
Richmond, received from the Duke of York on one occasion a jewel worth
L800, in discharge of this obligation; and Lord Mandeville, who was her
Valentine at another time, presented her with a ring worth some L300.
The term Valentine is no longer used in its more general application to
denote the lady to whom a present is sent on the 14th of February, but
the thing sent, which is usually a more or less artistic print or
painting, surmounted by an image of Cupid, and to which are annexed some
lines of loving import. Thirty years ago Valentines were generally
inexpensive articles, printed upon paper with embossed margins. Their
style gradually improved until hand-painted scenes upon satin grounds
became common; and Valentines might be bought at any price from a
halfpenny to five pounds. It should not be omitted to be noted that for
many years Valentines have had their burlesques, in those ridiculous
pictures which are generally sent anonymously on Valentine's Day, and
which were often observed to be decked out in extraordinary guises, and
having affixed to them such things as spoons, dolls, toy monkeys, red
herrings, rats, mice, and the like. On one occasion a Valentine was seen
in the post having a human finger attached to it.
But as every dog has its day, and each succeeding period of life its own
interests and allurements, so have customs their appointed seasons, and
ideas their set times of holding sway over the popular mind. The wigs
and buckled shoes of our forefathers, the ringlets of our grandmothers,
which in their day were things of fashion, have lapsed into the category
of the curious, and have to us none other than an antiquarian interest.
The Liberal in politics of to-day becomes the Conservative of to-morrow;
and the custom of sending Valentines, at one time so common, that
afforded so great pleasure not only to the young, but sometimes to those
of riper years, has already had its death-knell sounded; and at the
present rate of decline, it bids fair very soon to be relegated to the
shades of the past.
The rage for sending Valentines probably had its culmination some ten
years ago, since when it has steadily gone down; and now the festival is
no longer observed by fashionable people, its lingering votaries being
found only among the poorer classes.
The following facts show how far the Post-office was called upon to do
the _messenger's_ part in delivering the love-missives of St Valentine
when the business was in full swing. At the chief office in London on
Valentine's Eve 1874, some 306 extra mail-bags, each 3 feet long by 2
feet wide, were required for the additional work thrown on the
Post-office in connection with Valentines, and at every Post-office in
the kingdom the staff was wont to regard St Valentine's Eve as the
occasion of the year when its utmost energies were laid under
requisition for the service of the public.
But the decay of the ancient custom of sending Valentines has probably
not come about from within itself; it may rather be attributed to the
progress made in what may be called the rival custom of sending cards of
greeting and good wishes at Christmas-time. It would almost seem that
two such customs, having their times of observance only a few weeks
apart, cannot exist together; and it will probably be found that the new
has been growing precisely as the old has been dying, the former being
much the stronger, choking the latter. Valentines were sent by the young
only--or for the most part, at any rate--while Christmas-cards are in
favour with almost every age and condition of life. It follows, then,
that a custom such as this, having developed great energy, and being
patronised by all classes, must throw a larger mass of work upon the
Post-office--the channel through which such things naturally flow--than
Valentines did. And so it has been found. The pressure on the
Post-office in the heyday of Valentines was small by comparison with
that which is now experienced at Christmas. During the Christmas season
of 1877, the number of letters, &c., which passed through the Inland
Branch of the General Post-office in London, in excess of the ordinary
correspondence, was estimated at 4,500,000, a large portion of which
reached the chief office on Christmas morning; while in the Christmas
week of 1882 the extra correspondence similarly dealt with was estimated
at 14,000,000, including registered letters (presumably containing
presents of value), of which there was a weight of no less than three
tons. Everywhere similar pressure has been felt in the post-offices, and
it is by no means settled that we have yet reached the climax of this
social but rampant custom.
In the London Metropolitan district there are employed 4030 postmen; and
taking their daily amount of walking at 12 miles on the average--a very
low estimate--this would represent an aggregate daily journeying on foot
of 48,360 miles, or equal to twice the circumference of our globe.
Articles of many curious kinds have been observed passing through the
post from time to time, some of them dangerous or prohibited articles,
which, according to rule, are sent to the Returned-letter Office--the
fact showing that the Post-office is not only called upon to perform its
first duty of expeditiously conveying the correspondence intrusted to
it, but is made the vehicle for the carriage of small articles of almost
endless variety. Some of these are the following, many of them having
been in a live state when posted--viz., beetles, blind-worms, bees,
caterpillars, crayfish, crabs, dormice, goldfinches, frogs, horned
frogs, gentles, kingfishers, leeches, moles, owls, rabbits, rats,
squirrels, stoats, snails, snakes, silk-worms, sparrows, stag-beetles,
tortoises, white mice; artificial teeth, artificial eyes, cartridges,
china ornaments, Devonshire cream, eggs, geranium-cuttings, glazier's
diamonds, gun-cotton, horseshoe nails, mince-pies, musical instruments,
ointments, perfumery, pork-pies, revolvers, sausages, tobacco and
cigars, &c., &c.
Occasionally the sending of live reptiles through the Post-office gives
rise to interruption to the work, as has occurred when snakes have
escaped from the packets in which they had been enclosed. The sorters,
not knowing whether the creatures are venomous or not, are naturally
chary in the matter of laying hold of them; and it may readily be
conceived how the work would be interfered with in the limited space of
a Travelling Post-office carriage containing half-a-dozen sorters, upon
a considerable snake showing his activity among the correspondence, as
has in reality happened.
On another occasion a packet containing a small snake and a lizard found
its way to the Returned-letter Office. Upon examining it next day the
lizard had disappeared, and from the appearance of the snake it was
feared that it had made a meal of its companion. Another live snake
which had escaped from a postal packet was discovered in the Holyhead
and Kingstown Marine Post-office, and at the expiration of a fortnight,
being still unclaimed, it was sent to the Dublin Zoological Gardens. In
the Returned-letter Office in Liverpool, a small box upon being opened
was found to contain eight living snakes; but we are not informed as to
the manner in which they were got rid of.
The strike of the stokers employed by the Gas Companies of the
metropolis in 1872 is remembered in the Post-office as an event which
gave rise to a considerable amount of inconvenience and anxiety at the
time. That the Post-office should be left in darkness was not a thing to
be thought possible for a moment; for such a circumstance would almost
have looked like the extinction of civilisation. On the afternoon of the
3d December in the year mentioned, intimation reached the chief office
that the Gas Company could not guarantee a supply of gas for more than
a few hours, in consequence of their workmen having struck work. The
occasion was one demanding instant action in the way of providing other
means of lighting, and accordingly an order was issued for a ton of
candles. These were used at St Martin's-le-Grand and at the branch
offices in the East Central district; while arrangements were made to
provide lanterns and torches for the mail-cart drivers, and oil-lamps
for lighting the Post-office yard. In the evening the sorting-offices
presented the novel spectacle of being lighted up by 2000 candles; and
this reign of tallow continued during the next three days. The total
cost of this special lighting during the four days' strike was L58; but
there was a saving of about 160,000 feet of gas, reducing the loss to
something like L27.