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.pdf/69

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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES

o f mice made their home in a pouch that had lain in the post office for several days. When (he pouch nnally reached its destination^ near the upper shores o f Lake Superior, the receiv­ ing postmaster found not only the rodent homeseekers, but also a larger fam ily o f little mice. They had made beds o f chewcd-up let­ ters. T he postmaster reported the matter to the Chicago office and sent along the mice as an exhibit, which was received by George B . Arntstrong, (he assistant postmaster. T o pre­ vent the repetition o f such an occurrence A rm ­ strong sought to speed up the mail service, and finally evolved the Idea of having the mail dis­ tributed on the trains while in transit. The plan w as ridiculed. One man declared: "T he 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.” H o w o 'er, the first postal car, an prdinar>* haggagc car equipped with racks and pigeon­ holes, made its initial run from Chicago to Ointon, Iowa, over fifty years ago. and today every nation in the civilized world is dis­ tributing a large part o f its mail matter in railw ay mail cars. In the United States over eighteen thousand railw ay mail clerks are separating over ninety per cent o f all the mail originating in this country and a large volume coming from foreign lands. T hey have sepa­ rated in a single year nearly twenty-three bil­ lion pieces o f mail matter, not including reg­ istered mail. T hey travel an aggr<^ate dis­ tance o f five hundred million miles every year on the twenty-seven thousand domestic trans­ portation routes having a combined mileage o f four hundred and fifty thousand miles. T he scr’icc has been raised to the highest point o f efficiency to-day and (he present ratio o f errors in distribution has been reduced to one tn ten thousand pieces o f mail. T he clerks are ex(>ected to distribute the mail so that there will be no rcliandling in the {>ost offices o f large cities, and to separate it into packages corres­ ponding 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 o f railway connecting points, the locations o f over sixty thousand post offices in the United States and the frequent illegi­ bility of the hand written addresses, it becomes a marvel how the railway mail clerk can work without a greater proportion o f errors.

P ost Offices in Columbia County, 9^14 Alm cdift A ristcs B eaver V a i l c y ^ i

Benton^ Berwick—3

Bloom sburg— 5 B riar C rcdc Buck born Catawissa— 5 Central Centralia E lk G rove Espy E ycr's G ro ve i*'ishixig Creek F ork s— t

lo la (discontinued July 1st) Jamison C ity— ) Jerseytow n— z U g k t S treet— t L im e R id ge M a in ville— I M ifitin ville M tU rille— 3 N u m idia O ra n geville— z P in e Suom ut R oarin g C reek— 1 R o h r ffm r g - 1 Rupert S tillw a ter— ) W)1 burton

Post Offices in M ontour County, 19 14 D an ville— y Ottawa S traw b erry K idge E xchange G rovania W ash in gton ville Mausdale W h ite H all Moorc%burg the number o f rural routes em anating th erefrom.
 * T h e figure a fte r the name o f tite office indicates

STATE IIIG U W A V DEFAKTMeNT

F o r many years Pennsylvania lu s stood almost at the bottom of the list o f States in the matter o f good roads. PIxcept in a few isolated instances, very little aid has been given in the past lo the builders o f roads here by the State. T he first act for the establishment o f a H ighw ay Department w as that o f 1903. w hkh w as supplemented by the acts o f 1905 and 1907. T he act under which the present State H ighw ay Department is operated is commonly known as the "Sp ro u l Road A ct,” enacted by the 1 9 11 session of the Legislature, and approved in M ay o f that year by (rov. Jo h n K . Tcner. T his act called fo r a reorganization of the existing State H ighway Department, and pro­ vided 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 ad­ dition form ing trunk lines extending from one end of the State to the other. T he act pro­ vided that the new department should have full charge o f maintaining and constructing these routes after Ju n e i. 1 9 1 2; carry on e x ­ isting State-aid contracts; and furtlier provulcd for (he improvement o f township roads to the extent o f two million dollars, fifty per cent o f which w as to Ik supplied by the State, and the other fifty per cent by the county or township applying for aid.