Tribulations of the Carrier
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"Neither snow
nor rain nor heat nor gloom
of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their
appointed
rounds," so quoth Herodotus, and his quotation is carved in a lofty
space
across the face of the big G.P.O., in New York City. Old
Herodotus,
however, probably wasn't speaking from personal experience and, never
having
had to lug a bag of mail about a big city, could not have foreseen some
of the complications, hazards, and dangers that the later uniformed
carriers
would encounter in their daily trots around the circuit.
Henry Wing
has shown me a cover, with a 2¢ 1890 attached, addressed to a house
in Minneapolis. Delivery of this missive was evidently
delayed until
the situation improved, for the carrier brought this letter back to the
office, and wrote in the corner of it, "Cross dog in yard. Thurs.
A.M."
That carrier, very likely hadn't heard about Herodotus, and probably
there
was nothing in the manual about how to approach an unreasonable dog.
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George B. Sloane
Sloane's Column Stamps July 15, 1951 Posted September 19, 1999 Index of 508 Notes from the Past Note: If the link isn't returned the first try, try again. Comments? Send me an e-mail |