Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1895 — OUR POSTAL SERVICE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR POSTAL SERVICE.

A Comparison of Postoflices Here and in Other Countries. It costs the people of the United States about $6,000,000 a year to maintain the postal service. No other country in. the. world has so large a deficiency in postal: England makes $13,500,000 from it every year. France makes a profit of $9,000,000. Germany’s profit is more than $5,000,000. Twenty of the countries of the Postal Union have surpluses and fourteen of them have deficiencies. The Argentine Republic loses $2,000,000 a year; Russia, $1,750,000; Canada, SBBO,OOO, and Japan, Queensland, Bulgaria, Salvador, Uruguay, New South Wales, Siam, Luxemburg, Greece and Bolivia pay smaller sums for the convenience of those who write letters and those who receive them. The Post Office Department of the ' United States employs 178,835 workers. Germany comes second with 155,424;' Great Britain third, with 131,459; France fourth, with 57,828. The United States, with limited free collection and delivery, has an average of less than one letter box to each post office. Only 610 of the post offices in tlie United -States have free delivery—less than one per cent. Germany has an average of three letter boxes to each post office, and France, with her 7,369 post offices, has 61,609 letter boxes. There is a very remarkable difference in the character of the accommodations given in these countries. The number of letter boxes in the United States is 53,556; in Germany, 92,202; in

Great Britain, 44,697, or more than two to each office; in British India, 31,842. But Japan makes a remarkable showing in this particular. There are only 3,770 post offices in Japan, but there are 31,243 letter boxes to receive the mail for these offices, an average of more than eight to each office. The whole number of letter boxes in use in the world is 424,247. But the real value of a postal service is shown largely by the number of post offices in proportion to the population, or the area covered. And here the United States falls short. Switzerland has a post office to every 4.7 square miles of territory, and Queensland has a post office for every 428 inhabitants. These are the loaders in these two classes. The T'nitoil States holds the fifteenth place in tlie list of post offices in proportion to area, and the seventh placq iu the list of post offices in proportion to population. There is a post office in this country to every 58(4 square miles, and a post office to every 923 inhubitqnts. In the sending arid receiving of foreign mail Germany comes first aud the United States secoiid. Germany receives 09,000.000 foreign letters, 13,000,000 foreign postal cards, 25,750,000 prints and commercial papers and 3,750.000 samples every year. The United States receives 51,500,000 letters, 2,250,000 postal cards, 44,250,000 papers nnd 750,000 samples every year. > A Texan attended a theatrical performance in St. Joseph, Mo., the other night anti dropped dead in his seat. The “living picture” craze has gone just far enough now. A correspondent write* that “tho “Riviera is part hospital and part hell." American tourists, it may be added, do not go there as a rule for hospital treatment. ■The authorities of South Dakota are still taking steps to apprehend Treasurer Taylor. When last heard from Taylor himself was also takiug steps.

five French dramatists are at pres* entengaged "Tjir-plays-deallng..with "Louis XVII.” —Sardou, Pierre Decourcelle, Henri G'eard, Henri de WeindeL and Charles BueL j William'Watson, the English poeL has been granted a pension of SSOO a! year by Rosebery’s Government Tile Gladstone regime had already proyldedl him wLh a pension of SI,OOO a year. Tolstoi’s new story is called “Master fend Man.” It describes with patlioa and simplicity the way in which a commonplace, money-loving man sacrifices his life in a great storm to save that of his servant ■ ’ Among the comparatively recent acquisitions of the British Museum are a number of unpublished tales by Charlotte Bronte, written under the pseudonym of “Lord Charles Albert iFlorian Wellesley.” The museum also possesses a letter in which Miss Bronte refused to allow a London publisher to bring out her portrait. Admiral Sir R. Yesey Hamilton, of the British navy, is arranging to bring out a collection of letters from naval officers of all ranks, from midshipmen to admirals, containing something more of their daily life than can be learned from official reports. It is believed that the graphic stories of officers describing to their friends and relatives scenes of which they were eye-witnesses, with their observations, would be interesting. An Interesting book Is announced in “The Tragedy of Fotheringay,” by tha Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford. It is founded on the recently published journal of D. Burgoing, physician to Mary Queen of Scots. It will contain a photogravure of the Blair portrait and illustrations from the Calthorpe manuscripts, among them being contemporary drawings of the trial and the execution of Mary at Fotheringay, and lists of names, in Beale’s writing, those present on each occasion. .