A Wretched Habit

In which a postal inspector, Mr. Pladgitt, speaks with a farmer and his young son, Conn:

“Hasn’t that post-card craze stopped yet?” asked the farmer.

The inspector frowned.

“No,” he said, “it hasn’t. I don’t think it’s as bad as it used to be, though it’s harmful enough still. Personally, I’ve a positive objection to the picture post-card. A great many of them are vulgar, just escaping the postal regulations, and these are sent by mail between people who never dare to say as vulgar things in a letter as are printed on these cards. Then they’re a premium on laziness, too. The art of letter-writing — because it is an art, Conn – is being killed off by this wretched habit of sending some silly printed greeting through the post.

“I’m not talking for the Government, but merely expressing my personal opinion when I say that I think the picture post-card is one of the worst evils of modern times. There’s nothing good to be said for except that one can send views of places to friends, when away from home. Don’t let yourself get the picture post-card habit, my boy, it’s a bad one. When you have something to say, write a letter, and when you haven’t anything to say, don’t load up the mails with useless truck.”

— From The Boy with the U.S. Mail (1916) by Francis Rolt-Wheeler

Mail on the Thames

The River Postman

Pneumatic Post

Henri Rouart (1833-1912) was a French engineer and artist who created the tubes for the Paris pneumatic post system. The postage stamp honoring him features his portrait by his good friend Edgar Degas.

Temptations

“During most of this time the worst elements of our population flowed westward in the wake of the construction trains of the Union Pacific, and towns sprung up in a night, wherever the temporary western terminus happened to be located, made up almost wholly of saloons, gambling hells, brothels and shacks in which all known immorality was practiced and crimes–from petty larceny to murder– were committed.

“Railway mail service was authorized on the line as fast as changes in location of the western terminal occurred, and the route agents who were appointed to handle the local mails… were subject to great temptations because they were in these cesspools of wickedness, were associated with vice when not on duty in their cars, and too often this familiarity with it lessened their fear of its influence upon their morals and in many instances it became a potent factor in their downfall.”

— From A Life Span and Reminiscences of Railway Mail Service (1910) by James E. White

Oops

Charles Connell was appointed Postmaster General of New Brunswick at a time when growing trade with the United States was moving the colony to adopt decimal currency. In 1860, Connell arranged to have postage stamps in the new decimal denominations printed by the American Bank Note Company of New York City.

So far, so good. But when the stamps arrived, it was revealed that Connell, inexplicably, had chosen to depict himself on the five-cent stamp. The stink was immediate and enormous.

Frederick Dibblee, a young clerk in the legislature, was sent to collect all the stamps before any could be used. Connell resigned as postmaster and made a big show of burning the stamps on his back lawn.

However, a few stamps had been saved as souvenirs, and after Frederick Dibblee’s death in 1933, a search of a shed on his property revealed the only known attached-pair of Connell stamps. When auctioned in 2009, their value was estimated at $30,000.

Triangular Letters

A fascinating piece of postal history, with many examples and instructions on folding.

Solid Gold

Postcard photo by Bunny Yeager

Unexpected

A 1998 sheet of postage stamps from Mongolia, celebrating early television’s Howdy Doody.

The Bungalow Guests

From “The Bungalow Guests” by William Ely Hill, Chicago Tribune, reprinted in The (Syracuse) Post-Standard, July 20, 1930

Alaskan Mail Carrier

Because I love the post office and N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), I am naturally a fool for “Alaskan Mail Carrier,” an illustration in which a postman has fought for his life (and the mail) with a pack of wolves on a frozen lake. The image was said to be based on an actual event, but Wyeth may also have drawn on his own experience; in November of 1904, he carried the U.S. mail across 100 windy miles between Fort Defiance, Arizona, and Two Gray Hills, New Mexico.

I don’t know where this painting first appeared, but I do know it was made into a Parker Brothers “Pastime” jigsaw puzzle circa 1935 (with the image flipped). And as a 1910 calendar illustration, as below.