Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.djvu/69

40 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES of mice made their home in a pouch that had lain in the post office for several days. When the pouch finally reached its destination near the upper shores of Lake Superior, the receiving postmaster found not only the rodent homeseekers, but also a larger family of little mice. They had made beds of chewcd-up letters. The postmaster reported the matter to the Chicago office and sent along the mice as an exhibit, which was received by George B. Arntstrong, the assistant postmaster. To prevent the repetition of such an occurrence Armstrong sought to speed up the mail service, and finally evolved the Idea of having the mail distributed on the trains while in transit. The plan was ridiculed. One man declared: "The government will have to employ a regiment of men to follow the trains to pick up the letters that would be blown out of the cars.”

Howo'er, the first postal car, an ordinary baggage car equipped with racks and pigeonholes, made its initial run from Chicago to Ointon, Iowa, over fifty years ago. and today every nation in the civilized world is distributing a large part of its mail matter in railway mail cars. In the United States over eighteen thousand railway mail clerks are separating over ninety per cent of all the mail originating in this country and a large volume coming from foreign lands. They have separated in a single year nearly twenty-three billion pieces of mail matter, not including registered mail. They travel an aggregate distance of five hundred million miles every year on the twenty-seven thousand domestic transportation routes having a combined mileage of four hundred and fifty thousand miles.

The service has been raised to the highest point of efficiency to-day and the present ratio of errors in distribution has been reduced to one tn ten thousand pieces of mail. The clerks are expected to distribute the mail so that there will be no rehandling in the post offices of large cities, and to separate it into packages corresponding with each mail carrier’s route in the cities. In the case of the largest cities they must separate it according to sections or sub¬ stations. Considering the speed at which the clerks sort the mail, the swaying of the train plunging along at fifty mites an hour, and the thousands of railway connecting points, the locations of over sixty thousand post offices in the United States and the frequent illegibility of the hand written addresses, it becomes a marvel how the railway mail clerk can work without a greater proportion of errors. Post Offices in Columbia County, 1914 Almedia Aristes Beaver Valley-1 Benton-6 Berwick—3 Bloomsburg—5 Briar Creek Buckhorn Catawissa—5 Central Centralia Elk Grove Espy Eyer's Grove Fishing Creek Forks—1 Iola (discontinued July 1st) Jamison City—1 Jerseytown—2 Light Street—1 Lime Ridge Mainville—1 Mifflinville Millville—3 Numidia Orangeville—z Pine Suomut Roaring Creek—1 Rohrsburg-1 Rupert Stillwater—1 Wilburton

Post Offices in Montour County, 1914

Ottawa Strawberry Ridge Washingtonville White Hall Danville—7 Exchange Grovania Mausdale Mooresburg

* The figure after the name of the office indicates the number of rural routes emanating therefrom.

STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

For many years Pennsylvania has stood almost at the bottom of the list of States in the matter of good roads. Except in a few isolated instances, very little aid has been given in the past lo the builders of roads here by the State. The first act for the establishment of a Highway Department was that of 1903. which was supplemented by the acts of 1905 and 1907. The act under which the present State Highway Department is operated is commonly known as the "Sproul Road Act,” enacted by the 1911 session of the Legislature, and approved in May of that year by Gov. John K. Tcner.

This act called for a reorganization of the existing State Highway Department, and provided for the taking over as State highways the roads comprising 29O specified routes, forming connecting links between county seats and the principal cities and towns, and in addition forming trunk lines extending from one end of the State to the other. The act provided that the new department should have full charge of maintaining and constructing these routes after June i. 1912; carry on existing State-aid contracts; and further provided for the improvement of township roads to the extent of two million dollars, fifty per cent of which was to be supplied by the State, and the other fifty per cent by the county or township applying for aid.