Alexis Clements Early Mail Carrier |
What made mail delivery so slow?
In the beginning, it was not unusual for mail routes to be completed on foot covering routes of hundreds of mile. Carriers in the late 1700s and beginning1800s, such as Alexis Clements pictured at right, more closely resembled early pioneers. Their mail routes encompassed traversing over roads that were poor at best and non-existent at worst...conditions confirming the inscription "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night..."
To make matters worse, a solid organizational structure was not in place and many decisions were simply made by the carriers themselves. If they wanted to withhold mail for whatever reason, especially political, they did just that thereby hampering efficient and speedy mail delivery. In addition, there was the insistence that the postal service make a profit.
Civil War Post Office |
This is only a tiny portion of the history of our nation's postal service. The evolution of the post office is yet another story like so many others that can only be kept alive through the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next.
Do we really want it to come to this?
Give me
the few pieces of junk mail in my mail box on a regular basis
over the thousands of spam messages received daily via e-mail!
over the thousands of spam messages received daily via e-mail!
No comments:
Post a Comment