_Dear Mentor_: I have recently become a member of the Association, and
possessor of the five bound volumes of The Mentor. The following may be
of interest to you:
On the New York Post Office, on a coping surmounting the portico, there
is an inscription: “NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN NOR HEAT NOR GLOOM OF NIGHT
CAN STAY THESE COURIERS FROM THE SWIFT COMPLETION OF THEIR DUTY.”
My attention was attracted to this last August, when passing through
New York. I could not find out whence it came, until in January of
this year, while at Headquarters of the 62nd French Division, at
a small place named Rouez, about four miles from La Fere, on the
Oise, my orderly found a volume in a rubbish heap, and as it had the
appearance of having been a handsome library volume, he brought it to
me, and asked if it were any good. He held it before me, open, as it
was wet and muddy. On the open page I read of the line of couriers
established by Xerxes. The book, although evidently long exposed to the
weather, was in a good condition. As I read the words, referring to
the couriers, “QUE NI LA NEIGE, NI LA PLUIE, NI LA CHALEUR, NI LA NUIT
N’EMPÊCHENT DE FOURNIR LEUR CARRIERE AVEC TOUTE LA CELERITE POSSIBLE”
(that neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor night shall prevent the
completion of their course with all possible speed), I realized that in
this “History of Herodotus,” and in the couriers of Xerxes, some four
hundred years before Christ, I had found the source of the inspiration
for our postal service.
EDWARD H. PLUMMER, Brigadier General U. S. Army, Fort Sill, Okla.
_Editorial Note._--These lines are credited to Herodotus on the
front of the Post Office building. The name of the Greek historian
appears in small letters just after the quotation.