Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 48014-h.htm or 48014-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48014/48014-h/48014-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48014/48014-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/americanpostalse00melirich THE AMERICAN POSTAL SERVICE History of the Postal Service from the Earliest Times The American System Described with Full Details of Operation A Fund of Interesting Information upon All Postal Subjects By LOUIS MELIUS Washington, D. C. Second Edition Revised and Enlarged Copyright 1917 Louis Melius National Capital Press, Inc., Washington, D. C. [Illustration: POSTMASTER GENERAL BURLESON] Biographical Sketches of the Postmaster General and His Four Assistants Albert Sidney Burleson, of Austin, Tex., Postmaster General, was born June 7, 1863, at San Marcos, Tex.; was educated at Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, Baylor University (of Waco), and University of Texas. Was admitted to the bar in 1884; was Assistant City Attorney of Austin in 1885, ‘86, ‘87, ‘88, ‘89 and ‘90; was appointed by the Governor of Texas, Attorney of the Twenty-Sixth Judicial District in 1891; was elected to said office, 1892, ‘94 and ‘96; was elected to the 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, 61st, 62d, and 63d Congresses; appointed Postmaster General March 4, 1913, and confirmed March 6, 1913. * * * * * John C. Koons, First Assistant Postmaster General, entered the service as a Railway Postal Clerk; was transferred to Washington and made Post Office Inspector, subsequently made Chief of the Division of Salaries and Allowances and member of the Parcel Post Commission, in which latter connection his services were considered of especial value and importance. Appointed Chief Post Office Inspector and upon the resignation of the late First Assistant Postmaster General, Daniel C. Roper, was named to succeed him. His legal residence is in Carroll Co., Md. Otto Praeger, Second Assistant Postmaster General, was born in Victoria, Tex., 1871. Legal residence, San Antonio, Tex. Took a course of instruction in the University of Texas and was a student on political economy under David F. Houston now Secretary of Agriculture. Engaged in the newspaper business at San Antonio in 1887--_San Antonio Light_ and _San Antonio Express_; was for a time city clerk of said city; was engaged in newspaper work as Washington correspondent when appointed Postmaster of Washington, D. C., and in August, 1915, was appointed Second Assistant to succeed Hon. Joseph Stewart.